28 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
The role of SDN and NFV for dynamic bandwidth allocation and QoE adaptation of video applications in home networks
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Nutritional characterization of carobs and traditional carob products
No full textTwenty traditional carob products were measured for their nutritional composition, and their results were compared with the pulp of Cypriot carob cultivars. Moisture, ash, fat, proteins, sugars, dietary fibers, minerals, caffeine‐theobromine, carbohydrates, and energy value were determined. Fluctuations of the nutritional composition values based on the ingredients’ chemical synthesis and product manufacturing process were noted. Only 60% of the products had a label indicating their nutritional value, and the majority of them (75%) were consistent with that of labeling. Chemometric analyses distinguished the carob products according to their type and the discriminator components highlighted their particular nutritional value. Carobs can be characterized as functional foods with low‐fat content, high content in dietary fibers, and high content and/or source of minerals; however, carob products partially satisfied those health and nutritional claims as expected. This pilot research contributes to the nutritional estimation of carob and highlights the traditional carob products
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
Towards the Assessment of Soil-Erosion-Related C-Factor on European Scale Using Google Earth Engine and Sentinel-2 Images
No full textSoil erosion is a constant environmental threat for the entirety of Europe. Numerous studies have been published during the last years concerning assessing soil erosion utilising Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Such studies commonly employ empirical erosion models to estimate soil loss on various spatial scales. In this context, empirical models have been highlighted as major approaches to estimate soil loss on various spatial scales. Most of these models analyse environmental factors representing soil-erosion-influencing conditions such as the climate, topography, soil regime, and surface vegetation coverage. In this study, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery data have been combined to assess the vegetation-coverage-related factor known as cover management factor (C-factor) at a high spatial resolution (10 m) considering a total of 38 European countries. Based on the employment of the RS derivative of the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for January and December 2019, a C-factor map was generated due to mean annual estimation. National values were then calculated in terms of different types of agricultural land cover classes. Furthermore, the European C-factor (CEUROPE) values concerning the island of Crete (Greece) were compared with relevant values estimated for the island (CCRETE) based on Sentinel-2 images being individually selected at a monthly time-step of 2019 to generate a series of 12 maps for the C-factor in Crete. Our results yielded identical C-factor values for the different approaches. The outcomes denote GEE’s high analytic and processing abilities to analyse massive quantities of data that can provide efficient digital products for soil-erosion-related studies
Use of Chemometrics for Correlating Carobs Nutritional Compositional Values with Geographic Origin
No full textCarobs unique compositional and biological synthesis enables their characterization as functional foods. In the present study, 76 samples derived from fruit and seeds of carobs, with origin from the countries of the Mediterranean region (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Jordan and Palestine) were analyzed for their nutritional composition, in order to identify potential markers for their provenance and address the carobs’ authenticity issue. Moisture, ash, fat, proteins, sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose), dietary fibers and minerals (Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) were estimated following official methods. Due to the large number of data (76 samples × 17 parameters × 7 countries), chemometric techniques were employed to process them and extract conclusions. The samples of different geographical origin were discriminated with 79% success in total. The carobs from Cyprus, Italy and Spain were correctly classified without error. The main discriminators were found to be the dietary fibers, the carbohydrates and Cu, Zn and Mn, which emphasize their specific nutritional added value to the product and the country of origin impact. The results suggest that the proposed analytical approach is a powerful tool that enables the discrimination of carobs based on their country of origin. This research contributes to authenticity of carobs, adding value to local products
Tombs and necropoleis of Cyprus: a corpus of the Hellenistic and Roman burial grounds
No full textThe record is publicly accessible, but files are restricted to users with access. To request access to data please contact [email protected] and [email protected] dataset contains geospatial information for hundreds of single tombs and necropoleis of Hellenistic and Roman periods from across Cyprus. The data were collected by the first author for the needs of her PhD thesis. The dataset is deposited on KTISIS and is hereby made available to future research efforts for update. There is substantial reuse potential pertaining to research on Cyprus as well as the wider Mediterranean in areas ranging from ancient topography and demography to funerary material culture and burial artefacts and customs
Tombs and Necropoleis of Cyprus: A Corpus of the Hellenistic and Roman Burial Grounds
No full textThe dataset contains geospatial information relating to hundreds of single tombs and necropoleis across Cyprus, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The data were collected by the first author for the needs of her PhD thesis. The dataset is deposited on KTISIS and is hereby made available to future research efforts for update. There is substantial reuse potential pertaining to research on Cyprus as well as the wider Mediterranean in areas ranging from ancient topography and demography to funerary material culture and burial artefacts and customs
