Open Research Exeter - University of Exeter
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Breaking boundaries, broadening horizons: An interview with Emily Hauser on the reception of Classics
No full textThe following pages present the adapted transcript of an interview with Dr Emily Hauser, recorded at the University of Exeter on 25 July 2025 and available on the YouTube channel Diálogo con las diosas. The conversation explores the reception of Greek mythology in contemporary fiction and how these retellings⸺particularly those centered on women⸺are able to reshape traditional narratives by addressing questions of gender and collective memory. Drawing on her Golden Apple trilogy (2016–2018) and Mythica (2025), Hauser recalls her experience as an author and a scholar and reflects on how the dialogue between creative writing and scholarship can open up broader possibilities.</p
AI gossip
No full textGenerative AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini routinely make things up.
They "hallucinate" historical events and figures, legal cases, academic papers, non-existent tech
products and features, biographies, and news articles. Recently, some have argued that these
hallucinations are better understood as bullshit. Chatbots produce rich streams of text that look
truth-apt without any concern for the truthfulness of what this text says. But can they also
gossip? We argue that they can. After some definitions and scene-setting, we focus on a recent
example to clarify what AI gossip looks like before considering some distinct harms — what we
call "technosocial harms" — that follow from it.</p
TimeCAP: A Channel-Aware Pre-Training Framework for Multivariate Time Series Forecasting
No full textAmid recent advances for multivariate time series forecast?ing, self-supervised learning has emerged as a promising paradigm for deriving transferable knowledge from multi?domain data. Despite its effectiveness, existing approaches exhibit two critical limitations: (1) Underestimating the sig?nificance of multivariate dependencies in learning general?izable representations and (2) Failing to reconcile the com?plementary strengths of autoregressive and one-shot genera?tive paradigms. In this work, we propose TimeCAP, a novel channel-aware pre-training framework that internalizes la?tent causal relationships among variables inherent in multi?domain data, and effectively transfers the acquired knowledge to downstream applications. Technically, we present a flex?ible channel-grouping learning approach, complemented by an adaptive meta-routing mechanism, enabling TimeCAP to parallel recognize intra-group local patterns while maintain?ing global coherence. Intra- and inter-group multivariate de?pendencies are captured through the self- and cross-attention with channel-aware mask, which strictly confine interac?tions among time-aligned, fine-grained multivariate tokens. To seamlessly unify two advanced generative paradigms, we propose a novel dynamic dual-head decoding and optimiza?tion strategy, empowering TimeCAP to leverage critical de?pendencies in the output series while avoiding cumulative er?rors over time. In the few-shot evaluation, TimeCAP achieves average MSE and MAE reductions of 11.8% and 6% over leading baselines, while also outperforming state-of-the-art models in full-shot and zero-shot settings by large margins.</p
Resisting Desire: Models of Christ’s Temptations
No full textI propose a categorisation of models of Christ’s temptations. The main division is between models according to which he felt a desire to perform sub-optimal acts (“internalism”), and models according to which he did not (“externalism”). Most analytic theologians today are internalists. I examine different varieties of internalism and argue that they all have serious problems, which do not apply to externalism. I conclude that externalism emerges as the strongest model.</p
Shaping the future of seaweed farming in Cornwall. Engaging communities in seaweed farming
No full textIntroductionCommunication about seaweed aquaculture in recent decades has been dominated by its many socio-economic and ecological advantages (Duarte, Bruhn and Krause-Jensen, 2022). A ‘win–win’ narrative about seaweed farming suggests the sector could both be profitable and help meet environmental sustainability targets (Chaigneau et al., 2025). The expectations created by this discourse have helped convince conservation organisations, development agencies, businesses and investors of the relevance and importance of seaweed farming in regions where it has not historically been practiced. This excitement has been felt in the UK, including in the South West, where there has been a rise in marine licence applications for seaweed farms in the last few years. Several of these, however, have been actively resisted by local communities. This has halted implementation, led to applications being withdrawn, and in some cases, licences being refused and reconsidered (Morris, 2024; Morris and Butler, 2025). This report presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted over seven months in 2025, which aimed to understand why seaweed farms have faced opposition in Cornwall. The research consisted predominantly of interviews with local residents and stakeholder groups in Cornwall, as well as staff from charities, authorities and regulatory bodies in Cornwall and England. Much of the opposition to farms has centred on blocking applications for marine licences, which businesses hoping to cultivate seaweed must obtain before they can set up their farms. We therefore also sought to understand what the process for establishing a seaweed farm currently looks like on paper – and whether it is being followed in practice. In particular, we tried to understand how community and stakeholder engagement fit into this process. We also explored how seaweed farms could be designed, implemented and managed in ways that communities in Cornwall might support in future.</p
Tranquillus Andronicus’ Dialogus Sylla and Two Poems by Michael Nardinus
No full textThis article studies the content, and the political and literary contexts, of Tranquillus Andronicus’ Dialogus Sylla (1527). This text combines a discussion of the careers of Sulla and Caesar with moral-philosophical discourse on the burdens of power, human greed and vanity, and the fickleness of Fortune. The article argues that these themes are linked to the anti-Habsburg alliance between King Francis I of France and the Hungarian voivode János Szapolyai, in the wider context of the Ottoman advance. An examination of the professional and intellectual networks in which Andronicus operated clarifies why he dedicated Dialogus Sylla to the diplomat and scholar Janus Lascaris, while the dedicatory letter bears witness to Andronicus’ careful positioning of himself, his dedicatee, and their respective homelands Dalmatia and Constantinople. Furthermore, this letter makes reference to a certain Michael Nardinus, whom the article identifies as a humanist from Šibenik, known to Lascaris from their shared involvement in the Roman sodality of Johann Goritz (Corycius). For this reason, two poems written for the Coryciana by Nardinus are also presented and translated. In literary terms, the article traces the debts of Dialogus Sylla to four dialogues by Lucian. Additionally, it considers four Quattrocento Underworld dialogues and so demonstrates that Andronicus also drew on Maffeo Vegio’s Palinurus. Finally, the article suggests a potential intertextual connection with the works of Poggio Bracciolini. </p
