3,977 research outputs found

    Researching animal research: What the humanities and social sciences can contribute to laboratory animal science and welfare

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    Every year around 80 million scientific procedures are carried out on animals globally. These experiments have the potential to generate new understandings of biology and clinical treatments. They also give rise to ongoing societal debate.This book demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to understanding what is created through animal procedures - including constitutional forms of research governance, different institutional cultures of care, the professional careers of scientists and veterinarians, collaborations with patients and publics, and research animals, specially bred for experiments or surplus to requirements.Developing the idea of the animal research nexus, this book explores how connections and disconnections are made between these different elements, how these have reshaped each other historically, and how they configure the current practice and policy of UK animal research

    E-learning in the Cloud Computing Environment: Features, Architecture, Challenges and Solutions

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    The need to constantly and consistently improve the quality and quantity of the educational system is essential. E-learning has emerged from the rapid cycle of change and the expansion of new technologies. Advances in information technology have increased network bandwidth, data access speed, and reduced data storage costs. In recent years, the implementation of cloud computing in educational settings has garnered the interest of major companies, leading to substantial investments in this area. Cloud computing improves engineering education by providing an environment that can be accessed from anywhere and allowing access to educational resources on demand. Cloud computing is a term used to describe the provision of hosting services on the Internet. It is predicted to be the next generation of information technology architecture and offers great potential to enhance productivity and reduce costs. Cloud service providers offer their processing and memory resources to users. By paying for the use of these resources, users can access them for their calculations and processing anytime and anywhere. Cloud computing provides the ability to increase productivity, save information technology resources, and enhance computing power, converting processing power into a tool with constant access capabilities. The use of cloud computing in a system that supports remote education has its own set of characteristics and requires a unique strategy. Students can access a wide variety of instructional engineering materials at any time and from any location, thanks to cloud computing. Additionally, they can share their materials with other community members. The use of cloud computing in e-learning offers several advantages, such as unlimited computing resources, high scalability, and reduced costs associated with e-learning. An improvement in the quality of teaching and learning is achieved through the use of flexible cloud computing, which offers a variety of resources for educators and students. In light of this, the current research presents cloud computing technology as a suitable and superior option for e-learning systems

    Measuring the Impact of China’s Digital Heritage: Developing Multidimensional Impact Indicators for Digital Museum Resources

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    This research investigates how to best assess the impact of China’s digital heritage and focuses on digital museum resources. It is motivated by the need for tools to help governing bodies and heritage organisations assess the impact of digital heritage resources. The research sits at the intersection of Chinese cultural heritage, digital heritage, and impact assessment (IA) studies, which forms the theoretical framework of the thesis. Informed by the Balanced Value Impact (BVI) Model, this thesis addresses the following questions: 1. How do Western heritage discourses and Chinese culture shape ‘cultural heritage’ and the museum digital ecosystem in modern China? 2. Which indicators demonstrate the multidimensional impacts of digital museum resources in China? How should the BVI Model be adapted to fit the Chinese cultural landscape? 3. How do different stakeholders perceive these impact indicators? What are the implications for impact indicator development and application? This research applies a mixed-method approach, combining desk research, survey, and interview with both public audiences and museum professionals. The research findings identify 18 impact indicators, covering economic, social, innovation and operational dimensions. Notably, the perceived usefulness and importance of different impact indicators vary among and between public participants and museum professionals. The study finds the BVI Model helpful in guiding the indicator development process, particularly in laying a solid foundation to inform decision-making. The Strategic Perspectives and Value Lenses provide a structure to organise various indicators and keep them focused on the impact objectives. However, the findings also suggest that the Value Lenses are merely signifiers; their signified meanings change with cultural contexts and should be examined when the Model is applied in a different cultural setting. This research addresses the absence of digital resource IA in China’s heritage sector. It contributes to the field of IA for digital heritage within and beyond the Chinese context by challenging the current target-setting culture in performance evaluation. Moreover, the research ratifies the utility of the BVI Model while modifying it to fit China’s unique cultural setting. This thesis as a whole demonstrates the value of using multidimensional impact indicators for evidence-based decision-making and better museum practices in the digital domain

    Sensitivity of NEXT-100 detector to neutrinoless double beta decay

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    Nesta tese estúdiase a sensibilidade do detector NEXT-100 á desintegración dobre beta sen neutrinos. Existe un gran interese na busca desta desintegración xa que podería respostar preguntas fundamentais en física de neutrinos. O detector constitúe a terceira fase do experimento NEXT, colaboración na que se desenrolou esta tese. A continuación inclúese un resumo de cada un dos capítulos nos que se divide a tese. Comézase introducindo o marco teórico e experimental nas seccións Física de neutrinos, A busca da desintegración dobre beta sen neutrinos e O experimento NEXT. Posteriormente descríbense a parte principal do análise da tese en Simulación do detector, Procesamento de datos e Sensibilidade do detector NEXT-100

