Large-scale Projects Research Articles

The assessment of replicability using the sum of p-values.

Statistical significance of both the original and the replication study is a commonly used criterion to assess replication attempts, also known as the two-trials rule in drug development. However, replication studies are sometimes conducted although the original study is non-significant, in which case Type-I error rate control across both studies is no longer guaranteed. We propose an alternative method to assess replicability using the sum of -values from the two studies. The approach provides a combined -value and can be calibrated to control the overall Type-I error rate at the same level as the two-trials rule but allows for replication success even if the original study is non-significant. The unweighted version requires a less restrictive level of significance at replication if the original study is already convincing which facilitates sample size reductions of up to 10%. Downweighting the original study accounts for possible bias and requires a more stringent significance level and larger sample sizes at replication. Data from four large-scale replication projects are used to illustrate and compare the proposed method with the two-trials rule, meta-analysis and Fisher's combination method.

Oncogenic Enhancers in Leukemia.

Although the study of leukemogenesis has traditionally focused on protein-coding genes, the role of enhancer dysregulation is becoming increasingly recognized. The advent of high-throughput sequencing, together with a better understanding of enhancer biology, has revealed how various genetic and epigenetic lesions produce oncogenic enhancers that drive transformation. These aberrations include translocations that lead to enhancer hijacking, point mutations that modulate enhancer activity, and copy number alterations that modify enhancer dosage. In this review, we describe these mechanisms in the context of leukemia and discuss potential therapeutic avenues to target these regulatory elements. Significance: Large-scale sequencing projects have uncovered recurrent gene mutations in leukemia, but the picture remains incomplete: some patients harbor no such aberrations, whereas others carry only a few that are insufficient to bring about transformation on their own. One of the missing pieces is enhancer dysfunction, which only recently has emerged as a critical driver of leukemogenesis. Knowledge of the various mechanisms of enhancer dysregulation is thus key for a complete understanding of leukemia and its causes, as well as the development of targeted therapies in the era of precision medicine.

The Limits of Local Power: Business, Political Conflict, and Coastal Reclamation Projects in Makassar, Indonesia

Since the fall of Indonesia's Suharto regime in 1998, politics in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, has been characterised by a competitive form of elite domination. Major political families, most with roots in the ruling elite of the Suharto period, have captured power and used it to further their economic interests while engaging in bitter intra-elite feuds. Through studies of three large-scale coastal reclamation projects, the study reveals patterns of interaction between political elites and business groups in the province. Successive mayors and governors have sponsored rival reclamation projects, directing tenders toward favoured business partners and sidelining allies of rivals. Yet these projects also reveal the limits of power of local politicians: while they support favoured local partners, none has been able to sideline large national conglomerates involved in these projects. Instead, big investors are more or less immune to local political change.

Leading program curriculum reform: reflections on challenges and successes

ABSTRACT Major curriculum review and redesign at the higher education level demand transformative academic leadership and significant time commitment. However, the traditional university culture characterised by change aversion, complex bureaucratic processes, and a research dominated academic workload allocation and promotion system poses significant obstacles to teaching quality enhancement. This article presents the critical reflections of a Program Director (academic middle leader) at an Australian university on the challenges and successes experienced while leading a major accounting curriculum reform project. Conducted between October 2019 and May 2021, this project encountered constant disruptions due to the Global Covid-19 pandemic, organisational restructuring, the new external professional accreditaiton requirements. Academic middle leader’s insights on the positive impacts and obstacles of major curriculum reform at the whole of a program level within a constantly evolving institutional environment provide valuable perspectives for both business education practice and policy reforms. The reflection has policy implications for university management to reassess strategic priorities with more balanced support for teaching and research in practice.

Causal relationship between project financing and overruns in major dam projects in Africa

PurposeCost and schedule overruns are rife in dam projects. Normative evidence espouses overruns as though they are inimical to development and prosperity aspirations of stakeholders. This study examines the causal relationship between project financing and overruns.Design/methodology/approachCausative data were extracted from completion reports of 28 major dam projects in Africa. Each of the projects was financed jointly by up to 10 international development lenders. Relationships between causes of overruns and project outcomes were analysed.FindingsAnalyses elicit indicators of remarkable correlations between finance procedures and project outcomes. Lenders’ disposition to risk attenuation was the main debacles to project success. Interests had mounted, whilst release of fund was erratic and ill-timed. Finance objectives and mechanisms were grossly inadequate for projects’ intense bifurcations. Projects had slowed or stalled because lenders’ risks attenuation processes were purposed to favour lenders’ objectives, and not projects’ interests. In addition, findings also show project owners’ own funds and the number of lenders to a single project correlate with overruns.Practical implicationsFindings imply commercial complexities around major projects. They also show transactions are shaped by subtle (mis)trust behaviours in project finance procedures. Thus, scholarly solutions to project performance issues should consider behavioural issues of stakeholding parties more broadly, beyond contractors and project owners. Project finance ecosystems are vulnerable to major actors’ self-interests, opportunism and predatory conducts. Borrowers would manage this by developing and improving their capacity to build resilience and trust. Evidence shows intense borrower nations in Africa have limited capacity and acuity for these.Originality/valueThis study contextualises megaprojects in complexity rather than cost. Its additionality is in how finance steers absolute control of project environment away from project owners and how finance administration triggers risks and overrun.

Enhancing Sustainable Thermal Comfort of Tropical Urban Buildings with Indoor Plants

Rapid urbanization exacerbates the urban heat island effect, raising local temperatures and endangering residents’ health and well-being. The decreasing green spaces resulting from urbanization necessitate global action focused on reducing heat island intensity and addressing heat stress. Urban green infrastructure (UGI) offers solutions for enhanced comfort and reduced pollution through passive methods. Various large-scale UGI projects have been implemented to regulate temperature and improve air quality in urban areas. More research on smaller green spaces is essential to improve the microclimate in space-constrained urban cities. This experimental study examines the thermal effectiveness of potted plants located on balconies of a mid-rise residential building in Chennai, India. The study aims to enlighten balcony greening’s role in reducing heat stress by monitoring temperature and humidity indoors and outdoors, with and without potted plants at similar solar radiation. Potted plants significantly lowered indoor air and surface temperatures by about 3 °C. Thus, balconies offer untapped potential for green interventions that are often unnoticed in tropical climates like India. The challenges in the installation and maintenance of UGI hinder the widespread adoption of UGI even though UGI positively influences residential well-being. The significant findings benefit urban planners and architects, enlightening strategies to enhance urban thermal comfort and mitigate heat stress through small-scale and cost-effective green interventions. This research contributes to sustainable urban development in tropical climates, aligning with several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDGs 3, 7, 11, 13, and 15.

An optimal dispatch strategy of off-grid park integrated energy system considering source volatility

An off-grid integrated energy system (IES) with hydrogen storage at park-level is proposed, utilizing wind, solar and natural gas as the main energy supply to replace fossil fuels, in order to overcome the insufficient consideration of energy source conversion and information exchange in the traditional energy system. Firstly, an IES schematic consisted with typical devices is proposed, and all the components are modelled in detail. Then, based on the renewable energy (RE) input requirements and the facility parameters, an optimal dispatch model for multi-energy conversion based on hydrogen storage has been demonstrated. In addition, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is also introduced to improve the strategy. Combined with the environmental characteristics, the multi-objective solution with the lowest economic cost and environmental cost, the highest energy supply reliability and energy efficiency as the optimization objectives is determined. Finally, a case study is conducted using the practical data of the Chongli Large-Scale Wind-Solar Complementary Coupled Hydrogen Production System Application Demonstration Project to validate the feasibility of the study under real conditions. The result shows that the RE consumption rate is greater than 99 % under the premise of considering the environmental cost and ensuring the operation reliability, which can effectively improve the operation economy and user economy of the power grid

Implementation of land acquisition for development of public interest (Analytical study on the construction of bypass road facilities to the Mandalika special economic zone)

Background: This study aims to determine the procedures for implementing land acquisition for constructing the Lombok International Airport ByPass road to the Land Acquisition Area for constructing the Lombok International Airport ByPass road to the Mandalika Special Economic Zone. Methods: This study uses empirical legal research with the statutory, conceptual, and sociological approaches. The data types in this study are primary and secondary, while the data sources use library research and field research. Techniques and ways of obtaining data are by conducting interviews and observations. The purpose of this study is to find out the procedures for implementing land acquisition for the construction of the Lombok International Airport ByPass road to the Mandalika Special Economic Zone, and to find out the inhibiting factors in this activity. Findings: The procedure for implementing land acquisition for the construction of the Lombok International Airport By Pass to the Mandalika Special Economic Zone as stipulated in Law Number 11 of 2020 Ciptaker regulates 4 (four) stages of acquisition starting from planning, preparation, implementation, and delivery of results. Conclusion: The land acquisition implementation committee has carried out land acquisition procedures following the provisions of the Laws and Regulations. The obstacles in constructing the Lombok International Airport By Pass road to the Mandalik Special Economic Zone include social, cultural, and economic factors. Novelty/Originality of this Study: An empirical examination of the land acquisition process for a major infrastructure project, specifically the Bypass Road from Lombok International Airport to the Mandalika Resort Special Economic Zone, employs a multifaceted approach encompassing legislative, conceptual, and sociological perspectives. This study uniquely identifies and analyzes the social, cultural, and economic barriers affecting the land acquisition process, providing insights into community dynamics and compensation issues within the context of Indonesian agrarian law and development.

