59 research outputs found
Progetto e sviluppo di dispositivi ZigBee per un'infrastruttura domotica
No full textIn questa tesi si descrivono tutti i livelli del protocollo ZigBee e il progetto di un nodo sensore per questo standard di rete, sviluppato sia nell'hardware, dalla scelta dei sensori fino alla realizzazione della scheda, che nel software, con la procedura seguita per implementare le funzionalità e le applicazioni desiderate nel firmware del dispositivo
Haunting rhetoric: Ghost Adventures and the evolution of the ghost hunting genre
No full text2014 Spring.This thesis examines the rhetorical and generic conventions of the popular ghost hunting television show, Ghost Adventures. By first exploring the introduction of this hybrid genre in the work of 17th-century author, Joseph Glanvill, I will reveal how genre conventions are created and morph over time through a genre analysis influenced by the theory of Amy Devitt. As the genre evolves over time, so does the rhetorical purpose of Ghost Adventures. Initially, Ghost Adventures sought to prove the existence of ghosts to a skeptical audience. In more recent seasons, the show has shifted their rhetoric to achieve Glanvill's original purpose to use belief in ghosts to prove the existence of God
From Conflict to Concord: Copyeditors, Composition, and Technology
No full textThe traditional rhetorical model suggests that the composition process progresses from writer, to text, to audience, but copyeditors must be added to the equation as writers create texts for the purpose of publication. To better understand the copyeditor's role in the publication process and within authors' writing and revision processes, this study examined how thirty copyeditors describe their roles; how they feel about their interactions with authors; and how they feel about the role of technology in the writing process and how they have adapted to technology. Overall, copyeditors were confident in their ability to copyedit using technology. In revising/editing, copyeditors are responsible for grammar, punctuation, and style; additionally, however, this study posits that they are also responsible for engaging in a collaborative revision process with the author. They must be recognized as both readers and writers and thus have the ability to affect a writer's revision and writing processes
Whose news? How television news fails political discourse
No full textThis study analyzes the relationship between strategy frames and reported verbal and visual discourse in news content. It explored this dynamic by examining the verbal aspects of television broadcast news coverage of presidential campaigns and visuals in television broadcast news coverage of crime. Interviews with journalists were conducted in order to explain the findings. The visual analysis found that after the Willie Horton case became prominent, network news altered visual depictions of black and white criminals. Black criminals increasingly appeared in visuals similar to those that depicted Horton while white criminals were shown in different ways. This altered the visual representations of what constituted black and white criminals. These findings are evidence of visual framing, which occurs when subjects are shown in dissimilar ways to offer distinct depictions of the same entity. As an explanation for visual framing, the author offers the concept of visual priming, a process by which the news media alter the visual portrayal of issues or phenomena to reflect a salient incident. The study of presidential campaign coverage found that candidate messages in issue stories were more likely to be advocacy and supported by evidence; by contrast, messages in strategy stories were more likely to be attacked and not supported by evidence. Interviews with journalists indicate that they select portions of candidates\u27 and public officials\u27 speech based on a pre-established news frame rather than choose frames after considering political discourse. Piecing together research on news frames and the reporting of verbal and visual discourse, I offer the following explanation for press performance: strategy coverage, the result of real-world cues, drives the selection of unrepresentative verbal and visual discourse in television news about politics. By contrast, the absence of strategy framing produces reported discourse that is more consistent with political speech. The results demonstrate that strategy coverage goes beyond journalistic interpretations and affects how sources are quoted and how social phenomena are depicted visually
GPT-4 versus human authors in clinically complex MCQ creation: A blinded analysis of item quality
No full textPublished online: 29 May 2025Purpose: To compare the structural quality of multiple choice questions (MCQs) generated by a large language model, a type of artificial intelligence (AI), GPT-4, against humanauthored items at both novice and expert level. Methods: We conducted a blinded analysis of 124 MCQs: 40 generated by GPT-4, 39 from human item-writers at Novice level, and 45 from human item-writers at Expert level. A generic prompt for GPT-4 was engineered, which included item-writing guidance, example MCQs, and key learning points. A standardized scoring system was developed including content validity, scope, item anatomy, cognitive skill level, item-writing flaws, feedback comprehensiveness, veracity and adequacy of clinical reasoning, and global impression of fitness for use. A consensus panel objectively evaluated each item, blinded to the author, using the scoring system. Results: Analysis showed that all groups (Novice, Expert, and AI) were able to generate items within scope. Expert items performed better than Novice items in all categories. There was no difference in the global impressions of Expert and AI items, which suggests overall comparability. A statistically significant, albeit small, difference was observed with Expert items performing better than AI items in the specific domains of content validity, feedback veracity and clinical reasoning, and testing at higher order cognitive skill levels. However, both groups met acceptable standards in these domains. AI items had a higher rate than Expert items of being deemed unfit for use requiring major revision, indicating erroneous correct answers, and displaying biased answer positioning. Conclusions: GPT-4 can produce MCQs testing clinically complex concepts for medical assessment. While the structural quality of AI-generated MCQs is comparable to experts overall, human oversight is necessary to ensure content validity and optimize item quality.Hannah Wu, Toby Zerner, Daniel Lee, Stefan Court-Kowalski, Peter Devitt, Edward Palme
The Influence of Student Poverty on Preschool Teachers' Beliefs about Early Literacy Development, School Readiness, and Family Involvement
No full textAccording to the National Center for Child Poverty, in 2011 nearly half of the 72 million children in the U.S. were living in low-income families. Through this study, the author examined the effect that student poverty has on teachers’ beliefs about student print knowledge including school readiness and print literacy. Teachers’ beliefs were explored using a social justice framework that surrounds an explanatory sequential design. This mixed methods research helped me to identify whether or not teachers’ beliefs about students differ based on family socio-economic status (SES). The author of this study worked with a large urban school district located in the California Central Valley. The school district administers a Head Start preschool program and a California State preschool program. A total of 89 preschool teachers from these preschool programs participated in a Likert-style questionnaire. Participants were asked to share their beliefs about student print knowledge, school readiness, and parental involvement based on their 2016-2017 students. After collecting all questionnaires, 10 participants were interviewed to further investigate the effect of poverty on teacher’s beliefs about students and families. The overall findings of this study showed that poverty level thresholds between the two preschool programs did not appear to have an effect on participant’s beliefs regarding student print literacy, school readiness, and parental involvement. Participants were consistent in beliefs across both programs. Overall, participants were more positive in the areas of school readiness and parent involvement. Participants in both preschool programs were less positive in regards to student print literacy
Research dissemination: The art of writing an abstract for conferences
No full textThis article aims to assist readers with developing an abstract for a conference in order to have a paper accepted for presentation at a conference, whether it is in poster or an oral format. This is important as the authors argue that use of conferences as a method of disseminating research findings and good practice is expanding each year. Drawing on author experiences, both as members of scientific review panels and as submitters of abstracts, the article includes a practical review about the meaning of an abstract, how to get started and then breaks down in clear sections what reviewers look for in a good abstract. There are also some key points on the actual process of review, which are helpful in understanding of what happens to an abstract following submission. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Accessing Genre/Genre as Access
No full textThis dissertation project asks: How does writing shape access to particular actions, communities, and/or settings? The author adapts a framework for exploring the relationship between writing and access by synthesizing Rhetorical Genre Studies, which sees writing as patterned communicative actions in context, and Network Gatekeeping Theory, which offers a terminology to study the control and power over information or of people as they move through “gates” within a network (Barzilai-Nahon). This framework is then developed into a theory of genre and access through a four-month ethnography of three “genre networks,” a methodology that places a written genre as a node to then centrifugally trace actors, tools, and/or events that are involved or implicated in the genre’s social action across and between site boundaries. These three genre networks—Activity Guides, Master Plans, and Staff Reports—generally exist across a local government and its Parks and Recreation Department. Findings from these three genre networks allow the author to develop and articulate the various factors that shape the relationship between writing and access, including the who (the gated and gatekeeper), the what (gatekeeping processes), the how (gatekeeping mechanisms), and the why (gatekeeping rationales). Ultimately, this theory of genre and access allows writing researchers to untangle the relationship between writing and access across contexts so they can collaborate toward interventions or innovations that might increase access
On genre as social action, uptake, and modest grand theory
No full textCarolyn Miller’s (1984) “Genre as Social Action,” the primary topic—or target—of Anne Freadman’s brilliant and thought-provoking article, holds a special place in genre research. If I pick up an unknown piece of research on genre, the first thing I do is look for Miller’s article in the bibliography. If it is not there, the text in my hand will probably be of little of value to my work for lack of orientation. Moreover, as Freadman (2012) notes, convention in genre research suggests that when you mention the article, it is in good form to add a positive qualifier. It will often be framed as having “formative influence” (MacNeil, 2012), as a “landmark essay” (Feinberg, 2015), or as “seminal” (Andersen, 2008; Devitt, 2009a; Motta-Roth & Herbele, 2015; Møller, 2018; Paré, 2014; Tachino, 2012), “groundbreaking” (Bawarshi, 2000; Smart, 2003; Winsor, 2000), or “oft-cited” (Devitt, 2009b). More than just paying lip service to the greats in the field, adding this qualifier demonstrates that the author knows her way around Rhetorical Genre Studies and is mindful of Miller’s central place within it. This status as a classic text is in itself an example of the bidirectionality of uptake that holds a central place in Freadman’s work. “Genre as Social Action” could not be canonical when it was first published. A canon had to form, and the article’s central place within it had to be recognized by later researchers, before Miller’s text could be taken as oft-cited, seminal, or groundbreaking
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