1,720,958 research outputs found

    Disaster Response for Effective Mapping and Wayfinding

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    The research focuses on guiding the affected population towards a safe location in a disaster area by utilizing their self-help capacity with prevalent mobile technology. In contrast to the traditional centralized information management systems for disaster response, this research proposes a decen- tralized computer-supported management system in which affected people can lead themselves to safety and simultaneously serve as field sensors that share information about the disaster situation. A literature study together with contextual inquiries (field observations) were first conducted to analyse and identify existing problematic areas in order to envision a feasible, efficient and effective system. Based on literature from the field of disaster sociology and humanitarian operation experience, it was clear that the affected people in a disaster are not simply helpless victims; instead, they consist of capable human beings who tend to act rationally and proactively in a united and helpful manner. In times of collective stress, they are even able to creatively use whatever means of technology are at hand. This group forms the majority of the population that is affected by a disaster. They are distributed over the disaster area and witness the disaster first hand. As a result, these individuals form a massive potential resource for collecting first hand knowledge about the disaster. Field observations indicated that tailored mobile navigation support is lacking. Likewise, situation map-map- ping support has appeared to be limited, fragmented, and funnelled to one “plotter”. The literature and field observations showed that there is a need for (1) navigation support of the affected people, (2) collaborative map-making support, and (3) the integration of these support functions into one informa- tion system to establish a harmonized, effective, and safe, disaster response. As part of the research, prototypes of these two support functions and the integrated system were developed and tested in both controlled environments and out in the field. Major disaster events can significantly change an area, render earlier geo- graphical data obsolete, and make damaged infrastructure hazardous to the affected people. In order to minimize public exposure to such dangerous conditions, which prevail in disaster areas, the affected people need to be guided to a safer location. Thus, a navigation system that provides sufficient and flexible guidance given the altered environment in the disaster area is critical in these situations. The first study was a field experiment, tested a handheld navigation solu- tion that pointed toward the direction of a destination and elementary navi- gational cues. The results suggested that a rudimentary navigation cue in the form of an arrow was sufficient to guide an individual towards a specific destination. Moreover, additional navigation cues such as the distance or the time to a destination gave additional support by making it easier for a person to follow the guidance. However, in order to provide adequate navigational support, an up-to-date presentation of the post-disaster situation is desirable. Especially as a map is usually needed to represent complex situations. For example, during the field observations of USAR.nl in the Czech Republic, the rescuers sketched and updated a map (drawn on the wall) with a spray can to represent the rescue situation and their activity outcomes over time. The command post was informed about the situation however by audio (tel- ephone) communication. In a disaster with widespread damage, the disaster situation needs to be rapidly assessed. However, the traditional centralized mechanism of gathering this kind of information is regarded as inefficient and can result in an inaccurate and outdated situation map. These ineffi- ciencies stem from: (1) the use of an unsuitable communication modality to relay spatial information (e.g. audio), (2) limited emergency resources that collect this kind of information, and (3) the hierarchical and chain report- ing structure in the organization of the map-making process. To overcome these inefficiencies, this research also focuses on a distributed approach that utilizes the affected people for collecting situation data in the field and using additional modalities of communication. This led to the second study, which investigated the construction of a shared situation map using a collaborative mechanism. This study was conducted in a controlled laboratory environment. The first results demonstrated that if the contribution from each individual is not balanced then collaborative map-making can result in a joint map that is worse than the underlying in- dividual maps. Based on this result, a method of explicitly showing confi- dence information was prototyped in the subsequent experiment. The results showed that the quantity and quality of the information in the collaborative maps was better than the individual maps. It was concluded that a visual shared map can complement the auditory communication during situation map-making and that explicitly rating objects and events in the map with a confidence level significantly enhanced the discussion process. Finally, the third empirical study was an extensive controlled field study where Delft was converted into a disaster playground. Several participants played simultaneously different roles (the affected people and the operator) located at multiple locations (in the field and in the information center) while using multiple devices (mobile phone, desktop computer) and applications (mobile client, server, and simulation). The aim of this study was to compare the proposed system with the traditional centralized system. The result of this study demonstrated that the proposed system was superior in (1) guiding the affected people safely to their destination, (2) helping operators in achiev- ing a higher situational awareness, and (3) lowering operator workload. To conclude, this research proposes a participatory distributed mechanism which involves the affected people to improve the disaster response. The system harvests the capabilities of the affected people as distributed active sensors for assessing disaster situations. In this way, they can help them- selves to safety while helping to rapidly construct a clear image of the dis- aster without burdening the already overwhelmed rescue services. The study showed that this mechanism might reduce the workload of the disaster re- sponders and may improve the effectiveness of the disaster response process. With better situational awareness of the disaster area, humanitarian aid and rescue activities can be conducted more effectively and victims can be saved faster than before. Thus, the proposed system in this thesis can form the foundation of an efficient next generation disaster response system.MediamaticsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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

    Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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