Advertising and Dublin’s Consumer Culture in James Joyce’s Ulysses

This thesis reconsiders James Joyce’s representation of advertising and Dublin’s consumer culture in Ulysses. Against earlier, generalising accounts, it applies a carefully historicising methodology to demonstrate the cultural specificity of Joyce’s engagement. It does so in three ways. To begin with, it establishes that Irish consumerism did not simply follow British advances, but developed in a distinct and inflected fashion. Chapters 2 and 3 show that while Joyce incorporates all of the material characteristics of Dublin’s relatively advanced consumer culture, he downplays its advertising industry, making it appear less developed in 1904 than was historically the case. Secondly, it analyses the distortions introduced by Joyce’s own historical remove from the consumer culture he depicts. Chapter 4 identifies for the first time the sources of Joyce’s “Advertising” notes from his so-called “Notes on Business and Commerce,” and establishes that his representation of Bloom’s advertising consciousness reflects advances in advertising theory that only got seriously underway in the decade between 1904, when the novel is set, and 1914, when Joyce began to write it. Finally, having analysed the material and compositional background to Joyce’s portrayal of early-twentieth-century consumerism, this thesis analyses Joyce’s engagement with two of its dominant ideologies. Chapter 5 concentrates on the ‘Lestrygonians’ and ‘Ithaca’ episodes to argue that Joyce lays bare the overdetermined nature of colonial consumption, depicting the naturalisation of British commodities on the Irish market, and contesting the spurious claim to disinterestedness presented by imperial consumerist discourses. Chapter 6 develops intertextual readings of the ‘Nausicaa’ chapter to show that Joyce’s narrative is even more fully comprised of the language of female-oriented advertising than has been recognised. It argues that the chapter responds to a particular ideological complex, in which consumerist imperatives struggled with more conservative patriarchal interests. Overall, this thesis brings together historical, genetic and intertextual critical approaches to uncover the stylistic and chronological manipulations involved in Joyce’s fictionalisation of early-twentieth-century Irish consumerism. It argues that Ulysses stands as both a reflection of this crucial period of socio-economic change, and a politicised response to its dominant ideological coercions

An Exploration of how the Social Supply and User-Dealer Supply of Illicit Drugs Differs to Conventional Notions of Drug Dealing and Consideration of the Consequences of this for Sentencing Policy

The concept of ‘social supply’ has emerged as a term used both in the UK, and internationally, to describe drug distribution that is non-commercially motivated and almost exclusively found between friends and acquaintances. Social suppliers have increasingly been presented as actors who are qualitatively different to drug dealers (proper), in relation to their motivation and their activity. As a result, they have increasingly become identified as a group who should be distinguished as such legally (Police Foundation, 2000; Release, 2009). While social supply behaviours can be identified in wider research literature relating to recreational drug use, there is a relative gap in regard to in-depth accounts of social supply activity, and in regard to a social supply definition. In a similar way, heroin and crack cocaine user-dealers - a group who are also perhaps not best understood as profit motivated suppliers - have received insufficient academic attention, with the majority of research references failing to go beyond typologies that recognise them simply as suppliers who also use. With research indicating that social supply permeates a meaningful section of adolescent and adult drug markets, along with evidence to suggest that drug supply embodies one of limited options for addicted drug users to fund their habit, this thesis explores how far we can understand these behaviours as drug dealing (proper). Using qualitative in-depth interviews and case studies, this interpretivist research design develops existing ideas, as well as highlighting emergent social supply and user-dealing themes. Findings from this research indicate that social supply behaviours are usefully understood through a theoretical application of ‘normalisation’ (Parker et al., 1998) and ‘drift’ (Matza, 1964) and are wider in scope than those currently recognised by the literature base. The research findings also indicate the importance of the notion of ‘economies of scale’ - an incentive for drug users to obtain a larger quantity of substance for a cheaper price. Notions of reciprocity also feature, with group obligation providing a rationale for involvement in social supply. The findings are also suggestive of the idea that user-dealing - understood through the theoretical gaze of Bourdieu’s ‘Theory of Practice’ (1990) - is characterised by limited distribution, minimal profit and explicated as a less harmful option than other crimes undertaken to fund drug dependence. This thesis concludes with the proposal that a conceptual shift towards ‘minimally commercial supply’ offers a more realistic and inclusive means of conceptualising both social supply and user-dealing activity. Possible ways forward therefore include the implementation of this term as a distinct offence that focuses on intent, thereby presenting a more proportionate approach than current policy responses for these groups allow.Economic and Social Reasearch Council and Plymouth DAA

Autonomous Operation of a Reconfigurable Multi-Robot System for Planetary Space Missions

Reconfigurable robots can physically merge and form new types of composite systems. This ability leads to additional degrees of freedom for robot operations especially when dynamically composed robotic systems offer capabilities that none of the individual systems have. Research in the area of reconfigurable multi-robot systems has mainly been focused on swarm-based robots and thereby to systems with a high degree of modularity but a heavily restricted set of capabilities. In contrast, this thesis deals with heterogeneous robot teams comprising individually capable robots which are also modular and reconfigurable. In particular, the autonomous application of such reconfigurable multi-robot systems to enhance robotic space exploration missions is investigated. Exploiting the flexibility of a reconfigurable multi-robot system requires an appropriate system model and reasoner. Hence, this thesis introduces a special organisation model. This model accounts for the key characteristics of reconfigurable robots which are constrained by the availability and compatibility of hardware interfaces. A newly introduced mapping function between resource structures and functional properties permits to characterise dynamically created agent compositions. Since a combinatorial challenge lies in the identification of feasible and functionally suitable agents, this thesis further suggests bounding strategies to reason efficiently with composite robotic systems. This thesis proposes a mission planning algorithm which permits to exploit the flexibility of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. The implemented planner builds upon the developed organisation model so that multi-robot missions can be specified by high-level functionality constraints which are resolved to suitable combinations of robots. Furthermore, the planner synchronises robot activities over time and characterises plans according to three objectives: efficacy, efficiency and safety. The plannera s evaluation demonstrates an optimization of an exemplary space mission. This research is based on the parallel development of theoretical concepts and practical solutions while working with three reconfigurable multi-robot teams. The operation of a reconfigurable robotic team comes with practical constraints. Therefore, this thesis composes and evaluates an operational infrastructure which can serve as reference implementation. The identification and combination of applicable state-of-the-art technologies result in a distributed and dynamically extensible communication infrastructure which can maintain the properties of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. Field tests covering semi-autonomous and autonomous operation have been performed to characterise multi-robot missions and validate the autonomous control approach for reconfigurable multi-robot systems. The practical evaluation identified critical constraints and design elements for a successful application of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. Furthermore, the experiments point to improvements for the organisation model. This thesis is a wholistic approach to automate reconfigurable multi-robot systems. It identifies theoretical as well as practical challenges and it suggests effective solutions which permit an exploitation of an increased level of flexibility in future robotics missions

