940 research outputs found

    Protecting Privacy in Indian Schools: Regulating AI-based Technologies' Design, Development and Deployment

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    Education is one of the priority areas for the Indian government, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are touted to bring digital transformation. Several Indian states have also started deploying facial recognition-enabled CCTV cameras, emotion recognition technologies, fingerprint scanners, and Radio frequency identification tags in their schools to provide personalised recommendations, ensure student security, and predict the drop-out rate of students but also provide 360-degree information of a student. Further, Integrating Aadhaar (digital identity card that works on biometric data) across AI technologies and learning and management systems (LMS) renders schools a ‘panopticon’. Certain technologies or systems like Aadhaar, CCTV cameras, GPS Systems, RFID tags, and learning management systems are used primarily for continuous data collection, storage, and retention purposes. Though they cannot be termed AI technologies per se, they are fundamental for designing and developing AI systems like facial, fingerprint, and emotion recognition technologies. The large amount of student data collected speedily through the former technologies is used to create an algorithm for the latter-stated AI systems. Once algorithms are processed using machine learning (ML) techniques, they learn correlations between multiple datasets predicting each student’s identity, decisions, grades, learning growth, tendency to drop out, and other behavioural characteristics. Such autonomous and repetitive collection, processing, storage, and retention of student data without effective data protection legislation endangers student privacy. The algorithmic predictions by AI technologies are an avatar of the data fed into the system. An AI technology is as good as the person collecting the data, processing it for a relevant and valuable output, and regularly evaluating the inputs going inside an AI model. An AI model can produce inaccurate predictions if the person overlooks any relevant data. However, the state, school administrations and parents’ belief in AI technologies as a panacea to student security and educational development overlooks the context in which ‘data practices’ are conducted. A right to privacy in an AI age is inextricably connected to data practices where data gets ‘cooked’. Thus, data protection legislation operating without understanding and regulating such data practices will remain ineffective in safeguarding privacy. The thesis undergoes interdisciplinary research that enables a better understanding of the interplay of data practices of AI technologies with social practices of an Indian school, which the present Indian data protection legislation overlooks, endangering students’ privacy from designing and developing to deploying stages of an AI model. The thesis recommends the Indian legislature frame better legislation equipped for the AI/ML age and the Indian judiciary on evaluating the legality and reasonability of designing, developing, and deploying such technologies in schools

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    A Quantum Detectable Byzantine Agreement Protocol using only EPR pairs

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    In this paper, we introduce a new quantum protocol for Detectable Byzantine Agreement. What distinguishes the proposed protocol among similar quantum protocols, is the fact that it uses only EPR pairs, and, in particular, Κ+\Psi^{ + } pairs. There are many sophisticated quantum protocols that guarantee Detectable Byzantine Agreement, but they do not easily lend themselves to practical implementations, due to present-day technological limitations. For a large number nn of players, GHZ nn-tuples, or other more exotic entangled states, are not easy to produce, a fact which might complicate the scalability of such protocols. In contrast, Bell states are, undoubtedly, the easiest to generate among maximally entangled states. This will, hopefully, facilitate the scalability of the proposed protocol, as only EPR pairs are required, irrespective of the number nn of players. Finally, we mention that, even for arbitrary many players nn, our protocol always completes in a constant number of rounds, namely 44.Comment: Corrected typos, expanded proofs and added reference

    Advanced techniques for continuous-variable quantum communications over the atmosphere

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    This thesis analyses the application of various techniques to enhance the free-space transmission of Continuous-Variable (CV) quantum communications via the atmosphere. The techniques studied encompass a wide range of methods, from classical techniques to entanglement distillation and quantum error correction. A new realistic model of the atmospheric quantum channel is constructed. This model simulates the detrimental effects incurred on quantum information as it traverses the atmosphere. The model allows us to determine the feasibility of satellite-based quantum communications and develop new techniques to enhance free-space CV quantum communication. Entanglement distillation via non-Gaussian operations is analyzed to enhance Quantum Key Distribution and quantum teleportation in satellite-based quantum communications. While many non-Gaussian states exist, their use to obtain an advantage in any quantum communications protocol depends on the specifics of the quantum state and the channel involved in the quantum communications. Determination of which non-Gaussian states and the conditions in which such an advantage can be obtained in the context of free-space transmission is one of the contributions of this thesis. In satellite-based communications, the uplink channel is considerably more destructive than the downlink channel. A new technique for uplink state transfer that improves transmission by employing quantum teleportation via the downlink channel is introduced in this thesis. In line with the theme of this thesis, the enhancement of this technique using non-Gaussian entangled states during quantum teleportation is also analyzed. Finally, a protocol to perform error correction applied to the free-space transmission of quantum information is presented. In this protocol, quantum information transfer can be augmented by carefully monitoring the free space channel and following an optimization process. This thesis provides novel and significant developments that can be applied to advance CV quantum communications through the atmosphere for satellite-based and ground-level horizontal communications. Such developments should prove beneficial for realizing the future global quantum internet

    The Public Performance Of Sanctions In Insolvency Cases: The Dark, Humiliating, And Ridiculous Side Of The Law Of Debt In The Italian Experience. A Historical Overview Of Shaming Practices

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    This study provides a diachronic comparative overview of how the law of debt has been applied by certain institutions in Italy. Specifically, it offers historical and comparative insights into the public performance of sanctions for insolvency through shaming and customary practices in Roman Imperial Law, in the Middle Ages, and in later periods. The first part of the essay focuses on the Roman bonorum cessio culo nudo super lapidem and on the medieval customary institution called pietra della vergogna (stone of shame), which originates from the Roman model. The second part of the essay analyzes the social function of the zecca and the pittima Veneziana during the Republic of Venice, and of the practice of lu soldate a castighe (no translation is possible). The author uses a functionalist approach to apply some arguments and concepts from the current context to this historical analysis of ancient institutions that we would now consider ridiculous. The article shows that the customary norms that play a crucial regulatory role in online interactions today can also be applied to the public square in the past. One of these tools is shaming. As is the case in contemporary online settings, in the public square in historic periods, shaming practices were used to enforce the rules of civility in a given community. Such practices can be seen as virtuous when they are intended for use as a tool to pursue positive change in forces entrenched in the culture, and thus to address social wrongs considered outside the reach of the law, or to address human rights abuses

    Systematic Analysis of SUMO Paralogue-specific Functions and a Novel SUMO1-Dependent Pathway for Cytosolic Protein Quality Control

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    The small ubiquitin-related modifiers (SUMOs) are essential protein regulators that modulate nearly every aspect of cellular functions. Five SUMO paralogues have been identified in humans, with sequence homologies ranging from 45% to 97%. Among them, SUMO1 and SUMO2 are the least similar and also the best studied. However, to what extent SUMO1 and SUMO2 impart distinct and non-redundant cellular functions, has not been systematically examined and is therefore not well understood. To systematically identify and characterize paralogue-specific functions of SUMO proteins, we used CRISPR-Cas9 to individually knock out SUMO1 and SUMO2 expression in human osteosarcoma (U2OS) cells. Analysis of these knockout cell lines revealed non-redundant roles for SUMO1 and SUMO2 in regulating essential cellular functions, including cellular morphology, PML nuclear body integrity, response to cellular stresses, and control of gene expression. Using SUMO knockout cell lines and yeast strains expressing SUMO mutant proteins, we also identified a conserved SUMO-dependent pathway for degradation of protein quality control (PQC) model proteins containing the CL1 degron (GFP-Ura3-CL1 in yeast and GFP-CL1 in humans) that operates only in the cytosol but not the nucleus. Furthermore, we found that in humans, turnover of GFP-CL1 in the cytosol was uniquely dependent on SUMO1 but not SUMO2, revealing a previously unrecognized role for SUMO1 in regulating cytosolic PQC. PQC is essential for maintaining proteostasis and normal cellular functions, and therefore PQC perturbation proceeds numerous human diseases. Compared to the well-characterized PQC pathways within the endoplasmic reticulum and the nucleus, much less is known about the mechanisms that modulate cytosolic misfolded protein degradation. Findings reported in this thesis reveal a novel regulatory mechanism of cytosolic PQC, which contributes to a comprehensive view of the complicated cellular PQC network and provides novel insights into PQC-associated diseases

    A Synthesis of the Science and Law Relating to Eyewitness Misidentifications and Recommendations for How Police and Courts Can Reduce Wrongful Convictions Based on Them

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    The empirical literature on perception and memory consistently demonstrates the pitfalls of eyewitness identifications. Exoneration data lend external validity to these studies. With the goal of informing law enforcement officers, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, judges, and judicial law clerks about what they can do to reduce wrongful convictions based on misidentifications, this Article presents a synthesis of the scientific knowledge relevant to how perception and memory affect the (un)reliability of eyewitness identifications. The Article situates that body of knowledge within the context of leading case law. The Article then summarizes the most current recommendations for how law enforcement personnel should—and should not—conduct eyewitness identification procedures. Finally, the Article concludes by making law and policy recommendations for handling eyewitness identification evidence in ways that can reduce wrongful convictions

    The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa : a commentary

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    Since its adoption on 11 July 2003, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) has become a landmark on the African human rights landscape. It has steadily gained prominence as a trail-blazing instrument, responsive to the diverse realities of women on the African continent. This comprehensive Commentary on the Maputo Protocol, the first of its kind, provides systematic analysis of each article of the Protocol, delving into the drafting history, and elaborating on relevant key concepts and normative standards. This Commentary aims to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anyone interested in the Maputo Protocol, such as researchers, teachers, students, practitioners, policymakers and activists.https://www.pulp.up.ac.za/pulp-commentaries/the-protocol-to-the-african-charter-on-human-and-peoples-rights-on-the-rights-of-women-in-africa-a-commentaryhj2023Centre for Human Right
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