Interaction of descriptive and predictive analytics with product networks: The case of Sam's club

Due to the fact that there are massive amounts of available data all around the world, big data analytics has become an extremely important phenomenon in many disciplines. As the data grow, the need for businesses to achieve more reliable and accurate data-driven management decisions and to create value with big data applications grows as well. That is the reason why big data analytics becomes a primary tech priority today. In this thesis, initially we used a two-stage clustering algorithms in the customer segmentation setting. After the clustering stage, the customer lifetime value (CLV) of clusters were calculated based on the purchasing behaviors of the customers in order to reveal managerial insights and develop marketing strategies for each segment. At the second stage, we used HITS algorithm in product network analysis to achieve valuable insights from generated patterns, with the aim of discovering cross-selling e ects, identifying recurring purchasing patterns, and trigger products within the networks. This is important for practitioners in real-life application in terms of emphasizing the relatively important transactions by ranking them with corresponding item sets. From practical point of view, we foresee that our proposed methodology is adaptable and applicable to other similar businesses throughout the world, providing a road map for the potential application

A hierarchal framework for recognising activities of daily life

PhDIn today’s working world the elderly who are dependent can sometimes be neglected by society. Statistically, after toddlers it is the elderly who are observed to have higher accident rates while performing everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the major impairments that elderly people suffer from, and leads to the elderly person not being able to live an independent life due to forgetfulness. One way to support elderly people who aspire to live an independent life and remain safe in their home is to find out what activities the elderly person is carrying out at a given time and provide appropriate assistance or institute safeguards. The aim of this research is to create improved methods to identify tasks related to activities of daily life and determine a person’s current intentions and so reason about that person’s future intentions. A novel hierarchal framework has been developed, which recognises sensor events and maps them to significant activities and intentions. As privacy is becoming a growing concern, the monitoring of an individual’s behaviour can be seen as intrusive. Hence, the monitoring is based around using simple non intrusive sensors and tags on everyday objects that are used to perform daily activities around the home. Specifically there is no use of any cameras or visual surveillance equipment, though the techniques developed are still relevant in such a situation. Models for task recognition and plan recognition have been developed and tested on scenarios where the plans can be interwoven. Potential targets are people in the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease and in the structuring of the library of kernel plan sequences, typical routines used to sustain meaningful activity have been used. Evaluations have been carried out using volunteers conducting activities of daily life in an experimental home environment. The results generated from the sensors have been interpreted and analysis of developed algorithms has been made. The outcomes and findings of these experiments demonstrate that the developed hierarchal framework is capable of carrying activity recognition as well as being able to carry out intention analysis, e.g. predicting what activity they are most likely to carry out next

University entry selection framework using rule-based and back-propagation

Processing thousands of applications can be a challenging task, especially when the applicant does not consider the university requirements and their qualification. The selection officer will have to check the program requirements and calculate the merit score of the applicants. This process is based on rules determined by the Ministry of Education and the institution will have to select the qualified applicants among thousands of applications. In recent years, several student selection methods have been proposed using the fuzzy multiple decision making and decision trees. These approaches have produced high accuracy and good detection rates on closed domain university data. However, current selection procedure requires the admission officers to manually evaluate the applications and match the applicants’ qualifications with the program they applied. Because the selection process is tedious and very prone to mistakes, a comprehensive approach to detect and identify qualified applicants for university enrollment is highly desired. In this work, a student selection framework using rule-based and backpropagation neural network is presented. Two processes are involved in this work; the first phase known as pre-processing uses rule-based for checking the university requirements, merit calculation and data conversion to serve as input for the next phase. The second phase uses back-propagation neural network model to evaluate the qualified candidates for admission to particular programs. This means only selected data of the qualified applicants from the first phase will be sent to the next phase for further processing. The dataset consists of 3,790 datasets from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. The experiments have shown that the proposed method of ruled-based and back-propagation neural network produced better performance, where the framework has successfully been implemented and validated with the average performance of more than 95% accuracy for student selection across all sets of the test data

