Human Computation and Convergence

Humans are the most effective integrators and producers of information, directly and through the use of information-processing inventions. As these inventions become increasingly sophisticated, the substantive role of humans in processing information will tend toward capabilities that derive from our most complex cognitive processes, e.g., abstraction, creativity, and applied world knowledge. Through the advancement of human computation - methods that leverage the respective strengths of humans and machines in distributed information-processing systems - formerly discrete processes will combine synergistically into increasingly integrated and complex information processing systems. These new, collective systems will exhibit an unprecedented degree of predictive accuracy in modeling physical and techno-social processes, and may ultimately coalesce into a single unified predictive organism, with the capacity to address societies most wicked problems and achieve planetary homeostasis.Comment: Pre-publication draft of chapter. 24 pages, 3 figures; added references to page 1 and 3, and corrected typ

Urban Emotions – Tools of Integrating People’s Perception into Urban Planning

This paper introduces the research field “Urban Emotions” – an interdisciplinary approach combining not only spatial planning and (geo-) informatics, but also computer linguistics and sensor technology methods. A new set of methods will be formed for the area of urban and spatial planning, resulting in a fundamental change of the understanding of planning. One of the main objectives is the involvement of citizens into planning processes. Therefore, new techniques are developed to collect and analyse data on the emotional perception of space and provide it to the people and also planners. Not only the human perception in the context of the city, and the combination with human sensory processes are contents of this paper, but also the critical discussion of these effects to privacy issues. Based on the topics “mental maps” and psychogeography in combination with the field of digital emotional urban tagging, the potential of integrating objectively quantified emotions in the context of citizen participation will be explained. In the following, partly established and partly experimental methods for collecting and analysing “Urban Emotions” will be introduced. Based on two studies, the possibilities of transfering these methodsinto the planning praxis will be shown on the one hand and on the other hand the potential for further development for other disciplines will be more evident

50 Years Geophysical Institute Karlsruhe, 1964 to 2014 - Expectations and Surprises

Die Festschrift anlässlich des 50. Geburtstags des Geophysikalischen Instituts in 2014 wurde hauptsächlich von Herrn Dr. Claus Prodehl zusammengestellt. Die einzelnen Beiträge stammen von ehemaligen und aktuellen GPI-Mitarbeitern und Mitarbeiterinnen

Situating machine intelligence within the cognitive ecology of the Internet

The Internet is an important focus of attention for the philosophy of mind and cognitive science communities. This is partly because the Internet serves as an important part of the material environment in which a broad array of human cognitive and epistemic activities are situated. The Internet can thus be seen as an important part of the 'cognitive ecology' that helps to shape, support and (on occasion) realize aspects of human cognizing. Much of the previous philosophical work in this area has sought to analyze the cognitive significance of the Internet from the perspective of human cognition. There has, as such, been little effort to assess the cognitive significance of the Internet from the perspective of 'machine cognition'. This is unfortunate, because the Internet is likely to exert a significant influence on the shape of machine intelligence. The present paper attempts to evaluate the extent to which the Internet serves as a form of cognitive ecology for synthetic (machine-based) forms of intelligence. In particular, the phenomenon of Internet-situated machine intelligence is analyzed from the perspective of a number of approaches that are typically subsumed under the heading of situated cognition. These include extended, embedded, scaffolded and embodied approaches to cognition. For each of these approaches, the Internet is shown to be of potential relevance to the development and operation of machine-based cognitive capabilities. Such insights help us to appreciate the role of the Internet in advancing the current state-of-the-art in machine intelligence

Open data governance in smart mobility: an empirical investigation of Shanghai

Master of Science i global ledelse - Nord universitett 202

Discovery of the Consistently Well-Performed Analysis Chain for SWATH-MS Based Pharmacoproteomic Quantification

Sequential windowed acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectra (SWATH-MS) has emerged as one of the most popular techniques for label-free proteome quantification in current pharmacoproteomic research. It provides more comprehensive detection and more accurate quantitation of proteins comparing with the traditional techniques. The performance of SWATH-MS is highly susceptible to the selection of processing method. Till now, ≥27 methods (transformation, normalization, and missing-value imputation) are sequentially applied to construct numerous analysis chains for SWATH-MS, but it is still not clear which analysis chain gives the optimal quantification performance. Herein, the performances of 560 analysis chains for quantifying pharmacoproteomic data were comprehensively assessed. Firstly, the most complete set of the publicly available SWATH-MS based pharmacoproteomic data were collected by comprehensive literature review. Secondly, substantial variations among the performances of various analysis chains were observed, and the consistently well-performed analysis chains (CWPACs) across various datasets were for the first time generalized. Finally, the log and power transformations sequentially followed by the total ion current normalization were discovered as one of the best performed analysis chains for the quantification of SWATH-MS based pharmacoproteomic data. In sum, the CWPACs identified here provided important guidance to the quantification of proteomic data and could therefore facilitate the cutting-edge research in any pharmacoproteomic studies requiring SWATH-MS technique

A context-sensitive conceptual framework for activity modeling

Human motion trajectories, however captured, provide a rich spatiotemporal data source for human activity recognition, and the rich literature in motion trajectory analysis provides the tools to bridge the gap between this data and its semantic interpretation. But activity is an ambiguous term across research communities. For example, in urban transport research activities are generally characterized around certain locations assuming the opportunities and resources are present in that location, and traveling happens between these locations for activity participation, i.e., travel is not an activity, rather a mean to overcome spatial constraints. In contrast, in human-computer interaction (HCI) research and in computer vision research activities taking place along the way, such as reading on the bus, are significant for contextualized service provision. Similarly activities at coarser spatial and temporal granularity, e.g., holidaying in a country, could be recognized in some context or domain. Thus the context prevalent in the literature does not provide a precise and consistent definition of activity, in particular in differentiation to travel when it comes to motion trajectory analysis. Hence in this paper, a thorough literature review studies activity from different perspectives, and develop a common framework to model and reason human behavior flexibly across contexts. This spatio-temporal framework is conceptualized with a focus on modeling activities hierarchically. Three case studies will illustrate how the semantics of the term activity changes based on scale and context. They provide evidence that the framework holds over different domains. In turn, the framework will help developing various applications and services that are aware of the broad spectrum of the term activity across contexts

Regional geothermal characterization of northern Kenya rift from resistivity and gravity

