On data-driven systems and system-driven data

Author(s):  
Koen Van Daele ◽  
Leen Meganck ◽  
Sophie Mortier

Purpose – Over the past 20 years, heritage inventories in Flanders (Belgium) have evolved from printed books to digital inventories. The purpose of this paper is to look at this evolution and highlight the interaction between the system and its users. Design/methodology/approach – After a short introduction about the history of inventories in Flanders, this paper mainly concerns itself with the last decade. Discrete topics will be highlighted to show the effects of the interaction that has taken place. Findings – It is obvious that a system that publishes a digital inventory needs to adapt to the user requirements. But, after years of working with a digital inventory system, it has become apparent that not only has the system been developed to the users’ needs, but also that user practice and the resulting data have been shaped by the system. Seeing data projected on a common basemap has led researchers to realise how intertwined and interdependent different types of heritage can be and how much their respective methodologies can benefit from more interaction. It has become apparent that data quality is of the utmost importance, something that can only be guaranteed by data entry standards, validation tools, and a strict editing workflow. The systems that are being developed are not expected to live on forever, but the data in them is. Originality/value – This paper presents real-life use cases and practical applications of building and maintaining a large digital inventory system over the years and through changes in organisational structure and focus. It provides insights that are hard to ascertain from smaller projects due to the volumes of data that are handled.

Author(s):  
K. Van Daele ◽  
L. Meganck ◽  
S. Mortier

Over the past 20 years, heritage inventories in Flanders (Belgium) have evolved from printed books to digital inventories. It is obvious that a system that publishes a digital inventory needs to adapt to the user requirements. But, after years of working with a digital inventory system, it has become apparent that not only has the system been developed to the users needs, but also that user practice and the resulting data have been shaped by the system. <br><br> Thinking about domain models and thesauri influenced our thinking about our methodology of surveying. Seeing our data projected on a common basemap led us to realise how intertwined and interdependent different types of heritage can be. The need for structured metadata has impressed upon us the need for good quality data, guaranteed by data entry standards, validation tools, and a strict editing workflow. Just as the researchers have transitioned from seeing their respective inventories as being significantly different to actually seeing the similarities between them, the information specialists have come to the realisation that there are synergies that can be achieved with other systems, both within and outside of our organisation. Deploying our inventories on the web has also changed how we communicate with the general public. Newer channels such as email and social media have enabled a more interactive way of communicating. <br><br> But throughout the years, one constant has remained. While we do not expect the systems to live on, we do want the data in them to be available to future generations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Vimpari ◽  
Seppo Junnila

Purpose Retail properties are a perfect example of a property class where revenues determine the rent for the property owners. Estimating the value of new retail developments is challenging, as the initial revenues can have a significant variance from the long-term revenue levels. Owners and tenants try to manage this problem by introducing different kind of options, such as overage rent and extension rights, to the lease contracts. The purpose of this paper is to value these options through time for different types of retailers, using real-life data with a method that can be easily applied in practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds upon the existing papers on real option studies but has a strong practical focus, which has been identified as a challenge in the field. The paper presents simple mathematical equations for valuing overage rent and extension options. The equations capture the value related to uncertainty (volatility) that is missed by standard valuation practices. Findings The results indicate that overage and extension options can represent a significant proportion of retail lease contract’s value and their value is heavily time-dependent. The option values differ greatly between tenants, as the volatilities can have a large spread across tenants. The paper suggests that the applicability of option pricing theory and calculus should not be considered as an insurmountable barrier any more, rather a greater challenge for the practical adaptability of the method can be the availability of real-life data that is a common problem in real option analysis. Practical implications The value of extension and overage options varies greatly between tenants. In general, the property owner can try balance the positive effects from the overage rents to the negative effects of tenant extensions. However, this study tries to highlight that, as usual, using the “law of averages” can result into poor valuation in this context as well. Even the data used in this study provide valuable findings for the property owner as an analytical deduction can be made that certain types of tenants have higher volatilities and this should be acknowledged when valuing options within lease contracts. Originality/value Previous literature in this topic often takes the input data for the option valuation as granted rather than trying to identify the real-life data available for the calculation. This is a common problem in real options valuation and it seems to be one of the reasons why option valuation has not been used widely in practice. This study has used real-life data to assess the problem and more importantly assessed the data across different types of tenants. The volatility spread between different types of tenants has not been discussed previously, even though it has a significant importance when using option pricing in practice.


Author(s):  
Stephen J. Davis

Monasticism is a social and religious phenomenon that originated in antiquity, which remains relevant in the 21st century. Monasticism: A Very Short Introduction discusses the history of monasticism from the earliest evidence for it, and the different types that have developed. It considers where monasteries are located around the world, and how their settings impact the everyday life and worldview of the monks and nuns who dwell in them. Exploring how monastic communities are organized, this VSI also looks at how all aspects of life are regimented. Finally, it discusses what the stories about saints communicate about monastic identity and ethics, and considers what place there is for monasticism in the modern world.


Babel ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-555
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Rottet

In this study we use a translation corpus of English novels translated into two closely related Celtic languages, Welsh and Breton, as one way of shedding light on the extent to which languages can influence each other over time: Welsh has a long history of contact with English, and Breton with French. Ever since the work of Leonard Talmy (1991, 2000 etc.), linguists have recognized that languages fall into a small number of types with respect to how they prefer to talk about motion events. English is a good exemplar of the satellite-framed type, whereas French exemplifies the verb-framed type. Translation scholars have observed that translating between languages of two different types raises interesting questions (Slobin 2005; Cappelle 2012), and the topic is also of interest from the perspective of language contact: is it possible for a language of one type, in a situation of prolonged and intense bilingualism with a language of another type, to be influenced or perhaps even to change its own rhetorical preferences? The translation corpus provides a body of data which holds constant the starting point – the cue in each case was an English motion event in the source text. We do indeed find that Welsh and Breton have diverged in important ways in terms of their preferences for encoding motion events: Breton is revealed to have moved significantly in the direction of French with respect to these preferences.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Craig ◽  
Stephen Clay

Purpose The 2015 Modern Slavery Act focusses attention forms of modern slavery (human trafficking and forced labour), within the UK. The contemporaneous 2014 Care Act, identifies modern slavery as a new form of risk within adult social care, listing forms of abuse and vulnerability. However, it does not consider whether those providing care may themselves be vulnerable to forms of modern slavery. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors describe the history of the development of modern slavery legislation in the UK, outline key provisions of the Care Act, illustrated with real-life cases. The analysis suggests that adult social care – characterised by informality, fragmentation and vulnerability – is one where instances of modern slavery may be more common than considered to date. Findings The data collected, though relatively modest, suggests that a thorough investigation should be undertaken into the possibility of modern slavery taking place within the realm of adult social care. Research limitations/implications Data have been collected through a snowball process, rolling out a survey to relevant groups of individual and organisations. A more rigorous investigation is required to examine the extent of modern slavery within adult social care. Practical implications The training of those responsible for the regulation/management of adult social care needs to ensure that they are fully equipped to understand the nature of modern slavery and how to identify its symptoms and victims. Social implications There is also a need for heightened awareness of those close to people being cared for that they may also identify the symptoms of modern slavery. Originality/value This area has not been explored to date.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Kapur

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the history of the Sino-Indian conflict and to evaluate recent changes as reflected in the high level meetings between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It explores the evolving relationship in terms of three types of bargaining: elusive, tacit and convergent. Design/methodology/approach – By adopting a historical approach one gets a better sense of the evolving pattern of relations between China and India and the circumstances in which the evolution is occurring. Findings – China-India relations are similar to a journey where the progress is measured in terms of small steps rather than a final peace settlement. Relations have changed slowly towards a positive direction in economic relations, and there is a pattern of stability in border talks but the issue is complicated by the linkages between the Tibet question and border issues. Research limitations/implications – This topic requires considerable research because it is important for the future of Asian international relations and it is under-researched. Perhaps there could be an edited volume which brings together researchers from different backgrounds and expertise. The suggested work must be empirical but with a theoretical framework related to different types of bargaining cultures and experiences in Asia. Originality/value – As China and India evolve in their diplomatic practices and thinking, as Asian powers are readjusting their policies in the light of new circumstances, there are insights for policy analysts and practitioners in China and India among other Asian countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Imon Chowdhooree ◽  
Kanu Kumar Das

