Decision support system for multiproject scheduling of resources in blood collection programmes

A model of a repetitive multiproject management is introduced that includes uncertainties in activity durations, and the corresponding quantities of resources needed. Following the convention, a project is viewed here as a network of related activities aimed at the accomplishment of a predetermined objective at a given deadline. A project has a starting point in time and a preplanned completion point and so does each activity within it. The structural and operational characteristics described here are drawn from organization and management theories and used to describe project organization. This is demonstrated by means of field data gathered from a sample of ‘bloodmobile projects’ - an organized effort for the collection of blood donations in support of medical needs.     

水电项目竣工环保验收报告编制技术要点研究

本文在水电项目生态环境影响调查,水、气、声环境质量调查和移民安置调查的基础上,重点分析施工期环保措施落实情况、竣工后环境恢复措施和项目建设前后周围环境质量变化情况,结合环境影响评价(EIA)和公众参与调查结论,确定水电项目竣工环保验收调查报告编制技术要点,为水电项目竣工环保验收调查报告编制的规范化、程序化提供一定的参考依据。     

建设单位在工程项目中的风险管理

工程项目的风险贯穿于项目的各个阶段,针对目前大多数建设单位认为在工程项目管理中处于有利地位,风险意识淡薄的情况,在对建设单位在工程项目管理中可能遇到的风险进行较为全面分析的基础上,提出了建设单位工程项目风险管理应采取的措施.     

Why do individuals engage in collective actions against major construction projects? —An empirical analysis based on Chinese data

Collective actions against major construction projects are becoming common because of the public’s increasing civil rights awareness and environmental consciousness. Thus, it is important to explore the critical factors responsible for collective actions against major construction projects. This study initially developed 25 indicators inducing collective actions based on a comprehensive literature review. An empirical study with 127 samples was conducted using questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews from projects located in Central China. Furthermore, ranking analysis and factor analyses were implemented to conclude that collective actions in major construction projects can be explained by a six-dimension critical factor system: benefits to the public, characteristics of project performers, layout of projects, living quality of the public, perceptions of the public, and influence from the authority. This study contributes to government administration for collective actions against major construction projects and serves as a useful reference for further studies of this type.     

Analysis of the risk-sharing ratio in PPP projects based on government minimum revenue guarantees

Public-private partnership (PPP) projects have been widely applied in infrastructure construction. A suitable risk distribution strategy is crucial for promoting negotiations between the government and investors. The government usually provides guarantees to investors to distribute risk. However, an excessive guarantee increases the government's financial burden, whereas an insufficient guarantee reduces the confidence of the investors participating in the project. In a minimum revenue guarantee (MRG), the government subsidizes the investors the difference between the actual revenue and the government guarantee line if there is a loss. In PPP power plant and highway projects, investors' revenues come from two sources: government guarantees and the project company's self-sale. To support project companies and to optimize the projects' benefits, the government should set a reasonable benchmark for purchase amounts. Based on the traditional principal-agent model, this paper introduces the reciprocal preference theory to analyze the risk-sharing ratio most suitable for the government. Then, an optimal incentive mechanism is established to guarantee the project's income. The results indicate that by setting a different guarantee strategy for different participants, the government can utilize reciprocal preference to incentivize investors to exert more effort during a partnership and avoid moral hazard.     

多隧洞输水工程进水口整流措施研究

多隧洞输水工程进水口控制段布置不合理往往会引起各隧洞分流不均,从而导致过流能力不足或空气进入有压隧洞的问题。以某水资源配置工程的倒虹吸为例,针对其进口控制段分流不均的现象,通过模型试验进行了分流墩、整流池以及底坎与整流池组合等整流措施的研究。试验成果表明:分流墩结构型式简单,利用其导向功能可较好地解决两洞分流不均问题;整流池通过改变水流的急缓流状态实现水流的横向均化,可达到多隧洞均匀分流的目的,但需要较长的池长,经济性略差;整流池与底坎组合措施横向均化水流的原理和效果与整流池相同,加设底坎可较大程度地缩短池长,其经济性较优。     

Mass Customisation: Designed in China,Produced Globally

Given the right level of creativity and entrepreneurship, designing for customised 3D printing can offer highly profitable business opportunities anywhere in the world. Xuberance is a case in point. Set up in Shanghai in 2014, the firm's innovative approach to working in both business-to-business and consumer markets has earned it huge international recognition and commercial success in an astoundingly short time. Cofounder and Chief Design Officer Steven Ma outlines the journey so far.     

