An Integrated approach for 3D simulation of construction sequence

In order to eliminate design-related problems and to ease planning difficulties, a new integrated approach is required to manage and present design and construction information. This paper examines the feasibility of integrating design and construction scheduling information produced by'industry standard'software. It describes the structure of a prototype which has been developed to generate a 3D simulation model for the construction sequence by integrating a CAD package with a project planning software. This study aims at establishing an integrated approach to communicate construction planning graphically to users (designers or construction managers) prior to construction in order to enhance the efficiency of the design/construction process.

The Role Of Zooplankton In The Pelagic Food Webs Of Tropical Lakes

There is a general paucity of studies concerning trophic interactions between zooplankton and Cyanobacteria, and about the general role which zooplankton play in pelagic food webs in tropical saline lakes. Although the relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon resources to the diet of zooplankton in temperate lakes is well understood, significant knowledge gaps remain in tropical systems.This thesis addresses three principal questions: (1) What are the principal trophic interactions between zooplankton and Cyanobacteria in tropical lakes, with a specific focus on the lakes of the East African Rift Valley?; (2) Is there potential for competition between zooplankton and lesser flamingos in the Rift Valley lakes?; (3) What is the relative importance of allochthonous versus autochthonous carbon sources for aquatic consumers in tropical lakes? These questions were answered by analysing the compositions and trophic interactions in the pelagic food webs of four contrasting East African lakes (Naivasha, Baringo, Bogoria and Sonachi). The lakes were sampled over two campaigns in different seasons. The planktonic compositions and size distributions were assessed by microscopic identification of individual planktonic taxa. Fish and flamingos were also sampled. The trophic levels and potential dietary interactions of each identified taxa were then evaluated using natural abundance stable isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N). The potential contribution of other carbon sources, such as terrestrial particulate organic carbon, was also assessed.In Chapter 3, observations from Lake Sonachi suggest that the pico-alga Synechococcus sp. was the dominant food item for the principal zooplankton taxon (the large calanoid Lovenula sp.). This finding differs from reports in other in tropical lakes which had suggested that large calanoids mainly consume colonies of Microcystis sp. The findings from Lake Bogoria, presented in Chapter 4, suggest a pronounced seasonality in the occurrence of Moina sp. and Cyclotella sp. This was predominantly a consequence of lake level rise and associated freshening during the wet season. These organisms do not appear to be utilised as a significant food source by flamingos in this lake. This suggests that seasonal shifts in the planktonic food web structure are not beneficial for flamingos in this lake. The results also suggest that rotifers may compete with flamingos for their main food item, the Cyanobacterium Arthrospira sp. In Chapter 5, stable isotope abundance and C/N ratio data from Lakes Baringo and Naivasha suggest that pelagic zooplankton in both lakes were largely dependent on autochthonous carbon in both sampling seasons, despite potentially large catchment sediment fluxes. This challenges previous suggestions that allochthonous carbon is an important basal resource for pelagic food webs in many lakes. Such assumptions, as derived from temperate lake systems may not always apply to tropical lake systems, as sampled in this study.</div

Understanding the Middle East peace process: a historical institutionalist approach

This article challenges the common assumption that the external actors involved in the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) are driven either by neo-realist strategic competition or by the constraining power of domestic lobbies, or by a mixture of both. Such implicit assumptions are evident in the controversial argument of the power of the ‘Israel lobby’ as promoted by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. This article argues that approaches based on such assumptions fail to explain adequately the policies adopted not only by the United States, but also by other key external actors who have been historically engaged in the MEPP — the Soviet Union and the European Union. A better explanatory framework is provided by treating the MEPP as an institution and by applying a historical institutionalist approach to the development of the MEPP, using such concepts as critical junctures, path dependence and positive feedback to analyse how the main external actors involved in the MEPP came to adopt their distinctive national approaches to the peace process. In particular, it is the responses of these actors to certain critical junctures, most notably but not exclusively to the period of the 1967 and 1973 Arab–Israeli wars, that has had a particularly strong influence on policy formulation. For the US case, the creative policymaking of Henry Kissinger during the period after the 1973 war, which was subsequently incorporated into the US conceptualization of the MEPP, provides powerful and generally unrecognized insights into the initial puzzle identified by Walt and Mearsheimer — the consistent and almost unconditional support given to Israel by the United States despite the strategic problems this creates for broader US Middle East policy