Time Sequence Of Events Research Articles

The Influence of MSMEs on Economic Growth in Jayapura City

The research was conducted in Jayapura City by utilizing quantitative methods. In this study using time series data. Time series data is data that is organized based on the time sequence of events. The time series data includes all MSMEs in 21 sub-districts registered at the Jayapura City Office of Cooperative Trade and Micro Business during 2015-2022. The results showed that the growth of MSMEs in Jayapura City played an important role in the economic growth of Jayapura district / city by increasing the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP). The effect of MSMEs on economic growth, showing the results of the tcount value of the variable number of MSMEs on GRDP of -8.9259 with a probability value of 0.000. Because the probability value is smaller than 0.05, it can be concluded that the growth in the number of MSMEs is significant in influencing the growth of GRDP in Jayapura city. The negative regression coefficient shows that the growth in the number of MSMEs is inversely proportional to the growth of GRDP in Jayapura city. When the number of MSMEs has decreased since 2021, the GRDP of Jayapura city has actually continued to increase.

Tectonic setting of Kaladgi-Badami basin and its possible connection with adjacent Proterozoic basins, Karnataka, India

Sedimentary rock types and basin geometries are interrelated with characteristic tectonic settings. In fact, sedimentation pattern at central stable cratonic areas are not same as that on continental margins. Kaladgi-Badami (KB) basinal feldspathic arenite (i.e., arkose) dominated rocks contain more plagioclase than potassium feldspar unlike the opposite scenario of Phanerozoic sandstones. Tectonic history of the KB basin has been interpreted since basin development, sedimentation through interrupting hiatus, tectonic reworking, redeposition at later developed depocenters and later exhumation, erosion, tectonism till Deccan volcanism and finally latest configuration. As per the International commission of Stratigraphy (ICS), principles of stratigraphic classification and usages of terminology of fundamental lithostratigraphic unit ‘Formation’ is reexamined in this paper. The definition of Formation as “smallest mappable rock unit with a definite lithologic characteristic that allow it to be distinguished from other such units” is improperly used because without mentioning a specific scale every unit is mappable or traceable. Therefore, the minimum mappable unit means the unit which can be at least visible in a scale in which entire basin can be seen. Based on this slight modification is proposed in the stratigraphy of KB basin. Geochronology based radiometric stratigraphy is best tool for determination of time sequence of geological events. However, it is always a matter of concern that dating methods and materials are often not suitable in sedimentary geology. In case of passive rifted sedimentary basins like Kaladgi, Badami and Bhima of the Dharwar Craton, there is negligible igneous events and indirect dating methods are mostly available. Detrital zircon dating can give maximum age or provenance age, which cannot be of much use. However, there are other indirect tools, which are already utilized by several workers earlier and based on the reviews and present observation and mapping compilation it is proposed that KB and Bhima basins used to be a single basin, and later tectonism followed by Deccan volcanism affected the present geographic continuity. Since the distance between westernmost Bhima basinal rocks and easternmost KB basinal rocks near Mudhebihal is nearly around 15km, it is logical to consider that these were geographically connected, because there is an intense faulting near to these basin margins.

Event-triggered finite-time consensus control of leader–follower multi-agent systems with unknown velocities

We proposed an event-triggered finite-time consensus (FTC) control scheme for second-order leader–follower nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with unknowable velocities and external disturbances. Because of the immeasurable problem of system velocities, a terminal sliding mode observer (TSMO) which forces velocity errors to converge to zero in a finite time is introduced. Then, construct a distributed event-triggered control law by backstepping method, so that each follower can update the control law independently based on its state error threshold. It is demonstrated that the control scheme can achieve FTC stability and simultaneously ensure the global robustness of the system via the Lyapunov stability analysis. Meantime, the control scheme reduces frequent updates of the control law. Furthermore, there exists a positive lower bound for the inter event time sequence so that the Zeno phenomenon is rejected. In conclusion, the validity of the consensus control protocol is verified by the numerical simulations.

Uloga gena modifikatora na klinički tok Dišenove mišićne distrofije

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common inherited muscle disease in childhood, which has a progressive clinical course with a fatal outcome that most often occurs between the second and fourth decade of life. The disease is inherited X-linked, recessively, and in two-thirds of patients, it is transmitted from the mother, while in the remaining third of patients, it is a de novo mutation. Mutations in the dystrophin gene (DMD gene) such as deletions, duplications and small mutations can be found throughout the entire length of the gene. The disease begins between the third and fifth year of life, and the initial muscle weaknesses are clinically manifested as slower running, difficulty climbing stairs or difficulty getting up from squats. Sometimes, accidentally discovered, elevated keratin kinase values or delayed early psychomotor development milestones in a child with hypertrophic calves can initiate a diagnostic procedure in the direction of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The disease usually has a uniform clinical course and implies a clear time sequence of events. Muscle weakness leads to loss of ambulation, then the function of the upper extremities, to complete immobility, with the evolution of dilated cardiomyopathy and respiratory insufficiency, which are the main causes of death. Certain patients show deviations from the above in terms of longer functionality and later loss of independent ambulation, later cardiomyopathy and respiratory insufficiency and vice versa. It is believed that in addition to the application of modern standards of care and treatment of patients, the clinical course is influenced by genes independent of the causal DMD gene, which affects processes in dystrophic muscle, primarily inflammation, fibrosis and fatty infiltration, through specific signaling pathways. So far, six genes have been described whose variants modify the course of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) is the first described gene whose G allele in the variant rs28357094 is associated with an earlier age of gait loss. In addition, variants in the genes described are LTBP4 (latent transforming growth factor-b binding protein 4), CD40, ACTN3 (actinin 3), THBS1 (thrombospondin 1) and TCTEX1D1 (Tctex1 domain containing 1). The aim of this paper is to present already-known genes that modify Duchenne muscular dystrophy and their influence on the clinical course of the disease.

Machine learning survival analysis on couple time-to-divorce data

Marriage life does not always last harmoniously and occasionally can lead to divorce. The trend for the last three years since 2019 shows that divorce cases in Palangka Raya occur with a fluctuating trend that has recently been increasing. This research used a machine learning method called Survival Support Vector Machine on the divorce dataset in Palangka Raya. This research developed a feature selection technique using backward elimination to determine the factors influencing the couple’s decision to have their divorce registered in the religious court. The backward elimination method yielded the variables contributing to divorce: the number of children, the defendant's occupation, the plaintiff's age at marriage, the cause of divorce, and the defendant's education. Based on the comparison of the survival model performance between the Cox proportional hazard and the Survival Support Vector Machine, it was found that the latter was better since it had a higher concordance index and hazard ratio, which were 61.24 and 0.54, respectively. Thus, 61.24% of divorce cases were classified precisely by SUR-SVM in terms of the time sequence of events. Moreover, the hazard ratio of 0.54 indicated that the divorce rate of couples with censored status was 0.54 times than that of couples with failed/endpoint status.

Particle–particle drag force in inertial bidisperse gas–particle suspensions

Particle-resolved direct numerical simulations are employed to investigate the particle–particle drag force in the bidisperse gas–particle suspensions where the particles are smooth and the single-particle velocity distribution function is Maxwellian. The particle Reynolds number ranges from 6.7 to 123.8, and in this range the particle inertia is high enough that the lubrication force is not essential. It is found that the relation derived by the kinetic theory of granular flow (KTGF) highly overestimates the particle–particle drag force. This is because the pre-collision velocities of colliding particles are not completely uncorrelated with each other. From the time sequence of collision events, it is observed that the particle pair that has just collided will probably collide again after a short time due to the restriction of the particle motion in dense suspensions. Since the post-collision velocities of the first collision cannot relax entirely in such a short time, the relative velocity before the subsequent collision is statistically smaller than the domain-averaged relative velocity. Consequently, the particle–particle drag force is over-predicted when the domain-averaged relative velocity is used. For this reason, this work assumes that the particle–particle drag force is determined by the relative velocity within a local region near large particles. When the local region is set to be the spherical shells centred on the centres of large particles and with an outer radius of a mean free path of small particles, the KTGF-based relation can reasonably predict the particle–particle drag force.

A hybrid observer for estimating the state of a distributed linear system

A hybrid observer is described for estimating the state of an m>0 channel, n-dimensional, continuous-time, linear system of the form ẋ=Ax,yi=Cix,i∈{1,2,…,m}. The system’s state x is simultaneously estimated by m agents assuming each agent i senses yi and receives appropriately defined data from each of its current neighbors. Neighbor relations are characterized by a time-varying directed graph N(t) whose vertices correspond to agents and whose arcs depict neighbor relations. Agent i updates its estimate xi of x at “event times” ti1,ti2,ti3,… using a local continuous-time linear observer and a local parameter estimator which iterates q times during each event time interval [ti(s−1),tis),s≥1 to obtain an estimate of x(tis). Subject to the assumptions that none of the Ci’s are zero, the neighbor graph N(t) is strongly connected for all time, and the system whose state is to be estimated is jointly observable, it is shown that for any number λ>0, it is possible to choose q and the local observer gains so that each estimate xi converges to x at least as fast as e−λt does. This result holds whether or not agents communicate synchronously, although in the asynchronous case it is necessary to assume that N(t) changes in a suitably defined sense. Exponential convergence is also assured if the event time sequences of the m agents are slightly different than each other, although in this case only if the system being observed is exponentially stable; this limitation however, is primarily a robustness issue shared by all state estimators, centralized or not, which are operating in “open loop” in the face of small modeling errors. The result also holds facing abrupt changes in the number of vertices and arcs in the inter-agent communication graph upon which the algorithm depends.

EveSyncIAI: Event Synchronization Industrial Augmented Intelligence for Fault Diagnosis

The fault diagnosis of complex timed discrete event systems remains a relevant and challenging problem in industry. As systems degrade, the synchronization required for normal operation associated with timed event sequences deteriorate. However, existing discrete event approaches cannot handle complexity well as there may be potentially hundreds of event sequences that still result in normal system behavior, and they do not scale well due to the state explosion problem. To circumvent these issues, a new data-driven augmented intelligence framework called EveSyncIAI is proposed that uses a Timed Petri Net of the normal process to enable selective extraction of discriminating time delay features, which are then used alongside machine learning for fault diagnosis. The developed methodology is applied to a case study of an operational discrete manufacturing system in the semiconductor industry. Multiclass machine learning approaches as well as binary anomaly detection algorithms with varying levels of supervision are directly compared with and without EveSyncIAI-extracted features. With precision, recall, and F1-score values above 0.90 being achieved for multi-fault classification and AUC scores exceeding 0.98 for semi-supervised and unsupervised anomaly detection approaches, the framework presented is promising for the fault diagnosis of timed sequence-sensitive systems.

Abstract LB550: AI predicts risk of pancreatic cancer from disease trajectories using real-world electronic health records (EHRs) from Denmark and the USA

Abstract Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide with increasing incidence. Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is a key challenge, as the disease is typically detected at a late stage. However, patients who present with early-stage disease can be cured by a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thus, a better understanding of the risk factors for pancreatic cancer and detection at early stages has great potential to improve patient survival and reduce overall mortality from this aggressive malignancy. Here we exploit the power of advanced machine learning (ML) technology by focusing on the time sequence of clinical events and by predicting the risk of cancer occurrence over a multi-year time interval. This investigation was initially carried out using the Danish National Patient Registry (DNPR) and data which covers 41 years (1977 to 2018) of clinical records for 8.6 million patients, of which about 40,000 had a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. To maximize predictive information extraction from these records we tested a range of ML methods, ranging from regression methods and ML without or with time dependence to time series methods such as GRU and Transformer. We explicitly train machine learning models on the time sequence of diseases in patient clinical histories and test the ability to predict cancer occurrence in time intervals of 3 to 60 months after risk assessment. For cancer occurrence within 36 months, the performance of the best model (AUROC=0.88; OR=47.5 for 20% recall and OR=159.0 for 10% recall), substantially exceeds that of a model without time information, even when disease events within a 3 month window before cancer diagnosis are excluded from training (AUROC[3m]=0.84). Independent training and testing on the Boston dataset reaches comparable performance (AUROC=0.87, OR=112.0 for 20% recall and OR=162.4 for 10% recall). We also extract from the AI machine an estimate of the contribution to prediction of individual disease features, e.g., obesity and diabetes. These results raise the state-of-the-art level of performance of cancer risk prediction on real-world data sets and provide support for the design of future screening trials for high-risk patients. AI on real-world clinical records has the potential to shift focus from treatment of late-stage to early-stage cancer, benefiting patients by improving lifespan and quality of life. We expect further increases in prediction accuracy with the availability of data beyond disease codes, such as prescriptions, laboratory values, and images. Citation Format: Davide Placido, Bo Yuan, Jessica X. Hjaltelin, Amalie D. Haue, Piotr J. Chmura, Chen Yuan, Jihye Kim, Renato Umeton, Gregory Antell, Alexander Chowdhury, Alexandra Franz, Lauren Brais, Elizabeth Andrews, Debora S. Marks, Aviv Regev, Peter Kraft, Brian M. Wolpin, Michael Rosenthal, Søren Brunak, Chris Sander. AI predicts risk of pancreatic cancer from disease trajectories using real-world electronic health records (EHRs) from Denmark and the USA [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr LB550.

SP5.1.12 Discrete Event Micro Simulation Modeling for the Treatment of Resectable Malignancy of the Oesophagus and Gastrooesophageal Junction

Abstract Aims To assist decision-making by creation of a statistical model that simulates treatment pathways and subsequent outcomes for the management of resectable malignancy of the oesophagus and gastrooesophageal junction. Methods: Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modelling is a statistical modelling technique that models the operation of a system as a sequence of events in time to support decision-making. This approach lends itself well to disease modelling by incorporating different treatment strategies targeted at different groups. It offers an advantage over previous decision analysis studies that have relied on Markov modelling which can have reduced accuracy due to lack of memory within the Markov model, the effect of depletion of susceptibles, and the timing of transitioning within the model. This simulation model was populated with data from best available evidence from contemporary randomised controlled trials and ran over 100,000 iterations. Results Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was the superior treatment pathway with superior pathway selection frequency of 87.16%. For squamous cell carcinoma neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was the superior treatment option with 73.30 months survival time (65.60 QALMs) and had a superior pathway selection frequency of 100%. Conclusions DES simulation modeling for decision analysis in treatment of resectable malignancy of the oesophagus and gastrooesophageal junction supports the use of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

Serial cellular events in bone formation initiated by calcium phosphate ceramics

To better understand the biological mechanisms triggered by osteoinductive materials in vivo, we evaluated the timeline of cellular responses to osteoinductive materials subcutaneously implanted in FVB mice. More F4/80-positive macrophages were present in osteoinductive tri-CaP ceramic (TCP) with submicron surface topography (TCPs) than non-osteoinductive TCP with micron surface topography (TCPb) at week 1. Moreover, TCPs (but not TCPb) significantly enhanced osteoclastogenesis, and induced macrophages to polarize from M1 to M2 in the first week. The time sequence and relevance of macrophages and osteoclasts responses involved in bone formation was then evaluated through peri-implant injection of specific chemicals in mice implanted with osteoinductive TCPs. Day-1 injection of clodronate liposomes (LipClod) depleted macrophages, inhibited macrophage polarization to M2, blocked osteoclastogenesis and bone formation, while the day-6 injection was less effective. Anti-RANKL antibody (aRANKL) did not affect macrophage colonization but inhibited osteoclastogenesis. Injection of aRANKL before week 2 aborted bone formation in TCPs, while injection at week 4 partially inhibited bone formation. The overall data show that following ectopic implantation, osteoinductive materials allow macrophage colonization in hours to days, macrophage polarization to M2 in days (within 7 days), osteoclastogenesis in weeks (e.g. in 2 weeks) and bone formation thereafter (after 4 weeks). The serial cellular events verified herein bring a new insight on material-induced bone formation and pave the way to further explore the mechanisms triggered by osteoinductive materials. Statement of significanceA series of key cellular events triggered by osteoinductive calcium phosphate ceramic was revealed: macrophages colonized within hours to days, polarization of M2 macrophages occurred within 7 days, osteoclastogenesis mainly occurred in weeks (e.g. in 2 weeks) and bone formation finally arose thereafter (after 4 weeks). Moreover, such time sequence of cellular events was confirmed with specific chemicals (clodronate liposomes and anti-RANKL antibody). The findings verified herein bring a new insight on material-induced bone formation and pave the way to further explore the mechanisms triggered by osteoinductive materials.

Synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions revealed through timed event sequences

This report extends a previous cross-cultural study of synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions (Bornstein et al., 2015) to immigrant samples. Immigrant dyads from three cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, South America) living in the same culture of destination (the United States) were compared to nonmigrant dyads in those same cultures of origin and to nonmigrant European American dyads living in the same culture of destination (the United States). This article highlights an underutilized analysis to assess synchrony in mother-infant interaction and extends cross-cultural research on mother-infant vocal interaction. Timing of onsets and offsets of maternal speech to infants and infant nondistress vocalizations were coded separately from 50-min recorded naturalistic observations of mothers and infants. Odds ratios were computed to analyze synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions. Synchrony was analyzed in three ways -- contingency of timed event sequences, mean differences in contingency by acculturation level and within dyads, and coordination of responsiveness within dyads. Immigrant mothers were contingently responsive to their infants’ vocalizations, but only Korean immigrant infants were contingently responsive to their mothers’ vocalizations. For the Japanese and South American comparisons, immigrant mothers were more contingently responsive than their infants (but not robustly so for South American immigrants). For the Korean comparison, mean differences in contingent responsiveness were found among acculturation groups (culture of origin, immigrant, culture of destination), but not between mothers and infants. Immigrant dyads’ mean levels of responsiveness did not differ. Immigrant mothers’ and infants’ levels of responsiveness were coordinated. Strengths and flexibility of the timed event sequential analytic approach to assessing synchrony in mother-infant interactions are discussed, particularly for culturally diverse samples.

Exertional heat fatalities in Australian sport and recreation

ObjectivesTo describe the number and case characteristics of sport and recreation-related exertional heat deaths in Australia and summarise recommendations derived from case narratives. DesignDescriptive, population-based, retrospective cohort study. MethodsCases were identified using the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) through multiple search strategies comprising queries, keywords and cause of death codes. Cases were included where there was evidence that the deceased was actively engaged in sport or recreation and exertional heat illness was causal or contributory to the death. Data extraction were performed independently, in duplicate, to ensure accuracy. Descriptive statistics are used to report deceased's socio-demographic characteristics, incident characteristics, type of sport/recreational activity and time sequence of events. Content analysis is used to summarise recommendations. ResultsThirty-eight deaths (males n = 29, 74%; median age = 40 years, range 8–77) were identified during the study period (2001 to 2018), with 22 recommendations for five cases. Two cases occurred during organised sport and 36 during active recreation, of which 27 were in hiking. Eleven (29%) individuals were international visitors. There were 22 recommendations across 5 cases presented, with a focus on education and training. ConclusionsExertional heat deaths in outdoor recreation in Australia were far more prevalent than cases in organised sport. The largest proportion of deaths occurred in hiking with two populations featuring: males aged 15–45 years and international visitors. Considering the incident characteristics and time sequence of events, measures such as early recognition of symptoms, provision of first aid and timely access to emergency medical care are important to prevent fatalities.

