Bulk Analysis of Mortgage Data with Cluster Computing

Angelo, Gordon & Co. is developing a statistical model of loan delinquency status. This project designed and implemented a software package to process a public data set from Wells Fargo to build a rudimentary model. The data requires significant manipulation to convert it into a useful form. A series of compartmentalized modules were created, each of which are combined to form a “Tech Stack”, which runs each step in the sequence. This ends in an upload to a cloud storage provider. Once the Tech Stack had processed the relevant data, several sample analyses were run to demonstrate the data’s capabilities. The size of the data set made computations with a single computer impractical, so a cluster was used to analyze the data

A microtonal wind controller building on Yamaha’s technology to facilitate the performance of music based on the “19-EDO” scale

We describe a project in which several collaborators adapted an existing instrument to make it capable of playing expressively in music based on the microtonal scale characterised by equal divsion of the octave into 19 tones (“19-EDO”). Our objective was not just to build this instrument, however, but also to produce a well-formed piece of music which would exploit it idiomatically, in a performance which would provide listeners with a pleasurable and satisfying musical experience. Hence, consideration of the extent and limits of the playing-techniques of the resulting instrument (a “Wind-Controller”) and of appropriate approaches to the composition of music for it were an integral part of the project from the start. Moreover, the intention was also that the piece, though grounded in the musical characteristics of the 19-EDO scale, would nevertheless have a recognisable relationship with what Dimitri Tymoczko (2010) has called the “Extended Common Practice” of the last millennium. So the article goes on to consider these matters, and to present a score of the resulting new piece, annotated with comments documenting some of the performance issues which it raises. Thus, bringing the project to fruition involved elements of composition, performance, engineering and computing, and the article describes how such an inter-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary collaboration was co-ordinated in a unified manner to achieve the envisaged outcome. Finally, we consider why the building of microtonal instruments is such a problematic issue in a contemporary (“high-tech”) society like ours

Monitoring Collective Intelligence in Lithuania’s Online Communities

This paper presents the findings of a systematic survey that evaluated the potential of online communities (or Civic Tech) in Lithuania to co-create collective intelligence. Traditional approaches to public engagement remain relevant, notwithstanding, our enquiry is more interested in the growing potential of digital-enabled citizens to increase efficient collective performance. Civic intelligence is a form of collective intelligence exercised by a group’s capacity to perceive societal problems and its ability to address them effectively. The subject of the research is “bottom up” digital-enabled online platforms initiated by Lithuanian public organizations, civic movements and/or business entities. This scientific project advances our understanding about the basic preconditions in online communities through which collective intelligence is being systematically co-created. By monitoring the performance of Civic Tech platforms, the scientific question was examined, what are the socio-technological conditions that led the communities to become more intelligent. The results of web-based monitoring were obtained by applying Collective intelligence Monitoring technique and Pearson correlation analysis. This provided information about the potential and limits of online communities, and what changes may be needed to overcome such limitations

Lesson Study and Service Learning in Teacher Preparation

The aim of this paper is to share an teacher preparation experience that combines Lesson Study (LS) with a Service Learning methodology. This experience is interdisciplinary and includes three subjects from first-grade Childhood Education, carried out at University of Malaga since academic year 2014-2015. Within this framework, our students carry out Service Learning projects for schools in our area that are designed and developed following the LS methodology. Service Learning projects go through the following phases (Puig, J., Martín, & Batlle, 2008): 1) Preparation by the teachers involved in the project; 2) Implementation, i.e. developing the project with the students; 3) Evaluation. The implementation phase also has three sub-phases: preparation, implementation, and round-up. It is here that the LS is developed through the following phases (Soto & Pérez, 2015): 1. Define the problem; 2. Co-operatively design an experimental lesson and its observation process; 3. First experimental lesson; 4. Analyse and review the lesson; 5. Second experimental lesson; 6. Analysis and drafting of conclusions; 7. Presentation in extended context. We were able to gather evidence on how students teachers resolved different cognitive conflicts during the process. We saw how the LS process, with its phases and cooperative work, allows them to combine creativity and unique talents in a common project that acquires meaning and relevance thanks to Service Learning. This provides a framework that facilitates the construction of solid structures related to the meaning of the educational process, and which can be used to recalibrate what it means to be a Childhood School teacher: a creative, relevant, complex experience that requires recreating the knowledge and experience that students bring with them to the University about what it means to be a Childhood School teacher.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Co-operative Alternative and the Creative Industries: A Technical Report on a Survey of Co-operatives in the cultural and technology sectors in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This report presents the findings of a 2019 online survey of co-operatives in creative industries in Canada, the UK, and the US. This survey was an international collaboration between the SSHRC-supported project, “Pathways beyond Precarity in the Cultural and Creative Industries: Sustainable Livelihoods and Cultures of Solidarity,” and the British Academy-supported project, “Mapping Cultural Co-operatives.” This technical report is a companion to our community publication, Sharing Like We Mean It: Working Co-operatively in the Cultural and Tech Sectors. Whereas the latter presents select findings for workers who are new to co-ops, this technical report provides a fuller account of the results for co-op researchers, associations, policymakers, and other interested readers. Our survey was initiated in the context of research on cultural work. Scholars have produced extensive evidence of the precarity faced by workers in creative industries, including arts and culture, media and communication, and information technology. As the perils of Big Tech and the precarity of cultural work have become increasingly contentious, the need to explore and enact worker-centered strategies for democratizing labour and sustaining livelihoods has become urgent—all the more so in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit self-employed cultural workers particularly hard. While the co-operative model has recently begun to receive more attention among researchers seeking alternative work structures for the cultural and tech sectors, knowledge of the co-op landscape in the creative industries and the conditions of work therein remains limited. Building on Dave Boyle and Kate Oakley’s reflections on the complementarities of co-ops and creative industries, this report summarizes findings from our 2019 survey of creative-sector co-ops in Canada, the UK, and the US. In undertaking this survey, we set out to generate a preliminary portrait of co-op presence in creative industries; working conditions within creative-sector co-ops; the benefits of working co-operatively; reasons why cultural and tech workers choose the co-op option; and creative-sector co-ops’ involvement in the wider co-operative movement. As further described in Sharing Like We Mean It: Working Co-operatively in the Cultural and Tech Sectors, the results of our survey confirm that the co-op model is a promising strategy for mitigating individualized patterns of work, democratizing work relationships, and providing satisfying work in creative industries contexts. While co-ops are not a magic solution to systemic work problems, our research is suggestive of co-ops’ potential to remake work in ways that have yet to be fully realized, or widely tested, in creative industries

Events affecting levels of gross alpha and gross beta activities and heavy metals composition of airborne particulate samples

Particulate matter (PM) pollution is a serious environmental issue mainly due to the presence of toxic substances and trace metals in the atmosphere. The association of PM with adverse health effects has been recognized for a long time. Monitoring of both PM mass and chemical composition is important for identification of the emission source, determination of compliance with the set air quality standards and establishment of effective pollution control programs. In addition, the Saharan dust events have been recognized to have a non negligible impact on the particulate matter surface concentrations recorded in Europe. The objective of this study was to analyse temporal variation in mass concentrations, gross-alpha and gross-beta activities and heavy metal components for evaluating the integrated effects of transport and meteorology on the atmospheric loadings of substances with different sources and to further examine the relationship between the occurrence of African dust outbreaks and radionuclide activity concentrations. Gross-alpha and gross-beta radioactivity measurements are of particular interest for routine monitoring purposes and allow establishing trends in radionuclide concentrations. X-ray fluorescence analysis was successfully applied for the determination of metallic elements on the aerosol filters collected.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech Acknowledgments: This study was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, (Project CTM12-37598-C02, co -funded by FEDER-EU)

Nitrogen metabolism and gene expression landscape in maritime pine

This work was supported by the ProCoGen grant (FP7-KBBE-2011-5) and by the MicroNUpE grant (BIO2015-73512-JIN).Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton) is one the most important conifer species in the southwestern Mediterranean region because of its economic and environmental potential. For this reason, a work program in functional genomics has been developed in the frame of the ProCoGen project. One objective was to complete the knowledge about P. pinaster transcriptome with the tissue-specific localization of the gene expression of the low accumulated transcripts in sharper regions (Cañas et al. 2017). In order to reach these objectives total RNA was obtained from isolated tissues through laser capture microdissection (LCM). Due to the limiting amount from these extracts, the RNA samples were reverse-transcribed and the resultant cDNA amplified using our CRA+ protocol (Cañas et al. 2014). The obtained reads were assembled to improve the previous reference transcriptome. Reads were mapped against this transcriptome and the read accounts analyzed in order to found gene co-expression networks using the WGCNA software. These results have allowed us the characterization of nitrogen metabolism in maritime pine during the seedling stage stablishing relationships between the different components. This include the identification of new genes with low or very localized expression as occurred for the PpGS1c gene encoding a new cytosolic glutamine synthetase. From this starting point, we are developing a new project, MicroNUpE, to identify and study the genes involved in ammonium uptake and regulation in different root tissues that will be isolated through LCM. Cañas et al. (2017). Plant J, doi:10.1111/tpj.13617. Cañas et al. (2014). Tree Physiol, 34:1278-1288.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

New approaches to audio description research: words, voices, and collaborative processes

This talk will provide an overview of some projects related to accessibility which have inspired new approaches to audio description research. First of all, I will refer to the VIW project, in which a multilingual corpus of audio descriptions was created, allowing a cross-linguistic and intralinguistic analysis. One of the possible analyses concerns audio description voicing, an aspect that has been investigated as part of the RAD project. Furthermore, using the results of the EASIT project, it will be discussed if existing audio descriptions could (or should) be made easier to understand, as well as how collaborative processes related to artistic co-creation could have a place in audio description practice (TRACTION project), and how copyright aspects could be managed using blockchain technology (Mediaverse project). The ultimate aim is to approach audio description research from a myriad of perspectives that allow to engage in a fruitful dialogue on where audio description research is heading to.Departamento de Traducción e Interpretación. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Uovo Di Colombo Lab: Designing Against Food Waste

Food waste is an increasingly central issue in our daily lives. It is estimated that, every year, a third of food produced for human consumption is wasted. Considering this, the paper illustrates the experience of the “Uovo di Colombo Lab”, a project offering training activities that address the issue of food waste along the entire food chain, with a particular focus on the phases of recovery, redistribution, processing, and consumption. A workshop organised into mobile kits and providing an assortment of low-tech professional equipment allows young students and members of the public to experience the food transformation processes. This is achieved by applying the circular economy principles in design, creative processes, and co-design methodologies

Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation - Agriculture Sector

This guidebook describes crop and livestock management technologies and practices that contribute to climate change mitigation while improving crop productivity, reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers, and lowering water consumption. It is co-authored by internationally recognised experts in the areas of crops, livestock, emissions, and economics, and we are grateful for their efforts in producing this cross disciplinary work.This publication is part of a technical guidebook series produced by the UNEP Risø Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC) as part of the Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project(http://tech-action.org) that is assisting developing countries in identifying and analysing the priority technology needs for mitigating and adapting to climate change. The TNA process involves differentstakeholders in a consultative process, enabling all stakeholders to understand their technology needs in a cohesive manner, and prepare Technology Action Plans (TAPs) accordingly.The TNA project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and is being implemented by UNEP and the URC in 36 developing countries