The WebStand Project

In this paper we present the state of advancement of the French ANR WebStand project. The objective of this project is to construct a customizable XML based warehouse platform to acquire, transform, analyze, store, query and export data from the web, in particular mailing lists, with the final intension of using this data to perform sociological studies focused on social groups of World Wide Web, with a specific emphasis on the temporal aspects of this data. We are currently using this system to analyze the standardization process of the W3C, through its social network of standard setters

Changing conceptions of students' career development needs

Abstract — This paper takes as its starting point a brief review of a range of theoretical assumptions about the nature of career learning and decision-making and plots the emergence of the notion of ‘employability’ as a predominant paradigm for the organisation and delivery of career guidance services in UK higher education. The acquisition of employability skills in students is essentially a deficit paradigm that the provision of work-oriented learning opportunities seeks to address. A key driver for the development of employability as an institutional priority is policy-making by governmental agencies that foregrounds university-business partnerships as a component of economic generation. The development of workbased learning (WBL) and work placements as part of higher education courses is shown to exemplify how responsibility for students’ employability development is increasingly shared between institutions and (prospective) employers. The paper draws upon recent research findings that explore issues of quality assurance in WBL and work placements and poses questions for institutional services aimed to support students’ transition from higher education to the labour market. Access to WBL and work placements appears to be stratified and different types of opportunity are taken up by particular groups of students. A relatively new way of conceptualising career learning as ‘career adaptability’ has been developed out of theories of career ‘constructivism’ and is suggested to provide a return to a more student-centred paradigm which has the potential to be more inclusive. Career adaptability is exemplified by the use of the career adaptability scale to support students’ self assessment of their career learning and development.Tempus Project 517119-TEMPUS-1-2011-RS-TEMPUS-SMG

Energy use and indoor environment in a sample of monitored domestic buildings in the UK

This paper is based on the low-cost approaches and transferable techniques that were applied in a PhD reserch project on energy-related occupancy activities. The strengths of qualitative and quantitative research strategies were combined for the study of this socio-technical research topic. Long-term field measurement was conducted for data acquisition using self-configured monitoring schemes. Case study was selected as the research approach. Building characteristics and household features in each case study group were purposefully selected to deploy same-standard monitoring schemes. Comparable monitoring results were pre-processed following identical procedures to implement the selected data analysis methods. The inspection results provided the researcher and the associated project partners with a novel perspective to interpret the difference in actual energy consumption and indoor environment within and between the case study groups. The research methodology and moitoring approach are covered in this paper that also presents the macro-scale monitoring results of energy use and indoor environment in two case study groups. The micro-scale presentation and algorithm-based examination will be covered in other academic papers. This paper demonstrates the huge potential for some commonly applied building assessment methods to be improved by objectively considering currently overlooked aspects, such as the low-tech design and construction of heavy-weight thermal mass houses and the largely varied occupancy activities. Future work relating to the comparison of actual monitoring data with simulation results is pointed out at the end of the paper

Special Libraries, May-June 1977

Volume 68, Issue 5-6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1977/1004/thumbnail.jp

Preservation and Dissolution of the Target Firm's Embedded Ties in Acquisitions

Our study builds on extant theory on embeddness to concentrate on the process of preservation and dissolution of the target firm’s embedded ties in acquisitions. We identify four critical areas - communication, idiosyncratic investments, inter-personal relations and, personnel turnover – where managerial decisions taken during the acquisition process affect the components of the target firm’s embedded ties – trust, joint problem-solving and exchange of fine-grained information. The preservation or dissolution of an embedded tie depends ultimately on two specific tie-contingencies, the balance of power between the target firm and the embedded relation and interpretive processes at the inter-face between the two. Our findings have implications for the study of the dissolution of market ties as they point to different roles played by social and institutional forces, power asymmetries and competition in the dynamics of embedded ones. Finally, we encourage theory development in acquisition studies by positing the importance of interpretive processes and, more broadly, relational elements that span the boundaries of the parent-target dyad.Acquisitions;Embedded tie dynamics;Embedded ties

Introduction: converging data sources in cognitive linguistics

The aim of the paper is to outline the topic of the present special issue. In the first section, the authors give a concise overview of current discussions on the structure and function of linguistic data and evidence in general. They argue that one of the main insights which the discussions led to is the need to integrate different data sources in linguistic theorising. The second section deals with the specific manifestation of these discussions in cognitive linguistics. The authors raise the questions which the papers in the special issue address with respect to cognitive linguistics: What data sources can be integrated?; How can different data sources be integrated?; How does the integration of different data sources affect the acceptability of hypotheses? Finally, in the last section, the structure of the special issue is summarised

A people-oriented paradigm for smart cities

Most works in the literature agree on considering the Internet of Things (IoT) as the base technology to collect information related to smart cities. This information is usually offered as open data for its analysis, and to elaborate statistics or provide services which improve the management of the city, making it more efficient and more comfortable to live in. However, it is not possible to actually improve the quality of life of smart cities’ inhabitants if there is no direct information about them and their experiences. To address this problem, we propose using a social and mobile computation model, called the Internet of People (IoP) which empowers smartphones to recollect information about their users, analyze it to obtain knowledge about their habits, and provide this knowledge as a service creating a collaborative information network. Combining IoT and IoP, we allow the smart city to dynamically adapt its services to the needs of its citizens, promoting their welfare as the main objective of the city.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech