Construction informatics in Turkey: strategic role of ICT and future research directions

Construction Informatics deals with subjects ranging from strategic management of ICTs to interoperability and information integration in the construction industry. Studies on defining research directions for Construction Informatics have a history over 20 years. The recent studies in the area highlight the priority themes for Construction Informatics research as interoperability, collaboration support, intelligent sites and knowledge sharing. In parallel, today it is widely accepted in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry that ICT is becoming a strategic asset for any organisation to deliver business improvement and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, traditionally the AEC industry has approached investing in ICT with a lack of strategic focus and low level of priority to the business. This paper presents a recent study from Turkey that is focused on two themes. The first theme investigates the strategic role of ICT implementations from an industrial perspective, and explores if organisations within the AEC industry view ICT as a strategic resource for their business practice. The second theme investigates the ‘perspective of academia’ in terms of future research directions of Construction Informatics. The results of the industrial study indicates that ICT is seen as a value-adding resource, but a shift towards the recognition of the importance of ICT in terms of value adding in winning work and achieving strategic competitive advantage is observed. On the other hand, ICT Training is found to be the theme of highest priority from the academia point of view

Rhesus Macaques Form Preferences for Brand Logos Through Sex and Social Status Based Advertising

Like humans, monkeys value information about sex and status, inviting the hypothesis that our susceptibility to these factors in advertising arises from shared, ancestral biological mechanisms that prioritize social information. To test this idea, we asked whether rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) show choice behavior that is similar to humans in response to sex and social status in advertising. Our results show that monkeys form preferences for brand logos repeatedly paired with images of macaque genitals and high status monkeys. Moreover, monkeys sustain preferences for these brand logos even though choosing them provided no tangible rewards, a finding that cannot be explained by a decision mechanism operating solely on material outcomes. Together, our results endorse the hypothesis that the power of sex and status in advertising emerges from the spontaneous engagement of shared, ancestral neural circuits that prioritize information useful for navigating the social environment. Finally, our results show that simple associative conditioning is sufficient to explain the formation of preferences for brand logos paired with sexual or status-based images

Análise do impacto da implantação de sistemas ERP nas características organizacionais das empresas de construção civil

Uma das causas do insucesso do ERP nas empresas de construção civil é o fato da implantação desse sistema ser uma grande mudança organizacional. O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar como a implementação do sistema ERP impacta na organização e nos processos gerencias das empresas de construção civil. Foi realizada uma survey em uma amostra de empresas construtoras brasileiras. Os dados foram coletados por meio de um questionário encaminhado por email a dois grupos de empresas: com e sem ERP implantado. A partir da análise estatística discriminante foi possível identificar as variáveis relacionadas ao nível de desenvolvimento dos processos de gestão e as características organizacionais que mais distinguem os dois grupos de empresas. Os resultados revelaram que a implantação do ERP impacta nas variáveis da maturidade organizacional nos seguintes aspectos: visão estratégica, relacionamento com cliente, gerenciamento de recursos humanos, gestão financeira e de TI

Experimental Investigation of the Thermal Performance of Piezoelectric Fans

Piezoelectric fans are investigated as a cooling technology for the thermal management of electronic devices. Flow visualization experiments are conducted to better understand the physics of fan operation. Prototypes of the fans are built and tested to assess their feasibility and cooling performance and determine optimal locations for the fans. An enclosure the size of a cellular phone and a commercially available laptop computer are used to demonstrate the cooling feasibility of the fans. Piezoelectric fans are found to offer significant localized cooling, exceeding enhancements in convective heat transfer coefficients of 100%, while exhibiting low power consumption, minimal noise, and small dimensions. Performance metrics for piezoelectric fans should be based on heat transfer characteristics, such as the percent increase in the heat transfer coefficient of the system. Optimization techniques that maximize the electromechanical coupling factor (EMCF) can be used to design efficient fans

Citizenship and Civic Education for Refugees and Migrants

In this special issue of JSSE we explore refugees and migrant\u2019s issues from the angle of citizenship and civic education. Forced migration always has been an issue that makes many people displaced from their home and it is mostly caused by war, religion, ethnicity, and political conflicts, and climate change. Refugees generally experience terrible transfer conditions, with the risk of survival and after they arrive at their \u201cnew home\u201d they encounter many difficulties, besides the financial ones, such as language barrier and cultural adaptation. Host countries have been trying to ease these difficulties and issues. Nonetheless, one of the unnoticed, but very important issues is that providing proper education to the refugees and migrants, who are of school age, which is expected to help them to understand and grasp common civic values of the host country. Therefore, in this issue we are presenting articles that discuss the philosophical and theoretical aspects of citizenship education regarding migrants in general terms and paying attention to how they are adapted to the national identity of the host country as well. We also have one piece that shows examples of good practices for teaching about migration. Finally, we have one article from outside Europe, Bangladesh, that discuss how this hosting country deals with the educational needs of a refugee group

Sex and Status Sell to Monkeys: Social Advertising Creates Brand Preferences in Rhesus Macaques

Innate evolutionary mechanisms may influence consumer response to advertising. We demonstrate that exposure to sex-and statusbased advertising campaigns elicit brand preferences in rhesus monkeys. Advertising induced preferences depend on subject sex and advertisement content. Our findings emphasize the role of hard-wired, evolutionarily primitive cognitive biases in shaping consumer preferences

PRAME EXPRESSION IN NON-HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA

WOS: 000496830406175

Evaluation of Castleman disease: A series of 50 cases

WOS: 000388614501059