Why are kesterite solar cells not 20% efficient?

in Thin Solid Films (2013)

Why are you Silent? - Towards Responsiveness in Chatbots

in Avec le Temps! Time, Tempo, and Turns in Human-Computer Interaction". Workshop at CHI 2013, Paris, France (2013)

In this position paper we consider temporal phenomena in interaction with text-based conversational agents. In particular, we focus on two dimensions of time in instant messaging dialogues: responsiveness ... [more ▼]

In this position paper we consider temporal phenomena in interaction with text-based conversational agents. In particular, we focus on two dimensions of time in instant messaging dialogues: responsiveness as a measure for interaction placed in time, and interaction management performed by interaction participants caused by partner's exceeding of the maximum expected responsiveness. [less ▲]

Why Challenge the Ivory Tower? New Evidence on the Basicness of Academic Patents

in Kyklos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaften (2009)

While often presumed in academic literature and policy discussions there is little empirical evidence showing that academic patents protectmore basic inventions than corporate patents. This study provides ... [more ▼]

While often presumed in academic literature and policy discussions there is little empirical evidence showing that academic patents protectmore basic inventions than corporate patents. This study provides new evidence on the basicness of academic patents using German professor patents linked to patent opposition data from the European Patent Office (EPO). Patent oppositions are the most important mechanism by which the validity of patents filed at the EPO can be challenged. Controlling for patent value, asymmetric information and diverging expectations between the opposition parties, the likelihood of a potentially litigious situation and the relative costs of opposition versus settlement, we find that academic patents are opposed less frequently than a control group of corporate patents.This suggests that academic patents cover rather basic inventions with a low immediate commercial value not threatening current returns of potential plaintiffs. The effect is weaker for academic patents filed in collaboration with the business sector, which suggests that those patents are evaluated as more applied by owners of potentially rival technologies. [less ▲]

Why do central bank intervene secretly? Preliminary evidence from the BoJ

in Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (2006), 17(3), 291-306

This paper empirically investigates the main determinants of secret interventions in the foreign exchange (FX) market. Using the recent experience of the Bank of Japan, we estimate a model that explains ... [more ▼]

This paper empirically investigates the main determinants of secret interventions in the foreign exchange (FX) market. Using the recent experience of the Bank of Japan, we estimate a model that explains the share of secret to reported interventions in the FX market. Two sets of determinants are clearly identified: the first is related to the probability of detection of the central bank orders by market participants; the second to the central bank’s internal decision to opt for secrecy. Our estimations support the arguments of current microstructure theories that rationalize the use of secret interventions. [less ▲]

Why do Competition Authorities need Artificial Intelligence?

in Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies (2022, December), 15(26), 33-55

Recent technological developments are transforming the way antitrust is enforced as well as the way market players are infringing competition law. As a result, enforcers are starting to equip themselves ... [more ▼]

Recent technological developments are transforming the way antitrust is enforced as well as the way market players are infringing competition law. As a result, enforcers are starting to equip themselves with sophisticated digital investigation tools. This paper explores this interest in building an Artificial Intelligence (AI) arsenal for the fight against algorithmic infringements. What are the key factors motivating regulators to develop their own technological tools to enforce competition law? Building on interviews with a number of competition authorities, this paper finds that changes in digital markets, the need for enforcers to reverse- engineer companies’ algorithms in order to better understand their implications for competition law, the need to enhance efficiency and keep pace with the fast evolution of the digital economy, and, finally, the decrease in leniency applications, are all reasons for which competition authorities should strive for more innovative and alternative means to boost their ex officio investigations. [less ▲]

Why do historians collect new sources? War Experiences in Luxembourg. The Second World War and Today

Speeches/Talks (2023)

The military offensive launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February 2022 and the ensuing war on Ukrainian territory have resulted in immense human suffering, a ... [more ▼]

The military offensive launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February 2022 and the ensuing war on Ukrainian territory have resulted in immense human suffering, a humanitarian tragedy and incalculable material damage. The violation of a country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty – an act in clear breach of the United Nations Charter – has shattered the shared framework of values and principles fostered by multilateralism after the Second World War in the hope of achieving world peace, while leading to an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity for Ukraine and the plight of its people from Western democracies and European and international organisations, including NATO, the UN, the European Union and the Council of Europe, and their Member States and private initiatives. As contemporary history is turned on its head, historians, driven by the duty of memory, are stepping up to explain the origins of the conflict, identify the various players, provide an objective analysis of the consequences, record the memories of eyewitnesses and victims – with oral history proving a precious tool –, preserve historical sources and, above all, reflect on the role that intellectual effort can play in paving the way for a return to peace in the new world order taking shape before our eyes. [less ▲]

Why do String Players Perform Easier per Memory than Wind Music Players? – Testing Instrumentalist Students’ Attention Levels During Music Reading

in Molnár, Edit Katalin; Dancs, Katinka (Eds.) 17thConference on Educational Assessment (2019, April 13)

Developing music reading skills is considered a central part of music education. The knowledge of musical notation is essential to participate in orchestras or in choral ensembles. In musical practice ... [more ▼]

Developing music reading skills is considered a central part of music education. The knowledge of musical notation is essential to participate in orchestras or in choral ensembles. In musical practice, pianists who play as soloists with an orchestra do notneed written support as opposed to brass instrument soloists. Until now, no research has been conducted to discoverthe reasons why pianists and string players play easier by heart than brass instrument players.Music related activities involve numerous psychological processes, including perception and rapid processing of audio stimuli, attention and auditory, sensory and visual memory activation. Students with working memory impairments have difficulties with concentration as well as with organizing and monitoring the quality of their own work (Alloway et al., 2009).If the attention level is normal or high, the student is in an appropriate state for learning. It has been shown that participants with high working memory capacity perform significantly better on a variety of attention tasks (Fougnie, 2008).Attention supports the development of emerging reading skills by helping students regulate the cognitive demands inherently part of learning (Sáez et al., 2011).Thisstudy aims to test instrumentalist students’ attention and mediation levels during music reading by means of NeuroSky’s MindWave EEG device that translates brainwaves into digital information and beams it wirelessly to acomputer. We investigated 22right-handed wind instrumentalists, 12-14 years of age, and compared them with 21 violin players,matched for age and grade level. Students were asked to play an eight-bar composition bySzilvay. We analyzed attention and mediation levels, as well as alpha, beta and gamma band oscillatory responses to the musical piece during reading. The results of the data analysis were evaluated using e-Sense Metric. According to this metric, attention and meditation data arescaled between 1 and 100. The findings ofthe study revealed that the average attention level of the violin players was slightly highat61.53;while that of the wind players was 39.98, that is,slightly low. A significant difference was found between the averages of attention levelsbetween the string and the wind players (t=2.656, p=.026).With the use of EEG, the appearance of fatiguecan be detectedand the concentration levelscan be differentiatedfor the same exercise for different pupils. The results help us to improve instructionalmethods, and can also help us to reveal the processesof attention and mediation duringthe students’ music reading. Further research can involve the replication of the studywith pianists,comparing them with string players and wind music players. In an even more refined desing, a replication study could be carried out to compare pianists and brass instrument players. These further studies can serve as a basis for developing training programs of music reading comprehension for different instrumentalists. [less ▲]

Why do temporal generalization gradients change when people make decisions as quickly as possible?

in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2011), 64(8), 1646-1664

Three experiments investigated temporal generalization performance under conditions in which participants were instructed to make their decisions as quickly as possible (speed), or were allowed to take ... [more ▼]

Three experiments investigated temporal generalization performance under conditions in which participants were instructed to make their decisions as quickly as possible (speed), or were allowed to take their time (accuracy). A previous study (Klapproth & Müller, 2008) had shown that under speeded conditions people were more likely to confuse durations shorter than the standard with the standard than in the accuracy conditions, and a possible explanation of this result is that longer stimulus durations are "truncated" (i.e., people make a judgement about them before they have terminated, thereby shortening their effective duration) and that these truncated durations affect the standard used for the task. Experiment 1 investigated performance under speed and accuracy conditions when comparison durations were close to the standard or further away. No performance difference was found as a function of stimulus spacing, even though responses occurred on average before the longest durations had terminated, but this lack of effect was attributed to "task difficulty" effects changing decision thresholds. In Experiment 2, the standard duration was either the longest or the shortest duration in the comparison set, and differences between speed and accuracy groups occurred only when the comparisons were longer than the standard, supporting the "truncation" hypothesis. A third experiment showed that differences between speed and accuracy groups only occurred if some memory of the standard that was valid for more than one trial was used. In general, the results suggest that the generalization gradient shifts in speeded conditions occur because of truncation of longer comparison durations, which influences the effective standard used for the task. [less ▲]

Why do we make Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells non-stoichiometric?

in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells (2013)

Why do we not care for statelessness as we care for asylum?

Presentation (2023, March 01)

Presenting the different legal frameworks between international protection and statelessness and possible reasons on why statelessness does not receive the same level of attention.