Faculty Publications and Creative Works 2003

Faculty Publications & Creative Works is an annual compendium of scholarly and creative activities of University of New Mexico faculty during the noted calendar year. It serves to illustrate the robust and active intellectual pursuits conducted by the faculty in support of teaching and research at UNM

Software curating : the politics of curating in/as (an) Open System(s)

The thesis examines how Information technologies have changed the practice of curating. It proposes an Interdisciplinary approach that directly links curating (often understood as an activity of artistic programming), computing (the activity of computer programming) and a relatively recent Interest In software art (in which programming Is understood as artistic practice). Although there Is much contemporary critical work and practice that Is described as art-oriented programming or software art, the thesis aims to explore a perceived gap In discussions around software curating. Curators working with online technologies are presented with the challenge of how to respond to new artistic forms that Involve programming: for Instance program-objects that display dynamic and transformative properties, and that are distributed over socio-technological networks. Although there are many examples of social platforms and highly relevant examples of online 'art platforms', these still largely operate In display mode replicating more conventional models of curating and the operations of art Institutions In general. The tendency Is for these curatorial online systems to concentrate on the display of executed code and pay less attention to source code. New sensibilities are required that simultaneously reflect the significance of source code as art, and software not as a production tool or a display platform but as cultural practice that Is analogous to curating. What Is distinctive about the thesis Is that It speculates on a curatorial model that emphasises the analogy to programming. Consequently, the thesis argues for online software systems that display properties of curating but reprocess established definitions by deliberately collapsing firm distinctions between the fields of programming, artistic practice and curatorial practice. To consider these Issues, the thesis brings together a number of Inter-related fields of critical Inquiry and situates curating In the context of theories of immateriality, a critical discourse around software art practice, and an understanding of open systems. The key Issue for the thesis becomes how power relations, control and agency are expressed In new curatorial forms that Involve programming and networks; In other words, the thesis Is concerned with the politics of curating In/as (an) open system(s). Indeed, curating Itself can be described In terms of open systems, Implying a state In which there Is continuous Interaction with the soclo-technological environment. The system Is opened up to communicative processes that Involve producers/users and to divergent exchanges that take place and that disrupt established social relations of production and distribution. Thus, and Importantly for an understanding of the power relations Involved, software opens up curating to dynamic possibilities and transformations beyond the usual Institutional model (analogous to the model of production associated with the industrial factory) Into the context of networks (and what Is referred to by the Autonomists as the 'social factory'). The suggestion Is that the curatorial process Is now closely Integrated with the dynamic soclo-technological networks and with software that Is not simply used to curate but demonstrates the activity of curatIng In Itself Consequently, the thesis offers an expanded description of curating with respect to software In which agency Is reconstituted to Include alternative dynamics of networks. The curatorial model Is not only theorlsed but also deployed In the production of experimental software for curating source code (kurator) that forms the practical part of the doctoral research. in addition to a written thesis and software, two further projects produced during the registration period 2002-2008 are Included in support of the overall thesis: a conference CuratIng, Immaterlafity, Systems (CIS) (Tate Modern, London 2005) and an edited book Curating immateriality: The Work of The Curator In the Age of Network Systems (CI) (Autonomedia, New York 2006). The kurator software Is a further development of the conference and subsequent book, and offers an online, user-moderated curatorial system for further public modification. In so doing, the argument Is that the curatorial process Is demonstrably a collective and distributed executable that displays machinic agency. This Is what Is referred to in the thesis as software curating.Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Arts, University of Plymouth

