Caroline L. Davey and Andrew B. Wootton
This paper aims to understand the delivery of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) across Europe – from European-wide procedures through national schemes to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the delivery of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) across Europe – from European-wide procedures through national schemes to effective local strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings come from a review of published literature and reports, case studies and site visits conducted primarily during COST Action TU1203 (2013-2016).
Findings
Innovative approaches and methods to integrate crime prevention into urban design, planning and management have been generated by multi-agency partnerships and collaborations at European, national and city levels. Methods and procedures developed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Working Group on “Crime Prevention through Urban Planning and Building Design” are pioneering. However, findings show that implementation is best achieved at a local level using methods and procedures tailored to the specific context.
Research limitations/implications
In-depth research is required to appreciate subtle differences between local approaches and conceptual models developed to better understand approaches and methods.
Practical implications
Practitioners and academics working to prevent crime benefit from participation in focused, multi-agency collaborations that, importantly, facilitate visits to urban developments, discussions with local stakeholders responsible for delivery “on the ground” and structured and sustained exploration of innovations and challenges.
Originality/value
The authors hope that this paper will contribute to developing a new direction for CPTED practice and research that builds on significant progress in creating safer environments over previous decades.
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J D.H. and E.D.G. Kemp
IN a previous article (Ref. 1, 1966), Chichester‐Miles of H.S.A. discussed some of the advantages and opportunities offered by the use of V.T.O.L. aircraft in short haul air…
Abstract
IN a previous article (Ref. 1, 1966), Chichester‐Miles of H.S.A. discussed some of the advantages and opportunities offered by the use of V.T.O.L. aircraft in short haul air transport. In a more recent article (Ref. 2, 1969), Boorer and Davey of B.A.C. reviewed the characteristics and some of the operational problems of V/S.T.O.L. aircraft, and argued in favour of initial civil S.T.O.L. aircraft leading to V.T.O.L. developments as an effective part of the overall ground and air transport system of the 1970s, on the basis of a foreseeable market demand for such aircraft at ranges between 50 and 300 miles. Quoting from their conclusions: ‘S.T.O.L. commercial operations appear therefore to be just around the corner. V.T.O.L. commercial operations may be a decade or so away but, as and when a S.T.O.L. inter‐city transport system develops, the improvement of S.T.O.L. performance toward V.T.O.L. may well become attractive and perhaps even necessary.’
Previous papers have discussed ‘public‐funded’ information resources. We should remind ourselves that public funds come from the economic resource of the country—and that comes…
With the wealth of information available on the World Wide Web, it is difficult for anyone from a general user to the researcher to easily fulfill their information need. The main…
Abstract
Purpose
With the wealth of information available on the World Wide Web, it is difficult for anyone from a general user to the researcher to easily fulfill their information need. The main challenge is to categorize the documents systematically and also take into account more valuable data such as semantic information. The purpose of this paper is to develop a concept-based search system that leverages the external knowledge resources as the background knowledge for getting the accurate and efficient meaningful search results.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces the approach which is based on formal concept analysis (FCA) with the semantic information to support the document management in information retrieval (IR). To describe the semantic information of the documents, the system uses the popular knowledge resources WordNet and Wikipedia. By using FCA, the system creates the concept lattice as the concept hierarchy of the document and proposes the navigation algorithm for retrieving the hierarchy based on the user query.
Findings
The semantic information of the document is based on the two external popular knowledge resources; the authors find that it will be more efficient to deal with the semantic mismatch problems of user need.
Originality/value
The navigation algorithm proposed in this research is applied to the scientific articles of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The proposed system can enhance the integration and exploration of the scientific articles for the advancement of the Scientific and Engineering Research Community.
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In recent years the British Research Associations have come of age commercially. There are a number of reasons for this including changes in Government grant policies, but, by way…
Abstract
In recent years the British Research Associations have come of age commercially. There are a number of reasons for this including changes in Government grant policies, but, by way of introduction, let us simply say that they are now in business. They are in business just as much as any of their Members are in business in their fields. Part of that business, and a very important part, is the supply of information services; and the fact that the Research Associations are now operating in a commercial way should significantly increase their contribution to the nation's information store and reputation.
Yue Xu, Ghazalossadat Fatemi and Eisuke Saito
This study aims to analyse the attempts of taught master course students' publications from actor-network theoretic (ANT) perspectives based on the authors' experiences.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the attempts of taught master course students' publications from actor-network theoretic (ANT) perspectives based on the authors' experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, self-study was chosen as the research method. Self-study is a qualitative research approach based on autobiography, available materials, narratives or memory-work for researchers to investigate their own practice from professional and personal experiences and work with critical friends. In this study, self-study was conducted based on the reflective narratives of three authors (the students, Authors 1 and 2, and the lecturer, Author 3), which aims to examine the meanings and explanations of the authors' ordinary experiences and investigate a variety of their emotional memories.
Findings
By drawing on ANT, this study explored how the authors translated the assignment tasks into publications by negotiating and interacting with various human and non-human actors – academic journals. The journal articles, however, were not solely the outcome of the academic endevours of the authors. Instead, the journals played a role in helping the authors learn about the academic rigour and gain confidence in their own capabilities. Further, the journals also reinforced the academic partnerships between the authors through collaboration on drafting and revising their manuscripts.
Practical implications
Firstly, this process of helping students publish their papers should focus on their learning and experience rather than merely promoting competition. Additionally, the importance of reaching an agreement on role division and collaborative work ethics needs to be emphasised.
Originality/value
As publications have become increasingly important for graduate students, this study sheds light on the experience of taught master's course students (TMCSs) and their lecturer in jointly publishing papers. While doctoral student publications have received significant attention, TMCSs' publications have not been extensively studied, making this research valuable and original.
