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The significance of recognizing social sustainability practices for the successful management of projects is increasingly acknowledged. However, to what extent these practices are actually implemented within project management has not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. To address this gap, an empirical study was conducted to investigate the usage of social sustainability practices and explore any disparities in their implementation between domestic and international construction firms in the United Arab Emirates. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining interviews and a structured questionnaire. Through the interviews, 32 social sustainability practices were identified. Subsequently, a questionnaire was used to collect data from project managers representing 259 firms. The analysis revealed several key findings: 1) social sustainability practices are adopted at varying rates; 2) twelve practices, primarily concerning fundamental human rights and labor ethics, are uniformly employed by both domestic and international firms; and 3) international firms are more likely than their domestic counterparts to regularly implement the other 20 social sustainability practices. These findings develop new knowledge on the implementation of social sustainability practices and advance the understanding of how firm origin influences the adoption of these practices. Additionally, the findings and their implications provide valuable guidance for policymakers and project leaders looking to incorporate social sustainability practices into their operational strategies.

Water shortages in arid areas threaten daily human needs. Extracting water from moist air offers a promising solution for communities facing water scarcity in these areas. This study theoretically evaluates the performance of six different adsorbent materials used for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). A comprehensive parametric analysis is performed to assess the impact of various operating conditions on key performance indicators, including water yield (WY), energy consumption (EC), and cycle thermal efficiency. Additionally, the study evaluates the adsorption uptake of six adsorbents under varying temperatures and relative humidity levels, mapping the estimated adsorption capacities onto a psychrometric chart. This approach helps identify the most suitable adsorbents for different climatic conditions. Moreover, the response surface methodology is applied in this study to develop a regression model, optimize AWH cycle performance using a desirability optimization technique, and evaluate the most significant design factors affecting the WY and cycle efficiency. Optimization is conducted for two adsorbents, silica gel RD and MOF MIL-101(Cr). The results show that MOF MIL-101(Cr) can achieve a water yield of up to 1.08 kgwater/kgads/cycle, alongside a cycle efficiency of 79.3 %, whereas silica gel RD exhibits a water yield of up to 0.429 kgwater/kgads/cycle with an efficiency of 79.6 %. This study is essential for designing efficient AWH systems.

Energy piles have been recently utilized as ground heat exchangers in ground source heat pump systems to improve the energy efficiency in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for residential and commercial buildings. On top of the structural role of energy piles to transfer the mechanical loads of buildings to the ground, they are used to dissipate heat energy into the soil to reduce the consumption of energy and hence lower greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, eight factors affecting the thermal conductance of the energy piles are investigated to maximize the thermal performance of energy piles. These eight factors are the number of U-tubes, pile diameter, tube diameter, tube thickness, pile thermal conductivity, tube thermal conductivity, soil thermal conductivity, and velocity of circulated water in U-tubes. The significance of these factors is statistically evaluated, and the optimal values of the significant factors are obtained using response surface methodology. The results reveal that tube thickness, water velocity, and soil conductivity have an insignificant impact on thermal conductance of the energy piles, while other factors have a significant effect. This research may lay a foundation for future research in optimizing the thermal performance of energy piles and promoting their applications in practice.