Algorithmic decision-making and similar types of artificial intelligence (AI) may lead to improvements in all sectors of society, but can also have discriminatory effects. While current non-discrimination law offers people some protection, algorithmic decision-making presents the law with several challenges. For instance, algorithms can generate new categories of people based on seemingly innocuous characteristics, such as web browser preference or apartment number, or more complicated categories combining many data points. Such new types of differentiation could evade non-discrimination law, as browser type and house number are not protected characteristics, but such differentiation could still be unfair, for instance if it reinforces social inequality. This paper explores which system of non-discrimination law can best be applied to algorithmic decision-making, considering that algorithms can differentiate on the basis of characteristics that do not correlate with protected grounds of discrimination such as ethnicity or gender. The paper analyses the current loopholes in the protection offered by non-discrimination law and explores the best way for lawmakers to approach algorithmic differentiation. While we focus on Europe, the conceptual and theoretical focus of the paper can make it useful for scholars and policymakers from other regions too, as they encounter similar problems with algorithmic decision-making.
Computer science research sometimes brushes with the law, from red-team exercises that probe the boundaries of authentication mechanisms, to AI research processing copyrighted material, to platform research measuring the behavior of algorithms and users. U.S.-based computer security research is no stranger to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in a relationship that is still evolving through case law, research practices, changing policies, and legislation. Amid the landscape computer scientists, lawyers, and policymakers have learned to navigate, anti-fraud laws are a surprisingly under-examined challenge for computer science research. Fraud brings separate issues that are not addressed by the methods for navigating CFAA, DMCA, and Terms of Service that are more familiar in the computer security literature. Although anti-fraud laws have been discussed to a limited extent in older research on phishing attacks, modern computer science researchers are left with little guidance when it comes to navigating issues of deception outside the context of pure laboratory research. In this paper, we analyze and taxonomize the anti-fraud and deception issues that arise in several areas of computer science research. We find that, despite the lack of attention to these issues in the legal and computer science literature, issues of misrepresented identity or false information that could implicate anti-fraud laws are actually relevant to many methodologies used in computer science research, including penetration testing, web scraping, user studies, sock puppets, social engineering, auditing AI or socio-technical systems, and attacks on artificial intelligence. We especially highlight the importance of anti-fraud laws in two research fields of great policy importance: attacking or auditing AI systems, and research involving legal identification.
On a centennial timescale, solar activity was quantified based on records of instrumental sunspot observations. This article briefly discusses several aspects of the recent archival investigations of historical sunspot records in the 17th to 18th centuries. This article also reviews the recent updates for the active day fraction and positions of the reported sunspot groups of the Maunder Minimum to show their significance within the observational history. These archival investigations serve as base datasets for reconstructing solar activity.
The seas have been the scene of wars between major naval powers at different period of history. One of the most important results of these wars was the birth of maritime law. Over time, the demands of states regarding the use of the seas increased. As a result of such developments, the UNCLOS emerged in 1982 as a result of the conferences on the law of the sea. As a result of the expansion of the areas of activity in the seas and the increasing energy needs in the world, the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean, as in other strategic seas, has started to increase gradually. This situation has made the issue of the delimitation on the maritime areas in the region important and in this study, the relations between two important states of the region, Turkey and Egypt, are discussed in the context of maritime jurisdiction areas. The aim of the study is to provide an informative perspective and contribute to the determination of the suitable road map to be followed pro-actively in order to achieve results based on the equitable principles within the framework of the rights and interests of the two states. In the study, in which the content analysis method is used, it is predicted that the period in which political relationsbetween the states are re-established and open-door diplomacy is carried out will continue in a positive direction.
Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie uprawnień kanclerza Francji w czasach nowożytnych. Był to jeden z najważniejszych urzędników francuskiej monarchii. Miał duży zakres władzy, cieszył się prestiżem i przywilejami. Kierował pracą kancelarii królewskiej i nadzorował pieczętowanie dokumentów. Wykonywał funkcje ministra sprawiedliwości. Był zwierzchnikiem sądów i sędziów, a także głównym inspiratorem ustawodawstwa królewskiego. Zasiadał w radach królewskich. Sprawował nadzór nad instytucjami edukacyjnymi i naukowymi – kolegiami, uniwersytetami i akademiami. Odpowiadał za cenzurę prewencyjną. W niektórych okresach powierzano mu również obowiązki związane z dyplomacją, bezpieczeństwem państwa oraz polityką finansową. W tekście pokazano nie tylko jego prawa i przywileje, ale także ograniczenia, z którymi musiał się mierzyć. Artykuł oparty jest na literaturze i źródłach w języku francuskim. Pokazuje ewolucję urzędu od początku epoki nowożytnej aż do rewolucji francuskiej, kiedy zdecydowano o jego likwidacji.
History (General) and history of Europe, History of Law
Magnetic fields may play a crucial role in setting the initial conditions of massive star and star cluster formation. To investigate this, we report SOFIA-HAWC+ $214\:μ$m observations of polarized thermal dust emission and high-resolution GBT-Argus C$^{18}$O(1-0) observations toward the massive Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G28.37+0.07. Considering the local dispersion of $B$-field orientations, we produce a map of $B$-field strength of the IRDC, which exhibits values between $\sim0.03 - 1\:$mG based on a refined Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (r-DCF) method proposed by Skalidis \& Tassis. Comparing to a map of inferred density, the IRDC exhibits a $B-n$ relation with a power law index of $0.51\pm0.02$, which is consistent with a scenario of magnetically-regulated anisotropic collapse. Consideration of the mass-to-flux ratio map indicates that magnetic fields are dynamically important in most regions of the IRDC. A virial analysis of a sample of massive, dense cores in the IRDC, including evaluation of magnetic and kinetic internal and surface terms, indicates consistency with virial equilibrium, sub-Alfvénic conditions and a dominant role for $B-$fields in regulating collapse. A clear alignment of magnetic field morphology with direction of steepest column density gradient is also detected. However, there is no preferred orientation of protostellar outflow directions with the $B-$field. Overall, these results indicate that magnetic fields play a crucial role in regulating massive star and star cluster formation and so need to be accounted for in theoretical models of these processes.
This article is about how international law, and specifically its history, is taught. The article critiques the pedagogy in this area by analysis of textbooks, and then considers the contexts in which international legal texts are written, taught and read. In light of this we suggest how to teach the history of international law, and international law in general, better.
Cybersecurity threats affect all aspects of society; critical infrastructures (such as networks, corporate systems, water supply systems, and intelligent transportation systems) are especially prone to attacks and can have tangible negative consequences on society. However, these critical cyber systems are generally governed by multiple jurisdictions, for instance the Metro in the Washington, D.C. area is managed by the states of Virginia and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia (DC) through Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Additionally, the water treatment infrastructure managed by DC Water consists of waste water input from Fairfax and Arlington counties, and the district (i.e. DC). Additionally, cyber attacks usually launch from unknown sources, through unknown switches and servers, and end up at the destination without much knowledge on their source or path. Certain infrastructures are shared amongst multiple countries, another idiosyncrasy that exacerbates the issue of governance. This law paper however, is not concerned with the general governance of these infrastructures, rather with the ambiguity in the relevant laws or doctrines about which authority would prevail in the context of a cyber threat or a cyber-attack, with a focus on federal vs. state issues, international law involvement, federal preemption, technical aspects that could affect lawmaking, and conflicting responsibilities in cases of cyber crime. A legal analysis of previous cases is presented, as well as an extended discussion addressing different sides of the argument.
Phosphorus (P) is considered to be one of the key elements for life, making it an important element to look for in the abundance analysis of spectra of stellar systems. Yet, there exists only a handful of spectroscopic studies to estimate the P abundances and investigate its trend across a range of metallicities. We have observed full HK band spectra at a spectral resolving power of R=45,000 with IGRINS instrument. Abundances are determined using SME in combination with 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. The investigated sample of stars have reliable stellar parameters estimated using optical FIES spectra (GILD; Jönsson et al. in prep.). In order to determine the P abundances from the 16482.92 Angstrom P line, we take special care of the CO($ν=7-4$) blend. We determine the C, N, O abundances from atomic carbon and a range of non-blended molecular lines (CO, CN, OH) which are aplenty in the H band region of K giant stars, assuring an appropriate modelling of the blending CO($ν=7-4$) line. We present [P/Fe] vs [Fe/H] trend for 38 K giant stars in the metallicity range of -1.2 dex $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ 0.4 dex. We find that our trend matches well with the compiled literature sample of prominently dwarf stars and limited number of giant stars. Our trend is found to be higher by $\sim$ 0.05 - 0.1 dex compared to the theoretical chemical evolution trend in Cescutti et al. 2012 resulting from core collapse supernova (type II) of massive stars with the P yields from Kobayashi et al. (2006) arbitrarily increased by a factor of 2.75. Thus the enhancement factor might need to be $\sim$ 0.05 - 0.1 dex higher to match our trend. We also find an empirically determined primary behaviour for phosphorus. Furthermore, the phosphorus abundance is found to be elevated by $\sim$ 0.6 - 0.9 dex in two metal poor s-enriched stars compared to the theoretical chemical evolution trend.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-timescale radio transients, the origins of which are predominantly extragalactic and likely involve highly magnetized compact objects. FRBs undergo multipath propagation, or scattering, from electron density fluctuations on sub-parsec scales in ionized gas along the line-of-sight. Scattering observations have located plasma structures within FRB host galaxies, probed Galactic and extragalactic turbulence, and constrained FRB redshifts. Scattering also inhibits FRB detection and biases the observed FRB population. We report the detection of scattering times from the repeating FRB 20190520B that vary by up to a factor of two or more on minutes to days-long timescales. In one notable case, the scattering time varied from $7.9\pm0.4$ ms to less than 3.1 ms ($95\%$ confidence) over 2.9 minutes at 1.45 GHz. The scattering times appear to be uncorrelated between bursts or with dispersion and rotation measure variations. Scattering variations are attributable to dynamic, inhomogeneous plasma in the circumsource medium, and analogous variations have been observed from the Crab pulsar. Under such circumstances, the frequency dependence of scattering can deviate from the typical power-law used to measure scattering. Similar variations may therefore be detectable from other FRBs, even those with inconspicuous scattering, providing a unique probe of small-scale processes within FRB environments.
A. C. Umuhire, J. Uwamahoro, K. Sasikumar Raja
et al.
Solar radio type II bursts serve as early indicators of incoming geo-effective space weather events such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In order to investigate the origin of high-frequency type II bursts (HF type II bursts), we have identified 51 of them (among 180 type II bursts from SWPC reports) that are observed by ground-based Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) spectrometers and whose upper-frequency cutoff (of either fundamental or harmonic emission) lies in between 150 MHz-450 MHz during 2010-2019. We found that 60% of HF type II bursts, whose upper-frequency cutoff $\geq$ 300 MHz originate from the western longitudes. Further, our study finds a good correlation $\sim $ 0.73 between the average shock speed derived from the radio dynamic spectra and the corresponding speed from CME data. Also, we found that analyzed HF type II bursts are associated with wide and fast CMEs located near the solar disk. In addition, we have analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of two of these high-frequency type II bursts and compared the derived from radio observations with those derived from multi-spacecraft CME observations from SOHO/LASCO and STEREO coronagraphs.
Recent event of ousting Rohingyas from Rakhine State by the Tatmadaw provoked worldwide public-and-academic interest in history and social evolution of the Rohingyas, and this is to what the article is devoted. As the existing literature presents a debate over Who are the Rohingyas?, and How legitimate is their claim over Rakhine State?, the paper reinvestigates the issues using a qualitative research method. Compiling a detailed history, the paper finds that Rohingya community developed through historically complicated processes marked by invasions and counter-invasions. The paper argues many people entered Bengal from Arakan before British brought people into Rakhine state. The Rohingyas believe Rakhine State is their ancestral homeland and they developed a sense of Ethnic Nationalism. Their right over Rakhine State is as significant as other groups. The paper concludes that the UN must pursue solution to the crisis and the government should accept the Rohingyas as it did the land or territory.
The Gibbs distribution universally characterizes states of thermal equilibrium. In order to extend the Gibbs distribution to non-equilibrium steady states, one must relate the self-information $\mathcal{I}(x) = -\log(P_\text{ss}(x))$ of microstate $x$ to measurable physical quantities. This is a central problem in non-equilibrium statistical physics. By considering open systems described by stochastic dynamics which become deterministic in the macroscopic limit, we show that changes $Δ\mathcal{I} = \mathcal{I}(x_t) - \mathcal{I}(x_0)$ in steady state self-information along deterministic trajectories can be bounded by the macroscopic entropy production $Σ$. This bound takes the form of an emergent second law $Σ+ k_b Δ\mathcal{I}\geq 0$, which contains the usual second law $Σ\geq 0$ as a corollary, and is saturated in the linear regime close to equilibrium. We thus obtain a tighter version of the second law of thermodynamics that provides a link between the deterministic relaxation of a system and the non-equilibrium fluctuations at steady state. In addition to its fundamental value, our result leads to novel methods for computing non-equilibrium distributions, providing a deterministic alternative to Gillespie simulations or spectral methods.
