The discrete dynamics of small-scale spatial events: agent-based models of mobility in carnivals and street parades

Small-scale spatial events are situations in which elements or objects vary in such away that temporal dynamics is intrinsic to their representation and explanation. Someof the clearest examples involve local movement from conventional traffic modelingto disaster evacuation where congestion, crowding, panic, and related safety issue arekey features of such events. We propose that such events can be simulated using newvariants of pedestrian model, which embody ideas about how behavior emerges fromthe accumulated interactions between small-scale objects. We present a model inwhich the event space is first explored by agents using ?swarm intelligence?. Armedwith information about the space, agents then move in an unobstructed fashion to theevent. Congestion and problems over safety are then resolved through introducingcontrols in an iterative fashion and rerunning the model until a ?safe solution? isreached. The model has been developed to simulate the effect of changing the route ofthe Notting Hill Carnival, an annual event held in west central London over 2 days inAugust each year. One of the key issues in using such simulation is how the processof modeling interacts with those who manage and control the event. As such, thischanges the nature of the modeling problem from one where control and optimizationis external to the model to one where this is intrinsic to the simulation

Pedestrian demand modelling of large cities: an applied example from London

This paper introduces a methodology for the development of city wide pedestrian demand models and shows its application to London. The approach used for modelling is Multiple Regression Analysis of independent variables against the dependent variable of observed pedestrian flows. The test samples were from manual observation studies of average total pedestrian flow per hour on 237 sample sites. The model will provide predicted flow values for all 7,526 street segments in the 25 square kilometres of Central London. It has been independently validated by Transport for London and is being tested against further observation data. The longer term aim is to extend the model to the entire greater London area and to incorporate additional policy levers for use as a transport planning and evaluation tool

The relationship between urban street configuration and office rent patterns in Berlin

This thesis presents a study of the influence of urban street configuration on the pattern of commercial office rents in Berlin. The hypothesis is that there is a relationship between the two, and that the alteration of the street network with reunification has precipitated a spatial reorganisation of office rents. The identification of an independent spatial variable that can be used to account for the pattern of rent is a key problem in office rent studies. Unlike previously used distances to a point in the Central Business District (CBD) or other destinations, this study uses 'space syntax' measures of the morphology of the street network. 'Global integration' is used to measure the role of each street within the entire configuration, revealing fundamental changes in the spatial structure of Berlin both with the city's historical development and with reunification. Whereas most previous office rent studies have used yearly average asking rents per building for a short period, a sample of 412 achieved rents over a 7 year period was collected to control for the influence of lease provisions and the effect of market change over time on rents. The spatial pattern of 'location rents' is investigated through visual representations using GIS. Significant variation from street to street and a marked rise from periphery to centre are found. Unlike previous studies, spatial changes over time were investigated: a marked shift in the pattern of rents from West Berlin to the East has occurred in the 7 years following reunification. This shift corresponds to the changing spatial structure of the city revealed in the spatial analysis. Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) is used to quantify the importance of spatial variables (space syntax measures) in rent determination but also taking non-spatial variables (time, building quality, and lease provisions) into account. The main findings are that rents in West Berlin can be explained by the date of lease commencement (falling with the recession) and the global spatial integration as it was in divided Berlin. In East Berlin the global integration pattern of reunfied Berlin is most important and secondly the date of lease commencement. Other variables such as floorspace and lease length are not found to have statistical significance. It is concluded that the change in Berlin's spatial structure that occurred with reunification led to a spatial reorganisation of prime office rents from the West Berlin CBD into the former East Berlin district of Mitte. It is argued that 'location value' will be an emergent property of any spatial system because a differentiated potential for co-presence is created

Book Review: Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children

Review of Sex trafficking: The global market in women and children by Kathryn Far

A Critique of the Global Trafficking Discourse and U.S. Policy

This article examines the dominant discourse on trafficking in persons and the implementation of international and U.S. policy to address trafficking globally. Features of the United Nations Protocol and the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act demonstrate how trafficking frameworks currently in place contain underlying fears of migration and female sexuality. The implications of policy on the construction of third world women as victims to be saved through governments, National Government Organizations, feminists and the media will show how these misrespresentations only reinforce racism and dualistic simplifications of a complex issue. An emphasis is placed on the importance of women\u27s agency and the possibility of multiple realities. An alternative way of thinking about human trafficking and related policy through a labor rights, migration and human rights framework is propose

Innovation collaboration and appropriability by knowledge-intensive business services firms

We uncover a “paradox of formal appropriability mechanisms” in the case of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms. Despite evidence that KIBS firms do not typically consider formal appropriability mechanisms, such as patents, to be central mechanisms for capturing value from innovation, we show that they are nevertheless important for their innovation collaboration. Drawing on an original survey of publicly-traded UK and US KIBS firms, we find a significant positive association between the importance of innovation collaboration and the importance of formal appropriability mechanisms. We interrogate the evidence for clients, as they are the most important partners for innovation collaboration. We find that the importance of innovation collaboration with clients goes hand-in-hand with the importance of formal appropriability mechanisms, although a negative relation appears when firms assign very high importance to formal appropriability mechanisms. Thus, modest levels of emphasis on formal appropriability mechanisms may prevent conflicts over ownership of jointly developed knowledge assets and knowledge leakages, while also avoiding the possibly negative effects of overly strict controls by legal departments on innovation collaboration. As well as exploring formal appropriability mechanisms, we also investigate the relationship between contractual and strategic appropriability mechanisms and innovation collaboration for KIBS firms

Capturing value from innovation in knowledge-intensive business service firms: the role of competitive strategy

Building on a problem-solving perspective to value creation and capture, and on the business strategy literature, we argue that the actions that knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms take to identify, select and solve client problems will affect their approach to capturing value from innovation. We apply regression analysis to data from an original survey involving a sample of 230 innovations introduced by 150 publicly-traded UK and US KIBS firms. Distinguishing between cost- and differentiation-oriented KIBS firms, we find that cost-oriented firms tend to place more importance on all appropriability mechanisms than do differentiation-oriented firms. Furthermore, the perceived importance of formal appropriability mechanisms, relative to that of all appropriability mechanisms, tends to be higher for cost-oriented than for differentiation-oriented firms. This association is stronger for the case of the introduction of process (rather than product) innovation. These findings contribute to the strategy and service innovation literatures, by showing that KIBS firms’ competitive strategies influence value capture, over and above the role of the innovation-, industry-, and institutional-level factors examined in earlier studies

Investors\u27 Reactions to Alliance-Engendered Acquisition Ambiguity: Evidence from US Technology Deals

We study how, when target firms are engaged in strategic alliances, the ambiguity surrounding an acquisition\u27s anticipated synergies influences investors\u27 reactions to announcements of acquisitions. Drawing on behavioural finance research and the resource redeployment literature, we predict that investors\u27 limited access to the information encoded in the target firms\u27 alliances and the uncertainty around the re-deployability of their embedded resources generate a negative relationship between the number of target alliances and investors\u27 reactions. We also hypothesize that this negative effect is exacerbated when the alliances involve foreign alliance partners but is attenuated when acquirers are experienced in acquiring targets with alliances. Analysis of a large sample of US technology acquisitions supports all our hypotheses. We contribute to management research by offering a viable explanation of investors\u27 reactions to the announcement of major corporate events, such as acquisitions, whose structural characteristics deny investors material information about these events\u27 potential to create value