Purpose Mud architecture as one of the expressions of vernacular architecture illustrates the success of indigenous knowledge of traditional communities. Due to the pressure of industrialization, urbanization and globalization, the trend of using non-traditional measures guided by the Western-Euro-centric knowledge and technologies considers the traditional practices as expressions of backward past, under-development and poverty. Though mud as a building material is usually assumed as a fragile and ephemeral material that cannot survive against natural hazards, the surviving traditional mud buildings are needed to be investigated to know their performances during and after different types of natural hazard incidents. Design/methodology/approach This paper intends to study the available cases of mud architecture of Chattogram, Bangladesh to trace the history of their survival despite of experiencing multiple natural hazards and to understand their status and prospect of resisting hazards. Three individual homesteads are chosen as cases for conducting physical survey as well as engaging inhabitants and local masons of the locality in semi-structured interviews in a story telling mode to know the construction process and histories of experiencing natural hazards. Available literatures are reviewed, and experts are interviewed to understand the causes of their performances and possible ways to improve the quality. Findings Collected information on mud architecture demonstrates their quality of surviving against many natural challenges and this hazard-resilient quality can be enhanced through using contemporary building technologies and materials, promising to co-exist with the global trend. Originality/value This study as an attempt to reinvent the vernacular architectural heritage endorses the need of appreciating indigenous knowledge for enhancing community resilience against natural hazards.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Carmelo Visdómine-Lozano

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a contextualistic account of antisocial responding, with the addition of recent developments on the study of personality. Design/methodology/approach – A behavioural and contextualistic view point is developed to account for antisocial personality and related topics, inasmuch as traditional definitions of antisocial personality disorder as provided on formal diagnostic manuals derive on several and not always coherent classifications of antisocial behaviours. Some of these classifications centre on issues like guilt, impulsivity or aggressiveness for establishing different types of offending and antisocial patterns. This paper focuses on functional personal backgrounds. Findings – A total of five types of “potentiated contingencies” are described as being the main underpinnings involved in antisocial patterns. An analysis of the transformation of aversive functions of antisocial behaviours, leads to specify a distinctive rule-following behaviour that is concerned with that responding. Finally, the exposition of the four verbal clinical contexts that behaviour analysis highlights as taking place at therapeutic settings, serves to propose a fitter contextualistic intervention for antisocial personality patterns. Research limitations/implications – Novel investigations should contrast the functional classification of antisocial responding. Those studies should experimentally demonstrate the way in which the different instances of transformation of antisocial functions the author has described are prompted. Practical implications – The analysis also allows for the anticipation of the behaviour of individuals fitting to every category of antisocial avoidance. And as the functional analysis of “antisocial avoidance” uncovers specific relations between environmental stimuli as they are produced and established in the history of interactions of individuals, a more fitting intervention based upon those relations is feasible. Originality/value – An exhaustive functional taxonomy of antisocial personalities and delinquent behaviours has never been presented before elsewhere. Besides the author reinterprets from a contextualist position traditional empirical studies.


Author(s):  
Kathleen Taylor

Dementia: A Very Short Introduction explains how dementia is diagnosed, its different types and symptoms, and its effects on sufferers and their families. Why is dementia resistant to treatment? Why has the most successful scientific hypothesis not led to a cure? Are there variations between different countries, and given the rise in the ageing population, are there more or fewer cases than we think? This VSI looks at the history of dementia research and examines the genetic, physiological, and environmental risk factors and how individuals might reduce them. It also investigates developments in diagnosis and symptom management, and the economic and political context of dementia care.


Author(s):  
Timothy Williamson

What is philosophy and what are philosophers trying to achieve? Philosophical Method: A Very Short Introduction looks at the history of philosophy, including examples from history charting the successes and failures of philosophical thinking. Themes explored in detail include philosophy’s relationship to mathematics and science, common sense and its misinterpretations, the role of debate in the search for truth, and the importance of thought experiments to philosophical arguments. This VSI provides a contemporary look at philosophical methodology, asking if philosophy is always an ‘armchair-based’ discipline or if real-life thought experiments can help us solve philosophical problems.


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