2,434 research outputs found
UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024
The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp
Protecting Privacy in Indian Schools: Regulating AI-based Technologies' Design, Development and Deployment
Education is one of the priority areas for the Indian government, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are touted to bring digital transformation. Several Indian states have also started deploying facial recognition-enabled CCTV cameras, emotion recognition technologies, fingerprint scanners, and Radio frequency identification tags in their schools to provide personalised recommendations, ensure student security, and predict the drop-out rate of students but also provide 360-degree information of a student. Further, Integrating Aadhaar (digital identity card that works on biometric data) across AI technologies and learning and management systems (LMS) renders schools a ‘panopticon’.
Certain technologies or systems like Aadhaar, CCTV cameras, GPS Systems, RFID tags, and learning management systems are used primarily for continuous data collection, storage, and retention purposes. Though they cannot be termed AI technologies per se, they are fundamental for designing and developing AI systems like facial, fingerprint, and emotion recognition technologies. The large amount of student data collected speedily through the former technologies is used to create an algorithm for the latter-stated AI systems. Once algorithms are processed using machine learning (ML) techniques, they learn correlations between multiple datasets predicting each student’s identity, decisions, grades, learning growth, tendency to drop out, and other behavioural characteristics. Such autonomous and repetitive collection, processing, storage, and retention of student data without effective data protection legislation endangers student privacy.
The algorithmic predictions by AI technologies are an avatar of the data fed into the system. An AI technology is as good as the person collecting the data, processing it for a relevant and valuable output, and regularly evaluating the inputs going inside an AI model. An AI model can produce inaccurate predictions if the person overlooks any relevant data. However, the state, school administrations and parents’ belief in AI technologies as a panacea to student security and educational development overlooks the context in which ‘data practices’ are conducted. A right to privacy in an AI age is inextricably connected to data practices where data gets ‘cooked’. Thus, data protection legislation operating without understanding and regulating such data practices will remain ineffective in safeguarding privacy.
The thesis undergoes interdisciplinary research that enables a better understanding of the interplay of data practices of AI technologies with social practices of an Indian school, which the present Indian data protection legislation overlooks, endangering students’ privacy from designing and developing to deploying stages of an AI model. The thesis recommends the Indian legislature frame better legislation equipped for the AI/ML age and the Indian judiciary on evaluating the legality and reasonability of designing, developing, and deploying such technologies in schools
Essays on Corporate Disclosure of Value Creation
Information on a firm’s business model helps investors understand an entity’s resource requirements, priorities for action, and prospects (FASB, 2001, pp. 14-15; IASB, 2010, p. 12). Disclosures of strategy and business model (SBM) are therefore considered a central element of effective annual report commentary (Guillaume, 2018; IIRC, 2011). By applying natural language processing techniques, I explore what SBM disclosures look like when management are pressed to say something, analyse determinants of cross-sectional variation in SBM reporting properties, and assess whether and how managers respond to regulatory interventions seeking to promote SBM annual report commentary. This dissertation contains three main chapters. Chapter 2 presents a systematic review of the academic literature on non-financial reporting and the emerging literature on SBM reporting. Here, I also introduce my institutional setting. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 form the empirical sections of this thesis. In Chapter 3, I construct the first large sample corpus of SBM annual report commentary and provide the first systematic analysis of the properties of such disclosures. My topic modelling analysis rejects the hypothesis that such disclosure is merely padding; instead finding themes align with popular strategy frameworks and management tailor the mix of SBM topics to reflect their unique approach to value creation. However, SBM commentary is less specific, less precise about time horizon (short- and long-term), and less balanced (more positive) in tone relative to general management commentary. My findings suggest symbolic compliance and legitimisation characterize the typical annual report discussion of SBM. Further analysis identifies proprietary cost considerations and obfuscation incentives as key determinants of symbolic reporting. In Chapter 4, I seek evidence on how managers respond to regulatory mandates by adapting the properties of disclosure and investigate whether the form of the mandate matters. Using a differences-in-differences research design, my results suggest a modest incremental response by treatment firms to the introduction of a comply or explain provision to provide disclosure on strategy and business model. In contrast, I find a substantial response to enacting the same requirements in law. My analysis provides clear and consistent evidence that treatment firms incrementally increase the volume of SBM disclosure, improve coverage across a broad range of topics as well as providing commentary with greater focus on the long term. My results point to substantial changes in SBM reporting properties following regulatory mandates, but the form of the mandate does matter. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the accounting literature by examining how firms discuss a central topic to economic decision making in annual reports and how firms respond to different forms of disclosure mandate. Furthermore, the results of my analysis are likely to be of value for regulators and policymakers currently reviewing or considering mandating disclosure requirements. By examining how companies adapt their reporting to different types of regulations, this study provides an empirical basis for recalibrating SBM disclosure mandates, thereby enhancing the information set of capital market participants and promoting stakeholder engagement in a landscape increasingly shaped by non-financial information
An analysis of the process of policy-making to prevent deforestation in Indonesia
The environmental, social, and economic value of Indonesia’s tropical forests has generated extensive interest and scrutiny, both local and global. International stakeholders are heavily involved in Indonesian forest policies, including in the issue of deforestation, both because of their immense interest in the Indonesian environment, and because of Indonesia’s lack of development capacity. Many of domestic and international stakeholders participating in the policy-making processes with regard to Indonesian forests have discrete views and concerns. A successful policy would be one that meets all the requirements of all such actors. This study was conducted to analyze the policy process including some questions about Indonesia’s policies for the prevention of deforestation: 1. ‘When are such policies formed?’, 2. ‘Who is involved in the policy-making process?’, 3. How are the resulting policies implemented?’ Appropriate research methods and analysis frameworks for the examination of policy processes were developed for this study and were applied to Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policies. The current study interviewed 72 of the 114 people who were involved in the policy-making process identified through this study, to analyze the means and motives that are involved in the policy-making process and to ascertain the respondents’ interactions with the other actors.
The environmental contexts of the development of guidelines were examined by analyzing the streams of problems, politics, and policies through the Multiple Streams Framework to assess the manner in which the current Indonesian deforestation prevention policies have been established. Subsequently, the actors involved in the policy-making processes and the interactions between them were identified to create a structure of the policy network. Further, the parties that exert a significant influence on the deforestation prevention policy were identified. The characteristics of this policy network were confirmed, and the general network was classified into the Relation Network, Information Network and Trust Network.
The result of the analyses reveals that the situation pertaining to the deforestation of Indonesian tropical forests has not substantially improved, even though the problem of forest degradation has been recognized in Indonesia for a long time now. The burden of environmental duties demanded from Indonesia by the international community has increased. As Indonesia has transformed politically from a long-standing military regime to a democratic government, its municipalities have gradually been strengthened and various levels of stakeholders including regional governments, NGO, and the private sector, have become actively invested in Indonesian policy-design. At the same time, international attention, and demand for preserving Indonesian forests have become more specific. Indonesia operated through a powerful presidential system and its president exerts much authority over the country’s society. In such a situation, the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)’s announcement at the G20 Summit in 2009 opened the Policy Window. President SBY declared that Indonesia would reduce emissions of greenhouse gas up to 41% 2020. This proclamation received much attention from both domestic and international groups, and led to sweeping changes in Indonesia’s forest policy.
In all three of the above-mentioned sub-networks, the overwhelmingly powerful influence of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the main policy designer of the Indonesian deforestation prevention policy, was confirmed. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry was found to obtain the highest centrality value in the Relation Network and the gap between this actor and the other policy actors was extremely wide. However, the centrality value of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry was relatively low in the Information and Trust Networks, and this centrality was distributed to the other actors. These outcomes imply that not only the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, but also other organizations such as intergovernmental organizations and academic organizations contribute relevant information with regard to the policy, that the information dependency and trust of the other actors are decentralized, and that these other actors primarily depend on and trust international donors (e.g., World Bank, UN-REDD+ Task Force) and academics who are also interested actors in the formation of the forest policy of Indonesia.
Many of the interested actors, especially intergovernmental organizations, academic organizations, NGOs, have access to the policy network of Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policy without any significant barriers. Hence, this policy network may be termed an open system. However, the internal policy actors are judged to be rigid in terms of their systems. The policy network for deforestation prevention has also emerged as a partially vertical hierarchy, as the Indonesian central government’s powerful initiative leads and directs the policy network along with a small number of other influential bodies.
According to the classification of policy network types proposed by Marsh and Rhode (1992), the policy network for the prevention of deforestation in Indonesia may be described as an Issue Network with a vertical hierarchy
Speculative futures on ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI): a collective reflection from the educational landscape
While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd)and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindse
Talking about personal recovery in bipolar disorder: Integrating health research, natural language processing, and corpus linguistics to analyse peer online support forum posts
Background: Personal recovery, ‘living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing lifeeven with the limitations caused by the illness’ (Anthony, 1993) is of particular value in bipolar disorder where symptoms often persist despite treatment. So far, personal recovery has only been studied in researcher-constructed environments (interviews, focus groups). Support forum posts can serve as a complementary naturalistic data source. Objective: The overarching aim of this thesis was to study personal recovery experiences that people living with bipolar disorder have shared in online support forums through integrating health research, NLP, and corpus linguistics in a mixed methods approach within a pragmatic research paradigm, while considering ethical issues and involving people with lived experience. Methods: This mixed-methods study analysed: 1) previous qualitative evidence on personal recovery in bipolar disorder from interviews and focus groups 2) who self-reports a bipolar disorder diagnosis on the online discussion platform Reddit 3) the relationship of mood and posting in mental health-specific Reddit forums (subreddits) 4) discussions of personal recovery in bipolar disorder subreddits. Results: A systematic review of qualitative evidence resulted in the first framework for personal recovery in bipolar disorder, POETIC (Purpose & meaning, Optimism & hope, Empowerment, Tensions, Identity, Connectedness). Mainly young or middle-aged US-based adults self-report a bipolar disorder diagnosis on Reddit. Of these, those experiencing more intense emotions appear to be more likely to post in mental health support subreddits. Their personal recovery-related discussions in bipolar disorder subreddits primarily focussed on three domains: Purpose & meaning (particularly reproductive decisions, work), Connectedness (romantic relationships, social support), Empowerment (self-management, personal responsibility). Support forum data highlighted personal recovery issues that exclusively or more frequently came up online compared to previous evidence from interviews and focus groups. Conclusion: This project is the first to analyse non-reactive data on personal recovery in bipolar disorder. Indicating the key areas that people focus on in personal recovery when posting freely and the language they use provides a helpful starting point for formal and informal carers to understand the concerns of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder and to consider how best to offer support
Mapping the connections : An integrated approach to mapping Nature’s contributions to people in a Nordic biosphere reserve
Naturen og hennes økosystemer gir flere bidrag til mennesker som gagner vår velvære. Disse økosystemtjenestene er truet på grunn av omfattende menneskelige aktiviteter som har resultert i omfattende arealbruksendringer, raske klimaendringer og destruktiv overhøsting. Å anerkjenne og verdsette økosystemtjenester er en måte å gjøre rede for dem i politiske handlinger for å forvalte økosystemer bærekraftig for mennesker og natur. Imidlertid er det forskjellige måter som økosystemtjenester kan verdsettes på tvers av biofysiske, sosiokulturelle og monetære verdidomener, og disse verdiene samhandler innenfor og på tvers av domener. For å verdsette økosystemtjenester fullt ut er det behov for ikke bare å utvikle verdsettingsmetoder på tvers av alle tre domenene, men også måter å integrere på tvers av dem. Økosystemtjenester er ikke jevnt fordelt, og deres verdier er forskjellige i rom på grunn av ulike sosiale og økologiske faktorer. For å administrere økosystemtjenester må vi derfor også se hvordan og hvorfor verdiene deres varierer på tvers av landskap. og vi må gjøre rede for det dynamiske forholdet mellom økosystemtjenester på tvers av verdidomener og sosial-økologiske kontekster. I denne oppgaven presenterer jeg fire artikler som tar for seg noen av disse utfordringene med økosystemtjenester innenfor konteksten av et UNESCO-biosfærereservat på Vestlandet.
Først kartla vi sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenester ved hjelp av en undersøkelse av geografiske informasjonssystemer (PPGIS) for offentlig deltakelse. Vi undersøkte hvordan sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenesteverdier varierer på tvers av et biosfærereservat, hvilke verdier som vanligvis forekommer sammen i bunter, og hvilke sosial-økologiske egenskaper som bestemmer fordelingen av disse buntene. Folk kartla hovedsakelig steder for friluftsliv, biologisk mangfold, landbruksprodukter og kulturarv, hovedsakelig i områder med høyere menneskelig befolkning. Vi identifiserte fem bunter som representerer koblede biokulturelle verdier for landbruk og kulturarv, friluftsliv og biologisk mangfold, og vill mat og mental velvære. Generelt var tilgjengelighet den viktigste faktoren som avgjorde fordelingen av buntene.
