4,544 research outputs found
Machine learning applications in search algorithms for gravitational waves from compact binary mergers
Gravitational waves from compact binary mergers are now routinely observed by Earth-bound detectors. These observations enable exciting new science, as they have opened a new window to the Universe.
However, extracting gravitational-wave signals from the noisy detector data is a challenging problem. The most sensitive search algorithms for compact binary mergers use matched filtering, an algorithm that compares the data with a set of expected template signals. As detectors are upgraded and more sophisticated signal models become available, the number of required templates will increase, which can make some sources computationally prohibitive to search for. The computational cost is of particular concern when low-latency alerts should be issued to maximize the time for electromagnetic follow-up observations. One potential solution to reduce computational requirements that has started to be explored in the last decade is machine learning. However, different proposed deep learning searches target varying parameter spaces and use metrics that are not always comparable to existing literature. Consequently, a clear picture of the capabilities of machine learning searches has been sorely missing.
In this thesis, we closely examine the sensitivity of various deep learning gravitational-wave search algorithms and introduce new methods to detect signals from binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers at previously untested statistical confidence levels. By using the sensitive distance as our core metric, we allow for a direct comparison of our algorithms to state-of-the-art search pipelines. As part of this thesis, we organized a global mock data challenge to create a benchmark for machine learning search algorithms targeting compact binaries. This way, the tools developed in this thesis are made available to the greater community by publishing them as open source software.
Our studies show that, depending on the parameter space, deep learning gravitational-wave search algorithms are already competitive with current production search pipelines. We also find that strategies developed for traditional searches can be effectively adapted to their machine learning counterparts. In regions where matched filtering becomes computationally expensive, available deep learning algorithms are also limited in their capability. We find reduced sensitivity to long duration signals compared to the excellent results for short-duration binary black hole signals
A Critical Review Of Post-Secondary Education Writing During A 21st Century Education Revolution
Educational materials are effective instruments which provide information and report new discoveries uncovered by researchers in specific areas of academia. Higher education, like other education institutions, rely on instructional materials to inform its practice of educating adult learners. In post-secondary education, developmental English programs are tasked with meeting the needs of dynamic populations, thus there is a continuous need for research in this area to support its changing landscape. However, the majority of scholarly thought in this area centers on K-12 reading and writing. This paucity presents a phenomenon to the post-secondary community. This research study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine peer-reviewed journals from 2003-2017, developmental online websites, and a government issued document directed toward reforming post-secondary developmental education programs. These highly relevant sources aid educators in discovering informational support to apply best practices for student success. Developmental education serves the purpose of addressing literacy gaps for students transitioning to college-level work. The findings here illuminate the dearth of material offered to developmental educators. This study suggests the field of literacy research is fragmented and highlights an apparent blind spot in scholarly literature with regard to English writing instruction. This poses a quandary for post-secondary literacy researchers in the 21st century and establishes the necessity for the literacy research community to commit future scholarship toward equipping college educators teaching writing instruction to underprepared adult learners
Relatedly: Scaffolding Literature Reviews with Existing Related Work Sections
Scholars who want to research a scientific topic must take time to read,
extract meaning, and identify connections across many papers. As scientific
literature grows, this becomes increasingly challenging. Meanwhile, authors
summarize prior research in papers' related work sections, though this is
scoped to support a single paper. A formative study found that while reading
multiple related work paragraphs helps overview a topic, it is hard to navigate
overlapping and diverging references and research foci. In this work, we design
a system, Relatedly, that scaffolds exploring and reading multiple related work
paragraphs on a topic, with features including dynamic re-ranking and
highlighting to spotlight unexplored dissimilar information, auto-generated
descriptive paragraph headings, and low-lighting of redundant information. From
a within-subjects user study (n=15), we found that scholars generate more
coherent, insightful, and comprehensive topic outlines using Relatedly compared
to a baseline paper list
AI Usage in Development, Security, and Operations
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a growing field in information technology (IT). Cybersecurity managers are concerned that the lack of strategies to incorporate AI technologies in developing secure software for IT operations may inhibit the effectiveness of security risk mitigation. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies cybersecurity professionals use to incorporate AI technologies in developing secure software for IT operations. The participants were 10 IT professionals in the United States with at least 5 years of professional experience working in DevSecOps and managing teams of at least three DevSecOps professionals within the United States. Data were collected using semi structured interviews, and three themes were identified through thematic analysis: (a) implementation obstacles, (b) AI cloud implementation strategy, and (c) AI local implementation strategy. A specific recommendation for IT professionals is to identify knowledge gaps and security challenges in the DevSecOps pipeline to facilitate the necessary training. The implications for positive social include the potential to improve organizations\u27 securities postures and, by extension, the societies and individuals they serve
Editing and Advocacy
Good editors donât just see the sentence that was written. They see the sentence that might have been written. They know how to spot words that shouldnât be included and summon up ones that havenât yet appeared. Their value comes not just from preventing mistakes but from discovering new ways to improve a piece of writingâs style, structure, and overall impact.
