A Geographical Analysis of Knowledge Production in Computer Science

We analyze knowledge production in Computer Science by means of coauthorship networks. For this, we consider 30 graduate programs of different regions of the world, being 8 programs in Brazil, 16 in North America (3 in Canada and 13 in the United States), and 6 in Europe (2 in France, 1 in Switzerland and 3 in the United Kingdom). We use a dataset that consists of 176,537 authors and 352,766 publication entries distributed among 2,176 publication venues. The results obtained for different metrics of collaboration social networks indicate the process of knowledge production has changed differently for each region. Research is increasingly done in teams across different fields of Computer Science. The size of the giant component indicates the existence of isolated collaboration groups in the European network, contrasting to the degree of connectivity found in the Brazilian and North-American counterparts. We also analyzed the temporal evolution of the social networks representing the three regions. The number of authors per paper experienced an increase in a time span of 12 years. We observe that the number of collaborations between authors grows faster than the number of authors, benefiting from the existing network structure. The temporal evolution shows differences between well-established fields, such as Databases and Computer Architecture, and emerging fields, like Bioinformatics and Geoinformatics. The patterns of collaboration analyzed in this paper contribute to an overall understanding of Computer Science research in different geographical regions that could not be achieved without the use of complex networks and a large publication database

Multiple Representations in Geographic Information Systems

Geographic information systems (GIS) deal with data which can potentially be useful for a wide range of applications. However, the information needs of each application usually vary, specially in resolution, detail level, and representation style. This thesis presents a set of primitives that allow the specification of operational processes, such as transformations between representations, through the use of a dynamic schema.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Characterizing Nodes and Edges in Dynamic Attributed Networks: A Social-based Approach

How to characterize nodes and edges in dynamic attributed networks based on social aspects? We address this problem by exploring the strength of the ties between actors and their associated attributes over time, thus capturing the social roles of the actors and the meaning of their dynamic interactions in different social network scenarios. For this, we apply social concepts to promote a better understanding of the underlying complexity that involves actors and their social motivations. More specifically, we explore the notion of social capital given by the strategic positioning of a particular actor in a social structure by means of the concepts of brokerage, the ability of creating bridges with diversified patterns, and closure, the ability of aggregating nodes with similar patterns. As a result, we unveil the differences of social interactions in distinct academic coauthorship networks and questions \& answers communities. We also statistically validate our social definitions considering the importance of the nodes and edges in a social structure by means of network properties.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Múltiplas representações em aplicações urbanas de sistemas de informação geográficos

Considering the costs and the effort associated with the construction of geographic databases, it is important to search for instruments that increase GIS usefulness through data sharing among different user groups, each one of them with a particular set of applications. However, distinct applications often have diverse perceptions of reality, and therefore work with different sets of concepts about the same geographic entity. These differences often require more than one representation for each geographic entity. Thus, if several applications share the same geographic database, the GIS must take over the responsibility to allow multiple representations for each geographic entity, each one of them adequate for a group of applications. This need is particularly important in the case of urban GIS applications, in which there is a wide variety of information classes and potential users, each with its particular needs regarding the representation of the objects. This article presents an analysis of the multiple representations problem in GIS, indicating the need for this feature in urban applications through examples. Alternatives are discussed, and potential problems for the implementation of this feature in GIS are indicated