9,195 research outputs found

    A Design Science Research Approach to Smart and Collaborative Urban Supply Networks

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    Urban supply networks are facing increasing demands and challenges and thus constitute a relevant field for research and practical development. Supply chain management holds enormous potential and relevance for society and everyday life as the flow of goods and information are important economic functions. Being a heterogeneous field, the literature base of supply chain management research is difficult to manage and navigate. Disruptive digital technologies and the implementation of cross-network information analysis and sharing drive the need for new organisational and technological approaches. Practical issues are manifold and include mega trends such as digital transformation, urbanisation, and environmental awareness. A promising approach to solving these problems is the realisation of smart and collaborative supply networks. The growth of artificial intelligence applications in recent years has led to a wide range of applications in a variety of domains. However, the potential of artificial intelligence utilisation in supply chain management has not yet been fully exploited. Similarly, value creation increasingly takes place in networked value creation cycles that have become continuously more collaborative, complex, and dynamic as interactions in business processes involving information technologies have become more intense. Following a design science research approach this cumulative thesis comprises the development and discussion of four artefacts for the analysis and advancement of smart and collaborative urban supply networks. This thesis aims to highlight the potential of artificial intelligence-based supply networks, to advance data-driven inter-organisational collaboration, and to improve last mile supply network sustainability. Based on thorough machine learning and systematic literature reviews, reference and system dynamics modelling, simulation, and qualitative empirical research, the artefacts provide a valuable contribution to research and practice

    Reinforcement Learning-based User-centric Handover Decision-making in 5G Vehicular Networks

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    The advancement of 5G technologies and Vehicular Networks open a new paradigm for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in safety and infotainment services in urban and highway scenarios. Connected vehicles are vital for enabling massive data sharing and supporting such services. Consequently, a stable connection is compulsory to transmit data across the network successfully. The new 5G technology introduces more bandwidth, stability, and reliability, but it faces a low communication range, suffering from more frequent handovers and connection drops. The shift from the base station-centric view to the user-centric view helps to cope with the smaller communication range and ultra-density of 5G networks. In this thesis, we propose a series of strategies to improve connection stability through efficient handover decision-making. First, a modified probabilistic approach, M-FiVH, aimed at reducing 5G handovers and enhancing network stability. Later, an adaptive learning approach employed Connectivity-oriented SARSA Reinforcement Learning (CO-SRL) for user-centric Virtual Cell (VC) management to enable efficient handover (HO) decisions. Following that, a user-centric Factor-distinct SARSA Reinforcement Learning (FD-SRL) approach combines time series data-oriented LSTM and adaptive SRL for VC and HO management by considering both historical and real-time data. The random direction of vehicular movement, high mobility, network load, uncertain road traffic situation, and signal strength from cellular transmission towers vary from time to time and cannot always be predicted. Our proposed approaches maintain stable connections by reducing the number of HOs by selecting the appropriate size of VCs and HO management. A series of improvements demonstrated through realistic simulations showed that M-FiVH, CO-SRL, and FD-SRL were successful in reducing the number of HOs and the average cumulative HO time. We provide an analysis and comparison of several approaches and demonstrate our proposed approaches perform better in terms of network connectivity

    Embodying entrepreneurship: everyday practices, processes and routines in a technology incubator

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    The growing interest in the processes and practices of entrepreneurship has been dominated by a consideration of temporality. Through a thirty-six-month ethnography of a technology incubator, this thesis contributes to extant understanding by exploring the effect of space. The first paper explores how class structures from the surrounding city have appropriated entrepreneurship within the incubator. The second paper adopts a more explicitly spatial analysis to reveal how the use of space influences a common understanding of entrepreneurship. The final paper looks more closely at the entrepreneurs within the incubator and how they use visual symbols to develop their identity. Taken together, the three papers reject the notion of entrepreneurship as a primarily economic endeavour as articulated through commonly understood language and propose entrepreneuring as an enigmatic attractor that is accessed through the ambiguity of the non-verbal to develop the ‘new’. The thesis therefore contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship and proposes a distinct role for the non-verbal in that understanding

    The company she keeps : The social and interpersonal construction of girls same sex friendships

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    This thesis begins a critical analysis of girls' 'private' interpersonal and social relations as they are enacted within two school settings. It is the study of these marginal subordinated worlds productivity of forms of femininity which provides the main narrative of this project. I seek to understand these processes of (best) friendship construction through a feminist multi-disciplinary frame, drawing upon cultural studies, psychoanalysis and accounts of gender politics. I argue that the investments girls bring to their homosocial alliances and boundary drawing narry a psychological compulsion which is complexly connected to their own experiences within the mother/daughter bond as well as reflecting positively an immense social debt to the permissions girls have to be nurturant and ; negatively their own reproduction of oppressive exclusionary practices. Best friendship in particular gives girls therefore, the experience of 'monogamy' continuous of maternal/daughter identification, reminiscent of their positioning inside monopolistic forms of heterosexuality. But these subcultures also represent a subversive discontinuity to the public dominance of boys/teachers/adults in schools and to the ideologies and practices of heterosociality and heterosexuality. By taking seriously their transmission of the values of friendship in their chosen form of notes and diaries for example, I was able to access the means whereby they were able to resist their surveillance and control by those in power over them. I conclude by arguing that it is through a recognition of the valency of these indivisiblly positive and negative aspects to girls cultures that Equal Opportunities practitioners must begin if they are serious about their ambitions. Methods have to be made which enable girls to transfer their 'private' solidarities into the 'public' realm, which unquestionably demands contesting with them the causes and consequences of their implication in the divisions which also contaminate their lives and weaken them

    Vulnerability, decision-making and the protection of prisoners in Scotland and England

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    Vulnerable and protection prisoners currently make up a sizeable proportion of the prison populations in England and Scotland, and designated physical space to house them, an approach that has developed significantly in both countries since the 1960s, remains under studied. Within research on prisons, vulnerability has been predominantly associated with risks to the self, for example, mental health problems, self-harm and suicide, internal vulnerabilities that prisoners either bring into an establishment or which are a consequence of the stressors of prison life. This literature further tends to focus on certain categories of prisoner, namely those who have committed sexual crimes. This framing of vulnerability in prison means academic research typically studies vulnerability as a settled status, and there has been a move away from exploring meanings, experiences and determinations of vulnerability as these arise and change at different points of a person’s journey through prison. This study addresses these gaps by sharing the perspectives directly from those at risk of victimization in prison as well as from those in charge of deciding who will get protection from risks. The focus is on prisoner and staff decisions to relocate to protective housing (vulnerable prisoner units (VPU) in England and protection halls in Scotland). This research utilised qualitative methods, interviewing staff (13) involved in designating or managing vulnerability in prison as well as prisoners (23) who had been identified as needing protective housing. The research was conducted in one prison in England and two prisons in Scotland. It highlights the significant levels of victimization, trauma and fear experienced by prisoner research participants, and in doing so complicates prevailing ideas of vulnerability in prison. The findings chapters show: staff perspectives on what counts as a valid basis of vulnerability and therefore how it is managed and to some extent rationed (Chapter 5); the importance of journeys into and through prisons which shape and intensify experiences of vulnerability (Chapter 6); the perspectives of prisoners housed in a VPU in England which reinforced the idea that vulnerability is fluid and that there are some common factors affecting decisions to relocate from mainstream wings, but ultimately each decision is situated in the personal circumstances of an individual (Chapter 7); the perspectives of prisoners housed in protection halls in Scotland highlighting the factors that influence decisions to seek out or resist protective accommodation where, like England, common factors influenced decisions but were situated in highly individual circumstances (Chapter 8), and how these feelings were managed. The conclusion (Chapter 9) summarises key findings and calls for a sociology of the vulnerable prisoner (building on a conceptualisation of vulnerability in Chapter 3) to understand not only how they navigate risk from others and the prison itself, but how they make sense of their newly acquired yet further stigmatized identity. Finally, it sets out some implications and suggestions for policy based on its new contribution to a sociology of vulnerability

    Adaptive task selection using threshold-based techniques in dynamic sensor networks

