Interpolatory type construction of general aggregation operators

In this chapter we examine a number of methods to construct aggregation operators of interpolatory type for specific applications. The construction is based on the desired values of the aggregation operator at certain prototypical points, and on other desired properties, such as, conjuctive, disjunctive or averaging behaviour, symmetry and marginals.

Exploring intersectoral linkages between real estate and construction

Even though linkages have attracted a lot of research interest, few researchers focus on the intersectoral linkages between two specific sectors. This research therefore proposes an indirect intersectoral linkage measure model to explore linkages between the real estate and construction sectors using the Hypothetical Extraction Method (HEM). Using the OECD input-output tables, the direct, total intersectoral linkages and the proposed indirect intersectoral linkages are explored and tested respectively for seven OECD countries over twenty years. The findings describe that the intersectoral linkages from construction to real estate are larger than those from real estate to construction. The statistical testing results imply that the proposed indirect intersectoral linkage measure method seems to be appropriate to analyse the intersectoral linkage between the construction and real estate sectors.

Machismo and the construction of immigrant latin American masculinities

While a growing number of North American authors have researched Latin American men and masculinities within Latin America as well as the experiences of Latin American men migrating to the United States, there has been little research on the specific issues facing Latin American men in Australia. In this chapter we explore the experiences in Australia of a variety of male migrants from Latin America through three key elements which emerged through our research: the importance of men as 'providers' for the family and the place in men's sense of self; the changing nature of men's and women's roles and statuses in Australian society and their difference from Latin America; and the shifting nature of what constitutes 'home' and a sense of belonging for Latin American men. In addressing the issues that the men face, we also examine the nature of the discourses on machismo and the almost fetishised nature of its oversimplified usage in relation to Latin American men generally and in defining their identities in Australia.

The development of a neo-industrial organisation methodology for describing and comparing structural and behavioural characteristics of construction supply chains

The model draws from theories of industrial economics and supply chain literature, and is an attempt to advance the construction supply chain field through the development of an industrial organisational methodology to describe construction supply chains.
Empirical studies have examined the industrial organisation of other industries, typically forming descriptions based upon vertical integration and horizontal market concentration. A review of the trends in the supply chain literature indicate there is a need to develop a model to describe the industrial organisation of the construction industry through supply chain structure. The merging of the supply chain concept with the industrial organisation model as a methodology for understanding the structural characteristics is an important contribution to construction economic theory. The paper begins to develop a language for describing the structure and behaviour of supply chains specific to the construction industry and is so doing suggests a neo-industrial organisation approach.

Community school teacher education and the construction of pedagogical discourse in Papua New Guinea

