Guidelines for trust interface design for public engagement Web GIS

Attesting to the powerful capabilities and in technology trends, many scholars envisioned the consolidation of geographic information systems (GIS) into vital tools for disseminating spatial information. GIS are presently used to inform, advise and instruct users in several contexts and to further engage citizens in decision-making processes that can impact and sustain policy development. Interaction with these applications incorporates risk and uncertainty, which have been repeatedly identified as preconditions in nurturing trust perceptions and which instigate a user's decision to rely on a system and act on the provided information. Research studies consistently demonstrated that a trust-oriented interface design can facilitate the development of more trustworthy, mainly e-commerce, systems. Trust in the Web GIS context, despite its significance, has only relatively recently received some attention. A set of human–computer interaction (HCI) user-based studies revealed some Web GIS trustee attributes that influence non-experts' trust beliefs and found that when these are problematic or absent from interface design, users form irrational trust perceptions, which amplifies the risk and may impose dangers to the user. These Web GIS trustee attributes that influence non-experts' trust perceptions are formulated here into a set of trust guidelines. These are then evaluated using the PE-Nuclear tool, a Web GIS application, to inform the public about the site selection of a nuclear waste repository in the United Kingdom. Our preliminary results indicate that the proposed trust guidelines not only support the development of rational trust perceptions that protect non-experts from inappropriate use of Web GIS technology but also contribute towards improving interaction with such applications of public interest issue

In situ High Pressure and Temperature 13C NMR for the Study of Carbonation Reactions of CO2

The aqueous reactions of carbon dioxide with various Mg-containing minerals [MgO, Mg(OH)2, and Mg2SiO4] at several different pressures: 1-200 bar) and temperatures: 25-150C) have been studied using a novel, elevated pressure and temperature 13C NMR probe. Critical observations about reaction rates, chemical exchange, and pH measurements throughout these reactions and the implications of the in situ measurements made during these reactions are discussed. A new method is used to elucidate pH under high pressure and temperature conditions which utilizes a calculation scheme wherein experimental data and a computational model are combined. Additionally, a 1D pH imaging method is employed to observe pH gradient effects across mineral samples during their reaction with CO2. Finally, other experimental details are discussed including ex situ analysis on carbonate products using pXRD, Raman, and MAS NMR. Detailed discussion outlines how to use 13C NMR to study CO2 mineralization reactions

"The Practicality of the Impossible": studies in 20th- and 21st-century piano études

This thesis examines piano études by John Cage, György Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, and Nicole Lizée that push the limits of the human body in performance. The thesis opens with an account of the origins of the piano étude in the works of Chopin and Liszt, situating it within the political, economic, and aesthetic conditions of the 19th century. Subsequently, sets of études by Cage, Ligeti, Nancarrow, and Lizée are studied, each using a different body of theoretical literature—including utopian thought, queer theory, and posthumanism—to understand how this limit manifests in musical works. These analyses enrich understanding by bridging gaps between musical performance studies and other areas of knowledge. For example, the chapter on Cage’s Études Australes addresses the notion of the limit using the utopian aesthetic philosophy of Ernst Bloch, thereby demonstrating novel correspondences between Bloch studies and performance studies. The thesis concludes by describing new forms of virtuosity that have emerged in the 20th and 21st centuries, and ties together the divergent modes of analysis used in each section. Theoretical investigations are interspersed with case study demonstrations from piano études, which draw on scores, recordings, and my personal experience as a pianist. This approach advocates the importance of embodiment, phenomenology, and performance research as key ways of knowing, and contributes to the growing field of artistic research at the piano. The project offers an original exploration of the performing body at its limits and presents a theory of contemporary virtuosity. In the process, it makes a multi-faceted contribution to scholarly work in musical performance and offers ways of thinking about musical aesthetics applicable to other genres and areas of study

A map without a legend: the semantic web and knowledge evolution

International audienceThe current state of the semantic web is focused on data. This is a worthwhile progress in web content processing and interoperability. However, this does only marginally contribute to knowledge improvement and evolution. Understanding the world, and interpreting data, requires knowledge. Not knowledge cast in stone for ever, but knowledge that can seamlessly evolve; not knowledge from one single authority, but diverse knowledge sources which stimulate confrontation and robustness; not consistent knowledge at web scale, but local theories that can be combined. We discuss two different ways in which semantic web technologies can greatly contribute to the advancement of knowledge: semantic eScience and cultural knowledge evolution