Association of Researchers in Construction Management

Coaching has become widely used in business and is well described; however, it is rarely used in construction. This is in contrast to the poor performance of interaction at the site that leads to a vast amount of reported cooperation and coordination problems. This paper investigates the feasibility of a coaching approach to site management. The coach is a person who helps and guides another person or group to maximize his/its own capacity. Coaching is arguably useful in many different work situations, for example, problem solving, group work and planning. These assumptions are evaluated through observations at a building site operating with Lean Construction where the managers did not use coaching consciously in their interaction with employees. Twenty-nine participant observations of five of the managers at the building site were carried out at individual and group meetings. Coaching can be used successfully at a building site in certain specific situations. A feeling of security is important for the focus persons at the building site, and this is best achieved in the open air. The way the leader acts towards the employee/focus person is decisive. The manager can develop consciousness and responsibility by asking relevant questions rather than just answering the employee's questions. It would be appropriate to inform about the use of coaching at the beginning of a building project. Situations not suitable for coaching are, for example, those where an order has to be given or where dialogue would work better

Efficient incorporation of channel cross-section geometry uncertainty into regional and global scale flood inundation models

This paper investigates the challenge of representing structural differences in river channel cross-section geometry for regional to global scale river hydraulic models and the effect this can have on simulations of wave dynamics. Classically, channel geometry is defined using data, yet at larger scales the necessary information and model structures do not exist to take this approach. We therefore propose a fundamentally different approach where the structural uncertainty in channel geometry is represented using a simple parameterization, which could then be estimated through calibration or data assimilation. This paper first outlines the development of a computationally efficient numerical scheme to represent generalised channel shapes using a single parameter, which is then validated using a simple straight channel test case and shown to predict wetted perimeter to within 2% for the channels tested. An application to the River Severn, UK is also presented, along with an analysis of model sensitivity to channel shape, depth and friction. The channel shape parameter was shown to improve model simulations of river level, particularly for more physically plausible channel roughness and depth parameter ranges. Calibrating channel Manning’s coefficient in a rectangular channel provided similar water level simulation accuracy in terms of Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency to a model where friction and shape or depth were calibrated. However, the calibrated Manning coefficient in the rectangular channel model was ~2/3 greater than the likely physically realistic value for this reach and this erroneously slowed wave propagation times through the reach by several hours. Therefore, for large scale models applied in data sparse areas, calibrating channel depth and/or shape may be preferable to assuming a rectangular geometry and calibrating friction alone

Global Distribution of Outbreaks of Water-Associated Infectious Diseases

Water is essential for maintaining life on Earth but can also serve as a media for many pathogenic organisms, causing a high disease burden globally. However, how the global distribution of water-associated infectious pathogens/diseases looks like and how such distribution is related to possible social and environmental factors remain largely unknown. In this study, we compiled a database on distribution, biology, and epidemiology of water-associated infectious diseases and collected data on population density, annual accumulated temperature, surface water areas, average annual precipitation, and per capita GDP at the global scale. From the database we extracted reported outbreak events from 1991 to 2008 and developed models to explore the association between the distribution of these outbreaks and social and environmental factors. A total of1,428 outbreaks had been reported and this number only reflected ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of the much bigger problem. We found that the outbreaks of water-associated infectious diseases are significantly correlated with social and environmental factors and that all regions are affected disproportionately by different categories of diseases. Relative risk maps are generated to show ‘hotspots’ of risks for different diseases. Despite certain limitations, the findings may be instrumental for future studies and prioritizing health resources

[3H]Adenine is a suitable radioligand for the labeling of G protein-coupled adenine receptors but shows high affinity to bacterial contaminations in buffer solutions

[3H]Adenine has previously been used to label the newly discovered G protein-coupled murine adenine receptors. Recent reports have questioned the suitability of [3H]adenine for adenine receptor binding studies because of curious results, e.g. high specific binding even in the absence of mammalian protein. In this study, we showed that specific [3H]adenine binding to various mammalian membrane preparations increased linearly with protein concentration. Furthermore, we found that Tris-buffer solutions typically used for radioligand binding studies (50 mM, pH 7.4) that have not been freshly prepared but stored at 4°C for some time may contain bacterial contaminations that exhibit high affinity binding for [3H]adenine. Specific binding is abolished by heating the contaminated buffer or filtering it through 0.2-μm filters. Three different, aerobic, gram-negative bacteria were isolated from a contaminated buffer solution and identified as Achromobacter xylosoxidans, A. denitrificans, and Acinetobacter lwoffii. A. xylosoxidans, a common bacterium that can cause nosocomial infections, showed a particularly high affinity for [3H]adenine in the low nanomolar range. Structure–activity relationships revealed that hypoxanthine also bound with high affinity to A. xylosoxidans, whereas other nucleobases (uracil, xanthine) and nucleosides (adenosine, uridine) did not. The nature of the labeled site in bacteria is not known, but preliminary results indicate that it may be a high-affinity purine transporter. We conclude that [3H]adenine is a well-suitable radioligand for adenine receptor binding studies but that bacterial contamination of the employed buffer solutions must be avoided

Controls on Eurasian coastal sea ice formation, melt onset and decay from ERS scatterometry: Regional contrasts and effects of river influx

Regional and local patterns in the formation, melt onset and disappearance of coastal first-year sea ice (FYI) are observed in the Eurasian Arctic using the C-band (5.3 GHz) European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) radar scatterometers. Near-daily time-series (1991-1999) of the radar backscatter coefficient normalized to an incident angle of 40° (σ040) and the backscatter-incident angle relationship (B) are examined for test sites near the Severnaya Dvina, Mezen, Pechora, Ob\u27, Yenisci, Khatanga, Lena, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers. Melt onset of the sea ice surface is associated with abrupt changes in σ040, with values converging towards ∼ -17 dB. As such, whether backscatter increases or decreases at melt onset is largely determined by contrast with pre-melt backscatter levels. The presence or absence of FYI is designated from low or high values of B, respectively, whereas the addition of an anisotropy criterion further improves discrimination of FYI from open water. A strong regional pattern is seen in the daily temporal variability of both melt onset and ice cover, with maximum variability in the Barents and Kara seas and decreasing variability eastward. Similarly, significant contrasts in the seasonal duration of ice cover are found between western and eastern sites. Seasonal ice cover persists ∼ 144 days for sites in the Barents Sea, but ∼ 293 days for sites farther east in the East Siberian Sea. We speculate that our observed west-east contrasts are due to North Atlantic modulation of salinity, air temperature and cyclone density. Rivers also exert a local effect on ice cover, causing earlier formation (∼ 4 days) and earlier disappearance (∼ 17 days) near river mouths. The hydrological influence of rivers is potentially strong in the Kara, Laptev and East Siberian seas, but weak or absent in the Barents Sea

The intraplate Euphrates fault system - Palmyrides mountain belt junction and relationship to Arabian plate boundary tectonics

This paper was published in Annali di Geofisica by Editrice Compositori. Copyright 1995, Editrice Compositori. See also: http://www.ingv.it/~wwwannali/alsdorf383.htm; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/alsdorf-et-al-1995.htmlBased on an extensive, recently released dataset of seismic reflection profiles and well logs, we document and map a northwest-southeast oriented graben of about 20 km width located beneath the Euphrates depression in central Syria. The uppermost Cretaceous age of this graben is contemporaneous with the first phase of inversion and uplift along the adjacent Palmyride mountain belt. We interpret both of these intraplate structures, the Euphrates graben and the Palmyride mountains, to have developed in direct response to a major episode of convergence and continental collision that started in the uppermost Cretaceous time along the nearby Arabian plate boundaries, i.e., the Bitlis and Zagros sutures. Kinematic considerations suggest that the Euphrates graben formed as a tear in the Arabian crust. During the Cenozoic, the intense mountain building processes along the Palmyrides contrast with the persistent broad depression along the Euphrates and most of eastern Syria. We map a series of strike-slip faults that separate the Palmyrides from the Euphrates and appear to decouple these adjacent structures. The broad depression may be related to the Mesopotamian foredeep that developed in response to the nearby Zagros continental collision zone