Information Space Research Articles

Exploring the potential for enhancing green skills training, innovation and sustainable livelihoods in informal spaces of Harare, Zimbabwe: identifying gaps and opportunities

PurposeDespite growing emphasis on green skills, innovation, and sustainable livelihoods, research remains limited in the informal economy, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates gaps in green skills training, innovations and livelihoods among informal metal fabricators, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities within this sector. Specifically, the study critically assesses the potential for upskilling informal metal fabricators through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and university innovation hubs.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a qualitative interpretive methodology, we conducted 40 key informant interviews with small-scale informal metal fabricators operating in Magaba and Gaza home industries, two of Harare’s largest home industries in Zimbabwe. Subsequent key informant interviews were held with TVET educators and innovation hub lecturers. Observations were carried out over a period of three months to comprehensively explore the issues under investigation.FindingsGender disparities persist within informal innovation spaces, with women making strides in the traditionally male-dominated field of metal fabrication. However, challenges such as prejudices, stigma, ridicule and abuse hinder women’s full participation in manufacturing processes, often relegating them to less physically demanding roles like customer engagement and product marketing. Inequities in support for green skills training were evident, with the innovation hub model primarily catering to formally educated youth in universities, neglecting the active involvement of notable informal innovators with limited formal education. While a gradual shift toward renewable energy sources is observable in the informal economy, government-owned TVET institutions show minimal or no adjustments in course content to incorporate essential green skills. In light of the findings, the study proposes measures to ensure equitable green skills training, innovation and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods in the informal metal fabrication sector.Originality/valueThe findings of this study represent a novel contribution the gaps in green skills training in the informal economy and how these inform reforms for vocational learning and training practices and the incubation of innovations.

Attack on optical cryptosystems by skip connection networks

Optical encryption methods, due to their efficient operation speed and parallel processing capabilities, hold significant importance in securing multidimensional and large-volume data. Enhancing the security of optical cryptosystems from the perspective of cryptanalysis holds significant importance currently. Presently, attack methods against optical encryption are complex, and the effectiveness of these attacks is insufficient. Security analysis solutions face limitations in both breadth and depth. Therefore, this paper proposes an attack on optical cryptosystems based on a skip connection network, demonstrating the susceptibility of optical cryptosystems to attacks based on neural network algorithms. The network model is trained on plaintext-ciphertext pairs, fitting equivalent keys without various additional conditions. It approximates plaintext information in high-dimensional space, directly obtaining corresponding plaintext through ciphertext information, expanding the applicability and enhancing the effectiveness of the attack scheme. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the attack scheme were verified through computer simulations. The experiments indicate that the method proposed in this paper has low computational complexity, wide applicability, produces high-quality decrypted images, and high decipherment accuracy. This provides a universal approach for analyzing the security of various optical cryptosystems from the perspective of chosen plaintext attacks.

Response Item Network (ResIN): A network-based approach to explore attitude systems

Belief network analysis (BNA) refers to a class of methods designed to detect and outline structural organizations of complex attitude systems. BNA can be used to analyze attitude-structures of abstract concepts such as ideologies, worldviews, and norm systems that inform how people perceive and navigate the world. The present manuscript presents a formal specification of the Response-Item Network (or ResIN), a new methodological approach that advances BNA in at least two important ways. First, ResIN allows for the detection of attitude asymmetries between different groups, improving the applicability and validity of BNA in research contexts that focus on intergroup differences and/or relationships. Second, ResIN’s networks include a spatial component that is directly connected to item response theory (IRT). This allows for access to latent space information in which each attitude (i.e. each response option across items in a survey) is positioned in relation to the core dimension(s) of group structure, revealing non-linearities and allowing for a more contextual and holistic interpretation of the attitudes network. To validate the effectiveness of ResIN, we develop a mathematical model and apply ResIN to both simulated and real data. Furthermore, we compare these results to existing methods of BNA and IRT. When used to analyze partisan belief-networks in the US-American political context, ResIN was able to reliably distinguish Democrat and Republican attitudes, even in highly asymmetrical attitude systems. These results demonstrate the utility of ResIN as a powerful tool for the analysis of complex attitude systems and contribute to the advancement of BNA.

Registration of apartments and office spaces in 3D land administration – A case study in Croatia

Due to the needs of modern society, cadastral systems should be designed to support three dimensional (3D) spatial data. One of many possible approaches for implementing a 3D cadastre, in countries such as Croatia, is to establish a Building Register as a transitional register between 2D and 3D cadastres, where data about buildings and infrastructure would be collected, gradually adapted to the data model of 3D cadastre, and finally migrated to the 3D cadastre database. Sources for establishing the Building Register can be based on the records of state surveys, the register of administrative units, the land book, data managed by local and regional self-government units, data from construction documentation according to special regulations in the field of spatial planning, data managed by the building and infrastructure managers, as well as from other sources. A significant element of the 3D cadastre would be the inclusion of representations of buildings and units of use, as well as public utility infrastructure and complex spatial real-life entities (e.g., bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses, overlapping of constructed objects with natural facilities, large shopping malls with more underground and overhead floors etc.). This paper presents a conceptual model of a 3D cadastre in Croatia by establishing the Building Register with focus on unit of use of real properties, namely apartments and office spaces. The paper also summarizes the current situation regarding the Croatian Land Administration System (LAS) and proposes a conceptual model for modelling unit of use of real properties. Additionally, a proposal is made herein to assign unique identifiers to buildings and their parts in a logical manner which would be intuitive and clear to citizens of Croatia, citizens of European Union and citizens of Croatia neighboring countries. The proposed methodology of determining unique identifiers could provide the means for easier navigation in 3D space and better understanding of spatial information by lay citizens, by institutions or emergency services.

“I Saw It in a Movie”: Mass Media’s Influence on Young Children’s Understanding of World Cultures

This article describes research investigating mass media’s influence on elementary-aged children’s understanding of world cultures through the lens of serendipitous learning. The qualitative study explored the ideas children constructed about other countries, cultures, and people through their unmediated use of various media including movies, internet sites, books, video games, and television. Outcomes are primarily reported through the children’s own voices, and show they developed superficial, miseducative views through isolated, fragmented trivia and factoids that focused on surface culture, deficits, and exotica. However, the introduction to world cultures through media also encouraged interest and curiosity about other cultures in some children, with one student moving beyond initial exposure through media to extend his learning on his own. Results also suggest the children gleaned cultural information collaterally through media developed for purposes other than education, illustrating the complexity of media’s influence, and the idiosyncratic process of developing cultural cognition. These outcomes emphasize the importance of parents, other caregivers, and teachers addressing distortions in cultural understanding, and the necessity of teaching about world cultures in both formal and informal educational spaces to provide counternarratives and more complex perspectives than those generally found in mass media.

Weighted information entropy‐based Kalman filter for outliers and structural noise

AbstractStructural noise and outliers are widely present in real‐world state estimate scenarios, and they significantly degrade the performance of most filtering algorithms based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion. To address this problem, this paper first models structural noise and outliers as independent and piecewise identical distribution (IPID). Then, a minimum error weighted entropy‐based Kalman filter (MEWE‐KF) is proposed, where a new cost function is constructed by introducing a weight function related to error location distances in an original information space into the minimum error entropy (MEE) criterion. Further, the iterative formulations of the proposed filter are derived, and the computational complexity and the convergence are also analyzed. Simulation results show that the proposed filter with adaptive weights has the superior performance for suppressing structural noise and outliers.

Simulation of association rule mining based on sensor networks in Chinese language learning recommendation system for college students

Based on the increasing learning needs of students that cannot be met by traditional education in schools, the use of online learning platforms has become a way for many college students to learn Chinese, thereby improving their academic performance and literary literacy. However, it is difficult to guarantee the service quality of online platforms for Chinese learning at present, so this paper proposes an association rule mining algorithm to strengthen Chinese online learning. We using user service quality as a constraint to improve spectrum utilization and energy efficiency, and defining the user state space, borrowing the obtained resource allocation optimization function to reward a small portion of users' communication costs, ultimately obtaining user state space information and one-dimensional state space data. This algorithm performs grouping operations on the data estimated by a large amount of computation, and divides the data into balanced categories to reduce the amount of input data in the network. The performance test results show that this paper has made a great breakthrough in the personalization of Chinese learning, and has outstanding performance in the processing and classification of Big data. There are also some solutions to the problem of too much existing data. In a period of use experience analysis report, we found that the online platform for Chinese learning can give consideration to students' personalized needs and experience.

Informal public space: exploring street vending in Tehran

ABSTRACT The shaping of public spaces in global South cities generally involves informal actors and activities competing for access, use, and visibility, with street vending being one of the most prevalent forms of urban informality. Despite the crucial role of street vendors in shaping the streetscapes and promoting employment productivity, they often face little dignity and tolerance from authorities. This paper presents findings derived from a case study in Tehran, using observation, photography, fieldwork notes, archival records, and urban mapping to investigate the dynamics of street vending in relation to human/non-human entities, including functional mix, ground-floor storefronts, pedestrian flows, and gender. Empirical evidence suggests that street vendors are attracted to high volumes of pedestrian traffic, acting as external stimuli or social catalysts that impact people’s relationships, especially women’s. The paper reveals a strong link between the predominance of street vending and increased levels of women’s activities, albeit with negligible use of public space by women vendors. The paper provides empirical evidence that street vending is a male-dominated occupation in the studied area. These findings offer insights for developing context-specific, spatially grounded interventions that recognise the diversity of street vendors and enable their activities to thrive in the public realm.

MEDIS—A comprehensive spatial database on Mediterranean islands for biogeographical and evolutionary research

AbstractMotivationThe intrinsic characteristics of islands make them a unique study system for the investigation of ecological and evolutionary dynamics. The Mediterranean Basin, an island‐rich biodiversity hotspot, still lacks a comprehensive spatial database for these geographic features. This study presents the first comprehensive spatial database of all Mediterranean islands larger than 0.01 km2, aiding ecological investigations and interdisciplinary research.Main types of variable containedThe MEDIS spatial database offers detailed information on 39 geographic, climatic, ecological and land‐use variables, including island area, perimeter, isolation metrics, climatic space, terrain data, land cover, palaeogeography, road networks and geological information, providing a multifaceted view of each island's characteristics.Spatial location and grainThe study encompasses 2217 islands in the Mediterranean Basin larger than 0.01 km2. The spatial grain of the datasets on which the selected variables are based varies from 10 m (ESA WorldCover) to 1 km (CHELSA‐BIOCLIM+).Time period and grainThe spatial database incorporates data from various sources, each with its own timeframe, such as the Global Shoreline Vector from 2014 Landsat imagery and the WorldCover dataset from 2021. Historical data like the Paleocoastlines GIS dataset offer insights into island configurations during the Last Glacial Maximum.Major taxa and level of measurementWhile not focusing on specific taxa, the study lays the foundation for comprehensive research on Mediterranean islands, facilitating comparisons and investigations into the distribution of native, endemic or alien species. The level of measurement is extensive, encompassing a wide range of variables and providing polygonal features rather than centroids' coordinates.

