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Introduction: The Genre of Counterfactual Historical Fiction
Get PDFThe introduction examines the scholarship on counterfactual historical fiction. It provides an overview of the study of counterfactuals between disciplines and explores the genre of counterfactual historical fiction in detail. Within this chapter, I also a review the literature on the genre of counterfactual historical fiction before concluding that the genre lacks a suitable systematic methodology that theorises the different cognitive processes that readers go through when they read such fiction
Initial results from using Preference Ranking Organization METHods for Enrichment of Evaluations to help steer a powered wheelchair
No full textResearch is presented that uses PROMETHEE II to determine a direction for a powered wheelchair. This is the only time that PROMETHEE II has been employed for this sort of use. A wheelchair driver proposes a preferred speed and direction, and PROMETHEE II recommends a reliable and trustworthy bearing. The two directions are combined so that the wheelchair safely avoids obstacles. Ultrasonic sensors and joysticks provide the inputs and the final direction is a combination of the preferred bearing and a route that safely avoids obstacles. The systematic decision-making process assists the user with steering safely. Sensitivity analysis explores the potential directions and an appropriate direction is chosen. A driver can reject or cancel a decision suggestions by holding their joystick in a fixed place
Indoor location and collision feedback for a powered wheelchair system using machine learning
No full textIn 2015 a powered wheelchair system to detect and avoid objects was enhanced with a Raspberry Pi to extend the sensory input sources to the system in order to record information about its environment. Wheelchair users are not always able to use simple controls such as joysticks to drive and they may have to control the wheelchair using their tongue, head or feet. This can increase the effort it takes to learn how to drive and therefore it becomes important to track and observe how a wheelchair user is progressing. The research described in this paper employs machine learning to use wireless access points and predict its location, and with prolonged use will learn routes between rooms and buildings. The system uses location and accelerometer data to present information about driving patterns and collisions behaviour. The primary user interface is for the wheelchair user to orientate themselves indoors whilst driving and a secondary user interface is displaying past information to a carer to inform about incidents and general tracking of the wheelchair user
On Revolutionary Waves and the Dynamics of Landslides
Get PDFThis paper argues that revolutionary waves and social movements share similar dynamics to sand sliding down the edges of a pile. On this basis, the paper develops a theoretical model in which contention arises endogenously through discontent and social imitation as the social system self‐organizes into a state of criticality over time. Revolts and collective actions are thus understood as subsequent reorganizing cascades once the system has reached such a critical state. Although taken by themselves the properties and timings of these cascades are entirely chaotic, at the aggregate level the cascades’ properties follow regularities that are impervious to the individual characteristics of individuals but are affected by the intrinsic structure of social networks
Sartrean bad-faith? Site-specific social, ethical and environmental disclosures by multinational mining companies
Get PDFPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate why environmentally-sensitive companies still face criticism despite the extensive disclosures in their annual reports. This paper explores the extent of site-specific social, environmental and ethical (SEE) reporting by mining companies operating in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct an interpretive content analysis of the annual/integrated reports of mining companies for the years 2009–2014 to extract site-specific SEE information relating to the companies’ mining operations in Ghana. The authors also theorise these actions using the existentialist work of Jean-Paul Sartre, in particular his work on “bad faith, nothingness and authenticity”.
Findings – The findings suggest that SEE information disclosure at site-specific level remains problematic because of bad faith and inauthenticity by mining companies attempting to placate a range of stakeholders. Bad faith represents a form of self-deception or internal denial which manifests in corporate narratives. Inauthenticity is a self-awareness that culminates in the denunciation of corporate identity and the pursuit of external expectations. The effect is the production of inauthentic corporate accounts that is constrained by the assumption made on stakeholder expectation.
Originality/value – The authors apply a Sartrean lens to explore site-specific SEE. Furthermore, the authors seek to expand the social accounting research domain by drawing on Sartre’s work on “bad faith” and “nothingness”. Sartre’s work to the best of the authors’ knowledge is not explored in social accounting research