Impact of Sustainable Business Practices on Strategic Performance for Commercial Building Contractors

The existing commercial building construction industry is not sustainable and sustainability is not a prominent matter in construction. The construction industry has made strides in sustainability efforts over the past couple decades, but there remains a long pathway to improving stewardship of the environment, people, and resources. This study reviews existing conditions in the construction industry through specialty and general contractor survey questionnaires. Interview investigation of three Midwest commercial building contractors examines the impact of embracing sustainable business practices. A case study offers a project level investigation of the research question to expand and support the study. Embracing sustainable business practices has a positive impact on strategic firm performance for commercial building contractors through employee satisfaction, project opportunities, and market advantage. Sustainable business practices are beneficial for construction businesses

Towards Mobile Edge Computing: Taxonomy, Challenges, Applications and Future Realms

The realm of cloud computing has revolutionized access to cloud resources and their utilization and applications over the Internet. However, deploying cloud computing for delay critical applications and reducing the delay in access to the resources are challenging. The Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) paradigm is one of the effective solutions, which brings the cloud computing services to the proximity of the edge network and leverages the available resources. This paper presents a survey of the latest and state-of-the-art algorithms, techniques, and concepts of MEC. The proposed work is unique in that the most novel algorithms are considered, which are not considered by the existing surveys. Moreover, the chosen novel literature of the existing researchers is classified in terms of performance metrics by describing the realms of promising performance and the regions where the margin of improvement exists for future investigation for the future researchers. This also eases the choice of a particular algorithm for a particular application. As compared to the existing surveys, the bibliometric overview is provided, which is further helpful for the researchers, engineers, and scientists for a thorough insight, application selection, and future consideration for improvement. In addition, applications related to the MEC platform are presented. Open research challenges, future directions, and lessons learned in area of the MEC are provided for further future investigation

Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Bulletin

Undergraduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2020-2021. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for undergraduate programs

Recycling industry cluster strategic plan 2010

The basis of the Recycling Industry Cluster Strategic Plan rests on stakeholder analysis of the issues and opportunities facing South Carolina’s recycling industry. By combining the input of the recycling industry stakeholders, the examination of industry trends, applicable law and individual case studies, along with proposed recommendations, the plan is intended to serve as a guide for how and what the cluster should most appropriately and effectively focus on in the future

A sociolinguistic study of the Tihami Qahtani dialect in Asir, Southern Arabia

This is a sociolinguistic investigation that examines variation in the use of two ancient features in the Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect as spoken in two villages (al-Jawwa in the highlands and al-Farša in the lowlands) in ʿAsīr, southwest Saudi Arabia. The data are analysed within the framework of the variationist sociolinguistic paradigm and subjected to statistical testing using Rbrul. In addition to ‘linguistic environment’, ‘age’ and ‘gender’ as independent variables, the study analyses the effect of geographical location on the structure of variation and the trajectory of language change. The first linguistic variable is phonological, the Arabic sound ḍād, and the second linguistic variable is morpho-phonological, definite article m-. The Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect preserves ancient realisations of these features. This is a dialect that traditionally has a lateral realisation of ḍād, and m- definite article, both of which are ancient Semitic features. A total of twenty eight speakers were sampled from the two communities. The data were obtained through sociolinguistic interviews. The results show that there is considerable variation in the use of both variables. The structure of this variation is influenced by social, linguistic and spatial factors. The incoming variants, emphatic interdental fricative [ðˤ] for (ḍād) and l-article for m-article, are koine forms. In the case of ḍād, the quantitative analysis shows that it is undergoing change towards [ðˤ]. This change is led by younger women in both communities, while men in general and older women lag behind. Analysis of m-article shows change in progress in the lowland community only (al-Farša). In this case too, the younger women are found to be in the lead. The qualitative analysis of the data shows that ambition, attitudes, tribal identity and mobility influence variation in the use of the traditional features. The analysis underlines the benefits of quantitative sociolinguistic methods towards understanding historical linguistic developments

UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2018-2019

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/utrgvcatalogs/1006/thumbnail.jp

UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2017-2018

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/utrgvcatalogs/1007/thumbnail.jp

UTRGV Graduate Catalog 2015-2017

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/utrgvcatalogs/1001/thumbnail.jp

Composable system resources as an architecture for networked systems

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-173).(cont.) In this thesis, I describe an architecture for network devices that is based on using pluggable system resource modules that can be composed together to create a close-to-optimal platform for a particular application mix and device. Frequently used applications execute efficiently, while infrequently used applications execute less efficiently. Metrics for calculating efficiencies and selected application domains and mixes are specified by individuals as opposed to one-size-fits- all metrics specified by manufacturers. I show that such a composable system architecture is effective in optimizing system performance with respect to user preferences and application requirements, while the modularity of the architecture introduces little overhead. I also explore opportunities that arise from segmenting devices into UI and computational resource components, and show that an automated design environment can be created that greatly simplifies custom device design, reducing time-to-market and lowering costs.Network devices promise to provide a variety of user interfaces through which users can interact with network applications. The design of these devices stand in stark contrast to the design of personal computers in which new software content is accommodated by increased processor performance. Network device design, on the other hand, must take into consideration a variety of metrics including interactive performance, power consumption, battery life, transaction security, physical size and weight, and cost. Designing a general-purpose platform that caters to all of these metrics for all applications and devices is impractical. For an application mix, a processor architecture and platform can be designed that is optimized for a selected set of metrics, such as power consumption and battery life. Each of these optimized processor architectures and platforms will no doubt be applicable to a variety of devices. This suggests a modular system architecture for network devices that segments the computational resources from the device UI. Computational resources can be selected for a device UI that are optimized with respect to application mixes as well as to user preferences and metrics. Segmenting out the device UI reduces the complexity of device UIs, simplifying development and lowering costs. At the same time, with little electrical circuitry resident on device UIs, the selected platform can more fully optimize the entire device.by Sandeep Chatterjee.Ph.D