How do project teams overcome differences to adopt a design plan that strikes a balance between short-term affordability and long-term adaptability? In the book, Building Options at Project Front-End Strategizing: The Power of Capital Design for Evolvability, Guilherme Biesek and Nuno Gil cite research indicating the need for a formal framework to develop front-end strategies that ensure cost-effective management of the project through future change. Biesek and Gil found limitations in the current practices and theory for management of capital projects, and turned to real options reasoning and design literature. Project teams often resort to real options reasoning, because investment in design flexibility is similar to buying options. If future changes are minimal or favorable the options can be exercised to adapt the design economically. In the event the future is not favorable to the project, a limited investment has been lost.
Megaproject Organization and Performance: The Myth and Political Reality delves into the complex world of organizing megaprojects and investigates the extent to which the performance of these projects could be traced back to their organizational structure. Through multiple case study research, including the London Olympic Park and Heathrow Airport Terminal 2, the authors show how megaprojects are unique in how they are organized. They explore core-periphery relationships between promotors who control strategic choices, and suppliers, the contracted experts who provide the actual resources to get the project done. The implications of these structural–performance relationships within a robust economy are then compared with railroad and highway development projects in the developing economies of Nigeria, Uganda, and India. This in-depth study brings a complementary perspective to megaproject literature and enables us to reconcile conflicting explanations for the regularity with which megaprojects miss performance targets. With pluralism at the core of the megaproject's organizational structure, the authors argue that megaprojects work best when accountability is shared and everyone has a stake in the final outcome.
Introduction -- Megaprojects : an evolving hybrid meta-organization -- The (under) performance of megaprojects : a meta-organizational perspective -- Pluralism at the megaproject front end -- Between a rock and a hard place : a study of megaprojects in developing economies -- Conclusion
Megaproject Organization and Performance: The Myth and Political Reality delves into the complex world of organizing megaprojects and investigates the extent to which the performance of these projects could be traced back to their organizational structure. Through multiple case study research, including the London Olympic Park and Heathrow Airport Terminal 2, the authors show how megaprojects are unique in how they are organized. They explore core-periphery relationships between promotors who control strategic choices, and suppliers, the contracted experts who provide the actual resources to get the project done. The implications of these structural–performance relationships within a robust economy are then compared with railroad and highway development projects in the developing economies of Nigeria, Uganda, and India. This in-depth study brings a complementary perspective to megaproject literature and enables us to reconcile conflicting explanations for the regularity with which megaprojects miss performance targets. With pluralism at the core of the megaproject's organizational structure, the authors argue that megaprojects work best when accountability is shared and everyone has a stake in the final outcome.
How do project teams overcome differences to adopt a design plan that strikes a balance between short-term affordability and long-term adaptability? In the book, Building Options at Project Front-End Strategizing: The Power of Capital Design for Evolvability, Guilherme Biesek and Nuno Gil cite research indicating the need for a formal framework to develop front-end strategies that ensure cost-effective management of the project through future change. Biesek and Gil found limitations in the current practices and theory for management of capital projects, and turned to real options reasoning and design literature. Project teams often resort to real options reasoning, because investment in design flexibility is similar to buying options. If future changes are minimal or favorable the options can be exercised to adapt the design economically. In the event the future is not favorable to the project, a limited investment has been lost.
This book approaches classic epistemological problems from a contextualist perspective. The author takes as his point of departure the fact that we are situated beings, more specifically that every single moment in our lives is already given within the framework of a specific context in the midst of which we understand ourselves and what surrounds us. In the process of his investigation, the author explores, in a fresh way, the works of key thinkers in epistemology. These include Bernard Bolzano, René Descartes, Gottlob Frege, Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, but also contemporary authors such as Stewart Cohen, Keith DeRose, David Lewis, Duncan Pritchard, Ernest Sosa and Charles Travis. Some of the topics covered are attributions of knowledge, the correspondence theory of truth, objectivity and subjectivity, possible worlds, primary and secondary evidence, scepticism, transcendentalism and relativism. The book also introduces a new contextualist thought-experiment for dealing with moral questions. Contextualism has received a great deal of attention in contemporary epistemology. It has the potential to resolve a number of issues that traditional epistemological approaches cannot address. In particular, a contextualist view opens the way to an understanding of those cognitive processes that require situational information to be fully grasped. However, contextualism poses serious difficulties in regard to epistemic invariance. This book offers readers an innovative approach to some fundamental questions in this field.
