6,724 research outputs found
InGAME international pathway to collaboration: Collaboration in Games UK-China
In 2019 the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a series of projects as part of its UK-China Creative Partnerships Programme. Led by Abertay University in partnership with academic and industry partners across the UK and China, InGAME International was funded through this AHRC programme with the aim of studying the potential for UK-China cooperation and collaboration in the computer games sector. The project is linked to the AHRC Creative Industries Cluster, InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise, which is also led by Abertay University in partnership with the University of Dundee and University of St Andrews. The games industry is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in both the UK and the Chinese creative economies. In 2023, China was the largest gaming market globally with revenue forecast at 7.94 billion in the UK (Statista, 2023). The growth in China’s market has long been the source of appeal for UK game developers and publishers seeking new routes to market. However, the divergence between the UK and China in terms of market profile, consumption patterns, leading companies, technologies, regulation, licensing, management, and business culture has presented ongoing difficulties for any UK based developer interested in engagement in- or with- China. It is from this basis that the current study sought to consolidate industry, legal, and regulatory knowhow with a view to providing a valuable resource to games professionals and researchers who have interests in UK-China collaboration. This Pathway to Collaboration report curates the cumulative knowledge and insight generated during the InGAME International programme, with an intended audience of games industry professionals and researchers interested in UK-China collaboration. At the heart of the research is an unprecedented qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 47 leading experts from the UK, China and other territories and with knowledge of games development, business, publishing, marketing, localisation, IP, copyright, regulation, markets, and sales. This report is the first comprehensive qualitative study to investigate the intersection between the UK and China games industries and markets at this scale and depth, providing readers with an invaluable, interactive resource that will support professionals and researchers to initiate new collaborations between the two nations.</p
Review of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending Based on Blockchain
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is a financing business model that has gained popularity in recent years due to the ease of loan application, disbursement, and repayment processes. The volume of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending transactions have a significant growth. One of the reasons for the popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is its utilization of technology in both the application and loan repayment processes. One such technology gaining traction in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is blockchain technology. The popularity of blockchain technology lies in its ability to enhance the transparency of the transaction process. This literature study aims to address three main questions: What are the characteristics of blockchain suitable for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending , the benefits of implementing blockchain technology in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending and the challenges of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending based on blockchain. The findings reveal that there are characteristics of blockchain that can be applied to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending, bringing numerous benefits to the overall Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending process. However, challenges persist in the implementation of blockchain technology in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending. The insights gained from this literature review are intended to guide researchers interested in studying the application of blockchain technology in the context of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending
Configuration Management of Distributed Systems over Unreliable and Hostile Networks
Economic incentives of large criminal profits and the threat of legal consequences have pushed criminals to continuously improve their malware, especially command and control channels. This thesis applied concepts from successful malware command and control to explore the survivability and resilience of benign configuration management systems.
This work expands on existing stage models of malware life cycle to contribute a new model for identifying malware concepts applicable to benign configuration management. The Hidden Master architecture is a contribution to master-agent network communication. In the Hidden Master architecture, communication between master and agent is asynchronous and can operate trough intermediate nodes. This protects the master secret key, which gives full control of all computers participating in configuration management. Multiple improvements to idempotent configuration were proposed, including the definition of the minimal base resource dependency model, simplified resource revalidation and the use of imperative general purpose language for defining idempotent configuration.
Following the constructive research approach, the improvements to configuration management were designed into two prototypes. This allowed validation in laboratory testing, in two case studies and in expert interviews. In laboratory testing, the Hidden Master prototype was more resilient than leading configuration management tools in high load and low memory conditions, and against packet loss and corruption. Only the research prototype was adaptable to a network without stable topology due to the asynchronous nature of the Hidden Master architecture.
The main case study used the research prototype in a complex environment to deploy a multi-room, authenticated audiovisual system for a client of an organization deploying the configuration. The case studies indicated that imperative general purpose language can be used for idempotent configuration in real life, for defining new configurations in unexpected situations using the base resources, and abstracting those using standard language features; and that such a system seems easy to learn.
Potential business benefits were identified and evaluated using individual semistructured expert interviews. Respondents agreed that the models and the Hidden Master architecture could reduce costs and risks, improve developer productivity and allow faster time-to-market. Protection of master secret keys and the reduced need for incident response were seen as key drivers for improved security. Low-cost geographic scaling and leveraging file serving capabilities of commodity servers were seen to improve scaling and resiliency. Respondents identified jurisdictional legal limitations to encryption and requirements for cloud operator auditing as factors potentially limiting the full use of some concepts
InGAME international pathway to collaboration: Collaboration in Games UK-China
In 2019 the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a series of projects as part of its UK-China Creative Partnerships Programme. Led by Abertay University in partnership with academic and industry partners across the UK and China, InGAME International was funded through this AHRC programme with the aim of studying the potential for UK-China cooperation and collaboration in the computer games sector. The project is linked to the AHRC Creative Industries Cluster, InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise, which is also led by Abertay University in partnership with the University of Dundee and University of St Andrews. The games industry is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in both the UK and the Chinese creative economies. In 2023, China was the largest gaming market globally with revenue forecast at 7.94 billion in the UK (Statista, 2023). The growth in China’s market has long been the source of appeal for UK game developers and publishers seeking new routes to market. However, the divergence between the UK and China in terms of market profile, consumption patterns, leading companies, technologies, regulation, licensing, management, and business culture has presented ongoing difficulties for any UK based developer interested in engagement in- or with- China. It is from this basis that the current study sought to consolidate industry, legal, and regulatory knowhow with a view to providing a valuable resource to games professionals and researchers who have interests in UK-China collaboration. This Pathway to Collaboration report curates the cumulative knowledge and insight generated during the InGAME International programme, with an intended audience of games industry professionals and researchers interested in UK-China collaboration. At the heart of the research is an unprecedented qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 47 leading experts from the UK, China and other territories and with knowledge of games development, business, publishing, marketing, localisation, IP, copyright, regulation, markets, and sales. This report is the first comprehensive qualitative study to investigate the intersection between the UK and China games industries and markets at this scale and depth, providing readers with an invaluable, interactive resource that will support professionals and researchers to initiate new collaborations between the two nations.</p
A Survey on IEEE 1588 Implementation for RISC-V Low-Power Embedded Devices
IEEE 1588, also known as the Precision Time Protocol (PTP), is a standard protocol for clock synchronization in distributed systems. While it is not architecture-specific, implementing IEEE 1588 on Reduced Instruction Set Computer-V (RISC-V) low-power embedded devices demands considering the system requirements and available resources. This paper explores various approaches and techniques to achieve accurate time synchronization in such instruments. The analysis covers software and hardware implementations, discussing each method’s challenges, benefits, and trade-offs. By examining the state-of-the-art in this field, this paper provides valuable insights and guidance for researchers and engineers working on time-critical applications in RISC-V-based embedded systems, aiding in selecting the most-suitable stack for their designs.This work was partially supported by the ECSEL Joint Undertaking in the H2020 project IMOCO4.E, grant agreement No.10100731, and by the Basque Government within the fund for research groups of the Basque University System IT1440-22 and KK-2023/00015
Indie encounters: exploring indie music socialising in China
Indie music, a genre deeply rooted in rock and punk music, is renowned for its independence from major commercial record labels. It has emerged as a choice for music consumers seeking alternatives to mainstream popular music, catering to a niche music preference. The minority nature of indie music not only provides its lovers with a profound space for individual expression and a sense of collective belonging but also introduces other challenges into their social lives. Recently, the field of music sociology has proposed a more diverse perspective to observe and analyse the intricate role of music for individuals and society. In this context, regarding Chinese indie music lovers with niche music preferences, how their indie music practices integrate into their social lives and how they navigate their niche music tastes have become worthwhile topics of exploration.
Drawing on interviews with 31 Chinese indie music lovers and extensive online ethnography, this thesis investigates how Chinese indie music lovers comprehend and engage with indie music, and how the power of indie music shapes them and their social behaviours.
I employ the theoretical framework of ‘music in action’ (Hennion, 2001; DeNora, 2011, 2016) and symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1934; Goffman, 1959; Blumer, 1969) to examine the dynamic and multifaceted roles of indie music in the social lives of Chinese indie music lovers. I develop a concept of ‘music socialising’ to delve into several key aspects of music lovers’ social practices. I contend that through various forms of musical activities such as music selection, live music attendance, and digital practices, indie music lovers exhibit strategic and reflexive characteristics in their music practices. These practices actively contribute to constructing and maintaining self and identity, negotiating social ties, and forming and mediating collectivity within a broader social landscape. It is through these processes that the music practices of Chinese indie music lovers are endowed with meanings, thereby shaping their social reality. This thesis presents a rich and nuanced picture of the social experiences of Chinese indie music lovers, uncovering the transformative power of their indie music practices. It presents a compelling argument for the significance of music as a social agency, highlighting the complex interactions between music, individuals, and society. By bridging theoretical insights with rich empirical data, this thesis contributes to our understanding of the socio-cultural dimensions of music, offering fresh perspectives on the role of indie music in contemporary Chinese society
Assessing the Role and Regulatory Impact of Digital Assets in Decentralizing Finance
This project will explore the development of decentralized financial (DeFi) markets since the first introduction of digital assets created through the application of a form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), known as blockchain, in 2008. More specifically, a qualitative inquiry of the role of digital assets in relation to traditional financial markets infrastructure will be conducted in order to answer the following questions:
(i) can the digital asset and decentralized financial markets examined in this thesis co-exist with traditional assets and financial markets, and, if so,
(ii) are traditional or novel forms of regulation (whether financial or otherwise) needed or desirable for the digital asset and decentralized financial markets examined herein?
The aim of this project will be to challenge a preliminary hypothesis that traditional and decentralized finance can be compatible; provided, that governments and other centralized authorities approach market innovations as an opportunity to improve existing monetary infrastructure and delivery of financial services (both in the public and private sector), rather than as an existential threat. Thus, this thesis seeks to establish that, through collaborating with private markets to identify the public good to which DeFi markets contribute, the public sector can foster an appropriate environment which is both promotive and protective of the public interest without unduly stifling innovation and progress
Crowdfunding: A novel source of finance? Lessons for small firms from a synthesis of the literature
Crowdfunding is an emerging phenomenon whereby agents make an open call for funding to large numbers of potential contributors (‘the crowd’), usually via online intermediaries known as platforms. While the size and variety of global crowdfunding practices continue to grow rapidly, academic research is only now beginning to form a coherent body of knowledge relating to this potentially disruptive financial phenomenon. This aim of this study is to bring together the research literature on crowdfunding from a wide variety of different disciplines and subject areas into a collective whole with the specific aim of providing advice and guidance to small firms seeking to raise entrepreneurial finance. From summarising the current state of knowledge on crowdfunding and providing advice to entrepreneurs, our study contributes to the literature by stimulating various conventional thinking and beliefs in the field
- …