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    Sensor nodes, like many social insect species, exist in harsh environments in large groups, yet possess very limited amount of resources. Lasting for as long as possible, and fulfilling the network purposes are the ultimate goals of sensor networks. However, these goals are inherently contradictory. Nature can be a great source of inspiration for mankind to find methods to achieve both extended survival, and effective operation. This work aims at applying the threshold-based action selection mechanisms inspired from insect societies to perform action selection within sensor nodes. The effect of this micro-model on the macro-behaviour of the network is studied in terms of durability and task performance quality. Generally, this is an example of using bio-inspiration to achieve adaptivity in sensor networks

    Newham Council Welfare Check-in Call Pilot: Learning from a Rapid Evaluation 2021–2022

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    Description assistée d'un environnement intelligent en réalité augmentée

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    Les technologies d'assistance modernes offrent d'augmenter, de maintenir ou d'amĂ©liorer les capacitĂ©s fonctionnelles d'une personne avec incapacitĂ©s. Parmi ces technologies, les environnements intelligents favorisent effectivement le maintien Ă  domicile des personnes ĂągĂ©es. Pourtant, les taux d'abandon des technologies d'assistance sont aujourd'hui Ă©levĂ©s. L'absence d'inclusion de l'utilisateur dans la construction et la personnalisation de ces technologies est fortement pointĂ©e du doigt par la littĂ©rature. Un systĂšme fait soi-mĂȘme (Do-it-Yourself) centrĂ© sur le partage et oĂč l'utilisateur conçoit lui-mĂȘme son assistance est donc Ă  privilĂ©gier. Cette thĂšse s'intĂ©resse Ă  dĂ©velopper les interactions entre l'humain et l'intelligence artificielle pour la description assistĂ©e d'environnements intelligents personnalisĂ©s selon les habitudes du rĂ©sident. Le but est de dĂ©terminer les interfaces et le langage Ă  adopter pour favoriser l'Ă©change entre un descripteur humain, expert des besoins du rĂ©sident, et une intelligence artificielle, experte des environnements intelligents. Les habitudes que le descripteur doit transmettre au systĂšme d'assistance sont spatialisĂ©es par dĂ©finition, elles prennent place Ă  des endroits spĂ©cifiques de l'environnement, avec des objets spĂ©cifiques de cet environnement et Ă  des moments prĂ©cis. La rĂ©alitĂ© augmentĂ©e s'inscrit ainsi parfaitement dans cette approche puisqu'elle permet d'ancrer dans le monde rĂ©el les Ă©lĂ©ments virtuels reprĂ©sentant l'environnement et les habitudes dans celui-ci. Les habitudes que le descripteur dĂ©taille sont Ă©galement spĂ©cifiques Ă  la façon de faire du rĂ©sident tandis que les connaissances des environnements intelligents de l'intelligence artificielle proposĂ©e sont davantage gĂ©nĂ©riques. Aussi, un langage comprĂ©hensible par l'humain et assez puissant pour reprĂ©senter Ă  la fois ces concepts spĂ©cifiques et gĂ©nĂ©riques est nĂ©cessaire. Les ontologies, base de donnĂ©es sĂ©mantiques, rĂ©pondent Ă  ces besoins grĂące Ă  leur reprĂ©sentation textuelle et au raisonnement ontologique qui permet de dĂ©finir le niveau d'abstraction adĂ©quat pour l'Ă©change. En combinant la rĂ©alitĂ© augmentĂ©e Ă  la sĂ©mantique, le conseiller virtuel de description assistĂ©e des environnements intelligents prĂ©sentĂ© dans cette thĂšse accompagne le descripteur dans la spĂ©cification des habitudes du rĂ©sident. De plus, en agrĂ©geant l'expĂ©rience acquise avec l'ensemble des descriptions prĂ©cĂ©dentes, ce conseiller fournit des conseils en temps-rĂ©el pour favoriser l'idĂ©ation. Ce conseiller virtuel a Ă©tĂ© testĂ© auprĂšs d'experts et de proches aidants. Les rĂ©sultats obtenus confirment que le conseiller virtuel proposĂ© permet la description de l'environnement et des activitĂ©s, notamment grĂące Ă  ses interactions intuitives et naturelles. Les habitudes numĂ©risĂ©es avec le conseiller virtuel pourraient Ă  terme permettre Ă  l'environnement intelligent de mieux comprendre les besoins de son rĂ©sident et de s'y adapter
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