Visualisation and analysis of complex behaviours using structured occurrence nets

PhD ThesisA complex evolving system consists of a large number of sub-systems which may proceed concurrently and interact with each other or with the external environment, while its behaviour is subject to modification by other systems. Structured occurrence nets (sons) are a Petri net based formalism for modelling the behaviour of complex evolving systems. The concept extends that of occurrence nets, a formalism that can be used to record causality and concurrency information concerning a single execution of a system. In sons, multiple occurrence nets are combined using various types of relationships in order to represent dependencies between communicating and evolving sub-systems. The work presented in this thesis aims to develop a tool and extend existing methodology for structured representations of the behaviours of complex evolving system. The theoretical development focuses on the extension of existing son concepts. It addresses the issue of efficient son model checking and simulation, representations of alternative behaviour and time information, structuring son-based unfolding, and algorithms for constructing the unfolding. The implementation aims to develop tools for son-based model visualisation, simulation and analysis. An open source tool called SONCraft has been developed to support these functionalities. SONCraft provides a user-friendly graphical interface that facilitates model entry, supports interactive visual simulation, and allows the use of a set of analytical tools for model checking.supported in part by EPSRC EP/K001698/1 UNderstanding COmplex system eVolution through structurEd behaviouRs (UNCOVER) project

1872-10-10

The Old Commonwealth was a weekly newspaper published in Harrisonburg, Va., between 1865 and 1884

Holland City News, Volume 45, Number 42: October 19, 1916

Newspaper published in Holland, Michigan, from 1872-1977, to serve the English-speaking people in Holland, Michigan. Purchased by local Dutch language newspaper, De Grondwet, owner in 1888.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/hcn_1916/1041/thumbnail.jp

DICOM metadata: a useful resource for big data analytics

Postprint (published version

Postcolonialism Cross-Examined

Taking a strikingly interdisciplinary and global approach, Postcolonialism Cross-Examined reflects on the current status of postcolonial studies and attempts to break through traditional boundaries, creating a truly comparative and genuinely global phenomenon. Drawing together the field of mainstream postcolonial studies with post-Soviet postcolonial studies and studies of the late Ottoman Empire, the contributors in this volume question many of the concepts and assumptions we have become accustomed to in postcolonial studies, creating a fresh new version of the field. The volume calls the merits of the field into question, investigating how postcolonial studies may have perpetuated and normalized colonialism as an issue exclusive to Western colonial and imperial powers. The volume is the first to open a dialogue between three different areas of postcolonial scholarship that previously developed independently from one another: • the wide field of postcolonial studies working on European colonialism, • the growing field of post-Soviet postcolonial/post-imperial studies, • the still fledgling field of post-Ottoman postcolonial/post-imperial studies, supported by sideways glances at the multidirectional conditions of interaction in East Africa and the East and West Indies. Postcolonialism Cross-Examined looks at topics such as humanism, nationalism, multiculturalism, nostalgia, and the Anthropocene in order to piece together a new, broader vision for postcolonial studies in the twenty-first century. By including territories other than those covered by the postcolonial mainstream, the book strives to reframe the “postcolonial” as a genuinely global phenomenon and develop multidirectional postcolonial perspectives

Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors

This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed