3,223 research outputs found

    Posthuman Creative Styling can a creative writer’s style of writing be described as procedural?

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    This thesis is about creative styling — the styling a creative writer might use to make their writing unique. It addresses the question as to whether such styling can be described as procedural. Creative styling is part of the technique a creative writer uses when writing. It is how they make the text more ‘lively’ by use of tips and tricks they have either learned or discovered. In essence these are rules, ones the writer accrues over time by their practice. The thesis argues that the use and invention of these rules can be set as procedures. and so describe creative styling as procedural. The thesis follows from questioning why it is that machines or algorithms have, so far, been incapable of producing creative writing which has value. Machine-written novels do not abound on the bookshelves and writing styled by computers is, on the whole, dull in comparison to human-crafted literature. It came about by thinking how it would be possible to reach a point where writing by people and procedural writing are considered to have equal value. For this reason the thesis is set in a posthuman context, where the differences between machines and people are erased. The thesis uses practice to inform an original conceptual space model, based on quality dimensions and dynamic-inter operation of spaces. This model gives an example of the procedures which a posthuman creative writer uses when engaged in creative styling. It suggests an original formulation for the conceptual blending of conceptual spaces, based on the casting of qualities from one space to another. In support of and informing its arguments are ninety-nine examples of creative writing practice which show the procedures by which style has been applied, created and assessed. It provides a route forward for further joint research into both computational and human-coded creative writing

    A Phenomenological Study of Social Media Usage in Southern Baptist Churches in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

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    The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore social media usage according to leaders from churches in the Southern Baptist Convention in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. For this study, social media was defined as any social media networking platform used to share the Gospel. The research was guided by the mathematical theory of communication (Shannon, 2001; Weaver,1953) developed by Shannon, Weaver, Schramm, and Berlo. The communication model effectively understands and explores the literature gap regarding God and how He communicates with His people. The study started with purposeful sampling and recruitment of participants, who then voluntarily completed the survey and took part in a Zoom interview. The study yielded twelve volunteers who took part in all rounds. The study\u27s findings revealed that Facebook was the most extensively used social media channel for sharing the gospel, followed by YouTube and Twitter. Social media was widely used in these Baptist churches. The findings revealed that social media is essential for spreading the gospel online. The findings also revealed that participant church leaders used social media platforms in various methods to spread the gospel

    Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion. Collected Works, Volume 5

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    This ïŹfth volume on Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different ïŹelds of applications and in mathematics, and is available in open-access. The collected contributions of this volume have either been published or presented after disseminating the fourth volume in 2015 in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals, or they are new. The contributions of each part of this volume are chronologically ordered. First Part of this book presents some theoretical advances on DSmT, dealing mainly with modiïŹed Proportional ConïŹ‚ict Redistribution Rules (PCR) of combination with degree of intersection, coarsening techniques, interval calculus for PCR thanks to set inversion via interval analysis (SIVIA), rough set classiïŹers, canonical decomposition of dichotomous belief functions, fast PCR fusion, fast inter-criteria analysis with PCR, and improved PCR5 and PCR6 rules preserving the (quasi-)neutrality of (quasi-)vacuous belief assignment in the fusion of sources of evidence with their Matlab codes. Because more applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the fourth book of DSmT in 2015, the second part of this volume is about selected applications of DSmT mainly in building change detection, object recognition, quality of data association in tracking, perception in robotics, risk assessment for torrent protection and multi-criteria decision-making, multi-modal image fusion, coarsening techniques, recommender system, levee characterization and assessment, human heading perception, trust assessment, robotics, biometrics, failure detection, GPS systems, inter-criteria analysis, group decision, human activity recognition, storm prediction, data association for autonomous vehicles, identiïŹcation of maritime vessels, fusion of support vector machines (SVM), Silx-Furtif RUST code library for information fusion including PCR rules, and network for ship classiïŹcation. Finally, the third part presents interesting contributions related to belief functions in general published or presented along the years since 2015. These contributions are related with decision-making under uncertainty, belief approximations, probability transformations, new distances between belief functions, non-classical multi-criteria decision-making problems with belief functions, generalization of Bayes theorem, image processing, data association, entropy and cross-entropy measures, fuzzy evidence numbers, negator of belief mass, human activity recognition, information fusion for breast cancer therapy, imbalanced data classiïŹcation, and hybrid techniques mixing deep learning with belief functions as well

    Chatbots for Modelling, Modelling of Chatbots

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    Tesis Doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informåtica. Fecha de Lectura: 28-03-202

    Revitalising Gija: Developing Genre-based Documentation and Description for Community Language Programs

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    Gija is a language spoken in the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. Based on a number of indicators of language vitality, it has been classified as Severely Endangered or Moribund. This research undertakes description of Gija, applying Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) typology and genre theory in the context of supporting the maintenance of this endangered Australian language. Many linguists now agree that if linguistic scholarship is to contribute directly to language revitalisation processes, it must consider language in use and in its cultural context. SFL, in its orientation towards meaning and its metafunctionally diversified, stratified model of language provides theoretically informed principles for making such a contribution. This study takes texts highly valued in the Gija community and used in language education as its data. It recognises three significant genres - the Ngarranggarni story, plant usage report and mantha. Applying a stratified model of text in context, the analyses investigate the patterns of language choice from a ‘top-down’ perspective. That is, chapters begin with genre, looking at how texts are staged to fulfill their social purpose and what configurations of register variables (known as field, mode and tenor) underpin each text. Within genre stages meanings are realised as unfolding phases, realised in turn as patterns of choice from discourse semantic systems. Finally, each genre becomes the way in to discussing how the verbal group in Gija contributes to ideational, textual and interpersonal meaning at clause, group and word rank. By taking these insights and recontextualising them in teacher training, Gija educators can be supported to bring their knowledge about Gija to consciousness, supporting their growing confidence as teachers of their own language. This study could also be utilised to develop linguistically informed resources for school and community-based Gija language teaching programs in the future

    Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2022-2023

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    Southern Adventist University\u27s undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2022-2023.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/undergrad_catalog/1121/thumbnail.jp

    SELECTION IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE PRODUCTION: EVIDENCE FROM APHASIA

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    Most models of word production assume that in the process of producing a target word, multiple distractors also get activated, both other words (at the lexical level) and other phonemes/letters (at the segmental level). Thus, a selection mechanism is needed to select the targets at each level. While selection is one of the mechanisms that has received a considerable amount of attention in the spoken production literature, minimal amount of research has been dedicated to understanding this mechanism in written production. In fact, although written language is an integral part of our everyday life, written language production is the most under-researched language domain. The work presented in this dissertation enhances our understanding of the selection mechanisms involved in written word production. Specifically, we investigated whether the selection mechanism(s) are: (1) shared across cognitive domains (language vs non-language), (2) shared across levels of processing (lexical vs segmental), and (3) internal or external to the network that supports the mapping of representations across levels of processing. To this end, we collected behavioral data from a group of individuals with post-stroke aphasia and a group of aged-matched healthy control individuals, using two experimental tasks: the written Blocked Cyclic Naming task and the Simon visual-spatial compatibility task. Structural (gray matter) neuroimaging data were also collected for the post-stroke aphasia group. The results of the data analyses undertaken provide no evidence of a shared mechanism between the language and non-language domains investigated. With respect to levels of processing, the findings reveal that selection at the lexical and segmental levels is supported by distinct mechanisms. Finally, the evidence indicates that selection processes involved in written word production are supported by a mechanism that is external to the representational mapping system, and that this external mechanism relies on left-hemisphere inferior frontal and orbitofrontal regions of the brain. These findings significantly advance our understanding of the selection mechanisms involved in written language production, which has important theoretical implications for understanding the writing system and for theories of word production more generally, as well as having translational implications related to naming therapies in aphasia and beyond

    Integrating Historically Marginalized Students’ Funds of Knowledge for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning

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    The United States historically has not always recognized the unique knowledge, or Funds of Knowledge (FoK; Moll et. al, 1992) that Black (and other historically marginalized) students’ have as assets to classroom learning and much of today’s mainstream curriculum represents White cultural norms as the basis (Sjursen, 2021). Because of this reality, marginalized students must navigate mainstream cultural norms alongside their own culture to be successful in the classroom. This three-paper dissertation includes 1. a systematic literature review of Black U.S. k-8 students language and identity in relation to achievement, 2. a qualitative case study centered on middle school urban Southeastern science teachers’ perspectives on FoK as well as FoK integration into the classroom, and 3. a QuantCrit case study that critically examines rural Midwestern kindergarten teachers’ survey responses regarding historically marginalized students. The systematic literature review examined previous findings related to elementary and middle school Black students’ FoK, or knowledge based on their personal experiences and identities (Oughton, 2010; Baker, 2005; Moll et. al., 1992; Vélez- Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1990). The review determines 1. how Black students’ FoK can be leveraged to increase academic achievement, 2. how FoK has been incorporated and measured, and 3. the nature of the relationship(s) between the languages, racial/ethnic identity(ies), and academic learning of Black students. The qualitative case study analyzed examples of students’ FoK and teacher incorporation of FoK into classroom lessons through the interviews of seven science middle school teachers in diverse and urban classrooms. This study used asset-based and culturally inclusive pedagogies that recognize students’ diverse identities, languages, and lived experiences (funds of knowledge, FoK) as valuable resources for learning (Moll et al., 1992). The goal of this study was to 1) explore teachers’ recognition of marginalized students’ diverse FoK, 2) examine teachers’ FoK and its relation to students’ FoK, as well as 3) investigate to what degree teachers integrate students FoK into their pedagogical approaches. Finally, the goal of the QuantCrit case study was to quantitatively evaluate the experiences of historically marginalized student populations within a rural Midwestern kindergarten sample within the CRT framework (Garcia, et. al., 2018). The study drew upon multiple resistance frameworks (i.e. Critical Race Theory [Delgado & Stefancic, 2000], Critical Race Pedagogy [Curenton & Iruka, 2020; Yoo, 2010; Lynn, 1999], and Quant Crit [Garcia et. al., 2018; Garcia, & Mayorga, 2018]) aiming to promote equitable and positive culturally relevant pedagogies (Barrio, et. al., 2017; Kugler & West-Burns, 2010)

    Examining the Relationships Between Distance Education Students’ Self-Efficacy and Their Achievement

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    This study aimed to examine the relationships between students’ self-efficacy (SSE) and students’ achievement (SA) in distance education. The instruments were administered to 100 undergraduate students in a distance university who work as migrant workers in Taiwan to gather data, while their SA scores were obtained from the university. The semi-structured interviews for 8 participants consisted of questions that showed the specific conditions of SSE and SA. The findings of this study were reported as follows: There was a significantly positive correlation between targeted SSE (overall scales and general self-efficacy) and SA. Targeted students' self-efficacy effectively predicted their achievement; besides, general self- efficacy had the most significant influence. In the qualitative findings, four themes were extracted for those students with lower self-efficacy but higher achievement—physical and emotional condition, teaching and learning strategy, positive social interaction, and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, three themes were extracted for those students with moderate or higher self-efficacy but lower achievement—more time for leisure (not hard-working), less social interaction, and external excuses. Providing effective learning environments, social interactions, and teaching and learning strategies are suggested in distance education
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