1,046 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

    Design Knowledge for Virtual Learning Companions from a Value-centered Perspective

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    The increasing popularity of conversational agents such as ChatGPT has sparked interest in their potential use in educational contexts but undermines the role of companionship in learning with these tools. Our study targets the design of virtual learning companions (VLCs), focusing on bonding relationships for collaborative learning while facilitating students’ time management and motivation. We draw upon design science research (DSR) to derive prescriptive design knowledge for VLCs as the core of our contribution. Through three DSR cycles, we conducted interviews with working students and experts, held interdisciplinary workshops with the target group, designed and evaluated two conceptual prototypes, and fully coded a VLC instantiation, which we tested with students in class. Our approach has yielded 9 design principles, 28 meta-requirements, and 33 design features centered around the value-in-interaction. These encompass Human-likeness and Dialogue Management, Proactive and Reactive Behavior, and Relationship Building on the Relationship Layer (DP1,3,4), Adaptation (DP2) on the Matching Layer, as well as Provision of Supportive Content, Fostering Learning Competencies, Motivational Environment, and Ethical Responsibility (DP5-8) on the Service Layer

    Resource Allocation in Networking and Computing Systems: A Security and Dependability Perspective

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    In recent years, there has been a trend to integrate networking and computing systems, whose management is getting increasingly complex. Resource allocation is one of the crucial aspects of managing such systems and is affected by this increased complexity. Resource allocation strategies aim to effectively maximize performance, system utilization, and profit by considering virtualization technologies, heterogeneous resources, context awareness, and other features. In such complex scenario, security and dependability are vital concerns that need to be considered in future computing and networking systems in order to provide the future advanced services, such as mission-critical applications. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of existing literature that considers security and dependability for resource allocation in computing and networking systems. The current research works are categorized by considering the allocated type of resources for different technologies, scenarios, issues, attributes, and solutions. The paper presents the research works on resource allocation that includes security and dependability, both singularly and jointly. The future research directions on resource allocation are also discussed. The paper shows how there are only a few works that, even singularly, consider security and dependability in resource allocation in the future computing and networking systems and highlights the importance of jointly considering security and dependability and the need for intelligent, adaptive and robust solutions. This paper aims to help the researchers effectively consider security and dependability in future networking and computing systems.publishedVersio

    Measuring the impact of COVID-19 on hospital care pathways

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    Care pathways in hospitals around the world reported significant disruption during the recent COVID-19 pandemic but measuring the actual impact is more problematic. Process mining can be useful for hospital management to measure the conformance of real-life care to what might be considered normal operations. In this study, we aim to demonstrate that process mining can be used to investigate process changes associated with complex disruptive events. We studied perturbations to accident and emergency (A &E) and maternity pathways in a UK public hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-incidentally the hospital had implemented a Command Centre approach for patient-flow management affording an opportunity to study both the planned improvement and the disruption due to the pandemic. Our study proposes and demonstrates a method for measuring and investigating the impact of such planned and unplanned disruptions affecting hospital care pathways. We found that during the pandemic, both A &E and maternity pathways had measurable reductions in the mean length of stay and a measurable drop in the percentage of pathways conforming to normative models. There were no distinctive patterns of monthly mean values of length of stay nor conformance throughout the phases of the installation of the hospital’s new Command Centre approach. Due to a deficit in the available A &E data, the findings for A &E pathways could not be interpreted

    The Informal Screen Media Economy of Ukraine

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    This research explores informal film translation (voice over and subtitling) and distribution (pirate streaming and torrenting) practices in Ukraine, which together comprise what I call the informal screen media economy of Ukraine. This study addresses wider issues of debate around the distinct reasons media piracy exists in non-Western economies. There is already a considerable body of research on piracy outside of the traditional anti-piracy discourse, one that recognises that informal media are not all unequivocally destructive nor that they are necessarily marginal, particularly in non-Western countries. Yet, there remain gaps in the range of geographies and specific types of pirate practices being studied. Furthermore, academics often insufficiently address the intricate conditions of the context within which a given pirate activity is undertaken. Finally, whereas many researchers talk about pirates, considerably fewer talk to them. This project sets out to address these gaps. Specifically, I examine the distinct practicalities of the informal screen media practices in Ukraine through netnographic observations of pirate sites and in-depth interviews with the Ukrainian informal screen media practitioners. I explore their notably diverse motivations for engaging in these activities and how they negotiate their practices with the complex economic, cultural, and regulatory context of Ukraine. I find that, contrary to common perceptions, the Ukrainian pirates do not oppose the copyright law but operate largely within and around it. A more important factor in piracy in Ukraine instead is the economics of the Ukrainian language. This is reflected in the language exclusivity inherent to most Ukrainian pirate distribution platforms as well as in the motives of some informal translators, for whom their practice is a form of language activism. Overall, I argue for a more holistic approach to researching the informal space of the media economy, especially in non-Western contexts, one that recognises the heterogeneity of this space and explores accordingly intricate factors behind its existence. In addition, this project offers a methodological contribution by providing a detailed reflection on the use of ethnographic methods to study a pirate economy in a non-Western, non-anglophone country

    Green–blue space exposure changes and impact on individual-level well-being and mental health: a population-wide dynamic longitudinal panel study with linked survey data

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    This is the final version. Available on open access from NIHR Journals Library via the DOI in this recordBackground Cross-sectional evidence suggests that living near green and blue spaces benefits mental health; longitudinal evidence is limited. Objectives To quantify the impact of changes in green and blue spaces on common mental health disorders, well-being and health service use. Design A retrospective, dynamic longitudinal panel study. Setting Wales, UK. Participants An e-cohort comprising 99,682,902 observations of 2,801,483 adults (≄ 16 years) registered with a general practice in Wales (2008–2019). A 5312-strong ‘National Survey for Wales (NSW) subgroup’ was surveyed on well-being and visits to green and blue spaces. Main outcome measures Common mental health disorders, general practice records; subjective well-being, Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Data sources Common mental health disorder and use of general practice services were extracted quarterly from the Welsh Longitudinal General Practice Dataset. Annual ambient greenness exposure, enhanced vegetation index and access to green and blue spaces (2018) from planning and satellite data. Data were linked within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Methods Multilevel regression models examined associations between exposure to green and blue spaces and common mental health disorders and use of general practice. For the National Survey for Wales subgroup, generalised linear models examined associations between exposure to green and blue spaces and subjective well-being and common mental health disorders. Results and conclusions Our longitudinal analyses found no evidence that changes in green and blue spaces through time impacted on common mental health disorders. However, time-aggregated exposure to green and blue spaces contrasting differences between people were associated with subsequent common mental health disorders. Similarly, our cross-sectional findings add to growing evidence that residential green and blue spaces and visits are associated with well-being benefits: Greater ambient greenness (+ 1 enhanced vegetation index) was associated with lower likelihood of subsequently seeking care for a common mental health disorder [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 0.80, 95% confidence interval, (CI) 0.80 to 0.81] and with well-being with a U-shaped relationship [Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale; enhanced vegetation index beta (adjusted) –10.15, 95% CI –17.13 to −3.17; EVI2 beta (quadratic term; adj.) 12.49, 95% CI 3.02 to 21.97]. Those who used green and blue spaces for leisure reported better well-being, with diminishing extra benefit with increasing time (Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale: time outdoors (hours) beta 0.88, 95% CI 0.53 to 1.24, time outdoors2 beta −0.06, 95% CI −0.11 to −0.01) and had 4% lower odds of seeking help for common mental health disorders (AOR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.99). Those in urban areas benefited most from greater access to green and blue spaces (AOR 0.89, 95% CI 0.89 to 0.89). Those in material deprivation benefited most from leisure time outdoors (until approximately four hours per week; Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale: time outdoors × in material deprivation: 1.41, 95% CI 0.39 to 2.43; time outdoors2 × in material deprivation −0.18, 95% CI −0.33 to −0.04) although well-being remained generally lower. Limitations Longitudinal analyses were restricted by high baseline levels and limited temporal variation in ambient greenness in Wales. Changes in access to green and blue spaces could not be captured annually due to technical issues with national-level planning datasets. Future work Further analyses could investigate mental health impacts in population subgroups potentially most sensitive to local changes in access to specific types of green and blue spaces. Deriving green and blue spaces changes from planning data is needed to overcome temporal uncertainties.National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR

    Blockchain and Internet of Things in smart cities and drug supply management: Open issues, opportunities, and future directions

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    Blockchain-based drug supply management (DSM) requires powerful security and privacy procedures for high-level authentication, interoperability, and medical record sharing. Researchers have shown a surprising interest in Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart cities in recent years. By providing a variety of intelligent applications, such as intelligent transportation, industry 4.0, and smart financing, smart cities (SC) can improve the quality of life for their residents. Blockchain technology (BCT) can allow SC to offer a higher standard of security by keeping track of transactions in an immutable, secure, decentralized, and transparent distributed ledger. The goal of this study is to systematically explore the current state of research surrounding cutting-edge technologies, particularly the deployment of BCT and the IoT in DSM and SC. In this study, the defined keywords “blockchain”, “IoT”, drug supply management”, “healthcare”, and “smart cities” as well as their variations were used to conduct a systematic search of all relevant research articles that were collected from several databases such as Science Direct, JStor, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Emerald insight, IEEE, INFORMS, MDPI, ACM, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The final collection of papers on the use of BCT and IoT in DSM and SC is organized into three categories. The first category contains articles about the development and design of DSM and SC applications that incorporate BCT and IoT, such as new architecture, system designs, frameworks, models, and algorithms. Studies that investigated the use of BCT and IoT in the DSM and SC make up the second category of research. The third category is comprised of review articles regarding the incorporation of BCT and IoT into DSM and SC-based applications. Furthermore, this paper identifies various motives for using BCT and IoT in DSM and SC, as well as open problems and makes recommendations. The current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering a complete review of potential alternatives and finding areas where further research is needed. As a consequence of this, researchers are presented with intriguing potential to further create decentralized DSM and SC apps as a result of a comprehensive discussion of the relevance of BCT and its implementation.© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

    Security Technologies and Methods for Advanced Cyber Threat Intelligence, Detection and Mitigation

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    The rapid growth of the Internet interconnectivity and complexity of communication systems has led us to a significant growth of cyberattacks globally often with severe and disastrous consequences. The swift development of more innovative and effective (cyber)security solutions and approaches are vital which can detect, mitigate and prevent from these serious consequences. Cybersecurity is gaining momentum and is scaling up in very many areas. This book builds on the experience of the Cyber-Trust EU project’s methods, use cases, technology development, testing and validation and extends into a broader science, lead IT industry market and applied research with practical cases. It offers new perspectives on advanced (cyber) security innovation (eco) systems covering key different perspectives. The book provides insights on new security technologies and methods for advanced cyber threat intelligence, detection and mitigation. We cover topics such as cyber-security and AI, cyber-threat intelligence, digital forensics, moving target defense, intrusion detection systems, post-quantum security, privacy and data protection, security visualization, smart contracts security, software security, blockchain, security architectures, system and data integrity, trust management systems, distributed systems security, dynamic risk management, privacy and ethics
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