1,720,973 research outputs found
Measuring and Validating Collective Emotions on a German Online Newspaper Platform in the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Pre-registration for Master Thesis)
No full textWith the proposed thesis we address two primary research questions in the context of text-based sentiment analysis on social media. First, we investigate whether the sentiment expressed in user postings on a German online newspaper platform positively correlates with sentiment variables collected from the representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) study during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this correlation we aim to analyze whether expressed sentiment on social media reflects the collective emotions of society during a major crisis. Second, we will explore how the sentiment of user postings on a newspaper platform relates to the daily fluctuations in COVID-19 case numbers, providing insights into the pandemic's impact on public sentiment over time.
To answer the research questions, we will employ three sentiment models, namely German Sentiment, a model for political text, and the DE-LIWC2015 dictionary. We will assess the correlation between the models' outputs and the COSMO data as well as COVID-19 case numbers. We hypothesize that user-posted sentiments correlate with COSMO data, reflecting society's collective emotions, and that negative sentiment patterns correspond with daily COVID-19 case fluctuations, albeit with an expected lag of one to three days.
In addition, we explore the dynamics of collective emotions, examining how they respond to various pandemic waves and virus variants. We anticipate that the extent and rapidity of emotional shifts depend on the perceived threat of the virus variant, impacting the correlation with COVID-19 case numbers.
We leverage data from Die ZEIT Online and COSMO, offering insights into the potential of social media sentiment to reflect and inform researchers and policymakers about societal emotions during crises.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique backdrop for our research, given the increased use of social media and the population's emotional state during the crisis. Our work aligns with ongoing sentiment analysis research, aiming to provide further insights. While challenges, such as sentiment analysis tool accuracy and alterations in user behavior, persist, the representative COSMO data provides an opportunity to validate our sentiment analysis results.
Research questions:
(1) Does the sentiment of user postings on a German online newspaper platform, as measured by three different sentiment models, positively correlate with variables assessing mood collected as part of the representative COSMO study, and therefore reflect the collective emotions of society during a major crisis, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic?
(2) How does the sentiment of user postings on a German online newspaper platform correlate with the daily fluctuations in COVID-19 case numbers, and what can this relationship reveal about the impact of the pandemic on public sentiment over time?
Study methods:
We will run an analysis using three different sentiment models, namely German Sentiment, a model for political text, as well as the dictionary DE-LIWC2015. To answer the research questions, we determine the correlation between the models' outputs and (1) the COSMO data and (2) the COVID-19 case numbers. Furthermore, we will calculate basic statistical parameters such as the average number of user postings per day, as spikes in activity may be related to important events such as the introduction of new restrictions and provide further insights into the behavior of the population online during the pandemic.
Hypotheses:
(1) The emotions expressed on social media by comparatively few individuals, in this case the actively posting users of Die ZEIT Online, positively correlate with sentiment data collected through a representative survey (COSMO), and therefore reflect the collective emotions of society to a moderate to high degree.
(2) A 7-day rolling average of the collective emotions of Die ZEIT Online user postings correlates with an expected lag of a one to three days with the development of the 7-day rolling average of COVID-19 case numbers in Germany.
(3) The intensity of the dynamics of the collective emotions, i.e. extent and rapidity of shifts from expressed positive to negative emotions, is dependent on the particular wave and the respective virus variant. This implies that the claimed correlation in (2) is less prominent if the prevailing virus variant is perceived less dangerous, compared to the case where the prevailing variant is considered more dangerous. Or in other words, the collective sentiment moves less in a negative direction as the number of cases increases.unknownothe
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
Collective dynamics of multi-agent networks
No full textDer zentrale wissenschaftliche Beitrag dieser Masterarbeit ist die Entwicklung und empirische Evaluation von IBE*, einer Synthese aus 'Jeffrey Conditionalization' und des 'Schlusses auf die beste Erklärung' (engl. 'Inference to the Best Explanation', IBE). Damit können auch Szenarien unsicherer Evidenz mit 'explanationist belief updates' erfasst werden. Es wird argumentiert, dass es fruchtbar ist, (probabilistische) Alternativen zu bayesianischer Inferenz zu untersuchen. Das 'Alien Die' Modell und das Konzept der Brier Punkte werden vorgestellt. In Simulationen mit vollständig sicherer Evidenz gelingt es, ein zentrales Result von Igor Douven zu replizieren: Der 'explanationist' ist schneller, fährt aber etwas höhere Brier Punkte ein. In Simulationen mit einer fixierten Unsicherheit der Evidenz ist der 'explanationist' wieder schneller und diesmal auch treffsicherer. Auch in Simulationen mit zufälliger Unsicherheit ist der 'explanationist' schneller und genauer: Wir finden damit eine entscheidende Schwachstelle des bayesianischen Agenten. IBE* scheint dem Problem der unsicheren Evidenz entgegenzuarbeiten. Es werden unterschiedliche Netzwerktopologien vorgestellt und unter verschiedenen Parametern visualisiert. Kollektive 'belief updates' werden auf diesen Netzwerken durchgeführt. Bei vollständiger Evidenz überschreitet der 'explanationist' den Schwellenwert bei jedem Netzwerktypen, im Gegensatz zum bayesianischen Agent. Wird die Evidenz unsicher, treten die Vorteile des 'explanationist' stärker hervor: Wir finden einen sehr großen Geschwindigkeitsvorteil. Dann werden Kontroversen bezüglich der Wahl der verwendeten Parameter und Konzepte in den Simulationen behandelt. Wir erarbeiten eine Definition von 'Computer Simulationen' und sprechen epistemologische Aspekte an. In einer Diskussion gehen wir auf das Potential von Simulationen für die Sozialwissenschaften ein. Schließlich erwähnen wir derzeitige Limitierungen unserer Arbeit und Möglichkeiten, die Forschung weiterzuführen.The main contribution of this thesis is the development and empirical evaluation of IBE*, a synthesis of Jeffrey Conditionalization and IBE (Inference to the Best Explanation) that generalizes explanationist updating to cases of uncertain evidence. It is argued that there are merits to be expected from studying (probabilistic) alternatives to Bayesian inference. The 'Alien Die' model and Brier scores are introduced. In simulations with full certainty of evidence, we succeed in replicating a recent key finding by Igor Douven: The explanationist is faster, but also incurs a slightly higher Brier score. In simulations with fixed (un-)certainty, the explanationist is again faster and also more accurate. Also in simulations with random uncertainty, the explanationist is the substantially faster and more accurate variant: We find a decisive shortcoming of the Bayesian approach. IBE* seems to be counteracting the problem of uncertain evidence. We introduce networks and visualize them under different parametrisation. We then run collective belief updates on these networks. With full certainty, in contrast to the Bayesian, the explanationist crosses the threshold for the true bias on all topologies. With uncertainty of evidence, this advantage is again more pronounced. We found a vast speed advantage of the explanationist. Then, controversies regarding the choice of specific parameters and concepts used in our simulations are addressed. We develop a definition of computer simulations and reflect on epistemological issues. We point out the potential of simulations for the social sciences. Finally, current limitations and further directions of our research are identified
KI: Nicht ohne Eigenschaften
No full textWie offen ist eine Person? Wie gewissenhaft – oder wie neurotisch? Merkmale wie diese lassen sich in der Psychologie durch standardisierte Tests bestimmen und messen. Aber können diese Tests auch angewendet werden, um die Merkmale eines KI-Sprachmodells zu bestimmen?
Ein Forschungsteam hat es ausprobiert
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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