    We Are Not There Yet:The Implications of Insufficient Knowledge Management for Organisational Compliance

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    Since GDPR went into effect in 2018, many other data protection and privacy regulations have been released. With the new regulation, there has been an associated increase in industry professionals focused on data protection and privacy. Building on related work showing the potential benefits of knowledge management in organisational compliance and privacy engineering, this paper presents the findings of an exploratory qualitative study with data protection officers and other privacy professionals. We found issues with knowledge management to be the underlying challenge of our participants' feedback. Our participants noted four categories of feedback: (1) a perceived disconnect between regulation and practice, (2) a general lack of clear job description, (3) the need for data protection and privacy to be involved at every level of an organisation, (4) knowledge management tools exist but are not used effectively. This paper questions what knowledge management or automation solutions may prove to be effective in establishing better computer-supported work environments

    Internet e jurisdição : reestabelecendo a conexão perdida entre o direito internacional público e o direito internacional privado

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    Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Marcia Carla Pereira RibeiroTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito. Defesa : Curitiba, 07/03/2023Inclui referências: p. 323-359Resumo: A tese que ora se apresenta procura identificar qual o papel do Direito Internacional Público e do Direito Internacional Privado na regulação da Internet. Para isto, a tese emprega o método dedutivo de abordagem e, como teoria de base, a Análise Econômica do Direito, conduzindo a investigação em torno de cinco premissas fundamentais. A primeira, diz respeito a necessidade de regulação pública da Internet. Referida premissa mostra-se verdadeira pela percepção das falhas de mercado existentes no cenário digital e pelo equívoco fundamental da compreensão da Internet como um espaço livre para interações humanas, tendo em vista a artificialidade da tecnologia e a dependência de suas funcionalidades de fontes privadas de normatividade, como as grandes empresas de tecnologia. A segunda premissa é a de que as diferenças pelas quais Internet e Direito consideram o território geográfico prejudicam as capacidades regulatórias dos Estados soberanos. Referida premissa é parcialmente confirmada, a partir do exame das características da tecnologia e da forma como o Direito Internacional Público e o Direito Internacional Privado encaram os conceitos de jurisdição. Observa-se, porém, que os Estados têm encontrado meios para disciplinar a Internet a despeito de sua indiferença à geografia. A terceira premissa é a de que a regulação da Internet pelos Estados soberanos é ineficiente e prejudica o bem-estar global, o que também é parcialmente confirmado, especialmente numa perspectiva descritiva do comportamento dos Estados, evidenciando suas tendências oportunistas que impedem uma cooperação internacional. A quarta premissa é a de que uma regulação uniforme para a Internet pode ser possível, o que se mostra acertado quando se cogita a possibilidade de uma uniformização espontânea movida por forças do mercado, ainda que não abarcada por instrumentos formais de Direito. Contudo, aponta-se que os resultados dessa uniformização espontânea podem ser nocivos, ao mesmo tempo em que se demonstra a implausibilidade da construção de um Direito uniformizado a partir de um debate consciente e democrático entre os diferentes atores do sistema internacional. A quinta premissa, então, é a de que existem alternativas à uniformização, e a tese passa a examinar como uma perspectiva confluente do Direito Internacional Público e do Direito Internacional Privado pode permitir uma coordenação da regulação da Internet pelos Estados soberanos de modo a garantir o respeito à pluralidade de valores e culturas, bem como às diferenças socioeconômicas existentes entre os Estados, sem sacrificar a liberdade na Internet e os benefícios da tecnologia na condução de um diálogo intercultural. O que se conclui, portanto, é que o Direito Internacional Público e o Direito Internacional Privado possuem um papel complementar, devendo ser compreendidos como parte de um único sistema e pautarem-se, em especial, no norte valorativo do Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos (DIDH) na construção de uma regulação descentralizada e coerente para a Internet. A relevância da análise advém dos desafios jurisdicionais trazidos pela tecnologia, que, ao contrário do Direito, por padrão, funciona de maneira indiferente aos limites geográficos. Se em um primeiro momento isso fez com que a Internet parecesse impassível de regulação pelos Estados soberanos, na atualidade o que se testemunha é a incidência simultânea de normas provenientes de diversos sistemas jurídicos, disciplinando as relações que acontecem no ambiente digital muitas vezes de maneira conflitante, o que gera riscos tanto à eficiência das regulações estatais quanto à promoção da liberdade e da concorrência no mercado digital.Abstract: The thesis presented here seeks to identify the role of Public International Law and Private International Law in the regulation of the Internet. To this end, the thesis employs the deductive method of approach and, as a basic theory, the Economic Analysis of Law, conducting the investigation around five fundamental premises. The first is the need for public regulation of the Internet. This premise is true due to the perception of market failures in the digital scenario and the fundamental misunderstanding of the Internet as a free space for human interactions, given the artificiality of the technology and the dependence of its functionalities on private sources of normativity, such as large technology companies. The second premise is that the differences in the way Internet and Law consider geographic territory hinder the regulatory capacities of sovereign states. This premise is partially confirmed by examining the characteristics of technology and how public international law and private international law view the concept of jurisdiction. It is observed, however, that States have found ways to discipline the Internet despite their indifference to geography. The third premise is that the regulation of the Internet by sovereign states is inefficient and harms global welfare, which is also partially confirmed, especially from a descriptive perspective of states' behavior, highlighting their opportunistic tendencies that hinder international cooperation. The fourth premise is that a uniform regulation for the Internet may be possible, which proves to be correct when one considers the possibility of a spontaneous standardization driven by market forces, even if not covered by formal legal instruments. However, it is pointed out that the results of this spontaneous standardization can be harmful, at the same time demonstrating the implausibility of the construction of a standardized Law based on a conscious and democratic debate between the different actors of the international system. The fifth premise, then, is that there are alternatives to standardization, and the thesis goes on to examine how a confluent perspective of Public International Law and Private International Law can allow for a coordination of Internet regulation by sovereign states so as to guarantee respect for the plurality of values and cultures, as well as for the socioeconomic differences existing among states, without sacrificing Internet freedom and the benefits of technology in conducting an intercultural dialogue. The conclusion, therefore, is that public international law and private international law have a complementary role and should be understood as part of a single system, and be guided, especially, by the values of International Human Rights Law in the construction of a decentralized and coherent regulation of the Internet. The relevance of the analysis stems from the jurisdictional challenges brought about by technology, which, unlike law, by default operates indifferently to geographical limits. If at first this made the Internet seem impassable to regulation by sovereign states, today the scenario is market by the simultaneous incidence of rules from different legal systems, regulating the relationships that take place in the digital environment often in conflict, which generates risks both to the efficiency of state regulations and the promotion of freedom and competition in the digital market