Multi-attention fusion transformer for single-image super-resolution

Recently, Transformer-based methods have gained prominence in image super-resolution (SR) tasks, addressing the challenge of long-range dependence through the incorporation of cross-layer connectivity and local attention mechanisms. However, the analysis of these networks using local attribution maps has revealed significant limitations in leveraging the spatial extent of input information. To unlock the inherent potential of Transformer in image SR, we propose the Multi-Attention Fusion Transformer (MAFT), a novel model designed to integrate multiple attention mechanisms with the objective of expanding the number and range of pixels activated during image reconstruction. This integration enhances the effective utilization of input information space. At the core of our model lies the Multi-attention Adaptive Integration Groups, which facilitate the transition from dense local attention to sparse global attention through the introduction of Local Attention Aggregation and Global Attention Aggregation blocks with alternating connections, effectively broadening the network's receptive field. The effectiveness of our proposed algorithm has been validated through comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation experiments conducted on benchmark datasets. Compared to state-of-the-art methods (e.g. HAT), the proposed MAFT achieves 0.09 dB gains on Urban100 dataset for × 4 SR task while containing 32.55% and 38.01% fewer parameters and FLOPs, respectively.

Searching for settlement information on Reddit

AbstractNewcomers are using informal means to find settlement information that is also freely available through formal settlement service providers. Newcomers may seek settlement information on Reddit when the same information might be found through a settlement service provider. This study finds that several Reddit submissions can be categorized in at least one or more of the formal settlement service categories. There is some overlap between informal conversations on Reddit and formalized settlement services. However, informal spaces go beyond providing settlement information in formalized categories. These results suggest that there is scope for policymakers to take a closer look at online conversations to better understand the needs of newcomers when they are looking for information about settling in Canada before and after they arrive. There is the potential to use this information to identify service gaps and create new funded settlement service categories. There is also the potential to accurately train a machine learning model to classify new Reddit submissions and produce real‐time advice to policymakers on newcomer information needs.

Engineering Cell Instructive Microenvironments for In Vitro Replication of Functional Barrier Organs.

Multicellular organisms exhibit synergistic effects among their components, giving rise to emergent properties crucial for their genesis and overall functionality and survival. Morphogenesis involves and relies upon intricate and biunivocal interactions among cells and their environment, that is, the extracellular matrix (ECM). Cells secrete their own ECM, which in turn, regulates their morphogenetic program by controlling time and space presentation of matricellular signals. The ECM, once considered passive, is now recognized as an informative space where both biochemical and biophysical signals are tightly orchestrated. Replicating this sophisticated and highly interconnected informative media in a synthetic scaffold for tissue engineering is unattainable with current technology and this limits the capability to engineer functional human organs in vitro and in vivo. This review explores current limitations to in vitro organ morphogenesis, emphasizing the interplay of gene regulatory networks, mechanical factors, and tissue microenvironment cues. In vitro efforts to replicate biological processes for barrier organs such as the lung and intestine, are examined. The importance of maintaining cells within their native microenvironmental context is highlighted to accurately replicate organ-specific properties. The review underscores the necessity for microphysiological systems that faithfully reproduce cell-native interactions, for advancing the understanding of developmental disorders and disease progression.

Методика управленческого учета затрат и калькулирования себестоимости неамортизируемой организационно-технологической оснастки производства продукции промышленного предприятия

The article is devoted to the search for scientific and practical solutions aimed at improving the quality of the information and instrumental space of management cost accounting and calculating the cost of not amortised organizational and technological equipment of industrial enterprises. In the course of the conducted research on a number of economic entities of the Nizhny Novgorod region, methods of observation, collection, systematization, classification and reflection in information registers of information relevant to the studied subject area were used; complex managerial, practice-oriented and statistical types of analysis, scientific interpretation of accumulated data using calculations and graphical formalization; the existing theoretical and methodological approaches used in the subject area under study are considered; a methodology for managerial cost accounting and calculating the cost of OTP using analytical accounting registers formed directly in the context of this type of product is proposed. The integrated use of the proposed methodology will improve the quality of awareness of decision makers on production cost management; create institutional conditions for its application in the field of manufacturing products for their own technological needs.

Access to Digital Media and Digital Literacy among Ghanaian Youth: An Explore, Engage, Empower Model Study

ABSTRACT Across Africa, increased availability of mobile devices and internet connectivity means that more young people can participate in digital spaces. Yet media access and use are not universal either across the continent or within countries. Indeed, as the euphoria around technological advancements wanes, researchers and policymakers recognise that technology has the capacity to exacerbate social and other inequalities. This paper problematises the capacity of under-served African youth to effectively use media, given scholarship that suggests that frequent media use enhances digital literacy capacity. It makes use of a quantitative approach by surveying students in senior high schools using a multi-stage sampling approach and draws on the explore, engage, empower (EEE) model to examine young people’s access to digital spaces and how this shapes the acquisition of digital literacy skills. The findings from a nationwide survey of senior high school students in Ghana, using a newly developed media and information literacy (MIL) scale, indicate that Ghana’s youths have reasonably high levels of access to digital spaces (83 per cent) and that such access is related to their development of specific MIL skills, including competencies of accessing, critically evaluating, and creating and sharing information in digital spaces.

Spatial Varying Vectorial Holography and Polarization Encryption Based on Birefringent Metasurface

AbstractVectorial holography technology plays a fundamental role by exploring the vectorial nature of light and enriches disruptive applications in optical encryption, display, and manipulation. With its flexible control methods and high‐precision subwavelength design, metasurface possesses rich modulation flexibility that surpasses traditional optical modulation devices. Here, a vectorial holographic design is implemented that can cover various polarization information by using a birefringent metasurface. The design adopts a gradient descent optimization method to jointly optimize the phase information of the orthogonal polarization channels with the birefringent metasurface, for continuous variation of polarization information in the entire vector space on the Poincare Sphere with efficient information integration. Based on the detailed depiction of full vector space polarization texture, such efficient vectorial holographic optimization methods can expand the encryption channels and achieve high spatial resolution allowing large capacity multiplexing, data storage, pattern recognition, etc.

Organization of the educational process for the formation of media and information literacy based on media text

Introduction. In conditions of heterogeneity and polyphony of the media space, it is necessary to methodologically substantiate and technologically skilfully organize the educational process to develop media and information literacy of students. The source and transmitter of information, knowledge, representative of cultural and value guidelines in modern media reality is the media text. On its basis, the formation of media and information literacy is integrated into the process of spiritual and moral development of the individual. This process is carried out based on the content of media texts and within the possible context. The purpose of the study – scientific substantiation and solution of the problem of using media text in the process of formation of media and information literacy of students on the basis of axiological understanding of the information space. Materials and methods. The research uses fundamental international and Russian documents that reflect the issues of media education, the formation of media and information literacy, the national security of the Russian Federation, scientific and methodological articles, monographs by Russian and foreign authors on this issue, media texts of various types and genres that are in the public domain. Research results. The expediency of an axiological approach to the organization of the process of formation of media and information literacy is proved. Based on this approach, the principles of media text selection are defined (axiological fullness and cultural conformity, problematic, informational significance, communicative value). The educational strategy that allows to implement the axiological approach is contextualization, within the framework of which multi-level tasks for working with media text for the formation of media and information literacy are formulated. Conclusion. The results obtained outline further research objectives. Let's list them: the definition of diagnostic tools to identify the level of formation of media and information literacy, the systematization of techniques and methods for the formation of media and information literacy, the preparation of detailed recommendations for improving the organization of the process of formation of media and information literacy of students.

