NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
Not a member yet
18159 research outputs found
Sort by
Understanding neural signals of post-decisional performance monitoring: An integrative review
No full textPerformance monitoring is a key cognitive function, allowing to detect mistakes and adapt future behavior. Post-decisional neural signals have been identified that are sensitive to decision accuracy, decision confidence and subsequent adaptation. Here, we review recent work
that supports an understanding of late error/confidence signals in terms of the computational process of post-decisional evidence accumulation. We argue that the error positivity, a positive going centro-parietal potential measured through scalp electrophysiology, reflects the post decisional evidence accumulation process itself, which follows a boundary crossing event
corresponding to initial decision commitment. This proposal provides a powerful explanation for
both the morphological characteristics of the signal and its relation to various expressions of
performance monitoring. Moreover, it suggests that the error positivity –a signal with thus far
unique properties in cognitive neuroscience – can be leveraged to furnish key new insights into the
inputs to, adaptation, and consequences of the post-decisional accumulation process
Impossible measurements revisited
No full textIt is by now well recognized that the naive application of the projection postulate on composite quantum
systems can induce signalling between their constituent components, indicative of a breakdown of causality
in a relativistic spacetime context. Here we introduce a necessary and sufficient condition for an ideal
measurement of an observable to be nonsignalling. As well as being particularly simple, it generalizes
previous no-signalling conditions in that it allows for degeneracies and can be applied to all bounded selfadjoint operators. The condition is used to establish that arbitrary sums of local observables will not signal,
in accordance with our expectations from relativistic quantum field theory. On the other hand, it is shown
that the measurement of the tensor product of commuting local observables, for example bipartite operators
of the form A ⊗ B, can in fact signal, contrary to the widely held belief that such measurements are always
locally realizable. The implications for the notion of measurement in relativistic quantum field theory are
addressed; it appears that the most straightforward application of the standard quantum formalism
generically leads to violations of causality. We conclude that either the class of observables that can be
measured should be restricted and/or that the naive translation of the measurement framework of quantum
theory, in particular the projection postulate, to quantum field theory should be reevaluated
Protocol Discovery for the Quantum Control of Majoranas by Differentiable Programming and Natural Evolution Strategies
No full textQuantum control, which refers to the active manipulation of physical systems described by the laws of quantum mechanics, constitutes an essential ingredient for the development of quantum technology. Here we apply differentiable programming (DP) and natural evolution strategies (NES) to the optimal transport of Majorana zero modes in superconducting nanowires, a key element to the success of Majorana-based topological quantum computation. We formulate the motion control of Majorana zero modes as an optimization problem for which we propose a new categorization of four different regimes with respect to the critical velocity of the system and the total transport time. In addition to correctly recovering the anticipated smooth protocols in the adiabatic regime, our algorithms uncover efficient but strikingly counterintuitive motion strategies in the nonadiabatic regime. The emergent picture reveals a simple but high-fidelity strategy that makes use of pulselike jumps at the beginning and the end of the protocol with a period of constant velocity in between the jumps, which we dub the jump-move-jump protocol. We provide a transparent semianalytical picture, which uses the sudden approximation and a reformulation of the Majorana motion in a moving frame, to illuminate the key characteristics of the jump-move-jump control strategy. We verify that the jump-move-jump protocol remains robust against the presence of interactions or disorder, and corroborate its high efficacy on a realistic proximity-coupled nanowire model. Our results demonstrate that machine learning for quantum control can be applied efficiently to quantum many-body dynamical systems with performance levels that make it relevant to the realization of large-scale quantum technology
From housing crisis to housing justice: Towards a radical right to a home
No full textAmidst a protracted housing crisis that has affected major cities in Europe and beyond, vibrant social movements for housing justice are trying to challenge the notion that housing is a commodity, with transformative demands framing housing as a fundamental human right. This paper explores the ways housing movements in Dublin use direct and confrontational approaches as political action. Previous literature has examined the emergence of new housing movements as a direct consequence of the economic and social challenges that arose as a result of the economic downturn and neoliberal austerity policies. However, there is, as yet, little that addresses the ways autonomous housing groups engage in non-violent direct action and the challenges they face in trying not just to promote a radical change of policy but also in carrying out practical prefigurative action. As such, the findings in this study provide insights into how emerging direct-action-oriented housing groups fight for housing justice
The Waves of Activism: An Ethnographic Study of Sex Work Activism in Dublin and London
No full textHow women tell their stories is changing. Women deemed sexually transgressive, from the Magdalene laundries to the #metoo movement have struggled to make their voices heard and believed in the public sphere. A third wave of feminist activism (Gillis and Munford 2004; Aune and Holyoak 2017, Cox 2014, 18) of the late 19thcentury then presents with an alternative framework. This new wave of activism is less reliant on non-governmental organisations to campaign and mediate women’s stories and more inclusive of the diversity present in the category of gender and its associated roles and implications. This project tells the stories of one group of these women –sex work activists in Dublin, Ireland and London, England. While much research has been conducted on both the numbers and experiences of those in the sex industry, little attention has been on the women as activists, who have campaigned in their personalised approach tohighlight the harms and resist the laws that govern sex work and prostitution.This essay is an ethnographic qualitative study and so the research questions focus on the journey of sex work activists, the consequences, and opportunities of their involvement and whether they are adequately representative. In addition, it also explores the role of digital activism within the ‘third wave phenomenon’, creating a possible global solidarity among the activists which is seen to be an urgent need to bridge the gapbetween academia and raw activism
Delivering on the Binary Divide
No full textDelivery companies have become a focal point of the ‘gig economy’, with Uber the most often
identified entity. This commentary considers what recent cases involving delivery service companies suggest about labour law and the platform economy. Although these cases have focused on employment status, this commentary contends that the continuing lack of concerted engagement
with the independent contractor status contributes to this spate of cases
Agreement to Discuss: The Social Partners Address the Digitalisation of Work
No full textThe European Social Partners’ Autonomous Framework Agreement on Digitalisation (FAD),1
importantly, acknowledges the impact of digital technologies on work in European countries, as well as the need to address the
associated challenges in a deliberate and thoughtful manner. It serves as a
commentary by the European social partners on the challenges and opportunities that digitalisation poses for work, as well as what the parties anticipate for the near future
Mental Health of Refugees and Migrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Experienced Discrimination and Daily Stressors
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic is a defining global health crisis of our time. While the impact of COVID-19, including its mental health impact, is increasingly being documented, there remain important gaps regarding the specific consequences of the pandemic on particular population groups, including refugees and migrants. This study aims to uncover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of refugees and migrants worldwide, disentangling the possible role of social and daily stressors, i.e., experiences of discrimination and daily living conditions. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the responses of N = 20,742 refugees and migrants on the self-reporting global ApartTogether survey. Survey findings indicated that the mental health of refugees and migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly impacted, particularly for certain subgroups, (i.e., insecure housing situation and residence status, older respondents, and females) who reported experiencing higher levels of increased discrimination and increases in daily life stressors. There is a need to recognize the detrimental mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on particular refugee and migrant groups and to develop interventions that target their unique needs
Parallel Quadri-valent Quantum-Inspired Gravitational Search Algorithm on a heterogeneous platform for wireless sensor networks
No full textSensor nodes in a wireless sensor Network are assigned for different operational modes to
perfume application-specific objectives. The decision to assign operational modes to nodes is a
challenging problem in the presence of multiple criteria including energy-efficient, maintaining
network connectivity, and fulfilling application goals. Several metaheuristic methods are
introduced in the literature to address this NP-hard problem, however, these methods require
further improvements in execution-time and finding the optimum solution. In this research,
we propose an improved version of a metaheuristic method called Quadri-valent Quantum Inspired Gravitational Search Algorithm (QQIGSA) to solve Quadri-valent problems by applying
a Not Q-Gate and paralleling QQIGSA method on the graphics processing unit. The proposed
method employs a heterogeneous platform and justifies its parameters. The experimental results
show that the performance enhancement from 1.8 to 2.25 compared to the previous parallel
implementations. Moreover, we achieve the speedup of 8 by using the proposed heterogeneous paralleling technique
Assistive technology use and unmet need in Canada
No full textBackground: Around the world, variations and inequities in access to assistive technology (AT) are evident. Development of legislation, policies, and programmes has not kept pace with the increasing demand for AT. Therefore, context-specific needs assessment is required, which can assist in anticipating the accessibility and human support needs of individuals with impairments, and in turn, inform resource allocation and prioritisation of services. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to describe the cur-rent use and unmet needs of AT use in community-dwelling Canadians experiencing activity limitation or participation restriction (disability).Data and methods: Bootstrapping was used to estimate the prevalence of AT use and unmet needs using data from the 2012 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD). The total sample size for the CSD was45,443 individuals. Results: Among the estimated 3,775,920 Canadians with a disability (13.7% of the Canadian population),3,579,580 used some form of AT. Among these individuals, 3,050,750 use glasses or contact lenses and1,109,060 use bathroom aids. The results of the study showed that the most common unmet need was for hearing aids (0.86% of the total population), followed by bathroom aids (0.36%).Interpretations: This study comes at a time when global attention is focused on research on access to AT. This study using data from the CSD will serve disability and social policy analysts at all levels of government, as well as associations for persons with disabilities and researchers working in the field of dis-ability policy and programmes