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Bioengineering, AI spirituality, and environmental crisis: Ishiguro's posthuman humanism
No full textWe argue that Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun (2021), articulates an “ustopia” (Margaret Atwood), a near-future vision that exists in a dialectical tension between utopian and dystopian premises. Klara and the Sun is narrated in the first person by Klara, a childlike robot endowed with affective, cognitive, and learning capacities, who experiences a world marked by climate emergency, genetic engineering, and the AI revolution. Ishiguro’s novel builds on familiar sci-fi dystopian motifs, conveying a humanistic anxiety about both new forms of inequality generated by genetic enhancement and identity issues arising from the possibility that humanoid robots replicate and substitute real humans. However, Ishiguro also articulates a forward-looking posthuman humanism. In Ishiguro’s vision, humanoid robots like Klara capable of creativity, curiosity, and selfless care—open the possibility of a logic of différance (Jacques Derrida) and thus a novel form of posthuman humanism. This envisions a community of singularities made of humans and human-like robots and new types of belief that could counteract the environmental degradation and the alienation from nature.Camil Ungureanu’s research for this article has been supported by Proyecto PID2022-142130NB-I00 financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 / y FEDER, UE. Galyna Maleeva was supported by a Ramón y Cajal Investigator grant (RYC2021-033056-I financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European UnionNextGeneration EU/PRTR) and PID2023-151770OA-I00 Generación Conocimiento: Proyectos I+D DOPAMAP.TERCERAS_ResPublica28(1).indd 97TERCERAS_ResPublica28(1).indd 9710/5/25 13:5410/5/25 13:5
Morality sources at an international level: when universality overcomes morality
No full textThe theory of human rights has gain weight in the academic sphere in the last few years, indeed, it is now embodied in the framework of global justice discourse. Broadly speaking, there are two main opposite theories of human rights which entail two different accounts of moral values over which each theoretical account is justified. Notwithstanding, both theories acknowledge the more general term "rights" as characterized by Steiner, i.e., as the elementary particles of justice, created and parcelled out by justice principles. In this respect, rights' features and characteristics, will turn out to be each society's justice. Therefore, the content of such rights will define and thus constraint, each society's content of principles of justice. Now, when it turns to human rights, understood as a particular set of rights, how these special rights features are justified may determine each societies allocation and thus, distribution of personal liberty and equality. The two theories mentioned are the traditional and the political theory. More precisely, while the traditional theory argues that human rights are rights that any human being posses in virtue of its humanity, political accounts defends that human rights are rights against states, i.e., rights able to justify the limitation on state sovereignty, for the protection of individual rights. In short, the discussion asks whether human rights are mere individual rights, i.e., that primarily protect individual interests, or rather establish as well a set of collective rights with a clear influence in the common good. This work will be structured in four sections; section I will raises some puzzling points about the claim for universality that seems to be in the background on any human right, regardless of the philosophical theory that best explains them. Section II establishes the topic framework in which there can be differentiated legal, moral and human rights, to settle certain limits in scope and domain for different conceptions of rights. Section III analyzes the role which conceptions such as individual and collective interests, moral weight and grounded duties play due to different accounts of rights and how they are due determined. Section IV discusses the derivative problem of human rights as an ethical claim beyond borders, due to the political perspective of the theory of human rights
Modelo semántico y computacional para análisis del conflicto armado en Colombia
No full textLa disponibilidad de herramientas conceptuales para la descripción y la extracción en un
determinado dominio de conocimiento es fundamental para garantizar el acceso a la
información. En contextos de conflictos armados hay una profusa generación de
documentos o materiales para la cual es importante diseñar herramientas y sistemas de
gestión de la información adecuadas. Esta tesis aborda las estrategias terminológicas y
computacionales necesarias para desarrollar un corpus sobre el conflicto armado en
Colombia, los recursos de anotación del corpus, una ontología y un grafo de
conocimiento.
La representación del conocimiento con fines de recuperación de información pasa por
el ámbito de la terminología y las tecnologías de la lengua para usar recursos, técnicas y
herramientas del procesamiento de lenguaje natural y de la lingüística computacional.
El reconocimiento de entidades nombradas es una tarea para la extracción de
información en distintos ámbitos de conocimiento, partiendo de ontologías que recogen
conceptualmente la terminología propia de dichos dominios. En esta tesis doctoral se
conforma un corpus de textos o multimodales sobre el conflicto armado colombiano que
son generados por instituciones, colectivos y organizaciones que trabajan en temas de
paz, derechos humanos y memoria. Esta información constituye un corpus documental
en el cual se usan técnicas de procesamiento de lenguaje natural para la extracción de
relaciones desde el punto de vista conceptual contribuyendo al análisis y exploración de
información desde su contenido.
Esta tesis propone un modelo semántico y computacional para la construcción de un
grafo de conocimiento con técnicas de aprendizaje para el reconocimiento de entidades
nombradas, en un campo de conocimiento en donde no existen suficientes ontologías o
corpus previamente anotados. La tesis está centrada sobre el tratamiento de textos
haciendo uso de técnicas de procesamiento de lenguaje natural para el descubrimiento
de entidades nombradas con aprendizaje profundo que permita la construcción de un
grafo de conocimiento a partir de una ontología de base, construida desde otras
terminologías.
Este estudio es un aporte a la construcción de herramientas para el español y para la
gestión de conocimiento alrededor de temas del conflicto armado en Colombia y como
metodología que puede ser extrapolable a otros dominios de conocimiento en donde no
existen previamente ontologías o grafos.La disponibilitat d'eines conceptuals per a la descripció i l'extracció en un domini de
coneixement determinat és fonamental per a garantir l'accés a la informació. En
contextos de conflictes armats hi ha una generació profusa de documents o materials per
als quals és important dissenyar eines i sistemes de gestió de la informació adequades.
Aquesta tesi aborda les estratègies terminològiques i computacionals necessàries per a
desenvolupar un corpus sobre el conflicte armat a Colòmbia, els recursos d’anotació del
corpus, una ontologia i un graf de coneixement.
La representació del coneixement amb finalitats de recuperació d'informació passa per
l'àmbit de la terminologia i les tecnologies de la llengua per fer servir recursos,
tècniques i eines del processament de llenguatge natural i de la lingüística
computacional.
El reconeixement d'entitats nomenades (NER) és una tasca per a l'extracció
d'informació en diferents àmbits de coneixement, partint d'ontologies que recullen
conceptualment la terminologia pròpia dels dominis esmentats. En aquesta tesi doctoral
es conforma un corpus de textos o multimodals sobre el conflicte armat colombià
generats per institucions, col·lectius i organitzacions que treballen en temes de pau,
drets humans i memòria. Aquesta informació constitueix un corpus documental en el
qual es fan servir tècniques de processament de llenguatge natural per a l'extracció de
relacions des del punt de vista conceptual per contribuir a l'anàlisi i exploració de la
informació des del contingut.
Aquesta tesi proposa un model semàntic i computacional per a la construcció d'un graf
de coneixement amb tècniques d'aprenentatge per al reconeixement d'entitats
nomenades, en un camp de coneixement on no hi ha prou ontologies o corpus
prèviament anotats. La tesi se centra sobre el tractament de textos fent ús de tècniques
de processament de llenguatge natural per al descobriment d'entitats nomenades amb
aprenentatge profund, que permeti la construcció d'un graf de coneixement a partir d'una
ontologia de base, construïda des d'altres terminologies.
Aquest estudi és una aportació a la construcció d'eines per a l'espanyol i per a la gestió
de coneixement al voltant de temes del conflicte armat a Colòmbia i com a metodologia
que pot ser extrapolable a altres dominis de coneixement on no hi ha prèviament
ontologies o grafs.The availability of conceptual tools for description and extraction in a knowledge
domain is fundamental to ensure access to information. In armed conflict contexts there
is a profuse generation of documents or materials for which it is important to design
adequate information management tools and systems. This thesis approaches the
terminological and computational strategies needed to develop a corpus on the armed
conflict in Colombia, corpus annotation resources, an ontology and a knowledge graph.
Knowledge representation for information retrieval purposes goes through the field of
terminology and language technologies to use resources, techniques and tools of natural
language processing and computational linguistics.
The named entity recognition is a task of extraction of information from several fields
of knowledge, based on ontologies that conceptually collect the terminology of these
domains. In this doctoral thesis, a corpus of texts or multimodal texts on the Colombian
armed conflict generated by institutions, collectives and organizations working on
issues of peace, human rights and memory. This information is a documentary corpus in
which natural language processing techniques are used for the extraction of
relationships from a conceptual field, contributing to the analysis and exploration of
information from its content.
This thesis proposes a semantic and computational model for the construction of a
knowledge graph with learning techniques for the named entity recognition, in a field of
knowledge where there are not enough ontologies or annotated corpora previously. The
thesis is focused on the treatment of texts using natural language processing techniques
for the discovery of named entities with deep learning that allows the construction of a
knowledge graph from a base ontology, built from other terminologies.
This study contributes to the construction of tools for Spanish and for knowledge
management around issues of the armed conflict in Colombia and as a methodology it
that can be extrapolated to other knowledge domains where ontologies or graphs do not
previously exist.Programa de Doctorat en Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatg
Evaluating ML-based continuous predictors for missense variant pathogenicity
No full textTreball de fi de grau en Bioinformàtica. Curs 2024-2025Tutor: Xavier de la Cruz MontserratAquest projecte avalua predictors continus basats en l'aprenentatge automàtic per estimar la patogenicitat de variants amb canvi de sentit, un repte clau en el diagnòstic de malalties genètiques. Es van analitzar unes 46.000 variants procedents de ClinVar i Humsavar amb cinc predictors quantitatius (CADD, MetaRNN, Envision, QAFI, EVE) i quatre classificadors binaris (AlphaMissense, BayesDel, REVEL, VEST4). Les prediccions es van obtenir amb VEP gràcies a diverses pipelines, i s’avaluaren mitjançant mètriques com AUROC, sensibilitat, especificitat i calibratge. Els resultats ofereixen criteris objectius per a l’ús clínic i el desenvolupament futur d’aquestes eines.Este proyecto evalúa predictores continuos basados en aprendizaje automático para estimar la patogenicidad de variantes con cambio de sentido, un reto clave en el diagnóstico de enfermedades genéticas. Se analizaron unas 46.000 variantes procedentes de ClinVar y Humsavar utilizando cinco predictores cuantitativos (CADD, MetaRNN, Envision, QAFI, EVE) y cuatro clasificadores binarios (AlphaMissense, BayesDel, REVEL, VEST4). Las predicciones se obtuvieron con VEP mediante diversos pipelines, y se evaluaron utilizando métricas como AUROC, sensibilidad, especificidad y calibración. Los resultados ofrecen criterios objetivos para el uso clínico y el desarrollo futuro de estas herramientas.This project evaluates continuous predictors based on machine learning to estimate the pathogenicity of missense variants, a key challenge in the diagnosis of genetic diseases. Approximately 46,000 variants from ClinVar and Humsavar were analyzed using five quantitative predictors (CADD, MetaRNN, Envision, QAFI, EVE) and four binary classifiers (AlphaMissense, BayesDel, REVEL, VEST4). Predictions were obtained using VEP through various pipelines, and performance was assessed using metrics such as AUROC, sensitivity, specificity, and calibration. The results provide objective criteria for the clinical use and future development of these tools
MaveDB 2024: a curated community database with over seven million variant effects from multiplexed functional assays
No full textMultiplexed assays of variant effect (MAVEs) are a critical tool for researchers and clinicians to understand genetic variants. Here we describe the 2024 update to MaveDB ( https://www.mavedb.org/ ) with four key improvements to the MAVE community's database of record: more available data including over 7 million variant effect measurements, an improved data model supporting assays such as saturation genome editing, new built-in exploration and visualization tools, and powerful APIs for data federation and streamlined submission and access. Together these changes support MaveDB's role as a hub for the analysis and dissemination of MAVEs now and into the future
Health & nature: a critical review of historical perspectives to support narratives for change
No full textIntroduction. The ongoing ecosocial crisis threatens the health of our planet, as ecological boundaries are overreached and social needs remain unmet. Achieving health equity and sustainable development requires re-evaluating the interconnections between nature and health, including the social narratives shaping this relationship. The ways in which we construct and adopt these narratives -consciously or not- translates into different implications for research, policy and practice. This study critically analyses the historical evolution of how the health-nature relationship is conceptualised in the scientific literature, and classifies the different eco-social values and theoretical considerations embedded within each emerging perspective. By raising awareness of the diverse perspectives used and their implications for research, policy and practice, the findings aim to provide a conceptual guide for narratives that aim to drive change towards health equity and sustainable practices.
Methods. We conducted a critical review to identify the main perspectives of the health-nature relationship in the scientific literature over the past 60 years, and to categorize them based on their ecological theoretical positions, ranging from anthropocentric to non-anthropocentric. Snowballing techniques were applied to include other relevant literature.
Results. Our review identified eight main perspectives on the health-nature relationship during this time period: Environmental health, Ecology of health, Holistic medicine, Political ecology of health, Eco Health, One Health, Planetary Health, and Indigenous traditions. We then classified them by their consideration of nature, and ecological positions.
