Closing the loop: assisting archival appraisal and information retrieval in one sweep

In this article, we examine the similarities between the concept of appraisal, a process that takes place within the archives, and the concept of relevance judgement, a process fundamental to the evaluation of information retrieval systems. More specifically, we revisit selection criteria proposed as result of archival research, and work within the digital curation communities, and, compare them to relevance criteria as discussed within information retrieval's literature based discovery. We illustrate how closely these criteria relate to each other and discuss how understanding the relationships between the these disciplines could form a basis for proposing automated selection for archival processes and initiating multi-objective learning with respect to information retrieval

From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis

Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

1st INCF Workshop on Sustainability of Neuroscience Databases

The goal of the workshop was to discuss issues related to the sustainability of neuroscience databases, identify problems and propose solutions, and formulate recommendations to the INCF. The report summarizes the discussions of invited participants from the neuroinformatics community as well as from other disciplines where sustainability issues have already been approached. The recommendations for the INCF involve rating, ranking, and supporting database sustainability

Weak signal identification with semantic web mining

We investigate an automated identification of weak signals according to Ansoff to improve strategic planning and technological forecasting. Literature shows that weak signals can be found in the organization's environment and that they appear in different contexts. We use internet information to represent organization's environment and we select these websites that are related to a given hypothesis. In contrast to related research, a methodology is provided that uses latent semantic indexing (LSI) for the identification of weak signals. This improves existing knowledge based approaches because LSI considers the aspects of meaning and thus, it is able to identify similar textual patterns in different contexts. A new weak signal maximization approach is introduced that replaces the commonly used prediction modeling approach in LSI. It enables to calculate the largest number of relevant weak signals represented by singular value decomposition (SVD) dimensions. A case study identifies and analyses weak signals to predict trends in the field of on-site medical oxygen production. This supports the planning of research and development (R&D) for a medical oxygen supplier. As a result, it is shown that the proposed methodology enables organizations to identify weak signals from the internet for a given hypothesis. This helps strategic planners to react ahead of time

The first year of implementing a new concept of the journal “Mining of Mineral Deposits” of the National Mining University

This article presents the analysis of Ukrainian mining sciences journal – “Mining of Mineral Deposits” (acronym in English MMD). Our paper presents a case study of on journal in the field of mining sciences and describes the first year implementing a new concept of the journal. The results can serve as a reference in future studies of the journal in a new form. The findings of future research may be an indication as to whether the adopted policy of internationalization of the journal is effective and increases the impact of the Journal in World Science. Special consideration is given to website visitors activity and visits frequency statistics. It appears that MMD is improving its position within the group of leading and original Ukrainian mining periodicals.У даній статті наведено аналіз українського журналу в області гірничої науки – “Розробка Родовищ” (абревіатура англійською мовою “MMD”). Стаття представляє собою аналіз конкретного гірничого журналу й описує перший рік імплементації його нової концепції. Отримані результати можуть стати порівняльним орієнтиром при проведенні майбутнього аналізу. Результати даного дослідження спрямовані на визначення відповідності прийнятої політики інтернаціоналізації журналу в міжнародному науковому просторі. Особлива увага приділяється активності відвідувань сайту журналу. В результаті проведеного аналізу можна стверджувати, що журнал “Розробка Родовищ” посилює свої позиції серед провідних українських періодичних видань гірничого профілю.В данной статье произведен анализ украинского журнала в области горной науки – “Разработка месторождений” (аббревиатура на английском языке “MMD”). Статья представляет собой анализ конкретного горного журнала и описывает первый год имплементации его новой концепции. Полученные результаты могут стать сравнительным ориентиром при проведении дальнейшего анализа. Результаты данного исследования направлены на определение соответствия принятой политики интернационализации журнала в международном научном пространстве. Особое внимание уделяется активности посещений сайта журнала. В результате проведенного анализа можно утверждать, что журнал “Разработка месторождений” усиливает свои позиции среди ведущих украинских периодических изданий горного профиля.This article was supported by the Ukrainian “School of Underground Mining”