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Synonymy in the language of colour
Get PDFWe explore synonyms in colour naming within and across three languages, British English, Estonian and Greek, using data collected from a crowdsourcing experiment. We identified 30 common lexical colour categories in British English, 41 in Estonian and 29 in Greek, where no one category was fully contained within others. The synonymy analysis within languages revealed that the highest degree of overlapness was found for a pair of dark reddish loanwords in English (maroon and burgundy) and in Greek (bissini and bornto) that were absent in Estonian. The synonymy of two purplish categories in Estonian (lilla and tumelilla) and Greek (mov and lila) was also prominent but in English purple and lilac were more separated. The investigation of synonymy across languages revealed similar graph properties for all pairs of languages (British English-Estonian; Estonian-Greek; Greek-British English). Our results suggest that the degree of synonymy in the language of colour is influenced by cross-cultural transfer of loan words
Moving with the times: investigating the alt-right network gab with temporal interaction graphs
Get PDFGab is an online social network often associated with the alt-right political movement and users barred from other networks. It presents an interesting opportunity for research because near-complete data is available from day one of the network's creation. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of the user interaction graph, that is the graph where a link represents a user interacting with another user at a given time. We view this graph both at different times and at different timescales. The latter is achieved by using sliding windows on the graph which gives a novel perspective on social network data. The Gab network is relatively slowly growing over the period of months but subject to large bursts of arrivals over hours and days. We identify plausible events that are of interest to the Gab community associated with the most obvious such bursts. The network is characterised by interactions between 'strangers' rather than by reinforcing links between 'friends'. Gab usage follows the diurnal cycle of the predominantly US and Europe based users. At off-peak hours the Gab interaction network fragments into sub-networks with absolutely no interaction between them. A small group of users are highly influential across larger timescales, but a substantial number of users gain influence for short periods of time. Temporal analysis at different timescales gives new insights above and beyond what could be found on static graphs
Intelligent control of a semi-autonomous assistive vehicle
Get PDFA control system for a powered wheelchair is described. The wheelchair is equipped with sensors to help a disabled user to steer their wheelchair. An innovative intelligent control schemes is presented. A model reference controller for veer regulation that can deal with variable operating conditions is presented. It is based on compensating the non-linear terms using an automatic adaptive scheme. The method specifically focuses on the design of a reliable veer controller capable of mitigating for uncertainties such as slopes, bumps, hills, differences in wheels and tires and changes to surfaces (for example one side more uneven than the other). The controller has been designed with a quasi-linear closed-loop behavior so that outer control loops can be added later such as path-following. A single powered wheelchair assistive agent was created to allow for future cooperation between wheelchair systems by sharing information. The work foresees the potential employment of semi-autonomous assistive agents within cooperative wheelchair systems
Darwinian Creativity as a Model for Computational Creativity
Get PDFThis philosophical paper examines the Darwinian account of creativity as a model for assessing computational creativity. It will first establish a Darwinian account of creativity using Simonton’s [1] model. It will then apply this model to popular image-producing AI, Generative Adversarial Networks, and the promising Creative Adversarial Network, both used in the computational production of ‘artworks’. The paper will argue that these networks are compatible with a Darwinian account of creativity, due to the presence of blind variation within the networks, a key component of Simonton’s model. The paper will then address some initial objections. The aim of this paper will ultimately be to assess whether the AI systems are compatible with the Darwinian model of creativity, and in the process explore Darwinian creativity as a potential standard for testing computational creativity.1
The Third Crusade in Historiographical Perspective
Get PDFThe Third Crusade (1187–1192) is renowned as a conflict between King Richard I of England and the Muslim Sultan Saladin—a reductionist perspective that reflects an enduring fascination with these protagonists both inside and outside academia. In fact, the expedition was significantly more diverse, with the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, and the king of France, Philip Augustus, leading major contingents to the East, while a number of smaller-scale expeditions also constituted part of the overall Third Crusade. This article surveys key developments in the enterprise's historiography—focusing primarily on the crusading careers of Richard, Frederick and Philip—and introduces the main sources. It suggests that hindsight has played a surprisingly prominent role in directing scholarly interpretations and that historiography has gradually diversified during the 20th and 21st centuries, moving away from the traditional Richard versus Saladin narrative to explore understudied individuals, events and themes
The Fast and the Furious: Golgi Contact Sites
Get PDFContact sites are areas of close apposition between two membranes that coordinate nonvesicular communication between organelles. Such interactions serve a wide range of cellular functions from regulating metabolic pathways to executing stress responses and coordinating organelle inheritance. The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in information on certain contact sites, mostly those involving the endoplasmic reticulum. However, despite its central role in the secretory pathway, the Golgi apparatus and its contact sites remain largely unexplored. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of Golgi contact sites and share our thoughts as to why Golgi contact sites are understudied. We also highlight what exciting future directions may exist in this emerging field
"Guest Editorial": Exploring the evolution of qualitative research in financial markets and corporate governance: identifying potential paths for future research
Get PDFThe Energy of Russia. Hydrocarbon Culture and Climate Change
Get PDFTHIS BOOK EXAMINES THE ROLE OF RUSSIA’S ENERGY RESOURCES IN SHAPING not only its policy, polity and political processes, but its social identity and worldview, thereby exerting critical influence over Russia’s relations with the rest of the world. The main thread running through the book is that ‘geography has played a significant role in framing how the country has been governed
—and it continues to do so’ (Chapter 1) in that ‘geographical space [is seen] as controllable flows of resources, not as a territory of communities’ (Chapter 2). Russia has been historically dependent on natural rather than human resources, with the vastness of Russia’s natural wealth located in its periphery, away from its urban centres. A spatiality and materiality approach thus argues that the natural and human resources of Russia are detached from one another, and that this detachment shapes Russia’s polity, understood as broad territorial governance
Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology
Get PDFSocial networks amplify inequalities by fundamental mechanisms of social tie formation such as homophily and triadic closure. These forces sharpen social segregation, which is reflected in fragmented social network structure. Geographical impediments such as distance and physical or administrative boundaries also reinforce social segregation. Yet, less is known about the joint relationships between social network structure, urban geography, and inequality. In this paper we analyze an online social network and find that the fragmentation of social networks is significantly higher in towns in which residential neighborhoods are divided by physical barriers such as rivers and railroads. Towns in which neighborhoods are relatively distant from the center of town and amenities are spatially concentrated are also more socially segregated. Using a two-stage model, we show that these urban geography features have significant relationships with income inequality via social network fragmentation. In other words, the geographic features of a place can compound economic inequalities via social networks