Modifying a Geodemographic Classification of the e-Society using public feedback

The e-Society geodemographic classification (Longley et al., 2008) categories neighbourhoods based on their engagement with new information communication technologies. This classification was launched online in 2006, and allowed users to both view and comment on the accuracy of their assigned neighbourhood Type. This paper utilises the user generated feedback on the accuracy of the e-Society classification and through external validation calculates their accuracy. The pilot methodology developed in this paper is scalable and could be repeated for any classification. We believe that this methodology gives the recipients of these classification procedures a voice that their concerns of classification accuracy can be heard

Creating Open Source Geodemographic Classifications for Higher Education Applications

This paper explores the use of geodemographic classifications to investigate the social, economic and spatial dimensions of participation in higher education. Education is a public service that confers very significant and tangible benefits upon receiving individuals: as such, we argue that understanding the geodemography of educational opportunity requires an application-specific classification, that exploits under-used educational data sources. We develop a classification for the UK higher education sector, and apply it to the Gospel Oak area of London. We discuss the wider merits of sector specific applications of geodemographics, with particular reference to issues of public service provision

Collaborative Mapping of London Using Google Maps: The LondonProfiler

This paper begins by reviewing the ways in which the innovation of Google Maps has transformed our ability to reference and view geographically referenced data. We describe the ways in which the GMap Creator tool developed under the ESRC National Centre for E Social Science programme enables users to ‘mashup’ thematic choropleth maps using the Google API. We illustrate the application of GMap Creator using the example of www.londonprofiler.org, which makes it possible to view a range of health, education and other socioeconomic datasets against a backcloth of Google Maps data. Our conclusions address the ways in which Google Map mashups developed using GMap Creator facilitate online exploratory cartographic visualisation in a range of areas of policy concern

The stability of geodemographic cluster assignments over an intercensal period

A geodemographic classification provides a set of categorical summaries of the built and socio-economic characteristics of small geographic areas. Many classifications, including that developed in this paper, are created entirely from data extracted from a single decennial census of population. Such classifications are often criticised as becoming less useful over time because of the changing composition of small geographic areas. This paper presents a methodology for exploring the veracity of this assertion, by examining changes in UK census-based geodemographic indicators over time, as well as a substantive interpretation of the overall results. We present an innovative methodology that classifies both 2001 and 2011 census data inputs utilising a unified geography and set of attributes to create a classification that spans both census periods. Through this classification, we examine the temporal stability of the clusters and whether other secondary data sources and internal measures might usefully indicate local uncertainties in such a classification during an intercensal period

Travel, health and well-being: A focus on past studies, a special issue, and future research

This introduction to the special issue on travel, health and well-being is subdivided into three parts. In Section 1 we provide a summary of existing literature analysing how health and well-being are related with transport and travel behaviour. An overview and short descriptions of the studies included in this special issue are given in Section 2. In Section 3 we conclude this editorial by uncovering research gaps and suggesting avenues for further research

Analyzing travel captivity by measuring the gap in travel satisfaction between chosen and alternative commute modes

In this study, we investigated travel captivity from the perspective of travel satisfaction. Using survey data from 565 commuters in Portland, Oregon, we compared satisfaction with the most recent commute trip (using the chosen mode) and hypothetical commute satisfaction if using an alternative mode. The difference in travel satisfaction between the chosen and alternative mode – referred to as the travel satisfaction gap – was used as a fine-grained proxy measure of travel captivity. Results indicate that active mode (walk/bicycle) users would be less satisfied when the alternative modes were auto or transit, while auto and transit commuters would be slightly more satisfied if they commuted by walking or bicycling. These outcomes suggest that auto users are most captive, while active travelers are mostly choice users. Results also show that respondents would be more satisfied with an alternative mode if it would enable more talking to other passengers

Working towards widening participation in nurse education

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in British Journal Nursing, copyright © MA Healthcare 2016, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/bjon.2016.25.2.112The widening participation agenda has particular significance for worldwide nursing since it is a profession which is under increasing scrutiny in its recruitment and retention practices. Debate about this agenda within nurse education is strengthened by careful scrutiny of the research within the wider context of higher education, some of which challenges commonly held assumptions. This paper examines four areas of relevance to the UK widening participation agenda: disability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and family responsibilities. Taken together, they indicate that nurse education operates within a particularly complex context with some important implications for the future design of pre-registration programmes. These complexities should be debated in depth by educational commissioners and providers, in tandem with regulatory bodies.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A neighbourhood Output Area Classification from the 2021 and 2022 UK censuses

UK-wide multivariate neighbourhood classifications have been built using small area population data following every census since 1971, and have been built using Output Area geographies since 2001. Policy makers in both the public and private sectors find such taxonomies, typically arranged into hierarchies of Supergroups, Groups and Subgroups, useful across a wide range of applications in business and service planning. Recent and forthcoming releases of small area census statistics pose new methodological challenges. For example, the 2022 Scottish Census was carried out a year after those in other UK nations, and some of the variables now collected across different jurisdictions do not bear direct comparison with one another. Here we develop a methodology to accommodate these issues alongside the more established procedures of variable selection, standardisation, transformation, class definition and labelling

Public Domain GIS, Mapping & Imaging Using Web-based Services

In this paper, we outline a series of related applications and a web service designed to enable non-expert users to develop online visualizations which are essentially map-based. In the last five years, public domain GIS (geographic information systems) software for map display and beyond has become available for non-expert users in the public domain, the best examples being the various products from Google such as Google Maps and Google Earth. We have devised various software to enable non-experts to take appropriate map data in standard formats and to transform them so that can be displayed by these software in a one stop action. The first system is called GMapCreator and we show how the software can be used to produce any number of map layers which can be overlaid on Google Maps, can be combined and toggled in combination, and whose transparency can be varied for a myriad of presentation purposes. We then evolve this into a form called ImageCutter which takes any large image and puts this into a Google Map so that the zoom and pan features of the software can be exploited. These software are now available through a site we call MapTube which is a server pointing to various maps created by GMapCreator which is a rudimentary archive of virtual map resources. Finally, we sketch how these software are being moved into 3D using the capabilities of Google Earth and Second Life to display geographic imagery

Measuring portfolio performance using a modified measure of risk

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the properties of a theoretical modification of beta proposed by Leland (1999) and based on earlier work of Rubinstein (1976). It is shown that when returns are elliptically symmetric, beta is the appropriate measure of risk and that there are other situations in which the modified beta will be similar to the traditional measure based on the capital asset pricing model. For the case where returns have a normal distribution, it is shown that the criterion either does not exist or reduces exactly to the conventional beta. It is therefore conjectured that the modified measure will only be useful for portfolios that have nonstandard return distributions which incorporate skewness. For such situations, it is shown how to estimate the measure using regression and how to compare the resulting statistic with a traditional estimated beta using Hotelling's test. An empirical study based on stocks from the FTSE350 does not find evidence to support the use of the new measure even in the presence of skewness.Journal of Asset Management (2007) 7, 388-403. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jam.225005