‘Driving’ innovation in construction organizations: a comparative case study of the design and construction of motor racing venues

The culture of high-performance racing, whether Formula One, Nascar, or sports cars represents the continuous push for better performance. The research focuses upon understanding how stakeholders designing and building motor racing venues experience the innovation process through both new and refurbishment projects. This paper will provide a review of the literature relative to the nature of innovations within the construction setting, considering a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. The context of innovative designs and high-performance facilities serves as a novel exploration given that the nature of the facilities seems to attract these innovative solutions. Given this seeming repeatability of pursuit and success in innovation on this project type suggests that the context allows construction firms to successfully mobilize their innovative ideas and construction expertise. Using the captured data from two case study projects; Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and the Daytona International Speedway in the USA, we explore the phenomenon around the mobilization of innovation in these contexts. Data is collected through extensive, unstructured interviews with key leadership in both projects to explore the emergent nature of innovation and the evolving facility design, construction, and operations. Innovation is born, resides and lives within a loosely and tightly knit network of stakeholders. We will connect the discursive nature of innovation in such settings and projects back to the innovation literature

Vertex similarity in networks

We consider methods for quantifying the similarity of vertices in networks. We propose a measure of similarity based on the concept that two vertices are similar if their immediate neighbors in the network are themselves similar. This leads to a self-consistent matrix formulation of similarity that can be evaluated iteratively using only a knowledge of the adjacency matrix of the network. We test our similarity measure on computer-generated networks for which the expected results are known, and on a number of real-world networks

Influence of rest on players’ performance and physiological responses during basketball play

Pre-match warm-ups are standard in many sports but the focus has excluded the substitute players. The aim of this research was to investigate the result of inactivity on physiological and performance responses in substitute basketball players during competition. Two basketball players from the second tier of the State League of Queensland, Australia volunteered for this study and were assessed for performance (countermovement jump—CMJ) and physiological (core temperature via ingestible pill; skin temperature at the arm, chest, calf and thigh; heart rate—HR) responses prior to and following a 20-min warm-up, and during the first half of a competitive basketball match (2 × 20-min real time quarters). Warm up resulted in increases in CMJ (~7%), HR (~100 bpm) and core (~0.8 °C) and skin (~1.0 °C) temperatures. Following the warm up and during inactivity, substitute players exhibited a decrease in all responses including CMJ (~13%), HR (~100 bpm), and core (~0.5 °C) and skin (~2.0 °C) temperatures. Rest resulted in reductions in key performance and physiological responses during a competitive match that poses a risk for match strategies. Coaches should consider implementing a warm up to enhance core/skin temperature for substitute players immediately before they engage with competition to optimise player performance

Large-scale structure of time evolving citation networks

In this paper we examine a number of methods for probing and understanding the large-scale structure of networks that evolve over time. We focus in particular on citation networks, networks of references between documents such as papers, patents, or court cases. We describe three different methods of analysis, one based on an expectation-maximization algorithm, one based on modularity optimization, and one based on eigenvector centrality. Using the network of citations between opinions of the United States Supreme Court as an example, we demonstrate how each of these methods can reveal significant structural divisions in the network, and how, ultimately, the combination of all three can help us develop a coherent overall picture of the network's shape.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; journal names for 4 references fixe

Effect of the process gas and scan speed on the properties and productivity of thin 316L structures produced by Laser-Powder Bed Fusion

The development of the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process to increase its robustness and productivity is challenged by ambitious design optimizations, such as thin wall structures. In this study, in addition to the effect of commonly used gases as Ar and N2, increased laser scanning speed and new process gases, such as helium, were successfully implemented. This implementation allowed to build 316L stainless steel components with thin walls of 1 mm thickness with an enhanced build rate of 37 pct. The sample size effect and the surface roughness were held responsible for the reduction in strength (YS > 430 MPa) and elongation (EAB > 30 pct) for the 1 mm samples studied. Similar strength was achieved for all process gases. The increased scanning speed was accompanied by a more random texture, smaller cell size, and grain size factor along the building direction when compared to the material built with the standard laser parameters. Stronger preferential orientation 〈101〉 along the building direction was observed for material built with standard parameters. Finally, the use of helium as a process gas was successful and resulted in reduced cell size. This finding is promising for the future development of high strength 316L stainless steel built with high build rates

