DeepEva: A deep neural network architecture for assessing sentence complexity in Italian and English languages

Automatic Text Complexity Evaluation (ATE) is a research field that aims at creating new methodologies to make autonomous the process of the text complexity evaluation, that is the study of the text-linguistic features (e.g., lexical, syntactical, morphological) to measure the grade of comprehensibility of a text. ATE can affect positively several different contexts such as Finance, Health, and Education. Moreover, it can support the research on Automatic Text Simplification (ATS), a research area that deals with the study of new methods for transforming a text by changing its lexicon and structure to meet specific reader needs. In this paper, we illustrate an ATE approach named DeepEva, a Deep Learning based system capable of classifying both Italian and English sentences on the basis of their complexity. The system exploits the Treetagger annotation tool, two Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural unit layers, and a fully connected one. The last layer outputs the probability of a sentence belonging to the easy or complex class. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the approach for both languages, compared with several baselines such as Support Vector Machine, Gradient Boosting, and Random Forest

Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Avatars, and the Demise of the Human Mediator

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Avatars, and the Demise of the Human Mediator

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Avatars and the Demise of the Human Mediator

As technology has advanced, many have wondered whether (or simply when) artificial intelligent devices will replace the humans who perform complex, interactive, interpersonal tasks such as dispute resolution. Has science now progressed to the point that artificial intelligence devices can replace human mediators, arbitrators, dispute resolvers and problem solvers? Can humanoid robots, attractive avatars and other relational agents create the requisite level of trust and elicit the truthful, perhaps intimate or painful, disclosures often necessary to resolve a dispute or solve a problem? This article will explore these questions. Regardless of whether the reader is convinced that the demise of the human mediator or arbitrator is imminent, one cannot deny that artificial intelligence now has the capability to assume many of the responsibilities currently being performed by alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practitioners. It is fascinating (and perhaps unsettling) to realize the complexity and seriousness of tasks currently delegated to avatars and robots. This article will review some of those delegations and suggest how the artificial intelligence developed to complete those assignments may be relevant to dispute resolution and problem solving. “Relational Agents,” which can have a physical presence such as a robot, be embodied in an avatar, or have no detectable form whatsoever and exist only as software, are able to create long term socio-economic relationships with users built on trust, rapport and therapeutic goals. Relational agents are interacting with humans in circumstances that have significant consequences in the physical world. These interactions provide insights as to how robots and avatars can participate productively in dispute resolution processes. Can human mediators and arbitrators be replaced by robots and avatars that not only physically resemble humans, but also act, think, and reason like humans? And to raise a particularly interesting question, can robots, avatars and other relational agents look, move, act, think, and reason even “better” than humans

Reality Bonsai : Animism and science-fiction as a blueprint for media art in contemporary Japan

Based on the research carried out for my previous publication* and recent research, I am proposing that animism and science-fiction, as communicated via manga and anime, function as the primary sources for Japan’s Media Art. In this thesis, my primary objective is to analyse the historical and theoretical frameworks that inform Japanese Media Art, focusing, in particular, on the influence of religion, folklore and science-fiction, manga, anime and otaku subculture.(1) All of which, the thesis argues, has influenced Japanese artists since 2000; many of whom have produced works ranging from video, animation, interactive installation and live performance. In particular, my thesis will argue that there is a relationship between Shinto, the indigenous spirituality of the Japanese people, science-fictions themes and today’s Japanese Media Art. * Arrighi, M. 2011. Japanese Spell in Electronic Art My theoretical research led to and was complemented by practice-based art works. These took the form of a video installation and a short film, both of which related to my theoretical research in the following ways. They were both informed by synthesizing the findings obtained from my academic research and referenced themes that were addressed by the Japanese Media artists featured in this investigation. The aesthetic parameters of the artworks intentionally resemble the anime and films referenced in the academic part of this study. Through the process of imitating certain visual traits and themes found in the referenced works I gained an in-depth awareness of the narrative choices made by certain Japanese Media Artists. My creative output enabled me to further test, whilst also maintaining my individuality as an artist and author, the hypothesis that their work is underpinned by a fusion of references to animism and science-fiction. Footnote: (1) Otaku is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, commonly the anime and manga fandom. Anime is a Japanese term for hand-drawn, computer-generated and mixed techniques animation. Manga are comics in print or screen created in Japan of which style has been developed in Japan in the late 19th century

“You Must Be an Android”: The Persistence of Humanist Hierarchies in Posthumanist Science Fiction

This thesis examines science fiction dystopias in which the vestiges of humanist philosophy taint the construction of posthuman subjects. With a grounding in the tenets of both humanist and posthumanist philosophy, I analyze eight works of science fiction that depict artificial intelligence, cyborgs, and body swapping to determine the common critiques made. The source of the troubling aspects of these imagined futures doesn’t derive strictly from the presence of advanced, posthumanist technologies. Instead, the authors shine a light on the monstrosity that results when technological posthumanism comes to fruition while their imagined future societies remain grounded in humanist hierarchies, including that of class, gender, and race

Stories of what is to come: the future in film and television 1959-1989

The thesis examines films, television programmes and associated newspaper articles from the period 1959-1989 to discover how the future has been talked about in popular discourses. It considers both fiction and nonfiction in the areas of defence, nuclear issues, ecological catastrophes, space and artificial beings. It is particularly concerned to contrast scientific discourse with science fiction to discover how the distinction between them is maintained when the temporal setting is the future and whatever is asserted or depicted is characterised by not yet having happened. The thesis begins by investigating the discursive struggle over the naming of the US military policy both Star Wars and SDI. It uses the concept of professional language and Michel Foucault's arguments about regimes of truth to explain the status of the more scientific term, while the popularity and success of the film are advanced as reasons for the appeal of the popular title. The following chapters attempt to discover whether this example is charcteristic or an oddity. The examination of the presentation of potential eco-catastrophes, particularly in TV science programmes finds minimal variation and piecemeal presentation being used in an attempt to separate scientific discourse from SF and emphasise certainty. In looking at nuclear discourse the competing claims of the defence establishment and those people making nuclear war dramas for TV to speak with authority about the future are investigated to try to understand why there is such a paucity of depictions of the nuclear future. It is discovered that talking about the future in space shifted with economic discourse became more dominant than scientific, but that this did not apply to those fictions, like Star Trek, which were constrained by precursors from the 1960s. These are the major instances of an optimistic future. In considering the case of artificial beings, changes are found within the fictions as certain categories of being become scientifically more feasible. An analogy with colonial discourse and the concept 'hybridity' proves particularly useful. The thesis concludes by finding hybrids of fiction and non-fiction, scientific and science fictional discourses most characteristic of popular discourses about the future

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

Representations of science, literature, technology and society in the works of Primo Levi

The thesis tackles two main issues. Part I explores Levi's engagements with the `two cultures' debate concerning the relationship between literature and `science' in postwar culture. Building on existing scholarship, I provide a more comprehensive view of his project to combat the two cultures divide. I contextualize the literature-science debate in Anglophone and Italophone culture, and then investigate dialogues between Levi and his contemporaries (for example, the writer Italo Calvino; the physicist Tullio Regge). Among other theoretical frameworks, I draw on critical approaches to the literature-science relationship and Bahktinian dialogics. Part II analyzes Levi's portrayals and critiques of science and technology as they impact on human life and freedoms, especially his problematizations of relationships between humans and machines in a post-industrial society. This aspect of Levi's work, particularly his representations of bodies and embodiment in a technologized age, has received little critical attention to date. I evaluate Levi's engagements with such issues, focussing also on gender dynamics in his writing about technologically-mediated embodiment. Given the absence of sustained Italophone critical reflection on these questions, I analyze Levi's work in light of recent Anglopone theorizing on posthumanism. I also refer to psychoanalytic approaches to the self. Considering Levi's approach to a series of perceived cultural dialectics-the relationships between science and literature, science and society, human subjects and machines-I argue that his work is characterized by contradiction. He asserts the need to break down cultural and disciplinary boundaries while simultaneously revealing his personal tendency to conceptualize literary and scientific activities, for example, as distinct practices. I conclude that by embracing such contradictions his work highlights areas of difficulty, and, without attempting to offer falsely universal solutions, reminds us of our capacity to maintain-or reclaim-corporeal and epistemological sovereignty of ourselves and our society