Safeguarding Privacy Through Deep Learning Techniques

Over the last few years, there has been a growing need to meet minimum security and privacy requirements. Both public and private companies have had to comply with increasingly stringent standards, such as the ISO 27000 family of standards, or the various laws governing the management of personal data. The huge amount of data to be managed has required a huge effort from the employees who, in the absence of automatic techniques, have had to work tirelessly to achieve the certification objectives. Unfortunately, due to the delicate information contained in the documentation relating to these problems, it is difficult if not impossible to obtain material for research and study purposes on which to experiment new ideas and techniques aimed at automating processes, perhaps exploiting what is in ferment in the scientific community and linked to the fields of ontologies and artificial intelligence for data management. In order to bypass this problem, it was decided to examine data related to the medical world, which, especially for important reasons related to the health of individuals, have gradually become more and more freely accessible over time, without affecting the generality of the proposed methods, which can be reapplied to the most diverse fields in which there is a need to manage privacy-sensitive information

Refugeedom and humanitarianism in Cold War Central America: refugees in Honduras during the 1980s

This thesis looks at Salvadoran and Nicaraguan refugee camps in Honduras during the 1980s. During this time, Honduras, firmly allied with the United States (US), was involved in both the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan conflicts from which the refugees had fled. Those from El Salvador came from regions in which the leftist guerrilla group, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, were particularly strong. The Honduran government saw these refugees as dangerous and potentially destabilising and thus they were confined to closed refugee camps. On the other hand, those from Nicaragua crossed into Honduras following conflict with the Sandinista government and so their anti-Communist credentials were, in the eyes of the Honduran government, secure. These refugees were granted freedom of movement. Comparing these two cases, this thesis explores the way in which refuge was politicised and intrinsic to the way the Cold War unfolded in Central America. An array of actors were involved in the camps and settlements for these refugees; the refugees themselves, the Honduran government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the US embassy in Honduras, and a number of national and international aid and solidarity organisations. Moreover, the camps were also linked to guerrilla groups in El Salvador and Nicaragua. This thesis examines the interactions between these different groups, all of whom were operating in the context of the Cold War. In doing so, the thesis shows how the Cold War both limited the space for humanitarian action, but also how the Cold War shaped competing visions of humanitarianism. At the same time, refugees, and guerrilla groups linked to them, successfully utilised humanitarian demands and language to influence the actions of state and transnational actors. By taking a multi-archival approach along with oral histories, this thesis brings together both refugee and institutional perspectives, therefore enabling it to highlight the evolution and contested nature of refugeedom in Cold War Central America

Copyright law has become an exclusive system centred around economic exploitation that now serves to discourage creativity – A proposal for reform with a focus on the music industry.

This thesis argues that copyright law, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, has become predominantly focused on creating and maintaining and creating new and pre-existing legal interests for economic exploitation. The early eighteenth century aims of copyright law, as put forward by the legislatures, courts, and academics, were not predicated solely on the protection of owners interests. Instead, upon exploration, copyright has moved away from its original objectives such as the dissemination of information and the improvement of learning, and instead has created an environment of exclusive control to procure increased profits in the digital age. This is considered to be inappropriate in the digital era as content recipients now have an increased capacity to creatively re-use digital content in the production of unique and innovative works. The result of these developments has been the creation of an environment of panoptic surveillance and digital licensing that is discouraging creativity based on proprietary rights. This has meant that potential creators and recipients obtain needless licenses, clearances, and permissions under an impulse to avoid the litigation process for either copyright infringement or contractual breaches to avoid legal liability. Ultimately, there has been an emphasis on the control of works, as opposed to creativity, where digital technology and the application of copyright thereof is being utilised by copyright owners, who can avoid the due process of law under the current law. Indeed, the protection of right holder interests can reasonably be said to be analogous to encouraging creativity, but it is suggested that in the digital environment this assumption is perpetuating current business models at the expense of user freedom and creativity. This thesis argues that copyright has been fundamental to creating the current system due to the way it operates in the digital world. To do so, the thesis considers how the internet created new forms of dissemination that were extremely difficult to control with the law and how these same factors represented an economic and ideological challenge to the music industry. To this end, the thesis analyses the role of capitalism and proprietary rights in the development of the current system. This includes how copyright law has influenced the development of the current streaming business model using digital contracts via licensing. The extent to which licenses are now serving to increase the control that copyright holders can exert over their works and the potential for contract to restrict re-use is also considered. The thesis, therefore, suggests that these issues would be reduced if there was a more cost-efficient copyright regime that could increase individual access to the material. This also includes using specific legislation to counteract the issue of contracts in the digital marketplace. To achieve this, the thesis outlines reform proposals which embody the foundational underpinnings behind the creation and existence of copyright like the dissemination of information. This could be achieved through driving down prices which are predicted to create a more financially accessible system. The proposals will also recommend the outlawing of agreements which prevent the application, or otherwise obscure the enforcement, of legitimate copyright limitations. This will be done to the effect that the reforms are still applicable under the agreement. However, this will not affect individual contractual enforceability, except where the terms of the agreement act to otherwise prevent the enforceability of the reforms. As a result, the reforms recognise the underlying principle that copyright is fundamentally a property right. Ultimately, the aim is to lessen the overt focus upon economic exploitation and enhance the transferability of digital assets by freeing up some of the constraints through creating more financially accessible works and limiting the impact of contracts. In so doing, the thesis proposes a ‘capping’ system that places a ‘cap’ on what can be charged for a work. The basic tenet of this system is: (The size of the work) = (The maximum price it can be market for until (x) number of copies/amount are/is sold in accordance with the figure imposed by the capping system). Under the proposed system, rightsholders and distributors will have to declare the accuracy of their numbers under a formal system of registration. Then, once the qualifying (number/amount/duration) of (works) have been sold/licensed in accordance with the rules imposed by the guidelines provided: the work can be sold/licensed at a rate chosen by the owner. If there is a conflict where, for example, a work is otherwise contended to be outside of the regulation of the proposed framework, for whatever reason, it will be for an administrative body to adjudicate on such issues. This system aims to reduce costs overall within copyright which could increase the number of works available due to increased financial accessibility, including the prevention of any undermining by contract. The current copyright systems, based around economic exploitation and proprietary-based exclusivity, have become too influenced by these factors. Recognising this, the proposed system adopts elements from all the factors that have contributed to the creation of the current system. The revised system seeks to lessen the focus on the exploitation of copyrighted goods, by regulating the sale, and re-use, of works. Therefore, the proposals aim to provide a framework that could reduce prices overall and will have an effect beyond enforcement. This will be done by working with capitalism to provide a practical basis towards dealing with the issues raised in the thesis to procure more accepted change. The law is correct as on 10th July 2020

Restoring the ecological quality of riparian ecosystems - a multi-level approach

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia / ULMany European rivers and floodplains have been subjected to long periods of anthropogenic degradation. Activities like land drainage, construction of dams and weirs, channelization, water abstraction and pollution, resulted, among others, in the loss of floodplains and wetlands, high sediment runoff, biodiversity losses, lowering of the river and water table levels and increase in peak flows. Thus, this thesis focuses on a multi-level top to bottom approach to freshwater ecosystem restoration, addressing the legislation restoration drivers, as well as the restoration at the basin and river section levels. The main conclusions are: a) to improve freshwater restoration success in Europe it is highly recommended to create more ecosystem restoration soft law and reinforcement mechanisms related with governance, quality, stakeholders, publicity and research; b) there is a joint effect of climate change and land use on river water quality, meaning that proposed environmental conservation measures may be too conservative to have a significant effect in river nitrogen concentration, particularly in a climate change context; c) local population awareness and participation are as essential for habitat restoration success as grazing herbivores exclusion, river pollutant load, water table levels and tree installation techniques; d) the sampling of a river section to assess the influence of the liquid effluent from an acid bisulfite pulp mill on river water quality did not reveal particularly high levels of pollution directly related to the mill, in spite of relevant levels of total phosphorous and dissolved lignin; and e) cork and Tasmanian blue gum bark are capable of enhancing biological denitrification in laboratory batch tests. The implementation of ecologically effective restoration should be flexible to adjust to changing climate and societal priorities, retaining simultaneously the capacity to integrate information from new technologies into site assessment and restoration planningN/

Knowledge Capturing in Design Briefing Process for Requirement Elicitation and Validation

Knowledge capturing and reusing are major processes of knowledge management that deal with the elicitation of valuable knowledge via some techniques and methods for use in actual and further studies, projects, services, or products. The construction industry, as well, adopts and uses some of these concepts to improve various construction processes and stages. From pre-design to building delivery knowledge management principles and briefing frameworks have been implemented across project stakeholders: client, design teams, construction teams, consultants, and facility management teams. At pre-design and design stages, understanding the client’s needs and users’ knowledge are crucial for identifying and articulating the expected requirements and objectives. Due to underperforming results and missed goals and objectives, many projects finish with highly dissatisfied clients and loss of contracts for some organizations. Knowledge capturing has beneficial effects via its principles and methods on requirement elicitation and validation at the briefing stage between user, client and designer. This paper presents the importance and usage of knowledge capturing and reusing in briefing process at pre-design and design stages especially the involvement of client and user, and explores the techniques and technologies that are usable in briefing process for requirement elicitation

An Investigation on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Greenhouse Structures in Antalya

Significant population increase across the world, loss of cultivable land and increasing demand for food put pressure on agriculture. To meet the demand, greenhouses are built, which are, light structures with transparent cladding material in order to provide controlled microclimatic environment proper for plant production. Conceptually, greenhouses are similar with manufacturing buildings where a controlled environment for manufacturing and production have been provided and proper spaces for standardized production processes have been enabled. Parallel with the trends in the world, particularly in southern regions, greenhouse structures have been increasingly constructed and operated in Turkey. A significant number of greenhouses are located at Antalya. The satellite images demonstrated that for over last three decades, there has been a continuous invasion of greenhouses on all cultivable land. There are various researches and attempts for the improvement of greenhouse design and for increasing food production by decreasing required energy consumption. However, the majority of greenhouses in Turkey are very rudimentary structures where capital required for investment is low, but maintenance requirements are high when compared with new generation greenhouse structures. In this research paper, life-long capital requirements for construction and operation of greenhouse buildings in Antalya has been investigated by using benefit-cost analysis study