Vagueness, Logic and Use: Four Experimental Studies on Vagueness

Although arguments for and against competing theories of vagueness often appeal to claims about the use of vague predicates by ordinary speakers, such claims are rarely tested. An exception is Bonini et al. (1999), who report empirical results on the use of vague predicates by Italian speakers, and take the results to count in favor of epistemicism. Yet several methodological difficulties mar their experiments; we outline these problems and devise revised experiments that do not show the same results. We then describe three additional empirical studies that investigate further claims in the literature on vagueness: the hypothesis that speakers confuse ‘P’ with ‘definitely P’, the relative persuasiveness of different formulations of the inductive premise of the Sorites, and the interaction of vague predicates with three different forms of negatio

Book review: the dark net: inside the digital underworld by Jamie Bartlett

The Dark Net aims to examine the most innovative and dangerous online subcultures: trolls and pornographers, drug dealers and hackers, political extremists and computer scientists, Bitcoin programmers and self-harmers, libertarians and vigilantes. Ian Hargreaves finds that some of Jamie Bartlett’s arguments seem out of tune with the times, though the book remains an illuminating read

A manifesto for the creative economy

The UK\u27s creative economy is one of its great national strengths, historically deeply rooted and accounting for around one-tenth of the whole economy. It provides jobs for 2.5 million people – more than in financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction – and in recent years, this creative workforce has grown four times faster than the workforce as a whole. But behind this success lies much disruption and business uncertainty, associated with digital technologies. Previously profitable business models have been swept away, young companies from outside the UK have dominated new internet markets, and some UK creative businesses have struggled to compete. UK policymakers too have failed to keep pace with developments in North America and parts of Asia. But it is not too late to refresh tired policies. This manifesto sets out our 10-point plan to bolster one of the UK\u27s fastest growing sectors

The Creative Economy: Who needs it?

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Final Symposium, Brisbane, June 2014: Keynote address

Digital opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth for HMG

In advanced economies like the UK’s, innovation is crucial to competitive edge. That makes Intellectual Property (IP) policy an increasingly important tool for stimulating economic growth. Every year in the last decade, investment by UK business in intangible assets has outstripped investment in tangible assets: by £137 billion to £104 billion in 2008. Global trade in IP licences alone is worth more than £600 billion a year: five per cent of world trade and rising. Small and young innovative firms are of crucial importance in terms of growth and jobs but proliferating use of IP rights can push up IP transaction costs and block these new players from entering markets

Iron ochre: a pre-catalyst for the cracking of methane

Background: Iron ochres are gelatinous sludges which can cause problems in terms of water management. In this manuscript, the application of iron ochre obtained from a river has been applied to catalytically crack methane – another potential waste product - into two useful products, hydrogen and a magnetic carbon containing composite.<p></p> Results: The powder XRD pattern of the iron ochre was found to be consistent with the expected 2-line ferrihydrite and EDX analysis showed Fe to be a major component although some Si was present. The sample was observed to contain a fraction with a tubular morphology consistent with the presence of extra-cellular biogenic iron oxide formed by leptothrix. Upon exposure to methane at elevated temperatures, the material was found to transform into an active catalyst for hydrogen production yielding a magnetic carbon containing composite material comprising filamentous carbon and encapsulating graphite.<p></p> Conclusion: The application of two waste products – iron ochre and methane – to generate two useful products – hydrogen and a magnetic carbon containing composite- has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the ochre has been shown to comprise tubular morphology extra-cellular biogenic iron oxide which may be of interest in terms of other applications.<p></p&gt

Richer concepts are better remembered: number of features effects in free recall

Many models of memory build in a term for encoding variability, the observation that there can be variability in the richness or extensiveness of processing at encoding, and that this variability has consequences for retrieval. In four experiments, we tested the expectation that encoding variability could be driven by the properties of the to-be-remembered item. Specifically, that concepts associated with more semantic features would be better remembered than concepts associated with fewer semantic features. Using feature listing norms we selected sets of items for which people tend to list higher numbers of features (high NoF) and items for which people tend to list lower numbers of features (low NoF). Results showed more accurate free recall for high NoF concepts than for low NoF concepts in expected memory tasks (Experiments 1–3) and also in an unexpected memory task (Experiment 4). This effect was not the result of associative chaining between study items (Experiment 3), and can be attributed to the amount of item-specific processing that occurs at study (Experiment 4). These results provide evidence that stimulus-specific differences in processing at encoding have consequences for explicit memory retrieval

Creative industries in the South Wales Valleys: a working paper.

Creative businesses are thinly spread in the Valleys, but there are development opportunities, if these can be pursued with patience against a background of sustained creative industries policy focus by the Welsh Government. The creative software sub-sector looks particularly promising, with emerging momentum in Wales and the Valleys, and low barriers to entry. The best approach would be to understand in detail business activity which already exists and to engage in dialogue about value-adding investments and initiatives, such as the provision of suitable premises/incubation space and, where possible, addressing the fast broadband deficit. Local authority policy thinking and interventions with regard to creative business shows awareness of wider contexts, but is unevenly resourced and delivered. Little connection is made between the role of publicly funded arts projects and creative business. Peer to peer creative business networks have demonstrated their value and should be encouraged. Broadband availability is problematic, but is being addressed by the Welsh Government. This is a make or break issue. Educational provision, relevant to creative industries at the FE and HE level, is very substantial and supported by sustained student demand. This is a strength, but there is a need to ensure that what is offered is well articulated to emerging strategic business needs, diverse business models and genuine employment opportunities. Better co-ordination of all these activities will add to the value of the whole approach. Good data-keeping and routine evaluation is important and largely missing from current approaches