Beyond the third dimension of BIM:A systematic review of literature and assessment of professional views

Across the world, the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the three-dimensional (3D) model in projects are increasingly frequent for supporting design tasks. The digital data embodied in the BIM model is shared between the project stakeholders from the various disciplines. After giving an overview of the BIM 3D Model data used for planning (4D) and costing (5D), the study assesses the level of clarity or confusion on what the numbers of dimension refer to after the 5th dimension. A systematic review of the different BIM dimensions was conducted associated with an online questionnaire sent to various Architecture, Engineering and Construction stakeholders across Europe. The online questionnaire survey was limited to the 28 European Union (EU) countries. Each of the 28 EU countries was represented by at least one respondent. The research identified 52 papers considering BIM 4D Model, 15 considering 5D modelling, 6 considering the 6D Model and 2 considering the 7D. It was also identified a confusion between academics and practitioners for the 6D and 7D BIM dimensions. In fact, 86% of the professionals, actually using 6D, allocate Sustainability to 6D. Whereas 85% of the professionals using 7D allocate it to Facility Management.</p

Mass schooling, empowerment, and demographic and economic outcomes: a note of disent

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Corporate governance, competition, the new international financial architecture and large corporations in emerging markets

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive environment being caused by the enormous international merger movement in advanced countries. The paper's main conclusions include: the thesis that the deeper causes of the Asian crisis were the flawed systems of corporate governance and a poor competitive environment in the affected countries is not supported by the evidence; emerging markets, as well as European countries, have successful records of fast long-term growth with different governance systems, indeed superior to those of Anglo-Saxon countries; corporate financing patterns in emerging markets in the 1990s continue to be anomalous, as they were in the 1980s; and the claim that developing country conglomerates are inefficient and financially precarious is not supported by evidence or analysis.Corporate governance, competition, emerging markets.

Indigenous territories and tropical forest management in Latin America

Using data from Latin America, the authors argue that fundamental changes must take place in the legal recognition and demarcation of indigenous territories if indigenous peoples are to fulfill their potential as resource managers for threatened tropical forest ecosystems. The authors compare different national land tenure models for forest-dwelling indigenous peoples (contained in national Indian, agrarian, and protected-area laws in Latin America) and a model proposed by indigenous organizations in Latin America. The conventional models emerged during an era when most governments were more concerned with the rapid occupation and exploitation of frontier zones and the assimilation of indigenous peoples. Recent attention to the environmental degradation of these areas and the need to create alternative models of land use and development have directed attention to the potential contribution of indigenous peoples to the conservation and management of the vast tropical forests of Latin America. The authors find that indigenous peoples must be given some degree of control over their territories and resources. They contend that for successful management of tropical forests there must be a new type of partnership between indigenous peoples, the scientific community, national governments, and international development agencies. This relationship should be a contractual one, in which indigenous peoples are provided with juridical recognition and control over large areas of forest in exchange for a commitment to conserve the ecosystem and preserve biodiversity.Municipal Financial Management,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Forestry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Corporate Governance, Competetion, The new International Financial Architecture and Large Corporations in Emerging Markets

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive environment being caused by the enormous international merger movement in advanced countries. The background to a) above is the emergence of corporate governance as a key issue in the current G7 proposals for the New International Financial Architecture. The G7 emphasis on corporate governance can be traced back to the thesis that the ‘deeper’ reasons for the Asian crisis lay in the microeconomic behaviour of corporations and businesses in the affected countries. The failings of the corporate governance mechanisms and distortions in the competitive process have received special scrutiny in such analyses. With respect to b) above, the context is that the largest corporations in advanced countries are currently in the process of potentially cartelising the world market place through a spate of cross-border mergers and take-overs. This huge merger movement raises serious policy concerns for developing countries. The paper's main conclusions are: 1. The thesis that the deeper causes of the Asian crisis were the flawed systems of corporate governance and a poor competitive environment in the affected countries is not supported by evidence. 2. The Anglo-Saxon model of widely held corporations with dispersed share ownership is by far the exception in developing countries and in much of continental Europe. Empirical evidence suggests that emerging markets, as well as European countries such as Italy, Sweden or Germany have successful records of fast long-term growth with different governance systems, indeed superior to those of Anglo-Saxon countries. 3. Empirical evidence does not support the view that the Asian crisis 1997 to 1999 was caused by crony capitalism. 4. Corporate financing patterns in emerging markets in the 1990s were broadly similar to those observed in the 1980s. Unlike their counterparts in advanced countries, large developing countries firms continued to rely overwhelmingly on external sources to finance their growth of total assets. 5. The analysis of this paper does not support the claim that developing country conglomerates are inefficient, financially precarious and necessarily create moral hazard. It also indicates that contrary to widely held beliefs, product market competition in emerging countries is no less intense than in advanced economies. Acknowledgements Please do not quote without permission from the authors. Comments are most welcome.Competition; Corporate Governance; Emerging Markets

