A web based survey is an effective tool which is used frequently in academic and non academic researches. Increase in internet usage and easy access to web technology facilitate the growing popularity of web surveys but absence of exhaustive literature on web surveys presents a significant challenge. This paper presents basic guidelines for developing a robust web survey. Aspects related to data quality, coverage bias, questionnaire design, non response bias, response bias, processing error, data duplication and pilot testing (...) are discussed in detail. The paper closes with suggestions on key areas in which advance research is required to enhance the data quality of web questionnaires. (shrink)

Objectives -/- Surveys in various countries suggest 17% to 80% of doctors prescribe ‘placebos’ in routine practice, but prevalence of placebo use in UK primary care is unknown. Methods -/- We administered a web-based questionnaire to a representative sample of UK general practitioners. Following surveys conducted in other countries we divided placebos into ‘pure’ and ‘impure’. ‘Impure’ placebos are interventions with clear efficacy for certain conditions but are prescribed for ailments where their efficacy is unknown, such as antibiotics for suspected (...) viral infections. ‘Pure’ placebos are interventions such as sugar pills or saline injections without direct pharmacologically active ingredients for the condition being treated. We initiated the survey in April 2012. Two reminders were sent and electronic data collection closed after 4 weeks. Results -/- We surveyed 1715 general practitioners and 783 (46%) completed our questionnaire. Our respondents were similar to those of all registered UK doctors suggesting our results are generalizable. 12% (95% CI 10 to 15) of respondents used pure placebos while 97% (95% CI 96 to 98) used impure placebos at least once in their career. 1% of respondents used pure placebos, and 77% (95% CI 74 to 79) used impure placebos at least once per week. Most (66% for pure, 84% for impure) respondents stated placebos were ethical in some circumstances. Conclusion and implications -/- Placebo use is common in primary care but questions remain about their benefits, harms, costs, and whether they can be delivered ethically. Further research is required to investigate ethically acceptable and cost-effective placebo interventions. (shrink)

Abstract: Idea mining is an interesting field in the area of information retrieval and it is increasingly becoming important asset for decision makers. Huge volumes of high quality data from various sources such as scanners, mobile phones, loyalty cards, the web, and social media platforms presents enormous opportunity for organization to achieve success in their businesses. It is possible to achieve this by properly analysing data to reveal feature patterns; hence decision makers can capitalize upon the resulting ideas from wealth (...) of information available. Idea mining helps managers to use their time efficiently by grasping ideas from a huge amount of unstructured data with text mining, instead of reading through page by page, it also helps to avoid the danger of overlooking data with useful ideas. The main objective of this survey article is to provide assessment on a number of successful text mining and text classification tools combined with idea mining measures to extract the idea from texts. (shrink)

The paper is an introduction to geometric algebra and geometric calculus for those with a knowledge of undergraduate mathematics. No knowledge of physics is required. The section Further Study lists many papers available on the web.

This paper is envisaged to provide the Ukrainian businesses with suggestions for a content marketing model for the effective management of website content in order to ensure its leading position on the European and world markets. Our study employed qualitative data collection with semi-structured interviews, survey, observation methods, quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis of regional B2B companies, as well as the comparative analysis. The following essential stages of the content marketing process as preliminary search and analysis, website (...) content creation, promotion and distribution, and content marketing progress assessment were identified and classified in detail. The strategic decisions and activities at each stage of the process showed how a company’s on-site and off-site content can be used as a tool to establish the relationship between the brand and its target audience and increase brand visibility online. This study offered several useful insights into how website content, social media and various optimization techniques work together in engaging with the target audience and driving website traffic and sales leads. We constructed and described the content marketing model elaborated for effective web content management that can be useful for those companies that start to consider employing content marketing strategy for achieving business goals and increasing a leadership position. (shrink)

The research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has nowadays extended its attention to the study of persuasive technologies. Following this line of research, in this paper we focus on websites and mobile applications in the e-commerce domain. In particular, we take them as an evident example of persuasive technologies. Starting from the hypothesis that there is a strong connection between logical fallacies, i.e., forms of reasoning which are logically invalid but psychologically persuasive, and some common persuasion strategies adopted within these (...) technological artifacts, we carried out a survey on a sample of 175 websites and 101 mobile applications. This survey was aimed at empirically evaluating the significance of this connection by detecting the use of persuasion techniques, based on logical fallacies, in existing websites and mobile apps. In addition, with the goal of assessing the effectiveness of different fallacy-based persuasion techniques, we performed an empirical evaluation where participants interacted with a persuasive (fallacy-based) and with a non-persuasive version of an e-commerce website. Our results show that fallacy-based persuasion strategies are extensively used in existing digital artifacts, and that they are actually effective in influencing users’ behavior, with strategies based on visual salience manipulation (accent fallacy) being both the most popular and the most effective ones. (shrink)

AI-powered mental health chatbots have emerged as an innovative solution to bridge the gap in mental health services, which often face issues like limited accessibility, high costs, and social stigma. By integrating artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, these chatbots engage users in real-time conversations, offering psychological guidance, emotional support, and symptom management. Their ability to provide immediate, anonymous assistance makes mental health resources more accessible to a broader population. These chatbots are embedded in mobile applications, (...) social media platforms, and web-based services, ensuring continuous availability and personalized interactions. Advances in machine learning and sentiment analysis have improved chatbot responses, making them more adaptive and human-like. They serve as virtual therapists, guiding users through structured interventions and coping strategies to manage anxiety, depression, and stress effectively. Despite their advantages, AI-powered mental health chatbots present ethical, technical, and regulatory challenges. Concerns around data privacy, AI bias, and emotional intelligence need to be addressed to enhance their reliability. Moreover, their effectiveness is limited in severe mental health cases, emphasizing the need for a hybrid model that combines AI-driven therapy with human intervention. This survey explores the technologies, applications, therapeutic approaches, limitations, and future prospects of these chatbots. (shrink)

The research material proposes the use of decision support information-analytical technology in discharge military personnel employment, which, in contrast to the usual processing of survey results, makes it possible to obtain more information for decision-making. Adherence to such an approach in the development of public administration mechanisms increases the likelihood that in the case of their implementation in the country there will be positive changes, as they will indirectly take into account the availability of necessary resources. Information and analytical (...) technology to support decisions in the field of labor economics substantiates the development of the example of discharged military personnel social welfare. According to the content, the developed decision support information-analytical technology in the field of labor economics provides for the following components: formation of social protection mechanisms; development of a questionnaire on the use of the appropriate mechanism; statistical analysis of survey results (generation of empirical distributions of answers to questions relative frequencies; comparison of answers medians; correspondences analysis; factor analysis; analysis of hierarchies); meaningful interpretation; decision making. (shrink)

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the relation between the meaning of a sentence and its truth conditions. We report on a comprehension experiment on counterfactual conditionals, based on a context in which a light is controlled by two switches. Our main finding is that the truth-conditionally equivalent clauses (i) "switch A or switch B is down" and (ii) "switch A and switch B are not both up" make different semantic contributions when embedded in a conditional antecedent. (...) Assuming compositionality, this means that (i) and (ii) differ in meaning, which implies that the meaning of a sentential clause cannot be identified with its truth conditions. We show that our data have a clear explanation in inquisitive semantics: in a conditional antecedent, (i) introduces two distinct assumptions, while (ii) introduces only one. Independently of the complications stemming from disjunctive antecedents, our results also challenge analyses of counterfactuals in terms of minimal change from the actual state of affairs: we show that such analyses cannot account for our findings, regardless of what changes are considered minimal. (shrink)

This study examined correlations between moral value judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), and participant scores on the Short-D3 “Dark Triad” Personality Inventory—a measure of three related “dark and socially destructive” personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Five hundred sixty-seven participants (302 male, 257 female, 2 transgendered; median age 28) were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk and Yale Experiment Month web advertisements. Different responses to MIS items were initially hypothesized to be “conservative” or “liberal” in line (...) with traditional public divides. Our demographic data confirmed all of these hypothesized categorizations. We then tested two broad, exploratory hypotheses: (H1) the hypothesis that there would be “many” significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad, and (H2) the hypothesis that there would be no significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Machiavellianism or Psychopathy, but “some” significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Narcissism. Because our hypotheses were exploratory and we ran a large number of statistical tests (62 total), we utilized a Bonferroni Correction to set a very high threshold for significance (p =.0008). Our results broadly supported our two hypotheses. We found eleven significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad—all at significance level of p <.00001—but no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and liberal MIS judgments. We believe that these results raise provocative moral questions about the personality bases of moral judgments. In particular, we propose that because the Short-D3 measures three “dark and antisocial” personality traits, our results raise some prima facie worries about the moral justification of some conservative moral judgments. (shrink)

This paper presents a concise analytical review of selected case studies on the integration of multiphysics methods in aerospace structural design, with emphasis on rocket and high-speed vehicle applications. The review synthesizes peer-reviewed publications (2022–2025) indexed in Web of Science and Scopus that address coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics—Finite Element Method (CFD–FEM) analyses, fluid–structure interaction (FSI), conjugate heat transfer (CHT), ablation and thermal protection modeling, and multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) incorporating surrogate and machine-learning accelerants. Source selection and evaluation prioritized methodological transparency, (...) relevance to structural design tasks, and applicability of results to engineering practice. The surveyed studies indicate that fully coupled CFD–FEM and FSI formulations are capable of reproducing key interactions among aerodynamic, thermal and structural fields, while posing significant numerical and computational demands related to mesh compatibility, stiffness of governing equations and temporal integration. CHT approaches yield improved estimates of interfacial heat fluxes for nozzles and TPS elements when turbulent flow models are combined with wall conduction models. Multidimensional ablation models provide mechanistic insight into material removal processes but require careful treatment of thermochemical coupling and validation against experimental data. Recent developments in multifidelity optimization and gradient-enhanced surrogate models demonstrate potential to reduce computational cost in MDO workflows without discarding essential physics. Given the limited scope inherent to a concise analytical review, conclusions are presented as informed recommendations rather than exhaustive generalizations. Recommended practical measures for engineering application include: explicit consistency of boundary and initial conditions across disciplinary solvers; use of adaptive local mesh refinement in regions of strong gradients; adoption of hybrid coupling strategies (e.g., weak/iterative coupling, multiscale and multifidelity frameworks) to balance accuracy and cost; and integration of surrogate or data-driven models into optimization loops with rigorous uncertainty quantification and targeted validation for TPS, nozzle and thin-walled components. These recommendations aim to support practitioners and researchers seeking to improve predictive capability and computational efficiency in multiphysics design procedures for aerospace systems. (shrink)

Issues on plagiarism among pre-service teachers (PSTs) have increased in modular and online learning. To confirm this, the study determined the PSTs’ level of awareness on plagiarism; their knowledge on referencing and citation; and the correlation between their level of awareness on plagiarism and knowledge on referencing and citation, with their academic performance. The study employed a descriptive-correlational research design participated by 235 PSTs randomly sampled through strata. The data were gathered through a web-based survey. Results showed that the (...) PSTs’ level of awareness of plagiarism was moderate, while the majority have fair knowledge in referencing and citation. Also, results showed a significant relationship among the level of awareness on plagiarism, knowledge on referencing and citation, and academic performance. It is recommended that institutions equip librarians and educators to teach PSTs about citation and referencing skills. Besides, the institution should make sure that a policy is implemented to pursue academic integrity. This policy must articulate the various types of plagiarism, plagiarism measurement, and fair and consistent disciplinary actions. (shrink)

This study investigates all available literature related to critical thinking in business education in a survey of publications in the field produced from 1990-2019. It conducts a thematic analysis of 787 articles found in Web of Science and Google Scholar, including a specific focus on 55 highly-cited articles. The aim is to investigate the importance of critical thinking in business education, how it is conceptualised in business education research, the business contexts in which critical thinking is situated, and the (...) key and more marginal themes related to critical thinking outlined in the business and business education literature. The paper outlines six key areas and topics associated with those areas. It suggests future directions for further scholarly work in the area of critical thinking in business education. (shrink)

