Lean Project Delivery and Integrated Practices in Modern Construction is the new and enhanced edition of the pioneering book Modern Construction by Lincoln H. Forbes and Syed M. Ahmed. This book provides a multi-faceted approach for applying lean methodologies to improve design and construction processes. Recognizing the wide diversity in the landscape of projects, and encompassing private and public sector activity, buildings and infrastructure, the book expands upon the detailed coverage of integrated project delivery and new lean tools and techniques to include: Greater emphasis on the importance of creating a lean culture and the initiatives required to transform the industry; Expanded discussions of the foundational writings in lean construction theory; Exploration of the synergies between "lean" and "green" initiatives; Specific procedures for modifying planning and scheduling activities to improve the performance of the project team; Expanded sections on quality, and topics that have become a part of the lean lexicon, such as Choosing by Advantages, "line of balance"/location-based scheduling, virtual design teams, takt time planning and set-based design; Discussion questions for beginners and advanced lean practitioners; and Improved cross-referencing within the text to help the reader navigate the frameworks, techniques and tools to support the application of lean principles. The techniques described here enhance the use of resources, reducing waste, minimizing delays, increasing quality and reducing overall costs. They enable practitioners to improve the quality of the built environment, secure higher levels of customer/owner satisfaction, and simultaneously improve their profitability. This book is essential reading for all those wanting to be at the forefront of construction management and lean thinking.
During the past several decades, the manufacturing and service industries significantly increased their levels of productivity, quality, and profitability through the application of process improvement techniques and information technology. Unfortunately, the construction industry lags far behind in the application of performance improvement and optimization techniques, as well as its overall competitiveness. Written by Lincoln H. Forbes and Syed M. Ahmed, both highly regarded for leadership and innovation, Modern Construction: Lean Project Delivery and Integrated Practices offers cutting-edge lean tools and other productive strategies for the management of people and processes in the construction industry. Drs. Forbes and Ahmed focus mainly on lean construction methodologies, such as The Last Planner(R) System, The Lean Project Delivery System (TM), and Integrated Project Delivery(TM). The tools and strategies offered draw on the success of the world-renowned Toyota Production System (TPS) adapted to the construction environment by construction professionals and researchers involved in developing and advocating lean construction methods. The book also discusses why true lean construction can best occur when all the construction stakeholders, owners, designers, constructors, and material suppliers are committed to the concept of optimizing the flow of activities holistically while de-emphasizing their self-interest. The authors also reintroduce process improvement approaches such as TQM and Six Sigma as a foundation for the adoption of lean methodologies, and demonstrate how these methods can improve projects in a so-called traditional environment. The book integrates these methods with emerging interest in "green construction" and the use of information technology and Building Information Modeling (BIM), while recognizing the human element in relation to motivation, safety, and environmental stresses. Written specifically for professionals in an industry that desperately needs to play catch up, the book delineates cutting-edge approaches with the benefit of successful cases and explains how their deployment can improve construction performance and competitiveness.
This book is an introductory textbook on Analog Electronics and circuits for undergraduate, Post graduate and beginner students. It aims at exploring the basic electronic devices such as clippers, clampers, oscillators, and Operational Amplifiers. It also explores the applications of clipper circuits in relevant places to inculcate interest among readers. It is probably no longer possible to cover everything in a single semester. Because of this, we have structured the book so that readers can find easy to understand the basic electronic circuits.
This is a text book as well as a reference book for decision making in construction. The book is written to serve undergraduates of construction-related programmes and postgraduate students undertaking construction management bridging courses. It contains mainly quantitative techniques used to assist, decision making. Plenty of real life examples are used to illustrate the theories, arguments and calculations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain (SC) mapping appeared as one of the critical SC capabilities that could make a striking difference in organizations’ SC performance and improve sustainable operations. Despite its crucial role in responding to SC disruptions, there is a void in the literature on this topic. This book aims to address this gap demonstrating the importance of SC mapping, sustainability in the Industry 4.0 era. The book explores how SC mapping contributes to sustainability from social, economic, and environmental perspectives, the role of SC mapping in upstream, midstream, and downstream SC sustainability, as well as the role of technology advancement and the impact of blockchain and Industry 4.0 in SC mapping. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this edited collection features international authors from a diverse range of disciplines including SC management, operations management, technology and innovation management, and sustainability. The book will be a valuable resource for global scholars, researchers, and upper-level students across operations, SC management, and logistics, as well as engineering and technology management.
This book examines the various quality management systems applied to the construction industry in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. Hong Kong's experience is particularly important because it plays a leading role in construction quality management globally. The text traces the change from quality control (QC) practice in the 1970s and 1980s, to the quality assurance (QA) concept in the 1990s, and finally to the emerging total quality management (TQM) philosophy. All the tools and techniques used in relation to construction quality management are discussed in detail in the 12 chapters.