For det andre integrerte vi biofysiske verdier med sosiokulturelle verdier og kartla økosystemtjenester i biosfærereservatet. Vi undersøkte fordelingen av disse integrerte økosystemtjenesteverdiene over biosfærereservatsonene og deres bunter over to romlige skalaer. Økosystemtjenestene samlet inn i tre distinkte sosial-økologiske systemarketyper som var like i distribusjon og relative økosystemtjenesteverdier på begge romlige skalaer. Buntene var også godt tilpasset relative økosystemtjenesteverdier i biosfærereservatsonene (kjerne, buffer og overgang), noe som indikerer at buntene fanger opp de sosialøkologiske systemene i sonene. Disse resultatene viser at det er viktig å vurdere sonenes sosialøkologiske kontekst for å gi tilstrekkelig kunnskap til å informere ledelsen.
For det tredje brukte vi en ny kombinasjon av PPGIS og sosiale nettverksdata for å kartlegge økosystemets samproduksjonsnettverk i biosfærereservatet. Vi identifiserte fire komponenter i økosystemets samproduksjonsnettverk som sosiokulturelle verdier, direkte ledelse, styring og forskning/kunnskapsproduksjon. Først kartla vi den relative oppmerksomheten ulike økosystemtjenester mottok fra disse samproduksjonskomponentene. Deretter kartla vi det sosiale nettverket for kommunikasjon om ulike økosystemtjenester blant samproduksjonskomponentene. Vi fant misforhold mellom ulike komponenter i samproduksjonsnettverket. Viktigere, vi identifiserte at kulturelle økosystemer ble høyt verdsatt, men får relativt mindre styring og særlig forskningsoppmerksomhet. Videre var de primære forvalterne av kulturelle økosystemtjenester også dårlig koblet i økosystemtjenestens samproduksjonssosiale nettverk. Resultatene viser viktigheten av å tenke på samproduksjon av økosystemtjenester som et relasjonelt nettverk og av å kartlegge hva som diskuteres av hvem.
Til slutt integrerte vi økologiske feltundersøkelser og PPGIS for å utforske (mis)matchen i biofysiske og sosiokulturelle verdier for økosystemtjenester i sammenheng med landforlatelse og skogplanting. Biofysiske verdier for økosystemtjenester var mer like på tvers av vegetasjonstyper, mens sosiokulturelle verdier generelt var høyest i åpen vegetasjon og uplantede skogtyper. Økosystemtjenesten med størst forskjell i biofysiske og sosiokulturelle verdier global klimaregulering, mens biologisk mangfold og landbruksprodukter var like på tvers av verdidomenene. Sosiokulturelle verdier var ikke jevnt fordelt på studiedeltakerne. Det var to distinkte grupper som representerte eldre bønder bosatt i regionen med høye verdier for å levere økosystemtjenester på den ene siden, og yngre kvinner som ikke er innbyggere som verdsetter regulering og vedlikehold av økosystemtjenester. Denne studien viser viktigheten av å vurdere ulike både ulike verdidomener og faktorene som påvirker disse verdiene i beslutninger om endring av arealbruk.Nature and her ecosystems make multiple contributions to people that benefit our wellbeing. These ecosystem services are under threat due to extensive human activities that have resulted in widespread land-use change, rapid climate change and destructive overharvesting. Acknowledging and valuing ecosystem services is a way to account for them in policy actions to manage ecosystems sustainably for people and nature. However, there are different ways in which ecosystem services can be valued across biophysical, socio-cultural, and monetary value-domains and these values interact within and across domains. To fully value ecosystem services there is a need to not only develop valuation methods across all three domains, but also ways of integrating across them. Ecosystem services are not evenly distributed, and their values differ in space due to various social and ecological factors. Therefore, to manage ecosystem services we also need to know how and why their values vary across landscapes, and we need to account for the dynamic relationship between ecosystem services across the value-domains and social-ecological contexts. In this thesis I present four papers that addresses some of these challenges with ecosystem services within the context of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in western Norway.
First, we mapped socio-cultural values for ecosystem services using a public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) survey. We explored how socio-cultural values for ecosystem service values vary across a biosphere reserve, which values commonly co-occur in bundles, and what social-ecological characteristics determine the distribution of those bundles. People mapped predominantly places for outdoor recreation, biodiversity, agricultural products, and cultural heritage predominantly in areas with higher human populations. We identified five bundles representing linked biocultural values for agriculture and cultural heritage, outdoor recreation and biodiversity, and wild food and mental wellbeing. In general accessibility was the most important factor that determined the distribution of the bundles.
