The determinants of successful partnering: a transaction cost perspective

Support is emerging for the assertion that partnering can have a significant beneficial influence on project relationships and project outcomes. However, not all of the evidence bears this out: there are some examples of less-than-successful experiments with partnering approaches. Questions quite naturally arise as to whether any particular elements or aspects of partnering have differed in some of the documented examples, thus giving rise to their relative success or failure. In order to answer such questions there is a need for a theoretical framework against which to analyse the relative performance of partnering projects. In this paper, the authors propose an approach based upon aspects of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory. It is argued that two main factors, contractual incompletedness and opportunism, are fundamental in determining whether project relationships are adversarial or not. The validity of the approach is examined by applying it retrospectively to a strategic partnering agreement involving more than 80 individual building projects. This agreement had been the subject of a four-year study and had been found to produce benefits in a number of areas, not least in the avoidance of conflict and disputes. After analysis, evidence for the reduction of contractual incompletedness was mixed, however the opportunistic inclinations of the participants (specifically, the contractors) were effectively attenuated by a clearly observable combination of factors, which included preselection criteria, and the use of appropriate management and commercial frameworks in which to operate. The case study suggests a prima facie validity to the analytical approach that was adopted, which merits further testing: the next stages being to develop and refine the framework, and to carry out comparative multi-case research on a number of different partnering projects

The generation of a Gaussian random process in a position parameter

Analog computer method for approximating stationary Gaussian random process depending only on position paramete

Sound insulation design of modular construction housing

This paper provides an insight into the acoustic issues of modular housing using the Verbus System of construction. The paper briefly summarises the history of the development of Verbus modular housing and the acoustic design considerations of the process. Results are presented from two sound insulation tests conducted during the course of the project. The results are discussed in terms of compliance with Approved Document E1 and increased performance standards such as EcoHomes2

Mascons as structural relief on a lunar Moho

Mascons as structural relief on lunar Moh

Timely Updates over an Erasure Channel

Using an age of information (AoI) metric, we examine the transmission of coded updates through a binary erasure channel to a monitor/receiver. We start by deriving the average status update age of an infinite incremental redundancy (IIR) system in which the transmission of a k-symbol update continuesuntil k symbols are received. This system is then compared to a fixed redundancy (FR) system in which each update is transmitted as an n symbol packet and the packet is successfully received if and only if at least k symbols are received. If fewer than k symbols are received, the update is discarded. Unlike the IIR system, the FR system requires no feedback from the receiver. For a single monitor system, we show that tuning the redundancy to the symbol erasure rate enables the FR system to perform as well as the IIR system. As the number of monitors is increased, the FR system outperforms the IIR system that guarantees delivery of all updates to all monitors

The M. W. Burks Site (41WD52): A Late Caddo Hamlet in Wood County, Texas

While attempting to locate and evaluate prehistoric Caddo archaeological sites in the Dry Creek watershed, Wood County, Texas, that had been originally recorded by A. T. Jackson and M. M. Reese in 1930, the M. W. Burks site (41WD52) was discovered by James E. Bruseth and Bob D. Skiles in June 1977. The site is in the Forest Hill community, about 5 km north of Quitman, Texas, in the East Texas Pineywoods and Gulf Coastal Plain. It is on a small rise in the uplands overlooking a small intermittent drainage that is an unnamed tributary of Little Dry Creek. The landowner, Mr. M. W. Burks, had resided in this part of Wood County since the 1920s, and recalled where A. T. Jackson and crew had spent time excavating the J. H. Reese (41WD2) site. He mentioned that while putting in a fence on his property in the early 1960s, adjacent to the property where the Reese site is located, he had found some pottery sherds in one of the post holes. Bruseth and Skiles placed a small shovel test next to this fence post hole, and a large articulated red-slipped Ripley Engraved carinated bowl was encountered at 65 em below the surface (bs) in tan sand E-horizon deposits. This find demonstrated that the Burks site contained both intact archaeological deposits as well as an apparently undisturbed Late Caddo Titus phase burial or cemetery. Bruseth, Skiles, and Perttula followed up this work with more intensive investigations in the spring and fall of 1978. This research was carried on as an adjunct to the ongoing (and final season of) archaeological work being conducted by Bruseth and Perttula at Lake Fork Reservoir on Lake Fork Creek, a few miles to the west of the Burks site. Our purpose in carrying out archaeological research at the Burks site was to examine in more detail the spatial character of a Late Caddo Titus phase settlement, and also obtain information on the material culture remains (especially the ceramics) made and used by the Caddo peoples that lived at the Burks site some 400-500 years ago