774 research outputs found
A Theistic Critique of Secular Moral Nonnaturalism
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
Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion. Collected Works, Volume 5
This fifth volume on Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different fields of applications and in mathematics, and is available in open-access. The collected contributions of this volume have either been published or presented after disseminating the fourth volume in 2015 in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals, or they are new. The contributions of each part of this volume are chronologically ordered.
First Part of this book presents some theoretical advances on DSmT, dealing mainly with modified Proportional Conflict Redistribution Rules (PCR) of combination with degree of intersection, coarsening techniques, interval calculus for PCR thanks to set inversion via interval analysis (SIVIA), rough set classifiers, canonical decomposition of dichotomous belief functions, fast PCR fusion, fast inter-criteria analysis with PCR, and improved PCR5 and PCR6 rules preserving the (quasi-)neutrality of (quasi-)vacuous belief assignment in the fusion of sources of evidence with their Matlab codes.
Because more applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the fourth book of DSmT in 2015, the second part of this volume is about selected applications of DSmT mainly in building change detection, object recognition, quality of data association in tracking, perception in robotics, risk assessment for torrent protection and multi-criteria decision-making, multi-modal image fusion, coarsening techniques, recommender system, levee characterization and assessment, human heading perception, trust assessment, robotics, biometrics, failure detection, GPS systems, inter-criteria analysis, group decision, human activity recognition, storm prediction, data association for autonomous vehicles, identification of maritime vessels, fusion of support vector machines (SVM), Silx-Furtif RUST code library for information fusion including PCR rules, and network for ship classification.
Finally, the third part presents interesting contributions related to belief functions in general published or presented along the years since 2015. These contributions are related with decision-making under uncertainty, belief approximations, probability transformations, new distances between belief functions, non-classical multi-criteria decision-making problems with belief functions, generalization of Bayes theorem, image processing, data association, entropy and cross-entropy measures, fuzzy evidence numbers, negator of belief mass, human activity recognition, information fusion for breast cancer therapy, imbalanced data classification, and hybrid techniques mixing deep learning with belief functions as well
Evaluating Architectural Safeguards for Uncertain AI Black-Box Components
Although tremendous progress has been made in Artificial Intelligence (AI), it entails new challenges. The growing complexity of learning tasks requires more complex AI components, which increasingly exhibit unreliable behaviour. In this book, we present a model-driven approach to model architectural safeguards for AI components and analyse their effect on the overall system reliability
Evaluating Architectural Safeguards for Uncertain AI Black-Box Components
Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) hat in den vergangenen Jahren große Erfolge erzielt und ist immer stärker in den Fokus geraten. Insbesondere Methoden des Deep Learning (ein Teilgebiet der KI), in dem Tiefe Neuronale Netze (TNN) zum Einsatz kommen, haben beeindruckende Ergebnisse erzielt, z.B. im autonomen Fahren oder der Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion. Die immense Datenabhängigkeit und Komplexität von TNN haben jedoch gravierende Schwachstellen offenbart. So reagieren TNN sensitiv auf bestimmte Einflussfaktoren der Umwelt (z.B. Helligkeits- oder Kontraständerungen in Bildern) und führen zu falschen Vorhersagen. Da KI (und insbesondere TNN) in sicherheitskritischen Systemen eingesetzt werden, kann solch ein Verhalten zu lebensbedrohlichen Situationen führen. Folglich haben sich neue Forschungspotenziale entwickelt, die sich explizit der Absicherung von KI-Verfahren widmen.
