5,024 research outputs found

    From abuse to trust and back again

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    oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:w7qv

    Patterns and Variation in English Language Discourse

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    The publication is reviewed post-conference proceedings from the international 9th Brno Conference on Linguistics Studies in English, held on 16–17 September 2021 and organised by the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno. The papers revolve around the themes of patterns and variation in specialised discourses (namely the media, academic, business, tourism, educational and learner discourses), effective interaction between the addressor and addressees and the current trends and development in specialised discourses. The principal methodological perspectives are the comparative approach involving discourses in English and another language, critical and corpus analysis, as well as identification of pragmatic strategies and appropriate rhetorical means. The authors of papers are researchers from the Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Serbia and Georgia

    “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

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    Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

    Archaeological palaeoenvironmental archives: challenges and potential

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    This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) sponsored collaborative doctoral project represents one of the most significant efforts to collate quantitative and qualitative data that can elucidate practices related to archaeological palaeoenvironmental archiving in England. The research has revealed that archived palaeoenvironmental remains are valuable resources for archaeological research and can clarify subjects that include the adoption and importation of exotic species, plant and insect invasion, human health and diet, and plant and animal husbandry practices. In addition to scientific research, archived palaeoenvironmental remains can provide evidence-based narratives of human resilience and climate change and offer evidence of the scientific process, making them ideal resources for public science engagement. These areas of potential have been realised at an imperative time; given that waterlogged palaeoenvironmental remains at significant sites such as Star Carr, Must Farm, and Flag Fen, archaeological deposits in towns and cities are at risk of decay due to climate change-related factors, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Innovative approaches to collecting and archiving palaeoenvironmental remains and maintaining existing archives will permit the creation of an accessible and thorough national resource that can service archaeologists and researchers in the related fields of biology and natural history. Furthermore, a concerted effort to recognise absences in archaeological archives, matched by an effort to supply these deficiencies, can produce a resource that can contribute to an enduring geographical and temporal record of England's biodiversity, which can be used in perpetuity in the face of diminishing archaeological and contemporary natural resources. To realise these opportunities, particular challenges must be overcome. The most prominent of these include inconsistent collection policies resulting from pressures associated with shortages in storage capacity and declining specialist knowledge in museums and repositories combined with variable curation practices. Many of these challenges can be resolved by developing a dedicated storage facility that can focus on the ongoing conservation and curation of palaeoenvironmental remains. Combined with an OASIS + module designed to handle and disseminate data pertaining to palaeoenvironmental archives, remains would be findable, accessible, and interoperable with biological archives and collections worldwide. Providing a national centre for curating palaeoenvironmental remains and a dedicated digital repository will require significant funding. Funding sources could be identified through collaboration with other disciplines. If sufficient funding cannot be identified, options that would require less financial investment, such as high-level archive audits and the production of guidance documents, will be able to assist all stakeholders with the improved curation, management, and promotion of the archived resource

    Litigating the Carceral Soundscape

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    Sound has always been a material issue in prisons, whether it be in connection with sonic surveillance, the “silent cell,” or the insistence of sound (excessive noise, counter-carceral music making). This article asks: How and when does the carceral soundscape become a litigable issue? Our article opens with a discussion of the challenges involved in attempting to study the sonic ambiance of the penitentiary through the medium of written documents and proposes a methodology of “sensing between the lines” by way of a solution. It goes on to analyze the “moral architecture” at the foundation of the modern prison in an effort to excavate the sonic dimensions of incarceration in the context of a system that was designed with silence at its core. Solitude and silence were presumed to have an “emancipatory effect” on the prisoner by attuning the carceral subject to “the inner voice of conscience” through forced withdrawal from the distractions of the senses. The next part considers the ways that, despite attempts to manage sound, its insistence has resisted these forms of control. It presents solitary confinement as a crucial site to explore the ways in which enforced silence, as an organizing principle, has undergone several contortions that gave rise to alternative rationales such as “structured intervention,” yet has persisted. The article then explores how this enduring silence has figured in the contemporary case law, alongside other forms of acoustic violence, such as excessive noise and sonic resistance to the conditions of incarceration on the part of prison inmates (e.g., rapping to beat the rap). While some cases describe the experience of the prison as one of unbearable silence, others describe it as noise without respite. This research highlights the ways that sound in prison has remained an important site of discipline and contestation that reverberates through the case law, yet without being appreciated adequately by the courts. The article concludes with observations about the ways that probing the role of sound in the logic of incarceration can complement litigation efforts that question carceral logics
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