Paul Van Dyke works in many languages and archives to uncover the history of Peark River trade. This two-volume work is likely to be the most definitive reference work on the major trading families of Guangzhou.
The fully revised and updated second edition of this core textbook builds on the previous edition's success to bring an even sharper exploration of HRM in a real-world global context. With a critical approach that is woven into the chapters and encourages students to question assumptions in HRM, there is a consistent focus on the impact of globalization, the ways in which theory has addressed the implications of a globalized workforce, and the way HRM works in multinational corporations. Boasting a truly global orientation, this textbook draws on the expert knowledge of chapter authors from around the world, combining international case studies with a strong offering of pedagogical features. While adopting a rigorous academic approach, the book is also designed to engage students and elicit independent thought. This is an ideal core textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying on general business and management degrees, specialist HRM degrees, and international business degrees. In addition, this an important supplementary text for International HRM modules and HRM modules on MBA programmes. New to this Edition: - Brand new chapters on Talent Management, International Assignments, Managing Global and Migrant Workers, and Sustainable HRM - Revised and refreshed international case studies including an array of examples from diverse, non-western regions of the world - 'HRM in the news' boxes, comprising issues from the media that are relevant to each chapter topic - 'Stop and reflect' boxes containing thought-provoking questions that encourage critical thinking
For three editions, Rosen’s Breast Pathology has been widely recognized as the “gold standard” reference. Now in its Fourth Edition, this classic text continues its legacy of being the leading reference work on the pathology of the breast. Precise pathological diagnosis of breast disease is the most critical factor in determining treatment and establishing prognosis. The Fourth Edition of Rosen’s Breast Pathology provides the most comprehensive, updated information on diseases of the breast. Intended primarily for pathologists, the book will be an indispensible reference for all surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists, as well as other physicians and medical personnel who require a thorough knowledge of breast pathology to provide optimal care for their patients. Discussions of most disease entities include clinical and radiological presentation, epidemiology, gross pathology, microscopic pathology, treatment, and prognosis. Surgical and oncological aspects of the various diseases are addressed wherever appropriate. Numerous images, a large proportion of which are new, complement the encyclopedic descriptions of the surgical pathology and cytology of diseases of the breast.
In a very short time, deep learning has become a widely useful technique, solving and automating problems in computer vision, robotics, healthcare, physics, biology, and beyond. One of the delightful things about deep learning is its relative simplicity. Powerful deep learning software has been built to make getting started fast and easy. In a few weeks, you can understand the basics and get comfortable with the techniques. This opens up a world of creativity. You start applying it to problems that have data at hand, and you feel wonderful seeing a machine solving problems for you. However, you slowly feel yourself getting closer to a giant barrier. You built a deep learning model, but it doesn’t work as well as you had hoped. This is when you enter the next stage, finding and reading state-of-the-art research on deep learning. However, there’s a voluminous body of knowledge on deep learning, with three decades of theory, techniques, and tooling behind it. As you read through some of this research, you realize that humans can explain simple things in really complicated ways. Scientists use words and mathematical notation in these papers that appear foreign, and no textbook or blog post seems to cover the necessary background that you need in accessible ways. Engineers and programmers assume you know how GPUs work and have knowledge about obscure tools.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and cognitive computing are dominating conversations about how emerging advanced analytics can provide businesses with a competitive advantage to the business. There is no debate that existing business leaders are facing new and unanticipated competitors. These businesses are looking at new strategies that can prepare them for the future. While a business can try different strategies, they all come back to a fundamental truth. If you’re curious about machine learning, this book is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in key concepts, terminology, and trends. We’ve curated a list of machine learning topics for beginners, from general overviews to those with focus areas, such as statistics, deep learning, and predictive analytics. With this book on your reading list, you’ll be able to: · Determine whether a career in machine learning is right for you · Learn what skills you’ll need as a machine learning engineer or data scientist · Knowledge that can help you find and prepare for job interviews · Stay on top of the latest trends in machine learning and artificial intelligence
The "Natural Language Processing Practical Approach" is a textbook that provides a practical introduction to the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The goal of the textbook is to provide a hands-on, practical guide to NLP, with a focus on real-world applications and use cases. The textbook covers a range of NLP topics, including text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, text classification, and more. The textbook emphasizes the use of algorithms and models to solve NLP problems and provides practical examples and code snippets in various programming languages, including Python. The textbook is designed for students, researchers, and practitioners in NLP who want to gain a deeper understanding of the field and build their own NLP projects. The current state of NLP is rapidly evolving with advancements in machine learning and deep learning techniques. The field has seen a significant increase in research and development efforts in recent years, leading to improved performance and new applications in areas such as sentiment analysis, text classification, language translation, and named entity recognition. The future prospects of NLP are bright, with continued development in areas such as reinforcement learning, transfer learning, and unsupervised learning, which are expected to further improve the performance of NLP models. Additionally, increasing amounts of text data available through the internet and growing demand for human-like conversational interfaces in areas such as customer service and virtual assistants will likely drive further advancements in NLP. The benefits of a hands-on, practical approach to natural language processing include: 1. Improved understanding: Practical approaches allow students to experience the concepts and techniques in action, helping them to better understand how NLP works. 