On the Locality of Grammatical Evolution

It is well known that using high-locality representations is important for efficient evolutionary search. This paper investigates the locality of the genotype-phenotype mapping (representation) used in grammatical evolution (GE). The results show that the representation used in GE has problems with locality as many neighboring genotypes do not correspond to neighboring phenotypes. Experiments with a simple local search strategy reveal that the GE representation leads to lower performance for mutationbased search approaches in comparison to standard GP representations. The results suggest that locality issues should be considered for further development of the representation used in GE

PRIVACY-BY-DESIGN THROUGH SYSTEMATIC PRIVACY IMPACT ASSESSMENT - A DESIGN SCIENCE APPROACH

A major problem for companies that develop and operate IT applications that process personal data of customers and employees is to ensure the protection of this data and to prevent privacy breaches. Failure to adequately address this problem can result in considerable reputational and financial damages for the company as well as for affected data subjects. We address this problem by proposing a methodology to systematically consider privacy issues in a step-by-step privacy impact assessment (so called ?PIA?). Existing PIA approaches lack easy applicability because they are either insufficiently structured or imprecise and lengthy. We argue that employing the PIA proposed in this article, companies will be enabled to realise a ?privacy-by-design? as it is now widely heralded by data protection authorities. In fact, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) ratified the approach we present in this article for the technical field of RFID and published it as a guideline in November 2011. The contribution of the artefacts we created is twofold: First, we provide a formal problem representation structure for the analysis of privacy requirements. Second, we reduce the complexity of the privacy regulation landscape for practitioners who need to make privacy management decisions for their IT applications

Differentiating Privacy and Security: A Content Analysis of B2C Websites

Privacy and security are important topics in research and business. This work on one hand offers a way to differentiate thesetwo topics and provides information about different privacy regulations already existing in Europe and the US. We clarifydefinitions of information privacy and state that privacy and security are not the same, although most companies do notdifferentiate. A content analysis conducted in 2008 and 2011 of B2C-companies’ websites is used to demonstrate howinterweaved these two terms and the representation of terms and conditions (T&C) are presented. The data is analyzed interms of numbers, how often links to the topics exist; positioning, where these links are located on the web pages; andidentifiers, which represent the topics privacy, security, and T&C. Based on this information, the relation between privacy,security, and T&C is analyzed and interpreted

A systematic methodology for privacy impact assessments: a design science approach

For companies that develop and operate IT applications that process the personal data of customers and employees, a major problem is protecting these data and preventing privacy breaches. Failure to adequately address this problem can result in considerable damage to the company's reputation and finances, as well as negative effects for customers or employees (data subjects). To address this problem, we propose a methodology that systematically considers privacy issues by using a step-by-step privacy impact assessment (PIA). Existing PIA approaches cannot be applied easily because they are improperly structured or imprecise and lengthy. We argue that companies that employ our PIA can achieve "privacy-by-design", which is widely heralded by data protection authorities. In fact, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) ratified the approach we present in this article for the technical field of RFID and published it as a guideline in November 2011. The contribution of the artefacts we created is twofold: First, we provide a formal problem representation structure for the analysis of privacy requirements. Second, we reduce the complexity of the privacy regulation landscape for practitioners who need to make privacy management decisions for their IT applications

I’ll Try That, Too

The effect of variety on consumer choice has been studied extensively, with some stream of literature showing the positive effects on choice and others arguing that too many alternatives may result in negative consequences (i.e., choice deferral or no purchase at all), often referred to as choice overload. In a field experiment with a major chocolate brand conducted at a German retail chain, we test for variety during a price and display promotion. Participating stores either include the full variety of products on the display or a reduced selection (low variety). Contrary to the literature on choice overload, we find a significantly positive effect of the display promotion on unit sales, which is stronger for stores with high variety. Further findings show a stronger promotion uplift for less popular products in stores with high variety on the display. This suggests that more variety may increase consumers’ willingness to try new products, when the financial risk is low. We also test for the effect of product distribution on displays by analysing the number of facings. Additionally, we introduce an approach to determine an optimal space allocation of products on the display. Our findings suggest that an even distribution results in the highest profits for the retailer. We contribute to the literature on variety for consumer choices by offering insights from actual purchases with store-level scanner data of display promotions

How does experience change firms' foreign investment decisions to non-market events?

We examine how experience with two types of non-market risks (e.g., natural disasters and armed conflicts) changes foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions. Extending research on organizational learning and FDI, we hypothesize that the greater the experience with recent, frequent and high-intensity risk, the more likely that experience can moderate the relationship between non-market risks and firm international expansion. Given a sample of 625 Fortune Global 500 firms and their investments in 117 countries between 1999 and 2008, we find that experience with recent, frequent, and high-intensity risk can change a firm?s FDI decision from risk avoidance to risk management

Konsum(t)räume. Die Warenwelt als Technotop

The phenomenon of consumption is based on the industrial production of both material and symbolic a-bundance. Until the 20th century, consumption was socially and regionally limited. Consumption in this traditional setting clearly had a status expressing function. The industrialization of the production of goods caused an expansion of material artefacts which could not have been imagined before and revolutionized the public and the private sphere. The civic concept of the city was replaced by a concept defining the public sphere as a warehouse, highly dependent on technical support. The conceptualization of the city as a sphere of consumption can be described as a distribution of electric lights. Electricity, advertising and brands sha-ped the technotopical ,format’ of the modern consumer mindset as spatial concept

Das pulsierende Herz der Stadt. Stadtraum und industrielle Mobilität. Die Karlsruher Bahnhofsfrage

Stadt und Eisenbahn als Symbole der Moderne führten keine konfliktfreie Koexistenz. In vielen Städten kollidierte der explosive Wachstumsprozess mit den Netzwerken kollektiver Mobilität. Die Eisenbahn wirkte auf die städtische Entwicklung als Grundbedingung des Wachstums, aber z.T. auch als Widerstand für eine weitere Expansion. In den Jahren von 1880 bis zum ersten Weltkrieg sind in deutschen Großstädten eine Vielzahl von "Bahnhofskonflikten" feststellbar. Die Standorte der städtischen Verkehrsmittelpunkte wurde zum Thema öffentlicher Kommunikation. Die Bedürfnisse innerstädtischer Mobilität traten in Konflikt mit den Bedürfnissen der großräumigen Vernetzung durch die Eisenbahn. Diese Konflikte entwickelten sich stellenweise zu jahrzehntelang andauernden Schwerpunkten kommunaler Politik. In den Jahren von 1866 bis 1913 beschäftigte die "Karlsruher Bahnhofsfrage" die städtische Öffentlichkeit der badischen Hauptstadt. Im Mittelpunkt der Bahnhofsfrage stand auf den ersten Blick die Angleichung der Bedürfnisse von innerstädtischer Mobilität und Eisenbahn. Dabei verband sich die Diskussion um diverse Lösungsalternativen mit einer Selbst- Verständigung der Beteiligten über die Auswirkungen und die Tendenzen der Moderne. Dieser Verständigungsprozess provozierte wechselnde komplexe Konfrontationen und Koalitionen zwischen staatlichen und lokalen Institutionen sowie Selbstvertretungsorganen der Bürgerschaft