The moot point of the Western philosophical rhetoric about free will consists in examining whether the claim of authorship to intentional, deliberative actions fits into or is undermined by a one-way causal framework of determinism. Philosophers who think that reconciliation between the two is possible are known as metaphysical compatibilists. However, there are philosophers populating the other end of the spectrum, known as the metaphysical libertarians, who maintain that claim to intentional agency cannot be sustained unless it is assumed that (...) indeterministic causal processes pervade the action-implementation apparatus employed by the agent. The metaphysical libertarians differ among themselves on the question of whether the indeterministic causal relation exists between the series of intentional states and processes, both conscious and unconscious, and the action, making claim for what has come to be known as the event-causal view, or between the agent and the action, arguing that a sort of agent causation is at work. In this paper, I have tried to propose that certain features of both event-causal and agent-causal libertarian views need to be combined in order to provide a more defendable compatibilist account accommodating deliberative actions with deterministic causation. The ‘‘agent-executed-eventcausal libertarianism’’, the account of agency I have tried to develop here, integrates certain plausible features of the two competing accounts of libertarianism turning them into a consistent whole. I hope to show in the process that the integration of these two variants of libertarianism does not challenge what some accounts of metaphysical compatibilism propose—that there exists a broader deterministic relation between the web of mental and extra-mental components constituting the agent’s dispositional system—the agent’s beliefs, desires, short-term and long-term goals based on them, the acquired social, cultural and religious beliefs, the general and immediate and situational environment in which the agent is placed, etc. on the one hand and the decisions she makes over her lifetime on the basis of these factors. While in the ‘‘Introduction’’ the philosophically assumed anomaly between deterministic causation and the intentional act of deciding has been briefly surveyed, the second section is devoted to the task of bridging the gap between compatibilism and libertarianism. The next section of the paper turns to an analysis of folk-psychological concepts and intuitions about the effects of neurochemical processes and prior mental events on the freedom of making choices. How philosophical insights can be beneficially informed by taking into consideration folk-psychological intuitions has also been discussed, thus setting up the background for such analysis. It has been suggested in the end that support for the proposed theory of intentional agency can be found in the folk-psychological intuitions, when they are taken in the right perspective. (shrink)

In The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing explains how bare land is formed. Capitalism produces ‘ruins’ by stripping living beings of the capacity to form their own ecological relations, a necessary condition for the reproduction of life. Contemporary capitalism alienates living beings from ecological relations, i.e. capitalism generates “the ability to stand alone, as if the entanglements of living did not matter. Through alienation, people and things become (...) mobile assets; they can be removed from their lifeworlds in distance-defying transport to be exchanged with other assets from other life worlds, elsewhere” (Tsing 2021, 5). Cutting the threads of the web of life through capitalist alienation, however, produces bare land as a side effect, infertile waste deprived of the means to reproduce itself without capitalist support. Alienation is the deracination of living beings from their lifeworld, transforming them into passive cogs for capitalist accumulation. However, Tsing upholds matsutake mushrooms, rare fungi popular among Japa- nese foodies, as exemplars of the resilience of ecological relations. Even amidst ruins, matsutakes successfully form beneficial relations with other living beings, like pine trees, other fungi and human beings. The insistent capacity to regenerate ecological relations is the ineluctable means of reproduction for the matsutake mushroom. Even at the end of the world, the matsutake persists by perpetually co-producing new lifeworlds for itself and fellow living beings (see also Haraway 2016). I claim that Tsing’s approach to capitalist alienation is descriptively convinc- ing but lacks the affective force for ecological class consciousness. Tsing surveys the web of life from the perspective of living beings quite distant from humankind, articulating a theoretical diagnosis rather than a political exhortation. On an affective level, it is challenging to generate ecological class consciousness among the (presumably) human readers of my chapter if they are presented with only the biographies of mushrooms growing far beyond my home. As Chantal Mouffe (2018, 72) argues, the construction of an emphatically political identity requires an appeal to the affects, like hope, indignation or compassion. Latour and Schultz also stress that ecological politics currently suffers from an affective misalignment, with people failing to identify with the fate of their increasingly inhospitable environments (2022, 47). Why would European humans care about these unknown fungi? The reproduction of our CO2-intensive livelihoods largely depends on the emission of bare land elsewhere, so in the short run, we stand to benefit more from putting our heads in the sand. I employ Chakrabarty’s (2021) suggestion of grounding post-humanist politics first in strategic anthropocentrism to subsequently push for a post-humanist expansion of our human understanding. One must first feel personally interpellated by the crisis of the global means of reproduction before one can grasp the need for an ecological class politics beyond human confines. I turn to John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath as a kindred spirit with more mobilising potential. Steinbeck tells the story of a family of impoverished farmers from Oklahoma, the Joads, travelling to California in pursuit of a better life, yet only encountering more poverty, exploitation and anti-immigrant racism. Steinbeck describes in detail the environmental and social devastation, but he focuses on the commodified labour power of migrant farmers rather than commodified mushrooms. Steinbeck’s main characters are also uprooted from their entangled histories in the land and community of rural Oklahoma, but they present a more familiar face of the ecological class deprived of the means of reproduction. Steinbeck’s outcry against alienation-as-deracination is clear, but the shift in perspective facilitates the empathetic outrage required for building ecological class consciousness. Steinbeck’s strategic anthropocentrism helps human readers understand why alienation-as-deracination is a concern. (shrink)

Aim: To elicit preferences for prognostic information, attitudes towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (WLST) and perspectives on acceptable quality of life after post-anoxic coma within the adult general population of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States of America. Methods: A web-based survey, consisting of questions on respondent characteristics, perspectives on quality of life, communication of prognostic information, and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, was taken by adult respondents recruited from four countries. Statistical analysis included descriptive analysis and chi2-tests (...) for dierences between countries. Results: In total, 2012 respondents completed the survey. In each country, at least 84% indicated they would prefer to receive early prognostic information. If a poor outcome was predicted with some uncertainty, 37-54% of the respondents indicated that WLST was not to be allowed. A conscious state with severe physical and cognitive impairments was perceived as acceptable quality of life by 17–44% of the respondents. Clear differences between countries exist, including respondents from the U.S. being more likely to allow WLST than respondents from Germany (OR = 1.99, p < 0.001) or the Netherlands (OR = 1.74, p < 0.001) and preferring to stay alive in a conscious state with severe physical and cognitive impairments more than respondents from Italy (OR = 3.76, p < 0.001), Germany (OR = 2.21, p < 0.001), or the Netherlands (OR = 2.39, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Over one-third of the respondents considered WLST unacceptable when there is any remaining prognostic uncertainty. Respondents had a more positive perspective on acceptable quality of life after coma than what is currently considered acceptable in medical literature. This indicates a need for a closer look at the practice of WLST based on prognostic information, to ensure responsible use of novel prognostic tests. (shrink)

