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Fixed mode noise and random mode noise always exist in the image sensor, which affects the imaging quality of the image sensor. The charge diffusion and color mixing between pixels in the photoelectric conversion process belong to fixed mode noise. This study aims to improve the image sensor imaging quality by processing the fixed mode noise.

Through an iterative training of an ergoable long- and short-term memory recurrent neural network model, the authors obtain a neural network model able to compensate for image noise crosstalk. To overcome the lack of differences in the same color pixels on each template of the image sensor under flat-field light, the data before and after compensation were used as a new data set to further train the neural network iteratively.

The comparison of the images compensated by the two sets of neural network models shows that the gray value distribution is more concentrated and uniform. The middle and high frequency components in the spatial spectrum are all increased, indicating that the compensated image edges change faster and are more detailed (Hinton and Salakhutdinov, 2006; LeCun et al., 1998; Mohanty et al., 2016; Zang et al., 2023).

In this paper, the authors use the iterative learning color image pixel crosstalk compensation method to effectively alleviate the incomplete color mixing problem caused by the insufficient filter rate and the electric crosstalk problem caused by the lateral diffusion of the optical charge caused by the adjacent pixel potential trap.

This paper aims to provide a review of the challenges facing the reform of SOEs, and to address the impacts of SOE reform on business executives, on the base of literature review and empirical data collected in Guangzhou, China.

A qualitative research on the base of literature review, supported by empirical data collected from surveys, interviews, and focus group discussion.

Although China has made significant achievement in economic reform and the transition into a market system and civil society since 1978, there are still fundamental challenges associated with the reform of state owned enterprises (SOEs). It seems that privatisation will not necessarily solve the complex problems associated with SOEs. This paper suggests that a balanced approach reflecting the best of SOE provision and triple bottom line management appears to provide the best way forward for continuing prosperity in China. The current direction of SOE reform seems to have been driven by privatisation and economic rationalism, rather than a more balanced economic and social strategy. If this trend continues, the challenges for business executives, and the general society, can be overwhelming, and not lead to a more sustainable economy, let alone society, in the medium to long term.

Reform of SOEs has impacted on China fundamentally. Against the common view that business managers are the social group that is benefiting from SOE reform, this paper focuses on factors affecting the economic and social status of business executives, especially the challenges associated with the reform of SOEs. Supported by primary and secondary data sources, it draws attention to the situation that although the economic and social status of business executives continues to rise in China, insecurity and stress on business executives are growing. Reforms associated with changing SOEs are viewed as possible sources of challenges facing the Chinese economy and business life. Current SOE reform seems to have focused on the economic bottom line. A more balanced approach in the reform of SOEs is suggested for a more sustainable economy and society.

This study aims to examine how embeddedness influences consultants' information seeking when making decisions within a social network of relationships, and how these social networks evolve throughout the project delivery stages. The study is grounded in social network theory and examines embeddedness from three perspectives: structural (network cohesion), relational (tie strength in terms of friendship and knowledge awareness) and actor prominence.

A social network analysis (SNA) questionnaire was administered to a team of consultants working on a management consultancy project in Shanghai, China. The SNA measures of density, degree centrality and betweenness centrality were used to analyse relationship patterns among project team members, permitting comparison between the networks. Networks were also compared across the three project delivery stages of collect, consider and create.

Structural embeddedness was observed in the active information seeking behaviour among consultancy team members. The moderate network density of the self-organising information seeking networks across the project delivery stages ensures that the team remains connected but avoids information redundancy and overload. Relational embeddedness was evident through the multiplexity of ties among team members with overlapping friendship and information seeking relationships. The knowledge awareness network's sparseness indicates a team of autonomous knowledge workers with distributed expertise. Project managers were the most prominent actors across the three project delivery stages, underlining these actors' relational leadership role.

The study provides a deeper understanding of collaborative decision-making behaviours in dynamic-project environments. Limited attempts have been made to visualise and analyse the relationships involved in small consulting teams. The novelty of the network approach adopted stems from its ability to offer a structural view of the relationship among consultants, thus offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics.

The study validates the social network theory of embeddedness in a real-world collaborative decision-making setting and provides a deeper understanding of information seeking behaviours for decision-making in dynamic-project environments. From a project management process viewpoint, the evolving nature of the information seeking network as it changes across the project stages with associated actors' roles was also visualised graphically, offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics.

Stakeholder interests are complex, sensitive and highly uncertain and may influence the development of net zero carbon building (NZCB). However, this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to explore the stakeholder interests towards achieving NZCB.

A total of 62 articles were identified from the Scopus database and thoroughly reviewed to extract relevant information on stakeholders' interest towards achieving NZCB.

A total of 28 stakeholder interests influencing the development of NZCB were identified from the literature and were classified into six major groups according to their uniqueness (economic, social, environmental, technological, political, regulatory and legal).

The findings of this study provide insight into the specific stakeholder interests towards achieving NZCB. Thus, the findings of this study could serve as a guide for future research, policy formulation and implementation to expedite the practice of building towards net zero carbon (NZC). Empirical studies are suggested in future studies to test and consolidate the theoretical claims of this study.

This paper undertakes a comprehensive systematic review of studies on stakeholder interests towards achieving NZCB, which is the least investigated in the literature.

Despite the knowledge transfer between projects has received increasing attention from scholars, few scholars still conduct comprehensive research on inter-project knowledge transfer from both horizontal and vertical perspectives. Besides, knowledge transfer is affected by multiple antecedent conditions, and these factors should be combined for analysis. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the key factors influencing knowledge transfer between projects using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method from both horizontal and vertical perspectives and how these factors combine to improve the effectiveness of knowledge transfer (EKT) between projects.

First, nine factors affecting knowledge transfer between projects were identified, which were from the four dimensions of subject, relationship, channel, and context, namely temporary nature (TN), time urgency (TU), transmit willingness (TW), receive willingness (RW), trust (TR), project-project transfer channels (PPC), project-enterprise transfer channels (PEC), organizational atmosphere (OA), and motivation system (MS). Then, the source of the samples was determined and the data from the respondents was collected for analysis. Following the operation steps of the fsQCA method, variable calibration, single condition necessity analysis, and configuration analysis were carried out. After that, the configurations of influencing factors were obtained and the robustness test was conducted.

The results of the fsQCA method show that there are five configurations that can obtain better EKT between projects. Configuration 3 (∼TN * ∼TU * TW * RW * TR * ∼PPC * PEC * MS) has the highest consistency, indicating that it has the highest degree of the explanatory variable subset. Configuration 1 (∼TN * ∼TU * TW * RW * PEC * OA * MS) has the highest coverage, meaning that this configuration can explain most cases. Also, the five configurations were divided into three types: vertical transfer, horizontal-vertical transfer, and channel-free transfer category.

Firstly, this study explores the key factors influencing knowledge transfer between projects from four dimensions, which presents the logical chain of influencing factors more clearly. Then, this study divided the five configurations obtained into three categories according to the transfer direction: vertical, horizontal-vertical, and channel-free transfer, which gives implications to focus on both horizontal knowledge transfer (HKT) and (VKT) when studying knowledge transfer between projects. Lastly, this study helps to realize the exploration of combined improvement strategies for EKT, thereby providing meaningful recommendations for enterprises and project teams to facilitate knowledge transfer between projects.

Optimal clean-up procedures lie at the heart of the closeout phase of construction projects under contract law. However, due to its complexity involving multiple issues, potentially unfulfilled contractual obligations, performance claims and counter-claims, combined with consequently deteriorating stakeholder relationships, the management of closeouts is fraught with difficulties leading to suboptimal outcomes. This is particularly true where general contractor (GC) organizations do not have a claims management office (CMO) dedicated to improving such suboptimal clean-up outcomes. Thus, this study aims to develop a model by which CMOs’ may effectively manage the clean-up phase in an environment of closeout claims.

X-inefficiency theory was utilized as the theoretical lens guiding this study. The theory helps identify closeout strategies implemented by a GC, which manages completion claims through a CMO. Data were received and analyzed from a large GC, which served as the firm case study. In this case, managing the closeout completion claims was the main function of the CMO.

The average delay of closeout completion was four times greater than construction phase delays. The GC results highlighted the “economic destruction tsunami of projects,” as a root cause for these completion delays. Wrap-up activities under contract law are identified, including within the domains of statements of completion, project handover and debt settlement. Behavior strategies are also defined, including relational and contractual approaches. Moreover, a process for improving closeout claim performance is described, comprising project closeout identification, rational intra-firm behavior, closeout completion and program closeout practice.

Findings from this work can significantly contribute in X-inefficiency theory in relation to how a decrease of X-inefficiency will lead to better closeout claim performance. It also offers practical insights into how best to minimize delayed closeout completion while providing valuable lessons for stakeholders in complex infrastructure projects. Further, a model is developed that may be utilized by owners, consultancies, designers and other contractor organizations in an effort to improve closeout claim performance.

This chapter aimed to uncover the gaps in the existing construction supply chain management (CSCM) models. Organisational culture and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) components are the two gaps that were identified through reviewing existing CSCM models. The 4IR is driven by three components which are smart management, virtualisation and cyber-physical system. It was proposed in this chapter that the practice of CSCM should be in tandem with the components of 4IR. This chapter recommended that for the effective practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the 4IR era, construction stakeholders should adopt an innovative and collaborative organisational culture. The organisational culture adopted by a construction firm performs a crucial role in encouraging construction stakeholders in adopting 4IR components for CSCM. Each of the 4IR components is driven by technologies like autonomous robots, building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID), the internet of things (IoT) and others. Among all the technologies, it was discovered that RFID and BIM had gained prominence in most CSC literature. The chapter recommended that blockchain, digital twins and the cyber-physical system are the next trending technology for CSCM.

The contribution of project success and the organisation's efficiency is consensual in the literature. However, the value of project management (PM) brings to the organisation's effectiveness through the alignment with strategy, contributing to its competitiveness and business success, is yet little explored. This study addresses the literature gap that concerns the relationship between PM and the organisation's competitiveness, proposing a holistic conceptual model to understand of how PM brings value to the organisation. This work also aims to demonstrate the practical implications of theoretical contributions to the value of PM. For this, a detailed action research (AR) was planned to show how researchers and practitioners could work and collaborate in a real problem and prove the AR approach's adequacy to the PM field.

The methodology starts with a systematic literature review (SLR), followed by content analysis to develop a conceptual model of PM's value. To validate the theoretical constructs and transfer the results to real context, an AR plan is then carried out to support a specific PM problem presented by an automotive industry company.

The results have theoretical and practical implications. An original conceptual model is developed–the value of PM: Key factors–defending a multidimensional and holistic perspective to understand the PM's value. A set of key factors was identified, structured, interrelated and exemplified their practical implementation in a single company. In addition to the technical key factors identified in the literature review, the AR plan unveils crucial social aspects to improve PM's value, such as leadership, strong communication and open processes. This work shows the central role of PM methodologies in integrating and interconnecting the key factors, emphasizing the projects' strategic level.

The present work was developed in a specific and particular organisational context and industry.

The AR plan presents a company's original programme–Hyper Competitiveness (HC) Temple–implemented in an automotive company. Project management professionals could understand how this company implemented each key factor, defended in a conceptual model and lead the project's results to the business value.

The research originality lies in rethinking PM's value to organisations from a holistic perspective: multi-dimensional, temporal, life cycle, multi-organisational, pointing out a set of technical and social key factors.

The model and existing practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia was presented in this chapter. The policies and reports that support the practice of the CSC were examined in both countries. It was discovered from the review of literature that the UK has a more detailed report targeted at improving the CSC than Australia. However, both countries have a common factor affecting their CSC which originates from fragmentation experienced within their supply chain. Construction stakeholders in the UK and Australia believe that collaboration and integration are vital components for improving performance. The majority of the contractors in both countries embrace collaborative working for the sole purpose of risk sharing, access to innovation and response to market efficiency. However, most of the models developed for managing the CSC in the UK are built around building information modelling (BIM). Also, the reviewed studies show that supply chain management practice will be effective following the following principle: shared objectives, trust, reduction in a blame culture, joint working, enhanced communication and information-sharing. Finally, the UK has a more established framework and more CSC models compared to Australia.

The challenges confronting the Nigerian construction industry which led to the adoption of supply chain management (SCM) practice were evaluated in this chapter. It was discovered that the Nigerian construction industry is confronted with fragmentation and poor information management. The stakeholders within the Nigerian construction industry proposed the adoption of SCM to overcome the fragmentation and other shenanigans facing the industry. This chapter revealed that construction supply chain (CSC) practices within the Nigerian construction industry focus on waste elimination by adopting the lean concept. The focus on the lean concept could be attributed to the numerous research related to lean or the enormous waste emanating from the Nigerian construction industry. Regardless of the emphasis on lean, the Nigerian CSC is still confronted with fragmentation and heavy waste generation. Thus, this chapter proposed the adoption of principles and technologies driven by the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is a paradigm shift for the management of CSC in the country. It was discovered in this chapter that Nigerian construction supply stakeholders had not embraced the technologies and principles of the 4IR. The failure to adopt the technologies driven by the 4IR is attributed to the absence of a CSC model that depicts the management of CSC in alignment with the 4IR. This chapter called for developing a SCM model for the Nigerian construction industry in tandem with the principles and technologies of the 4IR.