Redefining procurement paradigms: A critical review of buyer-supplier dynamics in the global petroleum and natural gas industry

This paper reviews critique of procurement approaches within the petroleum and natural gas sectors, whilst concurrently unveiling and scrutinizing the elements that amplify and shape the buyer-supplier interactions within this industry. The primary objective of this review is to redefine procurement paradigms in the global petroleum and natural gas industry by reassessing the dynamics between buyers and suppliers. The findings from our study reveal a noticeable gap in the literature concerning the fortification of buyer-supplier relationships in the petroleum and natural gas sector. While existing studies offer valuable insights into procurement trends, they significantly lack focus on strengthening these key relationships. This could be considered a limitation in the existing body of work, suggesting a need for targeted research in this area. The existence of certain strategies that have proven to enhance supplier partnerships offers a promising avenue for future research. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, organizations in the petroleum and natural gas industry may need to revaluate their F to include a greater focus on buyer-supplier relationship management. Second, academic researchers may consider developing targeted studies that delve into the impacts of these relationships on procurement efficiency and organizational performance. The limitations of this study include the availability of industry-specific reports and the potential for subjectivity in interpreting qualitative data. Future research should aim to mitigate these limitations by employing a more diverse range of data sources and analytical techniques

Revolutionizing procurement : Unveiling next-gen supplier strategies in UAE’s oil & gas sector

Procurement is a linchpin in organizational success, securing vital resources that enable top-tier service and product delivery. In fiercely competitive arenas like the oil and gas industry, cultivating robust supplier relationships isn't just beneficial—it's indispensable. Despite the ever-evolving market and myriad factors influencing these interactions, optimizing buyer-supplier dynamics remains paramount. The study delves deep into strategies to fortify procurement partnerships, spotlighting key elements shaping these relationships in the UAE's oil and gas landscape. Utilizing the renowned Kraljic's portfolio model (KPM), the study analyses purchasing strategies and their determinants. Data from a comprehensive online survey with 312 industry stakeholders and stringent reliability tests via SPSS offer compelling insights. Dominant themes include the prevalence of supplier and buyer dominance in ADNOC's procurement of both trivial and significant assets. Notably, no one-size-fits-all strategy emerges for major equipment acquisition, yet supplier dominance proves supremely effective for consumables and minor item procurements. A critical discovery underscores the significant role of employee tenure in shaping purchase decisions and supplier liaisons

Impact of United States political sanctions on international collaborations and research in Iran

International research collaborations improve individual, institutional and governmental capacities to respond to health crises and inequalities but may be greatly affected by political environments. Iran ranks highly in tertiary education, productivity growth, knowledge impact and successful patent applications. In many countries, economic hardship has correlated with increased international research collaborations. Some have hypothesised that financial constraint drives scholars to seek outside collaborations for cost and risk sharing, and to access funding, materials and patient populations otherwise unavailable. This paper explores the history and importance of US political sanctions on the health of Iran’s academic sector. Although Iran’s international research collaborations increased during periods of increased sanctions, the Pearson correlation coefficient between gross domestic product and international research collaborations was not significant (r=0.183, p=0.417). This indicates that other factors are at least in part responsible. Additionally, we found Iran’s quantitative (eg, publication number) and qualitative (eg, visibility indices) publishing metrics to be discordant (two-tailed Mann–Kendall trend; p<0.0002 for both). Reasons for this are multifactorial, including increased indexing of Iranian journals, willingness of lower visibility journals to handle manuscripts with Iranian authors, widespread linkage of career advancement to science visibility indices, and others. During periods of increased sanctions, Iranian scholars were increasingly denied opportunities to publish scientific findings, attend scientific meetings, access to essential medical and laboratory supplies and information resources. We conclude that academic boycotts violate researchers’ freedom and curtail progress. Free exchange of ideas irrespective of creed is needed to optimize global scientific progress

Communication management in global software development projects

Many organizations that have the global software development (GSD) projects use communication technologies to connect their virtual teams. However, the virtual team faces various challenges and issues in the process of the GSD. One of the significant challenges is obtaining an efficient communication among team members. This study focuses on the communication factors among the virtual teams highlighted in the literature. The communication factors are related to the temporal distances, geographical distances, socio-cultural, access to training, technological problems that hindering communications, the communication within the status of development process, personal communication skills and language differences. The objective of this study is to examine the communication factors and identify the related issues which are commonly occurring between the virtual teams in the global software development. A survey was conducted in different sectors. The findings indicate that some of important points related to the communication factors contribute to the success of the GSD

Contactless Blood Pressure Estimation System Using a Computer Vision System

Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most common vital signs related to cardiovascular diseases. BP is traditionally measured by mercury, aneroid, or digital sphygmomanometers; however, these approaches are restrictive, inconvenient, and need a pressure cuff to be attached directly to the patient. Therefore, it is clinically important to develop an innovative system that can accurately measure BP without the need for any direct physical contact with the people. This work aims to create a new computer vision system that remotely measures BP using a digital camera without a pressure cuff. The proposed BP system extracts the optical properties of photoplethysmographic signals in two regions in the forehead captured by a digital camera and calculates BP based on specific formulas. The experiments were performed on 25 human participants with different skin tones and repeated at different times under ambient light conditions. Compared to the systolic/diastolic BP readings obtained from a commercial digital sphygmomanometer, the proposed BP system achieves an accuracy of 94.6% with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 9.2 mmHg for systolic BP readings and an accuracy of 95.4% with an RMSE of 7.6 mmHg for diastolic BP readings. Thus, the proposed BP system has the potential of being a promising tool in the upcoming generation of BP monitoring systems

Contactless Blood Pressure Estimation System Using a Computer Vision System

Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most common vital signs related to cardiovascular diseases. BP is traditionally measured by mercury, aneroid, or digital sphygmomanometers; however, these approaches are restrictive, inconvenient, and need a pressure cuff to be attached directly to the patient. Therefore, it is clinically important to develop an innovative system that can accurately measure BP without the need for any direct physical contact with the people. This work aims to create a new computer vision system that remotely measures BP using a digital camera without a pressure cuff. The proposed BP system extracts the optical properties of photoplethysmographic signals in two regions in the forehead captured by a digital camera and calculates BP based on specific formulas. The experiments were performed on 25 human participants with different skin tones and repeated at different times under ambient light conditions. Compared to the systolic/diastolic BP readings obtained from a commercial digital sphygmomanometer, the proposed BP system achieves an accuracy of 94.6% with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 9.2 mmHg for systolic BP readings and an accuracy of 95.4% with an RMSE of 7.6 mmHg for diastolic BP readings. Thus, the proposed BP system has the potential of being a promising tool in the upcoming generation of BP monitoring systems

Comparative study of different phase change materials on the thermal performance of photovoltaic cells in Iraq's climate conditions

The incident solar energy that impinges upon the photovoltaic cells undergoes a conversion process, resulting in the generation of electrical energy and conversion of absorbed energy into heat. This increase in temperature adversely affects the performance of the panel, leading to a decrease in its overall efficiency. This study examines the properties and performance of phase change materials, specifically paraffin wax, natural beeswax, and a combination of paraffin wax and beeswax, in comparison to a solar panel lacking any phase change substance. The experiment was conducted in the climatic conditions of Iraq, namely in the city of Hawija, located southwest of Kirkuk, during the summer of 2022. The prevailing environmental temperature throughout this period averaged 44 °C. The experiment involved comparing plate temperature, electrical power, and electrical efficiency. The results indicated that all the materials caused a decrease in the temperature of the board at the beginning of the experiment and for a short duration. Nevertheless, as the phase change material (PCM) undergoes melting, the dissipation of heat becomes unfeasible, resulting in a gradual increase in temperature. It was observed that there was a rise in temperature during the afternoon hours. According to the recorded data, the use of beeswax resulted in a decrease in temperature by 4 °C in comparison to the reference plate that did not incorporate phase change materials (PCM). Additionally, the efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) system increased by 1% when compared to the PV Compared with PV (reference). The efficiency of the solar panel with beeswax ranged from 13% to 14%. According to the findings, the integration of phase-change materials with solar panels has been observed to effectively lower the temperature of the panels, hence enhancing their overall efficiency. Consequently, this approach represents a viable and advantageous choice

