Contract Violations in the Construction Projects: How Contractual Obligations are Reached Affects Contractual and Reputational Enforcement

Contract violations are frequent in construction projects due to the higher level of uncertainty and complexity in these projects. However, enforcement after a violation, including contractual and reputational enforcement, has received limited attention. This study distinguishes between three types of violations, i.e., violations of documented obligations (letter violations), violations of tacitly agreed obligations (spirit violations #1), and violations of unilaterally assumed obligations (spirit violations #2), based on the documentation and mutuality dimensions. Furthermore, this study compares the impacts of different types of violations on contractual and reputational enforcement and explores the mediating role of relational risk perception in the above impacts. By using the data collected from Chinese general contractors, this study concludes that compared with spirit violations #2, letter violations and spirit violations #1 will lead to more severe contractual enforcement and reputational enforcement while the latter two have no significant differences of their influence on the severity of enforcement. The mediating effects of relational risk perception are empirically supported. By doing this, this study contributes to the literature on contractual governance by exploring the effects of contract structure, especially the undocumented elements of contracts, on enforcement, and responds to the recent calls for the positive role of contract ambiguity. In addition, this study fills the gaps in the scarce literature on reputational enforcement and expands the studies on the antecedents of it. Project managers can benefit from this study by recognizing the employment of reputational enforcement and the making better alignment between different types of violations and enforcement

Systematic study of the symmetry energy coefficient in finite nuclei

The symmetry energy coefficients in finite nuclei have been studied systematically with a covariant density functional theory (DFT) and compared with the values calculated using several available mass tables. Due to the contamination of shell effect, the nuclear symmetry energy coefficients extracted from the binding energies have large fluctuations around the nuclei with double magic numbers. The size of this contamination is shown to be smaller for the nuclei with larger isospin value. After subtracting the shell effect with the Strutinsky method, the obtained nuclear symmetry energy coefficients with different isospin values are shown to decrease smoothly with the mass number $A$ and are subsequently fitted to the relation $\dfrac{4a_{\rm sym}}{A}=\dfrac{b_v}{A}-\dfrac{b_s}{A^{4/3}}$. The resultant volume $b_v$ and surface $b_s$ coefficients from axially deformed covariant DFT calculations are $121.73$ and $197.98$ MeV respectively. The ratio $b_s/b_v=1.63$ is in good agreement with the value derived from the previous calculations with the non-relativistic Skyrme energy functionals. The coefficients $b_v$ and $b_s$ corresponding to several available mass tables are also extracted. It is shown that there is a strong linear correlation between the volume $b_v$ and surface $b_s$ coefficients and the ratios $b_s/b_v$ are in between $1.6-2.0$ for all the cases.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

To be or not to be: why do transaction partners in construction industry avoid formulating agreements into contract documents?

Designing the construction contracts efficiently and effectively is vital for project success since contracts can not only motivate and regulate behaviours in projects, but also plays a crucial part in managing interfirm relationship. In practice, however, transaction partners in construction industry sometimes avoid formulating all the agreements into contract documents, which is contradictory to common logic. The aim of this research is to prove the existence of such phenomenon and to investigate the reasons for why it happens. Both questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted in construction industry in China for data collection since China provides fertile context to explore the research questions. The questionnaire was used to prove the existence of such phenomenon and the interviews were used to explore the logic behind. The results show that in nearly 50% of the construction projects in China, the phenomenon of the transaction partners deliberately avoid formulating some agreements into contract documents exist. Given explanations as for why this happens include: 1) showing trust towards the other partner, 2) reducing risks in transaction, 3) increasing the possibility of further collaboration in the future, 4) bypassing the contract check in their own legal departments, and 5) preventing other competitor companies in the market from stealing technology through the contract documents. A comprehensive understanding for designing contract documents is generated in this research, which will not only help project managers for project success but also provides insights into drafting contract terms

Differential expression of early viral gene BmORF51 in Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus infection of resistant and susceptible silkworms

Open reading frame 51 of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (Bm51) is a homologue of autographa californica multiple NPV ORF63. In this study, the expression profiles of Bm51 in the resistant strain NB and the susceptible strain 306 were characterized, and Bm51 gene was amplified from BmNPV genomic DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned into Escherichia coli expression vector pET-30a (+). The recombinant His-tagged Bm51 protein was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) and purified by metal chelating affinity chromatography to produce antibodies against Bm51 protein. The amino acid sequence of recombinant protein was confirmed by mass spectroscopic analysis. The transcription and protein product of early viral gene, Bm51, was detected at 6 h post-infection (p.i.) in resistant strain NB by quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR and western blotting, and the expression of Bm51 in NB reached the maximal level at 36 h p.i. in NB, and then gradually decreased to undetectable level at 72 h p.i. In contrast, the Bm51 protein was undetectable until 12 h p.i. in susceptible strain 306 and the expression of Bm51 progressively increased during the 72 h post-infection

Effects of postdeposition annealing on the dielectric properties of antiferroelectric lanthanum-doped lead zirconate stannate titanate thin films derived from pulsed laser deposition

Author name used in this publication: K. H. Wong2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Development of a composite regional vulnerability index and its relationship with the impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic

The interactions between vulnerability and human activities have largely been regarded in terms of the level of risk they pose, both internally and externally, for certain groups of disadvantaged individuals and regions/areas. However, to date, very few studies have attempted to develop a comprehensive composite regional vulnerability index, in relation to travel, housing, and social deprivation, which can be used to measure vulnerability at an aggregated level in the social sciences. Therefore, this research aims to develop a composite regional vulnerability index with which to examine the combined issues of travel, housing and socio-economic vulnerability (THASV index). It also explores the index’s relationship with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting both social and spatial inequality, using Greater London as a case study, with data analysed at the level of Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs). The findings show that most of the areas with high levels of composite vulnerability are distributed in Outer London, particularly in suburban areas. In addition, it is also found that there is a spatial correlation between the THASV index and the risk of COVID-19 deaths, which further exacerbates the potential implications of social deprivation and spatial inequality. Moreover, the results of the multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) show that the travel and socio-economic indicators in a neighbouring district and the related vulnerability indices are strongly associated with the risk of dying from COVID-19. In terms of policy implications, the findings can be used to inform sustainable city planning and urban development strategies designed to resolve urban socio-spatial inequalities and the potential related impacts of COVID-19, as well as guiding future policy evaluation of urban structural patterns in relation to vulnerable areas

Auto-ignition in turbulent combustion of hydrogen/air mixing layer at high pressure

The present work investigates the dynamic process of autoignition and extinction of flame kernels in a hydrogen/air mixing layer at a pressure of 30 atm. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is conducted to solve the unsteady compressible flow equations coupled with reduced chemistry and detailed transport. The evolution of ignition kernels is tracked and analysed, focusing on the differences between successful and failed kernels. Parameters such as the temperature, heat release rate, scalar dissipation rate, convective and diffusive heat fluxes are calculated to provide quantitative information about ignition kernel development. The convective and diffusive heat fluxes in the successful and failed cases show marked differences. Finally, chemical explosive mode analysis (CEMA) is conducted to provide additional information