Movement in workplace environments – configurational or programmed?

In countless case studies space syntax research has found that the configuration of a spatial system offers a powerful explanation to movement flows. However, this relationship is restricted for complex buildings where movement cannot be assumed as random since there may also be a programme that requires specific actions and interactions. A distinction has to be made here according to the nature of the organisation occupying a building: a strong programme building where the interaction and co-presence of people is highly controlled may not allow movement flows to follow configuration. In contrast, a weak programme building with an all-play-all interface might be expected to experience more randomised movement patterns increasing the significance of configuration as determining factor. Though being useful, these assumptions lack the power to fully explain real life movement flows in workplace environments for two reasons: firstly, most workplace environments follow neither purely strong nor simply weak programmes, they lie in-between the two poles and comprise aspects of both systems. Secondly, configuration considered as the crucial cause of movement in an office may even be limited for weak programmes due to the effects exerted by everyday attractors such as the coffee machine, the watercooler or the photocopier, toilets or the building entrances. This paper explores different strategies for explaining observed movement patterns, among them axial and segment analysis. It aims at an in-depth analysis of strong and weak programme aspects in order to find ways of understanding office movement patterns. The data used stems from two case studies representing those ‘in-between’ settings: a university school and a research organisation hosting theoretical physicists. The results suggest that movement in these workplaces may be reflected best by a metric analysis, as opposed to urban movement that follows angularity patterns. Distances seem to matter most in small and well known spaces. Moreover, it can be shown that flows of people can only be explained through configuration whenever it is possible to exclude attractor driven movement. On this basis a new approach is suggested that combines configuration based integration measures with attractor based ones in order to predict actual movement flows in offices

Searching the eBay Marketplace

This paper proposes a framework for demand estimation with data on bids, bidders' identities, and auction covariates from a sequence of eBay auctions. First the aspect of bidding in a marketplace environment is developed. Form the simple dynamic auction model with IPV and private bidding costs it follows that if participation is optimal the bidder searches with a "reservation bid" for low-price auctions. Extending results from the empirical auction literature and employing a similar two-stage procedure as has recently been used when estimating dynamic games it is shown that bidding costs are non-parametrically identified. The procedure is tried on a new data set. The median cost is estimated at less than 2% of transaction prices.

Luminosity Spectrum Reconstruction at Linear Colliders

A good knowledge of the luminosity spectrum is mandatory for many measurements at future e+e- colliders. As the beam-parameters determining the luminosity spectrum cannot be measured precisely, the luminosity spectrum has to be measured through a gauge process with the detector. The measured distributions, used to reconstruct the spectrum, depend on Initial State Radiation, cross-section, and Final State Radiation. To extract the basic luminosity spectrum, a parametric model of the luminosity spectrum is created, in this case the spectrum at the 3 TeV Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). The model is used within a reweighting technique to extract the luminosity spectrum from measured Bhabha event observables, taking all relevant effects into account. The centre-of-mass energy spectrum is reconstructed within 5% over the full validity range of the model. The reconstructed spectrum does not result in a significant bias or systematic uncertainty in the exemplary physics benchmark process of smuon pair production.Comment: Version accepted by EPJC. Minor change

Functional renormalization group for quantized anharmonic oscillator

Functional renormalization group methods formulated in the real-time formalism are applied to the $O(N)$ symmetric quantum anharmonic oscillator, considered as a $0+1$ dimensional quantum field-theoric model, in the next-to-leading order of the gradient expansion of the one- and two-particle irreducible effective action. The infrared scaling laws and the sensitivity-matrix analysis show the existence of only a single, symmetric phase. The field-independent term of the wavefunction renormalization turned out to be negligible, but its field-dependent piece is noticeable. It is shown that the infrared limits of the running couplings depend on the renormalization group scheme used, when the perturbation expansion in the bare quartic coupling is truncated keeping the terms up to the second order.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure

Spatiality and transpatiality in workplace environments

It is widely considered that the physical layout of workplace environments has an influence on social interaction and therefore the social structure of an organisation. However, there is little accordance among scholars from different disciplines on exactly how the relationship between space and organisation is constituted. Empirical studies often come to different conclusions: for example, on the influence of an open-plan office on communication patterns among staff, as many studies report increases as report decreases or unchanged communication behaviours. This evidence-base is further confused since few studies make a link between a profound spatial and an organisational analysis. We suggest that the inconsistency of results is for two main reasons: first, methodologies for operationalising variables differ significantly with each study tending to analyse a distinct notion of a phenomenon. This makes further comparative conclusions and predictive modelling problematic. Second, even where the same methods are used, contradictory evidence emerges, where one organisation reacts differently to another to similar spatial conditions. This suggests that, at the core of the problem, lies an apparent lack of understanding of the nature of the space-organisation relationship. This paper explores these phenomena by drawing on the results of various case studies conducted over the last few years in diverse organisational settings (a university, a research institute, and in corporate media companies). Two main lines of argument will be developed: first we will show that some influences of space on organisational behaviour seem to be generic. Understanding of these generic influences may be used to design spaces enhancing interaction and knowledge flow for any type of organisation. Second, we outline how organisations depend on context, culture and character, and may react to similar spatial configurations in a unique way. We will suggest why this may be the case, referring to Hillier and Hanson's notion of spatial and transpatial modes of social cohesion. The two underlying theoretical concepts, i.e. space as 'generic function' and spatial versus transpatial operations will be discussed concerning their application to, and meaningfulness for, workplace environments. Finally, inferences are drawn for the practice of evidence-based design

Non-trivial fixed points of the scalar field theory

The phase structure of the scalar field theory with arbitrary powers of the gradient operator and a local non-analytic potential is investigated by the help of the RG in Euclidean space. The RG equation for the generating function of the derivative part of the action is derived. Infinitely many non-trivial fixed points of the RG transformations are found. The corresponding effective actions are unbounded from below and do probably not exhibit any particle content. Therefore they do not provide physically sensible theories

The performance of space – exploring social and spatial phenomena of interaction patterns in an organisation.

It is often proposed that the design of the physical workplace influences social interaction and therefore organisational behaviour in one way or the other. Yet there is little accordance among scholars on how exactly the relationship between the social space and the social structure of an organisation is constituted. In order to explore this relationship, we combine an interpretive, phenomenological approach with a correlational, syntactic approach. Using the example of a workplace environment studied on multiple layers as well as in detail we propose that physical space influences the formation of social structure and organisational behaviour in manifold, but analytically tractable ways. The application of qualitative and quantitative methods in tandem proves fruitful for understanding the complex phenomena that characterise the emergence of organisational culture