Personal mobile grids with a honeybee inspired resource scheduler

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The overall aim of the thesis has been to introduce Personal Mobile Grids (PMGrids) as a novel paradigm in grid computing that scales grid infrastructures to mobile devices and extends grid entities to individual personal users. In this thesis, architectural designs as well as simulation models for PM-Grids are developed. The core of any grid system is its resource scheduler. However, virtually all current conventional grid schedulers do not address the non-clairvoyant scheduling problem, where job information is not available before the end of execution. Therefore, this thesis proposes a honeybee inspired resource scheduling heuristic for PM-Grids (HoPe) incorporating a radical approach to grid resource scheduling to tackle this problem. A detailed design and implementation of HoPe with a decentralised self-management and adaptive policy are initiated. Among the other main contributions are a comprehensive taxonomy of grid systems as well as a detailed analysis of the honeybee colony and its nectar acquisition process (NAP), from the resource scheduling perspective, which have not been presented in any previous work, to the best of our knowledge. PM-Grid designs and HoPe implementation were evaluated thoroughly through a strictly controlled empirical evaluation framework with a well-established heuristic in high throughput computing, the opportunistic scheduling heuristic (OSH), as a benchmark algorithm. Comparisons with optimal values and worst bounds are conducted to gain a clear insight into HoPe behaviour, in terms of stability, throughput, turnaround time and speedup, under different running conditions of number of jobs and grid scales. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of HoPe performance where it has successfully maintained optimum stability and throughput in more than 95% of the experiments, with HoPe achieving three times better than the OSH under extremely heavy loads. Regarding the turnaround time and speedup, HoPe has effectively achieved less than 50% of the turnaround time incurred by the OSH, while doubling its speedup in more than 60% of the experiments. These results indicate the potential of both PM-Grids and HoPe in realising futuristic grid visions. Therefore considering the deployment of PM-Grids in real life scenarios and the utilisation of HoPe in other parallel processing and high throughput computing systems are recommended

An agent-based approach to intelligent manufacturing network configuration

The participation of small and medium enterprises in inter-firm collaboration can enhance their market reach while maintaining production lean. The conventional centralised collaboration approach is believed to be unsustainable, in today’s complex environment. The research aimed to investigate manufacturing network collaborations, where manufacturers maintain control over their scheduling activities and participate in a market-based event, to decide which collaborations are retained. The work investigated two pairing mechanisms where the intention was to capture and optimise collaboration at the granular level and then build up a network from those intermediate forms of organisation. The research also looked at two bidding protocols. The first protocol involves manufacturers that bid for operations from the process plan of a job. The second protocol is concerned with networks that bid for a job in its entirety. The problem, defined by an industrial use case and operation research data sets, was modelled as decentralised flow shop scheduling. The holonic paradigm identified the problem solving agents that participated in agent-based modelling and simulation of the pairing and the bidding protocols. The protocols are strongly believed to achieve true decentralisation of scheduling, with good performance on scalability, conflict resolution and schedule optimisation, for the purpose of inter-firm collaboration

Autonomous Operation of a Reconfigurable Multi-Robot System for Planetary Space Missions

Reconfigurable robots can physically merge and form new types of composite systems. This ability leads to additional degrees of freedom for robot operations especially when dynamically composed robotic systems offer capabilities that none of the individual systems have. Research in the area of reconfigurable multi-robot systems has mainly been focused on swarm-based robots and thereby to systems with a high degree of modularity but a heavily restricted set of capabilities. In contrast, this thesis deals with heterogeneous robot teams comprising individually capable robots which are also modular and reconfigurable. In particular, the autonomous application of such reconfigurable multi-robot systems to enhance robotic space exploration missions is investigated. Exploiting the flexibility of a reconfigurable multi-robot system requires an appropriate system model and reasoner. Hence, this thesis introduces a special organisation model. This model accounts for the key characteristics of reconfigurable robots which are constrained by the availability and compatibility of hardware interfaces. A newly introduced mapping function between resource structures and functional properties permits to characterise dynamically created agent compositions. Since a combinatorial challenge lies in the identification of feasible and functionally suitable agents, this thesis further suggests bounding strategies to reason efficiently with composite robotic systems. This thesis proposes a mission planning algorithm which permits to exploit the flexibility of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. The implemented planner builds upon the developed organisation model so that multi-robot missions can be specified by high-level functionality constraints which are resolved to suitable combinations of robots. Furthermore, the planner synchronises robot activities over time and characterises plans according to three objectives: efficacy, efficiency and safety. The plannera s evaluation demonstrates an optimization of an exemplary space mission. This research is based on the parallel development of theoretical concepts and practical solutions while working with three reconfigurable multi-robot teams. The operation of a reconfigurable robotic team comes with practical constraints. Therefore, this thesis composes and evaluates an operational infrastructure which can serve as reference implementation. The identification and combination of applicable state-of-the-art technologies result in a distributed and dynamically extensible communication infrastructure which can maintain the properties of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. Field tests covering semi-autonomous and autonomous operation have been performed to characterise multi-robot missions and validate the autonomous control approach for reconfigurable multi-robot systems. The practical evaluation identified critical constraints and design elements for a successful application of reconfigurable multi-robot systems. Furthermore, the experiments point to improvements for the organisation model. This thesis is a wholistic approach to automate reconfigurable multi-robot systems. It identifies theoretical as well as practical challenges and it suggests effective solutions which permit an exploitation of an increased level of flexibility in future robotics missions

