Margaret E. Graham and John P. Eakins
Before a trade mark can be registered at the UK Patent Office, registrars need to ensure it isn't confusingly similar to any of 300,000 existing marks in the Registry's database…
Abstract
Before a trade mark can be registered at the UK Patent Office, registrars need to ensure it isn't confusingly similar to any of 300,000 existing marks in the Registry's database. Many trade marks take the form of abstract geometric designs that are especially difficult for indexers and searchers to describe. ARTISAN, developed at the University of Northumbria, is a system that allows such marks to be indexed and retrieved automatically, on the basis of their shape. Evaluative studies have demonstrated the feasibility of this approach, and the newly‐established Institute for Image Data Research plans further development.
Erik Thibaut, John Eakins, Annick Willem and Jeroen Scheerder
First, the income elasticities are calculated for different levels of income, for both the decision to spend money on sports and the amount of money that is spent. Second, the…
Abstract
Purpose
First, the income elasticities are calculated for different levels of income, for both the decision to spend money on sports and the amount of money that is spent. Second, the study researches whether different operationalisations of income (i.e. family versus personal) result in different elasticity values. Third, the effect of sports-specific and non-sports leisure variables on sports participation is investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
A representative dataset of 3,775 adults is used containing a wide variety of leisure characteristics, gathered by means of a face-to-face survey. By means of a Tobit regression model both the determining factors of sports expenditure and the income elasticities are analysed.
Findings
For lower income individuals, a rise in income has a relatively bigger influence on the probability to spend money on sports participation, than is the case for higher income individuals. A positive relationship is found with sex (male), education, number of minutes and disciplines of sports and membership of a socio-cultural organisation, while age, watching TV and attending cultural events have a negative effect.
Social implications
The study provides evidence that income-based segmentation of sports participants could turn out to be an efficient policy tool. By lowering the monetary-burden for lower incomes, it can be expected that participation rates can be raised efficiently.
Originality/value
For the first time the relationship between income and expenditure is explored for different levels of income and for two operationalisations of income. Moreover, the inclusion of non-sports leisure variables allows investigating relationships between sports consumption and other leisure activities.
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Christine T. Domegan, Tina Flaherty, John McNamara, David Murphy, Jonathan Derham, Mark McCorry, Suzanne Nally, Maurice Eakin, Dmitry Brychkov, Rebecca Doyle, Arthur Devine, Eva Greene, Joseph McKenna, Finola OMahony and Tadgh O'Mahony
To combat climate change, protect biodiversity, maintain water quality, facilitate a just transition for workers and engage citizens and communities, a diversity of stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
To combat climate change, protect biodiversity, maintain water quality, facilitate a just transition for workers and engage citizens and communities, a diversity of stakeholders across multiple levels work together and collaborate to co-create mutually beneficial solutions. This paper aims to illustrate how a 7.5-year collaboration between local communities, researchers, academics, companies, state agencies and policymakers is contributing to the reframing of industrial harvested peatlands to regenerative ecosystems and carbon sinks with impacts on ecological, economic, social and cultural systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The European Union LIFE Integrated Project, Peatlands and People, responding to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, represents Europe’s largest rehabilitation of industrially harvested peatlands. It makes extensive use of marketing research for reframing strategies and actions by partners, collaborators and communities in the evolving context of a just transition to a carbon-neutral future.
Findings
The results highlight the ecological, economic, social and cultural reframing of peatlands from fossil fuel and waste lands to regenerative ecosystems bursting with biodiversity and climate solution opportunities. Reframing impacts requires muddling through the ebbs and flows of planned, possible and unanticipated change that can deliver benefits for peatlands and people over time.
Research limitations/implications
At 3 of 7.5 years into a project, the authors are muddling through how ecological reframing impacts economic and social/cultural reframing. Further impacts, planned and unplanned, can be expected.
Practical implications
This paper shows how an impact planning canvas tool and impact taxonomy can be applied for social and systems change. The tools can be used throughout a project to understand, respond to and manage for unplanned events. There is constant learning, constantly going back to the impact planning canvas and checking where we are, what is needed. There is action and reaction to each other and to the diversity of stakeholders affected and being affected by the reframing work.
Originality/value
This paper considers how systemic change through ecological, economic, social and cultural reframing is a perfectly imperfect process of muddling through which holds the promise of environmental, economic, technological, political, social and educational impacts to benefit nature, individuals, communities, organisations and society.
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Christopher M. Hartt, Albert J. Mills, Jean C. Helms Mills and Gabrielle Durepos
Purpose—Through a case study of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), this chapter sets out to explore the roots of 20th century globalization and the postcolonial nature of the…
Abstract
Purpose—Through a case study of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), this chapter sets out to explore the roots of 20th century globalization and the postcolonial nature of the trading relations involved.
