Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in organizational decision-making, optimizing performance, and cutting operational costs. While AI can potentially improve decision-making processes' efficiency and reliability, empirical research highlights that AI adoption may cause people to question the fairness of algorithmic decisions. Thus, the present study investigates whether distributive and procedural fairness perceptions are influenced by human, algorithmic, and hybrid decision-makers in high versus low task complexity conditions. Participants (N = 391) assessed the perceived distributive and procedural fairness in a pre-registered scenario-based experiment. Decision-maker type (human vs. hybrid vs. AI) and task complexity (low vs. high) were manipulated using a 3x2 between-subject design. It was hypothesized that the human decision-maker would be perceived as fairer than the AI, especially in high-complexity conditions. Furthermore, hybrid decision-makers were hypothesized to be perceived as fairer than AI and human decision-makers in low and high-complexity tasks. The results indicate that people tend to perceive human decision-makers as fairer than AI in situations of high complexity. Additionally, in the high-complexity condition, the hybrid decision-maker was perceived as more distributively fair than AI and less procedural fair than the human decision-maker. In low-complexity tasks, the hybrid decision-maker does not show superiority in fairness perception over AI or humans. Hence, the results support the first hypothesis and contradict the second hypothesis that hybrid decision-makers would be perceived as more distributive and procedural fair than AI and human decision-makers. Implications regarding the consequences of implementing AI in organizational decision-making are discussed, and suggestions for further research are included.

The mixing of additives into a plastic is an extremely important step in the plastics industry, necessary for the manufacture of almost every conceivable product. Therefore the costs in developing new products can prove very expensive as the testing is usually carried out using full scale machines, usually using twin screw extruders because they are able to provide good dispersive and distributive mixing. This is particularly important when compounding difficult to disperse additives and nano-additives. What is required is a machine that can replicate the mixing abilities of a twin-screw extruder but on a laboratory scale. There have been attempts by industry to develop smaller machines, such as the Thermo Scientific HAAKE Minilab II Micro Compounder which processes on the scale of 7 cm3 of material volume. This can be too small for some needs and therefore a machine is required to produce material on the 10g to 100g scale. To this end a laboratory mixer of novel design was devised and its mixing performance was assessed using conductive carbon black and compared against the Thermo Scientific HAAKE Minilab II Micro Compounder, a 19 mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder and a 40 mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder. Carbon black was used because mixing performance can be assessed by measuring the minimum carbon loading necessary to induce electrical conductivity. It was found that the minimixer was able to induce electrical conductivity at loading of 5.75% but the comparison with the other machines proved difficult as the achievement of the threshold at which semi-conductivity occurred appeared independent of shear rate and mixing duration. / EPSRC / The following files are not available online: Americhem raw data; Carbon Black raw data; Videos.

The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of the successful secondary marketing teacher based upon perceptions of teaching award recipients in marketing education. A naturalistic inquiry paradigm using the case study approach was the research design selected for the study. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 teachers who were recipients of the annually presented, state-level teaching award in marketing education in the states of North Carolina and Virginia. Data collected from the interviews were analyzed according to tenets associated with the constant comparative method. The perceptions of the participants were organized and coded into the following five core categories established by the research questions: (a) teacher preparation, (b) personal motivations and abilities, (c) students, (d) professional roles and practices, and (e) teaching environment. Conceptual categories which emerged within each core category formed the framework for a perceptual profile of the successful secondary marketing teacher presented in the case report. Based on the findings from this study, it can be concluded that the successful secondary marketing teacher: (a) approaches the job with enthusiasm and strives to accomplish more than the minimum job requirements; (b) receives satisfaction from watching students experience success and develop positive self-concepts; (c) is professionally committed and involved; (d) is a very caring, student-centered teacher; (e) is most effective when allowed the freedom to work with minimum supervision; (f) performs teaching and other program duties in a somewhat structured, methodical manner; (g) realizes the success of the marketing education program is dependent on his or her ability to maintain good interpersonal relationships; and (h) receives thorough preparation in both technical content and pedagogy. It is recommended that secondary marketing teachers attempt to improve their performance in teaching, coordination, and other areas of the job through the emulation of the profile produced from this study. Additional recommendations are presented for education policymakers, teacher educators, and future research. / Ed. D.

Tout au long de ce travail, j'examinerai un argument en faveur de la justice distributive globale qui est formulé à partir de l'approche du cosmopolitisme institutionnel. Cette approche se base tout d'abord sur l'idéal moral du cosmopolitisme affirmant l'égale valeur de tous les êtres humains peu importe leur nationalité. À partir de cet idéal, le cosmopolitisme institutionnel affirme que les institutions de base encadrant les activités humaines à l'échelle mondiale devraient être justifiées en prenant en considération tous ceux qui sont affectés par ces institutions. J'aborderai cette thèse en me concentrant sur les écrits de théoriciens anglo-américains qui ont cherché à montrer que la théorie de la justice comme équité de John Rawls devait avoir une étendue globale plutôt qu'être confinée à l'intérieur des sociétés domestiques comprises comme des systèmes de coopérations autonomes et indépendants. La raison principale avancée par ces théoriciens du cosmopolitisme pour l'extension globale de la théorie de la justice repose sur la thèse voulant que les sociétés ne soient pas indépendantes mais plutôt imbriquées dans un schème de coopération mondial, si bien que l'on peut maintenant parler d'une structure de base globale. J'évaluerai les arguments de ceux qui s'opposent à l'idée que la défense de la justice distributive devrait être fondée sur l'existence d'un schème institutionnel global. Je chercherai également à réfuter plusieurs arguments que Rawls développe dans The Law of Peoples pour s'opposer au cosmopolitisme et à la justice distributive globale. Enfin, j'analyserai certaines transformations économiques et politiques liées à la mondialisation pour montrer qu'il existe bel et bien une structure institutionnelle de base globale. Je m'opposerai ce faisant par ailleurs à certaines objections conceptuelles visant à nier l'existence d'une telle structure de base globale.

Within the contemporary international order, deep structural inequalities coexist alongside a nominally pluralistic society of states that grants international personality to politically organised communities. Asymmetric interactions between distinct political communities have shaped the development of the international system from the colonial era to the present phase of global economic integration. Rising interdependence, problems of unequal development and the democratic mobilisation of peoples around the world have generated moral claims regarding the injustice of global inequality. In this context the international politics of inequality have taken the format of challenges by the political representatives of the global South to the dominance of the advanced industrialised North. The normative dimensions of this process can be understood through a focus on this process of political argument between unequals. Political argument is contestation over the principles appropriate to govern a sphere of social interaction. The thesis seeks to vindicate the notion that the challenges by the global South have given rise to a dynamic of political argument within a norm-governed international society. Changes in patterns of normative belief, material power and forms of political organisation have historically shaped North-South relations. Therefore, through the analysis of particular episodes of North-South argument, the thesis attempts to provide insights into the moral limits and possibilities of an evolving international society. Analysing the organised attempts to challenge inequality on the part of the representatives of the global South, the thesis seeks to advance the position the tensions generated by claims over inequality might provide the nucleus for the incorporation of egalitarian concerns into the operation of international society. Through participation in common practices of statehood, the peoples of the global South possess at least some ability to challenge structural inequalities and thus the potential to expand the moral limits of international society.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

本論文共一冊，約五萬字，分為四章十四節。第一章為緒論，第二章為文獻探討，第 三章為模式的建立與分析，第四章為結論與建議。 本模式考慮一個風險中立且追求最大利益的證券發行公司，在資訊不對稱的情況下（ 即投資銀行擁有較發行公司為多的市場資訊），是否應授權給投資銀行進行訂價與配 銷的工作。由於投資銀行擁有較佳的市場資訊，因此本模式假設由投資銀行訂價，但 後續的配銷工作應由發行公司或投資銀行進行，則視訂價與配銷二階段間的關係而定 。若二者為零相關，則無論由誰配銷，發行公司的利益皆不受影響；若為正相關，則 由發行公司配銷較有利；若為負相關且相關係數很小，則由投資銀行配銷較有利。