Optimizing fluid parameters of heat transfer and velocity of aluminum oxide nanoparticles and SWCNT passing through blades using RSM statistical method

This paper explores how the temperature and velocity change in a specific direction and the rotational velocity when nanofluids flow through triangular, rectangular, and chamfer baffles. The novelty of this article is to study and investigate the thermal and fluidic parameters of the velocity gradient and heat transferred between aluminum oxide and SWCNT nanofluids on the tensile surface. This study aims to increase the heat transfer coefficient by installing blades with different shapes. The Finite Element Method is chosen to solve the main equations. This paper utilized the RSM method to optimize the velocity of nanofluid and heat transfer as it passes through the stretching sheet. The main goal of this study mentioned in the article is to explore the impact of various vane shapes installed on the outer surface of a stretched sheet. To summarize, after analyzing the flow of SWCNT and Al2O3 nanofluids on various baffles and blades, it was found that the temperature of SWCNT nanofluid around the baffles was higher compared to the temperature of Al2O3 nanofluids. According to the results from the graphs of how fast something is turning and the factors that transfer heat in the software called Design-Expert, the best improvement happened when the velocity and temperature of the small particles in the liquid were at u = 1.12, and T = 20.18 and the turning velocity was N = 137.29

Effect of polyvinyl alcohol fiber on the mechanical properties and embodied carbon of engineered cementitious composites

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is a fiber-reinforced cementitious composite material that has garnered considerable attention from the building and scientific sectors. However, ECCs offer improved mechanical and durability characteristics compared to regular concrete. Fibers serve a crucial function in producing ultrahigh tensile ductility and autogenous fracture width control inside the micromechanical reinforcing system of ECC. This research discusses the various proportions of polyvinyl alcohol fibers (PVA) as reinforcing materials by total volume fraction in ECC in terms of mechanical properties performance, environmental consequences, and economic effects. A total of 60 ECC samples were cast to achieve the targeted compressive strength of 45 MPa of ECC mixture reinforced with 1%, 1.5%, and 2% of PVA fiber by the volume fraction. Though, the best compressive of ECC is calculated by 62.60 MPa at 1% of PVA fiber at 28 days. Besides, the tensile and flexural strengths are enhanced by 5.20 MPa, and 11.15 MPa at 1% of PVA fiber in ECC for 28 days respectively. In addition, the density of ECC is reduced with rises in the content of PVA fiber while water absorption is increased as the percentage of PVA fiber growths in the ECC after 28 days respectively. Moreover, the embodied carbon and energy are improved when the PVA fiber by the volume fraction increases in the mixture. It has been observed that the use of 1% PVA fiber by the volume fraction in cementitious composites is offering maximum strength and less embodied carbon and energy, therefore, it has been recommended for structural application

Exploring the Role of Islamic Fintech in Combating the Aftershocks of COVID-19: The Open Social Innovation of the Islamic Financial System

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the role of the Islamic financial system in recovery post-COVID-19 and the way Fintech can be utilized to combat the economic reverberations created by COVID-19. The global financial crisis of 2008 has established the credentials of the Islamic financial system as a sustainable financial system which can save the long run interests of the average citizens around the world while adding value to the real economy. The basic ethical tenets available in the Islamic financial system make it more suited and readymade to fight the economic aftershocks of a pandemic like COVID-19. The basic principles of ethical Islamic finance have solid connections to financial stability and corporate social responsibility within the wide-reaching business context. With the emergence of Financial technology (Fintech) it has provided a missing impetus to the Islamic financial system to compete on equal ground with its conventional counterpart and prove its mettle. The study uses discourse analysis along with the content analysis to extract content and draw a conclusion. The findings of the study indicate that COVID-19 pandemic has provided the opportunity for the social and open innovation to grow and finance world have turned to open innovation to provide a speedy, timely, reliable, and sustainable solution to the world. The findings of the study provide significant implications for governments and policy makers in efficient application of Fintech and innovative Islamic financial services to fight the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic