Personal data as a commodity: how does the data market work, what is data worth and what Czech internet users know about it

Personal data extraction is an inherent part of today's internet. The intention of this work is to outline the market with personal data; how it functions, which circumstances have formed it and how it is being perceived by the public. The theoretical part relies on existing academic knowledge, media articles and other relevant sources which focus on data market and aggregation. One of the theoretical part's objectives is to present existing principles on how the price of personal data can be determined by users and by the market. Findings from the theoretical part will be enriched by a qualitative research which, by the means of interviews, reveals to what extent are Prague university students aware of online data collection, how they value the data and what is their opinion on that matter. Despite the gravity that online data extraction imposes on society, the qualitative research described in this work is probably one of the first in Czechia that focuses on this topic and that can therefore serve as a starting point for future exploration. Key words: personal data, user data, data extraction imperative, online privacy, internet privacy, data value, data market, data brokers, data aggregators, targeted ads, personalized advertisingNedílnou součástí současného internetu je sběr osobních dat jeho uživatelů. Cílem této práce je zmapovat trh s osobními daty; jak funguje, jaké vlivy ho zformovaly do dnešní podoby a jak ho vnímá veřejnost. Teoretická část se opírá o existující akademické zdroje, články z odborných i zpravodajských médií a dalších relevantních pramenů, které souvisejí se sběrem, prodejem a hodnotou osobních dat. Jedním ze záměrů teoretické části je také představit principy, jak lze data nacenit, protože dosud zřejmě neexistuje zdroj, který by obsáhle shrnoval existující metody, jak se cena osobních dat sbíraných na internetu může z pohledu uživatelů i trhu určit. Zjištění z teoretické části prohlubuje kvalitativní výzkum, který metodou hloubkových rozhovorů rozkrývá, nakolik jsou si pražští vysokoškolští studenti vědomí toho, co se s jejich daty děje, jakou pro ně mají hodnotu a jaký mají na současné nastavení trhu názor. I přes celospolečenskou závažnost problematiky jde zřejmě v tuzemském prostředí o jeden z prvních kvalitativních průzkumů na toto téma a zjištění, která přináší, můžou posloužit jako odrazový můstek pro budoucí výzkum. Klíčová slova: osobní data, uživatelská data, online sběr dat, extrakce dat, soukromí na internetu, cena dat, hodnota dat, trh s daty, agregátoři dat, cílená reklama, personalizace...Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship - New Media StudiesÚstav informačních studií - studia nových médiíFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Design and implementation of a seismic Newtonian-noise cancellation system for the Virgo gravitational-wave detector

Terrestrial gravity perturbations caused by seismic fields produce the so-called Newtonian noise in gravitational-wave detectors, which is predicted to limit their sensitivity in the upcoming observing runs. In the past, this noise was seen as an infrastructural limitation, i.e., something that cannot be overcome without major investments to improve a detector's infrastructure. However, it is possible to have at least an indirect estimate of this noise by using the data from a large number of seismometers deployed around a detector's suspended test masses. The noise estimate can be subtracted from the gravitational-wave data; a process called Newtonian-noise cancellation (NNC). In this article, we present the design and implementation of the first NNC system at the Virgo detector as part of its AdV+ upgrade. It uses data from 110 vertical geophones deployed inside the Virgo buildings in optimized array configurations. We use a separate tiltmeter channel to test the pipeline in a proof-of-principle. The system has been running with good performance over months

The role of the editor in television newscast

This batchelor thesis focuses on the profession of an editor in czech TV newscast. It describes the origin of the job, its development and its actual workload with emphasis on the differences between the public service Czech television and one of the private channels TV Nova. Appart from specialized literature and other sources from the field of study, a significant amount of information is based on interviews with editors from both TV stations and observation of their work. In the following part of the text, the acquired knoledge is compared with quantitative and qualitative analysis of the main newscast sessions of both TV channels made in the week from April 23 to April 29 2018

Personal data as a commodity: how does the data market work, what is data worth and what Czech internet users know about it

Personal data extraction is an inherent part of today's internet. The intention of this work is to outline the market with personal data; how it functions, which circumstances have formed it and how it is being perceived by the public. The theoretical part relies on existing academic knowledge, media articles and other relevant sources which focus on data market and aggregation. One of the theoretical part's objectives is to present existing principles on how the price of personal data can be determined by users and by the market. Findings from the theoretical part will be enriched by a qualitative research which, by the means of interviews, reveals to what extent are Prague university students aware of online data collection, how they value the data and what is their opinion on that matter. Despite the gravity that online data extraction imposes on society, the qualitative research described in this work is probably one of the first in Czechia that focuses on this topic and that can therefore serve as a starting point for future exploration. Key words: personal data, user data, data extraction imperative, online privacy, internet privacy, data value, data market, data brokers, data aggregators, targeted ads, personalized advertisin

Markov Chain Monte Carlo population synthesis of single radio pulsars in the Galaxy

