1,205 research outputs found
Teaching Manuscripts in the Digital Age
This chapter reflects on the author’s practical experience teaching palaeography in
several different contexts at the start of the so-called “digital age”. Material for
manuscript-studies is becoming available at an enormous rate: perhaps most obvious
are the results of the large-scale digitisation programmes which are making high-quality
colour facsimiles of manuscripts available online to wide audiences. At the same time,
Virtual Learning Environments provide new possibilities for teaching and learning,
and many tools for research on manuscripts can also be used for teaching. Perhaps
more fundamentally, however, it has often been noted that scholarship is changing
as a result of digital tools, resources, and methods. What, then, of teaching? Should
the teaching of manuscript studies also change along with the scholarly discipline,
bringing the Digital Humanities into our classes on palaeography and codicology? To
begin answering this question, and to suggest some pedagogical possibilities brought
about by technology, the author’s own experiences are discussed. Some limitations
of technology for teaching are then considered, and some general remarks are then
provided on the relationship between palaeography and Digital Humanities, two fields
which are both fighting for recognition as full academic disciplines and not “mere”
Hilfswissenschaften
Computer-Aided Palaeography, Present and Future
The field of digital palaeography has received increasing attention in recent years, partly because palaeographers often seem subjective in their views and do not or cannot articulate their reasoning, thereby creating a field of authorities whose opinions are closed to debate. One response to this is to make palaeographical arguments more quantitative, although this approach is by no means accepted by the wider humanities community, with some arguing that handwriting is inherently unquantifiable. This paper therefore asks how palaeographical method might be made more objective and therefore more widely accepted by non-palaeographers while still answering critics within the field. Previous suggestions for objective methods before computing are considered first, and some of their shortcomings are discussed. Similar discussion in forensic document analysis is then introduced and is found relevant to palaeography, though with some reservations. New techniques of "digital" palaeography are then introduced; these have proven successful in forensic analysis and are becoming increasingly accepted there, but they have not yet found acceptance in the humanities communities. The reasons why are discussed, and some suggestions are made for how the software might be designed differently to achieve greater acceptance. Finally, a prototype framework is introduced which is designed to provide a common basis for experiments in "digital" palaeography, ideally enabling scholars to exchange quantitative data about scribal hands, exchange processes for generating this data, articulate both the results themselves and the processes used to produce them, and therefore to ground their arguments more firmly and perhaps find greater acceptance
Putting the Text back into Context: A Codicological Approach to Manuscript Transcription
Textual scholars have tended to produce editions which present the text without its
manuscript context. Even though digital editions now often present single-witness
editions with facsimiles of the manuscripts, nevertheless the text itself is still transcribed
and represented as a linguistic object rather than a physical one. Indeed, this is explicitly
stated as the theoretical basis for the de facto standard of markup for digital texts: the
Guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These explicitly treat texts as semantic
units such as paragraphs, sentences, verses and so on, rather than physical elements
such as pages, openings, or surfaces, and some scholars have argued that this is the only
viable model for representing texts. In contrast, this chapter presents arguments for
considering the document as a physical object in the markup of texts. The theoretical
arguments of what constitutes a text are first reviewed, with emphasis on those used
by the TEI and other theoreticians of digital markup. A series of cases is then given in
which a document-centric approach may be desirable, with both modern and medieval
examples. Finally a step forward in this direction is raised, namely the results of
the Genetic Edition Working Group in the Manuscript Special Interest Group of the
TEI: this includes a proposed standard for documentary markup, whereby aspects of
codicology and mise en page can be included in digital editions, putting the text back
into its manuscript context
Efficient numerical solution of the time fractional diffusion equation by mapping from its Brownian counterpart
The solution of a Caputo time fractional diffusion equation of order
is expressed in terms of the solution of a corresponding integer
order diffusion equation. We demonstrate a linear time mapping between these
solutions that allows for accelerated computation of the solution of the
fractional order problem. In the context of an -point finite difference time
discretisation, the mapping allows for an improvement in time computational
complexity from to , given a
precomputation of . The mapping is applied
successfully to the least-squares fitting of a fractional advection diffusion
model for the current in a time-of-flight experiment, resulting in a
computational speed up in the range of one to three orders of magnitude for
realistic problem sizes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; added references for section
Rehabilitation interventions for foot drop in neuromuscular disease
"Foot drop" or "Floppy foot drop" is the term commonly used to describe weakness or contracture of the muscles around the ankle joint. It may arise from many neuromuscular diseases
Signs and wonders: Exploring the effects and impact of the Investors in People logo and symbols
This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear herehttp://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/EJTD-11-2014-0074 . Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing LimitedPurpose – This paper aims to examine and assess the reputational impact of the logo and symbols of the UK Standard Investors in People (IiP). The extant literature highlights differing opinions in terms of the likely benefits that IiP generates following achievement of the Standard. This paper focuses specifically on the perceptions of reputational claims made regarding existing employees, potential employees and customers. Design/methodology/approach – The debate is explored through 38 interviews using the perceptions of managers and frontline employees within six IiP-accredited firms and one non-accredited firm. Findings – The study indicates that the logo and symbols of the Standard have minimal meaning and significance for the interviewees and their outlook on potential employees and customers. There were some indications, however, that the wider reputational implications of carrying the logo may have some potentially beneficial effects. Originality/value – The paper concludes that the overarching findings present a potentially serious issue for IiP, and that there is a need to understand further the impact and value of the logo and symbols
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