Technical Input Research Articles

Enhancing Soybean Eco-Farming Sustainability Through On-Farm, Off-Farm Sub-System, and Value Chain Integration

Soybean is a highly demanded agricultural product. However, it is miserable that national soybean production has yet to meet the high demand, resulting in the high value of soybean imports. In addition, Indonesia’s soybean productivity is relatively low compared to the productivity of other soybean centers worldwide. This study aims to examine the condition and sustainability of soybean farming as a whole, namely from the on-farm and off-farm side, as well as the trading system, which then provides technical input to increase the productivity of soybean farming through synergy between sub-systems. Sustainable agriculture is also essential to ensure that farming can be self-sufficient. Therefore, research and development of the agricultural sector are essential, considering that agricultural commodities are not only consumer goods but are also closely related to the problem of food security. This quantitative research uses Analytic Network Process (ANP) analysis and descriptive statistics.

Smart Refractory Sensors Development for Corrosion and Erosion Monitoring in High Temperature Systems

To optimize the operation and functioning of high temperature systems such as slagging gasifiers, coal boilers and glass/steel melters, it is important to monitor corrosion and erosion of refractory used in such systems. Corrosion test strategies are generally based on continuous gravimetric and chemical reactivity monitoring at operational temperatures (750°-1500°C). Both thermocouples and failure sensors and arrays would be useful to monitor the health of any refractory or coatings in these systems. Many of such type of sensors are installed into the systems through open access ports within the refractory; however, there are some disadvantages of this approach where corrosive/erosive gas and molten materials can penetrate and compromise the system. The current work presents the development and performance demonstration of smart refractory with embedded high temperature sensors such as thermocouples, thermistors, and various spallation/crack monitoring sensors, which may be used within a variety of refractory brick in different high temperature processes and applications.The main feature of this technology is that electroceramic based sensors are embedded into smart refractory without significantly impact to the intrinsic properties of the refractory. This technology circumvents the need to insert an isolated monolithic, stand-alone sensor into the refractory via an access port. This technological approach guarantees the integrity and the chemical stability of the materials used in the sensor fabrication within the harsh environment and does not introduce molten material (such as slag) penetration pathways within the refractory. One interesting and important aspect of this innovation is that these embedded sensors can be used to in situ monitoring processes such as chemical reactions and at the same time give information and a deeper understanding of the corrosion and erosion process of the refractory within the system.As stated above, the objective of our work is to develop high-temperature sensors composed of electroceramic materials that are chemically stable at high temperatures (750°-1500°C) and high pressures (up to 1000 psi) that can be used in monitoring corrosion and erosion process in refractory used in high energy systems. The high-temperature sensors investigated in this work were composed of various oxide composites directly embedded into the refractory oxides. The composites used for this work were synthesized by a mixed-oxide route. Metal oxides were inserted within a matrix material composed of refractory oxides (Al2O3, ZrO2, etc.). The physical and electrical properties were specifically manipulated by altering the level of percolation of the conductive species (metal oxides) within the refractory constituent (refractory oxide).Prior to the development of the high-temperature sensors, the oxides composites developed in this study were sintered up to 1600°C under oxidizing atmosphere in order to investigate densification, microstructural evolution, phase development, and their thermoelectrical performance as a function of the composition. The 4-point DC conductivity measurements were performed between 100°-1500°C. The sensors were fabricated from the composite materials by 3D-printing or screen-printing methods into the refractory brick during the consolidation process.An example of one of these embedded sensors consisted of an electroceramic-based thermocouple fabricated with two separate oxide composite compositions which were patterned to produce a couple within the interior of a refractory matrix. The thermocouple successfully displayed thermoelectric voltage trend (as a function of temperature), and the voltage was 220.0 mV around 1400 °C.Corrosion tests on the refractory embedded sensors were performed. To evaluate corrosion in the refractory brick an in-house glass composition was prepared and pressed into pellets and delivered into a pre-cut cavity in the brick. Corrosion experiments results showed the glass penetrated the brick over a 90 h period, and the penetration of the glass through the brick could be monitored by both a amperometric and voltametric based sensor. With this experiment, it was demonstrated that the embedded sensor could dynamically monitor the corrosion process. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) through the research project grant (DE-FE0031825). The authors would also like to acknowledge the technical support of Dr. Qiang Wang, Dr. Marcela Redigolo and Mr. Harley Hart of WVU Shared Research Facilities (SRF) for assistance in characterization and technical input.

An Outlook on Harnessing Technological Innovative Competence in Sustainably Transforming African Agriculture.

Agricultural value chains worldwide provide essential support to livelihoods, ecosystem services, and the growing bioeconomy. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic slowed down or reversed decades of agricultural growth and exposed the vulnerabilities of farmers and the food insecure in Africa, thus reiterating the need to build resilience, agility, and adaptability for a sustainable agriculture. Existing social, political, environmental, and economic challenges demonstrate that a path to faster sustainable growth is increased productivity through improved input quality, of which technical inputs are a part. This work presents a perspective calling for African innovative competence in technological and methodological applications and solutions as part of the most critical area of a holistic organization for social progress. It finds that while performances of previous agricultural transformation efforts offer insights for future directions, novel pathways fitting to the diversity of situations and contexts on the continent are needed. These may include vertical agriculture in land-constrained regions to grow high-value products, ocean or sea farming in coastal regions, development of multiple-harvesting crops, and self-replicating plants. Developing standards that integrate current scientific methodologies and technologies with indigenous knowledge for agricultural growth and disaster management will bring the complementary benefits of both worlds into optimal development.

Determining Highway Project Contract Time from Project Duration Estimates

Contract time determination (CTD) by state DOTs is critical to a typical design-bid-build project due to its profound impacts on stakeholders in various aspects, such as the actual amount of time allocated to the contractor, contracting parties’ costs, and motorists’ traveling experiences on roads constructed under traffic. Reviewing DOTs’ CTD manuals and guidance shows that determining contract time is more complex than only estimating a reliable project duration from technical inputs such as work quantities, which has been the focus of previous studies. The type of contract time (e.g., working days or calendar days) affects contractors’ schedule risks, and external factors such as political commitments often affect highway projects significantly. However, those issues were rarely considered in past studies. Furthermore, a systematic procedure for determining contract time from a project duration estimate and effective supporting tools are lacking in DOTs’ current practice. This study proposed such a procedure incorporating typical constraints of highway projects identified by reviewing CTD-related documents and conducting seven face-to-face interviews with CTD experts. Other contributions include designing an accompanied computation algorithm to automate the process and developing a freely available Microsoft Excel tool to help DOT practitioners implement the proposed procedure in their operations.

Effect of text type on translation effort in human translation and neural machine translation post-editing processes: evidence from eye-tracking and keyboard-logging

ABSTRACT Text type influences the translator’s decision in taking an overall translation approach and consequently selecting translation techniques. While the majority of studies to date have investigated this phenomenon as an end-product, the effect of text types on the translation process has received little attention in the area of cognitive translation processes, especially from an empirical perspective. To fill this gap, the current study employed eye-tracking and keyboard-logging approaches to investigate the effect of text type (informative text, expressive text, and operative text) on the cognitive efforts demanded in the Human Translation (HT) and Neural Machine Translation Post-Editing (PE) processes. The data was collected from 24 participants (12 professional translators and 12 undergraduate students), who were required to manually translate and post-edit three text types from Chinese into English. From the findings, it appears that text types affect the translator’s time investment, mental process, and technical input in both HT and PE processes. The findings also suggest that PE, as one mode of Human–Computer Interaction, emancipates translators from the effortful task of traditional from-scratch translation, and this effort change is also affected by the text type. The study has practical implications for both translators and translator training.

A camera trap method for estimating target densities of grey squirrels to inform wildlife management applications

Effective wildlife population management requires an understanding of the abundance of the target species. In the United Kingdom, the increase in numbers and range of the non-native invasive grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis poses a substantial threat to the existence of the native red squirrel S. vulgaris, to tree health, and to the forestry industry. Reducing the number of grey squirrels, is crucial to mitigate their impacts. Camera traps are increasingly used to estimate animal abundance, and methods have been developed that do not require the identification of individual animals. Most of these methods have been focussed on medium to large mammal species with large range sizes and may be unsuitable for measuring local abundances of smaller mammals that have variable detection rates and hard to measure movement behaviour. The aim of this study was to develop a practical and cost-effective method, based on a camera trap index, that could be used by practitioners to estimate target densities of grey squirrels in woodlands to provide guidance on the numbers of traps or contraceptive feeders required for local grey squirrel control. Camera traps were deployed in ten independent woods of between 6 and 28 ha in size. An index, calculated from the number of grey squirrel photographs recorded per camera per day had a strong linear relationship (R2 = 0.90) with the densities of squirrels removed in trap and dispatch operations. From different time filters tested, a 5 min filter was applied, where photographs of squirrels recorded on the same camera within 5 min of a previous photograph were not counted. There were no significant differences between the number of squirrel photographs per camera recorded by three different models of camera, increasing the method’s practical application. This study demonstrated that a camera index could be used to inform the number of feeders or traps required for grey squirrel management through culling or contraception. Results could be obtained within 6 days without requiring expensive equipment or a high level of technical input. This method can easily be adapted to other rodent or small mammal species, making it widely applicable to other wildlife management interventions.

Yield Gap Analysis through Cluster Front Line Demonstration in Blackgram at Tiruchirapalli District

Background: Black gram is one of the important crops among the pulses. Rice–blackgram cropping system is very common in Tamil Nadu. The traditional practice of broadcasting of seeds in the standing crop of rice does not ensure uniform plant population and moisture which results in poor crop growth and yield. Technology gap is a major problem in increasing blackgram production in Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil nadu State. So far, no systematic effort was made to study the technological gap existing in various components of blackgram cultivation. This project was implemented in Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) with main objective to increase the production and productivity through Cluster Frontline demonstrations (CFLDs) with latest technologies. Methods: The Cluster front line demonstration s were conducted with the objective of increase in pulse production. The five village of fifty nine Frontline demonstrations on blackgram (MDU-1) variety was laid out in an area of 50 hectares in farmer’s field in Ayelapettai, Jadamangalam, Sirugamani, Peruvanallur and Anjalam of Tiruchirapalli district in Tamil Nadu. The inputs i.e. distributed are blackgram (MDU-1) variety seed along with mechanized sowing, Result : There was 81.50 per cent increase in yield observed in demonstration plot over farmers’ practice. It was observed that potential yield can be achieved by imparting scientific knowledge to the farmers, providing the quality need based inputs and proper application of inputs. Combination of technical inputs viz., designer seeds, application of TNAU pulse wonder and biofertilizers with scientific interference have increased the potential yield of a crop.

Patterns of Pig Farms: Case Study in Manokwari

Pigs are livestock that has a significant meaning for the local Papuan community. Pig rearing is done traditionally from generation to generation without providing technical input to increase productivity. Therefore, this study aimed to study the profile of pig farms that determine the production of pigs. This research was conducted in the Manokwari district. A semi-structured questionnaire was employed for data collection and supported by key informant group discussions. Respondents were sampled using purposive random sampling under predetermined criteria and then randomized. The percentage of each variable observed was done to know pig farming in Manokwari. The results of the analysis showed that the highest percentage of pig farmers as follows age over 50 years old (56%); the education of farmers is high school (44%); off-farm income came from the private sector (40%); pig ownership dominated by the female for all level (starter, grower and finisher). Farmers fed the pigs with a mixture of raw materials dominated by vegetables and tofu dregs.

How environmental conditions, phenological periods, and production endowment affect lychee yield

AbstractThe increasingly revealed effects of climate change threaten tropical fruit production. Considerable production loss and unstable yield has been observed in China and other regions with similar climate condition. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the impacts of environmental conditions, phenological periods, and production endowments on a tropical fruit yield, namely lychee, by using the extended Cobb–Douglas model. Lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is chosen as the focus of this study given it is one of the most climate‐sensitive tropical fruits which have important contributions to the health, economy, and culture in South China. The growth‐span was divided into four phenological periods, namely: exposure period, heading period, flowering period and maturing period. A two‐way fixed effect model is employed for county‐level mixed‐frequency panel data. This data comprises lychee yield, environmental conditions (mean temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation), production endowments (labor input, capital input, and technical input), and phenological periods in 39 main producing counties in China from 2011 to 2019. The key conclusions of interest are (1) higher minimum temperature results in larger lychee yield, (2) higher minimum temperature in the earlier phenological period has larger positive impact on lychee yield, and (3) higher growth in technical input causes lower lychee yield, and an explanation is provided. Heterogeneity analysis further implies various effects of the minimum temperature influencing lychee yield. The minimum temperature has a significant positive effect on lychee yield in non‐coastal and non‐western counties, especially in earlier phenological periods.

COVID-19 advising application development for Apple devices (iOS).

One of humanity's most devastating health crises was COVID-19. Billions of people suffered during this pandemic. In comparison with previous global pandemics that have been faced by the world before, societies were more accurate with the technical support system during this natural disaster. The intersection of data from healthcare units and the analysis of this data into various sophisticated systems were critical factors. Different healthcare units have taken special consideration to advance technical inputs to fight against such situations. The field of natural language processing (NLP) has dramatically supported this. Despite the primitive methods for monitoring the bio-metric factors of a person, the use of cognitive science has emerged as one of the most critical features during this pandemic era. One of the essential features is the potential to understand the data based on various texts and user inputs. The deployment of various NLP systems is one of the most challenging factors in handling the bulk amount of data flowing from multiple sources. This study focused on developing a powerful application to advise patients suffering from ailments related to COVID-19. The use of NLP refers to facilitating a user to identify the present critical situation and make necessary decisions while getting infected. This article also summarises the challenges associated with NLP and its usage for future NLP-based applications focusing on healthcare units. There are a couple of applications that reside for android-based systems as well as web-based chat-bot systems. In terms of security and safety, application development for iOS is more advanced. This study also explains the block meant of an application for advising COVID-19 infection. A natural language processing powered application for an iOS operating system is indeed one of its kind, which will help people who need to advise proper guidance. The article also portrays NLP-based application development for healthcare problems associated with personal reporting systems.

Environmental risk assessment of petrogenic hydrocarbon spills in mangrove ecosystems: the Tumaco case study as a baseline, Colombian Pacific.

Petrogenic hydrocarbon spills (PHS) are harmful to mangrove ecosystems along tropical coastlines in the short and long term. The aim of this study was to assess the environmental risk of recurrent PHS on mangrove ecosystems in Tumaco municipality, Colombian Pacific. Mangrove characteristics and management aspects led to subdividing the study area into 11 units-of-analysis (UAs) for which threats, vulnerability, potential impacts, and risks were assessed based on environmental factors and the formulation and use of indicators in a rating scale with five categories, which are very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. The results showed that all UAs are highly (64%; 15,525ha) or moderately (36%; 4,464ha) threatened by PHS, highly (45%; 13,478ha) or moderately (55%; 6,511ha) vulnerable to this kind of pollution, and susceptible to high (73%; 17,075ha) or moderate (27%; 2,914ha) potential impacts. The environmental risk was high in 73% (17,075ha) of the UAs, indicating likely irreversible damage to mangrove ecosystems by PHS, thus pointing to the need of urgent intervention by responsible authorities to ease their recovery and conservation. The methodology and results of this study become technical inputs that serve for environmental control and monitoring, which can be incorporated into contingency and risk management plans.

What is the NCD service capacity and disruptions due to COVID-19? Results from the WHO non-communicable disease country capacity survey in the Americas region

ObjectiveThis article presents the Americas regional results of the WHO non-communicable diseases (NCDs) Country Capacity Survey from 2019 to 2021, on NCD service capacity and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.SettingInformation...

A STUDY ON THE TREND OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN ARCHITECTS, CONSULTANTS, AND CONTRACTORS IN BRITISH TRADITIONAL PROCUREMENT

This paper explores a trend of collaborative design methods between architects and consultants in British Traditional Procurement. Performance improvements in architecture require advanced technical input from relevant consultants in the design process. But, partnership with specialist contractors is also essential to materialize the new idea within the available cost and suitable programme. The type of specification, prescriptive, descriptive, and contractor’s design portion used in the projects are examined to review the scope of consultants’ work and the specialist contractors’ design responsibilities to learn how British architects manage the use of specifications to achieve their design intent.

Receiving Robust Analysis of Spatial and Temporary Variation of Agricultural Water Use Efficiency While Considering Environmental Factors: On the Evaluation of Data Envelopment Analysis Technique

With accelerated urbanisation, continued growth in water demand and the external pressure of water demand from the South–North Water Transfer Project, agricultural water use in Jiangsu is facing a critical situation. Therefore, it is important to explore the spatial and temporal variation in agricultural water use efficiency in order to clarify the pathway for improving agricultural water use efficiency. Firstly, the Super-Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model was utilized to measure agricultural water use efficiency in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2011 to 2020, and secondly, a fixed-effects model was used to investigate agricultural water use efficiency and the factors influencing it in 13 prefectures in Jiangsu Province in both time and space. The results show that (1) the overall value of agricultural water use efficiency in Jiangsu Province is below 1, which means that agricultural water use efficiency in Jiangsu Province is low and far from the effective boundary, and there is more room for improvement in agricultural water use efficiency; (2) a total of 92% of prefectures in Jiangsu Province have input redundancy, which seriously inhibits the progress of agricultural water use efficiency in Jiangsu Province, among which the redundancy of total agricultural machinery power and agricultural water use is the highest; (3) Regarding total factor productivity and its decomposition index for agricultural use in Jiangsu Province, in the time dimension, the number of professional and technical personnel inputs has a positive impact on agricultural water use efficiency. In the spatial dimension, the number of professional and technical personnel inputs, industrial structure and arable land area have a positive impact on improving regional agricultural water use efficiency, among which the industrial structure has a smaller contribution to agricultural water use efficiency.

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 2030-A Program to Accelerate the Implementation of World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation.

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) 2030 Program (2017-2021) was launched to accelerate World Health Organization (WHO) FCTC implementation in 15 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We evaluated the Program in six domains: Governance; Smoke-Free Policies; Taxation; Packaging and Health Warnings; Tobacco Advertising, Promotion, and Sponsorship (TAPS) bans; and International and Regional Cooperation. Following a mixed-methods design, we surveyed (June-September 2020) FCTC focal persons in 14 of the 15 countries, to understand the Program's financial and technical inputs and progress made in each of the six domains. The data were coded in terms of inputs (financial = 1, technical = 1, or both = 2) and progress (none = 1, some = 2, partial = 3, or strong = 4) and a correlation was computed between the inputs and progress scores for each domain. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in five countries. We triangulated between the survey and interview findings. FCTC 2030 offered substantial financial and technical inputs, responsive to country needs, across all six domains. There was a high positive correlation between technical inputs and progress in five of the six domains, ranging from r = 0.61 for taxation (p < .05) to r = 0.91 and for smoke-free policies (p < .001). The interviews indicated that the Program provided timely and relevant evidence and created opportunities for influencing tobacco control debates. The FCTC 2030 Program might have led to variable, but significant progress in advancing FCTC implementation in the 15 countries. As expected, much of the progress was in augmenting existing structures and resources for FCTC implementation. The resulting advances are likely to lead to further progress in FCTC policy implementation. What this study adds: In many LMICs, WHO FCTC policies are not in place; and even when enshrined in law, they are poorly enforced. It is not clear how financial and technical assistance to high tobacco-burden LMICs can most effectively accelerate the implementation of WHO FCTC policies and offer value for money. Bespoke and responsive assistance, both financial and technical, to LMICs aimed at accelerating the implementation of WHO FCTC policies are likely to lead to progress in tobacco control.

Functional central limit theorems for Wigner matrices

We consider the fluctuations of regular functions f of a Wigner matrix W viewed as an entire matrix f(W). Going beyond the well-studied tracial mode, Trf(W), which is equivalent to the customary linear statistics of eigenvalues, we show that Trf(W)A is asymptotically normal for any nontrivial bounded deterministic matrix A. We identify three different and asymptotically independent modes of this fluctuation, corresponding to the tracial part, the traceless diagonal part and the off-diagonal part of f(W) in the entire mesoscopic regime, where we find that the off-diagonal modes fluctuate on a much smaller scale than the tracial mode. As a main motivation to study CLT in such generality on small mesoscopic scales, we determine the fluctuations in the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (Phys. Rev. A 43 (1991) 2046–2049), that is, prove that the eigenfunction overlaps with any deterministic matrix are asymptotically Gaussian after a small spectral averaging. Finally, in the macroscopic regime our result also generalizes (Zh. Mat. Fiz. Anal. Geom. 9 (2013) 536–581, 611, 615) to complex W and to all crossover ensembles in between. The main technical inputs are the recent multiresolvent local laws with traceless deterministic matrices from the companion paper (Comm. Math. Phys. 388 (2021) 1005–1048).

Estimation of soil overburden thickness/depth of rock strata using geo-physical survey at Himalayan region

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Estimation of soil overburden and depth of competent strata for construction of infrastructures in hilly terrain is a challenging job for engineers. Modern technologies like Electrical Resistivity Survey (ERS) techniques with site geological mapping have been carried out at the ridge area near Palace, Gangtok. Two independent 2D-electrical resistivity surveys profile sections using hybrid Schlumberger-Wenner method were conducted along the ridge line trending in the North-South direction. The ERS profile sections were taken on both the slopes of the ridge along its eastern and western flanks. With the collective information from field and geo-technical data, a comparatively stable slope has been identified with respect to geological conditions in the present work, which focuses on the vulnerable slope failure with respect to slope direction, local geological condition, depth of competent strata, thickness of soil overburden, water saturation zones and resistivity of the materials. Diamond core drilling of 15meters each was carried out at both the flanks of the slope to understand the sub-surface strata and correlate it with resistivity data generated by ERS survey. The result indicates that Sandy/silty soil with flakes of mica having resistivity of 107 ohm-m and weathered mica schist having resistivity more than 300 ohm-m in the present study area. Geological mapping in 1:3000 scale was carried in the area demarcation with various litho-units and rock type. The area is characterized by medium grade metamorphic rock sequence represented in the area by mica schist having dip of foliations towards NE direction and three sets of joint planes. The geometry of the rock orientation and slope direction plays a vital role for determining the overall stability condition of the area. The present study will provide technical input for structural engineers to design the structures in such geological conditions. Further, the thickness of overburden estimated from ERS has been validated by drilling data.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

‘Where angels fear to tread’—Reflections on the role of an actuary as expert witness in the Land Claims Court

In this paper, the author reflects on his experiences of giving expert actuarial witness in the Land Claims Court regarding the calculation of financial compensation as an alternative to the restoration of dispossessed land. As no specific formula for compensation has been legislated in South Africa’s land reform programme, relevant case histories are examined in which the common law has been developed. The technical, ethical and professional inputs which an actuary can provide are reviewed. The author concludes that actuaries are well suited to assist the Land Claims Court to resolve the potentially large number of claims, and that this will be in the public interest.

Decarbonization of the heating sector from a system point of view: the case study of the Lombardy Region.

This work aims at defining the optimal technological mix which minimizes the total cost of the energy system in 2030 in the Lombardy region, in northern Italy. The goal is reached through a bottom-up model built on a linear optimization problem considering different technical and economic inputs and constraints. Civil sector is one of the sectors to focus on for the decarbonization process. Different areas, types of buildings and thermal systems are included in the model to consider the peculiarities of the available solutions in each context. The overall technological mix is constraint by a CO2 emission limit. For the civil sector the more the emission is constrained, the higher is the penetrations of electric heat pumps, coupled with envelope retrofit, (10% of the total thermal energy demand) and of district heating (18%), while natural gas boilers decrease (66%). Biomass boilers reach a maximum penetration of 29% in mountain areas. District heating is relevant in areas with available sources (max 29%). Natural gas boilers coupled with air conditioners have an important role and they reach a maximum penetration of 89% in certain areas. Electric heat pumps are quite homogeneous through the areas for residential buildings.

A STUDY ON THE COLLABORATIVE METHOD BETWEEN ARCHITECTS AND SPECIALIST CONTRACTORS IN BRITISH MANAGEMENT PROCUREMENT

This paper explores a collaborative design method with specialist contractors to achieve innovative design with a cost and programme certainty. Performance improvements of architecture require advanced technical input from relevant consultants and specialist contractors in the design process. Partnership with specialist contractors is essential to materialize the new idea within the available cost and suitable programme. Five procurement systems, Direct Manage, Management Contract, Construction Management, Construction Management at Risk and the [Ritchie] Method of an early Negotiated Trade Contractor GMP Contract are examined with case studies to review the pros and cons.