What's digital about digital heritage ?

Scientific Conference (2023, September 07)

Digital heritage acquires a definition and an international status in 2003 when a charter is devoted to it by UNESCO. Whether digitised or born-digital, digital heritage has become an entire area of the ... [more ▼]

Digital heritage acquires a definition and an international status in 2003 when a charter is devoted to it by UNESCO. Whether digitised or born-digital, digital heritage has become an entire area of the conservation work of heritage institutions, particularly large national libraries, faced with the need to preserve an increasing volume of so-called born-digital documents. Work has gone on since the 1990s to digitize documents, press content and paper books. Digital heritage didn’t wait until 2003 to gain momentum. There have been pioneering and original initiatives, like Michael Hart’s Gutenberg project , launched in the 1970s, and the creation of the Internet Archive foundation in 1996. There is also a place dedicated to digital materials in several technical museums, or even dedicated museums that emerged, like the Mountain View Computer History Museum , the origin of which dates to the 1970s. Heritagisation approaches are clearly different, depending on whether the aim is to conserve hardware or software, move from analogue content to digital content, or collect born-digital content. The field of digital heritage is incredibly heterogeneous, as are the players and their goals. Furthermore, while the digitization work is sometimes entrusted originally to the same department within heritage institutions, under a general label dedicated to digital, they involve digital and heritage concepts that are not necessarily based on the same paradigms, and that involve not only different selection and curation processes, but different technical processes too. Digital heritage can also be hybrid, combining physical and digital aspects. An example of this is the preservation of video game heritage, which might involve conservation of the physical elements, arcade terminals, consoles and other devices, but also the controller boxes, dedicated magazines and the sometimes printed documentation associated with the games and devices. This turn towards digital heritagisation allows us, on the one hand, to think about the value and the meaning given to the technical objects and to computerised and digital content and, on the other, the changes affecting the players, business, and perimeters of heritagisation, as well as the user experience faced with this constantly growing heritage. This presentation focuses first on the digital characteristics of this heritage and its diversity, then on the conservation approaches, the processes at play, and the digital enrichments to which this heritage might be subject (OCR processing, metadata, etc.), in order to better understand this intertwinement of human preservation and curation and technical and digital processes. [less ▲]

Convergence Analysis of Decentralized ASGD

E-print/Working paper (2023)

Over the last decades, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) has been intensively studied by the Machine Learning community. Despite its versatility and excellent performance, the optimization of large models ... [more ▼]

Over the last decades, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) has been intensively studied by the Machine Learning community. Despite its versatility and excellent performance, the optimization of large models via SGD still is a time-consuming task. To reduce training time, it is common to distribute the training process across multiple devices. Recently, it has been shown that the convergence of asynchronous SGD (ASGD) will always be faster than mini-batch SGD. However, despite these improvements in the theoretical bounds, most ASGD convergence-rate proofs still rely on a centralized parameter server, which is prone to become a bottleneck when scaling out the gradient computations across many distributed processes. In this paper, we present a novel convergence-rate analysis for decentralized and asynchronous SGD (DASGD) which does not require partial synchronization among nodes nor restrictive network topologies. Specifically, we provide a bound of O(σ ɛ⁻²) + O(Q S_avg ɛ⁻³ᐟ²)+ O(S_avg ɛ⁻¹)) for the convergence rate of DASGD, where S_avg is the average staleness between models, Q is a constant that bounds the norm of the gradients, and ɛ is a (small) error that is allowed within the bound. Furthermore, when gradients are not bounded, we prove the convergence rate of DASGD to be O(σ ɛ⁻²) + O(√(Ŝ_avg Ŝ_max) ɛ⁻¹)), with Ŝ_max and Ŝ_avg representing a loose version of the average and maximum staleness, respectively. Our convergence proof holds for a fixed stepsize and any non-convex, homogeneous, and L-smooth objective function. We anticipate that our results will be of high relevance for the adoption of DASGD by a broad community of researchers and developers. [less ▲]

The educational process of Ukrainian university students following the full-scale Russian invasion

in London Review of Education (2023), 21(1),

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its second year. The invasion disrupted higher education institutions across the country and forced both staff and ... [more ▼]

