137 research outputs found
Planning future construction skill requirements: understanding labour resource issues
No full textConstruction is a labour-intensive industry, which places heavy reliance upon the skills of its workforce. These skills need updating continually as many of the trades involved in the industry become increasingly specialized. During the 1980s, there was a rapid rise in construction activity within the UK, followed by a sudden but short-lived boom accompanied by skill shortages. The construction industry is now experiencing a deeper and longer lasting recession than originally predicted, resulting in valuable employees in all sections of the industry being lost - a high proportion of whom will not return to the construction industry. The construction industry is predicted to grow in the period after the recession by an average of 3% per annum until the year 2001. With this growth the industry is expected to experience considerable skill shortages in both traditional and new skill areas. Construction is in a period of rapid cultural change accompanied by the introduction of new technologies and new ways of organizing construction activities. Powerful national and multinational clients will continue to influence the choice of these technologies through their demands for faster construction times. The construction industry will continue to face increased competition in search of eligible recruits to train accordingly. Employment within the construction industry will continue to move away from large and medium sized firms to small firms and working proprietors. In the 1980s, self-employment and the use of specialist labour-only sub-contractors increased as training levels declined. This trend will hamper the industry's ability to train people for future skill needs. This paper aims to assist interested parties in the construction industry understand and realize the importance of labour resource issues and the need for long-term planning of labour resource requirements, so allowing them to train and retrain people to address the predicted skill shortages
Matching theory as enabler of efficient spectrum management in 5G networks
No full textThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Tsirakis, C, Lopez‐Aguilera, E, Agapiou, G, Varoutas, D. Matching theory as enabler of efficient spectrum management in 5G networks. Trans Emerging Tel Tech. 2020; 31:e3769., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.3769. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.This paper analyzes the spectrum trading problem in virtualized fifth generation (5G) networks in order to enhance the network performance with respect to the spectrum utilization. The problem is modeled as a Many-to-Many Matching (M2MM) game with utility-based preferences and determines the matching between mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators. The two proposed versions of utility functions for each set aim at maximizing the satisfaction of both sets with conflicting interests and improving the overall spectrum efficiency. In the simulation evaluation, the proposed scheme is compared with three different schemes in terms of the system utility, individual and pair matching satisfaction. We also investigate the scalability aspects, the strategy plan impact on the matching performance of our proposed scheme, and, at the same time, we attempt to make appropriate assumptions closer to reality. Our proposed scheme shows much better performance than the other schemes achieving a quite high level of satisfaction for the matching result on both sets.Postprint (author's final draft
Location-dependent information extraction for positioning
No full textThis paper presents an overview of current research investigations within the WHERE-2 Project with respect to location-dependent information extraction and how this information can be used towards the benefit of positioning. It is split into two main sections; the first one relies on non-radio means such as inertial sensors and prior knowledge about the environment geometry, which can be used in the form of map constraints to improve user positioning precision in indoor environments. The second section presents how location-specific radio information can be exploited in a more sophisticated way into advanced positioning algorithms. The intended solutions include exploitation of the slow fading dynamics in addition to the fast-fading parameters, adaptation of the system to its environment on both network and terminal sides and also how specific environmental properties such as the dielectric wall parameters can be extracted and thereafter used for more accurate fingerprinting database generation using Ray Tracing modelling methods. Most of the techniques presented herein rely on real-life measurements or experiments
[Review of the book Endymion au carrefour: La fortune littéraire et artistique du mythe d’Endymion à l’aube de l’ère moderne, by N. Agapiou]
No full textThe Moon\u27s love for the mortal Endymion is one of those myths that come down to us from the classical tradition but gain their fame from their articulations in later periods rather than from the forms they originally had in antiquity. In Endymion au carrefour, Natalia Agapiou (A.) examines the reception of the motif of Endymion and Selene in the Renaissance, when it became the focus of attention for both poets and painters. A. stresses that she is not interested in tracing the evolution of a literary myth, as George Steiner does in Antigones or Pierre Brunel in Pour Électre, but in exploring the fortuna of the figure of Endymion in the literature, art and philosophical thought of the Renaissance. This she does elegantly, taking her reader through a whirlwind tour of the multiple manifestations of Endymion and the Moon in Italy, France, and England during the period between 1501 and 1623. Because of its precisely delimited chronological scope, and its assumption that readers will easily understand 16th and 17th century poetry in the original French, Italian and English, the book will appeal mostly to Renaissance scholars, but classicists interested in the Nachleben of classical myths will find much of value in A.\u27s book
Orthogonal equations for the detection of hidden archaeological remains de-mystified
No full textAbstractSpectral variations of vegetation, known as crop marks, have been widely used for archaeological research as a proxy to detect buried archaeological remains. Such marks can be recognized using space-borne data and image analysis techniques supported by the existing archaeological knowledge of the area under study. Orthogonal equations for the enhancement and detection of crop marks using multispectral satellite images have been recently proposed in the literature. The proposed equations are linear transformations of the initial spectral bands of multispectral datasets aiming to the improvement of the satellite images. For the calculation of the n-space coefficients of this linear transformation a four-step methodology was followed, separately for each sensor. This paper aims to provide the fundamental concept of the development of these equations as well as some aspects related with the application and accuracy assessment. Spectral characteristics of the sensor, atmospheric effects, and spectral calibration of the datasets as well as the selection of the appropriate period for applying these equations for the enhancements of crop marks are also discussed. Such orthogonal equations may be further developed and applied for any kind of sensor either hyperspectral or multispectral for the detection of buried archaeological remains. An example of the applicability of the orthogonal equations at Stonehenge archaeological site is also demonstrated
The role of SDN and NFV for dynamic bandwidth allocation and QoE adaptation of video applications in home networks
No full textSlice Negotiator and Service Continuity in X-Border Environment
No full textThis paper describes the ability of 5G networks to be the capable infrastructures to address the situations of connected and automated mobility (CAM). The cross border environments provide an additional challenge for the 5G technology but also for the service continuity and also for the quality of the service as a car crosses a border. This paper identifies two enablers that provide the means for an automated car to have a ubiquitous communication in cross border environments. The enablers provide the mechanisms for notifications on approaching passengers and freight and assignment of necessary resources in the destination network (proactive resource allocation) and the means for service continuity in cross border communications. In order to achieve this, it is important to leverage on heterogeneous inputs from vehicles, transferred goods and people and to propose prediction algorithms for predicting traffic in the destination network and plan accordingly the needed resources
the role of converged satellite and terrestrial backhauling for 5G networks
No full textThe inter-operation of satellite and terrestrial backhauling can prove to be an efficient method to satisfy the increased demand in backhauling needs for the next generation of 5G technology. This paper reports the means for undertaking the task to satisfy the high needs of backhauling in terms of throughput. As it is reported this can be achieved by exploiting the concurrent use of millimeter wave wireless systems along with satellites in order to increase the bit rate of the transmitted traffi
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