An analysis of U.K. property funds classified according to U.S. styles: Core, value-added, and opportunistic

This analysis explores the feasibility of sorting UK funds into the three categories that are widely used in the US, and then compares the performance of these styles between the UK and US. Following an overview of several factors’ impact on the expected risk and return of a property fund, we use Loan-to-Value ratio (LTV) as the dominant factor in a preliminary style-classification, defining funds with no debt as core, funds with LTV lower than 40% as value-added, and funds with higher than 50% LTV ratios as opportunistic. Then the study makes some adjustments to this classification based on the observation of the funds’ attributes other than LTV, and the classification ends up with 19 core funds, 22 value-added funds and 21 opportunistic funds. After that, we find two major differences between the UK and US funds. First, the core approach represents a smaller portion of the UK funds than the US funds and the opposite is true for the value-added approach. One way to improve the feasibility of researchers comparing funds within these two countries is introducing a fourth style, core-plus. Second, the US opportunistic funds are better performing with similar leverage than their UK counterparts, while future studies would help draw more precise conclusions about the performance comparisons

Performance Evaluation of a Wireless Network using a VoIP Traffic Generator on a Mobile Device

The problem of generating different patterns of traffic to emulate real user behaviour is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new and more complex network architectures. The theoretical modelling of waveforms or signals that flow through networks is valuable in a variety of scenarios including performance analysis and the design of communication systems. In the literature, many computer-based performance evaluation tools have been discussed. However, these tools lack the ability to run on affordable technologies such as mobile phones. The fundamental contribution of this work is the design of a traffic generating tool called MTGawn which is able to run on a mobile device. Design Science Research was the research methodology used for the design and deployment of a prototype of the proposed system. VoIP traffic was emulated using an implementation of well-known real time transport protocols such as RTP and cRTP, and parameterization was defined by using three codecs namely: G.711, G.723, and G.729. An evaluation was performed in a laboratory wireless network testbed and preliminary results were collected and analysed. The results of the experiments show that such a measuring instrument can be deployed on a mobile phone. More experiments are being done to ensure the accuracy of the data and also to compare the results with that of computer-based systems. Furthermore additional functionalities, similar to the functionality found on the computer-based open source tools, are being added to the mobile tool.Telkom, Cisco, Aria Technologies, THRIPDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Bias and precision of crowdsourced recreational activity data from Strava

Recreational activity is the single most valuable ecosystem service in many developed countries with a range of benefits for public health. Crowdsourced recreational activity data is increasingly being adopted in management and monitoring of urban landscapes, however inherent biases in the data make it difficult to generalize patterns to the total population. We used in-situ observations and questionnaires to quantify accuracy in Strava data - a widely used outdoor activity monitoring app – in Oslo, Norway. The precision with which Strava data captured the spatial (R2 = 0.9) and temporal variation (R2 = 0.51) in observed recreational activity (cyclist and pedestrian) was relatively high for monthly time series during summer, although precision degraded at weekly and daily resolutions and during winter. Despite the precision, Strava exhibits significant biases relative to the total recreationist population. Strava activities represented 2.5 % of total recreationist activity in 2016, a proportion that increased steadily to 5.7 % in 2020 due to a growing usership. Strava users are biased toward cyclists (8 % higher than observed), males (15.7 % higher) and middle-aged people (20.4 % higher for ages 35–54). Strava pedestrians that were able to complete a questionnaire survey (>19 years) were biased to higher income brackets and education levels. Future studies using Strava data need to consider these biases – particularly the underrepresentation of vulnerable age (children/elderly) and socio-economic (poor/uneducated) groups. The implementation of Strava data in urban planning processes will depend on accuracy requirements of the application purpose and the extent to which biases can be corrected for. Accuracy Mobility GPS tracking Physical activity Green spacepublishedVersio

A participatory design for a billing system: A South African case study of a community based telephony system

This paper describes the role participatory design can play in developing and implementing an information and communication technology for development project in a rural area. It shows how the process of co-designing an artifact can reflect and shape social development. A case study was conducted in the Mankosi Community in the Eastern Cape with the aim of designing and implementing a billing system for an existing community-owned telephony system, by accommodating the community’s requirements. Relevant criteria had to be considered for this telephony system based on voice over Internet Protocol with the possibility of ‘break-out’ calls to external networks. Different payment modalities were explored that would allow for a transparent method of both collecting money and applying the collected funds to achieve the project’s sustainability. A participative methodology with future users and operators of the network—using scenarios and prototypes to illustrate the implementation—informed the design of the billing system. Data was collected by means of unstructured interviews and focus group discussions. Qualitative data was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis tool. The community indicated that a billing system, based on both vouchers and prepaid service, would satisfy their needs.Telkom, Cisco, Aria Technologies, THRIPDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Global 10 m Land Use Land Cover Datasets: A Comparison of Dynamic World, World Cover and Esri Land Cover

The European Space Agency’s Sentinel satellites have laid the foundation for global land use land cover (LULC) mapping with unprecedented detail at 10 m resolution. We present a cross-comparison and accuracy assessment of Google’s Dynamic World (DW), ESA’s World Cover (WC) and Esri’s Land Cover (Esri) products for the first time in order to inform the adoption and application of these maps going forward. For the year 2020, the three global LULC maps show strong spatial correspondence (i.e., near-equal area estimates) for water, built area, trees and crop LULC classes. However, relative to one another, WC is biased towards over-estimating grass cover, Esri towards shrub and scrub cover and DW towards snow and ice. Using global ground truth data with a minimum mapping unit of 250 m2 , we found that Esri had the highest overall accuracy (75%) compared to DW (72%) and WC (65%). Across all global maps, water was the most accurately mapped class (92%), followed by built area (83%), tree cover (81%) and crops (78%), particularly in biomes characterized by temperate and boreal forests. The classes with the lowest accuracies, particularly in the tundra biome, included shrub and scrub (47%), grass (34%), bare ground (57%) and flooded vegetation (53%). When using European ground truth data from LUCAS (Land Use/Cover Area Frame Survey) with a minimum mapping unit of <100 m2 , we found that WC had the highest accuracy (71%) compared to DW (66%) and Esri (63%), highlighting the ability of WC to resolve landscape elements with more detail compared to DW and Esri. Although not analyzed in our study, we discuss the relative advantages of DW due to its frequent and near real-time data delivery of both categorical predictions and class probability scores. We recommend that the use of global LULC products should involve critical evaluation of their suitability with respect to the application purpose, such as aggregate changes in ecosystem accounting versus site-specific change detection in monitoring, considering trade-offs between thematic resolution, global versus. local accuracy, class-specific biases and whether change analysis is necessary. We also emphasize the importance of not estimating areas from pixel-counting alone but adopting best practices in design-based inference and area estimation that quantify uncertainty for a given study area. accuracy; deep learning; Earth observation; Sentinel-2; validationpublishedVersio

Co-designing a billing system for voice services in rural South Africa: Lessons learned

Access to information and communication technologies re- mains una ordable for many in rural areas despite recent progress in providing voice services to remote communities. The sustainability of alternative technical solutions is a chal- lenge, which can be addressed when local knowledge is taken into account during the design process. This research re- ects on the process of co-designing a billing system for voice services provided by a Community Network in rural South Africa. Several payment methods were explored with users and operators of the Community Network, focusing on the legal, nancial, technical and social feasibility - as well as constraints - of each method. Those methods that suited the community's needs were implemented and tested with stakeholders. The process revealed factors embedded in the provision of voice services by traditional voice operators in South Africa that prevent economically poor and illiterate users from fully bene ting from voice services. Solutions to these factors were explored with users and were implemented as a billing system. The system is currently being deployed in a rural South African community. Both the problems experienced and solutions proposed may inform similar ini- tiatives.Telkom, Cisco, Aria Technologies, THRIP, FIR

Unmasking community trust issues in rural field work

The principal objective of this paper is to describe the au thor's fieldwork and research in a remote rural area of South Africa, where a Village Telco is deployed to provide Voice over Internet Protocol on a wireless mesh network. The users' social environment was evaluated to understand trust issues associated with the adoption of the network. Qualita-tive measures such as contextual inquiry, participant obser-vation, focus group and individual interviews were used during data collection. Focus group discussions were held with community members involved with the planning of ways in which to sustain the network. Involving the community gave them a sense of commitment and ownership of the network. To maintain the network, different solutions were proposed. One of these was a billing system for the use of the network. This will be designed to meet users' needs and should also be transparent so that the community will trust it. A prototype is being developed, with input from the community, using open source software to address their requirements.Telkom, Cisco, Aria Technologies, THRIPWeb of Scienc