Research Directions in Network Service Chaining

Network Service Chaining (NSC) is a service deployment concept that promises increased flexibility and cost efficiency for future carrier networks. NSC has received considerable attention in the standardization and research communities lately. However, NSC is largely undefined in the peer-reviewed literature. In fact, a literature review reveals that the role of NSC enabling technologies is up for discussion, and so are the key research challenges lying ahead. This paper addresses these topics by motivating our research interest towards advanced dynamic NSC and detailing the main aspects to be considered in the context of carrier-grade telecommunication networks. We present design considerations and system requirements alongside use cases that illustrate the advantages of adopting NSC. We detail prominent research challenges during the typical lifecycle of a network service chain in an operational telecommunications network, including service chain description, programming, deployment, and debugging, and summarize our security considerations. We conclude this paper with an outlook on future work in this are

Natural and human hazard assessment of the archaeological sites of Paphos area (Cyprus) with the use of remote sensing and GIS.

Η συγκεκριμένη εργασία εστιάζει στη χρήση σύγχρονων τεχνολογιών όπως είναι η Δορυφορική  Τηλεπισκόπηση  και  τα  Γεωγραφικά  Συστήματα  Πληροφοριών  για  τη δημιουργία   ενός   ολοκληρωμένου   συστήματος   εκτίμησης   επικινδυνότητας αρχαιολογικών θέσεων και κατάλοιπων στη Κύπρο και συγκεκριμένα στην επαρχία Πάφου.  Τέτοιου  είδους  αναλύσεις  οι  οποίες  περιλαμβάνουν  συλλογή  δεδομένων, συνεχείς  παρατηρήσεις  και  πολυπαραμετρικές  αναλύσεις  εκτίμησης  κινδύνου  είναι δύσκολο να πραγματοποιηθούν με τις παραδοσιακές τεχνικές και μεθόδους, οι οποίες κοστίζουν  και  είναι  χρονοβόρες.  Οι  σύγχρονες  τεχνολογίες  δίνουν  τη  δυνατότητα στους επιστήμονες για την συνολική επόπτευση της περιοχής μελέτης καθώς επίσης και το μοναδικό πλεονέκτημα της ταυτόχρονης αποθήκευσης κα διαχείρισης μεγάλου όγκου χωρικών και περιγραφικών δεδομένων που σχετίζονται με την διαχείριση και προστασία  της  πολιτιστικής  κληρονομιάς.  Αυτό  το  στόχο  εξυπηρετεί  και  η συγκεκριμένη μελέτη που φιλοδοξεί να αναδείξει τις δυνατότητες που προσφέρει η χρήση  δεδομένων  δορυφορικής  Τηλεπισκόπησης  και  ΓΣΠ  για  την  προστασία  της πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς της ευρύτερης περιοχής της επαρχίας Πάφου στη Κύπρο από ανθρωπογενείς και φυσικούς κινδύνους.   The study focuses on the creation of an innovative methodology for the development of a risk assessment model for the archaeological sites of western Cyprus (Paphos district). On site observation is the most common way for monitoring cultural heritage sites and monuments in Cyprus. However, this procedure which includes data collection,  periodical  observations,  and  multivariate  risk  assessment  analysis,  is practically difficult to be accomplished with the traditional practices and methods since it is time consuming and cost insufficient. Thus, the use of modern technologies such as Remote Sensing and GIS is anticipated to provide a tool of directives for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage sites from anthropogenic and environmental threats. These technologies provide  to scientists integrated monitoring capabilities and have the unique advantage to store and manipulate a large amount of spatial and attribute data simultaneously. This study aims to integrate both satellite remote sensing techniques and GIS in a multidisciplinary approach, for monitoring natural and anthropogenic hazards with the use of archived and up-to-dated multi-temporal remotely sensed images in the study area, namely in areas nearby cultural heritage sites and monuments in Paphos area (Cyprus).According to the results, extensive construction and building development has taken placein the broader area. It was also proved that vast number of sites is established on areas prone to erosion and landslide phenomena

Addressing Cultural Heritage Challenges: Applications of Open-Access Remote Sensing Datasets for Monitoring Threats