The article focuses on the study of the mechanisms that create nomination of wordcombinations and nomination of composites on the material of compound structured formations in flora namings. This study is relevant, because in theoretical works external (accent-graphical, distributive - va-lent, structural-morphological) properties of nominative flora wordcombinations and nominative flora composites have been considered. External onomasiological presentation of lora surroundings have been thoroughly studied. But there is internal presentation of nomination which is explained by the aspects of logic-semantic codimension and semantic volume of a defining component and a defined component in compound structured formation. Components' content of such a formation is represented in terms of logical binary oppositions of hyponyms and hyperonyms. Direct volume nomination of wordcombinations is archieved by codimension of nominative properties of their components without deinition information. On the contrary, composite nomination of plants' objects of the world is both non-direct and indirect in endocentric composites. Nominative codimension of components in en-docentric composites is achieved not only by the volume of their codimension, but also by the relevant information of the initial elements in the deinition. The irst modiied components, as a rule, are explicited by the phenomena of case semantics (non-direct nomination) and by metaphors (indirect nomination). Composite nomination in exocentric composites of lora namings is wholly indirect from nominative viewpoint. Cod-imension of implicitly expressed modiied component and basic component is achieved exclusively by the extensive relevant information of vocabulary deinition.
Law, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Raimunda Nonata Monteiro, Enaile do Espírito Santo Iadanza, Helena Maria Martins Lastres
El presente Dossier titulado Amazonia: Cultura, Educación y Memoria, es la segunda parte de la compilación de textos iniciada con el Dossier Amazonia Brasileña: ocupación y políticas socioambientales en la transición de los siglos XX al XXI. Esta edición reúne cinco artículos que discuten vivencias, imaginarios y expresiones culturales de pueblos tradicionales e indígenas. Es posible percibir visiones del mundo que expresan las especificidades y la diversidad de saberes, haceres y resistencias de grupos sociales representativos de las poblaciones amazónicas. Se describen cosmovisiones, pertenencias y representaciones sociales, así como las rupturas ocasionadas por las transformaciones impuestas por el "progreso". Los autores de este Dossier nos sumergen en la vida de comunidades y pueblos y nos proporcionan una pequeña inmersión en concepciones del mundo que forman los multiversos culturales de la Amazonia. También muestran que la Historia de la región se enseña mediante narrativas que ignoran las existencias y lugares (lugar sin lugar), generalizan y homogeneizan la Amazonia, reducida a las percepciones de los colonizadores.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
The article is devoted to the response to the Hungarian events of the autumn of 1956 in Romanian society and reveals the measures taken by the communist regime in Romania in order to neutralize the Hungarian influence on the situation in the country. As the author shows, anti-government demonstrations in Romania in the days of the Hungarian revolution, although of a local nature, posed a serious threat to the regime of the Romanian workers' party. The latent announcement of emergency state in the country, the involvement of the Interior Ministry and Ministry of Defense forces to protect law and order, a number of repressive measures, competent political work with the population, and also the adoption of important economic decisions helped the party leadership to keep the situation under control and prevent the recurrence of the Hungarian scenario in Romania. The article notes that the Hungarian revolution was one of the external factors that influenced the formation of a specific Romanian model of socialism with its more independent foreign policy and the desire to protect the country from destructive influences from the outside world.
Law, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
The article analyzes the Caucasian direction of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the post-Soviet period; the study reveals the problems faced by the country's leadership in the course of its implementation. Tehran's high interest in strengthening Iranian influence in the South Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR and the weakening of Russia's positions in the region is revealed. The sharp rivalry between Iran and Turkey for the predominant influence in the South Caucasus and the strengthening of its political and economic positions in the region are shown. The author analyzes the actions of the Iranian leadership during the armed conlict in Nagorno-Karabakh and notes the concern over the possible expansion of the conflict and the involvement of the Azerbaijani ethnic minority living in the north-west of Iran. The role of the "Azerbaijani factor" in Iran's policy in the South Caucasus is revealed; the reasons for the complex relations of the Islamic Republic with Azerbaijan, on the one hand, and its high interest in establishing close ties with Armenia, on the other hand, are given. The impact of various factors on the ambivalent position of the Iranian leadership on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conlict is analyzed. The necessity of making qualitative changes in Iran's foreign policy in the South Caucasus direction, giving its policy in the region a more balanced character is proved. At the same time, it is emphasized that the balanced foreign policy of the Iranian leadership was in the interests of the national security of the country, focused on reducing the overall level of tension in the South Caucasus region.
Law, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities