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What Can AI Do for Special Collections?
Get PDFThis research project investigates the question, what can AI do for special collections by testing thirty-three software tools on a manuscript collection. The authors provide an in-depth analysis of their experiences with specific AI tools applied to untranscribed documents (handwritten and typewritten) and photographs in the William Elliot Griffis Collection at Rutgers University Libraries. The evaluated tools range from end-user generative AI to APIs requiring Python programming and include software that is commercial and open-source; fee-based and free; web browser-based and standalone; and run in desktop, mobile device, and high performance computing clusters environments. Application scenarios extract text from images, perform complex pattern matching, and generate metadata. Each scenario discusses audiences, ethical considerations, tool evaluations, and implementation suggestions. Collaboration among cultural heritage professionals, humanities scholars, and computer scientists addressed challenges of resources, communication, and policy. The project successfully demonstrates the potential of AI to improve accessibility and discoverability in manuscript collections
Complete Stereochemical Control to Unlock Monosign Circularly Polarised Luminescence with Superior Circularly Polarised Brightness for Chameleon Security Inks
Get PDFUsing Walkshops as a Collaborative Method in Interdisciplinary Research
No full textIn this article, we analyse the use of ‘walkshops’ as a collaborative method for interdisciplinary research collaboration in the field of pollution. Walkshops are mobile conversations, usually undertaken outdoors with small groups of people, that engage with landscapes as stimuli for discussion. While walking methods are well-established for data collection, pedagogic practice and public engagement, there is comparatively little attention paid to their use as collaborative and network-building methods in interdisciplinary research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 13 UK academics who attended two walkshops focused on pollution, we demonstrate how this method can be employed to bring together researchers from disparate disciplinary areas around a shared topic. We specifically argue that walkshops ‘suspend’ three key structures of everyday academic life – spatiotemporality, disciplinarity and hierarchically-mediated interactions – creating a liminal void in which new modes of thinking and working can emerge
Judgement in measurement and analysis
No full textTrue measuring scales behave in the same way as the real-life things that they are measuring. They also permit an estimate of the level of error in making a measurement, through calibration. Where these two characteristics are not present, then a purported measurement is not a true one. Numbering is not the same as measuring. Errors in measurement also propagate in calculations, but without a true measure we cannot tell how. There is no technical or statistical solution to this. When judging the trustworthiness of the findings from a piece of research, the quality of the measurement used is an important criterion. Without this knowledge, research cannot be trusted. Therefore, analyses and the trust placed in them must be based on appropriate judgement
Reevaluating zero-shot information extraction: Sampling bias, prompting transferability and sensitivity in large language models
Get PDFLarge Language Models (LLMs) have advanced zero-shot Information Extraction (IE), particularly in Sentence-level Relation Extraction (SentRE), through in-context learning and instruction tuning. However, the current evaluation of LLMs’ zero-shot ability on IE tasks remains fragile and unreliable. In this work, we provide a systematic examination of the fragility underlying current evaluation practices across three interrelated levels. At the data level, we demonstrate that the commonly adopted random sampling strategy introduces significant biases in class-imbalanced datasets, whereas balanced sampling provides more stable and faithful assessments of LLMs performance. At the task level, we reveal that three domain prompt frameworks on SentRE transfer inconsistently to Document-level Relation Extraction (DocRE) and Named Entity Recognition (NER), showing partial effectiveness on NER but notable limitations on DocRE due to long contexts and complex entity structures. At the method level, through extensive experiments on three IE tasks and seven datasets, we conduct the first comprehensive comparison of five general prompt frameworks, including Chain-of-Thought, Self-Improvement, and Self-Debate, showing that prompt effectiveness is highly task-dependent, with no single strategy dominating across tasks. For each task, the CoT prompt framework achieves the best performance on SentRE, the Vanilla prompt framework performs best on DocRE, and the Self-Consistency prompt framework excels on NER. These insights challenge current landscape of information extraction, providing guidelines for robust evaluation and prompt designs
Enhancing Active Channel Delineation in Alluvial Rivers Using Monthly Aggregation of Sentinel‐2 Imagery
