15,467 research outputs found
Managing ubiquitous eco cities: the role of urban telecommunication infrastructure networks and convergence technologies
A successful urban management system for a Ubiquitous Eco City requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision making mechanism and necessary infrastructure and technologies. Rapidly developing information and telecommunication technologies and their platforms in the late 20th Century improves urban management and enhances the quality of life and place. Telecommunication technologies provide an important base for monitoring and managing activities over wired, wireless or fibre-optic networks. Particularly technology convergence creates new ways in which the information and telecommunication technologies are used. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices such as mobile phones and provides opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This paper discusses the recent developments in telecommunication networks and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities and how this technological shift is likely to be beneficial in improving the quality of life and place. The paper also introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for Ubiquitous Eco Cities
ICT diffusion and the digital divide in tourism: Kazakhstan perspective
No abstract available
Transport poverty meets the digital divide : accessibility and connectivity in rural communities
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Tragedy of the Regulatory Commons: LightSquared and the Missing Spectrum Rights
The endemic underuse of radio spectrum constitutes a tragedy of the regulatory commons. Like other common interest tragedies, the outcome results from a legal or market structure that prevents economic actors from executing socially efficient bargains. In wireless markets, innovative applications often provoke claims by incumbent radio users that the new traffic will interfere with existing services. Sometimes these concerns are mitigated via market transactions, a la “Coasian bargaining.” Other times, however, solutions cannot be found even when social gains dominate the cost of spillovers. In the recent “LightSquared debacle,” such spectrum allocation failure played out. GPS interests that access frequencies adjacent to the band hosting LightSquared’s new nationwide mobile network complained that the wireless entrant would harm the operation of locational devices. Based on these complaints, regulators then killed LightSquared’s planned 4G network. Conservative estimates placed the prospective 4G consumer gains at least an order of magnitude above GPS losses. “Win win” bargains were theoretically available, fixing GPS vulnerabilities while welcoming the highly valuable wireless innovation. Yet transaction costs—largely caused by policy choices to issue limited and highly fragmented spectrum usage rights (here in the GPS band)—proved prohibitive. This episode provides a template for understanding market and non-market failure in radio spectrum allocation
Fast parallel volume visualization on cuda technology
In the medical diagnosis and treatment planning, radiologists and surgeons rely
heavily on the slices produced by medical imaging scanners. Unfortunately, most of
these scanners can only produce two dimensional images because the machines that
can produce three dimensional are very expensive. The two dimensional images from
these devices are difficult to interpret because they only show cross-sectional views
of the human structure. Consequently, such circumstances require highly qualified
doctors to use their expertise in the interpretation of the possible location, size or
shape of the abnormalities especially for large datasets of enormous amount of slices.
Previously, the concept of reconstructing two dimensional images to three
dimensional was introduced. However, such reconstruction model requires high
performance computation, may either be time-consuming or costly. Furthermore,
detecting the internal features of human anatomical structure, such as the imaging of
the blood vessels, is still an open topic in the computer-aided diagnosis of disorders
and pathologies. This study proposed, designed and implemented a visualization
framework named SurLens with high performance computing using Compute
Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), augmenting the widely proven ray casting
technique in terms of superior qualities of images but with slow speed. Considering
the rapid development of technology in the medical community, our framework is
implemented on Microsoft .NET environment for easy interoperability with other
emerging revolutionary tools. The Visualization System was evaluated with brain
datasets from the department of Surgery, University of North Carolina, United
States, containing 109 datasets of MRA, T1-FLASH, T2-Weighted, DTI and
T1-MPRAGE. Significantly, at a reasonably cheaper cost, SurLens Visualization
System achieves immediate reconstruction and obvious mappings of the internal
features of the human brain, reliable enough for instantaneously locate possible
blockages in the brain blood vessels without any prior segmentation of the datasets
Wireless communication, identification and sensing technologies enabling integrated logistics: a study in the harbor environment
In the last decade, integrated logistics has become an important challenge in
the development of wireless communication, identification and sensing
technology, due to the growing complexity of logistics processes and the
increasing demand for adapting systems to new requirements. The advancement of
wireless technology provides a wide range of options for the maritime container
terminals. Electronic devices employed in container terminals reduce the manual
effort, facilitating timely information flow and enhancing control and quality
of service and decision made. In this paper, we examine the technology that can
be used to support integration in harbor's logistics. In the literature, most
systems have been developed to address specific needs of particular harbors,
but a systematic study is missing. The purpose is to provide an overview to the
reader about which technology of integrated logistics can be implemented and
what remains to be addressed in the future
The coherence of EU trade, competition, and industry policies in the high tech sector : the case of the telecommunications services sector
We analyze the coherence existing among European Union competition, industry, and trade policies in the high tech sector in general terms focusing on its specific features (externalities, fast progress) and their effects on the emergence and treatment of policy consistency and conflicts. Second, this analysis is applied to the European telecommunications services sector. The examination of this sector and the relevant EU policies reveals a consensus on giving priority to competition. However structural factors prevent policy implementation to reflect much liberalization and harmonization and business responses to trade globalization challenge effective competition. The potential, important role of standardization is shown.economics of technology ;
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