No abstract

As a sustainable construction method, prefabricated construction is increasingly being adopted worldwide to enhance productivity and to alleviate the adverse environmental and social effects as a result of conventional construction activities. In addressing management issues of prefabricated construction, an impressive number of studies have been published by internationally renowned journals related to construction management over the past decades.However, it seems that a systematic summary on the research development in the management of prefabricated construction (MPC) discipline is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the latest research trend in this discipline by analyzing published construction management research in 10 leading journals during the period from 2000 to 2013 (as of end of June) in terms of the annual number of MPC papers, contributions of institutions, adopted data collection and processing This is the Pre-Published Version. methods, and research interest. The analysis reveals that prefabrication is becoming increasingly important to the entire construction industry. Researchers from developed countries, including the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, and Australia, have made significant contributions to the development of the prefabrication domain, while those from developing countries, including China, Turkey, and Israel where construction remains as their main economic activity, have shown increasing interest in promoting prefabrication-related research. Major research topics in MPC include "industry prospect", "development and application", "performance evaluation", "environment for technology application", and "design, production, transportation and assembly strategies". Moreover, some innovative technologies, such as Global Position System (GPS), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), have been effectively applied in this field and are considered as strong vehicles in improving the performance of future prefabricated construction practices. This study is of value in helping scholars gain an in-depth understanding of the stateof-the-art of MPC research and allows them to continue from the findings of previous studies.

An ultrathin, single-crystal WO3 nanosheet of ∼4-5 nm in thickness, corresponding to six repeating unit cells of monoclinic WO3 along the c axis, was synthesized with laterally oriented attachment of tiny WO3 nanocrystals formed using a solid-liquid phase arc discharge route in an aqueous solution. Size-quantization effects in this ultrathin nanostructure alter the WO3 band gap to enable the nanosheet to exhibit enhanced performance for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 in the presence of water in hydrocarbon fuels that do not exist in its bulk form.

Engineering hierarchical CuO hollow micro/nanostructures was realized by a tyrosine-assisted green strategy. The morphology, composition, and phase structure of as-prepared powders were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which showed that the sample was assembled from CuO nanosheets with average diameter of ca. 250 nm, self-wrapping to form hollow interiors with an outer diameter of 1.5−3 μm. The improved electrochemical performance toward Li uptake-release verifies their potential application as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries, which attributes to a three-dimensional current collector network and a chemical/mechanical robustness buffer of the as-formed novel CuO structure.