Electronic newsstand : design of an intelligent interface to a variety of news sources in several media

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-63).The personal computer. as an intermediary between mass communications systems and the individual viewer, can filter incoming news, eliminating irrelevant and redundant stories and highlighting items of interest. However, important information can be lost by removing an article from the context of its original publication. Knowing the identity of the source helps the viewer judge the reliability and objectivity of the account. Seeing the article as originally presented among a number of other stories indicates to the viewer the significance of the story and its relationship to other current events. A program has been designed and implemented which presents news articles within the context of their original publication. It provides a uniform interface to a number of electronically distributed publications, both text and video. A two level display accommodates both casual browsing and attentive viewing. The first level, which shows several articles simultaneously , preserves the information encoded in the original layout. The second level. which displays a single article, is designed to provide the best environment for viewing that article. The program can be used to create special interest compilations. Topics of interest may be defined by marking keywords. All available sources are searched for pertinent articles. These are collected in a "synthetic" journal. The same interface is used to peruse ·an original publication and a user-specified synthetic journal.by Judith S. Donath.M.S.V.S

Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication: From user discussions to academic definitions

Whilst computer-mediated communication (CMC) can benefit users by providing quick and easy communication between those separated by time and space, it can also provide varying degrees of anonymity that may encourage a sense of impunity and freedom from being held accountable for inappropriate online behaviour. As such, CMC is a fertile ground for studying impoliteness, whether it occurs in response to perceived threat (flaming), or as an end in its own right (trolling). Currently, first and secondorder definitions of terms such as im/politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987; Bousfield 2008; Culpeper 2008; Terkourafi 2008), in-civility (Lakoff 2005), rudeness (Beebe 1995, Kienpointner 1997, 2008), and etiquette (Coulmas 1992), are subject to much discussion and debate, yet the CMC phenomenon of trolling is not adequately captured by any of these terms. Following Bousfield (in press), Culpeper (2010) and others, this paper suggests that a definition of trolling should be informed first and foremost by user discussions. Taking examples from a 172-million-word, asynchronous CMC corpus, four interrelated conditions of aggression, deception, disruption, and success are discussed. Finally, a working definition of trolling is presented

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Designing Sociable Media

This course is about social life in the on-line world. Its focus is on how the design of the interface influences people's interactions with each other and shapes the cultural mores and structures they develop. We will examine the ways social cues are communicated in the real and the virtual world, discuss the limits imposed upon on-line communities by their mediated nature, and explore directions that virtual societies can take that are impossible for physical ones. Readings range from classic papers in cognitive science, anthropology and urban studies to recent studies in the sociology of online communities. The work for this class includes reading articles, analyzing existing systems and designing innovative interfaces. From the course home page: The instructor's own web site for this course is available at http://smg.media.mit.edu/classes/SociableDesign2001/

Casual Collaboration

As computers are increasingly used to mediate social interaction, tools are needed not only to support direct communication, but also to create a richer social environment for the networked group. These include tools that provide information about the presence of others and that give the user a sense of the ongoing activities. This paper describes two ongoing research projects in this area. Collaboration-at-a-Glance is a visual interface to an electronic group. It creates an animated image of a remote meeting by compositing pictures of the participants so as to represent their actions. Visual Who is a window onto a larger community. Like a window onto a street, it shows the comings and goings of the community members. 1: Visualizing electronic presence William Whyte, describing what makes for a successful urban environment, said: “What attracts people most, in sum, is other people. If I labor the point, it is because many urban spaces are designed as though the opposite were true and as though what people liked best are the places they stay away from. “ Whyte went on to describe a number of places that attract people to them: they are places in which there are other people – sometimes familiar, often not. The key is the ongoing presence of others, of an environment that is vigorous and populated, one that has a constant flow of human activity. Whyte’s book is an argument against the design of spaces that do not draw people to them, against the bland corporate landscapes and the sterile plazas, against places that may perform their stated function efficiently, but that fail in their community role. The same principle – that the presence of other people is the key to a vital urban environment – is likely to hold true for electronic communities as well. Yet relatively little attention has been given to building the infrastructure to support this type of environment. Unlike the direct, taskoriented activities which are easy to describe (such as shared editing windows, or group calendars), the presence

Structured Video and the Construction of Space

Image sequences can now be synthesized by compositing elements - objects, backgrounds, people - from pre-existing source images. What are the rules that govern the placement of these elements in their new frames? If geometric projection is assumed to govern the composition, there is some freedom to move the elements about, but the range of placements is quite limited. Furthermore, projective geometry is not perceptually ideal -- think of the distortions seen at the edges of wide angle photographs. These distortions are not found in perspective paintings: painters modify the portrayal of certain objects to make them perceptually correct. This paper first reviews projective geometry in the context of image compositing and then introduces perceptually based composition. Its basis in human vision is analyzed and its application to image compositing discussed

Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community

this paper is to understand how identity is established in an online community and to examine the effects of identity deception and the conditions that give rise to it. In the physical world there is an inherent unity to the self, for the body provides a compelling and convenient definition of identity. The norm is: one body, one identity. Though the self may be complex and mutable over time and circumstance, the body provides a stabilizing anchor. Said Sartre in Being and Nothingness, &quot;I am my body to the extent that I am,&quot; The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter. Information spreads and diffuses; there is no law of the conservation of information. The inhabitants of this impalpable space are also diffuse, free from the body&apos;s unifying anchor. One can have, some claim, as many electronic personas as one has time and energy to create. &quot;One can have...?&quot; Who is this &quot;one&quot;? It is, of course, the embodied self, the body that is synonymous with identity, the body at the keyboard. The two worlds are not really disjoint. While it is true that a single person can create multiple electronic identities that are linked only by their common progenitor, that link, though invisible in the virtual world, is of great significance. What is the relationship among multiple personas sharing a single progenitor? Do virtual personas inherit the qualities -- and responsibilities -- of their creators? Such questions bring a fresh approach to ancient inquiries into the relationship between the self and the body -- and a fresh urgency. Online communities are growing rapidly and their participants face these questions, not as hypothetical thought experiments, but as basic issues in their daily existence. A man creates a female identity; a high school stud..

Structured Video and the Construction of Space Abstract

Image sequences can now be synthesized by compositing elements- objects, backgrounds, people- from pre-existing source images. What are the rules that govern the placement of these elements in their new frames? If geometric projection is assumed to govern the composition, there is some freedom to move the elements about, but the range of placements is quite limited. Furthermore, projective geometry is not perceptually ideal – think of the distortions seen at the edges of wide angle photographs. These distortions are not found in perspective paintings: painters modify the portrayal of certain objects to make them perceptually correct. This paper first reviews projective geometry in the context of image compositing and then introduces perceptually based composition. Its basis in human vision is analyzed and its application to image compositing discussed. 1 Structured Video and Space In traditional video the frame is indivisible and the sequence – a recording of events occurring in a single place and time – is the basic editing unit. In structured video, events in a frame are no longer limited to simultaneous, collocated actions. The basic units in structured video are 2 or 3D image components, rather than the rectangular frames used in traditional video. New image sequences ca