Abstract The evolution of the railway sector depends, to a great extent, on the deployment of advanced railway signalling systems. These signalling systems are based on communication architectures that must cope with complex electromagnetical environments. This paper is outlined in the context of developing the necessary tools to allow the quick deployment of these signalling systems by contrib...

Pollinating insect populations, essential for maintaining wild plant diversity and agricultural productivity, rely on (semi)natural habitats. An increasing human population is encroaching upon and deteriorating pollinator habitats. Thus the population persistence of pollinating insects and their associated ecosystem services may depend upon on man-made novel habitats; however, their importance ...

This paper explores the arguments, both in favour of and against vertical integration in railways, taking into account liberalisation requirements according to EU-legislation. It draws on industrial economics insight and combines it with illustrations from the German railway business. Since privatisation, next to liberalisation and restructuring, is taken as a central means of strengthening the...

Worker productivity is a combination of time off work (absenteeism) due to an illness and time at work but with reduced levels of productivity while at work (also known as presenteeism). Both can be gathered with a focus on application as a cost indicator and/or as an outcome state for intervention studies. We review the OMERACT worker productivity groups' progress in evaluating measures of wor...

the aim of this paper is to investigate the role of producer cooperatives (pcs) on rural development in fars, khorasan, semnan, golestan and hamadan provinces of iran in 2007. more specifically, this paper focuses on the economic aspects and social changes occurred in rural area concerning the cooperatives development. in order to measure quantitatively the effectiveness of economic and social ...

A S WALL STREET TRACKS THE HEALTH OF AMERICAN BUSIness by monitoring indicators of economic productivity, so must scientists, parents, and taxpayers heed leading indicators of scientific productivity. Since mathematics is the foundation discipline for science, the state of mathematics education is a crucial predictor of future national strength in science and technology. Evidence suggests that ...

Using parametric and nonparametric procedures, we identify the apparent source of cost inefficiency in banking. Unexplained inefficiencies of 20 to 25% from earlier studies are reduced to 1 to 5% when, in addition to commonly specified cost function influences, variables reflecting the external business environment and common industry indicators of "productivity" are added. While these same pro...