2. Increased motivation: Hands-on approaches to learning can increase student engagement and motivation, making the learning process more enjoyable and effective. 3. Hands-on experience: By working with real data and implementing NLP techniques, students gain hands-on experience in applying NLP techniques to real-world problems. 4. Improved problem-solving skills: Practical approaches help students to develop problem-solving skills by working through real-world problems and challenges. 5. Better retention: When students have hands-on experience with NLP techniques, they are more likely to retain the information and be able to apply it in the future. A comprehensive understanding of NLP would include knowledge of its various tasks, techniques, algorithms, challenges, and applications. It also involves understanding the basics of computational linguistics, natural language understanding, and text representation methods such as tokenization, stemming, and lemmatization. Moreover, hands-on experience with NLP tools and libraries like NLTK, Spacy, and PyTorch would also enhance one's understanding of NLP.
The book introduces programming concepts through Python language. The simple syntax of Python makes it an ideal choice for learning programming. Because of the availability of extensive standard libraries and third-party support, it is rapidly evolving as the preferred programming language among the application developers. It will bolster your foundational skills in Artificial Intelligence. Make the most of our Expert Mentor-ship facility and gain a practical understanding of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Make the most of our real-world projects from diverse industries. The content in this book goes a long way towards helping you unlock lucrative career opportunities in the coveted fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The steps in creating computers that are as fluent in human language as people has long been a goal for scientists and the general public. Human language communication both represents and challenges an intelligence, because while languages appear to follow some unseen rules of spelling and grammar. Systems that understand or use language, which we call ?Natural Language Processing? (NLP) systems, have been created by specifying algorithms for computers based on the observable regularities of language noted by experts.Use this book to learn the principles and methods of NLP to understand what it is, where it is useful, how to use it, and how it might be used people. The book includes the core topics of modern NLP, including an overview of the syntax and semantics of English, benchmark tasks for computational language modeling, and higher level tasks and applications that analyze or generate language, using both rule-based search and machine learning approaches. It takes the perspective of a computer scientist. The primary themes are abstraction, data, algorithms, applications and impacts. It also includes some history and trends that are important for understanding why things have been done in a certain way
Reinforcement learning (RL) is a subfield of machine learning that deals with how an agent should learn to take actions in an environment to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. In other words, reinforcement learning is a learning paradigm where an agent learns to interact with an environment by taking actions and observing the feedback it receives in the form of rewards or penalties. It is a feedback-based Machine learning technique in which an agent learns to behave in an environment by performing the actions and seeing the results of actions. For each good action, the agent gets positive feedback, and for each bad action, the agent gets negative feedback or penalty.
Real-time systems are computer systems that are designed to respond to external events within a specified time constraint. These systems are used in a variety of applications, including control systems, communication systems, multimedia systems, and embedded systems. Real-time systems must be able to respond to events in a timely and deterministic manner, meaning that the response time must be guaranteed and consistent. One of the main challenges in designing real-time systems is ensuring that they are predictable and reliable. Real-time systems must be able to handle a wide range of input conditions, from normal operation to extreme conditions, without crashing or failing to meet their deadlines. This requires careful design and implementation, as well as testing and verification to ensure that the system behaves as intended. Real-time systems often have unique requirements that differ from those of traditional computer systems. For example, real-time systems may need to operate in harsh environments, such as extreme temperatures or high radiation levels. They may also need to communicate with other systems in real-time, which requires low-latency communication protocols and high bandwidth. In addition to these technical challenges, there are also legal and ethical considerations when designing real-time systems. For example, systems used in safety-critical applications, such as medical devices or transportation systems, must meet strict regulatory requirements and undergo rigorous testing and certification processes. Overall, the design and implementation of real-time systems is a complex and challenging task that requires a deep understanding of the system's requirements, its environment, and the technologies available. In this textbook, we will explore the key concepts, principles, and techniques used in the design and analysis of real-time systems. We will cover topics such as scheduling, synchronization, communication, fault-tolerance, and performance analysis, and provide examples and case studies to illustrate these concepts. By the end of this book, readers will have a solid understanding of real-time systems and the skills needed to design and implement them effectively.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.