1,079 research outputs found
Theology and natural philosophy in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Britain
No full textA number of historians of science have claimed that the early Boyle Sermons provided a platform for the promotion of a moderate-Anglican social and political ideology underpinned by Newtonian natural philosophy. However, by examining in detail the texts of Richard Bentley, John Harris and Samuel Clarke, this thesis argues that their Sermons should not be characterised as 'Newtonian'. These texts were highly complex literary productions constructed with the intention of achieving victory over the enemies of Christianity. An examination of their rhetorical strategies
focuses attention on the use to which various cognitive materials - including natural philosophy - were put. Thus the presence of Newtonian concepts in the texts is
explained by the aims and overall scholarly programmes of the Lecturers. It will also be argued that the term 'Boyle Lectureship' is problematic and that the main elements of the Lectureship - Robert Boyle's bequest, the Trustees, the
Lecturers, and the Sermons - cannot be conflated into a single historical unit. Therefore, throughout this study, emphasis is placed on the contingent and singular
behaviour of individuals located within an ecclesiastical and scholarly community, where career promotion and the notion of scholarly credit were important. The brief
in Boyle's last will and testament stipulated that the Lecturers must defend Christianity using the scholarly tools to hand. In this thesis it will be shown that the
personnel of the Lectureship conformed to Boyle's brief and that they utilised all available methods and materials in the pursuance of their legal and institutional
responsibilities. This approach removes the analysis of the Lectureship from an overarching sociological perspective; instead the Sermons are interpreted as exemplary texts in the rhetorical prosecution of the enemies of Christianity. This study, therefore, acknowledges the complex nature of theological texts in early modern England
The mainstream primary classroom as a language-learning environment for children with severe and persistent language impairment - implications of recent language intervention research
No full textMany UK children with severe and persistent language impairment (SLI) attend local mainstream schools. Although this should provide an excellent language-learning environment, opportunities may be limited by difficulties in sustaining time-consuming, child-specific learning activities; restricted co-professional working, and the complex classroom environment. Two language intervention studies in mainstream Scottish primary schools showed children with SLI receiving intervention from speech and language therapists (SLTs) or their assistants made more progress in expressive language than similar children receiving intervention from education staff. Potential reasons for this difference are sought in the amount of tailored language-learning activity undertaken; how actively school staff initiated contact with SLTs; and the language demands of the classroom. Tailored language learning appears to be a differentiating factor. A language support model, reflecting views of teachers and SLTs about encouraging language development for children with SLI within the ecology of the mainstream primary classroom, is also outlined
Reflections on communication and sport on journalism and digital culture
No full textIn this essay, Raymond Boyle reflects on how the study of sport within media and communication studies has evolved in the United Kingdom over the last 20 years. The first part of essay comments on the cultural importance of communication and sport. The second section traces the influences on the author’s research agenda, particularly in the area of sport journalism and the structural changes brought to it by digital media. Here, Boyle comments on the most influential scholars and works on communication and sport. The focus section of the essay considers the evolution of sport journalism and the changing role of sports journalists. In this section, the author considers the nexus of marketization, commercialization, and the internationalization of sport journalism and comments on the rise of public relations and the synergies between the sports industry and the entertainment industries. The focus section further considers the real and projected effects of digital journalism and the potential of citizen journalists to transform sport journalism. The essay closes with consideration of future research that will be needed to help us understand the cultural impacts of technological change on the role of sport journalism
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
Paranoia and irony in the Anglophone dectective narrative and the novels of Umberto Eco
No full textThe thesis provides a reading of Umberto Eco's three novels, The Name of the
Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Island of the Day Before, that, while it
acknowledges the importance of the Italian literary tradition in which they stand, also
seeks to explain why their author appeals so frequently to literary models outside
Italy, and in particular the Anglo-American detective genre.
Chapter One explains Eco's relationship to the development of Italian literature
through his lifetime. It is noted that Eco is beginning, both in his semiotics and his
fiction, from a position where post-structuralism has been extensively explored by
neo-avant-gardew riters. Eco positions himself alongsides uchw riters as Italo Calvino
and Jorge Luis Borges, who wish to explore the ludic possibilities of working within
structures, while all the time acknowledging the epistemological limitations of so
doing. Eco's chosen structure, more often than not, is the highly defined genre of
the detective story.
