8,667 research outputs found
Challenges in the Design and Implementation of IoT Testbeds in Smart-Cities : A Systematic Review
Advancements in wireless communication and the increased accessibility to low-cost sensing and data processing IoT technologies have increased the research and development of urban monitoring systems. Most smart city research projects rely on deploying proprietary IoT testbeds for indoor and outdoor data collection. Such testbeds typically rely on a three-tier architecture composed of the Endpoint, the Edge, and the Cloud. Managing the system's operation whilst considering the security and privacy challenges that emerge, such as data privacy controls, network security, and security updates on the devices, is challenging. This work presents a systematic study of the challenges of developing, deploying and managing urban monitoring testbeds, as experienced in a series of urban monitoring research projects, followed by an analysis of the relevant literature. By identifying the challenges in the various projects and organising them under the V-model development lifecycle levels, we provide a reference guide for future projects. Understanding the challenges early on will facilitate current and future smart-cities IoT research projects to reduce implementation time and deliver secure and resilient testbeds
Integrating materials supply in strategic mine planning of underground coal mines
In July 2005 the Australian Coal Industry’s Research Program (ACARP) commissioned Gary Gibson to identify constraints that would prevent development production rates from achieving full capacity. A “TOP 5” constraint was “The logistics of supply transport distribution and handling of roof support consumables is an issue at older extensive mines immediately while the achievement of higher development rates will compound this issue at most mines.” Then in 2020, Walker, Harvey, Baafi, Kiridena, and Porter were commissioned by ACARP to investigate Australian best practice and progress made since Gibson’s 2005 report. This report was titled: - “Benchmarking study in underground coal mining logistics.” It found that even though logistics continue to be recognised as a critical constraint across many operations particularly at a tactical / day to day level, no strategic thought had been given to logistics in underground coal mines, rather it was always assumed that logistics could keep up with any future planned design and productivity. This subsequently meant that without estimating the impact of any logistical constraint in a life of mine plan, the risk of overvaluing a mining operation is high.
This thesis attempts to rectify this shortfall and has developed a system to strategically identify logistics bottlenecks and the impacts that mine planning parameters might have on these at any point in time throughout a life of mine plan. By identifying any logistics constraints as early as possible, the best opportunity to rectify the problem at the least expense is realised. At the very worst if a logistics constraint was unsolvable then it could be understood, planned for, and reflected in the mine’s ongoing financial valuations. The system developed in this thesis, using a suite of unique algorithms, is designed to “bolt onto” existing mine plans in the XPAC mine scheduling software package, and identify at a strategic level the number of material delivery loads required to maintain planned productivity for a mining operation. Once an event was identified the system then drills down using FlexSim discrete event simulation to a tactical level to confirm the predicted impact and understand if a solution can be transferred back as a long-term solution. Most importantly the system developed in this thesis was designed to communicate to multiple non-technical stakeholders through simple graphical outputs if there is a risk to planned production levels due to a logistics constraint
Sport team leadership coaching and captaincy in elite level rugby union football
A wide range of literature exists on coaching but it is concerned predominantly with the high school and college levels, is based upon athlete or coach perceptions, or is confined to observations of training or competition. As leaders of sports teams, coaches and captains have rarely been studied at the highest level of national or international sports competition.
In the present study, the team leadership roles of the coach and captain in elite rugby union football in New Zealand were examined using participant observation and other qualitative research methods. Elite was defined as New Zealand rugby’s highest internal level of competition: (a) the national provincial championships and (b) international test matches of the national team, the All Blacks.
The study explored the roles of the elite rugby coach and captain in vivo in a wide variety of team situations. It was felt that this could provide first-hand information on particular team leader behaviours, on what a coach and captain actually do, and how they are perceived by those around them. The main objective, however, was to use grounded theory techniques to create a model of elite rugby team leadership that might guide developmental programmes on such leadership.
The research phases undertaken were those of participant observation with a Provincial Team for five matches, a survey of provincial teams’ coaches and captains on their leadership associated with actual matches, three years’ participant observation with the All Blacks (including observation in eight test match weeks), multiple perspectives on elite team leadership from past rugby test players in New Zealand and overseas, and interviews with national team leaders in sports other than rugby.
Participant observation, interviews, questionnaires and document analysis generated data from the research settings. These data were considered in terms of symbolic interactionism and subjected to a grounded theory process. This led to a set of elite rugby team leadership categories and properties which, in turn, generated a comprehensive set of theoretical propositions.
The propositions became the basis for a model of elite rugby team leadership. This model was then considered as the basis for a programme to develop elite rugby team leaders. Significant aspects of the research findings which have not featured in previous research literature included the coach’s vision, team culture, centrality of the game plan, match week build-up, the importance of the captain’s playing example, the coach's ability to utilise teaching precepts, the coach’s personal qualities, and the need to develop and evaluate team leaders. The model, and the developmental programme principles emanating from it, are seen as relevant for developing elite level leaders in team sports other than rugby
Towards a framework for the study of ongoing socio-technical transitions: explored through the UK self-driving car paradigm
The UK government set out to see self-driving cars on roads by 2021. The idea of a self-driving car has been around for almost a century, and more recent technological developments have made self-driving cars a real-life possibility. While a fully self-driving automobility system is some distance away, real-life testing is bringing autonomous driving closer to consumers. Some claim this to be the biggest disruption to mobility systems since the invention of the car. Claims about the potential of self-driving mobility range from economic and social benefits to environmental improvements. A significant ambiguity however remains concerning how they will be deployed and how the technological innovation will affect mobility aims and related transport and infrastructure systems. So far, the vast majority of studies on AVs have focused on the technology aspect of this transition lacking contributions that address this from a broader socio-technical perspective.
With the accelerated adoption of new technologies, Sustainability Transitions has come to prominence as a research area that seeks to understand and guide socio-technical transitions toward sustainable trajectories. Socio-technical transitions theoretical framework has been used to understand historical transitions in the majority of empirical applications. The ability to apply the same framework to ongoing transitions and to guide these towards sustainable outcomes remains unsubstantiated. To address this gap this thesis examines the foundations of multi-level perspective (MLP) – a socio-technical transitions analytical framework – and develops an analytical framework (SRPM – System Rules Pathways Mechanisms) that is appropriate for the study of ongoing transitions. The refocused framework incorporates critical realism to focus analysis on causation and causal mechanisms. It is used to analyse the ongoing socio-technical transition to self-driving cars in the UK through a four-step analytical process. The study is framed as a case-based process mechanism study. The four steps are: i) contextualisation of the ongoing transition to AVs in the UK as a socio-technical transition based on the MLP theoretical framework; ii) identification of internal and external structural relations within the transition through the notion of rules and the morphogenetic cycle; iii)
aligning observed processes with transition pathways to theorise about the trajectories of the transition; iv) identification of causal mechanisms in the observed processes through identification of demi-regularities through data analysis of grey literature and theorisation about mechanisms through the development of mechanism sketches and schemata.
The thesis makes two contributions to knowledge: i) methodological and ii) empirical. The methodological contribution is the development of the SRPM analytical framework to study an ongoing socio-technical transition, and the empirical contribution is the application of this framework to the study of the ongoing transition to driverless cars in the UK
Towards Mobility Data Science (Vision Paper)
Mobility data captures the locations of moving objects such as humans,
animals, and cars. With the availability of GPS-equipped mobile devices and
other inexpensive location-tracking technologies, mobility data is collected
ubiquitously. In recent years, the use of mobility data has demonstrated
significant impact in various domains including traffic management, urban
planning, and health sciences. In this paper, we present the emerging domain of
mobility data science. Towards a unified approach to mobility data science, we
envision a pipeline having the following components: mobility data collection,
cleaning, analysis, management, and privacy. For each of these components, we
explain how mobility data science differs from general data science, we survey
the current state of the art and describe open challenges for the research
community in the coming years.Comment: Updated arXiv metadata to include two authors that were missing from
the metadata. PDF has not been change
In the name of safety: identifying, understanding and stopping low-value safety practices
Low-value healthcare is a widely recognised problem that detracts from the quality of patient care and places additional pressure on an already over-stretched system. The majority of efforts to identify and remove low-value healthcare practices have focused on clinical practices such as unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures. There is a lack of research that has identified and de-implemented low-value non-clinical practices such as patient safety practices (PSPs) that contribute to the problem of ‘safety clutter’. Eliminating PSPs that drain resources and increase the administrative burden on healthcare staff could release time to carry out practices that enhance patient safety. This PhD therefore aimed to understand how to identify and remove low-value PSPs in healthcare settings.
An exploratory survey study (Study 1) was carried out, asking healthcare staff to identify practices they perceived to be of low-value for safety. To identify potential practices for de-implementation, the most frequently mentioned PSPs from Study 1 were taken forward to a consultation exercise, during which healthcare professionals rated the practices to determine candidates for de-implementation. A systematic review and meta-analysis (Study 2) was also conducted to understand what types of interventions have been used in the past to de-implement low-value practices in healthcare and what effect they have had on patient safety measures. To explore the potential barriers and facilitators associated with de-implementation, an interview study (Study 3) was carried out, focusing on two PSPs: intentional rounding and double-checking medicines.
The final stage of this PhD involved co-designing a de-implementation intervention with stakeholders targeting a specific form of double-checking medicines. Evidence from this thesis provides a novel way of involving healthcare staff in the identification and prioritisation of low-value PSPs for de-implementation. The findings have also contributed to understanding how theory can be applied to develop strategies to overcome challenges to de-implementation
MethOds and tools for comprehensive impact Assessment of the CCAM solutions for passengers and goods. D1.1: CCAM solutions review and gaps
Review of the state-of-the-art on Cooperative, Connected and Automated mobility use cases, scenarios, business models, Key Performance Indicators, impact evaluation methods, technologies, and user needs (for organisations & citizens)
Economia colaborativa
A importância de se proceder à análise dos principais desafios jurídicos que a economia colaborativa coloca – pelas implicações que as mudanças de paradigma dos modelos de negócios e dos sujeitos envolvidos suscitam − é indiscutível, correspondendo à necessidade de se fomentar a segurança jurídica destas práticas, potenciadoras de crescimento económico e bem-estar social.
O Centro de Investigação em Justiça e Governação (JusGov) constituiu uma equipa multidisciplinar que, além de juristas, integra investigadores de outras áreas, como a economia e a gestão, dos vários grupos do JusGov – embora com especial participação dos investigadores que integram o grupo E-TEC (Estado, Empresa e Tecnologia) – e de outras prestigiadas instituições nacionais e internacionais, para desenvolver um projeto neste domínio, com o objetivo de identificar os problemas jurídicos que a economia colaborativa suscita e avaliar se já existem soluções para aqueles, refletindo igualmente sobre a conveniência de serem introduzidas alterações ou se será mesmo necessário criar nova regulamentação.
O resultado desta investigação é apresentado nesta obra, com o que se pretende fomentar a continuação do debate sobre este tema.Esta obra é financiada por fundos nacionais através da FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do Financiamento UID/05749/202
- …