Forward contracts in electricity markets and capacity investment: A simulation study

This simulation study analyzes the effect of the introduction of forward markets to mitigate cyclical price behavior in electricity markets from a dynamic extended Cobweb model. We pay particular attention to the effect of lags in investment decisions and the effect of not fully replacing retired capacity in electricity markets. In line with previous research, the introduction of forward markets decreases price variability in comparison to a spot market. However, we also observe that lags in investment decisions and the failure to fully replace retired capacity create capacity investments cycles even in the presence a forward market.     

Toward a model of socializing project team members: An integrative approach

Project work is becoming more and more important in everyday business, as is staffing the right newcomers for the project. Recognizing that not all new project team workers possess equally important specific knowledge, skills and abilities for the success of projects, we draw on project management, human resource management, and organizational socialization literature to develop a framework on how new project team members might be socialized, depending on their strategic value for the project. We specifically draw on the socialization tactics literature and propose how four categories of new employees – Internal specialists, External specialists, External generalists and Internal generalists; based on two dimensions – work task complexity and employment mode, can be socialized more effectively. Implications for theory and practice are discussed as well.     

A comprehensive appraisal of perceptual visual complexity analysis methods in GUI design

Graphical or Visual User Interface (GUI) is recognized as one of the most important application components for safety critical and business oriented software systems. It is highly advantageous for GUI designers and application developers to analyze the visual complexity of a GUI and predict users’ perception and judgment during the design phase. Although in recent years, various methods have been developed for visual complexity analysis, these have not been widely used due to applicability, practicality and validity issues. In this respect, we have conducted a comprehensive review of studies and methods in visual complexity analysis. After identifying and analyzing 85 research studies, we grouped the visual complexity analysis methods and accordingly a taxonomy is presented. Furthermore, conceptual comparison of the methods is given and gap analysis as well as possible future directions are provided. According to the our findings, major gaps for each visual complexity analysis method may be stated as follows: 1) In metric-model based methods, there is a lack of information about the suitability of the metric-model created for analysis, since the extent to which each metric contributes to visual complexity analysis is still not known exactly. 2) In heuristic- based methods, the extracted rule set is not yet extendable enough beyond the use for specific GUIs. 3) While the visual complexity analysis could be considered as a kind of computer vision task, there exist limited studies that does so. Therefore, generalizable solutions based on machine learning techniques seem to be a promising research direction to develop efficient approaches.     

空间句法：从图论的角度看中微观城市形态

如何从整体的角度研究城市形态的复杂性？空间句法在城市形态领域中关注城市形态空间之间的整体联系，运用图论的数学理论和方法建立了城市形态的模型，发现了不同城市具有相似的城市空间拓扑关系，以及特定城市空间之间复杂的整体关联在很大程度上决定了中微观层面的人车流和用地的分布，给城市形态复杂性研究提供了坚实可行的理论基础和方法程序、也给整合交通规划和用地规划的城市规划和设计提供了一种具体的实践角度。本文简要回顾了城市形态研究中关于要素和关联的研究发展、详细解释了空间句法从图论的角度研究城市形态的整体关联，最后分析了空间句法在伯明翰Brindleypalce案例中的应用。     

医学中心规划趋势探讨

本文依据笔者近20年来的医院规划实务操作与医学空间研究,归纳出对大型医学中心(medical center)之空间规划设计理念及使用后评估观察成果,借由对医院空间特性之分析,提出可变与不可变之医院空间组织系统的建立原则,期待以更先进之医疗建筑来保障健康。     

建筑的复杂性——塞缪尔·莫克比及其乡村工作室的作品解读

塞缪尔·莫克比——美国阿拉巴马州奥本大学“乡村工作室”的创建者和负责人,在其生前致力于带领学生为阿拉巴马州贫困社区筹划、设计并建造住房和社区建筑。这一结合具体工程实践的建筑教学活动,引发了我们对于建筑的复杂性的思考。本文通过对其作品的多角度介绍,进一步分析了他的主要设计思想和具体做法。     

图解的异端 ——日本建筑师藤本壮介设计思维的图像叙事策略

藤本壮介作品借助其语汇“未来、 暧昧,多种可能”发起所谓日常诗学式的革 命,其著作《建筑诞生的时刻》直接将“局 部与局部的关联/原始的场所感”作为建筑 新策略发展机制的改革宣言,以“巢穴”寓 意“居住的多义”。以破译其作品与自我理论 解读之间的关联作为研究目的,通过研究其 作品图表式的表达,解译“图像—实体”的 关联,得出藤本壮介的作品是具有图解生 成的契机,依次从图像叙事的方式、图像过 程的诗意两方面阐述其作品图案中所拆解 的复杂空间与叙事潜能,分层剖析其“未完 成状态”的本质。最后进行总结,得出这种 图解设计思维是基于复杂的社会形态、文化 变异、差序格局与同构嵌套并存的时空关联 等糅合所得的结果,以及总结其语汇与实践 的价值意义,启于原始,落实现在,兼容未 来。研究方法为文献研究与调查研究。     

Technical and institutional factors in the emergence of project management

This paper explores the fundamental question of why the practice and discipline of project management emerged during the 1940s through the 1960s in the United States. Although projects have been around for millennia, not until the middle of the 20th century in the U.S. military–industrial–academic complex did project management become formalized in institutional processes and as an academic discipline. The paper argues that technical complexity and novelty were the primary factors driving project management and its engineering counterpart systems engineering, as a new organizational form. Institutional factors such as the need for legal separation between government and industry created important secondary effects that drove the particular forms in which project management evolved. This paper uses examples from large scale, complex projects of the 1940s through 1960s in the aerospace and computing industries to tease out the fundamental technical and institutional factors that led to the emergence of project management in these two key American industries during this period.     

建筑的复杂性和简单性——建筑空间与形式丰富性设计方法探讨

建筑的空间与形式有复杂和简单之分。在设计的过程中应该获得耐人寻味,富有层次的复杂空间与形式,规避下意识的,不假思索的简单性。本文试图通过理性的分析,从哲学和意识形态、过程和发展、技术、社会历史因素的演变等不同层面寻求创造丰富建筑空间与形式的方法和途径。     

A resilience-based approach in managing the closure and abandonment of large mine tailing ponds

Mining tailing ponds are large infrastructure objects whose life cycle spans over several decades. They are indispensable for certain types of mines where technological process produces and rejects mud. They also have potential to generate risks for human life, property and environment. For that reason, it is essential to adequately manage them throughout all the stages of their life cycle. The phase of their closure and abandonment is less studied and understood. The paper proposes a holistic resilience-based approach for analyzing this phase of their life cycle. The proposed methodology is validated through a case study at an actual surface iron ore mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina.