scholarly journals Speeding up to keep up: exploring the use of AI in the research process

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Chubb ◽  
Peter Cowling ◽  
Darren Reed

AbstractThere is a long history of the science of intelligent machines and its potential to provide scientific insights have been debated since the dawn of AI. In particular, there is renewed interest in the role of AI in research and research policy as an enabler of new methods, processes, management and evaluation which is still relatively under-explored. This empirical paper explores interviews with leading scholars on the potential impact of AI on research practice and culture through deductive, thematic analysis to show the issues affecting academics and universities today. Our interviewees identify positive and negative consequences for research and researchers with respect to collective and individual use. AI is perceived as helpful with respect to information gathering and other narrow tasks, and in support of impact and interdisciplinarity. However, using AI as a way of ‘speeding up—to keep up’ with bureaucratic and metricised processes, may proliferate negative aspects of academic culture in that the expansion of AI in research should assist and not replace human creativity. Research into the future role of AI in the research process needs to go further to address these challenges, and ask fundamental questions about how AI might assist in providing new tools able to question the values and principles driving institutions and research processes. We argue that to do this an explicit movement of meta-research on the role of AI in research should consider the effects for research and researcher creativity. Anticipatory approaches and engagement of diverse and critical voices at policy level and across disciplines should also be considered.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69
Author(s):  
Claudia Mareis

This article discusses a particular strand in the history of creativity in the mid-twentieth century shaped by an instrumental, production-oriented understanding of the term. When the field of creativity research emerged in the United States after World War II, debates around creativity were driven not only by humanist intents of self-actualization but also by the aim of rendering individual creative potentials productive for both society and economy. Creativity was thus defined in terms of not mere novelty and originality but utility and productivity. There was a strong interest, too, in methods and techniques that promised to systematically enhance human creativity. In this context, the article looks at the formation of brainstorming, a group-based creativity method that came into fashion in the United States around 1950. It discusses how this method had been influenced by concepts of human productivity developed and applied during World War II and prior to it. Using the brainstorming method as a case in point, this article aims not only to shed light on the quite uncharted history of creativity in the mid-twentieth century, but also to stress the conducive role of allegedly trivial creativity methods in the rise of what sociologist Andreas Reckwitz has identified as the “creativity dispositif”: a seemingly playful, but indeed rigid, imperative in post-Fordist and neoliberal societies that demand the constant production of innovative outcomes under flexible, yet self-exploitative working conditions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter K. Smith

Following some background studies on the nature of school bullying, its prevalence, and the negative consequences it can have, this article reviews the history of anti-bullying interventions over the last 30 years. It considers several major programmes in detail, such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, KiVa, Steps to Respect, and Friendly Schools. The nature and evaluation of the interventions is discussed, followed by a review of meta-analyses of the programmes effectiveness. Issues considered are the effect at different ages; components of interventions; work with peers; disciplinary methods, non-punitive and restorative approaches; challenges regarding cyberbullying; the role of parents; the role of teachers and teacher training; set menu versus à la carte approaches; sustainability of interventions and societal context. Conclusions show that interventions have had some success, with traditional bullying. However, further progress is needed in strengthening theoretical underpinnings to interventions, and in tackling cyberbullying.


Author(s):  
Helen K. Black ◽  
John T. Groce ◽  
Charles E. Harmon

This chapter, as the conclusion to our book, is entitled Addressing the Silence. We went “behind the scenes” of our work to examine the research process and pondered various aspects of interviewing a coterie of African-American men. For example, why were our caregiving men so willing to discuss their experiences of caregiving? Were there topics within caregiving that men were reluctant to discuss? And, why did the methods of our research fit well with the subject of caregiving and with the communal history of our respondents? Although our research addressed the gap in the caregiving and gerontological literature about elderly African-American men, our respondents showed us how much more we need to learn from them. As men discussed their care work in the forum of the research interview, the role of the elder African-American male caregiver came out of the shadows, but not yet completely into the light.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Rao Qasim IDREES ◽  
Zaheer Iqbal CHEEMA ◽  
Jawad RIAZ

This research paper centers on logistics investment policies both in legal and social manners for current and future China Pakistan trade with reference to CPEC. With further improvement, many other regional economic players in prospective time may join the CPEC projects, where Afghanistan, Central Asian and SAARC states are prominent to enter for the said purpose. There are different practices around the world to achieve socio economic progress. Hence a unified and harmonized system of applicable rules and regulation is required forthwith in order to get benefits from CPEC. This research paper primarily deals with the history of China Pakistan relations in the context of CPEC and Belt and Road Initiative and their benefits to Pakistan. Furthermore, the role of harmonization and unification among legal rules and physical infrastructure is discussed to find benefits and better solutions.  This study applies legal research process where historical method is conducted to observe the history of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which further includes China Pakistan trade relations and their situation regarding logistics investment in CPEC. Furthermore, comparative legal research is applied to find out the differences among Pakistan legal system and international laws to make foreign investment more beneficial. This research concludes that domestic legislation in Pakistan in the areas of logistics and transportation is very limited in scope. Furthermore, such legislation does not cover the broad area of international trade. In current situation it is pertinent for Pakistan to introduce and revise such legislations and codes and not doing so China may again ask Pakistan to enact law as per his own benefits which he did while Pakistan amend Competition and special economic zone laws. Furthermore, CPEC in future will invite many other trade partners for their investment contribution in the region. This necessitates Pakistan to build strong physical infrastructure and negotiate further trade agreements and relevant legislation with other partners in the region and not only rely upon bilateral agreements with China.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Polimanti ◽  
Yaira Nuñez ◽  
Joel Gelernter

