Annual Report 2013

The 2013 Annual Report includes a review of the year, research highlights and activities across the School's three Faculties, and key facts and figures. The financial review provides an overview of the School's finances and activities during 2012-13

Definite Descriptions and the Gettier Example

This paper challenges the first Gettier counterexample to the tripartite account of knowledge. Noting that 'the man who will get the job' is a description and invoking Donnellan's distinction between their 'referential' and 'attributive' uses, I argue that Smith does not actually believe that the man who will get the job has ten coins in his pocket. Smith's ignorance about who will get the job shows that the belief cannot be understood referentially, his ignorance of the coins in his pocket shows that it cannot be understood attributively. An explanation for why Smith appeared to have justified true belief is given by distinguishing between 'belief' and 'belief in truth'. Smith believes the sentence 'the man who will get the job has ten coins in his pocket' to be true (he mistakenly believes that Jones will get the job, of whom he knows that he has ten coins in his pocket) (hence his 'belief'), the sentence is true (hence 'truth'), and he has sufficient reason to assent to it (hence his 'justification'). But he does not believe the proposition expressed. Hence he does not know it eithe

Modeling the strategic trading of electricity assets

We analyze how strategic asset trading can be used to gain competitive advantage. In the case of electricity markets, companies seek to improve the value of their generating portfolios by acquiring, or selling, power plants. Accordingly, we derive the basic determinants of plant value, explaining how a particular productive asset may have different values for different firms. From this, we develop an evolutionary model to understand how market structure interacts with strategic asset trading to increase the competitive advantage of firms, and furthermore, how this depends upon the actual price-setting microstructure in the wholesale market itselfCompetitive advantage, computational learning, auctions, asset trading, simulation, electricity markets

Competing Technologies in the Database Management Systems Market

In this paper, we study the dynamics of the market for Database Management Systems (DBMS), which is commonly assumed to possess network effects and where there is still some viable competition in our study period, 2000 – 2004. Specifically, we make use of a unique and detailed dataset on several thousand UK firms to study individual organizations’ incentives to adopt a particular technology. We find that there are significant internal complement effects – in other words, using an operating system and a DBMS from the same vendor seems to confer some complementarities. We also find evidence for complementarities between enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) and DBMS and find that as ERP are frequently specific and customized, DBMS are unlikely to be changed once they have been customized to an ERP. We also find that organizations have an increasing tendency to use multiple DBMS on one site, which contradicts the notion that different DBMS are near-perfect substitutes

Stuck in the Adoption Funnel: The Effect of Delays in the Adoption Process on Ultimate Adoption

Online applications and services automate communications and transactions between rms and consumers, promising large efficiency gains. However, consumers have been slow to use these online technologies intensively, despite widespread adoption of the internet. Customers frequently undergo a staggered adoption process that may involve sign-up, experimentation, trial, and substantial usage until they fully embrace internet services. We ask whether delays in moving through the initial stages of this adoption process contribute to consumers ultimately not using the service intensively. Such behavior would be consistent with laboratory findings on consumer memory. We explore this question using data from a German retail bank where only 24% of the customers who sign up for the bank's online banking service use it substantially. We use exogenous variation in delays in the adoption process, caused by vacations and public holidays in different German states, to identify this effect. We find that delays in the early stages of adoption significantly reduce a customer's probability of moving to substantial usage: A 10-day delay of a customer's first online login reduces the likelihood that she will ever use the technology substantially, by 33%. This eect is more severe for demographic groups with less online experience

A Snap Shot of the Prevalence of Anopheles Merus and its Role in Malaria Transmission in Pemba

