Advanced Information Systems and Technologies

This book comprises the proceedings of the VI International Scientific Conference “Advanced Information Systems and Technologies, AIST-2018”. The proceeding papers cover issues related to system analysis and modeling, project management, information system engineering, intelligent data processing, computer networking and telecomunications, modern methods and information technologies of sustainable development. They will be useful for students, graduate students, researchers who interested in computer science

Raiding genres, remaking contemporary South African jazz discourse: the study of choices and ideals behind my compositional portfolio.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This thesis is presented as an autoethnography that documents the process of composing a portfolio of works that are identifiable as Jazz. Autoethnography is understood here as both a theory and a method. While my personal perspective is central, the social milieu in which I am positioned is also important as I understand composition as a process that is dependent on, and motivated by, context. In this way, composition is seen as closely tied to identity. The pieces fall into three ensemble categories: those composed with particular musicians in mind, those composed for specific instrumental combination; and those composed for a big band format. In the first category, my focus as a composer is to write music with a particular set of musicians in mind. In the second category, I compose and arrange for instrumentation. In the third category, my focus is writing for a big band, in which I create a simulation; I use recording software to programme the instruments. The intention is to interrogate and analyse how and why I made the compositional decisions, and to expose my perceptions of how the process of composition unfolded. Underlying my compositional strategies is the idea that as a fundamentally improvisational idiom, jazz can accommodate musical characteristics and techniques associated with other established genres like Rock, Goema, Gqom, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music. The motivation for my approach to composition is to bring the jazz idiom closer to the diverse musical environment which I experience in Durban

Advanced Information Systems and Technologies

This book comprises the proceedings of the VI International Scientific Conference “Advanced Information Systems and Technologies, AIST-2018”. The proceeding papers cover issues related to system analysis and modeling, project management, information system engineering, intelligent data processing, computer networking and telecomunications, modern methods and information technologies of sustainable development. They will be useful for students, graduate students, researchers who interested in computer science

How and Why Should the Criminal Law Punish Corporations?

Courts established over a century ago that a corporation, like an individual, should be held criminally responsible for its misconduct. Nevertheless, the practice still faces steep resistance rooted in skeptical worries about both the possibility of, and the purpose behind, holding collectives accountable. My dissertation refutes both skeptical worries—and, in doing so, brings together diametrically opposed approaches to corporate regulation. Chapter I situates the project in its historical context. Regulation of commercial activity originally occurred through corporate law: states looked inside the corporation to oversee its structure, purpose, and even day-to-day managerial decisions. The development of corporate-criminal liability reflects first corporate law’s inability to regulate sophisticated commercial entities and second the inadequacy of the conception of personhood this strategy presupposed. Chapter II draws on contemporary scholarship to offer a pragmatic conception of personhood, one consistent with the nascent conception courts developed to justify the expansion of criminal liability to corporations. On this account, corporations can satisfy stringent prerequisites for legal personhood—in particular, criminal law’s mens rea requirements. The second half of the dissertation reimagines corporate law as a tool for improving criminal punishment, rather than as a standalone, alternative approach to corporate regulation. Chapter III defends the use of criminal fines against complaints that fines merely harm innocent individuals, and further demonstrates that the State could better deter corporations while minimizing harm to innocents through corporate-law reforms that encourage those inside the corporation to voluntarily shift the distribution of harm towards culpable members. Chapter IV goes further to use corporate-law reform as punishment in and of itself. Among other things, standard objections to reform fall away when relocated from the ordinary commercial context to the rarefied space of criminal punishment. Meanwhile, corporate-reform-as-punishment expresses penological justifications traditionally inapplicable to corporations because of the lack of suitable alternatives to punishments like imprisonment. Incorporating corporate-law reform into our criminal practices thus expands the range of justifications for punishing corporations.PhDPhilosophyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113460/1/wrtrw_1.pd

LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volum

Investigation of mobile devices usage and mobile augmented reality applications among older people

Mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones have allow users to communicate, entertainment, access information and perform productivity. However, older people are having issues to utilise mobile devices that may affect their quality of life and wellbeing. There are some potentials of mobile Augmented Reality (AR) applications to increase older users mobile usage by enhancing their experience and learning. The study aims to investigate mobile devices potential barriers and influence factors in using mobile devices. It also seeks to understand older people issues in using AR applications

The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.

Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations. Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the generalizing capacity of these findings. Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy. Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of sustainable innovation. Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”

Intelligent Biosignal Processing in Wearable and Implantable Sensors

This reprint provides a collection of papers illustrating the state-of-the-art of smart processing of data coming from wearable, implantable or portable sensors. Each paper presents the design, databases used, methodological background, obtained results, and their interpretation for biomedical applications. Revealing examples are brain–machine interfaces for medical rehabilitation, the evaluation of sympathetic nerve activity, a novel automated diagnostic tool based on ECG data to diagnose COVID-19, machine learning-based hypertension risk assessment by means of photoplethysmography and electrocardiography signals, Parkinsonian gait assessment using machine learning tools, thorough analysis of compressive sensing of ECG signals, development of a nanotechnology application for decoding vagus-nerve activity, detection of liver dysfunction using a wearable electronic nose system, prosthetic hand control using surface electromyography, epileptic seizure detection using a CNN, and premature ventricular contraction detection using deep metric learning. Thus, this reprint presents significant clinical applications as well as valuable new research issues, providing current illustrations of this new field of research by addressing the promises, challenges, and hurdles associated with the synergy of biosignal processing and AI through 16 different pertinent studies. Covering a wide range of research and application areas, this book is an excellent resource for researchers, physicians, academics, and PhD or master students working on (bio)signal and image processing, AI, biomaterials, biomechanics, and biotechnology with applications in medicine