Construction procurement systems : a linkage with project organisational models

This paper constitutes a literature review undertaken at the start of a two and a half year EPSRC funded research project. As such, its purpose is to present the details of the ‘re-search’concerning construction procurement and project organizational design. The paper shows that the ‘post -Latham’construction industry provides several new developments (client power, partnering, concurrent engineering etc) which are altering the construction project process, and therefore prove worthy vehicles for investigation into project organizational structures

China's Law of Planning under the socialist market economy system

Draft paper about China's law of planning and socialist market economy

Multiscale Design for Solid Freeform Fabrication

One of the advantages of solid freeform fabrication is the ability to fabricate complex structures on multiple scales, from the macroscale features of an overall part to the mesoscale topology of its internal architecture and even the microstructure or composition of the constituent material. This manufacturing freedom poses the challenge of designing across these scales, especially when a part with designed mesostructure is part of a larger system with changing requirements that propagate across scales. A setbased multiscale design method is presented for coordinating design across scales and reducing iterative redesign of SFF parts and their mesostructures. The method is applied to design a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle system. The system is decomposed into disciplinary subsystems and constituent parts, including wings with honeycomb mesostructures that are topologically tailored for stiffness and strength and fabricated with selective laser sintering. The application illustrates how the design of freeform parts can be coordinated more efficiently with the design of parent systems.Mechanical Engineerin

Separating Agent-Functioning and Inter-Agent Coordination by Activated Modules: The DECOMAS Architecture

The embedding of self-organizing inter-agent processes in distributed software applications enables the decentralized coordination system elements, solely based on concerted, localized interactions. The separation and encapsulation of the activities that are conceptually related to the coordination, is a crucial concern for systematic development practices in order to prepare the reuse and systematic integration of coordination processes in software systems. Here, we discuss a programming model that is based on the externalization of processes prescriptions and their embedding in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). One fundamental design concern for a corresponding execution middleware is the minimal-invasive augmentation of the activities that affect coordination. This design challenge is approached by the activation of agent modules. Modules are converted to software elements that reason about and modify their host agent. We discuss and formalize this extension within the context of a generic coordination architecture and exemplify the proposed programming model with the decentralized management of (web) service infrastructures

Data-driven Modeling and Coordination of Large Process Structures

In the engineering domain, the development of complex products (e.g., cars) necessitates the coordination of thousands of (sub-)processes. One of the biggest challenges for process management systems is to support the modeling, monitoring and maintenance of the many interdependencies between these sub-processes. The resulting process structures are large and can be characterized by a strong relationship with the assembly of the product; i.e., the sub-processes to be coordinated can be related to the different product components. So far, sub-process coordination has been mainly accomplished manually, resulting in high efforts and inconsistencies. IT support is required to utilize the information about the product and its structure for deriving, coordinating and maintaining such data-driven process structures. In this paper, we introduce the COREPRO framework for the data-driven modeling of large process structures. The approach reduces modeling efforts significantly and provides mechanisms for maintaining data-driven process structures

Coordination approaches and systems - part I : a strategic perspective

This is the first part of a two-part paper presenting a fundamental review and summary of research of design coordination and cooperation technologies. The theme of this review is aimed at the research conducted within the decision management aspect of design coordination. The focus is therefore on the strategies involved in making decisions and how these strategies are used to satisfy design requirements. The paper reviews research within collaborative and coordinated design, project and workflow management, and, task and organization models. The research reviewed has attempted to identify fundamental coordination mechanisms from different domains, however it is concluded that domain independent mechanisms need to be augmented with domain specific mechanisms to facilitate coordination. Part II is a review of design coordination from an operational perspective

Positron emission tomography/computerised tomography imaging in detecting and managing recurrent cervical cancer: systematic review of evidence, elicitation of subjective probabilities and economic modelling.

© Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2013. This work was produced by Meads et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health. This issue may be freely reproduced for the purposes of private research and study and extracts (or indeed, the full report) may be included in professional journals provided that suitable acknowledgement is made and the reproduction is not associated with any form of advertising.Cancer of the uterine cervix is a common cause of mortality in women. After initial treatment women may be symptom free, but the cancer may recur within a few years. It is uncertain whether it is more clinically effective to survey asymptomatic women for signs of recurrence or to await symptoms or signs before using imaging.National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programm

Modularizing and Specifying Protocols among Threads

We identify three problems with current techniques for implementing protocols among threads, which complicate and impair the scalability of multicore software development: implementing synchronization, implementing coordination, and modularizing protocols. To mend these deficiencies, we argue for the use of domain-specific languages (DSL) based on existing models of concurrency. To demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal, we explain how to use the model of concurrency Reo as a high-level protocol DSL, which offers appropriate abstractions and a natural separation of protocols and computations. We describe a Reo-to-Java compiler and illustrate its use through examples.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2012, arXiv:1302.579