Helping with inquiries: theory and practice in forensic science

This thesis investigates the reasoning practices of forensic scientists, with specific focus on the application of the Bayesian form of probabilistic reasoning to forensic science matters. Facilitated in part by the insights of evidence scholarship, Bayes Theorem has been advocated as an essential resource for the interpretation and evaluation of forensic evidence, and has been used to support the production of specific technologies designed to aid forensic scientists in these processes. In the course of this research I have explored the ways in which Bayesian reasoning can be regarded as a socially constructed collection of practices, despite proposals that it is simply a logical way to reason about evidence. My data are drawn from two case studies. In the first, I demonstrate how the Bayesian algorithms used for the interpretation of complex DNA profiles are themselves elaborately constructed devices necessary for the anchoring of scientific practice to forensic contexts. In the second case study, an investigation of a more generalised framework of forensic investigation known as the Case Assessment and Interpretation (CAI) model, I show how the enactment of Bayesian reasoning is dependent on a series of embodied, experiential and intersubjective knowledge-forming activities. Whilst these practices may seem to be largely independent of theoretical representations of Bayesian reasoning, they are nonetheless necessary to bring the latter into being. This is at least partially due to the ambiguities and liminalities encountered in the process of applying Bayesianism to forensic investigation, and also may result from the heavy informational demands placed on the reasoner. I argue that these practices, or 'forms of Bayes', are necessary in order to negotiate areas of ontological uncertainty. The results of this thesis therefore challenge prevailing conceptions of Bayes Theorem as a universal, immutable signifier, able to be put to work unproblematically in any substantive domain, Instead, I have been able to highlight the diverse range of practices required for 'Bayesian' reasoners to negotiate the sociomaterial contingencies exposed in the process of its application

Facilitating Flexible Link Layer Protocols for Future Wireless Communication Systems

This dissertation addresses the problem of designing link layer protocols which are flexible enough to accommodate the demands offuture wireless communication systems (FWCS).We show that entire link layer protocols with diverse requirements and responsibilities can be composed out of reconfigurable and reusable components.We demonstrate this by designing and implementinga novel concept termed Flexible Link Layer (FLL) architecture.Through extensive simulations and practical experiments, we evaluate a prototype of the suggested architecture in both fixed-spectrumand dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks. FWCS are expected to overcome diverse challenges including the continual growthin traffic volume and number of connected devices.Furthermore, they are envisioned to support a widerange of new application requirements and operating conditions.Technology trends, including smart homes, communicating machines, and vehicularnetworks, will not only grow on a scale that once was unimaginable, they will also become the predominant communication paradigm, eventually surpassing today's human-produced network traffic. In order for this to become reality, today's systems have to evolve in many ways.They have to exploit allocated resources in a more efficient and energy-conscious manner.In addition to that, new methods for spectrum access and resource sharingneed to be deployed.Having the diversification of applications and network conditions in mind, flexibility at all layers of a communication system is of paramount importance in order to meet the desired goals. However, traditional communication systems are often designed with specific and distinct applications in mind. Therefore, system designers can tailor communication systems according to fixedrequirements and operating conditions, often resulting in highly optimized but inflexible systems.Among the core problems of such design is the mix of data transfer and management aspects.Such a combination of concerns clearly hinders the reuse and extension of existing protocols. To overcome this problem, the key idea explored in this dissertation is a component-based design to facilitate the development of more flexible and versatile link layer protocols.Specifically, the FLL architecture, suggested in this dissertation, employs a generic, reconfigurable data transfer protocol around which one or more complementary protocols, called link layer applications, are responsible for management-related aspects of the layer. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have designed andimplemented a prototype of the FLL architecture on the basis ofa reconfigurable software defined radio (SDR) testbed.Employing the SDR prototype as well as computer simulations, thisdissertation describes various experiments used to examine a range of link layerprotocols for both fixed-spectrum and DSA networks. This dissertation firstly outlines the challenges faced by FWCSand describes DSA as a possible technology component for their construction.It then specifies the requirements for future DSA systemsthat provide the basis for our further considerations.We then review the background on link layer protocols, surveyrelated work on the construction of flexible protocol frameworks,and compare a range of actual link layer protocols and algorithms.Based on the results of this analysis, we design, implement, and evaluatethe FLL architecture and a selection of actual link layer protocols. We believe the findings of this dissertation add substantively to the existing literature on link layer protocol design and are valuable for theoreticians and experimentalists alike

Proceedings of the Seventh Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2020

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Seventh Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-it 2020). This edition of the conference is held in Bologna and organised by the University of Bologna. The CLiC-it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after six years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

Proceedings of the 50th Annual Adult Education Research Conference

This document contains the full text proceedings of the Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) held at National-Louis University in May 2009

Developing a catalogue of errors and evaluating its impact on software development

The development of quality software is of paramount importance, yet this has been and continues to be an elusive goal for software engineers. Delivered software often fails due to errors that are injected during its development. Correcting these errors early in the development or preventing them altogether can, therefore, be considered as one way to improve software quality. In this thesis, the development of a Catalogue of Errors is described. Field studies with senior software engineering students are used to confirm that developers using the Catalogue of Errors commit fewer errors in their development artifacts. The impact of the Catalogue of Errors on productivity is also examined