Coded Index Modulation for Non-DC-Biased OFDM in Multiple LED Visible Light Communication

Use of multiple light emitting diodes (LED) is an attractive way to increase spectral efficiency in visible light communications (VLC). A non-DC-biased OFDM (NDC OFDM) scheme that uses two LEDs has been proposed in the literature recently. NDC OFDM has been shown to perform better than other OFDM schemes for VLC like DC-biased OFDM (DCO OFDM) and asymmetrically clipped OFDM (ACO OFDM) in multiple LEDs settings. In this paper, we propose an efficient multiple LED OFDM scheme for VLC which uses {\em coded index modulation}. The proposed scheme uses two transmitter blocks, each having a pair of LEDs. Within each block, NDC OFDM signaling is done. The selection of which block is activated in a signaling interval is decided by information bits (i.e., index bits). In order to improve the reliability of the index bits at the receiver (which is critical because of high channel correlation in multiple LEDs settings), we propose to use coding on the index bits alone. We call the proposed scheme as CI-NDC OFDM (coded index NDC OFDM) scheme. Simulation results show that, for the same spectral efficiency, CI-NDC OFDM that uses LDPC coding on the index bits performs better than NDC OFDM

Generalized Spatial Modulation in Indoor Wireless Visible Light Communication

In this paper, we investigate the performance of generalized spatial modulation (GSM) in indoor wireless visible light communication (VLC) systems. GSM uses $N_t$ light emitting diodes (LED), but activates only $N_a$ of them at a given time. Spatial modulation and spatial multiplexing are special cases of GSM with $N_{a}=1$ and $N_{a}=N_t$, respectively. We first derive an analytical upper bound on the bit error rate (BER) for maximum likelihood (ML) detection of GSM in VLC systems. Analysis and simulation results show that the derived upper bound is very tight at medium to high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The channel gains and channel correlations influence the GSM performance such that the best BER is achieved at an optimum LED spacing. Also, for a fixed transmission efficiency, the performance of GSM in VLC improves as the half-power semi-angle of the LEDs is decreased. We then compare the performance of GSM in VLC systems with those of other MIMO schemes such as spatial multiplexing (SMP), space shift keying (SSK), generalized space shift keying (GSSK), and spatial modulation (SM). Analysis and simulation results show that GSM in VLC outperforms the other considered MIMO schemes at moderate to high SNRs; for example, for 8 bits per channel use, GSM outperforms SMP and GSSK by about 21 dB, and SM by about 10 dB at $10^{-4}$ BER

The prospects for an imminent demographic dividend in Africa: The case for cautious optimism

This paper looks at the prospects of a demographic dividend in Africa in the near future. While acknowledging that the fertility declines which change population age structures and thus dependency ratios have been slow to begin and often seem to have stalled once they have begun, we nevertheless conclude that there are many underlying features of Africa today which might hasten the process. These features have to do with some of the preconditions under which fertility fell in other parts of the world - such as economic development, social modernization, mortality decline and a rise in 'natural' fertility - but also include the fact that the global world today is again, after a hiatus, interested in and proactively working towards investments in voluntary family planning. All these conditions are conducive to faster fertility decline than in the past and with the right policies could allow the region to exploit this demographic window of opportunity. We also comment on some of the economic implications of a demographic dividend in Africa, including the helpful fact that when it occurs, the economic impact of a relatively larger labour force may be enhanced because of, unlike in some other parts of the world, the historical and cultural acceptance of women in the labour force

Women's economic roles and child survival: the case of India

This article provides evidence that women’s employment, in spite of its other benefits, probably has one crucial adverse consequence: a higher level of child mortality than is found among women who do not work. We examine various intermediate mechanisms for this relationship and conclude that a shortage of time is one of the major reasons for this negative relation between maternal employment and child survival. However, even in the area of child survival, there is one aspect which is positively affected by female employment: the disadvantage to girls in survival which is characteristic of South Asia seems to be smaller among working mothers. This is in contrast to the effect of maternal education which may often have no clear relation to the sex ratio of childhood mortality even though absolute levels of child mortality are lower for educated mothers

The International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994. Is its Plan of Action important, desirable and feasible?

A Postscript to Our Forum of Volume 6(1):71-122. We received two further contributions to the debate featured in the Forum in our last issue. The papers speak for themselves and I will not attempt any further synthesis, except to note that each brings up important issues not fully covered in the previous Forum. John C. Caldwel