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its second year. The invasion disrupted higher education institutions across the country and forced both staff and students to adapt to the new reality. This article focuses on the experiences of university students to understand how their educational process was impacted by the invasion. The research data comprise written testimonies from 81 students at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in three themes: organisation of studies by the university; self-organisation of studies; and personal experiences. The article concludes that the invasion shifted the educational process online; however, students are often prevented from accessing the virtual classrooms due to constant air raids, power outages and connectivity issues with the internet, thus leading students towards more self-studying. [less ▲]

Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students in Luxembourg

E-print/Working paper (2023)

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students face victimization in multiple contexts, including the educational context. Here, teachers can serve as an important resource for LGB students. However, teachers ... [more ▼]

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students face victimization in multiple contexts, including the educational context. Here, teachers can serve as an important resource for LGB students. However, teachers who are prejudiced against students from sexual minorities might not be able to fulfill this role. Accordingly, it is important to find out more about teachers' attitudes and their correlates, as such information can provide starting points for sensitization interventions in teacher education programs, which have the potential to improve the situation of LGB students in the school setting. In the present preregistered questionnaire study, we investigated the attitudes of 138 preservice teachers from the University of Luxembourg toward LGB students and tried to identify predictors of teachers’ attitudes. Results suggested that Luxembourgish preservice teachers hold mostly positive attitudes toward LGB students. Using correlation and multiple regression analyses, we identified the frequency of participants’ contact with LGB people in family or friend networks, hypergendering tendencies, sexual orientation, and religiosity as reliable predictors of attitudes toward LGB students. Age, gender, and right-wing conservatism did not reliably predict preservice teachers’ attitudes in the regression models. Our findings thus offer support for intergroup contact theory and have implications for teacher education in Luxembourg. [less ▲]

Zwischen Autonomie und Überbehütung: Determinanten der Beziehungsqualität junger Erwachsener mit ihren Eltern.

Scientific Conference (2023, September 05)

Die Lebensphase der emerging adults ist durch große Varianz des Zeitpunkts der Bewältigung verschiedener Entwicklungsaufgaben geprägt. Die Phase des Erwachsenwerdens hat sich insbesondere in der ... [more ▼]

Die Lebensphase der emerging adults ist durch große Varianz des Zeitpunkts der Bewältigung verschiedener Entwicklungsaufgaben geprägt. Die Phase des Erwachsenwerdens hat sich insbesondere in der westlichen Welt in Folge wirtschaftlicher Veränderungen und komplexen Ausbildungsstrukturen verlängert. Dabei kann der elterliche Erziehungsstil das Streben nach Autonomie fördern oder auch einschränken. Helicopter parenting (HP) beschreibt die elterliche Überinvolviertheit. In dieser Lebensphase wird die Beziehung zu den Eltern, deren Leistungen oder Opfer neu bewertet (sense of indebtedness, SIP, Kang et al., 2010). Bisher wurde SIP hauptsächlich bei Eltern-Kind-Beziehungen mit Migrationshintergrund eingesetzt. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde die deutsche Version der SIP-Skala (Pfammater & Schwarz, 2022) an die Leistungen der Eltern allgemein, d.h. ohne Migrationshintergrund, angepasst. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es die Ausprägung von SIP und die Erfahrung von überinvolvierter Elternschaft (HP- Skala Wilhelm et al. (2014) mit vier Dimensionen: Überinvolviertheit, Autonomieeinschränkung, Überbehütung und unangebrachte Schuldzuweisung) unter emerging adults zu testen und deren Einfluss auf die Beziehungsqualität zu den Eltern sowie die die Rolle der Selbstwahrnehmung als Jugendliche bzw. Erwachsene zu untersuchen. In einer Onlinestudie wurden dazu N=253 deutschsprachige Erwachsene (M=23.06 Jahre; SD=2.55; 55% weibliche Teilnehmerinnen) quantitativ befragt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Beziehung zu den Eltern von der überwiegenden Mehrheit als gut bis sehr gut eingeschätzt wird. Eine schlechtere Beziehung spiegelt sich auch in niedrigeren SIP-Werten wider und bezüglich HP in höherer Autonomieeinschränkung und niedrigerer Überinvolviertheit. Die Selbstwahrnehmung hat keinen Einfluss auf SIP, aber auf HP. Unter theoretischer Einbettung erfolgt eine differenzierte Diskussion der Ergebnisse. [less ▲]

L'introduction de la transformation transfrontalière en droit français

in Bulletin Joly Sociétés (2023), BJS202i5

Children’s agentic behaviour in literacy practices in crèches in Luxembourg

Scientific Conference (2023, September 01)

Agentic behaviour of young children has been researched in relation to language policies and language learning (Schwartz et al., 2021) but not in literacy practices. The present paper examines children’s ... [more ▼]

Agentic behaviour of young children has been researched in relation to language policies and language learning (Schwartz et al., 2021) but not in literacy practices. The present paper examines children’s participation in multilingual literacy activities in two crèches in Luxembourg and their agentic behaviour. A previous study has shown that three-year-olds displayed language-based agency and interpretively reproduced translanguaging practices (Kirsch & Mortini, 2021). According to language socialization theories, children actively participate in culture-specific events and appropriate norms, values, and interaction patterns, which they reproduce (Corsaro, 2005; 2018). These interpretive reproductions testify to children’s agentic behaviour. The data of the present qualitative longitudinal study include thick descriptions and video recordings of literacy activities. All interactions were analyzed with conversation analysis (Seedhouse, 2007). To examine, children’s agentic behaviour, we compared their interactions in planned literacy activities to those with peers. Prior to the data collection, the educators and the parents gave informed consent. During the data collection, we maintained the children’s assent by ensuring that they felt comfortable and only observed them in naturally occurring situations with educators. The findings reveal three types of agentic behaviour: children replicated strategies, creatively reproduced interaction practices and literacy practices, and opened up new spaces for developing literacies in home languages. The study has implications for educators as it shows them the ways in which children make meaning of their literacy activities. It is a reminder of the importance of being a good role model, a careful observer and listener, and a reflective practitioner. [less ▲]

Determination of overall factor for the application of the General Method based on plastic and strain-limited N-M interaction for composite compression members

Scientific Conference (2023, September)

The design of composite compression members can be realized based on the Gen-eral Method in accordance with Eurocode 4. This method represents a more sophis-ticated design based on advanced numerical ... [more ▼]

The design of composite compression members can be realized based on the Gen-eral Method in accordance with Eurocode 4. This method represents a more sophis-ticated design based on advanced numerical analysis. It may be applied for any type of composite column. The General Method contains two steps; the first step is de-fined as the global nonlinear finite element analysis (GMNIA) accounting for all ge-ometrical and physical nonlinear effect and considering geometrical and structural imperfection; while the second step represents the analysis on the cross-section level, by N-M interaction diagram to determine the overall safety factor 𝛾0. EN1994-1-1 requires the N-M-Interaction based on the plastic resistance. However, often the General Method is provided for those section, where the plastic resistance is not representing the real behavior. Therefore, the question is discussed why the N-M-Interaction should not be developed based on the strain-limited resistance consid-ering the approaches for concrete stress-strain curve in accordance with EN 1992-1-1 and for structural steel in accordance with prEN1993-1-14. In this paper, the application of general method is investigated for different type of composite columns with N-M interaction diagram evaluated with plastic and strain-limited resistance. Results are compared and discussed in terms of overall safety factor 𝛾0. Conclusions are provided for the further development of the General Method in Eurocode 4. [less ▲]

Comparing Pre-Training Schemes for Luxembourgish BERT Models

in Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Natural Language Processing (KONVENS 2023) (2023, September)

Despite the widespread use of pre-trained models in NLP, well-performing pre-trained models for low-resource languages are scarce. To address this issue, we propose two novel BERT models for the ... [more ▼]

Despite the widespread use of pre-trained models in NLP, well-performing pre-trained models for low-resource languages are scarce. To address this issue, we propose two novel BERT models for the Luxembourgish language that improve on the state of the art. We also present an empirical study on both the performance and robustness of the investigated BERT models. We compare the models on a set of downstream NLP tasks and evaluate their robustness against different types of data perturbations. Additionally, we provide novel datasets to evaluate the performance of Luxembourgish language models. Our findings reveal that pre-training a pre-loaded model has a positive effect on both the performance and robustness of fine-tuned models and that using the German GottBERT model yields a higher performance while the multilingual mBERT results in a more robust model. This study provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners working with low-resource languages and highlights the importance of considering pre-training strategies when building language models. [less ▲]

Pour une approche hydrocritique du genre épique : Les Lusiades de Camões comme méta-épopée de l’eau

in Roelens, Nathalie; Erchadi, Armand; MacLeod (Eds.) et al Water and Sea in Word and Image / L'Eau et la mer dans les textes et les images (2023, August 31)