Search Results (58)

This article examines memory and monuments in the science fiction Star Trek franchise as a lens for understanding commemoration technologies and how futuristic visions of memorials anticipated real ones, especially during times of conflict. To understand the cultural reciprocity of sci-fi television and contemporary commemoration of war and trauma, we investigate the interactive website produced by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, Kan, titled Kan 7.10.360, which commemorates the victims of the 7 October 2023 Hamas massacre of civilians, soldiers, and policemen in Israel’s Gaza Envelope region. The 7.10.360 website employs advanced technologies to create what we identify as a digital “counter-monument.” By applying the concept of metamemorial science fiction relating to the Shoah, investigating its victims’ commemoration and examining the globital turn in memory work, we demonstrate that the Kan project realizes digital mnemonic practices engaged in Star Trek. We argue that the renowned series performs and anticipates three aspects of globital memory work and novel digital commemoration, also prevalent in the Kan 7.10.360 website: the personalization of memory using images; televisual testimony or documentation that mediates personal experience; and the display of objects that symbolize quotidian aspects of the victims’ lives. Full article

Background/Objective: The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) has recently gained significant interest from the research community toward the development and adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solutions for healthcare. The present work introduces the first meta-review (i.e., review of systematic reviews) in the field of LLMs for chronic diseases, focusing particularly on cardiovascular, cancer, and mental diseases, to identify their value in patient care, and challenges for their implementation and clinical application. Methods: A literature search in the bibliographic databases of PubMed and Scopus was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, to identify systematic reviews incorporating LLMs. The original studies included in the reviews were synthesized according to their target disease, specific application, LLMs used, data sources, accuracy, and key outcomes. Results: The literature search identified 5 systematic reviews respecting our inclusion and exclusion criteria, which examined 81 unique LLM-based solutions. The highest percentage of the solutions targeted mental disease (86%), followed by cancer (7%) and cardiovascular disease (6%), implying a large research focus in mental health. Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)-family models were used most frequently (~55%), followed by Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) variants (~40%). Key application areas included depression detection and classification (38%), suicidal ideation detection (7%), question answering based on treatment guidelines and recommendations (7%), and emotion classification (5%). Study aims and designs were highly heterogeneous, and methodological quality was generally moderate with frequent risk-of-bias concerns. Reported performance varied widely across domains and datasets, and many evaluations relied on fictional vignettes or non-representative data, limiting generalisability. The most significant found challenges in the development and evaluation of LLMs include inconsistent accuracy, bias detection and mitigation, model transparency, data privacy, need for continual human oversight, ethical concerns and guidelines, as well as the design and conduction of high-quality studies. Conclusions: While LLMs show promise for screening, triage, decision support, and patient education—particularly in mental health—the current literature is descriptive and constrained by data, transparency, and safety gaps. We recommend prioritizing rigorous real-world evaluations, diverse benchmark datasets, bias-auditing, and governance frameworks before LLM clinical deployment and large adoption. Full article

The literary career of Lettice Galbraith (1859–1932) coincided with a transformative period in British intellectual history, when the boundaries between scientific rationalism and occult epistemologies were being vigorously contested. This paper argues that Galbraith’s supernatural fiction represents a sharp challenge to Victorian medical science, using Gothic tropes to expose its deeply gendered structures of power. Situating her work within what Alex Owen has termed “modern enchantment”, it contends that Galbraith does not merely use the supernatural as a metaphor for social critique, but treats spiritualist practice as a legitimate methodology, a way of knowing that privileges embodied experience, and the testifying power of the material world over the cold, isolating rationality of institutional orthodoxy. Through a close reading of “In the Séance Room” and “The Ghost of Vittoria Pandelli”, and by employing a theoretical framework that combines feminist theory with new materialist perspectives, this analysis demonstrates how Galbraith’s stories reconfigure the séance as a ‘feminist counter-laboratory’. In this space, women—both as mediums and as spectral presences—reclaim agency from male dominated medicine and psychiatry. Matter itself becomes an agential force: objects, sounds, and even atmospheres intra-act with human participants to produce truths that medical authority cannot access or suppress. Ultimately, Galbraith’s stories deliver a powerful and enduring claim, that systems of power designed to silence and erase will be undone by the vibrant presence of the material world itself. Full article

The formation of collective identity and cultural memory is deeply influenced by the historical context and the area in which they develop. Memorial writing entails the reconstruction of the realities of the age under focus, drawing on the author’s objective and especially subjective memories. It is influenced by the one who analyses the events, the language and the underlying values. Thus, the boundary between fiction and reality is often indistinct, as memory gaps are filled with the aid of imagination, without diminishing the documentary value of the text. Since memoirs represent a crossover between history, identity, and literature, an armed conflict can be narrated in many ways. This is also true for Romania’s military campaign in 1913, a moment that is not sufficiently explored by Romanian historiography and literature. Those who serve as chroniclers of the time, enduring endless marches through hostile environments and encountering a largely unfriendly population, contribute to Romanians’ discovery of a reality of the country south of the Danube River that is both similar to and different from theirs. Writers, historians, and publicists fill their pages with memories of a campaign where almost no shots were fired but which resulted in over 5000 victims killed by cholera. Full article

In conventional logistics optimization problems, an objective function describes the relationship between parameters. However, in many industrial practices, such a relationship is unknown, and only observational data is available. The objective of the research is to use machine learning-based regression models to uncover patterns in the warehousing dataset and use them to generate an accurate objective function. The models are not only suitable for prediction, but also for interpreting the effect of input variables. This data-driven approach is consistent with the automated, intelligent systems of Industry 4.0, while Industry 5.0 provides opportunities for sustainable, flexible, and collaborative development. In this research, machine learning (ML) models were tested on a fictional dataset using Automated Machine Learning (AutoML), through which Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) was selected as the best method (R² = 0.994). Feature Importance and Partial Dependence Plots revealed the key factors influencing storage performance and their functional relationships. Defining performance as a cost indicator allowed us to interpret optimization as cost minimization, demonstrating that ML-based methods can uncover hidden patterns and support efficiency improvements in warehousing. The proposed approach not only achieves outstanding predictive accuracy, but also transforms model outputs into actionable, interpretable insights for warehouse optimization. By combining automation, interpretability, and optimization, this research advances the practical realization of intelligent warehouse systems in the era of Industry 4.0. Full article

Background: Emotion regulation (ER) plays a vital role in mental health, spanning mood, anxiety, and personality disorders. Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is one of the most common ER strategies and depends on prefrontal brain areas, but its success varies, and its neural basis is not fully clear. Interest is growing in using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to support ER, yet most studies have focused only on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and used simple tasks. Objective: This study explored whether tDCS applied to either the dlPFC or the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) could shape autonomic responses during CR while people watched emotionally engaging film clips. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to receive either active or sham tDCS over the dlPFC or vmPFC. While stimulated, they used CR strategies (positive reappraisal, fictional reappraisal, or distancing) to manage their reactions to negative film scenes. Heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and respiratory rate (RR) were tracked throughout as physiological indicators. Results: Active dlPFC tDCS combined with CR led to significantly greater reductions in HR toward the end of emotional exposure, compared to sham or non-CR conditions. dlPFC stimulation also lowered HR even without explicit CR, pointing to possible effects on automatic regulation. vmPFC effects were inconsistent, and no reliable effects were observed for SC or RR. Conclusions: These results suggest that tDCS effects on autonomic ER depend on the brain region and timing. dlPFC stimulation may strengthen both intentional and automatic emotion regulation, especially when combined with reappraisal, highlighting the value of realistic emotional tasks in neuromodulation studies. Full article

Automated story writing has been a subject of study for over 60 years. Today, large language models can generate narratively consistent and linguistically coherent short fiction texts. Despite these advancements, rigorous assessment of such outputs in terms of literary merit—especially concerning aesthetic qualities—has received scant attention. In this paper, we address the challenge of evaluating AI-generated microfiction (MF) and argue that this task requires consideration of literary criteria across various aspects of the text, including thematic coherence, textual clarity, interpretive depth, and aesthetic quality. To facilitate this, we present GrAImes: an evaluation protocol grounded in literary theory; specifically, GrAImes draws from a literary perspective to offer an objective framework for assessing AI-generated microfiction. Furthermore, we report the results of our validation of the evaluation protocol as answered by both literature experts and literary enthusiasts. This protocol will serve as a foundation for evaluating automatically generated microfiction and assessing its literary value. Full article

Background and Objectives: The assessment of HER2 status in invasive breast carcinomas (IBCs) is critical for determining treatment strategies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the FICTION technique as a potential method for assessing HER2 status and to compare it with the standard sequential immunohistochemistry (IHC)–in situ hybridization (ISH) assays. Materials and Methods: This study included 49 patients diagnosed with invasive breast carcinomas. HER2 status was assessed using both IHC+FISH and FICTION techniques, and the results were compared. Results: Comparative analysis demonstrated an 83.67% categorical agreement between IHC and IF using the ASCO/CAP system. The percentage of cells showing any degree of HER2 protein expression was higher with IF (73.77%) than with IHC (60.71%) (p = 0.00026). The in situ hybridization assays showed an excellent agreement, with a 90% or higher concordance. The concordance of the ASCO/CAP group classification of cases using both ISH assays (FICTION and standard FISH) was high (85, 7%). Agreement was 100% for the final classification of cases (Her2 positive/negative). Conclusions: We compared standard tests for Her2 protein expression and the gene copy number with a modified FICTION protocol. The study showed moderate agreement between IHC and IF for Her2 protein and excellent agreement between FISH and FICTION ISH for the gene copy number. Final Her2 status was unaffected by low IF IHC concordance. Optimizing the FICTION protocol could improve results. Combining protein and gene assays may enhance IBC patient stratification. Full article

The objective of this essay is to demonstrate the fictional nature of the character Mosca in Xenia I and Xenia II, the first two sections of Eugenio Montale’s collection Satura (1971), and to illustrate the strategies through which the author makes this possible. Although Mosca is inspired by the historical figure of Drusilla Tanzi, the poet employs a series of macrotextual, thematic, linguistic, and rhetorical devices to elevate the female figure to that of a poetic character. The study briefly addresses these various devices and seeks to refute the hypothesis of a diary-like memorial structure in Xenia, advocating instead for a “narrative–novelistic” structure, which leverages the typical mechanisms of narrative fiction. The contribution demonstrates how the combination of these strategies significantly influences the character of Mosca, ultimately leading to her absorption within the fictional world of narrative poetry. Full article

Some realist views about fiction are non-objectual in that they see fictional characters not as objects but rather as properties or the like; notably, kinds, roles, or denoting concepts. The view centered on denoting concepts proposed in Orilia’s “A Theory of Fictional Entities Based on Denoting Concepts” (2012) is presented in this paper with further motivations and details and in relation to issues not previously dealt with from its perspective. This view differs from other proposals of this sort, such as those by Cocchiarella and Landini, for its flexibility in allowing for story-free fictional characters: they can migrate from one story to another. This migration is granted in two ways, one that relies on the preservation of salient common features and another grounded on an appropriate causal connection between stories, typically involving authorial intentions. A more detailed account of this connection and of its interplay with the preservation of salient features is elaborated. Moreover, the phenomenon of fictionally non-existent characters (as in fiction within fiction) is addressed. Finally, the presence in fiction of historical, plural, indeterminate, and identity-inconsistent characters is examined and analyzed in terms of denoting concepts. Full article

My essay aims at considering the mythological figure of Melusina and her literary development, starting from the Middle Ages up to the Romantic period. The main purpose is to determine how this fictional entity, originally regarded as the symbol of nature and its fecundity, has changed over the time in relation to the historical and cultural complex and how this has reverberated in terms of interpretation of the identity of the literary character. I will consider the medieval versions of Jean D’Arras (1392), with some consequent references to Coudrette (1401–1405) and von Ringoltingen (1456), and the German romantic fairytale rewriting of Ludwig Tieck (1800). If the thematic nucleus remains the same, the configuration of the female character changes by reflecting the new Romantic poetics in terms of interest towards femininity, subjectivity and the study of the morphology of the Earth. In particular, Melusina is no longer seen as a mere and passive object, but as a subject who for the first time, hiding in an emblematic cave, reveals to the reader her own interiority and her own truth, totally assimilating herself to the external environment. The conclusion will show how the cultural subtext modifies the interpretation of this atavistic character. Full article

