Effect of host country and project conditions in international construction joint ventures

Joint ventures (JVs) have become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. International joint ventures (IJVs) are difficult to manage due to their complex structures involving more than two entities having different and competing objectives and strategies. Since each construction project is unique, project-specific factors are significant for the success of an IJV as well as the risks associated with the host country in which the IJV operates. In this study, the impact of host country conditions and project characteristics on IJV performance is investigated through a questionnaire survey. IJV performance is defined as a three-dimensional construct considering the performance of the project, the IJV partners, and the IJV organization itself. The results of the study suggest that project-related factors have a great impact on IJV performance. But they failed to provide evidence that IJV performance is affected by host country related risks.     

Integrated Framework to Investigate Value Innovations

A conceptual framework has been developed to investigate value innovations within construction companies. A visual metaphor has been defined to model the innovation system where the elements of the model are objectives, strategies, environmental barriers/drivers, and organizational factors. The major idea is that none of the elements of the model alone can explain the innovative capability, and elements as well as their interrelations should be considered concurrently to investigate how the innovation system works in construction companies. An application of the framework has been demonstrated by 11 cases taken from the Turkish construction industry. General findings of the research have been reported as well as specific company examples that demonstrate the major mechanisms of the innovation system. The research findings have revealed that environmental factors can have both hindering and supporting impacts on the innovation system, depending on other elements of the framework. The type of innovations is strongly related to company targets, strategies, strengths/weaknesses, and environmental factors. Moreover, matching of appropriate strategies with organizational properties leads to an increase in innovative capacity.     

Using Analytic Network Process to Predict the Performance of International Construction Joint Ventures

Strategic collaborations such as joint ventures (JVs) have become an important way of exploiting business opportunities for construction companies. However, such entities are difficult to manage due to their composite structures, which entail diverse organizational cultures, styles, and objectives. Therefore, measurement of JV performance has been an interesting research topic although there is no consensus on the definition, measures, and variables of performance yet. Considering the inherent complexities of the construction projects, only an adequate combination of criteria allows assessing the international construction joint venture (ICJV) performance. Within this study, an analytic network process model is developed to examine the links between the determinants of performance and to observe the influences of these factors on the ICJV performance. As a result, interpartner relations, structural factors and interpartner fit are found to be the most important determinants of ICJV success. Effectiveness of conflict resolution and control mechanisms contribute significantly to ICJV performance. Cultural fit is the most important fit that should be attained between the partners. The performance of the model is tested on eight real construction projects and satisfactory results are obtained.     

Ontology for Relating Risk and Vulnerability to Cost Overrun in International Projects

Risk management is about identifying risks, assessing their impacts, and developing mitigation strategies to ensure project success. The difference between the expected and actual project outcomes is usually attributed to risk events and how they are managed throughout the project. Although there are several reference frameworks that explain how risks can be managed in construction projects, a major bottleneck is the lack of a common vocabulary for risk-related concepts. Poor definition of risk and patterns of risk propagation in a project decrease the reliability of risk models that are constructed to simulate project outcomes under different risk occurrence scenarios. This study aims to extend previous studies in risk management by presenting an ontology for relating risk-related concepts to cost overrun. The major idea is that cost overrun depends on causal relations between various risk sources (namely, risk paths) and sources of vulnerability that interfere with these paths. Ontology is used to develop a database system that represents risk event histories of international construction projects and to construct a model for estimation of cost overrun. It will form the basis of a multiagent system that can be used to simulate the negotiation process among project participants about sharing of costs considering the risk allocation clauses in the contract, sources of vulnerability, and causal relations between risk events and their impacts. The ontology is constructed by interaction with Turkish contractors working in international markets and extensive literature review on risk-related concepts. The validation test results provide evidence that the ontology is fairly effective to help Turkish contractors to assess cost overrun by considering sources of vulnerability and risk in international construction projects.     

