Information Technology

Building Information Modeling (BIM), also called n-D Modeling or Virtual Prototyping Technology, is a revolutionary development that is quickly reshaping the Architecture-Engineering-Construction (AEC) industry. BIM is both a technology and a process. The technology component of BIM helps project stakeholders to visualize what is to be built in a simulated environment to identify any potential design, construction or operational issues. The process component enables close collaboration and encourages integration of the roles of all stakeholders on a project. The paper presents an overview of BIM with focus on its core concepts, applications in the project life cycle and benefits for project stakeholders with the help of case studies. The paper also elaborates risks and barriers to BIM implementation and future trends.

Las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación deben de verse como un medio que abre un abanico importante de oportunidades de mejora en las diferentes áreas del quehacer humano, y en una sociedad como la actual de la que se desprende una discusión para definir si es una sociedad e la información o del conocimiento.

The emerging business model of the 21st century is not, in fact, "multinational". This new kind of organisation - at IBM we call it "the globally integrated enterprise" - is very different in its structure and operations. Many parties to the globalisation debate mistakenly project the twentieth-century multinational on to 21st century global reality. This happens as often among free-market advocates as among those opposed to globalisation.

By Samuel PALMISANO, former CEO of IBM Corporation

12 June 2006 (c) The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved.

This introduces a series of five papers describing physical, chemical and biological features of Bangladesh deepwater rice-fields. Flooding occurs typically from late June to early November. There were two distinct flood peaks (late July, mid-September) at the two main research sites during each of the years 1981–86, with maximum depths reaching about 1.5–2.0 m. Temperature showed a narrow range, with values for the upper part of the water column during July–October seldom outside the range 29–35 °C. Data for PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) obtained with two types of sensor (4 π and cosine) are summarized, with examples of profiles and changes throughout the day. Water chemistries sampled from 13 different locations at various times during 1981–1983 are compared for: conductivity, pH, total alkalinity, O2, major metals (Na, K, Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe), minor metals (Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb), NH4-N, NO2-N, NO3-N, filtrable reactive P, filtrable organic P, non-filtrable P, Cl, SO4-S, reactive-Si. Overall the concentrations of aqueous N and P may be regarded as providing a mesotrophic environment for algae, but with relatively low N : P. Filtrable organic P was at least as important as filtrable reactive P, with mean values at the various locations from 0.020 to 0.036 mg l−1 P for the former and 0.005 to 0.038 mg l−1 for the latter. Measurements of N and P in the water column at any one time typically gave values (expressed per unit area) slightly lower than totals for these elements deposited in sediments throughout the whole season. At least until the end of September, the upper part of the water column was almost always oxic during the daytime and occasionally supersaturated with O2 in the afternoon. However DWR fields in south Bangladesh (Phaltita) visited on a sunny day in late September had waters which were almost entirely anoxic even in the afternoon: channels were lacking here and rotting rice stems from an earlier crop were widespread.