The abundance of technology nowadays is contributing to the development of learning practices. This gives learners greater opportunity to find, access, and use resources to benefit learning. Open educational resources (OER) are one of the few educational developments that emerged with technology. While it is true that there are a lot of OERs available on the internet, it is unsure how many learners are aware of their existence. This research aimed to identify how many students are aware of OERs, where (...) they use OERs, and whether the educational institution encourages OERs. The researchers surveyed several students within the University of the Philippines Open University. The survey included learner demographics, statistics on learners' awareness and usage of OERs, learners' OER access locations, and the challenges they encounter when using OERs. The survey showed that the learners, regardless of age, are aware of OERs. They mostly access videos, research, and journals on web pages and Wikis. They find the OERs accessible and relevant, but reliability and visibility are challenging. (shrink)

Many of the following literary-critical texts (not all quite conventional “long-form” essays) originally appeared on the Landscape Agency New York website, LANY Archive-Grotto, on the web portal Geocities, between the years 1997 and 2008 – i.e., over a period of roughly ten years. Versions of some were published in various journals, academic or otherwise. In re-presenting them here, the intention is to trace a proverbial “red thread” that crosses the entirety of the work, arguably what might be denoted the works-based (...) agency of works, and, arguably, the telltale trace of what is otherwise known as the “life-work,” yet for works versus for authors. -/- The entire, retrospective apparatus of The Editioning of Gardens is also, decidedly, an homage to New York, New York, either where or from where much of the research was undertaken and “lived.” Manhattan, indeed, haunts these pages, directly and indirectly – that is to say, the unparalleled access to libraries, bookstores, universities, galleries, cafés, pubs, restaurants, cinemas, parks, and the streets is quite simply the source for the often-intense, yet suitably critical exegetical works. -/- This book is meant to both recapitulate themes crossing the “life-work” of the works collected, but to also illustrate the transitional gestalt of the 1990s and 2000s, something we collectively have not yet quite exited, and something that still haunts and gives pause to architects and landscape architects today. In naming this collection “The Editioning of Gardens,” the intention is to draw attention to the fact that it is landscape that underwrites almost all architectural interventions, whether acknowledged or denied, and that it is “landscape” – in the widest sense of the word – that we inherently and collectively inhabit. -/- NOTA BENE: -/- While many of the essays and texts presented here have been previously published as “working papers” or “reviews” on the LANY Archive-Grotto website, or in journals and P2P dossiers (i.e., in open-access collections posted to research repositories, here denoted Things Czech and Dossier LANY), their presentation in book form makes them more readily accessible and effectively new works as totality. Most have also been re-edited and re-formatted for inclusion in The Editioning of Gardens. -/- All texts are also dated so as to situate them in the timeframe in which they appeared (or were written), as snapshots or surveys of passing times. While re-edited and re-formatted for presentation here, they have not been re-written as such due to their implied “historic” and “time-based” nature. As collection, however, they function as an (un)timely reminder of critical exegesis as rite of passage – underscoring the significance of the title of the collection. This latter trait is what, ironically, makes the collection contemporary and post-contemporary – timely and untimely at once. (shrink)

With advancements in quantum computing, existing public-key cryptographic standards such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) face an impending risk of obsolescence. These foundational systems underpin critical components of secure communications, from VPNs to TLS-protected web traffic. This paper evaluates the current state of enterprise preparedness for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and proposes a structured transition roadmap. We analyse leading post-quantum algorithms submitted to the NIST standardization process, particularly focusing on latticebased (Kyber, NTRU) and code-based (Classic McEliece) cryptosystems. Each is (...) compared in terms of key size, computational overhead, and deployment complexity. A cross-industry survey of 27 enterprise IT departments reveals a significant preparedness gap: nearly half of respondents were unaware of quantum threats, and none reported a concrete migration plan. Using simulation environments integrating OpenSSL and WireGuard, we assess performance impacts of various PQC algorithms under realistic conditions. While post-quantum solutions do introduce increased computational costs, our findings suggest they are viable for implementation in high-value and internal systems. The study concludes by presenting a Quantum-Safe Readiness Model (QSRM), identifying phases of enterprise transition, and advocating for immediate pilot testing and policy-level engagement. This research underscores the urgency of beginning the migration process now to defend against potential “harvest now, decrypt later” scenarios exploited by advanced adversaries. (shrink)

On the occasion of his passing, this wide-ranging essay surveys the spiritual pilgrimage and legacy of Huston Smith, teacher of the primordial tradition expressed in the world's religions and of its timeless relevance.

The study of a person existence in Internet space is certainly an actual task, since the Internet is not only a source of innovation, but also the cause of society's transformations and the social and cultural problems that arise in connection with this. Computer network is global. It is used by people of different professions, age, level and nature of education, living around the world and belonging to different cultures. It complicates the problem of developing common standards of behavior, a (...) system of norms and rules that could be widely accepted by all users. On the other hand, the Internet space can be viewed as a new form of existence where physical laws do not work, and in connection with this, social ones are often questioned. This paper focuses on how social norms regulate relations in Internet space. The authors represents the typology of deviant behavior in the network. The empirical basis of the research includes the sociological survey of students of the senior courses in the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Sociological survey allows to identify students’ understanding of Internet space. The selection of students is conditioned by the fact that IT professionals are considered simultaneously as ordinary users of the network and as future professionals in this field. (shrink)

