193 research outputs found

    Understanding the role of value in coral reef science

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    This thesis explores the role of value in coral science from the perspective of philosophy of science in practice. More specifically, it looks at the epistemology of different practices and theories in coral science, particularly how they interact with various forms of value, and how these forms of value can be understood. The arguments are organised into five chapters, which all make use of data collected in interviews with coral scientists, as well as ideas from coral science literature. The first presents an examination of ecological baselines, which I show do not simply ‘shift’ as has been supposed, but vary for a variety of reasons. This raises a question I address in the second chapter: when is this variation considered legitimate? The answer depends on the value of different reef states being considered. After showing how coral scientists navigate this in practice, I move on to the next two chapters where I explore areas of coral science where important forms of valuation take place: first, the value frameworks of intrinsic value and ecosystem services; and second, the use of bioacoustic techniques to assess reef health from non-human perspectives. These offer examples of how different forms of value shape coral science and make it relevant to the lifeforms practising and influenced by it. In the final chapter I present a view of coral science as a form of multispecies niche construction, both in the lab and the field. On this view, coral science is aimed at the flourishing of a range of living systems. This offers a better understanding of science-value interactions in socio-ecological contexts, such as when faced with decisions about baselines and interventions designed around these. Understanding how to navigate such situations is likely to become increasingly important as the challenges of surviving as a species continue to mount.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

    When Children Draw Gods

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    This open access book explores how children draw god. It looks at children’s drawings collected in a large variety of cultural and religious traditions. Coverage demonstrates the richness of drawing as a method for studying representations of the divine. In the process, it also contributes to our understanding of this concept, its origins, and its development. This intercultural work brings together scholars from different disciplines and countries, including Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Iran, Brazil, and the Netherlands. It does more than share the results of their research and analysis. The volume also critically examines the contributions and limitations of this methodology. In addition, it also reflects on the new empirical and theoretical perspectives within the broader framework of the study of this concept. The concept of god is one of the most difficult to grasp. This volume offers new insights by focusing on the many different ways children depict god throughout the world. Readers will discover the importance of spatial imagery and color choices in drawings of god. They will also learn about how the divine's emotional expression correlates to age, gender, and religiosity as well as strategies used by children who are prohibited from representing their god

    Building Blocks for IoT Analytics Internet-of-Things Analytics

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    Internet-of-Things (IoT) Analytics are an integral element of most IoT applications, as it provides the means to extract knowledge, drive actuation services and optimize decision making. IoT analytics will be a major contributor to IoT business value in the coming years, as it will enable organizations to process and fully leverage large amounts of IoT data, which are nowadays largely underutilized. The Building Blocks of IoT Analytics is devoted to the presentation the main technology building blocks that comprise advanced IoT analytics systems. It introduces IoT analytics as a special case of BigData analytics and accordingly presents leading edge technologies that can be deployed in order to successfully confront the main challenges of IoT analytics applications. Special emphasis is paid in the presentation of technologies for IoT streaming and semantic interoperability across diverse IoT streams. Furthermore, the role of cloud computing and BigData technologies in IoT analytics are presented, along with practical tools for implementing, deploying and operating non-trivial IoT applications. Along with the main building blocks of IoT analytics systems and applications, the book presents a series of practical applications, which illustrate the use of these technologies in the scope of pragmatic applications. Technical topics discussed in the book include: Cloud Computing and BigData for IoT analyticsSearching the Internet of ThingsDevelopment Tools for IoT Analytics ApplicationsIoT Analytics-as-a-ServiceSemantic Modelling and Reasoning for IoT AnalyticsIoT analytics for Smart BuildingsIoT analytics for Smart CitiesOperationalization of IoT analyticsEthical aspects of IoT analyticsThis book contains both research oriented and applied articles on IoT analytics, including several articles reflecting work undertaken in the scope of recent European Commission funded projects in the scope of the FP7 and H2020 programmes. These articles present results of these projects on IoT analytics platforms and applications. Even though several articles have been contributed by different authors, they are structured in a well thought order that facilitates the reader either to follow the evolution of the book or to focus on specific topics depending on his/her background and interest in IoT and IoT analytics technologies. The compilation of these articles in this edited volume has been largely motivated by the close collaboration of the co-authors in the scope of working groups and IoT events organized by the Internet-of-Things Research Cluster (IERC), which is currently a part of EU's Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI)

    Contemporary Materialism: Its Ontology and Epistemology

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    Materialism has been the subject of extensive and rich controversies since Robert Boyle introduced the term for the ïŹrst time in the 17th century. But what is materialism and what can it oïŹ€er today? The term is usually deïŹned as the worldview according to which everything real is material. Nevertheless, there is no philosophical consensus about whether the meaning of matter can be enlarged beyond the physical. As a consequence, materialism is often deïŹned in stark exclusive and reductionist terms: whatever exists is either physical or ontologically reducible to it. This conception, if consistent, mutilates reality, excluding the ontological signiïŹcance of political, economic, sociocultural, anthropological and psychological realities. Starting from a new history of materialism, the present book focuses on the central ontological and epistemological debates aroused by today’s leading materialist approaches, including some little known to an anglophone readership. The key concepts of matter, system, emergence, space and time, life, mind, and software are checked over and updated. Controversial issues such as the nature of mathematics and the place of reductionism are also discussed from different materialist approaches. As a result, materialism emerges as a powerful, indispensable scientifically-supported worldview with a surprising wealth of nuances and possibilities

    Physics and Literature

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    Physics and Literature is a unique collaboration between physicists and literary scholars, the first book to explore together the relations between both fields in depth. Contributors analyze central aspects of literary and scientific thought and representation, and the forms of exchange between them. They clarify how narrative, fiction, metaphor and language interact with models, experiment, measurement and mathematics, across eras and genres

    Non-Executive Directors and Corporate Strategy: Theory and Exploratory Empirical Insights from FTSE 350 Companies

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    The objective of this thesis is to provide exploratory, theoretical, and new empirical insights into Non-Executive Directors’ (NEDs) contribution to corporate strategy within London Stock Exchange’s largest 350 companies (FTSE 350), all of which have the same legal and regulatory duties. This research deploys an interpretivist philosophy, responding to four fundamental research questions, with appropriate ontological, epistemological, and axiological considerations surrounding NEDs’ corporate strategy oversight. This research uniquely applies the constructs of Institutional Theory in conjunction with Instrumental Stakeholder Theory, whilst the empirical examination of NEDs’ oversight contributions into corporate strategy capabilities is considered in terms of their constituents: ‘Shaping’, ‘Conducting’ and ‘Deciding’ appropriate strategies. The research itself employed a mixed-method, parallel-layered, theoretically informed, content and descriptive analysis, including cross-sectional financial data analysis performed during 2019-2020, targeting data covering FTSE 350 NEDs’ strategic oversight role. The theoretical and empirical research provides original and valuable insights into NED’s involvement in corporate strategy. Specifically, it produced no observable evidence of the existence of any Corporate Strategy Committees involving FTSE 350 NEDs. The explicit and implicit contributions to knowledge and policies arising from the research outcomes is the identification of a need for NEDs to show greater strategic leadership and become directly involved in a proposed Corporate Strategy Committee. This would afford the board greater strategic oversight to deliver more meaningful, measurable statements on the long-term sustainability of their company, i.e., over 5 to 10 years, within their Strategic Report. This research identifies the need for further research into theoretical and methodological issues relating to FTSE 350 NEDs’ strategic oversight role

    Vector Semantics

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    This open access book introduces Vector semantics, which links the formal theory of word vectors to the cognitive theory of linguistics. The computational linguists and deep learning researchers who developed word vectors have relied primarily on the ever-increasing availability of large corpora and of computers with highly parallel GPU and TPU compute engines, and their focus is with endowing computers with natural language capabilities for practical applications such as machine translation or question answering. Cognitive linguists investigate natural language from the perspective of human cognition, the relation between language and thought, and questions about conceptual universals, relying primarily on in-depth investigation of language in use. In spite of the fact that these two schools both have ‘linguistics’ in their name, so far there has been very limited communication between them, as their historical origins, data collection methods, and conceptual apparatuses are quite different. Vector semantics bridges the gap by presenting a formal theory, cast in terms of linear polytopes, that generalizes both word vectors and conceptual structures, by treating each dictionary definition as an equation, and the entire lexicon as a set of equations mutually constraining all meanings

    Atem / Breath

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    The anthology explores breath from the perspective of the arts and humanities, as well as experimental scientific and design practices. Focus is on the period from 1900 to the present day – an era during in which air has become a precarious medium, co-created and manipulated by humans. Against this backdrop, breath appears as an elusive yet vital substance that reveals connections between the physical, symbolic, technological and social realms
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