122,013 research outputs found
The performance of practice: an alternative approach to attitudinal and behavioural ‘customer segmentation’ for the UK water industry
Get PDFDeveloping a comprehensive picture of the nature of current water demand is vital to forecasts of future water demand, as well as to inform demand management interventions and water efficiency programs. One way that water companies in the UK are starting to develop this picture is through the use of proxy variables such as demographics that are then used to segment people to explain patterns in people’s water use based on values, attitudes, and behaviours. However, as is the case with many environmental management settings, this current approach to attitudinal or behavioural segmentation fails to take into account the constantly observed value/attitude behaviour gap in water use, and offers little to the idea of intervention beyond a simple provision of technology and information to similarly ‘averaged’ customers. This paper offers an alternative theoretical and methodological perspective to the idea of segmentation based on depth of understanding of everyday practice, and highlights how a change of the unit of analysis from ‘individuals’ to ‘practices’ opens up a wealth of possibility for understanding water demand, and conceptualising forecasting and intervention for the water industry
Patterns of water: the water related practices of households in southern England, and their influence on water consumption and demand management
Get PDFThis report contains the findings of survey research on the patterns of water using practices in households across the South and South East of England. Following a ‘practice based’ approach to water demand, this research takes practices as the unit of analysis when exploring water use – rather than attitudes, behaviours or simply ‘litres used’ – and highlights how this changed unit of analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the routines and habits of everyday life that lead to domestic water consumption – washing and personal hygiene, doing the laundry, gardening, cooking etc. Based on an 1800 person survey across the south and south east of England, and a range of descriptive and cluster analysis, this research highlights the diversity of dynamics shaping domestic water demand in the UK and may help bring new insights into how to construct interventions, and into the future trajectories of different practices and levels of water consumption
A Multi-Language Comparison of Influences on Author Verification using Character N-Grams
No full textWe create a new multi-language corpus for author verification based on Wikipedia talkpages, and evaluate the influence that differences in topic and time have on character n-gram author profiles. Topic alignment between two texts is found to increase author verification precision, and an authors writing style is found to change over time, but not more significantly after 3 years than after 1 year.Information ArchitectureWISElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The vanishing author in computer-generated works: a critical analysis of recent Australian case law
Get PDFAbstract
The use of software is ubiquitous in the creation of many copyright works, yet the requirement in copyright law that every work have a human author who engages in independent intellectual effort means that its use may prevent copyright subsistence. Several recent Australian cases have refocused attention on authorship as an essential criterion of copyright subsistence, and these cases suggest that much computer-produced output may be authorless and thus lack copyright protection. This article, the first in a two-part series, analyses how each case deals with the question of authorship of computer-produced works and why the use of software diminishes copyright protection for a significant number of computer-generated works. The article critiques the application of conventional notions of human authorship developed in the pre-computer age to modern productions and suggests alternative approaches to authorship that satisfy both the major objectives of copyright policy and the need to adapt to the computer age. The article argues that, without a broader judicial approach to authorship of computer-generated works, Parliament must remedy the lacuna in protection for these ‘authorless’ works. Possible solutions for reform are suggested. In a forthcoming article, the author comprehensively examines those reform proposals
Diffusive author(s), cohesive author: Analysis of S/N (1994)
No full textThis study indicates the ways in which various aspects of the author(s) are brought forth in Dumb type’s performance art, the S/N production. Previous research has suggested a non-hierarchical organization of Dumb type and the absence of a “privileged author” in Dumb type’s collaborative work, S/N. However, the results that I have investigated from member’s interviews on the creative process of S/N along with my analysis of the recorded images of S/N, indicate a different aspect of the author(s). First, S/N was created through, so to speak, the collective ideas of the members of Dumb type. Further, S/N has at least nine quotations from previous performances, installations, and printed writings, besides the work-in-progress technique. Explicating one of the “author functions” as given by Michel Foucault, each text has plural subjects of the author. However, it has been revealed from members’ interviews that Teiji Furuhashi had a decision-making role in selecting the members’ ideas within the performance. Since then, S/N has had plural subjects of creation; however, Furuhashi is one of the subjects of creation along with the “privileged author.” S/N has plural authors (diffusive authors) yet at the same time, it has a “privileged author,” Teiji Furuhashi (cohesive author)
Viruses and antiviral responses of an invasive fruit pest, Drosophila suzukii
Get PDFDrosophila suzukii (Matsamura) is an invasive dipteran pest of soft fruit crops. Native
to Japan and SE Asia it was first detected in the Mediterranean growing regions of
Europe and the western states of the USA in 2008. Since then it has been expanding
its range across both continents causing huge economic damage to the horticultural
industries there. Current control measures are heavily dependent on broad spectrum
insecticides and labour intensive cultural control. Therefore, there is a large incentive
to investigate alternative, more environmentally benign, control methods such as
biological control or biopesticides.
The viruses of D. suzukii offer a potential source of pathogens suitable for the
development of such a biopesticide. Chapter 2 explores the diversity of viruses found
naturally associating with D. suzukii in both its native and naturalised ranges. In it, I
describe 18 new RNA viruses belonging to a variety of virus clades. Although none of
these viruses belong to those clades traditionally used as biological control agents,
we suggest further work for the development of a viral control agent based on our
data.
Not only are the viruses of D. suzukii of direct applied interest to the horticultural
industry, they also offer a powerful model system for the study of virus host dynamics
in the wild. The ecosystems recently invaded by this pest contain many other species
of Drosophila which harbour their own raft of viral pathogens. In chapter 3 I explore
the extent to which these viruses are shared between species and how virus
prevalence changes over time. Understanding the patterns of virus ‘host-shifts’ after
host range change could help us better predict the success of particular biological
invasion events and further informs our understanding of emerging viral diseases in
both humans and livestock.
The ability of a virus to shift host ultimately comes down to its ability to overcome its
host’s immune system. In chapter 4 I investigate the comparative genome-wide
transcriptomal immune responses of D. suzukii and its congener D. melanogaster
after treatment with two highly divergent viruses. The relative responses of these
flies was shown to be highly dissimilar as was the response of males and females of
the same species. Few model species allow comparative expression studies of this
depth granting us unprecedented insights into the evolution of insect innate immune
systems
Recommendations for changes in UK National Recovery Guidance (NRG) and associated guidance from the perspective of Lancaster University's Hull Flood Studies
Get PDFThis report was commissioned by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) following the publication of Lancaster University‟s Hull Flood Project and Hull Children‟s Flood Project. Its principal purpose is to identify how findings made as a result of the two research projects could be integrated into the Cabinet Office‟s National Recovery Guidance (NRG), as a means to improve affected communities‟ ability to recover from emergency events.
The report, in effect, details a desktop analysis of UK Civil Protection (CP) guidance, from a bottom-up perspective (i.e. using as its critical lens, the lived experiences of members of the public who were tested by the Hull flooding of 2007 and its aftermath)
The first catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi large area telescope
Get PDFWe present the first catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), corresponding to 11 months of data collected in scientific operation mode. The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) includes 671 ?-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>10°) that are detected with a test statistic greater than 25 and associated statistically with AGNs. Some LAT sources are associated with multiple AGNs, and consequently, the catalog includes 709 AGNs, comprising 300 BL Lacertae objects, 296 flat-spectrum radio quasars, 41 AGNs of other types, and 72 AGNs of unknown type. We also classify the blazars based on their spectral energy distributions as archival radio, optical, and X-ray data permit. In addition to the formal 1LAC sample, we provide AGN associations for 51 low-latitude LAT sources and AGN "affiliations" (unquantified counterpart candidates) for 104 high-latitude LAT sources without AGN associations. The overlap of the 1LAC with existing ?-ray AGN catalogs (LBAS, EGRET, AGILE, Swift, INTEGRAL, TeVCat) is briefly discussed. Various properties—such as ?-ray fluxes and photon power-law spectral indices, redshifts, ?-ray luminosities, variability, and archival radio luminosities—and their correlations are presented and discussed for the different blazar classes. We compare the 1LAC results with predictions regarding the ?-ray AGN populations, and we comment on the power of the sample to address the question of the blazar sequenc
Dissipative Range Scaling of Higher Order Structure Functions for Velocity and Passive Scalars
No full textDifferently to Kolmogorov's second similarity hypothesis, we find that the 2n-th order velocity and scalar structure functions scale with n-th order moment of the energy dissipation and the scalar dissipation, respectively. The origins of this scaling are analyzed by the transport equations of the fourth order velocity and scalar increment moments and by direct numerical simulations
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