Background: African-Americans (AAs) have a 3.5% carrier prevalence of Transthyretin (TTR) Val122Ile mutation (rs76992529), which is the genetic cause of a hereditary form of amyloidosis. Methods: We investigated the medical history of Val122Ile carriers and assessed the role of a non-coding variation in 4361 unrelated AAs. Results: We observed that the Ile122 allele was associated with a 6.8-fold increase in the odds of having 10 or more outpatient surgeries (p = 7.81 × 10−5). Stratifying the analysis by sex, the Ile122 allele was associated with a 15.2-fold increase in the odds of having 10 or more outpatient surgeries in men (p = 6.49 × 10−7). A similar sex difference was observed with respect to the association of Val122Ile with musculoskeletal and connective-tissue disorders in an independent cohort of British subjects (n = 361,194, p = 2.47 × 10−13; nmale = 167,020, pmale = 4.02 × 10−24). In Val122Ile African-American carriers, we observed that haplotypes in the upstream region regulating TTR hepatic expression are associated with having 10 or more outpatient surgeries (p = 2.56 × 10−9). Conclusions: TTR Val122Ile showed a large effect with respect to an extreme phenotype identified in medical history that may be related to osteoarthritis, an early sign of the disease. Additionally, the non-coding variation appears to accelerate the negative consequences associated with Val122Ile mutation via TTR expression regulation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 1331-1344
Author(s):  
Rebecca Perrain ◽  
Lila Mekaoui ◽  
David Calvet ◽  
Jean-Louis Mas ◽  
Philip Gorwood

ABSTRACTObjectives:Poststroke depression (PSD) is a public health issue, affecting one-third of stroke survivors, and is associated with multiple negative consequences. Reviews tried to identify PSD risk factors with discrepant results, highlighting the lack of comparability of the analyzed studies. We carried out a meta-analysis in order to identify clinical risk factors that can predict PSD.Design:PubMed and Web of Science were searched for papers. Only papers with a strictly defined Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders depression assessment, at least 2 weeks after stroke, were selected. Two authors independently evaluated potentially eligible studies that were identified by our search and independently extracted data using standardized spreadsheets. Analyses were performed using MetaWin®, the role of each variable being given as a risk ratio (RR).Results:Eighteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. Identified risk factors for PSD with RR significantly above 1 were previous history of depression (RR 2.19, confidence interval (CI) 1.52–3.15), disability (RR 2.00, CI 1.58–2.52), previous history of stroke (RR 1.68, CI 1.06–2.66), aphasia (RR 1.47, CI 1.13–1.91), and female gender (RR 1.35, CI 1.14–1.61). Fixed effects model leads to identification of two more risk factors: early depressive symptoms with an RR of 2.32 (CI 1.43–3.79) and tobacco consumption (RR 1.40, CI 1.09–1.81). Time bias was found for alcohol consumption. Sample size was significantly involved to explain the role of “alcohol consumption” and “cognitive impairment.”Conclusion:Five items were significantly predictive of PSD. It might be of clinical interest that depressive-related risk factors (such as past depressive episodes) were having the largest impact.


Labyrinth ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Susanne Moser

On the Value of LoveThe main purpose of the article is to show by means of an analysis of the development of the different philosophical conceptions of love in the history of philosophy that there is a deep connection between the problems of love and those of values, even this connection is not always been explicitly thematized. Through a discussion of the connection between love and knowledge, love and autonomy, love and mysticism, and the role of romantic love, the author puts the question if love endows the value of the beloved or if, on the contrary, love opens up the mind for values that would remain  otherwise hidden for us. The analysis also displays the consequences of the different philosophical conceptions of love for the understanding of the gender problematic and some global problems concerning the meaningfulness of life, human creativity, and the multiple forms of love, including religious love and perception. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gromkowska-Melosik

The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of honoris causa doctorate in academic culture. The history of the honorary doctorate is reconstructed to a certain extent and the difference between the research doctorate and honoris causa is considered. Furthermore, the author focuses on the controversial issues connected with the honoris causa, including cases of buying or rejecting the honor as well as various political contexts of the relevant decision-making process. The analysis of the honorary doctorate focuses on the conviction that it is the topmost acknowledgement of the values and contribution of the society of the person thus honored.


2008 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 191-207
Author(s):  
John H. Enemugwem ◽  
Darlington K. Okere

The history of history-writing in the Niger Delta was first developed by E.J. Alagoa. However, his work, which covers the periods from 1508 to 1988, does not go into the twenty-first century. This is the case as well for N.C. Ejituwu, who extended the Delta historiography to 1999 but without including his own innovations. For this reason, this paper discusses the innovations brought by Ejituwu's role in the development of Niger Delta historiography. These are his contributions to the training of historians, the introduction of feminist history, biographical writing, and history concourse. Others include his reconstruction of the settlement histories of many Eastern and Central Niger Delta groups. Its impact on the development of the Delta historiography, analyzed here, furthered historical research in the region. Although largely a study of the work of N.C.Ejituwu, this paper is also intended as an overview of Niger Delta regional history of history writing.According to Ake, development concerns human creativity, socially or economically. N.C. Ejituwu has demonstrated his creativity in historical writing on aspects of the Niger Delta, a region of some 75,000 square kilometers stretching from the Mahin estuary in the west to the Cross River estuary in the east. This most southerly region of Nigeria has about fifty linguistic groups located on its islands and peninsulas. Historical writing in the Delta concerns these fifty clans of the Ijo ethnic nationality. Their settlement histories have been documented by Alagoa, Cookey, and Ejituwu.


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