2,467 research outputs found
Appropriate Economic Space for Transnational Infrastructural Projects: Gateways, Multimodal Corridors, and Special Economic Zones
This study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be developed to define the emerging spatial economy and identify efficient transnational transport networks? Thirdly, what are the main investment opportunities in physical infrastructure that would result in more efficient and effective regional cooperation and integration (making special reference to the potential role of cross-border special economic zones (SEZs) or their equivalents)?asia transnational infrastructure; asia regional cooperation
Information seeking in the Humanities: physicality and digitality
This paper presents a brief overview of a research project
that is examining the information seeking practices of
humanities scholars. The results of this project are being
used to develop digital resources to better support these
work activities. Initial findings from a recent set of
interviews is offered, revealing the importance of physical
artefacts in the humanities scholarsâ research processes and
the limitations of digital resources. Finally, further work
that is soon to be undertaken is summarised, and it is hoped
that after participation in this workshop these ideas will be
refined
Pilot study: Can the draft film Broken support trainee teachersâ understanding of autism communication issues in mainstream classrooms?
The draft film Broken (Rimmer, 2020) is an artistic impression that aims to articulate dysfluency from an autistic viewpoint. This paper reports on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of the film as a tool to support trainee teachersâ understanding of fluency issues in autistic pupils in the mainstream classroom. The study positions what is a personal perspective as articulated in the film within the wider autism literature, and reports and discusses traineesâ responses to the film. Implications for future Initial Teacher Education in this area â including resultant adaptations of the film â are discussed
Can comets deliver prebiotic molecules to rocky exoplanets?
In this work we consider the potential of cometary impacts to deliver complex
organic molecules and the prebiotic building blocks required for life to rocky
exoplanets. Numerical experiments have demonstrated that for these molecules to
survive, impacts at very low velocities are required. This work shows that for
comets scattered from beyond the snow-line into the habitable zone, the minimum
impact velocity is always lower for planets orbiting Solar-type stars than
M-dwarfs. Using both an analytical model and numerical N-body simulations, we
show that the lowest velocity impacts occur onto planets in tightly-packed
planetary systems around high-mass (i.e. Solar-mass) stars, enabling the intact
delivery of complex organic molecules. Impacts onto planets around low-mass
stars are found to be very sensitive to the planetary architecture, with the
survival of complex prebiotic molecules potentially impossible in
loosely-packed systems. Rocky planets around M-dwarfs also suffer significantly
more high velocity impacts, potentially posing unique challenges for life on
these planets. In the scenario that cometary delivery is important for the
origins of life, this study predicts the presence of biosignatures will be
correlated with i) decreasing planetary mass (i.e. escape velocity), ii)
increasing stellar-mass, and iii) decreasing planetary separation (i.e.
exoplanets in tightly-packed systems).Comment: Accepted by Proceedings A of the Royal Society. 17 pages, 5 figure
An examination of the physical and the digital qualities of humanities research
Traditionally humanities scholars have worked in physical environments and with physical artefacts. Libraries are familiar places, built on cultural traditions over thousands of years, and books are comfortable research companions. Digital tools are a more recent addition to the resources available to a researcher. This paper explores both the physical and the digital qualities of modern humanities research, drawing on existing literature and presenting a study of humanities scholarsâ perceptions of the research resources they use. We highlight aspects of the physical and digital that can facilitate or hinder the researcher, focusing on three themes that emerge from the data: the working environment; the experience of finding resources; and the experience of working with documents. Rather than aiming to replace physical texts and libraries by digital surrogates, providers need to recognise the complementary roles they play: digital information environments have the potential to provide improved access and analysis features and the facility to exploit the library from any place, while the physical library and resources provide greater authenticity, trustworthiness and the demand to be in a particular place with important material properties
Cognitive economy and satisficing in information seeking: A longitudinal study of undergraduate information behavior
This article reports on a longitudinal study of information seeking by undergraduate information management students. It describes how they found and used information, and explores their motivation and decision making. We employed a use-in-context approach where students were observed conducting, and were interviewed about, information-seeking tasks carried out during their academic work. We found that participants were reluctant to engage with a complex range of information sources, preferring to use the Internet. The main driver for progress in information seeking was the immediate demands of their work (e.g., assignments). Students used their growing expertise to justify a conservative information strategy, retaining established strategies as far as possible and completing tasks with minimum information-seeking effort. The time cost of using library material limited the uptake of such resources. New methods for discovering and selecting information were adopted only when immediately relevant to the task at hand, and tasks were generally chosen or interpreted in ways that minimized the need to develop new strategies. Students were driven by the demands of the task to use different types of information resources, but remained reluctant to move beyond keyword searches, even when they proved ineffective. They also lacked confidence in evaluating the relative usefulness of resources. Whereas existing literature on satisficing has focused on stopping conditions, this work has highlighted a richer repertoire of satisficing behaviors
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