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Embodied artificial intelligence and jus ad bellum necessity: Influence and imminence in the digital age
Get PDFIn “re-opening” the classic debate surrounding a state’s wider right of self-defense (in light of emerging technologies, and via the “lens” of influence communications), the authors controversially “close” the following discussion in favor of allowing Embodied Artificial Intelligence (EAI) to lawfully authorize pre-emptive acts of self-defense in response to non-imminent threats of a grave use of force. The authors provide a twofold justification for adopting this highly provocative stance.
First, they argue that the introduction of EAIs will facilitate a unique recalibration of the necessity and last resort requirements of self-defense which would “enable” certain pre-emptive actions to be re-categorized as “anticipatory”. And secondly, the authors contend that because EAIs will be able to “compute” post-bellum considerations as part of their preparatory calculations, the potential unlawfulness of pre-emptive actions are further mitigated. In short, the utilization of EAI’s will ensure that a greater range of humanitarian protections can be provided to the civilian population when future acts of self-defense are deemed necessary
Machine Learning Models for Recognizing Curve-shaped Abnormalities in Different Image Modalities
Get PDFThis thesis is concerned with using machine learning algorithms for the analysis of different image modalities for the presence of abnormal features or shapes. This challenge appears in various crucial computer vision applications in science, engineering, medicine, and art. Different image modalities abnormal features/regions are often very specific to the applications, the capturing tools, and the subjects of the scenes that were captured. The appearance of certain types of feature abnormalities often indicates potentially serious faulty defects in the imaged objects. We only consider two applications: Inspecting cracks in building materials such as glass façades and concrete surfaces using digital camera images and determining irregularity properties of tumour lesion borders from ultrasound (US) scan images. In the first case, abnormalities appear as cracks that could endanger life and infrastructure. At the same time, irregularity of the tumour border, which is highly correlated to the malignancy of the tumour, could reduce the patient's recovery chances if not recognised/treated early..
'A pill to cure an Earthquake': The Policies and Practices of the British Army and the Royal Navy to Prevent Venereal Disease, 1914-1945
Get PDFThis thesis examines the policies and practices the British Army and Royal Navy adopted to prevent venereal disease between 1914 and 1945. Their principle aim was to maintain fighting fitness. The actions to prevent VD fell into four strategies: legal, medical, moral and broader social welfare. This thesis examines these strategies and their impact on the prevention of VD. Both services ultimately used all four strategies to varying degrees. The navy particularly focused on the medical approach. By contrast, the army placed its emphasis on the moral reform approach..
Effect of Oriented Assemblies of SrTiO3 with Exposed (200) plane on the Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution
Get PDFThis study aims to investigate the effect of crystallographic orientation of the assemblies of SrTiO3 (formed on a glass substrate) on photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. For this, we have successfully synthesized nanocubes of SrTiO3 through a hydrothermal method. Assemblies on the glass substrate were formed by using functionalized/non-functionalized oxide over functionalized/non-functionalized glass substrate. The functionalization of the oxides and the glass substrate was carried out using IPTMS (3-iodopropyltrimethoxy silane). Uniform assemblies of nanocubes of SrTiO3 with the particles oriented with (200) plane as the exposed surface were formed. The performance of these oriented assemblies was evaluated for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. Theoretical studies were carried out to understand the mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over the oriented assemblies of SrTiO3
A Legal Framework for Regulating Autonomous Weapon System Deployments
Get PDFThe principle aim of this research is the creation of a unique legal framework to regulate the use of the emerging technology referred to as Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS). To date, the formulation of such a framework has not been possible due primarily to the abject lack of certainty as to what an AWS is. Despite this, AWS are particularly controversial primarily because in order for them to operate humankind must delegate battlefield life-or-death decision making responsibilities to machines. In 2019, amidst increasing calls for absolute prohibition to be placed upon their use, a group of governmental experts (GGE), assembled by the United Nations (UN), did endorse a set of (non binding) “guiding principles”. These were intended to help shape future weapons development. However, they are woefully superficial, and notably muted as to exactly what types of weapons they should be applied to. This thesis seeks to compensate for the existing lacunae in several novel ways. First, it develops an unparalleled, multi-dimensional, definitional tool. This is referred to throughout as the Template. Unconventionally, the Template allows for individual classification based first, according to a weapons type, second to the matter of whether the AWS is to be deployed defensively or offensively, and third in regard of whether an AWS is to apply a lethal, or non-lethal force (noting the latter two axes represent a particularly contentious element of the existing discussion). It is only by consulting the Template that the researcher is able undertake the second thesis aim, which is the realisation of an unrivalled, comprehensive, and independent analysis as to the lawfulness of AWS deployments – doing so according to the jus ad bellum, the jus in bello, and international human rights law. From these separate, though inextricably intertwined examinations, various rules are distilled. These are significantly dissimilar to any such rules which have preceded them, not least because each is grounded, or in some other way related to, an existing legal obligation. In closing, the researcher presents these rules holistically as set guiding principles which efficaciously provide the absent legal framework for regulating individual AWS deployments. Ultimately, this body of research unequivocally supports the researcher’s hypothesis that AWS are not inherently unlawful. However, by endorsing the guiding principles, states can greatly restrict or eliminate many of the inherent dangers of utilizing this revolution in military affairs, while still harnessing many of their advantages
Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (1879–1953), known as ‘Bend’Or’: A Reappraisal.
Get PDFThe 2nd Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor (known as ‘Bend’Or’), is usually seen as a super-rich landowner and spoilt playboy. This was the view of contemporaries, and previous biographers have reinforced it. Economic historians have analyzed the Grosvenor Estate, but this thesis is not concerned with the creation, husbandry or growth of the Grosvenor millions. The primary aim of this thesis is to reassess Bend’Or’s reputation. It traces the life of a duke faced with the changing circumstances of the aristocracy in the early twentieth century.
Access to the Grosvenor family archives has been fundamental to the task of re-evaluating the career of the 2nd Duke. By generous permission of the late Duke and the present Duke, I was granted approval to read private family papers. Various historians have visited the Grosvenor archive to research specific topics, but none has been given the breadth of access needed to write a sourced and researched biography on Bend’Or.
The archive has yielded rich findings, especially on Bend’Or’s early life. Bend’Or’s childhood was outwardly idyllic, but my research shows that his family circumstances were not auspicious. His father died when Bend’Or was an infant. The correspondence between his mother Sibell and her second husband, George Wyndham MP, reveals that the 1st Duke gave consent for their marriage only on condition that Wyndham agreed to relinquish all authority over the young Bend’Or. Bend’Or was left exposed to an overprotective mother and the limited vision of the 1st Duke. Their folly contributed to Bend’Or’s inadequate education, causing him to suffer for most of his adult life from a chronic lack of confidence and self-belief. It rendered him unable to navigate successfully the web of obligations and duties that his social station demanded.
Nevertheless Wyndham emerges as a major influence on Bend’Or. It was Wyndham who stepped in to rescue Bend’Or when he failed to qualify for university or the army. Wyndham encouraged Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for Southern Africa, to take the young Bend’Or to Cape Town as his aide-de-camp. Bend’Or’s letters, stored in the Grosvenor archive, offer significant insights into the attitudes held in Government House as the Second Boer War approached. They reveal Milner’s responsibility for precipitating a war for which the British were neither ready nor equipped to fight.
After the war, Bend’Or bought an estate on ex-Boer territory. The enterprise began well but its success was overtaken by politics. Material in The National Archives has been found which shows that Winston Churchill, then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, misjudged the strength of surviving Boer sentiment in southern Africa when framing policies for a post-war constitutional settlement. The Boers were successful in the election of 1907 and came to dominate the future of the new South Africa.
Material from the archive of Wyndham’s biographer, John Biggs-Davison MP, including a hitherto closed file opened for the author, reveals the extent to which Wyndham leaned to the politics of the Conservative right. Wyndham’s influence on Bend’Or meant that Bend’Or was associated with diehard politics. It was not until Bend’Or came under the influence of a stronger character, Winston Churchill, that he abandoned Wyndham’s style of politics.
Churchill and Bend’Or’s friendship stemmed from the Boer War but it was strengthened during the First World War. In spite of the mayhem, the war represented a contented period for Bend’Or. The thesis shows the extent to which Bend’Or and Churchill collaborated at the beginning of the war. Bend’Or used the opportunities afforded by his social position and wealth to progress the future of
armoured cars and the tank. Archival documents reveal the depth, and success, of Bend’Or’s involvement in the development of warfare weaponry; a topic which remained an abiding interest for him up to the Second World War.
In the 1920s and 1930s Bend’Or largely based himself abroad, for which he was widely criticized. My research suggests that the reason he abandoned London Society was because he had been ostracized by the King from Court. In 1920 Bend’Or resigned as Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire. The apparent reason for Bend’Or’s resignation was his recent divorce from his first wife. My research in the Royal Archives reveals that the real reason was George V’s insistence on pre-war standards and behaviours being maintained amongst his courtiers, especially from a duke such as Westminster, whose family was close to the throne. Exclusion from Court was a public humiliation from which Bend’Or found it hard to recover, and it left him rudderless as a duke.
