Using the event calculus for tracking the normative state of contracts

In this work, we have been principally concerned with the representation of contracts so that their normative state may be tracked in an automated fashion over their deployment lifetime. The normative state of a contract, at a particular time, is the aggregation of instances of normative relations that hold between contract parties at that time, plus the current values of contract variables. The effects of contract events on the normative state of a contract are specified using an XML formalisation of the Event Calculus, called ecXML. We use an example mail service agreement from the domain of web services to ground the discussion of our work. We give a characterisation of the agreement according to the normative concepts of: obligation, power and permission, and show how the ecXML representation may be used to track the state of the agreement, according to a narrative of contract events. We also give a description of a state tracking architecture, and a contract deployment tool, both of which have been implemented in the course of our work.

The optical light curve of GRB 970228 refined

We present the R and V light curves of the optical counterpart of GRB 970228. A critical analysis of all the available data is made in light of the results achieved in the recent GRB Symposium held in Huntsville and by considering the latest information from the HST images on the underlying nebulosity.Comment: 3 pages, 2 .ps figures, Nuclear Physics style file espcrc2.sty included. To appear in the proceedings of the conference "The Active X-Ray Sky: Results from BeppoSAX and Rossi-XTE", Rome, Italy, 21-24 October, 1997. L. Scarsi, H. Bradt, P. Giommi and F. Fiore editors, Nuc. Phys. B Proc. Supp

Making space for hybridity: Industrial heritage naturecultures at West Carclaze Garden Village, Cornwall

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordThe paper explores the diverse forms of renaturing and reinscription which arise from the materiality of industrial decline and the desire to make space for nature in new peri-urban developments. As productive use is sought for post-operational spaces, remnant industrial objects and ecologies are either removed or incorporated into new landscape narratives and forms. When they are retained, the status of such remnants often remains unstable, as their identities are (re)inscribed through diverse and sometimes competing value frameworks. Instability and ambivalence are particularly pronounced in relation to features that straddle categories of nature and society: nature-culture assemblages produced through both industrial and ecological processes. In this paper, we examine two such assemblages at West Carclaze, Cornwall, in the SW of the UK, a site shaped by the process of china clay extraction and now undergoing redevelopment as a ‘garden village’. The paper considers an artificial hill formed of clay-processing waste and a rare bryophyte species which depends for its survival on ongoing industrial process. Both of these objects represent a category which we describe as ‘industrial heritage naturecultures’ – hybrid entities whose recognition potentially signals a new willingness to accept the blurring of nature-society distinctions in planning and heritage management contexts.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC

Recording Loss: film as method and the spirit of Orford Ness

This is the author accepted manscript. The final version is available from Routledge via the DOI in this record.This paper explores the use of film as a method to explore themes of change and loss which emerged during recording of archaeological features at Orford Ness, UK. Owned by the National Trust, Orford Ness is an exposed shingle spit off the Suffolk coast recognised for its natural and cultural heritage. The research discussed in this paper engaged with a community archaeology project which has been recording features on the shingle spit as they are altered and erased by erosion and other coastal processes. The authors experimented with film as a method to investigate the work being undertaken by practitioners and volunteers in this dynamic landscape. We conclude that, within interdisciplinary heritage research, experimenting with film as a method facilitates the representation of embodied practices and exposes processes of meaning-making. We frame our discussion about the active production of meaning through an analysis of the way that film engaged with qualities articulated in the National Trust’s Spirit of Place statement for the site.Arts and Humanities Research Counci

Combining intersemiotic and interlingual translation in training programmes: A functional approach to museum audio description

This paper seeks to put forward a didactic proposal focused on museum audio description (AD) to be implemented with post-graduate students attending a translation studies course within a Languages and Communication programme. The aim is to raise students’ awareness of translation and accessibility practices in the cultural and creative industries and train specialised translators and describers. The proposal includes two different but complementary levels. On a more theoretical side, museum AD is introduced, both as a form of intersemiotic translation and as an interpretative tool in the museum’s wider communication framework. From a practical point of view, we draw on Mazur (2020), who exploited the functional model proposed by Nord (2018 [1997]) with her translation-oriented text analysis in the context of screen AD training. We suggest that it may also be adapted to serve as a guiding methodology for prospective museum translators and describers. In doing so, intersemiotic translation is combined with interlingual translation to train students to (1) audio describe specific artworks/artefacts in their first language (L1) and (2) translate the produced ADs into their second language (L2)

GRBs with optical afterglow and known redshift: a statistical study

We present a correlation between two intrinsic parameters of GRB optical afterglows. These are the isotropic luminosity at the maximum of the light curve (Lpeak) and the time-integrated isotropic energy (Eiso) radiated after the observed maximum. We test the correlation between the logarithms of (Eiso) and (Lpeak) and finally we value the effect of the different samples of GRBs in according with the first optical observation reduced to proper time.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the conference "SWIFT and GRBs: Unveiling the Relativistic Universe", Venice, June 5-9, 200