4,610 research outputs found

    Exploring acceptance of autonomous vehicle policies using KeyBERT and SNA: Targeting engineering students

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    This study aims to explore user acceptance of Autonomous Vehicle (AV) policies with improved text-mining methods. Recently, South Korean policymakers have viewed Autonomous Driving Car (ADC) and Autonomous Driving Robot (ADR) as next-generation means of transportation that will reduce the cost of transporting passengers and goods. They support the construction of V2I and V2V communication infrastructures for ADC and recognize that ADR is equivalent to pedestrians to promote its deployment into sidewalks. To fill the gap where end-user acceptance of these policies is not well considered, this study applied two text-mining methods to the comments of graduate students in the fields of Industrial, Mechanical, and Electronics-Electrical-Computer. One is the Co-occurrence Network Analysis (CNA) based on TF-IWF and Dice coefficient, and the other is the Contextual Semantic Network Analysis (C-SNA) based on both KeyBERT, which extracts keywords that contextually represent the comments, and double cosine similarity. The reason for comparing these approaches is to balance interest not only in the implications for the AV policies but also in the need to apply quality text mining to this research domain. Significantly, the limitation of frequency-based text mining, which does not reflect textual context, and the trade-off of adjusting thresholds in Semantic Network Analysis (SNA) were considered. As the results of comparing the two approaches, the C-SNA provided the information necessary to understand users' voices using fewer nodes and features than the CNA. The users who pre-emptively understood the AV policies based on their engineering literacy and the given texts revealed potential risks of the AV accident policies. This study adds suggestions to manage these risks to support the successful deployment of AVs on public roads.Comment: 29 pages with 11 figure

    An Online Resource Scheduling for Maximizing Quality-of-Experience in Meta Computing

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    Meta Computing is a new computing paradigm, which aims to solve the problem of computing islands in current edge computing paradigms and integrate all the resources on a network by incorporating cloud, edge, and particularly terminal-end devices. It throws light on solving the problem of lacking computing power. However, at this stage, due to technical limitations, it is impossible to integrate the resources of the whole network. Thus, we create a new meta computing architecture composed of multiple meta computers, each of which integrates the resources in a small-scale network. To make meta computing widely applied in society, the service quality and user experience of meta computing cannot be ignored. Consider a meta computing system providing services for users by scheduling meta computers, how to choose from multiple meta computers to achieve maximum Quality-of-Experience (QoE) with limited budgets especially when the true expected QoE of each meta computer is not known as a priori? The existing studies, however, usually ignore the costs and budgets and barely consider the ubiquitous law of diminishing marginal utility. In this paper, we formulate a resource scheduling problem from the perspective of the multi-armed bandit (MAB). To determine a scheduling strategy that can maximize the total QoE utility under a limited budget, we propose an upper confidence bound (UCB) based algorithm and model the utility of service by using a concave function of total QoE to characterize the marginal utility in the real world. We theoretically upper bound the regret of our proposed algorithm with sublinear growth to the budget. Finally, extensive experiments are conducted, and the results indicate the correctness and effectiveness of our algorithm

    Associated Random Neural Networks for Collective Classification of Nodes in Botnet Attacks

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    Botnet attacks are a major threat to networked systems because of their ability to turn the network nodes that they compromise into additional attackers, leading to the spread of high volume attacks over long periods. The detection of such Botnets is complicated by the fact that multiple network IP addresses will be simultaneously compromised, so that Collective Classification of compromised nodes, in addition to the already available traditional methods that focus on individual nodes, can be useful. Thus this work introduces a collective Botnet attack classification technique that operates on traffic from an n-node IP network with a novel Associated Random Neural Network (ARNN) that identifies the nodes which are compromised. The ARNN is a recurrent architecture that incorporates two mutually associated, interconnected and architecturally identical n-neuron random neural networks, that act simultneously as mutual critics to reach the decision regarding which of n nodes have been compromised. A novel gradient learning descent algorithm is presented for the ARNN, and is shown to operate effectively both with conventional off-line training from prior data, and with on-line incremental training without prior off-line learning. Real data from a 107 node packet network is used with over 700,000 packets to evaluate the ARNN, showing that it provides accurate predictions. Comparisons with other well-known state of the art methods using the same learning and testing datasets, show that the ARNN offers significantly better performance

    El desmantelamiento de las fronteras. AnĂĄlisis comparativo de las actividades mercantiles de las mujeres en Brabante y Vizcaya, ca. 1420-ca. 1550

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    RESUMEN En Dismantling the Borders comparo las actividades laborales de mujeres en Brabante y Bizkaia de 1420 a 1550. Historiadores especializados en gĂ©nero han estado debatiendo las diferencias en las oportunidades laborales de mujeres premodernas en el norte y en el sur de Europa. Algunos investigadores argumentan que las diferencias en las estructuras legales y familiares conllevaron menos oportunidades econĂłmicas para las mujeres en el sur de Europa. En mi estudio, reevalĂșo este debate y argumento que se han de reevaluar los contextos locales, en concreto, las instituciones responsables de la organizaciĂłn del trabajo en las diferentes regiones. En las ciudades Brabantinas – Malinas y Amberes – la mayor parte de las ocupaciones estaban organizadas en gremio, unas instituciones extremadamente patriarcales y masculinizadas. Por ende, el trabajo de las mujeres dependĂ­a en gran medida de su estatus familiar y social. La ausencia de estas instituciones en Bilbao – la ciudad BizkaĂ­na estudiada – favoreciĂł unas oportunidades laborales mĂĄs independientes para las mujeres activas en sectores del mercado laboral poco lucrativos.ABSTRACT In Dismantling the Borders I compare women’s labour opportunities in Brabant and Biscay from 1420 to 1550. Scholars studying gender in premodern Europe have been debating differences in premodern women’s labour opportunities in northern and southern Europe. Some scholars have argued that diverging family structures and legal structures in the two regions resulted in better economic positions for women in northern Europe. In my research project, I reassess this debate and argue for involving local contexts in the regional comparison – more specifically the institutions responsible for the organization of work. In the Brabantine case studies, Antwerp and Mechelen, most occupations were organized in guilds – extremely patriarchal and masculine institutions. As a result of this organization in guilds, women’s labour opportunities in Brabant were highly dependent on their social status and marital status. In Bilbao – the Biscayan case study – occupations were rarely organized in such corporations, resulting in more independent labour opportunities for women active in less lucrative market sectors in the town

    Growth trends and site productivity in boreal forests under management and environmental change: insights from long-term surveys and experiments in Sweden

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    Under a changing climate, current tree and stand growth information is indispensable to the carbon sink strength of boreal forests. Important questions regarding tree growth are to what extent have management and environmental change influenced it, and how it might respond in the future. In this thesis, results from five studies (Papers I-V) covering growth trends, site productivity, heterogeneity in managed forests and potentials for carbon storage in forests and harvested wood products via differing management strategies are presented. The studies were based on observations from national forest inventories and long-term experiments in Sweden. The annual height growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) had increased, especially after the millennium shift, while the basal area growth remains stable during the last 40 years (Papers I-II). A positive response on height growth with increasing temperature was observed. The results generally imply a changing growing condition and stand composition. In Paper III, yield capacity of conifers was analysed and compared with existing functions. The results showed that there is a bias in site productivity estimates and the new functions give better prediction of the yield capacity in Sweden. In Paper IV, the variability in stand composition was modelled as indices of heterogeneity to calibrate the relationship between basal area and leaf area index in managed stands of Norway spruce and Scots pine. The results obtained show that the stand structural heterogeneity effects here are of such a magnitude that they cannot be neglected in the implementation of hybrid growth models, especially those based on light interception and light-use efficiency. In the long-term, the net climate benefits in Swedish forests may be maximized through active forest management with high harvest levels and efficient product utilization, compared to increasing carbon storage in standing forests through land set-asides for nature conservation (Paper V). In conclusion, this thesis offers support for the development of evidence-based policy recommendations for site-adapted and sustainable management of Swedish forests in a changing climate

    Subject vs Functional: changing organisational structures and the transformation of academic libraries and the profession of librarianship

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    Background: Due to the uncertain and shifting environment they are operating in, academic libraries are attempting to transform. In response, their organisational structures are changing, with some adapting their subject-based models, whilst others have restructured around functional teams. Aims: The aim of this research is to investigate these changes to the organisational structures of academic libraries in the UK and assess how these relate to the transformation of the academic library. In doing so, the relationship of academic libraries with the wider organisation, as well as the impact on librarianship as a profession, are investigated. Methods: An exploratory, sequential mixed methods design was used for this research. The initial, qualitative strand consisted of a multiple, comparative case study of six academic libraries in the UK, with a range of organisational structures along the subject-functional spectrum. This was followed by a survey of library directors in the UK. Findings: Despite organisations within the same field often resembling each other in terms of organisational structure, the results of this research show that the structures of academic libraries in the UK are diverging as subject and functional elements are being combined to varying extents. This is occurring because of differences in the remits of individual academic libraries, with no consensus regarding the future role of libraries within universities and the positioning of jurisdictional boundaries emerging. In addition, the differing ways library leaders are interpreting and prioritising the paradoxical pressures academic libraries are facing is also influencing structural choices, with subject and functional structures emblematic of these contradictory pressures and in particular the conflict between professionalism and managerial agendas within higher education. Altogether, functional structures are connected to the diversification of the profession, but also have the potential to reduce the influence of the profession within the library, and impact on professional identity

    The interpretation of Islam and nationalism by the elite through the English language media in Pakistan.

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    The media is constructed and interpreted through what people 'know'. That knowledge is, forthe most part, created through day to day experiences. In Pakistan, Islam and nationalism aretwo components of this social knowledge which are intrinsically tied to the experiences of thePakistani people. Censorship and selection are means through which this knowledge isarticulated and interpreted.General conceptions of partially shared large scale bodies of knowledge and ideas reinforce,and are reinforced by, general medium of mass communication: the print and electronic media.Focusing on the govermnent, media institutions and Pakistani elites, I describe and analyse thedifferent, sometimes conflicting, interpretations of Islam and Pakistani nationalism manifest inand through media productions presented in Pakistan.The media means many things, not least of which is power. It is the media as a source ofpower that is so frequently controlled, directed and manipulated. The terminology may beslightly different according to the context within which one is talking - propaganda, selection,etc. - but ultimately it comes down to the same thing - censorship. Each of the three groups:government, media institutions and Pakistani elites - have the power to interpret and censormedia content and consideration must be taken of each of the other power holders consequentlyrestricting the power of each group in relation to the other two. The processes of thismanipulation and their consequences form the major themes of this thesis
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