Office design for the multi-generational knowledge workforce

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact the workplace can have on knowledge working for a multi-generational workforce. Design/methodology/approach – A case study analysis is undertaken of Leeds City Council (LCC) workplace in the UK. Findings – The findings from the study show that in the context of LCC there are some key differences between the generations regarding knowledge working preferences for formal/informal meeting spaces. In other aspects, such as knowledge sharing, the generations appear to agree on key aspects such as mentoring and team-based working environments. Practical implications – Corporate real estate managers can use the research findings to assist them in providing a range of workplace settings to enhance multi-generational interaction. Originality/value – This paper fills a gap in current research by evaluating workplace preferences based on generational differences.</p

Pushbroom Stereo for High-Speed Navigation in Cluttered Environments

We present a novel stereo vision algorithm that is capable of obstacle detection on a mobile-CPU processor at 120 frames per second. Our system performs a subset of standard block-matching stereo processing, searching only for obstacles at a single depth. By using an onboard IMU and state-estimator, we can recover the position of obstacles at all other depths, building and updating a full depth-map at framerate. Here, we describe both the algorithm and our implementation on a high-speed, small UAV, flying at over 20 MPH (9 m/s) close to obstacles. The system requires no external sensing or computation and is, to the best of our knowledge, the first high-framerate stereo detection system running onboard a small UAV

The Gender Pay Gap in the Transition from Communism: Some Empirical Evidence

This short paper investigates the path through the 1990s of the gender pay gap in a number of former communist countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The main findings are that the gender pay gap has not exhibited, in general, an upward tendency over the transitional period to which available data relate. Most of the gender pay gap is ascribed to the 'unexplained' component using conventional decompositions and this may be partly attributable to the proxy measure for labour force experience used in this study. Quantile regression analysis indicates that, in all but one country, the ceteris paribus gender pay gap rises as we move up the wage distribution.gender, transition, wage distributions, pay gaps, quantile regression

From missions to systems : generating transparently distributable programs for sensor-oriented systems

Early Wireless Sensor Networks aimed simply to collect as much data as possible for as long as possible. While this remains true in selected cases, the majority of future sensor network applications will demand much more intelligent use of their resources as networks increase in scale and support multiple applications and users. Specifically, we argue that a computational model is needed in which the ways that data flows through networks, and the ways in which decisions are made based on that data, is transparently distributable and relocatable as requirements evolve. In this paper we present an approach to achieving this using high-level mission specifications from which we can automatically derive transparently distributable programs.Postprin

Outward FDI and the Investment Development Path of a Late-Industrialising Economy - Evidence from Ireland

The Investment Development Path (IDP) hypothesis holds that a country’s net outward direct investment position is systematically related to its level of economic development. Ireland is an interesting test case because of the importance of inward FDI over the last three decades, the country's rapid recent FDI-fuelled growth, and the recent increase in outward FDI by Irish-owned multinationals. We find empirical support for the IDP concept for the Irish case. Our sectoral analysis shows up important differences between Ireland's outward FDI and the bulk of FDI occurring in the world economy however. Ireland's outward FDI flows are as yet almost exclusively horizontal and they go largely into non-internationally-tradable manufacturing and services sectors. Also, the firmspecific assets of Irish multinationals lie neither in R&D nor in the type of product differentiation associated with high advertising expenditures.Outward FDI, Investment Development Path, Ireland

Learning in Tournaments with Inter-Generational Advice

We study learning in a simulated tournament using an inter-generational framework. Here a group of subjects are recruited into the lab and play the stage game for 10 rounds. After his participation is over, each player is replaced by another player, his laboratory descendant, who then plays the game for another 10 rounds as a member of a fresh group of subjects. A particular player in generation t+1 can (1) see the history of choices by his generation t predecessor and (2) receive advice from that predecessor via free-form messages that generation t players leave for their generation t+1 successors. We find that the presence of advice makes a difference in that the experimental groups who get advice perform better – their decisions are closer to the Nash equilibrium – compared to a control group of subjects that plays the game with no recourse to such advice.Advice