Online Communities of Practice and Professional Change: a Three-Tier View of the Knowledge Embedding Process

This interpretivist study, in the field of information Systems, investigates the process of transformative professional change using a knowledge management lens. The goal of the research was to understand how online communities of practice (CoPs) facilitate the transfer and embedding of professional knowledge. It was guided by the question: How do online CoPs facilitate the transfer and embedding of professional knowledge? This topic was of contemporary and strategic significance in New Zealand: The government had embarked on a strategy to transform teaching in NZ schools, aiming to leverage a major investment in IT infrastructure, using online CoPs to help embed a new paradigm of studentcentred, ICT-enriched learning at system level. There was, however, no research to suggest how this might occur. Despite the increasing use of online CoPs by organisations, and an expansion in the number of tools available for this purpose, there is little understanding of how online CoPs can facilitate knowledge transfer. The way in which knowledge embedding (deep transfer) occurs, and the role online CoPs may play in supporting this process, is particularly poorly understood. This is significant issue in this internet-rich era, when developing nations are aiming to cultivate knowledge economies. I conducted the research using a case research strategy, qualitative methods and an inductive process of theory generation. The research case was a national professional development programme for schools, with five CoP subunits: Four were regionally based school cluster CoPs and one was a distributed blogging community. (Membership of this community overlapped with three of the cluster CoPs.) Based on my analysis of data, and on feedback from participants, I found that three complementary mechanisms were operating simultaneously, facilitating the embedding of knowledge at meso, micro and macro levels. The result of my study is a threelevel explanatory theory. At the meso (school) level, knowledge embedding followed a six-stage cycle, with different activities and issues characterising each stage. Online CoPs played a different role at each stage. At the micro (individual) level, knowledge embedding was driven by teachers' crossings of multiple engagement spaces (communication contexts) in a polycontextual environment. Crossings drove personalisation and facilitated the linking of theory and practice, leading to deep individual understanding. At the macro level, the embedding of knowledge was driven by the brokering function of a middle layer community in a system of overlapping, tiered CoPs. Key roles were played by two kinds of knowledge brokers: connector-leaders and follower-feeders. All three embedding-facilitating mechanisms promoted five fundamental knowledge embedding processes: focusing, persuading, aligning, adapting, and owning (developing ownership)

Preventing premature convergence and proving the optimality in evolutionary algorithms

http://ea2013.inria.fr//proceedings.pdfInternational audienceEvolutionary Algorithms (EA) usually carry out an efficient exploration of the search-space, but get often trapped in local minima and do not prove the optimality of the solution. Interval-based techniques, on the other hand, yield a numerical proof of optimality of the solution. However, they may fail to converge within a reasonable time due to their inability to quickly compute a good approximation of the global minimum and their exponential complexity. The contribution of this paper is a hybrid algorithm called Charibde in which a particular EA, Differential Evolution, cooperates with a Branch and Bound algorithm endowed with interval propagation techniques. It prevents premature convergence toward local optima and outperforms both deterministic and stochastic existing approaches. We demonstrate its efficiency on a benchmark of highly multimodal problems, for which we provide previously unknown global minima and certification of optimality