A comparative study of thematic mapping and scientific visualization

Visualization of scientific frontiers is a relatively new field, yet it has a long history and many predecessors. The application of science to science itself has been undertaken for decades with notable early contributions by Derek Price, Thomas Kuhn, Diana Crane, Eugene Garfield, and many others. What is new is the field of information visualization and application of its techniques to help us understand the process of science in the making. In his new book, Chaomei Chen takes us on a journey through this history, touching on predecessors, and then leading us firmly into the new world of Mapping Scientific Frontiers. Building on the foundation of his earlier book, Information Visualization and Virtual Environments, Chen's new offering is much less a tutorial in how to do information visualization, and much more a conceptual exploration of why and how the visualization of science can change the way we do science, amplified by real examples. Chen's stated intents for the book are: (1) to focus on principles of visual thinking that enable the identification of scientific frontiers; (2) to introduce a way to systematize the identification of scientific frontiers (or paradigms) through visualization techniques; and (3) to stimulate interdisciplinary research between informationmore » visualization and information science researchers. On all these counts, he succeeds. Chen's book can be broken into two parts which focus on the first two purposes stated above. The first, consisting of the initial four chapters, covers history and predecessors. Kuhn's theory of normal science punctuated by periods of revolution, now commonly known as paradigm shifts, motivates the work. Relevant predecessors outside the traditional field of information science such as cartography (both terrestrial and celestial), mapping the mind, and principles of visual association and communication, are given ample coverage. Chen also describes enabling techniques known to information scientists, such as multi-dimensional scaling, advanced dimensional reduction, social network analysis, Pathfinder network scaling, and landscape visualizations. No algorithms are given here; rather, these techniques are described from the point of view of enabling 'visual thinking'. The Generalized Similarity Analysis (GSA) technique used by Chen in his recent published papers is also introduced here. Information and computer science professionals would be wise not to skip through these early chapters. Although principles of gestalt psychology, cartography, thematic maps, and association techniques may be outside their technology comfort zone, or interest, these predecessors lay a groundwork for the 'visual thinking' that is required to create effective visualizations. Indeed, the great challenge in information visualization is to transform the abstract and intangible into something visible, concrete, and meaningful to the user. The second part of the book, covering the final three chapters, extends the mapping metaphor into the realm of scientific discovery through the structuring of literatures in a way that enables us to see scientific frontiers or paradigms. Case studies are used extensively to show the logical progression that has been made in recent years to get us to this point. Homage is paid to giants of the last 20 years including Michel Callon for co-word mapping, Henry Small for document co-citation analysis and specialty narratives (charting a path linking the different sciences), and Kate McCain for author co-citation analysis, whose work has led to the current state-of-the-art. The last two chapters finally answer the question - 'What does a scientific paradigm look like?' The visual answer given is specific to the GSA technique used by Chen, but does satisfy the intent of the book - to introduce a way to visually identify scientific frontiers. A variety of case studies, mostly from Chen's previously published work - supermassive black holes, cross-domain applications of Pathfinder networks, mass extinction debates, impact of Don Swanson's work, and mad cow disease and vCJD in humans - succeed in explaining how visualization can be used to show the development of, competition between, and eventual acceptance (or replacement) of scientific paradigms. Although not addressed specifically, Chen's work nonetheless makes the persuasive argument that visual maps alone are not sufficient to explain 'the making of science' to a non-expert in a particular field. Rather, expert knowledge is still required to interpret these maps and to explain the paradigms. This combination of visual maps and expert knowledge, used jointly to good effect in the book, becomes a potent means for explaining progress in science to the expert and non-expert alike. Work to extend the GSA technique to explore latent domain knowledge (important work that falls below the citation thresholds typically used in GSA) is also explored here.« less

This chapter presents a review of Land Use Cover (LUC) datasets at global and supranational scales. To this end, we differentiate between LUC maps (Sect. 3) and reference LUC datasets (Sect. 4). The former map how different land uses or covers are distributed across the Earth’s surface. The latter provides a sample of LUC data for specific points on Earth and are normally used in LUC mapping and modelling calibration and validation exercises. We also include a brief presentation of the main producers of LUC datasets (Sect. 2). The LUC maps reviewed here are classified according to different criteria. First, we differentiate between general LUC maps (Sect. 3.2), which provide information about all land uses and covers on Earth, and thematic LUC maps (Sect. 3.3), which focus on the mapping of a specific land use or cover. Second, we classify general and thematic LUC maps according to their extent, distinguishing between global and supra-national LUC maps. The general maps are classified according to the continent for which they provide information, either fully or partially, while the thematic maps are classified according to the type of land use or cover they focus on. Most of the datasets reviewed in this chapter are characterized in detail in Part IV of this book, to which this chapter acts as an introduction. This chapter includes a series of tables with all the datasets, indicating those for which a detailed description is provided in Part IV.

Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources. Based on population needs, groundwater use meets around 60% for irrigation, industry, drinking water, sanitary facilities, etc. Based on data from the DESDM of Banten Province (2016), the Bayah Sub district area belongs to a small productive aquifer and rare underground water. With the development of in the Bayah region, it will be necessary to have a spatial with environmental insight. One of the important things in determining environmentally planning is by determining groundwater recharge areas in the area. The method used in this study is the Remote Sensing method. Data sources which used here is geological maps, DEMNAS imagery, Landsat-8 imagery, Landsat-5 TM imagery, Bayah rainfall stations. These data are processed using GIS to produce thematic maps such as lithology maps, land cover, lineament density, drainage density, rainfall, slope, and geomorphology. Scoring of all thematic maps is done using the multi-criteria evaluation / analysis method based on the superiority of each thematic map and the data in the thematic map itself on groundwater recharge value. The results of scoring on each thematic map are then overlaid on each thematic map to produce a map of potential groundwater recharge. According to this study the research can conclude that remote sensing and multi criteria evaluation can effectively use for finding groundwater recharge potential by using those 7 thematic maps. The study area mostly has high value groundwater potential recharge (2-3) which is 109,17 km2 and 77% of the study area.

The efficient reconstruction and artifact-free visualization of surfaces from measured real-world data is an important issue in various applications, such as medical and scientific visualization, quality control, and the media-related industry. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of the first efficient GPU-based reconstruction and visualization methods using trivariate splines, i.e., splines defined on tetrahedral partitions. Our methods show that these models are very well-suited for real-time reconstruction and high-quality visualizations of surfaces from volume data. We create a new quasi-interpolating operator which for the first time solves the problem of finding a globally C1-smooth quadratic spline approximating data and where no tetrahedra need to be further subdivided. In addition, we devise a new projection method for point sets arising from a sufficiently dense sampling of objects. Compared with existing approaches, high-quality surface triangulations can be generated with guaranteed numerical stability. Keywords. Piecewise polynomials; trivariate splines; quasi-interpolation; volume data; GPU ray casting; surface reconstruction; point set surfaces

Scientific Visualization is currently a very active and vital area of research, teaching and development. The success of Scientific Visualization is mainly due to the soundness of the basic premise behind it, that is, the basic idea of using computer-generated pictures to gain information and understanding from data (geometry) and relationships (topology). This is an extremely intiutive and very important concept which is having a profound and wide spread impact on the methodology of science and engineering. In this survey we are concentrating on three main research areas in Scientific Visualization - Intelligent Visualization Systems - Visualization of Vector- and Tensorfields - Augmented Reality Simulation

Adequate representation of cartographic expert knowledge is essential if maps are to be created in an automated way. Part of this expert knowledge is made up by the structural knowledge embedded in the relations that exist among the objects depicted on a map, as these define the structures and patterns of the corresponding real-world objects that should be maintained and emphasized in the cartographic generalization process. With this article we aim to provide a foundation for the analysis and representation of such relations among objects in thematic and topographic maps, which we term horizontal relations. We start off by defining the terminology underlying map object relations and by discussing how these relations interact with map constraints and cartometric measures. We then present a typology of horizontal relations that may be found in a map with respect to map generalization. The typology is the result of a study of thematic and topographic maps, as well as an analysis of the literature on the use of map object relations. Five different types of horizontal relations are identified: geometric, topological, semantic, statistical and structural. Some of these can be based on standard operations available in commercial GIS or mapping systems, while others are less easily accessible. To demonstrate the use of our typology and show how complex horizontal relations can be formalized, we present an application of the typology to the grouping and generalization of islands. Subsequently, we discuss the various steps involved in the usage of horizontal relations in map generalization, as well as their associated roles.

Geometric structures such as points, lines, and surfaces play a vital role in scientific visualization. However, these visualizations frequently suffer from visual clutter that hinders the inspection of important features behind dense but less important features. In the past few years, geometric cluttering and occlusion avoidance has been addressed in scientific visualization with various approaches such as opacity optimization techniques. In this paper, we present a novel approach for opacity optimization based on recent state-of-the-art moment-based techniques for signal reconstruction. In contrast to truncated Fourier series, momentbased reconstructions of feature importance and optical depth along view rays are highly accurate for sparse regions but also plausible for densely covered regions. At the same time, moment-based methods do not suffer from ringing artifacts. Moreover, this representation enables fast evaluation and compact storage, which is crucial for per-pixel optimization especially for large geometric structures. We also present a fast screen space filtering approach for optimized opacities that works directly on moment buffers. This filtering approach is suitable for real-time visualization applications, while providing comparable quality to object space smoothing. Its implementation is independent of the type of geometry such that it is general and easy to integrate. We compare our technique to recent state of the art techniques for opacity optimization and apply it to real and synthetic data sets in various applications.

What are the capacities of visual arts curricula to engage learning within narrow frameworks of overly scientistic standards (Lather, 2007)? With growing emphasis in schools under STEM initiatives and evidence- based standards, the possible cross-pollination of effects that education may have on a science-centric education may be a lifeline to budgets and relevancy. Yet, focal points to ponder these possibilities illuminate not only what education has to offer, but also, what contradictions in scientific visualization and representation offer to educators. Seeing in science can be just as much a cultural practice as seeing in art.Take for instance the laboratory practice of histochemistry and histochemists' relationship to graphic design software. As the science of preparing cell material in order to observe its composition, histochemists use Photoshop in sample preparation to further augment visualizing cellular structures through methods that, for example, utilize qualities intrinsic to digital images such as saturation and hue (Lehr, Van der Loss, Teeling & Gown, 1999). This process has been called an art because histochemists select methods from a variety of approaches to get the best results: manipulations of cellular material that make visible the agential substance or structure that is being sought out (Heidcamp,1 995, para 2). The decision matrix for histochemists in visualizing cell samples indicates that the same tissue sample can be manipulated in different ways to illicit different visibilities related to different diagnostic purposes. For example, in determining liver disease, methods of both analog staining of the tissue and quantification of the area of fibrous tissues are determined within the digital image through what is essentially pixelcounting (Matkowskyj, Schonfeld, & Benya, 2000, p. 303). Photoshop is used to illicit visibility and quantification, but these efforts take place in Photoshop and not under the microscope.Just as James Elkins (2007) surveyed visualization across the university to understand the complexity of the visual studies field, the form of histochemistry provides insight on pedagogies of visual culture through our mutually complex relationship with digital image manipulation. Many histochemists agree that Photoshop is a useful tool in practices of scientific visualization because of its capacity to objectify image analysis through quantification by automating adjustments so that they can be applied without subjective interjection (Dahab, Kheriza, El-Beltagi, Fouda, & Sharaf El-Din, 2004). Ironically, this very trust in automation makes educators distrustful in the ways that Photoshop may do too much in producing student art. As Taylor and Carpenter (2007) stated, We must be wary of the of the spectacular and superficial qualities of digital media at the expense of personal, cultural, social, and global content (p. 89). With a similar suspicion of the spectacular, Mike Rossner and Kenneth Yamada (2004), as the managing editor and editor respectively of The Journal of Cell Biology, stated, It's so easy with Photoshop(p. 11). Art educators and histochemists share a distrust in the allure of digital media such as Photoshop, but our respective reasons are quite different.Histochemists question Photoshop's participation in making scientific visualizations as an ethical question of good scientific method. For histochemists, this ease of digital image manipulation has translated into atemptationthat ultimately constitute^] inappropriate changes to youroriginal data, and making such changes can be classified as scientific misconduct (Rossner & Yamada, 2004, p. 11). The editors propose that good science relies on good data, and that manipulation is an intrusion on the objectivity that is a hallmark of good data. For Rossner and Yamada (2004), Creating a result is worse than making weak data look better (p. 11). …

Scientific visualization as currently understood and practiced is still a relatively new discipline. As a result, we visualization researches are not necessarily accustomed to undertaking the sorts of self-examinations that other scientists routinely undergo in relation to their work. Yet if we are to creat a disciplinary culture focused on matters of real scientific importance and committed to real progress, it is essential that we ask ourselves hard questions on an ongoing basis. What are the most important research issues facing us? What underlying assumptions needs to be challenged and perhaps abandoned? What practices need to be reviewed? In this article, I attempt to start a discussion of these issues by proposing a list of top research problems and issues in scientific visualization.

Modern scientific, engineering and medical computational simulations, as well as experimental and observational data sensing/measuring devices, produce enormous amounts of data. While statistical analysis provides insight into this data, scientific visualization is tactically important for scientific discovery, product design and data analysis. These benefits are impeded, however, when scientific visualization algorithms are implemented from scratch — a time-consuming and redundant process in immersive application development. This process can greatly benefit from leveraging the state-of-the-art open-source Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and its community. Over the past two (almost three) decades, integrating VTK with a virtual reality (VR) environment has only been attempted to varying degrees of success. In this paper, we demonstrate two new approaches to simplify this amalgamation of an immersive interface with visualization rendering from VTK. In addition, we cover several enhancements to VTK that provide near real-time updates and efficient interaction. Finally, we demonstrate the combination of VTK with both Vrui and OpenVR immersive environments in example applications.

During the scientific investigation, woody species of forest vegetation were identified and a map of forest vegetation in the Kostanay region was produced using various data sources: field materials, Earth remote sensing data, and ArcGIS10.9 software. An algorithm was developed to detect tree species based on Landsat 9 satellite imagery, characterized by high spatial resolution. Recognition of dominant tree species was performed using various combinations of spectral bands from Landsat 9 imagery, analysis of vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI) across different seasons, and supervised local adaptive classification. The obtained data were validated against field research materials (August-September 2023) and forest management records. The chosen algorithm implements contemporary approaches to acquiring and processing necessary data from satellite remote sensing imagery. Further differentiation and creation of the forest vegetation map of the Kostanay region were based on the established map of tree species, digital elevation model, geological-geomorphological features, field research, thematic maps, and physical geography of the region. As a result of the conducted research, six classes of forest stands were delineated in the Kostanay region, including light-coniferous and deciduous tree species such as pine, birch, aspen, larch, shrubbery, and meadow vegetation. These research findings and the algorithm developed can be applied to other study areas and hold practical significance.

Research purpose. The purpose of this study is to identify and quantitatively evaluate the volume of scientific publications, the latest research trends, and the main topics related to brand humanisation in higher education (HE). This aim is motivated by the growing importance of empathetic and human-centred communication in a competitive and digitalised educational environment. Although widely applied in practice, the concept remains fragmented in academic research, creating the need for a systematic bibliometric analysis to clarify its development and future directions. Design / Methodology / Approach. A bibliometric analysis was applied to systematise knowledge on brand humanisation in HE during 2005-2024. The analysis was conducted in several stages, including literature review, database selection, keyword specification, article screening, data extraction, and analysis. Data were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection, ensuring access to peer-reviewed publications and reliable citation indicators. After applying selection criteria, 84 articles were retained. Descriptive bibliometrics (publication dynamics, citation statistics, collaboration patterns) were combined with science mapping techniques (keyword co-occurrence networks, overlay visualisation, and thematic mapping) using VOSviewer, R Bibliometrix, and Microsoft Excel. This framework enabled the identification of research clusters, dominant themes, and emerging areas. Findings. The analysis reveals that research on brand humanisation in HE remains underdeveloped but shows growing interest. The most influential works focus on constructs such as brand personality, image, and identity, while direct studies on anthropomorphism and storytelling are rare. Results highlight the USA, Malaysia, and Canada as leading contributors, though international collaboration is still limited. Science mapping uncovers six thematic clusters: brand image and reputation; brand identity and loyalty; personality and perception; social media engagement; consumer behaviour; and anthropomorphism. Findings confirm a shift from traditional branding approaches towards digital communication, personalisation, and emotional engagement, reflecting universities’ adaptation to students’ evolving expectations in digital environments. Originality / Value / Practical implications. This study provides the first systematic bibliometric overview of brand humanisation in HE, consolidating fragmented knowledge and identifying emerging themes. While primarily academic in focus, its practical relevance lies in offering insights into the most studied and underexplored aspects of the field. These insights can guide universities and HE marketers in recognising trends, addressing conceptual gaps, and aligning their communication strategies with approaches emphasised in the literature. In this way, the study serves as a roadmap for institutions seeking to enhance positioning and responsiveness in a digitally mediated education environment.

Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA) treats rotator cuff-deficient shoulders. Stemless designs preserve humeral bone stock and reduce operative time. Interest in stemless RTSA has grown recently. A literature search was performed in Scopus through February 21, 2026. Extracted data included publication metrics. Bibliometric visualization and knowledge mapping (co-authorship, co-citation, topic trends, thematic maps) were completed using the bibliometrix and biblioshiny packages. Outcomes included scientific output, institutional productivity, citation metrics, influential authors and journals, most cited documents, keyword patterns, and author productivity per Lotka's law. A total of 129 articles on stemless RTSA were identified, accumulating 2003 citations. Publications rose steadily, with sustained growth observed after 2021 (P < .05). Citation counts showed a parallel rise (P < .05). The United States was the most productive country (26.86% of total publications), the University of Western Ontario the leading institution, and Abboud J.A. and Athwal G.S. the most prolific authors. The Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery was the most cited journal and demonstrated the highest h-index (h-index = 9). Evidence for stemless RTSA is expanding and demonstrates international engagement but remains limited primarily to short- to mid-term outcomes. Larger, multicenter studies with longer follow-up are needed.

Scientific visualization has taken a strong place among data analysis tools. Indeed, after all, its methods help not only to visualize the flow, but also to distinguish its main structures, to compare them, etc. The paper present application of visualization methods to analysis and comparison of a streamwise supersonic tip vortex pair interaction at the Mach number of the incoming flow M = 3. Maximum vorticity and the 2 criterion were used for this purpose. A pair of supersonic vortices was generated by two coaxial straight wings with sharp front, side and trailing edges. Two configurations are considered: a pair of counter-rotational vortices and a pair of co rotational vortices. In the first case, the attack angle of the wings was +10, in the second -the attack angle of one wing was +10, of the second -10. Numerical data were obtained in the region of 10 wing chords downstream from the wing axis using a numerical model based on URANS equations with the turbulence model SA. Numerical simulations were carried out on the K-60 hybrid supercomputer system at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences using the developed ARES software package for modeling 3D turbulent flows on high-performance computer systems. The main simulations were performed using 224 processors. Simulations were carried out on unstructured grids with hexagonal cells. The paper also shows an example when commonly used visualization methods application leads to some ambiguousness, because they give false additional vortex zones.

Scientific visualization allows researchers to examine their data in high definition 2D and 3D environments. Field research conducted in the Middle East by the UC San Diego Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab, in collaboration with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) takes full advantage of a suite of state-of-the-art visualization platforms at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute. Research interests include terascale scientific visualization and virtual reality, image-based modeling and rendering, as well as distributed and remote visualization. The Qualcomm Institute's team has been active in virtual reality research for over a decade and the stringent VR requirements have served as important performance criteria for our large-scale distributed data analysis and visualization projects. Through collaborative work both on campus and abroad, our group has contributed to making a significant transformative impact to both diagnostics and the preservation of cultural heritage. Here we briefly summarize a range of 3D applications using data from our research in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.