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"Border Tunnels: A Media Theory of the U.S.-Mexico Underground" by Juan Llamas-Rodriguez explores the symbolic significance of border tunnels in shaping cultural, economic, and political exchanges between the US and Mexico. The book delves into the mediated representations of border tunnels, arguing that they play a crucial role in public discourse and border-making projects. Through case studies spanning various media forms, Llamas-Rodriguez critically examines how depictions of border tunnels influence our understanding of these subterranean spaces. The interdisciplinary study offers a nuanced perspective on the complexities of border representations, engaging with critical voices from global politics, media studies, and US-Mexico border studies. [Extracted from the article]

Scholars and practitioners believe that the large-scale deployment of charging piles is imperative to our future electric transportation systems. Major economies ambitiously install charging pile networks, with massive construction spending, maintenance costs, and urban space occupation. However, recent developments in technology may significantly reduce the necessary charging capacity required by the system. This paper develops a linear programming model to characterize the effects of likely scenarios where vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging is available via vehicle modularization or wireless charging. Specifically, we consider scenarios in which vehicles can transmit energy to each other (coordinated by a central platform) while traveling closely on the same road. We first estimate the number of charging piles needed for completing the travel plan of 73 cars from data, assuming a battery capacity of 400 km's range and no V2V charging. Our results show that once V2V charging technologies with an efficiency of 50% are available, more than 2/3 of the charging piles investment would be wasted. Additionally, if the efficiency of V2V charging increases to 75%, we can easily reduce the battery capacity of vehicles to 200 km, which will reduce production costs and improve energy efficiency. These results may reveal us an alternative pathway towards transportation electrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the need for a compromise indemnity statute in Alabama's construction industry to clarify the enforceability of indemnity clauses, addressing concerns over shifting liability for negligence. Topics include the uncertainty in Alabama's legal framework, the impact on safety incentives and contractual clarity among construction professionals, and the potential role of legislative action in establishing a balanced indemnity regime that could serve as a national model.

The present study examines the history of Depression era financing in the United States with respect to various New Deal programs and the impact they had on the development of stadia used by current institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I level (i.e., Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision). Specifically, the current research provides findings and explanations regarding regional differences and presents data on the various New Deal programs. We further highlight the construction and renovation of stadia importantly created an atmosphere of "institutional legitimacy" for the universities, helped provide a substantial amount of work to the unemployed, and produced a significant amount of financial investments by the U.S. government. Practically, the present study offers the subsequent information as rhetorical work or as a resource for museums on and off campuses for the purpose of commercial gain, marketing, and cultivating the next generation of college football fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting construction spending is important for civil engineering practitioners to make business decisions. Currently, the main body of forecasting literature pertains exclusively to aggregate construction investment, such as total construction spending (TTLCON), private construction spending, or residential construction spending. But type-specific construction spending, such as that for education, healthcare, and religion, had yet to be explored using forecasting techniques. This case study presents a viable procedure by which aggregate and type-specific non-residential construction can be forecasted. The procedure that involves the use of the Granger causality test and the Vector Autoregression (VAR) model proved to be able to provide an accurate forecast pre-COVID-19, with some accuracy even during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Lessons learned include the following: (1) effort should be diverted towards model interpretation, as the impulse–response trial yields results conforming to current well-established empirical evidence; (2) a type-specific approach should be adopted when analyzing construction spending, as different types of construction spending react differently to potential indicators; and (3) complex models incorporating multiple indicators should be used to generate a forecast, as a complex model has a higher chance of containing parameters explanatory of the target variable's features during the testing period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction project consists of a series of interconnected activities throughout the project cycle, starting from planning (concept and feasibility studies), design (engineering and drafting), procurement, execution (construction), start-up and implementation, to operation and utilization. The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of construction management consultant roles on the performance of telecommunication tower project implementation. This study utilizes a descriptive method, with the population comprising all employees of PT. Digjaya Mandiri Teknik, Mitratel, other construction management consultants, and contractors involved in telecommunication tower project implementation. The study involves a total of 50 experienced respondents who have worked for more than 4 years in telecommunication tower projects. The sample for this study includes employees engaged in telecommunication tower projects, both in the field and in the office. The findings of this research reinforce several previous theories and studies that discuss the influence of construction management consultant roles on project implementation performance. Based on the results and discussions in the previous chapter, the conclusion is drawn that there are factors that affect the improvement and decline in performance during the implementation of telecommunication tower projects, specifically related to the role of construction management consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting construction spending is important for civil engineering practitioners to make business decisions. Currently, the main body of forecasting literature pertains exclusively to aggregate construction investment, such as total construction spending (TTLCON), private construction spending, or residential construction spending. But type-specific construction spending, such as that for education, healthcare, and religion, had yet to be explored using forecasting techniques. This case study presents a viable procedure by which aggregate and type-specific non-residential construction can be forecasted. The procedure that involves the use of the Granger causality test and the Vector Autoregression (VAR) model proved to be able to provide an accurate forecast pre-COVID-19, with some accuracy even during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Lessons learned include the following: (1) effort should be diverted towards model interpretation, as the impulse–response trial yields results conforming to current well-established empirical evidence; (2) a type-specific approach should be adopted when analyzing construction spending, as different types of construction spending react differently to potential indicators; and (3) complex models incorporating multiple indicators should be used to generate a forecast, as a complex model has a higher chance of containing parameters explanatory of the target variable’s features during the testing period.

Robotics and automation technology (RAT) has emerged as one of the most important drivers of the Industry 4.0 digital transformation of industrial operations. Although RAT has been explored in construction over the last several decades, its applications in the field have been limited, despite its potential and rise in application opportunities. Prior studies have focused on the resistance factors that impact the adoption of RAT. However, there is limited work that simultaneously identifies the positive and negative factors that influence the decision of construction companies to adopt RAT. This study aims to identify, through semistructured interviews with prominent experts in the US, the positive and negative factors of adopting RAT and then use these adoption factors in a survey to allow these same experts to pairwise compare their importance. The survey results were prioritized based on their perceived impact on construction companies' decision-making using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results indicated that the intention to use RAT is primarily positively affected by long-term cost savings and adversely affected mainly by the initial investment costs. Because construction professionals are inclined to make decisions on the adoption of RAT based mainly on costs, the understanding gained in this study of the other factors impacting RAT adoption decisions allows companies to improve how they manage their RAT adoption efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social procurement policies are an emerging policy instrument being used by governments around the world to leverage infrastructure and construction spending to address intractable social problems in the communities they represent. The relational nature of social procurement policies requires construction firms to develop new collaborative partnerships with organisations from the government, not-for-profit and community sectors. The aim of this paper is to address the paucity of research into the risks and opportunities of entering into these new cross-sector partnerships from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved and how this affects collaborative potential and social value outcomes for intended beneficiaries. Design/methodology/approach: This case study research is based on a unique collaborative intermediary called Connectivity Centre created by an international contractor to coordinate its social procurement strategies. The findings draw on a thematic analysis of qualitative data from focus groups with 35 stakeholders from the construction, government, not-for-profit, social enterprise, education and employment sectors. Findings: Findings indicate that potentially enormous opportunities which social procurement offers are being undermined by stakeholder nervousness about policy design, stability and implementation, poor risk management, information asymmetries, perverse incentives, candidate supply constraints, scepticism, traditional recruitment practices and industry capacity constraints. While these risks can be mitigated through collaborative initiatives like Connectivity Centres, this depends on new "relational" skills, knowledge and competencies which do not currently exist in construction. In conclusion, when social procurement policy requirements are excessive and imposed top-down, with little understanding of the construction industry's compliance capacity, intended social outcomes of these policies are unlikely to be achieved. Originality/value: This research draws on theories of cross-sector collaboration developed in the realm of public sector management to address the lack of research into how the new cross-sector partnerships encouraged by emerging social procurement policies work in the construction industry. Contributing to the emerging literature on cross-sector collaboration, the findings expose the many challenges of working in cross-sector partnerships in highly transitionary project-based environments like construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Binary Type Multi-State Strongly Coherent System (BTMSCS) or Multi-State Coherent System of Type 2 (MCS of type 2) has been defined by Natvig (1982). In this research article component based optimal reliability test plans for BTMSCS have been proposed. Here it is assumed that these systems are made up of n components, and the random variables representing lifetimes of systems and their components take values in set S = { 0 , 1 , 2 , ... , (M − 1) , M } with M ≥ 2. The construction of reliability test plans for BTMSCS is based on the use of (i) multivariate counting processes with marginal counting processes being homogeneous Poisson processes and (ii) positively upper orthant dependent property of the associated renewal processes. The applicability of the proposed reliability test plans has been demonstrated using all the three BTMSCSs made up of two components and one system consisting of three components with S = { 0 , 1 , 2 } under the assumption that (T i 1 , T i 2) , a bivariate random vector representing times spent by the ith component in states 1 and 2, follows Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern distribution with exponential marginals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a phenomenon which sometimes occurs in tetravalent bipartite locally dart-transitive graphs, called a Base Graph–Connection Graph dissection. In this dissection, each white vertex is split into two vertices of valence 2 so that the connected components of the result are isomorphic. Given the Base Graph whose subdivision is isomorphic to each component, and the Connection Graph, which describes how the components overlap, we can, in some cases, provide a construction which can make a graph having such a decomposition. This paper investigates the general phenomenon as well as the special cases in which the connection graph has no more than one edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coal mining technology systems, it is very important to acquire, store, and represent basic geological data comprehensively and accurately. Based on the current working mode and information level in mining geology at coal mines, this paper proposes a process of building basic geological database for modeling of coal mines by using existing results' data of mining geology and develops the efficient program for getting the basic geological data from the important 2D plane drawings' achievement at mines, such as the contour maps of mine coal seam floors, geological cross-sections, underground drilling results, and geological survey results, based on AutoLISP, which is a programming language for the secondary development of AutoCAD. The obtained data in general text format is stored and managed by the MongoDB database, which realizes the storage, query, analysis, and correction of massive data of geological objects in the space of the underground coalmine. The application results show that compared with the previous data acquisition methods such as manual input and graphic transformation attribute, the extraction of spatial and attribute data from the existing mine 2D plane drawings by programming can effectively avoid the prominent problems such as artificial gross error, distortion of graph conversion, and different database structure, make the obtained spatial geological data more comprehensive, accurate, and effective, and, meanwhile, increase the rate by more than 60%, which plays an important role in data support for the construction of the geological modeling systems for transparent mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a construction by which we obtain a simple graph Tr (H , v) from a simple graph H and a non-isolated vertex v of H. We call this construction "Trung's construction." We prove that Tr (H , v) is well covered, W 2 or Gorenstein if and only if H is so. Also, we present a formula for computing the independence polynomial of Tr (H , v) and investigate when the independence complex of Tr (H , v) satisfies the Charney–Davis conjecture. As a consequence of our results, we show that the independence complex of every Gorenstein planar graph with girth at least four satisfies the Charney–Davis conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proof of Work (PoW) is one of the key consensus mechanisms for blockchain systems to ensure trust and secure service. The PoW process, which is also known as mining, is computationally intensive, because the miners need to solve a well-crafted puzzle to add a new block to the chain. With cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin becoming more popular, it requires greater levels of mining power for successful mining. Most miners tend to join specific mining pools to share rewards contributed by their mining power. This leads to more centralized PoWbased blockchain systems, which contradicts the design goal of decentralization for blockchain. Mining power concentration may damage the trust and secure level of blockchain systems. However, no tools or studies could timely and quantitatively tell us how decentralized in terms of mining power the PoW blockchain system is. in this article, we design a decentralization index, called Endex, to efficiently quantify the degree of mining power decentralization and timely capture the abnormal phenomena of PoW blockchain systems. We then validate the effectiveness and accuracy of Endex over real mining datasets of four popular blockchain systems. The empirical study demonstrates that Endex can well capture the changes in mining power for these blockchain systems and detect in time the abnormal incidents such as double spending attack and hard fork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of n-gaussoids is shown to be a double exponential function in n. The necessary bounds are achieved by studying construction methods for gaussoids that rely on prescribing 3-minors and encoding the resulting combinatorial constraints in a suitable transitive graph. Various special classes of gaussoids arise from restricting the allowed 3-minors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing a vertical load transfer function for bored piles buried in cohesive intermediate geomaterials (IGM), it is essential to understand the shear behavior of the rough sidewall. The interface between the cohesive IGM and the concrete shafts could be simplified as a series of identical triangular asperities. The emphasis is to quantify the collapse load of asperities due to any change in the shear-induced dilation under constant normal stiffness (CNS) conditions. An asperity model was developed and the collapse load was also derived by a lower-bound limit solution with two lines of discontinuity, and an alternative t-w curve was proposed. A design chart relevant to the material and geometric constants, including the asperity inclination and friction angle, was presented in a certain range, and a dimensionless bearing capacity factor, N, was introduced to facilitate the utilization. Case studies demonstrate that the axial load distribution predicted by the proposed method exhibits general accuracy with reference to the field observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Construction time prediction of injections in tunnel