Academic research in emerging knowledge-based economies : the case of Sri Lankan construction industry

Purpose Knowledge-based economies are popular in the present world. Simultaneously, universities are becoming more responsible for leading economic development through research. As a key contributor to the national economy, it is vital for the construction industry to move beyond outdated practices, and hence, reviewing the role of academic research in empowering construction industry with knowledge is essential. This paper focuses on how relevant theories conceptualise the expected role of academic research in the innovative development of an industry and the specific location in Sri Lankan construction industry. Design/methodology/approach Following a comprehensive literature review, empirical data were collected from Sri Lankan context with a mixed approach informed by a pragmatist philosophical stance. The perspective of academia and industry practitioners were deductively obtained through surveys and inductively explored through qualitative interviews. Findings This study provides evidence that academic research in Sri Lanka does not contribute effectively to innovative construction management. Due to the absence of industry-focused knowledge dissemination strategies, the academic-industry relationships are mostly non-research based. The industry lacks in research informed-decision making, leading to lesser innovations. Research limitations/implications The research conclusions are more applicable to the developing-country construction industry contexts. Practical implications The research urges the need for improved academic-industry research collaborations and strategic knowledge dissemination movements. Originality/value The research confirms academic research as a major integral part of developing construction industry in a knowledge-based economy. In establishing the expected role of academic research, the research revealed the current practice to be under-located. Hence, the research prescribes the necessary actions; research collaborations in major and subsequent requirements. Keywords – Academic research, Construction management, Innovation theories, Knowledge-based economies, Knowledge dissemination, Knowledge utilisation, Research collaboration

Transport in Floquet-Bloch bands

We report Floquet band engineering of long-range transport and direct imaging of Floquet-Bloch bands in an amplitude-modulated optical lattice. In one variety of Floquet-Bloch band we observe tunable rapid long-range high-fidelity transport of a Bose condensate across thousands of lattice sites. Quenching into an opposite-parity Floquet-hybridized band allows Wannier-Stark localization to be controllably turned on and off using modulation. A central result of this work is the use of transport dynamics to demonstrate direct imaging of a Floquet-Bloch band structure. These results demonstrate that transport in dynamical Floquet-Bloch bands can be mapped to transport in quasi-static effective bands, opening a path to cold atom quantum emulation of ultrafast multi-band electronic dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A tool for effective transferring of knowledge and technology in contracting organizations

The project-based nature of contracting organizations creates a learning opportunity from most of its activities. Although knowledge helps to gain valuable experience from construction projects, due to its complex and unique nature, organizations do not systematically secure knowledge for later usage. Due to that, contracting organizations create significant discontinuities in flows of knowledge within members, tasks and tools. Therefore, for contracting organizations to make the use of its knowledge, a mechanism for managing knowledge has to exist. That mechanism should include efficient transferring of knowledge throughout the organization. Such transferring can occur through the organization’s various activities and organizations stand to benefit if these activities are done strategically not only to acquire, but also to share and transfer knowledge and ultimately enhance performance. Today, the construction industry is moving towards sustainable solutions for projects. Therefore, necessity of knowledge transferring mechanism has become much more important than ever. The study has henceforth analyzed the knowledge transfer process of contracting organizations in Sri Lanka and explored how these organizations facilitate transfer of knowledge. Three contracting organizations were selected among C1 contractors in Sri Lanka for this case study and the research problem was examined through semi-structured interviews of the key participants of the organizations. The analyses from findings support the propositions set forth in the study: the importance of the knowledge transfer process in contracting organizations, the situational nature of the knowledge being transferred, effects, barriers and measures for its effectiveness for knowledge transfer initiatives. In effect, the study builds a knowledge transfer process reflected in contracting organizations in Sri Lanka by mapping case study findings to the conceptual model and a model for sustainable business process of contracting organizations. Recommendations for contracting organizations at policy and functional level are made based on the findings. Fundamentally, contracting organizations should adapt knowledge transfer process to its organizational strategy to achieve success in their business through sustainable solution

Direct Bandgap Cross-over Point of Ge\u3csub\u3e1-y\u3c/sub\u3eSn\u3csub\u3ey\u3c/sub\u3e Grown on Si Estimated through Temperature-dependent Photoluminescence Studies

Epitaxial Ge1-ySny (y = 0%–7.5%) alloys grown on either Si or Ge-buffered Si substrates by chemical vapor deposition were studied as a function of Sn content using temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL). PL emission peaks from both the direct bandgap (Γ-valley) and the indirect bandgap (L-valley) to the valence band (denoted by ED and EID, respectively) were clearly observed at 125 and 175 K for most Ge1-ySny samples studied. At 300 K, however, all of the samples exhibited dominant ED emission with either very weak or no measureable EID emission. At 10 K, ED is dominant only for Ge1-ySny with y \u3e 0.052. From the PL spectra taken at 125 and 175 K, the unstrained indirect and direct bandgap energies were calculated and are plotted as a function of Sn concentration, the results of which show that the indirect-to-direct bandgap transition occurs at ∼6.7% Sn. It is believed that the true indirect-to-direct bandgap cross-over of unstrained Ge1-ySny might also take place at about the same Sn content at room temperature. This observation suggests that these Ge1-ySny alloys could become very promising direct bandgap semiconductor materials, which will be very useful for the development of various new novel Si- and Ge-based infrared optoelectronic devices that can be fully integrated with current technology on a single Si chip

Quantifying and Controlling Prethermal Nonergodicity in Interacting Floquet Matter

The use of periodic driving for synthesizing many-body quantum states depends crucially on the existence of a prethermal regime, which exhibits drive-tunable properties while forestalling the effects of heating. This dependence motivates the search for direct experimental probes of the underlying localized nonergodic nature of the wave function in this metastable regime. We report experiments on a many-body Floquet system consisting of atoms in an optical lattice subjected to ultrastrong sign-changing amplitude modulation. Using a double-quench protocol, we measure an inverse participation ratio quantifying the degree of prethermal localization as a function of tunable drive parameters and interactions. We obtain a complete prethermal map of the drive-dependent properties of Floquet matter spanning four square decades of parameter space. Following the full time evolution, we observe sequential formation of two prethermal plateaux, interaction-driven ergodicity, and strongly frequency-dependent dynamics of long-time thermalization. The quantitative characterization of the prethermal Floquet matter realized in these experiments, along with the demonstration of control of its properties by variation of drive parameters and interactions, opens a new frontier for probing far-from-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics and new possibilities for dynamical quantum engineering

STUDIES ON THE PROPAGATION OF RED SANDAL WOOD (Pterocarpus santalinus Linn.~, AN ENDANGERED MEDICINAL TREE SPECIES

Red sandalwood is a tree species originated in India, which is highly prized for anarray of medicinal and industrial uses, and thus being over exploited from theirnatural habitates. Since there is no systematic cultivation, at the face of increasedexploitation red sandalwood has become an endangered species. The populationsize in Sri Lanka has limited only to just a few trees which were introduced fromIndia. The number of seed bearing trees are limited further compelling to initiatea tree multiplication program.At the wake of this situation, the current work was started to develop a rapidmultiplication program for red sandalwood employing sexual and asexuel meansof propagation. After a through survey a cluster of four red sandal wood treesincluding two bearing trees were found to obtain seeds and vegetative material.Seeds fallen under the tree, which were collected daily and hand picked fullymature seeds were used for germination studies, Seeds were found extremelyrecalcitrant and lose viability within a week. Prior to germination, wings of theseeds were clipped and pre treated as follows; over night soaking mechanicalremoval of hard seed coat, gibberalic acid treatment. Eventhough, the tetrasoliumtest proved that seeds are viable (before germination), there were no signs ofgermination over a period of one month. Subsequently it was found that, seedsare not viable anymore, Seeds seem quiescent, not ready for germination andloose viability soon due to its recalcitrant nature.Vegetative propagation is attempted via, air layering, stem cuttings and throughtissue culture. Induction of root formation was tried with the application ofauxins: NAA and IBA under mist propagation in sand medium. Double modalcuttings with a triplet of leaves were used in semi-hard wood type material, whilethe same without leaves was used in hard-wood. Callus formation and theformation of root primodia has started from 6-8 weeks after planting in semi-hardwood with leaves. In the hard wood, cut surface was completely covered withreddish-purple colour stain. There was no sing of the formation of ca11\us or rootprimodia. Callus formation was obtained from leaf disks with auxins andcytokinins in woody plant (WP) medium

Suitability of some agro-industrial by-products as litter material for poultry Physio-chemical properties

Paddy-husk (PH) based deep litter system is the most popular poultry management system in SriLanka. Physio-chemical properties of PH make it an ideal litter material for poultry keeping. SincePH is increasingly been demanded by other industries, availability of PH for poultry industry has beenrestricted from recent years. Objective of the present study was to screen the physio-chemicalproperties of some commonly available agro-industrial by-products, to be used as alternative littermaterials for poultry. Physio-chemical properties such as dry matter (OM), bulk density (BO), pH,water absorbability (WA) and water releasing capacity (WRC) of seven alternatives such as ricestraw (RS), coir dust (CD), wood shawing;WS, saw dust;SD, tree litter;TL, shredded paper;SP andrefused tea;RT)) were determined and, compared with the respective values of PH. The experimentfollowed a completely randomized design. The OM % of the alternatives tested ranged from 91 %(SO) to 92% (SP). OM contents ofWS and RT were statistically similar to that of PH. However,none ofthe material had either too low or too high OM levels to be disqualified as a litter material. pHvalues of the tested materials were statistically similar and were slightly acidic (mean 6.27; range6.1-6.5). PH had the highest BO (0.09g/cm'). The BOs of CD, SO and RT, though were lower thanPH, the values were not significantly different from that of PH. WA was also statistically differentbetween the materials. CD had the highest (ll 0 I%) WA while RT showed lowest (70%) WA. SO,SP and TL showed statistically similar WA as PH. Materials showed a great variability (from 7.7%for SO to 26.7% for RS) in relation to WRC. PH had 13.6% WRC within 241m. RT had the closestWRC capacity (17.9%) to PH. Materials such as RS, TS, WS and SP showed as high as 25%WRC. When materials were compared for the parameters tested against those of PH, RS and WSwere similar to PH only in relation to two parameters. Being comparable with PH for four parameters,SO was identified as the best alternative for PH. CD, TL, SP and RT were comparable with PH inrelation to three parameters. Since CD had excessive WA (I 10 I%) and very low WRC it can not berecommended further studies. This study concludes that physio-chemical properties of SO, TL, SPand RT are comparable with PH. Field studies involving live poultry are warranted to determine howbirds perform and behave when raised on these litter materials