Coalitions’ Weights in a Dispersed System with Pawlak Conflict Model

The article addresses the issues related to making decisions by an ensemble of classifiers. Classifiers are built based on local tables, the set of local tables is called a dispersed knowledge. The paper discusses a novel application of Pawlak analysis model to examine the relations between classifiers and to create coalitions of classifiers. Each coalition has access to some aggregated knowledge on the basis of which joint decisions are made. Various types of coalitions are formed—a strong coalitions consisting of a large number and significant classifiers, and a weak coalitions consisting of insignificant classifiers. The new contributions of the paper is a systematical investigation of the weights of coalitions that influence the final decision. Four different method of calculating the strength of the coalitions have been applied. Each of these methods consider another aspect of the structure of the coalitions. Generally, it has been experimentally confirmed that, for a method that correctly identifies the relations between base classifiers, the use of coalitions weights improves the quality of classification. More specifically, it has been statistically confirmed that the best results are generated by the weighting method that is based on the size of the coalitions and the method based on the unambiguous of the decisions

Internet-based solutions to support distributed manufacturing

With the globalisation and constant changes in the marketplace, enterprises are adapting themselves to face new challenges. Therefore, strategic corporate alliances to share knowledge, expertise and resources represent an advantage in an increasing competitive world. This has led the integration of companies, customers, suppliers and partners using networked environments. This thesis presents three novel solutions in the tooling area, developed for Seco tools Ltd, UK. These approaches implement a proposed distributed computing architecture using Internet technologies to assist geographically dispersed tooling engineers in process planning tasks. The systems are summarised as follows. TTS is a Web-based system to support engineers and technical staff in the task of providing technical advice to clients. Seco sales engineers access the system from remote machining sites and submit/retrieve/update the required tooling data located in databases at the company headquarters. The communication platform used for this system provides an effective mechanism to share information nationwide. This system implements efficient methods, such as data relaxation techniques, confidence score and importance levels of attributes, to help the user in finding the closest solutions when specific requirements are not fully matched In the database. Cluster-F has been developed to assist engineers and clients in the assessment of cutting parameters for the tooling process. In this approach the Internet acts as a vehicle to transport the data between users and the database. Cluster-F is a KD approach that makes use of clustering and fuzzy set techniques. The novel proposal In this system is the implementation of fuzzy set concepts to obtain the proximity matrix that will lead the classification of the data. Then hierarchical clustering methods are applied on these data to link the closest objects. A general KD methodology applying rough set concepts Is proposed In this research. This covers aspects of data redundancy, Identification of relevant attributes, detection of data inconsistency, and generation of knowledge rules. R-sets, the third proposed solution, has been developed using this KD methodology. This system evaluates the variables of the tooling database to analyse known and unknown relationships in the data generated after the execution of technical trials. The aim is to discover cause-effect patterns from selected attributes contained In the database. A fourth system was also developed. It is called DBManager and was conceived to administrate the systems users accounts, sales engineers’ accounts and tool trial monitoring process of the data. This supports the implementation of the proposed distributed architecture and the maintenance of the users' accounts for the access restrictions to the system running under this architecture

Supporting leadership development in European Universities: a mixed methods study of digital education leadership literacies for higher education

This exploratory mixed methods case study research addressed the problem of how a framework of digital education leadership literacies can support European campus-based universities in implementing strategic and organizational change to improve the way technology is used for teaching and learning. The study applied qualitative and quantitative approaches through a Delphi study; a thematic analysis of (a) case study data collected from three campus-based universities (France, Belgium, United Kingdom), and (b) selected digital education leadership development programmes; statistical analysis of data collected via a survey with academics (n=102); and a final online focus group. The main findings of the study confirm Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) as a theoretically and empirically grounded novel concept and framework. The results highlight the need to focus more explicitly on cultural, pedagogical, ethical, relational, and environmental issues in digital education leadership development, and to take a whole-institution approach to developing leadership capacity for digital education.Esta investigación exploratoria plantea de qué forma un marco de alfabetización del liderazgo en educación digital puede ayudar a las universidades presenciales europeas a implementar cambios estratégicos y organizacionales para mejorar el uso de la tecnología para la educación superior. Para realizar la investigación se ha aplicado una metodología mixta a través de un estudio Delphi; un análisis temático de a) estudios de casos de tres universidades presenciales (de Francia, Bélgica y Reino Unido), y b) una selección de programas de desarrollo del liderazgo en educación digital; un análisis de los datos de una encuesta con académicos (n=102), y un grupo focal final en línea. Los principales hallazgos confirman el marco Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) como un concepto novedoso fundamentado teórica y empíricamente. Asimismo, destacan la necesidad de centrarse en cuestiones culturales, pedagógicas, éticas, relacionales y ambientales, y de adoptar un enfoque institucional sistémico para desarrollar la capacidad de liderazgo para la educación digital.Aquesta investigació exploratòria planteja de quina manera un marc d'alfabetització del lideratge en educació digital pot ajudar les universitats presencials europees a implementar canvis estratègics i organitzacionals per millorar l'ús de la tecnologia per a l'educació superior. Per fer la recerca s'ha aplicat una metodologia mixta mitjançant un estudi Delphi; una anàlisi temàtica de a) estudis de casos de tres universitats presencials (França, Bèlgica i el Regne Unit), i b) una selecció de programes de desenvolupament del lideratge en educació digital; una anàlisi de dades d'un qüestionari amb acadèmics (n=102), i un grup focal final en línia. Les principals troballes confirmen el marc Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) com un concepte nou fonamentat teòricament i empíricament. Destaquen, també, la necessitat de centrar-se en qüestions culturals, pedagògiques, ètiques, relacionals i ambientals, i d'adoptar un enfocament institucional sistèmic per desenvolupar la capacitat de lideratge per a l'educació digital.E-learnin

Exploring Factors and Impact of Blockchain Technology Adoption in the Food Supply Chains

Globalization has also increased the complexity and difficulty of addressing these issues and enhancing efficiency in FSCs. The adoption of blockchain technology (BCT) has been proven to have the potential to transform the FSC based on its potential benefits. BCT promises to improve FSC processes. However, little is known about the factors that drive blockchain adoption within the FSC and the impact of BCT supply chain processes, as empirical evidence is scarce within the existing literature. This study, therefore, explores key factors, impacts, and challenges of blockchain adoption in the FSC

Science and Sustainability: Selected Papers on IIASA's 20th Anniversary

IIASA celebrated its twentieth anniversary in May 1992 with its fourth general conference: "IIASA '92: An International Conference on the Challenges to Systems Analysis in the Nineties and Beyond." The conference focused on the relations between environment and development and on studies that integrate the methods and findings of several disciplines. The papers selected for inclusion in this volume deal with environmental issues and the role of science in addressing such problems, as well as to some extent creating them

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

South Asian Young British Muslims: Identity, Habitus and the Family Field

Since the 1950s the incoming flows of immigrants have deeply transformed the social composition of British society which has become increasingly multicultural. Amongst other minority groups the position of Muslims, who are the second largest religious group in the UK, is particularly difficult. The 9/11 and London bombings (2005) have increased the moral panic about Muslims perceived as ‘hard to integrate’ and a threat to western democracies. In this context, the thesis aims to explore the negotiation of religious and national identities amongst young British Muslims from South Asian backgrounds as well as the strategies used by their parents to transmit values. The thesis applies and extends Bourdieu’s (1930-2002) theory of habitus and social field to the study of identity negotiation and intergenerational transmission. In so doing, the study adopts a sociological perspective which is sensitive to individual action, and conceptualises identity as the process of individuals assimilating structural conditions, such as Islam and Britishness, to then produce subjective practices, tastes, values and beliefs. The research employs a mixed method approach which started with an in-school exploratory survey (N=560) with young people aged 14-18 years old from different ethnic and religious backgrounds in a inner London boroughs and in Oldham, followed by semi-structured interviews (N=52) with South Asian British Muslim young people and their parents. Visual methods in the form of photographs taken by young people were used as prompts during their interviews. The thesis contributes to the understanding of identity construction in the context of South Asian Muslim communities in the UK. Findings from the survey confirm that Islam was the main source of self-definition for Muslim young people, while qualitative analysis suggests that this emphasis on religion originated in the family field. The concept of Islamic capital was developed to understand the specific role of Islam as a resource for parenting. However, Islam was not the only focus in the family field, and in line with other research on migration, results highlight the importance of education for social mobility within South Asian Muslim migrant families from different socio-economic backgrounds. Finally, the study illustrates that multiple identities are not necessarily exclusive, but rather negotiated through strategies such as those adopted by British Muslim young people and embodied by three emerging typologies: conforming and contesting parental culture and Islam, and combining identities. In the context of multicultural Britain, these findings show how the traditional notions of national identity and belonging are put into question and transformed by the development of new and fluid identities

Framework for collaborative knowledge management in organizations

Nowadays organizations have been pushed to speed up the rate of industrial transformation to high value products and services. The capability to agilely respond to new market demands became a strategic pillar for innovation, and knowledge management could support organizations to achieve that goal. However, current knowledge management approaches tend to be over complex or too academic, with interfaces difficult to manage, even more if cooperative handling is required. Nevertheless, in an ideal framework, both tacit and explicit knowledge management should be addressed to achieve knowledge handling with precise and semantically meaningful definitions. Moreover, with the increase of Internet usage, the amount of available information explodes. It leads to the observed progress in the creation of mechanisms to retrieve useful knowledge from the huge existent amount of information sources. However, a same knowledge representation of a thing could mean differently to different people and applications. Contributing towards this direction, this thesis proposes a framework capable of gathering the knowledge held by domain experts and domain sources through a knowledge management system and transform it into explicit ontologies. This enables to build tools with advanced reasoning capacities with the aim to support enterprises decision-making processes. The author also intends to address the problem of knowledge transference within an among organizations. This will be done through a module (part of the proposed framework) for domain’s lexicon establishment which purpose is to represent and unify the understanding of the domain’s used semantic

Hybrid Warfare

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Hybrid Warfare refers to a military strategy that blends conventional warfare, so-called ‘irregular warfare’ and cyber-attacks with other influencing methods, such as fake news, diplomacy and foreign political intervention. As Hybrid Warfare becomes increasingly commonplace, there is an imminent need for research bringing attention to how these challenges can be addressed in order to develop a comprehensive approach towards Hybrid Threats and Hybrid Warfare. This volume supports the development of such an approach by bringing together practitioners and scholarly perspectives on the topic and by covering the threats themselves, as well as the tools and means to counter them, together with a number of real-world case studies. The book covers numerous aspects of current Hybrid Warfare discourses including a discussion of the perspectives of key western actors such as NATO, the US and the EU; an analysis of Russia and China’s Hybrid Warfare capabilities; and the growing threat of cyberwarfare. A range of global case studies – featuring specific examples from the Baltics, Taiwan, Ukraine, Iran and Catalonia – are drawn upon to demonstrate the employment of Hybrid Warfare tactics and how they have been countered in practice. Finally, the editors propose a new method through which to understand the dynamics of Hybrid Threats, Warfare and their countermeasures, termed the ‘Hybridity Blizzard Model’. With a focus on practitioner insight and practicable International Relations theory, this volume is an essential guide to identifying, analysing and countering Hybrid Threats and Warfare