41 research outputs found
Machine Learning: When and Where the Horses Went Astray?
Machine Learning is usually defined as a subfield of AI, which is busy with
information extraction from raw data sets. Despite of its common acceptance and
widespread recognition, this definition is wrong and groundless. Meaningful
information does not belong to the data that bear it. It belongs to the
observers of the data and it is a shared agreement and a convention among them.
Therefore, this private information cannot be extracted from the data by any
means. Therefore, all further attempts of Machine Learning apologists to
justify their funny business are inappropriate.Comment: The paper is accepted to be published in the Machine Learning serie
of the InTec
Run-time transmission power reconfiguration and adaptive packet relocation in wireless network-on-chip
Network-on-chip (NoC) is an on-chip communication network that allows parallel communication between all cores to improve inter-core performance. Wireless NoC (WiNoC) introduces long-range and high bandwidth radio frequency (RF) interconnects that can possibly reduce the multi-hop communication of the planar metal interconnects in conventional NoC platforms. In WiNoC, RF transceivers account for a significant power consumption, particularly its transmitter, out of its total communication energy. CurrentWiNoC architectures employ constant maximum transmitting power for communicating radio hubs regardless of physical location of the receiver radio hubs. Besides, high transmission power consumption in WiNoC with constant maximum power suffers from significant energy and load imbalance among RF transceivers which lead to hotspot formation, thus affecting the reliability of the onchip network system. There are two main objectives covered by this thesis. Firstly, this work proposes a reconfigurable transmitting power control scheme that, by using bit error rate (BER) estimation obtained at the receiver’s side, dynamically calibrates the transmitting power level needed for communication between the source and destination radio hubs. The proposed scheme achieves significant total system energy reduction by about 40% with an average performance degradation of 3% and with no impact on throughput. The proposed design utilizes a small fraction of both area and power overheads (about 0.1%) out of total transceiver properties. The proposed technique is generic and can be applied to any WiNoC architecture for improving its energy efficiency with a negligible overhead in terms of silicon area. Secondly, an energyaware adaptive packet relocator scheme has been proposed. Based on transmission energy consumption and predefined energy threshold, packets are routed to adjacent transmitter for communication with receiver radio hub, with an aim to balance energy distribution in WiNoC. The proposed strategy alone achieves total communication energy savings of about 8%. A joint scheme of the reconfigurable transmitting power management and energy-aware adaptive packet relocator is also introduced. The scheme consistently results in an energy savings of 30% with minimal performance degradation
The informational content of trading statement releases on the JSE
Includes bibliographical references.A prevalent finding in prior literature, both internationally and domestically, is the association between earnings information, contained in earnings announcements, and share returns leading up to and following the publication. This study pulls together evidence across stock exchanges worldwide on which to draw comparisons of market efficiency. For the first time on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), an event study analysis is conducted on the effects of a cautionary announcement known as a trading statement. While most research has focused on the official earnings announcements, this pioneering study synthesizes methodology adopted in related prior research to create a robust, relevant study of efficiency on the JSE. The aim of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship between unexpected earnings measures (often referred to as 'earnings surprises'), conveyed by trading statements, and future share returns. This study examines the importance, timeliness and financial exploitability of trading statement releases for both the regulator and investor. Lack of depth in trading statement history limits sample size and renders traditional earnings expectation models, which rely on comparative period figures, useless. Resultantly, numerous returnbased unexpected earnings models had to be adopted to estimate earnings surprises and gauge the predictability of future share returns
Lobbying in EU foreign policy-making towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: exploring the potential of a constructivist perspective
This thesis explores how constructivist insights could help us to form a more
complete picture of lobbying in EU foreign policy-making, with a special emphasis
on EU foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It demonstrates that
non-state actors (NSAs) such as business groups, NGOs, solidarity movements and
think tanks, are important players in the EU’s foreign policy-making. By sharing the
constructivist views on the embeddedness of actors and assuming that actors interact
with each other in order to make sense of the world, this thesis investigates lobbying
on the basis of three analytical dimensions; namely roles, frames and levels. It is
shown that NSAs lobbying the EU play a consensual role, which is based on
mutually legitimising social interactions that do not challenge the EU’s actorness and
policies towards Israel and Palestine. When combined with the use of legal or
technical frames, these consensual forms of interaction are conducive to a re-framing
of EU policies towards Israel and Palestine. In contrast, confrontational forms of
social interactions, combined with the use of political frames are more recurrent at
the national level. Finally, this thesis analyses how the national level is used, when
NSAs lobby the EU. It concludes that there is a partial Europeanization of lobbying
carried out by NSAs based in member states. The EU and national levels tend,
however, to remain quite disentangled from each other. The argument presented in
this thesis is tested in three case studies (EU-Israel trade relations, the UN Report
following the war in Gaza in 2008-2009 and the EU-Israel Agreement on
pharmaceutical products), which represent important aspects of EU foreign policy
and were frequently mentioned by NSAs and officials. Moreover, the national level
is analysed in the cases of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, which are the
three big member states of the EU and crucial players in EU foreign policy
E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria
The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system
before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without
recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm
shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is
more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in
governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the
Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the
potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations
need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication
Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the
context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of
government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed
majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens
to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting
participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to
fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the
necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the
Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance
through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass
education of citizens
The Impact of e-Democracy in Political Stability of Nigeria
The history of the Nigerian electoral process has been hitherto characterized by violence stemming from disputes
in election outcomes. For instance, violence erupted across some states in Northern Nigeria when results indicated that a
candidate who was popular in that part of the country was losing the election leading to avoidable loss of lives. Beside, this
dispute in election outcome lingers for a long time in litigation at the electoral tribunals which distracts effective governance.
However, the increasing penetrating use of ICTs in Nigeria is evident in the electoral processes with consequent shift in the
behavior of actors in the democratic processes, thus changing the ways Nigerians react to election outcomes. This paper
examines the trend in the use ICT in the Nigerian political system and its impact on the stability of the polity. It assesses the
role of ICT in recent electoral processes and compares its impact on the outcome of the process in lieu of previous
experiences in the Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also examines the challenges and risks of implementing e-Democracy in
Nigeria and its relationship to the economy in the light of the socio-economic situation of the country. The paper adopted
qualitative approach in data gathering and analysis. From the findings, the paper observed that e-democracy is largely
dependent on the level of ICT adoption, which is still at its lowest ebb in the country. It recognizes the challenges in the
provision of ICT infrastructure and argues that appropriate low-cost infrastructure applicable to the Nigerian condition can
be made available to implement e-democracy and thus arouse the interest of the populace in governance, increase the
number of voters, and enhance transparency, probity and accountability, and participation in governance as well as help
stabilize the nascent democrac