Second, we integrated biophysical values with socio-cultural values and mapped ecosystem services in the biosphere reserve. We explored the distribution of these integrated ecosystem services values across the biosphere reserve zones and their bundles across two spatial scales. The ecosystem services bundled into three distinct social-ecological system archetypes that were similar in their distribution and relative ecosystem service values at both spatial scales. The bundles were also well matched to relative ecosystem services values of the Biosphere Reserve zones (core, buffer and transition) indicating that the bundles capture the social-ecological systems of the zones. These results show that it is important to consider the social-ecological context of the zones to provide sufficient knowledge to inform management.
Third, we used a novel combination of PPGIS and social network data to map the ecosystem co-production network in the biosphere reserve. We identified four components of the ecosystem co-production network as socio-cultural values, direct management, governance, and research/knowledge production. First, we mapped the relative attention different ecosystem services received from those co-production components. Then we mapped the social network of communication about different ecosystem services among the co-production components. We found mismatches between different components of the co-production network. Importantly, we identified that cultural ecosystems were highly valued but receive comparatively less governance and particularly research attention. Furthermore, the primary managers of cultural ecosystem services were also poorly connected in the ecosystem service co-production social-network. The results show the importance of thinking of ecosystem service co-production as a relational network and of mapping what is being discussed by whom.
Finally, we integrated ecological field surveys and PPGIS to explore the (mis)match in biophysical and socio-cultural values for ecosystem services in the context of land abandonment and afforestation. Biophysical values for ecosystem services were more similar across vegetation types while socio-cultural values were generally highest in open vegetation and unplanted forest types. The ecosystem service with the largest difference in biophysical and socio-cultural values global climate regulation, while biodiversity and agricultural products were similar across the value-domains. Socio-cultural values were not evenly spread across the study participants. There were two distinct groups representing older farmers resident in the region with high values for provisioning ecosystem services on the one hand, and non-resident younger females valuing regulating and maintenance ecosystem services. This study shows the importance of considering different value-domains and the factors that influence those values in land-use change decisions.Doktorgradsavhandlin
Voting against the Party Line. How Career-Related Characteristics of Members of Parliament Shape their Legislative Behaviour
Much of what happens in a parliamentary system of government depends on the ability of party groups and its Members of Parliament (MPs) to act coherently, amongst others the stability and policy-making capability of governing parties or the credibility of opposition parties. Consequently, votes against the party line in parliamentary decisions attract quite some attention, but remain nevertheless a rare phenomenon.
This cumulative dissertation aims to explore the individual-level determinants of party unity (and breaches thereof). The overarching question of its constituent articles is to what extent certain components of MPs’ career affect their propensity to vote against the party line in parliament. Theoretically, the articles are based on the understanding that several pathways lead to party unity: division of labour, homogeneity of preferences, loyalty and discipline. Methodologically, each article approximates the effectiveness of a particular pathway by observed MP characteristics and analyses their effect on the probability of vote defections during roll-call votes in the German Bundestag. The observation periods of the articles range from the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949) until 2021. Empirically, the results show that different aspects and stages of MPs’ political career tie in at different points of their decision-making process in the run-up to a parliamentary vote: Concerning the loyalty pathway to unity, MPs’ pre-parliamentary experiences like party offices, on the positive side, or a political socialisation in the former German Democratic Republic, on the negative side, appear to have a stronger impact on their probability of toeing the party line than their seniority in the national parliament. The division of labour pathway favours party-compliant voting behaviour on issues which MPs work on in parliamentary committees and intra-party working groups and thus help shaping the party line. The effectiveness of the discipline pathway to unity is strengthened by currently held offices in parliament and government, but weakened by extensive outside earnings in addition to their parliamentary mandate. Finally, the influence of preferences was tested in the different setting of a ‘free vote’ on organ donation as a morality policy issue. There, MPs’ personal and, to a stronger extent, sociodemographic characteristics of their constituency as well as their party membership are predictors of their voting behaviour.
To conclude, the results attribute a distinct explanatory power to all the pathways to unity and underscore the importance of career-related characteristics for MPs’ legislative behaviour. The findings thus have important implications for our understanding of the functioning of parliaments and the complex relationship between voters, parties and their MPs
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