Competence: intelligence in sheep's clothing? Culture, representations, and cognitive performance

The first aim of this thesis was to contribute to the understanding of how cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1983/1986) affects students achievements and performances. We specifically claimed that the effect of cultural capital is at least partly explained by the positioning students take towards the principles they use to attribute competence and intelligence. The testing of these hypothesis have been framed within the social representations theory, specifically in the formulation of the Lemanic school approach (Doise, 1986)

Reproductive Genetic Testing: What America Thinks

Advances in reproductive genetic technologies offer prospective parents an increasing array of options to help them have healthy babies, but these same advances also can raise troubling questions about the extent to which parents can or should choose the characteristics of their children. Parents today can be tested to see if they carry a mutation in a gene that puts them at risk to have a child with a serious genetic disorder. Parents who are at risk can test embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and select which embryos to transfer to the mother's womb, or test a fetus during pregnancy to see if it is affected. Today we test for serious genetic disorders. In the future, as we learn more about genes, it may be possible to test for less serious disorders, or even characteristics such as behavior and intelligence. This report presents the first look at the largest ever series of social science research studies to learn what Americans know, think and feel about the use and regulation of reproductive genetic testing - carrier testing, prenatal genetic diagnosis and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). These studies, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by the Genetics and Public Policy Center between October 2002 and August 2004, include 21 focus groups, 62 in-depth interviews, two surveys with a combined sample size of over 6000 people, and both in-person and online Genetic Town Halls. The focus group and interview responses provide a detailed and textured portrait of peoples' attitudes. Participants were asked a series of questions about: awareness and knowledge of reproductive genetic tests; whether they approve or disapprove of using these technologies for purposes ranging from diagnosing a baby with a fatal childhood disease to knowing a baby's sex; thoughts and concerns about the future use of these technologies, including the potential for discrimination, the potential for treating children like products and who will have access to these technologies; and how they would like to see reproductive genetic tests regulated. Survey participants were asked a series of similar questions about their beliefs concerning the appropriate uses of these technologies and whether and how they might be regulated. They were also asked a series of questions about themselves - sex, age, race and ethnicity, religious affiliation, income level, education level, political affiliation - determine whether any significant patterns or trends in attitudes align with any particular demographic groups. Americans' awareness of genetic technologies varies; 90 percent have heard about IVF but only 40 percent have heard about PGD - screening of IVF embryos for genetic diseases or characteristics in order to select which embryos to transfer into the woman's womb. In general, Americans approve of using reproductive genetic tests to prevent fatal childhood disease, but do not approve of using the same tests to identify or select for traits like intelligence or strength. Using reproductive genetic tests to identify increased risks for adult-onset diseases generates mixed approval levels. Survey participants were asked to rank the moral worth of embryos and fetuses. Forty-seven percent of Americans assigned an embryo in the womb maximal moral worth (on a five-point scale), while only 19 percent assigned maximal moral worth to a human embryo frozen in an IVF clinic. The definition of "moral worth" was left to the survey participant. More than 53 percent of all respondents strongly agree with the statement "reproductive genetic technology is potentially the next step in human evolution." In general, Americans would like to see more oversight in the area of reproductive genetic testing. Opinions about how regulation should be implemented and who should control regulation, however, range from no government regulation at all to government regulation of both safety of and ethics surrounding the use of these tests. A companion report, Reproductive Genetic Testing: Issues and Options for Policymakers, presents an update on the science behind reproductive genetic testing, outlines key scientific and medical facts, provides a description of the current policy landscape, assesses current oversight for the development and use of reproductive genetic tests and offers a comprehensive description of possible policy options to guide the development and use of reproductive genetic testing

Product oriented modelling and Interoperability issues

International audienceThe consideration of Product information or Knowledge management, product traceability or genealogy, and product life cycle management implies new strategies and approaches to manage flows of information that relate to flows of material managed in shop floor level. Moreover, throughout product lifecycle coordination needs to be established between reality in the physical world (physical view) and the virtual world handled by manufacturing information systems (informational view). This paper presents a product oriented modelling and a product oriented interoperability approach based on the use of the “Holon” modelling concept as a means for the synchronisation of both physical view and informational views. The Zachman framework is afterwards used as a guideline to establish product oriented interoperability between enterprise systems

Agreement Computing

[EN] In this paper we introduce the concept of Agreement Computing, motivate the central role that the concept of agreement plays in open software systems and discuss a number of research challenges that need to be addressed to make the agreement computing vision a reality.Research supported by the Agreement Technologies CONSOLIDER project under contract CSD2007-0022 and INGENIO 2010 and by the Agreement Technologies COST Action, IC0801.Sierra Garcia, C.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Ossowski, DS. (2011). Agreement Computing. KI - Künstliche Intelligenz. 25(1):57-61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13218-010-0070-yS5761251Arcos JL, Esteva M, Noriega P, Rodríguez JA, Sierra C (2005) Engineering open environments with electronic institutions. Eng Appl Artif Intell 18(2):191–204Boella G, Noriega P, Pigozzi G, Verhagen H (2009) In: Dagstuhl seminar proceedings 09121: normative multi-agent systems.Henrik G, Wright V (1963) Norm and action, a logical enquiry. Routledge and Kegan Paul, LondonHermenegildo M, Albert E, López-García P, Puebla G (2005) Abstraction carrying code and resource-awareness. In: Principle and practice of declarative programming. ACM Press, New YorkJennings N, Faratin P, Lomuscio A, Parsons S, Sierra C, Wooldridge M (2001) Automated negotiation: prospects methods and challenges. Group Decis Negot 10(2):199–215Jøsang A, Ismail R, Boyd C (2007) A survey of trust and reputation systems for online service provision. Decis Support Syst 43(2):618–644Kalfoglou Y, Schorlemmer M (2003) IF-Map: an ontology-mapping method based on information-flow theory. In: Spaccapietra S, March S, Aberer K (eds) Journal on data semantics I. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 2800. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 98–127Ko RKL, Lee SSG, Lee EW (2009) Business process management (bpm) standards: a survey. Bus Process Manag J 15(5):744–791Kraus S (1997) Negotiation and cooperation in multi-agent environments. Artif Intell 94(1–2):79–97March J (1996) A preface to understanding how decisions happen in organizations. In: Organizational decision-making, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeNecula GC, Lee P (1996) Proof-carrying code. Tech repRoss A (1968) Directives and norms. Humanities, Atlantic HighlandsSierra C, Debenham J (2006) Trust and honour in information-based agency. In: Proceedings of the 5th international conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems. ACM Press, New York, pp 1225–1232Simon HA Administrative behavior. Free Press (1997)Vasirani M, Ossowski S (2009) A market-inspired approach to reservation-based urban road traffic management. In: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems, IFAAMAS, pp. 617–62

Human Germline Genetic Modification: Issues and Options for Policymakers

Germline genetic modification is possible in animals, but not yet in humans. If certain technical obstacles were overcome, human germline genetic modification (HGGM) could allow human beings to create permanent heritable genetic changes in their descendants by changing the genetic makeup of human eggs or sperm, or human embryos at the earliest stages. For many decades, the technical barriers to HGGM have seemed insurmountable. Today, however, advances in human reproductive technologies, stem cell science, and animal genetic modification have brought the possibility of HGGM much nearer than it has been before. The Genetics and Public Policy Center believes it is time for renewed consideration of this controversial subject. This report, Human Germline Genetic Modification: Issues and Options for Policymakers, analyzes the scientific, legal, regulatory, ethical, moral, and societal issues raised by genetic modification of the human germline, provides data about the American public’s views about HGGM, and explores possible policy approaches in this area. Science Germline genetic modification is possible in laboratory animals, and some techniques could be translated for use in humans although none has been tried. Scientists are able to replace a faulty gene with a “normal” copy in mouse embryonic stem cells, then introduce those stem cells into an early mouse embryo where they can give rise to genetically modified sperm or eggs. The next generation of mice that results from the modified sperm or eggs will contain the “normal” copy of the gene. It is now possible to replace a gene in human embryonic stem cells, overcoming a huge obstacle to HGGM. In addition, scientists have been able to derive genetically modified sperm directly from mouse stem cells. Together, these developments suggest that HGGM may not be as far off as we thought even five years ago. While advances in these techniques have been driven by more general research goals widely viewed as valuable, and not the pursuit of HGGM specifically, these discoveries will catapult us over what were understood to be the principal technical obstacles to HGGM. Safety Serious consideration of safety is and has been of utmost importance in any deliberation about HGGM. In animal research, many germline genetic modification approaches can introduce unwanted mutations that can lead to severe developmental outcomes, even death. Most safety risks of HGGM would be to the resulting child. The proposed techniques for HGGM involve extensive manipulation of stem cells, eggs, sperm, or embryos in the laboratory prior to introduction into a woman’s uterus. Such manipulation alone could alter the growth and development of the fetus in ways that are not yet well understood, resulting in health problems that in many cases could be lethal. There is a clear need for more animal research and better data, although it is less clear how much and what it would need to show. Many questions exist about how to measure the risks and benefits of HGGM. And although it is a basic tenet of medical practice that patients receiving medical treatment must provide informed consent, opinions are divided as to whether and when the consent of the true “patients” — the future child and future generations — could and should be assumed. Scenarios HGGM may become more technically feasible in the future. The question remains whether and for what purpose HGGM would be attempted. Many first applications could be imagined for HGGM and the technical feasibility and perceived demand are different for each. An example of a technically more feasible use of HGGM with low demand would be its use to prevent recessive genetic disease such as cystic fibrosis. This is more technically feasible because the single-gene mutations have been identified. However, since these diseases can be avoided by other already existing techniques, such as PGD, the perceived demand for using HGGM would be low. An example of a technically less feasible use of HGGM with unclear demand would be its use to enhance traits such as intelligence or strength. This is less technically feasible because the genetics behind these traits are largely unknown. The perceived demand is unclear because of the many ethical questions surrounding the use of HGGM for enhancement. In contrast, there may be fewer ethical objections to — and more demand for — using HGGM to enhance human health, to provide a “vaccine” against HIV for example. Feasibility would depend on both an understanding of the genetic disease at issue and the overall development of safe and efficient methods for HGGM. A table analyzing eight possible scenarios for HGGM is presented in the report. Public Opinion Until now, the most sustained and visible deliberations about HGGM have been within elite governmental commissions or academic institutions. Frequently, these groups have called for increased public input in the discussion, but there has been little public engagement in the issue outside of the extreme portrayals of HGGM by Hollywood or the popular press. As a result, little has been known about the views of the general public. In order to learn more about what the American public knows, thinks, and feels about HGGM and other reproductive genetic technologies, the Genetics and Public Policy Center recently conducted a broad survey of 4,834 Americans. Our data show significant interest in HGGM as a potential means for avoiding serious genetic disease. However, concerns were expressed about how safe the technology would be, who would have access to it and who would not, and the impact of HGGM on society as a whole. Ethics The purposes for which HGGM might be attempted vary, from “fixing” a genetic mutation before an individual is born to enhancing children with socially desirable traits such as athletic skill or intelligence. Views differ as to which purposes are ethically acceptable and whether it is possible to meaningfully distinguish, for example, between a “therapeutic” use of HGGM on the one hand and an “enhancement” use on the other. A vast array of ethical issues arises from HGGM. HGGM raises both the specter of humans “playing God” and questions about whether such interventions in nature would change the human gene pool, ultimately affecting the species as a whole. There are fears that HGGM will negatively affect human dignity and attitudes towards those living with disabilities, casting people as “problems” that could have been avoided and putting pressure on families to have genetically “perfect” children. Some question whether HGGM would start society on a slippery slope to a modern version of eugenics, regardless of the purposes for which it would be used. And for those who categorically oppose manipulation or destruction of human embryos, HGGM would be unacceptable under any circumstances because it would involve one or both for the foreseeable future. Oversight In the United States, both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) play a role in current federal oversight of HGGM. FDA has indicated that it would treat any proposals for HGGM the same way it treats proposals for somatic gene modification, and require an investigational new drug application (IND) to be filed before the technology may be attempted in humans. It is unclear what criteria FDA would use to evaluate such an application. At the present time, the RAC has indicated that it will not consider any proposals for HGGM. Options An array of policy approaches is available for future oversight of HGGM. Policymakers and the public may consider a direct ban of HGGM; increased oversight with an eye towards safety, ethical use, or both; or promotion of HGGM by providing additional resources for relevant research. International laws, United States law and regulation, and voluntary self-regulation by scientists are some of the approaches that are described, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Although HGGM remains on the distant horizon, technologic advances are bringing HGGM from the imaginable to the possible. Thus it is time to consider the difficult questions about HGGM. An enriched and expanded discussion that includes both experts and the public offers an opportunity to share information and understanding about the underlying values and concerns that inform our individual and collective perspectives on HGGM. Such an approach ultimately will lead to thoughtful and robust public policies

Application-Layer Connector Synthesis

International audienceThe heterogeneity characterizing the systems populating the Ubiquitous Computing environment prevents their seamless interoperability. Heterogeneous protocols may be willing to cooperate in order to reach some common goal even though they meet dynamically and do not have a priori knowledge of each other. Despite numerous e orts have been done in the literature, the automated and run-time interoperability is still an open challenge for such environment. We consider interoperability as the ability for two Networked Systems (NSs) to communicate and correctly coordinate to achieve their goal(s). In this chapter we report the main outcomes of our past and recent research on automatically achieving protocol interoperability via connector synthesis. We consider application-layer connectors by referring to two conceptually distinct notions of connector: coordinator and mediator. The former is used when the NSs to be connected are already able to communicate but they need to be speci cally coordinated in order to reach their goal(s). The latter goes a step forward representing a solution for both achieving correct coordination and enabling communication between highly heterogeneous NSs. In the past, most of the works in the literature described e orts to the automatic synthesis of coordinators while, in recent years the focus moved also to the automatic synthesis of mediators. Within the Connect project, by considering our past experience on automatic coordinator synthesis as a baseline, we propose a formal theory of mediators and a related method for automatically eliciting a way for the protocols to interoperate. The solution we propose is the automated synthesis of emerging mediating connectors (i.e., mediators for short)

The Application of Advanced Knowledge Technologies for Emergency Reponse

The University of Edinburgh and research sponsors are authorised to reproduce and distribute reprints and on-line copies for their purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation hereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are the author’s and shouldn’t be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of other parties.Making sense of the current state of an emergency and of the response to it is vital if appropriate decisions are to be made. This task involves the acquisition, interpretation and management of information. In this paper we present an integrated system that applies recent ideas and technologies from the fields of Artificial Intelligence and semantic web research to support sense- and decision-making at the tactical response level, and demonstrate it with reference to a hypothetical large-scale emergency scenario. We offer no end-user evaluation of this system; rather, we intend that it should serve as a visionary demonstration of the potential of these technologies for emergency response

Mediation of foundation ontology based knowledge sources

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Industry [© Elsevier]. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Computers and Industry: www.elsevier.com/locate/compindOntologies are helpful in giving interoperable structures to sources of knowledge and information. This interoperability, however, is greatly hindered by the heterogeneity of independently developed ontologies which in turn increases the requirements for mediation systems to reconcile the differences. A core concepts ontology for a certain domain contained by a foundation ontology can be used to alleviate this problem and to facilitate the reconciliation efforts. Possible differences in the use of concepts from the core concepts to model entities in domain ontologies can be prevented by binding the domain ontology developers to some rules. These rules can be particularly useful for domain ontologies requiring some kind of traceability of their concepts in the foundation ontology. The mediation system can then use this traceability to establish similarities between two ontologies. Software applications, like the one explained in this paper, can then be developed to perform the mediation task automatically and accurately