Is agile project management applicable to construction?

This paper briefly summarises the evolution of Agile Project Management (APM) and differentiates it from lean and agile production and ‘leagile’ construction. The significant benefits being realized through employment of APM within the information systems industry are stated. The characteristics of APM are explored, including: philosophy, organizational attitudes and practices, planning, execution and control and learning. Finally, APM is subjectively assessed as to its potential contribution to the pre-design, design and construction phases. In conclusion, it is assessed that APM offers considerable potential for application in predesign and design but that there are significant hurdles to its adoption in the actual construction phase. Should these be overcome, APM offers benefits well beyond any individual project

The Role of Expectation in Job Search and Firm Size Effect on Wages

One of the most puzzling facts in economics is the firm size-wage effect. After controlling for the observable characteristics of workers (age, gender, education, residence etc.), firms (industry, occupation, work conditions etc.) and negotiation effect (unionization), one still finds that the sheer size of a firm increases the wage, contrary to the one-good one-price doctrine. We provide a simple dynamic game model of wage determination to give a new rationale to the firm size-wage effect. We think that the wages are not market clearing prices but strategies by firms. Firms choose wages to control workers' search behavior. The essential feature of the model is that a large firm's history of wages is observable to all the current and future workers, while a small firm is not visible and only its current offer is observable. Therefore a small firm is expected to be a myopic low-wage payer, and its workers search and quit often. A large firm can prevent search if it maintained a high wage throughout the past, thus making workers expect high future wages. In this way, the firm size determines the worker expectations of its future wages, which changes the quit rate and equilibrium wages. To give additional support to our theoretical result, we test a new aspect of firm size-wage effect. Since the effect on wage levels are extensively studied, we derive two main hypotheses on wage gains after job changes. (H1) The proportion of firms that are larger than the previous employer increases the wage gain. (H2) The size of the previous employer decreases the wage gain. The firm size distribution effect (H1) is a new test. We obtain supports for both. Thus we conclude that the wages are strategies and affected by how workers utilize the firm size information in changing jobs. (297 words.)

Yoko Ono: Emotions to Art

By most of mainstream culture, Yoko Ono is perceived as the wild and weird artist who ultimately broke-up the Beatles. To the contrary, it was Ono’s very eclectic and creative mind that engendered conceptually innovative works of art. These pieces showed society how to love and join together to create a world without loneliness, and how to live as one harmonious global culture. How does an individual influenced by so many art movements merge with the state-of-mind Ono found herself in in order to create such powerful works of art? Such an individual could only be constructed by deep pain, lived experience, and the desire to turn that pain and experience into art that could change the world. By synthesizing many documents written about the artist, interviews between Ono and journalists, and the historical context of WWII, this paper explores and interprets the many inspirations behind Ono’s work. From her lavish but tragic family life, travel between Japan and the United States, and the terror of WWII, Ono emerged as an artist who longed to spread peace and love to everyone despite the scrutiny she often received. Though many artists become shaped by the world that currently surrounds them, in this particular case, Ono experienced these events first-hand and used them to help others rather than dwell in sorrow

An attempt to interpret the relative abundances of the elements and their isotopes

In tbis paper an attempt is made to derive some information concerning the prestellar stage at wbich the elements are supposed to have been formed. By using first the relative abundances of the isotopes of a single element (e.g., 0, Ne, Mg, Si, and S), it is shown that a temperature of the order of a few billion degrees is indicated. The equilibrium between the fundamental nuclear particles (protons, neutrons, α-particles, electrons, and positrons) at temperatures ranging from 5 to 10 billion degrees is then studied to establish the relative concentrations of protons and neutrons as a function of the temperature. Tbis relation is then used to compute theoretical mass-abundance-curves under different physical conditions. From such calculations it is concluded that under the physical conditions specified by T=8×109 degrees and ρ= 107 gm/cm3 the theoretical mass-abundance-curve from oxygen to sulphur agrees fairly satisfactorily with the known abundance-curve according to V. M. Goldschmidt (Fig. 2). An important feature of the nuclear mixture considered is that hydrogen and helium are the two most abundant constituents, wbich is in agreement with known facts. However, the conditions indicated are seen to be quite insufficient to account for the existence of the heavy nuclei to any appreciable extent. It is, therefore, suggested that we should distinguish at least two epochs in the development of the prestellar stage. We imagine that at the earliest stages conditions of extreme temperatures and densities prevailed at wbich the heavier nuclei could have been formed. As the matter cooled to lower temperatures and densities, appreciable amounts (I part in 106) of the heavy elements must have been "frozen" into the mixture. At temperatures of the order of from 5×109 to 8×109 degrees and densities of the order of from 104 to 107 gm/cm3 the present known relative abundances of the elements from oxygen to sulphur may have been established

