2,182 research outputs found

    Transforming structured descriptions to visual representations. An automated visualization of historical bookbinding structures.

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    In cultural heritage, the documentation of artefacts can be both iconographic and textual, i.e. both pictures and drawings on the one hand, and text and words on the other are used for documentation purposes. This research project aims to produce a methodology to transform automatically verbal descriptions of material objects, with a focus on bookbinding structures, into standardized and scholarly-sound visual representations. In the last few decades, the recording and management of documentation data about material objects, including bookbindings, has switched from paper-based archives to databases, but sketches and diagrams are a form of documentation still carried out mostly by hand. Diagrams hold some unique information, but often, also redundant information already secured through verbal means within the databases. This project proposes a methodology to harness verbal information stored within a database and automatically generate visual representations. A number of projects within the cultural heritage sector have applied semantic modelling to generate graphic outputs from verbal inputs. None of these has considered bookbindings and none of these relies on information already recorded within databases. Instead they develop an extra layer of modelling and typically gather more data, specifically for the purpose of generating a pictorial output. In these projects qualitative data (verbal input) is often mixed with quantitative data (measurements, scans, or other direct acquisition methods) to solve the problems of indeterminateness found in verbal descriptions. Also, none of these projects has attempted to develop a general methodology to ascertain the minimum amount ii of information that is required for successful verbal-to-visual transformations for material objects in other fields. This research has addressed these issues. The novel contributions of this research include: (i) a series of methodological recommendations for successful automated verbal-to-visual intersemiotic translations for material objects — and bookbinding structures in particular — which are possible when whole/part relationships, spatial configurations, the object’s logical form, and its prototypical shapes are communicated; (ii) the production of intersemiotic transformations for the domain of bookbinding structures; (iii) design recommendations for the generation of standardized automated prototypical drawings of bookbinding structures; (iv) the application — never considered before — of uncertainty visualization to the field of the archaeology of the book. This research also proposes the use of automatically generated diagrams as data verification tools to help identify meaningless or wrong data, thus increasing data accuracy within databases

    Brain Activity Mapping from MEG Data via a Hierarchical Bayesian Algorithm with Automatic Depth Weighting

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    A recently proposed iterated alternating sequential (IAS) MEG inverse solver algorithm, based on the coupling of a hierarchical Bayesian model with computationally efficient Krylov subspace linear solver, has been shown to perform well for both superficial and deep brain sources. However, a systematic study of its ability to correctly identify active brain regions is still missing. We propose novel statistical protocols to quantify the performance of MEG inverse solvers, focusing in particular on how their accuracy and precision at identifying active brain regions. We use these protocols for a systematic study of the performance of the IAS MEG inverse solver, comparing it with three standard inversion methods, wMNE, dSPM, and sLORETA. To avoid the bias of anecdotal tests towards a particular algorithm, the proposed protocols are Monte Carlo sampling based, generating an ensemble of activity patches in each brain region identified in a given atlas. The performance in correctly identifying the active areas is measured by how much, on average, the reconstructed activity is concentrated in the brain region of the simulated active patch. The analysis is based on Bayes factors, interpreting the estimated current activity as data for testing the hypothesis that the active brain region is correctly identified, versus the hypothesis of any erroneous attribution. The methodology allows the presence of a single or several simultaneous activity regions, without assuming that the number of active regions is known. The testing protocols suggest that the IAS solver performs well with both with cortical and subcortical activity estimation

    Reading Data-Image through Its Invisible Layers

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    Reading Data-Image through Its Invisible Layers

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    Topics in Programming Languages, a Philosophical Analysis through the case of Prolog

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    [EN]Programming languages seldom find proper anchorage in philosophy of logic, language and science. is more, philosophy of language seems to be restricted to natural languages and linguistics, and even philosophy of logic is rarely framed into programming languages topics. The logic programming paradigm and Prolog are, thus, the most adequate paradigm and programming language to work on this subject, combining natural language processing and linguistics, logic programming and constriction methodology on both algorithms and procedures, on an overall philosophizing declarative status. Not only this, but the dimension of the Fifth Generation Computer system related to strong Al wherein Prolog took a major role. and its historical frame in the very crucial dialectic between procedural and declarative paradigms, structuralist and empiricist biases, serves, in exemplar form, to treat straight ahead philosophy of logic, language and science in the contemporaneous age as well. In recounting Prolog's philosophical, mechanical and algorithmic harbingers, the opportunity is open to various routes. We herein shall exemplify some: - the mechanical-computational background explored by Pascal, Leibniz, Boole, Jacquard, Babbage, Konrad Zuse, until reaching to the ACE (Alan Turing) and EDVAC (von Neumann), offering the backbone in computer architecture, and the work of Turing, Church, Gödel, Kleene, von Neumann, Shannon, and others on computability, in parallel lines, throughly studied in detail, permit us to interpret ahead the evolving realm of programming languages. The proper line from lambda-calculus, to the Algol-family, the declarative and procedural split with the C language and Prolog, and the ensuing branching and programming languages explosion and further delimitation, are thereupon inspected as to relate them with the proper syntax, semantics and philosophical élan of logic programming and Prolog

    Program Transformations for Information Personalization

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    Personalization constitutes the mechanisms necessary to automatically customize information content, structure, and presentation to the end user to reduce information overload. Unlike traditional approaches to personalization, the central theme of our approach is to model a website as a program and conduct website transformation for personalization by program transformation (e.g., partial evaluation, program slicing). The goal of this paper is study personalization through a program transformation lens and develop a formal model, based on program transformations, for personalized interaction with hierarchical hypermedia. The specific research issues addressed involve identifying and developing program representations and transformations suitable for classes of hierarchical hypermedia and providing supplemental interactions for improving the personalized experience. The primary form of personalization discussed is out-of-turn interaction—a technique that empowers a user navigating a hierarchical website to postpone clicking on any of the hyperlinks presented on the current page and, instead, communicate the label of a hyperlink nested deeper in the hierarchy. When the user supplies out-of-turn input, we personalize the hierarchy to reflect the user\u27s informational need. While viewing a website as a program and site transformation as program transformation is non-traditional, it offers a new way of thinking about personalized interaction, especially with hierarchical hypermedia. Our use of program transformations casts personalization in a formal setting and provides a systematic and implementation-neutral approach to designing systems. Moreover, this approach helped connect our work to human-computer dialog management and, in particular, mixed-initiative interaction. Putting personalized web interaction on a fundamentally different landscape gave birth to this new line of research. Relating concepts in the web domain (e.g., sites, interactions) to notions in the program-theoretic domain (e.g., programs, transformations) constitutes the creativity in this work

    A strategic approach to corporate communication: an analytic creating strategic alignment and measuring results

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    At the beginning of 2009, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) senior executive tasked its Corporate Communication and Public Relations Office to conduct extensive stakeholder qualitative research to understand specific issues that may potentially impact on the University’s reputation. The research findings provided trending data of the key issues and concerns from staff and external stakeholder groups. To address these perceptions, communication strategies were developed to ensure that USQ was recognised as a thriving, contemporary university, renowned for its connectedness with internal and external stakeholders. Given the diversity of each stakeholder group, this high-level communication approach included individual strategies and messages to engage, inform and interact with the communities in which the University operated. Recommendations were demonstrated to the senior executive but an accurate measure to show the effectiveness of resourcing these initiatives proved difficult. Senior university executives are accountable for their decisions when dealing with public money but how do communication professionals provide a quantitative measure and metric when the area of expertise is defining and responding to subjective stakeholder perceptions? This case study signalled interesting opportunities and directions to investigate the appropriate alignment, measurement and value in incorporating community opinion in decision-making and identifying future strategic directions. I reflected on a concept of using a recognised risk management scale to measure the impact of various stakeholder perceptions on a university’s reputation and contacted a risk-management company in Sydney which saw merit in this idea. We worked together to develop a computer database system which evaluated the benefits of initiating communication actions in response to known stakeholder issues and concerns. The future development and modification of the system was dependent on knowing if university communication practitioners engage in typically journalistic activities at the technical level, or if they held a leadership role that sits closer to the top of the management hierarchy to influence decision making and take responsibility for the public’s orientation toward their university. This research set out to discover current communication practices in a sampling of Australian universities; the responsibilities and related issues of communication offices; the communication measurement tools utilised and if measurement was an issue in the sector; and how a communication measurement system may offer a solution to some of these dilemmas. Findings from this research identified the value of public relations to the overall business initiatives undertaken by universities, the practical concerns facing communication directors, and how public relations professionals currently measure the impact of their work. Through this exploration, the thesis shows how the system that has been developed contributes new knowledge to a problematic situation of measuring the value of strategic communication. The system’s measurement indicator can ultimately influence the communications profession and enhance the reputation of the strategic communication function

