An evaluative baseline for geo-semantic relatedness and similarity

In geographic information science and semantics, the computation of semantic similarity is widely recognised as key to supporting a vast number of tasks in information integration and retrieval. By contrast, the role of geo-semantic relatedness has been largely ignored. In natural language processing, semantic relatedness is often confused with the more specific semantic similarity. In this article, we discuss a notion of geo-semantic relatedness based on Lehrer’s semantic fields, and we compare it with geo-semantic similarity. We then describe and validate the Geo Relatedness and Similarity Dataset (GeReSiD), a new open dataset designed to evaluate computational measures of geo-semantic relatedness and similarity. This dataset is larger than existing datasets of this kind, and includes 97 geographic terms combined into 50 term pairs rated by 203 human subjects. GeReSiD is available online and can be used as an evaluation baseline to determine empirically to what degree a given computational model approximates geo-semantic relatedness and similarity

Rethinking the Polar Cap: Eccentric Dipole Structuring of ULF Power at the Highest Corrected Geomagnetic Latitudes

The day-to-day evolution and statistical features of Pc3-Pc7 band ultralow frequency (ULF) power throughout the southern polar cap suggest that the corrected geomagnetic (CGM) coordinates do not adequately organize the observed hydromagnetic spatial structure. It is shown that that the local-time distribution of ULF power at sites along CGM latitudinal parallels exhibit fundamental differences and that the CGM latitude of a site in general is not indicative of the site\u27s projection into the magnetosphere. Thus, ULF characteristics observed at a single site in the polar cap cannot be freely generalized to other sites of similar CGM latitude but separated in magnetic local time, and the inadequacy of CGM coordinates in the polar cap has implications for conjugacy/mapping studies in general. In seeking alternative, observationally motivated systems of “polar cap latitudes,” it is found that eccentric dipole (ED) coordinates have several strengths in organizing the hydromagnetic spatial structure in the polar cap region. ED latitudes appear to better classify the local-time ULF power in both magnitude and morphology and better differentiate the “deep polar cap” (where the ULF power is largely UT dependent and nearly free of local-time structure) from the “peripheral polar cap” (where near-magnetic noon pulsations dominate at lower and lower frequencies as one increases in ED latitude). Eccentric local time is shown to better align the local-time profiles in the magnetic east component over several PcX bands but worsen in the magnetic north component. It is suggested that a hybrid ED-CGM coordinate system might capture the strengths of both CGM and ED coordinates. It is shown that the local-time morphology of median ULF power at high-latitude sites is dominantly driven by where they project into the magnetosphere, which is best quantified by their proximity to the low-altitude cusp on the dayside (which is not necessarily quantified by a site\u27s CGM latitude), and that variations in the local-time morphology at sites similar in ED latitude are due to both geographic local-time control (relative amplification or dampening by the diurnal variation in the local ionospheric conductivity) and geomagnetic coastal effects (enhanced power in a coastally mediated direction). Regardless of cause, it is emphasized that the application of CGM latitudes in the polar cap region is not entirely meaningful and likely should be dispensed with in favor of a scheme that is in better accord with the observed hydromagnetic spatial structure

A Conceptual Quality Framework for Volunteered Geographic Information

The assessment of the quality of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is cornerstone to understand the fitness for purpose of datasets in many application domains. While most analyses focus on geometric and positional quality, only sporadic attention has been devoted to the interpretation of the data, i.e., the communication process through which consumers try to reconstruct the meaning of information intended by its producers. Interpretability is a notoriously ephemeral, culturally rooted, and context-dependent property of the data that concerns the conceptual quality of the vocabularies, schemas, ontologies, and documentation used to describe and annotate the geographic features of interest. To operationalize conceptual quality in VGI, we propose a multi-faceted framework that includes accuracy, granularity, completeness, consistency, compliance, and richness, proposing proxy measures for each dimension. The application of the framework is illustrated in a case study on a European sample of OpenStreetMap, focused specifically on conceptual compliance

A Survey of Volunteered Open Geo-Knowledge Bases in the Semantic Web

Over the past decade, rapid advances in web technologies, coupled with innovative models of spatial data collection and consumption, have generated a robust growth in geo-referenced information, resulting in spatial information overload. Increasing 'geographic intelligence' in traditional text-based information retrieval has become a prominent approach to respond to this issue and to fulfill users' spatial information needs. Numerous efforts in the Semantic Geospatial Web, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), and the Linking Open Data initiative have converged in a constellation of open knowledge bases, freely available online. In this article, we survey these open knowledge bases, focusing on their geospatial dimension. Particular attention is devoted to the crucial issue of the quality of geo-knowledge bases, as well as of crowdsourced data. A new knowledge base, the OpenStreetMap Semantic Network, is outlined as our contribution to this area. Research directions in information integration and Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) are then reviewed, with a critical discussion of their current limitations and future prospects

The changes of lipid metabolism in advanced renal cell carcinoma patients treated with everolimus: A new pharmacodynamic marker?

Background: Everolimus is a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). We aimed to assess the association between the baseline values and treatmentrelated modifications of total serum cholesterol (C), triglycerides (T), body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose level (FBG) and blood pressure (BP) levels and the outcome of patients treated with everolimus for mRCC. Methods: 177 patients were included in this retrospective analysis. Time to progression (TTP), clinical benefit (CB) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results: Basal BMI was significantly higher in patients who experienced a CB (p=0,0145). C, T and C +T raises were significantly associated with baseline BMI (p=0.0412, 0.0283 and 0.0001). Median TTP was significantly longer in patients with T raise compared to patients without T (10 vs 6, p =0.030), C (8 vs 5, p =0.042) and C+T raise (10.9 vs 5.0, p=0.003). At the multivariate analysis, only C+T increase was associated with improved TTP (p=0.005). T raise (21.0 vs 14.0, p=0.002) and C+T increase (21.0 vs 14.0, p=0.006) were correlated with improved OS but were not significant at multivariate analysis. Conclusion: C+T raise is an early predictor for everolimus efficacy for patients with mRCC

Sonifying data uncertainty with sound dimensions

The communication of data uncertainty is a crucial problem in data science, information visualization, and geographic information science (GIScience). Effective ways to communicate the uncertainty of data enables data consumers to interpret the data as intended by the producer, reducing the possibilities of misinterpretation. In this article, we report on an empirical investigation of how sound can be used to convey information about data uncertainty in an intuitive way. To answer the research question How intuitive are sound dimensions to communicate uncertainty?, we carry out a cognitive experiment, where participants were asked to interpret the certainty/uncertainty level in two sounds A and B (N=33). We produce sound stimuli by varying sound dimensions, including loudness, duration, location, pitch, register, attack, decay, rate of change, noise, timbre, clarity, order, and harmony. In the stimuli, both synthetic and natural sounds are used to allow comparison. The experiment results identify three sound dimensions (loudness, order, and clarity) as significantly more intuitive to communicate uncertainty, providing guidelines for sonification and information visualization practitioners

E-readers and the death of the book: or, new media and the myth of the disappearing medium

The recent emergence of e-readers and e-books has b rought the death of the book to the centre of current debates on new media. In this article, we a nalyse alternative narratives that surround the possibility of the disappearance of print books, do minated by fetishism, fears about the end of humanism, and ideas of techno-fundamentalist progre ss. We argue that, in order to comprehend such narratives, we need to inscribe them in the br oader history of media. The emergence of new media, in fact, has often been accompanied by narra tives about the possible disappearance of older media: the introduction of television, for in stance, inspired claims about the forthcoming death of film and radio. As a recurrent narrative s haping the reception of media innovation, the myth of the disappearing medium helps us to make se nse of the transformations that media change provokes in our everyday life

The Global Ambitions of Irish Universities: Internationalizing Practices and Emerging Stratification in the Irish Higher Education Sector

As higher education is increasingly harnessed to national economic goals and as funding shifts from public to private sources, Irish universities are under unprecedented pressure to “internationalize.” Yet the way they mediate national policy is constrained by funding and market forces as well as by their own organizational features and position in the field. Analysis of bilateral non-EU partnerships reveals competing logics of prestige, finances, and alignment with national ambitions in the global economy. Historical hierarchies between Irish third-level institutions are thus reinforced, while internally, status distinctions emerge between the various types of partnerships and student exchange programs. The shape taken by internationalization may reinforce various strands of inter-institutional and intra-institutional inequality, without guaranteeing that Irish universities succeed in their ambitions to achieve “world-class” status