Quantitative economics as a scientific approach to the solution of problems of a complex nature – in honor of Professor Willem Karel M. Brauers on the occasion of his 90th birthday

In the previous century Quantitative Economics substantially evolved in the direction of Mathematical Economics, Econometrics and Operational Research. Professor Willem Karel M. Brauers sees it mainly as a scientific approach to the solutions of problems of a complex nature by Methods such as Input-Output Analysis and Multi-Objective Optimization. At the occasion of his 90th birthday this article highlights the research of Professor Willem Karel M. Brauers, presents a review of his extensive scientific work and lists some of his publications

Multiple criteria selection of design solutions for single-family houses

Disertacijoje nagrinėjami vienbučių namų architektūrinių-konstrukcinių sprendinių (konstrukcinių elementų ir tvarių medžiagų, vidinių laiptų formų ir įvairių garažo padėčių) parinkimo ir vertinimo modeliai, grindžiami daugiakriteriais sprendimų priėmimo metodais. Literatūros analizė atskleidė, kad šiuo metu tvarumas yra vienas svarbiausių klausimų, į kuriuos reikia atsižvelgti projektuojant ir statant namą. Vis labiau įsitikinama, kad reikia sukurti priemonių siekiant integruoti tvarumo kriterijus į pastatų projektavimo ir statybos procesą, be to, atsiranda vis didesnis žinių, kaip suderinti tvarumą su vienbučių namų statyba, poreikis. Šiame darbe siekiama susieti dvi mokslines sritis sprendžiant vienbučių namų architektūrinių-konstrukcinių sprendinių parinkimo klausimus. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, trys skyriai, bendrosios išvados, naudotos literatūros ir autorės publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariamos problemos, aprašomi tiriamieji objektai, formuluojamas darbo tikslas ir uždaviniai, iškeliamas mokslinis darbo naujumas, ginamieji teiginiai. Įvado pabaigoje pateikiamos disertacijos tema autorės paskelbtos publikacijos ir pranešimai konferencijose. Pirmajame skyriuje pateikiama tvaraus gyvenamojo būsto sprendinių analizė ir nagrinėjamas komforto, erdvinių zonų, vienbučių namų elementų formų bei medžiagų parinkimas gyvenamajam namui statyti. Apžvelgiamos MCDM (daugiakriterių sprendimų priėmimo metodų, angl. Multiple Criteria Decision Making) panaudojimo galimybės statybos srities uždaviniams spręsti. Skyriaus pabaigoje formuluojamos išvados ir pateikiami disertacijos uždaviniai. Antrajame skyriuje apžvelgiami namo konstrukcinių elementų (laiptų) formų grafiniai kūrimo metodai. Aprašomi daugiakriteriai vertinimo metodai, kuriais įvertinami disertacijoje suformuluoti uždaviniai. Trečiajame skyriuje pateiktas trijų praktinių suformuluotų uždavinių sprendimas, taikant pasiūlytus MCDM metodus: pirmuoju ieškoma geriausia garažo padėtis vienbučio namo atžvilgiu; antruoju – vertinamas vienbučių namų konstrukcinių elementų ir tvarių medžiagų parinkimas; trečiuoju – pagrindžiamas ergonomiškų laiptų formų parinkimas

Efficient radio resource management in next generation wireless networks

The current decade has witnessed a phenomenal growth in mobile wireless communication networks and subscribers. In 2015, mobile wireless devices and connections were reported to have grown to about 7.9 billion, exceeding human population. The explosive growth in mobile wireless communication network subscribers has created a huge demand for wireless network capacity, ubiquitous wireless network coverage, and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS). These demands have led to several challenging problems for wireless communication networks operators and designers. The Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWNs) will support high mobility communications, such as communication in high-speed rails. Mobile users in such high mobility environment demand reliable QoS, however, such users are plagued with a poor signal-tonoise ratio, due to the high vehicular penetration loss, increased transmission outage and handover information overhead, leading to poor QoS provisioning for the networks' mobile users. Providing a reliable QoS for high mobility users remains one of the unique challenges for NGWNs. The increased wireless network capacity and coverage of NGWNs means that mobile communication users at the cell-edge should have enhanced network performance. However, due to path loss (path attenuation), interference, and radio background noise, mobile communication users at the cell-edge can experience relatively poor transmission channel qualities and subsequently forced to transmit at a low bit transmission rate, even when the wireless communication networks can support high bit transmission rate. Furthermore, the NGWNs are envisioned to be Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWNs). The NGWNs are going to be the integration platform of diverse homogeneous wireless communication networks for a convergent wireless communication network. The HWNs support single and multiple calls (group calls), simultaneously. Decision making is an integral core of radio resource management. One crucial decision making in HWNs is network selection. Network selection addresses the problem of how to select the best available access network for a given network user connection. For the integrated platform of HWNs to be truly seamless and efficient, a robust and stable wireless access network selection algorithm is needed. To meet these challenges for the different mobile wireless communication network users, the NGWNs will have to provide a great leap in wireless network capacity, coverage, QoS, and radio resource utilization. Moving wireless communication networks (mobile hotspots) have been proposed as a solution to providing reliable QoS to high mobility users. In this thesis, an Adaptive Thinning Mobility Aware (ATMA) Call Admission Control (CAC) algorithm for improving the QoS and radio resource utilization of the mobile hotspot networks, which are of critical importance for communicating nodes in moving wireless networks is proposed. The performance of proposed ATMA CAC scheme is investigated and compare it with the traditional CAC scheme. The ATMA scheme exploits the mobility events in the highspeed mobility communication environment and the calls (new and handoff calls) generation pattern to enhance the QoS (new call blocking and handoff call dropping probabilities) of the mobile users. The numbers of new and handoff calls in wireless communication networks are dynamic random processes that can be effectively modeled by the Continuous Furthermore, the NGWNs are envisioned to be Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWNs). The NGWNs are going to be the integration platform of diverse homogeneous wireless communication networks for a convergent wireless communication network. The HWNs support single and multiple calls (group calls), simultaneously. Decision making is an integral core of radio resource management. One crucial decision making in HWNs is network selection. Network selection addresses the problem of how to select the best available access network for a given network user connection. For the integrated platform of HWNs to be truly seamless and efficient, a robust and stable wireless access network selection algorithm is needed. To meet these challenges for the different mobile wireless communication network users, the NGWNs will have to provide a great leap in wireless network capacity, coverage, QoS, and radio resource utilization. Moving wireless communication networks (mobile hotspots) have been proposed as a solution to providing reliable QoS to high mobility users. In this thesis, an Adaptive Thinning Mobility Aware (ATMA) Call Admission Control (CAC) algorithm for improving the QoS and radio resource utilization of the mobile hotspot networks, which are of critical importance for communicating nodes in moving wireless networks is proposed

Was the construction sector in 20 European countries anti-cyclical during the recession years 2008-2009 as measured by multicriteria analysis (MULTIMOORA)?

AbstractThe thesis of Keynes that public investment may act as a remedy in recession years is well-known. This thesis is examined on basis of the behavior of different criteria measuring the construction sector during the recession years 2008–2009 for 20 European Countries. During these recession years all these criteria showed a pro-cyclical movement instead of an anti- cyclical one. MULTIMOORA, a multi-objective optimization method, aggregated the different criteria. In addition knowing that public investments, in fact public works, take a long time between decision and execution one may conclude that they are not an anti-cyclical instrument in recession years. It would mean that the thesis of Keynes is wrong