You are What you Eat (and Drink): Identifying Cultural Boundaries by Analyzing Food & Drink Habits in Foursquare

Food and drink are two of the most basic needs of human beings. However, as society evolved, food and drink became also a strong cultural aspect, being able to describe strong differences among people. Traditional methods used to analyze cross-cultural differences are mainly based on surveys and, for this reason, they are very difficult to represent a significant statistical sample at a global scale. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to identify cultural boundaries and similarities across populations at different scales based on the analysis of Foursquare check-ins. This approach might be useful not only for economic purposes, but also to support existing and novel marketing and social applications. Our methodology consists of the following steps. First, we map food and drink related check-ins extracted from Foursquare into users' cultural preferences. Second, we identify particular individual preferences, such as the taste for a certain type of food or drink, e.g., pizza or sake, as well as temporal habits, such as the time and day of the week when an individual goes to a restaurant or a bar. Third, we show how to analyze this information to assess the cultural distance between two countries, cities or even areas of a city. Fourth, we apply a simple clustering technique, using this cultural distance measure, to draw cultural boundaries across countries, cities and regions.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Proceedings of 8th AAAI Intl. Conf. on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2014

Family names as indicators of Britain’s changing regional geography

In recent years the geography of surnames has become increasingly researched in genetics, epidemiology, linguistics and geography. Surnames provide a useful data source for the analysis of population structure, migrations, genetic relationships and levels of cultural diffusion and interaction between communities. The Worldnames database (www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames) of 300 million people from 26 countries georeferenced in many cases to the equivalent of UK Postcode level provides a rich source of surname data. This work has focused on the UK component of this dataset, that is the 2001 Enhanced Electoral Role, georeferenced to Output Area level. Exploratory analysis of the distribution of surnames across the UK shows that clear regions exist, such as Cornwall, Central Wales and Scotland, in agreement with anecdotal evidence. This study is concerned with applying a wide range of methods to the UK dataset to test their sensitivity and consistency to surname regions. Methods used thus far are hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering, barrier algorithms, such as the Monmonier Algorithm, and Multidimensional Scaling. These, to varying degrees, have highlighted the regionality of UK surnames and provide strong foundations to future work and refinement in the UK context. Establishing a firm methodology has enabled comparisons to be made with data from the Great British 1881 census, developing insights into population movements from within and outside Great Britain

Acnowledging for spatial effects in the Portuguese housing markets

The aim of this paper is to revisit a former paper on the Portuguese housing market (1995), acknowledging for spatial effects in order to interpret housing market changes over 1995-2001. The paper will include a first section devoted to explain the differences between the OLS regression analysis and spatial econometrics, explaining the theoretical background used to develop a spatial lag model with the same database; the second section will show the misspecification problems we found when we ran the same model for after 1995-1998 databases; the third section is devoted to describe new housing literature findings relating housing market evolution with the macroeconomic cycles in Portugal; as a consequence the fourth section will include the method we developed with recent census data, to explain the evolution of the country macroeconomic cycles and the agents’ new behavioural attitudes concerning housing; finally and using spatial analysis we can understand the main changes occurred over the 1995-2001 period. The evaluation of the results contradicts some mainstream scholar and political knowledge to explain spatial inequalities between coast and interior municipalities. Complexity issues seem to be present when we consider the way different market agents make decisions on housing markets, looking this good either as a place to live or an alternative investment asset. In the concluding remarks we raise some new interesting questions for further research.

Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

AN ECONOMIC CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED STATES

The United States is a large country that has many different areas. The cost of living combined with natural advantages for specific industries pose a difficult problem for individuals looking to find common ground across the United States at scale. Every area requires careful thought and planning by city planners relative to economic development. Past research has determined that economic clusters can be created in order to help decision makers in public office understand various economies; however, no open-source tool has been developed to aid decision makers think through public policy resolutions. Utilizing clustering models, we investigate what economic clusters form, the drivers of these clusters, and lay the ground work for more robust models. The goal of this thesis is to provide public policy decision makers with insights on other metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), encouraging further collaboration and resource sharing to aid in economic growth. Efforts were taken to keep the model simple yet robust, with the understanding that follow-on research can get much more specialized on specific issues. This thesis utilizes clustering techniques in order to determine what MSAs have similar economic outlooks. By identifying these clusters, we provide policymakers with insights on which MSA are comparable to other MSAs, shortening the research process for public policy decisions and promoting collaboration across the country.Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Interim report on Media Analysis

PACHELBEL WP4 “Stimulus Materials” uses findings from WP3 (Policy Assumptions) and from additional sources to prepare stimulus materials for the group-based process to be implemented in WP5. The output, informed by the present report, will be a set of materials to inform and stimulate the group-based process. These will take the form of real or simulated media coverage and/or documentary materials produced by various sources, scenarios, vignettes, and dramatised accounts. Another output, also informed by this report, will be an individual questionnaire for use in the group-based process. The present deliverable is centred on one of the data-gathering and analytic activities set up by WP4 to identify pertinent representational elements that should be included in the future stimulus materials, country by country. “Representational elements” have been defined in WP4 as typical images, anecdotes, examples, and references which are used by policy actors to explain and justify policy choices within the policy domains pertinent to PACHELBEL. Particular attention is given to references made to citizens, their perceptions and behaviours. In Task 4.2, PACHELBEL partners gathered representational elements in their respective contexts. To support this task, a “media analysis” template was developed by WPL SYMLOG for discussion at the second Consortium project meeting (Dorking, Mo. 6). Criteria were agreed for the analysis of a selection of actual publications in a range of media (print periodicals, public information materials disseminated by authorities, etc.). In Summer 2010, partners in each country used the template to analyze and report a sample of several dozen articles in selected policy areas. This interim report (D4.2) recalls methodology (Part 1), presents representational elements country by country (Part 2) and provides a summary overview of similarities and contrasts across country samples (Part 3). Conclusions and next steps are presented in Part 4. Also provided are a simplified media analysis template (Annex 1) and the compiled basic frequency analysis (Annex 2)

Moving Ahead: Factors contributing to successful transition of people with intellectual disabilities from congregated to community-based residential options in two regions in Ireland

This report details the findings of a research project entitled Moving Ahead. The project aimed to examine factors that contribute to the successful transfer of people with intellectual disabilities from congregated to community-based living in two regional areas in Ireland. It was undertaken by a team of researchers from Ireland and the UK, led by Dr. Christine Lineha