Chinese managers used to state control have a hard time acting as capitalists

Decision-makers act on their experience, write Henrich R. Greve and Cyndi Man Zhan

How Chinese firms reacted when told to change their share ownership structures

The slowest to comply had few public shares and had ties to the state through their board members, write Henrich R. Greve and Cyndi Man Zhan

Activated O2 dissociation and formation of oxide islands on the Be(0001) surface: Another atomistic model for metal oxidation

By simulating the dissociation of O2 molecules on the Be(0001) surface using the first-principles molecular dynamics approach, we propose a new atomistic model for the surface oxidation of sp metals. In our model, only the dissociation of the first oxygen molecule needs to overcome an energy barrier, while the subsequent oxygen molecules dissociate barrierlessly around the adsorption area. Consequently, oxide islands form on the metal surface, and grow up in a lateral way. We also discover that the firstly dissociated oxygen atoms are not so mobile on the Be(0001) surface, as on the Al(111) surface. Our atomistic model enlarges the knowledge on metal surface oxidations by perfectly explaining the initial stage during the surface oxidation of Be, and might be applicable to some other sp metal surfaces.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Critical behavior in an evolutionary Ultimatum Game

Experimental studies have shown the ubiquity of altruistic behavior in human societies. The social structure is a fundamental ingredient to understand the degree of altruism displayed by the members of a society, in contrast to individual-based features, like for example age or gender, which have been shown not to be relevant to determine the level of altruistic behavior. We explore an evolutionary model aiming to delve how altruistic behavior is affected by social structure. We investigate the dynamics of interacting individuals playing the Ultimatum Game with their neighbors given by a social network of interaction. We show that a population self-organizes in a critical state where the degree of altruism depends on the topology characterizing the social structure. In general, individuals offering large shares but in turn accepting large shares, are removed from the population. In heterogeneous social networks, individuals offering intermediate shares are strongly selected in contrast to random homogeneous networks where a broad range of offers, below a critical one, is similarly present in the population.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Quantum oscillations in adsorption energetics of atomic oxygen on Pb(111) ultrathin films: A density-functional theory study

Using first-principles calculations, we have systematically studied the quantum size effects of ultrathin Pb(111) films on the adsorption energies and diffusion energy barriers of oxygen atoms. For the on-surface adsorption of oxygen atoms at different coverages, all the adsorption energies are found to show bilayer oscillation behaviors. It is also found that the work function of Pb(111) films still keeps the bilayer-oscillation behavior after the adsorption of oxygen atoms, with the values being enlarged by 2.10 to 2.62 eV. For the diffusion and penetration of the adsorbed oxygen atoms, it is found that the most energetically favored paths are the same on different Pb(111) films. And because of the modulation of quantum size effects, the corresponding energy barriers are all oscillating with a bilayer period on different Pb(111) films. Our studies indicate that the quantum size effect in ultrathin metal films can modulate a lot of processes during surface oxidation

Driven Spin Systems as Quantum Thermodynamic Machines: Fundamental Limits

We show that coupled two level systems like qubits studied in quantum information can be used as a thermodynamic machine. At least three qubits or spins are necessary and arranged in a chain. The system is interfaced between two split baths and the working spin in the middle is externally driven. The machine performs Carnot-type cycles and is able to work as heat pump or engine depending on the temperature difference of the baths $\Delta T$ and the energy differences in the spin system $\Delta E$. It can be shown that the efficiency is a function of $\Delta T$ and $\Delta E$.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.