Belarusian Society of the Deaf in the 1980s

This article describes the process of formation of industrial and sociocultural departments of the Belarusian Society of the Deaf in the 1980s. During this period, the number of its members has decreased. However, the central board of the Belarusian Society of the Deaf set a goal to amplify the number of hearing-impaired persons in the industrial sector by creating conditions for improving socioeconomic level of its members, which expanded the demand for employment in training and production enterprises. The Belarusian Society of the Deaf also focused on the development of group hobby and recreation activities, such as pantomimic art and physical culture. The high performance of this public organization in the 1980s directly depended on the ideological support of the five-year plans, early execution of socialistic obligations and production tasks, which contributed to successful solution of the problems of rehabilitation and social adaptation of the hearing-impaired persons in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The article employs the problem-chronological method that allows following the time sequence of events; historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods. The presented materials are based on the sources of the Fund 1112 of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, which are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time, which fills the gap in historical science.

A scholar-statistician and state authority in the early XIX century: on the biography of K. I. Arsenyev (1789-1865)

The object of this research is the evolution of statistical science in the Russian Empire in the early XIX century. The author analyzes the peculiarities of interaction between the academic community of statisticians and state authority on the example of career trajectory of the academician K. I. Arsenyev. The research leans on the basic methods of historical science – problem-chronological for studying the time sequence of events; historical-genetic and historical-comparative analysis for determining the key stages of the scholar’s scientific biography, as well as objective and subjective factors that impacted his performance. Special attention is given to the analysis of scientific works of K. I. Arsenyev, which prompted the major statistical discussion that unfolded in pre-reform Russia during the 1818-1819. The author examines the impact of the “Professors’ Case” upon Arsenyev's future career, traces the history of his relationship with the Emperor Nicholas I, and analyzes the scholar’s role in the development of administrative statistics in Russia. In the course of this research, it was established that academic career of Arsenyev is not typical, but rather illustrative for characterizing the status of a scholar-statistician in the first half of the XIX century. The difficulties of undergoing censorship, limited access of the scholars to departmental statistical materials, and risk of being suspected in political unreliability impeded the development of statistics during the indicated period. Patronage of the emperor relieved some of these constraints for Arsenyev; thus, receiving more freedom for scientific pursuits, he achieved impressive results. Overall, the representatives of conservative part of the elite continued to view statistics as a political science, which requires deliberate attention and control of the government.

Experimental study on impact-induced initiation thresholds of al/ptfe/w composite

Al/PTFE/W is a typical kind of reactive material, which has a variety of potential applications in the future. Impact experiments were conducted with a gas gun and a steel target to investigate the impact-induced initiation thresholds of Al/PTFE/W (18.55 wt.%/51.45 wt.%/30 wt.%) rods. The Al/PTFE/W rods were prepared by using the cold press and hot sinter method. A high-speed camera was used to observe the time sequence of events and to measure the speed of the rods by the grids on the background board. At low velocity, no initiation occurred and the rods only appeared upsetting. Above an initiation threshold of around 127m/s, extensive chemical reaction with strong flare was observed after impact. There was a time interval for the flare after impact, and this time interval decreased with increasing of impact velocity, from 138μs(127.4m/s) to 68μs (235m/s). Several experiments were performed for PTFE and Al/PTFE (26.5 wt.%/73.5 wt.%) rods for comparison with the Al/PTFE/W rods. The effect of impact velocity and composition on the impact-induced reaction of Al/PTFE/W was discussed.

Institutionalization of statistical science in universities of the Russian Empire (late XVIII – early XIX centuries)

