10,751 research outputs found
The IT performance evaluation in the construction industry
To date there has been limited published work in
the construction management and engineering
literature that has provided empirical evidence to
demonstrate that IT can improve organizational
performance. Without an explicit understanding
about how IT can be effectively used to improve
organizational performance, its justification will
remain to be weak for managers. To ensure the
continuous increase in IT based applications in the
construction industry, sufficient evidence has to be
provided for management in various professions of
the construction industry to evaluate, allocate and
utilize appropriate IT systems. In an attempt to
explore the relationship between IT and
productivity, an empirical investigation of 60
Professional Consulting Firms (PCF) from the
Hong Kong construction industry was undertaken.
A model for determining the organizational
productivity of IT is proposed, and the
methodology used to test the model is described.
The findings are analyzed and a cross-profession
comparison of the results indicated the differences
in the use of IT. The research findings are discussed
with similarities being drawn. The limitations of the
research are then presented and discussed. The
implications of the findings and conclusions then
fully presented
Net energy analysis of solar and conventional domestic hot water systems in Melbourne, Australia
It is commonly assumed that solar hot water systems save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Very rarely has the life-cycle energy requirements of solar hot water systems been analysed, including their embodied energy. The extent to which solar hot water systems save energy compared to conventional systems in Melbourne, Australia, is shown through a comparative net energy analysis. The solar systems provided a net energy saving compared to the conventional systems after 0.5 to 2 years, for electricity and gas systems respectively.<br /
Elastic Instability Triggered Pattern Formation
Recent experiments have exploited elastic instabilities in membranes to
create complex patterns. However, the rational design of such structures poses
many challenges, as they are products of nonlinear elastic behavior. We pose a
simple model for determining the orientational order of such patterns using
only linear elasticity theory which correctly predicts the outcomes of several
experiments. Each element of the pattern is modeled by a "dislocation dipole"
located at a point on a lattice, which then interacts elastically with all
other dipoles in the system. We explicitly consider a membrane with a square
lattice of circular holes under uniform compression and examine the changes in
morphology as it is allowed to relax in a specified direction.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, the full catastroph
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Hydropyrolysis of high molecular weight organic matter in Murchison
Hydropyrolysis of the Murchison macromolecular material releases polyaromatic compounds including phenanthrene, carbazole, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, perylene, benzoperylene and coronene units with varying degrees of alklyation
Probing Correlated Ground States with Microscopic Optical Model for Nucleon Scattering off Doubly-Closed-Shell Nuclei
The RPA long range correlations are known to play a significant role in
understanding the depletion of single particle-hole states observed in (e, e')
and (e, e'p) measurements. Here the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) theory,
implemented using the D1S force is considered for the specific purpose of
building correlated ground states and related one-body density matrix elements.
These may be implemented and tested in a fully microscopic optical model for NA
scattering off doubly-closed-shell nuclei. A method is presented to correct for
the correlations overcounting inherent to the RPA formalism. One-body density
matrix elements in the uncorrelated (i.e. Hartree-Fock) and correlated (i.e.
RPA) ground states are then challenged in proton scattering studies based on
the Melbourne microscopic optical model to highlight the role played by the RPA
correlations. Effects of such correlations which deplete the nuclear matter at
small radial distance (r 2 fm) and enhance its surface region, are getting
more and more sizeable as the incident energy increases. Illustrations are
given for proton scattering observables measured up to 201 MeV for the
O, Ca, Ca and Pb target nuclei. Handling the RPA
correlations systematically improves the agreement between scattering
predictions and data for energies higher than 150 MeV.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
SpecCert: Specifying and Verifying Hardware-based Security Enforcement
Over time, hardware designs have constantly grown in complexity and modern platforms involve multiple interconnected hardware components. During the last decade, several vulnerability disclosures have proven that trust in hardware can be misplaced. In this article, we give a formal definition of Hardware-based Security Enforcement (HSE) mechanisms, a class of security enforcement mechanisms such that a software component relies on the underlying hardware platform to enforce a security policy. We then model a subset of a x86-based hardware platform specifications and we prove the soundness of a realistic HSE mechanism within this model using Coq, a proof assistant system
Baseline corticosterone in wintering marine birds: Methodological considerations and ecological patterns
Previous studies have related levels of plasma corticosterone (CORT) of seabirds to variation in foraging conditions during the breeding period, but it is unclear whether similar relationships between foraging conditions and baseline CORT exist during other life stages. We validated methods for identifying baseline CORT of lethally sampled birds and assessed variation in baseline CORT relative to winter habitat conditions. We collected free-living white-winged scoters (Melanitta fusca) at four wintering sites during December and February. We found increasing CORT values beyond 3 min after time since flush (the duration between initial flush and death), presumably reflecting acute stress responses. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain baseline CORT from lethally sampled birds if the time from initial flush until death is measured. Our study sites varied appreciably in exposure to wind and waves, predation danger, diving depths, and the fraction of preferred foods in scoter diets. Despite these habitat differences, baseline CORT did not vary across sites or winter periods. We interpret this lack of variation as evidence that birds select wintering areas where they can successfully manage site-specific costs and maintain physiological homeostasis. © 2013 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved
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