Explaining Queries over Web Tables to Non-Experts

Designing a reliable natural language (NL) interface for querying tables has been a longtime goal of researchers in both the data management and natural language processing (NLP) communities. Such an interface receives as input an NL question, translates it into a formal query, executes the query and returns the results. Errors in the translation process are not uncommon, and users typically struggle to understand whether their query has been mapped correctly. We address this problem by explaining the obtained formal queries to non-expert users. Two methods for query explanations are presented: the first translates queries into NL, while the second method provides a graphic representation of the query cell-based provenance (in its execution on a given table). Our solution augments a state-of-the-art NL interface over web tables, enhancing it in both its training and deployment phase. Experiments, including a user study conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, show our solution to improve both the correctness and reliability of an NL interface.Comment: Short paper version to appear in ICDE 201

Latvia as a Shadow-Economy Offshore Financial Centre in the Age of Anti-Money Laundering

This thesis explores the impact of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regime on the geography of illicit offshore finance, using a Foucaldian governmentality approach, for the case of Latvia. Latvia is the only post-Soviet financial centre to have been implicated directly in the illicit financial flows of the 1990s, but which after 2000 went on to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the European Union, the Eurozone and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), while satisfactorily adopting FATF rules. How did FATF effect illicit financial flows via Riga after 2000? Based on interviews with Latvian and international bankers, regulators, investigators and observers, as well as digital data mobilised from surface, deep, social and dark webs, this thesis describes the development of a banking sector in Riga that was defined by its being de jure onshore, de facto offshore. Latvia had none of the regulatory identifiers of an offshore financial centre such as low tax rates and high levels of corporate secrecy, ringfenced for non-residents, and boasted a high level of compliance with FATF rules. But at the time of gaining independence from the Soviet Union it radically deregulated its banking sector, opening it to offshore shell firms holding dollar deposits on behalf of customers from other former Soviet states. Latvia’s being effectively whitelisted by FATF and OECD after 2000 lent legitimacy to such money, while political protection for the offshore banking sector informally exempted it from anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Dollar payments routed via Riga between the post-Soviet shadow economies and the US correspondent banking system soared after 2000. In the case of Latvia, the geography of financial legitimacy described in the indices of the FATF regime legitimised undeclared funds from the post-Soviet shadow economy. The proliferation of indices of financial legitimacy was thus grist to the money launderers’ mill. The need to combat illicit offshore financial flows that undermine democracies remains urgent

Latvia as a Shadow-Economy Offshore Financial Centre in the Age of Anti-Money Laundering

This thesis explores the impact of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regime on the geography of illicit offshore finance, using a Foucaldian governmentality approach, for the case of Latvia. Latvia is the only post-Soviet financial centre to have been implicated directly in the illicit financial flows of the 1990s, but which after 2000 went on to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the European Union, the Eurozone and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), while satisfactorily adopting FATF rules. How did FATF effect illicit financial flows via Riga after 2000? Based on interviews with Latvian and international bankers, regulators, investigators and observers, as well as digital data mobilised from surface, deep, social and dark webs, this thesis describes the development of a banking sector in Riga that was defined by its being de jure onshore, de facto offshore. Latvia had none of the regulatory identifiers of an offshore financial centre such as low tax rates and high levels of corporate secrecy, ringfenced for non-residents, and boasted a high level of compliance with FATF rules. But at the time of gaining independence from the Soviet Union it radically deregulated its banking sector, opening it to offshore shell firms holding dollar deposits on behalf of customers from other former Soviet states. Latvia’s being effectively whitelisted by FATF and OECD after 2000 lent legitimacy to such money, while political protection for the offshore banking sector informally exempted it from anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Dollar payments routed via Riga between the post-Soviet shadow economies and the US correspondent banking system soared after 2000. In the case of Latvia, the geography of financial legitimacy described in the indices of the FATF regime legitimised undeclared funds from the post-Soviet shadow economy. The proliferation of indices of financial legitimacy was thus grist to the money launderers’ mill. The need to combat illicit offshore financial flows that undermine democracies remains urgent

XI CIDU. La transformación digital de la universidad Congreso Iberoamericano de Docencia Universitaria

Nesta comunicação apresenta-se uma experiência de gamificação realizada numa turma online, numa Universidade Virtual. Foram utilizados como elementos de jogo pontos, badges, leadboard, avatares e desafios. Do ponto de vista do desenho da unidade curricular, foi proposto um desafio global, sob a forma de roleplaying, que percorreu todo o semestre. Para este desafio global contribuíram três outros desafios, nos quais os estudantes deveriam dinamizar discussões, sendo atribuídos pontos e badges em função da sua prestação. No que se refere à metodologia, tratou-se de uma investigação exploratória, com carácter qualitativo. Como técnicas de recolha de dados, privilegiou-se a observação, realizada durante toda a unidade curricular, complementada por um questionário aos estudantes no final do semestre. Constatou-se que a estratégia adotada incentivou a participação ativa dos estudantes, tendo estes gostado da experiência. Verificaram-se, contudo, algumas limitações, pelo facto de os estudantes desta amostra serem adultos trabalhadores a frequentar uma licenciatura online, com outros compromissos profissionais e familiares. Com efeito, verificou-se que vários deles mencionaram ter dificuldade na gestão do tempo, limitando a possibilidade de adesão a um percurso exigente em termos de participação ativa.In this paper, we present a gamification experiment that took place in an online class at a virtual university. The game elements were points, badges, leaderboard, avatars and challenges. Taking into account the curricular unit design, a global challenge was proposed, in the form of roleplaying, and took place along the whole semester. Three other challenges contributed to this global challenge: the students had to dynamize debates, and received points and badges, according to their performance. In terms of methodology, it consisted in an exploratory research of a qualitative character. Observation, complemented by a questionnaire made available to the students at the end of the semester, were the chosen techniques for data collection. It was observed that the adopted strategy motivated the students’ active participation, who really enjoyed the experience. However, some limitations were also observed, once these students, attending an online First Cycle Degree, are adults who have professional and family responsibilities and commitments. Actually, several of them mentioned that the difficulty in organizing their time did limit the possibility of participating in the challenge, which was indeed demanding in terms of active participation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio