Showing papers on "Context (language use) published in 2001"

Understanding and Using Context

Abstract: Context is a poorly used source of information in our computing environments. As a result, we have an impoverished understanding of what context is and how it can be used. In this paper, we provide an operational definition of context and discuss the different ways in which context can be used by context-aware applications. We also present the Context Toolkit, an architecture that supports the building of these context-aware applications. We discuss the features and abstractions in the toolkit that make the task of building applications easier. Finally, we introduce a new abstraction, a situation which we believe will provide additional support to application designers.

Coupling an Advanced Land Surface–Hydrology Model with the Penn State–NCAR MM5 Modeling System. Part I: Model Implementation and Sensitivity

Abstract: This paper addresses and documents a number of issues related to the implementation of an advanced land surface–hydrology model in the Penn State–NCAR fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5). The concept adopted here is that the land surface model should be able to provide not only reasonable diurnal variations of surface heat fluxes as surface boundary conditions for coupled models, but also correct seasonal evolutions of soil moisture in the context of a long-term data assimilation system. In a similar way to that in which the modified Oregon State University land surface model (LSM) has been used in the NCEP global and regional forecast models, it is implemented in MM5 to facilitate the initialization of soil moisture. Also, 1-km resolution vegetation and soil texture maps are introduced in the coupled MM5–LSM system to help identify vegetation/water/soil characteristics at fine scales and capture the feedback of these land surface forcings. A monthly varying climatological 0.15° × 0.15° green ...

Bayesian Calibration of computer models

Abstract: We consider prediction and uncertainty analysis for systems which are approximated using complex mathematical models. Such models, implemented as computer codes, are often generic in the sense that by a suitable choice of some of the model's input parameters the code can be used to predict the behaviour of the system in a variety of specific applications. However, in any specific application the values of necessary parameters may be unknown. In this case, physical observations of the system in the specific context are used to learn about the unknown parameters. The process of fitting the model to the observed data by adjusting the parameters is known as calibration. Calibration is typically effected by ad hoc fitting, and after calibration the model is used, with the fitted input values, to predict the future behaviour of the system. We present a Bayesian calibration technique which improves on this traditional approach in two respects. First, the predictions allow for all sources of uncertainty, including the remaining uncertainty over the fitted parameters. Second, they attempt to correct for any inadequacy of the model which is revealed by a discrepancy between the observed data and the model predictions from even the best-fitting parameter values. The method is illustrated by using data from a nuclear radiation release at Tomsk, and from a more complex simulated nuclear accident exercise.

PCA versus LDA

Abstract: In the context of the appearance-based paradigm for object recognition, it is generally believed that algorithms based on LDA (linear discriminant analysis) are superior to those based on PCA (principal components analysis). In this communication, we show that this is not always the case. We present our case first by using intuitively plausible arguments and, then, by showing actual results on a face database. Our overall conclusion is that when the training data set is small, PCA can outperform LDA and, also, that PCA is less sensitive to different training data sets.

A conceptual framework and a toolkit for supporting the rapid prototyping of context-aware applications

Abstract: Computing devices and applications are now used beyond the desktop, in diverse environments, and this trend toward ubiquitous computing is accelerating. One challenge that remains in this emerging research field is the ability to enhance the behavior of any application by informing it of the context of its use. By context, we refer to any information that characterizes a situation related to the interaction between humans, applications, and the surrounding environment. Context-aware applications promise richer and easier interaction, but the current state of research in this field is still far removed from that vision. This is due to 3 main problems: (a) the notion of context is still ill defined, (b) there is a lack of conceptual models and methods to help drive the design of context-aware applications, and (c) no tools are available to jump-start the development of context-aware applications. In this anchor article, we address these 3 problems in turn. We first define context, identify categories of contextual information, and characterize context-aware application behavior. Though the full impact of context-aware computing requires understanding very subtle and high-level notions of context, we are focusing our efforts on the pieces of context that can be inferred automatically from sensors in a physical environment. We then present a conceptual framework that separates the acquisition and representation of context from the delivery and reaction to context by a context-aware application. We have built a toolkit, the Context Toolkit, that instantiates this conceptual framework and supports the rapid development of a rich space of context-aware applications. We illustrate the usefulness of the conceptual framework by describing a number of context-aware applications that have been prototyped using the Context Toolkit. We also demonstrate how such a framework can support the investigation of important research challenges in the area of context-aware computing.

Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines

Abstract: Points of departure academic disciplines overlaps, boundaries and specialisms aspects of community life patterns of communication academic careers the wider context implications for theory and practice. Appendix: research issues.

Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the IT in IT Research--A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact

Abstract: The field of information systems is premised on the centrality of information technology in everyday socio-economic life. Yet, drawing on a review of the full set of articles published inInformation Systems Research ( ISR) over the past ten years, we argue that the field has not deeply engaged its core subject matter--the information technology (IT) artifact. Instead, we find that IS researchers tend to give central theoretical significance to the context (within which some usually unspecified technology is seen to operate), the discrete processing capabilities of the artifact (as separable from its context or use), or the dependent variable (that which is posited to be affected or changed as technology is developed, implemented, and used). The IT artifact itself tends to disappear from view, be taken for granted, or is presumed to be unproblematic once it is built and installed. After discussing the implications of our findings, we propose a research direction for the IS field that begins to take technology as seriously as its effects, context, and capabilities. In particular, we propose that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts, and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies. We believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent information technologies.

Validation of the Framingham coronary heart disease prediction scores: results of a multiple ethnic groups investigation.

Abstract: Context The Framingham Heart Study produced sex-specific coronary heart disease (CHD) prediction functions for assessing risk of developing incident CHD in a white middle-class population. Concern exists regarding whether these functions can be generalized to other populations. Objective To test the validity and transportability of the Framingham CHD prediction functions per a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute workshop organized for this purpose. Design, Setting, and Subjects Sex-specific CHD functions were derived from Framingham data for prediction of coronary death and myocardial infarction. These functions were applied to 6 prospectively studied, ethnically diverse cohorts (n = 23 424), including whites, blacks, Native Americans, Japanese American men, and Hispanic men: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (1987-1988), Physicians' Health Study (1982), Honolulu Heart Program (1980-1982), Puerto Rico Heart Health Program (1965-1968), Strong Heart Study (1989-1991), and Cardiovascular Health Study (1989-1990). Main Outcome Measures The performance, or ability to accurately predict CHD risk, of the Framingham functions compared with the performance of risk functions developed specifically from the individual cohorts' data. Comparisons included evaluation of the equality of relative risks for standard CHD risk factors, discrimination, and calibration. Results For white men and women and for black men and women the Framingham functions performed reasonably well for prediction of CHD events within 5 years of follow-up. Among Japanese American and Hispanic men and Native American women, the Framingham functions systematically overestimated the risk of 5-year CHD events. After recalibration, taking into account different prevalences of risk factors and underlying rates of developing CHD, the Framingham functions worked well in these populations. Conclusions The sex-specific Framingham CHD prediction functions perform well among whites and blacks in different settings and can be applied to other ethnic groups after recalibration for differing prevalences of risk factors and underlying rates of CHD events.

Noncommutative Noetherian Rings

Abstract: Articles on the history of mathematics can be written from many dierent perspectives. Some aim to survey a more or less wide landscape, and require the observer to watch from afar as theories develop and movements are born or become obsolete. At the other extreme, there are those that try to shed light on the history of particular theorems and on the people who created them. This article belongs to this second category. It is an attempt to explain Goldie’s theorems on quotient rings in the context of the life and times of the man who discovered them. 1. Fractions Fractions are at least as old as civilisation. The Egyptian scribes of 3,000 years ago were very skilful in their manipulation as attested by many ancient papyri. To the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, fractions were just tools to find the correct answer to practical problems in land surveying and accounting. However, the situation changed dramatically in Ancient Greece. To the Greek philosophers, number meant positive integer, and 1 was ‘the unity’, and as such, had to be indivisible. So how could ‘half’ be a number, since ‘half the unity’ did not make sense? Possibly as a consequence of that, the Greek mathematicians thought of fractions in terms of ratios of integers, rather than numbers. After the demise of Greek civilisation, mathematicians reverted to the more prosaic view that fractions were numbers. Indeed, for the next thousand years everyone seemed happy to compute with all sorts of ‘numbers’ without worrying much about what a number was really supposed to be. It was the need for a sound foundation for the infinitesimal calculus that put mathematicians face to face with the nature of numbers. The movement began in the 18th century, but its first fruits were only reaped in the 19th century in the movement that became known as the arithmetization of analysis. In short, mathematicians felt quite sure that they knew their integers very well; so they thought that by constructing the real numbers in terms of positive integers they would place the latter in a sure foundation. The most extreme version of this credo \

We Know Some Things: Parent-Adolescent Relationships in Retrospect and Prospect.

Abstract: This article examines the most important ideas to have emerged from the last 25 years of research on adolescent development in the family context and suggests some directions for the future. Two major sets of questions organize the review. First, how can we best characterize normative family relationships during adolescence, and, more specifically, is adolescence a time of parent A child conflict? Second, how do variations in parent – child relationships affect the developing adolescent? The answer to the first question depends on what is meant by conflict and, more importantly, from whom one gathers data. There is a need for a new perspective on the family, one that emphasizes the different viewpoints and stakes that parents and adolescents bring to their relationship with each other. Special attention should be paid to studies of the mental health of parents of adolescents. With regard to the second question, it is argued that there is enough evidence to conclude that adolescents benefit from having parents who are authoritative: warm, firm, and accepting of their needs for psychological autonomy. Therefore, it would seem most beneficial to institute a systematic, large-scale, multifaceted, and ongoing public health campaign to educate parents about adolescence, one that draws on the collective resources and expertise of health-care professionals, scientists, governmental agencies, community organizations, schools, religious institutions, and the mass media.

Non-Gaussian Ornstein–Uhlenbeck-based models and some of their uses in financial economics

Abstract: Non-Gaussian processes of Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) type offer the possibility of capturing important distributional deviations from Gaussianity and for flexible modelling of dependence structures. This paper develops this potential, drawing on and extending powerful results from probability theory for applications in statistical analysis. Their power is illustrated by a sustained application of OU processes within the context of finance and econometrics. We construct continuous time stochastic volatility models for financial assets where the volatility processes are superpositions of positive OU processes, and we study these models in relation to financial data and theory.

Putting tumours in context

Abstract: The interactions between cancer cells and their micro- and macroenvironment create a context that promotes tumour growth and protects it from immune attack. The functional association of cancer cells with their surrounding tissues forms a new 'organ' that changes as malignancy progresses. Investigation of this process might provide new insights into the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and could also lead to new therapeutic targets.

The Transnational Villagers

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE 1. The Historical Context 2. Social Remittances PART TWO 3. Reshaping the Stages of the Life Cycle 4. Making Values from Two Worlds Fit PART THREE 5. When Domestic Politics Becomes Transnational 6. "God Is Everywhere": Religious Life Across Borders 7. Transnationalizing Community Development Conclusion Appendix: Methodology Notes Bibliography Index

Common and uncommon cytochrome P450 reactions related to metabolism and chemical toxicity.

Abstract: Cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes catalyze a variety of reactions and convert chemicals to potentially reactive products as well as make compounds less toxic. Most of the P450 reactions are oxidations. The majority of these can be rationalized in the context of an FeO3+ intermediate and odd electron abstraction/rebound mechanisms; however, other iron−oxygen complexes are possible and alternate chemistries can be considered. Another issue regarding P450-catalyzed reactions is the delineation of rate-limiting steps in the catalytic cycle and the contribution to reaction selectivity. In addition to the rather classical oxidations, P450s also catalyze less generally discussed reactions including reduction, desaturation, ester cleavage, ring expansion, ring formation, aldehyde scission, dehydration, ipso attack, one-electron oxidation, coupling reactions, rearrangement of fatty acid and prostaglandin hydroperoxides, and phospholipase activity. Most of these reactions are rationalized in the context of high-valent...

Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method

Abstract: Introduction From the Individual Interview to the Interview Society - Jaber F Gubrium and James A Goldstein The History of the Interview - Jennifer Platt PART ONE: FORMS OF INTERVIEWING Survey Interviewing - Royce A Singleton and Bruce C Straits Qualitative Interviewing - Carol A B Warren In-Depth Interviewing - John M Johnson The Life Story Interview - Robert Atkinson Focus Group Interviewing - David L Morgan Postmodern Trends in Interviewing - Andrea Fontana PART TWO: DISTINCTIVE RESPONDENTS Interviewing Children and Adolescents - Donna Eder and Laura Fingerson Interviewing Men - Michael L Schwalbe and Michelle Wolkomir Interviewing Women - Shulamit Reinharz and Susan E Chase Queering the Interview - Travis Kong, Dan Mahoney, and Ken Plummer Interviewing Older People - G. Clare Wenger Race, Subjectivity, and the Interview Process - Christopher Dunbar Jr, Dalia Rodriguez and Laurence Parker Interviewing Elites - Teresa Odendahl and Aileen M. Shaw Interviewing the Ill - Janice M Morse PART THREE: AUSPICES OF INTERVIEWING Cross-Cultural Interviewing - Anne Ryen Interviewing in Medical Settings - Kathy Zoppi and Ronald M. Epstein Therapy Interviewing - Gale Miller, Steve de Shazer, and Peter de Jong Journalistic Interviewing - David L Altheide Forensic Investigative Interviewing - Ian K. Mckenzie Interviewing in Education - William G Tierney and Patrick Dilley Context and the Employment Interview - Gary P Latham and Zeeva Millman PART FOUR: TECHNICAL ISSUES Elicitation Techniques for Interviewing - Jeffery C Johnson and Susan C Weller The Reluctant Respondent - Patricia A Adler and Peter Adler In Person versus Telephone Interviewing - Roger W Shuy Computer-Assisted Interviewing - Mick P. Couper and Sue Ellen Hansen Standardization and Interaction in the Survey Interview - Nora Cate Shaeffer and Douglas Maynard Internet Interviewing - Chris Mann and Fiona Stewart Transcription Quality - Blake D Poland Computer-Assisted Analysis of Qualitative Interview Data - Clive F Seale PART FIVE: ANALYTICAL STRATEGIES Qualitative Interviewing and Grounded Theory Analysis - Kathy Charmaz Analysis of Personal Narratives - Catherine Kohler Riessman Analytic Strategies for Oral History Interviews - Richard Candida Smith Narrative, Interviews and Organizations - Barbara Czarniawska Institutional Ethnography: Using Interviews to Investigate Ruling Relations - Marjorie L DeVault and Liza McCoy Ethnomethodological Analyses of Interviews - Carolyn D Baker PART SIX: REFLECTION AND REPRESENTATION Revisiting the Relationship Between Participant Observation and Interviewing - Paul Atkinson and Amanda Coffey Personal and Folk Narrative as Cultural Representation - Kirin Narayan and Kenneth M George The Cinematic Society and the Reflexive Interview - Norman K Denzin Their Story/My Story/Our Story: Including the Researchers Experience in Interview Research - Carolyn Ellis and Leigh Berger Poetic Representation of Interviews - Laurel Richardson Interviewing at the Border of Fact and Fiction - Paul C Rosenblatt Interviewing, Power//Knowledge and Social Inequality - Charles L Briggs Author Index Subject Index About the Editors About the Contributors

Market, Hierarchy, and Trust: The Knowledge Economy and the Future of Capitalism

Abstract: Recent conceptualizations of trends in the structure of U.S. industry have focused on the relative importance of markets, hierarchies, and hybrid intermediate forms. This paper advances the discussion by distinguishing three ideal-typical forms of organization and their corresponding coordination mechanisms: market/price, hierarchy/authority, and community/trust. Different institutions combine the three forms/mechanisms in different proportions. Economic and organizational theory have shown that, compared to trust, price and authority are relatively ineffective means of dealing with knowledge-based assets. Therefore, as knowledge becomes increasingly important in our economy, we should expect high-trust institutional forms to proliferate.A review of trends in employment relations, interdivisional relations, and interfirm relations finds evidence suggesting that the effect of growing knowledge-intensity may indeed be a trend toward greater reliance on trust. There is also reason to believe that the form of trust most effective in this context is a distinctively modern kind--"reflective trust"--as opposed to traditionalistic, "blind" trust. Such a trend to reflective trust appears to threaten the privileges of currently dominant social actors, and these actors' resistance, in combination with the complex interdependencies between price, authority, and trust mechanisms, imparts a halting character to the trend. But the momentum of this trend nevertheless appears to be self-reinforcing, which suggests that it may ultimately challenge the foundations of our capitalist form of society while simultaneously creating the foundations of a new, postcapitalist form.

Personal characteristics as moderators of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty—an empirical analysis

Abstract: Previous research on the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty has largely neglected the issue of moderator variables. The authors develop a set of hypotheses related to the moderating effect of selected personal characteristics on the satisfaction-loyalty link. These hypotheses are tested in a consumer durables context using multiple group causal analysis. Empirical findings provide reasonable support for the theoretical arguments. Specifically, variety seeking, age, and income are found to be important moderators of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship.

Attending holistically versus analytically: comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans.

Abstract: Much research indicates that East Asians, more than Americans, explain events with reference to the context. The authors examined whether East Asians also attend to the context more than Americans do. In Study 1, Japanese and Americans watched animated vignettes of underwater scenes and reported the contents. In a subsequent recognition test, they were shown previously seen objects as well as new objects, either in their original setting or in novel settings, and then were asked to judge whether they had seen the objects. Study 2 replicated the recognition task using photographs of wildlife. The results showed that the Japanese (a) made more statements about contextual information and relationships than Americans did and (b) recognized previously seen objects more accurately when they saw them in their original settings rather than in the novel settings, whereas this manipulation had relatively little effect on Americans.

Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Abstract: Scholars routinely make claims that presuppose the validity of the observations and measurements that operationalize their concepts. Yet, despite recent advances in political science methods, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to measurement validity. We address this gap by exploring four themes. First, we seek to establish a shared framework that allows quantitative and qualitative scholars to assess more effectively, and communicate about, issues of valid measurement. Second, we underscore the need to draw a clear distinction between measurement issues and disputes about concepts. Third, we discuss the contextual specificity of measurement claims, exploring a variety of measurement strategies that seek to combine generality and validity by devoting greater attention to context. Fourth, we address the proliferation of terms for alternative measurement validation procedures and offer an account of the three main types of validation most relevant to political scientists.

The Strategic Context of External Network Ties: Examining the Impact of Director Appointments on Board Involvement in Strategic Decision Making

Abstract: This study examines how external network ties determine a board's ability to contribute to the strategic decision making process. Although the simple number of director appointments to other boards...

Brand trust in the context of consumer loyalty

Abstract: The existing literature of brand loyalty has been essentially focused on the roles of perceived quality, brand reputation and especially satisfaction, due to the fact that they summarise consumers’ knowledge and experiences, guiding their subsequent actions. In this context, the shifting emphasis to relational marketing has devoted a lot of effort to analyse how other constructs such as trust predict future intention. The fact that there are conceptual connections of trust to the notion of satisfaction and loyalty, and thatthis effort is especially lacking in the brand‐consumer relationship, moves the authors to focus on analysing the relationships existing among these concepts. Research methodology consisted of regressions and multivariable analysis with a sample of 173 buyers. The results obtained suggest the key role of brand trust as a variable that generates customers’ commitment, especially in situations of high involvement, in which its effect is stronger in comparison to overall satisfaction.

Marshall's Scale Economies

Abstract: In this paper, using panel data, I estimate plant level production functions that include variables that allow for two types of scale externalities which plants experie nce in their local industrial environments. First are externalities from other plants in the same industry locally, usually called localization economies or, in a dynamic context, Marshall, Arrow, Romer [MAR] economies. Second are externalities from the scale or diversity of local economic activity outside the own industry involving some type of cross- fertilization, usually called urbanization economies or, in a dynamic context, Jacobs economies. Estimating production functions for plants in high tech industries and in capital goods, or machinery industries, I find that local own industry scale externalities, as measured specifically by the count of other own industry plants locally, have strong productivity effects in high tech but not machinery industries. I find evidence that single plant firms both benefit more from and generate greater external benefits than corporate plants. On timing, I find evidence that high tech single plant firms benefit from the scale of past own industry activity, as well as current activity. I find no evidence of urbanization economies from the diversity of local economic activity outside the own industry and limited evidence of urbanization economies from the overall scale of local economic activity.

Fruiting body formation by Bacillus subtilis

Abstract: Spore formation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis has long been studied as a model for cellular differentiation, but predominantly as a single cell. When analyzed within the context of highly structured, surface-associated communities (biofilms), spore formation was discovered to have heretofore unsuspected spatial organization. Initially, motile cells differentiated into aligned chains of attached cells that eventually produced aerial structures, or fruiting bodies, that served as preferential sites for sporulation. Fruiting body formation depended on regulatory genes required early in sporulation and on genes evidently needed for exopolysaccharide and surfactin production. The formation of aerial structures was robust in natural isolates but not in laboratory strains, an indication that multicellularity has been lost during domestication of B. subtilis. Other microbial differentiation processes long thought to involve only single cells could display the spatial organization characteristic of multicellular organisms when studied with recent natural isolates.

Eternal Black Holes in AdS

Abstract: We propose a dual non-perturbative description for maximally extended Schwarzschild Anti-de-Sitter spacetimes. The description involves two copies of the conformal field theory associated to the AdS spacetime and an initial entangled state. In this context we also discuss a version of the information loss paradox and its resolution.

Connected audio and other media objects

Abstract: Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. In the context of a user's playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.

The Handbook of Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Part I: Discourse Analysis and Linguistics Part II: The Linking Of Theory and Practice In Discourse Analysis Part III: Discourse: Language, Context, and Interaction Part IV: Discourse Across Disciplines Index