Discussion and conclusions. Our results found diverse and evolving perspectives on the health-nature relationships, with anthropocentric to non-anthropocentric ecological theoretical positions embedded within them. When selecting and applying perspectives to support transformation, researchers and policymakers should have a clear idea of the implicit and explicit theoretical positions embedded within them. Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners should carefully consider these findings when selecting frameworks to guide narratives of change, and interventions aiming to address the political, ecological, economic, and cultural drivers of environmental degradation, human and natural exploitation, and social and health inequalities that our planet is struggling with. Recognizing these varied perspectives presents an opportunity to embrace diverse epistemologies that can inspire positive ecosocial change and foster a more sustainable and equitable relation between human societies with nature
Unpacking social capital
No full textWe use novel survey data from Italy to shed light on key questions regarding the measurement of social capital and the use of social capital indicators for empirical work. Our data cover a sample of over 600,000 respondents interviewed between 2000 and 2015. We identify four distinct components of social capital-(i) social participation, (ii) political participation, (iii) general trust and (iv) trust in institutions- and examine how they relate to each other. We then study how each dimension of social capital relates to various socioeconomic factors, both at the individual and aggregate levels, and to various proxies of social capital commonly used in the literature. Finally, building on previous work, we investigate to what extent different dimensions of social capital predict differences in key economic, political and health outcomes. Our findings support the view that social capital is a multi-faceted object with multiple dimensions that, while related, are distinct from each other. Future work should take such multi-dimensionality into account and carefully consider what measure of social capital to use.Luigi Minale gratefully acknowledges financial support from Project CEX2021-001181-M financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, from Proyecto Estatal PID2022-139510NB-I00 (ImmDivInt) and under Grant EPUC3M11 (V PRICIT) financed by the Comunidad de Madrid. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant 759885)
The European Union’s role in global health: embracing governance complexity?
No full textCOVID-19 placed global health governance under unprecedented strain. The World Health Organization (WHO) became severely questioned and got caught in the crossfire of great-power competition, whereas other entities vaulted into the limelight. This chapter delves into the European Union’s (EU) consolidation as an actor within this increasingly complex governance domain, whose fragmentation long predates COVID-19. We analyse the degree to which relevant political-institutional developments in the EU’s burgeoning (global) health policy, as well as the broader evolution of the global health architecture, have elicited Europeanist, Atlanticist and nationalist responses within the EU and its Member States. We find that European actors tend to signal a rejection of fragmentation in global health governance, while accepting it in practice
Gap analysis of social science resources for conservation practice
No full textConservation is an inherently social process-people collectively endeavor to enact conservation. Yet, in conservation social science, research methodologies, training, and competency are less common than in natural sciences. Globally, formal education and training in the social sciences are often unavailable or inaccessible to conservation practitioners, and nonformal education may help fill this gap. To identify potential opportunities, we implemented a global survey of practitioners to identify their knowledge gaps and social science training needs and conducted a gap analysis of available social science training resources. We compiled 449 resources, including 266 English-language and 183 non-English-languages resources into an open-access online database hosted by the Conservation Social Science Partnership. Resources were categorized as communication, data collection, ethics and human rights, intervention, impact evaluation, or analysis. Most resources were open access (90%) and half were specific to conservation practice. Survey responses (n = 90) revealed demand for help with data analyses, research ethics, and human rights considerations. We found a need for organization leaders to prioritize social sciences in conservation, greater diversity of accessible training resources in alternate mediums and languages, resources tailored to conservation contexts, and additional ethics and human rights and data analysis resources
Essays in industrial organisation
No full textThis thesis contains three chapters, each developing a theory and providing evidence
on a unique and novel determinant of firms’ outcomes in the emerging and
developed economies of 21st century. The first chapter examines how sponsored
advertisements in digital markets affect product market concentration, through
their effects on firms’ pricing and consumer behaviour. It develops a theory of the
online advertising market, and provides evidence from a large digital platform in
the US. The second chapter examines the role of ethnic networks in determining
product demand,and subsequently firms’ outcomes and aggregate productivity of
the economy. It develops a theory of caste-based consumer-firmlinkages in product
demand, and provides evidence from rural India. The third chapter examines how
firms and interest groups handle their reputation through lobbying. It develops
a theory of how reputation affects the extent of lobbying on policymakers, and
provides evidence from foreign lobbying in the US.Aquesta tesi conté tres capítols,cadascun desenvolupant una teoria i proporcionant
proves sobre determinants únics i nous dels resultats de les empreses en les
economies emergents i desenvolupades del segle 21. El primer capÃtol examina
com els anuncis patrocinats en els mercats digitals afecten la concentració del
mercat de productes, a través dels seus efectes sobre els preus i el comportament
dels consumidors de les empreses. Desenvolupa una teoria del mercat de la
publicitat en línia i proporciona proves d’una gran plataforma digital als EUA.
El segon capítol examina el paper de les xarxes ètniques en la determinació
de la demanda de productes i, posteriorment, els resultats de les empreses i
la productivitat agregada de l’economia. Desenvolupa una teoria dels vincles
consumidor-empresa basats en castes en la demanda de productes i proporciona
proves de l’Índia rural. El tercer capítol examina com les empreses i els grups
d’interès gestionen la seva reputació a través del lobbying. Desenvolupa una
teoria de com la reputació afecta l’abast del lobby sobre els responsables polítics i
proporciona proves dels lobbys estrangers als EUA.Programa de doctorat en Economia, Finances i Empres