Behavioral Types in Programming Languages

This thesis proposes a novel way of performing type checking, whose results are incremental, depending on the provided local information. This new way of type checking is called co-contextual, where all context information of expressions, methods, classes, etc., is removed. Instead, we introduce corresponding structures using requirements. Standard type systems are translated to the co-contextual ones systematically using dualism as technique. Type systems play an important role to prevent execution errors from occurring during runtime. They are used to check programs statically for potential errors. Programs are type checked against a given set of rules. Depending on these rules programs are well-typed or not. The set of these rules is called typing rules. Each type rule associates types to the constructs of a program given a certain context. There can be different forms of contexts, depending on the features of the typed programming language. Functional languages use a typing context of variables and their types; object-oriented (OO) languages use additional class tables. Class tables are used for example to ensure that method and class declarations are well-typed. Type checking is performed top-down. While traversing the syntax tree of a program, typing contexts are extended with information on the expressions and their types. In case of OO, class tables are extended with clauses from class declarations, including the class members, i.e., fields, methods, or constructors. Contexts are passed through the nodes of the syntax tree in order to coordinate type checking between them. Therefore, while traversing the syntax tree top-down, the type checker creates dependencies between otherwise independent subexpressions. This way, it inhibits incrementalization and parallelization of type checking. That is, a change to a node of the syntax tree would require to redo the type check of the whole syntax tree. In this thesis a novel formulation of type systems is proposed, in order to remove dependencies between subexpressions. We propose a co-contextual formulation of typing rules that depends only on the local program constructs, e.g., expressions, methods, classes. The co-contextual typing rules have as conclusion a type and sets of requirements. That is, contexts and class tables are replaced by the dual concept of context and class table requirements. In addition, operations on contexts and class tables are replaced by new dual operations on requirements. The co-contextual type checker traverses a syntax tree bottom-up and merges context requirements of independently checked subexpressions. We describe a method for systematically constructing a co-contextual formulation of type rules from a regular context-based formulation and we show how co-contextual type rules give rise to incremental type checking. We derive co-contextual type checkers for functional and OO languages. As a representative of functional languages we consider PCF and extensions of it: records, parametric polymorphism, structural subtyping and let-polymorphism. Also, we investigate featherweight java (FJ) as the basis of OO languages and extensions of it: method overloading and generics. We build a1 co-contextual type checker for FJ enabling key features of OO languages: subtype polymorphism, nominal typing and implementation inheritance. The dualism between the co-contextual and contextual type systems preserves the correctness of the contextual calculus. That is, we prove the correctness of the co-contextual calculus via the equivalence between contextual type rules and their co-contextual formulations. We implemented an incremental type checker for PCF along with a performance evaluation showing that co-contextual type checking has performance comparable to standard context-based type checking, and incrementalization can improve performance significantly. Regarding FJ, we implemented a co-contextual type checker with incrementalization and compared its performance against javac on a number of realistic programs. Our performance evaluation shows significant speedups for the co-contextual type checker with incrementalization in comparison to javac.

In Java programming language as implemented in JDK 5.0 there appear rather advanced kinds of polymorphism, even if they are hidden under different names. The notion of polymorphism unifies many concepts present in typed programming languages, not necessary object-oriented. We briefly define some varieties of polymorphism and trace them in Java. Java shows that industrial programming languages are able to express more abstract patterns using rather involved theoretical means, hence the working programmer has to be better educated in order to understand them, recognize them in different programming languages under different names and superficial syntax, and make good use of them.

