Detection and Evaluation of Clusters within Sequential Data

Motivated by theoretical advancements in dimensionality reduction techniques we use a recent model, called Block Markov Chains, to conduct a practical study of clustering in real-world sequential data. Clustering algorithms for Block Markov Chains possess theoretical optimality guarantees and can be deployed in sparse data regimes. Despite these favorable theoretical properties, a thorough evaluation of these algorithms in realistic settings has been lacking. We address this issue and investigate the suitability of these clustering algorithms in exploratory data analysis of real-world sequential data. In particular, our sequential data is derived from human DNA, written text, animal movement data and financial markets. In order to evaluate the determined clusters, and the associated Block Markov Chain model, we further develop a set of evaluation tools. These tools include benchmarking, spectral noise analysis and statistical model selection tools. An efficient implementation of the clustering algorithm and the new evaluation tools is made available together with this paper. Practical challenges associated to real-world data are encountered and discussed. It is ultimately found that the Block Markov Chain model assumption, together with the tools developed here, can indeed produce meaningful insights in exploratory data analyses despite the complexity and sparsity of real-world data.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figure

Radio evolution: conference proceedings

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Radio, the Resilient Medium Papers from the Third Conference of the ECREA Radio Research Section

Radio is a resilient medium. It has evolved considerably over its hundred-year history and we have every reason to believe that evolution will continue. This book is a peer- reviewed collection of papers from the third conference of the Radio Research Section of the European Research and Education Association (ECREA), held at the London Campus of the University of Sunderland in September 2013. It represents some of the best research presented at the conference, but every chapter has been revised and edited prior to publication. The book, like the conference, is an initiative of the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies (CRMCS), which is based in Sunderland. Published by the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, United Kingdom SR1 3SD

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

Heritage Cosmopolitics: Archaeology, Indigeneity and Rights in Bolivia and Argentina

This dissertation tackles the contemporary consensus on rights-based approaches to heritage management, conservation, and research through a multi-sited archaeology ethnography of two iconic sites of the south-central Andean region: the UNESCO World Heritage site of Tiwanaku (Bolivia), and the Sacred City of Quilmes in the Calchaquí Valleys (Tucumán, Argentina). The investigation is at the crossroads of archaeology, anthropology, and political sciences and aims to improve interdisciplinary methodology within the field of Critical Heritage Studies by showing conflictive, entangled configurations of memories and aspirations beneath the definition and exploitation of indigenous heritage in the present as much as in the past. The analytical assessment of what ties the fields of cultural heritage and human rights together in both field locations – in spite of national and academic demarcations – provided effective conceptual and evidentiary tools of translation across world-making practices, which I describe in terms of heritage cosmopolitics in this thesis. These assemblages shake taken-for-granted meanings of heritage/rights, while tangibly crafting my own fieldwork and questioning the logic and police of neoliberal multiculturalism

Play Among Books

How does coding change the way we think about architecture? Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books

Bowdoin Orient v.80, no.1-25 (1950-1951)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-1950s/1001/thumbnail.jp