Why is social context important in terms of data and data collection?5 answersSocial context is crucial in data and data collection as it significantly influences consumer behavior, distributional preferences, and activity choices. Understanding social contexts allows for a more comprehensive interpretation of human experiences represented by data. Neglecting social contexts can lead to challenges in accurately measuring distributional preferences due to contextual variance. Incorporating social contexts into data analysis provides a more holistic view of consumer behaviors and decision-making processes. Moreover, considering individuals' social networks and social capital alongside socio-demographic factors enhances the accuracy of forecasting models in activity choice and duration. Therefore, acknowledging social contexts in data collection is essential for obtaining a deeper understanding of human behavior and making informed policy decisions.
What is Context?5 answersContext is an entirety that arises from interaction and communication between people and objects mutually connected in networks. It includes the circumstances, background information, and settings that surround a situation or event and help to give it meaning. In the context of language and communication, it refers to the time, place, people involved, cultural and social norms, and larger issues and events that may be related. In the context of computing and technology, it refers to the information and settings that are relevant to a specific task or application. In architectural design, context refers to the physical architectural objects nearby, the interacting natural and man-made environment, and the constantly developing cultural, social, and economic processes. The concept of context is explored from various scientific perspectives, emphasizing the exchange of information and shared experiences between people and intelligent objects or cyber-physical systems.
What is the definition of information?4 answersInformation can be defined as the resolution of uncertainty and encompasses various concepts such as constraint, communication, control, data, education, knowledge, meaning, perception, and representation. It is a complex notion with physical and semantic components, and its understanding is crucial in various fields including genetics, neuroscience, and scientific research. Information can be mathematically defined and is deeply related to the concept of entropy, although they are distinct. It is considered as a feature that manifests itself in the relations between real-world entities and serves as the basis for the Theory of Meaningful Information, which explains the nature and functionality of information. In computing science, information refers to the degree of choice exercised when selecting a symbol or message from a range of possibilities, with probabilistic determination.
What is data gathering?3 answersData gathering is the process of collecting and measuring information on targeted variables in a system in order to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), data gathering involves collecting sensor data efficiently with minimum cost and energy consumption. It can be done through data aggregation, which involves collecting and aggregating data, or data collection, which involves collecting data without aggregation. In cognitive radio ad hoc and sensor wireless networks, data gathering is a network communication task where all nodes send their messages to a sink node. The development of data gathering algorithms for these networks is challenging due to the varying availability of channels and network collisions. Optimal data gathering in WSNs can be achieved by using multiple mobile sinks and optimizing their trajectories.
What is meant by information as an entity?3 answersInformation as an entity refers to the concept of information being a fundamental scientific entity that exists in different contexts. It can be seen as the resolution of uncertainty and defines the essence and characteristics of an entity. Information can be thought of as synonymous with constraint, communication, control, data, form, education, knowledge, meaning, understanding, mental stimuli, pattern, perception, proposition, representation, and entropy. It is an abstract entity that can be annihilated or shared, and it emerges in a population of clones. Information is related to physical entropy, which measures the amount of information lost in a physical system. It is physically inscribed as a sequence of symbols on a medium and can be defined as an equivalence class, with respect to transformations like alphabet change and coding. Information is also handled as information fields in electronic apparatus and can be activated individually. The idea of a "smallest" information is discussed, and elementary information is defined, with further analysis on the emergent development of information.
What is the definition of context?4 answersThe definition of context is the totality of circumstances comprising the milieu of human life and human functioning. It includes personal and environmental factors that affect human functioning, such as personal goals, desires, and values. This definition allows for a better understanding of how factors that affect human functioning can be used to enhance the functioning of people with intellectual disability. It also provides a conceptual and measurement framework for assessing context. In the field of planning, context refers to the events that are expected to happen in the future, the time it will take for each event, and the preconditions and interrelationships that exist for these events. Planning plays a crucial role in achieving an efficient and effective supply chain, both internally and externally. In the research area of context-aware computing, the definition of context has evolved but still lacks generality and completeness. Two extensions to existing definitions have been proposed to provide a natural understanding of context for users and facilitate its engineering for software developers.