Motivation,commitment and the use of incentives in partnerships and alliances

The use of incentives in partnering and alliancing has been seen as an important way of reinforcing collaboration in the short term and helping to build trust between clients and contractors in the long term. Yet only rarely has the impact of incentives on such relationships been discussed, let alone subjected to systematic investigation. This is despite a wealth of theory and research which brings into question the use of incentives and reinforcers as ways of generating motivation and commitment. Drawing upon this theoretical knowledge base and using evidence from a number of case studies of partnerships and alliances, this paper demonstrates how a number of important cognitive and social dimensions affect the use and impact of incentives, sometimes in ways contrary to those intended. The conclusion drawn is that there are important limitations to the use of incentives as means of reinforcing collaboration and developing commitment and trust, and that this raises questions more generally about the assumptions that underlie many of the practical ‘tools and techniques’ commonly associated with partnering and alliancing.     

Tunnel vision? Brunel's Thames Tunnel and project narratives

Looking at historical projects has much to offer our understanding of project management, for both research and practice. However, there are important challenges in how alternative narratives about such projects are reconstructed and related to each other. To explore these challenges, this paper uses the example of the Thames Tunnel project, completed under the direction of Marc Brunel in 1843, and reputed to be the first tunnel to be built under a major river. In telling the story of the project, we focus on five alternative discourses: technico-rational; practice; networks of people, things, and ideas; politics; and society. The common response to such variety is either to attempt to construct an overarching meta-narrative, or to explore the differences as a way of highlighting the localized and contingent nature of knowledge about projects, or adopt some intermediate position somewhere on the spectrum between these two extremes. Instead we seek a different route grounded in a sociology of knowledge that acknowledges simultaneous, provisional, and contested processes of division and stabilization in the ways that epistemic communities constitute knowledge through their own narratives and practices. These have implications for the stories that are told about project management and, crucially, the activities and interests that both shape and are shaped by such narratives.     

Crystallographic Structure and Ferroelectricity of (AxLa1−x)2Ti2O7 (A = Sm and Eu) Solid Solutions with High Tc

The solubility and ferroelectric properties of (A_xLa_1?x)₂Ti₂O₇ (A = Sm and Eu) solid solutions were investigated. The crystallographic structure of the solid solutions was studied using X‐ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The solubility limits of Eu and Sm in (A_xLa_1?x) ₂Ti₂O₇ were found to be greater than x = 0.5 and 0.8, respectively. The solid solutions had a monoclinic perovskite‐like layered structure (PLS), similar to that of the pure La₂Ti₂O₇, when x was less than the solubility limit. When x was above the solubility limit the materials were biphase. The biphases of (Sm_xLa_1?x)Ti₂O₇ (x = 0.9) consisted of (Sm_xLa_1?x)₂Ti₂O₇ with PLS and pure Sm₂Ti₂O₇ with pyrochlore structure, and the biphases of (Eu_xLa_1?x)Ti₂O₇ (x = 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8) consisted of (Eu_xLa_1?x)₂Ti₂O₇ with PLS structure and La³⁺ doped Eu₂Ti₂O₇ with pyrochlore structure. The effect of A‐site substitution on the properties of La₂Ti₂O₇ was investigated by measuring the dielectric permittivity and loss at different frequencies and temperatures. The highest piezoelectric constant d₃₃ was 2.8 pC/N for (Sm_0.1La_0.9)Ti₂O₇.     

New breathable films using a thermoplastic cross‐linked starch as a porogen

Breathable films, which find in variety of product applications, are conventionally made using mineral porogens such as calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). This article addresses a novel biodegradable and highly breathable film without inorganic porogens. Unexpectedly, a thermoplastic cross‐linked natural polymer (corn starch) was used successfully to create tortuous passages for film breathability. This concept was demonstrated using two types of thermoplastic cross‐linked corn starches as porogens and contrasted to control samples: native corn and chemically cross‐linked starches, respectively. The films discussed had increased breathability and mechanical properties relative to the control samples. The film morphology reveals that filler was irregular when thermoplastic starch or CaCO₃ was used. The difference in filler from chemically modified cross‐linked starch and thermoplastic cross‐linked starch was observable as well. It is believed that spherical particles provided by thermoplastic cross‐linked starch helps film debonding and porosity during the film stretch processes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 41016.     

实现无线设计过程的无缝协作

(上篇)在无线系统设计过程中依靠基于部门划分的方法,往往会给开发流程带来麻烦。使用系统级模型不仅可以解决诸多此类问题,而且能够大大改进设计流程。各家公司都在使用基于模型的设计,以整合不同的开发团队(例如,模拟和数字)和各个设计阶段(例如,设计和验证),从而获得巨大收益。     

Vehicle mass and injury risk in two-car crashes: A novel methodology

This paper introduces a novel methodology based on disaggregate analysis of two-car crash data to estimate the partial effects of mass, through the velocity change, on absolute driver injury risk in each of the vehicles involved in the crash when absolute injury risk is defined as the probability of injury when the vehicle is involved in a two-car crash. The novel aspect of the introduced methodology is in providing a solution to the issue of lack of data on the speed of vehicles prior to the crash, which is required to calculate the velocity change, as well as a solution to the issue of lack of information on non-injury two-car crashes in national accident data. These issues have often led to focussing on relative measures of injury risk that are not independent of risk in the colliding cars. Furthermore, the introduced methodology is used to investigate whether there is any effect of vehicle size above and beyond that of mass ratio, and whether there are any effects associated with the gender and age of the drivers. The methodology was used to analyse two-car crashes to investigate the partial effects of vehicle mass and size on absolute driver injury risk. The results confirmed that in a two-car collision, vehicle mass has a protective effect on its own driver injury risk and an aggressive effect on the driver injury risk of the colliding vehicle. The results also confirmed that there is a protective effect of vehicle size above and beyond that of vehicle mass for frontal and front to side collisions.     

Dynamic construction site layout planning using max-min ant system

Construction site layout planning (CSLP) is a dynamic multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem as there are different facilities employed in the different construction phases of a construction project. In this study, a new method using continuous dynamic searching scheme to guide the max-min ant system (MMAS) algorithm, which is one of the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms, to solve the dynamic CSLP problem under the two congruent objective functions of minimizing safety concerns and reducing construction cost is proposed. Using weighted sum method the MOO problem can be solved by the proposed MMAS method. An office building case was used to verify the capability of the proposed method to solve dynamic CSLP problem and the results are promising. The approach could be benchmarked by researchers using other advanced optimization algorithms to solve the same problem or expand the applications to other fields.     

Effects of ionic group incorporation into model polypeptide,poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG)

Effects of incorporation of ionic groups and ionic interactions to a model polypeptide, poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG), are studied. Partial conversion of γ-benzyl-L-glutamate residues to glutamic acid residues does not change molecular conformation (α-helix) and shows little change in properties. By contrast, partial conversion to sodium glutamates (ionic groups) leads to conversion from a rigid rod to a semi-flexible rod at low ion contents and causes significant changes in thermal stability and birefringence. In solution, lyotropic liquid crystalline behavior of PBLG is lost at ion content as low as 3.2 mol %. In solid, birefringence is still observed at this ion content, suggesting thermotropic liquid crystallinity of this ionic PBLG. Molecular composites made of ionic PBLG as a reinforcer and poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PVP) as a matrix polymer show significant enhancement in strength and toughness as a result of ion-dipole interactions between the component polymers.