1,650 research outputs found
CommAID: Visual Analytics for Communication Analysis through Interactive Dynamics Modeling
Communication consists of both meta-information as well as content.
Currently, the automated analysis of such data often focuses either on the
network aspects via social network analysis or on the content, utilizing
methods from text-mining. However, the first category of approaches does not
leverage the rich content information, while the latter ignores the
conversation environment and the temporal evolution, as evident in the
meta-information. In contradiction to communication research, which stresses
the importance of a holistic approach, both aspects are rarely applied
simultaneously, and consequently, their combination has not yet received enough
attention in automated analysis systems. In this work, we aim to address this
challenge by discussing the difficulties and design decisions of such a path as
well as contribute CommAID, a blueprint for a holistic strategy to
communication analysis. It features an integrated visual analytics design to
analyze communication networks through dynamics modeling, semantic pattern
retrieval, and a user-adaptable and problem-specific machine learning-based
retrieval system. An interactive multi-level matrix-based visualization
facilitates a focused analysis of both network and content using inline visuals
supporting cross-checks and reducing context switches. We evaluate our approach
in both a case study and through formative evaluation with eight law
enforcement experts using a real-world communication corpus. Results show that
our solution surpasses existing techniques in terms of integration level and
applicability. With this contribution, we aim to pave the path for a more
holistic approach to communication analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, Computer Graphics Forum 2021 (pre-peer reviewed
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Enabling Agile Environments - Software Tools Revisited with an Agile Mindset
Technology plays an increasing role in organisations and agile environments. The growing adoption of digital technology and the resulting unprecedented transformation of workplaces are potentially putting agile values and principles under attack. Agile mindset is a central aspect of agile concepts and embodies agile values and principles among other characteristics. In order to reconcile technology adoption and agile values, a framework is proposed which integrates agile mindset properties into software tool appropriation. The framework is based on information systems (IS) models of structuration and provides a means to translate implicit mindset properties into explicit actions performable by users. The research follows the design science research paradigm and utilises qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to create an artefact that was evaluated in practice
News devices : how digital objects participate in news work and research
News work is increasingly taking place in and through a variety of intersecting digital devices, from websites, to search engines, online platforms, apps, bots, web analytics, data analysis and visualisation tools. These devices are also increasingly used as resources in digital research, and their implications are yet to be fully understood. This thesis examines how digital objects participate in news work and research. To this end, I propose an orientation towards the news device as a research topic and approach. The news device approach calls attention to the ways in which practices and relations are co-produced with digital objects involved in news work. It also attends to how such digital devices may afford modes of studying these practices. To make the case for this approach, I examine the participation of three types of devices in three aspects of news work: (1) the role of the network graph in journalistic storytelling, (2) the role of the online platform in journalism coding, and (3) the role of the web tracker in news audience commodification. In all, the thesis contributes to understanding the digital transformations of news in two ways. First, it develops a rich, nuanced, multidisciplinary, collaborative and reflexive approach to news research with digital methods. Secondly, it provides novel insights into how digital devices shape both news processes and relations with the online advertising and marketing industries, commercial online platforms, digital visual culture, and other digital content producers
Educational Perspectives on Mediality and Subjectivation
This open access book examines the complex relationship between education, media and power. Exploring the entanglement of education media and power structures, the contributions use various examples and case studies to demonstrate how subjectivation processes and digital structures interact with one another. The book asks which modes of subjectivation can be identified with current media cultures, how subjects deal with the challenges and potential of digitality, and how coping and empowerment strategies are developed. By addressing theoretical as well as empirical evidence, the chapters illuminate these connections and the subsequent significance for media education more widely
Biophysical Modeling of Mangrove Seedling Establishment and Survival Across an Elevation Gradient With Forest Zones
Mangrove forest development critically depends on the establishment and survival of seedlings. Mechanistic insights into how water levels, waves and bed level dynamics influence the establishment process of individual mangrove seedlings are increasing. However, little is known about how spatial and temporal changes in water levels, waves and bed level dynamics across elevation gradients in mangrove forests facilitate/limit seedling dynamics. For this study, a new seedling establishment and growth model was integrated into a process-based hydrodynamic and morphodynamic numerical model. This biophysical model was applied to a fringing mangrove forest located in the southern Firth of Thames, Aotearoa, New Zealand. This study quantifies the increasing establishment density and survival probability of mangrove seedlings from the lower-elevated unvegetated intertidal flat toward the higher-elevated mature mangrove forest. Three cross-shore zones with distinctive seedling dynamics were identified: (a) a zone with daily tidal inundation where seedling dynamics are episodic and limited by the dispersal of individual propagules that rapidly anchor to the substrate by root growth, (b) a zone with daily to bi-weekly tidal inundation where seedling dynamics respond to variations in spring-neap tidal cycles and, (c) a zone with less than bi-weekly inundation where seedling dynamics are governed by high propagule supply and seedling survival probability. The seedling establishment density and survival probability are dominated by annual extremes in tidal hydroperiod and bed shear stresses, respectively. The obtained parameterizations can be used to incorporate seedling dynamics in decadal-timescale mangrove forest development models that are instrumental for mangrove management and restoration
State of the art 2015: a literature review of social media intelligence capabilities for counter-terrorism
Overview
This paper is a review of how information and insight can be drawn from open social media sources. It focuses on the specific research techniques that have emerged, the capabilities they provide, the possible insights they offer, and the ethical and legal questions they raise. These techniques are considered relevant and valuable in so far as they can help to maintain public safety by preventing terrorism, preparing for it, protecting the public from it and pursuing its perpetrators. The report also considers how far this can be achieved against the backdrop of radically changing technology and public attitudes towards surveillance. This is an updated version of a 2013 report paper on the same subject, State of the Art. Since 2013, there have been significant changes in social media, how it is used by terrorist groups, and the methods being developed to make sense of it.
The paper is structured as follows:
Part 1 is an overview of social media use, focused on how it is used by groups of interest to those involved in counter-terrorism. This includes new sections on trends of social media platforms; and a new section on Islamic State (IS).
Part 2 provides an introduction to the key approaches of social media intelligence (henceforth âSOCMINTâ) for counter-terrorism.
Part 3 sets out a series of SOCMINT techniques. For each technique a series of capabilities and insights are considered, the validity and reliability of the method is considered, and how they might be applied to counter-terrorism work explored.
Part 4 outlines a number of important legal, ethical and practical considerations when undertaking SOCMINT work
Unified functional network and nonlinear time series analysis for complex systems science: The pyunicorn package
We introduce the \texttt{pyunicorn} (Pythonic unified complex network and
recurrence analysis toolbox) open source software package for applying and
combining modern methods of data analysis and modeling from complex network
theory and nonlinear time series analysis. \texttt{pyunicorn} is a fully
object-oriented and easily parallelizable package written in the language
Python. It allows for the construction of functional networks such as climate
networks in climatology or functional brain networks in neuroscience
representing the structure of statistical interrelationships in large data sets
of time series and, subsequently, investigating this structure using advanced
methods of complex network theory such as measures and models for spatial
networks, networks of interacting networks, node-weighted statistics or network
surrogates. Additionally, \texttt{pyunicorn} provides insights into the
nonlinear dynamics of complex systems as recorded in uni- and multivariate time
series from a non-traditional perspective by means of recurrence quantification
analysis (RQA), recurrence networks, visibility graphs and construction of
surrogate time series. The range of possible applications of the library is
outlined, drawing on several examples mainly from the field of climatology.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figure
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