Get PDFPlain Language Summary: Active river channels show where the river has shaped its bed over a certain time. With today's frequent satellite observations, active channels can be monitored monthly. Yet, long‐term studies still use yearly maps built on summer images or annual medians to reduce processing time and smooth seasonal changes. The role of monthly information in improving annual active channel delineation and better understanding river processes remains unexplored. Here, we mapped yearly active channels of the Po River (Italy) by aggregating Sentinel‐2 monthly classifications of river water and sediment bars. Using the persistence in which a pixel was classified as active channel during the year, we automatically smoothed some classification errors and bias. Monthly data also revealed significant intra‐annual variability, with dynamic reaches changing their active channel area by nearly 50% over the year—dynamics that are missed in single annual images. In less dynamic reaches, results are instead similar whether using monthly or annual data. Overall, results show that in dynamic river reaches sub‐annual data better identify when and how sediment–vegetation interactions start shaping active channel reconfiguration and migration—a mirror to the river's ecological functioning and sediment transport dynamics
On the transport properties of K 2 ZnV 2 O 7
Get PDFK2ZnV2O7 has recently been reported as a promising oxide ion conductor. We have studied this material using a number of structure- and physical property-probing techniques. Our extensive characterisation using variable temperature synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction, impedance spectroscopy and tracer diffusion measurements of its transport properties, does not support the reports that K2ZnV2O7 undergoes partial reduction at high temperatures, leading to the creation of vacancies and oxide ion conductivity. In particular, the lack of oxide ion diffusion observed by isotope exchange definitively rules out oxide ion conductivity within K2ZnV2O7. Instead, we find that the high conductivity measured originates from the melting of a small amount of KVO3 impurity in the sample, which is detectable by synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction
Xenomusicology
No full textSpeculative xenomusicology explores alternative music theories, imagining the physical and cognitive affordances of alien musical life. Exoplanets are actively studied in astronomy, and though there is no direct evidence of xenobiology, particularly of more advanced musical intelligences, potential alien music may still be considered in advance in the same way that exobiologists speculate on the conditions for alien life. In particular, a generative system is presented which creates imagined xenomusic based on altering human memory constraints and links the organisation of the sound to the parallel generation of an alien language. Microtonal pitch, complex rhythm, timbral material and spatialisation within putative alien architectures are all considered. This alien ‘analysis by synthesis’ can provide new musical adventures and new understanding of the possibilities of music theoretical space, regardless of any eventual ontological resolution of xenocultures
Do Coding Club After-School Activities Improve Pupils’ Non-cognitive Skills and Performance in Coding?
No full textThe development of coding skills is considered important for a digital age, linked to broader learning and non-cognitive abilities. Schools in England integrate coding into the curriculum, perhaps supplemented by after school activities. “Code Club” is a structured learning programme offered as an after-school activity for pupils aged 9 to 13. This study evaluates Code Club using a quasi-experimental design assessing the impact on student attitudes to learning and coding skills. Pupils attending the 22-week programme were compared to non-participants in the same schools. Initially, 412 pupils (Years 4–9) participated, but only 239 from 13 schools remained for full analysis. The findings suggest positive effects for resilience (+0.22), confidence (+0.47), sense of belonging (+0.09), and coding skills (+0.24). 40% dropout rate limits the generality of the conclusions. Code Club, run voluntarily in schools, was well-received, with participants enjoying coding and digital projects. The paper discusses the findings and implications
Are You in the Zone when Working from Home? How Remote Workers' Daily Flow Experiences Promote Daily Functioning and Well-Being Through Reduced Work-Home Interruption Behaviors
No full textThe surge in telework after the COVID-19 pandemic has raised debates between employers and employees about how teleworkers can balance flexibility and productivity while working remotely. Our study examines how flow experiences as a volatile personal resource can facilitate teleworkers' functioning and well-being at work and at home through effortless self-regulation. Drawing on the work-home resources model, we argue that daily flow experiences promote teleworkers’ work-domain functioning (e.g., work engagement and need for recovery) and home domain well-being (e.g., subjective vitality and regulatory resource depletion) through reducing work-home interruption behaviors. Furthermore, we propose that states of high daily morning mindfulness act as another volatile personal resource that can support teleworkers' functioning and well-being on days with lower levels of flow experiences by attenuating the daily relationship between flow experiences and work-home interruption behaviors. Results from an experience sampling study with teleworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic (N=87 individuals across N=607 days) support our hypotheses that reduced work-home interruption behaviors mediate the daily relationships between daily flow experiences and work engagement, need for recovery, subjective vitality, and regulatory resource depletion. Our results further highlight that these indirect relationships became weaker on days when teleworkers experience higher, as compared to lower, mindfulness in the morning. Thus, on days with lower levels of flow experiences, mindfulness can be an effective way to facilitate functioning and well-being across domains. Our findings offer theoretical insights and practical implications by revealing how teleworkers can remain both productive and health
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