Probing the topological properties of complex networks modeling short written texts

In recent years, graph theory has been widely employed to probe several language properties. More specifically, the so-called word adjacency model has been proven useful for tackling several practical problems, especially those relying on textual stylistic analysis. The most common approach to treat texts as networks has simply considered either large pieces of texts or entire books. This approach has certainly worked well -- many informative discoveries have been made this way -- but it raises an uncomfortable question: could there be important topological patterns in small pieces of texts? To address this problem, the topological properties of subtexts sampled from entire books was probed. Statistical analyzes performed on a dataset comprising 50 novels revealed that most of the traditional topological measurements are stable for short subtexts. When the performance of the authorship recognition task was analyzed, it was found that a proper sampling yields a discriminability similar to the one found with full texts. Surprisingly, the support vector machine classification based on the characterization of short texts outperformed the one performed with entire books. These findings suggest that a local topological analysis of large documents might improve its global characterization. Most importantly, it was verified, as a proof of principle, that short texts can be analyzed with the methods and concepts of complex networks. As a consequence, the techniques described here can be extended in a straightforward fashion to analyze texts as time-varying complex networks

Mapping the multiple intersectoral spaces for civil society participation and responsiveness strengthening in the South African health system – focusing on the Western Cape

Since the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, community participation in health policy development and health system functioning has called for a collaborative intersectoral approach, engaging civil society as a pivotal agent for improving policy-makers' responsiveness in the public health system. Intersectoral approaches are widely accepted and research has shown the value in engaging communities in the improvement of their health. However, astonishingly little is known about the overall configuration, nature, and focus of the ‘spaces' where civil society are participating in health system-relevant engagement, or their contribution towards improved system responsiveness. This study describes a local provincial health system, the Western Cape province in South Africa, mapping the intersectoral spaces where civil society participates in the health system, provides feedback to the system (towards responsiveness), and contributes to health system improvement decisions. A mixed method case study was conducted, integrating desk-based review of multiple forms of openly available data, with verification from experts in the field. Sixteen intersectoral spaces in the Western Cape health system were mapped and compared, with analysis focussing on current governance practices in these spaces, evidence of accountability measures and civil society participation within the broader goal of improving health system responsiveness. Multiple spaces exist for intersectoral engagement in the Western Cape of South Africa, but there is a lack of any ‘system-wide' integrative approach – which creates overlap, a focus on vertical programming, and parts of civil society remain ‘disconnected' from the system. Feedback from civil society back into national or provincial policy-making processes is sporadic due to fragmented tiered governance. New efforts towards ‘whole-system' intersectoral collaboration need to be initiated and actively protected, if they are to succeed. This study demonstrates that while ‘intersectoral action for responsiveness strengthening' is broadly encouraged in this health system, it needs to be more fully assessed and operationalised in terms of multilevel governance, accountability and civil society empowerment. In doing so avenues can be identified for improving civil society's feedback into the public health system, and ensuring adequate system's response to this feedback, in health policy and practice

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Mixing Methods: Practical Insights from the Humanities in the Digital Age

The digital transformation is accompanied by two simultaneous processes: digital humanities challenging the humanities, their theories, methodologies and disciplinary identities, and pushing computer science to get involved in new fields. But how can qualitative and quantitative methods be usefully combined in one research project? What are the theoretical and methodological principles across all disciplinary digital approaches? This volume focusses on driving innovation and conceptualising the humanities in the 21st century. Building on the results of 10 research projects, it serves as a useful tool for designing cutting-edge research that goes beyond conventional strategies

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Unpacking Ambiguity in Building Requirements to Support Automated Compliance Checking

In the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, manual compliance checking is labor-intensive, time-consuming, expensive, and error-prone. Automated compliance checking (ACC) has been extensively studied in the past 50 years to improve the productivity and accuracy of the compliance checking process. While numerous ACC systems have been proposed, these systems can only deal with requirements that include quantitative metrics or specified properties. This leaves the remaining 53% of building requirements to be checked manually, mainly due to the ambiguity embedded in them. In the literature, little is known about the ambiguity of building requirements, which impedes their accurate interpretation and automated checking. This research thus aims to address this issue and establish a taxonomy of ambiguity. Building requirements in health building notes (HBNs) are analyzed using an inductive approach. The results show that some ambiguous clauses in building requirements reflect regulators’ intention while others are unintentional, resulting from the use of language, tacit knowledge, and ACC-specific reasons. This research is valuable for compliance-checking researchers and practitioners because it unpacks ambiguity in building requirements, laying a solid foundation for addressing ambiguity appropriately

The BIFLOW-Toscana Bilingue Catalogue: A Digital Representation of the Socio-cultural History of Translation in the Tuscan Middle Ages (1260–1430)

This article aims at presenting the Biflow-Toscana Bilingue catalogue, the final out-come of the Biflow(Bilingualism in Florentine and Tuscan Works)ERC project, which investigates the forms and modes of the transmission of texts circulating in several languages in medieval Tuscany between the end of the thirteenth and the middle of the fifteenth century (translations of non-classical texts produced or realized in Tuscany between 1260 and 1430). The construction of a digital catalogue comprehends the theoretical framework and method-ological backgrounds of the many fields involved in the project; more crucially, this research focused on the tradition and translations of texts transmitted in manuscripts seeks to reshape humanistic methods and methodologies in order to find the best solutions for representing it with computational models

Social shaping of digital publishing: exploring the interplay between culture and technology

The processes and forms of electronic publishing have been changing since the advent of the Web. In recent years, the open access movement has been a major driver of scholarly communication, and change is also evident in other fields such as e-government and e-learning. Whilst many changes are driven by technological advances, an altered social reality is also pushing the boundaries of digital publishing. With 23 articles and 10 posters, Elpub 2012 focuses on the social shaping of digital publishing and explores the interplay between culture and technology. This book contains the proceedings of the conference, consisting of 11 accepted full articles and 12 articles accepted as extended abstracts. The articles are presented in groups, and cover the topics: digital scholarship and publishing; special archives; libraries and repositories; digital texts and readings; and future solutions and innovations. Offering an overview of the current situation and exploring the trends of the future, this book will be of interest to all those whose work involves digital publishing