Framing and Visualising Nationhood: Istiqlal Mosque and the Interiority of the Independence Square, Jakarta

Studies on interiority have profoundly shifted the perspective of looking at urban space as a socially constructed architectural product. This study examines the meanings invested by Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia and the patron of the mosque, in Istiqlal Mosque (1962) and the Independence Square using the lens of interiority. Rather than looking at the mosque as a single monument, this study considers the mosque and its time and spatial contexts as an architectural unity to make Sukarno's vision of nationhood manifest through the interiority of the Independence Square area in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city. This study employed an architectural survey and documentation of Istiqlal Mosque and its surrounding built environment and analysed them using Derrida's (1978/1987) centre and margin theory. It is found that the Istiqlal Mosque was designed as part of the frame that reinforces the meaning of the interior of Independence Square, where the National Monument (1964), Sukarno's major monumental project, stands. Istiqlal Mosque was constructed to claim the newly established nation as the world’s most populous Muslim country and to communicate Sukarno’s idea of uniting Indonesia's diverse cultural and religious backgrounds through religious tolerance while declaring his firm standpoint in the 1960s Cold War.

관광과 지역 정체성 정치

Despite being one of Korea's six major cities during the Japanese colonial era, Mokpo has declined to a small local city post-liberation. Since the establishment of the local government system, Mokpo has aimed to reinvent itself as a tourist destination. Over the past 20 years, the city has implemented six major tourism development and promotion projects, including night scenery lighting, a marine music fountain, urban regeneration of the old city center, a suspension cable car, hotel construction on Samhakdo Island, and branding Mokpo as a “romantic harbor city.” Throughout this process, there have been conflicts, competition, and cooperation with various civic and local interest groups. This research, based on related studies and Logan & Molotch's (2007) growth machine theory, analyzes how different groups formed growth and anti-growth coalitions and how they struggled over six key projects. Newspaper articles documenting these conflicts, competition, and cooperation were reviewed. To enhance reliability and validity, peer review and an interview with a local newspaper editor were conducted. The findings show that while the growth machine theory is useful in examining Mokpo's coalitions and their conflicts, it has limitations in fully explaining the phenomenon's complexity. The study concludes by discussing future research directions and the role of deliberative democracy in sustaining Mokpo's development as a tourist city.

Project procurement process and performance of major dam projects in Kenya

Project procurement process and performance of major dam projects in Kenya

Consideration of natural scientific background in Russia’s climate policy

Aim. Based on normative acts to reveal the key importance of the domestic scientific background in the implementation of climate policy.Objectives. To characterize the historical experience of using scientific-balance calculations in the implementation of strategic planning, applied today in the process of climate policy implementation in the national economy; to consider the current trends in strategic management of climate policy, description of the system of key cross-sectoral documents of strategic planning, reflection of accounting for the implementation of the major innovative project of state importance (MIP SI) and federal scientific and technical program (FSTP) in the system of climate policy in Russia.Methods. The author used general scientific methods of theoretical research, including analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, and presented a system of intersectoral documents of climate policy in the context of the need to ensure anti-sanctions resistance. The results of the implementation of MIP SI and FSTP in the system of documents of inter-sectoral strategic planning of climate policy in the Russian economy are investigated.Results. The article analyzes the system of key intersectoral strategic planning documents developed and approved for the implementation of climate policy. According to the approved acts, in the Russian economy are realized MIP SI and FSTP, which contribute to the aggregation and implementation of scientific developments necessary in the implementation of climate policy of the Russian Federation (RF). In addition, the connection of the relevant documents with the documents of intersectoral (including technological) nature, which take into account not only the implementation of climate policy, but also the need to form technological sovereignty in connection with the sanctions restrictions imposed on the Russian economy. It is shown that state-level projects implemented in connection with the climate agenda can form a domestic foundation that will provide a promising scientific calculations and developments aimed at the realization of low-carbon development of the domestic economy.Conclusions. The low-carbon economic development strategy developed on the basis of the input-output methodology (inter-sectoral balance), the approved state program to reduce the carbon intensity of the Russian economy, as well as the updated Climate Doctrine are the key intersectoral documents of climate policy, which take into account relevant scientific research, including in the natural-science plane. Aggregation of the results of the implementation of the MIP SI and FSTP will allow taking into account the advanced achievements of domestic research in the climate field, which will further ensure a more balanced implementation of the state climate policy in the long term, including in the context of the need to form and ensure technological sovereignty. This in the long term can positively affect the sustainable improvement of welfare in the country.