    The Models of Engaged Learning and Teaching

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    This book provides a practical philosophy for promoting students' sophisticated thinking from Early Childhood to PhD in ways that explicitly interconnect across the years of education. It will help teachers, academics and the broader learning and teaching community to understand and implement these connections by introducing a conceptual framework, the Models of Engaged Learning and Teaching (MELT). By covering the nature, philosophy, practice and implications of MELT for teachers and students alike, the book will help teachers to facilitate students’ awareness of, and increasing responsibility for, the thinking demanded by subject and discipline-specific learning as well as interdisciplinary learning, whether face to face, online or in blended modes. The book will also provide educators with ways to effectively engage with complex, and sometimes conflicting, contemporary educational concepts, and with a diverse variety of colleagues involved in the learning and teaching enterprise. The book provides guidance that allows curriculum improvement, teacher action research and larger-scale research to be reported on from a common perspective, bridging the gap between those readers focused on research and those focused on teaching. The book shares valuable insights and ways of addressing the contemporary issue of discipline-based learning versus transdisciplinary learning, reducing the dichotomy and enabling the two approaches to complement each other. This is an Open Access book

    MATHEMATISATION: SOCIAL PROCESS & DIDACTIC PRINCIPLE

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    The 69th CIEAEM conference was held from 15th to 19th July 2017 at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. It successfully involved 100 participants from 20 countries all over the world. CIEAEM 69 was dedicated to Professor Christine Keitel, president of CIEAEM from 1997 to 2003, who tragically passed away one year before the conference. The programme of the conference started with a panel that revisited “Mathematics (Education) and Common Sense”, the theme of the 47th CIEAEM conference, which was held in Berlin in July 1995 and which was hosted by Christine. At the conference, researchers, teachers, educators, and students met to discuss, in a collaborative and inspiring environment, the most prominent problems, obstacles and resources in mathematics education; they also presented their latest research findings in the several conference activities: plenary and semi-plenary talks, two round tables, working groups, workshops, and poster presentations (forum of ideas). As in previous CIEAEM meetings, Working Groups constituted the beating heart of the conference, allowing the participants to fruitfully discuss in critical and constructive ways, in the true CIEAEM spirit, research studies and approaches from different perspectives on the conference theme: Mathematisation: social process & didactic principle. There were four Working Groups: (A) Mathematisation as a didactic principle: mathematizing and modelling of everyday contexts; (B) Mathematisation as a didactic principle: representation and generalization within mathematics; (C) Interconnecting mathematisation as a social process and as a didactic principle; and (D) Mathematisation as a didactic principle: looking at teachers of mathematics. Each Working Group discussed nine papers, and addressed the conference theme from complementary viewpoints (see the Discussion Paper), under the guidance of the group animators. The conference schedule allowed time also to deepen the plenary talks in the dedicated “Meet the plenary speaker” sessions, and to engage participants in workshops, where actual dialogue between research and practice could be fostered. This volume contains the final versions of the 53 papers presented during the conference. We thank all the contributors and the participants to the conference, because they made it such a unique experience, in which we had the good fortune to take part. We are grateful to the International Programme Committee and the Local Organizing Committee that made possible the realization of the conference in every detail with great care. Particularly, we want to thank the Working Group animators, who organized each day the sessions in inclusive as well high-quality ways. A special thanks to all the people who contributed to the realization of the conference, and to Daria Fischer, who helped in editing this volume. As a result, the CIEAEM 69 Proceedings offer a wide overview on national and international studies on the conference theme Mathematisation: social process & didactic principle. We hope that it can constitute an inspiring resource for the research community, for teachers, and for stakeholders in mathematics education. From this perspective, the possibility of free downloading offers to CIEAEM 69 participants, and also to interested people who could not take part in the Conference in Berlin, the possibility of developing a fruitful network of contacts that year after year is becoming richer and wider
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