If Bend’Or found himself at odds with the King, he was also uncomfortable in the emancipated post-1918 society. Once hailed a war hero, Bend’Or became ten years later the butt of societal re-evaluation. His difficulties were compounded by his third marriage, to a woman twenty-three years younger than him. The marriage broke down largely because of generational differences. The Duchess’s subsequent memoir did much to destroy Bend’Or’s reputation.
It is well known that before the Second World War Bend’Or was an appeaser. What has not been explained in previous biographies is why. Although Bend’Or may have had opinions which would be unacceptable today, I argue that his Nazist sympathies have been exaggerated by his critics. The thesis concludes that his attitudes were culturally ignorant rather than politically menacing.
Bend’Or’s friendship with Neville Chamberlain has never been acknowledged by historians. Chamberlain’s letters to his sisters, in the Cadbury Research Library, Birmingham, confirm that each August during 1937–1939 Neville Chamberlain holidayed with Bend’Or in Scotland. It was personal loyalty to Neville Chamberlain that made Bend’Or support Chamberlain’s politics. In 1940, once it became
apparent that appeasement would not restrain Hitler, Bend’Or returned to Churchill’s fold
FDI and Economic Growth in the GCC: Does the Oil Sector Matter?
Get PDFThis paper investigates the impact of economic sectors’ foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth by validating the resource curse hypothesis in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Applying OLS (Fixed and Random effects), Instrumental Variables (IV) and
Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML) estimations, empirical results indicate that
resource-FDI inflows hinder economic growth in the GCC economies, while non-resource FDI has an insignificant effect on growth. Moreover, the total Greenfield FDI inflows deter economic growth in GCC economies. These results give evidence on the crowding-out effect
of resource-FDI. This paper opens new insights for policymakers in designing a comprehensive policy on direct FDI inflows (resource and non-resource) to stimulate growth for attaining sustainable economic development for the long run
Mary Shelley in Tuscany - Of Light and Electrics
No full textFrom Bagni di Lucca, where residing with husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley wrote lyrically in her description of the Tuscan light. Yet light intruded into her Tuscany writing in less benign ways. Frankenstein, Shelley’s most acclaimed novel, was sketched in Geneva in its earliest drafts, the first complete revision undertaken in England, in March, 1817. Yet some ten years later, her writing found a source of energy that drew her further into the mind of Frankenstein, her scientific exploration of a doctor determined to play God. Tuscany generated in Mary Shelley a renewed intellectual energy, for the electrical storms that came with the climate stirred the rhythm of her writing. Her cerebral exploration centred in the power that lay in lightning and its aftermath, as it shot through the skies and ended in thunderclaps auguring danger. Against the backdrop of a Tuscan landscape Shelley, a woman steeped in scientific exploration, shaped her imaginary ogre, a creation never given a name but made by the man Frankenstein. Energised by clapping thunder, skies shattered by the light that lit the hills, the novel was reworked and rewritten, to be published anew. This second version of the fiction, Frankenstein, was fashioned in a Tuscan terrain, generating an English novel once more set to set the world alight
The Non-Linear Effects of Energy Efficiency Gains on the Incidence of Energy Poverty
Get PDFEnergy poverty is defined as insufficient access to modern energy resources which are relatively cleaner than the traditionally utilized ones. In this regard, the incidence of energy poverty is particularly higher in the cases of the developing countries across the globe. Accordingly, the
chronic energy poverty issues in the developing countries within Sub‐Saharan Africa have become a major socioeconomic and environmental concern for the associated governments. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the effects of energy efficiency gains and shocks to other key macroeconomic
factors on energy poverty in the context of selected Sub‐Saharan African nations. In this study, we measure energy poverty in terms of the lack of access to clean cooking fuels and technologies for the population of the selected Sub‐Saharan African countries. The overall findings from the common correlated effects panel regression analysis reveal that energy efficiency gains initially aggravate the energy poverty situation but improve it later on; consequently, a U‐shaped relationship between energy efficiency and access to clean cooking fuels and technologies is evidenced. Besides, the predicted threshold levels of energy efficiency are observed to be higher than the average energy efficiency level of the Sub‐Saharan African nations. Moreover, the results also portray that economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, foreign direct investment inflows, and international trade are effective in reducing energy poverty. Conversely, financial development is witnessed to be ineffective in influencing the incidence of energy poverty in this region