[How] Can Pluralist Approaches to Computational Cognitive Modeling of Human Needs and Values Save our Democracies?

In our increasingly digital societies, many companies have business models that perceive users’ (or customers’) personal data as a siloed resource, owned and controlled by the data controller rather than the data subjects. Collecting and processing such a massive amount of personal data could have many negative technical, social and economic consequences, including invading people’s privacy and autonomy. As a result, regulations such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have tried to take steps towards a better implementation of the right to digital privacy. This paper proposes that such legal acts should be accompanied by the development of complementary technical solutions such as Cognitive Personal Assistant Systems to support people to effectively manage their personal data processing on the Internet. Considering the importance and sensitivity of personal data processing, such assistant systems should not only consider their owner’s needs and values, but also be transparent, accountable and controllable. Pluralist approaches in computational cognitive modelling of human needs and values which are not bound to traditional paradigmatic borders such as cognitivism, connectionism, or enactivism, we argue, can create a balance between practicality and usefulness, on the one hand, and transparency, accountability, and controllability, on the other, while supporting and empowering humans in the digital world. Considering the threat to digital privacy as significant to contemporary democracies, the future implementation of such pluralist models could contribute to power-balance, fairness and inclusion in our societies

Controllability of structural brain networks.

Cognitive function is driven by dynamic interactions between large-scale neural circuits or networks, enabling behaviour. However, fundamental principles constraining these dynamic network processes have remained elusive. Here we use tools from control and network theories to offer a mechanistic explanation for how the brain moves between cognitive states drawn from the network organization of white matter microstructure. Our results suggest that densely connected areas, particularly in the default mode system, facilitate the movement of the brain to many easily reachable states. Weakly connected areas, particularly in cognitive control systems, facilitate the movement of the brain to difficult-to-reach states. Areas located on the boundary between network communities, particularly in attentional control systems, facilitate the integration or segregation of diverse cognitive systems. Our results suggest that structural network differences between cognitive circuits dictate their distinct roles in controlling trajectories of brain network function

Counterfactual reasoning for regretted situations involving controllable versus uncontrollable events: The modulating role of contingent self-esteem

We report a study that examined the modulating impact of contingent self-esteem on regret intensity for regretted outcomes associated with controllable versus uncontrollable events. The Contingent Self-Esteem Scale (e.g., Kernis & Goldman, 2006) was used to assess the extent to which a person’s sense of self-worth is based on self and others’ expectations. We found that there was an influence of self-esteem contingency for controllable but not for uncontrollable regret types. For controllable regret types individuals with a high contingent (i.e., unstable) self-esteem reported greater regret intensity than those with a low contingent (i.e., stable) self-esteem. We interpret this finding as reflecting a functional and adaptive role of high contingent self-esteem in terms of mobilizing the application of counterfactual reasoning and planning mechanisms that can enable personal expectations to be achieved in the future

Risks in production and the management of labour

The paper considers a (static) portfolio system that satisfies adding-up contraints and the gross substitution theorem. The paper shows the relationship of the two conditions to the weak dominant diagonal property of the matrix of interest rate elasticities. This enables to investigate the impact of simultaneous changes in interest rates on the asset demands.

Causal and Stable Input/Output Structures on Multidimensional Behaviours

In this work we study multidimensional (nD) linear differential behaviours with a distinguished independent variable called "time". We define in a natural way causality and stability on input/output structures with respect to this distinguished direction. We make an extension of some results in the theory of partial differential equations, demonstrating that causality is equivalent to a property of the transfer matrix which is essentially hyperbolicity of the Pc operator defining the behaviour (Bc)0,y We also quote results which in effect characterise time autonomy for the general systems case. Stability is likewise characterized by a property of the transfer matrix. We prove this result for the 2D case and for the case of a single equation; for the general case it requires solution of an open problem concerning the geometry of a particular set in Cn. In order to characterize input/output stability we also develop new results on inclusions of kernels, freeness of variables, and closure with respect to S,S' and associated spaces, which are of independent interest. We also discuss stability of autonomous behaviours, which we beleive to be governed by a corresponding condition

Focusing on the Few: the Role of Large Taxpayer Units in the Revenue Strategies of Developing Countries

Part I of this paper first reviews the spread of LTUs, and briefly describes the experience of LTUs in a few selected countries. This section takes up the question of the LTU as an enclave administrative reform versus semi-autonomous revenue agencies and "whole of government" reform involving broad based wages, human resources planning and anti-corruption measures.Part II examines the emergence of the LTU and its relationships to the remainder of the tax administration system in different kinds of developing and transition economies, such as (i)capable developing states, (ii) administratively weak but governance improving states, and (iii)captured states. The relative success of LTUs can improve our understanding of the enclave approach to governance reforms as well as yielding insights that are intrinsic to the challenge of improving revenue mobilization. LTUs and their roles in developing country economies can also be interpreted through the prism of recent revisionist writings on best policies for the tax mix in the presence of a major informal sector and a government sector with a highly constrained taxing capacity and high vulnerability to corruption.Working Paper Number 04-44

Algebraic characterization of approximate controllability of behaviours of spatially invariant systems

An algebraic characterization of the property of approximate controllability is given, for behaviours of spatially invariant dynamical systems, consisting of distributional solutions w, that are periodic in the spatial variables, to a system of partial differential equations [formula presented] corresponding to a polynomial matrix M ∈ (C[ξ1,...,ξd,τ])m×n. This settles an issue left open in Sasane (2004)