Technology Strategy for Re-engineering Design and Construction

Automation technology can provide construction firms with a number of competitive advantages. Technology strategy guides a firm's approach to all technology, including automation. Engineering management educators, researchers, and construction industry professionals need improved understanding of how technology affects results, and how to better target investments to improve competitive performance. A more formal approach to the concept of technology strategy can benefit the construction manager in his efforts to remain competitive in increasingly hostile markets. This paper recommends consideration of five specific dimensions of technology strategy within the overall parameters of market conditions, firm capabilities and goals, and stage of technology evolution. Examples of the application of this framework in the formulation of technology strategy are provided for CAD applications, co-ordinated positioning technology and advanced falsework and formwork mechanisation to support construction field operations. Results from this continuing line of research can assist managers in making complex and difficult decisions regarding reengineering construction processes in using new construction technology and benefit future researchers by providing new tools for analysis. Through managing technology to best suit the existing capabilities of their firm, and addressing the market forces, engineering managers can better face the increasingly competitive environment in which they operate

Estimated Returns from Farms of Large, Medium and Small Size of Business in the Spring Wheat Areas of South Dakota

Size of farm business is recognized by all farm management investigators and by many farmers as one of the most important factors making for success or failure in farming. A moderately large size of business, doubtless is more profitable in so-called normal times than is a small sized business. Size of business in this circular is not measured in acres only, as is common in certain sections where most of the land is fertile and tillable, and most of the farms are of the same type. Size of business cannot be measured accurately, nor by a single descriptive term such as acres. It includes the area farmed the area in crop land, the amount of productive labor employed, the amount of capital used, the rate of turnover of capital, the total production and the quality of production. Size of business may be increased by employing a laborer for productive work, by increasing the numbers of livestock, by increasing yields per acre, by doing work for hire outside the farm, etc. The purpose of this circular is to discuss the relative profitableness of a selected type of farm when operated as a business of different sizes. In the discussion six hypothetical farms are used for illustration. In the first group of three, a diversified farm, which is farmed rather intensively, is shown as a business of large size, of medium size, and of small size. The same plan is used for presenting the second group, a diversified farm which is farmed rather extensively

Estimated Returns from Operating 800 acres in the Spring Wheat Area Under Four Different Plans - A Method of Determining What to Produce

The relatively low prices farmers receive for their products, and the continued high costs of interest, taxes, and the products farmers buy, increase the need of study of factors which tend to give the best possible net returns from a farm business. The purpose of this circular is to discuss the relative profitableness of different enterprises on diversified farms in the Spring Wheat Area of South Dakota. The plan of the circular is to show the organization and to give the estimated returns of four farms, on each of which the enterprises are of different relative importance. Three of the farms are assumed to be 800 acres in area. The fourth farm is assumed to be 800 acres in area but the size of business is increased by placing cattle out on pasture during the summer, a practice common to the area. Each of the hypothetical farms is very similar to someone actual farm from which records were secured. These similarities include acres of crops, numbers of livestock, amounts of power and equipment used, labor used, receipts and expenses, and income. The farms selected as patterns are common types within the area

Tractor and Horse Power in the Wheat Area of South Dakota

A study of farm operations and farm management was made on 48 farms in Potter county during 1930, through the method of accounts kept daily by farm operators, assisted at regular monthly intervals by a resident field agent. During 1931 thirty other farmers within the spring wheat area of the state kept records of their tractors; and a survey by visits to farmers in the same area was made in 1931 and 1932, in which additional information about tractor and horse uses, performances, and costs was secured. The results of the Potter county study are being published as preliminary reports, of which this is the second. A part of the information secured during 1931 and 1932 is included in this report for the purpose of giving more reliable standards of performance of horses and tractors. The purpose of the report is to make available information which will aid farmers in deciding under what circumstances it is the more economical to use tractors or horses or a combination of both

Indebtedness on 48 Potter County Farms, 1930

A study of farm operations and farm management was made on 48 farms in Potter County, South Dakota during 1930, through the method of accounts kept by the farm operators, assisted at regular monthly intervals by a resident field man. The study was made by the Department of Agricultural Economics of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment station. The results of the study will be published first as preliminary reports, each dealing with only one or a few phases of the study. Data supporting certain statements is omitted in this report for want of space, but in most cases will be published in later reports. This, the first report, deals with indebtedness, one of the most important problems in farm management at present. Its chief objective is to make available information that will aid farmers in financing their business in the best manner

