1,951 research outputs found

    A BIM - GIS Integrated Information Model Using Semantic Web and RDF Graph Databases

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    In recent years, 3D virtual indoor and outdoor urban modelling has become an essential geospatial information framework for civil and engineering applications such as emergency response, evacuation planning, and facility management. Building multi-sourced and multi-scale 3D urban models are in high demand among architects, engineers, and construction professionals to achieve these tasks and provide relevant information to decision support systems. Spatial modelling technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are frequently used to meet such high demands. However, sharing data and information between these two domains is still challenging. At the same time, the semantic or syntactic strategies for inter-communication between BIM and GIS do not fully provide rich semantic and geometric information exchange of BIM into GIS or vice-versa. This research study proposes a novel approach for integrating BIM and GIS using semantic web technologies and Resources Description Framework (RDF) graph databases. The suggested solution's originality and novelty come from combining the advantages of integrating BIM and GIS models into a semantically unified data model using a semantic framework and ontology engineering approaches. The new model will be named Integrated Geospatial Information Model (IGIM). It is constructed through three stages. The first stage requires BIMRDF and GISRDF graphs generation from BIM and GIS datasets. Then graph integration from BIM and GIS semantic models creates IGIMRDF. Lastly, the information from IGIMRDF unified graph is filtered using a graph query language and graph data analytics tools. The linkage between BIMRDF and GISRDF is completed through SPARQL endpoints defined by queries using elements and entity classes with similar or complementary information from properties, relationships, and geometries from an ontology-matching process during model construction. The resulting model (or sub-model) can be managed in a graph database system and used in the backend as a data-tier serving web services feeding a front-tier domain-oriented application. A case study was designed, developed, and tested using the semantic integrated information model for validating the newly proposed solution, architecture, and performance

    Design of new algorithms for gene network reconstruction applied to in silico modeling of biomedical data

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    Programa de Doctorado en Biotecnología, Ingeniería y Tecnología QuímicaLínea de Investigación: Ingeniería, Ciencia de Datos y BioinformáticaClave Programa: DBICódigo Línea: 111The root causes of disease are still poorly understood. The success of current therapies is limited because persistent diseases are frequently treated based on their symptoms rather than the underlying cause of the disease. Therefore, biomedical research is experiencing a technology-driven shift to data-driven holistic approaches to better characterize the molecular mechanisms causing disease. Using omics data as an input, emerging disciplines like network biology attempt to model the relationships between biomolecules. To this effect, gene co- expression networks arise as a promising tool for deciphering the relationships between genes in large transcriptomic datasets. However, because of their low specificity and high false positive rate, they demonstrate a limited capacity to retrieve the disrupted mechanisms that lead to disease onset, progression, and maintenance. Within the context of statistical modeling, we dove deeper into the reconstruction of gene co-expression networks with the specific goal of discovering disease-specific features directly from expression data. Using ensemble techniques, which combine the results of various metrics, we were able to more precisely capture biologically significant relationships between genes. We were able to find de novo potential disease-specific features with the help of prior biological knowledge and the development of new network inference techniques. Through our different approaches, we analyzed large gene sets across multiple samples and used gene expression as a surrogate marker for the inherent biological processes, reconstructing robust gene co-expression networks that are simple to explore. By mining disease-specific gene co-expression networks we come up with a useful framework for identifying new omics-phenotype associations from conditional expression datasets.In this sense, understanding diseases from the perspective of biological network perturbations will improve personalized medicine, impacting rational biomarker discovery, patient stratification and drug design, and ultimately leading to more targeted therapies.Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. Departamento de Deporte e Informátic

    IMAGINING, GUIDING, PLAYING INTIMACY: - A Theory of Character Intimacy Games -

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    Within the landscape of Japanese media production, and video game production in particular, there is a niche comprising video games centered around establishing, developing, and fulfilling imagined intimate relationships with anime-manga characters. Such niche, although very significant in production volume and lifespan, is left unexplored or underexplored. When it is not, it is subsumed within the scope of wider anime-manga media. This obscures the nature of such video games, alternatively identified with descriptors including but not limited to ‘visual novel’, ‘dating simulator’ and ‘adult computer game’. As games centered around developing intimacy with characters, they present specific ensembles of narrative content, aesthetics and software mechanics. These ensembles are aimed at eliciting in users what are, by all intents and purposes, parasocial phenomena towards the game’s characters. In other words, these software products encourage players to develop affective and bodily responses towards characters. They are set in a way that is coherent with shared, circulating scripts for sexual and intimate interaction to guide player imaginative action. This study defines games such as the above as ‘character intimacy games’, video game software where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters. To do so, however, player must recognize themselves as playing that type of game, and to be looking to develop that kind of response towards the game’s characters. Character Intimacy Games are contingent upon player developing affective and bodily responses, and thus presume that players are, at the very least, non-hostile towards their development. This study approaches Japanese character intimacy games as its corpus, and operates at the intersection of studies of communication, AMO studies and games studies. The study articulates a research approach based on the double need of approaching single works of significance amidst a general scarcity of scholarly background on the subject. It juxtaposes data-driven approaches derived from fan-curated databases – The Visual Novel Database and Erogescape -Erogē Hyōron Kūkan – with a purpose-created ludo-hermeneutic process. By deploying an observation of character intimacy games through fan-curated data and building ludo-hermeneutics on the resulting ontology, this study argues that character intimacy games are video games where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters and recognizing themselves as doing so. To produce such conditions, the assemblage of software mechanics and narrative content in such games facilitates intimacy between player and characters. This is, ultimately, conductive to the emergence of parasocial phenomena. Parasocial phenomena, in turn, are deployed as an integral assumption regarding player activity within the game’s wider assemblage of narrative content and software mechanics

    The Epistemic Value of Resonance: Intuitive Thinking in Theoretical Understanding

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    We commonly say that an explanation for something we do not quite understand ‘resonates’. And we seem to take the resonance of the explanation to count epistemically in its favor. What is resonance and what is its epistemic value? I propose that resonance is a psychological state in which a consciously considered explanation coheres with the unconscious representational content in the mind of an individual, and that this psychological state is metacognitively signaled by a feeling which we also call ‘resonance’. This account of resonance implies that theoretical understanding, rather than knowledge, is the epistemic domain of its functioning. That is, when an explanation resonates, the usual case is that a consciously considered explanatory framework coheres with a rich, unconscious representational nexus associated with the object purportedly explained. I pursue the question of the value of resonance by developing the features of theoretical understanding. Theoretical understanding of an object, I take it, is when an individual grasps an accurate explanatory framework for that object. Hence, understanding is normed by both accuracy and grasping. Accuracy, however, is secured through warrant. Resonance, I argue, can increase one’s warrant, but not very much. Grasping, on the other hand, is a stop-and-go process of integrating explanations and representational content in long-term memory. Resonance, I argue, improves grasping by ensuring coherence and motivating persistence. Further, resonance seems to be practically necessary to theoretical understanding, insofar as understanding aims toward an aspirational mastery. Resonance enables us to invest cognitive resources in explanatory frameworks we do not yet understand and it prevents us from becoming rigidly attached to a familiar but failing explanatory framework. I conclude by addressing three worries about the epistemic value of resonance: (1) that the feeling of resonance cannot be distinguished from similar, non-epistemic feelings, (2) that the pleasantness of this feeling conflicts with the accuracy norm for understanding, and (3) that an explanatory framework might resonate with false unconscious beliefs, thus inhibiting accuracy in one’s understanding. Of these, the last is the most worrisome and suggests that attuning to resonance is only one part of a virtuous epistemic life

    Active Curation: algorithmic awareness for cultural commentary on social media platforms

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    This thesis examines how everyday social media users engage in curation practices to influence what news and information they see on their social feeds. It finds that cultural commentary content can act as a proxy for news on these platforms, contributing to public debate and the fifth estate. While much research has explored the implications of algorithmically driven recommender systems for content personalisation and news visibility, this thesis investigates a gap in our understanding of how social media users understand and respond to algorithmic processes, customising their feed in their day-to-day curation practices on these platforms. It explores how a group of Australians aged 18–30 respond to algorithmic recommender systems and how effective their practices are in shaping their social feeds. The study used a mixed methods approach that included a digital ethnography of social media use and a comparative content analysis of social media news exposure and topics in the legacy news cycle. This study develops a taxonomy of consumptive curation practices that users can engage in to influence their personalised social feeds. The study also examines users’ motivations for this curation and how effective these are in filtering news and ‘cultural commentary’ content into or out of their feed. The findings demonstrate that algorithmic literacy is a driver of active curation practices, where users consciously engage in practices designed to influence recommender processes that customise their social feed. They also demonstrate the prevalence of non-journalistic news-related content or ‘cultural commentary’ on social media platforms in the form of hot takes, memes, and satire, and how this cultural commentary can act as a proxy for the news, even for users who are news avoidant. These findings address gaps in our understanding of news discovery and consumption on social media platforms, with implications for how news businesses can reach emerging news audiences

    Relevance of parental monitoring strategies in explanation of externalising behaviour problems in adolescence: Mediation of parental knowledge

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    A process model of parental monitoring (PM) proposes that PM occurs in two distinct stages: before the adolescent goes out and when they return home. Parental and adolescent responses to monitoring interactions impact on future monitoring episodes. Research suggests that passive PM strategies (e.g. child disclosure) correlate with higher parental knowledge and less behavior problems. Self-reported measures were used on a sample of 507 Belgrade secondary school students (42.1% male) to examine the mediating effect (mediation analysis using JASP) of parental knowledge (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) on the relationship of PM strategies (Child Disclosure, Parental Solicitation and Parental Control) (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) with externalising problems (Aggressive and Rule-Breaking Behaviour) (ASEBA, YSR). The research results show that Parental Knowledge mediate the relation of Child Disclosure and RuleBreaking Behaviour (z = -6.544, p < .001) and Parental Control and Rule-Breaking Behaviour (z =-3.770, p< .001). No direct link between Parental Control and RuleBreaking Behavior, as well as Parental Solicitation and Rule-Breaking Behavior were established. Full mediation of the link between Child Disclosure and Aggressive Behavior by Parental Knowledge is found (total indirect effect z = -4.050, p < .001). The research results were discussed in the context of the relevance of the PM strategies for greater parental knowledge and prevention of externalising problems in adolescence

    (b2023 to 2014) The UNBELIEVABLE similarities between the ideas of some people (2006-2016) and my ideas (2002-2008) in physics (quantum mechanics, cosmology), cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and philosophy (this manuscript would require a REVOLUTION in international academy environment!)

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    (b2023 to 2014) The UNBELIEVABLE similarities between the ideas of some people (2006-2016) and my ideas (2002-2008) in physics (quantum mechanics, cosmology), cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and philosophy (this manuscript would require a REVOLUTION in international academy environment!

    Le goût d'Orval: constructing the taste of Orval beer through narratives

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    This study explores the construction of taste through narratives, using Orval beer as a case study. Often found on lists of the best or most unique beers in the world, Orval is a bottle conditioned, dry-hopped strong Belgian ale with Brettanomyces yeast, creating an orange-hue beer topped with a large volume of white foam. It is both easy to drink and complex in flavour. Made in southeastern Belgium within the walls of a Trappist Abbey, Orval is closely associated with the country of Belgium, a pilgrimage site for beer lovers because of its unique and diverse beer culture. In 2016 “Beer Culture in Belgium” was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Orval beer also carries the Authentic Trappist Product label, ensuring that this product is brewed under the supervision of Trappist monks or nuns, within the Abbey walls, and is non-profit. Additionally, the beer has a unique, distinctive taste. This dissertation explores narratives that tell of all these aspects. The first section, Narrating Belgium, examines how social and economic histories build Belgium as a beer nation, and how conversion narratives of Belgian beer enthusiasts support this theory. The Narrating Trappist section examines how the Legend of Orval and the history of Orval Abbey create a sense of place for Orval beer and how the Authentic Trappist Product label helps construct its terroir. The last section, Narrating Taste, focuses on narratives of taste as shared in online reviews of Orval beer. I first conduct lexical and network analysis of reviews on Untappd, RateBeer, and BeerAdvocate before focusing specifically on themes found in BeerAdvocate reviews. Through ethnographic and textual research, this dissertation introduces a folkloristic approach to taste and argues that both contextual and sensory elements are essential in building taste through narratives

    Relevance of parental monitoring strategies in explanation of externalising behaviour problems in adolescence: Mediation of parental knowledge

    Get PDF
    A process model of parental monitoring (PM) proposes that PM occurs in two distinct stages: before the adolescent goes out and when they return home. Parental and adolescent responses to monitoring interactions impact on future monitoring episodes. Research suggests that passive PM strategies (e.g. child disclosure) correlate with higher parental knowledge and less behavior problems. Self-reported measures were used on a sample of 507 Belgrade secondary school students (42.1% male) to examine the mediating effect (mediation analysis using JASP) of parental knowledge (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) on the relationship of PM strategies (Child Disclosure, Parental Solicitation and Parental Control) (the Scale of Parental Monitoring) with externalising problems (Aggressive and Rule-Breaking Behaviour) (ASEBA, YSR). The research results show that Parental Knowledge mediate the relation of Child Disclosure and RuleBreaking Behaviour (z = -6.544, p < .001) and Parental Control and Rule-Breaking Behaviour (z =-3.770, p< .001). No direct link between Parental Control and RuleBreaking Behavior, as well as Parental Solicitation and Rule-Breaking Behavior were established. Full mediation of the link between Child Disclosure and Aggressive Behavior by Parental Knowledge is found (total indirect effect z = -4.050, p < .001). The research results were discussed in the context of the relevance of the PM strategies for greater parental knowledge and prevention of externalising problems in adolescence
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