The object of this research is the process of institutionalization of statistical science in Russia in the early XIX century. The article examines the history of emergence within the structure of Russian universities of the corresponding departments and inclusion of statistical knowledge into lectures. The author analyzes the peculiarities of teaching statistical science in the Moscow, Kharkov, Kazan, and Saint Petersburg universities. Special attention is given to the activity of M. l. Magnitsky and D. P. Runich, which led to termination of the reputable scholars-statisticians from Kazan and Saint Petersburg universities. The research leans on the basic methods of historical science – problem-chronological for studying the time sequence of events; historical-genetic and historical comparative that allow studying the genesis and key stages of development of statistical education in the Russian universities. It is established that teaching statistics in form of political science initially appeared in the last third of the XVIII century in the Moscow University. Statistical courses were read upon personal initiative of the professors and were not established by the provisional “Project” of 1755. In their lectures, the first educators were guided by the experience of Göttingen University, which in the mid XVIII century became the center of the German school of political science. The university reform of 1802-1804 in Russia led to the creation of new system of higher education. In accordance with the norms of the Decrees of 1804, statistics was introduced into the curriculum of Russian universities for the first time. The article explores the key stages of organization of teaching statistics, such as unification of the content of lectures, publishing of course books, establishment of scientific schools.

Interaction Diagrams: Development of a Method for Observing Group Interactions

Recording of team meeting’s processes with electronic devices can be problematic because of the invasiveness of the process: issues with privacy; interpretation difficulty with noise or quiet speech; and distortion of participants’ behaviour. There is a need for less intrusive methods. We developed the interaction diagram method by extending the directed graph nature of sociograms to capture the time sequence of events, including the identification of the person, communication behaviour, and duration of interactions. The method was tested on engineering team meetings. Data processing by quantitative and qualitative analysis is shown to be feasible. Several team roles were observed in the engineering context: Initiator; Passive collector; Explorer; Information provider; Facilitator; Arbitrator; Representative; Gatekeeper; Connector; and Outsider. The work provides a graphical representation of the record of the interaction flow during meetings. It does this without needing video recording. It is also an efficient method, as it does not require subsequent transcription or coding. It provides a procedure to quickly analyse communication situations, identify group roles, and compare group activity at different meetings.

Understanding the experiences of relocatees during forced relocation in Chinese urban restructuring

Despite the massive forced relocation of residents during urban restructuring in China, there is no systematic overview regarding how residents experience the process and its outcomes. Most studies concerning urban restructuring in China directly equate forced relocation with displacement, which has a negative connotation. This exclusively negative view overlooks the multifaceted effects of forced relocation on relocatees. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of relocatees’ experienced during urban redevelopment in China by establishing a conceptual model in which the time sequence of events and their context are central, and by analysing the existing research on this topic about China. It conceptualises forced relocation as a process with various and changing socio-spatial implications over time, and as a specific type of residential mobility that occurs in the context of urban restructuring. As such, the paper presents a conceptual model that includes different stages and contexts to analyse the experiences of relocatees during and after forced relocation. It divides the process of forced relocation into a pre-demolition stage, a transitional stage and a post-relocation stage and investigates the social, economic, physical, psychological and behavioural dimensions of the experiences of relocatees as affected by the macro and micro context. As such, the conceptual model is used to structure the analysis of the existing literature about residents’ experiences and subsequently identify the gaps in the literature that should be addressed in future studies of forced relocation in the Chinese context.

Understanding the Experiences of Relocatees during Forced Relocation in Chinese Urban Restructuring

ABSTRACTDespite the massive forced relocation of residents during urban restructuring in China, there is no systematic overview regarding how residents experience the process and its outcomes. Most studies concerning urban restructuring in China directly equate forced relocation with displacement, which has a negative connotation. This predominantly negative view overlooks the multifaceted effects of forced relocation on relocatees. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of relocatees’ experiences during urban redevelopment in China by establishing a conceptual model in which the time sequence of events and their context are central. It conceptualizes forced relocation as a process with various and changing socio-spatial implications over time, and as a specific type of residential mobility that occurs in the context of urban restructuring. As such, the conceptual model divides the process of forced relocation into a pre-demolition stage, a transitional stage and a post-relocation stage and investigates the social, economic, physical, psychological and behavioural dimensions of the experiences of relocatees as affected by the macro and micro context. The conceptual model is used to structure the analysis of the existing literature about residents’ experiences and to subsequently identify the gaps in the literature that should be addressed in future studies of forced relocation in the Chinese context.