Choice and the composition of general practice patient registers

Choice of general practice (GP) in the National Health Service (NHS), the UKs universal healthcare service, is a core element in the current trajectory of NHS policy. This paper uses an accessibility-based approach to investigate the pattern of patient choice that exists for GPs in the London Borough of Southwark. Using a spatial model of GP accessibility it is shown that particular population groups make non-accessibility based decisions when choosing a GP. These patterns are assessed by considering differences in the composition of GP patient registers between the current patient register, and a modelled patient register configured for optimal access to GPs. The patient population is classified in two ways for the purpose of this analysis: by geodemographic group, and by ethnicity. The paper considers choice in healthcare for intra-urban areas, focusing on the role of accessibility and equity

A multi-attribute decision making procedure using fuzzy numbers and hybrid aggregators

The classical Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has two limitations. Firstly, it disregards the aspect of uncertainty that usually embedded in the data or information expressed by human. Secondly, it ignores the aspect of interdependencies among attributes during aggregation. The application of fuzzy numbers aids in confronting the former issue whereas, the usage of Choquet Integral operator helps in dealing with the later issue. However, the application of fuzzy numbers into multi-attribute decision making (MADM) demands some additional steps and inputs from decision maker(s). Similarly, identification of monotone measure weights prior to employing Choquet Integral requires huge number of computational steps and amount of inputs from decision makers, especially with the increasing number of attributes. Therefore, this research proposed a MADM procedure which able to reduce the number of computational steps and amount of information required from the decision makers when dealing with these two aspects simultaneously. To attain primary goal of this research, five phases were executed. First, the concept of fuzzy set theory and its application in AHP were investigated. Second, an analysis on the aggregation operators was conducted. Third, the investigation was narrowed on Choquet Integral and its associate monotone measure. Subsequently, the proposed procedure was developed with the convergence of five major components namely Factor Analysis, Fuzzy-Linguistic Estimator, Choquet Integral, Mikhailov‘s Fuzzy AHP, and Simple Weighted Average. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed procedure was verified by solving a real MADM problem where the image of three stores located in Sabak Bernam, Selangor, Malaysia was analysed from the homemakers‘ perspective. This research has a potential in motivating more decision makers to simultaneously include uncertainties in human‘s data and interdependencies among attributes when solving any MADM problems

Sino-German Communication Interferences in Intercultural Teamwork: A Postmodern Approach

Previously, research on multinational teamwork with various nationalities and cultures involved, which looked at the aspect of communication, was largely based on the examination of specific facilitators and barriers to its communication (i.e. Watson, et al., 1993; Hofner Saphiere, 1996). There it was found that multinational teams might have specific communication facilitators dependent upon the cultures involved. This is reflected in the theoretical development in the field of intercultural management, which gives guidance for culturally complex team settings (i.e. Trompenaars, 1993). The complexity managers’ face is increasing further through China’s involvement in the implementation of globalization strategies (Podsiadlowski, 2002). Recently, the relevance of China’s involvement has been increasing for Germany, in particular given Chinese companies’ investments in Germany. Therefore, the study of various nationalities in one research project has been reconsidered and currently there is new demand for studies, which seek to understand the complexity of Sino-German teamwork (Podsiadlowski, 2002). However, besides non-research based literature, research focusing solely on Sino-German teamwork occupies a marginal place (i.e. Podsiadlowski, 2002). Additionally, much of the multinational team research (for example, Watson, et al., 1993) looked at outcomes and disregarded the team members’ experience itself by using quantitative methods. It provided an understanding influenced by positivistic perspectives, saying that certain factors are pre-conditions for successful team communication. This study recognized these positions, but questioned the positivist bias demonstrated there. Throughout this research, associated factors were understood as being non-linear and interrelated, representing the complexity managers are experiencing. As a result this study argued that Chinese and Germans working in teams were marginalised in the intercultural management research field until today and their needs were not addressed by much of the existing research. These led to my conclusion that there is a need to conduct research that for the first time is informed by a postmodern theoretical framework that seeks to privilege multiplicity and diversity and that also attends to the silences surrounding this group. Therefore, a postmodern framework provided the theoretical lens through which this research, and its authorial, methodological, and interpretive characteristics were construed and represented. This perspective emphasised local stories about experiences, attended to ‘difference’, was concerned with the multiple nature of ‘reality’, and recognised the importance of language as a medium for the social construction of what may be considered ‘truth’ (Cheek, 2000). Narrative inquiry represented in this thesis the postmodern epistemological framework to understand subjective experiences by exploring the stories of twelve Chinese and German participants and the meanings derived from these. These stories were themselves experiences structured and recalled inside wider cultural and social contexts (Kirkman, 2002; Webster & Mertova, 2007). The socio-cultural contexts were woven into the language used by the participants to explain their experiences and signified the meanings of these experiences. However, Chinese and Germans not only differed with regards to language and language variety, but also with respect to their patterns of usage and how meaning was generated in interactive situations on the basis of socio-cultural knowledge. Therefore, my narrative inquiry took into account both linguistic and sociocultural aspects and addressed the relations between interactive communication strategies and larger social and cultural phenomena. Within the context presented above, the focus and contribution of this study were the descriptions of the intercultural communication experiences of members of Sino- German teams and the analysis of factors relating to interferences in communication to provide a thicker explanation of communication interferences in intercultural communication, where theoretical attempts so far remained rather fragmented, and to contribute findings from different perspectives on what has traditionally been viewed from a positivistic standpoint. Through sharing the participants’ lived experiences of working and communicating with Chinese and Germans and vice versa, a number of linguistic and socio-cultural factors influencing communication behaviour and causing interferences were uncovered. The factors identified from the study resonate with a number of factors previously established in existing multinational teamwork research and whilst others contributed new information that adds to the understandings of the meanings that may be made from such experience of communication interferences. Comparing the experiences related by Chinese participants with those related by German participants showed a substantial consensus with regards to the communication interferences experienced in Sino-German teams and the factors relating to these interferences, as well as observable differences in communication behaviours. The lack of foreign language proficiency on the side of both Chinese and German individuals was stated as being a major factor for communication interferences that was further enhanced through the strong linguistic barrier between these two languages. Good language proficiency minimises the occurrence of misunderstandings and miscommunications. It allows better personal contact between the team members since it better enables people to establish personal contacts and relationships, as well as to use an interlinked communication structure that allows informal communication and therefore compliance with the Chinese cultural ‘rules of the game’. However, foreign language proficiency alone is not a guarantee for successful intercultural communication in Sino-German teams. This study also analysed, in addition to the practical and theoretical significance of language and language skills, the cultural influences on the communication between Chinese and German team members. Many participants were either unaware (especially on the German side) or only partially aware of the fact that differences in communication behaviour are based on different culture-specific communication conventions and strategies. It was found that intercultural awareness on the part of individuals in a team, meaning the knowledge and awareness of culture-specific conventions and norms, had a positive influence on communication within the team. Knowledge of the meaning of the two key terms mianzi and guanxi plays an important role in Sino-German teams. On the other hand, an ethnocentric perspective on either one or both sides inevitably results in mutual negative attributions. This findings added to the understanding how this communication could be improved and, most importantly, as a prerequisite for actions of any kind to achieve improvements, to draw the attention of German team members to the relevance of communication when working with their Chinese colleagues and vice versa. Furthermore, the study functioned as an act of empowerment, a way to give voice to managers and team members who were methodologically not heard

Applying text timing in corporate spin-off disclosure statement analysis: understanding the main concerns and recommendation of appropriate term weights

Text mining helps in extracting knowledge and useful information from unstructured data. It detects and extracts information from mountains of documents and allowing in selecting data related to a particular data. In this study, text mining is applied to the 10-12b filings done by the companies during Corporate Spin-off. The main purposes are (1) To investigate potential and/or major concerns found from these financial statements filed for corporate spin-off and (2) To identify appropriate methods in text mining which can be used to reveal these major concerns. 10-12b filings from thirty-four companies were taken and only the Risk Factors category was taken for analysis. Term weights such as Entropy, IDF, GF-IDF, Normal and None were applied on the input data and out of them Entropy and GF-IDF were found to be the appropriate term weights which provided acceptable results. These accepted term weights gave the results which was acceptable to human expert\u27s expectations. The document distribution from these term weights created a pattern which reflected the mood or focus of the input documents. In addition to the analysis, this study also provides a pilot study for future work in predictive text mining for the analysis of similar financial documents. For example, the descriptive terms found from this study provide a set of start word list which eliminates the try and error method of framing an initial start list --Abstract, page iii

Machine Understanding and Deep Learning Representation

Practical ability manifested through robust and reliable task performance, as well as information relevance and well-structured representation, are key factors indicative of understanding in philosophical literature. We explore these factors in the context of deep learning, identifying prominent patterns in how the results of these algorithms represent information. While the estimation applications of modern neural networks do not qualify as the mental activity of minded agents, we argue that coupling analyses from philosophical accounts with the empirical and theoretical basis for identifying these factors in deep learning representations provides a framework for discussing and critically evaluating potential machine understanding given the continually improving task performance enabled by such algorithms

Graduate School: Course Decriptions, 1972-73

Official publication of Cornell University V.64 1972/7

The Success Factors in Measuring the Millennial Generation’s Energy-Saving Behavior Toward the Smart Campus

The millennial generation has a pivotal role in leading the industrial digital revolution. Energy-saving behavior and millennials’ awareness of energy consumption for educational context become crucial in performing a smart campus. This study tries to identify the success factors in measuring the millennial generation’s energy-saving Behavior toward the smart campus. The measurement model considers two significant constructs, including energy-saving attitudes with energy-saving education (organizational saving climate); energy-saving education and environment knowledge (personal saving climate); and energy-saving information publicity as sub-indicators, and construct energy-saving Behavior viz sub-indicators Behavior regarding energy and behavior control. In order to determine the preference level of each indicator and sub-indicator, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) approach was executed by disseminating the questionnaire to 100 respondents from energy practitioners, students, and academicians in Indonesia. The calculation reveals that the energy-saving behavior construct has a higher priority value (0.94) than the energy-saving attitude (0.06). Meanwhile, energy-saving education and environment knowledge (personal saving climate) have been analyzed at the cutting-edge sub-indicator, followed by energy-saving information publicity and education (organizational saving climate). In addition, the sub-indicator for behaviors regarding energy becomes more demanding compared to behavioral control. As a novelty, the priority analysis of this Model aids the management of the campus and government in developing smart campus policies and governance. This Model can be used as a guideline for the management level to execute the smart campus practices. Thus, the effectiveness and optimization of smart campus transformation can be cultivated and accelerated. Besides, the potential coming of risks can be avoidable

GIS-based urban land use characterization and population modeling with subpixel information measured from remote sensing data

This dissertation provides deeper understanding on the application of Vegetation-Impervious Surface-Soil (V-I-S) model in the urban land use characterization and population modeling, focusing on New Orleans area. Previous research on the V-I-S model used in urban land use classification emphasized on the accuracy improvement while ignoring the discussion of the stability of classifiers. I developed an evaluation framework by using randomization techniques and decision tree method to assess and compare the performance of classifiers and input features. The proposed evaluation framework is applied to demonstrate the superiority of V-I-S fractions and LST for urban land use classification. It could also be applied to the assessment of input features and classifiers for other remote sensing image classification context. An innovative urban land use classification based on the V-I-S model is implemented and tested in this dissertation. Due to the shape of the V-I-S bivariate histogram that resembles topological surfaces, a pattern that honors the Lu-Weng’s urban model, the V-I-S feature space is rasterized into grey-scale image and subsequently partitioned by marker-controlled watershed segmentation, leading to an urban land use classification. This new approach is proven to be insensitive to the selection of initial markers as long as they are positioned around the underlying watershed centers. This dissertation links the population distribution of New Orleans with its physiogeographic conditions indicated by the V-I-S sub-pixel composition and the land use information. It shows that the V-I-S fractions cannot be directly used to model the population distribution. Both the OLS and GWR models produced poor model fit. In contrast, the land use information extracted from the V-I-S information and LST significantly improved regression models. A three-class land use model is fitted adequately. The GWR model reveals the spatial nonstationarity as the relationship between the population distribution and the land use is relatively poor in the city center and becomes stronger towards the city fringe, depicting a classic urban concentric pattern. It highlighted that New Orleans is a complex metropolitan area, and its population distribution cannot be fully modeled with the physiogeographic measurements