2,349 research outputs found
Using visual management to improve transparency in planning and control in construction
The principle of transparency is rarely evident on construction sites. Current practice shows that instability in the execution phase is common, where activities, assumed to be feasible, have be rescheduled initiating a chain of further readjustments and uncertainties. In responding to these uncertainties, the lack of transparency in the construction process leads to communication issues and inefficient decision-making. There is little transparency of activities in the execution phase, making it difficult to foresee and communicate problems and plan to resolve them. The LCM model is a Visual Management Model based on the Lean concepts, designed to improve transparency in production planning and control in construction. LCM is an acronym for Lean Construction Management. The aim of this research work is the development of this Visual Management Model, by clarifying its contribution to theory and practice. To address this aim, the Design Science method is adopted in this investigation. Design Science is applied to develop artefacts for solving problems with practical relevance and potential for theoretical contributions. Outputs of the work include i) the LCM model itself ii) instantiations of the LCM model to refurbishment and power plant construction (demonstrating that the solution works) iii) an evaluation of the utility and applicability of the model and iv) an explanation of its theoretical significance. The research focuses on three case studies which were important for devising, further improving and evaluating the model. This research provides a new model and associated method for applying Visual Management for production planning and control in construction. The model demonstrates how visual tools are systematically applied to manage information flow, support communication and to shed light on the deficiencies of traditional project management. In addition, it demonstrates how visual tools can be used to improve communication barriers and transparency when applying other systems of planning and control in construction such as the Last Planner System
Fully coupled simulations of non-colloidal monodisperse sheared suspensions
In this work we investigate numerically the dynamics of sheared suspensions in the limit of vanishingly small fluid and particle inertia. The numerical model we used is able to handle the multi-body hydrodynamic interactions between thousands of particles embedded in a linear shear flow. The presence of the particles is modeled by momentum source terms spread out on a spherical envelop forcing the Stokes equations of the creeping flow. Therefore all the velocity perturbations induced by the moving particles are simultaneously accounted for.
The statistical properties of the sheared suspensions are related to the velocity fluctuation of the particles. We formed averages for the resulting velocity fluctuation and rotation rate tensors. We found that the latter are highly anisotropic and that all the velocity fluctuation terms grow linearly with particle volume fraction. Only one off-diagonal term is found to be non zero (clearly related to trajectory symmetry breaking induced by the non-hydrodynamic repulsion force). We also found a strong correlation of positive/negative velocities in the shear plane, on a time scale controlled by the shear rate (direct interaction of two particles). The time scale required to restore uncorrelated velocity fluctuations decreases continuously as the concentration increases. We calculated the shear induced self-diffusion coefficients using two different methods and the resulting diffusion tensor appears to be anisotropic too.
The microstructure of the suspension is found to be drastically modified by particle interactions. First the probability density function of velocity fluctuations showed a transition from exponential to Gaussian behavior as particle concentration varies. Second the probability of finding close pairs while the particles move under shear flow is strongly enhanced by hydrodynamic interactions when the concentration increases
Gravitational collapse of massless scalar field and radiation fluid
Several classes of conformally-flat and spherically symmetric exact solutions
to the Einstein field equations coupled with either a massless scalar field or
a radiation fluid are given, and their main properties are studied. It is found
that some represent the formation of black holes due to the gravitational
collapse of the matter fields. When the spacetimes have continuous
self-similarity (CSS), the masses of black holes take a scaling form , where for massless scalar field
and for radiation fluid. The reasons for the difference between
the values of obtained here and those obtained previously are
discussed. When the spacetimes have neither CSS nor DSS (Discrete
self-similarity), the masses of black holes always turn on with finite non-zero
values.Comment: Two figures have been removed, and the text has been re-written. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
General relativity on a null surface: Hamiltonian formulation in the teleparallel geometry
The Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity on a null surface is
established in the teleparallel geometry. No particular gauge conditons on the
tetrads are imposed, such as the time gauge condition. By means of a 3+1
decomposition the resulting Hamiltonian arises as a completely constrained
system. However, it is structurally different from the the standard
Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) type formulation. In this geometrical framework the
basic field quantities are tetrads that transform under the global SO(3,1) and
the torsion tensor.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, no figures, to appear in the Gen. Rel. Gra
Self-similar and charged spheres in the diffusion approximation
We study spherical, charged and self--similar distributions of matter in the
diffusion approximation. We propose a simple, dynamic but physically meaningful
solution. For such a solution we obtain a model in which the distribution
becomes static and changes to dust. The collapse is halted with damped mass
oscillations about the absolute value of the total charge.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Impaired IFN-γ production and proliferation of NK cells in Multiple Sclerosis
NK cells are multicompetent lymphocytes of the innate immune system with a central role in host defense and immune regulation. Studies in experimental animal models of multiple sclerosis (MS) provided evidence for both pathologic and protective effects of NK cells. Humans harbor two functionally distinct NK-cell subsets exerting either predominantly cytotoxic (CD56dimCD16+) or immunoregulatory (CD56brightCD16−) functions. We analyzed these two subsets and their functions in the peripheral blood of untreated patients with relapsing-remitting MS compared with healthy blood donors. While ex vivo frequencies of CD56brightCD16− and CD56dimCD16+ NK cells were similar in patients and controls, we found that cytokine-driven in vitro accumulation and IFN-γ production of CD56brightCD16− NK cells but not of their CD56dimCD16+ counterparts were substantially diminished in MS. Impaired expansion of CD56brightCD16− NK cells was cell intrinsic because the observed effects could be reproduced with purified NK cells in an independent cohort of patients and controls. In contrast, cytolytic NK-cell activity toward the human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia cell line K562, the allogeneic CD4+ T cell line CEM and allogeneic primary CD4+ T-cell blasts was unchanged. Thus, characteristic functions of CD56brightCD16− NK cells, namely cytokine-induced NK cell expansion and IFN-γ production, are compromised in the NK cell compartment of MS patient
Generality of shear thickening in suspensions
Suspensions are of wide interest and form the basis for many smart fluids.
For most suspensions, the viscosity decreases with increasing shear rate, i.e.
they shear thin. Few are reported to do the opposite, i.e. shear thicken,
despite the longstanding expectation that shear thickening is a generic type of
suspension behavior. Here we resolve this apparent contradiction. We
demonstrate that shear thickening can be masked by a yield stress and can be
recovered when the yield stress is decreased below a threshold. We show the
generality of this argument and quantify the threshold in rheology experiments
where we control yield stresses arising from a variety of sources, such as
attractions from particle surface interactions, induced dipoles from applied
electric and magnetic fields, as well as confinement of hard particles at high
packing fractions. These findings open up possibilities for the design of smart
suspensions that combine shear thickening with electro- or magnetorheological
response.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Nature Material
Stochastic Eulerian Lagrangian Methods for Fluid-Structure Interactions with Thermal Fluctuations
We present approaches for the study of fluid-structure interactions subject
to thermal fluctuations. A mixed mechanical description is utilized combining
Eulerian and Lagrangian reference frames. We establish general conditions for
operators coupling these descriptions. Stochastic driving fields for the
formalism are derived using principles from statistical mechanics. The
stochastic differential equations of the formalism are found to exhibit
significant stiffness in some physical regimes. To cope with this issue, we
derive reduced stochastic differential equations for several physical regimes.
We also present stochastic numerical methods for each regime to approximate the
fluid-structure dynamics and to generate efficiently the required stochastic
driving fields. To validate the methodology in each regime, we perform analysis
of the invariant probability distribution of the stochastic dynamics of the
fluid-structure formalism. We compare this analysis with results from
statistical mechanics. To further demonstrate the applicability of the
methodology, we perform computational studies for spherical particles having
translational and rotational degrees of freedom. We compare these studies with
results from fluid mechanics. The presented approach provides for
fluid-structure systems a set of rather general computational methods for
treating consistently structure mechanics, hydrodynamic coupling, and thermal
fluctuations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure
Dimensional Dependence of Black Hole Formation in Self-Similar Collapse of Scalar Field
We study classical and quantum self-similar collapses of a massless scalar
field in higher dimensions, and examine how the increase in the number of
dimensions affects gravitational collapse and black hole formation. Higher
dimensions seem to favor formation of black hole rather than other final
states, in that the initial data space for black hole formation enlarges as
dimension increases. On the other hand, the quantum gravity effect on the
collapse lessens as dimension increases. We also discuss the gravitational
collapse in a brane world with large but compact extra dimensions.Comment: Improved a few arguments and added a figur
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