8,095 research outputs found

    Assessing the species boundary and ecological niche in freshwater gastropods of the family Physidae (Gastropoda, Hygrophila)

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    The present thesis contributed to increasing the knowledge about the diversity of the neotropical freshwater mollusks. Through the use of different methodologies for analyzing molecular and geographical occurrence data, we address important taxonomic issues and show new paths for future taxonomic research on the Physidae family. This family for a long time had classification proposals based only on morphological characters of the shell and, later, on the anatomy of the soft parts. The application of molecular delimitation methods based on coalescence showed the inadequacy of morphological criteria in discriminating intraspecific variability (overestimating family diversity) and in detecting the existence of cryptic species complexes (underestimating family diversity). The data on the occurrence along with the use of georeferencing tools, modeling, and ecological niche analyses applied to South American physid species, indicated the possibility of errors in species identification and the need to reassess the distribution of these physids using other operational criteria such as molecular approaches to access the actual family diversity and distribution for the continent.A presente tese contribuiu para ampliar o conhecimento sobre a diversidade da malacofauna dulcĂ­cola neotropical. AtravĂ©s do emprego de diferentes metodologias de anĂĄlise de dados moleculares e de ocorrĂȘncia geogrĂĄfica abordamos importantes questĂ”es taxonĂŽmicas e mostramos novos caminhos para futuras pesquisas taxonĂŽmicas da famĂ­lia Physidae. FamĂ­lia essa que por muito tempo teve propostas de classificação embasadas apenas em caracteres morfolĂłgicos da concha e, posteriormente, na anatomia das partes moles. A aplicação de mĂ©todos de delimitação molecular baseados em coalescĂȘncia, evidenciou a insuficiĂȘncia dos critĂ©rios morfolĂłgicos em discriminar a variabilidade intraespecĂ­fica (superestimando a diversidade da famĂ­lia) e, em detectar a existĂȘncia de complexos de espĂ©cies crĂ­pticas (subestimando a diversidade da famĂ­lia). A abordagem de busca intensiva por dados de ocorrĂȘncia junto a utilização de ferramentas de georreferenciamento, modelagem e anĂĄlises de nicho ecolĂłgico aplicadas Ă s espĂ©cies de fisĂ­deos sul-americanos, indicaram a possibilidade de erros de identificação de espĂ©cies e a necessidade de reavaliar a distribuição desses fisĂ­deos usando outros critĂ©rios operacionais, incluindo abordagens moleculares, para acessar a diversidade e distribuição reais da famĂ­lia para o continente

    The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions

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    The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed, including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture. Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic, multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions, and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users, scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution

    Subsidiary Entrepreneurial Alertness: Antecedents and Outcomes

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    This thesis brings together concepts from both international business and entrepreneurship to develop a framework of the facilitators of subsidiary innovation and performance. This study proposes that Subsidiary Entrepreneurial Alertness (SEA) facilitates the recognition of opportunities (the origin of subsidiary initiatives). First introduced by Kirzner (1979) in the context of the individual, entrepreneurial alertness (EA) is the ability to notice an opportunity without actively searching. Similarly, to entrepreneurial alertness at the individual level, this study argues that SEA enables the subsidiary to best select opportunities based on resources available. The research further develops our conceptualisation of SEA by drawing on work by Tang et al. (2012) identifying three distinct activities of EA: scanning and search (identifying opportunities unseen by others due to their awareness gaps), association and connection of information, and evaluation and judgement to interpret or anticipate future viability of opportunities. This study then hypothesises that SEA leads to opportunity recognition at the subsidiary level and further hypothesises innovation and performance as outcomes of opportunity recognition. This research brings these arguments together to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model. The theoretical model is tested through a mail survey of the CEOs/MDs of foreign subsidiaries within the Republic of Ireland (an innovative hub for foreign subsidiaries). This method was selected as the best method to reach the targeted respondent, and due to the depth of knowledge the target respondent holds, the survey can answer the desired question more substantially. The results were examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study’s findings confirm two critical aspects of subsidiary context, subsidiary brokerage and subsidiary credibility are positively related to SEA. The study establishes a positive link between SEA and both the generation of innovation and the subsidiary’s performance. This thesis makes three significant contributions to the subsidiary literature as it 1) introduces and develops the concept of SEA, 2) identifies the antecedents of SEA, and 3) demonstrates the impact of SEA on subsidiary opportunity recognition. Implications for subsidiaries, headquarters and policy makers are discussed along with the limitations of the study

    Preferentialism and the conditionality of trade agreements. An application of the gravity model

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    Modern economic growth is driven by international trade, and the preferential trade agreement constitutes the primary fit-for-purpose mechanism of choice for establishing, facilitating, and governing its flows. However, too little attention has been afforded to the differences in content and conditionality associated with different trade agreements. This has led to an under-considered mischaracterisation of the design-flow relationship. Similarly, while the relationship between trade facilitation and trade is clear, the way trade facilitation affects other areas of economic activity, with respect to preferential trade agreements, has received considerably less attention. Particularly, in light of an increasingly globalised and interdependent trading system, the interplay between trade facilitation and foreign direct investment is of particular importance. Accordingly, this thesis explores the bilateral trade and investment effects of specific conditionality sets, as established within Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs). Chapter one utilises recent content condition-indexes for depth, flexibility, and constraints on flexibility, established by DĂŒr et al. (2014) and Baccini et al. (2015), within a gravity framework to estimate the average treatment effect of trade agreement characteristics across bilateral trade relationships in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 1948-2015. This chapter finds that the composition of a given ASEAN trade agreement’s characteristic set has significantly determined the concomitant bilateral trade flows. Conditions determining the classification of a trade agreements depth are positively associated with an increase to bilateral trade; hereby representing the furthered removal of trade barriers and frictions as facilitated by deeper trade agreements. Flexibility conditions, and constraint on flexibility conditions, are also identified as significant determiners for a given trade agreement’s treatment effect of subsequent bilateral trade flows. Given the political nature of their inclusion (i.e., the appropriate address to short term domestic discontent) this influence is negative as regards trade flows. These results highlight the longer implementation and time frame requirements for trade impediments to be removed in a market with higher domestic uncertainty. Chapter two explores the incorporation of non-trade issue (NTI) conditions in PTAs. Such conditions are increasing both at the intensive and extensive margins. There is a concern from developing nations that this growth of NTI inclusions serves as a way for high-income (HI) nations to dictate the trade agenda, such that developing nations are subject to ‘principled protectionism’. There is evidence that NTI provisions are partly driven by protectionist motives but the effect on trade flows remains largely undiscussed. Utilising the Gravity Model for trade, I test Lechner’s (2016) comprehensive NTI dataset for 202 bilateral country pairs across a 32-year timeframe and find that, on average, NTIs are associated with an increase to bilateral trade. Primarily this boost can be associated with the market access that a PTA utilising NTIs facilitates. In addition, these results are aligned theoretically with the discussions on market harmonisation, shared values, and the erosion of artificial production advantages. Instead of inhibiting trade through burdensome cost, NTIs are acting to support a more stable production and trading environment, motivated by enhanced market access. Employing a novel classification to capture the power supremacy associated with shaping NTIs, this chapter highlights that the positive impact of NTIs is largely driven by the relationship between HI nations and middle-to-low-income (MTLI) counterparts. Chapter Three employs the gravity model, theoretically augmented for foreign direct investment (FDI), to estimate the effects of trade facilitation conditions utilising indexes established by Neufeld (2014) and the bilateral FDI data curated by UNCTAD (2014). The resultant dataset covers 104 countries, covering a period of 12 years (2001–2012), containing 23,640 observations. The results highlight the bilateral-FDI enhancing effects of trade facilitation conditions in the ASEAN context, aligning itself with the theoretical branch of FDI-PTA literature that has outlined how the ratification of a trade agreement results in increased and positive economic prospect between partners (Medvedev, 2012) resulting from the interrelation between trade and investment as set within an improving regulatory environment. The results align with the expectation that an enhanced trade facilitation landscape (one in which such formalities, procedures, information, and expectations around trade facilitation are conditioned for) is expected to incentivise and attract FDI

    Investigating and mitigating the role of neutralisation techniques on information security policies violation in healthcare organisations

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    Healthcare organisations today rely heavily on Electronic Medical Records systems (EMRs), which have become highly crucial IT assets that require significant security efforts to safeguard patients’ information. Individuals who have legitimate access to an organisation’s assets to perform their day-to-day duties but intentionally or unintentionally violate information security policies can jeopardise their organisation’s information security efforts and cause significant legal and financial losses. In the information security (InfoSec) literature, several studies emphasised the necessity to understand why employees behave in ways that contradict information security requirements but have offered widely different solutions. In an effort to respond to this situation, this thesis addressed the gap in the information security academic research by providing a deep understanding of the problem of medical practitioners’ behavioural justifications to violate information security policies and then determining proper solutions to reduce this undesirable behaviour. Neutralisation theory was used as the theoretical basis for the research. This thesis adopted a mixed-method research approach that comprises four consecutive phases, and each phase represents a research study that was conducted in light of the results from the preceding phase. The first phase of the thesis started by investigating the relationship between medical practitioners’ neutralisation techniques and their intention to violate information security policies that protect a patient’s privacy. A quantitative study was conducted to extend the work of Siponen and Vance [1] through a study of the Saudi Arabia healthcare industry. The data was collected via an online questionnaire from 66 Medical Interns (MIs) working in four academic hospitals. The study found that six neutralisation techniques—(1) appeal to higher loyalties, (2) defence of necessity, (3) the metaphor of ledger, (4) denial of responsibility, (5) denial of injury, and (6) condemnation of condemners—significantly contribute to the justifications of the MIs in hypothetically violating information security policies. The second phase of this research used a series of semi-structured interviews with IT security professionals in one of the largest academic hospitals in Saudi Arabia to explore the environmental factors that motivated the medical practitioners to evoke various neutralisation techniques. The results revealed that social, organisational, and emotional factors all stimulated the behavioural justifications to breach information security policies. During these interviews, it became clear that the IT department needed to ensure that security policies fit the daily tasks of the medical practitioners by providing alternative solutions to ensure the effectiveness of those policies. Based on these interviews, the objective of the following two phases was to improve the effectiveness of InfoSec policies against the use of behavioural justification by engaging the end users in the modification of existing policies via a collaborative writing process. Those two phases were conducted in the UK and Saudi Arabia to determine whether the collaborative writing process could produce a more effective security policy that balanced the security requirements with daily business needs, thus leading to a reduction in the use of neutralisation techniques to violate security policies. The overall result confirmed that the involvement of the end users via a collaborative writing process positively improved the effectiveness of the security policy to mitigate the individual behavioural justifications, showing that the process is a promising one to enhance security compliance

    Industry 4.0: product digital twins for remanufacturing decision-making

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    Currently there is a desire to reduce natural resource consumption and expand circular business principles whilst Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is regarded as the evolutionary and potentially disruptive movement of technology, automation, digitalisation, and data manipulation into the industrial sector. The remanufacturing industry is recognised as being vital to the circular economy (CE) as it extends the in-use life of products, but its synergy with I4.0 has had little attention thus far. This thesis documents the first investigating into I4.0 in remanufacturing for a CE contributing a design and demonstration of a model that optimises remanufacturing planning using data from different instances in a product’s life cycle. The initial aim of this work was to identify the I4.0 technology that would enhance the stability in remanufacturing with a view to reducing resource consumption. As the project progressed it narrowed to focus on the development of a product digital twin (DT) model to support data-driven decision making for operations planning. The model’s architecture was derived using a bottom-up approach where requirements were extracted from the identified complications in production planning and control that differentiate remanufacturing from manufacturing. Simultaneously, the benefits of enabling visibility of an asset’s through-life health were obtained using a DT as the modus operandi. A product simulator and DT prototype was designed to use Internet of Things (IoT) components, a neural network for remaining life estimations and a search algorithm for operational planning optimisation. The DT was iteratively developed using case studies to validate and examine the real opportunities that exist in deploying a business model that harnesses, and commodifies, early life product data for end-of-life processing optimisation. Findings suggest that using intelligent programming networks and algorithms, a DT can enhance decision-making if it has visibility of the product and access to reliable remanufacturing process information, whilst existing IoT components provide rudimentary “smart” capabilities, but their integration is complex, and the durability of the systems over extended product life cycles needs to be further explored

    Empowering People Living with Dementia Through Designing

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    The ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel and Webber, 1973) of dementia is a leading global healthcare concern. The prevalence of diagnosis is increasing significantly and correlats with longer life expectancy (Spijker and Macinnes, 2013). In the UK has an estimated 850,000 people living with dementia (PLWD). For whom the greatest burden of care is placed on loved ones and privately funded approaches (Alzheimer Society, 2015). The result can be hugely challenging for the person diagnosed with dementia and their loved ones, leading to further issues of ill-health (Marriot, 2009). The Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia (2012) has encouraged development of multi-faceted responses and interventions to deliver improvements in care and research. As a result, designers have been encouraged to become skilled specialists engaged in thinking differently around dementia and the associated problems. This research explores co-design (Scrivener, 2005) with people living with dementia in order to understand their complex problems, and to propose and to shape interventions or solutions that can alleviate pressures which include, social isolation, stress, infantilisation and a sense of hopelessness (Kitwood, 1990). Through fifteen projects achieved within series of co-design workshops, the research explores empowerment of PLWD through their own advocacy. The research shares how co-design can be an enduring process that stimulates new behaviours and memories whilst building resilience and keeping people active in society. Which, ultimately asks questions as to how common practices of co-design can change hierarchy and ownership in order to transform practices of design done ‘to’or ‘for’ PLWD to integrated projects ‘with’ and ‘by’ them. The results propose that people living with dementia can maintain highly significant efficacy in shaping lived experiences, making decisions, building relationships, and producing impactful designs. The resultant projects and proceses supports their right to make decisions and to develop their own prowess through meaningful, deeply involved, and astutely delivered designs

    Safe and seamless transfer of control authority - exploring haptic shared control during handovers

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    This research aimed at investigating the impact of lateral assistance systems on drivers' performance and behaviour during transitions from Highly Automated Driving (HAD). The thesis focused on non-critical transitions and analysed the differences between system and user-initiated transitions. Hence, two experiments were developed and conducted in driving simulators to address questions relating to how handover procedures, which provide varying levels of lateral assistance, affect drivers' performance and behaviour at different stages of the transition. In particular, it was investigated which type of assistance yields better results depending on who initiated the transition of control. Drivers were induced to be Out-Of-The-Loop (OOTL) during periods of HAD and then exposed to both system and user-initiated transitions. Results showed that after user-initiated transitions, drivers were generally more engaged with the steering task and the provided assistance was not helpful and, in some cases, caused steering conflicts and a comfort drop. On the contrary, after system-initiated transitions, drivers were not engaged with the steering control and were more prone to gaze wandering. Strong lateral assistance proved to be most beneficial within the first 5 seconds of the transition, when drivers were not committed to the steering control. The provision of assistance at an operational level, namely when drivers had to keep the lane centre, was not enough to ensure good performance at a tactical level. Drivers were able to cope with tactical tasks, presented as lane changes, only after around 10 seconds from the start of the transitions in both user and system initiated cases (Chapter 3 and Chapter 4). The introduction of non-continuous lateral assistance, used to trigger steering conflicts and, in turn, a faster steering engagement, did not yield particular benefits during user-initiated transitions but it might have triggered a faster re-engagement process in system-initiated ones (Chapter 5). The results suggest that assisting drivers after user-initiated transitions is not advisable as the assistance might induce steering conflicts. On the contrary, it is extremely beneficial to assist drivers during system-initiated transitions because of their low engagement with the driving task. The thesis concludes with a general overview of the conducted studies and a discussion on future studies to take this research forward
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