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Generative AI as a Tool for Thematic Analysis: An Exploratory Study with ChatGPT
Get PDFArtificial intelligence (AI) has seen rapid development in recent years and it has increasingly applied to various fields. Research is no exception. However, there is much to be explored in this domain. This study aims to explore the suitability of current generative AI applications for research purposes. The focus is on the generative AI’s capability to synthesise information as a potential alternative or supplement to human-based information synthesisation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the thematic analysis produced by generative AI, this study compares the generative AI-produced results by ChatGPT with human-generated results, based on the same set of papers. The results show generative AI produced very similar results to humans, in terms of the topics themselves and the number of topics identified. However, there are also some minor mismatches between generative AI and human results
Studying the phase diagram of the three-flavor Schwinger model in the presence of a chemical potential with measurement- and gate-based quantum computing
Get PDFWe propose an ansatz quantum circuit for the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE), suitable for exploring the phase structure of the multi-flavor Schwinger model in the presence of a chemical potential. Our ansatz is capable of incorporating relevant model symmetries via constrains on the parameters, and can be implemented on circuit-based as well as measurement-based quantum devices. We show via classical simulation of the VQE that our ansatz is able to capture the phase structure of the model, and can approximate the ground state to a high level of accuracy. Moreover, we perform proof-of-principle simulations on superconducting, gate-based quantum hardware. Our results show that our approach is suitable for current gate-based quantum devices, and can be readily implemented on measurement-based quantum devices once available
Large sieve inequalities for periods of Maass forms
Get PDFFor Γ a Fuchsian Group of the first kind, we obtain large sieve inequalities with weights the hyperbolic periods of Maass forms of even weight. This is inspired by work of Chamizo, who proved a large sieve inequality with weights values of Maass forms of weight 0. The motivation is applications in counting problems in Γ_1\Γ/Γ_2, where Γ_1,Γ_2 are hyperbolic subgroups of Γ
On the Benefits of Heterogeneity in Cognitive Stability and Flexibility for Collaborative Task Switching
Get PDFEnvironments pose antagonistic demands on individual and
collective cognition, such as trading off cognitive stability
against cognitive flexibility. Manifestations of this tradeoff
have been shown to vary across individuals, leading to differences in individual task switching performance. In this simulation study, we examine how individual differences in cognitive
stability and flexibility contribute to collective task switching
performance. Specifically, we study whether diversity in cognitive stability and flexibility among members of a group can
facilitate collaborative task switching. We test this hypothesis
by probing task switching performance of a multi-agent dynamical system, and by varying the heterogeneity of cognitive
stability and flexibility among agents. We find that heterogeneous (compared to homogeneous) groups perform better in
environments with high switch rates, especially if the most
flexible agents receive task switch instructions. We discuss the
implications of these findings for normative accounts of cognitive heterogeneity, as well as clinical and educational settings
Lawrence and Proto-Veganism
No full textIn the context of a volume ('Reading D. H. Lawrence in the Anthropocene', ed. Terry Gifford, Edinburgh University Press, 2025) that presents D. H. Lawrence as proleptic of, and a guide for, modern ecocritical thinking, the topic of the human treatment of animals requires him to be presented as an illuminating case study of contradiction. On the one hand Lawrence was stolidly omnivore, and mocked contemporary vegetarianism; on the other his work frequently manifests revulsion from meat-eating, a reluctance to kill and regret at others’ killing of animals, ridicule of the supposed connection between masculinity and this activity, disgust at cruelty to animals, and a flat ontology which de-objectivises animals and places them on a level with humans. He several times denies most people the right to use any animal products whatsoever. This chapter is the first to consider Lawrence's attitudes towards animal exploitation across his entire oeuvre, and to identify the precise nature of his contradictions on this topic (as distinct from his more discussed contradictions on many others). It is concluded that Lawrence experienced cognitive dissonance on this topic; that he repeatedly felt the need to justify human consumption of animals; and that his justificatory arguments fail on their own terms as well as in relation to his countervailing insights.
