Ming Lu

This is a text book as well as a reference book for decision making in construction. The book is written to serve undergraduates of construction-related programmes and postgraduate students undertaking construction management bridging courses. It contains mainly quantitative techniques used to assist decision making, including analytic hierarchy process (AHP), decision theories, conditional probabilities and the value of information, inventory modeling, dynamic programming, Monte-Carlo simulation, CYCLONE simulation modeling, information systems and process of decision making in construction. Plenty of real life examples are used to illustrate the theories, arguments and calculations. It is written in simple and easy to understand language. Readers will benefit from the book even by self studying because all the topics are described and developed in a logical and organized manner, from basic to complex. Moreover, the most up-to-date information on the development of AHP, simulation modelling, information systems and process of decision making are covered.

This book explains the relationships between equality and efficiency, as well as between government and market, in urban-rural and regional development by providing theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. Urban-rural development in China is understood from a regional perspective, while the core issue of urban-rural and regional development is cross-regional resource reallocation driven by the trends of globalization, marketization and urbanization and their influence on growth and inequality. The book puts forward the following arguments: An urban-rural and regional balance should not be achieved by limiting agglomeration effects in eastern regions. For some time now, China has lacked a suitable mechanism to enable residents in underdeveloped and rural areas to share in the achievements of economic agglomeration. As a result, China should not slow down economic agglomeration and development in eastern regions simply by depending on administrative means to balance urban-rural and regional development. In the final analysis, arriving at a regional balance depends on growth in the eastern regions, provided a reasonable mechanism is implemented to enable inland areas to share in the development achievements of eastern regions. In turn, finding an urban-regional balance rests on urban development, as long as more rural workers can move to and prosper in cities.

This book is an empirical study on the relationship between private enterprises, entrepreneurs and the government in P. R. China. The two authors conducted a detailed survey of enterprises and entrepreneurs in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Although it was only conducted in a medium sized city, the survey provides a rare source of information on matched entrepreneur-enterprise pairs. It provides detailed information on management, performance, enterprise-government relationship, as well as entrepreneurs' personal information and measurements of various psychological parameters. With this first-hand information, the authors analyzed several interesting issues concerning enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationships. Readers will gain an understanding of the following topics:Why and how does China have such special enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationships?Do enterprises' political connections in the form of entrepreneurs' political status help improve the performances of these enterprises?Which of the surveyed entrepreneurs could become members of the People's Congress and the People's Political Consulting Conference?How do entrepreneurs feel when they are faced with greater government intervention?How will China move ahead in the ongoing reform and development in the light of the enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationship?This book examines the way in which China's enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationship helps enterprises develop in a transitional market. In the appendix to this book, one of the authors, Ming Lu, provides evidence, based on data from listed companies, that having political connections can help enterprises enter the markets of provinces other than their place of registration. However, this political connection also distorts the market by giving the entrepreneurs more opportunities to develop their business. At the same time, those entrepreneurs who face interventions from the government also shoulder greater costs in the form of loss of psychological happiness. The inference of this book is that at some point in the foreseeable future, China will gradually build its market system and integrate its domestic markets, so that private enterprises will no longer rely so heavily on their political connections.

This book is an empirical study on the relationship between private enterprises, entrepreneurs and the government in P. R. China. The two authors conducted a detailed survey of enterprises and entrepreneurs in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Although it was only conducted in a medium sized city, the survey provides a rare source of information on matched entrepreneur-enterprise pairs. It provides detailed information on management, performance, enterprise-government relationship, as well as entrepreneurs' personal information and measurements of various psychological parameters. With this first-hand information, the authors analyzed several interesting issues concerning enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationships. Readers will gain an understanding of the following topics:Why and how does China have such special enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationships?Do enterprises' political connections in the form of entrepreneurs' political status help improve the performances of these enterprises?Which of the surveyed entrepreneurs could become members of the People's Congress and the People's Political Consulting Conference?How do entrepreneurs feel when they are faced with greater government intervention?How will China move ahead in the ongoing reform and development in the light of the enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationship?This book examines the way in which China's enterprise-entrepreneur-government relationship helps enterprises develop in a transitional market. In the appendix to this book, one of the authors, Ming Lu, provides evidence, based on data from listed companies, that having political connections can help enterprises enter the markets of provinces other than their place of registration. However, this political connection also distorts the market by giving the entrepreneurs more opportunities to develop their business. At the same time, those entrepreneurs who face interventions from the government also shoulder greater costs in the form of loss of psychological happiness. The inference of this book is that at some point in the foreseeable future, China will gradually build its market system and integrate its domestic markets, so that private enterprises will no longer rely so heavily on their political connections.

This book explains the relationships between equality and efficiency, as well as between government and market, in urban-rural and regional development by providing theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. Urban-rural development in China is understood from a regional perspective, while the core issue of urban-rural and regional development is cross-regional resource reallocation driven by the trends of globalization, marketization and urbanization and their influence on growth and inequality. The book puts forward the following arguments: An urban-rural and regional balance should not be achieved by limiting agglomeration effects in eastern regions. For some time now, China has lacked a suitable mechanism to enable residents in underdeveloped and rural areas to share in the achievements of economic agglomeration. As a result, China should not slow down economic agglomeration and development in eastern regions simply by depending on administrative means to balance urban-rural and regional development. In the final analysis, arriving at a regional balance depends on growth in the eastern regions, provided a reasonable mechanism is implemented to enable inland areas to share in the development achievements of eastern regions. In turn, finding an urban-regional balance rests on urban development, as long as more rural workers can move to and prosper in cities.

On construction sites, the digital photos have been routinely applied for project management, such as documentation of daily activities and provision of visual aids for better communication. With the advance of the surveying technique of close-range photogrammetry, information from the two-dimensional (2D) digital images can be extracted to construct three-dimensional (3D) knowledge, which is of great assistance for site engineers, for example, to sketch profiles of site elements, measure structure geometric dimensions, and track progress states of an ongoing product. For the benefit of construction professionals who are interested in utilizing or developing close-range photogrammetry, this book introduces the fundamentals of this technique and applies it to analytically 1) model 3D construction site elements by point and shoot photography, 2) measure the geometric dimensions of building products, and 3) augment site photos with 3D graphics of underground facilities for better quality investigation and progress visualization of infrastructure construction.