Broadband : towards a national plan for Scotland

The development of national broadband plans has been used by many countries to join up different areas of governmental and regulatory activities and to set ambitious targets for ubiquitous access to and use of the latest fixed and wireless networks and services. For Scotland this requires working within EU and UK legislative frameworks, which have also provided the bulk of the finance for interventions. It also requires an understanding of the significant weaknesses of urban broadband adoption compared to other UK and EU nations and of its e-commerce supply and demand. While resources are being targeted at rural and remote areas, more are needed to close the social digital divide, which is unavoidable if the stated ambition of being world class is to be achieved

Creating learning solutions for executive education programs

Executive education is both a growing and increasingly competitive industry. The traditional business school, once a dominant player in this space, now faces competition from sophisticated and focused consultants and for-profit training specialists offering a variety of face-to-face and on-line instructional vehicles. An abiding question has become ever more prevalent for business schools – are executive education clients getting meaningful, long-term value for their significant investments? Demonstrating value and building capabilities is different for a generic, open enrolment course than for a custom program. This paper proposes a solutions-based approach to the development and implementation of customized executive programs, arguing that the tailored customer focus and the operational rigor of a solutions perspective leads to sustainable and measurable client value both at the individual and corporate level. A case study involving a global high technology company is used to demonstrate the steps required to apply a solutions roadmap. The results show that a solutions approach – carefully and collaboratively undertaken in selected settings – can provide considerable benefits to both client and provider. Further research is proposed to validate and develop the learning points

Remote sensing in forestry: Application to the Amazon region

The utilization of satellite remote sensing in forestry is reviewed with emphasis on studies performed for the Brazilian Amazon Region. Timber identification, deforestation, and pasture degradation after deforestation are discussed

An Improved Image Segmentation System: A Cooperative Multi-agent Strategy for 2D/3D Medical Images

In this paper, we present a solution-based cooperation approach for strengthening the image segmentation.This paper proposes a cooperative method relying on Multi-Agent System. The main contribution of this work is to highlight the importance of cooperation between the contour and region growing based on Multi-Agent System (MAS). Consequently, agents’ interactions form the main part of the whole process for image segmentation. Similar works were proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The main difference is that our Multi-Agent System can perform the segmentation process ensuring efficiency. Our results show that the performance indices in the system were higher. Furthermore, the integration of thecooperation paradigm allows to speed up the segmentation process. Besides, the tests reveal the robustness of our method by proving competitive results. Our proposal achieved an accuracy of 93,51%± 0,8, a sensitivity of 93,53%± 5,08 and a specificity rate of 92,64%± 4,01

Remote processing of firm microdata at the Bank of Italy

Providing the possibility to run personalised econometric/statistical analyses on the appropriate data sets by remote processing allows greater flexibility in the production of economic information. Binding confidentiality requirements are required with business survey data. The Bank of Italy's infrastructure allows its business survey data to be exploited, while preserving anonymity of individual data. The system is based on the LISSY platform and has been already adopted by the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) and other research centres. Firms' privacy is safeguarded by forbidding potentially confidentiality-breaking programme statements and by denying the visualisation of individual data. Data confidentiality is protected by removing key identifiers from the database and by trimming data in the right tail of the distribution. The platform provides its services through plain-text e-mails. The authorised user sends an e-mail containing an identifying header followed by a statistical programme to a predetermined address. The system checks the validity of the header, strips out the code and submits it in a batch to one of the econometric/statistical packages available (SAS and Stata). The outputs are mailed back to the user after passing an array of automatic and manual checks.microdata, confidentiality, remote access

Developoing A Computer and Network Engineering Major Curriculum For Vocational High School (VHS) in Indonesia