This study investigates soil erosion risks in various European heritage sites using open-access satellite remote sensing data and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) methodology. The aim is to assess and visualize erosion risks to support the sustainable management and preservation of cultural heritage sites. Results show significant soil loss in several areas, with many exceeding the tolerable threshold of 1 t/ha/yr, indicating the need for targeted conservation strategies. In Monti Lucretili, over 61% of the area experiences moderate to extreme soil loss, while Sant’Antonio di Ranverso, Baltanás, and Delos Island also face considerable erosion threats. Sant’Antonio and Delos show 12.66% and 14.76% of their areas at high to very high risk, respectively. In Baltanás, 66% experiences low to moderate erosion, around 31% is at high to very high risk, and only 2.27% faces severe erosion. A unified methodology was applied across all study areas, integrating multi-temporal satellite data to estimate erosion risks. This approach combines RUSLE and GIS to produce a model that identifies areas requiring immediate attention. Results were validated against RUSLE 2010 and 2015 datasets provided by ESDAC, showing consistent patterns, with minor differences due to spatial resolution and terrain characteristics. Through spatial analysis techniques such as trend analysis and multi-temporal integration, this study offers valuable insights for land management. The findings highlight the critical role of remote sensing tools in assessing and mitigating soil erosion risks, which is essential for safeguarding cultural heritage under ongoing environmental and anthropogenic pressures

Big Earth Data for Cultural Heritage in the Copernicus Era

Digital data is stepping in its golden age characterized by an increasing growth of both classical and emerging big earth data along with trans- and multidisciplinary methodological approaches and services addressed to the study, preservation and sustainable exploitation of cultural heritage (CH). The availability of new digital technologies has opened new possibilities, unthinkable only a few years ago for cultural heritage. The currently available digital data, tools and services with particular reference to Copernicus initiatives make possible to characterize and understand the state of conservation of CH for preventive restoration and opened up a frontier of possibilities for the discovery of archaeological sites from above and also for supporting their excavation, monitoring and preservation. The different areas of intervention require the availability and integration of rigorous information from different sources for improving knowledge and interpretation, risk assessment and management in order to make more successful all the actions oriented to the preservation of cultural properties. One of the biggest challenges is to fully involve the citizen also from an emotional point of view connecting “pixels with people” and “bridging” remote sensing and social sensing

Cumulin and FSH cooperate to regulate inhibin B and activin B production by human granulosa-lutein cells in vitro

Meeting abstract, from the 35th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

ATHENA: remote sensing science center for cultural heritage in Cyprus

Geophysical Research Abstracts, 2016, Volume 18, EGU2016-PREVIEWThe envisage ATHENA center will be devoted to the development, introduction and systematic use of advanced remote sensing science and technologies in the field of archaeology and built cultural heritage, the multi-temporal analysis and interpretation and the distant monitoring of their natural and anthropogenic environment in the area of Eastern Mediterranean. ATHENA will take advantage of the current capabilities of Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), both in terms of technical and staff capacity and technological readiness of the existing Lab, performing advanced research to support CH sector. The Center aims to be in close collaboration with national and international research institutes and stakeholders, providing integrated remote sensing services and solutions in the area of Eastern Mediterranean, rendering that way ATHENA a center of knowledge and an established lab in the field of Remote Sensing Archaeology

Consistency of the posterior distribution in generalized linear inverse problems

For ill-posed inverse problems, a regularised solution can be interpreted as a mode of the posterior distribution in a Bayesian framework. This framework enriches the set the solutions, as other posterior estimates can be used as a solution to the inverse problem, such as the posterior mean that can be easier to compute in practice. In this paper we prove consistency of Bayesian solutions of an ill-posed linear inverse problem in the Ky Fan metric for a general class of likelihoods and prior distributions in a finite dimensional setting. This result can be applied to study infinite dimensional problems by letting the dimension of the unknown parameter grow to infinity which can be viewed as discretisation on a grid or spectral approximation of an infinite dimensional problem. Likelihood and the prior distribution are assumed to be in an exponential form that includes distributions from the exponential family, and to be differentiable. The observations can be dependent. No assumption of finite moments of observations, such as expected value or the variance, is necessary thus allowing for possibly non-regular likelihoods, and allowing for non-conjugate and improper priors. If the variance exists, it may be heteroscedastic, namely, it may depend on the unknown function. We observe quite a surprising phenomenon when applying our result to the spectral approximation framework where it is possible to achieve the parametric rate of convergence, i.e the problem becomes self-regularised. We also consider a particular case of the unknown parameter being on the boundary of the parameter set, and show that the rate of convergence in this case is faster than for an interior point parameter.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1110.301

Prisoners of the Capitalist Machine: Captivity and the Corporate Engineer

This chapter will focus on how engineering practice is conditioned by an economic system which promotes production for profit and economic growth as an end in itself. As such it will focus on the notion of the captivity of engineering which emanates from features of the economic system. By drawing on Critical Realism and a Marxist literature, and by focusing on the issues of safety and sustainability (in particular the issue of climate change), it will examine the extent to which disasters and workplace accidents result from the economic imperative for profitable production and how efforts by engineers to address climate change are undermined by an on-going commitment to growth. It will conclude by arguing that the structural constraints on engineering practice require new approaches to teaching engineers about ethics and social responsibility. It will argue that Critical Realism offers a framework for the teaching of engineering ethics which would pay proper attention to the structural context of engineers work without eliminating the possibility of engineers working for radical change