Draft Schedule Research Articles

He taught to build not only cheaply, capital, but also beautifully

Introduction. In construction science, the name of Professor Boris Grigoryevich Skramtaev is widely known to the engineering community of the country and far beyond its borders. He actively participated in the formation and development of the Russian scientific school of concrete and reinforced concrete. The construction industry actively implemented the innovation of researcher Skramtaev and his colleagues, using precast concrete proposed by scientists on large-scale construction sites, introducing new types of cements developed by them for the construction of residential and industrial facilities.
 
 In Boris Grigoryevich's informative biography, in addition to research on hydraulic engineering, coarse-porous and high-strength concretes, participation in the development of inorganic binders is vividly reflected. He devoted a lot of time and effort to leading research teams, the results of which are impressive by today's standards. Thus, during the difficult for the country war period, scientists under the leadership of Professor Boris Grigoryevich Skramtaev contributed to the full and timely provision of domestic industry with building materials, primarily high-quality concrete and reinforced concrete, even in extremely difficult periods for the construction industry during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war restoration of the national economy.
 
 The aim of this article is to conduct an author's analysis of the fruitful scientific activity of Professor B.G. Skramtaev, to confirm his talent as a leader of research teams. To trace the biography of the outstanding Russian scientist Boris Grigoryevich Skramtaev, the founder of the Russian school of reinforced concrete, who made a great contribution to the creation of modern building materials, various types of concrete, which were actively used in the construction industry.
 
 Results. The article examines and analyzes the newly discovered biographical data about Professor B.G. Skramtaev, analyzes the influence of the environment in which the scientist's worldview was formed, the motives of his active and fruitful activity in the field of concrete science. For the first time, the responses of representatives of the scientific community and heads of interested ministries of the country about B.G. Skramtaev's popular textbook "Building Materials", which has undergone five reprints, has become a reference book for several generations of students and engineers.
 
 Conclusions. The source base of the research has been expanded, archival documents and materials that were previously unknown or little known to the scientific community have been introduced into scientific circulation. Several materials have been found confirming the heuristic outstanding abilities of researcher B.G. Skramtaev in the field of concrete science.
 
 The role and place of scientific activity of Professor B.G. Skramtaev as a theorist on the creation of new promising concretes and mixtures for the construction industry are determined.
 
 In the article, the scientist B.G. Skramtaev is shown as a versatile and in-depth researcher, the author of numerous textbooks and monographs, relevant articles on the topics he studies. For example, his 1952 textbook "Building Materials" reflects the priority of Russian science and technology more fully than previous editions. It presents the achievements of Soviet construction materials technology and changes in outdated terminology on building materials. The fifth edition provides new data on materials and reinforced concrete parts for prefabricated construction, takes into account the basic principles of the draft Schedule, replenishes the section "Achievements of domestic science and practice", reflects the works successfully implemented in practice in 1950–1952, including personal works of the authors, especially in the field of new cements, concrete technology and building solutions.
 
 The conclusions obtained as a result of the analysis of the material contribute to the study of the originality of the versatile personality of B.G. Skramtaev, his phenomenon in scientific thought in the field of concrete science and building materials in the period of the 1930s–1960s.

BIM-based draft schedule generation in reinforced concrete-framed buildings

Purpose Project schedules have a vital role in the effective management of time, cost, scope and resources in construction projects, and creating schedules requires schedulers with construction knowledge and experience. The increase in the complexity of building projects and the emergence of building information modeling (BIM) in the architecture, engineering and construction industry have encouraged researchers to explore BIM capabilities for automated schedule generation. The scope and capabilities of the developed systems, however, are limited and the link between design and scheduling is still underdeveloped. This paper aims to investigate methods to develop a BIM-based framework to automatically generate schedules for concrete-framed buildings. Design/methodology/approach This system first extracts the required data from the building information model, including elements’ dimensions, quantities, spatial information, materials and other related attributes. It then applies construction rules, prior knowledge and production rate data to create project work-packages, calculate their durations and determine their relationships. Finally, it organizes these results into a schedule using project management software. Findings This system provides an automated and easy-to-use approach to generate schedules for concrete-framed buildings that are modeled in a BIM platform. It provides two schedules for each project, both a sequential and an overlapped solution, which the schedulers can modify into a practical schedule based on conditions and available resources. Originality/value This research project presents an innovative approach to use BIM-based attributes of structural elements to develop list of work-packages and estimate their durations, and then it uses a combination of rule-based and case-based reasoning to generate the schedules.