Ein wesentliches Problem bei vielen KI-Verfahren besteht darin, dass ihr Verhalten oder Vorhersagen auf Grund ihrer hohen Komplexität nicht erklärt bzw. nachvollzogen werden können. Solche KI-Modelle werden auch als Black-Box bezeichnet. Bestehende Arbeiten adressieren dieses Problem, in dem zur Laufzeit “bösartige” Eingabedaten identifiziert oder auf Basis von Ein- und Ausgaben potenziell falsche Vorhersagen erkannt werden. Arbeiten in diesem Bereich erlauben es zwar potenziell unsichere Zustände zu erkennen, machen allerdings keine Aussagen, inwiefern mit solchen Situationen umzugehen ist. Somit haben sich eine Reihe von Ansätzen auf Architektur- bzw. Systemebene etabliert, um mit KI-induzierten Unsicherheiten umzugehen (z.B. N-Version-Programming-Muster oder Simplex Architekturen). Darüber hinaus wächst die Anforderung an KI-basierte Systeme sich zur Laufzeit anzupassen, um mit sich verändernden Bedingungen der Umwelt umgehen zu können. Systeme mit solchen Fähigkeiten sind bekannt als Selbst-Adaptive Systeme. Software-Ingenieure stehen nun vor der Herausforderung, aus einer Menge von Architekturellen Sicherheitsmechanismen, den Ansatz zu identifizieren, der die nicht-funktionalen Anforderungen bestmöglich erfüllt. Jeder Ansatz hat jedoch unterschiedliche Auswirkungen auf die Qualitätsattribute des Systems. Architekturelle Entwurfsentscheidungen gilt es so früh wie möglich (d.h. zur Entwurfszeit) aufzulösen, um nach der Implementierung des Systems Änderungen zu vermeiden, die mit hohen Kosten verbunden sind. Darüber hinaus müssen insbesondere sicherheitskritische Systeme den strengen (Qualitäts-) Anforderungen gerecht werden, die bereits auf Architektur-Ebene des Software-Systems adressiert werden müssen.
Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit einem modellbasierten Ansatz, der Software-Ingenieure bei der Entwicklung von KI-basierten System unterstützt, um architekturelle Entwurfsentscheidungen (bzw. architekturellen Sicherheitsmechanismen) zum Umgang mit KI-induzierten Unsicherheiten zu bewerten. Insbesondere wird eine Methode zur Zuverlässigkeitsvorhersage von KI-basierten Systemen auf Basis von etablierten modellbasierten Techniken erforscht. In einem weiteren Schritt wird die Erweiterbarkeit/Verallgemeinerbarkeit der Zuverlässigkeitsvorhersage für Selbst-Adaptive Systeme betrachtet. Der Kern beider Ansätze ist ein Umweltmodell zur Modellierung () von KI-spezifischen Unsicherheiten und () der operativen Umwelt des Selbst-Adaptiven Systems. Zuletzt wird eine Klassifikationsstruktur bzw. Taxonomie vorgestellt, welche, auf Basis von verschiedenen Dimensionen, KI-basierte Systeme in unterschiedliche Klassen einteilt. Jede Klasse ist mit einem bestimmten Grad an Verlässlichkeitszusicherungen assoziiert, die für das gegebene System gemacht werden können.
Die Dissertation umfasst vier zentrale Beiträge.
1. Domänenunabhängige Modellierung von KI-spezifischen Umwelten: In diesem Beitrag wurde ein Metamodell zur Modellierung von KI-spezifischen Unsicherheiten und ihrer zeitlichen Ausdehnung entwickelt, welche die operative Umgebung eines selbstadaptiven Systems bilden.
2. Zuverlässigkeitsvorhersage von KI-basierten Systemen: Der vorgestellte Ansatz erweitert eine existierende Architekturbeschreibungssprache (genauer: Palladio Component Model) zur Modellierung von Komponenten-basierten Software-Architekturen sowie einem dazugehörigenWerkzeug zur Zuverlässigkeitsvorhersage (für klassische Software-Systeme). Das Problem der Black-Box-Eigenschaft einer KI-Komponente wird durch ein Sensitivitätsmodell adressiert, das, in Abhängigkeit zu verschiedenen Unsicherheitsfaktoren, die Prädektive Unsicherheit einer KI-Komponente modelliert.
3. Evaluation von Selbst-Adaptiven Systemen: Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit einem Rahmenwerk für die Evaluation von Selbst-Adaptiven Systemen, welche für die Absicherung von KI-Komponenten vorgesehen sind. Die Arbeiten zu diesem Beitrag verallgemeinern/erweitern die Konzepte von Beitrag 2 für Selbst-Adaptive Systeme.
4. Klassen der Verlässlichkeitszusicherungen: Der Beitrag beschreibt eine Klassifikationsstruktur, die den Grad der Zusicherung (in Bezug auf bestimmte Systemeigenschaften) eines KI-basierten Systems bewertet.
