This paper examines the current state of project cultures in the German turnkey construction industry and the ideal project cultures in terms of partnering from the perspective of various key stakeholders (i.e., Investors, General Contractors, (Sub-)Contractors and Designers). To investigate the current and ideal cultures, data were gathered among the key stakeholders by means of a survey study with 72 respondents divided over 12 companies. The respondents rated the current and desired cultures by using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument, which belongs to the Competing Values Framework. The investigations show many similarities and differences between the stakeholder perspectives of the current and the idealized partnering project cultures. Mainly, the General Contractors desire more cooperative behaviors than the (Sub-)Contractors, and the Investors desire more pronounced flexibility than the General Contractors. All stakeholders desire a cultural change from highly competitive behaviors toward more cooperation. Changes in terms of clear procedures or more flexibility are only desired by the Designers. Defining both the current and an ideal partnering project culture enables academics and project managers to compare their actual project cultures to an ideal situation. With such an approach, academics and project managers could measure whether new tools or changes in resources affect their project cultures toward a partnering project culture.

Carbon emission reduction is the only way to alleviate environmental problems, such as global warming. Effective evaluation of carbon performance can help enterprises to carry out energy saving and emission reduction activities to a certain extent and promote sustainable development. This paper constructs a carbon performance evaluation index system that includes the four dimensions of carbon resource (energy) input, cycle, output, and carbon management by incorporating the principles of circular economy and the theory of resource value circulation from the perspective of the flow trajectory of carbon-containing resources in the circulation of enterprises combined with the production characteristics of thermoelectric enterprises. Subsequently, combined with the case study, this paper discusses the scientific and practical nature of the system and provides another way of thinking for carbon performance evaluation of micro-enterprises in other industries. This paper expands the application boundary of matter-element model and supplements the literature of carbon performance, which has certain theoretical and practical significance.

Digital currency can reduce the issuance and circulation costs of physical cash and improve the convenience and transparency of economic activities. Therefore, digital currency has received widespread attention from central banks in recent years. As an important financial infrastructure, the UnionPay network is expected to provide effective support for the construction and operation of a digital currency system. This study uses the UnionPay network as basis to systematically propose a digital currency information system from three aspects, namely, digital currency account opening, exchange, and use, and further expounds on the operation mechanism of a digital currency information system prototype. This study also discusses how to apply blockchain technology to digital currency, such as using distributed ledger for digital currency confirmation and registration and using blockchain-enabled smart contracts to realize the forward guidance function of the central bank digital currency. Lastly, the current research introduces the value of using the UnionPay network to support the operation of a digital currency information system and its technical challenges, aiming to provide beneficial guidance and reference for future research effort.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are intended to facilitate the tight coupling of the cyber and physical worlds. Their potential for enhancing the delivery and management of constructed facilities is now becoming understood. In these systems, it is vital to ensure bidirectional consistency between construction components and their digital replicas. This paper introduces the key features of CPS and describes why they are ideally suited for addressing a number of problems in the delivery of construction projects. It draws on examples of research prototypes developed using surveys, field experiments, and prototyping methodologies, to outline the key features and benefits of CPS for construction applications and the approach to their development. In addition, it outlines the lessons learned from developing various systems for the design, construction and management of constructed facilities, which include building component placement and tracking, temporary structures monitoring, and mobile crane safety. The paper concludes that the construction industry stands to reap numerous benefits from the adoption of CPS. It states that the future direction of CPS in construction will be driven by technological developments and the extent to which CPS is deployed in new application areas.

The quality traceability of precast components has largely affected the widespread adoption of prefabricated buildings. Blockchain technology provides an effective solution to change the centralized storage mode of traditional traceability system and its related disadvantages. In this paper, we propose a framework of quality traceability system for precast components based on blockchain technology. The system framework adopts a hybrid blockchain architecture and dual storage mode, defines three types of smart contracts, and creates an interactive and efficient source tracing query method, which could effectively achieve the goals of decentralization, openness, and non-tamperability, as well as efficient traceability.