Development of the Occupational Therapy Stroke Arm and Hand Record: An Upper Limb Treatment Schedule

Introduction:This study aimed to develop a comprehensive occupational therapy treatment schedule of upper limb interventions for stroke survivors with reduced upper limb function.Method:In a three-phased qualitative consensus study, 12 occupational therapists from acute and community settings in North West England contributed to interviews and subsequently group discussions to design and pilot a treatment schedule. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis; the themes were used to develop a framework for the schedule that was supported by and reflected the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework. A draft schedule was the subject of a focus group and the resultant schedule was piloted in clinical practice by eight local occupational therapists working in neurological rehabilitation.Findings:Consensus was reached on three themes summarizing aspects of function: interventions that address preparation for activity, functional skills (that is, an aspect of function), and function. Three additional themes summarized other aspects of therapy: advice and education, practice outside therapy sessions, and psychosocial interventions. These themes became the main headings of the treatment schedule. The Occupational Therapy Stroke Arm and Hand Record treatment schedule was piloted and found to be comprehensive and potentially beneficial to clinical practice.Conclusion:The Occupational Therapy Stroke Arm and Hand Record treatment schedule provides a tool for use in stroke research and clinical practice.

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Wire Drawing for Hardly Deformable Biocompatible Magnesium Alloys / Numeryczna I Doswiadczalna Analiza Ciagnienia Drutu Z Trudno Odkształcalnych Biozgodnych Stopów Magnezu

In the present paper the drawing processes of thin wire of biocompatible magnesium alloys in heated die was investigated. Due to the hexagonal close packet structure magnesium alloys have low plasticity. In order to design the technological parameters the FEM model of wire drawing process in heated die and models of yield stress and ductility were developed. The relationship between technological parameters of drawing and fracture parameters was obtained based on developed models. The maps of possible elongation for MgCa0.8 and Ax30 magnesium alloys were developed using simulations. The draft schedule for final wire diameter 0.1 mm was design assisted with FEM model in experimental part of work. Based on this draft plan the drawing process from initial diameter 1.0 mm to final diameter 0.1 mm in heated die was performed in designed by author’s device.

The effects of rolling method changes on productivity in thick plate rolling process

We present a draft schedule scheme to estimate the productivity in thick plate rolling process. Dependency of design force, design torque and maximum bite angle of a rolling mill on the reduction ratio models were fully considered in the draft schedule scheme. Roll force and torque equations used in the reduction ratio models were verified by comparing the measurements with the predictions. Using the draft schedule scheme, we examined the influence of rolling method changes on the productivity (i) material position after the broadside passes, (ii) material position after the longitudinal passes and (iii) the number of turn, i.e., number of times that slab (material) is rotated by 90 degree, before the broadside and/or longitudinal passes begin. Results reveal that the number of turn gives the major influence on productivity. Rolling time can be minimized if material positions after the broadside and longitudinal passes are not fixed in advance.

Approach to evaluate the rolling mill capacity in a plate rolling process

This study presents an approach to evaluating the rolling mill capacity from the viewpoints of productivity and revamping cost when a plate mill is upgraded. In this light, a concept is proposed of a ‘characteristic length’, defined as the ratio of the design torque of the drive motor over the design force of the rolling equipment (structure of the rolling mill). A draft schedule algorithm for the plate rolling process is also presented, which consists of a force–thickness relation at each pass, and a roll force and torque prediction model. Using the draft schedule algorithm linked with the characteristic length, a series of plate rolling analyses was performed to examine the productivity of a plate mill while varying: (i) the design force of the rolling equipment; (ii) the design torque of the drive motor; (iii) both its design force and torque; and (iv) the strength of the slab. In addition, as a practical example, the proposed approach has been applied to three actual plate mills in Korea, China, and Russia. The results reveal that upgrading the design torque is the most efficient method from the viewpoint of productivity and revamping cost. It was also found that a critical characteristic length exists in which productivity cannot be increased any further, even though the rolling mill capacity has been upgraded further. Hence, this critical characteristic length can be used as an index to avoid the overcapacity problem of a plate mill when it is revamped.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): Is India Gearing Up?

The growing demand for transparency and comparability of financial information across the globe is an important reason for adopting a single set of globally acceptable accounting and financial reporting standards. As the world globalizes, it has become imperative for India also to make a formal strategy for convergence with IFRS with the objective of harmonizing with globally accepted accounting standards. While India Inc. eagerly waiting for guidelines on the IFRS, experts say that a lot remains to be done before it can be introduced. With the involvement of various regulators such as MCA, RBI, IRDA, Tax authorities and SEBI Draft Schedule Vi and Accounting Standard 1 (Exposure Draft) consistent with IFRS, India will stick to IFRS convergence timeline. There is a need for clarity about the time by which companies need to convert their accounts as per IFRS; if there are changes to be made to regulatory frameworks, then by when that should happen; changes in accounting standards should be on a fast-track basis; how indirect and direct taxes would be levied. Conversion to IFRS is a tedious task involving significant time, cost and efforts. But the need of the hour is to strategize the convergence process and enable Indian companies to source equity globally and to outbound investments easy.

Methodology for draft schedule design of plate rolling process with peening effect considered

We propose an approach for designing a draft schedule applicable to thick plate rolling. In the proposed approach, the peening effect, i.e. thick material is rolled with a small reduction ratio, is considered fully in computing roll force and torque. To determine an initial draft schedule, we calculate material thickness at each pass and total number of passes by taking the smallest of the critical reduction ratios (reduction ratio by maximum reduction increment, reduction ratio assigned in designing a plate mill, reduction ratios by allowable roll force and roll torque). To make a final draft schedule, we then propose two ways (thickness ratio correction (TRC) method and reduction ratio correction (RRC) method) that redistribute reduction ratios predetermined in the initial draft schedule. The proposed approach has been applied to POSCO No. 2 Plate Mill. Results reveal that the reduction ratios are determined by allowable roll torque if the material being rolled is relatively thick, but reduction ratios are decided by roll force as the material thickness being rolled decreases. It has been found that the thickness ratio correction method is useful when a heavy reduction ratio is necessary in the later part of the rough rolling sequence, and obtaining a uniform microstructure over material thickness during rolling is important. Meanwhile, the reduction ratio correction method is effective if surface defect generation on the material during rolling is a concern.

Defining an Occupational Therapy Intervention for People with Psychosis

The purpose of the study was to define occupational therapy in its entirety for people with psychotic conditions in community settings, in order to produce an intervention schedule for piloting in a randomised controlled trial. Initially, a draft schedule was designed using Creek's (2003) definition of occupational therapy as a complex intervention and other literature regarding psychosis. Consensus methods provided a systematic and transparent process for refining the schedule: the Delphi method was used with 20 local mental health occupational therapists followed by a modified nominal group technique with occupational therapists attending a national conference. This paper focuses on the process of gaining consensus and the practice-related issues that arose. The results identified 82 components that detailed occupational therapy actions under 11 stages. The preferred approach was client centred, with models of practice, goals and actions chosen collaboratively with the individual client. Occupational therapy was defined as separate to care management but incorporated some generic tasks. The discussion of this study's implications includes setting a finite length of intervention; barriers to practice; the importance of activity analysis and doing activities together with clients; and how defining practice may help to clarify the role of the occupational therapist in multidisciplinary team work.

Congressional Fellows Take On “Iron Triangle” of Assignments, Canada Trip and Wilson Seminar

November and December were a whirlwind for the Congressional Fellows as they attended back-to-back orientation sessions and interviewed for positions on the Hill. Now that they have secured full-time assignments as legislative aides, they have begun turning their attention to the yearly Canadian Parliamentary Exchange. Hardly had a description left Program Director Jeff Biggs' mouth before emails were flying on how best to plan the Canadians' visit to Washington. True to form, the political scientists established steering committees with names like “The Political Scientist Committee,” “The Federal Committee,” “The Journalist Committee,” “The Entertainment Committee,” and “The Miscellaneous Committee.” Meanwhile, the journalists began to brainstorm and sketch out a draft schedule—four months in advance. Clearly, they were enthused.

Mathematical Modeling of Draft Schedule for In-line Rolling of Ultra Thin Strip in the Combined Single-belt Casting/Hot Rolling Process

The single-belt process is a new route to produce steel strips, in which the single-belt caster is directly connected with hot mills. This process should be able to roll strip with thickness 1 mm or below. In hot rolling of the ultra thin strip there are many limitations which are represented by the finishing rolling temperature of the strip, the oxidation of the strip, the overheat of the roll and the maximum rolling speed. In the present paper the possibility of hot rolling ultra thin strip in the single-belt process was investigated. On the basis of mechanical/thermal/metallurgical behavior of the strip a mathematical model of draft schedule was proposed. In terms of different criteria the draft schedule was optimized. The results show that austenitic hot rolling of ultra thin strip in the single-belt process can be carried out like the conventional hot rolling for low carbon steels. With consideration of roll life the maximal roll surface temperature has a large influence on the establishment of the draft schedule for hot rolling of ultra thin strips.

Scheduling fixtures for Basketball New Zealand

This paper describes the problem faced every year by Basketball New Zealand in scheduling the National Basketball League fixtures. This is a combinatorial optimization problem with few constraints but many objectives, which are described in detail. Two features of the problem cause particular difficulty—the requirement that every team plays two matches in at least two rounds during the season and the fact that stadium availability is far from certain at the start of the process and must be negotiated once a draft schedule has been produced, necessitating an iterative process with possibly many drafts before the final schedule is confirmed. A variant of Simulated Annealing is used to solve this problem, producing one or more schedules of high quality. The system will be used in practice for the 2004 season. The paper also reports the results of experiments regarding the use of a potentially useful, but very restrictive, solution structure for the initial solution and possibly beyond. The results of the experiments show that, for this problem at least, it appears best to stick with this restrictive structure for part of the metaheuristic search procedure, but then to remove this restriction for the remainder of the process. This could have interesting implications for other problems.

Production of thick plate on the hot strip mill at the Rourkela steel plant (RSP)

Thick plate producers worldwide have shifted from the ingot casting route to the concast route owing to certain inherent advantages, namely, low cost, high yield, low energy consumption and high quality of the cast product. The major challenge towards adoption of concast technology has been achieving the desired mechanical properties and internal soundness in the final product using a low reduction ratio (approximately 3–5) during hot rolling. Steelmakers across the world have resorted to microalloying, adequate soaking and heavy reductions during hot rolling using modern high powered plate mills to overcome this impasse. This is not possible at Rourkela steel plant (RSP), which is equipped with an underpowered plate mill with low load bearing capacity (~ 3000 t). Thus, the novel ideal of utilising the roughing section of the hot strip mill of RSP was conceived, whereby the R0 and R1 stands could serve as the roughing and finishing stands of a 'plate mill'. As the maximum permissible reduction per pass is significantly higher in the R0 and R1 stands (15–25%), compared with the plate mill (10–15%), the rolling of thick plates became a reality. With the objective of producing ultrasonically sound thick plate (>40 mm) via the hot strip mill route at RSP, experimental rolling of 50 mm thickness plate of plain C–Mn steel (IS 2062 Gr. B) was undertaken. Slabs processed through the basic oxygen furnace–vacuum arc degassing– continuous casting (LD–VAD–CC) route were rolled into thick plate using a specially designed draft schedule in order to weld the internal defects in slabs and achieve high strength with good toughness properties in the final product. The rolled plates were subjected to an ultrasonic test according to ASTM standard A578 level 3, and were found to be satisfactory. The present paper describes the rolling practice for the production of 50 mm thickness plate of plain carbon steel having minimum yield and tensile strengths of 230 and 410 MPa, respectively, with guaranteed ultrasonic soundness.

Developing a Draft Schedule Using Templates and Rules

The effort required for the initial drafting of a plan is often a real barrier to developing a useful and high quality schedule for a construction project. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how an expert system with an editable rule base can be combined with standard templates of modifiable, predefined knowledge within a project management system in order to generate draft schedules based on limited user input. The user can capitalize on past experience by creating a template for each recurring project type. The knowledge contained in the templates is broken down into a physical view (i.e., what is being built), a process view (i.e., how it will be built), and rules for scaling the templates and computing durations based on user input. The physical view is a hierarchical breakdown structure of components that describes (without quantifying) the physical and spatial characteristics of the project type. The process view contains a list of typical activities and the logic relationships that describe their sequencing. The rules serve to link and then expand the two views in order to generate a draft schedule for the project-at-hand once its scale is specified. The feasibility and capabilities of the proposed approach are demonstrated in the context of a full-sized project composed of three buildings.

Influence of back-tension on effect of skin pass in minimising residual stress levels after cold rod drawing

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out on the influence of back-tension on residual stress levels after cold bar drawing. In particular, the influence on the skin pass effect was studied. Experimental and numerical results show that back-tension has little influence on the reduction of residual stress obtained following skin pass drawing. It is concluded that a skin pass can be incorporated into the final stage of drawing regardless of the draft schedule of the overall drawing process.

Automated schedule generation

Even for the most well-intentioned companies, the commitment required for the initial drafting of a plan is a real barrier to developing a useful schedule for a construction project. This paper explores how artificial intelligence and expert systems have and can be used for automating the generation of plans and schedules. Findings from a thorough literature review and observations about the general characteristics of projects provide a backdrop to explain the reasoning that has led to the authors' approach to developing a module capable of generating draft plans and schedules. This approach combines expert systems with large building blocks of predefined project scoping, sequencing, and scaling knowledge contained in standard templates and rules. It relies on templates to store much of the reasoning needed to produce a project plan and schedule, and on the use of generalized planning structures as activities. A draft schedule can then be automatically generated by way of a relatively simple rule set that assigns activity property values dealing with physical locations and production rates, as well as other project scale related values. The role of a physical model or view of a project is emphasised.Key words: construction, scheduling, project management, expert system, template, automated schedule generation, rule based, computer integration.

Representing a project's physical view in support of project management functions

In performing project management functions such as scheduling and project control, construction professionals base much of their reasoning on the physical characteristics and context of the work. And yet this project view is missing in virtually all management systems commonly used in construction, which focus almost exclusively on the process or activity view of a project. It is believed that the facility to provide the physical view of a project is both central and a priority to the development of computer-integrated project management systems in order to successfully imitate and support the thought processes of construction personnel. This paper describes several of the design considerations and features of a parametric modelling module capable of providing such a view. Two of a broad range of applications supported by this module, automatic draft plan and schedule generation and productivity analysis, are briefly described in order to demonstrate the value added by integrating the process and physical views of a projectKey words: computer-integration, physical component breakdown structure, parametric modelling

Automated schedule generation

Even for the most well-intentioned companies, the commitment required for the initial drafting of a plan is a real barrier to developing a useful schedule for a construction project. This paper explores how artificial intelligence and expert systems have and can be used for automating the generation of plans and schedules. Findings from a thorough literature review and observations about the general characteristics of projects provide a backdrop to explain the reasoning that has led to the authors' approach to developing a module capable of generating draft plans and schedules. This approach combines expert systems with large building blocks of predefined project scoping, sequencing, and scaling knowledge contained in standard templates and rules. It relies on templates to store much of the reasoning needed to produce a project plan and schedule, and on the use of generalized planning structures as activities. A draft schedule can then be automatically generated by way of a relatively simple rule set that assigns activity property values dealing with physical locations and production rates, as well as other project scale related values. The role of a physical model or view of a project is emphasised.Key words: construction, scheduling, project management, expert system, template, automated schedule generation, rule based, computer integration.

IFLA Conference at Strbské Pleso: draft schedule of meetings (see also under Late news)

IFLA Conference at Strbské Pleso: draft schedule of meetings (see also under Late news)

The New Advanced System of Plate Mill Computer Control

The characteristics of our newly developed mathematical models for the computer control of a plate mill are described. These are as follows; unique numerical equations derived from rolling theory and experiment, the method of calculation of draft schedule and introduction of flatness KEY in order to roll the plate of light gage in good shape, and the method of automatic high speed reverse rolling.The result of the application to a 210” 2 stands plate mill is reported. Gage control has exhibited a standard deviation of 0.08 mm and 98% of all the production is being rolled by automatic operation.