Malaria is a serious public health problem in Pemba. It is holoendemic and thus affects mostly children and pregnant women. Following intense vector control activities in recent years, there has been a notable decline in malaria cases, presumably due to reduced populations of An. gambiae s.s. However, it was noted by Wastling (2007) that some areas in Pemba were supporting large populations of An. merus, a vector which the ZMCP recorded as absent in 2005 (ZMCP, 2007). It is probable that changes to vector population previously observed following vector control activities of the 1960’s may be taking place. To ensure the continued effectiveness of the Pemban malaria vector control campaign, it is prudent to determine the relative proportion of An. merus (and other members of An. gambiae s.l.) in Pemba; to document where the larvae and adults are found and consider its potential impact in the transmission of Plasmodium and the implications for clinical malaria in the region. Larvae were sampled from a diverse range of water habitats (41 sites) and ecological features of each larval site were recorded in order to investigate their relationship to species distribution and relative abundance. CDC light traps were used to collect host seeking mosquitoes from households and a goat shed neighbouring suspected An. merus breeding sites. A PCR assay was used to identify the specimens collected. Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) analysis was performed on a total of 216 larvae from 19 populations. 120 larvae were positively assigned to 3 species: An. merus (50%), An. arabiensis (5%) and An. quadrannulatus (1%). Whilst 96 larvae (44%) remained unidentified. Of the 5 mosquitoes collected 2 were identified as An. merus and 3 were unidentified. An. merus dominated in brackish-waters, showing great plasticity in its choice of larval habitat. However its relative abundance decreased at high altitudes. The species composition of the An. gambiae complex appears to be undergoing the same changes as observed during the spraying campaigns of the 1950s and 60s. The occurrence of endophilic members of the An. gambiae complex have reduced significantly whilst the exophilic members; (mostly) An. merus, An. arabiensis and An. quadriannulatus thrive. However the role of this species in malaria transmission cannot be commented upon due to limited sampling results

Pembuatan Website Kumpulan Berita Hoax Untuk Menjaga Kualitas Pesan Pada Ruang Publik

ABSTRACT: Technology evolve so rapidly, making the birth of a variety of New Media based on the Internet. New media such as Website, Social Media more and more popping up. New Media should be a positive thing, many traditional media are flocking to create new media or change their media into online media based on the Website. It facilitates the public in finding information anytime anywhere, not limited time and space. Online Media coverage can quickly spread through Social Media as well as through instant messaging services. New Media also changes readers who previously could only enjoy news, can now collaborate or even make a media. It becomes a problem when everyone can create media and pass information through media. Messages or information conveyed are sometimes not in accordance with the real thing or intentionally to make and deliver fake news commonly called Hoax. Hoax are even produced intentionally for the benefit of groups or certain people, Hoax news makes the media as public space contaminated, Habermas calls it Refeudalization, namely that certain groups intervene into the public sphere, in the end the society becomes victims of Hoaxes coverage. To answer this problem it is necessary to create a media that contains a collection of news of the Hoax with the aim of being a place to clarify news so that the public will not become a victim of Hoax reporting. ABSTRAKSI: Perkembangan teknologi yang begitu pesat, membuat lahirnya bermacam-macam media baru (New Media) yang berbasis Internet. New media seperti Website, Social Media semakin banyak bermunculan. New Media seharusnya bisa menjadi hal yang positif, banyak media traditional yang berbondong-bondong membuat media baru atau merubah medianya menjadi media online yang berbasis Website. Hal itu memudahkan masyarakat dalam mencari informasi bisa kapan saja di mana saja, tidak terbatas waktu dan ruang. Sebuah pemberitaan Media Online bisa cepat menyebar melalui Social Media dan juga melalui layanan pesan instant (messenger).New Media juga merubah pembaca yang tadinya hanya bisa menikmati sajian berita, kini bisa berkolaborasi atau bahkan membuat sebuah media.Hal tersebut menjadi masalah ketika semua orang bisa membuat media dan menyampaikan informasi melalui medianya. Pesan atau informasi yang disampaikan kadang tidak sesuai dengan hal yang sebenarnya atau sengaja untuk membuat dan menyampaikan berita-berita palsu yang biasa disebut Hoax. Hoax bahkan diproduksi dengan sengaja untuk kepentingan kelompok atau orang-orang terentu, pemberitaan Hoax membuat media sebagai ruang publik tercemari atau terkontaminasi, Habermas menyebut itu dengan Refodalisasi yaitu bahwa negara dan kelompok-kelompok tertentu melakukan intervensi ke dalam ruang publik, pada akhirnya masyarakatlah yang menjadi korban pemberitaan Hoax. Untuk menjawab permasalahan ini perlu dibuat sebuah media yang berisi kumpulan berita-berita Hoax dengan tujuan sebagai tempat melakukan klarifikasi terhadap sebuah pemberitaan agar masyarakat tidak menjadi korban pemberitaan Hoax. Kata kunci: Website, Hoax, Kualitas Pesan, Ruang Publi

The depression report: a new deal for depression and anxiety disorders.

Crippling depression and chronic anxiety are the biggest causes of misery in Britain today. They are the great submerged problem, which shame keeps out of sight. But if you mention them, you soon discover how many families are affected. According to the respected Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, one in six of us would be diagnosed as having depression or chronic anxiety disorder, which means that one family in three is affected. That is the bad news. The good news is that we now have evidence-based psychological therapies that can lift at least a half of those affected out of their depression or their chronic fear. These new therapies are not endless nor backwardlooking treatments. They are short, forward-looking treatments that enable people to challenge their negative thinking and build on the positive side of their personalities and situations. The most developed of these therapies is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). The official guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) say these treatments should be available to all people with depression or anxiety disorders or schizophrenia, unless the problem is very mild or recent. But the NICE guidelines cannot be implemented because we do not have enough therapists. In most areas waiting lists for therapy are over nine months, or there is no waiting list at all because there are no therapists. So, if you go to the GP, all that can be provided is medication (plus at some surgeries a little counselling). But many people will not take medication, either because they dislike the side effects or because they want to control their own mood. The result is tragic. Only one in four of those who suffer from depression or chronic anxiety is receiving any kind of treatment. The rest continue to suffer, even though at least half of them could be cured at a cost of no more than £750. This is a waste of people’s lives. It is also costing a lot of money. For depression and anxiety make it difficult or impossible to work, and drive people onto Incapacity Benefits. We now have a million people on Incapacity Benefits because of mental illness – more than the total number of unemployed people receiving unemployment benefits. At one time unemployment was our biggest social problem, but we have done a lot to reduce it. So mental illness is now the biggest problem, and we know what to do about it. It is time to use that knowledge. 2 But can we afford the £750 it costs to treat someone? The money which the government spends will pay for itself. For someone on Incapacity Benefit costs us £750 a month in extra benefits and lost taxes. If the person works just a month more as a result of the treatment, the treatment pays for itself. So we have a massive problem – the biggest problem they have for one in three of our families. But we also have a solution that can improve the lives of millions of families, and cost the taxpayer nothing. We should implement the NICE guidelines; and most people with mental illness should be offered the choice of psychological therapy. Everyone who wants something done should write to their MP calling for action.

Market Dominance and Barriers To Competition in Financial Trading Venues

The Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) aims to increase competition and to foster client protection in the European financial market. Among other provisions, it abolishes the concentration rule and challenges the market ower of existing trading venues. The directive introduces venue competition in order to achieve better execution and ultimately lower trading costs. In this paper I address the question of whether fostering competition between alternative trading venues alone may or not be able to impact actual competition in the market. I consider two reasons for why it may not: direct network effects together with increasing returns to scale, and post-trading constraints. In particular, I (a) evaluate the actual degree of competition between trading venues, (b) measure the impact of network effects on competition, and lastly (c) assess the barriers to competition induced to post-trading constraints. The results imply that financial intermediaries tend to value liquidity more (than total fees) when deciding where to route a given order for execution - implying that being the incumbent venue translates into a competitive advantage. Furthermore, eliminating the mentioned barriers to competition seems to be associated with a significant decrease (of similar magnitude) in the asymetry of the industry

FIT for purpose – the new FLARE Index to Treaties

The FLARE Index to Treaties which was launched in March 2009 on the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies web server, was conceived to fill a gap in the range of information finding tools available on the internet for the international lawyer. It is a fully searchable database indexing and listing over 1,500 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from 1856 onwards. This article describes the background to the development, the various ways in which the service can be used and technical issues in its construction and use.Preprint of an article by Dr Peter Clinch, Senior Subject Librarian for Law, Cardiff University, Wales, UK and Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London published online by LLRX.co