Design/methodology/approach—Drawing on Foucault’s broad notion of “the archive” a critical hermeneutics approach is used to examine a series of company-produced texts, including minutes, travelogues, company narratives, annual reports, film, diaries, and published histories.
Findings—The chapter argues that Pan Am contributed to the “idea of Latin America” and, in the process contributed to practices of dependency that served the interests of the United States. Drawing on a case study of Pan Am, the chapter further argues that multi-national corporations help to establish the contours of international trade by influencing the very character and boundaries of the territories traded in, with troubling implications for the countries traded in.
Research limitations/implications—As a detailed case study extension of the findings to other global trading arrangements needs to take into account to social-political context and relational histories of the players involved.
Practical implications—The chapter generates insights into the role of rhetoric in developing trading relationships and its roots in embedded notions of postcolonial thinking and generalizations.
Originality/value—The chapter contributes to an understanding of the role of language and the social construction of national identities involved in the development of international business.
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This paper surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with a particular type of information retrieval problem, namely that where the information need is pictorial. The…
Abstract
This paper surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with a particular type of information retrieval problem, namely that where the information need is pictorial. The paper is contextualised by the notion of a visually stimulated society, in which the ease of record creation and transmission in the visual medium is contrasted with the difficulty of gaining effective subject access to the world's stores of such records. The technological developments which, in casting the visual image in electronic form, have contributed so significantly to its availability are reviewed briefly, as a prelude to the main thrust of the paper. Concentrating on still and moving pictorial forms of the visual image, the paper dwells on issues related to the subject indexing of pictorial material and discusses four models of pictorial information retrieval corresponding with permutations of the verbal and visual modes for the representation of picture content and of information need.
Government fiscal officers, practitioners and policy makers constantly deal with uncertainties in revenue and expenditure projections. These uncertainties create difficulties in…
Abstract
Government fiscal officers, practitioners and policy makers constantly deal with uncertainties in revenue and expenditure projections. These uncertainties create difficulties in resource allocation decisions when significant deviations occur. Clearly, certain variables account for these uncertainties and knowing them prior to revenue and expenditure planning may minimize potentials for errors. This study seeks to determine the identities and reliability of these variables through the application of a measurement model to aggregate data under the formulation that certain variables create uncertainties and affect significantly both revenues and expenditures of state and local governments. The results reveal that inflation, population, unemployment rate, time, government bond rate, and real long-term debts per capita are the most reliable indicators of both revenues and expenditures.
Elizabeth Garland, Abigail Watts, John Doucette, Mary Foley, Araliya Senerat and Sadie Sanchez
Sedentary behavior is linked to health risks, and prolonged sitting is prevalent among office workers. Adjustable workstations (AWS) promote health by allowing transitions between…
Abstract
Purpose
Sedentary behavior is linked to health risks, and prolonged sitting is prevalent among office workers. Adjustable workstations (AWS) promote health by allowing transitions between sitting and standing. Stand Up to Work compares workers with AWS to traditional desks (TD). The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Employees were randomly selected from one office floor to receive AWS, two identical floors maintained TD. Participants received workplace wellness and ergonomic training, completed self-administered questionnaires, and responded to repeated micropolling at baseline (T0), 3 (T1), 6 (T2), and 12 (T3) months in Atlanta, 2015-2016. Groups were compared using two-sample t-tests and nonparametric Wilcoxon tests.
Findings
Compared to TD (n = 24), participants with AWS (n = 24) reported significantly less sedentary behavior at T1 and T2 after AWS installation (p<0.05), with a retention rate at T2 of 80 and 65 percent for the AWS and TD group, respectively. In all, 47 percent of participants with AWS reported decline in upper back, shoulder, and neck discomfort (p=0.04); 88 percent of AWS participants reported convenience to use, 65 percent reported increased productivity, and 65 percent reported positive impact outside the workplace. Individuals with normal or underweight body mass index (BMI) reported a significantly greater decline in percent of time sitting compared to participants with overweight or obese BMI at all three time points.
Originality/value
AWS are beneficial in reducing sedentary behavior in and outside the workplace. Behavioral changes were sustained over time and associated with less self-reported muscle pain, more self-reported energy, and awareness of standing. When considering total worker health, employers should include options for AWS to promote reducing sedentary behavior.
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This chapter reviews published studies of the use of pictorial information. Examining image user studies surfaces several research questions often addressed by this body of work…
Abstract
This chapter reviews published studies of the use of pictorial information. Examining image user studies surfaces several research questions often addressed by this body of work, as well as some frequently encountered problems. These questions and problems organize this survey of the literature. Image user studies were included in two valuable reviews of digital image research and development, published by Christie Stephenson and Corinne Jörgensen in 1999 (Jörgensen, 1999; Stephenson, 1999). This overview considers research since that time, focusing on assessment that was not targeted at a single system or service. While attempting to incorporate some interesting research from the information and educational technology communities, this discussion of image delivery as an aspect of digital library development limits coverage of those important literatures.