Pedagogical discourse in Papua New Guinea (PNG) community schooling is mediated by a western styles education. The daily administration and organisation of school activity, graded teaching and learning, subject selection, content boundaries, teaching and assessment methods are all patterned after western schooling. This educational settlement is part of a legacy of German, British and Australian government and non-government colonialism that officially came to an end in 1975. Given the colonial heritage of schooling in PNG, this study is interested in exploring particular aspects of the degree of mutuality between local discourses and the discourses of a western styled pedagogy in post-colonial times, for the purpose of better informing community school teacher education practices. This research takes place at and in the vicinity of Madang Teachers College, a pre-service community school teachers college on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The research was carried out in the context of the researcher’s employment as a contract lecturer in the English language Department between 1991-1993. As an in-situ study it was influenced by the roles of different participants and the circumstances in which data was gathered and constituted, data which was compatible with participants commitments to community school teacher education and community school teaching and learning. In the exploration of specific pedagogic practices different qualitative research approaches and perspectives were brought to bear in ways best suited to the circumstances of the practice. In this way analytical foci were more dictated by circumstances rather by design. The analytical approach is both a hermeneutic one where participants’ activities are ‘read like texts’, where what is said or written is interpreted against the background of other informing contexts and texts, to better understand how understandings and meanings are produced and circulated; and also a phenomenological one where participants’ perspectives are sought to better understand how pedagogical discursive formations are assimilated with the ‘self’. The effect of shifting between these approaches throughout the study is to build up a sense of co-authorship between researcher and participants in relation to particular aspects of the research. The research explores particular sites where pedagogic discourse is produced, re-produced, distributed, articulated, consumed and contested, and in doing so seeks to better understand what counts as pedagogical discourse. These are sites that are largely unexplored in these terms, in the academic literature on teacher education and community schooling in PNG. As such, they represent gaps in what is documented and understood about the nature of post-colonial pedagogy and teacher training. The first site is a grade two community school class involved in the teaching and early learning of English as the ‘official’ language of instruction. Here local discourses of solidarity and agreement are seen to be mobilised to make meaningful, what are for the teacher and children moments in their construction as post-colonial subjects. What in instructional terms may be seen as an English language lesson becomes, in the light of the research perspectives used, an exercise in the structuring of new social identities, relations and knowings, problematising autonomous views of teaching and learning. The second site explores this issue of autonomous (decontextualised) teaching and learning through an investigation of student teachers’ epistemological contextualisations of knowledge, teaching and learning. What is examined is the way such orientations are constructed in terms of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ epistemological and pedagogical alignments, and, in terms of differently conceived notions of community, in a problematisation of the notion of community schooling. The third and fourth sites examine reflective accounts of student teachers’ pedagogic practices, understandings and subjectivities as they confront the moral and political economies and cultural politics of schooling in School Experiences and Practicum contexts, and show how dominant behaviourist and ‘rational/autonomous’ conceptions of what counts as teaching and learning are problematised in the way some students teachers draw upon wider social discourses to construct a dialogue with learners. The final site is a return to the community school where the discourse of school reports through which teachers, children and parents are constructed as particular subjects of schooling, are explored. Here teachers report children’s progress over a four year period and parents write back in conforming, confronting and contesting ways, in the midst of the ongoing enculturation of their children. In this milieu, schooling is shown to be a provider of differentiated social qualifications rather than a socially just and relevant education. Each of the above-mentioned studies form part of a research and pedagogic interest in understanding the ‘disciplining’ effects of schooling upon teacher education, the particular consequences of those effects, what is embraces, resisted and hidden. Each of the above sites is informed by various ‘intertexts’. The use of intertexts is designed to provide a multiplicity of views, actions and voices while enhancing the process of cross-cultural reading through contextualising the studies in ways that reveal knowledges and practices which are often excluded in more conventional accounts of teaching and learning. This research represents a journey, but not an aimless one. It is one which reads the ideological messages of coherence, impartiality and moral soundness of western pedagogical discourse against the school experiences of student-teachers, teachers, children and parents, in post-colonial Papua New Guinea, and finds them lacking.

Electrospinning of nanofibres for construction of vital organ replacements

This paper described the production of a novel biosynthetic material using the manufacturing technique of electro spinning for the construction of scaffold for organ replacement. This electrostatic technique uses an electric field to control the deposition of polymer fibres onto a specific substrate to fabricate fibrous polymer constructs composed of fibre diameters ranging from several microns down to 100 nm or less. Two areas of research, in particular, heart valve leaflets and blood vessel will be discussed. Here, a sandwich structure nanofibre mesh was used to construct materials for leaflets of heart valve and blood vessel. In the case of heart valve leaflet, the randomly oriented polyurethane nanofibres were prepared as the first layer, followed by gelatin-chitosan complex layer. Complex nanofibres were initially used to spin on the PU layer with cross orientation to mimic the fibrosa layer. A gelatin and chitosan complex was then spun onto the other side of PU nanofibre mesh to mimic the ventricularis layer. This particular sandwich structure using the PU layer was designed to simulate the mechanical properties of natural tissue. In addition, this design was aimed to provide good biocompatibility and improved cellular environment to assist in adhesion and proliferation. Smooth muscle cells adhered and flattened out onto the surface of the gelatin-chitosan complex as early as 1 day post seeding. There is great potential for this biosynthetic biocompatible nanofibrous material to be developed for various clinical applications.

