The application of GIS to analyse occupier chains and property market filtering

With funding from the RICS Education Trust, Paul Greenhalgh and Helen King of Northumbria University, UK sought to investigate whether using Geographic Information System (GIS) can enhance the representation and analysis of property occupier chaining data – the method used to analyse the chain of moves that take place when firms occupy new premises. The way that they tested this was by transferring a dataset of office and industrial occupier chains in Tyne and Wear that had been collected by Paul Greehalgh for his PhD study into a GIS to illustrate, measure and analyse the chaining data more effectively than had previously been possible. What they were able to show was that, although the process is time-consuming, it is a relatively straightforward and logical process to translate property occupier chaining data into a GIS. The resultant GIS representation was able to replicate and verify findings of the original research. For example, it confirmed the accuracy of the original calculation of the distances that occupiers move, but it also revealed that the average distance moved diminished the further that they occur along a chain. The team then used rateable value and VAT registration datasets to interpret the origin of occupiers of new office and industrial developments, and the location of vacant chain end property. Of the two, the strongest correlation was with new VAT registrations within a three year period. New VAT registrations are associated with levels of economic activity and enterprise which would generate new businesses or start-ups that would typically take up small office and industrial units, thus absorbing vacant accommodation and contributing to property market filtering. Although the work used the Tyne and Wear region as a practical example, the key objective of the work was to test the applicability and robustness of the approach. As such, the key findings from the work relate as much to the process involved as to any specific insights into the Tyne and Wear region: • The application of GIS to property occupier chaining data was successfully demonstrated and was able, not only to verify the findings of the original research, but was able to extend the breadth and depth of analysis • The GIS was used to produce maps of the Tyne and Wear conurbation, displaying occupier chaining data, to enable further interpretation and analysis • By exploiting existing datasets it was possible to characterise the locations where occupiers relocate from and where property voids persist; this enhances our understanding of the impact of occupier displacement on the dynamics of commercial property markets • a multi-criteria analysis Business Activity Score (BAS) was developed with which to measure the relative performance of Middle Super Output Areas within the conurbation • The property chaining GIS may be used, not only to evaluate previous property market interventions, but also to inform the development of spatial strategies that shape new ones. The detailed and comprehensive investigation of occupier chains, generated by occupiers relocating to new commercial and industrial developments, makes an important contribution to our understanding of the spatial impact of development on local property markets, in terms of the displacement of property occupiers, the operation of property market filtering and the side-effects of public sector intervention in land and property markets

The Comparison of Efficiency and Performance of Portuguese and Ukrainian Enterprises

This article intends to analyze the performance and the efficiency of companies and to identify the key factors that may explain it. It was selected a sample with 15 enterprises: 7 Portuguese and 8 Ukrainian ones, belonging to several industries. Financial and non-financial data was collected for 6 years, during the period of 2009 to 2014. Research questions that guided this work were: Are the enterprises efficient/profitable? What factors influence enterprises’ efficiency/performance? Is there any difference between Ukrainian and Portuguese enterprises’ efficiency/performance, which factors have more influence? Which industrial sector is represented by more efficient/profitable enterprises? The main results showed that in average enterprises were efficient with low level of profitability. According to gained results several indicators were highlighted so that companies would pay more attention to them

On the influence of creativity in basic programming learning at a first-year Engineering course

Teaching fundamentals of programming is a complex task that involves the students’ acquisition of diverse knowledge and skills. It is also well known that programming often requires a certain degree of creativity. There are some studies on how to foster creativity with programming, but few studies have analyzed the influence of students creativity on their performance as programmers. In this paper we present the results of a study, with a sample of 89 freshmen engineering students. Our results suggest (p<0.01) that a high level of creativity is correlated with achieving excellence in programming. Creativity is a generic competence which is not currently covered with in most engineering curricula, and we conclude it should be taken into account. Females, diverse thinking student and some disadvantage groups may benefit from a free-thinking environment in the classroom, in particular at their first-year in college.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Independent External Assessment 2012 American Eagle Outfitters, Bangladesh GS201203

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2012_AmericanEagleOutfitters_IEM_Bangladesh_GS201203.pdf: 91 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

A Comprehensive Survey on the Economic Effects of Information and Communication Technology in Hungary

As the author could not find a reassuring mathematical and statistical method for studying the effect of the information communication technology on businesses in the literature, the author proposed a new research and analysis method that he also used to study the Hungarian economic sectors. The question of what factors have an effect on their net income is essential for enterprises. First, the author studied the potential indicators related to economic sectors, then the indicators were compared to the net income of the surveyed enterprises. The data resulting from the comparison showed that the growing penetration of electronic marketplaces contributed to the change of the net income of enterprises in various economic sectors to the extent of 37%. Among all the potential indicators, only the indicator of electronic marketplaces has a direct influence on the net income of enterprises. It was practical to determine two clusters based on the potential indicators. With the help of the compound indicator and the financial data of the studied economic sectors, the author made an attempt to find a connection between the development level of ICT and the profitability. Profitability and productivity are influenced by a lot of other factors as well. As it seemed to be impossible to measure and show the effect of those other factors, the results are not full but informative. The highest increment of specific Gross Value Added was produced by the fields of Manufacturing, Electricity, gas and water supply, Transport, storage and communication and Financial intermediation. With the exception of Electricity, gas and water supply, all economic sectors belong to the group of underdeveloped branches (below 50 percent). High (but not reaching the developed status) compound indicators were shown by Mining and quarrying and Wholesale and retail trade and repair work, as they produced an increment of Gross Value Added below the average, these economic sectors can be found in the lower right part of the coordinate system. Construction, Health and social work and Hotels and restaurants can be seen laggards, so they got into the lower left part of the coordinate system. Agriculture, hunting and forestry can also be classified as a laggard economic sector, but as the effect of the compound indicator on the increment of Gross Value Added was less significant, it can be found in the upper left part of the coordinate system. Drawing a trend line on the points, it is clear that the line shows a positive gradient, that is, the higher the usage of ICT devices, the higher improvement can be detected in the specific Gross Value Added

Explaining the Financial Performance of China's Industrial Enterprises: Beyond the Competition-Ownership Controversy

Scholarly explanations of the worsening financial performance of Chinese industry over the reform era, particularly the loss-making phenomenon, have coalesced around two rival stories: the “inefficient institutions causing poor financial performance” story and the “increased competition inducing profitability decline” story. This article critically reviews the arguments and empirical substantiation of the two stories, and gives an alternative explanation that takes demand conditions and industrial configurations into the analysis. On this basis, it is argued that the worsening financial performance is a macro as well as micro problem that points to the fundamental contradictions in contemporary Chinese political economy. Some policy implications from this analysis are raised in the concluding section

Review and Comparison of Intelligent Optimization Modelling Techniques for Energy Forecasting and Condition-Based Maintenance in PV Plants

Within the field of soft computing, intelligent optimization modelling techniques include various major techniques in artificial intelligence. These techniques pretend to generate new business knowledge transforming sets of "raw data" into business value. One of the principal applications of these techniques is related to the design of predictive analytics for the improvement of advanced CBM (condition-based maintenance) strategies and energy production forecasting. These advanced techniques can be used to transform control system data, operational data and maintenance event data to failure diagnostic and prognostic knowledge and, ultimately, to derive expected energy generation. One of the systems where these techniques can be applied with massive potential impact are the legacy monitoring systems existing in solar PV energy generation plants. These systems produce a great amount of data over time, while at the same time they demand an important e ort in order to increase their performance through the use of more accurate predictive analytics to reduce production losses having a direct impact on ROI. How to choose the most suitable techniques to apply is one of the problems to address. This paper presents a review and a comparative analysis of six intelligent optimization modelling techniques, which have been applied on a PV plant case study, using the energy production forecast as the decision variable. The methodology proposed not only pretends to elicit the most accurate solution but also validates the results, in comparison with the di erent outputs for the di erent techniques

Learning Micromanipulation, Part 1: An Approach Based on Multidimensional Ability Inventories and Text Mining.

In the last decades, an effort has been made to improve the efficiency of high-level and academic education players. Nowadays, students’ preferences and habits are continuously evolving and so the educational institutions deal with important challenges, such as not losing attractiveness or preventing early abandonment during the programs. In many countries, some important universities are public, and so they receive national grants that are based on a variety of factors, on which the teaching efficiency has a great impact. This contribution presents a method to improve students commitment during traditional lessons and laboratory tests. The idea consists in planning some activities according to the students’ learning preferences, which were studied by means of two different approaches. The first one was based on Gardner’s multiple intelligence inventory, which is useful to highlight some peculiar characteristics of the students on the specific educational field. In the second method, direct interviews, voice recognition, and text mining were used to extract some interesting characteristics of the group of students who participated in the projects. The methods were applied in May 2018 to the students attending the course of Micro-Nano Sensors and Actuators for the postgraduate academic program dedicated to Industrial Nanotechnologies Engineering of the University of Rome La Sapienza. The present paper represents the first part of the investigation and it is dedicated essentially to the adopted methods. The second part of the work is presented in the companion paper dedicated to the presentation of the practical project that the students completed before the exam

Indicators of university-industry knowledge transfer performance and their implications for universities: evidence from the UK’s HE-BCI survey

Focusing on the measurement of universities’ performance in knowledge transfer, we outline some critical issues connected with the choice of appropriate indicators: in particular, we argue that, in order to allow universities to correctly represent their knowledge transfer performance, indicators should include a variety of knowledge transfer activities, reflect a variety of impacts, allow comparability between institutions, and avoid the creation of perverse behavioural incentives. To illustrate these issues empirically, we discuss the case of the United Kingdom’s Higher Education –Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey. We show that the indicators used to measure and reward universities’ engagement in knowledge transfer are not fully comprehensive, they are better suited to capture the impact of certain types of activities than others and they are influenced by institutional strategies and characteristics rather than simply reflecting different performances. The conclusions explore some promising directions to address some of these problems