Large language models and artificial intelligence, the end of (language) learning as we know it—or not quite?

PreprintThe rapid advancements in large language models (LLM) and artificial intelligence (AI) have been a subject of recent significant interest and debate. This paper explores the impact of these developments on language learning. I discuss the technology underlying AI-based tools and the natural language processing (NLP) tasks they were originally designed for. This will help us to identify opportunities and limitations regarding their use in the context of language learning. I then examine how such technology can be used efficiently and effectively in language teaching and learning. The availability of such tools will require language teaching to focus on the non-mechanical aspects of writing. Similarly, automatically produced personalized teaching and learning materials will not replace human teachers, but give space for and support human–human interaction

Functions and relevance of spatial co-presence : lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic for evidence-based workplace and human capital management

Introduction: This study aims to analyze the role of co-presence against the background of COVID-19 pandemic to derive implications for an interdisciplinary, evidence-based workplace and human capital management. A theoretical framework is outlined that considers a range of topics from task performance to social and organizational contextual factors. Methods: In a single organization qualitative case study, five focus group interviews including a total of 20 employees of an IT consultancy were conducted to identify the effects of the mandatory remote working regimes imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic on task and contextual performance. Results: Findings show that individual performance was assessed to have increased while internal processes remained at similar levels compared to pre-pandemic levels. Organizational culture, social contact, and identity, however, were reported to have considerably deteriorated in the view of the participants. Discussion: The study shows that for a company that was very experienced with distributed working, the reduction of co-presence had important effects on performance and culture. Findings suggest that co-presence must be carefully managed in the future. This could become a new joint priority for workplace design, workplace management, and human capital management

Implementation of a comprehensive real-time flight simulator for XV-15 tilt-rotor aircraft

This paper presents a tilt-rotor flight simulation platform implementing a real-time simulation of the Bell XV-15 aircraft for teaching and research purposes. The mathematical model of the tilt-rotor aircraft is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink© including simplified models of aircraft dynamics, actuators, sensors, and Flight Control Computer. The implemented tilt-rotor mathematical model is interfaced with flight control hardware, i.e. a flight stick and a rudder pedal, used by the pilot to set input commands. Instead, the graphics environment is provided by FlightGear, an open-source and cross-platform software widely used in research activities. Another contribution of the paper is the design and implementation of a Stability Control and Augmentation System to enhance aircraft stability and improve handling qualities. The developed simulator is tested with several simulations validating the developed mathematical model and the effectiveness of the Stability Control and Augmentation System. The result is a tilt-rotor flight simulation platform executable on a commercial laptop with real-time performance for research and teaching activities

Children’s participation in the child protection system : are young people from poor families less likely to be heard?

Decisions in child protection affect children’s and young people’s lives substantially and sustainably. For young people to participate in these decisions is an ethical requirement, prominently coded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although awareness of the importance of child participation and research thereon have grown, predictors of child participation have not been formalized in a conceptual model and studies on the topic have primarily relied on narrative accounts or fictional vignettes rather than actual case data. This article addresses the lack of conceptual modeling by presenting an approach that takes into account three domains of downstream predictors on the degree of child participation in the decision-making process of a child protection case: (a) External constraints; (b) professionals’ willingness and ability to facilitate the child’s participation; (c) the child’s willingness and ability to participate. It further addresses the lack of actual case data in child participation research, focusing on the understudied predictor of family poverty. Analyses are based on a sample of case files of n = 264 children in five Swiss CPS agencies. Outcomes and predictors were extracted from case files with a predefined coding system. Findings suggest that the raised awareness has so far not fully trickled down to an increase in real-life opportunities of participation for young people: The child’s subjective view was documented in the case worker’s report half of the time (48.9 %). Corroborating previous evidence, adolescents were much more likely to have their views included than younger children (OR = 3.715, p =.002). Case workers were less inclined to include the child’s views if the child came from a poor family (OR = 0.326, p =.003). We conclude by suggesting options for improving child participation, highlighting that protection of young people does not have to contradict participation

Liability of emergingness of emerging market banks internationalizing to advanced economies

International management scholars are paying increasing attention to the internationalization of service firms from emerging markets, but empirical research on the challenges facing such firms remains scarce. This study examines how emerging market banks (EMBs) cope with the liability of emergingness. To this end, we conducted exploratory, qualitative interviews with Brazilian and Chinese bankers. We found that the liability may hamper the ability of EMBs to engage in institutional isomorphism in order to effectively embed themselves into host locations. The results reveal that liability of emergingness is a problem, particularly for Chinese banks whose internationalization links with the Belt Road Initiative—national strategy to support the Chinese firms go global. The findings indicate that a major problem is that senior managers in the home countries fail to understand the importance of differences between home and host country institutional systems. The low level of autonomy granted to subsidiary managers, which arises from this lack of understanding on the part of their headquarters, hinders the ability of subsidiaries to effectively engage in normative and mimetic isomorphism to embed into host location institutional systems. The study also highlights differences in how Brazilian and Chinese banks might address this challenge

The good, the bad and the ugly : droplet recognition by a “shootout”-heuristics

We explain how to optimize the image analysis of mixed clusters of red and green droplets in solvents with various degrees of sharpness, brightness, contrast and density. The circular Hough Transform is highly efficient for separated circles with reasonable background contrast, but not for large amounts of partially overlapping shapes, some of them blurred, as in the images of our dense droplet suspensions. We explain why standard approaches for image improvement fail and present a “shootout” approach, where already detected circles are masked, so that the removal of sharp outlines improves the relative optical quality of the remaining droplets. Nevertheless, for intrinsic reasons, there are limits to the accuracy of data which can be obtained on very dense clusters

FVK Brücken im Dauereinsatz

Im Rahmen zweier KTI-Forschungsprojekte (Innosuisse) hat die Fachgruppe Faserverbundkonstruktionen FVK der ZHAW in den letzten 20 Jahren Modulkörper aus faserverstärkten Kunststoffen entwickelt. Mit den Neuentwicklungen konnten als Erstbauwerke zwei spannende Projekte, die Kemptbrücke (2001) und die Schecobrücke (2009), in Winterthur umgesetzt werden. Nachfolgend werden die beiden Bauwerke kurz vorgestellt und deren Zustand nach 21 resp. 13 Jahren erläutert