This article examines the ontological status of virtual objects in light of contemporary philosophical debates on virtual reality (VR). The main point of departure is an analysis of David Chalmers’ concept of “virtual realism”, which argues that virtual objects can be considered real because they meet fundamental criteria of reality such as existence, causal power, and non-illusoriness. Chalmers rejects positions that treat virtual objects as fictions or illusions, emphasizing their ability to elicit real effects and shape users’ experiences. Chalmers suggests an ontological equivalence between physical and virtual objects, raising questions about the nature of reality and the criteria for attributing it in the context of dynamic technological changes. In this work, I propose an alternative approach to the ontology of virtual objects, situating them within Karl Popper’s World III. Unlike traditional views that emphasize the digital nature of virtual objects, this perspective treats them as immaterial yet perceptible entities that acquire an autonomous status through their role in intersubjective and cultural processes. This approach refines the debate by offering a framework that distinguishes virtual objects from both physical and purely abstract entities. I argue that virtual objects, though immaterial, can be recognized as real entities due to their ability to generate real perceptual, emotional, and cognitive effects. This approach expands traditional understandings of ontology, offering new perspectives on the nature of reality in a digital context. Full article

In recent years, non-fiction journalism, regarded as a subset of literary and narrative journalism, has garnered significant attention in Chinese media. This trend underscores a notable departure from traditional journalistic norms of objectivity toward an emphasis on authenticity. Drawing upon a comprehensive analysis of 348 articles sourced from Southern People Weekly, a prominent media outlet for non-fiction journalism in China, this study examines the construction of authenticity along two distinct dimensions: voice and visibility. The voice dimension encompasses the utilization of first-person narratives by sources, the expression of authorial voice, and the orchestration of polyphony between journalists and their sources. The visibility dimension pertains to the portrayal of sources through visual imagery, the strategic presentation of journalists, and the scenic depiction of context and environment. Based on these findings, this study discusses the challenges posed by this narrative paradigm to the traditional notion of objectivity and its implications for the rising ideal of subjective journalism. Full article

Transmedia storytelling combines various concepts and respective strategies that were originally intended for the expansion of fictional storyworlds. Gradually, technological convergence and the digitization of information facilitated their adoption by the field of journalism. This study examines if and how transfictionality and its extensions are incorporated into transmedia journalistic projects, with the aim of expanding non-fictional storyworlds. The research methodology follows the scheme of qualitative content analysis in a sample of six essays of the online special issue of The 1619 Project, a transmedia journalistic venture published by The New York Times. In this context, Scolari’s taxonomy of extensions (2009) was used as an objective research tool through which the research sample was analyzed and interpreted. The research findings reveal that the research sample includes various stories whose functions are similar to those of extensions while audience actively participates in the construction of the represented storyworld. Moreover, the whole project incorporates ‘expansion’, a form of transfictionality that extends fictional storyworlds, by using extensions (e.g., sequels, prequels). Therefore, it seems that the field of transmedia journalism adopts both transfictionality and extensions, with the aim of expanding non-fictional storyworlds, enhancing the development of collaborative transmedia journalistic efforts. Full article

This article proposes a new approach to the nature of a core set within fantasy fiction that regards it as a speculative literature of the exploration of subjectivity, one which at its limit conjectures fresh possibilities for the subjective world. To motivate acceptance of this proposed approach, I begin by surveying the existing state of debate in the critical field. I notice the emergence of widening agreement on the idea that fantasy is a literature of the impossible. I then develop the logical implications of this widening agreement in the critical field, arguing that it entails a representational definition of fantasy literature, which implies a modal approach to the core set that defines this literary order. I suggest that the marvellous mode, the kind of writing which represents the impossible, is a broad class that includes other speculative literatures, and that what differentiates these is the referential world within which the impossible happens. The aim here is to break up monolithic conceptions of the impossible, while pointing to a motivation for developing an understanding of the specificity of a core set of fantasy texts that proceeds by way of contrasts. After explaining why I am extremely skeptical about the definition of science fiction as a “literature of the possible”, I probe descriptions of the difference between fantasy and sci-fi. I propose that whereas some science fiction is a literature of conjectural objectivity, guided by the “cognitive novum”, a significant group of fantasy texts is a literature of speculative subjectivity, guided by an “affective novum”. Full article