The NISPAcee journal of public administration and policy

This paper introduces a new approach for conducting project feasibility study by embracing the principles of sustainable development. Construction projects, in particular, infrastructures have major influence on the attainment of sustainable development, thus project sustainability needs to be considered. This becomes a pressing issue particularly in those developing countries or regions, such as China where a huge amount of construction works are currently performed and remain to happen in the future. Previous study has addressed little on the relevance of project feasibility study to project sustainability performance. The importance of incorporating sustainable development principles in conducting project feasibility study is not effectively understood by project stakeholders. This paper addresses major challenges of undertaking project feasibility study in line with sustainable construction practice with reference to the Chinese construction industry. A case study approach is the major research method in this study. The research team collected 87 feasibility study reports from various projects. Attributes are used for measuring project performance, including 18 economic performance attributes, nine social performance attributes, and eight environmental performance attributes. Research results show that economic performance is given the most concern in the current practice of project feasibility study, whilst less attention is given to the social and environmental performance. The study reveals the insufficiency of examining the performance of implementing a construction project from the perspective of sustainable development. The results also suggest the need for shifting the traditional approach of project feasibility study to a new approach that embraces the principles of sustainable development

Perturbative study of large NN principal chiral model with twisted reduction

We compute the first four perturbative coefficients of the internal energy for the twisted reduced principal chiral model (TRPCM) using numerical stochastic perturbation theory (NSPT). This matrix model has the same large $N$ limit as the ordinary principal chiral model (PCM) at infinite volume. Indeed, we verify that the first three coefficients match the analytic result for the PCM coefficients at large $N$ with a precision of three to four significant digits. The fourth coefficient also matches our own NSPT calculation of the corresponding PCM coefficient at large $N$. The finite-$N$ corrections to all coefficients beyond the leading order are smaller for TRPCM than for PCM. We analyze the variance to determine the feasibility of extending the calculations to higher orders.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, using ws-ijmpa.cls style, using siunitx version

Cognition driven framework for improving collaborative working in construction projects: Negotiation perspective

Negotiation is the popular collaborative decision‐making behavior in inter‐organization systems, especially in the collaborative working in construction projects (CWCP). However, negotiation has long been recognized as a critical but time‐ and energy‐consuming process. The lack of an effective framework to improve the efficiency (performance) of negotiation is a major problem for those seeking to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative working in construction projects. This paper aims to develop a cognitive mapping‐based application framework for improving collaborative working in construction project from negotiation perspective (CF‐CWCP). This framework includes two‐fold: (1) mapping negotiation process in construction projects using cognitive mapping technique; (2) developing CF‐CWCP by integrating intelligent agent and cognitive mapping techniques. This research will benefit the partners in construction projects to improve construction negotiation performance. A prototype of CF‐CWCP is developed. Santrauka Derybos yra populiarus bendradarbiavimu gristas tarimasis tarp organizaciniu sistemu priimti sprendi‐mus, ypač vykdant statybu projektus. Derybos jau seniai suvokiamos kaip vertingas, tačiau daug laiko ir energijos atimantis procesas. Veiksmingos sistemos, galinčios padeti pagerinti derybu efektyvuma, trūku‐mas yra viena iš pagrindiniu problemu siekiantiems padidinti bendradarbiavimo veiksminguma vykdant statybos projektus. Pagrindinis šio straipsnio tikslas ‐ išpletoti pažinimo kartografija paremtos sistemos, kuri pagerintuben‐dradarbiavima vykdant statybos projektus, taikyma atsižvelgiant i derybu perspektyvas. Šia sistema suda‐ro dvi dalys: 1) kartografinis derybu procesas vykdant statybos projektus, pagristas pažinimo kartografijos technologija; 2) pažinimo sistemos, gerinančios bendradarbiavima vykdant statybos projektus, pletojimas integruojant intelektinius agentus ir pažinimo kartografijos technologija. Šis tyrimas pades statybu projek‐tu dalyviams pagerinti derybu efektyvuma, be to, išpletotas pažinimo sistemos prototipas. First Published Online: 09 Jun 2011 Reikšminiai žodžiai: pažinimo kartografija, bendradarbiavimas, derybos, statybos projekta

Small anisotropy of the lower critical field and s±s_\pm-wave two-gap feature in single crystal LiFeAs