Collaboration barriers in BIM-based construction networks: A conceptual model

Building information modelling (BIM) teams, hereafter referred to as BIM-based construction networks, are teams whose possibly geographically dispersed members from various organisations and disciplines, perform project tasks on BIM-enabled projects. In recent years, BIM-based construction networks have progressively become the norm in executing BIM activities on projects. However, even though achieving BIM's full capabilities relies on effective collaboration among the team members in BIM-based construction networks, it is still a struggle for these members to collaborate. Nonetheless, only a few studies have been conducted to identify the barriers to strengthening team collaboration in BIM-based construction networks. To address this gap, the current study, by examining 73 journal articles on collaboration in BIM-based construction networks, builds upon a theoretical review of the literature. A conceptual model is presented to capture the main barriers to collaboration in BIM-based construction networks. The study benefits researchers as well as project managers. For researchers, the conceptual model provides an intermediate theory, namely, a theoretical basis to direct further knowledge creation attempts on the topic. In addition, the conceptual model supports project managers on BIM-enabled projects. That is, it simplifies the knowledge now available for practical applications enabling it to be translated into guidelines and practical instructions on real-life projects.     

Politics,public servants,and profits: Institutional complexity and temporary hybridization in a public infrastructure alliance project

Public infrastructure projects must comply with the divergent and even conflicting demands of multiple institutional logics causing institutional complexity. Despite the increasing interest in different forms of complexities in projects, we lack empirical illustrations and rigorous theorizing of mechanisms for responding to institutional complexity. This paper demonstrates how public buyers of a tunnel construction project formed a hybrid organization of a multi-party project alliance to respond to institutional complexity. We delineate a process of temporary hybridization through which the competing logics of a bureaucratic state, corporate market, and multiple professions were combined within the temporary project alliance organization. Such temporary hybridization not only focused on selective coupling with external demands but also mitigated internal tensions. Our findings emphasize a blended organizational structure, jointly formed governance and incentive systems, and the facilitation of social interaction to build a temporary yet sustainable hybrid organization capable of combining conflicting institutional logics.     

Environmental Considerations for a Proposed Tolled Highway Project

As federal dollars available for highway projects are tightened and as demand for more highway capacity continues to increase, transportation officials seek more innovative financing methods. One of the more common methods has been to toll new highway projects. Recently, tollways also have been considered for existing, free-access roadways, i.e., nontolled, infrastructure segments. Transportation planners must consider that this so-called “innovative” financing technique, i.e., the decision to toll existing and new roadways, is subject to provisions of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). This renewed interest in tolling mandates that transportation planners revisit the requirements of NEPA, and in this context, its applicability to decisions to toll roads for financing of highway projects. NEPA requires that, prior to construction of a bridge or highway, the head of the federal agency that is committing funds to the project must evaluate the effect of the project on the human environment; the effect of the project on the habitat of an endangered species, which implicates provisions of the Endangered Species Act; the effect of the project on any historic properties in the vicinity of the project, which implicates provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act, and the effect of the project on minority or low-income-populations, called environmental justice, which implicates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this paper, we analyze the requirements of NEPA as they relate to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The interrelation of the two acts now mandates that the transportation planner consider an environmental justice concept in planning for highway and bridge projects. The intent of this paper is to provide some guidance to transportation planners in light of the environmental justice issues implicated by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as they begin the planning stages for highway and bridge projects.