11 research outputs found
Mind the Semantic Gap
No full textHypertext can be seen as a logic representation, where semantics are encoded in both the textual nodes and the graph of links. Systems that have a very formal representation of these semantics are able to manipulate the hypertexts in a sophisticated way; for example by adapting them or sculpting them at run-time. However, hypertext systems which require the author to write in terms of structures with explicit semantics are difficult/costly to write in, and can be seen as too restrictive by certain authors because they do not allow the playful ambiguity often associated with literary hypertext. In this paper we present a vector-based model of the formality of semantics in hypertext systems, where the vectors represent the translation of semantics from author to system and from system to reader. We categorise a variety of existing systems and draw out some general conclusions about the profiles they share. We believe that our model will help hypertext system designers analyse how their own systems formalise semantics, and will warn them when they need to mind the Semantic Gap between authors and readers
Canyons, deltas and plains: towards a unified sculptural model of location-based hypertext
No full textWith the growing ubiquity of mobile devices, new ways of sensing context and the emergence of the mobile Web, digital storytelling is escaping the confines of the desktop and intertwinging in new and interesting ways with the physical world. Mobile, location aware, narrative systems are being applied to a range of areas including tour guides, educational tools and interactive fiction. Despite this there is little understanding of how these applications are related or how they link with existing hypertext models and theory.We argue that location aware narrative systems tend to follow three patterns (canyons, deltas and plains) and that it is possible to represent all of these patterns in a conceptual sculptural hypertext model. Our model builds on a general sculptural mechansim (of pre-conditions and behaviours) to include locality and narrative transitions as first class elements, opening the possibility of standardised viewers, formats, and hybrid stories. We show how existing structures can be mapped onto this conceptual sculptural model, and how narratives defined in the model can take advantage of open data sources and sensed contextual data. To demonstrate this we present the GeoYarn system, a prototype which implements the model to create interactive, location aware narratives, using all three patterns
Analysis of Fcγ receptor haplotypes in rheumatoid arthritis: FCGR3A remains a major susceptibility gene at this locus, with an additional contribution from FCGR3B
No full textThe Fcγ receptors play important roles in the initiation and regulation of many immunological and inflammatory processes, and genetic variants (FCGR) have been associated with numerous autoimmune and infectious diseases. The data in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are conflicting and we previously demonstrated an association between FCGR3A and RA. In view of the close molecular proximity with FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B, additional polymorphisms within these genes and FCGR haplotypes were examined to refine the extent of association with RA. Biallelic polymorphisms in FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B were examined for association with RA in two well characterized UK Caucasian and North Indian/Pakistani cohorts, in which FCGR3A genotyping had previously been undertaken. Haplotype frequencies and linkage disequilibrium were estimated across the FCGR locus and a model-free analysis was performed to determine association with RA. This was followed by regression analysis, allowing for phase uncertainty, to identify the particular haplotype(s) that influences disease risk. Our results reveal that FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B were not associated with RA. The haplotype with the strongest association with RA susceptibility was the FCGR3A–FCGR3B 158V-NA2 haplotype (odds ratio 3.18, 95% confidence interval 1.13–8.92 [P = 0.03] for homozygotes compared with all genotypes). The association was stronger in the presence of nodules (odds ratio 5.03, 95% confidence interval 1.44–17.56; P = 0.01). This haplotype was also more common in North Indian/Pakistani RA patients than in control individuals, but not significantly so. Logistic regression analyses suggested that FCGR3A remained the most significant gene at this locus. The increased association with an FCGR3A–FCGR3B haplotype suggests that other polymorphic variants within FCGR3A or FCGR3B, or in linkage disequilibrium with this haplotype, may additionally contribute to disease pathogenesis
Equality hypocrisy, inconsistency, and prejudice: The unequal application of the universal human right to equality
No full textIn addition, the author note should have included a license statement, which is provided in this correction.] In Western culture, there appears to be widespread endorsement of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which stresses equality and freedom). But do people really apply their equality values equally, or are their principles and application systematically discrepant, resulting in equality hypocrisy? The present study, conducted with a representative national sample of adults in the United Kingdom (N = 2,895), provides the first societal test of whether people apply their value of “equality for all” similarly across multiple types of status minority (women, disabled people, people aged over 70, Blacks, Muslims, and gay people). Drawing on theories of intergroup relations and stereotyping we examined, relation to each of these groups, respondents’ judgments of how important it is to satisfy their particular wishes, whether there should be greater or reduced equality of employment opportunities, and feelings of social distance. The data revealed a clear gap between general equality values and responses to these specific measures. Respondents prioritized equality more for “paternalized” groups (targets of benevolent prejudice: women, disabled, over 70) than others (Black people, Muslims, and homosexual people), demonstrating significant inconsistency. Respondents who valued equality more, or who expressed higher internal or external motivation to control prejudice, showed greater consistency in applying equality. However, even respondents who valued equality highly showed significant divergence in their responses to paternalized versus nonpaternalized groups, revealing a degree of hypocrisy. Implications for strategies to promote equality and challenge prejudice are discussed
Hypermedia Interoperability: Navigating the Information Continuum
No full textOpen Hypermedia Systems are designed to allow links to be authored and followed on top of any media format. The link structures are held separately from the documents in a software component called a Link Server. As hypermedia has matured as a research topic attention has turned to standardising the way in which components talk to Link Servers in order to provide interoperability. The Open Hypermedia Systems Working Group took up this challenge and proposed an Open Hypermedia Protocol (OHP). However, the scope of this proposal proved to be too large and the protocol was divided into domain specific parts (Navigational, Spatial and Taxonomic Hypermedia), tackling each domain differently, but consistently. It is questionable whether this step was the correct one, as the domains share many similar features. In this thesis I present a detailed examination of the information spaces that the OHP was attempting to model (from all these considered hypertext domains), which incorporates notions of both behaviour and context. This examination looks at what it means to navigate around the many dimensions of information, across these domains, and reveals a cohesive and continuous structure that I call the Information Continuum. The Fundamental Open Hypermedia Model (FOHM) is presented, which is capable of representing the structures of this continuum in a consistent and meaningful way. FOHM is coupled with an agent infrastructure to produce an implementation that demonstrates the model being used for cross-domain interoperability
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Representation of domestic violence in two British newspapers, The Guardian and The Sun, 2009-2011
No full textThis article contains an analysis of the representation of domestic violence in two British newspapers between 2009-2011. This is a somewhat overlooked subject compared to research into media reports on rape and sexual assault. This study examine s whether similar linguistic devices are used in domestic violence reports as in rape reports. The analysis uses a grounded theory approach to investigate common themes in reporting of domestic violence and the linguistic devices that are used in newspaper reports. This study draws on a corpus collected by the author to examine the similarities and differences between The Guardian, a broadsheet, and The Sun, a tabloid newspaper. It concludes that there are significant similarities between the reporting of domestic violence and that of rape and sexual violence
Who are the experts? e-Scholars in the semantic web
No full textScholarly research is the sum of diverse activities and leads to the dissemination of a large amount of material. Traditional approaches to exploring and becoming proficient within an esoteric research field rely on slow and sometimes ineffective discourse, and depend more on a scholar's detective skill, effort, and perseverance. However, the Web has introduced the potential for improved accessibility, interconnectivity, and more efficient and effective communication; we are becoming e-Scholars. Current efforts on the Web have focussed mainly on improving the accessibility of on-line research material and as a result, researchers have yet to realise the full implications of the new medium. Consequently, the emphasis must shift to improving and enhancing access to scholarly material; this research proposes a novel approach by presenting researchers with the facility to comprehensively, extensively, and rationally explore their research field and ask intricate questions about it and the individual facts and issues raised by it. This is realised through the integration of principles from the hypertext, Semantic Web, and digital library fields to interconnect and analyse all scholarly material in the academic domain. The e-Scholar Knowledge Inference Model (ESKIMO) demonstrates the approach and provides a platform for evaluation and further research
The mutual interplay between calcification and coccolithovirus infection
No full text© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Johns, C. T., Grubb, A. R., Nissimov, J. I., Natale, F., Knapp, V., Mui, A., Fredricks, H. F., Van Mooy, B. A. S., & Bidle, K. D. The mutual interplay between calcification and coccolithovirus infection. Environmental Microbiology, 21(6), (2019): 1896-1915, doi:10.1111/1462-2920.14362.Two prominent characteristics of marine coccolithophores are their secretion of coccoliths and their susceptibility to infection by coccolithoviruses (EhVs), both of which display variation among cells in culture and in natural populations. We examined the impact of calcification on infection by challenging a variety of Emiliania huxleyi strains at different calcification states with EhVs of different virulence. Reduced cellular calcification was associated with increased infection and EhV production, even though calcified cells and associated coccoliths had significantly higher adsorption coefficients than non‐calcified (naked) cells. Sialic acid glycosphingolipids, molecules thought to mediate EhV infection, were generally more abundant in calcified cells and enriched in purified, sorted coccoliths, suggesting a biochemical link between calcification and adsorption rates. In turn, viable EhVs impacted cellular calcification absent of lysis by inducing dramatic shifts in optical side scatter signals and a massive release of detached coccoliths in a subpopulation of cells, which could be triggered by resuspension of healthy, calcified host cells in an EhV‐free, ‘induced media’. Our findings show that calcification is a key component of the E. huxleyi‐EhV arms race and an aspect that is critical both to the modelling of these host–virus interactions in the ocean and interpreting their impact on the global carbon cycle.We thank Liti Haramaty for her guidance and assistance in culturing and infection experiments. This research was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF3301 to BVM and KDB and GBMF3789 to KDB) and the National Science Foundation (OCE‐1537951 and OCE‐1559179 to KDB)
LGBTI variations in crime reporting: how sexual identity influences decisions to call the cops
No full textResearch shows that people vary in their willingness to report crime to police depending on the type of crime experienced, their gender, age, and their race or ethnicity. Whether or not lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) and heterosexual people vary in their willingness to report crime to the police is not well understood in the extant literature. In this article, I examine variations in LGBTI respondents' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on their intentions to report crimes to the police. Drawing on a survey of LGBTI individuals sampled from a Gay Pride community event and online LGBTI community forums (N = 329), I use quantitative statistical methods to examine whether LGBTI people's beliefs in police homophobia are also directly associated with the behavioral intention to report crime. Overall, the results indicate that LGBTI and heterosexual people differ significantly in their intention to report crime to the police, and that a belief in police homophobia strongly influences LGBTI people's intention to underreport crime to the police
The perceived cultural changes and the changes in identification of the employees during a merger between two airlines.
No full textThis dissertation explores changes in perceived cultural differences and identification with the merged firm during the postmerger integration process. The information was gathered from an acquisition between two airlines. The research has been done over an extensive period of time thereby using the longitudinal approach. A number of propositions have been formulated with regard to the effect of an acquisition on perceived differences in organizational cultures. The assumption was that changes would occur over time and that different forms of integration would result in different changes in perception. The influence of national culture on the perception of organizational culture was also examined. Furthermore this dissertation examines the meaning and significance of the social identity of the employees of an organization during the acquisition. Using the results of the reasoning within the social identity theory this dissertation explores when the identification was more or less salient. Several hypotheses were formulated pertaining to the effects on identification with a merged firm of three types of responses from acquired-firm employees.