Thickness-dependent glass transition temperature of hydroxyethyl cellulose thin films based on dielectric properties

Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) thin films with a molecular weight of 720,000 g/mol deposited by thermal evaporation in a thickness range of 250, 500, and 750 nm were measured in a frequency range of 1–10⁵ Hz and a temperature range of 233–373 K for dielectric characterization with increments of 10 K. Dielectric results were used to derive and evaluate the glass transition temperature and ductility, which are essential parameters for structural analysis. Results showed that the thickness of HEC thin films was an effective parameter on dielectric and structural properties. Because of the increasing thickness, the dielectric constant has values between 22 and 143 at 1 kHz, and glass transition temperature and ductility change between 211–175 K and 15–20, respectively. Based on the literature and the compatible results, the main effect of these variations could be dead layers and voids in structure. The effect of the dead layer gave an important idea about the adjustability of mechanical properties of HEC thin films depending on the thickness. In this way, it would be possible to use these thin films deposited from HEC with 720,000 g/mol molecular weight, especially in drug delivery, electrophoresis technologies, biomedical devices, and coverage applications.     

Organizational memory formation and its use in construction

As knowledge becomes a source of competitive advantage, knowledge-management activities have become critical for success. Construction firms can effectively use their organizational memory to enhance their decision-making abilities. A framework was constructed to model the organizational memory formation process in construction companies. Based on this model, an interview study was conducted to investigate both the organizational memory formation and the role of organizational memory in strategic decision-making within the construction industry. Eight Turkish contractors were assessed. The results suggest that construction companies make use of several knowledge sources and mechanisms to acquire knowledge. Although construction companies are successful at the collection and storage of knowledge, they are weak in the exploitation of organizational memory, especially at the strategic decision-making stage. In addition, they cannot increase their organizational learning competence due to some company- and industry-specific barriers.     

Reduced toxicity and broad spectrum resistance to viral and fungal infection in transgenic plants expressing pokeweed antiviral protein II

Pokeweed antiviral protein II (PAPII), a 30 kDa protein isolated from leaves of Phytolacca americana, inhibits translation by catalytically removing a specific adenine residue from the large rRNA of the 60S subunit of eukaryotic ribosomes. The protein sequence of PAPII shows only 41% identity to PAP and PAP-S, two other antiviral proteins isolated from pokeweed. We isolated a cDNA corresponding to PAPII and introduced it into tobacco plants. PAPII expressed in transgenic tobacco was correctly processed to the mature form as in pokeweed and accumulated to at least 10-fold higher levels than wild-type PAP. We had previously observed a significant decrease in transformation frequency with PAP and recovered only two transgenic lines expressing 1-2 ng per mg protein. In contrast, eight different transgenic lines expressing up to 250 ng/mg PAPII were recovered, indicating that PAPII is less toxic than PAP. Two symptomless transgenic lines expressing PAPII were resistant to tobacco mosaic virus, potato virus X and the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. The level of viral and fungal resistance observed correlated well with the amount of PAPII protein accumulated. Pathogenesis-related protein PR1 was constitutively expressed in transgenic lines expressing PAPII. Although PR1 was constitutively expressed, no increase in salicylic acid levels was detected, indicating that PAPII may elicit a salicylic acid-independent signal transduction pathway.     

Improving Air Traffic Management with a Learning Multiagent System

Air traffic management is a fundamental challenge facing the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and, owing to the difficulties in improving the infrastructure, a problem in need of an algorithmic solution. A proposed multiagent approach assigns an agent to a navigational fix (a specific location in 2D space) and derives specific agent rewards that shape the agent actions. These agents aim to maximize their own local rewards, but their doing so leads to coordinated behavior that reduces global congestion.     

ConSpec – A Formal Language for Policy Specification

The paper presents ConSpec, an automata based policy specification language. The language trades off clean semantics to language expressiveness; a formal semantics for the language is provided as security automata. ConSpec specifications can be used at different stages of the application lifecycle, rendering possible the formalization of various policy enforcement techniques.