Effects of a 6-month exercise program pilot study on walking economy, peak physiological characteristics, and walking performance in patients with peripheral arterial disease

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 6-month exercise program on submaximal walking economy in individuals with peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication (PAD-IC). Participants (n = 16) were randomly allocated to either a control PAD-IC group (CPAD-IC, n = 6) which received standard medical therapy, or a treatment PAD-IC group (TPAD-IC; n = 10) which took part in a supervised exercise program. During a graded treadmill test, physiological responses, including oxygen consumption, were assessed to calculate walking economy during submaximal and maximal walking performance. Differences between groups at baseline and post-intervention were analyzed via Kruskal–Wallis tests. At baseline, CPAD-IC and TPAD-IC groups demonstrated similar walking performance and physiological responses. Postintervention, TPAD-IC patients demonstrated significantly lower oxygen consumption during the graded exercise test, and greater maximal walking performance compared to CPAD-IC. These preliminary results indicate that 6 months of regular exercise improves both submaximal walking economy and maximal walking performance, without significant changes in maximal walking economy. Enhanced walking economy may contribute to physiological efficiency, which in turn may improve walking performance as demonstrated by PAD-IC patients following regular exercise programs

Reliability of the running vertical jump test in female team sport athletes

Injury rates to the lower limb have increased over the past 40 years, coinciding with increases in female sport participation rates. Sport specific tests such as the running vertical jump (RVJ) are utilised for injury risk profiling, however the test-retest reliability is unknown. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of the thorax, pelvis and lower limb joint angular kinematics and kinetics for the RVJ test in female team sport athletes. Design: Three-dimensional motion capture with force plate integration was utilised as participants performed five trials on each limb on three separate days. Setting: Testing occurred in a biomechanics laboratory. Participants: Thirty-four females (Australian Rules Football = 15, Netball = 12, Soccer = 7) participated in this study. Main Outcome Measures: Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), effect sizes and typical errors (TE) of segment and joint angular kinematics and kinetics were calculated. Results: Poor to excellent reliability (ICC = −0.12 – 0.92), small to large effect sizes (0.00–0.90) and TE (0.02–289.24) were observed across segment and joint angular kinematics and kinetics. Conclusions: The RVJ test is recommended when analysing ground reaction forces and joint angular kinematics in female team sport athletes

Communication and trust in the bounded confidence model

The communication process in a situation of emergency is discussed within the Scheff theory of shame and pride. The communication involves messages from media and from other persons. Three strategies are considered: selfish (to contact friends), collective (to join other people) and passive (to do nothing). We show that the pure selfish strategy cannot be evolutionarily stable. The main result is that the community structure is statistically meaningful only if the interpersonal communication is weak.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX, for ICCCI-201

Increasing heat storage by wearing extra clothing during upper body exercise up-regulates heat shock protein 70 but does not modify the cytokine response

Plasma heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) concentrations rise during heat stress, which can independently induce cytokine production. Upper body exercise normally results in modest body temperature elevations. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of additional clothing on the body temperature, cytokine and HSP70 responses during this exercise modality. Thirteen males performed 45-min constant-load arm cranking at 63% maximum aerobic power (62 ± 7%V̇O2peak) in either a non-permeable whole-body suit (intervention, INT) or shorts and T-shirt (control, CON). Exercise resulted in a significant increase of IL-6 and IL-1ra plasma concentrations (P 0.19). The increase in HSP70 from pre to post was only significant for INT (0.12 ± 0.11ng∙mL−1, P < 0.01 vs. 0.04 ± 0.18 ng∙mL−1, P = 0.77). Immediately following exercise, Tcore was elevated by 0.46 ± 0.29 (INT) and 0.37 ± 0.23ºC (CON), respectively (P < 0.01), with no difference between conditions (P = 0.16). The rise in mean Tskin (2.88 ± 0.50 and 0.30 ± 0.89ºC, respectively) and maximum heat storage (3.24 ± 1.08 and 1.20 ± 1.04 J∙g−1, respectively) was higher during INT (P < 0.01). Despite large differences in heat storage between conditions, the HSP70 elevations during INT, even though significant, were very modest. Possibly, the Tcore elevations were too low to induce a more pronounced HSP70 response to ultimately affect cytokine productio