This study aims at developing curriculum for Computer and Network Engineering major which is relevant to industrial needs. The study employed the qualitative method. The data were collected through an in-depth interview, documentation, and focus group disscussion. The research population comprised of (1) industry practitioners from computer and network engineering industries, and (2) teachers of vocational high schools in Special Region of Yogyakarta. In this qualitative research, the one who became the instrument or tool of the research was the researcher himself. Understanding the qualitative research method and the knowledge related to the field of the research, the researcher was sure that he had sufficient knowledge both academically and technically. The findings of this study consisted of four parts, namely (1) standard competence of Computer and Network Engineering major for vocational high school; (2) the curriculum of Computer and Network Engineering major that is currently implemented; (3) competences in the field of Computer and Network Engineering demanded by industries; and (4) the curricuulum of Computer and Network Engineering major that is appropriate for industrial needs

On the edge of good neighbourliness in EU law: lessons from Cyprus

Article 8 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) sets out a duty for the Union to develop a special relationship with neighbouring countries based inter alia on the good neighbourliness principle, on the values of the Union and characterised by close and peaceful cooperation. This is proposed to be achieved through the conclusion of ‘specific agreements with the countries concerned’, possibly based on reciprocity of rights and obligations and/or joined activities. As evidenced by the various contributions in the present volume, many questions spring to mind when reading this new provision, regarding its raison d’être, its scope and its implications within the framework of the EU Treaties and the wider good neighbourliness principle deriving from international law. The role of Member States vis-à-vis the Union’s neighbours has been outlined in this volume in various contexts, and the Member States’ own commitment towards good neighbourliness within the EU. As rightly pointed out by another contributor to this volume in the context of the EU enlargement policy, ‘[d]epending upon the involvement of EU Member States and the risks for the importation of regional disputes into the EU’s internal structures, the requirement of good neighbourliness is either translated into an obligation of conduct or an obligation of result’, thereby revealing the changing or flexible nature of good neighbourliness. To determine the scope of good neighbourliness in the EU legal order, as enshrined in particular in Article 8 TEU, and delimit any underlying commitment on the part of Member States, there is arguably a need to examine the ‘micro’ or individual relations a Member State maintains with its own neighbours. Such a micro-analysis of essentially bilateral relations should also permit reflections on the question of reciprocity and ‘sharing of values’ underlying good neighbourliness in a given relationship or set of relations. In this context, Cyprus is believed to be a unique case study, arguably standing both geographically and substantively at the ‘edge’ of good neighbourliness and as such, outlining the flexible nature of good neighbourliness through its atypical or ‘outer’ application in EU law. The micro-analysis in the case of Cyprus would focus on the ‘de facto neighbouring’ relations the Republic of Cyprus maintains with the part of its own sovereign territory under Turkish military control (internal relations) and, as a result, on the rather uneasy relations Cyprus maintains with Turkey as its neighbour, at the Union’s door-step and also as a candidate country currently undergoing the accession negotiation process (external relations). This chapter therefore proposes to deepen our understanding of the good neighbourliness principle in EU law, as enshrined in Article 8 TEU and within the overall fabric of the EU Treaties, from the perspective of the Member States – more specifically of a single one, Cyprus – in an attempt to identify some of the outer limits of good neighbourliness. This will be done through a review of the scope of Article 8 TEU, including from the perspective of a single Member State (2), followed by an analysis of the outward application of good neighbourliness in the context of Cyprus ‘from within’ the EU (3) and finally ‘from outside’ the EU, also from the lens of reciprocity and shared values arguably lying at the core of good neighbourliness (4). The lessons to be learnt from Cyprus will relate to the scope of good neighbourliness in the EU legal order and to the specific forms it may take when considering the troubled relations of a single Member State with its ‘neighbours’. Good neighbourliness may be more ‘demanding’ on a specific Member State in a situation internal to the EU, but there may be counterparts in this case. This chapter will also assess the extent to which uneasy bilateral relations between a Member State and a third country can be efficiently addressed through EU external relations, the form this good neighbourliness will take and the legal and political implications it may have on other EU Member States, the third country concerned and the values of the Union