35,296 research outputs found
Quality of tender documents: case studies from the UK
Tendering is one of the stages in construction procurement that requires extensive information and documents exchange. However, tender documents are not always clear in practice. The aim of this study was to ascertain the clarity and adequacy of tender documents used in practice. Access was negotiated into two UK construction firms and the whole tender process for two projects was shadowed for 6-7 weeks in each firm using an ethnographic approach. A significant amount of tender queries, amendments and addenda were recorded. This showed that quality of tender documentation is still a problem in construction despite the existence of standards like Co-ordinated Project Information (1987) and British Standard 1192 (1984 and 1990) that are meant to help in producing clear and consistent project information. Poor quality tender documents are a source of inaccurate estimates, claims and disputes on contracts. Six recommendations are presented to help in improving the quality of tender documentation. Further research is needed into the recommendations to help improve the quality of tender documents, perhaps in conjunction with an industry-wide investigation into the level of incorporation of CPI principles in practice
Intelligent Integrated Management for Telecommunication Networks
As the size of communication networks keeps on growing, faster connections, cooperating technologies and the divergence of equipment and data communications, the management of the resulting networks gets additional important and time-critical. More advanced tools are needed to support this activity. In this article we describe the design and implementation of a management platform using Artificial Intelligent reasoning technique. For this goal we make use of an expert system. This study focuses on an intelligent framework and a language for formalizing knowledge management descriptions and combining them with existing OSI management model. We propose a new paradigm where the intelligent network management is integrated into the conceptual repository of management information called Managed Information Base (MIB). This paper outlines the development of an expert system prototype based in our propose GDMO+ standard and describes the most important facets, advantages and drawbacks that were found after prototyping our proposal
Triangulum II: Not Especially Dense After All
Among the Milky Way satellites discovered in the past three years, Triangulum
II has presented the most difficulty in revealing its dynamical status. Kirby
et al. (2015a) identified it as the most dark matter-dominated galaxy known,
with a mass-to-light ratio within the half-light radius of 3600 +3500 -2100
M_sun/L_sun. On the other hand, Martin et al. (2016) measured an outer velocity
dispersion that is 3.5 +/- 2.1 times larger than the central velocity
dispersion, suggesting that the system might not be in equilibrium. From new
multi-epoch Keck/DEIMOS measurements of 13 member stars in Triangulum II, we
constrain the velocity dispersion to be sigma_v < 3.4 km/s (90% C.L.). Our
previous measurement of sigma_v, based on six stars, was inflated by the
presence of a binary star with variable radial velocity. We find no evidence
that the velocity dispersion increases with radius. The stars display a wide
range of metallicities, indicating that Triangulum II retained supernova ejecta
and therefore possesses or once possessed a massive dark matter halo. However,
the detection of a metallicity dispersion hinges on the membership of the two
most metal-rich stars. The stellar mass is lower than galaxies of similar mean
stellar metallicity, which might indicate that Triangulum II is either a star
cluster or a tidally stripped dwarf galaxy. Detailed abundances of one star
show heavily depressed neutron-capture abundances, similar to stars in most
other ultra-faint dwarf galaxies but unlike stars in globular clusters.Comment: accepted to ApJ, Table 5 available as a machine-readable table by
clicking on "Other formats" on the right. Proof corrections reflected in
version
Software Engineers' Information Seeking Behavior in Change Impact Analysis - An Interview Study
Software engineers working in large projects must navigate complex
information landscapes. Change Impact Analysis (CIA) is a task that relies on
engineers' successful information seeking in databases storing, e.g., source
code, requirements, design descriptions, and test case specifications. Several
previous approaches to support information seeking are task-specific, thus
understanding engineers' seeking behavior in specific tasks is fundamental. We
present an industrial case study on how engineers seek information in CIA, with
a particular focus on traceability and development artifacts that are not
source code. We show that engineers have different information seeking
behavior, and that some do not consider traceability particularly useful when
conducting CIA. Furthermore, we observe a tendency for engineers to prefer less
rigid types of support rather than formal approaches, i.e., engineers value
support that allows flexibility in how to practically conduct CIA. Finally, due
to diverse information seeking behavior, we argue that future CIA support
should embrace individual preferences to identify change impact by empowering
several seeking alternatives, including searching, browsing, and tracing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 25th International
Conference on Program Comprehensio
Early-Modern Magnetism: Uncovering New Textual Links between Leonardo Garzoni SJ (1543–1592), Paolo Sarpi OSM (1552–1623), Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615), and the Accademia dei Lincei
William Gilbert’s work, De magnete (1600), often is referred to as the first monographic study on magnetism in the early-modern period. Recently, however, it has been argued that the Jesuit, Leonardo Garzoni, wrote an experimental study on the subject twenty years earlier and that his research influenced particularly the work of Giambattista Della Porta and Paolo Sarpi,two important protagonists in the history of studies in magnetism. However, to date, Garzoni’s authorship of an anonymous treatise in manuscript, located at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, and taken to bear witness to his research, has been based only on circumstantial evidence. This article outlines the identification of two further manuscript copies of this treatise, which have not been studied so far. It shall be argued that the evidence contained in these manuscripts corroborates the assumption that Garzoni indeed is the author of the work that was transmitted anonymously. Moreover, it can be shown that the work was completed and prepared for print later on. These findings also allow us to argue more conclusively that Paolo Sarpi knew Garzoni’s work and passed it to Giambattista Della Porta, who bequethed his copy to the Accademia dei Lincei and thereby made it available to some of the academy’s most important members, Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Cassiano Dal Pozzo. Finally, the dynamics of this textual transmission provide insights into how scholars approached the study of ‘magnetism’ in the early-modern period
A Cross-Match of 2MASS and SDSS. II. Peculiar L Dwarfs, Unresolved Binaries, and the Space Density of T Dwarf Secondaries
We present the completion of a program to cross-correlate the SDSS Data
Release 1 and 2MASS Point Source Catalog in search for extremely red L and T
dwarfs. The program was initiated by Metchev and collaborators, who presented
the findings on all newly identified T dwarfs in SDSS DR1, and estimated the
space density of isolated T0--T8 dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. In the
current work we present most of the L dwarf discoveries. Our red-sensitive (z-J
> 2.75 mag) cross-match proves to be efficient in detecting peculiarly red L
dwarfs, adding two new ones, including one of the reddest known L dwarfs. Our
search also nets a new peculiarly blue L7 dwarf and, surprisingly, two M8
dwarfs. We further broaden our analysis to detect unresolved binary L or T
dwarfs through spectral template fitting to all L and T dwarfs presented here
and in the earlier work by Metchev and collaborators. We identify nine probable
binaries, six of which are new and eight harbour likely T dwarf secondaries. We
combine this result with current knowledge of the mass ratio distribution and
frequency of substellar companions to estimate an overall space density of
0.005--0.05 pc^{-3} for individual T0--T8 dwarfs.Comment: Accepted by Ap
Web and Semantic Web Query Languages
A number of techniques have been developed to facilitate
powerful data retrieval on the Web and Semantic Web. Three categories
of Web query languages can be distinguished, according to the format
of the data they can retrieve: XML, RDF and Topic Maps. This article
introduces the spectrum of languages falling into these categories
and summarises their salient aspects. The languages are introduced using
common sample data and query types. Key aspects of the query
languages considered are stressed in a conclusion
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