This dissertation presents a theoretical framework about which voters parties distribute to and with which policies. To develop this full framework of distributive policies, the dissertation proceeds in two stages. First, it analyses which voters parties have more incentives to target distributive policies. Second, it also develops the conditions under which political parties can focus exclusively on these voters or need to combine this strategy with appeals to a broader electorate. The first part of the argument analyses which voters parties have at the centre of their distributive strategies, or, in the words of Cox and McCubbins (1986) to whom parties will give an available extra dollar for distribution. The argument is that core voters provide more efficient conditions for distribution, contradicting Stokes’ (2005) claim that a dollar spent on core voters is a wasted dollar. The explanation is twofold. First, core supporters might not vote for another party, but they can get demobilised. Once we include the effects on turnout, core voters are more responsive. Their party identification makes them especially attentive and reactive to economic benefits provided by their party. Secondly, incumbents cannot individually select who receives a distributive policy, and not all voters are equally reachable with distributive policies. When a party provides a policy, it cannot control if some of those resources go to voters the party is not interested in. Core supporters are more homogenous groups with more definable traits, whereas swing voters are a residual category composed by heterogeneous voters with no shared interests. This makes it easier for incumbents to shape distributive benefits that target core voters more exclusively. These mechanisms define the general distribution hypothesis: parties will focus on core voters, by targeting their distributive strategies to them. The second part of the dissertation develops the conditions under which politicians stick to this distributive strategy or, instead, would provide more universalistic spending to a more undefined set of recipients. The conventional argument explaining this choice relies on the electoral system, arguing that proportional systems give more incentives to provide universalistic policies than majoritarian systems. This dissertation challenges this argument and provides two other contextual conditions that define when parties have a stronger interest in their core supporters or in a more general electorate. First, the geographic distribution of core supporters across districts is a crucial piece of information to know the best distributive strategy. When parties’ core supporters are geographically concentrated, they cannot simply rely on them, as the party will always fall short of districts to win the election. Therefore, parties will have greater incentives to expand their electorate by buying off other voters. This should reduce the predicted differences between electoral systems in the provision of universalistic programmes. Secondly, the policy positions of candidates are a result of strategic considerations that respond to other candidates’ positions. Thus, I argue that parties adapt their distributive strategies to the number of competing parties, independently of the electoral system. In a two-party scenario, parties need broader coalitions of electoral support. In equilibrium, any vote can change the electoral outcome. As more parties compete, the breadth of parties’ electorates is reduced and parties will find narrow distributive policies more profitable. In summary, the main contribution of this dissertation one is to provide a new framework to study distributive politics. This framework makes innovations both on the characterisation of swing and core electoral groups, and the rationale of parties’ distributive strategies, contributing to advance previous theoretical and empirical research.

Time raises a host of difficult ethical questions. This doctoral project focuses on two: 1. How are "static" comparative principles (e.g. equality, desert) to be understood over time? (The Problem of Fairness & Time) 2. How might separation (in time) between agents, objects, and threats affect claims to the relevant resources? (The New Problem of Temporal Distance) My work begins with a simple observation: our prima facie intuitions about the value of simple distributions change depending on whether such cases are presented as static (occurring at one time) or dynamic (extended over time). Further examination of more complicated distributions leads to the proposal of a new theory, Weighted Progressive Egalitarianism. This theory has two features: only past-regarding complaints matter (a scope restriction), and a comparative complaint between persons located at a great temporal distance matters less than a complaint between contemporaries (a weighting restriction). This theory provides one plausible answer to the first question, the Problem of Fairness & Time. The evaluation of this theory relies on and reveals some non-standard answers to the second question, the New Problem of Temporal Distance. I conclude by arguing that the theory’s application to a few puzzles in population axiology merits further investigation.

With a projected increase in electricity demand and low-carbon energy generation in the UK, expansion of the existing transmission grid network is required. In going beyond the NIMBY concept, Devine-Wright (2009) posited a place-based approach that highlights the roles of place attachment and place-related symbolic meanings for understanding public responses to energy infrastructure proposals. This PhD research investigated two overarching and interrelated research aims. The first sought to enlarge our understandings of the processes of attachment and detachment to the residence place by investigating the dynamics of varieties of people-place relations across the life course (people's 'life-place trajectories'), thus addressing the limitation of studies adopting a 'structural' approach to the study of people-place relations. This research, in a second instance, sought to better understand the role of people's life-place trajectories and a range of project-based factors (i.e. procedural and distributive justice) in shaping people's responses to a power line proposal. This research focussed on the Hinckley Point C (HPC) transmission line proposal and residents of the town of Nailsea, South-West England. A social representations theory framework was usefully applied to this research by acknowledging that people's personal place relations and their beliefs about proposed place change, are situated and embedded within wider social representations of place and project. A mixed methods approach was employed comprising three empirical studies. The first consisted of twenty-five narrative interviews, the second a set of five focus group interviews, and the third a questionnaire survey study (n=264) amongst a representative sample of Nailsea residents. Triangulating findings across the three studies produced a novel set of key findings. By elaborating five novel 'life-place trajectories', this PhD research moved beyond structural approaches to the study of people-place relations and made a novel contribution to our understandings of the processes and dynamics of attachment and detachment to the residence place across the life course. This research further confirmed the existing typology of people-place relations and revealed a novel variety termed 'Traditional-active attachment'. Life-place trajectories were instrumental in informing divergent representations of the nearby countryside which were more or less congruent with objectified representations of the HPC project. Future studies investigating place and project meanings should be sensitive to these trajectories. Interestingly, place as a 'centre of meaning' rather than a 'locus of attachment' (or non-attachment) emerged as particularly salient for understanding responses to the project. Project-based factors were salient in informing participants' responses toward the project. A perceived imbalance between high local costs and an absence of local benefits was seen to result in distributive injustice and opposition toward the project. However, improved perceived procedural justice following National Grid's announcement of siting concessions in the spring of 2013, was seen to ameliorate local trust in the developer and project acceptance.