Bundled or unbundled? A multi-text corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the relationship between teaching and research in UK universities

Creating and disseminating knowledge through research and teaching has long been regarded as the hallmark of the modern university. However, new university business models have called into question the ‘bundling’ of teaching and research, and sustained research on the relationship between teaching and research has found little evidence of an insoluble connection between the two activities. In this article, we explore the relationship between teaching and research from the perspective of universities’ institutional discourse. We use corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine the relationship between research and teaching as presented in two sets of institutional texts currently influential in UK Higher Education: Research Excellence Framework environment statements and Teaching Excellence Framework provider submissions (a total of 2143 documents and 12,492,071 words). Our findings show that, while universities emphasise the value of research to their teaching, they do not always emphasise (or sometimes even decry) the influence of teaching on their research. We empirically evidence that, according to what universities themselves write in institutional texts, teaching and research are not always in a mutually beneficial entanglement, but often rather a one-way relationship in which research expertise and institutional prestige are used to bolster claims of teaching excellence. This has implications for the communication of both the vision and the purpose of a university in regulatory exercises and wider policy, but also speaks to the broader idea and practice of being a university in the twenty-first century.     

Decoding digital transformational outsourcing: The role of service providers’ capabilities

The business process outsourcing industry has got disrupted, first by the significant shift in value creation activities from the clients to the service providers, and second by pervasive digital penetration, resulting in the emergence of Digital Transformational Outsourcing (DTO). Service providers now play a more significant role, making their capabilities important. In the new context, service providers require a uniquely different set of dynamic capabilities to handle end-to-end business functions on behalf of their clients while delivering digital value propositions.We study 26 of the largest global business process outsourcing providers to conceptualise and identify six dynamic capabilities of service providers salient in the new context, i.e., consultative, orchestration, insights, network management, knowledge access, and standardisation. Interviews conducted with industry experts provided evidence in support of the identified dynamic capabilities. A novel firm capability dataset was created using secondary data, and using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we identify configurations for high and low performance and find them to vary by the firm's broad/narrow scope.     

Olfaction and emotion: The quest for olfactory restoration in two speech communities

ABSTRACT

Olfaction has been described as one of the least studied of the senses. This has certainly proven true in Communication. This project applies Ethnography of Communication and Cultural Discourse Analysis to examine the role that olfaction plays in the cultural meaning systems of two speech communities: residents surrounding the Gowanus Canal and bereaved parents. The cultural hub used to explore the cultural significance of olfaction in both speech communities is feeling. The analyses illustrate how emotions are tied to associated sensations and further become activated through radiants of dwelling, relating and acting. The analysis also shows how olfaction may serve to unify and separate members of a community. The significance of this research encourages stretching the boundaries of communication studies by examining the less studied physical senses and the boundaries of Cultural Discourse Analysis by providing distinctions that others can incorporate when examining feelings.     

Cross-company customer churn prediction in telecommunication: A comparison of data transformation methods

Cross-Company Churn Prediction (CCCP) is a domain of research where one company (target) is lacking enough data and can use data from another company (source) to predict customer churn successfully. To support CCCP, the cross-company data is usually transformed to a set of similar normal distribution of target company data prior to building a CCCP model. However, it is still unclear which data transformation method is most effective in CCCP. Also, the impact of data transformation methods on CCCP model performance using different classifiers have not been comprehensively explored in the telecommunication sector. In this study, we devised a model for CCCP using data transformation methods (i.e., log, z-score, rank and box-cox) and presented not only an extensive comparison to validate the impact of these transformation methods in CCCP, but also evaluated the performance of underlying baseline classifiers (i.e., Naive Bayes (NB), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), Gradient Boosted Tree (GBT), Single Rule Induction (SRI) and Deep learner Neural net (DP)) for customer churn prediction in telecommunication sector using the above mentioned data transformation methods. We performed experiments on publicly available datasets related to the telecommunication sector. The results demonstrated that most of the data transformation methods (e.g., log, rank, and box-cox) improve the performance of CCCP significantly. However, the Z-Score data transformation method could not achieve better results as compared to the rest of the data transformation methods in this study. Moreover, it is also investigated that the CCCP model based on NB outperform on transformed data and DP, KNN and GBT performed on the average, while SRI classifier did not show significant results in term of the commonly used evaluation measures (i.e., probability of detection, probability of false alarm, area under the curve and g-mean).     

论大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动的协调发展

体育与竞技运动是两个不同的概念 ,两者都有普及与提高的问题 ,精英竞技运动的发展不是建立在大众体育和学校体育的基础之上的 ,其发展的基础是竞技运动在全社会的普及。传统的认识存在许多缺陷 ,导致在实践中产生很多偏差。讨论了大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动的异同 ,分析了西方国家管理与发展竞技运动的模式、中国发展竞技运动成功的经验及存在的问题 ,说明了应如何理解所谓大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动协调发展的问题 ,最后从 5个方面探讨了大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动协调发展的基本对策。     

正交变换在积分中的应用

利用正交变换,在重积分、曲面积分中处理积分的变数替换。     

Tall Stories: The Metaphorical Nature of Everyday Talk

This article questions some popular cultural assumptions about the nature of everyday discourse. It claims that such discourse is in fact richly metaphorical and that, through the operation of metaphor, we fictionalise ourselves as we talk. Because literary writing has dominated our culture and curriculum, English teachers have not been encouraged to explore an aspect of language that is at the core of how we think and behave.     

“with+复合结构”的语篇意义探析

文章通过对“with+复合结构”外延逻辑关系的分析,认为该结构的语篇意义在于能调动读者的成像、感应、直觉等心理机能,让读者深深体味到英语语言的魅力之所在。     

网络传播媒介对当代美术批评方法论的拓展

从建构传统美术批评体系中的批评家与批评话语权之间的关系入手,就当下社会生活中的网络传播媒介对传统美术批评体系的解构现象进行了初步探讨,并从网络美术批评语言的重构、批评话语权的平民化方式、批评的学理完整性和依据以及批评的思维方式等方面对当代美术批评方法论的拓展进行了思考性阐述。     

浅析师生互动式营销案例教学法

现代经济社会所要求的人才培养的目标是具有创新思维、创新能力的新一代创造型人才,而以学生为中心的教学模式无疑是达到这一目标的有效途径。本文通过对各类企业典型案例的深入分析,使学生既能牢固地掌握所学的基础理论知识,又能针对具体企业、具体问题作出自己的判断,提出具有个性化的分析诊断以及营销管理对策,这对于培养具有创新观念的新型人才意义深远。