Knowledges, fuelwood and environmental management in Kisumu district, Kenya

Fundamental issues of natural resource management revolve around diverse worldviews, knowledges and practices, which cannot all be captured within the policy framework. The Western worldview, which reflects mainly the utilitarian, economistic view of resources, has influenced and shaped the trend management of natural resources has taken world-wide. The Western worldview contrasts with local knowledges, which are uniquely innovative, highly dynamic, tacit, contextual and/or locality-specific. This thesis explores the fuelwood problem in Nyando Division of Kisumu District in Kenya, seeking both a holistic understanding and an emphasis on the interface between official policy and local rural practice, including the varying knowledges. The study focused on two case study clans, Muga and Kadhier in Awasi and Kochogo Locations, respectively. Most fuelwood in the study areas is from on-farm and multiple accessible sources. This contradicts the 'fuelwood orthodoxy' school which associates fuelwood consumption with deforestation and 'woodfuel crisis'. Aerospace imageries clearly illustrated a change and decline in stand density of the woody vegetation cover in Nyando Division over time. Differences in fuelwood availability and inequalities in endowment of wood/tree resources in and between the study localities exemplify critical questions of entitlement in the face of 'abundance'. Tree planting was not seen to be synonymous with fuelwood availability. This scenario promotes the fuelwood trade, high dependence on fuelwood purchase and supplements of crop residues by local households. Land privatisation has exacerbated the situation. Distances travelled to collect fuelwood have decreased as people turn to alternative and purchased fuels. Opportunities in the study area for the resolution of the fuelwood problem include promotion of less culturally restricted and less economically valuable trees, and a more farmer-sensitive approach from government and NGOs which recognises farmers as active partners in the interface between policy and rural practice

After the Rain Falls: the Impact of the East Kalimantan Forestry Industry on Tribal Society

The exploitation and destruction of forests have reached such a critical level that the consequences have attracted the attention of the wider community. The resounding response, however, has been to highlight the problems of the environment rather than the humanitarian aspect of the elimination of the tribal and indigenous people who live in and around the forest. For generations, tribal and indigenous people have depended for their livelihood on the generosity of the forest but now, with the arrival of large capital which exploits the forest, their sovereignty over and access to forest resources have been stolen from them. This phenomenon is intrinsically connected to forest management policies which emphasize efforts to obtain foreign exchange by exploiting economically valuable forest products and in particular timber. The large profits which can be reaped from the forestry sector, the increase in foreign exchange and the ability to absorb labor are the aspects put forward to legitimize large capital operations. The forest is seen as a natural resource which can be exploited to obtain surplus. In terms of foreign exchange these policies have been successful. In 1994, for example, the forestry sector contributed US$ 7.7 billion to foreign revenue. Conversely, this success has come at a high cost with the destruction of the forest ecosystem and the way of life of local communities. Ecologically, the destruction of the forest results in interference with the global ecosystem. In socio-cultural terms, a conflict of interests occurs between local culture and the forms of modern culture associated with forest industrialization. On the one hand, modernization sees local culture as an obstruction which must be “swept aside” or “replaced” so that the development process, meaning the acquisition of surplus from forest products, is not seriously disturbed by local tribal communities. On the other hand, the tribal and indigenous people see industrialization and all its values and apparatus as a threat to their customary rights over the forest

Mapping and monitoring forest remnants : a multiscale analysis of spatio-temporal data

KEYWORDS : Landsat, time series, machine learning, semideciduous Atlantic forest, Brazil, wavelet transforms, classification, change detectionForests play a major role in important global matters such as carbon cycle, climate change, and biodiversity. Besides, forests also influence soil and water dynamics with major consequences for ecological relations and decision-making. One basic requirement to quantify and model these processes is the availability of accurate maps of forest cover. Data acquisition and analysis at appropriate scales is the keystone to achieve the mapping accuracy needed for development and reliable use of ecological models.The current and upcoming production of high-resolution data sets plus the ever-increasing time series that have been collected since the seventieth must be effectively explored. Missing values and distortions further complicate the analysis of this data set. Thus, integration and proper analysis is of utmost importance for environmental research. New conceptual models in environmental sciences, like the perception of multiple scales, require the development of effective implementation techniques.This thesis presents new methodologies to map and monitor forests on large, highly fragmented areas with complex land use patterns. The use of temporal information is extensively explored to distinguish natural forests from other land cover types that are spectrally similar. In chapter 4, novel schemes based on multiscale wavelet analysis are introduced, which enabled an effective preprocessing of long time series of Landsat data and improved its applicability on environmental assessment.In chapter 5, the produced time series as well as other information on spectral and spatial characteristics were used to classify forested areas in an experiment relating a number of combinations of attribute features. Feature sets were defined based on expert knowledge and on data mining techniques to be input to traditional and machine learning algorithms for pattern recognition, viz . maximum likelihood, univariate and multivariate decision trees, and neural networks. The results showed that maximum likelihood classification using temporal texture descriptors as extracted with wavelet transforms was most accurate to classify the semideciduous Atlantic forest in the study area.In chapter 6, a multiscale approach to digital change detection was developed to deal with multisensor and noisy remotely sensed images. Changes were extracted according to size classes minimising the effects of geometric and radiometric misregistration.Finally, in chapter 7, an automated procedure for GIS updating based on feature extraction, segmentation and classification was developed to monitor the remnants of semideciduos Atlantic forest. The procedure showed significant improvements over post classification comparison and direct multidate classification based on artificial neural networks.</p

Incorporating and contesting the Corporate Food Regime in Colombia: agri-food dynamics in two Zonas de Reserva Campesina (Peasant Reserve Zones)

This thesis explores how the Colombian nation and local, particularly municipal, spaces integrate with and resist the corporate food regime (CFR), which consists of corporate control over all aspects of agriculture from seed to finished product. The research identifies agroecology as the key oppositional movement, science and practice to the CFR. It analyses contingent agroecological expressions to understand differentiation among the peasantry and the conditions that shape the emergence of resistance to the industrial model. Colombia is illustrative because smallholder land access is a historic issue. The need for pro-campesino farming has been reemphasised with the cessation of civil war, subsequent peace negotiations in Havana and the 2016 agreement between the government and FARC-EP. The thesis explores global CFR integration in two Zonas de Reserva Campesina (ZRC) or Peasant Reserve Zones- Colombia’s only pro-campesino development model, first established in 1994, which was also identified in the 2016 peace agreement as a rural reform mechanism. Data collection consisted of secondary sources, over 100 interviews from public policy figures to campesinos and participant observation. The research finds both integration and resistance, resulting in hybrid agricultural systems. In both cases, CFR integration takes place through economic and violent dispossession of smallholder lands- by agribusiness and armed actors respectively, (New) Green Revolution technologies that engender dependence on agribusiness inputs, but also due to neoliberal deregulation and export-oriented economic policies formed by various governments, which have weakened smallholder economies over time. Nevertheless, smallholders in both cases present numerous practical examples of agroecology and are building successful alternative food networks in opposition to agribusiness food circuits. The Colombian cases reveal that it is crucial to place the CFR in national and local contexts to view how actors and circumstances, such as the civil war, hinder and help integration and resistance

Innovation systems in developing countries: A top-down and bottom-up approach to studying the Colombian National System of Innovation and the coffee, flower and sugarcane production chains

