Necessary and unnecessary complexity in construction

The nature of complexity varies as construction progresses. This paper presents concepts and practices with which project (knowledge) management must foster complexity when it is necessary and dampen complexity when it is unnecessary in order to generate value and control time and costs. Complexity management has to be adjusted to the current state of the project. Before and during programming the building as a solid object can not be predicted; the user activities, extent, mass and materials are unknown. We might renovate, build a new building or we might not invest at all. The problem is inductive since there are several correct answers, not right or wrong but good or poor. After design and before on-site construction we know the object and its performances, the single “right answer” for construction. The system is deductive. The building process is initially inductive and becomes predominantly deductive, being complex all the time. The destruction of an inductive system can be avoided only if there is enough variety in the controller. Only a management system which contains variation can produce alternatives in a creative way to keep to goals in spite of disturbance. It is called necessary or requisite variety. If a problem “do we need an activity?” is dealt with simultaneously as the question “where would it be located in a plan?”, there are limitless possible alternatives. If we first answer “no” to the first question, there are no alternatives left. Does the “Where it will be” answer create more valuable information to the question “do we need it”? If not, the variables are orthogonal. Combining orthogonal variables causes more iterations and can be called unnecessary complexity. In the beginning of construction the building as an object can be predicted. However, due to the peculiarities of construction, there is a lot of complexity confronting the production phase. The issue is to consider whether any peculiarity could be eliminated or at least reduced. In operations management, three different conceptualizations should be simultaneously used: production as transformation, flow and value generation. From these, the transformation model is in an auxiliary position, whereas the flow model addresses the time-dependent complexity and value generation addresses the time-independent complexity. In the framework of these conceptualizations, the insights and principles of complexity thinking should be applied as appropriate

Reforming Project Management: The Role of Lean Construction

Project management as taught by professional societies and applied in current practice must be reformed because it is inadequate today and its performance will continue to decline as projects become more uncertain, complex and pressed for speed. Project management is failing because of flawed assumptions and idealized theory: it rests on a faulty understanding of the nature or work in projects, and a deficient definition of control. It is argued that a reform of project management will be driven by theories from production management that add the management of workflow and the creation and delivery of value to the current emphasis on activities. Of all the approaches to production management, the theory and principles drawn from Lean Production seem to be best suited for project management. Promising results in this regard have been reached already in one project management area, namely in Lean Construction

Social support, social control and health behavior change in spouses

Our work on support processes in intimate relationships has focused on how partners in committed relationships help one another contend with personal difficulties, and how partners elicit and provide support in their day-to-day interactions. We are particularly interested in how these support skills relate to marital outcomes (Pasch & Bradbury, 1998; Pasch, Harris, Sullivan, & Bradbury, 2004; Sullivan, Pasch, Eldridge, & Bradbury, 1998) and how they relate to behavior change in spouses (Sullivan, Pasch, Johnson, & Bradbury, 2006), especially health behavior changes. In this chapter, we review research examining the effects of social support and social control on spouses\u27 health behaviors, propose a theory to account for discrepancies in these findings, and report initial data examining the usefulness of this theory in understanding the relationship between social support, social control, and partner health behavior

Physical aggression, compromised social support, and 10-year marital outcomes: Testing a relational spillover model

The purpose of the present study was to test a relational spillover model of physical aggression whereby physical aggression affects marital outcomes due to its effects on how spouses ask for and provide support to one another. Newlywed couples (n = 172) reported levels of physical aggression over the past year and engaged in interactions designed to elicit social support; marital adjustment, and stability were assessed periodically over the first 10 years of marriage. Multilevel modeling revealed that negative support behavior mediated the relationship between physical aggression and 10-year marital adjustment levels whereas positive support behavior mediated the relationship between physical aggression and divorce status. These findings emphasize the need to look beyond conflict when explaining how aggression affects relationships and when working with couples with a history of physical aggression who are seeking to improve their relationships

Commercial bank lending practices in the development of urban projects : underwriting criteria in a changing environment

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1990.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).by Alison J. Waltch and Lauri A. Webster.M.S

Germline mutations in young non-smoking women with lung adenocarcinoma

Objectives: Although the primary cause of lung cancer is smoking, a considerable proportion of all lung cancers occur in never smokers. Gender influences the risk and characteristics of lung cancer and women are over-represented among never smokers with the disease. Young age at onset and lack of established environmental risk factors suggest genetic predisposition. In this study, we used population-based sampling of young patients to discover candidate predisposition variants for lung adenocarcinoma in never-smoking women. Materials and methods: We employed archival normal tissue material from 21 never-smoker women who had been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma before the age of 45, and exome sequenced their germline DNA. Results and conclusion: Potentially pathogenic variants were found in eight Cancer Gene Census germline genes: BRCAI, BRCA2, ERCC4, EXT1, HNF1 A, PTCH1, SMARCB1 and TP53. The variants in TP53, BRCAI, and BRCA2 are likely to have contributed to the early onset lung cancer in the respective patients (3/21 or 14%). This supports the notion that lung adenocarcinoma can be a component of certain cancer predisposition syndromes. Fifteen genes displayed potentially pathogenic mutations in at least two patients: ABCC10, ATP7B, CACNA1S, CFTR, CLIP4, COL6A1, COL6A6, GCN1, GJB6, RYR1, SCN7A, SEC24A, SP100, TEN and USH2A. Four patients showed a mutation in COL6A1, three in CLIP4 and two in the rest of the genes. Some of these candidate genes may explain a subset of female lung adenocarcinoma.Peer reviewe

Sex-specific familial aggregation of cancers in Finland

Despite the fact that the effect of sex on the occurrence of cancers has been studied extensively, it remains unclear whether sex modifies familial aggregation of cancers. We explored sex-specific familial aggregation of cancers in a large population-based historical cohort study. We combined cancer and population registry data, inferring familial relationships from birth municipality-surname-sex (MNS) combinations. Our data consisted of 391,529 incident primary cancers in 377,210 individuals with 319,872 different MNS combinations. Cumulative sex-specific numbers of cancers were compared to expected cumulative incidence. Familial cancer risks were similar between the sexes in our population-wide analysis. Families with concordant cancer in both sexes exhibited similar sex-specific cancer risks. However, some families had exceptionally high sex-specific cumulative cancer incidence. We identified six families with exceptionally strong aggregation in males: three families with thyroid cancer (ratio between observed and expected incidence 184.6; 95% credible interval (95% CI) 33.1-1012.7, 173.4 (95% CI 65.4-374.3), and 161.4 (95% CI 29.6-785.7), one with stomach (ratio 14.4 (95% CI 6.9-37.2)), colon (ratio 15.5 (95% CI 5.7-56.3)) cancers and one with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (ratio 33.5 (95% CI 17.2-207.6)). Our results imply that familial aggregation of cancers shows no sex-specific preference. However, the atypical sex-specific aggregation of stomach cancer, colon cancer, thyroid cancer and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in certain families is difficult to fully explain with present knowledge of possible causes, and could yield useful knowledge if explored further.Peer reviewe

Social support in marriage: Translating research into practical applications for clinicians

How spouses support one another may be important in understanding and preventing marital distress, but has received relatively little attention. Instead, the behavioral model of marriage and corresponding treatment protocols have focused on the importance of good conflict management skills in preventing and treating marital distress. This paper outlines recent research indicating that couples social support skills predict marital outcome two years later, above and beyond conflict management skills. These results indicate that successful prevention and treatment programs may need to incorporate support skills training as well as conflict management training. Practical implications of this research are outlined, and specific techniques are recommended for teaching social support skills to couples