Large-scale systematic review support for guideline development in diabetes precision medicine.

Involving librarians as team members can lead to better quality in reviews. To improve their search results, an international diabetes project involved two medical librarians in a large-scale project planning of a series of systematic reviews for clinical guidelines in diabetes precision medicine. The precision diabetes project was divided into teams. Four diabetes mellitus types (type 1, type 2, gestational, and monogenic) were divided into teams focusing on diagnostics, prevention, treatment, or prognostics. A search consultation plan was set up for the project to help organize the work. We performed searches in Embase and PubMed for 14 teams, building complex searches that involved non-traditional search strategies. Our search strategies generated very large amounts of records that created challenges in balancing sensitivity with precision. We also performed overlap searches for type 1 and type 2 diabetes search strategies; and assisted in setting up reviews in the Covidence tool for screening. This project gave us opportunities to test methods we had not used before, such as overlap comparisons between whole search strategies. It also gave us insights into the complexity of performing a search balancing sensitivity and specificity and highlights the need for a clearly defined communication plan for extensive evidence synthesis projects.

Causes of Incomplete Risk Identification in Major Transportation Engineering and Construction Projects

Causes of Incomplete Risk Identification in Major Transportation Engineering and Construction Projects

Optimization and Modelling of the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Grass Fiber Reinforced with Slag-Based Composites Using Response Surface Methodology.

The construction industry's high energy consumption and carbon emissions negatively impact the ecological environment; large-scale construction projects consume much energy and emit a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. Statistics show that 30% of energy loss and 40% of solid waste in the construction industry are generated during construction. Therefore, reducing emissions during construction has significant research potential and value. Many scholars have recently studied eco-friendly building materials to facilitate the use of high-carbon emission materials like cement. Adding fibers to composite materials has become a research hotspot among these studies. Although adding fibers to composite materials has many advantages, it mainly reduces the compressive strength of the composite material. This research used the response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the raw material ratios and thus improve the performance of plant fiber composite materials. Single-factor experiments were conducted to analyze the effects of grass size, grass content, and quicklime content on the composite materials' compressive strength, flexural strength, and water absorption. The influencing factors and levels for the response surface experiment were determined based on the results of the single-factor analysis. Using the response surface methodology (RSM), a second-order polynomial regression model was established to analyze the interaction effects of the three factors on the composite materials' compressive strength, flexural strength, and water absorption rate. The optimal ratio was determined: the optimized options for grass size, grass content, and quicklime content are 2.0 mm, 8.2 g, and 38 g, respectively. The actual values of compressive strength, flexural strength, and water absorption rate of the composite materials made according to the predicted ratio are 11.425 MPa, 2.145 MPa, and 21.89%, respectively, with a relative error of 8% between the actual and predicted values. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were also used to reveal the factors contributing to the relatively high strength of the optimized samples.

The Human Glycome Atlas Project for cataloging all glycan-related omics data in human.

The Human Glycome Atlas (HGA) Project was launched in April 2023, spearheaded by three Japanese institutes: the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences, and Soka University. This was the first time that a field in the life sciences was adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for a Large-scale Academic Frontiers Promotion Project. This project aims to construct a knowledgebase of human glycans and glycoproteins as a standard for the human glycome. A high-throughput pipeline for comprehensively analyzing 20,000 blood samples in its first five years is planned, at which time an access-controlled version of a human glycomics knowledgebase, called TOHSA, will be released. By the end of the final tenth year, TOHSA will provide a central resource linking human glycan data with other omics data including disease-related information.

Distributed leadership and the shaping of infrastructure project portfolios

Important socio-technical changes are increasingly being implemented through major programmes or portfolios of projects (Maylor et al., 2006). These interventions, while necessary for modernisation and the green transition, cause short-term disruption which generates discord and opposition impacting stakeholder perception. The long-term sustainable transformation of rail transportation infrastructure toward electrification, greater speed, digital signalling, creates great benefit in terms of energy and carbon efficiency, reliability, and punctuality, but the short-term disruption caused by the projects can reduce the attractiveness of this mode of transport. This paper reports findings from an embedded case study with the Danish national railway infrastructure owner and analyses how the leadership team uses distributed leadership as a dynamic process of project and portfolio shaping which internalises diverse external perspectives and reconciles competing objectives. Using the “Tesseract” four-dimensional model of project success Ika and Pinto (2022a)to frame these competing interests, this paper presents a model of how distributed leadership shapes the railway project portfolio through the considerations of coherence, disruption, and benefit.

Calibrating the global network of gravitational wave observatories via laser power calibration at NIST and PTB

Current gravitational wave (GW) observatories rely on photon calibrators that use laser radiation pressure to generate displacement fiducials used to calibrate detector output signals. Reducing calibration uncertainty enables optimal extraction of astrophysical information such as source distance and sky position from detected signals. For the ongoing O4 observing run that started on 24 May 2023, the global GW detector network is employing a new calibration scheme with transfer standards calibrated at both the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). These transfer standards will circulate between the observatories and the metrology institutes to provide laser power calibration traceable to the International System of Units (SI) and enable assessment and reduction of relative calibration errors for the observatory network. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project and the Virgo project are currently participating in the new calibration scheme. The Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational-wave Telescope project (KAGRA) is expected to join in 2024, with the LIGO Aundha Observatory in India joining later. Before implementing this new scheme, a NIST-PTB bilateral comparison was conducted. It validated the scale representation by both laboratories, with a degree of equivalence of −0.2% and an associated expanded uncertainty of 0.32% (k = 2) which is significantly lower than previous studies. We describe the transfer of power sensor calibration, including detailed uncertainty estimates, from the transfer standards calibrated by NIST and PTB to the sensors operating continuously at the interferometer end stations. Finally, we discuss the ongoing calibration of Pcal-induced displacement fiducials for the O4 observing run. Achieved combined standard uncertainty levels as low as 0.3% facilitate calibrating the interferometer output signals with sub-percent accuracy.

Digital Trio: Integration of BIM–EIR–IoT for Facilities Management of Mega Construction Projects

Facility Management (FM) has increasingly focused on integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) with the Internet of Things (IoT), known as digital twins, in large-scale development projects. Effective BIM integration in FM requires improved cooperation among participants across various project stages. This digital revolution aims to enhance planning, construction, and asset management efficiency, benefiting all parties. However, BIM utilization in FM is limited by incomplete owner understanding, insufficient data accessibility, and stakeholders’ unfamiliarity with BIM procedures and standards. Despite recognizing BIM’s significance, the FM industry faces significant implementation challenges. Facility managers often lack a comprehensive understanding of BIM’s benefits in streamlining operations and enhancing cost efficiency, as well as the necessary skills for its use. Addressing these barriers requires developing an Employer’s Information Requirements (EIR) document at a project’s outset, providing a strategic plan and vision for all involved parties. BIM and IoT are pivotal technologies for transitioning to efficient building operations and crucial for reducing time, costs, and operational challenges throughout any project. This research aims to establish a digital trio workflow, integrating BIM, EIR, and IoT to maximize stakeholder benefits. It explores how preparing the EIR through stakeholder communication can improve design processes, sustainability, efficiency, cost, and time, especially for megaprojects.

From walking to staying: The impact of spatial qualities on socio-spatial segregation in innovation districts

Innovation districts can spur urban economic growth but present challenges like socio-spatial segregation. To mitigate segregation, we emphasize the importance of “staying activities” such as sitting, playing, and relaxing, over transient activities like walking or cycling in the design of public spaces. Focused on One-north, an innovation district in Singapore, we examine how different spatial qualities influence the “staying activities” of diverse socioeconomic groups. Using a GeoAI workflow that integrates various data-sources with machine learning and AI, we assess thirteen spatial quality indicators and their impact on staying activities. Our deep neural network (DNN) model, which achieves an 83.74% accuracy rate, confirms the effectiveness of these indicators in capturing the co-location of staying activities between diverse income groups in One-north. Our findings reveal that typical markers of well-designed public spaces, such as visual diversity and greenery, do not consistently enhance staying activities. Their effectiveness varies across One-north and is shaped by the unique functional contexts and land-use types of each sector in the district. Our research thus highlights the necessity for context-specific designs that encourage meaningful social interactions and reduce socioeconomic segregation. Our proposed GeoAI workflow can assist in the proactive evaluation of design strategies, supporting decision-making prior to major construction projects.