801 research outputs found
The applications of loyalty card data for social science
Large-scale consumer datasets have become increasingly abundant in recent years and many have turned their attention to harnessing these for insights within the social sciences. Whilst commercial organisations have been quick to recognise the benefits of these data as a source of competitive advantage, their emergence has been met with contention in research due to the epistemological, methodological and ethical challenges they present. These issues have seldom been addressed, primarily due to these data being hard to obtain outside of the commercial settings in which they are often generated. This thesis presents an exploration of a unique loyalty card dataset obtained from one of the most prominent UK high street retailers, and thus an opportunity to study the dynamics, potentialities and limitations when applying such data in a research context. The predominant aims of this work were to firstly, address issues of uncertainty surrounding novel consumer datasets by quantifying their inherent representation and data quality issues and secondly, to explore the extent to which we may enrich our current knowledge of spatiotemporal population processes through the analysis of consumer activity patterns. Our current understanding of such dynamics has been limited by the data-scarce era, yet loyalty card data provide individual level, georeferenced population data that are high in velocity. This provided a framework for understanding more detailed interactions between people and places, and what these might indicate for both consumption behaviours and wider societal phenomena. This work endeavoured to provide a substantive contribution to the integration of consumer datasets in social science research, by outlining pragmatic steps to ensure novel data sources can be fit for purpose, and to population geography research, by exploring the extent to which we may utilise spatiotemporal consumption activities to make broad inferences about the general population
Early developmental environment and Olympic success: an analysis of an Australian sporting "hotspot"
Inspired by the âbirthplace effectâ phenomenon, this study aimed to identify an Australian sporting âhotspotâ and gain an understanding of factors underpinning a proportionately high number of Australian summer Olympians experiencing their early developmental environment within the area. A mixed-methods approach was utilised to identify the âhotspotâ through collecting biographical data on all known (n=2160) Australian summer Olympians 1984-2012, followed by undertaking a case study analysis to examine the âhotspotâ within the context of Bronfenbrennerâs (1979b; 1994a; 1998) âEcological Systems Theoryâ and âBioecological Modelâ. Alongside the archival collection of demographic and climate data, Olympiansâ (n=11) and community stakeholders (n=31) views regarding the âhotspotâsâ occurrence and its perceived influence on athletic development were gained through semi-structured interviews. The results determined several demographic, geographic, historical, individual, social and fortuitous factors contributed to the creation of the âhotspotâ. Access to built and natural facilities, climate, family influence, schools, strong community clubs, opportunity to train and compete with older athletes, access to role models, high socioeconomic status and an endemic sports culture were key contributors to effective athlete development within the âhotspotâ. Although not predominantly attributable to one variable, it was evident a confluence of planned and fortuitous factors had unintentionally created a âhotspotâ of Australian summer Olympians in Perth, Western Australia. Despite several factors being unique to the âhotspotâ, some are potentially transferable to other athlete development environments in Australia and overseas. In a quality early developmental environment, Olympians believed factors proximal to them including family, the junior sports environment and individual psychological characteristics had the most decisive influence on their athletic development
Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"
Utility of High Resolution Human Settlement Data for Assessment of Electricity Usage Patterns
Electricity is vital for modern human civilization, and its demands are expected to significantly rise due to urban growth, transportation modernization, and increasing industrialization and energy accessibility. Meeting the present and future demands while minimizing the environmental degradation from electricity generation pathways presents a significant sustainability challenge. Urban areas consume around 75% of global energy supply yet urban energy statistics are scarce all over the world, creating a severe hindrance for the much-needed energy sustainability studies. This work explores the scope of geospatial data-driven analysis and modeling to address this challenge. Identification and measurements of human habitats, a key measure, is severely misconceived. A multi-scale analysis of high, medium, and coarse resolution datasets in Egypt and Taiwan illustrates the increasing discrepancies from global to local scales. Analysis of urban morphology revealed that high-resolution datasets could perform much better at all scales in diverse geographies while the power of other datasets rapidly diminishes from the urban core to peripheries. A functional inventory of urban settlements was developed for three cities in the developing world using very high-resolution images and texture analysis. Analysis of correspondence between nighttime lights emission, a proxy of electricity consumption, and the settlement inventory was the conducted. The results highlight the statistically significant relationship between functional settlement types and corresponding light emission, and underline the potential of remote sensing data-driven methods in urban energy usage assessment. Lastly, the lack of urban electricity data was addressed by a geospatial modeling approach in the United States. The estimated urban electricity consumption was externally validated and subsequently used to quantify the effects of urbanization on electricity consumption. The results indicate a 23% lowering of electricity consumption corresponding to a 100% increase in urban population. The results highlight the potential of urbanization in lowering per-capita energy usage. The opportunity and limits to such energy efficiency were identified with regards to urban population density. The findings from this work validate the applicability of geospatial data in urban energy studies and provide unique insights into the relationship between urbanization and electricity demands. The insights from this work could be useful for other sustainability studies
A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems
Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of
building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often
facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty
years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them
have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are
