Job accessibility and job‐education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona

This paper analyses the effect of job accessibility on job‐education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona with regard to both public and private transport. Transit accessibility is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of employment relative to travel time by public transport, whereas accessibility by private transport is approximated by car availability. The results obtained from a joint model for car ownership, employment selectivity and mismatch confirm that car availability matters for job‐education mismatch. Moreover, public transport connectivity to job locations favours the matching between schooling and occupation in the urban labour market.     

Nanostructured TiO2 for stone coating: assessing compatibility with basic stone’s properties and photocatalytic effectiveness

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Many building materials have been functionalized to achieve photocatalytic properties, namely self-cleaning and depolluting abilities, through...     

Computer Simulation for Construction Education Using the Structure-Behavior-Function Theory: A Pilot Study on Learning Estimating Concepts

A computer simulation based on the structure-behavior-function (SBF) theory is developed and tested to study its impact on teaching construction estimating. While students eventually excel at estimating, grasping basic estimating concepts often presents a challenge to many students when they start learning estimating. It requires students to have a solid understanding about the relationship between actual construction and a typical estimating process to derive a good estimate. A computer simulation of a simple construction estimating process presents an opportunity for students to meet the challenge. One hundred and nine junior year students in a construction management department at a major state university in the southeastern United States participated in the study. The experimental group had sixty students using the simulation; while the control group had forty-nine students without using the simulation. The results showed that the simulation significantly improved students in learning both estimating concepts and processes (p = .05) and a significant portion (90%) of students felt that the simulation was helpful in learning estimating, but inconsistencies exist. The authors also identified and discussed limitations related to the findings.     

Corrigendum of ‘A deterministic model for a repairable item inventory system with a finite repair rate’

The main purpose of this corrigendum is to indicate and rectify the same mistakes made by Schrady (1967 Schrady, D. A. 1967. “A Deterministic Inventory Model for Repairable Items.” Naval Research Logistics Quarterly 14: 391–398.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Nahmias and Rivera (1979 Nahmias, S., and H. Rivera. 1979. “A Deterministic Model for a Repairable Item Inventory System with a Finite Repair Rate.” International Journal of Production Research 17: 215–221.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and Teunter (2004 Teunter, R. H. 2004. “Lot-Sizing for Inventory Systems with Product Recovery.” Computers and Industrial Engineering 46: 431–441.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in the course of solving their respective models in order that subsequent researchers will not follow the same. To this end, we derive the corresponding correct global-optimal formulae for the substitution-policy model (1,?n), with infinite or finite recovery (or called repair) rate, using differential calculus, as well as providing a closed-form expression to identify the optimal positive integral value of n recovery set-ups. In addition, we also rectify the formulae and solution procedure for numerically solving the constrained non-linear programme.     

A B2B flexible pricing decision support system for managing the request for quotation process under e-commerce business environment

In the era of digitalisation, e-commerce retail sites have become decisive channels for reaching millions of potential customers worldwide. Digital marketing strategies are formulated by the marketing teams in order to increase the traffic on their e-commerce sites, thereby boosting the sales of the products. With the massive amount of data available from the cloud, which were conventionally made with a high degree of intuition based on decision makers’ knowledge and experience, can now be supported with the application of artificial intelligence techniques. This paper introduces a novel approach in applying the fuzzy association rule mining approach and the fuzzy logic technique, for discovering the factors influencing the pricing decision of products launched in e-commerce retail site, and in formulating flexible, dynamic pricing strategies for each product launched in an e-commerce site. A pricing decision support system for B2B e-commerce retail businesses, namely Smart-Quo, is developed and implemented in a Hong Kong-based B2B e-commerce retail company. A six-month pilot run reveals a significant improvement in terms of the efficiency and effectiveness in making pricing decisions on each product. The case study demonstrates the feasibility and potential benefits of applying artificial intelligence techniques in marketing management in today’s digital age.     

Effective joining method for pseudo-ductile permanent formwork

A novel joining method for permanent formwork, involving the embedment of GFRP in high-strength fiber reinforced cementitious composites (HSFRCC), is proposed. Direct pull-out test is carried out to investigate the bonding capacity between the HSFRCC and GFRP reinforcement. From the experimental data, interfacial parameters are extracted for calculating the required embedded length of GFRP bars to ensure sufficient bonding capacity. According to the test results, the required embedded length of GFRP bars is obtained and the joint width thus can be determined. To further verify the joining method, beam members made with joined and monolithic PDCC formwork are prepared and tested under four point bending. The comparison indicates only about 5 % difference between the load capacities in the two cases. Besides, the worse scenario in the test that the joint was placed at the location with the maximum moment would rarely happen in practice.     

A comparison of engineered cementitious composites versus normal concrete in beam-column joints under reversed cyclic loading

Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) are a class of high-performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite with strain hardening and multiple cracking properties. For a reinforced concrete member, substitution of conventional concrete with ECC can significantly improve the deformation characteristics in terms of reinforced composite tensile or shear strength and energy dissipation ability. In this paper, a number of RC/ECC composite beam-column joints have been tested under reversed cyclic loading to study the effect of substitution of concrete with ECC in the joint zone on the seismic behaviors of composite members. The experimental parameters include shear reinforcement ratio in the joint zone, axial load level on the column and substitution of concrete with ECC or not. According to the test results, for the specimens without shear reinforcement in the joint zone, substitution of concrete with ECC in the joint zone cannot change the brittle shear failure in the joint zone, but can significantly increase the load capacity and ductility of the beam-column joint specimens, as well as the energy dissipation ability due to high ductility and shear strength of ECC material. For the specimens with insufficient or proper shear reinforcement ratio, substitution of concrete with ECC in the joint zone can lead to failure mode change from brittle shear failure in the joint zone to a more ductile failure mode, i.e. flexural failure at the base of the beam, with increased load capacity, ductility and energy dissipation ability. Increase of axial load on column and shear reinforcement in the joint zone have little effect on seismic behaviors of the members when they failed by flexural failure at the base of beam. In a word, the substitution of concrete with ECC in the joint zone was experimentally proved to be an effective method to increase the seismic resistance of beam-column joint specimens.