Business intelligence gap analysis: a user, supplier and academic perspective

Business intelligence (BI) takes many different forms, as indicated by the varying definitions of BI that can be found in industry and academia. These different definitions help us understand of what BI issues are important to the main players in the field of BI; users, suppliers and academics. The goal of this research is to discover gaps and trends from the standpoints of BI users, BI suppliers and academics, and to examine their effects on business and academia. Consultants also play an important role since they can be seen as the link between users and suppliers. Two research methods are combined to accomplish this goal. We examine the BI focus of users and suppliers through a survey, and we gain insight to the BI focus of academics, vendor-neutral consultants (typical representatives like Forrester, Gartner and IDC) and vendor- specific consultants (typical representatives like IBM, Information builders, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP) through their publications. Previous studies indicate that similar article analyses often focus on academic research methods only. That means that the results so far often reveal the academic perspective. Unlike these previous studies, the perspective of this research is not limited to academics. Our results provide insight of the BI trends and BI issue ranking of BI users, suppliers, academics, vendors neutral consultants and vendor specific consultant

Seasonal environmental conditions related to tropical cyclone activity in the Northeast Pacific basin

This thesis presents the first in-depth study on interannual tropical cyclone activity in the Northeast (NE) Pacific, using statistical methods to investigate tropical cyclone frequency and its relationship with seasonal environmental conditions from 1972 to 1997. An improved method of calculating wind shear is first presented. It is demonstrated that the NE Pacific has more than one population of tropical cyclones with regard to causal factors, and tropical cyclones in the two regions show large differences in trends with time and in their relationships with environmental variables. Large increasing trends are found in the western development region (10˚N to 20˚N , 116˚W to 180˚W), with no significant trends in the eastern development region (10˚N to 20˚N, < 116˚W). No significant relationships were found in the eastern development region between tropical cyclone frequency and any of the environmental variables tested, except outgoing long-wave radiation, implying that the main causal factor here is triggering disturbances and their variations. However, in the western development region, some highly significant relationships exist. Important local variables there include relative humidity (RH) and SST. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is also a significant factor. The local relationships are probably largely due to the intensity-frequency effect and the spatial averaging of the variables, with threshold effects acting locally to provide conducive/non-conducive conditions in different parts of the region. Physical influences on the most important of these variables (RH) are investigated. (The reverse influence, of hurricanes on RH, is shown to be negligible. ) RH is shown to be significantly influenced, via the wind field, by ENSO and the intensity of the thermal low in North America. ENSO influences provide significant inverse relationships between tropical cyclone frequencies in the western development region and the North Atlantic

Is synaesthesia associated with any cognitive impairments? An examination of numerical processing.

Synaesthesia is the involuntary experience of sensations, normally associated with one modality through another. It is thought to have a biological and genetic origin and other researchers have suggested that it could result in an uneven profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The aim of this study was to identify potential deficiencies in arithmetical abilities and right-left discrimination between synaesthetes and matched control subjects. The hypothesis, based on the literature, suggested that synaesthetes would demonstrate impaired mathematical abilities and show signs of right-left confusability. A questionnaire and an array of objective tests were carried out to test this hypothesis. The subjective data reflects the literature, with significantly more synaesthetes reporting arithmetic problems and right-left confusion. The objective data, however, reveals no significant difference between synaesthetes and controls for basic arithmetic and right-left distinction tasks. These objective tests consisted of several response time measures of arithmetic, subitization, and left-right judgments. It is concluded that these problems are not a ubiquitous feature of synaesthesia, although they may be present in a subset of synaesthetes. Another line of evidence is presented that demonstrates a higher than expected occurrence of visuo-spatial mental number forms amongst our synaesthetic population. The role of spatial numerical processing is discussed as a possible explanation for the discrepancy between subjective and objective analyses whilst numerical ability is not affected on a global level, numerical processing may be constrained by synaesthete's mental number forms, which are often complex and convoluted. The implications of this study are discussed in light of normal models of numerical processing

Scaling issues in ensemble implementations of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm

We discuss the ensemble version of the Deutsch-Jozsa (DJ) algorithm which attempts to provide a "scalable" implementation on an expectation-value NMR quantum computer. We show that this ensemble implementation of the DJ algorithm is at best as efficient as the classical random algorithm. As soon as any attempt is made to classify all possible functions with certainty, the implementation requires an exponentially large number of molecules. The discrepancies arise out of the interpretation of mixed state density matrices.Comment: Minor changes, reference added, replaced with publised versio

Simulation of deposit formation in particle laden flows

Fatty deposits formed on arterial walls lead to atherosclerosis but it is the interplay between these deposits and the vessel walls which govern the growth of plaque formation. Crucially however the vast majority of acute coronary syndromes such as, myocardial infarction, and sudden ischaemic cardiac death are caused by atherosclerotic plaque rupture and not from a stenosis growing and blocking the blood flow. In fact, atherosclerotic plaques expand into the vessel wall during much of their existence and this can make their detection problematic. However inflammation within the necrotic core of the plaque, can be used to detect which plaques may be vulnerable. Thermal mapping of arterial walls can help identify the most likely sites for plaque rupture. This paper aims to provide a direct link between the geometry of these deposits and their thermal properties in order that non-invasive imaging techniques could be used to spot vulnerable plaques. We will discuss a methodology for estimating the thermal conductivity which utilises self-similarity properties using fractal analysis and renormalisation. The selfsimilar microstructure is captured by a family of random fractals called shuffled Sierpinski carpets (SSC). The thermal conductivity of the SSC can then be predicted both from its box counting fractal dimension and via a generalised real space renormalisation method. This latter approach also affords an analysis of the percolation threshold of two phase fractal media

One-parameter nonrelativistic supersymmetry for microtubules

The one-parameter nonrelativistic supersymmetry of Mielnik [J. Math. Phys. 25, 3387 (1984)] is applied to the simple supersymmetric model of Caticha [Phys. Rev. A 51, 4264 (1995)] in the form used by Rosu [Phys. Rev. E 55, 2038 (1997)] for microtubules. By this means, we introduce Montroll double-well potentials with singularities that move along the positive or negative traveling direction depending on the sign of the free parameter of Mielnik's method. Possible interpretations of the singularity are either microtubule associated proteins (motors) or structural discontinuities in the arrangement of the tubulin moleculesComment: 6 pages, 5 figures, minor change

Don’t Worry, We’ll Get There: Developing Robot Personalities to Maintain User Interaction After Robot Error

Human robot interaction (HRI) often considers the human impact of a robot serving to assist a human in achieving their goal or a shared task. There are many circumstances though during HRI in which a robot may make errors that are inconvenient or even detrimental to human partners. Using the ROBOtic GUidance and Interaction DEvelopment (ROBO-GUIDE) model on the Pioneer LX platform as a case study, and insights from social psychology, we examine key factors for a robot that has made such a mistake, ensuring preservation of individuals’ perceived competence of the robot, and individuals’ trust towards the robot. We outline an experimental approach to test these proposals

Simulation of deposit formation in particle laden flows: thermal properties

Fatty deposits formed on arterial walls lead to atherosclerosis but it is the interplay between these deposits and the vessel walls which governs the growth of plaque formation. Cells in the vessel walls trigger the body's defenses and through a series of mechanisms lead to the promotion of plaque growth. Crucially however the vast majority of acute coronary syndromes such as, myocardial infarction, and sudden ischaemic cardiac death is caused by atherosclerotic plaque rupture and not from a stenosis growing and blocking the blood flow. Although the stress caused by the blood flow does play a role in plaque rupture, it has been found that the degree of stenosis is a relatively minor factor in predicting which plaques are most prone to rupture. In fact, atherosclerotic plaques expand into the vessel wall during much of their existence and this can make their detection problematic

A purely algebraic construction of a gauge and renormalization group invariant scalar glueball operator

This paper presents a complete algebraic proof of the renormalizability of the gauge invariant $d=4$ operator $F_{\mu\nu}^2(x)$ to all orders of perturbation theory in pure Yang-Mills gauge theory, whereby working in the Landau gauge. This renormalization is far from being trivial as mixing occurs with other $d=4$ gauge variant operators, which we identify explicitly. We determine the mixing matrix $Z$ to all orders in perturbation theory by using only algebraic arguments and consequently we can uncover a renormalization group invariant by using the anomalous dimension matrix $\Gamma$ derived from $Z$. We also present a future plan for calculating the mass of the lightest scalar glueball with the help of the framework we have set up.Comment: 17 page

Evaluation of optical techniques for characterising soil organic matter quality in agricultural soils

Soil organic matter (SOM) is one of the main global carbon pools. It is a measure of soil quality as its presence increases carbon sequestration and improves physical and chemical soil properties. The determination and characterisation of humic substances gives essential information of the maturity and stresses of soils as well as of their health. However, the determination of the exact nature and molecular structure of these substances has been proven difficult. Several complex techniques exist to characterise SOM and mineralisation and humification processes. One of the more widely accepted for its accuracy is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Despite its efficacy, NMR needs significant economic resources, equipment, material and time. Proxy measures like the fluorescence index (FI), cold and hot-water extractable carbon (CWC and HWC) and SUVA-254 have the potential to characterise SOM and, in combination, provide qualitative and quantitative data of SOM and its processes. Spanish and British agricultural cambisols were used to measure SOM quality and determine whether similarities were found between optical techniques and 1H NMR results in these two regions with contrasting climatic conditions. High correlations (p < 0.001) were found between the specific aromatic fraction measured with 1H NMR and SUVA-254 (Rs = 0.95) and HWC (Rs = 0.90), which could be described using a linear model. A high correlation between FI and the aromatics fraction measured with 1H NMR (Rs = −0.976) was also observed. In view of our results, optical measures have a potential, in combination, to predict the aromatic fraction of SOM without the need of expensive and time consuming techniques