National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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A stochastic dynamic programming approach for the machine replacement problem
No full textThis paper addresses both the modeling and the resolution of the replacement problem for a population of machines. The main objective is the computation of a minimum cost replacement policy, which, based on the status of each machine, determines whether one or more machines have to be replaced over a given finite time horizon.
The replacement problem of a set of machines can be regarded as a sequential decision-making problem under uncertainty. Thanks to this, we propose a novel formulation for such problems consisting of a composition of discrete-time multi-state Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), one for each specific machine. The underlying optimization problem is formulated as a stochastic Dynamic Programming (DP), and then solved by using the principles of the backward DP algorithm. Moreover, to deal with the curse of dimensionality due to the high-cardinality state–space of real-world/industrial applications, a new generalized multi-trajectory Least-Squares Temporal Difference (LSTD) based method is introduced. The resulting algorithm computes an approximate optimal cost function by: (i) running Monte Carlo simulations over different trajectories of a given length; (ii) embedding the policy improvement step within the recursive LSTD iterations; (iii) enforcing an off-policy mechanism to improve the LSTD exploration capabilities. A study on the convergence properties of the proposed approach is also provided. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate its effectiveness in terms of parametric sensitivity, computational burden, and performance of the computed policies compared with some heuristics defined in the literature
Online Disinformation, Informed Democracy, and Human Rights: Identifying and Applying a European Human Rights Perspective to the Regulation of Online Disinformation with a Focus on the Political and Electoral Context
No full textThe spread of online disinformation in elections has become a widely debated problem in Europe. In response to this problem, European Union (EU) institutions and several EU Member States have developed legislation with a view to establishing responsibilities for technological intermediaries to limit the spread of false and misleading communications. Adopting a human rights perspective, this thesis develops a novel human rights framework and applies this framework to examine the extent to which specific EU and EU Member State legislation to combat online disinformation is compatible with the right to freedom of expression and the right to free elections as provided for under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR). Limited academic scrutiny has been applied to how the regulation of online disinformation—including online disinformation which may not be illegal under EU or domestic European laws—could undermine the right to freedom of expression in Europe. However, there has been a dearth of in-depth academic inquiry on how the spread of online disinformation could undermine the right to free and fair elections under the European human rights legal framework.
To address this gap, this thesis adopts a doctrinal methodology—and is guided by a human rights perspective—to identify the applicable standards on how the right to freedom of expression must be balanced alongside the right to free elections in the regulation of online disinformation in Europe. As part of its analysis, this thesis focuses on the applicable human rights standards that should inform the regulation of online disinformation which is disseminated in political and electoral contexts. Providing a distillation of these standards, this thesis draws extensively from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). As will be demonstrated, the analysis conducted in this thesis has immediate policy relevance by providing and applying a timely analytical framework to examine how current EU and EU Member State legislation is compatible with the right to freedom of expression and the right to free elections as interpreted under the ECHR and CFR systems
Race, Palestine, and International Law
No full textIn 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people—in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population—in public international law. The Palestine Mandate juridically erased the national status of the Palestinian people by: (1) framing the Arabs as incapable of self-rule; (2) heightening the significance of establishing a Jewish national home; and (3) distinguishing Palestine from the other Class A mandates for possessing religious significance that exceeded the interests of any single national group. A century later, the still-unresolved “question” of Palestine remains central to struggles for anti-racism and anti-colonialism in international law. This essay revisits two flashpoints in the tangled history of Palestine and international law, where questions of race and racism have been central: first, ongoing debates over the regime and crime of apartheid; and second, the now-repudiated UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, recognizing Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. Both stories demonstrate the importance of understanding race and colonialism as conjoined concepts, neither of which can be properly understood in isolation from the other
A Bayesian deep-learning framework for assessing the energy flexibility of residential buildings with multicomponent energy systems
No full textThis paper addresses the challenge of assessing uncertainty in energy flexibility predictions, which is a significant open question in the energy flexibility assessment field. To address this challenge, a methodology that quantifies the flexibility of multiple thermal and electrical systems is developed using appropriate indicators and considers the different types of uncertainty associated with building energy use. A Bayesian convolutional neural network is developed to capture aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty related to energy conversion device operation and temperature deviations resulting from exploiting building flexibility. The developed prediction models utilise residential occupancy patterns and a sliding window technique and are periodically updated. The energy systems evaluated include a heat pump, a photovoltaic system, and a stationary battery, and use synthetic datasets obtained from a calibrated physics-based model of an all-electric residential building for two occupancy profiles. Simulation results indicate that building flexibility potential predictability is influenced by weather conditions and/or occupant behaviour. Furthermore, the day-ahead and hour-ahead prediction models show excellent performance for both occupancy profiles, achieving coefficients of determination between 0.93 and 0.99. This methodology can enable electricity aggregators to evaluate building portfolios, considering uncertainty and multi-step predictions, to shift electricity demand to off-peak periods or periods of excess onsite renewable electricity generation in an end-user-customised manner
NEAL: an open-source tool for audio annotation
No full textPassive acoustic monitoring is used widely in ecology, biodiversity, and conservation
studies. Data sets collected via acoustic monitoring are often extremely large and built to
be processed automatically using artificial intelligence and machine learning models,
which aim to replicate the work of domain experts. These models, being supervised
learning algorithms, need to be trained on high quality annotations produced by
experts. Since the experts are often resource-limited, a cost-effective process for
annotating audio is needed to get maximal use out of the data. We present an
open-source interactive audio data annotation tool, NEAL (Nature+Energy Audio
Labeller). Built using R and the associated Shiny framework, the tool provides a reactive
environment where users can quickly annotate audio files and adjust settings that
automatically change the corresponding elements of the user interface. The app has been
designed with the goal of having both expert birders and citizen scientists contribute
to acoustic annotation projects. The popularity and flexibility of R programming in
bioacoustics means that the Shiny app can be modified for other bird labelling data
sets, or even to generic audio labelling tasks. We demonstrate the app by labelling data
collected from wind farm sites across Ireland
History of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
No full textIn this thesis, an account of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture and some of its
history are presented. A framework on the theory of elliptic curves is developed from
the ground up. Then, several advanced definitions and results from algebraic geometry
are given. This includes an accessible chapter about the Tate-Shafarevich group. These
results will help illuminate some of the reasoning behind Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer’s
work. Finally, a thorough, up to date report on the progress of the conjecture is included
Cultivating cultural capital and transforming cultural fields: A study with arts and disability organisations in Europe
No full textThis article critically discusses participation by people with disabilities in the arts, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. It is informed by a qualitative study with representatives of organisations working on arts and disability in 22 European countries. The article highlights that experiences of inequality at various levels, including within education systems, and medicalised understandings of what disability is, continue to hamper arts participation and development of cultural capital by people with disabilities. A Bourdieusian analysis unveils how organisations working on arts and disability consciously engage in ‘high’ arts practices as an expression of distinction and in a way that is designed to reframe what is culturally valued within their fields. It also demonstrates the continued relevance of Bourdieu’s theorising of cultural capital and of arts practices as distinction for potentially marginalised groups. Furthermore, participants often linked arts participation involving high artistic standards to potential change in how societies understand and relate to disability, connecting cultural practices and political struggles
A Tripartite Smart City Model
No full textLiterary/Dramatic work proposed conceptual model illustrates a holistic vision of urban smartness using an automated text analytics for met synthesis. This model is significant to the ongoing smart cities mission in India
Doing science together: Gaining momentum from long-term explorative university–industry research programs
No full text‘Doing science together’ collaborations are a more intense form of university–industry interactions and are characterized by a mutual involvement and active participation of academic and company scientists in scientific research. Here, we examine the successful approach that AstraZeneca and its internationally renowned academic partners, Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, implemented to fully unlock the potential of all parties in long-term, explorative, truly collaborative research programs. The underlying premises of these successful research programs are three collaborative governance mechanisms (3MCs) that are required that leverage the strengths of each organization: mutual collaboration; mutually beneficial science; and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement
The inherent fruits of educational endeavour
No full textThis contribution begins by reviewing a widespread inherited idea in Western civilisations: that
education is an undertaking to be controlled, at least in all essentials, by some superior body; not by
educational practitioners. As a subordinate practice then, and depending on the political, religious
or ideological colour of the controlling body’s outlook, education may be called upon to serve
widely different purposes, often conflicting ones. Against this historical pattern I propose the notion
of education not as a subordinate practice but as a practice in its own right, with demands that arise
from its own inherent purposes. Despite being overshadowed by institutionalised forces in the
history of Western education, the philosophical ancestry of education as a practice in its own right is
robust and energetic. It reaches back beyond Plato and Aristotle to the example of Socrates,
specifically the practical Socrates captured in the early dialogues of Plato. In supporting the case for
education as a practice in its own right, I will explore the kinds of experience that lie at the heart of
the practice and the character of the kinds of fruit that flow from it. These features distinguish
education from other practices and from deficient forms of educational practice itself. Arising from
this exploration, an analysis will be carried out of the capabilities and relationships that constitute
educational practice, as the particular kind of practice that it is