From here, the following chapters engage in close readings of the three novels,
with particular emphasis on The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum,
demonstrating that they explore problems of interpretation central to the detective
narrative. In doing this, they display an intimate knowledge of generic developments
within the detective tradition, and of the philosophical and aesthetic uses made of the
genre by other writers. The embedding of intertextual references to other detective
narratives within Eco's novels is an important factor, as they come together to form
a narrative of epistemological inquiry that itself follows Eco's philosophical progress
through the years. In short, the novels, inter alia, map a systematic inquiry into the
possibility of systematic inquiry. They reserve the space to engage in such an ironic
and self-referential project precisely through their fictionality
Multi-Branch Siamese Networks with Online Selection for Object Tracking
No full textIn this paper, we propose a robust object tracking algorithm based on a branch selection mechanism to choose the most efficient object representations from multi-branch siamese networks. While most deep learning trackers use a single CNN for target representation, the proposed Multi-Branch Siamese Tracker (MBST) employs multiple branches of CNNs pre-trained for different tasks, and used for various target representations in our tracking method. With our branch selection mechanism, the appropriate CNN branch is selected depending on the target characteristics in an online manner. By using the most adequate target representation with respect to the tracked object, our method achieves real-time tracking, while obtaining improved performance compared to standard Siamese network trackers on object tracking benchmarks
Kaon mixing beyond the standard model with physical masses
No full textWe present nonperturbative results for beyond the standard model kaon mixing matrix elements in the isospin symmetric limit (mu=md) of QCD, including a complete estimate of all dominant sources of systematic error. Our results are obtained from numerical simulations of lattice QCD with Nf=2+1 flavors of dynamical domain wall fermions. For the first time, these quantities are simulated directly at the physical pion mass mπ∼139 MeV for two different lattice spacings. We include data at three lattice spacings in the range a=0.11–0.07 fm and with pion masses ranging from the physical value up to 450 MeV. Compared to our earlier work, we have added both direct calculations at physical quark masses and a third lattice spacing making the removal of discretization effects significantly more precise and eliminating the need for any significant mass extrapolation beyond the range of simulated data. We renormalize the lattice operators nonperturbatively using RI-SMOM off-shell schemes. These schemes eliminate the need to model and subtract nonperturbative pion poles that arises in the RI-MOM scheme and, since the calculations are performed with domain wall fermions, the unphysical mixing between chirality sectors is suppressed. Our results for the bag parameters in the MS¯ scheme at 3 GeV are BK≡B1=0.5240(17)(54), B2=0.4794(25)(35), B3=0.746(13)(17), B4=0.897(02)(10) and B5=0.6882(78)(94), where the first error is from lattice uncertainties and the second is the uncertainty due to the perturbative matching to MS¯.We present non-perturbative results for beyond the standard model kaon mixing matrix elements in the isospin symmetric limit () of QCD, including a complete estimate of all dominant sources of systematic error. Our results are obtained from numerical simulations of lattice QCD with flavours of dynamical domain wall fermions. For the first time, these quantities are simulated directly at the physical pion mass ~~ for two different lattice spacings. We include data at three lattice spacings in the range - and with pion masses ranging from the physical value up to 450. Compared to our earlier work, we have added both direct calculations at physical quark masses and a third lattice spacing making the removal of discretisation effects significantly more precise and eliminating the need for any significant mass extrapolation beyond the range of simulated data. We renormalise the lattice operators non-perturbatively using RI-SMOM off-shell schemes. These schemes eliminate the need to model and subtract non-perturbative pion poles that arises in the RI-MOM scheme and, since the calculations are performed with domain wall fermions, the unphysical mixing between chirality sectors is suppressed. Our results for the bag parameters in the scheme at are , , , and , where the first error is from lattice uncertainties and the second is the uncertainty due to the perturbative matching to
Editor's Choice – Comparison of Open Surgery and Endovascular Techniques for Juxtarenal and Complex Neck Aortic Aneurysms: The UK COMPlex AneurySm Study (UK-COMPASS) – Peri-operative and Midterm Outcomes
