The Transformation of a Charity Shop into a Specialist Fashion Store

More than ten years ago, a Guardian columnist observed a growth in the charity shop sector due to an increase in the number of such outlets on the high streets of towns and cities in the UK. The Guardian more recently reported on a new charity store image evidenced by brand-new charity fashion boutiques being launched by Oxfam in London. This new mode of charity store sold selected re-styled and re-designed items created by young designers from the London College of Fashion. The article stated that ‘the charity was taking its first step towards a more fashion-conscious image: away from the slightly battered shoes and oversize floral skirts it's known for and into the world of designer one-offs and couture accessories’ (Freeman, 2008). It is unquestionable that charity shops have the potential to offer good value fashion to people on a budget as well as attracting fashion-conscious customers. However, if the charity shop is to make the most of this opportunity then certain retail practices are in need of change. The aim of this research was to explore the current trend of UK charity retailers upgrading towards a new target market through the launching of specialist fashion stores and to examine effective strategies for charity shops to achieve up-market fashion retailing. Three retail models from the literature review were used and the research makes use of illustrated visual evidences to demonstrate the performance of charity shops compared to up-market fashion stores. Structured observations, photography and semi-structured interviews were used to develop a new ‘Mannequin Model’ to provide a strategy for charity shops wanting to move into the mid-upper levels of the fashion market. A synthesis representation of localisation and specialisation was found to have potential for launching a specialist fashion outlet in the charity retail sector

TiEV: The Tongji Intelligent Electric Vehicle in the Intelligent Vehicle Future Challenge of China

TiEV is an autonomous driving platform implemented by Tongji University of China. The vehicle is drive-by-wire and is fully powered by electricity. We devised the software system of TiEV from scratch, which is capable of driving the vehicle autonomously in urban paths as well as on fast express roads. We describe our whole system, especially novel modules of probabilistic perception fusion, incremental mapping, the 1st and the 2nd planning and the overall safety concern. TiEV finished 2016 and 2017 Intelligent Vehicle Future Challenge of China held at Changshu. We show our experiences on the development of autonomous vehicles and future trends

The Five Factor Model of personality and evaluation of drug consumption risk

The problem of evaluating an individual's risk of drug consumption and misuse is highly important. An online survey methodology was employed to collect data including Big Five personality traits (NEO-FFI-R), impulsivity (BIS-11), sensation seeking (ImpSS), and demographic information. The data set contained information on the consumption of 18 central nervous system psychoactive drugs. Correlation analysis demonstrated the existence of groups of drugs with strongly correlated consumption patterns. Three correlation pleiades were identified, named by the central drug in the pleiade: ecstasy, heroin, and benzodiazepines pleiades. An exhaustive search was performed to select the most effective subset of input features and data mining methods to classify users and non-users for each drug and pleiad. A number of classification methods were employed (decision tree, random forest, $k$-nearest neighbors, linear discriminant analysis, Gaussian mixture, probability density function estimation, logistic regression and na{\"i}ve Bayes) and the most effective classifier was selected for each drug. The quality of classification was surprisingly high with sensitivity and specificity (evaluated by leave-one-out cross-validation) being greater than 70\% for almost all classification tasks. The best results with sensitivity and specificity being greater than 75\% were achieved for cannabis, crack, ecstasy, legal highs, LSD, and volatile substance abuse (VSA).Comment: Significantly extended report with 67 pages, 27 tables, 21 figure

Nonparametric inference in nonlinear principal components analysis: Exploration and beyond

In the social and behavioral sciences, data sets often do not meet the assumptions of traditional analysis methods. Therefore, nonlinear alternatives to traditional methods have been developed. This thesis starts with a didactic discussion of nonlinear principal components analysis (NLPCA), illustrated by an application considering caregiver-child interactions in day-care. Traditional PCA explores data structures, summarizing the observed information in underlying variables, called principal components. The method only gives a sensible solution if the variables are numeric, and linearly related to each other. NLPCA is developed for situations in which these assumptions do not apply. It incorporates different types of variables (nominal, ordinal, and numeric) and discovers and handles nonlinear relationships. As PCA does not make assumptions about variable distributions, it does not seem theoretically sensible to apply standard (asymptotic) formulas for statistical inference. Therefore, this thesis shows easily applicable ways of assessing stability and statistical significance of the elements of the NLPCA solution (eigenvalues, component loadings, component scores, category quantifications) without making prior assumptions about the data (i.e., nonparametrically), using the bootstrap and permutation tests, respectively. By providing relatively simple inferential measures for NLPCA, a wider use of this method in the psychological and educational context may be promoted

PENGARUH KOMPETENSI, OBJEKTIVITAS, INDEPENDENSI, DAN KINERJA AUDITOR INTERNAL TERHADAP KUALITAS AUDIT PADA BRI INSPEKTORAT MAKASSAR

2013Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh kompetensi, objektivitas, \ud independensi, dan kinerja auditor internal terhadap kualitas audit pada BRI \ud Inspektorat Makassar. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan \ud kuesioner (primer) yang diberikan kepada tiga puluh auditor internal di BRI \ud Inspektorat Makassar. Data diolah dengan menggunakan analisis regresi \ud berganda. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kompetensi, independensi, \ud dan kinerja auditor internal berpengaruh positif terhadap kualitas audit. \ud Objektivitas auditor internal tidak berpengaruh positif terhadap kualitas audit. \ud \ud Kata kunci: kompetensi, objektivitas, independensi, kinerja, kualitas audit. \ud \ud This research aims to analyze the effect of competence, objectivity, \ud independence, and internal auditor performance on audit quality of Inspectorate \ud BRI Makassar. The data was collected using a questionnaire (primary) given to \ud internal auditors thirty BRI Inspectorate in Makassar. Data is processed by using \ud multiple regression analysis. Research findings show that the competence, \ud independence, and the performance of the internal auditor have a positive effect \ud on audit quality. Objectivity is not a positive effect on audit quality. \ud Keywords: competence, objectivity, independence, performance, audit qualit

PENGARUH FAKTOR INDIVIDU DAN ORGANISASI TERHADAP RESISTENSI ATAS PERUBAHAN ORGANISASI DI KANTOR PERUSAHAAN PT TELKOM INDONESIA (PERSERO) TBK

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui pengaruh faktor individu dan faktor organisasi terhadap resistensi atas perubahan organisasi yang terjadi di kantor perusahaan PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. sebagai incumbent di industri telekomunikasi, Telkom Indonesia senantiasa melakukan inovasi untuk mempertahankan keberlangsungan bisnisnya, mulai dari inovasi teknologi sampai kepada transformasi organisasi. Akan tetapi, tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa dalam proses transformasi/ perubahan tersebut sering muncul resistensi dari karyawan. Variabel bebas yang digunakan dalam penelitian terdiri dari 2 yaitu faktor individu dan faktor organisasi Variabel dependen yang digunakan adalah resistensi terhadap perubahan. Objek penelitian ini adalah karyawan Telkom Indonesia yang bekerja pada kantor perusahaan, dan data primer diperoleh dari kuisioner yang disebar kepada responden yaitu karyawan yang bekerja pada kantor perusahaan dan digunakan ukuran sampel sebanyak 101 orang. Data yang diperoleh dianalisa menggunakan teknik analisa deskriptif dan verifikatif. Berdasarkan hasil analisa, diperoleh kesimpulan bahwa faktor individu dan faktor organisasi baik secara parsial ataupun bersama-sama berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap resistensi atas perubahan organisasi di Telkom Indonesia. Oleh karena itu, dalam melakukan perubahan organisasi perlu dipertimbangkan faktor individu dan organisasi untuk mengantisipasi resistensi yang dapat timbul dari karyawan sehingga implementasi dari perubahan organisasi dapat lebih efektif. Kata kunci: perubahan organisasi, resistensi, telkom

The predictive value of early behavioural assessments in pet dogs: a longitudinal study from neonates to adults

Studies on behavioural development in domestic dogs are of relevance for matching puppies with the right families, identifying predispositions for behavioural problems at an early stage, and predicting suitability for service dog work, police or military service. The literature is, however, inconsistent regarding the predictive value of tests performed during the socialisation period. Additionally, some practitioners use tests with neonates to complement later assessments for selecting puppies as working dogs, but these have not been validated. We here present longitudinal data on a cohort of Border collies, followed up from neonate age until adulthood. A neonate test was conducted with 99 Border collie puppies aged 2–10 days to assess activity, vocalisations when isolated and sucking force. At the age of 40–50 days, 134 puppies (including 93 tested as neonates) were tested in a puppy test at their breeders' homes. All dogs were adopted as pet dogs and 50 of them participated in a behavioural test at the age of 1.5 to 2 years with their owners. Linear mixed models found little correspondence between individuals' behaviour in the neonate, puppy and adult test. Exploratory activity was the only behaviour that was significantly correlated between the puppy and the adult test. We conclude that the predictive validity of early tests for predicting specific behavioural traits in adult pet dogs is limited