SEMANTIC DATA CLOUDING OVER THE WEBS

Very often, for business or personal needs, users require to retrieve, in a very fast way, all the available relevant information about a focused target entity, in order to take decisions, organize business work, plan future actions. To answer this kind of \u201centity\u201d- driven user needs, a huge multiplicity of web resources is actually available, coming from the Social Web and related user-centered services (e.g., news publishing, social networks, microblogging systems), from the Semantic Web and related ontologies and knowledge repositories, and from the conventional Web of Documents. The Ph.D. thesis is devoted to define the notion of in-cloud and a semantic clouding approach for the construction of in-clouds that works over the Social Web, the Semantic Web, and the Web of Documents. in-clouds are built for a target entity of interest to organize all relevant web resources, modeled as web data items, into a graph, on the basis of their level of prominence and reciprocal closeness. Prominence captures the importance of a web resource within the in-cloud, by distinguishing, also in a visual way \u201ca la tagcloud\u201d, how much relevant web resources are with respect to the target entity. The level of closeness between web resources is evaluated using matching and clustering techniques, with the goal of determining how similar web resources are to each other and with respect to the target entity

The internationalization paradigm and dynamic capabilities of Portuguese firms: contributions from case studies in the metallurgical and metal-mechanic sectors

Esta pesquisa mergulha na esfera microeconómica do setor secundário, visando iluminar os paradigmas de internacionalização das empresas Portuguesas. Um estudo de caso é conduzido nas empresas focais centrado no vértice estratégico. Uma revisão da literatura é realizada nos campos interdisciplinares das ciências económicas e da gestão, com uma focagem dualística no modelo processual de internacionalização de Uppsala e, comitantemente, na teoria das capacidades dinâmicas. No contexto da indústria, o estudo centra-se no setor da metalurgia e metalomecânica. É seguido um design comparativo, com uma configuração de caso múltiplo e unidades de análise incorporadas. Este enquadra-se numa abordagem qualitativa e posição filosófica interpretativista, com uma orientação dedutiva. A análise de dados está enraizada num quadro metodológico triádico: o procedimento analítico geral de Miles e Huberman (1984), o protocolo de Weber (1990) e o quadro de referência de Gioia (2009). Os casos exibem uma realidade de internacionalização multiparadigmática, com heterogeneidade entre si e sobreposição dimensional de alguns fenómenos, aderindo de forma distinta ao modelo de Uppsala e à teoria das capacidades dinâmicas. Em segundo lugar, os construtos seminais abordados na problemática de partida revelam efeitos distintos. Verificou-se uma relação positiva entre os paradigmas de internacionalização observados e os fatores de distância psíquica. Os fatores de distância geográfica, observam um efeito ambidexteriano (relação positiva e de espúrio). A última é causada pelo fenómeno contingencial de perificidade económica (com raízes nas teorias Ricardiana e Smithiana da competividade nacional e absoluta) revelando uma necessidade latente de políticas públicas para restaurar o equilíbrio de forças com os outros mercados da UE e estimular os fluxos de investimento para o exterior. Terceiro, as capacidades dinâmicas (CDs tipo 1 e 2) revelam processos de reconfiguração orientados para a ambidexteridade internacional, porquanto as CD globais demonstram sinais de mutabilidade e transferabilidade bidireccional para múltiplos pontos de destino.This research plunges into the microeconomic orb of the Portuguese economy of the secondary sector, aiming to illuminate the internationalization paradigms of these firms. A case research is conducted upon the focal firms focused on their strategic apex. A literature review is performed in the interdisciplinary fields of economics and managerial sciences, dualistically centered on the internationalization process model of Uppsala, and commitantly, at the dynamic capabilities theory. In the context of the manufacturing industries, this study focusses on the sector of metallurgy and metal-mechanic. A comparative design is followed, with a multiple case setting and embedded hermeneutic units of analysis. It fits a qualitative approach within an interpretative philosophical stance with a deductive orientation. The qualitative data analysis process is rooted in a triadic methodological framework: the general analytical procedure of Miles and Huberman (1984), the Weber protocol (1990) and the framework of Gioia (2009). The cases exhibited a multiparadigmatic internationalization reality, with heterogeneity among them although with some overlapping phenomena adhering differently to the U-model and to the dynamic capabilities doctrine. Second, seminal constructs addressed in the initial problematization revealed distintive relations. The psychic distance factors of the U-model were positively perceived as a true relation. The geographical distance factors observe an ambidexterian effect - true and spurious. The latter caused by the contingency phenomenon of economic periphery uncovers a latent need for public policies to retrieve the equilibrium of competitive forces with other EU markets and stimulate the outward flow of investment of the firms. Third, the DCs, both type 1 and type 2, exhibit processes of reconfiguration oriented towards international ambidexterity, while the GDCs evidence of DC mutability and indiscriminate bidirectional transferability

CONSENSUS-BASED CROWDSOURCING: TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS

Crowdsourcing solutions are receiving more and more attention in the recent literature about social computing and distributed problem solving. In general terms, crowdsourcing can be considered as a social-computing model aimed at fostering the autonomous formation and emergence of the so-called wisdom of the crowd. Quality assessment is a crucial issue for the effectiveness of crowdsourcing systems, both for what concerns task and worker management. Another aspect to be considered in crowdsourcing systems is about the kind of contributions workers can make. Usually, crowdsourcing approaches rely only on tasks where workers have to decide among a predefined set of possible solutions. On the other hand, tasks leaving the workers a higher level of freedom in producing their answer (e.g., free-hand drawing) are more difficult to be managed and verified. In the Thesis, we present the LiquidCrowd approach based on consensus and trustworthiness techniques for managing the xecution of collaborative tasks. By collaborative task, we refer to a task for which a factual answer is not possible/appropriate, or a task whose result depends on the personal perception/point-of-view of the worker. We introduce the notion of worker trustworthiness to denote the worker \u201creliability\u201d, namely her/his capability to foster the successful completion of tasks. Furthermore, we improve the conventional score-based mechanism by introducing the notion of award that is a bonus provided to those workers that contribute to reach the consensus within groups. This way, groups with certain trustworthiness requirements can be composed on-demand, to deal with complex tasks, like for example tasks where consensus has not been reached during the first execution. In LiquidCrowd , we define a democratic mechanism based on the notion of supermajority to enable the flexible specification of the expected degree of agreement required for obtaining the consensus within a worker group. In LiquidCrowd , three task typologies are provided: choice, where the worker is asked to choose the answer among a list of predefined options; range, where the worker is asked to provide a free-numeric answer; proposition, where the worker is asked to provide a free text answer. To evaluate the quality of the produced results obtained through LiquidCrowd consensus techniques, we perform a testing against the SQUARE crowdsourcing benchmark. Furthermore, to evaluate the capability of LiquidCrowd to effectively support a real problem, real case studies about web data classification have been selected

Supporting Members of Online Communities Through the Use of Visualisations

Growing numbers of people around the world are using online communities to stay in touch with each other. Online communities are now widespread, enabling meaningful communication, around various domains of interest, between users who are separated by time and distance. Despite the increasing numbers of people using online communities, there are many examples of communities which suffer from problems of falling levels of contributions from members. This thesis investigates the main principles involved in creating successful online communities. It develops a taxonomy of community interactions that provides a framework for investigating techniques that have the potential to encourage member participation. Within standard text-based online communities, problems of information overload can be prevalent, with extensive user participation often required in order to get an overview of the interaction environment and context. This thesis proposes the use of facilitation techniques, in the form of visualisations, as a means of helping users get a better understanding of the interaction context, reducing the amount of time spent by users in the information-discovery phase. A range of new, complementary visualisations are developed and tested in order to assess their efficacy in helping users to complete tasks that they would be likely to undertake during their information-discovery phase. The results of the experiments show that not only do visualisations help users achieve more accurate results in conducting simple information-discovery tasks, but they also help in completing such tasks in a more efficient manner, shrinking the amount of time spent in the information-discovery phase. Different visualisations are also shown to be more useful in different circumstances, pointing to the fact that the needs and requirements of users, and the tasks they undertake, should be considered when designing the exact nature of any potential visualisation intended to support users of online communities

Reflections in the Author\u27s Eye: Optics, Involution, and Artifice in the Novels and Short Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov’s fourth novel, The Eye, is consistently characterized as his most obscure work. Despite comparatively slim critical attention, the work marked a seminal moment in Nabokov’s literary career, as it initiated his experimentation with perceptual distortions such as mirroring, mimicry, optics, and doubling all through the frame of unreliable narration. Going beyond conventionally untrustworthy narration, Nabokov presents an authorial consciousness that manipulates the narratory point of view through incredibly detailed encryptions, requiring the imaginative participation of readers in unmasking Nabokov’s second, “real” authorial plot. Although Nabokov openly dismissed the moral foregrounding associated with the doppelgänger motif, the thesis will explore the ways in which Nabokov frequently utilizes myriads of false doubles to create an imprint of artifice, which the reader must sift through in order to grasp the authorial “texture” beneath the overt text. Utilizing The Eye as well as several of Nabokov’s short stories as introductory prototypes of Lolita and Pale Fire, the thesis will explore the development of Nabokov’s increasingly intricate and deceptive ocular and aesthetic designs, which inculcate the creative participation of an audience, thereby making the perceptive reader a real and conscious double of the author

Intertextuality and literary reading: a cognitive poetic approach

The goal of this thesis is to propose a cognitive approach to intertextuality. Intertextuality has attracted the attention of a number of literary scholars interested in discussing the interrelations between literary texts without, however, focusing on how readers create these connections. On the other hand, despite its reader-oriented approach, cognitive poetics has largely neglected the concept. This project employs recent developments in the field of cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology and proposes a multi-layered approach to intertextuality in the light of the principles of cognitive poetics. The main part of the thesis draws on the cognitive notion of frames defined as online processing domains. I propose that readers create intertextual links by combining their background knowledge with textual elements in intertextual frames. Three types of frames are identified: semantic, topical and stylistic. The term 'semantic frame' refers to the more impressionistic links that emerge from the identification of a single lexical item, while the term 'topical frame' refers to more complex constructions built by readers through the identification of multiple textual elements. The term 'stylistic frame' refers to links based on quotation identification or genre similarities. A variety of literary texts will be discussed in order to illustrate how these frames may be created. The final part of the thesis is dedicated to the investigation of the relationship between intertextuality and the emotional engagement of readers with literary texts reflecting recent directions in cognitive poetics. This is accompanied with a mixed methods study designed to present empirical data on how readers construct intertextual links and on the effects these have on the reading experience. The overall aim of this project is to provide the foundations and the theoretical point-of-entry for further related research

Geographic Information Systems and Science

Geographic information science (GISc) has established itself as a collaborative information-processing scheme that is increasing in popularity. Yet, this interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary system is still somewhat misunderstood. This book talks about some of the GISc domains encompassing students, researchers, and common users. Chapters focus on important aspects of GISc, keeping in mind the processing capability of GIS along with the mathematics and formulae involved in getting each solution. The book has one introductory and eight main chapters divided into five sections. The first section is more general and focuses on what GISc is and its relation to GIS and Geography, the second is about location analytics and modeling, the third on remote sensing data analysis, the fourth on big data and augmented reality, and, finally, the fifth looks over volunteered geographic information.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An analysis of conceptual metaphor in the professional and academic discourse of technical communication

This dissertation explores the ongoing division between technical communication practitioners and academics by examining the conceptual metaphors that underlie their discourse in professional journals and textbooks. Beginning with a demonstration that conceptual metaphor theory as formulated by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson is a viable lens through which to engage in rhetorical (in addition to linguistic) analysis, the dissertation shows that academics and practitioners engage in radically different linguistic behaviors that result from the complex and often conflicting interplay of conceptual metaphors that guide their work. These metaphors carry assumptions about writers, texts, and communication that create covert tensions with the ethical value systems overtly embraced by both practitioners and academics. Chapter II looks at two professional publications written primarily by technical communicators for an audience of colleagues, and demonstrates that practitioners tend to use metaphors primarily centered around machines and money, objectifying both documents and people and reducing the processes of communication to a series of abstract mathematical influences. Chapter III looks at two technical communication journals with a more scholarly audience, and argues that academics participate in a much more convoluted conceptual system, embracing humanist language about communication that favors metaphors of human agency, physical presence, and complex social interaction; however, academics also participate in the abstracted, object-oriented metaphors favored by practitioners, leading to a particularly convoluted discourse both advocating and at odds with humanist social values. Chapter IV shows the practical consequences of these conflicting conceptual systems in several widely-used technical communication textbooks, arguing that academics inadvertently perpetuate the division between industry and academy with their tendency to use conceptual metaphors that contradict their social and ethical imperatives. This research suggests that a more detailed linguistic analysis may be a fruitful way of understanding and perhaps addressing the long-standing tensions between academics and practitioners in the field of technical communication

Digital Anxieties: Affect and Technological Governance in the Works of Cécile B. Evans and Ryan Trecartin

This thesis considers the shifting relationships between affect, governance, and technology, by examining two contemporary video installations: What the Heart Wants (2016) by Belgian-American artist Cécile B. Evans (b. 1983), and Roamie View: History Enhancements (2010) by American artist Ryan Trecartin (b. 1981). I argue that these works allow viewers to better conceptualize the media and socio-political environments surrounding them by drawing attention to contemporary affective experiences and to digital anxieties such as confusion, competition, fatigue, and performativity. What the Heart Wants presents digital infrastructures as affective and woven within modern intimacies, ultimately critiquing the notion of a programmed sociality. Roamie View: History Enhancements hyperbolizes info-glut and conjures an understanding of contemporary cognition as affective, and of the performativity of neoliberal networked subjects. In both works, I also examine the artists’ approaches to representation and identity. In different ways, these works fulfill technological governance in its totality, and through these intensifications, shatter common assumptions about networked life. Evans presents a world reduced to a controlling, confused, and anxious digital system, while Trecartin’s characters, living with cameras 24/7, lose their bearings and are caught in endless loops of performance. Both works come to question and document the seamless integration of platform technologies as “companion systems” (James Williams) of users’ affective lives. By examining the relationship between technology and emotions, these artists recognize the socio-political qualities of emotions, and their inextricable ties to history. This allows viewers to better see the potent influence of digital systems on affect, and to engage in a politics of emotions