Developing reflexive capability for successful joint ventures between Australian and Malaysian property and construction professionals

Increasingly Malaysian property and construction firms are seeking to work internationally. Firms enter international markets through various strategies and typically property and construction professionals rely on developing various forms of cooperative and collaborative arrangements. The common modes of entry include international alliances, project joint ventures, partnerships, company joint ventures and large consortiums; which arise as a response to clients seeking expressions of interests from the international community or the firms seeking to internationalise approaching clients and/or potential host country partners. Increasingly project teams on international mega projects are composed of multiple key partners from different countries coming together to achieve a higher level of strategic flexibility. Establishing and maintaining local connections and business networks are therefore critical to ensure the success of exporting firms. This paper reports the findings of a project which explores factors affecting the performance of Malaysian property and construction professionals working internationally through effective joint ventures. The project seeks to develop a performance measurement framework to examine the extent to which Malaysian firms are developing sustainable business models internationally which adapt and respond to changing conditions. A generic framework was initially developed prior to this study through a grounded theory approach merging theory from internationalisation, design management and market knowledge literature followed by a case study empirical investigation and then further literature review based upon the themes which emerged from the case study analysis. A reflexive capability model for firms in managing both economic and non-economic capital; including social, cultural and intellectual capital was developed. This project seeks to build upon the reflexive model by adapting it to the unique contexts related to the specific geographic localities of exporting Malaysian firms. Specifically, the project explores the extent to which the performance measurement framework can be used to map capabilities Malaysian construction firms have and Which they need to develop in relation to developing and maintaining international collaborative partnerships. The preliminary results of one case study Malaysian architectural firm are discussed.

Relationship between indices of adiposity obtained by peripheral quantitative computed tomography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in pre-pubertal children

Background/Aim: The study investigated the relationship between indices of adiposity measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in pre-pubertal children.

Subjects and methods: DXA-derived per cent body fat (%BF) was measured in 284 boys and 288 girls, aged 7–10 years. Cross-sections of the forearm (n=427) and lower leg (n=560) were obtained by pQCT to measure total cross-sectional area of the limb (Total CSA), Muscle CSA, Fat CSA, %Fat CSA (Fat CSA/Total CSA×100) and muscle density.

Results: Peripheral QCT-derived %Fat CSA in the forearm and lower leg correlated strongly with DXA-derived %BF (r=0.83–0.89, p<0.01) in both boys and girls. However, forearm and lower leg %Fat CSA were higher than whole body %BF by 5% and 10%, respectively. A better prediction of whole-body %BF was achieved by including %Fat CSA, muscle density and height into a hierarchical regression model. Using sex-specific regression equations, 87.7% of the boys and 83.7% of the girls had a predicted %BF within 3% units of the %BF obtained by DXA.

Conclusion: In pre-pubertal children, pQCT measures of adiposity are strongly associated with whole-body per cent body fat. This reproducible method could be an alternative technique to estimate body composition in this population.

Critical success factors for stakeholder management: construction practitioners' perspectives

Although various factors have been identified as important for accomplishing successful stakeholder management, few studies appear to have undertaken a comparative analysis of practitioners’ views on the relative importance of critical success factors (CSFs) for stakeholder management in construction projects. In an attempt to fill this research gap, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong to collect the opinions of construction practitioners regarding the relative importance of CSFs for stakeholder management. Findings from this study show that all 15 selected CSFs are regarded as critical by most respondents for the success of stakeholder management in construction projects. The factor regarding social responsibilities is considered most important for managing stakeholders. Although correlations between CSFs and types of projects and organizations were statistically significant, these were not particularly strong. Also, even though there is a general consensus on the rankings of the CSFs among different respondents, the detailed pairwise comparisons actually show the existence of a few differences in perceptions on the relative importance of the CSFs. Therefore, the working priorities of project managers for managing stakeholders are context specific, depending on the nature, client sector, and cost of the project, and also on their organizations and management levels in the organization. These findings should help project managers become more aware of their responsibilities and the relative importance of issues for management stakeholders.

Consumer concerns about food and health : examination of general and specific relationships with personal values and demographics

Purpose – Aims to investigate the relationships between consumers' food concerns and their personal values and demographic characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was administered in a cross sectional random population survey conducted among a sample of 1,000 adults in South Australia. The questionnaire elicited information about respondents' concerns about 20 food and health issues, the perceived importance of 23 values items derived from the Schwartz values inventory, and their demographic characteristics.

Findings – Principal components analyses derived four food concerns factors and six personal values factors. Respondents' safety concerns scores were positively associated with devout-tradition, order-discipline, and moderate-independent values. Their disease concerns score was positively linked to beauty-nature, devout-tradition, and order-discipline. Multiple regression and chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) analyses showed that individual values items were strong predictors of consumers; specific concerns such as food and heart disease, and, genetic modification of foods.