released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent
platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as
a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work
details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with
links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between
the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear
status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or
commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of
applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference
Endogenous development: a model for the process of man-environment transaction
Iran is currently subject to a number of adverse factors affecting good development in the built
environment: population explosion, oil- dependent economy, finite resources, war and natural
disasters, etc. The object of the study is to research a development model appropriate to the
Country's needs for a proactive system of building environment. This model is not specific to
Iran and, as the case studies and the discourse of the thesis indicate, is universal. However,
the author suggests that the validity of development approaches will not be determined as a result of theoretical and ideological debate but in the realm of practice. Therefore, he has
explored diverse ways in which professionals in the built environment can provide an
analytical survey of the problems that beset them. An attempt has been made to bring these
various elements into perspective and offer a model of 'endogenous development'.The process for achieving a viable, exciting and humane built environment is very complex
and calls for contributions from many individuals and small multi -disciplinary groups. Beside
professionals contributions (which is accomplished by deduction inference), there is a need
for people's participation in design process (which is accomplished either by deduction or by
abduction inferences). This participatory approach can also help shifting the process of design
towards a wider domain that of the 'production process' (which is accomplished by abduction
and induction inferences). Production process is the first paradigm of the model of
endogenous development and is a manifestation of a feedback mechanism and acts as an open - ended living system. The second is 'supply- demand' paradigm which shows the relationships
between the components of a system or between different systems in surface- structuresThis model is directed at society's development, not just its economic growth, but it does not
preclude the possibility of such growth. The reduction of the problems' effect in an
endogenous development is viewed more as a way of improving the quality of life than of
increasing the standard of living. Nowadays, people are passive recipients in the consumer
society and are totally dependent on others for their survival. This style of living is assumed
to project an image of economic development and higher productivity, but there is a confrontation of preadjusted commodities which are the products of others. That is because
the process of production is not natural (i.e. a closed loop cyclic process via feedback
control). It is artificial (i.e. an open -loop linear process via a feed -forward control) which may
not help satisfying the user's needs and wants entirely. In the built environment, the great
majority have no say in the planning and design of their homes or places of work.Accordingly, endogenous development offers a framework within which the necessity of
employing the people's creative power in building their environment is explained. It is based
on the assumption that each individual and society's knowledge and experiences play a central
and mediating role between professionals' perceptions of the environment and a series of
preferences judgements or choices they might make towards and within that environment.
Indigenous knowledge and cultural attributes of traditional societies and the organizational
capabilities of traditional polities are essential in qualification of the development plans, which
are also evaluated and assessed by this proposed framework
31th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases
Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems.The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstractionlevels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases arecontinuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas ofinformation modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers
Instrumentalization in the Public Smart Bikeshare Sector
This thesis is concerned with understanding how smart technologies are conceived, created and implemented, and explores the ways these processes are shaped by historical, geo-political, economic and technical contexts. At its core the thesis is concerned with understanding how technical citizenship and democracy can be preserved within the design process against a backdrop of increasing neoliberalism and technocracy. This is investigated by means of a comparative study of smart public bikeshare schemes in Dublin, Ireland and Hamilton, Canada. These schemes are configured and systemized using a variety of technical and ideological rationales and express the imaginaries of place in significantly different ways. Utilising a conceptual framework derived from Andrew Feenbergâs critical theory of technology, the thesis unpacks and problematizes the innovation process in order to understand how the outcomes of these schemes support the way of life of one or another influential social group. The philosophical orientation of the study is critical constructivism which combines a form of constructivism with more systematic and socially critical views of technology. The axis of comparison between the schemes is democratization and the manner in which the rationalizations and embedded cultural assumptions characterizing particular places operate to support or resist more egalitarian forms of participation. Methodologically, Feenbergâs critical framework is supported both by theory-driven thematic coding and critical hermeneutics which is an interpretative process that compliments the theoretical framework and positions issues of power and ideology within a wider, macro-level context. Data sources supporting the research comprise interviews, a variety of documentary sources and the architectures and technical specifications of both smart bikeshare systems. The findings from the research illustrate that despite the pervasiveness of a neoliberal orthodoxy conditioning technology production, citizen-centric design is still possible within a climate of consensus building and cooperation. As such, the thesis adds to the body of knowledge on philosophy of technology, critical urbanism, smart city development, democratic engagement and collaborative infrastructuring. In addition, the conceptual framework, developed in response to the empirical cases, represents an elaboration of Feenbergâs work and so the thesis also makes an important contribution to the analytic and methodological potential of critical theory of technology
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