Generation of genetic codes with 2-adic codon algebra and adaptive dynamics

This is a brief review on modeling genetic codes with the aid of 2-adic dynamical systems. In this model amino acids are encoded by the attractors of such dynamical systems. Each genetic code is coupled to the special class of 2-adic dynamics. We consider the discrete dynamical systems, These are the iterations of a function F:Z2→Z2, where Z2 is the ring of 2-adic numbers (2-adic tree). A genetic code is characterized by the set of attractors of a function belonging to the code generating functional class. The main mathematical problem is to reduce degeneration of dynamic representation and select the optimal generating function. Here optimality can be treated in many ways. One possibility is to consider the Lipschitz functions playing the crucial role in general theory of iterations. Then we minimize the Lip-constant. The main issue is to find the proper biological interpretation of code-functions. One can speculate that the evolution of the genetic codes can be described in information space of the nucleotide-strings endowed with ultrametric (treelike) geometry. A code-function is a fitness function; the solutions of the genetic code optimization problem are attractors of the code-function. We illustrate this approach by generation of the standard nuclear and (vertebrate) mitochondrial genetics codes.

Visual Water: An Integration of App and Web to Understand Chemical Elements

This paper presents Visual Water: a novel inter- active application designed to augment chemical education and discovery. This mobile app and web version collectively provides an interactive environment for users to explore and understand chemical elements. Using vast databases and visual interfaces, Visual Water provides real-time information about various chem- ical elements, leading to a range of new, engaging and accessible learning tools for students, educators and enthusiasts. This paper provides a description of the development of this system, key features and potential impact of the Visual Water system in helping users better understand chemical reactions and their application in formal and informal educational spaces.

Global problems in education as a research object in international databases: a historical perspective

Introduction. Global problems of modernity and globalisation are appealing to scientists as a research subject not only for understanding their nature, development, and manifestations in various spheres of life (in the case of our study, in education) but also because a comprehensive analysis is essential to combat them. Aim. The study aimed to trace the history of scientific research on the impact of global issues on the education system. It utilised bibliometry to conduct a qualitative content analysis of selected works to identify existing research trends within the topic and factors influencing the research agenda both in Russian Federation and abroad. Methodology and research methods. The research utilizes bibliometric methods and qualitative content analysis of publications (articles, conference proceedings, monographs, and reports) from open-access scientific journals at the final stage of publication. The study also examines statistical reports from the international Scopus database for the period from 1978 to 2023, selected based on bibliometric criteria. Papers were analysed and classified according to their publication periods and the number of citations they received. Based on the results of a qualitative content analysis comparing scientific agendas worldwide and in Russian Federation, the study identified the topics, conceptual foundations, and key participants influencing the resolution of global education issues across various historical periods. Results. Four waves of interest in this topic were identified: 1988–1999, 2000–2012, 2013–2018, and 2019–2023. From 1988 to 1999, all studies can be broadly categorised into two groups: teaching methods and organisation of educational activities. The development of specific trends in the study of global education problems began only between 2000 and 2012. From 2013 to 2018, scientists focused on restructuring the educational process in new conditions. From 2019 to 2023, the focus shifted to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organisation and transformation of the educational process. It has been established that the thematic focus of research by Russian scientists and the international scientific community as a whole differs. The authors cite and analyse the possible historical reasons for this divergence. Scientific novelty is ensured by the absence of similar research in the international information space. Practical significance lies in the necessity, given the current socio-economic situation, to highlight global education issues for the purpose of planning and coordinating research efforts.

Features and public financing of digitalization and E-Government: The case of Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, for more than 20 years, the state policy on the formation of a single information space, aimed at reducing budgetary resources for the formation and maintenance of information resources of government agencies, as well as the creation of a unified communication environment. The relevance of the article is due to the following factors: the acceleration of digital modernization processes in Kazakhstan under the influence of global informatization and the consideration of the prospects of improving the efficiency of the Kazakh government through the introduction of information technology is not always recognized by society as an institutional advantage. As special methodological tools, the study used experimental, empirical and heuristic methods to analyze factors and identify problems in budget financing in the field of digitalization and E-Government in Kazakhstan. The main source of data is the Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main conclusions: there is a need for further economic and political modernization of Kazakh society through the widespread use of information technology, and in our view, the practical approach to the use of public financing to create a real e-government and the prospects for its development in Kazakhstan is interesting.