Pay transparency and a cultural shift for real gender pay equality

This paper depicts a picture of the gender pay gap in Malta, which continued to increase to 12.2% in 2017. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of women in employment, but this has mainly been in the lower-end salary scales of the labour market and in part-time work, which have both partially contributed to a widening of the gender pay gap. Maltese women’s traditional role has been as a housemaker: even for those who were in the labour market, the expectations usually were and possibly continue to be, that it is the woman who leaves her job to take up the responsibilities of the family - children, the elderly and other relatives. Although legislation in terms of equal pay has been in place since 1976, there are many issues, which continue to impede real gender pay equality, including a patriarchal culture, strong male networks, family-friendly measures mainly taken up by females, career breaks, lack of transparency in pay structures, job segregation, and societal gender biases.peer-reviewe

Optimization of the Asymptotic Property of Mutual Learning Involving an Integration Mechanism of Ensemble Learning

We propose an optimization method of mutual learning which converges into the identical state of optimum ensemble learning within the framework of on-line learning, and have analyzed its asymptotic property through the statistical mechanics method.The proposed model consists of two learning steps: two students independently learn from a teacher, and then the students learn from each other through the mutual learning. In mutual learning, students learn from each other and the generalization error is improved even if the teacher has not taken part in the mutual learning. However, in the case of different initial overlaps(direction cosine) between teacher and students, a student with a larger initial overlap tends to have a larger generalization error than that of before the mutual learning. To overcome this problem, our proposed optimization method of mutual learning optimizes the step sizes of two students to minimize the asymptotic property of the generalization error. Consequently, the optimized mutual learning converges to a generalization error identical to that of the optimal ensemble learning. In addition, we show the relationship between the optimum step size of the mutual learning and the integration mechanism of the ensemble learning.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Journal of Physical Society of Japa

Mutual learning in a tree parity machine and its application to cryptography

Mutual learning of a pair of tree parity machines with continuous and discrete weight vectors is studied analytically. The analysis is based on a mapping procedure that maps the mutual learning in tree parity machines onto mutual learning in noisy perceptrons. The stationary solution of the mutual learning in the case of continuous tree parity machines depends on the learning rate where a phase transition from partial to full synchronization is observed. In the discrete case the learning process is based on a finite increment and a full synchronized state is achieved in a finite number of steps. The synchronization of discrete parity machines is introduced in order to construct an ephemeral key-exchange protocol. The dynamic learning of a third tree parity machine (an attacker) that tries to imitate one of the two machines while the two still update their weight vectors is also analyzed. In particular, the synchronization times of the naive attacker and the flipping attacker recently introduced in [1] are analyzed. All analytical results are found to be in good agreement with simulation results

Mutual learning as a resource for research design

Copyright 2014 ACM. Mutual learning processes provide the context for this paper. We reflect on the early research design process of an ongoing project that is investigating the potential contributions of the Internet of Things (IoT) to ageing well. While mutual learning is assumed and embedded in Participatory Design tools and methods, it was only when we explicitly used mutual learning processes, as a resource in the research design of the project, that we could make clear and accountable decisions about how to proceed. The paper ends with a reaffirmation of the importance of mutual learning processes in Participatory Design, noting the opportunities, even imperatives, for foregrounding mutual learning processes in the design of IoT applications

Building Mutual Learning between the Rising Powers

This Evidence Report provides a summary account of the Mutual Learning research initiative at the Institute of Development Studies, carried out from 2012 to 2014 as part of the Rising Powers in International Development programme. It offers an explanation for the growing interest in mutual learning as a way of engaging with ‘rising powers’ – such as the BRICS – in international development cooperation, and showcases some of the work carried out under the Mutual Learning component, including the Senior International Associates fellowship programme. It synthesises the IDS approach to mutual learning, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities presented by mutual – or multidirectional – learning in an increasingly multipolar world. Finally, the report outlines recommendations for how to accelerate mutual learning about different countries’ development experiences

Culture change needed

Malta remains a traditional country in several aspects and avant-garde in others. It is especially traditional in terms of family responsibilities and gender equality. Compared to EU28, Malta has the third lowest number of working women (58%), because women’s first role is the family. The older the woman, the less likely she is to work. In fact, Malta ranks first in terms of the employment gender gap in the higher age groups (25-55 and 55-64) with gaps of 25% and 38% respectively. Over the past years more women have entered the labour market, yet the employment gender gap at 26% (2016 data) remains the widest in the EU. In the lower age group (15-24) there are more women working and some sharing of responsibilities may be happening in the home environment, nonetheless the biggest burden of family responsibilities is assumed by women. This is evident because Eurostat data shows that women are more likely to be employed on a part-time basis, not be self-employed, be on reduced hours, have fixed term contracts, be taking care of children, the elderly or disabled relatives or do other unpaid care work, do more housework and opt for parental leave. In fact, if one looks at the full-time equivalent employment rate, the employment gender gap increases to 31%, and ranks Malta in the first place when compared to the other 27 EU Member States.peer-reviewe

Neural Cryptography

Two neural networks which are trained on their mutual output bits show a novel phenomenon: The networks synchronize to a state with identical time dependent weights. It is shown how synchronization by mutual learning can be applied to cryptography: secret key exchange over a public channel.Comment: 9th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, Singapore, Nov. 200

Mutual learning in the European employment strategy: how? how much?

Mutual learning among the Member States is the primary purpose of the employment policy of the European Union. The two most important questions in this regard are how learning occurs and how much learning takes place. In this article I argue that the existing analyses of the effects of learning in the European employment strategy have been either determined by the sender’s interests or have underestimated how mutual learning between countries takes place. In stead the article develops a constructivist approach to learning and uses it to generate some concrete hypothesis about when learning in committees is most likely to take place. Afterwards, this constructivist approach is used to analyse the institutional framework surrounding the European employment strategy in order to evaluate whether the potential for learning is optimal. Finally, the article concludes that even though some basic premises for learning is fulfilled, the potential for mutual learning could and should be increased by implemented at range of concrete institutional reforms. Firstly, a range of professional and autonomous sub-committees which reports to the EMCO should be established. Secondly, the EMCO should be given more time to discuss the national action plans in meetings which more loosely defined agendas. Thirdly, the cooperation should be concentrated around the areas where the differences in terms of policy performances among the Member States are greatest. Fourthly, the president of the EMCO should be given a more prominent role at the expense of the Commission. Finally, the members of the EMCO should to a higher extent come from the directorates in the Member states rather than the minister’s departments.Mutual learning, European employment strategy,