The many transitory changes in China have raised the intensity level of competition among construction firms. Despite having a high growth economy, some construction firms continue to suffer from low profitability. Meanwhile, practical cases and empirical findings related to Chinese construction...

A radiosity model has been developed for calculating the sound distribution in urban streets with diffusely reflecting boundaries. In this paper I present the results of a parametric study by using the computer model. A typical urban element consisting of a major street and two side streets is...

There is great potential for the expansion of the small or micro scale hydropower network. Of the 43 thousand weirs in the UK there are only 500 consented hydro schemes. Planning applications for such schemes require a noise assessment. Noise evaluation of a proposed renewable scheme is often...

Regression models are proposed for joint analysis of Poisson and continuous longitudinal data with nonignorable missing values under fully parametric framework. Our primary interest is to evaluate the influence of the covariates on both Poisson and continuous responses. First, we form the full...

Soundscape is about relationships between the ear, human beings, sound environments, and society. Soundscape research is interdisciplinary. On the basis of a series of case studies in Europe and China and an intensive literature review, the soundscape description, evaluation, and creation in...

In missing data analysis, there is often a need to assess the sensitivity of key inferences to departures from untestable assumptions regarding the missing data process. Such sensitivity analysis often requires specifying a missing data model that commonly assumes parametric functional forms for...

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion, also known as controlled auto-ignition (CAI), has been shown to reduce substantially NOX emissions and fuel consumption in gasoline engines. However, it is still confronted with the problem of its limited operation range. One of the...