38,552 research outputs found
Models of everywhere revisited: a technological perspective
The concept ‘models of everywhere’ was first introduced in the mid 2000s as a means of reasoning about the
environmental science of a place, changing the nature of the underlying modelling process, from one in which
general model structures are used to one in which modelling becomes a learning process about specific places, in
particular capturing the idiosyncrasies of that place. At one level, this is a straightforward concept, but at another
it is a rich multi-dimensional conceptual framework involving the following key dimensions: models of everywhere,
models of everything and models at all times, being constantly re-evaluated against the most current
evidence. This is a compelling approach with the potential to deal with epistemic uncertainties and nonlinearities.
However, the approach has, as yet, not been fully utilised or explored. This paper examines the
concept of models of everywhere in the light of recent advances in technology. The paper argues that, when first
proposed, technology was a limiting factor but now, with advances in areas such as Internet of Things, cloud
computing and data analytics, many of the barriers have been alleviated. Consequently, it is timely to look again
at the concept of models of everywhere in practical conditions as part of a trans-disciplinary effort to tackle the
remaining research questions. The paper concludes by identifying the key elements of a research agenda that
should underpin such experimentation and deployment
Towards a user-centric and multidisciplinary framework for designing context-aware applications
Research into context-aware computing has not sufficiently addressed human and social aspects of design. Existing design frameworks are predominantly software orientated, make little use of cross-disciplinary work, and do not provide an easily transferable structure for cross-application of design principles. To address these problems, this paper proposes a multidisciplinary and user-centred design framework, and two models of context, which derive from conceptualisations within Psychology, Linguistics, and Computer Science. In a study, our framework was found to significantly improve the performance of postgraduate students at identifying the context of the user and application, and the usability issues that arise
The view from elsewhere: perspectives on ALife Modeling
Many artificial life researchers stress the interdisciplinary character of the field. Against such a backdrop, this report reviews and discusses artificial life, as it is depicted in, and as it interfaces with, adjacent disciplines (in particular, philosophy, biology, and linguistics), and in the light of a specific historical example of interdisciplinary research (namely cybernetics) with which artificial life shares many features. This report grew out of a workshop held at the Sixth European Conference on Artificial Life in Prague and features individual contributions from the workshop's eight speakers, plus a section designed to reflect the debates that took place during the workshop's discussion sessions. The major theme that emerged during these sessions was the identity and status of artificial life as a scientific endeavor
Transdisciplinarity seen through Information, Communication, Computation, (Inter-)Action and Cognition
Similar to oil that acted as a basic raw material and key driving force of
industrial society, information acts as a raw material and principal mover of
knowledge society in the knowledge production, propagation and application. New
developments in information processing and information communication
technologies allow increasingly complex and accurate descriptions,
representations and models, which are often multi-parameter, multi-perspective,
multi-level and multidimensional. This leads to the necessity of collaborative
work between different domains with corresponding specialist competences,
sciences and research traditions. We present several major transdisciplinary
unification projects for information and knowledge, which proceed on the
descriptive, logical and the level of generative mechanisms. Parallel process
of boundary crossing and transdisciplinary activity is going on in the applied
domains. Technological artifacts are becoming increasingly complex and their
design is strongly user-centered, which brings in not only the function and
various technological qualities but also other aspects including esthetic, user
experience, ethics and sustainability with social and environmental dimensions.
When integrating knowledge from a variety of fields, with contributions from
different groups of stakeholders, numerous challenges are met in establishing
common view and common course of action. In this context, information is our
environment, and informational ecology determines both epistemology and spaces
for action. We present some insights into the current state of the art of
transdisciplinary theory and practice of information studies and informatics.
We depict different facets of transdisciplinarity as we see it from our
different research fields that include information studies, computability,
human-computer interaction, multi-operating-systems environments and
philosophy.Comment: Chapter in a forthcoming book: Information Studies and the Quest for
Transdisciplinarity - Forthcoming book in World Scientific. Mark Burgin and
Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Editor
Information and communication technology solutions for outdoor navigation in dementia
INTRODUCTION:
Information and communication technology (ICT) is potentially mature enough to empower outdoor and social activities in dementia. However, actual ICT-based devices have limited functionality and impact, mainly limited to safety. What is an ideal operational framework to enhance this field to support outdoor and social activities?
METHODS:
Review of literature and cross-disciplinary expert discussion.
RESULTS:
A situation-aware ICT requires a flexible fine-tuning by stakeholders of system usability and complexity of function, and of user safety and autonomy. It should operate by artificial intelligence/machine learning and should reflect harmonized stakeholder values, social context, and user residual cognitive functions. ICT services should be proposed at the prodromal stage of dementia and should be carefully validated within the life space of users in terms of quality of life, social activities, and costs.
DISCUSSION:
The operational framework has the potential to produce ICT and services with high clinical impact but requires substantial investment
Agent-based Computational Economics: a Methodological Appraisal
This paper is an overview of "Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE)", an emerging approach to the study of decentralized market economies, in methodological perspective. It summarizes similarities and differences with respect to conventional economic models, outlines the unique methodological characteristics of this approach, and discusses its implications for economic methodology as a whole. While ACE rejoins the reflection on the unintended social consequences of purposeful individual action which is constitutive of economics as a discipline, the paper shows that it complements state-of the-art research in experimental and behavioral economics. In particular, the methods and techniques of ACE have reinforced the laboratory finding that fundamental economic results rely less on rational choice theory than is usually assumed, and have provided insight into the importance of market structures and rules in addition to individual choice. In addition, ACE has enlarged the range of inter-individual interactions that are of interest for economists. In this perspective, ACE provides the economist‘s toolbox with valuable supplements to existing economic techniques rather than proposing a radical alternative. Despite some open methodological questions, it has potential for better integration into economics in the future.Agent-based Computational Economics, Economic Methodology, Experimental Economics.
Feature-based time-series analysis
This work presents an introduction to feature-based time-series analysis. The
time series as a data type is first described, along with an overview of the
interdisciplinary time-series analysis literature. I then summarize the range
of feature-based representations for time series that have been developed to
aid interpretable insights into time-series structure. Particular emphasis is
given to emerging research that facilitates wide comparison of feature-based
representations that allow us to understand the properties of a time-series
dataset that make it suited to a particular feature-based representation or
analysis algorithm. The future of time-series analysis is likely to embrace
approaches that exploit machine learning methods to partially automate human
learning to aid understanding of the complex dynamical patterns in the time
series we measure from the world.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure
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