Is agile project management applicable to construction?

This paper briefly summarises the evolution of Agile Project Management (APM) and differentiates it from lean and agile production and ‘leagile’ construction. The significant benefits being realized through employment of APM within the information systems industry are stated. The characteristics of APM are explored, including: philosophy, organizational attitudes and practices, planning, execution and control and learning. Finally, APM is subjectively assessed as to its potential contribution to the pre-design, design and construction phases. In conclusion, it is assessed that APM offers considerable potential for application in predesign and design but that there are significant hurdles to its adoption in the actual construction phase. Should these be overcome, APM offers benefits well beyond any individual project

The Role of Expectation in Job Search and Firm Size Effect on Wages

One of the most puzzling facts in economics is the firm size-wage effect. After controlling for the observable characteristics of workers (age, gender, education, residence etc.), firms (industry, occupation, work conditions etc.) and negotiation effect (unionization), one still finds that the sheer size of a firm increases the wage, contrary to the one-good one-price doctrine. We provide a simple dynamic game model of wage determination to give a new rationale to the firm size-wage effect. We think that the wages are not market clearing prices but strategies by firms. Firms choose wages to control workers' search behavior. The essential feature of the model is that a large firm's history of wages is observable to all the current and future workers, while a small firm is not visible and only its current offer is observable. Therefore a small firm is expected to be a myopic low-wage payer, and its workers search and quit often. A large firm can prevent search if it maintained a high wage throughout the past, thus making workers expect high future wages. In this way, the firm size determines the worker expectations of its future wages, which changes the quit rate and equilibrium wages. To give additional support to our theoretical result, we test a new aspect of firm size-wage effect. Since the effect on wage levels are extensively studied, we derive two main hypotheses on wage gains after job changes. (H1) The proportion of firms that are larger than the previous employer increases the wage gain. (H2) The size of the previous employer decreases the wage gain. The firm size distribution effect (H1) is a new test. We obtain supports for both. Thus we conclude that the wages are strategies and affected by how workers utilize the firm size information in changing jobs. (297 words.)

Chinese managers used to state control have a hard time acting as capitalists

Decision-makers act on their experience, write Henrich R. Greve and Cyndi Man Zhan

How Chinese firms reacted when told to change their share ownership structures

The slowest to comply had few public shares and had ties to the state through their board members, write Henrich R. Greve and Cyndi Man Zhan

Driven Spin Systems as Quantum Thermodynamic Machines: Fundamental Limits

We show that coupled two level systems like qubits studied in quantum information can be used as a thermodynamic machine. At least three qubits or spins are necessary and arranged in a chain. The system is interfaced between two split baths and the working spin in the middle is externally driven. The machine performs Carnot-type cycles and is able to work as heat pump or engine depending on the temperature difference of the baths $\Delta T$ and the energy differences in the spin system $\Delta E$. It can be shown that the efficiency is a function of $\Delta T$ and $\Delta E$.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Local effective dynamics of quantum systems: A generalized approach to work and heat

By computing the local energy expectation values with respect to some local measurement basis we show that for any quantum system there are two fundamentally different contributions: changes in energy that do not alter the local von Neumann entropy and changes that do. We identify the former as work and the latter as heat. Since our derivation makes no assumptions on the system Hamiltonian or its state, the result is valid even for states arbitrarily far from equilibrium. Examples are discussed ranging from the classical limit to purely quantum mechanical scenarios, i.e. where the Hamiltonian and the density operator do not commute.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, published versio

Quantum oscillations in adsorption energetics of atomic oxygen on Pb(111) ultrathin films: A density-functional theory study

Using first-principles calculations, we have systematically studied the quantum size effects of ultrathin Pb(111) films on the adsorption energies and diffusion energy barriers of oxygen atoms. For the on-surface adsorption of oxygen atoms at different coverages, all the adsorption energies are found to show bilayer oscillation behaviors. It is also found that the work function of Pb(111) films still keeps the bilayer-oscillation behavior after the adsorption of oxygen atoms, with the values being enlarged by 2.10 to 2.62 eV. For the diffusion and penetration of the adsorbed oxygen atoms, it is found that the most energetically favored paths are the same on different Pb(111) films. And because of the modulation of quantum size effects, the corresponding energy barriers are all oscillating with a bilayer period on different Pb(111) films. Our studies indicate that the quantum size effect in ultrathin metal films can modulate a lot of processes during surface oxidation

Electronic properties of buried hetero-interfaces of LaAlO3 on SrTiO3

We have made very thin films of LaAlO3 on TiO2 terminated SrTiO3 and have measured the properties of the resulting interface in various ways. Transport measurements show a maximum sheet carrier density of 1016 cm-2 and a mobility around 104 cm2 V-1 s-1. In situ ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) indicates that for these samples a finite density of states exists at the Fermi level. From the oxygen pressure dependence measured in both transport as well as the UPS, we detail, as reported previously by us, that oxygen vacancies play an important role in the creation of the charge carriers and that these vacancies are introduced by the pulsed laser deposition process used to make the heterointerfaces. Under the conditions studied the effect of LaAlO3 on the carrier density is found to be minimal.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Activated O2 dissociation and formation of oxide islands on the Be(0001) surface: Another atomistic model for metal oxidation

By simulating the dissociation of O2 molecules on the Be(0001) surface using the first-principles molecular dynamics approach, we propose a new atomistic model for the surface oxidation of sp metals. In our model, only the dissociation of the first oxygen molecule needs to overcome an energy barrier, while the subsequent oxygen molecules dissociate barrierlessly around the adsorption area. Consequently, oxide islands form on the metal surface, and grow up in a lateral way. We also discover that the firstly dissociated oxygen atoms are not so mobile on the Be(0001) surface, as on the Al(111) surface. Our atomistic model enlarges the knowledge on metal surface oxidations by perfectly explaining the initial stage during the surface oxidation of Be, and might be applicable to some other sp metal surfaces.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Critical behavior in an evolutionary Ultimatum Game

Experimental studies have shown the ubiquity of altruistic behavior in human societies. The social structure is a fundamental ingredient to understand the degree of altruism displayed by the members of a society, in contrast to individual-based features, like for example age or gender, which have been shown not to be relevant to determine the level of altruistic behavior. We explore an evolutionary model aiming to delve how altruistic behavior is affected by social structure. We investigate the dynamics of interacting individuals playing the Ultimatum Game with their neighbors given by a social network of interaction. We show that a population self-organizes in a critical state where the degree of altruism depends on the topology characterizing the social structure. In general, individuals offering large shares but in turn accepting large shares, are removed from the population. In heterogeneous social networks, individuals offering intermediate shares are strongly selected in contrast to random homogeneous networks where a broad range of offers, below a critical one, is similarly present in the population.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure