Culture boundaries in semantic web

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Culture, being created by any and every of us, is the expression form of the society. We easily manipulate this term in everyday life, but defining the culture brings a lot of discussions in between scientists. The most common approach of understanding culture is from anthropologists (Harris & Johnson, 2006; Tylor, 1871) who associate culture with the common developed complex pattern of the society life expressed through knowledge, believes, art, morality, laws, traditions and other features. Approaching extinct cultures all this can be found and interpreted just from archaeological artefacts. Despite many culture definitions, the spatio-temporal aspect of culture is brought mostly by archaeologists. All in all the culture and cultural area understandings remain very fuzzy, though culture area is always formalized as a crispy one. Due to such fuzziness, author would guess, there was no hurry for cultural area or boundary digitalization as it happened with other cultural data in Europe within last decades. The cultural boundary question stayed 'taboo' in semantic web also, that is recently developing for cultural data in order to help to represent the meaning in a restricted sense. It is therefore in this thesis the culture boundary representation in semantic web is analyzed

IMPACT: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning. Volume 5, Issue 2, Summer 2016

Impact: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning is a peer-reviewed, biannual online journal that publishes scholarly and creative non-fiction essays about the theory, practice and assessment of interdisciplinary education. Impact is produced by the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning at the College of General Studies, Boston University (www.bu.edu/cgs/citl)

An Investigation into Software Estimation Methods

There are currently no fully validated estimation approaches that can accurately predict the effort needed for developing a software system (Kitchenham, et al, 1995). Information gathered at the early stages of system development is not enough to provide precise effort estimates, even though similar software systems may have been developed in the past. Where similar systems have been developed, there are often inherent differences in the features of these systems and in the development process used. These differences are often sufficient to significantly reduce estimation accuracy. Historically, cost estimation focuses on project effort and duration. There are many estimation techniques, but none is consistently ‘best’ (Shepperd, 2003). Software project management has become a crucial field of research due to the increasing role of software in today’s world. Improving the functions of project management is a main concern in software development organisation. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a new model which incorporates cultural and leadership factors in the cost estimation model, and is based on Case-Based Reasoning. The thesis defines a new knowledge representation “ontology” to provide a common understanding of project parameters. The associated system uses a statistically simulated bootstrap method, which helps in tuning the analogy approach before application to real projects. This research also introduces a new application of Profile Theory, which takes a formal approach to the measurement of leadership capabilities. A pilot study was performed in order to understand the approaches used for cost estimation in the Gulf region. Based on this initial study, a questionnaire was further refined and tested. Consequently, further surveys were conducted in the United Arab Emirates. It was noticed that most of the software development projects failed in terms of cost estimate. This was due to the lack of a precise software estimation model. These studies also highlighted the importance of leadership and culture in software cost estimation. Effort was estimated using regression and analogy. The Bootstrap method was used to refine the estimate of effort based on analogy, with correction for bias. Due to the very different nature of the core and support systems, a separate model was developed for each of them. As a result of the study, a new model for identifying and analysing was developed. The model was then evaluated, and conclusions were drawn. These show the importance of the model and the factors of organisational culture and leadership in software project development and in cost estimation. Potential areas for future research were identified

The Role of public television in social development communication in a post-colonial developing country: a case study of the public televison service in the Republic of Ghana.

Ghana Television shares many of the post-colonial historical features that public broadcasting systems in African countries inherited at independence. The television producers’ perceptions of role and job function, politics and organisational structures impact the role of Ghana Television and its contribution to contemporary Ghanaian society. Through a consideration of national post-colonial history and theories of media, communication, culture and development communication, this thesis considers the agency of Ghana Television in social development by analysing producers’ perceptions of their production system and broadcast outcomes. Ghanaian public television service faces many challenges that are primarily political and historical. Producers struggle to straddle a line between instinctively championing ideals within content creation processes and maintaining a ill-functioning system and politicised culture of production. The research finds that there are difficulties inherent in delivering a truly public service remit, within the historicised post-colonial context, and highlights the challenges as well as opportunities for improving the delivery of public television service. It draws conclusions that have lessons for similar countries in the post-colonial South

Organizational communication and cultural studies: A review essay

Recently, we have been struggling to interpret a series of minor yet absurd spectacles that span the industrial and popular-cultural realms. These events have compelled our scholarly interest, but lack a ready-made frame for diagnosing their significance. Consider these examples: In the summer of 1996, vivacious 'TV talk-show cohost Kathie Lee Gifford was criticized by activists who linked her line of Wal-Mart clothing to human-rights abuses and wage violations among factory workers in Honduras and New York City. Tearful and contrite, Gifford quickly adopted a policy of independent monitoring and assigned her husband, celebrity sports-announcer Frank Gifford, to deliver envelopes of compensation for the affected workers. Relatedly, in the fall of 1997, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams—famed for his satire of corporate foibles—disguised himself as a management consultant. With the help of a company official, he conducted an executive retreat in a computer firm that produced a tortured "revision" of its mission statement. Additional examples appear in the flickerings of our TV screens: the lithe, androgynous figures of Intel's technicians, clad in hooded, colorful "clean room" suits, energetically installing computer chips to a soundtrack of 1970s funk; and quasi-documentary images of rolling golf carts, filled with visitors to the Saturn car plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, watching assembly workers at their tasks—and being watched in return

Surveying the Landscape of Theories and Frameworks Used in the Study of Sport and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Religion and sport is a bourgeoning and maturing interdisciplinary area of study. As the volume of research conducted about topics related to the interface of religion and sport, attention to sound research methods, including the use of relevant theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks becomes essential. Scholars such as Stausberg and Engler (2014) have posited that the methods used in religious studies (including theory and frameworks) are not as rigorous as those utilized in social science related fields. The imperative then becomes to use theories and frameworks from social science related disciplines such as leisure studies, sports studies and sport psychology to strengthen scholarship in this emerging area. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of pertinent theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks that are commonly used in the study of sport and religion. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to highlighting and expounding on a select group of theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks

How is rape a weapon of war?: feminist international relations, modes of critical explanation and the study of wartime sexual violence

Rape is a weapon of war. Establishing this now common claim has been an achievement of feminist scholarship and activism and reveals wartime sexual violence as a social act marked by gendered power. But the consensus that rape is a weapon of war obscures important, and frequently unacknowledged, differences in ways of understanding and explaining it. This article opens these differences to analysis. Drawing on recent debates regarding the philosophy of social science in IR and social theory, it interprets feminist accounts of wartime sexual violence in terms of modes of critical explanation – expansive styles of reasoning that foreground particular actors, mechanisms, reasons and stories in the formulation of research. The idea of a mode of critical explanation is expanded upon through a discussion of the role of three elements (analytical wagers, narrative scripts and normative orientations) which accomplish the theoretical work of modes. Substantive feminist accounts of wartime sexual violence are then differentiated in terms of three modes – of instrumentality, unreason and mythology – which implicitly structure different understandings of how rape might be a weapon of war. These modes shape political and ethical projects and so impact not only on questions of scholarly content but also on the ways in which we attempt to mitigate and abolish war rape. Thinking in terms of feminist modes of critical explanation consequently encourages further work in an unfolding research agenda. It clarifes the ways in which an apparently commonality of position can conceal meaningful disagreements about human action. Exposing these disagreements opens up new possibilities for the analysis of war rape

Excavating Feminist Phenomenology: Lived-Experiences and Wellbeing of Indigenous Students at Western University

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission underscores the need to incorporate narrative accounts of Indigenous students’ experiences as part of wide-scale de-colonizing efforts. This dissertation asks; how do Indigenous students experience their identities at Western University? What is at stake for phenomenology, feminist methods, and Indigenous theory, in the post Truth and Reconciliation era? There is a gap between theories centering on reflective cognition in philosophy and the embodiment of land, prevalent across Indigenous cultures. However, phenomenology can provide a method to facilitate dialogues with discourses outside Eurocentric domains that empathize with marginalized communities’ struggles, through an understanding of location-based knowledge. I will explore how Indigenous learners’ experiences inform concepts in phenomenology, Haudenosaunee, Cree, and Anishinaabe thinking, before they become marked literary categories. I undertake a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach, from Eurocentric and Indigenous perspectives, to connect non-hierarchal epistemologies across nation-specific expressions. In chapter two, I discuss relational, land-based methods, through Dolleen Manning’s Anishinaabe ‘mnidoo’ concept, Merleau-Pontian phenomenology, and feminist epistemologies, in terms of dialogues with Indigenous students and Elders. In our discussions, I explore concepts about community, home, health, and belonging, in relation to lived theories of embodiment, places, and beings, within an interpretive circle. Chapter three discusses the impacts of language, reflexivity, emotion, oppression, environmental repossession, and experience, within feminist research methods and Indigenous paradigms, through anthropology’s ontological turn. Chapter four discusses how experiences influence Indigenous artists, in their efforts to create work that is emergent from, and reflexive of culture and identity. Chapter five surveys concepts that include, citizenship, human rights, and freedom, through Indigenous scholars’ episodes of wellbeing and theories about emergent governance. I conclude, by offering Indigenous students’ reflections about education, ally-ship, and reconciliation. Indigenous subjectivities are unique, not homogenously categorized. This project’s interviews bring forth information missing from research involving community-based wellness services, without statistical representation in government and university strategic plan reports. Hearing individuals articulate desires to instigate healing in their communities is a powerful gesture and offers teachable moments, for the listener. I hope that when interviewees speak their gifts and insights, in our interactions, it inspires continued activist incentives that foster community-wide changes