813,414 research outputs found
Economic Development, variety and employment
This paper studies qualitative change taking place during economic development. In the model presented qualitative change is created by the mergence of new sectors, each of which produces an output that is different from other sectors. A system with a variable number of sectors is simulated. The model predicts that under given conditions the evolution of a sector tends to follow a life cycle in both the number of firms and in terms of employment. The cyclical behavior is determined by the balance between the increasing intensity of competition, saturating demand and increasing retuns to adoption. In its present form the model is a simplified representation of the economic system, but several improvements can be introduced in order to increase its degree of realism.economic development, employment, multisectoral model
Geospatial Narratives and their Spatio-Temporal Dynamics: Commonsense Reasoning for High-level Analyses in Geographic Information Systems
The modelling, analysis, and visualisation of dynamic geospatial phenomena
has been identified as a key developmental challenge for next-generation
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this context, the envisaged
paradigmatic extensions to contemporary foundational GIS technology raises
fundamental questions concerning the ontological, formal representational, and
(analytical) computational methods that would underlie their spatial
information theoretic underpinnings.
We present the conceptual overview and architecture for the development of
high-level semantic and qualitative analytical capabilities for dynamic
geospatial domains. Building on formal methods in the areas of commonsense
reasoning, qualitative reasoning, spatial and temporal representation and
reasoning, reasoning about actions and change, and computational models of
narrative, we identify concrete theoretical and practical challenges that
accrue in the context of formal reasoning about `space, events, actions, and
change'. With this as a basis, and within the backdrop of an illustrated
scenario involving the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban narratives, we address
specific problems and solutions techniques chiefly involving `qualitative
abstraction', `data integration and spatial consistency', and `practical
geospatial abduction'. From a broad topical viewpoint, we propose that
next-generation dynamic GIS technology demands a transdisciplinary scientific
perspective that brings together Geography, Artificial Intelligence, and
Cognitive Science.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; cognitive systems; human-computer
interaction; geographic information systems; spatio-temporal dynamics;
computational models of narrative; geospatial analysis; geospatial modelling;
ontology; qualitative spatial modelling and reasoning; spatial assistance
systemsComment: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (ISSN 2220-9964);
Special Issue on: Geospatial Monitoring and Modelling of Environmental
Change}. IJGI. Editor: Duccio Rocchini. (pre-print of article in press
Measuring, Predicting and Visualizing Short-Term Change in Word Representation and Usage in VKontakte Social Network
Language in social media is extremely dynamic: new words emerge, trend and
disappear, while the meaning of existing words can fluctuate over time. Such
dynamics are especially notable during a period of crisis. This work addresses
several important tasks of measuring, visualizing and predicting short term
text representation shift, i.e. the change in a word's contextual semantics,
and contrasting such shift with surface level word dynamics, or concept drift,
observed in social media streams. Unlike previous approaches on learning word
representations from text, we study the relationship between short-term concept
drift and representation shift on a large social media corpus - VKontakte posts
in Russian collected during the Russia-Ukraine crisis in 2014-2015. Our novel
contributions include quantitative and qualitative approaches to (1) measure
short-term representation shift and contrast it with surface level concept
drift; (2) build predictive models to forecast short-term shifts in meaning
from previous meaning as well as from concept drift; and (3) visualize
short-term representation shift for example keywords to demonstrate the
practical use of our approach to discover and track meaning of newly emerging
terms in social media. We show that short-term representation shift can be
accurately predicted up to several weeks in advance. Our unique approach to
modeling and visualizing word representation shifts in social media can be used
to explore and characterize specific aspects of the streaming corpus during
crisis events and potentially improve other downstream classification tasks
including real-time event detection
Towards a Qualitative Reasoning on Shape Change and Object Division
We propose a qualitative representation for handling shape change and object division. We model the shape of a smooth curve in a two-dimensional plane together with its temporal change, using curvature extrema. The representation is based on Process-Grammar, which gives a causal account for each shape change. We introduce several rewriting rules to handle object division, that consist of making a tangent point, reconstruction, and separation. On the treatment of the division process, the expression can clarify the relative locations of multiple objects. We show formalization and application to represent a sequence of shape changes frequently observed in an organogenesis process
ANALISIS KEMAMPUAN REPRESENTASI MATEMATIS SISWA SMP DALAM MENYELESAIKAN MASALAH BANGUN RUANG BERDASARKAN GAYA BELAJAR VISUAL
Representation is one of the abilities that must be understood in mathematics education. As a relationship between mathematical objects and symbols, it is defined as the process of symbolizing an object, the ability of mathematical representation to help students improve understanding and communicate thoughts on mathematical concepts. Representation indicators describe four aspects of visual representation, image representation, representation of equations or mathematical expressions, and representation of words or written text. Therefore, with the representation process, students have a good opportunity to solve problems so that they can solve the problem correctly. Representation is part of basic mathematical skills which are included in high-level thinking abilities which should be developed in mathematics teaching and learning activities. The research approach used in this research is qualitative research. This research has a case study type with a qualitative descriptive approach. The subjects of this research were 6 junior high school students who had categories of high (2), medium (2), and low (2) levels of mathematical ability. The data collection techniques chosen by researchers were tests, interviews and questionnaires. This research aims to determine students' mathematical representation abilities in solving spatial problems based on visual learning styles. The research results showed that 17 students chose to use visual representations in solving Space Building questions. Meanwhile, one student with a moderate level of mathematical ability chose to use symbolic representation in solving the Space Building problem. Students with low levels of mathematical ability do not change the representations they make (visual) into other forms of representation (symbolic or verbal). Meanwhile, students in the medium and high ability level categories change the representations they create (visual or symbolic) into other representations. Students with a high level of mathematical ability can create visual representations in several forms
How structurally stable are global socioeconomic systems?
The stability analysis of socioeconomic systems has been centered on
answering whether small perturbations when a system is in a given quantitative
state will push the system permanently to a different quantitative state.
However, typically the quantitative state of socioeconomic systems is subject
to constant change. Therefore, a key stability question that has been
under-investigated is how strong the conditions of a system itself can change
before the system moves to a qualitatively different behavior, i.e., how
structurally stable the systems is. Here, we introduce a framework to
investigate the structural stability of socioeconomic systems formed by the
network of interactions among agents competing for resources. We measure the
structural stability of the system as the range of conditions in the
distribution and availability of resources compatible with the qualitative
behavior in which all the constituent agents can be self-sustained across time.
To illustrate our framework, we study an empirical representation of the global
socioeconomic system formed by countries sharing and competing for
multinational companies used as proxy for resources. We demonstrate that the
structural stability of the system is inversely associated with the level of
competition and the level of heterogeneity in the distribution of resources.
Importantly, we show that the qualitative behavior of the observed global
socioeconomic system is highly sensitive to changes in the distribution of
resources. We believe this work provides a methodological basis to develop
sustainable strategies for socioeconomic systems subject to constantly changing
conditions
Board Diversity by Term Limits?
Four-fifths of the corporate board seats in the United States are held by men and a shocking number of companies lack any female representation on their boards. While institutional investors have pushed these companies for change, California took a more aggressive step and followed several European countries by mandating a quota for board representation. Heated argument has ensued over what diversity we should prioritize and what mechanisms should be used to promote diversity. Yet could these challenges be avoided altogether through the use of term limits?
This Article is the first academic inquiry exploring the connection between term limits and the sex diversification of the corporate board. Drawing upon quantitative data on director turnover in the S&P 1500 and qualitative data on S&P 500 firms with term limits, our research shows that firms experiencing higher board turnover have more sex diversity. We argue that term limits, a mechanism that increases turnover, may correlate with improved sex diversity on boards. Our findings suggest that promoting term limits in the United States offers a market-based mechanism that could avert this polarized diversity debate
Representing whose access and allocation interests? Stakeholder perceptions and interests representation in climate governance
This chapter presents a synthesis of findings from quantitative and qualitative investigations of the perspectives of participants involved in international climate governance, conducted over the period 2010-2015. In this study, an established framework of principles, criteria and indicators (PC&I) for institutional governance was applied to two mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): the initiative referred to as ‘Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest stocks in developing countries’ (REDD+); and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol (KP). Assessment focuses on the governance value of interest representation in terms of inclusiveness (access) and resources (allocation). It begins by outlining the historical context of UNFCCC, as well as CDM and REDD+, and continues with a delineation of the methods adopted, and results to reveal a relatively consistent set of results across the elements investigated, with inclusiveness receiving the highest score of all the governance indicators, and resources the lowest. The CDM was the weakest performer
A new prescription for empirical ethics research in pharmacy: a critical review of the literature
Empirical ethics research is increasingly valued in bioethics and healthcare more generally, but there remain as yet under-researched areas such as pharmacy, despite the increasingly visible attempts by the profession to embrace additional roles beyond the supply of medicines. A descriptive and critical review of the extant empirical pharmacy ethics literature is provided here. A chronological change from quantitative to qualitative approaches is highlighted in this review, as well as differing theoretical approaches such as cognitive moral development and the four principles of biomedical ethics. Research with pharmacy student cohorts is common, as is representation from American pharmacists. Many examples of ethical problems are identified, as well as commercial and legal influences on ethical understanding and decision making. In this paper, it is argued that as pharmacy seeks to develop additional roles with concomitant ethical responsibilities, a new prescription is needed for empirical ethics research in pharmacy - one that embraces an agenda of systematic research using a plurality of methodological and theoretical approaches to better explore this under-researched discipline
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