A visualization tool for exploratory analysis of cyclic multivariate data

This paper presents an interactive visualization tool for the qualitative exploration of multivariate data that may exhibit cyclic or periodic behavior. Glyphs are used to encode each multivariate data point, and linear, stacked, and spiral glyph layouts are employed to help convey both intra-cycle and inter-cycle relationships within the data. Users may interactively select glyph and layout types, modify cycle lengths and the number of cycles to display, and select the specific data dimensions to be included. We validate the usefulness of the system with case studies and describe our future plans for expanding the system's capabilities.     

Rainwater harvesting in the UK: Socio-technical theory and practice

There is currently a window of opportunity in the UK, with respect to promoting sustainable water management (SWM). Periods of alternating drought and flooding have brought water management issues to the fore of UK media coverage and policy development. Unchallenged reliance on the historic legacy of piped infrastructure is declining, as its resilience and adaptability in the face of climate change become increasingly questioned. Despite its prevalence in other countries and a recent surge in sales, rainwater harvesting (RWH) has yet to transition from niche to mainstream in the UK. This paper provides an overview of the development of a strategic framework for enabling RWH to transition from novel to mainstream, informed by a number of evidence bases and devised using insight gained through the application of a number of theories. Identified strategic areas for action include (i) Technical Relevance (product development); (ii) Social Receptivity (capacity building) and (ii) Institutional Commitment (support services).     

Are medium‐scale farms driving agricultural transformation in sub‐Saharan Africa?

This study presents evidence of profound farm‐level transformation in parts of sub‐Saharan Africa, identifies major sources of dynamism in the sector, and proposes an updated typology of farms that reflects the evolving nature of African agriculture. Repeat waves of national survey data are used to examine changes in crop production and marketed output by farm size. Between the first and most recent surveys (generally covering 6 to 10 years), the share of national marketed crop output value accounted for by medium‐scale farms rose in Zambia from 23% to 42%, in Tanzania from 17% to 36%, and in Nigeria from 7% to 18%. The share of land under medium‐scale farms is not rising in densely populated countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, where land scarcity is impeding the pace of medium‐scale farm acquisitions. Medium‐scale farmers are a diverse group, reflecting distinct entry pathways into agriculture, encouraged by the rapid development of land rental, purchase, and long‐term lease markets. The rise of medium‐scale farms is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Findings indicate that these farms can be a dynamic driver of agricultural transformation but this does not reduce the importance of maintaining a clear commitment to supporting smallholder farms. Strengthening land tenure security of local rural people to maintain land rights and support productivity investments by smallholder households remains crucial.     

Demographic trends in late-slavery Jamaica, 1817–32

Early nineteenth-century demographic trends on sugar estates in Jamaica, the most important British Caribbean colony, are examined through the 1817–32 public slave registers. We seek evidence regarding the background to the island's 1831–2 popular insurrection, the immediate cause of the London parliament's vote in 1833 to abolish colonial slavery. Some historians argue that the revolt occurred as ‘political’ effect from a sudden upsurge of metropolitan anti-slavery activism in 1830–1. They believe the uprising broke out despite improvement in enslaved people's material welfare, favoured by many slaveholders to secure population increase after the closure of the British transatlantic slave trade in 1808. Alternative ‘economic’ assessments judge that increasing workloads had been aggravating popular unrest before the revolt. Commercial pressures, and the imminent likelihood of emancipation, allegedly outweighed welfare concerns. The excess of slave deaths over births widened between 1817 and 1832. However, the registers show that demographic deficits resulted mainly from the ageing of the last Africa-born cohorts. Jamaica-born enslaved people became self-reproducing. There was no general pre-1831 regime deterioration. Most slaveholders sought to maintain their Jamaican assets for the long term through pro-natalist measures, and did not expect emancipation. The revolt's causes were thus more ‘political’ than ‘economic’.     

Advertising archetypes’ impact on physician engagement and behavior in the context of healthcare products

The pharmaceutical industry spends billions annually on marketing to physicians (over $4.3 billion in 2014). The industry as a whole has a lot of experience in determining what to say to physicians, but it is less confident when it comes to how to say it—sometimes leading to advertising that does not engage, thereby costing sales. In an effort to define a set of rule‐based guidelines for effective pharma branding, the study adapts the primary Jungian archetypes to develop the first collection of archetypal tones of voice for healthcare products. The study here demonstrates, via a series of fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analyses that well executed ads following an archetype consistently connect with physician audiences, while nonarchetypal healthcare ads demonstrate an inconsistent performance. Such an analysis would traditionally take the form of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), but NHST provides substantially less insights than algorithm modeling and the use of fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis as this study describes.     

EVALUATION OF HAITIAN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT WITH THE USE OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS

Considerable experimental agricultural development efforts have been undertaken in Haiti (Zurekas, 1978, pp. 80–120). Many of the Haitian programmes have been directed toward development through intensive extension efforts with the primary purpose of providing local producers with improved production and management techniques. Frequently such experiments are localised and designed to emphasise the development methods while giving less consideration to evaluating the overall project performance. The Haitian Bas Boen region development project is a case in point (Prires, 1978, p. 76). In this paper the Bas Boen project is considered with the primary objective to show the relationship between production responses to intensive agricultural development programmes. A statistical technique using principal components is used to link production responses to those inputs changed through the extension efforts.     

Effects of the Private–Label Invasion in Food Industries

Using supermarket scanner data, we test a variety of hypotheses from trade journals about the invasion of private–label food products. According to conventional industry wisdom, name–brand firms defended their brands against new private–label products by lowering their prices, engaging in additional promotional activities, and increasingly differentiating their products. Our empirical evidence is inconsistent with these beliefs.