    Remote Device Printing Job Queue Management

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    This disclosure relates to the field of computer managed digital print production. Production managers want to monitor and act on production while away of the production site. This happens because, among other reasons, last minute production priority changes or devices availability (for example, device stops working/failure or not properly calibrated). Additionally, there might not be operators on the production site (for example, disattended printing or overnight printing) to perform required checks or actions on devices or production upon production manager request. Unless inbound connections are open to local networked hosted solutions and/or devices, current cloud-based applications (webapps) allow to monitor what devices are currently doing but not act on them. The solution/process disclosed with Remote Device Printing Job Queue Management will allow: - Easy connectivity while maintaining security and not requiring opening inbound connections to intranets. - Easy act on production while devices are working unattended and not requiring managing multiple software for that. - Use a local service (dedicated hardware is optional) to act as interface between local devices (intranet), cloud services (internet) and printing submission software (i.e., RIPs -Raster Image Processor - software)

    Integrated Approaches to Digital-enabled Design for Manufacture and Assembly: A Modularity Perspective and Case Study of Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China

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    Countries are trying to expand their healthcare capacity through advanced construction, modular innovation, digital technologies and integrated design approaches such as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA). Within the context of China, there is a need for stronger implementation of digital technologies and DfMA, as well as a knowledge gap regarding how digital-enabled DfMA is implemented. More critically, an integrated approach is needed in addition to DfMA guidelines and digital-enabled approaches. For this research, a mixed method was used. Questionnaires defined the context of Huoshenshan Hospital, namely the healthcare construction in China. Then, Huoshenshan Hospital provided a case study of the first emergency hospital which addressed the uncertainty of COVID-19. This extreme project, a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days, implemented DfMA in healthcare construction and provides an opportunity to examine the use of modularity. A workshop with a design institution provided basic facts and insight into past practice and was followed by interviews with 18 designers, from various design disciplines, who were involved in the project. Finally, multiple archival materials were used as secondary data sources. It was found that complexity hinders building systems integration, while reinforcement relationships between multiple dimensions of modularity (across organisation-process-product-supply chain dimensions) are the underlying mechanism that allows for the reduction of complexity and the integration of building systems. Promoting integrated approaches to DfMA relies on adjusting and coupling multi-dimensional modular reinforcement relationships (namely, relationships of modular alignment, modular complement, and modular incentive). Thus, the building systems integrator can use these three approaches to increase the success of digital-enabled DfMA

