Showing papers on "Context (language use) published in 2004"

Comparing Media Systems: three models of media and politics

Abstract: This book proposes a framework for comparative analysis of the relation between the media and the political system Building on a survey of media institutions in eighteen West European and North American democracies, Hallin and Mancini identify the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables that have shaped their evolution They go on to identify three major models of media system development, the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist, and Liberal models; to explain why the media have played a different role in politics in each of these systems; and to explore the force of change that are currently transforming them It provides a key theoretical statement about the relation between media and political systems, a key statement about the methodology of comparative analysis in political communication, and a clear overview of the variety of media institutions that have developed in the West, understood within their political and historical context

Trust in Automation: Designing for Appropriate Reliance

Abstract: Automation is often problematic because people fail to rely upon it appropriately. Because people respond to technology socially, trust influences reliance on automation. In particular, trust guides reliance when complexity and unanticipated situations make a complete understanding of the automation impractical. This review considers trust from the organizational, sociological, interpersonal, psychological, and neurological perspectives. It considers how the context, automation characteristics, and cognitive processes affect the appropriateness of trust. The context in which the automation is used influences automation performance and provides a goal-oriented perspective to assess automation characteristics along a dimension of attributional abstraction. These characteristics can influence trust through analytic, analogical, and affective processes. The challenges of extrapolating the concept of trust in people to trust in automation are discussed. A conceptual model integrates research regarding trust in automation and describes the dynamics of trust, the role of context, and the influence of display characteristics. Actual or potential applications of this research include improved designs of systems that require people to manage imperfect automation.

Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.

Abstract: Context Little is known about the extent or severity of untreated mental disorders, especially in less-developed countries. Objective To estimate prevalence, severity, and treatment of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorders in 14 countries (6 less developed, 8 developed) in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative. Design, Setting, and Participants Face-to-face household surveys of 60463 community adults conducted from 2001-2003 in 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Main Outcome Measures The DSM-IV disorders, severity, and treatment were assessed with the WMH version of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI), a fully structured, lay-administered psychiatric diagnostic interview. Results The prevalence of having any WMH-CIDI/DSM-IV disorder in the prior year varied widely, from 4.3% in Shanghai to 26.4% in the United States, with an interquartile range (IQR) of 9.1%-16.9%. Between 33.1% (Colombia) and 80.9% (Nigeria) of 12-month cases were mild (IQR, 40.2%-53.3%). Serious disorders were associated with substantial role disability. Although disorder severity was correlated with probability of treatment in almost all countries, 35.5%.to 50.3% of serious cases in developed countries and 76.3% to 85.4% in less-developed countries received no treatment in the 12 months before the interview. Due to the high prevalence of mild and subthreshold cases, the number of those who received treatment far exceeds the number of untreated serious cases in every country. Conclusions Reallocation of treatment resources could substantially decrease the problem of unmet need for treatment of mental disorders among serious cases. Structural barriers exist to this reallocation. Careful consideration needs to be given to the value of treating some mild cases,. especially those at risk for progressing to more serious disorders.

Design-Based Research: Putting a Stake in the Ground

Abstract: The emerging field of the learning sciences is one that is interdisciplinary, drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives and research paradigms so as to build understandings of the nature and conditions of learning, cognition, and development. Learning sciences researchers investigate cognition in context, at times emphasizing one more than the other but with the broad goal of developing evidence-based claims derived from both laboratory-based and naturalistic investigations that result in knowledge about how people learn. This work can involve the development of technological tools, curriculum, and especially theory that can be used to understand and support learning. A fundamental assumption of many learning scientists is that cognition is not a thing located within the individual thinker but is a process that is distributed across the knower, the environment in which knowing occurs, and the activity in which the learner participates. In other words, learning, cognition, knowing, and context are irreducibly co-constituted and cannot be treated as isolated entities or processes. If one believes that context matters in terms of learning and cognition, research paradigms that simply examine these processes as isolated variables within laboratory or other impoverished contexts of participation will necessarily lead to an incomplete understanding of their relevance in more naturalistic settings (Brown, 1992).1 Alternatively, simply observing learning and cognition as they naturally Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Sasha A. Barab, School of Education,

Consumer trust in B2C e-Commerce and the importance of social presence: experiments in e-Products and e-Services

Abstract: Reducing social uncertainty—understanding, predicting, and controlling the behavior of other people—is a central motivating force of human behavior. When rules and customs are not sufficient, people rely on trust and familiarity as primary mechanisms to reduce social uncertainty. The relative paucity of regulations and customs on the Internet makes consumer familiarity and trust especially important in the case of e-Commerce. Yet the lack of an interpersonal exchange and the one-time nature of the typical business transaction on the Internet make this kind of consumer trust unique, because trust relates to other people and is nourished through interactions with them. This study validates a four-dimensional scale of trust in the context of e-Products and revalidates it in the context of e-Services. The study then shows the influence of social presence on these dimensions of this trust, especially benevolence, and its ultimate contribution to online purchase intentions.

What we talk about when we talk about context

Abstract: The emergence of ubiquitous computing as a new design paradigm poses significant challenges for human-computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design. Traditionally, HCI has taken place within a constrained and well-understood domain of experience—single users sitting at desks and interacting with conventionally-designed computers employing screens, keyboards and mice for interaction. New opportunities have engendered considerable interest in “context-aware computing”—computational systems that can sense and respond to aspects of the settings in which they are used. However, considerable confusion surrounds the notion of “context”—what it means, what it includes and what role it plays in interactive systems. This paper suggests that the representational stance implied by conventional interpretations of “context” misinterprets the role of context in everyday human activity, and proposes an alternative model that suggests different directions for design.

Functions of a Complex Variable

Abstract: In earlier chapters, complex-valued functions appeared in connection with Fourier series expansions. In this context, while the function assumes complex values, the argument of the function is real-valued. There is a highly developed theory of (complex-valued) functions of a complex-valued argument. This theory contains some remarkably powerful results which are applicable to a variety of problems.

Visual objects in context

Abstract: We see the world in scenes, where visual objects occur in rich surroundings, often embedded in a typical context with other related objects. How does the human brain analyse and use these common associations? This article reviews the knowledge that is available, proposes specific mechanisms for the contextual facilitation of object recognition, and highlights important open questions. Although much has already been revealed about the cognitive and cortical mechanisms that subserve recognition of individual objects, surprisingly little is known about the neural underpinnings of contextual analysis and scene perception. Building on previous findings, we now have the means to address the question of how the brain integrates individual elements to construct the visual experience.

Competition Policy: Theory and Practice

Abstract: This is the first book to provide a systematic treatment of the economics of antitrust (or competition policy) in a global context. It draws on the literature of industrial organisation and on original analyses to deal with such important issues as cartels, joint-ventures, mergers, vertical contracts, predatory pricing, exclusionary practices, and price discrimination, and to formulate policy implications on these issues. The interaction between theory and practice is one of the main features of the book, which contains frequent references to competition policy cases and a few fully developed case studies. The treatment is written to appeal to practitioners and students, to lawyers and economists. It is not only a textbook in economics for first year graduate or advanced undergraduate courses, but also a book for all those who wish to understand competition issues in a clear and rigorous way. Exercises and some solved problems are provided.

A Context Modeling Survey

Abstract: Context-awareness is one of the drivers of the ubiquitous computing paradigm, whereas a well designed model is a key accessor to the context in any context-aware system This paper provides a survey of the the most relevant current approaches to modeling context for ubiquitous computing Numerous approaches are reviewed, classified relative to their core elements and evaluated with respect to their appropriateness for ubiquitous computing

What drives change? Barriers to and incentives for achieving evidence-based practice.

Abstract: To bridge the gap between scientific evidence and patient care we need an in-depth understanding of the barriers and incentives to achieving change in practice. Various theories and models for change point to a multitude of factors that may affect the successful implementation of evidence. However, the evidence for their value in the field is still limited. When planning complex changes in practice, potential barriers at various levels need to be addressed. Planning needs to take into account the nature of the innovation; characteristics of the professionals and patients involved; and the social, organisational, economic and political context.

Learning with Drift Detection

Abstract: Most of the work in machine learning assume that examples are generated at random according to some stationary probability distribution. In this work we study the problem of learning when the distribution that generate the examples changes over time. We present a method for detection of changes in the probability distribution of examples. The idea behind the drift detection method is to control the online error-rate of the algorithm. The training examples are presented in sequence. When a new training example is available, it is classified using the actual model. Statistical theory guarantees that while the distribution is stationary, the error will decrease. When the distribution changes, the error will increase. The method controls the trace of the online error of the algorithm. For the actual context we define a warning level, and a drift level. A new context is declared, if in a sequence of examples, the error increases reaching the warning level at example k w , and the drift level at example k d . This is an indication of a change in the distribution of the examples. The algorithm learns a new model using only the examples since k w . The method was tested with a set of eight artificial datasets and a real world dataset. We used three learning algorithms: a perceptron, a neural network and a decision tree. The experimental results show a good performance detecting drift and with learning the new concept. We also observe that the method is independent of the learning algorithm.

Ontology based context modeling and reasoning using OWL

Abstract: Here we propose an OWL encoded context ontology (CONON) for modeling context in pervasive computing environments, and for supporting logic-based context reasoning. CONON provides an upper context ontology that captures general concepts about basic context, and also provides extensibility for adding domain-specific ontology in a hierarchical manner. Based on this context ontology, we have studied the use of logic reasoning to check the consistency of context information, and to reason over low-level, explicit context to derive high-level, implicit context. By giving a performance study for our prototype, we quantitatively evaluate the feasibility of logic based context reasoning for nontime-critical applications in pervasive computing environments, where we always have to deal carefully with the limitation of computational resources.

Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Mentalization Based Treatment

Abstract: 1. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND ETIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER Definition of the problem Epidemiology Clinical picture The natural history of BPD Studies of mechanisms and aetiological factors 2. THERAPY RESEARCH AND OUTCOME Psychological treatments Drug treatments Problems of outcome research 3. MENTALIZATION-BASED UNDERSTANDING OF BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER The developmental roots of BPD The relevance of the attachment theory perspective Optimal self-development in a secure attachment context The impact of an insecure base The impact of attachment trauma 4. CURRENT MODELS OF TREATMENT FOR BPD Transference focused therapy Dialectical behaviour therapy Cognitive behaviour therapy Cognitive analytic therapy Psychodynamic-interpersonal Therapeutic communities Other North American approaches Other European approaches Mentalization: the common theme in psychotherapeutic approaches to BPD 5. TREATMENT ORGANIZATION Service models The treatment programmes Staff Assessment Engagement in treatment Supporting the team Care programme approach Adherence 6. TRANSFERABLE FEATURES OF THE MBT MODEL Structure Consistency, constancy and coherence Relationship focus Flexibility Intensity Individual approach to care Use of medication Integration of modalities of therapy 7. STRATEGIES OF TREATMENT Enhancing mentalization Bridging the gaps Transference Retaining mental closeness Working with current mental states Bearing in mind the deficits Real relationships 8. TECHNIQUES OF TREATMENT Identification and appropriate expression of affect Establishment of stable representational systems Formation of coherent sense of Self Development of a capacity to form secure relationships 9. IMPLEMENTATION PATHWAY Step 1 - Consider the context in which you work ... Step 2 - Apply organizational principles Step 3 - Modify the aims and techniques of your current practice Step 4 - Implement procedures for dealing with challenging behaviours Step 5 - Constantly evaluate your practice Appendices References

Mental health provider attitudes toward adoption of evidence-based practice: the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS).

Abstract: Mental health provider attitudes toward organizational change have not been well studied. Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into real-world settings represent organizational change that may be limited or facilitated by provider attitudes toward adoption of new treatments, interventions, and practices. A brief measure of mental health provider attitudes toward adoption of EBPs was developed and attitudes were examined in relation to a set of provider individual difference and organizational characteristics. Methods: Participants were 322 public sector clinical service workers from 51 programs providing mental health services to children and adolescents and their families. Results: Four dimensions of attitudes toward adoption of EBPs were identified: (1) intuitive Appeal of EBP, (2) likelihood of adopting EBP given Requirements to do so, (3) Openness to new practices, and (4) perceived Divergence of usual practice with research-based/academically developed interventions. Provider attitudes varied by education level, level of experience, and organizational context. Conclusions: Attitudes toward adoption of EBPs can be reliably measured and vary in relation to individual differences and service context. EBP implementation plans should include consideration of mental health service provider attitudes as a potential aid to improve the process and effectiveness of dissemination efforts.

The emulation theory of representation: motor control, imagery, and perception.

Abstract: The emulation theory of representation is developed and explored as a framework that can revealingly synthesize a wide vari- ety of representational functions of the brain. The framework is based on constructs from control theory (forward models) and signal processing (Kalman filters). The idea is that in addition to simply engaging with the body and environment, the brain constructs neural circuits that act as models of the body and environment. During overt sensorimotor engagement, these models are driven by efference copies in parallel with the body and environment, in order to provide expectations of the sensory feedback, and to enhance and process sensory information. These models can also be run off-line in order to produce imagery, estimate outcomes of different actions, and eval- uate and develop motor plans. The framework is initially developed within the context of motor control, where it has been shown that inner models running in parallel with the body can reduce the effects of feedback delay problems. The same mechanisms can account for motor imagery as the off-line driving of the emulator via efference copies. The framework is extended to account for visual imagery as the off-line driving of an emulator of the motor-visual loop. I also show how such systems can provide for amodal spatial imagery. Per- ception, including visual perception, results from such models being used to form expectations of, and to interpret, sensory input. I close by briefly outlining other cognitive functions that might also be synthesized within this framework, including reasoning, theory of mind phenomena, and language.

Complex interventions: how "out of control" can a randomised controlled trial be?

Abstract: Complex interventions are more than the sum of their parts, and interventions need to be better theorised to reflect this Many people think that standardisation and randomised controlled trials go hand in hand. Having an intervention look the same as possible in different places is thought to be paramount. But this may be why some community interventions have had weak effects. We propose a radical departure from the way large scale interventions are typically conceptualised. This could liberate interventions to be responsive to local context and potentially more effective while still allowing meaningful evaluation in controlled designs. The key lies in looking past the simple elements of a system to embrace complex system functions and processes. The suitability of cluster randomised trials for evaluating interventions directed at whole communities or organisations remains vexed.1 It need not be.2 Some health promotion advocates (including the WHO European working group on health promotion evaluation) believe randomised controlled trials are inappropriate because of the perceived requirement for interventions in different sites to be standardised or look the same.1 3 4 They have abandoned randomised trials because they think context level adaptation, which is essential for interventions to work, is precluded by trial designs. An example of context level adaptation might be adjusting educational materials to suit various local learning styles and literacy levels. Lead thinkers in complex interventions, such as the UK's Medical Research Council, also think that trials of complex interventions must “consistently provide as close to the same intervention as possible” by “standardising the content and delivery of the intervention.”5 By contrast, however, they do not see this as a reason to reject randomised controlled trials. These divergent views have led to problems on two fronts. Firstly, the field of health promotion is being turned away from randomised …

An Ontology for Context-Aware Pervasive Computing Environments

Abstract: This document describes COBRA-ONT, an ontology for supporting pervasive context-aware systems. COBRA-ONT, expressed in the Web Ontology Language OWL, is a collection of ontologies for describing places, agents and events and their associated properties in an intelligent meeting-room domain. This ontology is developed as a part of the Context Broker Architecture (CoBrA), a broker-centric agent architecture that provides knowledge sharing, context reasoning and privacy protection supports for pervasive context-aware systems. We also describe an inference engine for reasoning with information expressed using the COBRA-ONT ontology and the ongoing research in using the DAML-Time ontology for context reasoning.

The emulation theory of representation: Motor control, imagery, and perception - eScholarship

Abstract: The emulation theory of representation is developed and explored as a framework that can revealingly synthesize a wide variety of representational functions of the brain. The framework is based on constructs from control theory (forward models) and signal processing (Kalman filters). The idea is that in addition to simply engaging with the body and environment, the brain constructs neural circuits that act as models of the body and environment. During overt sensorimotor engagement, these models are driven by efference copies in parallel with the body and environment, in order to provide expectations of the sensory feedback, and to enhance and process sensory information. These models can also be run off-line in order to produce imagery, estimate outcomes of different actions, and evaluate and develop motor plans. The framework is initially developed within the context of motor control, where it has been shown that inner models running in parallel with the body can reduce the effects of feedback delay problems. The same mechanisms can account for motor imagery as the off-line driving of the emulator via efference copies. The framework is extended to account for visual imagery as the off-line driving of air emulator of the motor-visual loop. I also show how such systems can provide for amodal spatial imagery. Perception, including visual perception, results from such models being used to form expectations of, and to interpret, sensory input. I close by briefly outlining other cognitive functions that might also be synthesized within this framework, including reasoning, theory of mind phenomena, and language.

Parental School Involvement and Children's Academic Achievement: Pragmatics and Issues

Abstract: Developing collaborations between families and schools to promote academic success has a long-standing basis in research and is the focus of numerous programs and policies. We outline some of the mechanisms through which parental school involvement affects achievement and identify how patterns and amounts of involvement vary across cultural, economic, and community contexts and across developmental levels. We propose next steps for research, focusing on the importance of considering students' developmental stages, the context in which involvement takes place, and the multiple perspectives through which involvement may be assessed. Finally, we discuss enhancing involvement in diverse situations.

The 'Making' of an Entrepreneur: Testing a Model of Entrepreneurial Intent among Engineering Students at MIT

Abstract: In the present, study a covariance structure model is tested to identify the causes of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students. Specifically, we explore whether steady personal dispositions or whether perceptions of contextual founding conditions have an impact on the intention to found one's own business. The survey of 512 students at the MIT School of Engineering broadly confirms the model. Personality traits have a strong impact on the attitude towards self-employment. The entrepreneurial attitude is strongly linked with the intention to start a new venture. The students' personality, therefore, shows an indirect effect on intentions. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial intent is directly affected by perceived barriers and support factors in the entrepreneurship-related context. The findings have important implications for policy makers inside and outside universities.

State-of-the-art in privacy preserving data mining

Abstract: We provide here an overview of the new and rapidly emerging research area of privacy preserving data mining. We also propose a classification hierarchy that sets the basis for analyzing the work which has been performed in this context. A detailed review of the work accomplished in this area is also given, along with the coordinates of each work to the classification hierarchy. A brief evaluation is performed, and some initial conclusions are made.

Studying cooperation and conflict between authors with history flow visualizations

Abstract: The Internet has fostered an unconventional and powerful style of collaboration: "wiki" web sites, where every visitor has the power to become an editor. In this paper we investigate the dynamics of Wikipedia, a prominent, thriving wiki. We make three contributions. First, we introduce a new exploratory data analysis tool, the history flow visualization, which is effective in revealing patterns within the wiki context and which we believe will be useful in other collaborative situations as well. Second, we discuss several collaboration patterns highlighted by this visualization tool and corroborate them with statistical analysis. Third, we discuss the implications of these patterns for the design and governance of online collaborative social spaces. We focus on the relevance of authorship, the value of community surveillance in ameliorating antisocial behavior, and how authors with competing perspectives negotiate their differences.

Clarifying the Construct of Mindfulness in the Context of Emotion Regulation and the Process of Change in Therapy

Abstract: Bishop et al. (this issue) propose an operational definition of mindfulness developed by a recent consensus panel. The group provides a solid empirical framework from which to develop measures of mindfulness, and they propose an exciting research agenda. We describe measurement development work from our research group that provides initial support for the proposed consensus definition and that examines mindfulness in relation to emotion regulation variables. We extend the discussion by describing how mindfulness can enhance the stabilizing and destabilizing aspects of therapeutic change, and we illustrate this in the context of our treatment program for depression.

Natural History of Early, Localized Prostate Cancer

Abstract: Context Among men with early prostate cancer, the natural history without initial therapy determines the potential for survival benefit following radical local treatment. However, little is known a ...

The Moral Imperative of School Leadership

Abstract: Foreword - John I. Goodlad Preface About the Author Dedication 1. Changing the Context The Public Schools We Need The Principals and Teachers We Need 2. Barriers to School Leadership Self-Imposed Barriers System-Imposed Barriers 3. The Moral Imperative at the School Level Level 1: Making a Difference in Individuals Level 2: Making a Difference in the School The Emerging Image of the Moral Imperative of the Principalship 4. Making a Difference Beyond the School Level 3: Making a Difference Regionally Level 4: School Leadership and Society 5. How to Get There: The Individual and the System The Individual The System References Index

Considering context, place and culture: the National Latino and Asian American Study

Abstract: This paper provides a rationale for, and overview of, procedures used to develop the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is nationally representative community household survey that estimates the prevalence of mental disorders and rates of mental health service utilization by Latinos and Asian Americans in the US. The central aims of the NLAAS are to: 1) describe the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the rates of mental health services use for Latino and Asian American populations using nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) assess the associations among social position, environmental context, and psychosocial factors with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and utilization rates of mental health services, and 3) compare the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and utilization of mental health services of Latinos and Asian Americans with national representative samples of non-Latino whites (from the National Comorbidity Study-Replication) (NCS-R) and African Americans (from the National Survey of American Life) (NSAL). This paper presents new concepts and methods utilized in the development of the NLAAS to capture and investigate ethnic, cultural and environmental considerations that are often ignored in mental health research.