This bookâ which is based on a popular course taught at the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and the UCLA School of Lawâ is designed to help you become one of those editors. Youâll learn how to edit with empathy. Youâll learn how to edit with statistics. Youâll learn, in short, a wide range of compositional skills you can use to elevate your advocacy and better champion the causes you care about the most.
An All-American soccer player in college who holds both a PhD in English and a JD, Professor Patrick Barry joined the University of Michigan Law School after clerking for two federal judges and working in legal clinics devoted to combatting human trafficking and reforming the foster care system. He is the author of several books on advocacyâincluding Good with Words: Writing and Editing, The Syntax of Sports, and Notes on Nuanceâand regularly puts on workshops for law firms, state governments, and nonprofit organizations. He also teaches at the University of Chicago Law School and has developed a series of online courses for the educational platform Coursera.https://repository.law.umich.edu/books/1116/thumbnail.jp
Talking about personal recovery in bipolar disorder: Integrating health research, natural language processing, and corpus linguistics to analyse peer online support forum posts
Background: Personal recovery, âliving a satisfying, hopeful and contributing lifeeven with the limitations caused by the illnessâ (Anthony, 1993) is of particular value in bipolar disorder where symptoms often persist despite treatment. So far, personal recovery has only been studied in researcher-constructed environments (interviews, focus groups). Support forum posts can serve as a complementary naturalistic data source. Objective: The overarching aim of this thesis was to study personal recovery experiences that people living with bipolar disorder have shared in online support forums through integrating health research, NLP, and corpus linguistics in a mixed methods approach within a pragmatic research paradigm, while considering ethical issues and involving people with lived experience. Methods: This mixed-methods study analysed: 1) previous qualitative evidence on personal recovery in bipolar disorder from interviews and focus groups 2) who self-reports a bipolar disorder diagnosis on the online discussion platform Reddit 3) the relationship of mood and posting in mental health-specific Reddit forums (subreddits) 4) discussions of personal recovery in bipolar disorder subreddits. Results: A systematic review of qualitative evidence resulted in the first framework for personal recovery in bipolar disorder, POETIC (Purpose & meaning, Optimism & hope, Empowerment, Tensions, Identity, Connectedness). Mainly young or middle-aged US-based adults self-report a bipolar disorder diagnosis on Reddit. Of these, those experiencing more intense emotions appear to be more likely to post in mental health support subreddits. Their personal recovery-related discussions in bipolar disorder subreddits primarily focussed on three domains: Purpose & meaning (particularly reproductive decisions, work), Connectedness (romantic relationships, social support), Empowerment (self-management, personal responsibility). Support forum data highlighted personal recovery issues that exclusively or more frequently came up online compared to previous evidence from interviews and focus groups. Conclusion: This project is the first to analyse non-reactive data on personal recovery in bipolar disorder. Indicating the key areas that people focus on in personal recovery when posting freely and the language they use provides a helpful starting point for formal and informal carers to understand the concerns of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder and to consider how best to offer support
An American Knightmare: Joker, Fandom, and Malicious Movie Meaning-Making
This monograph concerns the long-standing communication problem of how individuals can identify and resist the influence of unethical public speakers. Scholarship on the issue of what Socrates & Plato called the âEvil Loverâ â i.e., the ill-intended rhetor â began with the Greek philosophers, but has carried into [post]Modern anxieties. For instance, the study of Nazi propaganda machines, and the rhetoric of Hitler himself, rejuvenated interest in the study of speech and communication in the U.S. and Europe. Whereas unscrupulous sophists used lectures and legal forums, and Hitler used a microphone, contemporary Evil Lovers primarily draw on new, internet-related tools to share their malicious influence. These new tools of influence are both more far-reaching and more subtle than the traditional practices of listening to a designated speaker appearing at an overtly political event. Rhetorician Ashley Hinck has recently noted the ways that popular culture â communication about texts which are commonly accessible and shared â are now significant sites through which citizens learn moral and political values. Accordingly, the talk of internet influencers who interpret popular texts for other fans has the potential to constitute strong persuasive power regarding ethics and civic responsibility.
The present work identifies and responds to a particular case example of popular culture text that has been recently, and frequently, leveraged in moral and civic discourses: Todd Phillipsâ Joker. Specifically, this study takes a hermeneutic approach to understanding responses, especially those explicitly invoking political ideology, to Joker as a method of examining civic meaning-making. A special emphasis is placed on the online film criticisms of Joker from white nationalist movie fans, who clearly exemplify ways that media responses can be leveraged by unethical speakers (i.e., Evil Lovers) and subtly diffused. The study conveys that these racist movie fans can embed values related to âtrolling,â incelism, and xenophobia into otherwise seemingly innocuous talk about film. While the sharing of such speech does not immediately mean its positive reception, this kind of communication yet constitutes a new and understudied attack on democratic values such as justice and equity. The case of white nationalist movie fan film criticism therefore reflects a particular brand of communicative strategy for contemporary Evil Lovers in communicating unethical messages under the covert guise of mundane movie talk
An empirical investigation of the relationship between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in supply chains
This research aimed to develop an empirical understanding of the relationships between integration,
dynamic capabilities and performance in the supply chain domain, based on which, two conceptual
frameworks were constructed to advance the field. The core motivation for the research was that, at
the stage of writing the thesis, the combined relationship between the three concepts had not yet
been examined, although their interrelationships have been studied individually.
To achieve this aim, deductive and inductive reasoning logics were utilised to guide the qualitative
study, which was undertaken via multiple case studies to investigate lines of enquiry that would
address the research questions formulated. This is consistent with the authorâs philosophical
adoption of the ontology of relativism and the epistemology of constructionism, which was considered
appropriate to address the research questions. Empirical data and evidence were collected, and
various triangulation techniques were employed to ensure their credibility. Some key features of
grounded theory coding techniques were drawn upon for data coding and analysis, generating two
levels of findings. These revealed that whilst integration and dynamic capabilities were crucial in
improving performance, the performance also informed the former. This reflects a cyclical and
iterative approach rather than one purely based on linearity. Adopting a holistic approach towards
the relationship was key in producing complementary strategies that can deliver sustainable supply
chain performance.
The research makes theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to the field of supply
chain management. The theoretical contribution includes the development of two emerging
conceptual frameworks at the micro and macro levels. The former provides greater specificity, as it
allows meta-analytic evaluation of the three concepts and their dimensions, providing a detailed
insight into their correlations. The latter gives a holistic view of their relationships and how they are
connected, reflecting a middle-range theory that bridges theory and practice. The methodological
contribution lies in presenting models that address gaps associated with the inconsistent use of
terminologies in philosophical assumptions, and lack of rigor in deploying case study research
methods. In terms of its practical contribution, this research offers insights that practitioners could
adopt to enhance their performance. They can do so without necessarily having to forgo certain
desired outcomes using targeted integrative strategies and drawing on their dynamic capabilities
The Witcraft of Seeing Things Differently : Hyperdetermined Humor, Unusual Viewpoints, and Narrative Rhetoric in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels
Sir Terry Pratchettin maineikasta ja menestynyttÀ Discworld-romaanisarjaa luonnehditaan yleensÀ koomiseksi fantasiaksi, ja vaikka sitÀ on aiemmin tutkittu etupÀÀssÀ fantasiakirjallisuutena, niin fantasiamiljöön lisÀksi toinen nÀiden kirjojen silmiinpistÀvÀ piirre on huumorin ylenpalttinen runsaus. TÀssÀ vÀitöskirjassa olen valinnut harvinaisemman lÀhestymistavan tutkiessani Discworld-romaaneja ensisijaisesti humoristisena kirjallisuutena, ja sen mukaisesti vÀitöskirjani keskeisimpÀnÀ tavoitteena on tutkia Terry Pratchettin huumorin poetiikkaa. Tarkemmin sanottuna olen asettanut tÀssÀ vÀitöskirjassa tehtÀvÀkseni kartoittaa Terry Pratchettin huumorille ominaisimmat komiikan keinot ja tutkia, mikÀ tekee Discworld-romaaneista hauskoja.
Discworld-romaaneille ominainen huumorin runsaus koostuu humorististen kuvausten ja koomisten kohtausten tiheÀn esiintymisen lisÀksi komiikan keinojen laajasta valikoimasta. TÀssÀ vÀitöskirjassa vÀitÀn, ettÀ Terry Pratchettin huumori on hyperdeterminoitua, mikÀ tarkoittaa, ettÀ hÀn yhdistelee erilaisia komiikan keinoja samassa kuvauksessa tai kohtauksessa. Siksi Pratchettin huumorin poetiikkaa kÀsittelevÀ vÀitöskirjani on samalla myös tutkimus hyperdeterminoidun huumorin rakentumisesta. SelkeyttÀÀkseni huumorin hyperdeterminaation rakentumista jaottelen komiikan keinot neljÀÀn kategoriaan: tilanteellisiin, kontekstuaalisiin, rakenteellisiin ja tyylillisiin. Sovellan tÀtÀ jaottelua vÀittÀmÀllÀ, ettÀ humoristista kuvausta tai koomista kohtausta voidaan perustellusti sanoa hyperdeterminoiduksi silloin, kun siinÀ yhdistellÀÀn komiikan keinoja useammasta kuin yhdestÀ kategoriasta.
PidĂ€n Pratchettin huumorille ominaisten komiikan keinojen kartoittamista yhtenĂ€ tĂ€mĂ€n vĂ€itöskirjan keskeisimmistĂ€ kontribuutioista kirjallisen huumorin tutkimukselle. Tilanteellisista komiikan keinoista tarkastelen Discworld-romaaneista löytĂ€miĂ€ni esimerkkejĂ€ draamallisesta ironiasta ja absurdista logiikasta. Kontekstuaalisista komiikan keinoista kĂ€sittelen Pratchettin parodiaa ja satiiria, kun taas rakenteellisista komiikan keinoista tutkin, kuinka Pratchett kĂ€yttÀÀ paraprosdokiania, bathosta, toistuvia piloja (âfigginâ) ja koomisia alaviitteitĂ€. TyylillisistĂ€ komiikan keinoista tutkailen Pratchettin koomisia kielikuvia (hyperbolia, metaforia, vertauksia ja personifikaatioita), hĂ€nen sanaleikkejÀÀn (paronomasia, antanaklasis, sanataskut ja kaksikieliset sanaleikit) sekĂ€ Pratchettin koomisia eufemismeja.
LisĂ€ksi osoitan vĂ€itöskirjassani, ettĂ€ Terry Pratchettin huumorille on ominaista kulttuuristen kliseiden (eli tuttujen kulttuuri-ilmiöiden, totunnaisten ajattelutapojen ja vakiintuneiden esittĂ€misen konventioiden) esittĂ€minen humoristisen epĂ€tavallisista nĂ€kökulmista kĂ€sin. Discworld-romaaneissa Pratchett siirtÀÀ erilaisia oman maailmamme kulttuuri-ilmiöitĂ€ Discworld-nimiseen (suom. Kiekkomaailma) fantasiamaailmaansa, ja tĂ€mĂ€n maailmojen törmĂ€yttĂ€misen seurauksena kulttuuriset kliseet nĂ€yttĂ€ytyvĂ€t lukijalle samanaikaisesti tuttuina ja koomisen outoina. TĂ€llaiset humoristiset nĂ€kökulmat vahvistavat osaltaan huumorin hyperdeterminaatiota. Samalla kun fantasiamiljöö mahdollistaa kahden maailman koomisen törmĂ€yttĂ€misen ja oman maailmamme kulttuuristen kliseiden peilaamisen toisen maailman avulla, huumori toisaalta mahdollistaa Kiekkomaailmassa normaalia fantasiaa vapaamman mielikuvituksen lennon, eikĂ€ monia Discworld-romaaneissa kuvattuja asioita, tapahtumia ja ilmiöitĂ€ voisi esiintyĂ€ maailmoissa, jotka eivĂ€t rakennu absurdin logiikan, kulttuurisilla kliseillĂ€ leikittelyn ja koomisen liioittelun kaltaisten todellisuuta vÀÀristĂ€vien periaatteiden luoman âtaikuudenâ varaan.
Komiikan keinojen moninaisuuden, hyperdeterminoidun huumorin ja epĂ€tavallisten nĂ€kökulmien lisĂ€ksi tutkin vĂ€itöskirjassani sitĂ€, millaisia arvottavia asenteita kertojan humoristiset nĂ€kökulmat ja humoristisiin kuvauksiin sisĂ€ltyvĂ€t henkilöhahmojen tunnereaktiot paljastavat. Tulkitsen tĂ€llaisen arvottavan huumorin kirjalliseksi retorisen vaikuttamisen keinoksi, jonka avulla kirjailija pyrkii ohjailemaan lukijansa hyvĂ€ksyviĂ€ ja paheksuvia asenteita. Useimmiten Pratchettin huumori on kulttuurikriittistĂ€, eli parodista ja satiirista, mutta toisinaan humoristiset nĂ€kökulmat esittĂ€vĂ€t todellisen maailman kulttuuri-ilmiöitĂ€ myönteisinĂ€ ja ihailtavina. VĂ€itĂ€n tutkimuksessani, ettĂ€ kirjallisuuden retoriikka perustuu tĂ€llaisten kielteisten ja myönteisten asenteiden esittĂ€miselle ja ettĂ€ huumori on yksi kertomuksen retoriikan vaikutuskeinoista.Sir Terry Pratchettâs bestselling Discworld series of novels has been commonly described as comic fantasy, and although it has been previously studied mainly as fantasy literature, another conspicuous feature in these novels, in addition to the fantasy milieu, is their rich and abundant humor. In this study, I have chosen the road less travelled by approaching the Discworld novels as humorous literature, and, consequently, my main goal here is to study the poetics of Terry Pratchettâs humorâ his âwitcraftâ. To be more precise, in this dissertation I have set myself the task of mapping out the comic devices that are most characteristic for Terry Pratchettâs witcraft and investigating what makes the Discworld novels funny.
The richness of humor that is characteristic for the Discworld novels consists partly of the frequent occurrences of humorous descriptions and comic scenes, but also of the numerous comic devices that Pratchett deploys. In this dissertation, I argue that Terry Pratchettâs humor is hyperdetermined, which means that he tends to combine numerous comic devices in the same description or scene. Consequently, this study on the poetics of Terry Pratchettâs humor is at the same time a study on the construction of hyperdetermined humor. To better understand how hyperdetermined humor is constructed, I have devised a taxonomy that divides comic devices into four categories: situational, contextual, structural, and stylistic. Based on this taxonomy, I argue that the humor of a humorous description or a comic scene can be said to be truly hyperdetermined whenever it combines comic devices from more than one of these categories.
I consider mapping out the comic devices that are most characteristic for Terry Pratchettâs witcraft to be one of the major contributions of this dissertation to the academic study of humor in literature. Of situational comic devices, I discuss and analyze examples of dramatic irony and absurd logic that I have detected in the Discworld novels. Of contextual comic devices, I discuss Pratchettâs parody and satire; of structural comic devices, I study Pratchettâs use of paraprosdokian, bathos, figgins (or running gags), and comic footnotes. Of stylistic comic devices, I investigate Pratchettâs comic imagery (hyperboles, metaphors, similes, and personifications), his puns (paronomasia, antanaclasis, portmanteaux, and bilingual puns), as well as Pratchettâs comic euphemisms.
In this dissertation, I also demonstrate that representing cultural clichĂ©s (i.e., familiar cultural phenomena, customary ways of thinking, and conventional ways of representing) from humorously unusual viewpoints is characteristic for Terry Pratchettâs witcraft. In the Discworld novels, Pratchett transfers various cultural phenomena from the real world, our âRoundworldâ, to a fantasy world called the Discworld, and as a result of this interworldly resonance, the cultural clichĂ©s of our Roundworld appear to the reader simultaneously as familiar and comically strange. These humorous viewpoints can be viewed as an additional constituent of hyperdetermined humor. While the fantasy setting of the Discworld novels allows Pratchett to set up comic resonance between the worlds, Pratchettâs humor also makes the Discworld a more imaginative and fantastic place than typical fantasy worlds. Many events and phenomena that are represented in the Discworld novels can only exist in a world where reality is distorted and enhanced by the special âmagicâ of comically absurd logic, playing with cultural clichĂ©s, and humorous exaggerations. In addition to the abundance of comic devices, hyperdetermined humor, and humorously unusual viewpoints, I also study in this dissertation what kinds of evaluative attitudes the narratorâs humorous viewpoints and the charactersâ emotional reactions reveal. According to my interpretation, such evaluative attitudes are means of narrative rhetoric, where the author attempts to guide the readerâs attitudes of approval or disapproval. Pratchettâs humor is often criticalâparodical or satiricalâalthough occasionally the narratorâs humorous viewpoints represent the cultural phenomena of our Roundworld in a positive light, as something admirable. In this dissertation, I argue that narrative rhetoric is based on representing negative and positive attitudes, and that humor is one possible means of narrative rhetoric
A Closer Look into Recent Video-based Learning Research: A Comprehensive Review of Video Characteristics, Tools, Technologies, and Learning Effectiveness
People increasingly use videos on the Web as a source for learning. To
support this way of learning, researchers and developers are continuously
developing tools, proposing guidelines, analyzing data, and conducting
experiments. However, it is still not clear what characteristics a video should
have to be an effective learning medium. In this paper, we present a
comprehensive review of 257 articles on video-based learning for the period
from 2016 to 2021. One of the aims of the review is to identify the video
characteristics that have been explored by previous work. Based on our
analysis, we suggest a taxonomy which organizes the video characteristics and
contextual aspects into eight categories: (1) audio features, (2) visual
features, (3) textual features, (4) instructor behavior, (5) learners
activities, (6) interactive features (quizzes, etc.), (7) production style, and
(8) instructional design. Also, we identify four representative research
directions: (1) proposals of tools to support video-based learning, (2) studies
with controlled experiments, (3) data analysis studies, and (4) proposals of
design guidelines for learning videos. We find that the most explored
characteristics are textual features followed by visual features, learner
activities, and interactive features. Text of transcripts, video frames, and
images (figures and illustrations) are most frequently used by tools that
support learning through videos. The learner activity is heavily explored
through log files in data analysis studies, and interactive features have been
frequently scrutinized in controlled experiments. We complement our review by
contrasting research findings that investigate the impact of video
characteristics on the learning effectiveness, report on tasks and technologies
used to develop tools that support learning, and summarize trends of design
guidelines to produce learning video
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