    An empirical investigation of the relationship between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in supply chains

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    This research aimed to develop an empirical understanding of the relationships between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in the supply chain domain, based on which, two conceptual frameworks were constructed to advance the field. The core motivation for the research was that, at the stage of writing the thesis, the combined relationship between the three concepts had not yet been examined, although their interrelationships have been studied individually. To achieve this aim, deductive and inductive reasoning logics were utilised to guide the qualitative study, which was undertaken via multiple case studies to investigate lines of enquiry that would address the research questions formulated. This is consistent with the author’s philosophical adoption of the ontology of relativism and the epistemology of constructionism, which was considered appropriate to address the research questions. Empirical data and evidence were collected, and various triangulation techniques were employed to ensure their credibility. Some key features of grounded theory coding techniques were drawn upon for data coding and analysis, generating two levels of findings. These revealed that whilst integration and dynamic capabilities were crucial in improving performance, the performance also informed the former. This reflects a cyclical and iterative approach rather than one purely based on linearity. Adopting a holistic approach towards the relationship was key in producing complementary strategies that can deliver sustainable supply chain performance. The research makes theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to the field of supply chain management. The theoretical contribution includes the development of two emerging conceptual frameworks at the micro and macro levels. The former provides greater specificity, as it allows meta-analytic evaluation of the three concepts and their dimensions, providing a detailed insight into their correlations. The latter gives a holistic view of their relationships and how they are connected, reflecting a middle-range theory that bridges theory and practice. The methodological contribution lies in presenting models that address gaps associated with the inconsistent use of terminologies in philosophical assumptions, and lack of rigor in deploying case study research methods. In terms of its practical contribution, this research offers insights that practitioners could adopt to enhance their performance. They can do so without necessarily having to forgo certain desired outcomes using targeted integrative strategies and drawing on their dynamic capabilities

    Managing customs valuation compliance in multinationals

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    La problématique douanière au cœur de la recherche concerne les entreprises multinationales dynamiques et complexes qui utilisent l’optimisation fiscale et des structures de coûts dans l’élaboration de chaînes d’approvisionnement mondiales. D’une part, les entreprises s’internationalisent en multipliant les entités juridiques, ce qui leur permet de faire affaire à l’échelle mondiale. D’autre part, le contexte règlementaire rigide de la douane est sujet aux pressions économiques, à travers la contribution des taxes et droits d’importation aux recettes fiscales. La complexité des transactions crée un risque de non-conformité de la valeur en douane. La recherche s’attarde à créer une piste de solution aux entreprises multinationales qui font face aux défis de la gestion de la conformité de l’évaluation en douane. Le projet de recherche use de la méthodologie de recherche en science de la conception (DSR), établit sur une collecte de données de nature exploratoire auprès d’experts qui œuvrent dans le domaine de la conformité douanière au sein de multinationales. La recherche propose des pistes de solution à la problématique de gestion de l’évaluation en douane, à travers la création du cadre de conformité de l’évaluation en douane (CCED). À travers une recherche pratique, des connaissances scientifiques ont été générées dans le domaine de la gestion des processus transversaux complexes et de conformité, afin de contribuer à la compréhension et l’optimisation de l’environnement de contrôle au sein de multinationales. Des outils et des facteurs de succès touchant l’intégration des processus transversaux complexes ont été soulevés et expliqués. Entre autres, des mécanismes qui permettent le contrôle et la collaboration ont été définis.Abstract : The customs valuation issue at the heart of the research touches the dynamics of complex multinational companies using tax and cost structures optimization in the development of global supply chains. Internally, companies are internationalizing, by multiplying legal entities to do business on a global scale. The complexity of the financial transactions generated from those models comes up against the rigidity of customs declarations, which creates a risk of non-compliance in customs value. The research focuses on creating a viable option for multinational companies that face the challenges of customs valuation compliance management. The research project uses research design science (RDS) methodology, in which data collected from experts, in the field of customs compliance, within multinational companies is embedded. The research offers an applied solution to the problem of customs valuation management, through a model developed as the customs valuation compliance framework. Through practical research, scientific knowledge has been generated in the complex area of cross-functional processes management and compliance, to contribute to the understanding and optimization of the control environment within multinational companies. Tools and success factors affecting the integration of complex cross-functional processes were raised and explained. Among other things, mechanisms that allow control and collaboration have been defined
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