1,720,982 research outputs found

    A Distributed and Probabilistic Concurrent Constraint Programming Language

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    We present a version of the CCP paradigm, which is both distributed and probabilistic. We consider networks with a fixed number of nodes, each of them possessing a local and independent constraint store. While locally the computations evolve asynchronously, following the usual rules of (probabilistic) CCP, the communications among different nodes are synchronous. There are channels, and through them different objects can be exchanged: constraints, agents and channel themselves. In addition, all this activities are embedded in a probabilistic scheme based on a discrete model of time, both locally and globally. Finally we enhance the language with the capability of performing an automatic remote synchronization of variables belonging to different constraint stores

    Reversible Combinatory Logic

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    The lambda-calculus is destructive: its main computational mechanism, beta reduction, destroys the redex, which makes replaying the computational steps impossible. Combinatory logic is a variant of the lambda-calculus that maintains irreversibility. Recently, reversible computational models have been studied mainly in the context of quantum computation, as (without measurements) quantum physics is inherently reversible. However, reversibility also fundamentally changes the semantical framework in which classical computation has to be investigated. We describe an implementation of classical combinatory logic in a reversible calculus for which we present an algebraic model based on a generalisation of the notion of a group

    Probabilistic timing covert channels: to close or not to close?

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    We develop a new notion of security against timing attacks where the attacker is able to simultaneously observe the execution time of a program and the probability of the values of low variables. We then propose an algorithm which computes an estimate of the security of a program with respect to this notion in terms of timing leakage and show how to use this estimate for cost optimization

    Relational analysis and precision via probabilistic abstract interpretation

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    Within the context of a quantitative generalisation of the well established framework of Abstract Interpretation – i.e. Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation – we investigate a quantitative notion of precision which allows us to compare analyses on the basis of their expected exactness for a given program. We illustrate this approach by considering various types of numerical abstractions of the values of variables for independent analysis as well as weakly and fully relational analysis. We utilise for this a linear operator semantics of a simple imperative programming language. In this setting, fully relational dependencies are realised via the tensor product. Independent analyses and weakly relational analyses are realised as abstractions of the fully relational analysis

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Two Formal Approaches for Approximating Noninterference Properties

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    The formalisation of security properties for computer systems raises the problem of overcoming also in a formal setting the classical view according to which confidentiality is an absolute property stating the complete absence of any unauthorised disclosure of information. In this paper, we present two formal models in which the notion of noninterference, which is at the basis of a large variety of security properties defined in the recent literature, is approximated. To this aim, the definition of indistinguishability of process behaviour is replaced by a similarity notion, which introduces a quantitative measure ε of the behavioural difference among processes. The first model relies on a programming paradigm called Probabilistic Concurrent Constraint Programming, while the second one is presented in the setting of a probabilistic process algebra. In both models, appropriate notions of distance provide information (the ε) on the security level of the system at hand, in terms of the capability of an external observer of identifying illegal interferences

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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