Cieslar M, Bulik T, Oslowski S. Markov Chain Monte Carlo population synthesis of single radio pulsars in the Galaxy. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 2020;492(3):4043-4057.We present a model of evolution of solitary neutron stars, including spin parameters, magnetic field decay, motion in the Galactic potential, and birth inside spiral arms. We use two parametrizations of the radio-luminosity law and model the radio selection effects. Dispersion measure is estimated from the recent model of free electron distribution in the Galaxy (YMW16). Model parameters are optimized using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. The preferred model has a short decay scale of the magnetic field of 4.27(-0.38)(+0.4) Myr. However, it has non-negligible correlation with parameters describing the pulsar radio luminosity. Based on the best-fitting model, we predict that the Square Kilometre Array surveys will increase the population of known single radio pulsars by between 23 and 137 per cent. The INDRI code used for simulations is publicly available to facilitate future population synthesis efforts

Reconstructing star formation rate for compact binary populations with Einstein telescope

International audienceEinstein Telescope (ET) is a proposed third generation, wide-band gravitational wave (GW) detector. Given its improved detection sensitivity in comparison to the second generation detectors, it will be capable of exploring the universe with GWs up to very high redshifts. In this paper we present the algorithm to answer three main questions regarding the star formation rate density (SFR) (i) when did the formation terminate?, (ii) at what redshift does the SFR peak?, and finally (iii) what is the functional form of SFR at high redshift? for a given population. We present an algorithm to infer the functional form of SFR for different populations of compact binaries originating in stars from Population (Pop) I+II and Pop III, using ET as a single instrument. We show that the reconstruction of SFR is essentially independent of the time delay distributions up to $z \sim 14$ and the accuracy of the reconstruction strongly depends on the time delay distribution only at high redshifts of $z\gtrsim 14$. We define the termination redshift as the redshift where the SFR drops to 1% of its peak value. In this analysis we constrain the peak of the SFR as a function of redshift and show that ET as a single instrument can distinguish the termination redshifts of different SFRs. The accurate estimate of the termination redshift depends on correctly modelling the tail of the time delay distribution representing delay time $\gtrsim 8$ Gyr

Une nouvelle stratégie pour stabiliser la normalisation de l’angiogenèse tumorale afin d’améliorer l’efficacité des traitements anti-cancéreux

International audienc

Electroactive polymer scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering

By-pass surgery and heart transplantation are traditionally used to restore the heart’s functionality after a myocardial Infarction (MI or heart attack) that results in scar tissue formation and impaired cardiac function. However, both procedures are associated with serious post-surgical complications. Therefore, new strategies to help re-establish heart functionality are necessary. Tissue engineering and stem cell therapy are the promising approaches that are being explored for the treatment of MI. The stem cell niche is extremely important for the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells and tissue regeneration. For the introduction of stem cells into the host tissue an artificial carrier such as a scaffold is preferred as direct injection of stem cells has resulted in fast stem cell death. Such scaffold will provide the proper microenvironment that can be altered electronically to provide temporal stimulation to the cells. We have developed an electroactive polymer (EAP) scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering. The EAP scaffold mimics the extracellular matrix and provides a 3D microenvironment that can be easily tuned during fabrication, such as controllable fibre dimensions, alignment, and coating. In addition, the scaffold can provide electrical and electromechanical stimulation to the stem cells which are important external stimuli to stem cell differentiation. We tested the initial biocompatibility of these scaffolds using cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs), and continued onto more sensitive induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). We present the fabrication and characterisation of these electroactive fibres as well as the response of increasingly sensitive cell types to the scaffolds

Electroactive polymer scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering

By-pass surgery and heart transplantation are traditionally used to restore the heart’s functionality after a myocardial Infarction (MI or heart attack) that results in scar tissue formation and impaired cardiac function. However, both procedures are associated with serious post-surgical complications. Therefore, new strategies to help re-establish heart functionality are necessary. Tissue engineering and stem cell therapy are the promising approaches that are being explored for the treatment of MI. The stem cell niche is extremely important for the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells and tissue regeneration. For the introduction of stem cells into the host tissue an artificial carrier such as a scaffold is preferred as direct injection of stem cells has resulted in fast stem cell death. Such scaffold will provide the proper microenvironment that can be altered electronically to provide temporal stimulation to the cells. We have developed an electroactive polymer (EAP) scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering. The EAP scaffold mimics the extracellular matrix and provides a 3D microenvironment that can be easily tuned during fabrication, such as controllable fibre dimensions, alignment, and coating. In addition, the scaffold can provide electrical and electromechanical stimulation to the stem cells which are important external stimuli to stem cell differentiation. We tested the initial biocompatibility of these scaffolds using cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs), and continued onto more sensitive induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). We present the fabrication and characterisation of these electroactive fibres as well as the response of increasingly sensitive cell types to the scaffolds