Explicit Notion Research Articles

A sparsity preserving genetic algorithm for extracting diverse functional 3D designs from deep generative neural networks

Generative neural networks (GNNs) have successfully used human-created designs to generate novel 3D models that combine concepts from disparate known solutions, which is an important aspect of design exploration. GNNs automatically learn a parameterization (orlatent space) of a design space, as opposed to alternative methods that manually define a parameterization. However, GNNs are typically not evaluated using an explicit notion of physical performance, which is a critical capability needed for design. This work bridges this gap by proposing a method to extract a set of functional designs from the latent space of a point cloud generating GNN, without sacrificing the aforementioned aspects of a GNN that are appealing for design exploration. We introduce a sparsity preserving cost function and initialization strategy for a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize over the latent space of a point cloud generating autoencoder GNN. We examine two test cases, an example of generating ellipsoid point clouds subject to a simple performance criterion and a more complex example of extracting 3D designs with a low coefficient of drag. Our experiments show that the modified GA results in a diverse set of functionally superior designs while maintaining similarity to human-generated designs in the training data set.

Intertextualidades explícitas e intertextualidades implícitas

Investindo em uma análise bibliográfica, objetivamos relacionar as noçõesde implicitude/explicitude das intertextualidades, a partir do trato dado aesses conceitos em Piègay-Gros (2010) e Koch (2009). A primeira divide asintertextualidades em: por copresença (alusão – plágio [implícitas], referências– citação [explícitas]) e por derivação; já a segunda estuda diversas categoriasde intertextualidades, dentre elas as explícitas (fonte do intertexto presente) eas implícitas (fonte do intertexto ausente). Em Koch (2009), portanto, a noçãode explicitude/implicitude está relacionada à presença/ausência de referênciaà autoria do texto-fonte do intertexto. Enquanto em Piègay-Gros (2010), sãoconsiderados fatores como marcas tipográficas e efeitos de sentidos que asintertextualidades acarretam.

An abstract stack based approach to verified compositional compilation to machine code

A key ingredient contributing to the success of CompCert, the state-of-the-art verified compiler for C, is its block-based memory model, which is used uniformly for all of its languages and their verified compilation. However, CompCert's memory model lacks an explicit notion of stack. Its target assembly language represents the runtime stack as an unbounded list of memory blocks, making further compilation of CompCert assembly into more realistic machine code difficult since it is not possible to merge these blocks into a finite and continuous stack. Furthermore, various notions of verified compositional compilation rely on some kind of mechanism for protecting private stack data and enabling modification to the public stack-allocated data, which is lacking in the original CompCert. These problems have been investigated but not fully addressed before, in the sense that some advanced optimization passes that significantly change the ways stack blocks are (de-)allocated, such as tailcall recognition and inlining, are often omitted. We propose a lightweight and complete solution to the above problems. It is based on the enrichment of CompCert's memory model with an abstract stack that keeps track of the history of stack frames to bound the stack consumption and that enforces a uniform stack access policy by assigning fine-grained permissions to stack memory. Using this enriched memory model for all the languages of CompCert, we are able to reprove the correctness of the full compilation chain of CompCert, including all the optimization passes. In the end, we get Stack-Aware CompCert, a complete extension of CompCert that enforces the finiteness of the stack and fine-grained stack permissions. Based on Stack-Aware CompCert, we develop CompCertMC, the first extension of CompCert that compiles into a low-level language with flat memory spaces. Based on CompCertMC, we develop Stack-Aware CompCertX, a complete extension of CompCert that supports a notion of compositional compilation that we call contextual compilation by exploiting the uniform stack access policy provided by the abstract stack.

Energy current and computing.

In his seminal Electrical papers, Oliver Heaviside stated ‘We reverse this …' referring to the relationship between energy current and state changes in electrical networks. We explore implications of Heaviside's view upon the state changes in electronic circuits, effectively constituting computational processes. Our vision about energy-modulated computing that can be applicable for electronic systems with energy harvesting is introduced. Examples of analysis of computational circuits as loads on power sources are presented. We also draw inspiration from Heaviside's way of using and advancing mathematical methods from the needs of natural physical phenomena. A vivid example of Heavisidian approach to the use of mathematics is in employing series where they emerge out of the spatio-temporal view upon energy flows. Using series expressions, and types of natural discretization in space and time, we explain the processes of discharging a capacitive transmission line, first, through a constant resistor and, second, through a voltage controlled digital circuit. We show that event-based models, such as Petri nets with an explicit notion of causality inherent in them, can be instrumental in creating bridges between electromagnetics and computing.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Celebrating 125 years of Oliver Heaviside's ‘Electromagnetic Theory’’.

