New Zealand Building Project Cost and Its Influential Factors: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Construction industry significantly contributes to New Zealand's economic development. However, the delivery of construction projects is usually plagued by cost overruns, which turn potentially successful projects into money-losing ventures, resulting in various other unexpected negative impacts. The objectives of the study were to identify, classify, and assess the impacts of the factors affecting project cost in New Zealand. The proposed research model was examined with structural equation modelling. Recognising the lack of a systematic approach for assessing the influencing factors associated with project cost, this study identified 30 influencing factors from various sources and quantified their relative impacts. The research data were gathered through a questionnaire survey circulated across New Zealand construction industry. A total of 283 responses were received, with a 37% response rate. A model was developed for testing the relationship between project cost and the influential factors. The proposed research model was examined with structural equation modelling (SEM). According to the results of the analysis, market and industry conditions factor has the most significant effect on project cost, while regulatory regime is the second-most significant influencing factor, followed by key stakeholders' perspectives. The findings can improve project cost performance through the identification and evaluation of the cost-influencing factors. The results of such analysis enable industry professionals to better understand cost-related risks in the complex environment

The physics of wind-blown sand and dust

The transport of sand and dust by wind is a potent erosional force, creates sand dunes and ripples, and loads the atmosphere with suspended dust aerosols. This article presents an extensive review of the physics of wind-blown sand and dust on Earth and Mars. Specifically, we review the physics of aeolian saltation, the formation and development of sand dunes and ripples, the physics of dust aerosol emission, the weather phenomena that trigger dust storms, and the lifting of dust by dust devils and other small-scale vortices. We also discuss the physics of wind-blown sand and dune formation on Venus and Titan.Comment: 72 journal pagers, 49 figure

Community partnerships through local knowledge awareness : WCC initiative

Campuses in India for a long time were exclusive domains of the academia and the community usually featured only in extension activities. But of late the recognition of the importance of experiential learning and drive towards an interdisciplinary approach has brought the focus on networking with the community. Colleges are also keen to promote this endeavor as this also takes care of the social responsibilities of academic institutions. One such initiative of Women\u27s Christian College, was the local knowledge project which arose out of the Ecoliterature course of the English department. This program documented information about some of the lesser known facts of a few tribal communities in and around Chennai. This paper analyses the outcomes of this campus community partnership and its outcomes. One of the major outcomes was the partnerships that we had with various NGO\u27s to further this project. Most of the tribal communities have been exploited by the mainstream society and so are wary of sharing information with people other than the one\u27s they trust implicitly. So the NGO\u27s served as entry points. The NGO\u27s in turn gained by their relationship with us as we shared all our photos and documented material with them. This would help the NGO\u27s to submit projects to the government for the benefit of the tribal community. The college became a repository of precious knowledge which was fast disappearing. Documentation of local knowledge was very essential as most of their valuable knowledge regarding nutrition, traditions and customs were fast disappearing. One could see the change just within two to three years. Most of the tribal communities in Kolli Hills had switched from a millet diet to rice which was supplied by the Government\u27s ration shops. Their traditional thatched homes made from locally sourced materials were replaced by Government built brick and cement structures. Leaving behind their traditional occupations as hunter gatherers they were busy laying roads or working as construction laborers. The knowledge garnered was made available in a public domain globally through the web portal lkwcc. The mutual dialogues, making public concerns visible has spurred initiatives and dialogues with the community. In 2012 the college adopted a village 50 km away from the campus at Tirukandalam which has about 50 Irula tribal families. All the departments on campus go there on a regular basis to conduct participatory action research which has brought in a new teaching learning methodology to all departments on campus

An intrinsic limit to quantum coherence due to spontaneous symmetry breaking

We investigate the influence of spontaneous symmetry breaking on the decoherence of a many-particle quantum system. This decoherence process is analyzed in an exactly solvable model system that is known to be representative of symmetry broken macroscopic systems in equilibrium. It is shown that spontaneous symmetry breaking imposes a fundamental limit to the time that a system can stay quantum coherent. This universal timescale is $t_{spon} \simeq 2\pi N \hbar / (k_B T)$, given in terms of the number of microscopic degrees of freedom $N$, temperature $T$, and the constants of Planck ($\hbar$) and Boltzmann ($k_B$).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Modelling Decision-Making in Rural Communities at the Forest Margin

The FLORES simulation model aims to capture the interactions between rural communities living at the forest margin and the resources that they depend upon, in order to provide decision-makers with a tool that they can use to explore the consequences of alternative policy options. A key component of the model is simulating how decision-making agents within the system (individuals, households and the whole village) go about making their decisions. The model presented here is based on an anthropological description of the rules and relationships that people use, rather than on the assumption that people behave in an economically optimal fashion. The approach addresses both short-term decision-making (primarily the allocation of labour to various activities on a weekly basis), and long-term strategic land-use planning, taking into account the variety of tenure and inheritance patterns that operate in real communities. The decision-making sub-model has been implemented in the Rantau Pandan (Sumatra) version of FLORES, using the Simile modelling environment