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Due to their status as non-professionals, the reputations of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) contributors have a very important impact on data quality. In the process of contributor reputation evaluation in OpenStreetMap (OSM), it is very difficult to calculate the semantic similarity between object versions contributed by volunteers. Aimed at this issue, this paper proposes a model of contributor's reputation based on semantic similarity of ontology concepts. Firstly, contributors are classified into three categories based on an improved WPCA and classification method. Then, an initial reputation is set for every OSM user in each class according to these categories and related research. Secondly, the related concept ontology is constructed for OSM entities; then, the semantic similarity of the object version is calculated according to the similarity of concept attributes and the semantic distance of concept. The contributor's evaluation reputation is computed by synthesizing the semantic similarity, geometric similarity, and topological similarity of object versions. Thirdly, the contributor's evaluation reputation and the initial reputation is aggregated to obtain the contributor's reputation; finally, the OSM data of Rutland, England, is used as an example to verify the validity of our model. The experimental results show that the proposed model can obtain a more comprehensive contributor's evaluation by fusing with the semantic similarity of ontology concept. The evaluation bias caused only by the semantic change between versions can be eliminated. Moreover, the obtained user's reputation is positively correlated with the data quality. The contributor's reputation evaluation method proposed in this paper is an effective method for evaluating the contributor's reputation in OSM-like systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new perspective for higher education policy research. It introduces the concept of policy object to designate the discrete preoccupation(s) of a policy text (e.g. a new governance regime, a quality system, or new degrees) and suggests that actor conceptualisations of the policy object intersect with other elements in the policy process to shape enactment and outcomes. First, the policy object concept is described. It is argued that the policy object does not have an objective existence and two concepts are proposed to explain it: ontology and enacted ontology. The former refers to what actors believe the policy object is, a socially-construed context-determined conceptualisation, whereas enacted ontology refers to what the policy object becomes further to enactment under the influence of ontology. Second, the paper presents the findings of a comparative study of master degrees further to the Bologna process in different national and institutional settings to illustrate the policy object approach. This research puts forward arguments to suggest that the policy object could be an important variable to consider in policy research. This somewhat different lens, inviting fine-grained attention to a specific policy object (its ontologies and enacted ontologies), could bring additional insight into policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the treatment of ontology offered by critical realism. It addresses much of the material elaborated upon in two editions of this journal. Three main groups of criticisms are made here of the critical realist treatment of open systems. It is argued that critical realism, particularly in the project in economics emanating from Cambridge, UK, tends to define systems in terms of events. This definition is shown to be problematic. The exemplar of a closed system provided by critical realism of the solar system is shown to be flawed in that it is not closed according to the closure conditions identified by critical realism. Second, the negativity of the definitions adopted is problematic for heterodox traditions attempting to build positive programmes. Furthermore, the dualism of the definitions is also inconsistent with Dow's approach, which has ramifications for the coherence of post Keynesianism. Third, the definitions tend to polarize open and closed systems and ignore the degrees of openness evident in reality. The polarization of systems leads to polarized methodology and unsustainable arguments to reject so-called “closed-systems methods.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This historical study aims to refine understanding of the nature of nursing work. The study focuses on the 1880 crisis at Guy's Hospital in London to examine the nature and meaning of nursing work, particularly the concept of nursing work as many 'little things.' In this paper, an examination of Margaret Lonsdale's writing offers an original contribution to our understanding of the ways in which nursing work differs from medical practice. In this way, we use the late-nineteenth-century controversy at Guy's Hospital as a prism through which to examine the contested nature of nursing work. Lonsdale's ideas are corroborated by examination of writings by nurse leaders Florence Nightingale and Eva Luckes. Luckes, in particular, elaborated what was meant by nursing as the performance of a thousand little things, which are specific to nursing work. While physicians had been performing much of what was considered to be nursing work, nurses developed some of these and other interventions into a unique body of work characterized by meticulous attention to significant details. Some implications regarding current nursing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word ‘geo-graphy’ means ‘writing the earth’. The subject of geography bears responsibility for engaging, constituting and configuring world knowledge, in other words, what the world is. This paper describes an enquiry into the nature of school geographical knowledge at a time of curriculum policy reform. In 2010, the newly appointed Coalition government in Britain introduced the concept of core knowledge for the school curriculum. Some of the problems associated with core knowledge are illustrated by showing two alternative ways of knowing the world that core knowledge overlooks. To understand the nature of the constitution of knowledge, I turn to Heidegger. His idea of Enframing explains the emergence of meaning about the world within the constraints of a technical scheme that conceals as much as it reveals. A second idea of Heidegger's, the event of appropriation, suggests how meaning comes into being through the ‘belonging together’ of humans and the world. This belonging together takes us away from representational thinking into the realm of a more original and authentic sense of what is. Although this appears to provide a very credible argument about world meaning-making, it is superseded by Derrida's critique of Heidegger as someone who claims to deconstruct the history of ontology at the same time as retaining a commitment to it. Derrida'sdifféranceadvances Heidegger's work into a consideration of meaning and justice. The associated deconstructive attitude takes responsibility seriously by disrupting taken-for-granted meanings and conceptual schemes and opening them up to see what other groups of people or ways of knowing might be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Manchester now offers a credit-rated unit in creative writing for nonnative speakers of English. For many students on this course, this is the first time they have shown their writing to others; it is certainly the first time that they have studied creative writing in higher education. This paper focuses upon the nature of such neophyte writing and attempts to examine one way of describing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eucharistic language and imagery are the connective tissue that unites William Shakespeare's history tetralogies into a coherent whole. Together, they depict England's communal crisis—civil war—as a crisis of Communion; eucharistic sacrilege collapses a sacramental ontology, which in turn breaks mechanisms of atonement, fragments society, and corrupts signification. Appropriately, Richmond effectuates England's communal regeneration by restoring this sacramental ontology through real, sincere eucharistic participation at the conclusion of Richard III. This reading challenges interpretations that hold that the second tetralogy unravels the providentialist conclusion of the first, or which treat the plays as discrete episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a group of researchers at Cambridge (UK) have (re)introduced conceptions of open and closed systems into economics. In doing so they have employed these categories in ways that, in my assessment, both facilitate a significant critique of current disciplinary practices and also point to more fruitful ways of proceeding. In an issue of this journal, Andrew Mearman has advanced three criticisms of the Cambridge position which, if valid, would seriously undermine this assessment. Below I defend the Cambridge position against Mearman's criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software struggles to represent uncertain and contested historical knowledge. An ontology, meaning a semantic structure defining named entities, and explicit and typed relationships, can be constructed in the absence of locational data, and spatial objects can be attached to this structure if and when they become available. We describe the overall architecture of the Great Britain Historical GIS, and the PastPlace Administrative Unit Ontology that forms its core. Then, we show how particular historical geographies can be represented within this architecture through two case studies, both emphasizing entity definition and especially the application of a multi-level typology, in which each "unit" has an unchanging "type" but also a time-variant "status". The first includes the linked systems of Poor Law unions and registration districts in 19th century England and Wales, in which most but not all unions and districts were coterminous. The second case study includes the international system of nation-states, in which most units do not appear from nothing, but rather gain or lose independence. We show that a relatively simple data model is able to represent much historical complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the research work of Boris Motik, a research associate at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory in Oxford, England. Motik's research focuses on problems concerning the development of ontology languages and tools for ontology-based applications. During his PhD, Motik developed several reasoning algorithms, that allow the application of optimization techniques from deductive databases to Web Ontology Language (OWL) reasoning. Along with other collaborators, he also developed another OWL reasoning algorithm based on the theorem-proving calculus, hypertableau.