82 research outputs found

    Special Topics in Information Technology

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    This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2020-21 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

    Medical Education for the 21st Century

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    Medical education has undergone a substantial transformation from the traditional models of the basic classroom, laboratory, and bedside that existed up to the late 20th century. The focus of this text is to review the spectrum of topics that are essential to the training of 21st-century healthcare providers. Modern medical education goes beyond learning physiology, pathophysiology, anatomy, pharmacology, and how they apply to patient care. Contemporary medical education models incorporate multiple dimensions, including digital information management, social media platforms, effective teamwork, emotional and coping intelligence, simulation, as well as advanced tools for teaching both hard and soft skills. Furthermore, this book also evaluates the evolving paradigm of how teachers can teach and how students can learn – and how the system evaluates success

    Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications

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    This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2003, held 10-12 December 2003, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies

    Models and analysis of vocal emissions for biomedical applications

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    This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 4th International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2005, held 29-31 October 2005, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies

    Precarious feminine identities : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

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    This thesis explores, from a DeleuzoGuattarian perspective, the motivations that women find for, and the actions they undertake in leaving intimate partner relationships under which they have suffered emotional and physical derogation at the hands of their abusive other. It seeks to investigate and describe their "minoritarian" actions in the context of a DeleuzoGuattarian stylistic and strategic approach towards departing intimate partner violence (IPV). In this, as well as considering particular aspects of Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual apparatus, the study pursues the differences opened up by affirmative engagement with the hopefulness of virtualities, and the "lines of flight" these offer for creative possibilities, enduring connections, and novel - if precarious - identities. The extremes to which the women in this study were pushed reveal the stresses and conflicts in the bid for autonomy and equality inherent in unhappy intimate partner relationships without the frequent rhetoric that masks the difficulties of domestic life. Compounding these women's problems is the fact that there are few obvious avenues for escape for those trapped in abusive situations, limited support for independence, or programmatic advice on the broad social mandate they must negotiate. The women's stories reveal deep fissures in the structures of conventional New Zealand families by showing that the latter cannot accommodate or validate relationships that privilege outmoded gender practices over care, commitment, and opportunity for growth. Their stories articulate social and cultural uncertainties about the unstable positions of women in unequal relationships, that privilege outmoded gender practices over care, commitment, and opportunity for growth. Their stories articulate social and cultural uncertainties about the unstable positions of women in unequal relationships, the physically and emotionally draining demands to which they are subjected, and the struggle to find acceptance in their relationships, which are too often structured not by good will, affection and effort, but by traditional roles and economic hierarchies. The narratives contribute to the conversation on persecuted women's courage and determination to endure and resist, to develop lines of flight and to expand their lives despite intolerable pressures, as well as offering a DeleuzoGuattarian conceptual pragmatic underpinning of action. It shows that assertive independent action engenders empowering becoming, and it suggests that where women initiate schizonanalytic breaks, where they embrace precarity, they can discover creative and fulfilling lives

    Conversation as an Ecology of Learning. An analysis of asynchronous discussions within an online professional community working to develop a democratic practice in education

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    Teachers learn important things together through talking. Conversationbased continued professional development (CPD) for teachers has been insufficiently researched. In the context of current policy and practice - that remains top-down and controlling in terms of educators’ autonomy and self-direction - more agile and transformative means of professional learning are key. The research is a case study aiming to investigate the characteristics of the participation of education professionals (teachers, teacher educators, school heads…) from 50 European countries in an online professional learning community (OPLC) developed under the umbrella of Council of Europe’s Pestalozzi Programme (PP). The study is also interested in how online asynchronous conversation can be a sustainable mode of CPD helpful for the creation of democratic spaces for learning. It directs attention to the nature of the conversation, taking place in the online interaction, the details of which turn out to be of crucial importance. The study is based on activities and data, neither of which was planned or collected for research purposes. The data is composed of the transcripts of participants postings between 2012 and 2017, and the interactions that are contained in the dialogic space that is the PP platform. Therefore, the design of the study deals with the complexity and scope of the context and data, that brings in the international, intercultural composition of participants who arrive with different histories and perhaps engrained assumptions and norms; the professional development context that is unusual; the online set up that is also particular due to the conversational nature of its activities; and lastly the complexity of the issue of democracy in education which may not fit so easily in the school curricula, or the culture of school, or institution and their education aims. To address this complexity, the framework of ecology was chosen to cater to the many parts of the context and the relationships these entertain to form the environment of the OPLC. The framework of ecology and its analysis may inform on what affordances are observed for an OPLC to reach its full transformative potential for participating educators. It is helpful to consider these and to conceptualize conversation as an ecology of learning that is conducive to engagement in online professional learning and development. 6 Transcripts of asynchronous discussion threads were analyzed, through thematic analysis and statistical treatment, to capture the structure and affordances of conversation-based online professional learning communities that foster the establishment of an ecology of learning that is conducive to the development of democratic practices in educational settings. To answer this overall concern, three main research questions were identified and chosen to form the core of the investigation. The first question concerns the features of the collaboration to identify elements that support – or impede – co-construction of knowledge among participants. The second research question focuses on the discernible factors and conditions that foster participants’ motivation to engage and uses Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a basis to investigate the data. The third research question is centered on participants’ mental models of what constitutes a democratic teaching practice, and how educators’ engagement in the conversation may support transformative action in the classroom. The results highlight enabling behaviors that help regulate pace, cohesion, topical persistence, strong ties, and congeniality in the conversation to enhance the potential for meaning making and coconstruction of knowledge. Two moderator-presences, ‘teaching presence ‘and ‘peer presence’, were found, thus the study enhances previous research on online presences (RQ1). Furthermore, eight factors were found to contribute to participants’ motivation to engage and remain active in the conversation, specifically: self-confidence in one’s practice, persistence towards attaining goals, sprightliness, inclusion, ethos, control, accountability, and curiosity. The SDT positing the need for competence, relatedness and autonomy was completed with a fourth need that is curiosity (RQ2). Finally, discursive alignments and tensions were found, that provoke a cognitive dissonance having the effect of helping participants to agree on objectives and seek ways to achieve more democracy in educational environments, which are not fundamentally democratic. As educators develop democratic dimensions, an ‘activist presence’ was found to be a response to these tensions (RQ3). Finally, concerning the overall question of affordances, the studied ecology, and the responses to the RQs suggest a development leading to the establishment of five structures in the OPLC. An ethos structure, an affect and identity structure, a communication structure, and a power structure are revealed as shaping the relations between members. All participate in forming an ensemble of affordances of conversation based OPLCs fostering an ecology of learning for the development of democratic practices in educational settings.Samræða kennara getur verið mjög lærdómsrík. Samt sem áður er ekki digur sá sjóður rannsókna sem beinist að starfsþróun og samræðu á vettvangi menntunar. Nútíma stefnumótun í menntun hættir til að vera stýrt að ofan og vantar fyrir bragðið ákveðinn sveigjanleika og sjálfræði sem laðar fram mikilvægar breytingar í starfinu og gefur faglegu námi kennara dýpri merkingu. Þessi rannsókn er tilviksrannsókn sem beinist að athugun á því sem einkennir þátttöku fagfólks í menntageiranum (sem eru einkum kennarar, skólastjórar og kennaramenntendur) frá fimmtíu Evrópulöndum í rafrænu lærdómssamfélagi sem var þróað á vegum Pestalozzi starfsþróunarverkefnis Evrópuráðsins. Mikilvægt áhersluatriði var að kanna hvernig samræða á netinu sem ekki er samstillt í tíma getur verið varanleg leið í starfsþróun á vettvangi fagfólksins. Sérstaklega þar sem markmiðið var að styðja við lýðræðislegt fyrirkomulag slíkrar menntunar. Í rannsókninni er sjónum beint eðli samræðunnar sem fer fram á netinu og bent er á fjölmörg einstök atriði sem þar skipta máli. Gögnin sem rannsóknin byggir á eru skrifleg samskipti fagfólks innan menntakerfa á svæði Pestalozzi starfsþróunarverkefnisins sem fram fóru á árunum 2012–2017. Hvorki val þátttakenda, útfærsla samskiptanna né gögnin voru skipulögð með rannsókn í huga. Skipulag rannsóknarinnar sjálfrar þarf því að taka tillit til fjölmargra flækja. Þær tengjast ekki síst fjölþjóða samsetningu þátttakenda og þeirri margmenningu sem í henni felst. Þeir höfðu afar ólíkan bakgrunn og ólíkar hugmyndir um viðmið og gildi. Starfsþróunarumhverfið var að ýmsu leyti framandi, m.a. vegna þess hve mikil áhersla var lögð á samræðuþáttinn á netinu. Við þetta bættist viðfangsefni námsins, þ.e. ýmsar hliðar lýðræðis í skólastarfi sem féll iðulega hvorki inn í það námsefni sem skólarnir glímdu við, né inn í menningu skólanna, eða annara stofnana, né almennt inn í höfuðmarkmið þeirra menntunar sem margir þátttakenda fengust við. Til þess að glíma við þetta flækjustig var hugmyndin um vistfræði menntunar notuð til þess að ná utan um ólíka þætti aðstæðna og tengsla á milli þeirra í rafrænu lærdómssamfélagi. Sá rammi og jafnframt greining sem vistræðihugtakið leggur til, bendir til ólíkra möguleika sem hið rafræna netsamfélag býður þáttakendum upp á. Það er því rökstutt að gagnlegt sé að greina samræðu sem beinist að þeirri flóknu starfsþróun sem um ræðir frá sjónarhorni vistfræði menntunar. Texti ofangreindra samræðna var þemagreindur og ákveðinni tölfræðilegri athugun beitt til þess að fá hugmynd um uppbyggingu hans og þá möguleika sem rafrænt samfélag, sem beinist að starfsþróun, felur í sér. Í þessu tilviki beindist samræðan að mótun og þróun lýðræðislegra hugmynda í skólastarfi. Til þess að svara þessari áskorun voru þrjár rannsóknarspurningar mótaðar og eru þær kjarni rannsóknarinnar. Fyrsta spurningin spyr um einkenni samstarfsins og leitast við að bera kennsl á þá þætti samvinnu þátttakenda sem styðja, eða hindra mótun sameiginlegrar þekkingar. Næsta spurning beinist að aðstæðum, í ljósi sjálfsákvörðunakenningar (SDT), sem laða þátttakendur til þátttöku. Þriðja spurningin beinir sjónum að hugmyndum þátttakenda um þeirra upplifun af lýðræðislegum kennsluháttum og menntun og hvernig framlag þeirra í umræðunni geti stutt við umbætur í kennslustofunni að þessu leyti. Niðurstöðurnar sýna hvað það er í samskiptunum sem stýrir hraða, samheldni, tryggð við umræðuefnið, tengsl þátttakenda og þægilegu viðmóti í samskiptunum sem allt stuðlar jafnframt að skilningi og mótun frekari þekkingar hjá hópnum. Það mátti auk þess sjá tvenns konar áhrif þeirra sem stýrðu umræðunni, annars vegar það sem kalla mætti kennaraáhrif og hins vegar áhrif sem eiga frekar skylt við jafningjaáhrif (RSP1). Átta þætti mátti greina sem stuðla að áhuga þátttakenda til virkrar þátttöku í þeirri samræðu sem boðið var upp á og skipta máli til að halda henni áfram (sjá Töflu 18). Þeir eru, sjálfstraust í faglegu starfi, ásetningur að ná settu markmiði, lifandi áhugi á verkefninu, ásetningur um að virða sjónarmið annarra og hafa jafnræði í samræðu, svipuð gildi og siðferði þátttakenda, tilfinning fyrir að hafa stjórn á aðstæðum, ábyrgð á þátttöku öxluð og forvitni um efni verkefnisins. Innviðir sjálfsákvörðunarkenningarinnar komu fram, þ.e. þörfin fyrir hæfni, tengsl og sjálfræði, en nauðsynlegt var að bæta við þættinum forvitni (RSP2). Hugrænt misræmi birtist í samstöðu annars vegar og togstreitu hins vegar þegar þátttakendur glímdu við markmið sem stefndu að auknu lýðræði í skólastarfi sem var fyrir, í grundvallaratriðum, ólýðræðislegt. Í glímu við þá togstreitu sem fram kom mátti greina að þátttakendur sýndu merki um aktífisma (RSP3). Þegar skyggnst er heildrænt eftir þeim möguleikum sem fólust í skipulagi Pestalozzi- starfsþróunarverkefnisins í ljósi þeirrar umgjarðar sem vistfræði menntunar leggur til ásamt svörum við rannsóknarspurningunum, þá eru dregnir fram í dagsljósið fimm þættir (sjá t.d. Mynd 31), eða kerfi sem saman mynda ákveðna heild. Þau eru nefnd gildiskerfi (sem snýst um að huga að megin markmiðum hins sameiginlega verkefnis), ímyndarkerfi (þar sem viðkomandi þróa faglega ímynd sína), samskiptakerfi (þar sem þátttakendur þróa samskipti í leit að sameiginlegum skilningi), netkerfi (þar sem þátttakendur stilla strengi til að virða og notfæra sér samskiptin) og valdakerfi (þar sem leitað er jafnvægis á milli stýringar og jafnræðis). Þessir þættir ofnir saman mynda hið margslungna vistkerfi menntunar sem er gagnlegt til þess að lýsa starfsþróun í netheimum og það sem þeir bjóða upp á þegar fengist er við þróun lýðræðislegra starfshátta og hugmynda í skólastarfi.Doctoral grant Number RSJ-PhD-2020 - University of Iceland's Eimskip Fun

    Becoming Human with Humanoid

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    Nowadays, our expectations of robots have been significantly increases. The robot, which was initially only doing simple jobs, is now expected to be smarter and more dynamic. People want a robot that resembles a human (humanoid) has and has emotional intelligence that can perform action-reaction interactions. This book consists of two sections. The first section focuses on emotional intelligence, while the second section discusses the control of robotics. The contents of the book reveal the outcomes of research conducted by scholars in robotics fields to accommodate needs of society and industry

    Atti del IX Convegno Annuale AIUCD. La svolta inevitabile: sfide e prospettive per l'Informatica Umanistica.

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    La nona edizione del convegno annuale dell'Associazione per l'Informatica Umanistica e la Cultura Digitale (AIUCD 2020; Milano, 15-17 gennaio 2020) ha come tema “La svolta inevitabile: sfide e prospettive per l'Informatica Umanistica”, con lo specifico obiettivo di fornire un'occasione per riflettere sulle conseguenze della crescente diffusione dell’approccio computazionale al trattamento dei dati connessi all’ambito umanistico. Questo volume raccoglie gli articoli i cui contenuti sono stati presentati al convegno. A diversa stregua, essi affrontano il tema proposto da un punto di vista ora più teorico-metodologico, ora più empirico-pratico, presentando i risultati di lavori e progetti (conclusi o in corso) che considerino centrale il trattamento computazionale dei dati

    An Initial Framework Assessing the Safety of Complex Systems

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    Trabajo presentado en la Conference on Complex Systems, celebrada online del 7 al 11 de diciembre de 2020.Atmospheric blocking events, that is large-scale nearly stationary atmospheric pressure patterns, are often associated with extreme weather in the mid-latitudes, such as heat waves and cold spells which have significant consequences on ecosystems, human health and economy. The high impact of blocking events has motivated numerous studies. However, there is not yet a comprehensive theory explaining their onset, maintenance and decay and their numerical prediction remains a challenge. In recent years, a number of studies have successfully employed complex network descriptions of fluid transport to characterize dynamical patterns in geophysical flows. The aim of the current work is to investigate the potential of so called Lagrangian flow networks for the detection and perhaps forecasting of atmospheric blocking events. The network is constructed by associating nodes to regions of the atmosphere and establishing links based on the flux of material between these nodes during a given time interval. One can then use effective tools and metrics developed in the context of graph theory to explore the atmospheric flow properties. In particular, Ser-Giacomi et al. [1] showed how optimal paths in a Lagrangian flow network highlight distinctive circulation patterns associated with atmospheric blocking events. We extend these results by studying the behavior of selected network measures (such as degree, entropy and harmonic closeness centrality)at the onset of and during blocking situations, demonstrating their ability to trace the spatio-temporal characteristics of these events.This research was conducted as part of the CAFE (Climate Advanced Forecasting of sub-seasonal Extremes) Innovative Training Network which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 813844
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