Συνέπειες της κλιματικής αλλαγής στις παραμέτρους σχεδιασμού των παράκτιων έργων

Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Επιστήμη και Τεχνολογία Υδατικών Πόρων

Fair and Optimal Cohort Selection for Linear Utilities

The rise of algorithmic decision-making has created an explosion of research around the fairness of those algorithms. While there are many compelling notions of individual fairness, beginning with the work of Dwork et al., these notions typically do not satisfy desirable composition properties. To this end, Dwork and Ilvento introduced the fair cohort selection problem, which captures a specific application where a single fair classifier is composed with itself to pick a group of candidates of size exactly $k$. In this work we introduce a specific instance of cohort selection where the goal is to choose a cohort maximizing a linear utility function. We give approximately optimal polynomial-time algorithms for this problem in both an offline setting where the entire fair classifier is given at once, or an online setting where candidates arrive one at a time and are classified as they arrive

Multitask Learning via Shared Features: Algorithms and Hardness

We investigate the computational efficiency of multitask learning of Boolean functions over the $d$-dimensional hypercube, that are related by means of a feature representation of size $k \ll d$ shared across all tasks. We present a polynomial time multitask learning algorithm for the concept class of halfspaces with margin $\gamma$, which is based on a simultaneous boosting technique and requires only $\textrm{poly}(k/\gamma)$ samples-per-task and $\textrm{poly}(k\log(d)/\gamma)$ samples in total. In addition, we prove a computational separation, showing that assuming there exists a concept class that cannot be learned in the attribute-efficient model, we can construct another concept class such that can be learned in the attribute-efficient model, but cannot be multitask learned efficiently -- multitask learning this concept class either requires super-polynomial time complexity or a much larger total number of samples

ΠΕΡΙΒΑΛΛΟΝΤΙΚΗ ΗΘΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΣΗ

Είναι φανερό ότι τα «σύγχρονα» μοντέλα ανάπτυξης, που βασίστηκαν στην υπέρμετρη εκμετάλλευση των πόρων δημιούργησαν τρομακτικά αδιέξοδα, εξαφάνισαν οριστικά μορφές ζωής από τον πλανήτη και απειλούν, στο ορατό μέλλον, την ίδια την επιβίωση των ανθρώπων πάνω στη Γη. Το φυσικό περιβάλλον υποβαθμίστηκε από ανθρωπογενείς δραστηριότητες όπως η οικιστική επέκταση, η απόρριψη αποβλήτων, ή η προώθηση μη αειφορικών επενδύσεων. Είναι αναμφισβήτητο ότι η φύση είναι πολύτιμη για τους ανθρώπους, αλλά δεν είναι σαφές αν η ίδια η φύση έχει ηθική αξία, η οποία την καθιστά και άξια προστασίας. Την ίδια στιγμή, η ερμηνεία των βασικών ηθικών αξιών όπως η ελευθερία, η ισότητα και η αλληλεγγύη θα πρέπει να υπόκεινται σε τακτική επαναδιαπραγμάτευση σε διαπροσωπικό, διαπολιτισμικό και διεθνές επίπεδο. Διότι οι πολιτισμένες κοινωνίες αποτελούνται από ένα σύστημα αξιών και σεβασμό προς όλα τα δημιουργήματα. Γιατί πραγματικά αυτό που σήμερα προκαλούμε στη φύση, μειώνει σοβαρά τις πιθανότητες των μελλοντικών γενεών να ζήσουν μια καλύτερη ζωή. Αν ο ηθικός σεβασμός είναι σεβασμός προς τη δυνατότητα για μια καλύτερη ζωή για όλους τους άλλους, αυτός θα πρέπει να διατηρεί την ίδια δυνατότητα και για τις μελλοντικές γενιές. Η επαναδιαπραγμάτευση κάποιων ηθικών αξιών μπορεί να επιτευχθεί με την περιβαλλοντική ηθική, σε κάθε εκπαιδευτική δράση. Η περιβαλλοντική ηθική στην εκπαίδευση είναι μια διαλογική διαδικασία, η οποία αναλαμβάνει να προβληματίσει, και να ευαισθητοποιήσει τον εκπαιδευόμενο σε όλα τα θεμελιώδη διλήμματα. Στο πλαίσιο αυτής της προσέγγισης, η περιβαλλοντική ηθικήστην εκπαίδευση είναι μια εγκάρσια διάσταση, διότι πρέπει να υπάρχει σε συνεχή μορφή και να λαμβάνει υπόψη την πολυδιάσταση του ανθρώπου και την πολυπλοκότητα της σχέσης του με το σύμπαν.It is clear that "modern" models of development, based on the over-exploitation of resources, have created frightening deadlocks, permanently wiped out life forms from the planet and threaten, in the foreseeable future, the very survival of humans on Earth. The natural environment has been degraded by anthropogenic activities such as housing expansion, waste disposal, or the promotion of unsustainable investments. It is undeniable that nature is valuable to humans, but it is not clear whether nature itself has a moral value, which makes it worthy of protection. At the same time, the interpretation of core moral values such as freedom, equality and solidarity should be subject to regular renegotiation at interpersonal, intercultural and international levels. Because civilized societies consist of a system of values and respect for all creations. Because really what we cause in nature today, seriously reduces the chances of future generations to live a better life. If moral respect is respect for the possibility of a better life for all others, it should be the same for future generations. The renegotiation of some ethical values can be achieved with environmental ethics, in any educational action. Environmental ethics in education is an interactive process, which undertakes to problematize, and to sensitize the learner to all the fundamental dilemmas. In this approach, environmental ethics in education is a transverse dimension, because it must exist in a continuous form and take into account the multidimensionality of man and the complexity of his relationship with the universe

LDL cholesterol estimation in patients with the metabolic syndrome

BACKGROUND: The Friedewald formula (LDL-F) for the estimation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentrations is the most often used formula in clinical trials and clinical practice. However, much concern has been raised as to whether this formula is applicable in all patient populations such as the presence of chylomicronaemia and/or hypertriglyceridaemia. The aim of the present study was to evaluate various LDL cholesterol calculation formulas as well as LDL cholesterol levels provided by the Lipoprint LDL System (LDL-L) in patients with the metabolic syndrome (MetSyn). RESULTS: LDL-F showed significant differences from other formulas in the total cohort, as well as in MetSyn individuals. This was not the case in nonMetSyn subjects, where LDL-F did not differ with other formulas, with the exception of one formula (LDL by Planella, LDL-P). The bias between LDL-F and other LDL estimation formulas were significantly higher in MetSyn subjects compared to nonMetSyn individuals, except for LDL-L which produced similar bias with LDL-F in both study groups. CONCLUSION: LDL-F seems to exhibit some limitations as far as the calculation of LDL-C levels in patients with the MetSyn is concerned. LDL-L might be more accurate in MetSyn subjects, but so far its use is limited for the estimation of small, dense LDL (sdLDL) cholesterol levels and mean LDL particle size for research purposes only

The organisation of an educational program for specialists in clinical chemistry by the Greek Society of Clinical Chemistry-Clinical Biochemistry

In Greece, there is no officially organized training in clinical chemistry for scientists. The Greek Society of Clinical Chemistry-Clinical Biochemistry decided to organize an intensive educational prog-ram of 18 seminars on clinical chemistry content as it is described in the EC4 Syllabus. The duration of each seminar was about 6 hours and consisted of 6 to 9 lectures. At the end of each seminar there was a voluntary written examination, comprised of 24 multiple choice questions. Suc-cessful completion of the Educational program was leading to a Certificate of Competence. Two cycles of the 18 seminars were performed: 1st cycle from October 2003 to December 2005 and 2nd cycle from March 2005 to October 2007. One hundred eighty nine colleagues was the mean at-tendance per seminar for the seminars of the 1st cycle and 38 colleagues for the seminars of the 2nd cycle. The mean participation to the examination for each seminar was almost 80% for the 1st cycle and 68% for the 2nd cycle. More than 80% of the participants performed Good or Very good in the examination in both cycles. It is estimated that more than 40% of the scientists who practice Clinical Chemistry in Greece, partici-pated to this educational activity. This program is now provided as an e-learning application, and it is open for all scientists who want to follow the discipline of clinical chemistry

The organisation of an educational program for specialists in clinical chemistry by the Greek Society of Clinical Chemistry-Clinical Biochemistry

In Greece, there is no officially organized training in clinical chemistry for scientists. The Greek Society of Clinical Chemistry-Clinical Biochemistry decided to organize an intensive educational prog-ram of 18 seminars on clinical chemistry content as it is described in the EC4 Syllabus. The duration of each seminar was about 6 hours and consisted of 6 to 9 lectures. At the end of each seminar there was a voluntary written examination, comprised of 24 multiple choice questions. Suc-cessful completion of the Educational program was leading to a Certificate of Competence. Two cycles of the 18 seminars were performed: 1st cycle from October 2003 to December 2005 and 2nd cycle from March 2005 to October 2007. One hundred eighty nine colleagues was the mean at-tendance per seminar for the seminars of the 1st cycle and 38 colleagues for the seminars of the 2nd cycle. The mean participation to the examination for each seminar was almost 80% for the 1st cycle and 68% for the 2nd cycle. More than 80% of the participants performed Good or Very good in the examination in both cycles. It is estimated that more than 40% of the scientists who practice Clinical Chemistry in Greece, partici-pated to this educational activity. This program is now provided as an e-learning application, and it is open for all scientists who want to follow the discipline of clinical chemistry