An extensive geophysical survey comprising over 400 MT and 515 gravity stations on the Korosi, Paka and Silali volcanoes in the northern Kenya rift was conducted in order to assess the occurrence of geothermal resources in the context of the geophysics of the major volcanic centers. Additional study has also included speculation of magma detectability below the volcanoes. Resistivity data has been interpreted using 1D joint inversion of magnetotelluric (MT) and co-located transient electromagnetic (TEM) which has revealed a resistivity pattern consistent with the existence of several geothermal systems within the study area. Each geothermal system is characterized by a relatively resistive 100 Ωm surficial layer overlying a ∼ 10 Ωm low resistivity zone interpreted as the hydrothermally altered clay cap of the system. Low resistivity is also correlated with clay-rich volcanoclastics deposited on the margins of the rift adjacent to the volcanoes. The cap overlies a higher resistivity zone of about 60 Ωm with a top at about 1000 m depth, interpreted as a potential high temperature alteration zone. The trend of moderate high resistivity at the depth of the potential reservoir corresponds to the zone of intense faulting and fracturing as imaged on the surface. Gravity data has been analysed through estimation of shallow density by testing the correlation of measured gravity with topography, reviewing results of earlier density measurements of surface rocks in the Kenya Rift, comparison to regional gravity surveys that constrained larger scale deeper density contrasts and 2D gravity modeling correlated with the MT resistivity pattern. Gravity models reveal a dominant 10 to 15 km wide gravity high of 8 mGal amplitude striking NNE along the inner rift corresponding to high resistivity outlined at 2 km depth by recent MT studies. Gravity lows due to structures shallower than 2 km depth at the Paka and Korosi volcanoes have been interpreted as low density bodies within their edifices, likely to consist of either unaltered near-surface pyroclastics or deeper tuffs altered at 60 to 180°C to hydrothermal smectite clay. The high resistivity, low density near-surface rocks on the flanks are interpreted to represent unaltered pyroclastics above the water table, whereas low resistivity, low density bodies underneath the Paka and Korosi volcanos indicate low density tuffs, hydrothermally altered to hydrated smectite clay. Away from the volcanoes on both East and West low density and low resistivity anomalies flanks the central gravity high. The deeper high density zone below the volcanic inner rift is likely to be a combination of higher temperature, low porosity alteration associated with geothermal reservoirs and/or denser rocks related to intrusions. Surface fissure swarm correlates with both high gravity and resistivity south of Paka volcano but northwards between Paka and Silali volcanoes, there appears inconsistency where the fissure swarm strikes NE but both gravity and resistivity shows a feature west of the currently active fissure zone. This suggests that the rift has recently moved eastwards. A preliminary review of geoscientific data has been made to evaluate the developed geothermal systems within the Kenya rift and use them as analogs for the geothermal prospects. The comparisons are based on thermal features, geological structures, gravity anomalies and resistivity signatures. Further, 2D synthetic modelling was performed to speculate on the size and depth of magma beneath the volcanoes and demonstrate what can be resolved at depth and what cannot. This has also been used to illustrate the limitations of 1D inversion and test the depth and size of magma that can be detected.Umfangsmiklar jarðeðlisfræðilegar mælingar, yfir 150 Magnetotelluric (MT) mælingar og þyngdarmælingar á 515 mælistöðum, hafa verið gerðar við eldstöðvakerfin Korosi, Paka og Silali í norður hluta sigdalsins mikla í Kenía til að meta jarðhitaauðlindir. Samtúlkun MT-mælinganna við Transient ElectroMagnetic (TEM) mælingar á sama stað sýnir viðnámsskipan sem bendir til nokkurra jarðhitakerfa innan rannsóknasvæðisins. Öll jarðhitakerfin hafa viðnámsskipan sem samanstendur af yfirborðslagi með háu eðlisviðnámi (~ 100 Ωm), ofan lágviðnámslags (~ 10 Ωm), sem er túlkað sem ummyndunarleirkápa og þakberg yfir jarðhitakerfinu. Neðan lágviðnámskápunnar er háviðnámskjarni með hærra eðlisviðnámi (~60 Ωm). Þar sem grynnst er á kjarnann er hann á um 1000 m dýpi. Háviðnámskjarninn er talinn sýna berg með háhitaummyndun. Háviðnámskjarnarnir eru undir brotasvæðum, þar sem fjölmargar sprungur og misgengi eru sjáanlegar á yfirborði. Í þyngdargögnunum er ráðandi 10 til 15 km breið þyngdarhæð (um 8 mGal) eftir innri sigdalnum með norðnorðaustlæga stefnu, sem fellur vel saman við hátt eðlisviðnám neðan 2 km dýpis. Þyngdarlægðir ofan 2 km dýpis í Paka og Korosi eldstöðvunum eru taldar endurspegla bergskrokka með litla eðlisþyngd innan eldstöðvanna. Þeir eru líklega annað hvort úr lausum gosefnum eða dýpra túff með smektít-ummyndun við 60 til 180 °C hita. Líkön byggð á MT-mælingum voru notuð til að skorða tvívíð eðlisþyngdarlíkön. Eðlislétt jarðlög með hátt eðlisviðnám til hliðar eru talin vera óummynduð laus gosefni ofan grunnvatnsborðs, meðan eðlislétt jarðlög með lágt eðlisviðnám undir Paka og Korosi eldstöðvunum eru talin vera eðlislétt túff, ummyndað í vatnaðan smektít leir. Dýpri eðlisþung jarðlög undir eldfjöllunum í innri hluta sigdalsins eru talin vera berg með lágan poruhluta og háhitaumyndun og/eða eðlisþung innskot. Sunnan Paka er gott samræmi milli kortlagðra brota, þyngdarfrávika og djúps háviðnáms, en þar fyrir norðan, milli Paka og Silali eldstöðvanna, sést misræmi þar sem sprungureinin sýnir ákveðna norðaustlæga stefnu, en bæði eðlisviðnám og þyngdarmæligögn sýna frávik vestan við sprungureinina. Þetta bendir til þess að gliðnun hafi nýlega færst til austurs á þessu svæði. Með samanburði á jarðvísindalegum gögnum er gerð tilraun til að draga fram hliðstæður milli jarðhitasvæða. Samanburðurinn tekur til jarðhita á yfirborði, jarðfræði, þyngdargagna og viðnámsskipanar, og nær yfir 7 eldfjalla-/jarðhitakerfi. Þá eru gerðir tvívíðir líkanreikningar til að reyna að meta umfang og dýpi kviku undir eldstöðvunum, til að fá tilfinningu fyrir því hvað hægt sé að greina með viðnámsmælingum og hvað ekki. Líkanreikningarnir eru einnig notaðir til að sýna takmarkanir einvíðrar túlkunar viðnámsmælinga, og til að kanna dýpi og stærð kvikuinnskota sem greina má.Geothermal Development Company Ltd. (GDC), Kenya; United Nations University - Geothermal Training Program (UNUGTP), Icelan

A survey and classification of publicly available COVID-19 datasets

The current study curates a list of authentic and open-access sources of alphanumeric COVID-19 pandemic data. We have gathered 74 datasets from 42 sources, including sources from 18 countries. The datasets are searched through the Kaggle and GitHub repositories besides Google, providing a representation of varieties of pandemic-related datasets. The datasets are categorized according to their sources- primary and secondary, and according to their geographical distribution. While analyzing the dataset, we came across some classes in which the datasets can be categorized. We present the categorization in the form of taxonomy and highlight the present COVID-19 data collection and use challenges. The study will help researchers and data curators in the identification and classification of pandemic data