Research limitations/implications – The research was based on a cross sectional study. More refined indices of food concerns and personal values should be used in replications of this preliminary study.

Practical implications – The findings support the use of psychographic market segmentation approaches in communication programs about food and health issues.

Originality/value – The findings suggest that personal values, may be stronger predictors of consumers' concerns about food and health issues than demographics. They also show that measurement level of values and concerns influence the observed strength of their relationships.

Construction graduate salaries : the real story

Construction degrees are in significant demand in Australian universities. Entry students believe that graduation will lead to well-paid industry employment. Previous studies have identified trends in graduate starting salaries, but often combine categories of graduates to produce inadequate generalisations and salary averages. This study, conducted at RMIT University, Melbourne, examined a specific cohort of construction management students and provided an insight into their employment conditions and starting salaries. The results provide useful up to date information for undergraduate students and academic staff alike.

Construction capital productivity measurement using a data envelopment analysis

During the past few decades, the construction industry has experienced a series of changes including the innovation of construction technologies and the enhancement of management strategies. These improvements should have had a considerable effect on industrial efficiency and productivity performance, but research is needed to address whether the capital productivity levels of the construction industry have in fact shown such a huge improvement. This paper aims to develop an analysis procedure to measure capital productivity changes and to reasonably quantify factors affecting productivity levels in the construction industry. Based on the data envelopment analysis method, this research has developed a novel model measuring capital productivity and has applied it to the Australian construction industry. The numerical results indicate that the average annual capital productivity levels of the construction industry are slowly growing in all the Australian states and territories except for Queensland and Western Australia. In addition, construction technologies are shown to have a close relationship with the changes in capital productivity according to the temporal-spatial comparisons of productivity indices. The research findings are expected to be beneficial for making policy and strategic decisions to improve the capital productivity performance.

Forecasting construction demand : a vector error correction model with dummy variables

Modelling the level of demand for construction is vital in policy formulation and implementation as the construction industry plays an important role in a country’s economic development process. In construction economics, research efforts on construction demand modelling and forecasting are various, but few researchers have considered the impact of global economy events in construction demand modelling. An advanced multivariate modelling technique, namely the vector error correction (VEC) model with dummy variables, was adopted to predict demand in the Australian construction market. The results of prediction accuracy tests suggest that the general VEC model and the VEC model with dummy variables are both acceptable for forecasting construction economic indicators. However, the VEC model that considers external impacts achieves higher prediction accuracy than the general VEC model. The model estimates indicate that the growth in population, changes in national income, fluctuations in interest rates and changes in householder expenditure all play significant roles when explaining variations in construction demand. The VEC model with disturbances developed can serve as an experimentation using an advanced econometrical method which can be used to analyse the effect of specific events or factors on the construction market growth.

Construction of wavelets and multiwavelets basis : a generalized method

Multiwavelets are wavelets with multiplicity r, that is r scaling functions and r wavelets, which define multiresolution analysis similar to scalar wavelets. They are advantageous over scalar wavelets since they simultaneously posse symmetry and orthogonality. In this work, a new method for constructing multiwavelets with any approximation order is presented. The method involves the derivation of a matrix equation for the desired approximation order. The condition for approximation order is similar to the conditions in the scalar case. Generalized left eigenvectors give the combinations of scaling functions required to reconstruct the desired spline or super function. The method is demonstrated by constructing a specific class of symmetric and non-symmetric multiwavelets with different approximation orders, which include Geranimo-Hardin-Massopust (GHM), Daubechies and Alperts like multi-wavelets, as parameterized solutions. All multi-wavelets constructed in this work, posses the good properties of orthogonality, approximation order and short support.

Post-adjunct reading comprehension questions and meaning construction : a case of gender study

This article explicates on how the post-adjunct reading comprehension questions existing in the Iranian high school and pre-university English textbooks affect the comprehension of the related students. It further purports to see if there is a significant gender difference in the comprehension of reading texts by these student groups. To this end, 240 third-grade high school and pre-university students (equal number of male and female) participated in this investigation. The results demonstrated a significant superiority in the subjects’ reading comprehension when they answered the texts with the post-adjunct reading comprehension questions, designed by the researchers for this purpose. The results also showed non-significant gender disparities in the comprehension of given texts.