Introduction to the Special Issue on Logic Rules and Reasoning: Selected Papers from the 2nd International Joint Conference on Rules and Reasoning (RuleML+RR 2018)

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Multiculturalism: Luxembourg, host of diversity. Integration process and the relationship with Portugal

A diversidade cultural é um fator contributivo para a evolução socioecónomica de um país. O objetivo desta dissertação é compreender os diferentes passos que o Grão-Ducado do Luxemburgo deu para se tornar num país multiétnico e compreender a relação de longa data que liga o Luxemburgo à República Portuguesa acrescentando ainda as relações de ambos os países durante a pandemia da COVID-19. Da abolição das fronteiras internas à celebração dos tratados que permitem que os cidadãos da União Europeia viagem livremente entre os Estados-Membros sem preocupações. Além disso, esta dissertação pretende demonstrar que Luxemburgo é um país consideravelmente bem-sucedido no que diz respeito ao acolhimento da diversidade. O sucesso da diversidade cultural no Ducado deve-se aos diferentes organismos que contribuem para um processo de integração eficaz, bem como às diversas políticas de integração que visam proteger os imigrantes e suas famílias. As crianças, especialmente, podem beneficiar de uma variedade de auxílios escolares que as ajudará a adaptarem-se ao sistema desde a mais tenra idade. No meu estudo, recolhi e comparei dados de diferentes fontes oficiais e relatórios para ajudar na compreensão da evolução da sociedade luxemburguesa, bem como sobre como a comunidade portuguesa se tornou a maior e mais importante comunidade estrangeira do país, explorando as relações pré-existentes entre as duas nações, desconhecidas para muitos.Cultural diversity is a contributing factor to the socio-economic evolution of a country. The aim of this dissertation is to understand the different steps the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg took to evolve into a multiethnic country and to understand the longtime relationship bonding Luxembourg and the Portuguese Republic adding further the relations of both countries during de pandemic of COVID-19. From the abolition of the internal borders to the signing of treaties allowing citizens of the European Union to travel freely among the Member States without worries. Further, I aim to demonstrate that Luxembourg is considerably a successful country regarding welcoming diversity. The success of the cultural diversity in the Duchy’s is in the wake of the different bodies that contribute to an effective integration process as well as the different integration policies regarding immigrants and their families. Children, specially, can benefit from a variety of school aids that will help them fit into the system from an early age. In my study, I collected and compared data from different official sources and reports to help in the understanding of the evolution of Luxembourg’s society as well on how the Portuguese community became the largest and most important foreign community in the country, exploring the pre-existing relations between the two nations, unfamiliar to many

FAIR data management: what does it mean for drug discovery?

The drug discovery community faces high costs in bringing safe and effective medicines to market, in part due to the rising volume and complexity of data which must be generated during the research and development process. Fully utilising these expensively created experimental and computational data resources has become a key aim of scientists due to the clear imperative to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-based analyses to solve the complex problems inherent in drug discovery. In turn, AI methods heavily rely on the quantity, quality, consistency, and scope of underlying training data. While pre-existing preclinical and clinical data cannot fully replace the need for de novo data generation in a project, having access to relevant historical data represents a valuable asset, as its reuse can reduce the need to perform similar experiments, therefore avoiding a “reinventing the wheel” scenario. Unfortunately, most suitable data resources are often archived within institutes, companies, or individual research groups and hence unavailable to the wider community. Hence, enabling the data to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) is crucial for the wider community of drug discovery and development scientists to learn from the work performed and utilise the findings to enhance comprehension of their own research outcomes. In this mini-review, we elucidate the utility of FAIR data management across the drug discovery pipeline and assess the impact such FAIR data has made on the drug development process

