1,914 research outputs found

    Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law

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    This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Possessing Amazonia: Global Disputes over the Amazon Basins and the Guiana Highlands (c.1840-c.1900)

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    Grounded on an integrated and global history of Amazonia, this research concerns the intersection between boundary making, the rise of nation-states and modern globalization. Taking South America Amazonia and the Guianas as field of study, our central enquiry is approached from a diachronic historical perspective, which serves our aim of writing a history of mutual recognition, relationships, and influences in remote frontier territories. The central problem to be interrogated, lies in the relation between process of connectedness, the emergence of new codes, symbols, and also ideas related to national states. Then, our aim is to identify the dimension and nature of the late territorial expansion of European empires in South America, the way official and alternative projects in border negotiations emerged in the late nineteenth century. Furthermore, we aim to see how economic and political schemes of colonization failed to establish new colonization schemes, this is, breaking the remoteness. This process connects with the struggle of imperial/national states to deal with distance, remote areas and, more importantly, with the people who lived and produced territory in these ‘isolated’ borderlands. Border arbitrations mapped these areas in search of historical sovereignty, yet found them replete with indigenous territorialities and alternative projects. This ‘clash of territorialities’ is the subject of this research. In this perspective, we reject conservative approaches towards territoriality, and constructivists’ interpretations that take the nation-state and nationalism as result of elites making goal. We conclude that Amazonia as an ‘opened frontier’ was the center of several clashes of territoriality, not only between European powers and new national states, but also between indigenous/black communities living via moving towards the remoteness as a region of refuge.The nation-state was only an option regarding the state building contingency; and boundary making was the creative element that gave ground for national narratives and cartographic anxieties of the fin de siècle. The history of the remote as an approach proposes, then, to overcome the difficulties of studying processes of connection, encounters, and globalization in an integrated perspective.Baseada numa história integrada e global da Amazónia, esta investigação incide sobre a intersecção entre a definição de fronteiras, a ascensão dos Estados-nação e a globalização moderna. Tomando como laboratório a Amazónia e as Guianas da América do Sul, o nosso inquérito central é abordado a partir de uma perspetiva histórica diacrónica, que serve o nosso objetivo de escrever uma história de reconhecimentos e influências mútuas, assim como relações e conexões em territórios fronteiriços remotos. O problema central a ser interrogado reside na relação entre o processo de estabelecer interdependência/conexões, a emergência de novos códigos, símbolos, e ideias relacionadas com os estados nacionais. O nosso objetivo central é identificar a dimensão e a natureza da expansão territorial tardia dos impérios europeus na América do Sul, a forma como os projetos oficiais e alternativos nas regiões fronteiriças emergiram em finais do século XIX, e como os novos esquemas económicos e políticos de colonização não conseguiram se estabelecer, isto é, romper o remoto. Esse processo está ligado à luta dos Estados imperiais/nacionais para lidar com a distância, áreas remotas e, mais importante ainda, com os povos que viveram e produziram território nestas terras fronteiriças ‘isoladas’. As arbitragens fronteiriças mapearam estas áreas em busca da soberania histórica, mas encontraram-nas repletas de territorialidades indígenas e projetos alternativos. Este ‘choque de territorialidades’ é o tema desta investigação. Nesta perspetiva, rejeitamos abordagens conservadoras sobre territorialidades e interpretações construtivistas que tomam o Estado-nação e o nacionalismo como resultado de projetos elitistas horizontais. Concluímos que a Amazónia como ‘fronteira aberta’ foi o centro de vários choques de territorialidade, não só entre potências europeias e novos Estados nacionais, mas também entre comunidades pretas/indígenas que se moveram/viveram no remoto como uma região de refúgio; o Estado-nação era apenas uma opção na contingência da construção do Estado; as fronteiras foram os elementos criativos que deram terreno às narrativas nacionais e às ansiedades cartográficas do fin de siècle. A história do remoto como abordagem propõe, então, ultrapassar as dificuldades de estudar processos de conexão, encontros, e globalização numa perspectiva integrada

    On the Utility of Representation Learning Algorithms for Myoelectric Interfacing

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    Electrical activity produced by muscles during voluntary movement is a reflection of the firing patterns of relevant motor neurons and, by extension, the latent motor intent driving the movement. Once transduced via electromyography (EMG) and converted into digital form, this activity can be processed to provide an estimate of the original motor intent and is as such a feasible basis for non-invasive efferent neural interfacing. EMG-based motor intent decoding has so far received the most attention in the field of upper-limb prosthetics, where alternative means of interfacing are scarce and the utility of better control apparent. Whereas myoelectric prostheses have been available since the 1960s, available EMG control interfaces still lag behind the mechanical capabilities of the artificial limbs they are intended to steer—a gap at least partially due to limitations in current methods for translating EMG into appropriate motion commands. As the relationship between EMG signals and concurrent effector kinematics is highly non-linear and apparently stochastic, finding ways to accurately extract and combine relevant information from across electrode sites is still an active area of inquiry.This dissertation comprises an introduction and eight papers that explore issues afflicting the status quo of myoelectric decoding and possible solutions, all related through their use of learning algorithms and deep Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. Paper I presents a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for multi-label movement decoding of high-density surface EMG (HD-sEMG) signals. Inspired by the successful use of CNNs in Paper I and the work of others, Paper II presents a method for automatic design of CNN architectures for use in myocontrol. Paper III introduces an ANN architecture with an appertaining training framework from which simultaneous and proportional control emerges. Paper Iv introduce a dataset of HD-sEMG signals for use with learning algorithms. Paper v applies a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model to decode finger forces from intramuscular EMG. Paper vI introduces a Transformer model for myoelectric interfacing that do not need additional training data to function with previously unseen users. Paper vII compares the performance of a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to that of classical pattern recognition algorithms. Lastly, paper vIII describes a framework for synthesizing EMG from multi-articulate gestures intended to reduce training burden

    Comparing the production of a formula with the development of L2 competence

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    This pilot study investigates the production of a formula with the development of L2 competence over proficiency levels of a spoken learner corpus. The results show that the formula in beginner production data is likely being recalled holistically from learners’ phonological memory rather than generated online, identifiable by virtue of its fluent production in absence of any other surface structure evidence of the formula’s syntactic properties. As learners’ L2 competence increases, the formula becomes sensitive to modifications which show structural conformity at each proficiency level. The transparency between the formula’s modification and learners’ corresponding L2 surface structure realisations suggest that it is the independent development of L2 competence which integrates the formula into compositional language, and ultimately drives the SLA process forward

    Nativist and Islamist radicalism. Anger and anxiety

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    This book analyses the factors and processes behind radicalisation of both native and self-identified Muslim youths. It argues that European youth responds differently to the challenges posed by contemporary flows of globalisation such as deindustrialisation, socio-economic, political, spatial, and psychological forms of deprivation, humiliation, and structural exclusion.The book revisits social, economic, political, and psychological drivers of radicalisation and challenges contemporary uses of the term “radicalism”. It argues that neoliberal forms of governance are often responsible for associating radicalism with extremism, terrorism, fundamentalism, and violence. It will appeal to students and scholars of migration, minority studies, nationalisms, European studies, sociology, political science, and psychology.We are happy to acknowledge the European Research Council’s support through its funding of the Advanced Research project: PRIME Youth (Nativism, Islamophobism and Islamism in the Age of Populism: Culturalization and Religionization of What Is Social, Economic and Political in Europe, Grant Agreement No. 785934), from which this collection partly arose.-- Introduction. Nativist and Islamist radicalism -- Part 1: Spatial deprivation and local contexts -- Chapter 1: Please don't blame us -- Chapter 2: Alternative für Deutschland's appeal to native youth in Dresden -- Chapter 3: The interplay of psychological stress, aggression, identity, and implicit knowledge -- Part 2: Mental processes of radicalisation -- Chapter 4: Islamophobia and radicalisation -- Part 3: Critical analyses of Islamist radicalisation -- Chapter 5: Radicalisation, extremism, or a third position? -- Chapter 6: Is it radical for a woman to become a stay-at-home mother or wear a headscarf? -- Chapter 7: Risking Muslims -- Chapter 8:The radicalisation of Morrocan-origin youth in Europe -- Chapter 9: Religiosities in a globalised market -- Chapter 10: Commentary -- Epilogu

    Modern meat: the next generation of meat from cells

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    Modern Meat is the first textbook on cultivated meat, with contributions from over 100 experts within the cultivated meat community. The Sections of Modern Meat comprise 5 broad categories of cultivated meat: Context, Impact, Science, Society, and World. The 19 chapters of Modern Meat, spread across these 5 sections, provide detailed entries on cultivated meat. They extensively tour a range of topics including the impact of cultivated meat on humans and animals, the bioprocess of cultivated meat production, how cultivated meat may become a food option in Space and on Mars, and how cultivated meat may impact the economy, culture, and tradition of Asia

    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

    Data ethics : building trust : how digital technologies can serve humanity

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    Data is the magic word of the 21st century. As oil in the 20th century and electricity in the 19th century: For citizens, data means support in daily life in almost all activities, from watch to laptop, from kitchen to car, from mobile phone to politics. For business and politics, data means power, dominance, winning the race. Data can be used for good and bad, for services and hacking, for medicine and arms race. How can we build trust in this complex and ambiguous data world? How can digital technologies serve humanity? The 45 articles in this book represent a broad range of ethical reflections and recommendations in eight sections: a) Values, Trust and Law, b) AI, Robots and Humans, c) Health and Neuroscience, d) Religions for Digital Justice, e) Farming, Business, Finance, f) Security, War, Peace, g) Data Governance, Geopolitics, h) Media, Education, Communication. The authors and institutions come from all continents. The book serves as reading material for teachers, students, policy makers, politicians, business, hospitals, NGOs and religious organisations alike. It is an invitation for dialogue, debate and building trust! The book is a continuation of the volume “Cyber Ethics 4.0” published in 2018 by the same editors

    Theoretical Knowledge in the Mohist Canon

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    This open access book presents a new translation, interpretation and analysis of selected passages from the so-called Mohist Canon, a Chinese text from ca. 300 BCE, and discusses the role of the text in the world history of science, arguing that it represents an early emergence of theoretical, systematized knowledge that is independent from parallel developments in ancient Greece. It is aimed at historians of science, of knowledge and of philosophy, and generally at readers interested in these topics from an intercultural perspective and particularly with respect to China
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