Scattertext: a Browser-Based Tool for Visualizing how Corpora Differ

Scattertext is an open source tool for visualizing linguistic variation between document categories in a language-independent way. The tool presents a scatterplot, where each axis corresponds to the rank-frequency a term occurs in a category of documents. Through a tie-breaking strategy, the tool is able to display thousands of visible term-representing points and find space to legibly label hundreds of them. Scattertext also lends itself to a query-based visualization of how the use of terms with similar embeddings differs between document categories, as well as a visualization for comparing the importance scores of bag-of-words features to univariate metrics.Comment: ACL 2017 Demos. 6 pages, 5 figures. See the Githup repo https://github.com/JasonKessler/scattertext for source code and documentatio

Colonizing the demos? Settler rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and the contested ‘structure of governance’ in Canada’s North

Settler-colonialism can consist of a struggle over the pre-political ‘structure of governance’ – over who composes the demos and how decisions should be made. This article examines two lawsuits where settlers contested the Indigenous structure of governance in Canada’s Northwest Territories. I show that in both cases settlers brandished a novel ‘tool of elimination,’ individual rights to voting, mobility and expression. I trace how settlers used this tool in a strategic two-pronged way, challenging as ‘illiberal’ restrictive laws flowing from Indigenous sovereignty and then championing race-neutral laws the promulgation of which would open the demos to settler domination. I show that courts adjudicating these challenges were compelled to grapple with the appropriate ‘framing of justice’ – with whether the relevant rights-bearer was the universal individual or the ‘constitutionally prior’ Indigenous demos. I conclude that, where the court decided on individual-rights grounds, settlers were able to extend control over the structure of governance.publishedVersio

Interactive Geometric Algorithm Visualization in a Browser

We present an online, interactive tool for writing and presenting interactive geometry demos suitable for classroom demonstrations. Code for the demonstrations is written in JavaScript using p5.js, a JavaScript library based on Processing

Bayesian stochastic blockmodeling

This chapter provides a self-contained introduction to the use of Bayesian inference to extract large-scale modular structures from network data, based on the stochastic blockmodel (SBM), as well as its degree-corrected and overlapping generalizations. We focus on nonparametric formulations that allow their inference in a manner that prevents overfitting, and enables model selection. We discuss aspects of the choice of priors, in particular how to avoid underfitting via increased Bayesian hierarchies, and we contrast the task of sampling network partitions from the posterior distribution with finding the single point estimate that maximizes it, while describing efficient algorithms to perform either one. We also show how inferring the SBM can be used to predict missing and spurious links, and shed light on the fundamental limitations of the detectability of modular structures in networks.Comment: 44 pages, 16 figures. Code is freely available as part of graph-tool at https://graph-tool.skewed.de . See also the HOWTO at https://graph-tool.skewed.de/static/doc/demos/inference/inference.htm

Preprosti poskusi v interaktivnem fizikalnem laboratoriju: dijakova notranja motivacija in razumevanje

Experiments in different forms can certainly be suitable tools for increasing student interest in physics. However, educators continuously discuss which forms of experimenting (if any) are the most beneficial for these purposes. At the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, two different forms of physics experiments are offered to upper secondary students: hands-on experimental work in the Interactive Physics Laboratory, and physics demonstration shows where the students watch experiments conducted by a lecturer. Our research focuses primarily on student feedback about their immediate attitudes towards these two projects. Data collection was undertaken using questionnaire research based on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. This research was subsequently supplemented with a qualitative study examining the influence of students’ experimental work in the Interactive Physics Laboratory on their understanding of selected physics concepts. The results of the main research show that the two projects do not exhibit significant differences in terms of student interest and perceived usefulness; nevertheless, students felt the need for significantly more effort and experienced pressure during their work in the Interactive Physics Laboratory. One interesting finding, which goes against our original hypothesis, is that grades in physics are quite a strong predictor of students’ assessment of the projects: better grades indicate more positive assessment of both projects as well as less pressure felt during hands-on activities in the laboratory. (DIPF/Orig.

FLEB: A fuzzy logic e-book

FLEB is an electronic book which attempts to introduce the basic mathematical foundations and applications of fuzzy logic through a software environment which includes images, hypertext, sensitive elements, animations and interactive demos. It also allows executing Xfuzzy, a development tool which eases the description, verification, and synthesis of fuzzy logic-based systems. FLEB, like a usual book, is structured into chapters with pages through which the reader can navigate comfortably. In addition, the information provided can be accessed in a non sequential way thanks to the hypertext and sensitive elements that interconnect linked pages. This capability of non sequential reading together with the exploitation of multimedia software make FLEB a good tool to pedagogically show and explain the basis of fuzzy logic theory and applications.Peer reviewe

FLEB: A fuzzy logic e-book

FLEB is an electronic book which attempts to introduce the basic mathematical foundations and applications of fuzzy logic through a software environment which includes images, hypertext, sensitive elements, animations and interactive demos. It also allows executing Xfuzzy, a development tool which eases the description, verification, and synthesis of fuzzy logic-based systems. FLEB, like a usual book, is structured into chapters with pages through which the reader can navigate comfortably. In addition, the information provided can be accessed in a non sequential way thanks to the hypertext and sensitive elements that interconnect linked pages. This capability of non sequential reading together with the exploitation of multimedia software make FLEB a good tool to pedagogically show and explain the basis of fuzzy logic theory and applications

Beyond the Financial Crisis:Addressing Risk Challenges in a Changing Financial Environment

The Financial Crisis has not only highlighted the importance of addressing issues such as liquidity risk – it has also brought to the fore the need to focus on unregulated instruments such as hedge funds, which are of systemic importance to the financial industry. Risk is an area which, owing to its increasing significance, requires greater focus. A move to risk based strategies is evidenced by the growing popularity of risk based regulation and meta regulatory strategies. Given the presence of an unregulated hedge fund industry however, such attempts do not suffice on their own. Further, the systemic nature of risk exacerbates the problem of such unregulated institutions. This paper aims to address complexities and challenges faced by regulators in identifying and assessing risk, problems arising from different perceptions of risk, and solutions aimed at countering problems of risk regulation. It will approach these issues through an assessment of explanations put forward to justify the growing importance of risks, well known risk theories such as cultural theory, risk society theory and governmentality theory. These theories will be considered against a background of themes such as dynamism, evolutionism, developments in science and industry, cultural attitudes to risk, and the need to be responsive and reflexive to changes which have arisen in modern society. Theoretical models and hybrids of a responsive model of regulation such as Enforced self regulation and meta regulation, which have the potential to address the problems relating to risk will be addressed. By virtue of the pro cyclical nature of risk, the inability of Basel 2 to address risk cycles were revealed during the Northern Rock Crisis. Other flaws and deficiencies inherent in Basel 2, a form of meta regulation, will be highlighted. The relevance of internal control systems to an efficient system of regulation, the reasons for which meta regulation is not only considered to be the most responsive form of regulation, but also one which assigns central role to internal control systems will be discussed. The contested nature of risk and the difficulties attributed to its quantification, raise questions about its ability to function effectively as a regulatory tool. If risks could be eliminated in their entirety however, then regulation would serve no purpose. This paper aims generally therefore to direct attention to those areas which could be addressed, namely institutional risks, and measures whereby such risks, even though impossible to eliminate, could be minimize

Political participation from a citizenship perspective

Conventional academic studies on political participation mostly focus on electoral politics including electoral systems, political party structures and their interaction with other governmental processes. These studies adopt an approach that presumes the existence of a pre-defined people (demos). Hence, existing literature on electoral politics and government structures take for granted a pre-defined demos and then survey participatory practices. Yet, there is another way to study political participation. It can be studied from the angle of citizenship. This involves an approach that does not rely on an ex post facto interest in the activities of a pre-defined demos but one that unravels the factors that go into its definition. Study of political participation from a citizenship perspective contains an effort to problematize the very notion of demos. Decoupling of national identity and participation empowers a vision of citizenship not as membership in a nation-state but as a set of rights that include multi-cultural rights. It is the contention of this article that European Union processes have the potential to contribute to the deepening of democratization by promoting diversity through introduction of denationalization of citizenship as well as processes of deliberation in member and candidate countries