3,330 research outputs found

    Tourism and heritage in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

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    Tourism and Heritage in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) uses an ethnographic lens to explore the dissonances associated with the commodification of Chornobyl's heritage. The book considers the role of the guides as experience brokers, focusing on the synergy between tourists and guides in the performance of heritage interpretation. Banaszkiewicz proposes to perceive tour guides as important actors in the bottom-up construction of heritage discourse contributing to more inclusive and participatory approach to heritage management. Demonstrating that the CEZ has been going through a dynamic transformation into a mass tourism attraction, the book offers a critical reflection on heritagisation as a meaning-making process in which the resources of the past are interpreted, negotiated, and recognised as a valuable legacy. Applying the concepts of dissonant heritage to describe the heterogeneous character of the CEZ, the book broadens the interpretative scope of dark tourism which takes on a new dimension in the context of the war in Ukraine. Tourism and Heritage in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone argues that post-disaster sites such as Chornobyl can teach us a great deal about the importance of preserving cultural and natural heritage for future generations. The book will be of interest to academics and students who are engaged in the study of heritage, tourism, memory, disasters and Eastern Europe

    Corporate Social Responsibility: the institutionalization of ESG

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    Understanding the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm performance as it relates to industries reliant on technological innovation is a complex and perpetually evolving challenge. To thoroughly investigate this topic, this dissertation will adopt an economics-based structure to address three primary hypotheses. This structure allows for each hypothesis to essentially be a standalone empirical paper, unified by an overall analysis of the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance. The first hypothesis explores the evolution of CSR to the modern quantified iteration of ESG has led to the institutionalization and standardization of the CSR concept. The second hypothesis fills gaps in existing literature testing the relationship between firm performance and ESG by finding that the relationship is significantly positive in long-term, strategic metrics (ROA and ROIC) and that there is no correlation in short-term metrics (ROE and ROS). Finally, the third hypothesis states that if a firm has a long-term strategic ESG plan, as proxied by the publication of CSR reports, then it is more resilience to damage from controversies. This is supported by the finding that pro-ESG firms consistently fared better than their counterparts in both financial and ESG performance, even in the event of a controversy. However, firms with consistent reporting are also held to a higher standard than their nonreporting peers, suggesting a higher risk and higher reward dynamic. These findings support the theory of good management, in that long-term strategic planning is both immediately economically beneficial and serves as a means of risk management and social impact mitigation. Overall, this contributes to the literature by fillings gaps in the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance, particularly from a management perspective

    Examples of works to practice staccato technique in clarinet instrument

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    Klarnetin staccato tekniğini güçlendirme aşamaları eser çalışmalarıyla uygulanmıştır. Staccato geçişlerini hızlandıracak ritim ve nüans çalışmalarına yer verilmiştir. Çalışmanın en önemli amacı sadece staccato çalışması değil parmak-dilin eş zamanlı uyumunun hassasiyeti üzerinde de durulmasıdır. Staccato çalışmalarını daha verimli hale getirmek için eser çalışmasının içinde etüt çalışmasına da yer verilmiştir. Çalışmaların üzerinde titizlikle durulması staccato çalışmasının ilham verici etkisi ile müzikal kimliğe yeni bir boyut kazandırmıştır. Sekiz özgün eser çalışmasının her aşaması anlatılmıştır. Her aşamanın bir sonraki performans ve tekniği güçlendirmesi esas alınmıştır. Bu çalışmada staccato tekniğinin hangi alanlarda kullanıldığı, nasıl sonuçlar elde edildiği bilgisine yer verilmiştir. Notaların parmak ve dil uyumu ile nasıl şekilleneceği ve nasıl bir çalışma disiplini içinde gerçekleşeceği planlanmıştır. Kamış-nota-diyafram-parmak-dil-nüans ve disiplin kavramlarının staccato tekniğinde ayrılmaz bir bütün olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırmada literatür taraması yapılarak staccato ile ilgili çalışmalar taranmıştır. Tarama sonucunda klarnet tekniğin de kullanılan staccato eser çalışmasının az olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Metot taramasında da etüt çalışmasının daha çok olduğu saptanmıştır. Böylelikle klarnetin staccato tekniğini hızlandırma ve güçlendirme çalışmaları sunulmuştur. Staccato etüt çalışmaları yapılırken, araya eser çalışmasının girmesi beyni rahatlattığı ve istekliliği daha arttırdığı gözlemlenmiştir. Staccato çalışmasını yaparken doğru bir kamış seçimi üzerinde de durulmuştur. Staccato tekniğini doğru çalışmak için doğru bir kamışın dil hızını arttırdığı saptanmıştır. Doğru bir kamış seçimi kamıştan rahat ses çıkmasına bağlıdır. Kamış, dil atma gücünü vermiyorsa daha doğru bir kamış seçiminin yapılması gerekliliği vurgulanmıştır. Staccato çalışmalarında baştan sona bir eseri yorumlamak zor olabilir. Bu açıdan çalışma, verilen müzikal nüanslara uymanın, dil atış performansını rahatlattığını ortaya koymuştur. Gelecek nesillere edinilen bilgi ve birikimlerin aktarılması ve geliştirici olması teşvik edilmiştir. Çıkacak eserlerin nasıl çözüleceği, staccato tekniğinin nasıl üstesinden gelinebileceği anlatılmıştır. Staccato tekniğinin daha kısa sürede çözüme kavuşturulması amaç edinilmiştir. Parmakların yerlerini öğrettiğimiz kadar belleğimize de çalışmaların kaydedilmesi önemlidir. Gösterilen azmin ve sabrın sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan yapıt başarıyı daha da yukarı seviyelere çıkaracaktır

