Public-Private Partnership Contract Framework Development and Project Performance Analysis Compared to Design-Build in the US Highway Projects

Construction projects can be delivered through various approaches; nevertheless, all practitioners and involved parties have a mutual goal, which is completing the project within the original scope, defined budget, and schedule. Reviewing the literature on public-private partnership (PPP), many efforts have been made covering different research areas, including policies, risks, roles and responsibilities, and finance. However, a study involving the development of a framework for PPP contracts, and quantitative assessment of project performance associated with PPP highway projects in the US is lacking. Therefore, this research fills such a noticeable gap in the body of knowledge on the PPP delivery method. It establishes a framework for PPP highway contracts, and also evaluates the cost and schedule performance of the PPP delivery method, focusing on highway projects. Moreover, it provides a comparison between PPP and Design-Build (DB) as one of the most widely used alternative project delivery methods for vertical and horizontal construction projects in the US. To meet this objective, first, a Delphi study was conducted with professionals involved in PPP highway projects, to identify the factors affecting PPP highway contracts, their development, and implementation. Then, the performance data of completed PPP and DB highway projects was compared to find the performance difference between these two project delivery methods. The primary contribution of this research is to guide professionals in the transportation industry toward the successful completion of PPP highway projects and help the involved entities and parties to select the right delivery method for future projects to gain more cost and schedule benefits

Report / Institute für Physik

The 2014 Report of the Physics Institutes of the Universität Leipzig presents a hopefully interesting overview of our research activities in the past year. It is also testimony of our scientific interaction with colleagues and partners worldwide. We are grateful to our guests for enriching our academic year with their contributions in the colloquium and within the work groups. The open full professorship in the Institute for Experimental Physics I has been filled with an outstanding candidate. We could attract Prof. Ralf Seidel from the University of Münster. He is an expert in molecular biophysics that complements the existing strength in cellular biophysics. Prof. Hollands could fill all positions of his ERC Starting Grant, so that the work on the project \"Quantum Fields and Curvature – Novel Constructive Approach via Operator Product Expansion\" is now running at full pace. Within the Horizon 2020 project LOMID \"Large Cost-effective OLED Microdisplays and their Applications\" (2015-2017) with eight European partners including industry the semiconductor physics group contributes with transparent oxide devices. A joint laboratory for single ion implantation was established between the Leibniz-Institute for Surface Modification (IOM) and the university under the guidance of Profs. Rauschenbach and Meijer. The EU IRSES Network DIONICOS \"Dynamics of and in Complex Systems\", a consortium of 6 European and 12 non-European partners, including sites in England, France and Germany as well as in Russia, Ukraine, India, the United States and Venezuela, started in February 2014. In the next four years the Leipzig node headed by Prof. Janke will profit from the numerous international contacts this network provides. With a joint project, Prof. Kroy and Prof. Cichos participate in the newly established priority research programme SPP 1726 \"Microswimmers\", which started with a kick-off workshop in October 2014. In 2014 the International Graduate College \"Statistical Physics of Complex Systems\" run by the computational physics group has commenced its third 3-years granting period funded by Deutsch-Französische Hochschule (DFH-UFA). Besides the main partner Université de Lorraine in Nancy, France, now also Coventry University, UK, and the Institute for Condensed Matter Physis of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv, Ukraine, participate as associated partners. During the last week of September the TCO2014 conference \"Transparent Conductive Oxides – Fundamentals and Applications\" took place in honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Prof. Dr. KarlW. Bädeker. In 1907 Karl Bädeker had discovered transparent conductive materials and oxides in Leipzig. About a hundred participants joined for many invited talks from international experts, intense discussion and new cooperations. At the end of November the by now traditional 15th nternational Workshop on Recent Developments in Computational Physics \"CompPhys14\" organized by Prof. Janke took place in Leipzig. Around 60 scientists from over 10 different countries exchanged ideas and discussed recent progress in several fields of computational physics. Work has successfully continued in the Centers of Excellence (Sonderforschungsbereiche) SFB 762 \"Functionality ofOxide Interfaces\" and SFB TRR 102 \"Polymers under Multiple Constraints: Restricted and Controlled Molecular Order and Mobility\" (just renewed for 2015-2019). Our activities and success are only possible with the generous support fromvarious funding agencies for which we are very grateful and which is individually acknowledged in the brief reports

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

Fluid flows are encountered in our daily life as well as in engineering industries. Identifying the temporal and spatial distribution of fluid dynamic properties is essential in analyzing the processes related to flows. These properties, such as velocity, turbulence, temperature, pressure, and concentration, play important roles in mass transfer, heat transfer, reaction rate, and force analysis. However, obtaining the analytical solution of these fluid property distributions is technically difficult or impossible. With the technique of finite difference methods or finite element methods, attaining numerical solutions from the partial differential equations of mass, momentum, and energy have become achievable. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has emerged and been widely applied in various fields. This book collects the recent studies that have applied the CFD technique in analyzing several representative processes covering mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and thermal engineering

Data bases and data base systems related to NASA's aerospace program. A bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 1778 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system, 1975 through 1980