Changes are inevitable in construction projects. They could lead to disruptive impacts on the quality, schedule and budget of projects. Identifying changes and anticipating their consequences can help project teams mitigate these negative impacts. As a result, a change process model has been defined to improve this procedure. At first the present paper the defines some of the key terms in this ...

U.S. hospitals are under continual pressure both to increase productivity and to improve quality through the use of Health Information Technology. This paper analyzes 3,187 US hospitals, using data reported to the American Hospital Association, to assess changes in productivity over a fiveyear period (2002-2006). The Malmquist Indices derived indicate that Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Ef...

The Middle Route Project(MRP) of the Southto-North Water Transfer Scheme (SNWT) in China will require a very large financial expenditure to ensure the water supply and the associated water quality to northern China. An eco-compensation mechanism between the water service source areas and its beneficiaries is essential. This paper establishes an analytic framework of ecocompensation standard for...

Cold-induced mortality is a key factor driving mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, population dynamics. In this species, the supercooling point (SCP) is representative of mortality induced by acute cold exposure. Mountain pine beetle SCP and associated cold-induced mortality fluctuate throughout a generation, with the highest SCPs prior to and following winter. Using observed SCPs of...

Range expansions are central to two ecological issues reshaping patterns of global biodiversity: biological invasions and climate change. Traditional theory considers range expansion as the outcome of the demographic processes of birth, death and dispersal, while ignoring the evolutionary implications of such processes. Recent research suggests evolution could also play a critical role in deter...

Genetic variation in dispersal ability may result in the spatial sorting of alleles during range expansion. Recent theory suggests that spatial sorting can favour the rapid evolution of life history traits at expanding fronts, and therefore modify the ecological dynamics of range expansion. Here we test this prediction by disrupting spatial sorting in replicated invasions of the bean beetle Cal...

Background Island biodiversity is under considerable pressure due to the ongoing threats of invasive alien species, land use change or climate change. The few remnants of Azorean native forests harbour a unique set of endemic beetles, some of them possibly already extinct or under severe long term threat due to the small areas of the remaining habitats or climatic changes. In this contribution ...

In terms of policy, the Ministry of Construction has prepared and issued a Guidelines for Green Ecological Residential Area Construction Elements and Technical, China Ecological Residential Technology Evaluation Manual, Environmental Impact Evaluation Law of the People’s Republic of China and other documents; in practice, economically developed areas combined with their own characteristics have...