International competitiveness of the Canadian construction industry: a comparison with Japan and the United States

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 640-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Momaya ◽  
Kenneth Selby

Competitiveness can be a useful indicator of the long-term health of an industry. Whereas competitiveness has been studied at the corporate and national levels, its usefulness at the industry level has not been explored. The research objective is to develop a model to evaluate competitiveness at the industry level. Motivated by persistent problems of the Canadian construction industry, an attempt is made to quantify its international competitiveness. The industry is compared with its counterparts in Japan and the United States. Competitiveness is defined, the different dimensions of competitiveness are illustrated, and the need to quantify competitiveness is discussed. A multicriteria hierarchical model was developed and tested using both statistical and survey data. Salient findings of the research and conclusions are presented.Key words: international competitiveness, industry performance, strategic management, Canadian construction industry, Canada, Japan, United States.

1998 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Momaya

In recent years, the importance of competitiveness has been increasingly recognized. In this article⁄ Momaya discusses different levels of competitiveness and reviews its significance at the industry level. To enhance the understanding of the dynamics of competitiveness, it is divided into three facets: assets, processes, and performance. A methodology to evaluate the relative competitiveness at the industry level is developed and listed in the context of the construction indus try in Canada, Japan, and the United States. While presenting the findings of the international project, Momaya confirms the important role strategic management processes play in enhancing competitiveness and stresses on the need to evaluate international competitiveness of crucial Indian industries.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Couture ◽  
Danielle Iuliano ◽  
Howard H Chang ◽  
Neha N Patel ◽  
Matthew Gilmer ◽  
...  

Introduction: In the United States, COVID-19 is a nationally notifiable disease, cases and hospitalizations are reported to the CDC by states. Identifying and reporting every case from every facility in the United States may not be feasible in the long term. Creating sustainable methods for estimating burden of COVID-19 from established sentinel surveillance systems is becoming more important. We aimed to provide a method leveraging surveillance data to create a long-term solution to estimate monthly rates of hospitalizations for COVID-19. Methods: We estimated monthly hospitalization rates for COVID-19 from May 2020 through April 2021 for the 50 states using surveillance data from COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) and a Bayesian hierarchical model for extrapolation. We created a model for six age groups (0-17, 18-49, 50-64, 65-74, 75-84, and ≥85 years), separately. We identified covariates from multiple data sources that varied by age, state, and/or month, and performed covariate selection for each age group based on two methods, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Spike and Slab selection methods. We validated our method by checking sensitivity of model estimates to covariate selection and model extrapolation as well as comparing our results to external data. Results: We estimated 3,569,500 (90% Credible Interval:3,238,000 - 3,934,700) hospitalizations for a cumulative incidence of 1,089.8 (988.6 - 1,201.3) hospitalizations per 100,000 population with COVID-19 in the United States from May 2020 through April 2021. Cumulative incidence varied from 352 - 1,821per 100,000 between states. The age group with the highest cumulative incidence was aged greater than or equal to 85 years (5,583.1; 5,061.0 - 6,157.5). The monthly hospitalization rate was highest in December (183.8; 154.5 - 218.0). Our monthly estimates by state showed variations in magnitudes of peak rates, number of peaks and timing of peaks between states. Conclusions: Our novel approach to estimate COVID-19 hospitalizations has potential to provide sustainable estimates for monitoring COVID-19 burden, as well as a flexible framework leveraging surveillance data.


10.29007/h9w9 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben F. Bigelow ◽  
Anthony J. Perrenoud

The workforce shortage in construction is a serious issue. With a plethora of initiatives emerging in the past few years to attract more individuals to careers in construction, a question has arisen as to whether the initiatives reach an audience outside of those who would go to work in construction anyway. This project sought to develop an intervention that would expose a broader audience to construction topics, and related careers in construction, through a course in a construction higher education program. Students in the construction higher education program created lesson plans that would be employed in public school classrooms and fit in the required curriculum, thereby reaching all students and not just those already inclided toward a career in construction. The results suggest the course was successful in achieving its initial objectives, however long term impacts on the workforce shortage are not yet known.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman ◽  
Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad ◽  
Taksiah A.Majid ◽  
Mohd Hanizun Hanafi

 The trend construction industry have move from project based to product based in term of long term investment. Industrialized building system (IBS) in Malaysia is defined as a construction system where components are manufactured at factories on or off site, transported and then assembled into a structure with minimum work. IBS also is known as off-site construction or prefabrication. Thus, IBS have the similarity drive and challenge with the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Australia; and among the factors are skilled craft worker, fast track completion, cost and transportation. United States, United Kingdom and Australia have achieved modular building standard while Malaysia still in the hybridization stage. The Malaysian government and researcher have promoted the modern method construction industry to break the ‘traditional technology’. Anecdotally, the total number of IBS manufacturing plant has increased from 21 in 2002 to 143 factories in 2010. From the evolution of the IBS manufacturing component, the most favorable system used in the IBS component is the precast concrete system and followed by the steel framing system.


Author(s):  
Melissa A. Pierce

In countries other than the United States, the study and practice of speech-language pathology is little known or nonexistent. Recognition of professionals in the field is minimal. Speech-language pathologists in countries where speech-language pathology is a widely recognized and respected profession often seek to share their expertise in places where little support is available for individuals with communication disorders. The Peace Corps offers a unique, long-term volunteer opportunity to people with a variety of backgrounds, including speech-language pathologists. Though Peace Corps programs do not specifically focus on speech-language pathology, many are easily adapted to the profession because they support populations of people with disabilities. This article describes how the needs of local children with communication disorders are readily addressed by a Special Education Peace Corps volunteer.


Author(s):  
Federico Varese

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Matthews ◽  
Madhu Pandey

Propeller planes and small engine aircraft around the United States, legally utilize leaded aviation gasoline. The purpose of this experiment was to collect suspended particulate matter from a university campus, directly below an airport’s arriving flight path’s descent line, and to analyze lead content suspended in the air. Two collection sets of three separate samples were collected on six separate days, one set in July of 2018 and the second set in January 2019.


1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4I) ◽  
pp. 327-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Lipsey

I am honoured to be invited to give this lecture before so distinguished an audience of development economists. For the last 21/2 years I have been director of a project financed by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and composed of a group of scholars from Canada, the United States, and Israel.I Our brief is to study the determinants of long term economic growth. Although our primary focus is on advanced industrial countries such as my own, some of us have come to the conclusion that there is more common ground between developed and developing countries than we might have first thought. I am, however, no expert on development economics so I must let you decide how much of what I say is applicable to economies such as your own. Today, I will discuss some of the grand themes that have arisen in my studies with our group. In the short time available, I can only allude to how these themes are rooted in our more detailed studies. In doing this, I must hasten to add that I speak for myself alone; our group has no corporate view other than the sum of our individual, and very individualistic, views.


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 46-82
Author(s):  
Fathi Malkawi

This paper addresses some of the Muslim community’s concerns regarding its children’s education and reflects upon how education has shaped the position of other communities in American history. It argues that the future of Muslim education will be influenced directly by the present realities and future trends within American education in general, and, more importantly, by the well-calculated and informed short-term and long-term decisions and future plans taken by the Muslim community. The paper identifies some areas in which a wellestablished knowledge base is critical to making decisions, and calls for serious research to be undertaken to furnish this base.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Gallagher

Public opinion in the United States and elsewhere celebrated the liberation of Afghan women following the defeat of the Taliban government. The United States promised to stay in Afghanistan and foster security, economic development, and human rights for all, especially women. After years of funding various anti- Soviet Mujahidin warlords, the United States had agreed to help reconstruct the country once before in 1992, when the Soviet-backed government fell, but had lost interest when the warlords began to fight among themselves. This time, however, it was going to be different. To date, however, conditions have not improved for most Afghan women and reconstruction has barely begun. How did this happen? This article explores media presentations of Afghan women and then compares them with recent reports from human rights organizations and other eyewitness accounts. It argues that the media depictions were built on earlier conceptions of Muslim societies and allowed us to adopt a romantic view that disguised or covered up the more complex historical context of Afghan history and American involvement in it. We allowed ourselves to believe that Afghans were exotic characters who were modernizing or progressing toward a western way of life, despite the temporary setback imposed by the Taliban government. In Afghanistan, however, there was a new trope: the feminist Afghan woman activist. Images of prominent Afghan women sans burqa were much favored by the mass media and American policymakers. The result, however, was not a new focus on funding feminist political organizations or making women’s rights a foreign policy priority; rather, it was an unwillingness to fulfill obligations incurred during decades of American-funded mujahidin warfare, to face the existence of deteriorating conditions for women, resumed opium cultivation, and a resurgent Taliban, or to commit to a multilateral approach that would bring in the funds and expertise needed to sustain a long-term process of reconstruction.


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