The concept of a “digital twin” as a model for data-driven management and control of physical systems has emerged over the past decade in the domains of manufacturing, production, and operations. In the context of buildings and civil infrastructure, the notion of a digital twin remains ill-defined, with little or no consensus among researchers and practitioners of the ways in which digital twin processes and data-centric technologies can support design and construction. This paper builds on existing concepts of Building Information Modeling (BIM), lean project production systems, automated data acquisition from construction sites and supply chains, and artificial intelligence to formulate a mode of construction that applies digital twin information systems to achieve closed loop control systems. It contributes a set of four core information and control concepts for digital twin construction (DTC), which define the dimensions of the conceptual space for the information used in DTC workflows. Working from the core concepts, we propose a DTC information system workflow—including information stores, information processing functions, and monitoring technologies—according to three concentric control workflow cycles. DTC should be viewed as a comprehensive mode of construction that prioritizes closing the control loops rather than an extension of BIM tools integrated with sensing and monitoring technologies.
Global interest in e-learning is growing rapidly. This paper analyzes the distinctive synchronous and asynchronous e-learning environments and modes and their communication tools. The research question is whether an asynchronous model could be totally replaced by a synchronous model or a blend of the two better facilitates learning? The study examined distinctive communication tools alongside their uses and shortcomings. In addition, it used survey research to collect the perceptions of students on their experiences on online courses at Illinois State University, USA. The population of the study comprises of 38 students, who have prior experiences with synchronous and asynchronous e-learning courses and computermediated discussions. Based on the findings, the researcher proposes a blend of synchronous and asynchronous e-learning patterns and their communication tools to devise a supreme environment for e-learning.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve students’ problem-solving skills in civil engineering and construction management education. Design/methodology/approach The design includes structured role-playing as a pedagogical method in 21 project teams with a total of 82 undergraduate students at Chang’an University, China, in a nine-week Building Information Modeling (BIM) capstone course. The methodology is a teaching–learning experiment in a civil engineering education program with a detailed description of the empirical case and assessment instruments. The approach is to train project execution planning in a capstone course by role-playing with a real-world project using the procedures of the BIM Project Execution Planning Guide (PEPG) and process mapping. Findings The study finds that students can significantly improve their problem-solving skills through planning and role-specific communication during projects. Research limitations/implications The research sample needs to be expanded from senior-level undergraduate students to consider the different backgrounds and motivations of students. Practical implications This pedagogy is helpful to educators who are interested in group learning with a real-world project; the procedures of BIM PEPG; self-chosen responsibilities within a capstone course time framework; raising the awareness of the importance of planning; information exchange; and team cooperation. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study how role-playing in information and technology rich environments can be structured.
Abstract:The purpose of this research is to study the vulnerability of construction enterprises' innovation capabilities (CEIC) and their respective primary influencing factors. This paper proposed a vulnerability system framework of CEIC, designed two comprehensive assessments for analysis, namely the entropy and set pair analysis method (E-SPA) and the principle cluster analysis and SPA method (P-SPA), and compared grades to verify the vulnerability assessments. Further, the paper quantitatively assessed the major influencing factors in facilitating management, reducing vulnerability, and improving the ability of construction enterprises to respond to changes in the construction industry. The results showed that vulnerability could be effectively and systematically evaluated using E-SPA. However, managing or reducing entrepreneurial sensitivity and improving the ability to respond was critical to supporting sustainable CEIC. The case studies included in this paper suggested that in ensuring sustainable CEIC, companies should concentrate on highly educated human resources, R&D investments, intellectual property related innovations, and government support. This research provided a practical framework and established a sustainable strategy for companies to manage their vulnerability in developing innovation capability. In addition, this research presented an innovative and effective way to quantitatively analyze vulnerability which offered a foundation to signify a new paradigm shift in construction sustainable development.
The structure of hexanuclear 6-methyl-2-pyridinethiolato copper(I) [Cu6(6-mpyt)(6)] crystals has been studied by the X-ray diffraction analysis. These crystals show highly efficient luminescence whose color changes drastically from red to green-blue with lowering temperature from room temperature (RT) to liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT). This is a new example of luminescence thermochromism for hexanuclear copper(I) cluster compounds. Two relaxed luminescence bands appear predominantly: one (CC-band), red luminescence appearing in the lower-energy region around 1.8 eV at higher temperature, is assigned to the transition between intramolecular orbitals (MO) of a Cu cluster center (CC), and the other (CT-band), green-blue luminescence appearing at the higher energy side of 2.6 eV than the CC-band at lower temperature, is assigned to a charge transfer (CT) transition from the CC-MO to a ligand MO. Additionally, the CT band can be deconvoluted to two subbands CT(L) and CT(H). The intensities of the CC- and the CT-bands change complementarily with temperature via a thermal activation process, giving the thermochromism. All of these band shapes can be fitted by a Gaussian function, and their widths are fairly large obeying the hyperbolic cotangent law. These features reflect our system to be a strong electron-lattice coupling one. The relaxation process of the photoexcited states is discussed in terms of a configuration coordinate model.
Abstract:The purpose of this research is to quantitatively evaluate the growth phase, position, and priorities of the industrialization policy management of the construction industry at firm level. The goal is to integrate quantitative dynamics into the policy-making process for sustainable policy development in future China. This research proposes an integrated framework, including growth management model and industrial policy evaluation method, to identify the challenges of construction industrialization and policy management. The research applies the mixed system method, which includes entropy method and average score method, to analyze the growth stage and major impact indexes targeting 327 survey samples. The empirical results show that the proposed conceptual framework and policy evaluation method could effectively determine the growth position and directions of the construction industrialization. For verification purpose, the study uses the local industry data from Shaanxi Province, China. The calculation results substantiate that the construction industry is in the middle section of the third growth phase. The comparison of the results from statistical methods shows that the local construction industry still needs substantial effort in policy management to improve its sustainable industrialization level. As countermeasures, the policy priorities should concentrate on: (1) enhancing effective cooperation among universities, research institutions and enterprises; (2) improving actions towards technology transfer into productivity; and (3) encouraging market acceptance of construction industrialization. This research complements the existing literature of policy evaluation of construction industrialization. Moreover, it provides theoretical and operational steps on industry policy evaluation and growth management framework, with accurate and ample data analysis on firm-level survey. Researchers and policy makers can use this research for further extensions of policy management for construction industrialization.
A hybrid heuristic attack scheme that combines the hill climbing algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to speed up the search procedure and to obtain a more accurate solution to the original key in the Fourier plane encryption algorithm. And a unit cycle is adopted to analyze the value space of the random phase. The experimental result shows that our scheme can obtain more accurate solution to the key that can achieve better decryption result both for the selected encrypted image and another unseen ciphertext image. The searching time is significantly reduced while without any exceptional case in searching procedure. For an image of 64x64 pixels, our algorithm costs a comparatively short computing time, about 1 minute, can retrieve the approximated key with the normalized root mean squared error 0.1, therefore, our scheme makes the known-plaintext attack on the Fourier plane image encryption more practical, stable, and effective.
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