No full textObjective: Treatment of juxtarenal and complex neck abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) is now commonly by endovascular rather than open surgical repair (OSR). Published comparisons show poor validity and scientific precision. UK-COMPASS is a comparative cohort study of endovascular treatments vs. OSR for patients with an AAA unsuitable for standard on label endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Methods: All procedures for AAA in England (November 2017 to October 2019) were identified, AAA anatomy assessed in a Corelab, peri-operative risk scores determined, and propensity scoring used to identify patients suitable for either endovascular treatment or OSR. Patients were stratified by aneurysm neck length (0 – 4 mm, 5 – 9 mm, or ≥ 10 mm) and operative risk; the highest quartile was considered high risk and the remainder standard risk. Death was the primary outcome measure. Endovascular treatments included fenestrated EVAR (FEVAR) and off label standard EVAR (± adjuncts). Results: Among 8 994 patients, 2 757 had AAAs that were juxtarenal, short neck, or complex neck in morphology. Propensity score stratification and adjustment method comparisons included 1 916 patients. Widespread off label use of standard EVAR devices was noted (35.6% of patients). The adjusted peri-operative mortality rate was 2.9%, lower for EVAR (1.2%; p = .001) and FEVAR (2.2%; p = .001) than OSR (4.5%). In standard risk patients with a 0 – 4 mm neck, the mortality rate was 7.4% following OSR and 2.3% following FEVAR. Differences were smaller for patients with a neck length ≥ 5 mm: 2.1% OSR vs. 1.0% FEVAR. At 3.5 years of follow up, the overall mortality rate was 20.7% in the whole study population, higher following FEVAR (27.6%) and EVAR (25.2%) than after OSR (14.2%). However, in the 0 – 4 mm neck subgroup, overall survival remained equivalent. The aneurysm related mortality rate was equivalent between treatments, but re-intervention was more common after EVAR and FEVAR than OSR. Conclusion: FEVAR proves notably safer than OSR in the peri-operative period for juxtarenal aneurysms (0 – 4 mm neck length), with comparable midterm survival. For patients with short neck (5 – 9 mm) and complex neck (≥ 10 mm) AAAs, overall survival was worse in endovascularly treated patients compared with OSR despite relative peri-operative safety. This warrants further research and a re-appraisal of the current clinical application of endovascular strategies, particularly in patients with poor general survival outlook owing to comorbidity and age.</p
Investigating the effect of a visual search task for simulator-based driver training
No full textNovice drivers tend to direct their gaze to the road ahead and not scan the environment properly. This study investigated the training effectiveness of a visual search task in a driving simulator, aimed at increasing young drivers' spread of visual search. Two groups of inexperienced drivers were instructed to drive as accurately as possible in the center of the right lane in a self-paced driving task of four 6-min sessions in a rural environment. While driving, one group performed a visual search task, consisting of detecting and fixating on visual stimuli in the peripheral area. The stimuli were purple dots that faded in slowly and disappeared when fixated by the participant. After training, both groups drove a transfer session in an urban environment, in which various hazardous situations occurred. Results showed that both groups improved their lane keeping performance, whereas the training group became more proficient in the visual search task. However, in the transfer session no group differences were detected. In conclusion, despite improvements in visual search performance during a relatively short training period, the visual search training did not detectibly influence the spread of visual search of novice drivers during a post training transfer session.Biomechatronics & Human-Machine Contro
Belief, reasons, and irrationality
No full textIn this thesis, we explore the question: What is a belief? We do so by considering the folk psychological concept of belief and attempting to unearth some constitutive features of it. We argue that, according to this concept, there is a significant relationship between belief and reasons: one which reveals that beliefs aim at truth, as Bernard Williams (1973) once famously put it. We argue for a particular interpretation of this claim, according to which it is to be understood as follows: (R): It is constitutive of belief that if it is consciously regulated, it is so-regulated solely for truth; and (C): It is constitutive of belief that it is correct if and only if its contents are true. We maintain that (C) explains why it is that (R) is true. So, belief is at base a normative concept: the question as to why one holds a particular belief can always be raised. We then explore two irrational phenomena – self-deception and delusion – and further unravel what (R) and (C) involve, as well as shedding some light on the phenomena themselves. We argue for a position we call doxastic minimalism about self-deception, according to which, in the paradigm case, the self-deceiver holds neither their undesired belief that p nor their desired belief that ~p. This is because they do not have attitudes to these contents that meet conditions (R) and (C). Similarly, we argue that although cases of delusion vary significantly, in some extreme cases, the subject does not seem to relate to the content of their delusion in a manner that meets (R) and (C), and hence ought not to be attributed a belief in such contents
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