Explanation of changes in real estate stock market

The aim of this study is to explain the changes in the real estate prices as well as in the real estate stock market prices, using some macro-economic explanatory variables, such as the gross domestic product (GDP), the real interest rate and the unemployment rate. Several regressions have been carried out in order to express some types of incremental and absolute deflated real estate lock market indexes in terms of the macro-economic variables. The analyses are applied to the Swedish economy. The period under study is 1984-1994. Time series on monthly data are used. i.e. the number of data-points is 132. If time leads/lags are introduced in the e regressions, significant improvements in the already high correlations are achieved. The signs of the coefficients for IR, UE and GDP are all what one would expect to see from an economic point of view: those for GDP are all positive, those for both IR and UE are negative. All the regressions have high R2 values. Both markets anticipate change in the unemployment rate by 6 to 9 months, which seems reasonable because such change can be forecast quite reliably. But, on the contrary, there is no reason why they should anticipate by 3-6 months changes in the interest rate that can hardly be reliably forecast so far in advance.

Price Formation and Real Estate Characteristics Residential Real Estate, Lisbon - Portugal

Análisis del proceso de formación de precios en el mercado residencial de Lisboa desde el punto de vista de la eliminación de los aspectos subjetivos de la apreciación por el tasador de las características de los inmuebles

Communication Architecture for Tracking and Interoperable Services at Hospitals: A Real Deployment Experience

Any new hospital communication architecture has to support existing services, but at the same time new added features should not affect normal tasks. This article deals with issues regarding old and new systems’ interoperability, as well as the effect the human factor has in a deployed architecture. It also presents valuable information, which is a product of a real scenario. Tracking services are also tested in order to monitor and administer several medical resources.

The dicode workbench: A flexible framework for the integration of information and web services

Aiming to address requirements concerning integration of services in the context of ?big data?, this paper presents an innovative approach that (i) ensures a flexible, adaptable and scalable information and computation infrastructure, and (ii) exploits the competences of stakeholders and information workers to meaningfully confront information management issues such as information characterization, classification and interpretation, thus incorporating the underlying collective intelligence. Our approach pays much attention to the issues of usability and ease-of-use, not requiring any particular programming expertise from the end users. We report on a series of technical issues concerning the desired flexibility of the proposed integration framework and we provide related recommendations to developers of such solutions. Evaluation results are also discussed.

Los agentes de la edificación desde el punto de vista de la Gestión Integral de Proyectos: diferencias y semejanzas entre la Legislación Española y los Estándares Internacionales = Expert agents in the Global Development of a building project: differences and similarities between Spanish and International contexts.

Desde los años 60, crece en Europa y Estados Unidos la preocupación y la necesidad de mejorar los procesos de gerencia de los proyectos de construcción al volverse estos más complejos. Esto ha llevado a la continua aparición de nuevos profesionales desde la fecha citada hasta nuestros días. De ahí la complejidad de conocer las cualidades de cada uno de ellos, así como las funciones a realizar o la formación que deben tener para poder desarrollar el puesto de trabajo según el papel que desempeñan para cada actividad. Muchos agentes son los que pueden intervenir en la edificación, muchas son las funciones que llevan a cabo estos agentes, muchas son las habilidades que se necesitan para realizar estas misiones, y una buena gestión de la edificación es la que hay que desarrollar para lograr el gran éxito. El presente trabajo fin de máster, dirigido a arquitectos, arquitectos técnicos, ingenieros, abogados, economistas y todos los profesionales del sector inmobiliario y de la construcción, trata de resolver todas aquellas dudas sobre los diferentes sujetos que estarán presentes desde la definición del proyecto en la fase inicial hasta el final de la obra, pasando por las fases de pre-construcción, construcción y post-construcción. (ENGLISH VERSION) Since the 1960s, most construction projects have become more and more complex, and new concerns and necessities related to the management of a project have been on the rise in Europe and in the United States. Thence, the need for more specialized professionals in the field has become a common fact, as well as the inclusion of new curricular subjects in most building engineering studies. There are different agents that play a relevant role in a building project; some of them are expected to perform a highly specialized set of functions that require specific management skills for the work to be successful. This research work—aimed mainly at engineers, quantity surveyors, lawyers, economists, real estate and construction professionals—shows the major implications of the building construction process including both pre-tender/construction and post-tender/construction stages as far as the main expert agents are involved.

iCarer Project: Intelligent Care Guidance and Learning Services Platform for Informal Carers of the Elderly

The increasing ageing population is demanding new care approaches to maintain the quality of life of elderly people. Informal carers are becoming crucial agents in the care and support of elderly people, which can lead to those carers suffering from additional stress due to competing priorities with employment or due to lack of knowledge about elderly people?s care needs. Thus, support and stress relief in carers should be a key issue in the home-care process of these older adults. Considering this context, this work presents the iCarer project aimed at developing a personalized and adaptive platform to offer informal carers support by means of monitoring their activities of daily care and psychological state, as well as providing an orientation to help them improve the care provided. Additionally, iCarer will provide e-Learning services and an informal carers learning network. As a result, carers will be able to expand their knowledge, supported by the experience provided by expert counsellors and fellow carers. Additionally, the coordination between formal and informal carers will be improved, offering the informal carers flexibility to organize and combine their assistance and social activities.

Water, agriculture and ecosystem services in climate change vulnerable agricultural regions of Spain and Jordan

Irrigated agricultural landscapes generate a valuable set of ecosystem services, which are threatened by water scarcity in many aridand semi‐arid regions of the world. In the Mediterranean region, climate change is expected to decrease water availability through reduced precipitation and more frequent drought spells. At the same time, climate change, demographic and economic development and an agricultural sector highly dependent on irrigation, will raise water demand, increasing experienced water scarcity and affecting the provision of ecosystem services from water resources and agro-ecosystems. In this context, policy makers face the challenge of balancing the provision of different ecosystem services, including agricultural income and production and also water ecosystem protection.

Analysing trade-offs between food production and ecosystem services in tropical forests of lowland Bolivia

The expansion of agricultural land is responsible for most tropical deforestation. Historically, smallholder farming and shifting cultivation has been reported as the main agent of deforestation. However, the increasing global demand for food in recent years has greatly boosted the development of medium and large-scale commercial agriculture which is nowadays causing the majority of tropical forest cover loss, particularly in Latin America.