This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema.
In articles for the newspaper O Brado Africano in the mid-1950s, poet and journalist José Craveirinha described the ways in which the Mozambican football players in the suburbs of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) adapted the European sport to their own expressive ends. Through gesture, footwork, and patois, they used what Craveirinha termed “malice”—or cunning—to negotiate their places in the colonial state. “These manifestations demand a vast study,” Craveirinha wrote, “which would lead to a greater knowledge of the black man, of his problems, of his clashes with European civilization, in short, to a thorough treatise of useful and instructive ethnography.” In Football and Colonialism, Nuno Domingos accomplishes that study. Ambitious and meticulously researched, the work draws upon an array of primary sources, including newspapers, national archives, poetry and songs, and interviews with former footballers. Domingos shows how local performances and popular culture practices became sites of an embodied history of Mozambique. The work will break new ground for scholars of African history and politics, urban studies, popular culture, and gendered forms of domination and resistance.
Fracture and Fatigue Characterisation of Cortical Bone Tissue is a key guide to bone fracture and fatigue, focusing on quasi-static and fatigue-fracture characterisation of cortical bone tissue. Discussing the fundamental aspects of fracture mechanics and fatigue, which are applicable to many orthotropic materials, this book examines novel, cutting-edge approaches to analyse and model bone fracture and fatigue. As the population ages across the globe, bone fracture and fatigue has become a fundamental part of mechanical and biomedical engineering research. Beginning with a thorough description of fracture mechanics and fatigue, the book describes non-linear fracture mechanics under quasi-static and fatigue analyses. It goes on to present a cohesive zone modelling method which is appropriate for mode I, mode II and mixed-mode I+II loading. Presenting the latest research, this book describes cutting-edge fracture tests, new methods for data reduction purposes and numerical models based on cohesive zone modelling. This book is key to aiding both students and professionals in applying fundamental theories and methods to cortical bone tissue. The book will be of interest to students and professionals working in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, including work on quasi-static fracture, fracture under fatigue loading, artificial bones and fracture mechanisms.
Wood Fracture Characterization provides a guide to the application of modern fracture mechanics concepts to wood materials used in structural engineering, which commonly involve discontinuities and irregularities. The authors cover the tests, data reduction schemes and numerical methods devised for wood structural applications, based on cohesive zone analysis, and used to validate experimental-based methodologies. Five detailed Case Studies are included to link theory with engineering practice. This important new text explains the basics of fracture mechanics, and extends them as needed to cover the special behaviour of an anisotropic wood materials.
The book "Advances in Nanocomposite Technology" contains 16 chapters divided in three sections. Section one, "Electronic Applications", deals with the preparation and characterization of nanocomposite materials for electronic applications and studies. In section two, "Material Nanocomposites", the advanced research of polymer nanocomposite material and polymer-clay, ceramic, silicate glass-based nanocomposite and the functionality of graphene nanocomposites is presented. The Human and Bioapplications section is describing how nanostructures are synthesized and draw attention on wide variety of nanostructures available for biological research and treatment applications. We believe that this book offers broad examples of existing developments in nanocomposite technology research and an excellent introduction to nanoelectronics, nanomaterial applications and bionanocomposites.
The Manueline: Portuguese Art during the Great Discoveries reveals the splendours of an era that skilfully brought Portugal into the Modern Age. Alongside the formidable adventures of the Great Maritime Discoveries, King Manuel I (1469–1521) included the related fields of both Church and State in artistic activities that were without precedent. What resulted was a style which was not only historically unique, but which was perfectly emblematic of its country of origin and of the monarch after which it was named. Fourteen itineraries invite you to discover 182 museums, monuments and sites in 60 locations.
In "Judicial Reputation: A Comparative Theory, "Tom Ginsburg and Nuno Garoupa mean to explain how judges respond to the reputational incentives provided by the different audiences they interact with--lawyers and law professors; politicians; the media; and the public itself--as well as how legal systems design their judicial institutions to calibrate the locally appropriate balance among audiences. Making use by turns of careful empirical work and penetrating conceptual insights, Ginsburg and Garoupa argue that any given judicial structure is best understood not through the lens of legal culture, origin, or tradition, but through the economics of information and reputation.
From Babylon to the Silicon Valley—The Origins and Evolution of Intellectual Property A Sourcebook Nuno Pires de Carvalho At its core, intellectual property today is the same as it was six thousand years ago: an instrument for the assertion of the identities of merchants and manufacturers in their struggle to lure customers with honesty and fairness. It arises spontaneously whenever and wherever entrepreneurs carry out their professions in an environment of competition. This masterful book, the first of its kind, presents more than two hundred sources going back to ancient Egypt, sharply detailing the evolution of intellectual property right up to its current prominence in global trade and international law. Highlighting important moments in the evolution of the intellectual property, the author—one of the world’s best known authorities in the field—assembles his chosen sources in a way that sheds definitive light on such aspects as the following: early origins in the appropriation of differentiating assets by merchants and manufacturers; evolution of trademark law up to the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement; evolution of patent law, demonstrating in detail how English and U.S. courts moulded its modern interpretation; differentiation of industrial designs; the comparatively modern development of trade secrets law; origins and evolution of international protection through treaties and free trade agreements; and the prodigious expansion of intellectual property law in the past few decades to previously unprotected areas of business and professional activity. The sources—many translated into English for the first time—are preceded when appropriate by brief notes explaining their context and relevance. The book closes with a chapter on contemporary debates, such as new areas of protection and new social controversies. As a compilation of sources that would be otherwise unavailable to most readers, this factual and impartial account of why and how intellectual property has emerged and evolved is a treasure trove for all those interested in how the imperatives of civilization have designed and continue to design the scope and the limits of intellectual property. The book will be warmly welcomed by practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of their working tools, as well as by academics, government officials, and relevant international organizations around the world.
Whilst advances in biotechnology and information technology have undoubtedly resulted in better quality of life for mankind, they can also bring about global problems. The legal response to the challenges caused by the rapid progress of technological change has been slow and the question of how international human rights should be protected and promoted with respect to science and technology remains unexplored. The contributors to this book explore the political discourse and power relations of technological growth and human rights issues between the Global South and the Global North and uncover the different perspectives of both regions. They investigate the conflict between technology and human rights and the perpetuation of inequality and subjection of the South to the North. With emerging economies such as Brazil playing a major role in trade, investment and financial law, the book examines how human rights are affected in Southern countries and identifies significant challenges to reform in the areas of international law and policy.
I look beyond solution; I look for an expression."--Eduardo Souto de Moura The architect Eduardo Souto de Moura (b. 1952) has won many accolades, including the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Based in Porto, Souto de Moura studied under Fernando Távora and worked under fellow Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, with whom he continues to collaborate. Souto de Moura established his own practice in 1980, and his wide-ranging influences, including Mies van der Rohe and Donald Judd, can be seen in the stunning variety of his work, from his acclaimed private houses, to the striking Paula Rego Museum in Cascais and the Braga Municipal Stadium, to his work in historical contexts such as the Convento das Bernardas in Tavira. This beautifully illustrated retrospective provides the most comprehensive account of Souto de Moura's career to date. Drawings, notes and sketches from his archive, and newly commissioned photographs complement essays by scholars and prominent architects that trace Souto de Moura's career, contextualize his work within the larger trends of contemporary international architectural culture, and highlight the originality of his design strategy.
This book discusses in detail the CMOS implementation of energy harvesting. The authors describe an integrated, indoor light energy harvesting system, based on a controller circuit that dynamically and automatically adjusts its operation to meet the actual light circumstances of the environment where the system is placed. The system is intended to power a sensor node, enabling an autonomous wireless sensor network (WSN). Although designed to cope with indoor light levels, the system is also able to work with higher levels, making it an all-round light energy harvesting system. The discussion includes experimental data obtained from an integrated manufactured prototype, which in conjunction with a photovoltaic (PV) cell, serves as a proof of concept of the desired energy harvesting system.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has enjoyed unparalleled military power. The international system is therefore unipolar. A quarter of a century later, however, we still possess no theory of unipolarity. Theory of Unipolar Politics provides one. Dr Nuno P. Monteiro answers three of the most important questions about the workings of a unipolar world. Is it durable? Is it peaceful? What is the best grand strategy a unipolar power such as the contemporary United States can implement? In our nuclear world, the power preponderance of the United States is potentially durable but likely to produce frequent conflict. Furthermore, in order to maintain its power preponderance, the United States must remain militarily engaged in the world and accommodate the economic growth of its major competitors, namely, China. This strategy, however, will lead Washington to wage war frequently. In sum, military power preponderance brings significant benefits but is not an unalloyed good.
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