Information Seeking Behavior and Context: Theoretical Frameworks and an Empirical Study of Source Use

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

A Statistical Approach to the Alignment of fMRI Data

Multi-subject functional Magnetic Resonance Image studies are critical. The anatomical and functional structure varies across subjects, so the image alignment is necessary. We define a probabilistic model to describe functional alignment. Imposing a prior distribution, as the matrix Fisher Von Mises distribution, of the orthogonal transformation parameter, the anatomical information is embedded in the estimation of the parameters, i.e., penalizing the combination of spatially distant voxels. Real applications show an improvement in the classification and interpretability of the results compared to various functional alignment methods

A comparison of the CAR and DAGAR spatial random effects models with an application to diabetics rate estimation in Belgium

When hierarchically modelling an epidemiological phenomenon on a finite collection of sites in space, one must always take a latent spatial effect into account in order to capture the correlation structure that links the phenomenon to the territory. In this work, we compare two autoregressive spatial models that can be used for this purpose: the classical CAR model and the more recent DAGAR model. Differently from the former, the latter has a desirable property: its ρ parameter can be naturally interpreted as the average neighbor pair correlation and, in addition, this parameter can be directly estimated when the effect is modelled using a DAGAR rather than a CAR structure. As an application, we model the diabetics rate in Belgium in 2014 and show the adequacy of these models in predicting the response variable when no covariates are available

Challenges of integration and globalization

There has been plenty of books and articles written about integration and globalisation, especially in English. However, these processes are characterised as being extremely dynamic. The researchers are eye-witnesses to a constantly changing reality and appearing new, often unexpected phenomena accompanying unification or even uniformisation of the modern world.Editors, Foreword -- Part I Globalization and Integration Processes in the Contemporary World -- George Gamkrelidze, How Globalization Affects Integration -- Grzegorz Piwnicki, The Future of the European Union. The Most Important Issues -- Jakub Potulski, The European Sociopolitical Sphere -- Wojciech Forysinski, Integration and Disintegration of International Law in the 21st Century: between Universality and Differentiation -- Stanisław Sipowicz, Globalization and Cyber Threats -- Part II National Experiences with Globalization and Integration Processes -- Andrzej Chodubski, The Importance of Universal Values in the Process of Polish Integration with Europe -- Dušan Leška, Struggle of the Slovak Republic to Join the European Union -- Lucia Mokrá, Approximation of Slovak Constitutional Order to EU Law – Case Study of Successful Accession -- Arkadiusz Modrzejewski, The Concepts of Eastern Borders of Europe and European Identity of Georgia -- Piotr Andrusieczko and Kateryna Shestakova, Challenges for Georgia and Ukraine in the Black Sea Region -- Olha Voznyuk, Ukraine: Back to Homo Sovieticus? -- Anna Szramkowska, Chinese Presence in Global Governance. New Ways or Old Problems for Developing Countries. Case Study of Sudan and Angola

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volum

Social inequality before farming? Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of social organization in prehistoric and ethnographic hunter-gatherer-fisher societies

Archaeological investigations over the past 50 years have challenged the importance of domestication and food production in the emergence of institutionalized social inequality. Social inequality in the prehistoric human past developed through multiple historical processes that operate on a number of different scales of variability (e.g. social, economic, demographic, and environmental). However, in the theoretical and linguistic landscape of social inequality, there is no clear definition of what social inequality is. The lifeways of hunter-gathererfisher societies open a crucial intellectual space and challenge to find meaningful ways of using archaeological and ethnographic data to understand what social inequality exactly is with regard to variously negotiated or enforced cultural norms or ethoses of individual autonomy. This interdisciplinary edited volume gathers together researchers working in the fields of prehistoric archaeology and cultural and evolutionary anthropology. Spanning terminal Pleistocene to Holocene archaeological and ethnographic contexts from across the globe, the nineteen chapters in this volume cover a variety of topics organized around three major themes, which structure the book: 1) social inequality and egalitarianism in extant hunter-gatherer societies; 2) social inequality in Upper Palaeolithic Europe (c. 45,000–11,500 years ago); 3) social inequality in prehistoric Holocene hunter-gatherer-fisher societies globally. Most chapters in this volume provide empirical content with considerations of subsistence ecology, demography, mobility, social networks, technology, children’s enculturation, ritual practice, rock art, dogs, warfare, lethal weaponry, and mortuary behaviour. In addition to providing new data from multiple contexts through space and time, and exploring social diversity and evolution from novel perspectives, the collection of essays in this volume will have a considerable impact on how archaeologists define and theorize pathways both towards and away from inequality within diverse social contexts