Keywords: social media ; social computing ; user behavior ; online social video ; video blogging ; vlogging ; interpersonal perception ; first impressions ; YouTube ; social attention ; personality ; first impressions These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 5781 (2013)Programme doctoral Genie electriqueFaculte des sciences et techniques de l'ingenieurInstitut de genie electrique et electroniqueLaboratoire de l'IDIAPJury: S. Susstrunk (presidente), P. Frossard, B.A. Huberman, M. Mehl Public defense: 2013-6-28 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-5781Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2013-06-19, modified on 2016-08-09

This thesis applies linguistic analysis to one of the most difficult and under-theorised problems in criminology: recidivism on parole (Weisberg, Mukamal, & Segall, 2011, p. 3). During the parole hearing, inmates’ suitability for early release is judged according to parole board members’ intuitions and impressions, not evidence-based -- or even consistent -- criteria. The forensic linguistic approach of this study examines the same inmate statements considered by parole board members, but draws quantitative speech data from these, combining cutting-edge linguistic research with sophisticated data modelling to determine whether inmates exhibiting differentiated parole outcomes (i.e., recidivism or non-recidivism) also exhibit differentiated structural linguistic choices in the parole hearing.This study is inspired by the text analysis efforts of historic criminological and social cognitive research, contemporary psychological studies, and burgeoning interdisciplinary explorations toward connections between language and behaviour. It innovates by assessing pragmatic dimensions of language in naturally-occurring, high-stakes data, and is able to go further as a result. 182 successful parole hearings for violent criminals (i.e., murder, rape and sexual assault, and/or robbery) in four American states were transcribed and coded to form a parole hearing corpus of 750,000 words. Over thirty linguistic features, identified from criminological, social-cognitive, and psychological theories of violence, were operationalised for a thorough corpus analysis. The most significant linguistic features (p < 0.05) were included in a multiple logistic regression model alongside variables commonly used by criminologists, to ensure potentially significant and interfering factors were judged together, preventing bias or omission which could otherwise invalidate results -- a serious Type I error which commonly compromises linguistic research.The result is the first evidence-based linguistic assessment of interactions between criminal recidivism and language behaviours. The findings suggest significantly greater accuracy towards parole outcome (76%) than predictive measures currently in use. Theoretically, they provide new contours to the understanding of language and behaviour. In practical terms, they indicate that evaluating linguistic choices toward potential re-offense and behavioural outcome may be justified, while affirming the importance of evidence-based grounding for those judgments (Latessa & Lovins, 2010).

Toward a Theory of Behaviour Change in Social Marketing

Cash Transfers and Child and Adolescent Development

To investigate the clinical and electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics, therapeutic response and long-term prognosis of Landau Kleffner syndrome (LKS). The clinical and EEG data of 10 children with LKS were analyzed, and therapeutic response and long-term outcome were followed up. The age of onset was from 2 to 10.5 years of age. All patients had acquired aphasia, characterized by verbal auditory agnosia. All patients had epileptic seizures. Partial motor seizures during sleep occurred in 8 patients, and other seizure type including atypical absence seizure and generalized tonic-clonic seizure were also observed. Psychological and behavioral abnormalities occurred in 9 patients. There were no abnormalities of hearing and neuro-imaging tests in all patients, and family histories were negative. All the patients had EEG abnormalities. Focal spike and waves of temporal lobe were recorded in 9 patients. Electrical status epilepticus during sleep (ESES) was observed on Video-EEG (VEEG) monitoring in 4 patients. Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) showed favorable effects on epileptic seizures, but no effects on aphasia. All patients responded to corticosteroid, and got language improved. Eight patients were followed up for long-term outcome. All patients were seizure free, while the level of language development was abnormal in 5 patients. The VEEG follow-up was conducted in 6 patients. Continuous epileptic discharges in slow sleep recurred in 2 patients after the discontinuation of steroid therapy. LKS is one of the childhood epileptic encephalopathy, and acquired aphasia and epileptic seizures are two main clinical characteristics. Aphasia is characterized by verbal auditory agnosia. Psychological and behavioral abnormalities are very common in children with LKS. Focal epileptic discharges were often located in temporal area, and usually generalized, and could be continuous during sleep. AEDs could control seizure but had no effects on aphasia. Early use of full dose corticosteroids could improve the language significantly. Long-term follow up showed that language impairments often remained, but the outcome in terms of EEG and epileptic seizure was good.

The psychopharmacological treatments of autism was started since 1950s (Aman et al., 2000). There-after behavioural theory was used for autism (Lovaas & Smith, 1989). Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) derived from the theories of behaviour developed by Watson (1913), Thorndike (1921) and Skinner (1938). The process of applying treatment that are based on the principles of learning derived from experimental psychology research to systematically change behaviuor and to demonstrate that the treatments used are responsible for the observable improvement in behaviour. ABA methods of Discrete Trial Training (DTT), Pivotal Response Training (PRT) and Functional Routine are used to increase and maintain desirable adaptive behaviours, reduce interfering maladaptive behaviours, teach new behaviours and generalize behaviours to new environments (Koegel et al., 1989; Arick & Falco, 1989; Krantz et al., 1993).ABA focuses on the reliable behaviour within relevant setting including the home, school and community. The effectiveness of ABA based treatment in autism has been well documented through 5 decades of research by using single-subject methodology and in controlled studies of comprehensive early intensive behavioural treatment programs in university and community setting (Myers & Johnson, 2007). Children who receive home based early intensive behavioural treatment (ABA) have been shown to make substantial, sustained gains in IQ/DQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior, and their outcomes have been significantly better (Sambandam & Rangaswami, 2012). The ABA strategies provide a powerful tool for enabling children with autism to meet important educational goals and special education.Behavioural theory consists of three basic tenets. The first tenet is the principles of reinforcement and punishment that are at the core of learning theory, they have been used with great success in the management of children with autism. The second tenet is the behaviours characteristic of autism; they are developmental delays result in overall improvement with ABA training. The third tenet is that children with autism could learn in constructed environments. It could address the function of specific behaviours. When modifications are made to the normal environment, children with autism have the ability to learn and be successful. The behaviour therapy is specifically concentrated on the child's environment in order to identify deficit behaviours and manages them with interventions.Recently most of the researches have concentrated on training the children's parents to serve as co-therapists in behavior modification procedures based on ABA has which shown to produce positive changes in many aspects of children with autism (Sambandam & Rangaswami, 2011). This procedures has been increasingly well documented in the behavioural literature (Koegel et al., 1978; Koegel et al., 1982; Kozloff, 1984).Aim of the study was to conduct ABA programe on 15 children with autism and to evaluate the efficacy of AB A programs for improving general development, language and adaptive behaviour. Further to compare with a matched control group of 15 children receiving treatment as usual.MethodParticipants30 children with the age range of 3 to 8 years and diagnosed based on DSM-V as autism were taken from the SRI-MD Autism Research Foundation, Puducherry. They were assigned randomly to either for intervention group (No: 15) or to the control group (No: 15). For the intervention group, the first case who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria was allotted. The next case who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria was allotted to control group. Similar process was carried out for the intervention and the control groups so as to have 15 children in each group. While intervention group underwent the total procedure of the ABA based comprehensive treatment, the control group had only routine treatment as used without any additional input. …

Understanding HIV risk and addressing barriers to testing for men who have sex with men in Australia

