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This paper proposes a method for cost-effectiveness studies of civil engineering works and illustrates it by an example of its application to an urban systems problem. This approach tries to bridge the dichotomy of objectives that often exists between the policy levels of government and the engineering agencies, and that leads to frequent impasses for implementation. The process first broadens the traditional terms of reference for public-works design, which are usually governed by engineering standards only tenuously related to the multiple objectives of a facility. Second, a procedure is suggested for generating alternative configurations for the system and its components. Finally, a means is presented for exploring alternative time-phased strategies of development. The paper presents a case study of the application of this approach to the planning and design of New York City's Third City Water Supply Tunnel, and discusses its lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a project that consists of numerous jobs subject to technological ordering restrictions the polygon representing project cost versus completion time is to be determined when the normal and crash completion times are known for each job and the cost of doing the job varies linearly between these times. A linear programming formulation of this problem was given by Keliey [1] and a network flow formulation by Fulkerson [2]. Since the traditional mathematical background of civil engineers includes neither linear programming nor network flow theory, these methods are not as widely used in the building industry as they deserve. This paper shows that Fulkerson's algorithm can be given a structural interpretation using concepts that are familiar to civil engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strenuous efforts are now being made to convince the public that voluntary price reductions toward the height of a boom would largely avoid recession. Admittedly such reductions-perfectly timed-would help. But as a means even of keeping depression within bounds, consider them almost entirely ineffectual. Suppose a system is about to reach a point of backlog saturation. Price reduction to avoid depression would have to be made in precisely the industries whose demand curves have sufficient elasticity to mike it worth while. Also there must be enough such industries. Yet in such a situation many of the necessary industries would be entirely new. They would have to be created by strenuous entrepreneurial effort. The system would have to be sufficiently flexible to make a drastic and virtually instantaneous shift in the direction of its productive flow. The inevitable discontinuity of durable goods production in a free society cannot be avoided by mere ex ante price reduction. Other means of stabilization-as public works-must be kept in reserve. It is said that people usually become neurotic when they want irreconcilable things. Our society is neurotic in demanding a degree of stability impossible to combine perfectly with the promptness in satisfying demand for which people clamor. One cannot escape this dilemma by seeking out a whipping boy called monopoly or rigid prices, and it is to be regretted that the Council of Economic Advisers is not putting more of its effort into facing the real issue. It is in the hope of focusing attention on these issues that the author offers his rather elementary terminological critique.

The critical data in this study is information on house purchase transactions for owner occupation, which were financed with the help of a mortgage from the Nationwide Building Society (then known as the Co-operative Permanent Building Society) during the first three months of 1968. In this period the Society was involved in some 1,800 house purchase transactions, located in 539 different towns and postal districts in the South East Planning Region. This is a much wider geographical area than the London Metropolitan Region, the one under consideration in this paper. The Metropolitan Region is the area within a radius of approximately 40 miles from central London and the majority of these 1,800 transactions were in this area. For each transaction, 44 separate pieces of information were collected. The important data, from the point of view of this study, was that on purchase price, geographical location and physical aspects of the house, such as its size, age, availability of central heating, etc. All this wealth of data is stored on a computer at the Building Research Station, Watford.[1] A preliminary study of the data, Ministry of Public Building and Works Building Research Station (1968), has indicated that the houses in this particular building society's survey can be considered as typical of all transactions made by the larger building societies.[2]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the state of the art of computer graphics applications and presents the results of a study of over 100 engineering organizations using computer graphics. Various computer graphics devices are discussed and numerous examples of appli-cations that were collected in the survey are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section of "Industrial Applications of Textiles," focuses on civil engineering applications of fabrics. Holland has been developing fabrics for the reinforcement of bituminous roads. A fabric layer can be laid on the top of sand while constructing road, which provides good adhesion; resistance to humidity, rotting, and ageing; resistance to the conditions of road-building; and a good modulus of elasticity and strength. To increase the cracking resistance of sand-asphalt mixtures, glass fibres have been used.

The article offers information on the bioenvironmental feasibility studies concerning the safety in massive excavation by using nuclear explosives in the U.S. It highlights the objective of the Plowshare Program of the U.S. Atomic Energy to develop the nuclear explosives technology for massive excavation projects particularly in the construction of the sea-level canal. In addition, the program has developed several devices and techniques in order to mitigate the possible production and dissemination of highly radioactive materials from nuclear explosives.

This article focuses on a portion of a study of family-community relationships in two southern boom towns. The research situation was provided by the construction of a huge defense plant in a rural area of South Carolina, and the consequent sudden growth and urbanization of the two small towns. As a member of a research team from the University of North Carolina, the writer and his family lived in one of the towns during the course of the research. Research on family crises suggests that the family's definition of a situation has a great influence on the crisis-proneness and later adjustment of the family; the more favorable the definition, the better the adjustment. Families that have favorable expectations of situations feel more adequate because they have more resources at their command. Family organization has been typed in many ways, usually on the basis of adequacy or type of relationship between family members. he actual experiences and contacts that newcomer families have in a community give them an opportunity for verifying or refuting their expectations of the community, and may be expected to influence the general attitudes of family members toward it.

Particle shape affects many problems in the fields of geology and civil engineering. As the present numerical methods for describing some aspects of shape are inadequate the writer has developed a new non-empirical method for measuring the angularity of particles. The method takes account of what are considered to be the three main characteristics of angularity, namely the degree of acuteness of the angles of the corners, the number of angular corners and the degree of projection of the corners from the main mass of the particle. Values for what has been termed the degree of angularity are given for various geometric shapes and for actual particles of crushed limestone. A chart is included for the rapid visual estimation of angularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the education of planning courses. It is cited that most planning schools formed their curriculum to the framework existing in the country or at any rate to the viewed as bought about in the future. The author emphasizes that planning concerns the organization of land uses and communication routes in satisfactory practical form done by trained individual. According to the author in planning level whether national or regional the land planner has useful part to interpret and comment on land use decisions. The planners training has two basic kinds of planning course consisted first as grounding for town and country planning and other method includes architecture, civil engineering and chartered surveying.

A new experimental method is used to determine simultaneously the quantity and composition of the sap exuded by a detopped root system at the same time that a pressure deficit of desired magnitude can be applied to the stem stump. The technique was used in a study of the transport of radioactive sulfate through the roots of young sunflower plants placed on complete nutrient solutions labelled with 35S. The complications by the time factor on the composition and rate of the sap stream in experiments of this type were observed and discussed. The time of detopping the roots was very critical as the conditions of sulfate transport were greatly changed some time after the excision. A rectilinear connection existed between the rate of sulfate transport in the sap and the water flow at sap flow velocities comparable with transpiration rates. When the transport of water was very slow, the rate of sulfate transport became constant and independent of the water stream. It was suggested (bat diffusion or water flow could act as motive force for the ion transport in some non-metabolic phase of transfer in the roots. The addition of 2,4-DNP to the test solution severely interfered with the water and sulfate transport conditions in the roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the characteristics of contracts in civil engineering and their inter-relationships. It states that the three characteristics outlined are organization promoters, consulting engineers, and contractors. It states that contractual links work to integrate work sequences so to achieve the project objectives. It mentions that civil engineering must be planned according to the site, taking into account uncertainties of ground and weather. It states that operational changes and delays would be reduced if the site was excavated before the project design is completed and if all details of design and methods of construction were decided before proceeding further.

The article focuses on the use of nuclear excavation of a sea-level canal in predicting external gamma dose. The nuclear excavation of a sea-level canal uses several nuclear devices to determine detonation activities and to estimate external gamma doses. The amount and distribution of radioactivity, as well as the size and shape of clouds are the basis in the quantitative fallout prediction in nuclear excavations. The prediction in the external gamma dose shows that safety problems are can be managed.