Time does not go backward. A negative duration, such as “time period” at first sight is difficult to interpret. Previous network techniques (CPM/PERT/PDM) did not support negative parameters and/or loops (potentially necessitating recursive calculations) in the model because of the limited computing and data storage capabilities of early computers. Monsieur Roy and John Fondahl implicitly introduced negative weights into network techniques to represent activities with fixed or estimated durations (MPM/PDM). Subsequently, the introduction of negative lead and/or lag times by software developers (IBM) apparently overcome the limitation of not allowing negative time parameters in time model. Referring to general digraph (Event on Node) representation where activities are represented by pairs of nodes and pairwise relative time restrictions are represented by weighted arrows, we can release most restraints in constructing the graph structure (incorporating the dynamic model of the inner logic of time plan), and a surprisingly flexible and handy network model can be developed that provides all the advantages of the abovementioned techniques. This paper aims to review the theoretical possibilities and technical interpretations (and use) of negative weights in network time models and discuss approximately 20 types of time-based restrictions among the activities of construction projects. We focus on pure relative time models, without considering other restrictions (such as calendar data, time-cost trade-off, resource allocation or other constraints).

Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) is at pilot scale. Air cooling and liquefaction stores energy; reheating revaporises the air at pressure, powering a turbine or engine (Ameel et al., 2013). Liquefaction requires water & CO2 removal, preventing ice fouling. This paper proposes subsequent geological storage of this CO2 - offering a novel Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) by-product, for the energy storage industry. It additionally assesses the scale constraint and economic opportunity offered by implementing this CDR approach. Similarly, established Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) uses air compression and subsequent expansion. CAES could also add CO2scrubbing and subsequent storage, at extra cost. CAES stores fewer joules per kilogram of air than LAES - potentially scrubbing more CO2 per joule stored. Operational LAES/CAES technologies cannot offer full-scale CDR this century (Stocker et al., 2014), yet they could offer around 4% of projected CO2 disposals for LAES and < 25% for current-technology CAES. LAES CDR could reach trillion-dollar scale this century (20 billion USD/year, to first order). A larger, less certain commercial CDR opportunity exists for modified conventional CAES, due to additional equipment requirements. CDR may be commercially critical for LAES/CAES usage growth, and the necessary infrastructure may influence plant scaling and placement. A suggested design for low-pressure CAES theoretically offers global-scale CDR potential within a century (ignoring siting constraints) - but this must be costed against competing CDR and energy storage technologies.

Innovation and knowledge diffusion in megaprojects is one of the most complicated issues in project management. Compared with conventional projects, megaprojects typically entail large-scale investments, long construction periods, and conflicting stakeholder interests, which result in a distinctive pattern of innovation diffusion. However, traditional investigation of innovation diffusion relies on subjective feedback from experts and frequently neglects inter-organizational knowledge creation, which frequently emerges in megaprojects. Therefore, this study adopted project network theory and modeled innovation diffusion in megaprojects as intra- and inter-organizational learning processes. In addition, system dynamics and fuzzy systems were combined to interpret experts’ subject options as quantitative coefficients of the project network model. This integrated model will assist in developing an insightful understanding of the mechanisms of innovation diffusion in megaprojects. Three typical network structures, namely, a traditional megaproject procurement organization (TMO), the environ megaproject organization (EMO), and an integrated megaproject organization (IMO), were examined under six management scenarios to verify the proposed analytic paradigm. Assessment of project network productivity suggested that the projectivity of the TMO was insensitive to technical and administrative innovations, the EMO could achieve substantial improvement from technical innovations, and the IMO trended incompatibly with administrative innovations. Thus, industry practitioners and project managers can design and reform agile project coordination by using the proposed quantitative model to encourage innovation adoption and reduce productivity loss at the start of newly established collaborations.

Unreasonable allocation of shared resources reduces the system efficiency and is a considerable operational risk. Sub-processes with insufficient portion of shared resources could not help accomplish complicated tasks, and overstaffing and idle resources will occur in the sub-processes assigned with redundant shared resources. This unfair portion distribution may cause internal contradictions among sub-processes and even lead to the collapsing of the entire system. This study proposes a data-driven, mixed two-stage network data envelopment analysis model. This method aims to reasonably define the allocation portion of shared extra intermediate resources among several nonhomogeneous subsystems and measure the overall system performance. A data set of 58 international hotels is used to test the features of the proposed model.