56,403 research outputs found
Demographic Data for Development: Overview Report
Presents findings from case studies in Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda of the demand for and utilization of data by policy makers and the factors behind their underutilization. Explores ways to improve access to data needed to develop sound policies
Uganda: Data Strategy and Capacity Building
As part of Uganda's commitment to the Sustainable Development Agenda, the country has made substantial progress toward improved national development dataâincluding the launch of a Development Data Hub supported by Development Initiatives and a review of open data readiness jointly undertaken by the government and the World Bank. Uganda however, lacks an organized framework for collecting and sharing reliable and comparable data on philanthropy. As such, the newly established Uganda National Philanthropy Forum (UPF) represents a key mechanism for the sector to consolidate its e orts and hone its contributions to national development. The forum was established in October 2015, facilitated by the East Africa Association of Grantmakers (EAAG), in partnership with Independent Development Fund (IDF), Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA) and GoBig Hub. Its objective is to explore strategies for consolidating and organizing the philanthropy sector in Uganda.As a follow up to the UPF agenda on advancing philanthropy data in Uganda, EAAG and the Foundation Center in partnership with IDF and DENIVA hosted a Data Scoping Meeting on October 25th 2016. The objective of the meeting was to explore opportunities to strengthen data sharing and management to enhance the sector's coordination and in uence on national development policy. The meeting brought together 35 foundations, trusts and other local philanthropy organizations
Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in the Semantic Web: A Multi-Dimensional Review
Since the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) specification and its
SKOS eXtension for Labels (SKOS-XL) became formal W3C recommendations in 2009 a
significant number of conventional knowledge organization systems (KOS)
(including thesauri, classification schemes, name authorities, and lists of
codes and terms, produced before the arrival of the ontology-wave) have made
their journeys to join the Semantic Web mainstream. This paper uses "LOD KOS"
as an umbrella term to refer to all of the value vocabularies and lightweight
ontologies within the Semantic Web framework. The paper provides an overview of
what the LOD KOS movement has brought to various communities and users. These
are not limited to the colonies of the value vocabulary constructors and
providers, nor the catalogers and indexers who have a long history of applying
the vocabularies to their products. The LOD dataset producers and LOD service
providers, the information architects and interface designers, and researchers
in sciences and humanities, are also direct beneficiaries of LOD KOS. The paper
examines a set of the collected cases (experimental or in real applications)
and aims to find the usages of LOD KOS in order to share the practices and
ideas among communities and users. Through the viewpoints of a number of
different user groups, the functions of LOD KOS are examined from multiple
dimensions. This paper focuses on the LOD dataset producers, vocabulary
producers, and researchers (as end-users of KOS).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, accepted paper in International Journal on
Digital Librarie
Demographic Data for Development Decisionmaking: Case Studies From Ethiopia and Uganda
Analyzes the lack of demographic and socioeconomic data, limited access to and use of existing data, and insufficient demand for their application in policy making and resource allocation. Makes recommendations for greater access, demand, and use of data
Exploring the eco-attitudes and buying behaviour of Facebook users
Eco-friendly consumersâ attitudes are becoming increasingly frequent, recent research
indicating that pro-environmental purchase behaviour not only lower costs on the long
term, but also enhance business stakeholdersâ and consumersâ confidence in high added
value products and services. This paper undertakes an interdisciplinary research on how
social media (i.e. Facebook) can influence usersâ perceptions and buying behaviour related
to five categories of ecological products and services (eco-food, eco-tourism, eco-housing,
eco-textiles and eco-beauty & cosmetics). This research investigates how ecological
products and services could gain popularity and overpass the identified purchasing barriers
(e.g. high prices, low awareness, low availability) via superior integration in consumersâ
daily experiences with Facebook. The research findings indicate that Facebook represents
an effective and innovative environment that could build the necessary links between green
attitudes and consumersâ hearts and minds
AstroGrid-D: Grid Technology for Astronomical Science
We present status and results of AstroGrid-D, a joint effort of
astrophysicists and computer scientists to employ grid technology for
scientific applications. AstroGrid-D provides access to a network of
distributed machines with a set of commands as well as software interfaces. It
allows simple use of computer and storage facilities and to schedule or monitor
compute tasks and data management. It is based on the Globus Toolkit middleware
(GT4). Chapter 1 describes the context which led to the demand for advanced
software solutions in Astrophysics, and we state the goals of the project. We
then present characteristic astrophysical applications that have been
implemented on AstroGrid-D in chapter 2. We describe simulations of different
complexity, compute-intensive calculations running on multiple sites, and
advanced applications for specific scientific purposes, such as a connection to
robotic telescopes. We can show from these examples how grid execution improves
e.g. the scientific workflow. Chapter 3 explains the software tools and
services that we adapted or newly developed. Section 3.1 is focused on the
administrative aspects of the infrastructure, to manage users and monitor
activity. Section 3.2 characterises the central components of our architecture:
The AstroGrid-D information service to collect and store metadata, a file
management system, the data management system, and a job manager for automatic
submission of compute tasks. We summarise the successfully established
infrastructure in chapter 4, concluding with our future plans to establish
AstroGrid-D as a platform of modern e-Astronomy.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures Subjects: data analysis, image processing,
robotic telescopes, simulations, grid. Accepted for publication in New
Astronom
Learning How to Consume and Returns to Product Promotion
This paper presents the computational model of consumer behaviour. We consider two sources of product specic consumer skill acquisition, termed here as learning how to consume: learning by consuming and consumer socialization. Consumers utilize these two sources in order to derive higher valuations for products they are consuming. In this framework we discuss the behavior of returns to product promotion relative to the changes in product characteristics, such as quality and userfriendliness, as well as in case of varying intensity of consumer socialization. The main finding is that in case of duopoly the dependence of returns to advertising on product quality is not monotonic as it has been claimed by earlier studies. Additional important finding indicating the importance of the models with interacting agents is that returns to advertising exhibit qualitatively different behavior in case of zero intensity of consumer socialization.Consumer skills, learning by consuming, consumer socialization, product promotion, returns to advertising
Outline of the Finnish system of certified carbon footprints of food products
The basic structure of a system called Certified Footprints of Products (CFP system) is outlined in this discussion paper. The CFP system could produce strict and reliable data needed for generating product-oriented carbon footprints in Finland. Central parts of the CFP system are a national CFP programme, product category rules (PCRs), a chain or actor-wise monitoring plan, validation of the monitoring plan, and reporting and verification of data, and an ICT-system to support data sharing. The system is designed around activity-based monitoring data, and every actor would be responsible for data on its own activities. Linkages to existing environmental management systems are taken into account. The CFP system is still just a theoretical structure. It needs further development prior to full-scale introduction. For the food sector, a new architecture for data acquisition and quality assurance, development of existing mechanisms and consolidation of them in the CFP system are needed. Additional research is needed regarding emissions from agricultural production
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