1,489 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

    Modern computing: Vision and challenges

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    Over the past six decades, the computing systems field has experienced significant transformations, profoundly impacting society with transformational developments, such as the Internet and the commodification of computing. Underpinned by technological advancements, computer systems, far from being static, have been continuously evolving and adapting to cover multifaceted societal niches. This has led to new paradigms such as cloud, fog, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), which offer fresh economic and creative opportunities. Nevertheless, this rapid change poses complex research challenges, especially in maximizing potential and enhancing functionality. As such, to maintain an economical level of performance that meets ever-tighter requirements, one must understand the drivers of new model emergence and expansion, and how contemporary challenges differ from past ones. To that end, this article investigates and assesses the factors influencing the evolution of computing systems, covering established systems and architectures as well as newer developments, such as serverless computing, quantum computing, and on-device AI on edge devices. Trends emerge when one traces technological trajectory, which includes the rapid obsolescence of frameworks due to business and technical constraints, a move towards specialized systems and models, and varying approaches to centralized and decentralized control. This comprehensive review of modern computing systems looks ahead to the future of research in the field, highlighting key challenges and emerging trends, and underscoring their importance in cost-effectively driving technological progress

    Short Course Handouts Bundle for the Training of Trainers Course: Introductory course to facilitating social learning and stakeholder engagement in natural resource management contexts

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    This document is a compilation of the course handouts (materials) developed and produced for the “Training of Trainers” Short Course – the full title of which is the: “Introductory course to facilitating social learning and stakeholder engagement in natural resource management contexts”

    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

    Horizontally distributed inference of deep neural networks for AI-enabled IoT

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    Motivated by the pervasiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the current “smart everything” scenario, this article provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent research at the intersection of both domains, focusing on the design and development of specific mechanisms for enabling a collaborative inference across edge devices towards the in situ execution of highly complex state-of-the-art deep neural networks (DNNs), despite the resource-constrained nature of such infrastructures. In particular, the review discusses the most salient approaches conceived along those lines, elaborating on the specificities of the partitioning schemes and the parallelism paradigms explored, providing an organized and schematic discussion of the underlying workflows and associated communication patterns, as well as the architectural aspects of the DNNs that have driven the design of such techniques, while also highlighting both the primary challenges encountered at the design and operational levels and the specific adjustments or enhancements explored in response to them.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. DPI2017-87494-RMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación | Ref. PDC2021-121644-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2022/03-GR

    Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems

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    The aim of this reprint focuses on the latest protocol research, software/hardware development and implementation, and system architecture design in addressing emerging security and privacy issues for modern wireless communication networks. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following: deep-learning-based security and privacy design; covert communications; information-theoretical foundations for advanced security and privacy techniques; lightweight cryptography for power constrained networks; physical layer key generation; prototypes and testbeds for security and privacy solutions; encryption and decryption algorithm for low-latency constrained networks; security protocols for modern wireless communication networks; network intrusion detection; physical layer design with security consideration; anonymity in data transmission; vulnerabilities in security and privacy in modern wireless communication networks; challenges of security and privacy in node–edge–cloud computation; security and privacy design for low-power wide-area IoT networks; security and privacy design for vehicle networks; security and privacy design for underwater communications networks

    Circular Tutelage: a Sustainable Approach Toward Remediation and Enhancement of Endangered Areas

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    Nowadays, one of the most important topics in the public dialogue concerns the concept of sustainability and its application in everyday life, given the urgence to reduce or counteract the negative effects partly caused by human activities. Fighting poverty, eradicating hunger and malnutrition, increasing the quality of life, protecting and restoring biodiversity, ensuring access to energy sources are just some of the goals for sustainable development included in the United Nations Organization's 2030 Agenda. Every country is called to make its contribution to jointly face these great challenges, rising from the awareness that the planet's resources are limited, unequally distributed and their exploitation often involves the alteration of delicate environmental balances. In the present work, a very productive transitional area prone to suffer from pollution and dangerous algal blooms, has been studied in order to propose methodologies and solutions which, if adopted, can contribute not only to mitigate environmental damages but also to provide new tools that can contribute to the development of local populations in a circular economy perspective. In particular, research has been carried out aimed at the development of solutions for the environmental restoration of ecosystems threatened by human pressure, proposing highly circular and sustainable processes based on the use of biomass from wastes or by-products. The proposed production processes are aimed at exploiting and valorizing these wastes, avoiding the compromission of the hygiene and quality of the ecosystem. In addition to the environmental sustainability also the economic and social one are considered in the proposed solutions. The area is characterized by a semi-enclosed lagoon structure, depths of up to two meters, over 25 km2. This area alone is responsible for the production of 55% of all clams produced in Italy, with over fifty million euros in turnover; essentially a collective heritage for the cities and economies that depend precisely on mussel farming and supporting activities. In order to mitigate the effects related to the excessive presence of algal biomass in the area, a cost / benefit analysis was carried out to determine the possibility of exploit this biomass as a secondary raw material for the production of market goods such as biofuels, drugs, supplements, and much more. The possibilities for economic exploitations of the biomass would in fact make the collection of this component from the environment advantageous and would avoid negative phenomena in the aquatic environment. The feasibility of the proposed solutions was also accompanied by a foresight analysis in which possible social dynamics were considered which have led, in the past, to the failure of a project whose mission was to safeguard and improve the conditions of the lagoon. In order to carry out the feasibility study, in addition to the composition of the constituent elements of algae determination, their possible contamination by various classes of pollutants, whose presence could constitute an obstacle to their exploitation, was also studied. The thesis also considers another voluminous waste biomass present in the lagoon, namely byproduct seashells which constitute a process waste from the bivalves that are produced in the lagoon and which, unfortunately, are often illegally discharged into the canals or deployed in landfill and classified as special waste. Landfilling not only has an economic impact on small fishing businesses but also reduces the sustainability of aquaculture activities, which according to many, will be a key sector for development in the coming years. Hence, the shell of the clam essentially consists of calcium carbonate and can be used as a constituent of soil conditioners and fertilizers for agricultural purposes or as an adsorbent material in biofilters and in environmental bioremediation methodologies.Oggigiorno, una delle tematiche di maggior rilievo nel dialogo comune riguarda il concetto di sostenibilità e della sua applicazione nel quotidiano per rispondere all’esigenza di ridurre o contrastare vari effetti negativi in parte causati dalle attività umane. Contrastare la povertà, eradicare la fame e la malnutrizione, tutelare e ripristinare la biodiversità, sicurezza energetica, sono solo alcuni degli obiettivi per lo sviluppo sostenibile presenti nell’Agenda 2030 dell’Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite. Ogni Paese è chiamato a fornire il suo contributo per affrontare in comune queste grandi sfide, nate dalla consapevolezza che le risorse del pianeta sono limitate, distribuite iniquamente e il loro sfruttamento spesso comporta l’alterazione di delicati equilibri ambientali. Nel presente lavoro di tesi si è studiato un ecosistema di transizione molto produttivo, ma fragile, per proporre metodologie e soluzioni che se adottate possano contribuire non solo a mitigare i danni ambientali, ma anche a fornire nuovi strumenti che possano contribuire allo sviluppo delle popolazioni locali in un’ottica di economia circolare. In particolare, si sono effettuate ricerche orientate allo sviluppo di soluzioni per il ripristino ambientale di ecosistemi minacciati dalla pressione antropica, proponendo processi altamente circolari e sostenibili basati sull’utilizzo di biomasse provenienti da scarti o sottoprodotti. I processi produttivi proposti sono orientati a sfruttare e valorizzare questi scarti evitando che compromettano l’igiene e la qualità degli ecosistemi in cui essi sono presenti o in cui vengono riversati. In questo ambito si sono approfonditi argomenti propri della sfera sociale ed economica, per garantire oltre alla sostenibilità ambientale anche quella economica e sociale delle soluzioni proposte. La zona è caratterizzata da una struttura lagunare semichiusa, fondali profondi massimo due metri e complessivamente è uno specchio d’acqua di 25 km2. Quest’area sola è responsabile per la produzione del 55% di tutte le vongole prodotte in Italia, con oltre cinquanta milioni di euro di volume d’affari; sostanzialmente un patrimonio collettivo per le città e le economie che dipendono appunto dalle attività di mitilicoltura e dalle attività consortili e coadiuvanti. Allo scopo di mitigare gli effetti legati alla presenza eccessiva di biomassa algale nella zona, si è svolta una analisi costi / benefici per determinare la possibilità di sfruttare al meglio tale biomassa come materia prima seconda per la produzione di oggetti e beni di consumo, come biocombustibili, farmaci, integratori e tanto altro. La possibilità di sfruttare economicamente la biomassa renderebbe infatti vantaggiosa la raccolta di questa componente dall’ambiente. La realizzabilità delle soluzioni proposte è stata inoltre corredata da un’analisi in previsione in cui si sono considerate possibili dinamiche sociali che hanno portato, in passato, al fallimento di un progetto che aveva la missione di salvaguardare e migliorare le condizioni della laguna. inoltre, è stata studiata la composizione degli elementi costitutivi di alghe e anche la loro possibile contaminazione da parte di varie classi di inquinanti la cui presenza potrebbe costituire un ostacolo per il loro sfruttamento. Nella tesi viene inoltre considerata anche un’altra voluminosa biomassa di scarto presente nella laguna, “il capulerio” che costituisce uno scarto di lavorazione dei bivalvi prodotti. Lo smaltimento in discarica non solo incide economicamente sulle piccole imprese di pescatori, ma riduce la sostenibilità delle attività di acquacultura. In un’ottica di sostenibilità e circolarità, il guscio delle conchiglie è costituito da carbonato di calcio e può trovare impiego come costituente di ammendanti e fertilizzanti per scopi agricoli o come materiale adsorbente in biofiltri e in altre metodologie di bioremediazione ambientale
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