An Economic Study of Farms in the Spring Wheat Area of South Dakota

This is the first of a series of three circulars being published as progress reports of a five year study which was begun in 1930, on the economics of agriculture in the Spring Wheat Area of South Dakota. The study was started as a modified cost route in Potter County with 48 farmer cooperators keeping records, some of which were quite complete in that labor and feed records were also kept. During the first year a representative of the college lived at Gettysburg and visited the cooperators at least once each month to check on the completeness of the records and to secure additional information concerning crop and livestock practices. After the first year the project was made cooperative with the Division of Farm Management and Costs of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture, and was enlarged to include 150 farmer cooperators living in seven counties of the Spring Wheat Area. Figure 1. Since 1930 the cooperators have been visited three or four times each year. The statements of this publication are based on data collected from a total of 283 records. Satisfactory records were secured from 44 cooperators in 1930, 29 in 1931, 112 in 1932, and 98 in 1933

Transmission dynamics and prospects for the elimination of canine rabies

Rabies has been eliminated from domestic dog populations in Western Europe and North America, but continues to kill many thousands of people throughout Africa and Asia every year. A quantitative understanding of transmission dynamics in domestic dog populations provides critical information to assess whether global elimination of canine rabies is possible. We report extensive observations of individual rabid animals in Tanzania and generate a uniquely detailed analysis of transmission biology, which explains important epidemiological features, including the level of variation in epidemic trajectories. We found that the basic reproductive number for rabies, R<sub>0</sub>, is very low in our study area in rural Africa (∼1.2) and throughout its historic global range (<2). This finding provides strong support for the feasibility of controlling endemic canine rabies by vaccination, even near wildlife areas with large wild carnivore populations. However, we show that rapid turnover of domestic dog populations has been a major obstacle to successful control in developing countries, thus regular pulse vaccinations will be required to maintain population-level immunity between campaigns. Nonetheless our analyses suggest that with sustained, international commitment, global elimination of rabies from domestic dog populations, the most dangerous vector to humans, is a realistic goal

Potential for rabies control through dog vaccination in wildlife-abundant communities of Tanzania

Canine vaccination has been successful in controlling rabies in diverse settings worldwide. However, concerns remain that coverage levels which have previously been sufficient might be insufficient in systems where transmission occurs both between and within populations of domestic dogs and other carnivores. To evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination targeted at domestic dogs when wildlife also contributes to transmission, we applied a next-generation matrix model based on contract tracing data from the Ngorongoro and Serengeti Districts in northwest Tanzania. We calculated corresponding values of R0, and determined, for policy purposes, the probabilities that various annual vaccination targets would control the disease, taking into account the empirical uncertainty in our field data. We found that transition rate estimates and corresponding probabilities of vaccination-based control indicate that rabies transmission in this region is driven by transmission within domestic dogs. Different patterns of rabies transmission between the two districts exist, with wildlife playing a more important part in Ngorongoro and leading to higher recommended coverage levels in that district. Nonetheless, our findings indicate that an annual dog vaccination campaign achieving the WHO-recommended target of 70% will control rabies in both districts with a high level of certainty. Our results support the feasibility of controlling rabies in Tanzania through dog vaccination

Geostatistical Earth modeling of cyclic depositional facies and diagenesis

In siliciclastic and carbonate reservoirs, depositional facies are often described as being organized in cyclic successions that are overprinted by diagenesis. Most reservoir modeling workflows are not able to reproduce stochastically such patterns. Herein, a novel geostatistical method is developed to model depositional facies architectures that are rhythmic and cyclic, together with superimposed diagenetic facies. The method uses truncated Pluri-Gaussian random functions constrained by transiograms. Cyclicity is defined as an asymmetric ordering between facies, and its direction is given by a three-dimensional vector, called shift. This method is illustrated on two case studies. Outcrop data of the Triassic Latemar carbonate platform, northern Italy, are used to model shallowing-upward facies cycles in the vertical direction. A satellite image of the modern Bermuda platform interior is used to model facies cycles in the windward-to-leeward lateral direction. As depositional facies architectures are modeled using two Gaussian random functions, a third Gaussian random function is added to model diagenesis. Thereby, depositional and diagenetic facies can exhibit spatial asymmetric relationships. The method is applied in the Latemar carbonate platform that experiences syn-depositional dolomite formation. The method can also incorporate proportion curves to model non-stationary facies proportions. This is illustrated in Cretaceous shallow-marine sandstones and mudstones, Book Cliffs, Utah, for which cyclic facies and diagenetic patterns are constrained by embedded transition probabilities