Periphery Plots for Contextualizing Heterogeneous Time-Based Charts

Patterns in temporal data can often be found across different scales, such as days, weeks, and months, making effective visualization of time-based data challenging. Here we propose a new approach for providing focus and context in time-based charts to enable interpretation of patterns across time scales. Our approach employs a focus zone with a time and a second axis, that can either represent quantities or categories, as well as a set of adjacent periphery plots that can aggregate data along the time, value, or both dimensions. We present a framework for periphery plots and describe two use cases that demonstrate the utility of our approach.Comment: To Appear in IEEE VIS 2019 Short Papers. Open source software and other materials available on github: https://github.com/PrecisionVISSTA/PeripheryPlots Video figure available on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/34967814

Anchorage: Visual Analysis of Satisfaction in Customer Service Videos via Anchor Events

Delivering customer services through video communications has brought new opportunities to analyze customer satisfaction for quality management. However, due to the lack of reliable self-reported responses, service providers are troubled by the inadequate estimation of customer services and the tedious investigation into multimodal video recordings. We introduce Anchorage, a visual analytics system to evaluate customer satisfaction by summarizing multimodal behavioral features in customer service videos and revealing abnormal operations in the service process. We leverage the semantically meaningful operations to introduce structured event understanding into videos which help service providers quickly navigate to events of their interest. Anchorage supports a comprehensive evaluation of customer satisfaction from the service and operation levels and efficient analysis of customer behavioral dynamics via multifaceted visualization views. We extensively evaluate Anchorage through a case study and a carefully-designed user study. The results demonstrate its effectiveness and usability in assessing customer satisfaction using customer service videos. We found that introducing event contexts in assessing customer satisfaction can enhance its performance without compromising annotation precision. Our approach can be adapted in situations where unlabelled and unstructured videos are collected along with sequential records.Comment: 13 pages. A preprint version of a publication at IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 202

MevaL: A Visual Machine Learning Model Evaluation Tool for Financial Crime Detection

Data Science and Machine Learning are two valuable allies to fight financial crime,the domain where Feedzai seeks to leverage its value proposition in support of its mission:to make banking and commerce safe. Data is at the core of both fields and this domain, sostructuring instances for visual consumption provides an effective way of understandingthe data and communicating insights.The development of a solution for each project and use case requires a careful andeffective Machine Learning Model Evaluation stage, as it is the major source of feedbackbefore deployment. The tooling for this stage available at Feedzai can be improved,accelerated, visually supported, and diversified to enable data scientists to boost theirdaily work and the quality of the models.In this work, I propose to collect and compile internal and external input, in terms ofworkflow and Model Evaluation, in a proposal hierarchically segmented by well-definedobjectives and tasks, to instantiate the proposal in a Python package, and to iteratively val-idate the package with Feedzai’s data scientists. Therefore, the first contribution is MevaL,a Python package for Model Evaluation with visual support, integrated into Feedzai’s DataScience environment by design. In fact, MevaL is already being leveraged as a visualization package on two internal reporting projects that are serving some of Feedzai’s majorclients.In addition to MevaL, the second contribution of this work is the Model EvaluationTopology developed to ensure clear communication and design of features.A Ciência de Dados e a Aprendizagem Automática [277] são duas valiosas aliadas no combate à criminalidade económico-financeira, o domínio em que a Feedzai procura potenciar a sua proposta de valor em prol da sua missão: tornar o sistema bancário e o comércio seguros. Além disso, os dados estão no centro das duas áreas e deste domínio.Assim, a estruturação visual dos mesmos fornece uma maneira eficaz de os entender e transmitir informação.O desenvolvimento de uma solução para cada projeto e caso de uso requer um estágiocuidadoso e eficaz de Avaliação de Modelos de Aprendizagem Automática, pois esteestágio coincide com a principal fonte de retorno (feedback) antes da implementaçãoda solução. As ferramentas de Avaliação de Modelos disponíveis na Feedzai podem seraprimoradas, aceleradas, suportadas visualmente e diversificadas para permitir que oscientistas de dados impulsionem o seu trabalho diário e a qualidade destes modelos.Neste trabalho, proponho a recolha e compilação de informação interna e externa, em termos de fluxo de trabalho e Avaliação de Modelos, numa proposta hierarquicamente segmentada por objetivos e tarefas bem definidas, a instanciação desta proposta num pacote Python e a validação iterativa deste pacote em colaboração com os cientistas de dados da Feedzai. Posto isto, a primeira contribuição deste trabalho é o MevaL, um pacote Python para Avaliação de Modelos com suporte visual, integrado no ambiente de Ciência de Dados da Feedzai. Na verdade, o MevaL já está a ser utilizado como um pacote de visualização em dois projetos internos de preparação de relatórios automáticos para alguns dos principais clientes da Feedzai.Além do MevaL, a segunda contribuição deste trabalho é a Topologia de Avaliação de Modelos desenvolvida para garantir uma comunicação clara e o design enquadrado das diferentes funcionalidades

Migrant Labor in the Arabian Gulf

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Migrant Labor in the Arabian Gulf: A Case Study of Dubai, UAE

This research explores the topic of labor migration in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- and seeks to determine how the subjugation of migrant laborers is initiated and perpetuated. The kafala (sponsorship) system has played a central role in the rapid economic development in the GCC states. Though it has allowed the Gulf States to obtain the resources necessary to develop both economically and cosmetically, the system has had an array of undesirable byproducts that have significantly altered the texture of Gulf societies. The kafalasystem promotes the rapid influx of migrants to meet the labor demand while simultaneously subjugating this imported population through its lax regulations and exclusion from the legal framework in Gulf States. As a result, the Gulf has witnessed an emergence of multi-tiered societies where locals are situated in the top tier and migrant populations consistently occupy the lowest rungs of society. The kafala system has produced structural inequalities in Gulf States and has resulted in grave human rights abuses against migrant laborers. Today, the effects of the kafala system are visible in every aspect of Gulf society. A case study of Dubai, United Arab Emirates is used to examine how legal norms produce and interact with the lived experiences of South Asian migrant laborers. The case study discusses how the kafala system unfolds in one of the most iconic cities in the world and seeks to articulate the lived experiences that are often omitted from modernization narratives

Living the Transition. A Bottom-up Perspective on Rwanda’s Political Transition

Political transitions are dominantly analyzed top-down and focus on a narrow range of political processes and institutions. Critical rethinkings of the ‘transition paradigm’ entail that structural factors, such as historical legacies and ethnic make-up, determine the trajectory of political transitions. In this paper we intend to complement top-down approaches by offering a bottom-up perspective revealing what it means to live through a transition in the ordinary perception. We use the Rwandan transition as case-study. An analysis of over 400 life histories of ordinary Rwandan peasants and their subjective ranking exercises over time on a ‘ladder of life’ portrays the trajectory of the Rwandan transition as perceived from below. The ethnicity of the respondents functions as pivot to shed light on the structural factor underlying the Rwandan transition: the Hutu-Tutsi bi-polarity.

Studying soap operas

This present issue of Communication Research Trends will focus on research about soap operas published in the last 15 years, that is, from the year 2000 to the present. This more recent research shows one key difference: the interest in soap opera has become worldwide. This appears in the programs that people listen to or watch and in communication researchers who themselves come from different countries

SOCIAL AND RITUAL DYNAMICS AT EL CHOLO: AN UPPER GENERAL VALLEY FUNERARY VILLAGE OF THE DIQUÍS SUBREGION, SOUTHERN COSTA RICA

This dissertation details the results obtained from investigations conducted at an Aguas Buenas (300 BC-AD 800) to early Chiriquí phase (AD 900-1550) site known as El Cholo (SJ-59ECh), a mound complex located in the Upper General Valley of southern Costa Rica. Using data from surface collection along with horizontal and stratigraphic excavations, this investigation analyzed site formation and associated behavioral processes underlying the construction of a set of interconnected mounds comprising the architectural core of El Cholo. Previous research suggested that mounded sites in the Upper General area were likely seats of emergent elites with monumental constructions occupying a central position within a two-tiered settlement hierarchy. I therefore set out to identify patterns that would support or falsify this assertion, additionally proposing alternative hypotheses utilizing social models involving corporate/network dynamics and heterarchical, practice-based social processes. Evidence suggests that the mounds at El Cholo, as opposed to being residential spaces, were rather likely accretional mortuary structures, with successive funerary behavior consisting of a ceremonial mixture of interment, fire ritual and deposition of fragmented ceramic and lithic artifacts. This pattern, identified throughout the site and at different times, yielded a multi-stage occupational profile. Radiometric data suggests that activity ranged from as early as the 2nd century AD to as late as the 11th century AD. The modest nature of offerings and the diffuse and relatively uniform nature of mortuary ritual and attendant ceremonial material have implications for previous assumptions of hierarchy in the mid to late Formative in the Upper General Valley, supporting the likelihood that El Cholo may have been a manifestation of collective, corporate, heterarchically based groups rather than the result of centralized managerial processes. As such, this study re-evaluates the prevailing thinking regarding sociocultural change in the Upper General Valley with implications for the Diquís subregion, as well as its encompassing area of Greater Chiriquí. It suggests there may be a greater level of social variability in the Isthmo Colombian Area even though regions may be in close proximity to each other and despite the large-scale uniformity of an apparent long-term mid-range social stability. It thus holds implications for how we view interregional interaction and social complexity in general, especially as to how these social dynamics articulate within heterogeneous or homogeneous social landscapes

Assessing the Determinants Facilitating Local Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacities to Climate Change Impacts in High Mountain Areas: A Case Study of Northern Ladakh, India

Climate change is increasingly redefining the dialectic exchange between human systems and ecological processes. While the rhetoric of climate change is articulated within broad arenas of governance and policy, the realities of climate change are experienced at the local scale. Effective adaptation measures must therefore be commensurate with local resources, needs and objectives while remaining aligned with larger decision-making efforts. The impacts of climate change are heterogeneous and vary with geographic context. Biophysical parameters interface with socioeconomic and political forces to greatly influence the outcome of climate-related risks at the local level. In the high mountains of the western Himalayas for example, climate change is tangibly influencing precipitation patterns, glacial movement and the occurrence of extreme weather events. Rather than work in isolation, these adverse effects exacerbate ongoing stresses related to chronic development and demographic issues. Assessing the nature of biophysical and social vulnerability to climate change, and the initial conditions that differently expose some groups of people over others to climate change impacts, can correspondingly aid in the identification of entry points for adaptation and response planning. This research draws from theoretical traditions couched within geography, political ecology, natural hazards and risk management and climate ethics to assess the multi-scalar factors that aggregate at the local level to shape climate change outcomes. This unique conceptual background directly informs a mixed-methodological design that integrates surveys, climate trend modeling and geospatial mapping to evaluate how climate change is unfolding on-the-ground to influence local engagement around climate change response. In doing so, the key climatic and non-climatic drivers propelling initial conditions of vulnerability are identified as are the determinants facilitating opportunities for adaptation. Research findings suggest access and availability of future water resources will work in tandem with transformations in the wider political economy to significantly determine the long-term ability for many impacted mountain communities to live and thrive. Traditional assumptions of vulnerability are challenged and the need to consider cultural frameworks of social resilience, sense of place and community cohesion are advanced