Web 2.0 is the evolution of the Web towards greater simplicity (requiring no technical knowledge or computer for users) and interactivity (allowing everyone, individually or collectively, to contribute, share and collaborate in various forms). The term “Web 2.0" means all technical, features and uses of the World Wide Web that follow the original form of the web, especially interfaces that allow users with little technical knowledge to adopt new functionality of the web. Thus, users contribute to the exchange of information (...) and can interact (share, exchange, etc.) simply, with both the content and structure of the pages, but also between them, creating this way the social web. The user is using the tools at its disposal, as an active person on the canvas. The term “2.0" is now used as a generic term to apply the concept of Web 2.0 to other application domains. (shrink)

The paper develops some of the conclusions, reached in Floridi (2007), concerning the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives. The two main theses supported in that article were that, as the information society develops, the threshold between online and offline is becoming increasingly blurred, and that once there won't be any significant difference, we shall gradually re-conceptualise ourselves not as cyborgs but rather as inforgs, i.e. socially connected, informational organisms. In this paper, (...) I look at the development of the so-called Semantic Web and Web 2.0 from this perspective and try to forecast their future. Regarding the Semantic Web, I argue that it is a clear and well-defined project, which, despite some authoritative views to the contrary, is not a promising reality and will probably fail in the same way AI has failed in the past. Regarding Web 2.0, I argue that, although it is a rather ill-defined project, which lacks a clear explanation of its nature and scope, it does have the potentiality of becoming a success (and indeed it is already, as part of the new phenomenon of Cloud Computing) because it leverages the only semantic engines available so far in nature, us. I conclude by suggesting what other changes might be expected in the future of our digital environment. (shrink)

This opening chapter of the Heretic's Survival Guide establishes the foundational ontology for a deep history of consciousness, arguing that reality is not a collection of discrete objects but a dynamic, interconnected field: a "web of being." This perspective, echoed in traditions from the pre-Socratic Heraclitus to the Taoist sage Laozi, finds a modern parallel in the process-oriented ontologies suggested by quantum physics. The evolution of life and mind within this field is characterized by a process of deepening internal recursion: (...) a spiral of increasing complexity that gives rise to self-awareness and symbolic language. For the vast majority of human history, this recursive capacity was expressed through a participatory-ecological worldview, a mode of consciousness in which humans experience themselves not as separate from nature, but as an inseparable thread within a larger, animate, and intelligent cosmos. Drawing on the work of cultural ecologists and anthropologists, this section explores this participatory ontology as a lived reality, a sensuous immersion in a "more-than-human world" where knowledge is relational and embodied. -/- The chapter then charts the catastrophic rupture of this worldview, identifying the Neolithic Revolution not as an unambiguous step forward but as a profound deviation that precipitated a cascade of systemic crises. Synthesizing the research of revisionist historians and archaeologists, it argues that the shift to sedentary, grain-based agriculture was the catalyst for coercion and hierarchy. The creation of storable surplus led directly to the need for defense, the rise of warlord-kings, the invention of property law, and the institutionalization of the state as a machine of appropriation. This analysis demonstrates that this shift came at a tremendous biological and social cost, leading to a documented decline in human health, nutrition, and freedom. Furthermore, it traces the origins of patriarchy to this moment, arguing that the control of land and inheritance necessitated the control of female reproduction, establishing a template for domination that would define civilization for millennia. This chapter thus frames the dawn of civilization not as a story of progress, but as the foundational trauma of separation from the participatory web of being, setting the stage for the perennial conflict between individual consciousness and institutional power. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33809.29282. (shrink)

This essay investigates Tomás Saraceno's artistic practice through the prism of the Foucauldian concept of apparatus, analyzing how his installations transform the spider web from biological structure into a complex system of relations capable of generating new forms of ecological awareness and utopian possibilities in the Anthropocene. Situated within contemporary debates on pragmatic utopian thinking—from Erik Olin Wright's "real utopias" to Nicolas Bourriaud's "micro-utopias"—the article examines how Saraceno, through projects such as In Orbit (2013), On Space Time Foam (2012), and (...) Cloud Cities (2012), materializes visions of alternative habitats that transcend the conception of utopia as an idealized and unattainable world. Drawing on Paola Nicolin's exhibition theory and Bruno Latour's atmospheric analysis, the study demonstrates how these installations operate as apparatuses that activate networks of interdependencies between human and non-human elements, transforming exhibition space into a force field where every action generates systemic repercussions. The spider web emerges as an epistemological paradigm articulating interconnection, structural fragility, and distributed agency, engaging with theoretical frameworks of posthumanism (Haraway, Braidotti) and new materialism. The critical analysis reveals, however, the tensions inherent in this approach: from the risk of anthropocentric ventriloquism in representing the non-human, to contradictions between ecological messages and the environmental impact of artistic production, to the limited accessibility of these immersive experiences. The article argues that, despite these limitations, Saraceno's utopian explorations constitute a significant contribution to rethinking modes of interspecies coexistence, proposing the web-apparatus as a model for a relational aesthetics capable of rendering tangible the invisible dynamics of the climate crisis and catalyzing new imaginaries of ecological justice. (shrink)

I analyse the impact of search engines on our cognitive and epistemic practices. For that purpose, I describe the processes of assessment of documents on the Web as relying on distributed cognition. Search engines together with Web users, are distributed assessment systems whose task is to enable efficient allocation of cognitive resources of those who use search engines. Specifying the cognitive function of search engines within these distributed assessment systems allows interpreting anew the changes that have been caused by search (...) engine technologies. I describe search engines as implementing reputation systems and point out the similarities with other reputation systems. I thus call attention to the continuity in the distributed cognitive processes that determine the allocation of cognitive resources for information gathering from others. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new account of bounded or minimal doxastic rationality (in the sense of Cherniak 1986), based on the notion that beliefs are answers to questions (à la Yalcin 2018). The core idea is that minimally rational beliefs are linked through thematic connections, rather than entailment relations. Consequently, such beliefs are not deductively closed, but they are closed under parthood (where a part is an entailment that answers a smaller question). And instead of avoiding all inconsistency, minimally rational (...) believers only avoid blatant inconsistencies (where some beliefs are blatantly inconsistent when they contradict one another on a particular question). Rather than cohering into a single overall world view, beliefs are more loosely connected in what is best described as a web of questions. This view of minimally rational belief naturally gives rise to an account of deductive inquiry on which deductive reasoning is a matter of posing new questions. (shrink)

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the broad phases of web development: the read-only Web 1.0, the read-write Web 2.0, and the collaborative and Internet of Things Web 3.0, are examined for the theoretical lenses through which they have been understood and critiqued. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual piece, in the tradition of drawing on theorising from outside the Information Systems field, to shed light on developments in information communication technologies (ICTs). Findings – Along (...) with a summary of approaches to Webs 1.0 and 2.0, the authors contend that a more complex and poststructuralist theoretical approach to the notion of, and the phenomenon of Web 3.0, offers a more interesting and appropriate theoretical grounding for understanding its particularities. Originality/value – The discussion presages five further papers engaged with ICTs in a changing society, each of which similarly addresses novel theoretical understandings. (shrink)

The interpretations of sustainability are varied. In most cases, the focus is on reinterpretations and transformations of human attitudes towards the natural environment and certain (unacceptable) social practices and conditions, i.e. the task would be to shape these spheres of human existence in the interests of sustainability. However, the creation and widespread use of the Internet is fundamentally changing human life that is no longer confined to the natural and social spheres. Web life, as a third sphere of human existence (...) created by the universal use of the Internet, is also a component of human condition, both in itself and through its interactions with the natural and social spheres. It is essential to take this into account: the sustainability of these “three spheres” should be addressed together. The continuous construction of web life can be decisive for the sustainability of the whole human existence. (shrink)

Spam on the Web is an important issue for search engines. It reduces the quality of search results and frustrate genuine people trying to find content. You wouldn't even believe how much it costs economically just to have a high-ranking position in search engines. That brings so much advertisement value and a lot of traffic directed towards the site. This research work presents a sophisticated spam detection system consisting of link-based and language- model (LM)-based features applied to identify and filter (...) web spam. The model combines quantitative data and qualitative link properties, including link reliability and semantic coherence between linked pages. It uses language modelling to analyse content with hyperlink context so that semantically unrelated pages will be flagged for potential web spam detection. Finally, it uses cosine similarity to match the content of a suspected page against trusted no spam pages to improve precision. This is achieved by joining structural and contextual analysis. Thus, this approach is a promising way of going decisive in detecting web spam so that a cleaner search engine result would lead towards an improved on browsing experience. (shrink)

In the history of external information systems, the World Wide Web presents a significant change in terms of the accessibility and amount of available information. Constant access to various kinds of online information has consequences for the way we think, act and remember. Philosophers and cognitive scientists have recently started to examine the interactions between the human mind and the Web, mainly focussing on the way online information influences our biological memory systems. In this article, we use concepts from the (...) extended cognition and distributed cognition frameworks and from transactive memory theory to analyse the cognitive relations between humans and the Web. We first argue that while neither of these approaches neatly capture the nature of human-Web interactions, both offer useful concepts to describe aspects of such interactions. We then conceptualize relations between the Web and its users in terms of cognitive integration, arguing that most current Web applications are not deeply integrated and are better seen as a scaffold for memory and cognition. Some highly personalised applications accessed on wearable computing devices, however, may already have the capacity for deep integration. Finally, we draw out some of the epistemic implications of our cognitive analysis. (shrink)

As web threats evolve, securing enterprise applications built on ASP. NET Core is a pressing concern. This study explores modern security implementations using ASP. NET Core Identity, OAuth2, and JWT. Penetration tests and attack simulations are conducted to assess defenses against common vulnerabilities such as CSRF, XSS, and token forgery. The research presents a security - hardening checklist and recommends architectural patterns for scalable, secure identity management in ASP. NET applications.

Human existence is being transformed. Its structure, many thousand years old, seems to be changing: built on the natural and the social, there is a third form of existence: web-life. Man is now the citizen of three worlds and its nature is being formed by the relations of natural, social and web-life. We regard as our main goal the study of web-life, which has developed as the result of Internet use.

Social machines are a prominent focus of attention for those who work in the field of Web and Internet science. Although a number of online systems have been described as social machines, there is, as yet, little consensus as to the precise meaning of the term “social machine.” This presents a problem for the scientific study of social machines, especially when it comes to the provision of a theoretical framework that directs, informs, and explicates the scientific and engineering activities of (...) the social machine community. The present paper outlines an approach to understanding social machines that draws on recent work in the philosophy of science, especially work in so-called mechanical philosophy. This is what might be called a mechanistic view of social machines. According to this view, social machines are systems whose phenomena are explained via an appeal to socio-technical mechanisms. We show how this account is able to accommodate a number of existing attempts to define the social machine concept, thereby yielding an important opportunity for theoretical integration. (shrink)

Scalability, efficiency, and security had been a persistent problem over the years in data mining, several techniques had been proposed and implemented but none had been able to solve the problem of scalability, efficiency and security from cloud computing. In this research, we solve the problem scalability, efficiency and security in data mining over cloud computing by using a restful web services and combination of different technologies and tools, our model was trained by using different machine learning algorithm, and finally (...) using different validation and cross-validation methods to compare and validate our results. We build, train, test and deploy our model by restful API services which can be called through an endpoint, and with very high accuracy and huge success. (shrink)

The study aimed to promote the school online, provide timely, engaging, and current information of the school to employees, learners, parents, and community, share updates of school activities online, supply downloadable instructional materials and resources for both employees and students. Also, it evaluated the assessment of teaching and non-teaching staff, learners, parents and IT specialists to the ISO 25010:2011 software quality standards of the developed Web-based School Information and Publication System along functional and suitability, maintainability, usability, security, reliability, performance efficiency, (...) compatibility, and portability. This study was descriptive and developmental research. The researcher used the iterative waterfall software methodology. The overall assessment on the Web-Based School Information and Publication System in its quality and standard was “Excellent”. Furthermore, based on the findings, the system was beneficial and informative for the school, especially for learners. It was determined that the system was generally acceptable and conformed to the quality software characteristics needed by ISO 25010:2011 standards. (shrink)

Philosophers working in the nascent field of ‘experimental philosophy’ have begun using methods borrowed from psychology to collect data about folk intuitions concerning debates ranging from action theory to ethics to epistemology. In this paper we present the results of our attempts to apply this approach to the free will debate, in which philosophers on opposing sides claim that their view best accounts for and accords with folk intuitions. After discussing the motivation for such research, we describe our methodology of (...) surveying people’s prephilosophical judgments about the freedom and responsibility of agents in deterministic scenarios. In two studies, we found that a majority of participants judged that such agents act of their own free will and are morally responsible for their actions. We then discuss the philosophical implications of our results as well as various difficulties inherent in such research. (shrink)

El artículo muestra la importancia para las organizaciones culturales de conocer como el “cliente” o consumidor utiliza su sitio web. Para ello un sesionador web (Web Sessioner) resulta de fundamental importancia en Web Usage Mininq. Consiste en la aplicación de técnicas de Data Mining para la identificación de patrones de uso de un sitio web. Se ejemplifica con un análisis aplicado a un teatro público, utilizando el paquete RWeb Sessionizer donde se implementó en R la metodología propuesta inicialmente por R. (...) Cooley, y que ha tenido varios refinamientos posteriores . (shrink)

Despite well-established results in survey methodology, many experimental philosophers have not asked whether and in what way conclusions about folk intuitions follow from people’s responses to their surveys. Rather, they appear to have proceeded on the assumption that intuitions can be simply read off from survey responses. Survey research, however, is fraught with difficulties. I review some of the relevant literature—particularly focusing on the conversational pragmatic aspects of survey research—and consider its application to common experimental philosophy (...) surveys. I argue for two claims. First, that experimental philosophers’ survey methodology leaves the facts about folk intuitions massively underdetermined; and second, that what has been regarded as evidence for the instability of philosophical intuitions is, at least in some cases, better accounted for in terms of subjects’ reactions to subtle pragmatic cues contained in the surveys. (shrink)

El sitio web de una organización cultural proporciona una herramienta fundamental para cumplir con dos de sus objetivos básicos: difundir y democratizar la cultura. Se está iniciando una nueva fase del capitalismo cultural. Antes se generaba riqueza sobre bienes tangibles, pero en el futuro la riqueza se generará esencialmente a través de la producción simbólica. Una fuerte revolución tecnológica reduce (o elimina) a los intermediarios entre creadores y consumidores culturales. La caída de la intermediación implica romper barreras y democratizar el (...) acceso a la creación. El sitio web del Teatro Solís es una de las principales formas de comunicación con su entorno. Conocer la forma en que los usuarios de una organización utilizan la web es clave para comprender si se está brindando el servicio que se requiere, si los productos o servicios son fácilmente encontrados y, en definitiva, hasta qué punto se cumple con el objetivo que la organización pretende lograr por medio de su presencia en la web. En este trabajo se presenta el análisis de logfiles del Teatro Solís, implementado un sessionizer con timeout parametrizable, que elimina software robots (crawlers), asigna un identificador a cada sesión y genera datos de resumen del proceso de sesionalización. (shrink)

Augmented reality (AR) technologies function to ‘augment’ normal perception by superimposing virtual objects onto an agent’s visual field. The philosophy of augmented reality is a small but growing subfield within the philosophy of technology. Existing work in this subfield includes research on the phenomenology of augmented experiences, the metaphysics of virtual objects, and different ethical issues associated with AR systems, including (but not limited to) issues of privacy, property rights, ownership, trust, and informed consent. This paper addresses some epistemological issues (...) posed by AR systems. I focus on a near-future version of AR technology called the Real-World Web, which promises to radically transform the nature of our relationship to digital information by mixing the virtual with the physical. I argue that the Real-World Web (RWW) threatens to exacerbate three existing epistemic problems in the digital age: the problem of digital distraction, the problem of digital deception, and the problem of digital divergence. The RWW is poised to present new versions of these problems in the form of what I call the augmented attention economy, augmented skepticism, and the problem of other augmented minds. The paper draws on a range of empirical research on AR and offers a phenomenological analysis of virtual objects as perceptual affordances to help ground and guide the speculative nature of the discussion. It also considers a few policy-based and designed-based proposals to mitigate the epistemic threats posed by AR technology. (shrink)

This paper presents the design and development of a dynamic and user-friendly web page for Sanjeevani Vidya Samstha, an educational institution dedicated to providing quality learning and holistic development. The objective of the web page is to enhance digital presence, streamline information dissemination, and facilitate communication between the institution, students, parents, and faculty. The platform integrates essential modules such as About Us, Courses Offered, Admissions, Faculty Profiles, Events, News & Announcements, and Contact Information. Built using modern web technologies such as (...) HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and responsive frameworks, the web page ensures accessibility across various devices and platforms. The paper also discusses the implementation of user-centered design principles and highlights the importance of digital transformation in educational institutions. This initiative aims to strengthen institutional branding, improve transparency, and create a bridge between traditional education systems and emerging digital trends. (shrink)

What is W. V. O. Quine’s relationship to classical pragmatism? Although he resists the comparison to William James in particular, commentators have seen an affinity between his “web of belief” model of theory confirmation and James’s claim that our beliefs form a “stock” that faces new experience as a corporate body. I argue that the similarity is only superficial. James thinks our web of beliefs should be responsive not just to perceptual but also to emotional experiences in some cases; Quine (...) denies this. I motivate James’s controversial view by appealing to an episode in the history of medicine when a researcher self-experimented by swallowing a vial of bacteria that at the time had not been studied in much detail. The researcher’s commitment to his own as-yet untested hypothesis was based in part on emotional considerations. Finally, I argue that Quine’s insistence that emotions can never be relevant to adjusting our web of belief reflects a tacit holdover of one of logical positivism’s crucially anti-pragmatist commitments—that philosophy of science should focus exclusively on the context of justification, not the context of discovery. James’s emphasis on discovery as a (perhaps the) crucial locus for epistemological inquiry is characteristic of pragmatism in general. Since Quinean epistemology is always an epistemology of justification, he is not happily viewed as a member of the pragmatist tradition. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine Quine's views on the epistemology of logic. According to Quine's influential holistic account, logic is central in the “web of belief” that comprises our overall theory of the world. Because of this, revisions to logic would have devastating systematic consequences, and this explains why we are loath to make such revisions. In section1, I clarify this idea and thereby show that Quine actually takes the web of belief to have asymmetrical internal structure. This raises two (...) puzzles. First, as I show in section 2, Quine's mature thoroughly naturalized view has it that logic is simply obvious, and this is explains why we do not typically consider revising it. While Quine presents this naturalized view as a way to make good on his earlier metaphor of centrality in a web of belief, I argue that the resources of Quine's naturalized epistemology cannot adequately explain why we are reluctant to revise logic. And, Quine seems to recognize this point himself. In light of this, I explain in section 3 how Quine can allow that our overall scientific theory has systematic structure in a way that is consistent with his naturalistic strictures. Second, the asymmetrical internal structure of the web of belief seems to be inconsistent with its being a holistic web at all. I defuse this problem in section 4 by showing how Quine distinguishes between structural and confirmational considerations. I close by using this distinction to show how Quine's view can evade Michael Friedman’s criticisms, and allow for important methodological distinctions between areas of the web of belief. (shrink)

