Probabilistic thinking and probability literacy in the context of risk

The aim of this paper is to develop and synthesise ideas about probabilistic thinking and highlight the considerations by illustrating how the concept of probability is entrenched with the concept of risk. We use a hermeneutic way of argument, relate the ideas to the mathematical and philosophical background of probability, and illustrate our ideas by examples that relate probability considerations to risk. Special features of competing intuitions and strategies link probabilistic thinking to its roots in psychology, to the paradigm of causality, to its empirical expressions, and to thinking and decisions. Higher-ordered probabilistic thinking is described by the categories of the theoretical character of probability, conditional probability, and by the construct of probabilistic evidence. The robustness of probabilistic misconceptions is explained by an archetypical way of thinking. The peculiar logic of decisions adds to probabilistic thinking. Finally, the purpose of probability is declared as central issue for teaching and understanding probability. Throughout, the connection of probability to risk enhances probabilistic concepts and reveals a twin-character of probability and risk

Preparing for crises with online security management education

Rising incidences of global terrorism and major criminal activities have underscored the need for high quality professional education in security risk and security technology as components of crisis management. This demand for human resource development about security management is reflected by a professional security education course developed by a Western Australian university. Learning materials developed for this course have unique attributes which include constructivist learning principles designed to provide realistic simulations and interactivity. A unit in physical security is featured to illustrate the learning processes and interactive activities incorporated into the development of these online interactive activities. Implications for HRM adopting Technologically Mediated Learning to prepare for crisis management in South East Asian communities are discussed

Representing information using parametric visual effects on groupware avatars

Parametric visual effects such as texture generation and shape grammars can be controlled to produce visually perceptible variation. This variation can be rendered on avatars in groupware systems in real time to represent user information in online environments. This type of extra information has been shown to enrich recognition and characterization, but has previously been limited to iconic representations. Modern, highly graphical virtual worlds require more naturalistic and stylistically consistent techniques to represent information. A number of different parametric texture generation techniques are considered and a set of texture characteristics are developed. The variations of these texture characteristics are examined in a study to determine how well users can recognize the visual changes in each. Another study is done to determine how much screen space is required for users to recognize these visual changes in a subset of these texture characteristics. Additionally, an example shape generation system is developed as an example of how shape grammars and L-systems can be used to represent information using a space ship metaphor. These different parametric visual effects are implemented in an example prototype system using space ships. This prototype is a complete functioning groupware application developed in XNA that utilizes many parametric texture and shape effects

Machinic Eyes: New and Post-Digital Aesthetics, Surveillance, and Resistance

This work concerns the rise of the New Aesthetic, an art project developed by James Bridle in 2012. The New Aesthetic, as envisioned by Bridle, was chiefly concerned with the overlapping of physical and digital realities through both the artifacts produced by this overlapping and the systems involved therein. I introduce the advent of the New Aesthetic and present the major criticisms: the lack of a robust theoretical and scholarly framework, the lack of a historical framework, the privileging of artifacts over systems as new Aesthetic, and the fragmented scholarly outlook on the New Aesthetic. Upon further examination, I discovered that the New Aesthetic is less of an art project but a metaphor for a global surveillance apparatus that is the result of clandestine partnerships between multinational technology corporations and intelligence agencies associated the Five Eyes consortium. In this dissertation, I critique the New Aesthetic from a scholarly viewpoint, offer a historical precedent of how the New Aesthetic came to be from cultural and technological perspectives, examine the rise of the global surveillance apparatus within the New Aesthetic, and offer ideas of how to resist surveillance as a result of our reliance upon computational technologies

24th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

In the last three decades information modelling and knowledge bases have become essentially important subjects not only in academic communities related to information systems and computer science but also in the business area where information technology is applied. The series of European – Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC) originally started as a co-operation initiative between Japan and Finland in 1982. The practical operations were then organised by professor Ohsuga in Japan and professors Hannu Kangassalo and Hannu Jaakkola in Finland (Nordic countries). Geographical scope has expanded to cover Europe and also other countries. Workshop characteristic - discussion, enough time for presentations and limited number of participants (50) / papers (30) - is typical for the conference. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: 1. Conceptual modelling: Modelling and specification languages; Domain-specific conceptual modelling; Concepts, concept theories and ontologies; Conceptual modelling of large and heterogeneous systems; Conceptual modelling of spatial, temporal and biological data; Methods for developing, validating and communicating conceptual models. 2. Knowledge and information modelling and discovery: Knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and knowledge management; Advanced data mining and analysis methods; Conceptions of knowledge and information; Modelling information requirements; Intelligent information systems; Information recognition and information modelling. 3. Linguistic modelling: Models of HCI; Information delivery to users; Intelligent informal querying; Linguistic foundation of information and knowledge; Fuzzy linguistic models; Philosophical and linguistic foundations of conceptual models. 4. Cross-cultural communication and social computing: Cross-cultural support systems; Integration, evolution and migration of systems; Collaborative societies; Multicultural web-based software systems; Intercultural collaboration and support systems; Social computing, behavioral modeling and prediction. 5. Environmental modelling and engineering: Environmental information systems (architecture); Spatial, temporal and observational information systems; Large-scale environmental systems; Collaborative knowledge base systems; Agent concepts and conceptualisation; Hazard prediction, prevention and steering systems. 6. Multimedia data modelling and systems: Modelling multimedia information and knowledge; Contentbased multimedia data management; Content-based multimedia retrieval; Privacy and context enhancing technologies; Semantics and pragmatics of multimedia data; Metadata for multimedia information systems. Overall we received 56 submissions. After careful evaluation, 16 papers have been selected as long paper, 17 papers as short papers, 5 papers as position papers, and 3 papers for presentation of perspective challenges. We thank all colleagues for their support of this issue of the EJC conference, especially the program committee, the organising committee, and the programme coordination team. The long and the short papers presented in the conference are revised after the conference and published in the Series of “Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence” by IOS Press (Amsterdam). The books “Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases” are edited by the Editing Committee of the conference. We believe that the conference will be productive and fruitful in the advance of research and application of information modelling and knowledge bases. Bernhard Thalheim Hannu Jaakkola Yasushi Kiyok

