Sydney Metro and Melbourne Metro Rail Stochastic Comparison and Review

This paper aims to review an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) apparatus to enhance the rail transportation performance. In this light, the Sydney Metro and Melbourne Metro rail will be compared, since both of these Australian rail networks employ complex AI as part of their overall performance enhancement schemes. These two case studies further highlight the novel critical aspects of AI in rail transportation sector such as recalibration through smart system design and automation, nonlinear controls and precise design, modeling and control apparatus, and so on. As a part of such a view, different aspects of AI systems such as increased reliability and safety were also investigated. This research found that with such enhancements of system performance, the overall transportation functioning would ultimately be significantly improved. Subsequently, AI in the Australian context can be further refined based on comprehensive integration of the key factors.

Factor Analysis of the Sydney Metro's ITS

This paper aspires to examine advanced rail transportation systems via the utilization of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) as the basis of the key integration. In doing so, the Sydney Metro ITS will be used as the basis for the case study. This paper also investigates the different perceptions for diverse rail transportation projects. Ordinarily, cities are composed of complex configurations which are supported by various disparate transport systems. These transport infrastructure in turn require comprehensive system thinking as the base research methodologies. ITS provides an excellent mechanism to simplify a city's complex transport configurations. Nevertheless, the core ITS components require careful integration and detailed attention to detail in their design. The ITS integration strategy would also amalgamate crucial transportation issues, including optimized system performance through increased productivity, improved road and traffic safety, and so on. Accordingly, this integration and consolidation of ITS would result in superior overall transportation planning schemes. The resulting improved planning methods will ultimately facilitate the various transportation operators to become better acquainted with the ITS, and to support the making of safer and more synchronized ITS. A synchronized ITS requires a comprehensive process to successfully integrate its components. To assess the Sydney Metro's ITS integration, this research utilized confirmatory factor analysis as the statistical method to produce a model indicating the existence of four sub-systems and emphasized safety standard as the key attribute for a successful deployment. The very high safety benchmark is the pinnacle of the Sydney's advanced rail transportation system.

The Value of Communication in Agile Project Management

The purpose of this research is to understand the importance and impact of communication in an Agile environment so as to suggest ways to overcome communication challenges in Agile projects. In this research, the latest use of communication methods, approaches, and challenges faced by Agile teams are thoroughly evaluated to know the best solutions to communication problems. A literature review in this study proposes that a lack of proper communication is one of the main challenges faced by Agile projects. The authors used a systematic literature review to examine pre-existing literature and to select the most pertinent literature to assess these variables in depth and to create an assessment model. The ultimate outcome of this study was the development of the best practices that improve communication in Agile project environments.

Hybrid Metaheuristic to Optimize Traceability in the Food Industry

In this paper, the authors propose a new hybrid metaheuristic to solve the problem of manufacturing batch dispersion. The method consists of inserting the record to record travel algorithm (RRT) in the artificial bee colony (ABC) in order to ensure balance between the diversification and the intensification phases. The new technique is named RRT-ABC, and it starts by launching the standard ABC, and then the onlooker research phase is enriched by the RRT algorithm. So, the main idea of this research work is to solve the NP-hard problem of minimizing the batch dispersion using a novel metaheuristic because of the limitation of exact methods. Experimental results, carried on sausage manufacturing in a French food industry, proved the highly efficient performance of the proposed RRT-ABC metaheuristic.

Avoiding Project Failure and Achieving Project Success in NHS IT System Projects in the United Kingdom

Although project success varies from business to business depending on different internally agreed success criteria, most organisations measure project success by analysing if the project delivered the planned project objectives within the set budget, schedule (project timelines), and quality. However, for some projects especially, development projects success goes beyond just meeting time frames and budget goals. In such projects and programmes, success refers to delivering the benefits coupled with the required expectations by stakeholders, beneficiaries, and funding bodies. This paper re-examines why the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the largest public-sector IT programme that was ever undertaken in the UK, failed and how any future NHS National IT System implementations can be completed successfully.

Exploring the Profile and Behavior of Visitors to Crete

Greece is one of the countries blessed by astonishing features of nature where tourism is predominately thought of as one of the most powerful sectors that a country could lean on, a key component seeking every pinch of development effort. Under this scope and for the sake of helping to sustain the Greek tourism industry growth, this study is dedicated to assessing tourists' profiles, behavior, and attitudes in Crete, the largest Greek island and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean. A survey method was adopted where 4,411 questionnaires were delivered directly to tourists at the international airport in Chania, Crete. Furthermore, by means of multivariate analysis, the authors will try to assess the occurrence of any meaningful relations between visitors' satisfaction, their perception of the island, and the incentive they show to revisit Crete. The implications will eventually be worthwhile for decision makers to set up pertinent strategic development plans.

Implications of Economic Decision Making to the Project Manager

This paper aims to identify and assess the impact of the project manager's economic decision on a project's outcome. Therefore, this paper focuses on whether a project will be economically and financially viable and will meet the interests of both external and internal stakeholders, especially the project manager's attention. Thus, the objective is to find in the decision-making process how economic decisions can provide and ensure an appropriate level of financial return rate to external and internal stakeholders, such as the project manager. The literature review approach was used to identify this economic decision-making implications on the project's outcomes. Studies show how projects' future is associated with decision making. However, a literature review has shown a shortage of research on the impact of only economic decisions on the project manager and project outcome. This study aims to fill that gap.

Investigating the Opportunities to Improve the Thermal Performance of a Case Study Building in London

This study was carried out to investigate the opportunities of improving thermal performance by focusing on envelope effects of a building located in London. Firstly, through a broad literature review of the previous conducted case studies, an investigation of all the building envelope aspects and parameters influencing the thermal performance of the building was conducted to provide critical information of thermal performance of the envelope components within the UK buildings. Then, onsite measurements were carried out to obtain the building's base case heating load using the standard CIBSE GUIDE A 2017 heat load calculation methodology. Neglecting thermal bridging in the heating calculation showed 8% reduction in the building's total heating load. Also, 17% reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions was achieved by applying polyurethane-foam and polystyrene-boards as cavity and external wall insulations, respectively. Moreover, the effect of applying both insulation in the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, cost and payback period analysis was analysed.

Sustainable Urban Development

Due to Melbourne's ongoing growth, there is continuous pressure on its transportation infrastructure. Further, to maintain its position as one of the most livable cities in the world, Melbourne needs to always look at ways to optimize technology and lifestyle while being conscious of its effects on the environment in order to encourage a sustainable development agenda. Such a stance is part of Melbourne's future sustainable urban development strategy including ‘Melbourne 2017-2050.' As a part of such strategy, this article discusses the possibility of underground urban structures (UUS) to further alleviate Melbourne's continuous urban development problems. Four case studies, Lujiazui, Hongqiao, Montreal, and Helsinki, were studied. These four case studies have some comparability with Melbourne's CBD. Particularly, both Montreal and Helsinki have relevance to Melbourne which is appealing. Predominantly, these two cities' main objective of UUS matches that of Melbourne's long-term urban planning goals. Noticeably, improving the livability along with reducing building operational costs are central to Melbourne's 2017-2050 planning and beyond. According to Melbourne 2017-2050, as a sustainable urban development focus, the city's high livability needs to be maintained together with finding alternative ways to reducing building operational costs. This research would thus serve as a springboard to further investigate the UUS for Melbourne city.

Melbourne's Advanced Rail Transportation

Melbourne's commuter rail transportation is ageing and outdated. As Melbourne's population is ever-increasing, its rail transportation infrastructure planning also needs to be developed, based on long-term technological advancements. Subsequently, Melbourne's rail network and its systems need to be continuously scrutinized. This study thus reviews Melbourne's advanced rail transportation systems, and determines its future perspectives. This research initially found that, for Melbourne, one of the important aspects of long-term technological innovation is the inclusion of the three specific automation measures of; moderate intrusion control systems; revamp signaling technologies; and new rail lines and systems. Further examination recommended that advanced rail transportation systems including enhanced communications systems, be carefully integrated. Such outcomes will in turn boost Melbourne's rail performance through, a) increase safety and passenger satisfaction; b) enhance system reliability; c) intensify train frequency and capacity; d) improve operational flexibility; and e) reduce the overall operating costs. It is expected that these findings will ultimately assist the relevant rail transportation planners, to make optimal decisions when deciding on the selection of the most advanced rail transportation strategies.