Contextual text mining

With the dramatic growth of text information, there is an increasing need for powerful text mining systems that can automatically discover useful knowledge from text. Text is generally associated with all kinds of contextual information. Those contexts can be explicit, such as the time and the location where a blog article is written, and the author(s) of a biomedical publication, or implicit, such as the positive or negative sentiment that an author had when she wrote a product review; there may also be complex context such as the social network of the authors. Many applications require analysis of topic patterns over different contexts. For instance, analysis of search logs in the context of the user can reveal how we can improve the quality of a search engine by optimizing the search results according to particular users; analysis of customer reviews in the context of positive and negative sentiments can help the user summarize public opinions about a product; analysis of blogs or scientific publications in the context of a social network can facilitate discovery of more meaningful topical communities. Since context information significantly affects the choices of topics and language made by authors, in general, it is very important to incorporate it into analyzing and mining text data. In general, modeling the context in text, discovering contextual patterns of language units and topics from text, a general task which we refer to as Contextual Text Mining, has widespread applications in text mining. In this thesis, we provide a novel and systematic study of contextual text mining, which is a new paradigm of text mining treating context information as the ``first-class citizen.'' We formally define the problem of contextual text mining and its basic tasks, and propose a general framework for contextual text mining based on generative modeling of text. This conceptual framework provides general guidance on text mining problems with context information and can be instantiated into many real tasks, including the general problem of contextual topic analysis. We formally present a functional framework for contextual topic analysis, with a general contextual topic model and its various versions, which can effectively solve the text mining problems in a lot of real world applications. We further introduce general components of contextual topic analysis, by adding priors to contextual topic models to incorporate prior knowledge, regularizing contextual topic models with dependency structure of context, and postprocessing contextual patterns to extract refined patterns. The refinements on the general contextual topic model naturally lead to a variety of probabilistic models which incorporate different types of context and various assumptions and constraints. These special versions of the contextual topic model are proved effective in a variety of real applications involving topics and explicit contexts, implicit contexts, and complex contexts. We then introduce a postprocessing procedure for contextual patterns, by generating meaningful labels for multinomial context models. This method provides a general way to interpret text mining results for real users. By applying contextual text mining in the ``context'' of other text information management tasks, including ad hoc text retrieval and web search, we further prove the effectiveness of contextual text mining techniques in a quantitative way with large scale datasets. The framework of contextual text mining not only unifies many explorations of text analysis with context information, but also opens up many new possibilities for future research directions in text mining.

Rising Publication Delays Inflate Journal Impact Factors

Journal impact factors have become an important criterion to judge the quality of scientific publications over the years, influencing the evaluation of institutions and individual researchers worldwide. However, they are also subject to a number of criticisms. Here we point out that the calculation of a journal’s impact factor is mainly based on the date of publication of its articles in print form, despite the fact that most journals now make their articles available online before that date. We analyze 61 neuroscience journals and show that delays between online and print publication of articles increased steadily over the last decade. Importantly, such a practice varies widely among journals, as some of them have no delays, while for others this period is longer than a year. Using a modified impact factor based on online rather than print publication dates, we demonstrate that online-to-print delays can artificially raise a journal’s impact factor, and that this inflation is greater for longer publication lags. We also show that correcting the effect of publication delay on impact factors changes journal rankings based on this metric. We thus suggest that indexing of articles in citation databases and calculation of citation metrics should be based on the date of an article’s online appearance, rather than on that of its publication in print.

Grain coarsening in contact metamorphic carbonates: effects of second-phase particles, fluid flow and thermal perturbations

Under contact metamorphic conditions, carbonate rocks in the direct vicinity of the Adamello pluton reflect a temperature-induced grain coarsening. Despite this large-scale trend, a considerable grain size scatter occurs on the outcrop-scale indicating local influence of second-order effects such as thermal perturbations, fluid flow and second-phase particles. Second-phase particles, whose sizes range from nano- to the micron-scale, induce the most pronounced data scatter resulting in grain sizes too small by up to a factor of 10, compared with theoretical grain growth in a pure system. Such values are restricted to relatively impure samples consisting of up to 10 vol.% micron-scale second-phase particles, or to samples containing a large number of nano-scale particles. The obtained data set suggests that the second phases induce a temperature-controlled reduction on calcite grain growth. The mean calcite grain size can therefore be expressed in the form D 1⁄4 C2 eQ*/RT(dp/fp)m*, where C2 is a constant, Q* is an activation energy, T the temperature and m* the exponent of the ratio dp/fp, i.e. of the average size of the second phases divided by their volume fraction. However, more data are needed to obtain reliable values for C2 and Q*. Besides variations in the average grain size, the presence of second-phase particles generates crystal size distribution (CSD) shapes characterized by lognormal distributions, which differ from the Gaussian-type distributions of the pure samples. In contrast, fluid-enhanced grain growth does not change the shape of the CSDs, but due to enhanced transport properties, the average grain sizes increase by a factor of 2 and the variance of the distribution increases. Stable d18O and d13C isotope ratios in fluid-affected zones only deviate slightly from the host rock values, suggesting low fluid/rock ratios. Grain growth modelling indicates that the fluid-induced grain size variations can develop within several ka. As inferred from a combination of thermal and grain growth modelling, dykes with widths of up to 1 m have only a restricted influence on grain size deviations smaller than a factor of 1.1.To summarize, considerable grain size variations of up to one order of magnitude can locally result from second-order effects. Such effects require special attention when comparing experimentally derived grain growth kinetics with field studies.

Ética na pesquisa em Administração

Ethics on scientific research is approached and often discussed in several areas of knowledge connected to health. In the Administration area there are very few studies which approach the topic of ethics on research. The present paper tried to fill in this gap in the production of knowledge about the topic, investigating how the ethical principles found in the literature and in the codes of conduct are noticed and taken into account in Administration research activities developed by acting researchers in Administration Post Graduation Programs. Theoretically speaking, the study was based mainly on the approaches by Creswell (2007) and Bell and Bryman (2007), which discuss the research ethical principles. Methodologically speaking it was all about an exploratory kind of study, with qualitative research approach. Upon data collection, personal interviews were made aiming at its depth and focus groups were formed. The first stage had interviews with four experienced researchers who took part on a teaching and researching event and on the second stage we used the focus group technique. The focus groups were done in four college institutions along with the post graduation programs in Administration in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Pernambuco, in Brazil. The results suggest the existence of general principles and parameters for the scientific research recommended in the literature and on official resolution. However, in the Administration area, there are only a few recommendations of good practices when it comes to submitting articles for scientific publications but we found no guidance with ethical principles and parameters which cover all the activities in the scientific research and which specifically meet the research particularities in Administration. The main ethical dilemma pointed by the researchers refers to ethical questions which arise at the time of data collection and on disclosing the results. Most researchers do not know the guidelines and the ethical norms on ethics about research that we have in our country neither do they send in their projects to the research ethics committee. When dilemma arises, they decide the ethical question based on their values and common sense. These elements confirm the thesis that the researcher s procedure in the research activities in Administration is predominantly signed by personal values or by common sense and less by ethical principles, whether by not knowing the normative instruments related to ethics or by disagreeing with any disciplining rules on ethical behavior in the research

Fachliche Publikationskulturen und Open Access. Fächerübergreifende Entwicklungstendenzen und Spezifika der Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung

Open Access zu öffentlich geförderten wissenschaftlichen Publikationen ist unter dem Vorzeichen der „Openness“ Teil einer zunehmend bedeutsamen globalen Entwicklung mit strukturellen Folgen für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Bildung. Dabei bedingen die jeweiligen fachkulturellen Ausgangslagen und ökonomischen Interessenskonstellationen sehr stark, in welcher Weise, mit welcher Reichweite und Akzeptanz sich das Open-Access-Paradigma konkret materialisiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht dieser Frage am Beispiel des inter- bzw. pluridisziplinären Feldes der Erziehungswissenschaft/Bildungsforschung nach. Zum einen werden die fachlichen und soziokulturellen Konstellationen des Publizierens im disziplinären Feld, die verlagswirtschaftlichen Marktkonstellationen sowie die informationsinfrastrukturellen Bedingungen des Fachgebietes analysiert und ein differenziertes Gesamtbild erstellt. Gestützt auf eine Online-Befragung der Fachcommunity Erziehungswissenschaft/Bildungsforschung werden weitergehende Erkenntnisse über vorhandene Open-Access-Erfahrungen im Fachgebiet und Hemmnisse bzw. Anforderungen an das neue Publikationsmodell aus der Sicht der Wissenschaftler/innen selbst – sowie explorativ aus Sicht der Studierenden und der Bildungspraxis - ermittelt. Wesentliche Faktoren bei der Betrachtung der Potenziale und Effekte von Open Access im Fachgebiet bilden die Faktoren akademischer Status und Funktion, Interdisziplinarität und fachliche Provenienz sowie das Verhältnis von Bildungspraxis und akademischem Sektor. (DIPF/Orig.)

DOIs for ocean data, general principles and selected examples (Argo, French cruises)

This document describes the general principles of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). It provide examples of DOI implementation useful for AtlantOS H2020 project networks. A DOI is an allocation of unique identifier. Generally used to identify scientific publications, a DOI can be attributed to any physical, numerical or abstract resource.

Female entrepreneurship in belarus

Nowadays entrepreneurship is one of the main key objects in internal policy of each country. More and more women start doing their own business and thus become integral participants of entrepreneurial activities. However, despite of the abundance of various scientific publications, female entrepreneurship is poorly understood phenomenon, which is needed to be carefully scrutinized. The general purpose of this work is to describe and analyse such phenomenon as female entrepreneurship generally in the world and separately and mainly in Belarus. Indeed, it intends to determine the factors that drive women's entrepreneurship in Belarus. The findings are supported by literature, gathered from different scientific researches and actual statistical data. The data used in the empirical part was collected from World Bank Enterprise Surveys and comprises the responses of representatives of 360 companies selected randomly from the population of the Belarus companies. With the help of descriptive statistics and the application of logistic regression simple models to determine which economic, social, fiscal and legal environmental factors impact on female entrepreneurial activity was possible to understand the female involvement in business activities and society of the country.

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in British Columbia

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in the Prairie provinces

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in Ontario

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in the Atlantic provinces

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in the Northern territories

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Physiotherapy practices and third party payers: issues in professional ethics in Quebec

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]

Revisão sistemática da escalada

A Escalada é uma modalidade desportiva que tem apresentado um aumento exponencial ao nível da sua popularidade como também relativamente ao número de praticantes. O objetivo desta investigação foi realizar uma análise sobre o que subsiste atualmente a nível de investigação científica sobre a Escalada através de uma revisão sistemática, tendo em conta os artigos publicados nos últimos 10 anos. A pesquisa foi realizada na B-on, disponibilizando o acesso ilimitado e permanente às instituições de investigação e do ensino superior aos textos integrais de milhares periódicos científicos e ebooks online de alguns dos mais importantes fornecedores de conteúdos, através de assinaturas negociadas a nível nacional. Após a aplicação dos critérios de exclusão, foram selecionados 25 artigos que foram analisados na íntegra e incluídos na revisão. São, na sua grande maioria, estudos qualitativos e realizados no Reino Unido. Praticamente todas as investigações são estudos transversais e alguns deles baseados numa reduzida amostra de indivíduos do sexo masculino.

Evolution of emerging iPS cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

Stem cell-based regenerative medicine is poised to revolutionize the way diseases are treated. In recent years, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a newly stem cell species, has attracted significant attention. This paper seeks to understand the pathways along which emerging clinical research efforts in the field of iPS cells is evolved. In particular, the empirical case of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is used, which is the world-pioneering clinical application of iPS cells. In line with the literature, this study explores the interrelations between three different pathways, such as biomedical scientific understanding, development of medical technologies, and learning in clinical practice. For this, a techmining approach is used including co-term, co-citation, and direct citation methods. Scientific publications indexed in the Thomson Reuters' Web of Science and Elsevier's Scopus databases form the basis of the study. This research first explores the iPS cell research landscape through the construction of a co-term map, particularly stressing the location and intensity of disease-tackling efforts; then focus on the evolution of scientific knowledge on AMD through co-citation networks and the main path algorithm on direct citations. At the researcher level, the development of four different research groups working on cell therapies for AMD is evaluated through the software CitNetExplorer. By integrating these approaches, the result shows a wider picture of the complexities inherent in the translation of knowledge into revolutionary clinical methods.