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THE CHRONOLOGY AND STATUS OF NON NOK THA, NORTHEAST THAILAND
Excavations at Non Nok Tha, in Northeast Thailand in 1965-1968 revealed for the first time in Southeast Asia, a stratigraphic transition from the Neolithic into the Bronze Age. Based on conventional charcoal radiocarbon determinations, early reports identified fourth millennium bronze casting. The proposed length of the prehistoric sequence, and the division of the Neolithic to Bronze age mortuary sequence into at least 11 phases, has stimulated a series of social interpretations all of which have in common, a social order based on ascriptive ranking into at least two groups which saw increased hierarchical divisions emerge with the initial Bronze Age. This paper presents the results of a new dating initiative, based on the ultrafiltration of human bones. The results indicate that the initial Neolithic occupation took place during the 14th century BC. The earliest Bronze Age has been placed in the 10th centuries BC. These dates are virtually identical with those obtained for the sites of Ban Chiang and Ban Non Wat. Compared with the elite early Bronze Age graves of Ban Non Wat, Non Nok Tha burials display little evidence for significant divisions in society
Tom Priestly. From Phonological Analysis at My Desk to Linguistic Activism with Slovene in the Austrian Alps. Oxford, Miss.: Balkanistica, 2014
Veracity Roadmap: Is Big Data Objective, Truthful and Credible?
This paper argues that big data can possess different characteristics, which affect its quality. Depending on its origin, data processing technologies, and methodologies used for data collection and scientific discoveries, big data can have biases, ambiguities, and inaccuracies which need to be identified and accounted for to reduce inference errors and improve the accuracy of generated insights. Big data veracity is now being recognized as a necessary property for its utilization, complementing the three previously established quality dimensions (volume, variety, and velocity), But there has been little discussion of the concept of veracity thus far. This paper provides a roadmap for theoretical and empirical definitions of veracity along with its practical implications. We explore veracity across three main dimensions: 1) objectivity/subjectivity, 2) truthfulness/deception, 3) credibility/implausibility – and propose to operationalize each of these dimensions with either existing computational tools or potential ones, relevant particularly to textual data analytics. We combine the measures of veracity dimensions into one composite index – the big data veracity index. This newly developed veracity index provides a useful way of assessing systematic variations in big data quality across datasets with textual information. The paper contributes to the big data research by categorizing the range of existing tools to measure the suggested dimensions, and to Library and Information Science (LIS) by proposing to account for heterogeneity of diverse big data, and to identify information quality dimensions important for each big data type
THE EXCAVATION OF NON BAN JAK, NORTHEAST THAILAND - A REPORT ON THE FIRST THREE SEASONS
Non Ban Jak is a large, moated site located in the upper Mun Valley, Northeast Thailand. Excavations over three seasons in 2011-4 have revealed a sequence of occupation that covers the final stage of the local Iron Age. The site is enclosed by two broad moats and banks, and comprises an eastern and a western mound separated by a lower intervening area. The first season opened an 8 by 8 m square on the eastern mound, while the second and third seasons uncovered part of the low terrain rising into the western mound, encompassing an area of 25 by 10 m. The former revealed a sequence of industrial, residential and mortuary activity that involved the construction of houses, kiln firing of ceramic vessels and the interment of the dead within residences. The latter involved four phases of a late Iron Age cemetery, which again incorporated house floors and wall foundations, as well as further evidence for ceramic manufacture. The excavation sheds light on a late Iron Age town occupied at the threshold of state formation
Super Tagging in the Development of Sexual Nomenclature and Social Organization Online
In this paper, I describe the ways in which interventionist forms of tagging, such as super tagging, gorilla tagging, and tag bombing within Xtube, a database of sexual representation, reveal complex social and cultural structures among members of sexual subcultures and point to the particularlity of various modes of sexual being and the relationship between those modes and particular configurations of sexual identity. Individuals who participate in super tagging do not necessarily exert significant influence over information retrieval results within a database. Instead, in Xtube, members create alternative, activist, and interventionist forms of tags for personal and social purposes. Particularly for individuals who experience non-normative desire, such tagging practices provide a means for describing and structuring feelings of difference into coherent identities and particular social forms for socio-sexual engagement and self-exploration and understanding
Cognitive Work Analysis for Domain Analysis in an HR Firm: Emergent Vocabulary to Domain Ontology
Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is a promising qualitative empirical method for domain analysis (Fidel and Pejtersen 2004). In this lightning paper we report some of the results of a recent study of the organizational environment and knowledge organization structures of a boutique human resources consulting firm (Marchese 2012)
Complications in Climate Data Classification: The Political and Cultural Production of Variable Names
Model intercomparison projects are a unique and highly specialized form of data—intensive collaboration in the earth sciences. Typically, a set of pre‐determined boundary conditions (scenarios) are agreed upon by a community of model developers that then test and simulate each of those scenarios with individual ‘runs’ of a climate model. Because both the human expertise, and the computational power needed to produce an intercomparison project are exceptionally expensive, the data they produce are often archived for the broader climate science community to use in future research. Outside of high energy physics and astronomy sky surveys, climate modeling intercomparisons are one of the largest and most rapid methods of producing data in the natural sciences (Overpeck et al., 2010).But, like any collaborative eScience project, the discovery and broad accessibility of this data is dependent on classifications and categorizations in the form of structured metadata—namely the Climate and Forecast (CF) metadata standard, which provides a controlled vocabulary to normalize the naming of a dataset’s variables. Intriguingly, the CF standard’s original publication notes, “…conventions have been developed only for things we know we need. Instead of trying to foresee the future, we have added features as required and will continue to do this” (Gregory, 2003). Yet, qualitatively we’ve observed that this is not the case; although the time period of intercomparison projects remains stable (2-3 years), the scale and complexity of models and their output continue to grow—and thus, data creation and variable names consistently outpace the ratification of CF.
Rhetorical Space and the Ontogeny of Women in the DDC
It is well-established that classification standards have historically reflected hierarchy, power and knowledge in the culture from which they originate (Olson, 2002). Budd(2003) describes classification as an agent of “symbolic power,” and points out that without seeing classification as a “discursive act,” class differences can be perpetuated (p.28). Placement of subjects in a classification scheme constitutes a rhetorical act that explicates an intentional or unintentional power strategy of the classification scheme’s editors as perpetuators of the dominant culture. As cultural norms shift, so does the classification, creating anontogeny, or what Tennis calls, “the life of the subject overtime” (2007, 2012). If ontogeny tracks the arc of a subject’s position, within each rendition of a classification the concepts proximate to each other to create a “rhetorica lspace” that defines how the concept should be perceived by users of the classification
A Review of Boundary Objects in Classification Research
The goal of this paper is to explore the empirical aptness of a conceptual framework for the study of an international standard classification system by considering epistemological assumptions underlying its use in classification research to date. I survey reviews and empirical inquiry in LIS that feature the concept boundary object, (Star & Griesemer, 1989) and discuss some implications for classification research. I discuss the problems posed when predominant discourses concerning classification research inhibit our understanding of classification practices as socially, historically and culturally constructed. I conclude with proposing inquiry into international standard occupational classification as away of exploring the limits of the boundary object concept within the context of globalized standards and localpractices