1,721,007 research outputs found
Managing the social amplification of risk: a simulation of interacting actors
Full text linkA central problem in managing risk is dealing with social processes that either exaggerate or understate it. A longstanding approach to understanding such processes has been the social amplification of risk framework. But this implies that some true level of risk becomes distorted in social actors’ perceptions. Many risk events are characterised by such uncertainties, disagreements and changes in scientific knowledge that it becomes unreasonable to speak of a true level of risk. The most we can often say in such cases is that different groups believe each other to be either amplifying or attenuating a risk. This inherent subjectivity raises the question as to whether risk managers can expect any particular kinds of outcome to emerge. This question is the basis for a case study of zoonotic disease outbreaks using systems dynamics as a modelling medium. The model shows that processes suggested in the social amplification of risk framework produce polarised risk responses among different actors, but that the subjectivity magnifies this polarisation considerably. As this subjectivity takes more complex forms it leaves problematic residues at the end of a disease outbreak, such as an indefinite drop in economic activity and an indefinite increase in anxiety
Using agent-based simulation to analyse the effect of broadcast and narrowcast on public perception : a case in social risk amplification
No full textIndividuals often use information from broadcast news (e.g. media) and narrowcast news (e.g. personal social network) to form their perception on a certain social issue. Using a case study in social risk amplification, this paper demonstrates that simulation modelling, specifically agent-based simulation, can be useful in analysing the effect of broadcast and narrowcast processes on the formation of public risk perception. The first part of this paper explains the structure of a model that allows easy configuration for testing various behaviours about which the empirical literature cannot make definitive predictions. The second part of this paper discusses the effect of personal social network and the role of media in the dynamics of public risk perception. The results show the undesirable effect of the extreme narrowcast process in society and a media that simply broadcasts the average public risk perception
Agent-based computational modelling of social risk responses
Full text linkA characteristic aspect of risks in a complex, modern society is the nature and degree of the public response – sometimes significantly at variance with objective assessments of risk. A large part of the risk management task involves anticipating, explaining and reacting to this response. One of the main approaches we have for analysing the emergent public response, the social amplification of risk framework, has been the subject of little modelling. The purpose of this paper is to explore how social risk amplification can be represented and simulated. The importance of heterogeneity among risk perceivers, and the role of their social networks in shaping risk perceptions, makes it natural to take an agent-based approach. We look in particular at how to model some central aspects of many risk events: the way actors come to observe other actors more than external events in forming their risk perceptions; the way in which behaviour both follows risk perception and shapes it; and the way risk communications are fashioned in the light of responses to previous communications. We show how such aspects can be represented by availability cascades, but also how this creates further problems of how to represent the contrasting effects of informational and reputational elements, and the differentiation of private and public risk beliefs. Simulation of the resulting model shows how certain qualitative aspects of risk response time series found empirically – such as endogenously-produced peaks in risk concern – can be explained by this model
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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