105,215 research outputs found

    Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing

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    “Des. Res.”, “rarely available”, “viewing essential” – these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agent’s penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics

    'I'm confused about what my problems actually are' : managing King-Kopetzky syndrome

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    Why do some people complain of hearing difficulties when their hearing esholds are normal? How should Audiology professionals respond to their presentation? This problem will be considered in the light of the literature from audiology, psychology, and medical sociology disciplines. The different evidence for and implications of bio-medical and bio psychosocial explanations for such experiences are discussed. In particular the role of help seeking is considered as a coping mechanism and as a key part of the diagnostic case definition applied to this population of audioiogy patients. Two original studies will be presented which consider this phenomenon from different viewpoints. The first explored the lived experience of the patients.Two original studies will be presented which consider this phenomenon from different viewpoints. The first explored the lived experience of the patient who is coping with hearing difficulties and investigated how seeking help forms part of the process of coping.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Solving differential-algebraic equations by selecting universal dummy derivatives

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    A common way of making a high index DAE amenable to numerical solution is that of index reduction. A classical way of reducing a DAE’s index is the dummy derivative method of Mattsson and Söderlind, however for many problems this method only provides a local index 1 DAE. Using the Signature Matrix based structural analysis of Pryce to inform the dummy derivative method we present a way to make this reduction global, where instead of picking new dummy derivatives at run time and thus changing the overall structure of the problem you instead have to update a list of parameters

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Deprivation indices in China : establishing principles for application and interpretation

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    Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMDs) aim to measure living standards at the small area level. These indices were originally developed in the United Kingdom, but there is a growing interest in adapting them for use in China. However, due to data limitations, Chinese deprivation indices sometimes diverge considerably in approaches and are not always connected with the underlying concepts within UK analysis. In this paper, we seek to bring direction and conceptual rigour to this nascent literature by establishing a set of core principles for IMD estimation that are relevant and feasible in the Chinese context. These principles are based on specifying deprivation domains from theory, selecting the most appropriate measurements for these domains, and then applying rigorous statistical techniques to combine them into an IMD. We apply these principles to create an IMD for Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province. We use this to investigate the spatial patterns of deprivation in Shijiazhuang, focussing on clustering and centralisation of deprivation as well as exploring different deprivation typologies. We highlight two distinct types of deprived areas. One is clustered in industrial areas on the edge of the city, while the second is found more centrally and contains high proportions of low-skilled service workers

    A new look at dummy derivatives for differential-algebraic equations

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    We show the dummy derivatives index reduction method for DAEs, introduced in 1993 by Mattsson & Söderlind, is a particular case of the Pryce ΣΣ-method solution scheme. We give a pictorial display of the underlying block triangular form. This approach gives a simple general method to cast the reduced system in semi-explicit index 1 form, combining order reduction and index reduction in one process. It also shows each DD scheme for a given DAE is uniquely described by an integer “DDspec” vector δδ. The method is illustrated by an example. We give various reasons why, contrary to common belief, converting further from semi-explicit index 1 form to an explicit ODE, can be a good idea for numerical solution

    Pathos and patter in real estate parlance

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    This paper presents the first systematic analysis of estate agent language and employs Aristotle’s ponderings on the art of persuasion as a means of classifying the peculiar parlance of property peddlers. “Des. Res.”, “rarely available”, “viewing essential” – these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements. The question is whether the selling agent’s penchant for rhetoric is uniform across a single urban system or whether there are variations, even within a relatively limited geographical area. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the West of Scotland over the period 1999 to 2006. Our analysis has implications for our understanding of the agency behaviour of housing market professionals and endeavours to open up a new avenue of research into the market-impact of rhetoric in the language of selling

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We 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

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function

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    This thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
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