This thesis examines the evolution and development of science, technology and innovation (STI) policies in Colombia as a particular case study of a developing country within the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Region. The initial stage of the research analysed attempts by Colombian policy-makers from the 1960s onwards to build a National System of Innovation (NSI), following recommendations from transnational organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the Organisation of American States. This investigation found little evidence of systemic relationships between public, industrial and academic organisations to generate, exchange and apply knowledge. Central to these innovation strategies was a focus upon funding research with public resources to strengthen knowledge generation as the main mechanism for promoting innovation. This suggested that, although the STI policy was formally defined as following a ‘systemic’ approach, the policy mix reflected a linear reading of innovation (Tait & Williams, 1999) and generated an unhelpful (mis)perception of an uptake lag (Brown, Gregson, & Mason, 2015). The study was therefore refocused to develop a bottom-up understanding of innovation in selected industrial settings. A detailed analysis was undertaken of the innovation arrangements in three key Colombian agricultural industries - coffee, flower and sugarcane - within the national economy and global supply chains. This is an exploratory qualitative research based upon semi-structured interviews and specialised focus groups with key academic, public and private actors related with the evolution, design and application of innovation policies and strategies at the national and sectoral levels, supported by analysis of published and unpublished literature. Moving beyond narrow Innovation Systems (IS) perspectives, this thesis brought together aspects of STI policy design with an analysis of formal and informal social, economic and political institutions. A detailed focus on specificities of the three ISs under study highlighted important differences in terms of the generation and exploitation of knowledge linked to differences in inter-organisational relationships within the sub-sectors and their governance and governability. This in turn pointed tothe importance of cultural factors shaping innovation dynamics and the co-evolution of sectoral actors with technical, organisational and market changes. These findings suggest a top-down and bottom-up approach to understanding how national innovation strategy can be embedded in firms and industries. This thesis makes three contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it contributes to theories of sectoral innovation systems - showing that even at the sub-sectoral level, there are very different innovation pathways depending upon ownership, trading relations, scale, political insertion, longevity, sources and cumulativeness of knowledge. This reinforces the need for NSI to be grounded in broader historical and sociological understanding. Secondly, the operation of (de facto) innovation systems needs to be understood through a broad analysis of the embedded institutions and the power dynamics between the actors involved in the system. We suggest that the NSI approach might usefully be reconnected with earlier Latin American intellectual approaches that took into account the particularities of local/national industrial and knowledge institutions and the insertion of the LAC economies into global trading systems. Finally, it provides a critical appraisal of how the NSI approach can be read and understood by political actors to justify and shape particular policy mixes that encourage a narrow focus on the promotion and exploitation of public sector research based upon linear models of innovation

Investigating the performance of land restitution projects: a case study of Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.The land question is significant for South Africans on many levels. Enhancing and improving the productive capacity of land to achieve developmental gains has taken on particular importance in the face of food security needs and world economic challenges. However, post-apartheid land reform and rural development policies have had negligible impacts on the livelihoods of land reform beneficiaries. The few success stories stand in stark contrast to the majority of settled claims where little or no productive activity is taking place and few, if any, benefits have yet accrued to beneficiaries. This study has sought to interrogate the ways in which beneficiaries of land-based restitution awards have responded to the inherent difficulties in building sustainable and productive agricultural enterprises. The qualitative case studies - consisting of seven restitution claims located in Richmond, KZN - explore whether and how beneficiaries are utilising their newly acquired land, and attempts to gauge how the restitution of land has affected their livelihood opportunities. In most cases, the settled claims are not delivering immediate livelihood benefits to claimant communities. The gap between the ambitious promise of land restored and the reality on the ground is attributable to both structural and micro-level factors. Despite the seemingly intractable challenges however, through following a diversity of income-generation strategies, some beneficiary groups are making a success of their newly acquired land mindful of the fact that livelihood benefits will have to be deferred for some time as projects wobble onto their feet. The study concludes that in undoing the legacy of land dispossession and improving livelihoods of beneficiaries, solutions to the land question must address both the agrarian structure driven as it is by neo-liberal agricultural policies at the macro level as well as pervasive micro level dynamics of internal conflicts, resource constraints and weak accountability mechanisms. Improving the sustainability of land reform projects is important, as doing so will not only realise the goal of achieving much-needed socially just and equitable rural development but will also improve food security, develop local economies, provide employment and support broader economic development