1,354 research outputs found
Our Methodological Challenges and Solutions
No full textHow did audiences across the world respond to the films of The Lord of the Rings? The book presents findings from the largest film audience project ever undertaken, drawing from 25,000 questionnaire responses and a wide array of other materials. Contributors use these materials to explore a series of widely speculated questions: why is film fantasy important to different kinds of viewers? Through marketing, previews and reviews, debates and cultural chatter, how are audiences prepared for a film like this? How did fans of the book respond to its adaptation on screen? How do people choose their favorite characters? How was the films’ reception shaped by different national and cultural contexts? The answers to these questions shed fresh light on the extraordinary popularity of The Lord of the Rings and provide important new insights into the global reception of cinema in the twenty-first century
Are EU spatial ex ante coexistence regulations proportional?
No full textThe EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all member states. While it stresses that any approach needs to be “proportionate to the aim of achieving coexistence”, very few studies have actually attempted to assess whether the proposed spatial ex ante coexistence regulations (SEACERs) satisfy this proportionality condition. In this article, we define proportionality as a functional relationship which is weakly increasing in the incentives for coexistence. We propose a spatial framework based on an existing landscape and introduce the new concept of shadow factor as a measure for the opportunity costs induced by SEACERs. This enables comparing the proportionality of (i) rigid SEACERs which are based on large isolation distances imposed on GM farmers versus (ii) flexible SEACERs based on pollen barrier agreements between neighboring farmers. Our theoretical and empirical findings argue for flexibility as rigid SEACERs violate the proportionality condition and, hence, are not consistent with the objectives of the EU.policy analysis, GIS, shadow factor, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,
Minimising the rank aggregation error
No full textRank aggregation is the problem of generating an overall ranking from a set of individual votes. The aim in doing so is to produce a ranking which is as close as possible to the (unknown) correct ranking for a given distance measure such as the Kendall-tau distance. The challenge is that votes are often both noisy and incomplete. Existing work has largely focused on finding the most likely ranking for a particular noise model (such as Mallows'). Instead, here we focus on minimising the error, i.e., the expected distance between the aggregated ranking and the true underlying one. Specifically, we show that the two objectives result in different rankings, and that these differences become especially significant when many votes are missing. Furthermore, we show how to compute local improvements on existing rankings to reduce the expected error. Finally, we run extensive experiments on both synthetic and real data to compare different aggregation rules. In particular, a surprising result is that for votes generated according to the Mallows' model, Copeland often outperforms Kemeny optimal, despite the latter being the maximum likelihood estimator
Risk and De-Collectivisation: Evidence from the Czech Republic
No full textThe replacement of wage-labour farms by family farms in Central and Eastern Europe during the transformation has been more limited than was initially expected. In this paper a formal framework is developed in order to analyse the behaviour of family farms and socialist-style farms in the presence of risk, given the typical post-socialist environment. Management incentives, ownership structure, lump-sum transfers and consumption choices are shown to have the potential to limit the size of family farms relative to socialist-style farms. The hypotheses are tested with survey data collected by the author in the Czech Republic.transition, agriculture, structural change, risk, survey data, Risk and Uncertainty, D21, D81, O18, Q12,
Economics of spatial coexistence of genetically modified and conventional crops: Oilseed rape in Central France
No full textEurope is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all EU Member States. We conduct simulations with the software ArcView® on a GIS dataset of a hypothetical case of GM herbicide tolerant oilseed rape cultivation in Central France. Our findings show that rigid coexistence rules, such as large distance requirements, may impose a severe burden on GM crop production in Europe. These rules are not proportional to the farmers’ basic incentives for coexistence and hence not consistent with the objectives of the European Commission. More alarming, we show that in densely planted areas a domino-effect may occur. This effect raises coexistence costs and even adds to the non-proportionality of rigid coexistence regulations. Instead, we show that flexible measures would be preferable since they are proportional to the incentives for coexistence and, hence, less counterproductive for European agriculture.regulation, GIS modelling, domino-effect, Crop Production/Industries,
To be awarded, or Not to Be Awarded. Is that the Question?:Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Study of Literary and Translation Prizes in the Context of Cultural Transfer
No full textTo be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature or not to be awarded. Is that the question? Is not every author overwhelmed by the mere thought of being awarded the Noble Prize in Literature? After all, it means more translations, a broader audience, honour, money and fame. One good example of a writer who benefitted from the prize is the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness (1902-1998). A hitherto unknown poet and novelist, he became world famous after receiving the award in 1955, after which his works were translated into more than 25 languages.1 There have also been authors, however, who were anything but honoured to be nominated. Undoubtedly, the most famous example is Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), who refused the Nobel Prize in 1964 to maintain his intellectual credibility as an anti-bourgeois philosopher and activist
Intention-Aware Routing to Minimise Delays at Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
No full textEn-route charging stations allow electric vehicles to greatly extend their range. However, as a full charge takes a considerable amount of time, there may be significant waiting times at peak hours. To address this problem, we propose a novel navigation system, which communicates its intentions (i.e., routing policies) to other drivers. Using these intentions, our system accurately predicts congestion at charging stations and suggests the most efficient route to its user. We achieve this by extending existing time-dependent stochastic routing algorithms to include the battery's state of charge and charging stations. Furthermore, we describe a novel technique for combining historical information with agent intentions to predict the queues at charging stations. Through simulations we show that our system leads to a significant increase in utility compared to existing approaches that do not explicitly model waiting times or use intentions, in some cases reducing waiting times by over 80% and achieving near-optimal overall journey times.Software and Computer TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Effects of e-mobility hubs in residential areas on car use and ownership: Stated choice experiments in the context of Dutch cities
No full textThis paper aims to explore the potential of mobility hubs to reduce car use and car ownership, and how this is affected by the car owner’s characteristics, the trip characteristics and the car owner’s living environment characteristics. To this end, two stated choice experiments were conducted and the data was analysed using extended multinomial logit models. The results showed that the shared e-car is preferred to the private car for commuting trips if the walking times and operational costs are attractive. The operational costs of shared mobility services and the walking distances to mobility hubs were found to be important factors for the use of shared mobility services. These two factors were also found to be important for the willingness to give up the private car and thus the choice for shared mobility services offered in mobility hubs for all trips. Sensitivity to operational costs was found to be higher for the shared e-car than for the shared e-moped and e-bike. Car owners preferred full e-car sharing if the private car was given up. Car owners had little preference for the use of shared e-mopeds and e-bikes. The density of mobility hubs in a residential area was found to have a strong impact on reducing car use and car ownership. Moreover, lowering the current operating costs was found to make the use of shared mobility services more attractive. The effects of mobility hubs on car use and car ownership were highest in the city centre, followed by the suburban area and lowest in a rural area.Transport, Infrastructure and Logistic
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