Does (re-)entering the labour market at advanced ages protect against cognitive decline?:A matching difference-in-differences approach

peer reviewedBACKGROUND: While prolonged labour market participation becomes increasingly important in ageing societies, evidence on the impacts of entering or exiting work beyond age 65 on cognitive functioning is scarce. METHODS: We use data from two large population-representative data sets from South Korea and the USA to investigate and compare the effects of the labour market (re-)entry and exit by matching employment and other confounder trajectories prior to the exposure. We chose the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (N=1872, 2006-2020) for its exceptionally active labour participation in later life and the Health and Retirement Study (N=4070, 2006-2020) for its growing inequality among US older adults in labour participation. We use the matching difference-in-differences (DID) method, which allows us to make causal claims by reducing biases through matching. RESULTS: We find general positive effects of entering the labour market in South Korea (DID estimate: 0.653, 95% CI 0.167 to 1.133), while in the USA such benefit is not salient (DID estimate: 0.049, 95% CI -0.262 to 0.431). Exiting the late-life labour market leads to cognitive decline in both South Korea (DID estimate: -0.438, 95% CI -0.770 to -0.088) and the USA (DID estimate: -0.432, 95% CI -0.698 to -0.165). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that Korean participants cognitively benefited from late-life labour market participation, while US participants did not. Differences in participant characteristics and reasons for labour market participation may have led to the differential findings. We found the negative effects of exiting the late-life labour force in both countries

How can data visualization support interdisciplinary research? LuxTIME: studying historical exposomics in Belval

peer reviewedThe Luxembourg Time Machine (LuxTIME) is an interdisciplinary project that studies the historical exposome during the industrialization of the Minett region, located in the south of Luxembourg. Exposome research encompasses all external and internal non-genetic factors influencing the health of the population, such as air pollution, green spaces, noise, work conditions, physical activity, and diet. Due to the wide scope of the interdisciplinary project, the historical study of the exposome in Belval involved the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from the National Archive of Luxembourg, various local archives (e.g., the communes of Esch-sur-Alzette and Sanem), the National Library, the Library of National Statistics STATEC, the National Geoportal of Luxembourg, scientific data from other research centers, and information from newspapers and journals digitized in eluxemburgensia.1 The data collection and the resulting inventory were performed to create a proof of concept to critically test the potential of a multi-layered research design for the study of the historical exposome in Belval. The guiding navigation tool throughout the project was data visualization. It has facilitated the exploration of the data collected (or just the data) and the metadata. It has also been a valuable tool for mapping knowledge and defining the scope of the project. Furthermore, different data visualization techniques have helped us to reflect on the process of knowledge sharing, to understand how the relevance of certain topics changed throughout the project and why, and to learn about the publication process in different journals and the experience of the participants. Data visualization is used not only as a means to an end but also to embrace the idea of sandcastles using a speculative and process-oriented approach to advance knowledge within all research fields involved. LuxTIME has proven to be an ideal case study to explore the possibilities offered by different data visualization concepts and techniques resulting in a data visualization toolbox that could be evaluated and extended in other interdisciplinary projects.R-AGR-3703 - IAS - LuxTIME (01/06/2020 - 15/01/2025) - FICKERS Andrea

The effects of privacy-non-invasive interventions on cheating prevention and user experience in unproctored online assessments: An empirical study

peer reviewedPreventing cheating without invading test-takers’ privacy in high-stakes online summative assessments poses a challenge, especially when the assessment is remote and unproctored. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 997) in a realistic online test simulation to investigate the effects of three privacy-non-invasive anti-cheating interventions (honor code reminder, warning message, and monitoring message) on cheating prevention from a user-centered perspective. The quantitative results indicated that, compared to a control condition, displaying a honor code reminder during an online test worked best in lowering the odds of cheating. None of the interventions affected user experience and test-taking self-efficacy significantly. Further open-ended questions revealed that interventions can cause distraction which in turn could potentially evoke negative emotions. The decision to cheat was influenced by the extent to which interventions conveyed that cheating is wrong and also by test-takers’ perception of getting caught if they cheated. We derived recommendations for a fair and cheating-preventive unproctored online assessment for researchers and practitioners

How can data visualization support interdisciplinary research? LuxTIME: studying historical exposomics in Belval

The Luxembourg Time Machine (LuxTIME) is an interdisciplinary project that studies the historical exposome during the industrialization of the Minett region, located in the south of Luxembourg. Exposome research encompasses all external and internal non-genetic factors influencing the health of the population, such as air pollution, green spaces, noise, work conditions, physical activity, and diet. Due to the wide scope of the interdisciplinary project, the historical study of the exposome in Belval involved the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from the National Archive of Luxembourg, various local archives (e.g., the communes of Esch-sur-Alzette and Sanem), the National Library, the Library of National Statistics STATEC, the National Geoportal of Luxembourg, scientific data from other research centers, and information from newspapers and journals digitized in eluxemburgensia.1 The data collection and the resulting inventory were performed to create a proof of concept to critically test the potential of a multi-layered research design for the study of the historical exposome in Belval. The guiding navigation tool throughout the project was data visualization. It has facilitated the exploration of the data collected (or just the data) and the metadata. It has also been a valuable tool for mapping knowledge and defining the scope of the project. Furthermore, different data visualization techniques have helped us to reflect on the process of knowledge sharing, to understand how the relevance of certain topics changed throughout the project and why, and to learn about the publication process in different journals and the experience of the participants. Data visualization is used not only as a means to an end but also to embrace the idea of sandcastles using a speculative and process-oriented approach to advance knowledge within all research fields involved. LuxTIME has proven to be an ideal case study to explore the possibilities offered by different data visualization concepts and techniques resulting in a data visualization toolbox that could be evaluated and extended in other interdisciplinary projects

Towards smart assessment: A metamodel proposal

International audienceAssessment initiatives in organisations are focused on the evaluation of organisational aspects aiming to obtain a critic view of their status. The assessment results are used to lead improvement programs or to serve as base for comparative purposes. Assessment approaches may comprise complex tasks demanding a large amount of time and resources. Moreover, assessment results are highly dependent on the assessment input, which may have a dynamic nature due to the constant evolution of organisations. The assessment results should be adaptable to these changes without much effort whilst being able to provide efficient and reliable results. Therefore, providing smart capabilities to the assessment process or to systems in charge of performing assessments represents a step forward in the search for more efficient appraisal processes. This work proposes a metamodel defining the elements of a Smart Assessment, which is guided by elements related to the smartness concept such as knowledge, learning, reasoning and inferring capabilities. The metamodel is further specialized considering a Business Process In-teroperability Smart Assessment scenario

Do learners need semantics to spell syntactic markers? Plural spellings in real vs. pseudowords in a French L2 setting

Inaudible syntactic markers are especially difcult to spell. This paper examines how 455 fourth graders spell silent French plural markers in a dictation with real and pseudowords after one year of formal French instruction (L2). The Generalized Linear Mixed Model analysis shows frst that noun plural spelling (real and pseudo) is a strong predictor for verb and adjective plural spelling. Second, the performance on real verb plural is higher than the performance on real adjective plural. In con‑ trast, the performance on pseudoadjective plural is higher than on pseudoverb plural. Our fndings indicate the strong infuence of semantics and frequency in instruction input on plural spelling: noun plural is semantically grounded, and nouns are most frequent in the curriculum. Verbs and verb plural are also frequent, and infection is mostly taught by means of memorizing the verb infection paradigm. Adjectives are taught least frequently. The fndings are discussed in the context of French L2 instruction, as the extremely low results on adjectives and pseudoverbs seem to be a consequence of instruction methods

Technology-Powered Strategies to Rethink the Pedagogy of History and Cultural Heritage through Symmetries and Narratives

Recent advances in semantic web and deep learning technologies enable new means for the computational analysis of vast amounts of information from the field of digital humanities. We discuss how some of the techniques can be used to identify historical and cultural symmetries between different characters, locations, events or venues, and how these can be harnessed to develop new strategies to promote intercultural and cross-border aspects that support the teaching and learning of history and heritage. The strategies have been put to the test in the context of the European project CrossCult, revealing enormous potential to encourage curiosity to discover new information and increase retention of learned information