A General Theory of Emergence in Engineered Systems

Engineered systems are designed to satisfy specific needs and produce explainable/predictable results. But despite this intent, engineered systems don’t always do what they are designed to do once they are implemented. Some engineered systems produce properties and behaviors that are not clearly explainable or predictable by the properties of their components. This is a problem recognized in government and private sectors as having broad ranging financial and security consequences. It is also the essence of the emergence phenomena. A review of the literature reveals two significant gaps in the current body of knowledge on emergence as it pertains to engineered systems: 1) no conceptual model that reconciles conflicting aspects of emergence; and 2) no explanation of system factors and their relationships that affect the occurrence of emergence. The gaps are addressed in this dissertation through research using a methodology that incorporates rationalist inductive methods with modeling & simulation frameworks. Where other research and models of emergence focus on entity or agent behavior; the research in this dissertation takes place from a systems perspective. The focus is on system level behaviors and system factors as they pertain to the occurrence of emergent effects. Generally accepted thermodynamic principles and axioms for chemical reactions are used to develop scientific analogies for factors in engineered systems. A theory is derived consisting of six factors that are determinants in a mathematical model of a tipping point at which emergent effects will occur in engineered systems: 1) interoperability; 2) concentration of components; 3) component degrees of freedom; 4) variety of system regulators; 5) rate of information received vs transmitted by the system; and 6) relative amount of information received by the system vs a threshold for change in the system configuration. The theory and its implications are explored in simulation experiments. Other products and contributions of the research include: a) an ontology of emergence concepts; b) a unifying definition of emergence; and c) a system dynamics model of emergence in engineered systems

Measuring the impact of occupant behaviour on energy usage in existing homes

Thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort and air quality in buildings have a significant effect on occupant performance, productivity and satisfaction. Most importantly, earlier research has found that maintaining thermal comfort can make heavy demands on building energy usage in dwellings. Those trends are leading to even greater increases in energy demand and CO2 emissions that create a vicious cycle. In the real world, human indoor thermal comfort is influenced by complexities of past comfort history, technical practices and culture. There is a need to review of existing research and achievements. It provides great benefits to identify future research directions. For this reason, this research presents the results of an extensive literature review on previous studies on different topics of indoor comfort and human behavioural response in the built environment. This study is focused on monitoring and measuring energy consumption and physical environment in dwellings to test various methods that can capture how occupants control their indoor built environment at what cost of energy. Eight dwellings have been selected and the occupants have participated this study. Their thermal comfort, energy consumption, indoor and local outdoor physical conditions have been monitored by mixed methodologies at detailed level. Due to the level of disaggregated information, the number of dwellings was limited and the data can only represent the participating occupants, but the validation of monitoring methodologies has provided valuable overview regarding a range of methods instrumentations for measuring various parameters that could be used different levels of detailed domestic energy consumption and thermal environment information

Patterns of Discrimination: On Photographic Portraits as Documents of Truth in Automated Facial Recognition

Denne avhandlingen tar for seg fotografiers rolle i treningen av ansiktsgjenkjenningsalgoritmer, samt i selve den tekniske prosessen hvor ansikter analyseres. Gjennom en lesning av tre ulike kunstprosjekter som på ulike måter anvender eksisterende ansiktsgjenkjenningsteknologi til å problematisere denne praksisen, etablerer jeg hvordan ulike fordommer – særlig hva angår fotografiets status som objektiv representasjon av verden – påvirker systemenes evne til å analysere ansikter. De aktuelle prosjektene er ImageNet Roulette (2019) av Trevor Paglen og AI-forsker Kate Crawford, How do you see me? (2019) av Heather Dewey-Hagborg, og Spirit is a Bone (2013-15) av kunstner-duoen Broomberg & Chanarin. Problemstillingen som oppgaven forsøker å besvare er som følger: hva kan disse kunstprosjektene fortelle publikum om ansiktsgjenkjenningsteknologi som praksis, og hvilken rolle spiller digitalt fotografi som slike systemers bindeledd til den analoge verden «utenfor» dem selv? Som svar på dette tar avhandlingen for seg selve den tekniske arkitekturen og hvordan den legger føringer for ansiktsgjenkjenningssystemers operasjoner alt i designprosessen. I tillegg diskuteres ansiktsgjenkjenning fra et historisk perspektiv, hvor forsøk på å knytte juridisk identitet til kroppen gjennom fotografi spores helt tilbake til mediets oppfinnelse på 1800-tallet.Kunsthistorie mastergradsoppgaveKUN350MAHF-KU