empathi: An ontology for Emergency Managing and Planning about Hazard Crisis

In the domain of emergency management during hazard crises, having sufficient situational awareness information is critical. It requires capturing and integrating information from sources such as satellite images, local sensors and social media content generated by local people. A bold obstacle to capturing, representing and integrating such heterogeneous and diverse information is lack of a proper ontology which properly conceptualizes this domain, aggregates and unifies datasets. Thus, in this paper, we introduce empathi ontology which conceptualizes the core concepts concerning with the domain of emergency managing and planning of hazard crises. Although empathi has a coarse-grained view, it considers the necessary concepts and relations being essential in this domain. This ontology is available at https://w3id.org/empathi/

Working Paper 136 - Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to Africa, 1980-2007

The central concern of this paper is to respond to the question: what determines FDI inflows to Africa? An understanding of such factors will assist African policymakers to formulate and execute policies for attracting FDI. Our estimation results from a panel of seven five-year non-overlapping windows for the period 1980-2007 indicate that: (i) there is a positive relationship between market size and FDI inflows; (ii) openness to trade has a positive impact on FDI flows; (iii) higher financial development has negative effect on FDI inflows; (iv) high government consumption expenditure attracts FDI inflows to Africa; (v) higher FDI goes where international remittances also goes in Africa; (vi) agglomeration has a strong positive impact on FDI inflows to Africa; (vii) natural resource endowment and exploitation (especially for oil) attracts huge FDI into Africa; (viii) East and Southern African sub-regions appear positively disposed to obtain higher levels of inward FDI. The key policy implications are discussed.

Problems of methodology and explanation in word order universals research

Ever since the publication of Greenberg 1963, word order typologists have attempted to formulate and refine implicational universals of word order so as to characterize the restricted distribution of certain word order patterns, and in some cases have also attempted to develop general principles to explain the existence of those universals

Using crowdsourced geospatial data to aid in nuclear proliferation monitoring

In 2014, a Defense Science Board Task Force was convened in order to assess and explore new technologies that would aid in nuclear proliferation monitoring. One of their recommendations was for the director of National Intelligence to explore ways that crowdsourced geospatial imagery technologies could aid existing governmental efforts. Our research builds directly on this recommendation and provides feedback on some of the most successful examples of crowdsourced geospatial data (CGD). As of 2016, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has assumed the new role of becoming the primary U.S. agency responsible for counter-proliferation. Historically, this institution has always been reliant upon other organizations for the execution of its myriad of mission sets. SOCOM's unique ability to build relationships makes it particularly suited to the task of harnessing CGD technologies and employing them in the capacity that our research recommends. Furthermore, CGD is a low cost, high impact tool that is already being employed by commercial companies and non-profit groups around the world. By employing CGD, a wider whole-of-government effort can be created that provides a long term, cohesive engagement plan for facilitating a multi-faceted nuclear proliferation monitoring process.http://archive.org/details/usingcrowdsource1094551570Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Political decision processes, transportation investment, and changes in urban land use: a selective bibliography with particular reference to airports and highways

See this work in the Center for Transportation Research Library catalog: https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/catalogid=31630The purpose of this Bibliography is to assist with the revision and extension of intra-urban location theory, so as to explain and predict how decision making by different persons and groups affects change in intra-urban land use. Special attention is paid to the generation and resolution of conflicts over urban land in the vicinity of new transportation facilities. In particular the Bibliography focuses on new airports on rural-urban fringes and the conflicts generat.ed between politicians, citizens' and business groups, and planners over land use in their vicinity. Existing literature is sparse on this topicThe Department of Transportation, Office of University ResearchCenter for Transportation Researc