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David Philip McArthur, Sylvia Encheva and Inge Thorsen
The aim of the paper is to propose a methodology that allows researchers and practitioners to structure a small amount of data in a way which aids understandings and allows…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to propose a methodology that allows researchers and practitioners to structure a small amount of data in a way which aids understandings and allows predictions to be made.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores how formal concept analysis can be combined with fuzzy reasoning to make predictions based on small datasets. A dataset of nine regions in Norway described by six attributes is used. The paper focuses on regional disparities in labour market outcomes such as unemployment and wages.
Findings
The paper finds that unemployment tends to be concentrated in the most prosperous parts of the study area. These regions have high incomes and experience population growth. More rural regions have virtually no unemployment. The methodology proposed allows these patterns to be seen. The authors made predictions with an accuracy rate of over 75 per cent.
Practical implications
A common response to high unemployment in urban areas is to stimulate employment growth. The findings suggest that this will simply increase migration towards the cities. The net result will be no change in unemployment but an accelerated depopulation of more rural regions.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first application of fuzzy reasoning to the topic of regional disparities. The methodology aids in the interpretation of small datasets. The methodology should be of interested to practitioners at the local level, who are interested in analysing their own region, even when limited data are available.
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Joaquim Gabarró, Isabel Vallejo and Fatos Xhafa
This paper aims to deal with some design issues of web applications using partial orders to enhance their navigability and extensibility.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deal with some design issues of web applications using partial orders to enhance their navigability and extensibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a static web applications model as a deterministic labelled transition system in which states are html pages and transitions are urls.
Findings
By using this model it is possible, on the one hand, to characterize the temporal evolution of a web application and, on the other, to classify web applications into several types according to the way the information is organized over the web application. This classification captures interesting properties related to the navigability and extensibility of web applications.
Practical implications
These ideas are applied to develop a simple web application, namely, a small virtual museum based on approximations of original paintings. Moreover, based on the extensibility characterization, the virtual museum is extended with different paintings approximations, while preserving navigability properties as well as browsing of paintings' approximations of higher quality resolution.
Originality/value
The results of this work provide useful and practical insights into the design of web applications that ensure navigability and extensibility properties.
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It is widely acknowledged that the computer has caused great societal changes over recent years, but the purpose of this paper is to relate specifically to those due to the use of…
Abstract
Purpose
It is widely acknowledged that the computer has caused great societal changes over recent years, but the purpose of this paper is to relate specifically to those due to the use of computers in education and teaching about computing. The adoption and use of computers in education was very much a socio-technical process with influence from people, organisations, processes and technologies: of a variety of human and non-human actors.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper makes use of actor-network theory to analyse these events and their educational and societal impact. Data were collected from published sources, interviews with those involved at the time, discussions and from personal experience and observations.
Findings
Computers have, of course, had a huge impact on society, but particularly in relation to the use of computers in school education there was a different societal impact. Some of this related directly to education, some to school administration and some to student attitudes, experiences and knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
The paper investigates the development of early courses in computing in universities and schools in Victoria, Australia. The paper does not, however, consider the use of computers in university research, only in education.
Practical implications
The paper describes the significant educational events of the era from punch-card tabulating machines in the 1930s to micro-computers in the late 1980s, and investigates the relationship between the development of courses in the Universities and those in the more vocationally oriented Colleges of Advanced Education. It examines whether one followed from the other. It also investigates the extent of the influence of the universities and CAEs on school computing.
Social implications
The advent of the computer made a significant impact on university and school education even before the internet, Google, Wikipedia and smart phones in the late 1990s and 2000s. Computers in schools cause a rethink of how teaching should be handled and of the role of the teacher.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the history of computers and education in both universities and schools in Victoria, Australia over the period from the 1930s to the early 1990s. It considers how and why this technological adoption occurred, and the nature of the resulting educational and societal change this produced. Primary and High School use of computers did not commence until the 1970s but prior to this there is a considerable and interesting history associated with the development of Higher Education courses relating to computing.
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Scott McGibbon and Mohamed Abdel-Wahab
Scotland’s built heritage (pre-1919 building stock) is exhibiting varying levels of disrepair, in particular for stonemasonry works, despite the government’s on-going efforts for…
Abstract
Purpose
Scotland’s built heritage (pre-1919 building stock) is exhibiting varying levels of disrepair, in particular for stonemasonry works, despite the government’s on-going efforts for promoting higher standards of repair and maintenance (R & M) of historic buildings. The purpose of this paper is to examine the problems associated with the R & M of historic buildings.
Design/methodology/approach
Two case studies (Projects A and B) exhibiting critical disrepair are reported. Site surveying was carried-out on both projects, to identify site features and R & M problems along with proposed solutions drawing on the lead author’s extensive industry experience as a stonemasonry consultant. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals involved in each project to elicit views on the challenges faced. Additionally, three industry experts were interviewed to provide a wider perspective of the R & M challenges facing historic buildings.
Findings
Neglect and poor practice resulted in both projects becoming more challenging and expensive than they needed to be, which was attributed to generic and advanced skills 6deficiencies of the workforce. There is an urgent need for a multi-disciplinary approach to the development of a method statement for R & M, drawing on the expertise of professionals and contractors, particularly when specifying repairs to structural elements.
Originality/value
This paper has provided original and valuable information on R & M problems, highlighting the importance of continued investment in skills development for historic building R & M to enhance existing current training provision and practice. There is a need for further similar project-based data to inform skills development strategies for the R & M of historic buildings as well as enhancing existing qualification frameworks.