Finally the chapter considers what light this contradiction sheds on the present, now that the stakes of human exploitation of nonhuman animals have been raised to the point that animal agriculture is implicated in climate change, and anthropogenic zoonotic viruses threaten the very human dominion that engenders them. It is concluded that Lawrence's contradictions are widely echoed today, yet that, for all their contrary motions, his works offer powerful examples of respect for the animal other, and of inter-species utopianism, without which veganism – a movement which offers its own, powerful means of averting the worst possible outcomes of the Anthropocene – has no hope and no direction
"Rebel Verses: On the 350th anniversary of Paradise Lost"
Get PDFA non-academic article for a literary publication, exploring the political afterlives of Paradise Lost, summarising some of the findings of my book, on the 350th anniversary of the poem's publication
The Effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility Programs in Hotels at Addressing Social and Environmental Issues in a Local Context
No full textThis paper sets out the main elements of a CSR programs from a range of hotel management companies in terms of who is responsible for the programs, the reasons for it, how it is measured and what future initiatives could be incorporated into these programs based on industry trends. The paper also examines the industry context in which this is occurring and the reasons for it. Furthermore, the paper sets out how digital technology and green initiatives such as supply chains and biophilic design are some core areas of current and future focus based on industry analysis
"How Malcolm X Read His Milton: Paradise Lost and the Politics of Abolition"
Get PDFThis article looks at the relationship between Paradise Lost and the long abolitionist struggle, from the seventeenth century to the present. It considers the presence of an abolitionist politics in Milton’s political prose and explores the use of the term 'abolition' in Paradise Lost. It then explores Milton's influence on slavery abolitionists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Against the assumption that the Satanist interpretation of Paradise Lost is the only (or most) radical one, it argues that a common abolitionist interpretation refused to identify with Satan. It then looks at the successors of the abolitionist movement in the twentieth century, Malcolm X and C. L. R. James, arguing that they repurposed Milton's epic in their attempts to imagine a world not dominated by white supremacy. Finally, it suggests some uses for Paradise Lost in the contemporary movement to abolish the prison-industrial complex
'Tricksters of the Water: Sam Selvon's West London and the Migrant Experience'
Get PDFSam Selvon, one of the best known writers of the Windrush Generation, moved to London from Trinidad in 1950. This essay reads his now celebrated novel *The Lonely Londoners* (1956) alongside his 1957 collection of short stories, *Ways of Sunlight*, as a way of charting Selvon's innovative engagement with form. The stories in *Ways of Sunlight* are divided into two sections, ‘Trinidad’ and ‘London’, which demonstrate both continuity and difference: a bewitched mango tree becomes an enchanted London plane in Ladbroke Grove; the relatively understated accents of the Trinidad stories become the eye dialect (or nation language) readers are more familiar with in *The Lonely Londoners*. Two related Trinidadian traditions: the figure of the trickster, and the spirit of carnival run throughout the London stories, including in 'Calypso in London’ and, more ambivalently, ‘Obeah in the Grove’, where the West Indian protagonists attempt to get revenge for the discriminatory housing practices in 50s Notting Hill.
Turning to *The Lonely Londoners*, this essay argues that these West Indian influences are further integrated into Selvon's form, but that greater ambivalences arise. The use of language in particular gives rise to tensions between orthography and the vernacular, with the text conspicuously bare of the diacritics or punctuation that might allow for recitation. Selvon's prominent use of hiatus, as phonological ambiguity, is read as a figure for the uncomfortably migratory and hiatal lives of the Windrush generation characters, who never find rest as they move from place to place in London, constantly and harshly dislocated. Their vernacular is corralled into an orthographic form unable to express its rhythms, one at odds with its conventions, and this is a disjunct the reader experiences throughout. Even so, Selvon's prose allows for gains as well as losses in its openness: the gaps carry with them transformative possibilities, refashioning London in the image of its new arrivals as the ultimate trick
Autonomy: A Family Resemblance Concept? An Exploration of Human-Robot Teams
No full textEmbodied semi/autonomous systems (e.g., robots) have tremendous potential to improve the human experience,
especially if they can be developed from tools and/or semi/autonomous interactive agents to become true
collaborative teammates. But what exactly is required to achieve such autonomy in human-robot
teams? Our interdisciplinary investigation in this paper is both empirical and conceptual. We argue
that autonomous teams require an interdependence between teammates sharing an ultimate goal,
and able to flexibly adopt and embrace intermediate goals in a manner that (empirically) requires
both (social) intelligence (aka theory of mind) and (a limited form of) authenticity. This is
(conceptually) compatible with robotic team members being autonomous only in an attenuated
sense that bears a certain family resemblance to autonomy in humans