Reviewer acknowledgements for Engineering Management Research, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2019

This paper is about Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSB) as developed in Thailand. ISSB are seen as an eco-friendly building material for home building and structures such as water tanks and sanitation facilities. For several decades the Thai R&D Institute TISTR has worked on developing and testing ISSB, which in other countries are called compressed stabilized earth blocks or CSEB. The composition of building blocks and the quality of building structures determine together the structural quality of the house or building. If there is a need for earthquake- and storm resistance, the building blocks and the structures must have specific features. Building stacked houses is an important issue given the growing scarcity of land for housing and the increasing land prices. ISSB is not only applied in Thailand, but also in Cambodia for low-cost housing and in Nepal for home reconstruction after the 2015 earthquake. ISSB or CSEB is also applied in other countries as an alternative building material and technology to replace the use of fired bricks and concrete building blocks for housing. Reducing the use of cement in the materials and structures is important for environmental reasons, but in ISSB/CSEB the use of cement as a stabilizer cannot always be avoided. This is surely the case in areas where earthquakes, heavy storms and floods can occur. Although this paper focuses mainly on technical aspects of sustainable housing and construction, there is also a focus on social sustainability, meaning a strong involvement of local communities in the production of sustainable building materials for walls, newly developed construction technologies, and mutual house and facility construction.

This article aims to propose a new model of technological innovations, as well as using it in a case study in the automotive industry. After an analysis of the main scientific databases, it was verified that the present work is unprecedented in presenting a unified model of identification and management of technological innovations. In methodological terms, the bibliometric and systemic analyzes were performed in order to identify the main technological innovations inherent in the automotive industry. In terms of research results, a cohesive innovation model was obtained, which, once based on the concepts of sensitive innovation and latent innovation, allows the identification and the consequent valuation of the economic potential of the main technological innovations in the area desired by the manager who will apply it. As an example, the model was applied specifically in the automotive sector, but its methodology can be generalized to any area of industrial production.

Aircraft industry is also finding its way to adapt on the increasing demand not only considering aircraft safety and customer requirements, but also on the increasing legislative requirements in terms of resource efficiency and gas emissions. This document explores Kevlar 49’s application on aircraft components and why this material is specifically selected for such applications above any other Kevlar type of materials. Its functions, properties, advantages and disadvantages are discussed together with some alternative materials in lieu of Kevlar 49. In order to provide credible information, literature search was conducted using significant keywords in Google Scholar and journal repository Deepdyve. Kevalr ® 49 is considered an exceptional material for reinforcement to produce aircraft components. It has high tensile strength, lightweight, inert on some conditions, stiff, and resilient. However, Kevlar’s has poor compressive strength, workability and is overly stiff for some applications. Another disadvantage is its cost, though it was shown to belong to a middle ranged material relative to carbon fiber and Boron. But overall, there are extensive applications in aircraft components that are now continuously using this material as reinforcement with other materials like carbon and boron to arrive on an ideal blend of product.

This article aims to build knowledge on the theme “green logistics” and “institutional pressures”, focused on identifying opportunities on its research topic. We used the ProKnow-C intervention instrument, resulting in the selection of 11 relevant articles that came to represent the bibliographic portfolio. Therefore, the bibliometric indicators based on the most prominent journals, the impact factor, the number of citations, the origin of the research centers, the research methods/tools, the most used terms and the subjects covered were used to analyze the articles selected. research in the form of networks. The results showed that the most prominent journal is the International Journal of Production Economics; the article with the largest number of citations (343 citations) is written by Sameer Kumar and Valora Putnam. In relation to the origin of the research centers there was a diversity of institutions of various nationalities, the USA being the country with the largest number of institutions, followed by United Kindon and Malaysia. As for the research methods, we have identified literature reviews, case studies, surveys, conceptual framework proposal and monitoring system development. In relation to the mapping and research networks, we highlight terms such as logistic, regulatory pressure, practice, driver, economic performance, institutional pressure, among other relevant terms. In this context, this information can “shed light” on interested parties and researchers on the subject in order to conceptualize, interpret and visualize their relevance, as well as the coverage networks and related researches.

In February of 2016, China formally promulgated and pointed out that the new communities should promote the block system. This new policy sparked heated debate. To demonstrate the rationality of this decision, the article studies on the problem that the influence on surrounding traffic causing by the opening of different types of community. The result shows that there is a big difference of the influence on surrounding traffic between opening different types of communities. So the decision of opening communities should fully consider the particularity of communities and adjust measures according to local conditions.

<p>Agriculture can not exist without water. At present the old practice of arbitrary use of water in irrigation sector has become unethical. Odisha is an agrarian state in east coast of India. For better yield of crops, quality of water is intricately related to the aquifer geometry, ground water flow regime and its quality. Coastal Odisha is having an area of 14700 sqkm and demography of 1.26 million. The land has mostly water logged alluvial crop land, deciduous forests or sandy dunes with an astomosed channels of hexa-deltaic rivers. The edaphic factors demand improvement of quality of ground water which is brackish. The physicochemical properties like pH value, electrical conductivity, inorganic constituents (Na<sup>+</sup>, Mg<sup>++</sup>, Ca<sup>++</sup>, K<sup>+</sup>) of ground water used for lift irrigation have been studied. Data from thousand number of wells from the study area are covered in various seasons during the years 2009-2014 along with the yield of the major crop, i.e., paddy. The indices and parameters like EC, SAR, KI, ESP, SSP, MAR, PI and alkalinity of the ground water are determined to show its fitness for irrigation in the area. The different water management policies and present activities are discussed so that the ground water can be used efficiently for irrigation in coastal Odisha.</p>

This article aims to turn the attention of researchers and practitioners in the innovation and engineering management field towards a more fine grained view on the influence of Information Technologies (IT) and New Product Development (NPD) capabilities on innovation outcomes in different stages of maturity. Computer Aided Innovation (CAI), as a specific but often overlooked category of IT-tools for innovation activities, is introduced as having the potential to positively influence the innovation supporting capabilities. Based on current and emerging developments in the fields of CAI and NPD, a revised version of the conceptual model of the CAI-NPD-systems maturity framework is proposed.

This paper explores the managerial challenges and viewpoints relating to the management of a metro design in KSA, raised by a group of design engineering staff. The paper examines the scope, reflections, and attitudes to the project management and which appear to contribute to the efficacy of the design outcomes between a single group of engineering personnel of thirteen (13) design engineers for a metro development in KSA. The paper advances a conceptualisation from the findings of a diverse range of qualitative personnel opinion into an integrated framework. Outcomes from this inquiry suggests that the project management show clear issues with the management style adopted to manage this group and explores the derived themes of namely four (4) main themes, namely Management; Project, People; and Technology. The outcomes shows opinion that the project management are not effectively managing the project corresponding with raised issues of cost/schedule overruns, delays to the project through poor coordination, ineffective leadership of the projects activities, and inadequate project preparation and its managerial execution. The paper further suggests how some of the effects of these identified issues may be reduced or mitigated.

This study was undertaken to explore the factors that could affect to the emotional exhaustion and turnover intention of Information Technology (IT) employees in Vietnam. This study was done through two steps including qualitative and quantitative research methods. In qualitative research method, nine information technology employees were interviewed to assess the clarity of words, the content of the questions and the ability to answer the questions of the readers. Formal quantitative research was executed by interviewing a sample collected by convenient method, using a questionaire, including 194 information technology employees in the areas of HoChiMinh city. The data was used to assess the scales and test the hypotheses. Cronbach Alpha coefficient analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), regression analysis were used in this section. The results showed some differences compared to the initial theoretical model. Only some elements in the theoretical model affect the emotional exhaustion, in which IT job demands is the factor that have the most powerful affect. Study results contribute additions to the theoretical basis of human resource management, by understanding more about the factors that have impact on the emotional exhaustion and turnover intention of information technology employees. Thereby, the results also provide additional facilities for the management of information technology enterprises so that the managers can make appropriate decisions in order to preserve the IT human resources.