Modeling structural change in spatial system dynamics: A Daisyworld example

System dynamics (SD) is an effective approach for helping reveal the temporal behavior of complex systems. Although there have been recent developments in expanding SD to include systems' spatial dependencies, most applications have been restricted to the simulation of diffusion processes; this is especially true for models on structural change (e.g. LULC modeling). To address this shortcoming, a Python program is proposed to tightly couple SD software to a Geographic Information System (GIS). The approach provides the required capacities for handling bidirectional and synchronized interactions of operations between SD and GIS. In order to illustrate the concept and the techniques proposed for simulating structural changes, a fictitious environment called Daisyworld has been recreated in a spatial system dynamics (SSD) environment. The comparison of spatial and non-spatial simulations emphasizes the importance of considering spatio-temporal feedbacks. Finally, practical applications of structural change models in agriculture and disaster management are proposed

Environmental innocence and slow violence

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Advantages of using Virtual Reality as a financial instrument

In recent years, the phenomenon of Virtual Reality has been highlighted by most technology-interested persons around the world. The technology allows visualization and interaction with environments, which in real life would be too costly to recreate. At the same time, the banking sector’s ways of presenting financial information are relatively old fashioned and still consist of lists and 2D graphs. This study will examine whether VR can be used by financial actors as an instruments and what the technology can contribute to in economics. The present work will lay the foundation for a VR test environment that will be tested and evaluated by potential users. The design process of the environment will include 1) Investigation phase – flaws in current systems will be identified, meetings with bank representatives and end user identification will be conducted. 2) Idea-generating - through brainstorming, ideas on the design of the environment will be developed. 3) Prototypes - In this phase, prototypes from sketches will be forwarded into 3D simulation which will be developed and evaluated. The prototypes will form the development of the final creation of the environment. 4) Final phase - The final part of the process will include testing on the developed environment and present conclusions as to whether VR has a future in the banking system. The testing will be conducted in two different groups, one with people with financial experience and one with people without economics knowledge. The test embraces a scenario-based model with physical and analytical tasks ending with a feedback survey.Fenomenet Virtual Reality (VR) har dom senaste åren uppmärksammats av de flesta teknikintresserade världen över. Tekniken möjliggör bland annat visualisering och interaktion med miljöer och som i verkligheten skulle bli för kostsamma att återskapa. Samtidigt så står bankernas sätt att presentera finansiell information förhållandevis stilla och utgörs fortfarande av listor och 2D-grafer. I studien kommer det undersökas huruvida VR kan användas av finansiella aktörer som instrument och vad tekniken kan bidra till inom ekonomi. Föreliggande arbete kommer lägga grunden för en VR-testmiljö som kommer att testas och utvärderas av tänkta användare. Designprocessen av miljön kommer att innefatta 1) Definierande fas – då kommer brister i nuvarande system identifieras, möten från bankrepresentanter och identifiering av slutanvändare att genomföras. 2) Idegenererande – genom brainstorming kommer idéer på utformningen av miljön att tas fram. 3) Protyper –I denna fas kommer prototyper i form av skisser vidare fram till 3D-ritningar att tas fram och utvärderas. Prototyperna kommer att lägga grunden till utvecklingen av det slutgiltiga skapandet av miljön. 4) Slutfasen – Sista delen av processen kommer att innehålla testning på den framtagna miljö och presentera slutsatser huruvida VR har en framtid inom bankväsendet. Testningen kommer att genomföras på två olika grupper, en med personer som har ekonomisk erfarenhet och en med personer utan ekonomierfarenheter. Testet anammar en scenariobaserad modell med fysiska och analyserande uppgifter som avslutas med en feedback-enkät

Accounting And Forms Of Accountability In Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt

The aim of this paper is to identify the relevance and implications of ancient accounting practices to the contemporary theorizing of accounting. The paper provides a synthesis of the literature on ancient accounting particularly in relation to issues of human accountability, identifies its major achievements and outlines some of the key challenges facing researchers. We argue that far from being an idiosyncratic research field of marginal interest, research in ancient accounting is a rich and promising undertaking. The paper concludes by considering a number of implications of ancient accounting practices for the theorizing of accounting and identifies news avenues for future research.

Predicting Illness and Type of Treatment from Digital Health Records

Kasvavad kulud tervishoius ning samaaegne töötava populatsiooni kahanemine on kriitliine probleem kõikjal arenenud maailmas. Ühest küljest on paratamatu, et uued ravimid ja meetodid on kallid, teisest küljest on võimalik vähendada välditavaid kulutusi parema plaanimise ja ennetustööga. Enamik haiglad salvestavad digitaalselt kõik, mis patsiendiga ravi jooksul toimub ja Eestis esitatakse kõik raviarved ka Eesti Haigekassale (HK) hüvitamiseks. Käesolevas töös kasutatakse HK andmeid ehitamaks mudelit, mille abil on võimalik tuletada erinevad raviprotsessid, mida patsientide ravimisel kasutatakse ning samuti ka ennustada patsientide hulka, kes tulevikus vastavat ravi vajavad. Selline mudel võiks olla kasulik suunamaks otsuseid vahendite jaotamisel ja ennetustöö suunamisel.The rising costs of healthcare and decreasing size of the working population is a dire problem in most of the developed world. While it is inevitable that new methods are costly, it is possible to reduce avoidable expenses by better planning and prevention. Most hospitals keep digital records of everything that happens to a patient during their treatment and in Estonia all medical bills are also presented to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for reimbursement. In this work the data from NHIF is used to build a model that as the first step uncovers the different clinical pathways followed for the treatment of patients with an illness. As a second step the model is used to predict the number of patients that will be provided the uncovered treatments in the future. The output of such a model could be a valuable asset for planning resource allocation and preventative health care

Scientific evolutionary pathways: Identifying and visualizing relationships for scientific topics

© 2017 ASIS & T Whereas traditional science maps emphasize citation statistics and static relationships, this paper presents a term-based method to identify and visualize the evolutionary pathways of scientific topics in a series of time slices. First, we create a data preprocessing model for accurate term cleaning, consolidating, and clustering. Then we construct a simulated data streaming function and introduce a learning process to train a relationship identification function to adapt to changing environments in real time, where relationships of topic evolution, fusion, death, and novelty are identified. The main result of the method is a map of scientific evolutionary pathways. The visual routines provide a way to indicate the interactions among scientific subjects and a version in a series of time slices helps further illustrate such evolutionary pathways in detail. The detailed outline offers sufficient statistical information to delve into scientific topics and routines and then helps address meaningful insights with the assistance of expert knowledge. This empirical study focuses on scientific proposals granted by the United States National Science Foundation, and demonstrates the feasibility and reliability. Our method could be widely applied to a range of science, technology, and innovation policy research, and offer insight into the evolutionary pathways of scientific activities