• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1085-1092
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• 2022

Travel distance is a parameter mainly used in the objective function of Construction Site Layout Planning (CSLP) automation models. To obtain travel distance, common approaches, such as linear distance, shortest-distance algorithm, visibility graph, and access road path, concentrate only on identifying the shortest path. However, humans do not necessarily follow one shortest path but can choose a safer and more comfortable path according to their situation within a reasonable range. Thus, paths generated by these approaches may be different from the actual paths of the workers, which may cause a decrease in the reliability of the optimized construction site layout. To solve this problem, this paper adopts reinforcement learning (RL) inspired by various concepts of cognitive science and behavioral psychology to generate a realistic path that mimics the decision-making and behavioral processes of wayfinding of workers on the construction site. To do so, in this paper, the collection of human wayfinding tendencies and the characteristics of the walking environment of construction sites are investigated and the importance of taking these into account in simulating the actual path of workers is emphasized. Furthermore, a simulation developed by mapping the identified tendencies to the reward design shows that the RL agent behaves like a real construction worker. Based on the research findings, some opportunities and challenges were proposed. This study contributes to simulating the potential path of workers based on deep RL, which can be utilized to calculate the travel distance of CSLP automation models, contributing to providing more reliable solutions.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.649-657
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• 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has unprecedented impacts on different sectors around the globe. The effects observed in developing countries are even more severe. Some projects stopped while many have cost and time overrun issues. This paper conducted a case study on the COVID-19's effects on a hotel construction project in Nepal. The study reviewed the literature on COVID-19 and its impact on construction sectors and conducted a semi-structured interview with the project's personnel. The interview response was analysed and the contributing factors that impacted the project and its performance were identified. The paper found financial, operational, contractual, safety, and risk management issues in the hotel project. Overall, the project cost increased by 32% where the material cost increased by 35% and labor cost increased by 28%. This research discusses causes, measures, and provides a broad perspective of the problems, significant challenges, and opportunities associated with the effects of COVID-19 on the construction industry. The Owner as well as the Contractors incurred added costs because of COVID-19. The paper identified contributing factors and presented the challenges which could be used as opportunities to minimize unforeseen impacts of the pandemics in near future. The lesson learned from this case study was that the labor cost and materials cost could have been minimized if the Owner and the Contractor had established alternative resources such as using locally available labor, materials, and alternative suppliers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2023.01a
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• pp.443-445
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• 2023

Following the global financial crisis, the global value chain contracted, and characteristics of "reverse globalization" of the economy and trade gradually emerged. This is due to the term "reverse globalization" referring to a shift away from globalization. Within a short period of time, the phenomenon known as "reverse globalization" developed as an inescapable obstacle, coinciding with the development and dissemination of the COVID-19 virus. At some time in the distant future, the "reverse globalization" of economic trade and the "globalization" of the digital economy will co-dominate the shifting trend of the global economic landscape. This will happen gradually over time. The goal of this research is to look at the minor changes that happened in the methods and techniques used by the economic mechanism known as "globalization against the flow." It employs Chinese smart manufacturing companies as a model and proposes a digital drive model to investigate the prospects and constraints of smart manufacturing technology enterprise innovation development under "reverse globalization," with the goal of establishing a digital innovation development path. The theoretical insights given in this study have the potential to serve as a reference for China as it attempts to build a new growth pattern based on a double-cycle and promote a new type of globalization.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.474-479
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• 2011

With Beijing's success in bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, the increasing demand for infrastructure development and reduced public sector funding capacity has created a significant funding gap which calls for alternative project delivery methods such as Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Although the exploration of infrastructure projects using PPP model have been practiced since the late 80s, the $560 million National Stadium which served as the main venue for the Olympic Games is the first stadium project in China to be delivered under PPP operation. The project is generally considered successful despite the concession transfer in 2009 with concern of better serving the public interest. Compared to other infrastructure projects such as transportation, waste management and water management, the development of major sports facilities for mega-sports events with PPP has its own unique features and is subject to different major risks. This research identifies and analyzes critical risks in the implementation of PPP in major sports facility development through case study of the National Stadium project. A questionnaire survey and several interviews are conducted to solicit expert opinions from experienced practitioners. The purpose is to provide additional insights in risk management strategies and opportunities in China's PPP implementations in major sports facilities for policy makers and private sectors involved with investment decisions in future similar infrastructure development.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.191-208
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• 2002

In the area of new millennium of twenty first century, one of the urgent and critical research issues in commerce area is the regenerating of new business opportunities from the high value added perspectives. With this motivation, in this paper, we create new on-line e-businesses with the speed of lightning their affiliated supply, finance and business communities - which are involved in more and more tightly connected, open trading - we find that we need to deal with hundreds of business collaborative partners, millions of buyers and sellers while we have to face incompatible IT systems. Challenges of new business opportunities linking multi-enterprise data and processes cost effectively, reliably and securely in real time remains an open area in e-business. This challenge we shall describe as the problem of synchronization of multiple enterprise collaborative e-business opportunities (production related), value (finance related), business (operations related) in new business opportunity and infrastructure integrated all together over the off-line and online basis. It brings a new e-commerce opportunities infrastructure into this profitable challenge: by extracting and tracking new business information, new trends in the events of e-business processes. The transformation of the traditional commerce into this type of electronic based commerce can be interpreted as new Cultural Revolution. The revolution will be a new paradigm crossing over the geographical, and organizational zone, restructuring enterprise business process infrastructure.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.117-138
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• 2012

