3,871 research outputs found
Unemployment Rate Dispersion in Melbourne: The Regional Dimension
In this paper we examine unemployment rate dispersion across the (statistical) regions in the Melbourne metropolitan area. We find that the level of dispersion is positively correlated with the unemployment rate in all the regions taken together and that the ‘elasticity’ of dispersion with respect to the unemployment rate is unity, with the result that there is a tendency for the level of dispersion relative to the average unemployment rate to remain stationary over our sample period. We discuss the implications of this and show that the unemployment rate differences are persistent in the sense that the same areas exhibit relatively high (or low) unemployment rates over the whole of our sample period. We also estimate equilibrium rates of unemployment for the different regions in Melbourne and conjecture possible explanations for the differences in the level and in the persistence of the equilibrium rates.Regional Unemployment Disparities Business Cycle Unemployment
Distributed Beamforming with Wirelessly Powered Relay Nodes
This paper studies a system where a set of relay nodes harvest energy
from the signal received from a source to later utilize it when forwarding the
source's data to a destination node via distributed beamforming. To this end,
we derive (approximate) analytical expressions for the mean SNR at destination
node when relays employ: i) time-switching based energy harvesting policy, ii)
power-splitting based energy harvesting policy. The obtained results facilitate
the study of the interplay between the energy harvesting parameters and the
synchronization error, and their combined impact on mean SNR. Simulation
results indicate that i) the derived approximate expressions are very accurate
even for small (e.g., ), ii) time-switching policy by the relays
outperforms power-splitting policy by at least dB.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for presentation at IEEE VTC 2017 Spring
conferenc
Risk factors affecting the ability for earned value management to accurately assess the performance of infrastructure projects in Australia
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate a set of risk-related factors influencing the earned
value management (EVM) concept as an assessment technique in evaluating the progress of modern
sustainable infrastructure construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach has been adopted for identifying
risk-related factors influencing EVM concept from a literature review and through interviewing
industry personnel, followed by an inductive process to form sets of key factors and their measuring
items.
Findings – EVM is a common method for assessing project performance. A weakness of this approach
is that EVM assessment in its current form does not measure the impact of a number of project
performance factors that result from the complexity of modern infrastructure construction projects, and
thus does not accurately assess their impact in this performance. This paper discusses and explains a
range of potential risk factors to evaluating project performance such as sustainability, stakeholder
requirements, communication, procurement strategy, weather, experience of staff, site condition, design
issues, financial risk, subcontractor, government requirements and material. In addition, their
measuring items were identified.
Practical implications – This research assists projects managers to improve the evaluation process of
infrastructure construction performance by incorporating a range of factors likely to impact on that
performance and which are not included in current EVM calculations.
Originality/value – This research addresses the need to include in the EVM calculation a range of risk
factors affecting the performance of infrastructure projects in Australia and therefore makes this calculation a more reliable tool for assessing project performance
Contextual contact tracing based spatio enhanced compartment modelling & spatial risk assessment
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesThe current situation of COVID-19 appears as a paradigm shift that seems to have farreaching
impacts on the way humans will now continue with their daily routine. The
overall scenario highlights the paramount importance of infectious disease surveillance,
which necessitates immediate monitoring for effective preparedness and efficient response.
Policymakers are interested in data insights identifying high-risk areas as well as individuals
to be quarantined, especially as the public gets back to their normal routine. This
thesis research investigates both requirements in a hybrid approach by the implementation
of disease outbreak modelling and exploring its induced dynamic spatial risk in
the form of Risk Assessment, along with its real-time integration back into the disease
model. The study implements human mobility based contact tracing in the form of an
event-based stochastic SIR model as a baseline and further modifies the existing setup
to be inclusive of the spatial risk. This modification of each individual-level contact’s
intensity to be dependent on its spatial location has been termed as Contextual Contact
Tracing. The results suggest that the Spatio-SIR model tends to perform more meaningful
events concerned with the Susceptible population rather than events to the Infected or
Quarantined. With an example of a real-world scenario of induced spatial high-risk, it is
highlighted that the new Spatio-SIR model can empower the analyst with a capability to
explore disease dynamics from an additional perspective. The study concludes that even
if this domain is hindered due to lack of data availability, the investigation process related
to it should keep on exploring methods to effectively understand the disease dynamics
Does Human Capital Expedite Economic Development? The Case of Pakistan
The population merely is not a guarantee of the economic development of a country. The human capital increases the productivity of the workforce and develops the good working environment characterized by commitment and motivation. The low level of the human capital is viewed as one of the factors that may hinder the process of economic development in low developed countries. This conjecture seems working in Pakistan. This study is an endeavor to examine how human capital influences the economic development of Pakistan by using the time series data for the period (1971-2009). For the data analysis, the bound testing approach to co integration within the framework of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) was used. The empirical results of all the proxies of human capital except ‘expenditure on education’ supported the hypothesis
The Impact of FDI on Economic Development of Pakistan
The foreign direct investment has made its position better as a bundle of benefits during the last three decades at the global level. The ultimate result of its benefits for the recipient countries is often sought in term of economic development. Such results do not appear in the same fashion in all recipient economies and so provide the space to investigate this nexus at country level. This study is an endeavor to examine empirically the impact of FDI on economic development of Pakistan. For this purpose, the time series data covering the period (1971-2009) were used. For data analysis, the bound testing approach to co integration within the framework of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) was utilized. The findings of the study supported the hypothesis of positive impact of FDI on economic development of Pakistan. The results also endorsed the views that the FDI is more effective than that of domestic investment
Breaking Down Walls and Building Bridges : Essays to Understand the Structures, Processes, and Potentials of Coworking-spaces
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