4,728 research outputs found

    Undergraduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    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

    The Application of Data Analytics Technologies for the Predictive Maintenance of Industrial Facilities in Internet of Things (IoT) Environments

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    In industrial production environments, the maintenance of equipment has a decisive influence on costs and on the plannability of production capacities. In particular, unplanned failures during production times cause high costs, unplanned downtimes and possibly additional collateral damage. Predictive Maintenance starts here and tries to predict a possible failure and its cause so early that its prevention can be prepared and carried out in time. In order to be able to predict malfunctions and failures, the industrial plant with its characteristics, as well as wear and ageing processes, must be modelled. Such modelling can be done by replicating its physical properties. However, this is very complex and requires enormous expert knowledge about the plant and about wear and ageing processes of each individual component. Neural networks and machine learning make it possible to train such models using data and offer an alternative, especially when very complex and non-linear behaviour is evident. In order for models to make predictions, as much data as possible about the condition of a plant and its environment and production planning data is needed. In Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments, the amount of available data is constantly increasing. Intelligent sensors and highly interconnected production facilities produce a steady stream of data. The sheer volume of data, but also the steady stream in which data is transmitted, place high demands on the data processing systems. If a participating system wants to perform live analyses on the incoming data streams, it must be able to process the incoming data at least as fast as the continuous data stream delivers it. If this is not the case, the system falls further and further behind in processing and thus in its analyses. This also applies to Predictive Maintenance systems, especially if they use complex and computationally intensive machine learning models. If sufficiently scalable hardware resources are available, this may not be a problem at first. However, if this is not the case or if the processing takes place on decentralised units with limited hardware resources (e.g. edge devices), the runtime behaviour and resource requirements of the type of neural network used can become an important criterion. This thesis addresses Predictive Maintenance systems in IIoT environments using neural networks and Deep Learning, where the runtime behaviour and the resource requirements are relevant. The question is whether it is possible to achieve better runtimes with similarly result quality using a new type of neural network. The focus is on reducing the complexity of the network and improving its parallelisability. Inspired by projects in which complexity was distributed to less complex neural subnetworks by upstream measures, two hypotheses presented in this thesis emerged: a) the distribution of complexity into simpler subnetworks leads to faster processing overall, despite the overhead this creates, and b) if a neural cell has a deeper internal structure, this leads to a less complex network. Within the framework of a qualitative study, an overall impression of Predictive Maintenance applications in IIoT environments using neural networks was developed. Based on the findings, a novel model layout was developed named Sliced Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (SlicedLSTM). The SlicedLSTM implements the assumptions made in the aforementioned hypotheses in its inner model architecture. Within the framework of a quantitative study, the runtime behaviour of the SlicedLSTM was compared with that of a reference model in the form of laboratory tests. The study uses synthetically generated data from a NASA project to predict failures of modules of aircraft gas turbines. The dataset contains 1,414 multivariate time series with 104,897 samples of test data and 160,360 samples of training data. As a result, it could be proven for the specific application and the data used that the SlicedLSTM delivers faster processing times with similar result accuracy and thus clearly outperforms the reference model in this respect. The hypotheses about the influence of complexity in the internal structure of the neuronal cells were confirmed by the study carried out in the context of this thesis

    Investigating the learning potential of the Second Quantum Revolution: development of an approach for secondary school students

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    In recent years we have witnessed important changes: the Second Quantum Revolution is in the spotlight of many countries, and it is creating a new generation of technologies. To unlock the potential of the Second Quantum Revolution, several countries have launched strategic plans and research programs that finance and set the pace of research and development of these new technologies (like the Quantum Flagship, the National Quantum Initiative Act and so on). The increasing pace of technological changes is also challenging science education and institutional systems, requiring them to help to prepare new generations of experts. This work is placed within physics education research and contributes to the challenge by developing an approach and a course about the Second Quantum Revolution. The aims are to promote quantum literacy and, in particular, to value from a cultural and educational perspective the Second Revolution. The dissertation is articulated in two parts. In the first, we unpack the Second Quantum Revolution from a cultural perspective and shed light on the main revolutionary aspects that are elevated to the rank of principles implemented in the design of a course for secondary school students, prospective and in-service teachers. The design process and the educational reconstruction of the activities are presented as well as the results of a pilot study conducted to investigate the impact of the approach on students' understanding and to gather feedback to refine and improve the instructional materials. The second part consists of the exploration of the Second Quantum Revolution as a context to introduce some basic concepts of quantum physics. We present the results of an implementation with secondary school students to investigate if and to what extent external representations could play any role to promote students’ understanding and acceptance of quantum physics as a personal reliable description of the world

    Minoritized Knowledges: Agency, Literature, Temporalities

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    Abstract “I am not erudite enough to be interdisciplinary, but I can break rules.” Gayatri Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, xiii “Minoritized Knowledges: Agency, Literature, Temporalities,” queries an agency exercised by literature in excess of authorial intention as well as the text itself, which is transforming in its unoriginality, as a convergence of exploited, minoritized knowledges. The six chapters engage multiple fields as discourses rather than territories. “Nonidentity and Vectors of History,” brings Critical Theory’s notion of nonidentity into dialogue with key literary work by authors including Claudia Rankine and Elfriede Jelinek. The historical principle of nonidentity illuminates a convergence in their writing, which facilitates understanding history as vectors of trauma rather than modes of domination. Chapter 2. “Literary Agency and Minoritized Grammar'' addresses the political work of contemporary poets, including Fred Moten, contesting the sequestering of alternative minoritized grammars in poetic terms. Limiting alternative grammar to poetic experimentation perpetuates melancholy and epistemic hegemony. Chapter 3. “Economies of Sacrifice,” situates the work historically, where sacrifice emerges as central to western hegemonic logic. Recent feminist and queer mobilizations of the figure of Antigone highlight how sacrifice undergirds western tradition/s of exploitation and increasingly generates economies of violence that mobilize current knowledge markets. Chapter 4. “Unfinished Knowledge,” sets the stage by underscoring the convergence of partial, situated and unfinished knowledges in the works of Black, feminist and queer theorists for which literature is key. Such incomplete epistemologies continue to be underestimated and ambivalently received. Chapter 5. “The Folly of Narrative,” engages with current critical re-readings of literary realism, to draw out alternative epistemological figures and temporalities that contest the logic of sacrifice. Chapter 6. “Literary Agency and Minoritized Knowledges” revisits the history of western ideas decentering eurocentrism’s deployment of certainty qua mastery and completion under the guise of knowledge. Pivoting from the convergence of decolonial queer feminist critique, I elaborate alternative epistemological figures, including counter-grammar, nonidentity and folly. By undermining dominant dichotomous epistemologies and inviting diasporic study, these figures challenge epistemic injustice. The contrast between epistemologies of exploitation versus decolonization is not dichotomous but performative. Hence, it is situated, situational, contextual, temporal, historical and (dis)located

    Undergraduate Catalog of Studies, 2022-2023

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    A Theistic Critique of Secular Moral Nonnaturalism

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    This dissertation is an exercise in Theistic moral apologetics. It will be developing both a critique of secular nonnaturalist moral theory (moral Platonism) at the level of metaethics, as well as a positive form of the moral argument for the existence of God that follows from this critique. The critique will focus on the work of five prominent metaethical theorists of secular moral non-naturalism: David Enoch, Eric Wielenberg, Russ Shafer-Landau, Michael Huemer, and Christopher Kulp. Each of these thinkers will be critically examined. Following this critique, the positive moral argument for the existence of God will be developed, combining a cumulative, abductive argument that follows from filling in the content of a succinct apagogic argument. The cumulative abductive argument and the apagogic argument together, with a transcendental and modal component, will be presented to make the case that Theism is the best explanation for the kind of moral, rational beings we are and the kind of universe in which we live, a rational intelligible universe

    Erosion Of Credibility: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Twitter News Headlines from The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, And USA Today

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    To entice and commodify social media news consumers, contemporary news organizations have increasingly relied on data analytics to boost audience engagement. Clicks, likes, and shares are the metrics that now guide the editorial process and shape decisions about content and coverage. As such, news headlines are regularly manipulated to attract the attention of those who quickly scroll through social media networks on computers and smartphones. However, few studies have examined the typologies of news content most likely to be manipulated in social media news headlines or the impact of news headline manipulation on news source credibility. For this research, source credibility theory has been updated for a practical application of today’s social media news landscape and used as a lens to examine the phenomenon, its impact on audience engagement, and association with traditional standards of journalism and credibility. A mixed methods content analysis was conducted of news headlines published on Twitter compared to headlines and content published on the websites of five traditional newspapers: the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. The results indicated that the typologies of news most likely to be manipulated for Twitter publication (opinion, politics, health/medical), were also the least credible. Conversely, typologies of news that were least likely to be manipulated for Twitter publication (international, consumer, disaster), were rated the most credible

    Consulting project: Descubriendo Juntxs

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    El sector de las capacitaciones es cada vez más valorado por las empresas y busca mejorar el desenvolvimiento de las personas, tanto en lo laboral como lo social o familiar. Sin embargo, la desigualdad es una barrera para ciertas personas al momento de poder recibir este servicio. En ese sentido, es que nace Descubriendo Juntxs, empresa fundada el año 2023 con un importante enfoque social: llevar las capacitaciones a gente en los sectores de más difícil acceso peruano, como puede ser el sector rural. Esta realidad es contrastada por la fundadora de la empresa, Saddit Suice Vilchez, la cual es originaria de la ciudad de Huancayo y ha presenciado la desigualdad que vive mucha gente al momento de acceder a capacitaciones o educación de calidad. Por ende, el foco y motivo de la empresa es buscar mejorar la vida de la gente que no tiene fácil acceso a este servicio, a través de capacitaciones y de manera gratuita. Esta labor social viene siendo financiada por la misma empresa a través de los servicios que brinda a sus clientes. No obstante, el problema identificado es que no existen clientes nuevos para la empresa, lo cual ha generado un bajo flujo de caja y una ausencia de movimiento laboral en Descubriendo Juntxs. En consecuencia, el proceso de consultoría se centró en proponer soluciones a corto y mediano plazo, basadas en un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo, donde se recopiló información de los clientes anteriores, la cual sirvió para estudiarse y contrastarla con nuevas oportunidades encontradas por el equipo. Después de evaluar las alternativas de solución, se propuso una solución final, la cual contempla una estrategia de negocios que servirá para que Descubriendo Juntxs pueda generar nuevos ingresos y luego expanda su equipo a más personas, poniendo en marcha un plan de marketing, necesario para captar más clientes.The training sector is currently witnessing a heightened appreciation among companies, with a strong emphasis on enhancing individuals' performance across professional, social, and familial domains. Nevertheless, the pervasive issue of inequality acts as a significant impediment for certain individuals in accessing these services. It is in this context that Descubriendo Juntxs was established in 2023, underpinned by a profound social mission: to extend training opportunities to individuals residing in the most underserved regions of Peru, particularly in rural areas. The founder of the company, Saddit Vilchez, hailing from the city of Huancayo, brings a personal understanding of the inequalities many people face in their pursuit of quality training and education. Hence, the company's core purpose and driving force revolve around enhancing the lives of individuals who encounter formidable obstacles in accessing such services, all the while delivering this training free of charge. To sustain this noble social endeavor, the company leverages the revenues generated from the services it provides to its clients. However, a critical challenge has emerged in the form of stagnant client acquisition, resulting in reduced cash flow and a notable absence of labor movement within Descubriendo Juntxs. Consequently, the consulting process has been meticulously crafted to propose short and medium-term solutions. Rooted in both qualitative and quantitative analyses, this approach involved the aggregation of insights from prior clients, which were then meticulously scrutinized and aligned with fresh opportunities identified by the consulting team. Following a thorough evaluation of potential alternatives, a final solution has been outlined. This solution entails the formulation of a business strategy designed to enable Descubriendo Juntxs to secure additional income streams and subsequently expand its team, ushering in an era of growth through the implementation of an essential marketing plan aimed at attracting a broader clientele base

    Evaluation of the Online Sport-Specific Mindfulemotions Program in a Population of Scandinavian Elite Athletes Measuring Psychological Parameters

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    Professional athletes are often affected by public pressure, choking under pressure, depression, anxiety, stress, or burnout. Mindfulness training seems to be a valuable tool for reducing those symptoms. Due to the general interest in online applications and the constraints of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the future of mindfulness training might be digital, and the expansion of such interventions is inevitable. Therefore, we translated and digitalised the German sports-specific mindfulness program called mindfulemotions (https://mindful-motions.de/) and evaluated it with a psychological randomised controlled trial pilot study in a population of Scandinavian elite athletes making it the first English online mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) for professional athletes. 28 athletes started the involvement, and 12 athletes finished the participation. The athletes completed several self-report questionnaires, a diary at the end of the intervention and follow-up questions after one year assessing psychological parameters before and after the mindfulness practices and website feedback. The results suggest that the web-based online program seems at the first glance feasible, comprehensible, and applicable. The nonparametric post-test analyses eventuated in an increase in mindfulness and self-compassion scores for the intervention group, but not for the control group. Overall, due to the small sample size, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the feasibility of the web-based online program, but the website’s establishment and the program’s implementation were successful. This research supports the need to execute a more extensive and comprehensive investigation of the online mindfulemotion program and its potential for elite athletes
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