Der zweite Beitrag wurde im Rahmen einer Fallstudie aus dem Bereich des Autonomen Fahrens validiert. Es wurde geprüft, ob Plausibilitätseigenschaften bei der Zuverlässigkeitsvorhersage erhalten bleiben. Hierbei konnte nicht nur die Plausibilität des Ansatzes nachgewiesen werden, sondern auch die generelle Möglichkeit Entwurfsentscheidungen zur Entwurfszeit zu bewerten. Für die Validierung des dritten Beitrags wurden ebenfalls Plausibilitätseigenschaften geprüft (im Rahmen der eben genannten Fallstudie und einer Fallstudie aus dem Bereich der Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion). Darüber hinaus wurden zwei weitere Community-Fallstudien betrachtet, bei denen (auf Basis von Simulatoren) Selbst-Adaptive Systeme bewertet und mit den Ergebnissen unseres Ansatzes verglichen wurden. In beiden Fällen konnte gezeigt werden, dass zum einen alle Plausibilitätseigenschaft erhalten werden und zum anderen, der Ansatz dieselben Ergebnisse erzeugt, wie die Domänen-spezifischen Simulatoren. Darüber hinaus konnten wir zeigen, dass unser Ansatz Software-Ingenieure bzgl. der Bewertung von Entwurfsentscheidungen, die für die Entwicklung von Selbst-Adaptiven Systemen relevant sind, unterstützt. Der erste Beitrag wurde implizit mit Beitrag 2 und mit 3 validiert. Für den vierten Beitrag wurde die Klassifikationsstruktur auf bekannte und repräsentative KI-Systeme angewandt und diskutiert. Es konnte jedes KI-System in eine der Klassen eingeordnet werden, so dass die generelle Anwendbarkeit der Klassifikationsstruktur gezeigt wurde
Geographic information extraction from texts
A large volume of unstructured texts, containing valuable geographic information, is available online. This information – provided implicitly or explicitly – is useful not only for scientific studies (e.g., spatial humanities) but also for many practical applications (e.g., geographic information retrieval). Although large progress has been achieved in geographic information extraction from texts, there are still unsolved challenges and issues, ranging from methods, systems, and data, to applications and privacy. Therefore, this workshop will provide a timely opportunity to discuss the recent advances, new ideas, and concepts but also identify research gaps in geographic information extraction
Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en Ciberseguridad: actas de las VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en ciberseguridad: Vigo, 21 a 23 de junio de 2023
Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en Ciberseguridad (8ª. 2023. Vigo)atlanTTicAMTEGA: Axencia para a modernización tecnolóxica de GaliciaINCIBE: Instituto Nacional de Cibersegurida
Knowledge on the Move: Studies on Mobile Social Education
This book draws on work undertaken by colleagues involved with the Erasmus+ project called SoMoveED, or Social Education on the Move. The broader aim of the project is to develop, implement, and disseminate innovation in the form of a model of mobile social education in higher education, of which this book makes up one small part.The project draws together institutions and organizations from ten European countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom), including eight universities, two non-governmental organizations and one social enterprise. Approximately 40 people are working on the project, including academic teachers and researchers, entrepreneurs, and social activists. The project’s main objective is to explore and develop ways in which the teaching process can be organized in motion, outside the university walls, with the participation of stakeholders from outside the academic community (citizens, representatives of institutions and organizations, activists, people at risk of marginalization). This model incorporates three important features into the educational process: (1) mobility; (2) participation; and (3) inclusion
Testing the role of extracellular vesicles in early left right patterning
Abstract
Bilaterian animals, such as humans, are characterized by an external roughly mirror symmetry
along the left – right axis that covers a pronounced internal asymmetric arrangement of the
thoracic and abdominal organs. While external symmetry has been associated with health and
beauty standards, the internal asymmetry may rely more on efficiency and functionality of the
different physiological systems. The left – right asymmetry of visceral organs is established
early on during embryonic development within a transient and specialized structure, commonly
referred to as the left – right organizer (LRO).
The LROs appear in many shapes and sizes, depending on the species, but a common feature
in some vertebrates is the requirement of motile cilia. The movement of these tiny hair-like
protrusions generate a directional fluid flow, that scales with the cube of cilia length, in order
to become capable of triggering a differentiated response on the left side of the LRO. Such
flow-dependent response involves Pkd2 channel activation and calcium signaling that
subsequently drive the left sided expression of the Nodal signaling cascade.
Nodal is a secreted protein that translates the asymmetries established at the LRO to the rest
of the embryo, through the lateral plate mesoderm. As embryonic development evolves, at
specific time points and locations along the anterior – posterior axis, Nodal induces the
expression of genes involved in the formation of the heart, brain, gut and its derivatives,
modulating the lateralization of these organs.
With this work, we dedicated our efforts to understanding a few molecular and cellular steps
missing in the establishment of the left – right axis within the LRO. In the Chapter 2, we
explored how the fluid flow is sensed by the LRO cells. Between the two hypotheses in the
field, one based on mechanosensing and other on chemosensing properties of the flow, we
found that the number of extracellular vesicles is too low and variable to transport sufficient
and efficiently a sidedness molecular signal towards the left sided LRO cells. Moreover,
pharmacological impairment of distinct endocytic pathways did not impact on heart laterality
arrangement.
We also found out an upstream regulator of Notch signaling, syntenin-a, involved in the cell
fate decision between motile and immotile cilia. We showed that syntenin-a loss-of-function
severely affected the left – right axis development. By downregulating the levels of syntenin a, Notch signaling is activated increasing the expression of her12 and resulting in a higher
number of immotile cilia, in concordance with our previous published data. We next described
a potential molecular switch, downstream of Notch signaling, composed by the Rabconnectin
complex. As this complex is known to promote V-ATPase assembly and consequently its
activity, we inhibited the V-ATPase activity and we observed an increase in the number of
motile cilia. Thus, suggesting that the link between Notch signaling and motile – immotile cilia
ratio is through the modulation of pH.
Lastly, in Chapter 3, we focused on the impact of ciliary dysfunction in the epithelial respiratory
cells. We characterized the distribution pattern of several ciliary proteins in two siblings
harboring a primary ciliary dyskinesia causing mutation on Zmynd10 gene. Recent studies
showed that ZMYND10 is one of the cytoplasmatic factors responsible for stabilizing and
driving axonemal dynein arm assembly. We showed here that outer and inner axonemal
dyneins, that become mostly absent from the ciliary axoneme in Zmynd10 mutant respiratory
ciliated cells, can sometimes enter the proximal part of the cilium. These results suggest that to a low extent the dynein arms can still assemble and be transported into the cilium in the
absence of ZMYND10, thus opening an opportunity for small-molecule therapies that promote
protein stability in primary ciliary dyskinesia disease management.Resumo
Os animais bilaterais, como os humanos, são caracterizados por uma simetria externa ao
longo do eixo esquerda – direita que cobre um arranjo interno pronunciadamente assimétrico
dos órgãos torácicos e abdominais. Enquanto a simetria externa tem sido associada a
padrões de saúde e beleza, a assimetria interna pode depender maioritariamente da
eficiência e funcionalidade da montagem dos diferentes sistemas fisiológicos. Esta assimetria
esquerda – direita dos órgãos viscerais é estabelecida durante o desenvolvimento
embrionário dentro de uma estrutura transiente e especializada, normalmente conhecida por
organizador esquerda – direita.
Os organizadores esquerda – direita aparecem em várias formas e tamanhos, dependendo
da espécie, mas uma característica comum em alguns dos vertebrados é a existência de
cílios. Os cílios são organelos compostos por microtúbulos que são projetados da superfície
da célula. E estes podem ser móveis ou imóveis dependendo da presença ou ausência de
proteínas motoras, as dineínas do axonema, que geram energia suficiente para mover o cílio.
No caso do organizador esquerda – direita, os dois tipos de cílios estão presentes e
desempenham funções distintas: os cílios móveis promovem um fluxo direcional do fluido
existente no lúmen dos organizadores, cuja velocidade é proporcional ao cubo do
comprimento ciliar, e os cílios imóveis são potencialmente responsáveis por detetar esse
mesmo fluxo. Por conseguinte, a deteção do fluxo desencadeia uma resposta assimétrica nas
células do lado esquerdo do organizador esquerda – direita, que é dependente do canal de
cálcio Pkd2 localizado nos cílios. Assim, os iões de cálcio entram pelo cílio e ativam a
libertação de mais iões dos organelos internos, o que resulta numa onda de cálcio propagada
pela célula que, por sua vez, é necessária para iniciar uma cascada molecular de sinalização
composta por Nodal e os seus inibidores.
Nodal é um factor secretado da família TGF-β inicialmente expresso em redor do organizador
esquerda-direita de forma simétrica. Um dos seus antagonistas expresso no organizador,
Dand5, impede a propagação precoce e simétrica de Nodal para a placa lateral da
mesoderme. Contudo, a onda de cálcio que se forma nas células do organizador promove a
degradação de dand5, tornando-se assim o primeiro gene assimetricamente expresso e
libertando Nodal da sua repressão especificamente no lado esquerdo do organizador.
Consequentemente, Nodal é capaz de ativar a sua própria expressão na placa lateral da
mesoderme do lado esquerdo e a expressão de um segundo inibidor, lefty1, na linha mediana,
de forma a impedir que Nodal ative a sua expressão no lado direito.
À medida que o desenvolvimento embrionário evolui, Nodal propaga-se pela mesoderme ao
longo do eixo anterior - posterior, que em estadios e regiões específicas, leva à expressão de
genes envolvidos na formação do coração, cérebro, fígado, pâncreas, entre outros,
modulando a lateralização destes órgãos.
Este campo da biologia do desenvolvimento tem evoluído bastante ao longo dos últimos anos,
contudo algumas questões continuam em aberto. A forma como o fluxo é detetado pelas
células do organizador esquerda – direita é uma delas. Historicamente, o campo está dividido
em torno de duas hipóteses principais – o modelo quimiossensor e o modelo mecanossensor.
Por um lado, o modelo quimiossensor propõe que o fluxo serve para transportar vesículas e
moléculas sinalizadoras para o lado esquerdo, onde serão internalizadas pelas células do
organizador. Por outro lado, o modelo mecanossensor baseia-se na força hidrodinâmica que o fluxo exerce sobre os cílios imóveis. Com este projeto de doutoramento pretendemos
fornecer novos dados do mecanismo biofísico impulsionado pelo fluxo usando o organizador
esquerda – direita do peixe-zebra como modelo animal. Inicialmente, dedicámo-nos a
inspecionar as características moleculares das células do organizador e o conteúdo de fluído
para inferir sobre as possíveis contribuições do modelo quimiosensor na deteção do fluxo de
fluidos pelo canal Pkd2. Para tal, gerámos uma linha transgénica para quantificar e permitir o
rastreamento de vesículas extracelulares dentro do lúmen do organizador e usámos uma
nova configuração de micromanipulação para modificar o conteúdo do fluido do organizador.
Os nossos resultados mostram que o número de vesículas extracelulares detetadas é muito
baixo e variável para transportar um sinal molecular de lateralidade de forma eficiente para
as células do organizador do lado esquerdo. Adicionalmente, a inibição farmacológica de vias
endocíticas distintas não teve impacto na lateralidade do coração.
De seguida, analisámos a regulação do número de cílios móveis e imóveis no organizador
esquerda – direita. No peixe zebra, todos os cílios têm a ultra estrutura necessária para se
moverem, contudo, apenas alguns cílios se tornam móveis. O nosso grupo tinha
anteriormente descoberto que a decisão entre móvel e imóvel é feita pela via de sinalização
de Notch. Com este trabalho, nós identificámos novos moduladores a montante e efetores a
jusante da sinalização de Notch envolvidos neste processo. Mostrámos que a perda de
função da syntenin-a afeta severamente o desenvolvimento do eixo esquerda – direita, uma
vez que ativa a sinalização de Notch e a expressão do seu gene alvo, her12, o que resulta
num número maior de cílios imóveis e por conseguinte num fluxo do fluído menor. Também
descrevemos um potencial botão molecular, a jusante da sinalização de Notch, composto
pelo complexo Rabconnectin. Uma vez que este complexo é conhecido por promover a
montagem da V-ATPase e consequentemente sua atividade, inibimos a atividade da V ATPase e observámos um aumento do número de cílios móveis. Assim, sugerimos que a
ligação entre a sinalização de Notch e a proporção de cílios móveis – imóveis se dá através
da modulação do pH.
Por fim, no Capítulo 3, focámo-nos no impacto da disfunção ciliar nas células epiteliais
respiratórias. Caracterizámos o padrão de distribuição de várias proteínas ciliares em dois
irmãos portadores de discinésia ciliar primária causada por uma mutação no gene Zmynd10.
Estudos recentes mostram que ZMYND10 é um dos fatores citoplasmáticos responsáveis por
estabilizar e conduzir a montagem do braço de dineína que constituí o axonema do cílio
móvel. Mostrámos aqui que as dineínas externas e internas do axonema, que se tornam
principalmente ausentes do cílio em células respiratórias mutadas no gene Zmynd10, podem,
no entanto, entrar na parte proximal do cílio. Estes resultados sugerem que uma pequena
porção dos braços de dineína conseguem ser montados e transportados para o cílio na
ausência de ZMYND10, abrindo assim uma oportunidade para terapias com pequenas
moléculas que promovam a estabilidade de proteínas na gestão do tratamento da doença de
discinésia ciliar primária
- …