The speedy development of IT impacts organizational structure, task design, and the work method of employees. As these changes also affect the power and benefits of some employees, the development of IS is often deterred. The purpose of this study is to analyze the major factors influencing the political behavior of employees in information system development (ISD), and to understand the difference between MIS professionals and users. Two theories are used to create the research model: (1) The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and (2) Social Exchange Theory (SET). Many studies remind us that when people behave politically, they will plan (intend to act) before acting. However, the three stages, antecedent conditions, operating mechanisms and outcomes (Vredenburgh & Maurer, 1984; Robbins, 1992) of the political behavior process fail to reveal the intention process. As the study of political behavior in ISD explored in the context of TPB in order to understand the difference between ”MIS professionals” and ”users” is still rare, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a good vehicle for ascertaining an individual's intention with regard to political behavior. However, as there is still a lack of scholastic analyses on political behavior in ISD based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the impact of ISD factors, like personality and institute properties, should be considered. In view of this, the present study utilities two theories: TPB and SET to analyze the political behavior intention of ”MIS professionals” and ”users” in ISD, and to compare the differences between the two groups. TPB suggests that the best predictor of political behavior in ISD is determined by three basic factors: personal interest, personal perceived capabilities and social influence. The personal interest factor attitude toward political behavior, reflects the individual's intention to behave politically in ISD; the personal perceived behavioral control reflects the individual perception of political efficacy, controllability and resources that he/she can control. The social influence factor, subjective norm, refers to the individual perception of social pressure that pushes them to behave politically in the context of ISD. A person with a Machiavellian disposition, interacting with other people, always attempts to control them. Thus it is possible that the major variables in personality such as i1achiavellism till have an influence on an employee's attitude, subjective norm, perceived political behavioral control and perceived political efficacy. The SET suggests that political behavior in ISD is fundamentally a social exchange behavior. The expectations of reward either from others or from the organization determine the attitude toward an employee's political behavior in ISD. Thus the major variables in SET such as trust, commitment, common values and power might have an influence on employee attitude and subjective norm. In view of this, these variables are included in the research model. In the TPB, these results show that: (1) Attitudes only have a significant effect on MIS professionals' intention with regard to political behavior but do not have a significant effect on those of users. It is possible that MIS professionals have more IS professional Knowledge, permitting them to decide whether or not to accommodate IS by themselves. In contrast, users will not employ political behavior if they have no intensive knowledge of how to do it. Further in the ”forming coalitions” scenario, following others is more adequate than not. (2) The subjective norm, perceived political behavior control, and perceived political efficacy in ISD have significant effects on the intention of both MIS professionals and users. The subjective norm results match the findings of Robinson and Shaver (1973). In this cooperation-is-necessary scenario, players will take into consideration the opinions of important others because they need their support. The perceived political behavior control results are consistent with the studies of Renshon (1974) and Bandura (1986). Irrespective of the role played by employees in the organization, they will engage in political behavior as long as they have controllability. On the practical level of TPB, the implication that management administrators can draw from this is principally that they must understand the employees' roles in the organization and then either eradicate the climate of alliance among employees in the ISD process, or avoid the concentration of duty on individuals. If the status, power and self-interest of employees is reduced and affected by IS, then they will have the intention to behave politically in ISD. Therefore, managers should prevent this before ISD, in order to reduce the risk of ISD failure. With regard to the external factors, the results show that: (1) Machiavellism has a significant effect on both MIS professionals' and users' attitudes, subjective norms, perceived political behavior control, and perceived political efficacy in ISD. In addition, the relationship between strong Machiavellism and political behavior intention is confirmed. (2) In the SET, A. Power type: Type Ⅰ power (negative), type Ⅱ power (positive), and type Ⅳ-B power (negative) for MIS professionals have significant effects on attitude. However Type Ⅰ power and type Ⅲ power for users have a significant negative effect on attitude, with type Ⅲ power for users only having a significant negative effect on subjective norm. The types of employees' power are dynamic, and thus, there is no constant relationship between them and different kinds of political behavior in ISD. These results are inconsistent with the findings of McClelland (1975). B. Common values: This has a significant effect on the attitudes of 1IS professionals only in ISD. C. Commitment: This has a significant effect on the subjective norms of MIS professionals only in ISD. D. Trust: This has significant effects on the attitudes of MIS professionals and the subjective norms of users. On the practical level, among the external factors, only Machiavellism has a significant effect on the attitudes and subjective norms of users. Common value, commitment and trust have a significant effect on MIS professionals' attitudes or subjective norms with regard to political behavior in ISD. However, only trust has a significant effect on users' subjective norms with regard to political behavior in ISD. Therefore, when there is a need to recruit new employees in an organization, it might be useful for management administrators to measure the Machiavellism of selectees, as this is a possible means by which negative political behavior in ISD will be minimized. On the other hand, they should consider the employees' roles in the organization, arouse their sense of common values and commitment to the organization, and promote a climate of trust within the organization. This is perhaps another way to reduce the possibility of political behavior in the ISD. Finally, this study seeks to propose a political behavior intention model in ISD, and to offer other researchers and management administrators some insight into political behavior in the ISD discipline.

A study of self-identity changes and correlation of influential factors of Thai students studying English

How language users become able to produce forms they have never encountered in input is central to our understanding of language cognition. A range of models, including rule-based models, analogy-based models and stochastic models have been proposed to account for this ability. Despite the fact that all three models are reasonably successful, we argue that productivity is more accurately captured through learnability than by rules or probabilities. Using a combination of computational modelling and behavioural experimentation we show that the basic principle of error-driven learning allows language users extract the relevant patterns. These patterns are found at a level that cuts across phonology and morphology and is not considered by mainstream approaches to language. Our findings thus highlight how a learning-based approach constrains our inferences about the types of structures that should be targeted on a cognitively realistic account of language representation.

As the pre-school initiative in the USA continues to grow in the public school sector, the need to understand and be prepared to address the needs of this population of students is vital. This paper provides an exploratory analysis of language and behavioral skills in children aged three to five years old served in inclusive public preschools. Preschool children documented with language impairments (LI), or emotional and behavioral disorders (ED) were compared to a typically developing group using the Test of Early Language Development-3 and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales. Results suggest that preschoolers with identified language delays or behavior disorders were significantly different in both language development and behavior ratings when compared to typical developing peers. Second, no significant differences were found between students with language delays and socio-emotional disabilities. Implications regarding the need for comprehensive screening, continuous assessment, targeted intervention, and professional development for teachers across both developmental areas in the early childhood education settings are presented.

The paper describes how higher-order predicate logic may be used to specify both the structure and the behaviour of a digital system, and to reason about their interrelationship. The overall approach is named VERITAS; the paper concentrates particularly on describing its methodological aspects. The behaviour of a system is specified by a predicate on the analogue waveforms at the ports of the system. In general, behavioural specifications are partial. The internal structure of a system is defined by a set of projection functions that yield its component parts, together with a set of equations describing their interconnections. Reasoning about the behavioural properties of digital systems is carried out within the framework of an axiomatic theory that describes relevant properties of arithmetic, time, waveforms and structures. The logic is embedded within a programming language, MV, whose data types include signature, term and derivation. This allows inferencing to be carried out computationally, which in turn guarantees its correctness.

This presentation video is from the Research Symposium at the 2018 annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association held in Boston, MA.<br>The abstract for the accompanying article is below. This article is part of the <i>JSLHR </i>Forum: Advances in Neuroplasticity Research on Language Recovery in Aphasia.<br><b>Purpose: </b>Understanding the brain basis of language and cognitive outcomes is a major goal of aphasia research. Prior studies have not often considered the many ways that brain features can relate to behavioral outcomes or the mechanisms underlying these relationships. The purpose of this review article is to provide a new framework for understanding the ways that brain features may relate to language and cognitive outcomes from stroke.<b>Method: </b>Brain–behavior relationships that may be important for aphasia outcomes are organized into a taxonomy, including features of the lesion and features of brain tissue spared by the lesion. Features of spared brain tissue are categorized into those that change after stroke and those that do not. Features that change are further subdivided, and multiple mechanisms of brain change after stroke are discussed.<b>Results: </b>Features of the stroke, including size, location, and white matter damage, relate to many behavioral outcomes and likely account for most of the variance in outcomes. Features of the spared brain tissue that are unchanged by stroke, such as prior ischemic disease in the white matter, contribute to outcomes. Many different neurobiological and behavioral mechanisms may drive changes in the brain after stroke in association with behavioral recovery. Changes primarily driven by neurobiology are likely to occur in brain regions with a systematic relationship to the stroke distribution. Changes primarily driven by behavior are likely to occur in brain networks related to the behavior driving the change.<b>Conclusions:</b> Organizing the various hypothesized brain–behavior relationships according to this framework and considering the mechanisms that drive these relationships may help investigators develop specific experimental designs and more complete statistical models to explain language and cognitive abilities after stroke. Eight main recommendations for future research are provided.<br>Turkeltaub, P. E. (2019). A taxonomy of brain–behavior relationships after stroke. <i>Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62</i>(11), 3907–3922. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-RSNP-19-0032