The in- and out-of-plane lower critical fields and magnetic penetration depths for LiFeAs were examined. The anisotropy ratio $\gamma_{H_{c1}}(0)$ is smaller than the expected theoretical value, and increased slightly with increasing temperature from 0.6$T_c$ to $T_c$. This small degree of anisotropy was numerically confirmed by considering electron correlation effect. The temperature dependence of the penetration depths followed a power law($\sim$$T^n$) below 0.3$T_c$, with $n$$>$3.5 for both $\lambda_{ab}$ and $\lambda_c$. Based on theoretical studies of iron-based superconductors, these results suggest that the superconductivity of LiFeAs can be represented by an extended $s_\pm$-wave due to weak impurity scattering effect. And the magnitudes of the two gaps were also evaluted by fitting the superfluid density for both the in- and out-of-plane to the two-gap model. The estimated values for the two gaps are consistent with the results of angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and specific heat experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Construction Industrialization in China: Current Profile and the Prediction

The ongoing undertaking of construction industrialization in China is redefining the industry and creating a new era for building construction. In order to identify the construction industrialization status and progress, a national survey is conducted across 19 key provinces and municipalities in China. Based on the collected data, construction industrialization is analyzed from various perspectives: (1) the industrialized building floor area is profiled using maps with colours showing the different levels of construction industrialization in China as of 2014; and (2) structural types and building types are analyzed for industrialized construction, and it is found that reinforced concrete is the predominant structure type, accounting for 77.1% of total floor area of industrialized construction in 2014. The industrialization trends are also predicted for the following five years using Holt’s and Delphi method. This research reveals the status and the promising trends of construction industrialization in China

BIM-Based Incremental Cost Analysis Method of Prefabricated Buildings in China

In order to achieve the sustainable growth of its urbanization and natural resources, China has been making great efforts to develop prefabricated construction technologies. However, the high incremental cost of prefabricated buildings (PRBs) is a fundamental obstacle to the latter. The current study mainly focuses on analyzing the incremental cost of the on-site construction stage. It is hard to comprehensively identify the incremental cost composition without considering the incremental cost caused by prefabricated components (PFCs) production. Moreover, the results of incremental cost calculation are not accurate enough by comparing the cost of two similar but different PRB and traditional buildings (TRB), and the case-based calculation results suffer from a lack of representation. To address these issues, we first establish a two-dimensional incremental cost index system from the dimension of cost items and prefabricated technologies to study the incremental cost composition of the whole construction stage. Additionally, based on China’s latest policies documents, the applicability of incremental cost composition items can also be improved. Then a building information modeling (BIM)-based calculation model is presented to avoid the calculation error caused by comparing the cost of two different PRBs and TRBs. To validate the proposed index system and calculation method, an actual prefabricated project in China is also conducted as a case study. The results suggest that: (1) Incremental cost is composed of band bearing and retaining walls and inner walls PFCs production, PFCs hoisting and grouting, post-pouring concrete, and full decoration. (2) The BIM-based incremental calculation result of a PRB case from Shanghai is within the range of the national average PRB incremental estimation results. The incremental cost composition items and BIM-based calculation approach can greatly help investors to identify the largest increase in cost and make effective cost optimization strategies

Construction Industrialization in China: Current Profile and the Prediction

The ongoing undertaking of construction industrialization in China is redefining the industry and creating a new era for building construction. In order to identify the construction industrialization status and progress, a national survey is conducted across 19 key provinces and municipalities in China. Based on the collected data, construction industrialization is analyzed from various perspectives: (1) the industrialized building floor area is profiled using maps with colours showing the different levels of construction industrialization in China as of 2014; and (2) structural types and building types are analyzed for industrialized construction, and it is found that reinforced concrete is the predominant structure type, accounting for 77.1% of total floor area of industrialized construction in 2014. The industrialization trends are also predicted for the following five years using Holt’s and Delphi method. This research reveals the status and the promising trends of construction industrialization in China

Stiff neural ordinary differential equations

Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) are a promising approach to learn dynamic models from time-series data in science and engineering applications. This work aims at learning Neural ODE for stiff systems, which are usually raised from chemical kinetic modeling in chemical and biological systems. We first show the challenges of learning neural ODE in the classical stiff ODE systems of Robertson's problem and propose techniques to mitigate the challenges associated with scale separations in stiff systems. We then present successful demonstrations in stiff systems of Robertson's problem and an air pollution problem. The demonstrations show that the usage of deep networks with rectified activations, proper scaling of the network outputs as well as loss functions, and stabilized gradient calculations are the key techniques enabling the learning of stiff neural ODE. The success of learning stiff neural ODE opens up possibilities of using neural ODEs in applications with widely varying time-scales, like chemical dynamics in energy conversion, environmental engineering, and the life sciences