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John Macrone: Victorian publisher
I do not delude myself that even colleagues in English literature will be excited by the detailed chronicle of the fall of a minor Victorian publisher. But I shall be grateful for any general reaction to the larger project of which the following essay is part.
It is widely agreed that we know too little about the
publishers who were partners (if sometimes sleeping partners) in the
production of nineteenth century literature. He need, as one
Dickensian critic recently put it, a "magisterial" book on the subject.
There isn't any such work in prospect. Nor is there any comprehensive
history of British publishing (even more urgently needed) under way.
Either of these tasks would exceed the power of any single critic, in
my opinion. But it is possible to make some contribution -- even at
this preliminary stage -- to what will eventually be (as I expect) a
collaborative venture. What I intend is to publish a series of
articles which will profile the fiction-publishing activities of
leading Victorian houses. What follows, on John Macrone, is the first
in the series. I am writing another at the moment on Henry Colburn
(the principal purveyor of "silver fork" romance to early and mid-
Victorian circulating libraries). After that, have sketched out a
study of Chapman and Hall's fiction-publishing policy 1836-64 (when the
feeble Fred Chapman took over); a piece on Bradbury and Evans and the
production of serialized fiction; a short house history of Tinsley
Eros. {who largely succeeded Colburn as suppliers of three deckers to
the libraries in the 1860. and 70s), and so on.
It is fairly easy to devise and plan these essags, and to
anticipate their final connected design. There remains the immediate
problem of placing them. Editors, generally, do not like purely
expository contributions; especially if they are liberally accompanied
by lists, tables and business history. The one journal which would
suit, Publishing History, seems moribund. ~ Library and PBSA are
obvious first choice journals. Thereafter, one will have to publish
where one can, presumably. (The fincrone piece will appear in Dickens
Studies~, sometime over the next three years.
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What is Computational Intelligence (CI) and what are its relations with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? A brief survey of the scope of CI journals and books with ``computational intelligence'' in their title shows that at present it is an umbrella for three core technologies (neural, fuzzy and evolutionary), their applications, and selected fashionable pattern recognition methods. At present CI has no comprehensive foundations and is more a bag of tricks than a solid branch of science. The change of focus from methods to challenging problems is advocated, with CI defined as a part of computer and engineering sciences devoted to solution of non-algoritmizable problems. In this view AI is a part of CI focused on problems related to higher cognitive functions, while the rest of the CI community works on problems related to perception and control, or lower cognitive functions. Grand challenges on both sides of this spectrum are addressed
Building the case for actionable ethics in digital health research supported by artificial intelligence
The digital revolution is disrupting the ways in which health research is conducted, and subsequently, changing healthcare. Direct-to-consumer wellness products and mobile apps, pervasive sensor technologies and access to social network data offer exciting opportunities for researchers to passively observe and/or track patients ‘in the wild’ and 24/7. The volume of granular personal health data gathered using these technologies is unprecedented, and is increasingly leveraged to inform personalized health promotion and disease treatment interventions. The use of artificial intelligence in the health sector is also increasing. Although rich with potential, the digital health ecosystem presents new ethical challenges for those making decisions about the selection, testing, implementation and evaluation of technologies for use in healthcare. As the ‘Wild West’ of digital health research unfolds, it is important to recognize who is involved, and identify how each party can and should take responsibility to advance the ethical practices of this work. While not a comprehensive review, we describe the landscape, identify gaps to be addressed, and offer recommendations as to how stakeholders can and should take responsibility to advance socially responsible digital health research
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