Governments around the world place great hopes in innovation in their search for new sources of growth and for responses to grand challenges, such as climate change, new or re-emerging infectious diseases, accelerating urbanisation, ageing, food security, and availability of clean water. However they must devise their relevant support policies -- including through sponsored research within public research institutes -- taking into account that innovation processes are currently undergoing a major transformation. New innovation patterns include a broadening scope of relevant activities, a growing importance but changing nature of scientific roots of technological development, a stronger demand-pull, the emergence of new local and national STI powerhouses, and the rise of more open and globalised innovation networks. They translate into new opportunities but also constraints for policies to enhance the contribution of public research institutes to national innovation performance. The article derives the main policy implications regarding the desirable evolution of the mission, research focus, as well as the funding and steering of public research institutes, with a special reference to Korea.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.58-70
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• 2013

Iriai an Indigenous forest management system in Japan from the viewpoint of "common pool resources" was a success resilient institution and resulted with sustainable production system and environmental conservation. This study was conducted in Osawa of the Nagano prefecture through group discussions, field observations and an in-depth field survey. Osawa Property Ward Forest is managed under the concept very much similarly to traditional "Iriai". This study firstly examined the changes of collective forest management system in terms of awareness and interest in forest management; forest management activities; role of forest; and collection of forest products. Then it analyzed the current threats for collective forest management have been identified as: land abandonment due to loss of benefits and lack of active community participation; deterioration of forest environment particularly the micro-climate and aesthetic values; conflict with local government authorities restraining the use of money in property ward forest and conflict with outsiders on damping of the garbage. Community cantered forestry management rules; livelihood contribution; protection of environment; local initiatives for protection and economic activities are the prevailing opportunities for collective forest management. The main requirements for revitalization of collective forest management are explained as local reciprocity; imposition of community based forest rules; encouraging local innovations; and building partnerships with stakeholders. Collective forest management system addresses the limitations of conventional forestry models, which had invalidated traditional 'iriai' institutions, and key to restoring sustainable use of forest and environmental resources. Cross-institutional collaborations together with responsibilities of local communities would ensure the revitalization of forest resources.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.603-621
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• 2017

The current review focuses on characterization and conservation efforts vital for the development of breeding programmes for indigenous beef cattle genetic resources in Southern Africa. Indigenous African cattle breeds were identified and characterized using information from refereed journals, conference papers and research reports. Results of this current review reviewed that smallholder beef cattle production in Southern Africa is extensive and dominated by indigenous beef cattle strains adaptable to the local environment. The breeds include Nguni, Mashona, Tuli, Malawi Zebu, Bovino de Tete, Angoni, Landim, Barotse, Twsana and Ankole. These breeds have important functions ranging from provision of food and income to socio-economic, cultural and ecological roles. They also have adaptive traits ranging from drought tolerant, resistance to ticks and tick borne diseases, heat tolerance and resistance to trypanosomosis. Stakeholders in the conservation of beef cattle were also identified and they included farmers, national government, research institutes and universities as well as breeding companies and societies in Southern Africa. Research efforts made to evaluate threats and opportunities of indigenous beef cattle production systems, assess the contribution of indigenous cattle to household food security and income, genetically and phenotypically characterize and conserve indigenous breeds, and develop breeding programs for smallholder beef production are highlighted. Although smallholder beef cattle production in the smallholder farming systems contributes substantially to household food security and income, their productivity is hindered by several constraints that include high prevalence of diseases and parasites, limited feed availability and poor marketing. The majority of the African cattle populations remain largely uncharacterized although most of the indigenous cattle breeds have been identified.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.639-661
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• 2017

This article reviews several classroom observational frameworks and introduces one of them, Teaching for Robust Understanding of Mathematics (TRU Math) framework, in more detail. The TRU Math framework has unique features, especially of which it helps researchers and practitioners analyze lessons with a focus on opportunities to learn and on how students access to the learning opportunities in mathematics classrooms rather than focusing on teacher behaviors. In this article, using this TRU Math framework, a Korean high school mathematics lesson was analyzed. The analysis illustrates the aspects of good mathematics teaching according to the five dimensions that we theorized. It provides implications on how to better use the tool for both research and practice in Korean school culture and teacher professional development contexts.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.466-469
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• 2011

As a fine-grained power gating method for achieving greater power savings, our approach takes advantage of the finite state machine with a datapath (FSMD) characteristic which shows sequential idleness among subcircuits. In an FSMD-based power gating, while only an active subcircuit is expected to be turned on, more subcircuits should be activated due to the power overhead. To reduce the number of missed opportunities for power savings, we deactivated some of the turned-on subcircuits by slowing the FSMD down and predicting its behavior. Our microprocessor experiments showed that the power savings are close to the upper bound.