Agency and the arrogation of voice: Stanley Cavell’s Wittgensteinian feminism
No full textNo abstract</p
Comparison of the four co-created interventions to improve snacking and physical activity behaviour in European adolescents: the SEEDS project
No full textBackground: New approaches involving adolescents in designing and implementing interventions are an opportunity to improve healthy lifestyles. This study aims to describe and analyse the differences and similarities between the four country-specific (Greece, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) co-created interventions through a Makeathon by adolescents from the European Science Engagement to Empower aDolescentS (SEEDS) project, to tackle unhealthy behaviours. Also, it aims to determine if the barriers/facilitators identified in previous focus groups were addressed in the interventions. Methods: This comparative design study describes and analyses the differences and similarities among the four co-created interventions from the SEEDS project, which is a cluster-randomised controlled trial using a citizen science approach that actively involves participants in all steps of the scientific process. Two of the relevant steps are the definition of the barriers and facilitators by focus groups and the co-design of the interventions by Makeathons. The interventions co-created in each country related to healthy snacking and physical activity (PA) practice are described using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) with some extra information about the country context (barriers and facilitators). Results: The four interventions have some points in common: type of activities per behaviour (methodology used), face-to-face activities, school hours implementation, and external professionals, teachers, or researchers as providers. However, the difficulties in comparing the interventions are the high diversity of activities and activity frequency among the four countries. About barriers, 2 of 3 modifiable barriers to healthy snacking behaviour and 4 of 6 modifiable barriers to PA and sedentary behaviour were addressed in the intervention, but 6 of 12 barriers to PA seemed not feasible for schools and not address in the intervention. Regarding facilitators, focusing on PA and sedentary behaviour, two of the four facilitators identified and focused on healthy snacking behaviour, and only one of the four facilitators identified was addressed in the interventions. Conclusions: In four co-created interventions by adolescent ambassadors, most of the barriers identified were addressed whereas the facilitators were not enough addressed. Thus, more effort is needed to completely adapt the intervention to the real interest of adolescents. Future research needs to confirm the SEEDS intervention effect and impact on the desired behaviour. </p
Historical ecosystem models can serve as a baseline for indicator-based assessment: the North Sea
No full textKnowledge of past ecosystems is essential to understand how marine ecosystems have changed under human pressure. This understanding is critical for the effective management of marine ecosystems today. However, there has been limited effort to investigate the historical state of marine ecosystems and their changes over time under human impact, particularly since the industrial revolution when fishing intensity markedly increased. In this study, we developed two mass-balanced Ecopath models with identical topology to create comparable representations of marine ecosystems of the North Sea in the 1890s and 1990s based on historical landings data of marine fisheries statistics from the ‘Fishery Board for Scotland’. While the 1890s represent the onset of industrial fisheries, the 1990s were specifically selected as a more recent reference point to align with existing models that are currently integral to ecosystem-based management in the North Sea. Indicator-based assessments revealed that direct and indirect impacts of fisheries on the food web triggered cascading changes in trophic interactions and ultimately led to a decline in the ecosystem’s maturity and resilience over the century, reflecting the industrialization of the North Sea fisheries. Our results now suggest that present day model-based fisheries management practices in the North Sea are based on ecosystem structure and function that were already degraded. Therefore, we propose the potential use of historical ecosystem models representing quasi-pristine state of ecosystems as baselines or thresholds for indicator-based assessments. Finally, this study emphasizes the importance of unveiling historical fisheries records from dusty archives.</p
Patients’ experiences of treatment and the scar management pathway during the Early Laser for Burn Scars (ELABS) trial: an embedded qualitative study
No full textBackgroundDue to improvements in acute burn management, burn injuries are a leading cause of morbidity globally. Alongside physical sequelae of burns, there are significant psychological implications. Limited qualitative research exists exploring quality of life (QoL) and delayed reintegration into society; the latter is argued as the greatest unmet challenge in burn rehabilitation. Furthermore, there is a lack of research into non-scar outcomes after pulse dye laser (PDL) treatment of burn scars. This qualitative study examines the patient’s experience of early PDL treatment and its impact upon QoL and social reintegration.MethodsThis qualitative study is nested within a national, multicentre, parallel-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) across seven National Health Service hospitals in the United Kingdom (Early Laser for Burn Scars (ELABS), Trial registration ISRCTN14392301). The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies were used. Of the 153 participants in the trial, 34 were approached across a range of demographic, burn and site criteria including: gender, age, burn location, depth, total body surface area (TBSA), skin type, site location, and treatment arm. Data was collected using semi-structured telephone interviews. reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcribed data.Results20 participants were interviewed. Six themes were constructed: frustration with initial burns treatment, feeling disconnected, human costs (with three sub themes: having to adapt, it’s changed how I feel about myself, and it doesn’t just affect me), money worries, reflections on pulse dye laser treatment, and moving forwards.ConclusionThe scar management journey is long and complex due to significant physical, psychological, financial, and psychosocial impacts. These can negatively affect QoL and reintegration into society. Use of early PDL treatment can ameliorate these challenges by positively impacting upon QoL and supporting individuals whilst they create their ‘new normal’ and adjust to reintegration into society.</p