construction This paper presents a method that uses digital documentation on injection construction sites to calculate automated construction time forecasts during construction. It is shown that the accuracy of the prediction can be clearly superior to conventional manual prediction methods. Traditional statistical methods and Markov chains within a discrete event simulation are used to calculate hypothetical project progressions. These are converted into a prediction for the total construction time with a Monte‐Carlo simulation. The data were collected by Renesco GmbH in cooperation with eguana GmbH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korean domestic market is focused on the introduction of BIM (Building Information Modeling) owing to an influx of investment due to increased interest and mandatory application of BIM. However, the rate of BIM introduction is high, while BIM user proficiency is low. Against these problems, the authors proposed an acceptance model for BIM in construction organizations in 2012. As the number of BIM application cases increases and the number of BIM-trained users increases as time goes on, BIM users' positive perception of BIM values are expected to increase, which may change the BIM acceptance mechanism. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study of the 2012 BIM acceptance model against 2019 data to estimate changes in factors affecting BIM acceptance attitudes as well as the mechanism of the relationships between factors over time spent using the technology. To generalize the results, the respondents were spread across construction sites. The data obtained 119 samples from a sample of experienced users of BIM. We used AMOS 21.0 for hypothesis testing of structural equation modeling (SEM), and the 2019 BIM acceptance model was compared against the 2012 acceptance model using an independent sample t-test. As a result, it was confirmed that the 2012 BIM acceptance model is still suitable for describing the BIM acceptance mechanism of the construction organization, and there was a difference between the 2012 model and the 2019 model. This seems to have changed the mechanism of BIM acceptance by being change perception of BIM users as time goes on. The results of this study can be used to establish a BIM activation strategy for each BIM acceptance stage and are expected to be applicable to establishing a BIM activation strategy for construction organizations or countries with similar BIM acceptance stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this expert paper is to show development in the area of cartography in chronological order from the time when Albania first appeared on maps by well-known Venetian cartographers (with toponyms in Albanian). An overview of various topographic maps and maritime charts is presented, along with the relevant local and international institutions whose main activities were cartography and geoinformation during different periods. An expert opinion is expressed on the current state of cartographic and geoinformation data as a scientific discipline, with a special emphasis on alignment with international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Process view technologies allow organizations to create different granularity levels of abstraction of their business processes, therefore enabling a more effective business process management, analysis, interoperation, and privacy controls. Existing research proposed view construction and abstraction techniques for block‐based (ie, BPEL) and graph‐based (ie, BPMN) process models. However, the existing techniques treat each type of the two types of models separately. Especially, this brings in challenges for achieving a consistent process view for a BPEL model that derives from a BPMN model. In this paper, we propose a unified framework, namely UniFlexView, for supporting automatic and consistent process view construction. With our framework, process modelers can use our proposed View Definition Language to specify their view construction requirements disregarding the types of process models. Our UniFlexView's system prototype has been developed as a proof of concept and demonstration of the usability and feasibility of our framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chart construction errors, such as truncated axes or inexpressive visual encodings, can hinder reading a visualization, or worse, imply misleading facts about the underlying data. These errors can be caught by critical readings of visualizations, but readers must have a high level of data and design literacy and must be paying close attention. To address this issue, we introduce VisuaLint: a technique for surfacing chart construction errors in situ. Inspired by the ubiquitous red wavy underline that indicates spelling mistakes, visualization elements that contain errors (e.g., axes and legends) are sketchily rendered and accompanied by a concise annotation. VisuaLint is unobtrusive — it does not interfere with reading a visualization — and its direct display establishes a close mapping between erroneous elements and the expression of error. We demonstrate five examples of VisualLint and present the results of a crowdsourced evaluation (N = 62) of its efficacy. These results contribute an empirical baseline proficiency for recognizing chart construction errors, and indicate near‐universal difficulty in error identification. We find that people more reliably identify chart construction errors after being shown examples of VisuaLint, and prefer more verbose explanations for unfamiliar or less obvious flaws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]