    Automatic Question Generation to Support Reading Comprehension of Learners - Content Selection, Neural Question Generation, and Educational Evaluation

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    Simply reading texts passively without actively engaging with their content is suboptimal for text comprehension since learners may miss crucial concepts or misunderstand essential ideas. In contrast, engaging learners actively by asking questions fosters text comprehension. However, educational resources frequently lack questions. Textbooks often contain only a few at the end of a chapter, and informal learning resources such as Wikipedia lack them entirely. Thus, in this thesis, we study to what extent questions about educational science texts can be automatically generated, tackling two research questions. The first question concerns selecting learning-relevant passages to guide the generation process. The second question investigates the generated questions' potential effects and applicability in reading comprehension scenarios. Our first contribution improves the understanding of neural question generation's quality in education. We find that the generators' high linguistic quality transfers to educational texts but that they require guidance by educational content selection. In consequence, we study multiple educational context and answer selection mechanisms. In our second contribution, we propose novel context selection approaches which target question-worthy sentences in texts. In contrast to previous works, our context selectors are guided by educational theory. The proposed methods perform competitive to related work while operating with educationally motivated decision criteria that are easier to understand for educational experts. The third contribution addresses answer selection methods to guide neural question generation with expected answers. Our experiments highlight the need for educational corpora for the task. Models trained on noneducational corpora do not transfer well to the educational domain. Given this discrepancy, we propose a novel corpus construction approach. It automatically derives educational answer selection corpora from textbooks. We verify the approach's usefulness by showing that neural models trained on the constructed corpora learn to detect learning-relevant concepts. In our last contribution, we use the insights from the previous experiments to design, implement, and evaluate an automatic question generator for educational use. We evaluate the proposed generator intrinsically with an expert annotation study and extrinsically with an empirical reading comprehension study. The two evaluation scenarios provide a nuanced view of the generated questions' strengths and weaknesses. Expert annotations attribute an educational value to roughly 60 % of the questions but also reveal various ways in which the questions still fall short of the quality experts desire. Furthermore, the reader-based evaluation indicates that the proposed educational question generator increases learning outcomes compared to a no-question control group. In summary, the results of the thesis improve the understanding of the content selection tasks in educational question generation and provide evidence that it can improve reading comprehension. As such, the proposed approaches are promising tools for authors and learners to promote active reading and thus foster text comprehension

    Binaural virtual auditory display for music discovery and recommendation

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    Emerging patterns in audio consumption present renewed opportunity for searching or navigating music via spatial audio interfaces. This thesis examines the potential benefits and considerations for using binaural audio as the sole or principal output interface in a music browsing system. Three areas of enquiry are addressed. Specific advantages and constraints in spatial display of music tracks are explored in preliminary work. A voice-led binaural music discovery prototype is shown to offer a contrasting interactive experience compared to a mono smartspeaker. Results suggest that touch or gestural interaction may be more conducive input modes in the former case. The limit of three binaurally spatialised streams is identified from separate data as a usability threshold for simultaneous presentation of tracks, with no evident advantages derived from visual prompts to aid source discrimination or localisation. The challenge of implementing personalised binaural rendering for end-users of a mobile system is addressed in detail. A custom framework for assessing head-related transfer function (HRTF) selection is applied to data from an approach using 2D rendering on a personal computer. That HRTF selection method is developed to encompass 3D rendering on a mobile device. Evaluation against the same criteria shows encouraging results in reliability, validity, usability and efficiency. Computational analysis of a novel approach for low-cost, real-time, head-tracked binaural rendering demonstrates measurable advantages compared to first order virtual Ambisonics. Further perceptual evaluation establishes working parameters for interactive auditory display use cases. In summation, the renderer and identified tolerances are deployed with a method for synthesised, parametric 3D reverberation (developed through related research) in a final prototype for mobile immersive playlist editing. Task-oriented comparison with a graphical interface reveals high levels of usability and engagement, plus some evidence of enhanced flow state when using the eyes-free binaural system

    The Adirondack Chronology

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    The Adirondack Chronology is intended to be a useful resource for researchers and others interested in the Adirondacks and Adirondack history.https://digitalworks.union.edu/arlpublications/1000/thumbnail.jp

    How to Be a God

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    When it comes to questions concerning the nature of Reality, Philosophers and Theologians have the answers. Philosophers have the answers that can’t be proven right. Theologians have the answers that can’t be proven wrong. Today’s designers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games create realities for a living. They can’t spend centuries mulling over the issues: they have to face them head-on. Their practical experiences can indicate which theoretical proposals actually work in practice. That’s today’s designers. Tomorrow’s will have a whole new set of questions to answer. The designers of virtual worlds are the literal gods of those realities. Suppose Artificial Intelligence comes through and allows us to create non-player characters as smart as us. What are our responsibilities as gods? How should we, as gods, conduct ourselves? How should we be gods

    Hunting Wildlife in the Tropics and Subtropics

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    The hunting of wild animals for their meat has been a crucial activity in the evolution of humans. It continues to be an essential source of food and a generator of income for millions of Indigenous and rural communities worldwide. Conservationists rightly fear that excessive hunting of many animal species will cause their demise, as has already happened throughout the Anthropocene. Many species of large mammals and birds have been decimated or annihilated due to overhunting by humans. If such pressures continue, many other species will meet the same fate. Equally, if the use of wildlife resources is to continue by those who depend on it, sustainable practices must be implemented. These communities need to remain or become custodians of the wildlife resources within their lands, for their own well-being as well as for biodiversity in general. This title is also available via Open Access on Cambridge Core
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