This paper proposes a unified framework in which biology and physics are continuous manifestations of a single evolving causal web governed by two fundamental organizing principles: locality and relativity of local causalities. Local causal interactions constitute the elementary currency of change within this dynamic web. Persistence (memory) and stability emerge as relatively stable local interactions embedded in an ever-changing network. Apparent top-down or bottom-up causation does not represent a distinct causal category but arises from the accumulated history of local interactions. (...) Reconceptualizing biology as a causal network in which natural selection shows as an emergent effect allows us to view the physical world as a seamless continuation of the same web operating across different boundaries. Mass, forces, and motion are reinterpreted as manifestations and flows of causality governed by the same principles of locality, relationality, and historical embedding. In this framework, relativity is not primarily a theory of inertial frames or the measurement of clocks and rods, but a description of how local causality is dynamically organized and reassigned through relative motion within the network. The quantum domain represents a further extension of this evolving causal web. Experimental choices and measurement outcomes are co-determined by the web’s historical structure, eliminating the need for genuine nonlocality to explain quantum correlations. The universe is thus neither a sterile clockwork governed by eternal Platonic laws nor a collection of disconnected parts; it is a single, interconnected, evolving web. (shrink)

A new layer of complexity, constituted of networks of information token recurrence, has been identified in socio-technical systems such as the Wikipedia online community and the Zooniverse citizen science platform. The identification of this complexity reveals that our current understanding of the actual structure of those systems, and consequently the structure of the entire World Wide Web, is incomplete, which raises novel questions for data science research but also from the perspective of social epistemology. Here we establish the principled foundations (...) and practical advantages of analyzing information diffusion within and across Web systems with Transcendental Information Cascades, and outline resulting directions for future study in the area of socio-technical systems. We also suggest that Transcendental Information Cascades may be applicable to any kind of time-evolving system that can be observed using digital technologies, and that the structures found in such systems comprise properties common to all naturally occurring complex systems. (shrink)

The is/ought problem, this paper argues, is not a metaphysical chasm to be bridged but an artifact of foundationalist epistemology. To reframe it, this paper develops *Emergent Pragmatic Coherentism (EPC)*, a descriptive model of moral knowledge. Building on Quine’s holism, EPC models all knowledge as an emergent hierarchy of shared “networks of predicates.” This social-epistemic architecture scales from the individual’s “web of belief” to encompass entire traditions of inquiry. Within this architecture, truth is treated deflationary as a functional label for (...) robust coherence within a pragmatically-tested network. This network-relative conception of truth is simultaneously disciplined by an external selective filter—evolutionary pragmatic selection—where the ultimate metric is not mere persistence but *pragmatic viability*: a system's homeostatic efficiency in propagating its structure with minimal coercive cost. Networks incurring high systemic costs collapse over time, while efficient, resilient networks propagate. This process grounds a form of procedural objectivity: while truth is a property internal to a network, networks themselves can be objectively ranked by their long-term viability. The ultimate regulative standard is the Apex Network—a theoretical model of a real, emergent historical object representing the cumulative record of predicates that have proven most viable. EPC’s central claim is conditional: if we begin from minimal naturalism, where endurance is a non-negotiable constraint, then EPC provides a robust account of moral progress. It locates normative authority not in metaphysical fiat or non-cognitive attitudes, but in the empirical lessons encoded in humanity’s most resilient social and epistemic structures. (shrink)

When a widely reused ontology appears in a new version which is not compatible with older versions, the ontologies reusing it need to be updated accordingly. Ontobull has been developed to automatically update ontologies with new term IRI(s) and associated metadata to take account of such version changes. To use the Ontobull web interface a user is required to (i) upload one or more ontology OWL source files; (ii) input an ontology term IRI mapping; and (where needed) (iii) provide update (...) settings for ontology headers and XML namespace IDs. Using this information, the backend Ontobull Java program automatically updates the OWL ontology files with desired term IRIs and ontology metadata. The Ontobull subprogram BFOConvert supports the conversion of an ontology that imports a previous version of BFO. A use case is provided to demonstrate the features of Ontobull and BFOConvert. (shrink)

Dall'autore del più visitato sito web dedicato a Giordano Bruno, un volume in chiusura dell'anno bruniano, edito da Marotta & Cafiero: WWW.Giordano Bruno di Guido del Giudice è un assai originale pubblicazione che trova nella passione filosofica di chi lo ha scritto la sua più profonda motivazione.

This paper seeks an explanation for the challenges faced by Semantic Web developers in achieving their vision, compared to the staggering near-instantaneous success of the World Wide Web. To this end it contrasts two broad philosophical understandings of meaning and argues that the choice between them carries real consequences for how developers attempt to engineer the Semantic Web. The first is Rene Descartes' “private,” static account of meaning (arguably dominant for the last four-hundred years in Western thought), which understands the (...) meanings of signs as whatever their producers intend them to mean. The second is Charles Peirce's still relatively unknown “public,” evolutionary account of meaning, according to which the meaning of signs just is the way they are interpreted and used to produce further signs. It is argued that only the latter approach can avoid the unmanageable attempts to “preprocess” interpretation of signs on the Web that have dogged the project in its many stages, and thereby do justice to the scale, rapid changeability, and exciting possibilities of online information today. (shrink)