Membrane computing inspired protocol to enhance security in cloud network

The crucial threats and challenges prevailing in cloud computing are privacy and security. The main reason for these challenges encountered in cloud computing is its multi-tenancy nature and the subcontracting of infrastructures. Cloud services are widely recognized and approved in enterprises, educational institutions and government organizations for their businesses. In order to provide reliable, secure cloud services and enhance cloud services, enterprises should develop security in their businesses and should select pertinent vendor for their computing needs. Traditional cryptography computing models are not completely suitable for protecting cloud-based computing. Membrane computing, on the other hand, provides an explicit notion of region, namely the space enclosed by membranes.

Time and Space as Unpredictable Biological Constructions

Whatever we can say, we say in rhythms of symbols―e.g., words written as marks on paper. What a mark symbolizes to us or to other agents cannot be predicted on the basis of measurement and calculation. Without admitting any explicit notion of an agent, quantum theory implies a role for an unpredictable symbol-handling agent.To accept agents and symbols into physics is to see mechanisms, especially clocks, not in isolation but as tools that agents build and adjust as needed. We model a symbol-handling agent by combining a modified Turing machine with an adjustable clock, needed to allow communication of symbols from one agent to another. To communicate, agents must adjust their clocks so as to mesh their rhythms of oper- ation. We call this meshing of rhythms logical synchronization and display its features. While symbols are digital, maintaining logical synchronization requires something analog, idiosyncratic, and unpredictable, beyond symbols. Our main claim is that logically synchronized rhythms of symbols need not be seen as taking place in some externally supplied “space and time,” but instead are the raw material out of which physicists construct time, space, and spacetime. We hypothesize that all living organisms employ logically synchronized rhythms of symbols. We invite collaboration to explore, in a variety of contexts for people and other living organisms, the situations involv- ing logical synchronization of rhythms of symbols that differ from those used in physics. Accompanying such initial study, we would like to see the development of mathematical expressions of logical synchronization applicable to more complex cybernetic systems than those we discuss here.

Alf Ross and the Functional Analysis of Law

Scandinavian legal scholarship has only half-heartedly embraced law and economics. Legal literature has suggested that this is due to the dominance of the prevailing legal theory, which was to a considerable extent shaped by the Scandinavian realist Alf Ross. The theory holds that it is the proper role of legal scholars to (only) predict how courts will apply sources of law to cases, and the suggestion is that this role leaves little room for analysis of consequences of legal rules or verdicts. The paper demonstrates that this suggestion misrepresents Ross' views on functional analysis of law. In fact, Ross in fact called for the development of law and economics, as one might expect of a legal realist. This paper further argues that if Ross' theory stands in the way of acceptance of the methodology of law and economics, it is due to his dismissal of concepts of social welfare, including utilitarianism. The paper argues that Ross' views in this regard ignore that it can be informative to consider consequences of legal rules in terms of explicit notions of social welfare even if these notions do not exhaust all social concerns. It is argued that legal scholarship can address normative questions without losing its scientific character, and that Ross' definition of legal science was therefore too restrictive. It is this definition, preached rather than practiced, which today inhibits the interest in the application of functional analysis to law.

Revisited: how gender role stereotypes affect the image of entrepreneurs among young adults

PurposeEntrepreneurship is shaped by a male norm, which has been widely demonstrated in qualitative studies. The authors strive to complement these methods by a quantitative approach. First, gender role stereotypes were measured in entrepreneurship. Second, the explicit notions of participants were captured when they described entrepreneurs. Therefore, this paper aims to revisit gender role stereotypes among young adults.Design/methodology/approachTo measure stereotyping, participants were asked to describe entrepreneurs in general and either women or men in general. The Schein Descriptive Index (SDI) for characterization was used. Following the procedures of Schein (1975), intra-class-correlation was calculated as a measure of congruence. This approach was complemented by controlling explicit notions, i.e. the image that participants had when describing entrepreneurs.FindingsThe images of men and entrepreneurs show a high and significant congruence (r = 0.803), mostly in those adjectives that are untypical for men and entrepreneurs. The congruence of women and entrepreneurs was low (r = 0.152) and insignificant. Contrary to the participants’ beliefs, their explicit notions did not have any effect on measures of congruence. However, young adults who knew business owners in their surroundings rated the congruence of women and entrepreneurs significantly higher (r = 0.272) than average.Originality/valueThis study is unique in combining “implicit” stereotypes and explicit notions. It demonstrates that gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship are powerful. The image of the entrepreneur remains male, independent of explicit notions. As young adults who knew business owners in their surroundings rated the congruence of women and entrepreneurs higher, this could be a starting point for education programmes.

After Abdication: America Debates the Future of Global Leadership

American observers of international affairs are currently enmeshed in a debate on the future of global order and leadership. For at least a decade, it has been debated whether the global center of power and leadership is gradually shifting away from the ‘declining’ West towards ‘rising’ powers like the BRICS and what consequences this may have for global order, governance and leadership. This paper examines this ongoing debate on the future of global leadership among American observers of international affairs. It finds two main changes in this discourse. First, with the election of President Trump and Brexit—and the resulting uncertainties over the future of NATO, the EU, free trade and climate agreements—there is now a more urgent sense that we are not only witnessing the rise of new powers but the decline of the so-called ‘liberal international order’ installed after World War II. Second, and most remarkably, the order is collapsing by way of abdication rather than a hegemonic clash between rising and declining powers. Third, and as a consequence, the discourse on a global leadership vacuum, turmoil and world disorder is gaining prominence. The paper argues that diagnoses of the coming of a ‘leaderless’ or ‘G-Zero’ world are never only neutral observations of world politics, but also political moves. As such, the narrative of a leadership vacuum can be deployed politically to, variously, call for multilateral engagement, global governance, stronger unilateral leadership, containing aspiring leaders and so on. Moreover, the various diagnoses and prescriptions for a leadership vacuum embody more or less explicit notions of what (good) leadership is and it sees ‘the world to be lead’ from a distinct perspective. By examining these contemporary debates on global leadership among American intellectuals and policymakers, it sheds light on the broader politics of ‘declinism’ and a ‘leaderless world’.

Nature, love and the limits of male power

[Nature, love and the limits of male power] It has long been taboo for feminist theorists to draw on notions of nature in their conceptualizations of gender relations. Objecting to this nature-phobia, Lena Gunnarsson argues that we need to anchor our social theories in explicit notions of the natural necessities on which any social structure draws and must ultimately accommodate. Such a reference to a “natural ontological order” is needed not only for explaining how power structures can get a hold over people, but also for specifying the ways in which the natural necessities impose absolute constraints on the forms that oppressive structures can take, ultimately creating a conatus to getting rid of the oppressive structure. In the human-social realm a crucial aspect of nature is those basic human needs that any society must meet in order to reproduce itself. One such human need that has been theoretically overlooked, although often implicitly assumed, is the need for love. Drawing on Anna G. Jónasdóttir’s theory of “love power”, Gunnarsson elaborates on the contradictions inherent in the power that men acquire by exploiting women’s love, arguing that these contradictions can be understood only with reference to natural necessities. Publication history: Translation of the article “Nature, love and the limits of male power” from Journal of Critical Realism , volume 14, number 3 2015 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/1476743015Z.00000000071 ). (Published 8 June 2017) Citation: Gunnarsson, Lena (2017) “Natur, kärlek och den manliga maktens gränser”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys , issue 8, pp. 77–86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.8.3

Reasoning about Imprecise Beliefs in Multi-Agent Systems with PDT Logic

We present Probabilistic Doxastic Temporal (PDT) Logic, a formalism to represent and reason about probabilistic beliefs and their finite temporal evolution in multi-agent systems. This formalism enables the quantification of agents’ beliefs through probability intervals and incorporates an explicit notion of time. In this work, we give an overview of recent contributions on PDT Logic. After describing the syntax and semantics of this formalism, we show that two alternative representation forms are available to model problems in PDT Logic. Furthermore, we outline how abductive reasoning can be performed in PDT Logic and how this formalism can be extended to infinite time frames.

PDT Logic: A Probabilistic Doxastic Temporal Logic for Reasoning about Beliefs in Multi-agent Systems

We present Probabilistic Doxastic Temporal (PDT) Logic, a formalism to represent and reason about probabilistic beliefs and their temporal evolution in multi-agent systems. This formalism enables the quantification of agents’ beliefs through probability intervals and incorporates an explicit notion of time. We discuss how over time agents dynamically change their beliefs in facts, temporal rules, and other agents’ beliefs with respect to any new information they receive. We introduce an appropriate formal semantics for PDT Logic and show that it is decidable. Alternative options of specifying problems in PDT Logic are possible. For these problem specifications, we develop different satisfiability checking algorithms and provide complexity results for the respective decision problems. The use of probability intervals enables a formal representation of probabilistic knowledge without enforcing (possibly incorrect) exact probability values. By incorporating an explicit notion of time, PDT Logic provides enriched possibilities to represent and reason about temporal relations.

Argumentation and concept development: the role of imagination

Vygotsky stated that concepts cannot be transmitted from mind to mind but instead developed through communication. Specifically, the instructional use of language would be the means for concept development. However, there is evidence to show that school concepts are particularly difficult to develop. Argumentation has been shown to promote the development of school concepts, but why is this the case? Although there are different theoretical accounts for this effect, none of them are developed from an explicit notion of what it is to understand and develop a concept. The purpose of this paper is to revisit these accounts in light of dialogical theories of meaning comprehension in order to shed light on this old problem. After discussing conceptual change and Vygotsky’s theory of concept development, a dialogical notion of meaning comprehension informed by Bakhtin is discussed. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that imagination plays a central role in concept development and that argumentation is a powerful means for imagining.

A story of “communities”: boundaries, geographical composition and social coherence in a forest conservation project, Northern Cambodia

Explicit notions of “communities”, as key actors in conservation and development projects across the Global South, are common. Narratives about “indigenous people” or “forest-dependent communities” in forest conservation programmes prevail, portraying a picture of “communities” as homogeneous and harmonious entities. In this study, we unfold “communities” as a construct with an empirical example of a community-based forest protection project, Northern Cambodia. Based on qualitative interviews, field observations and document analysis, we examine the “community” construct in terms of establishment of boundaries, geographical composition and social coherence. We not only find that the establishment of forest “community” boundaries are dominated by powerful external actors rather than the “community members” themselves, but that the spatial composition of “communities” is complex, and affects the ability of local people to benefit from the project. We also find that the studied “communities” show low levels of social coherence and mainly consist of migrant farmers, as opposed to common policy narratives. Taking these inconsistencies into account, we discuss implications of constructing “communities” for the success of forest conservation projects, and argue in favour of more discursive and political analyses to better understand, acknowledge and adapt to existing and changing conditions in present and prospective project locations.

Educational practice, student experience, and the purpose of education—a critique of ‘Pedagogy in Practice’

The focus of the present paper is a critical discussion of the recently developed concept Pedagogy in Practice (PiP) with the intention of improving the concept for future research. PiP aims to understand ongoing educational practice from the students’ perspective by interviewing groups of students about their understanding of learning. By emphasising ‘pedagogy’ and ‘practice’ and drawing from a theoretical foundation that takes practice and action as key concepts, PiP is an appealing alternative to research in student voice, to which it is closely related. However, a critical analysis of PiP in relation to its stated theoretical sources (Bourdieu, Bernstein, Dewey) shows that the approach contradicts these sources in key areas. In PiP students’ understanding of learning is taken as basic for improving educational practice, however, PiP is developed without an explicit notion of what education is for. This paper introduces a specific formulation of the purpose and functions of education based on the work of Gert Biesta, and outlines how a revised version of PiP might contribute to future empirical research in education.

Trust Networks: Topology, Dynamics, and Measurements

Thanks to the availability of user profiles and records of activity, online social network analysis can discover complex individual and social behavior patterns. The emergence of trust between users of online services is one of the most important phenomena, but it's also hard to detect in records of users' interactions, and even harder to replicate by abstract, generative models. Here, the authors investigate the emergence of trusted users (over time) by studying the evolution of topological and centrality measures of the network of trust within the overall social network. To do so, large datasets of user activity are studied from Ciao and Epinions (two online platforms with an explicit notion of trust controlled by users), and Prosper (a micro-lending site where trust remains implicit). The implications of such findings are discussed, particularly regarding how to enable trust in online platforms and interaction, with implications for trust-based activities.

Flow-based reputation with uncertainty: evidence-based subjective logic

The concept of reputation is widely used as a measure of trustworthiness based on ratings from members in a community. The adoption of reputation systems, however, relies on their ability to capture the actual trustworthiness of a target. Several reputation models for aggregating trust information have been proposed in the literature. The choice of model has an impact on the reliability of the aggregated trust information as well as on the procedure used to compute reputations. Two prominent models are flow-based reputation (e.g., EigenTrust, PageRank) and subjective logic-based reputation. Flow-based models provide an automated method to aggregate trust information, but they are not able to express the level of uncertainty in the information. In contrast, subjective logic extends probabilistic models with an explicit notion of uncertainty, but the calculation of reputation depends on the structure of the trust network and often requires information to be discarded. These are severe drawbacks. In this work, we observe that the `opinion discounting' operation in subjective logic has a number of basic problems. We resolve these problems by providing a new discounting operator that describes the flow of evidence from one party to another. The adoption of our discounting rule results in a consistent subjective logic algebra that is entirely based on the handling of evidence. We show that the new algebra enables the construction of an automated reputation assessment procedure for arbitrary trust networks, where the calculation no longer depends on the structure of the network, and does not need to throw away any information. Thus, we obtain the best of both worlds: flow-based reputation and consistent handling of uncertainties.

Pragmatism, Pluralism, and World Hypotheses:

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the ongoing debate between pluralistic and monistic approaches to dealing with critical disagreement. I return to the theory of world hypotheses advanced by Stephen C. Pepper, an understudied figure in aesthetics and pragmatism, to enunciate a version of pluralism that centers on the nature of critical evidence and its functioning in social settings of argument. I argue that Pepper's expansive philosophy holds interesting implications for what can be called the metaphysics of criticism, a point missed by partisans of standard views of pluralism and monism. Building on his analysis of equally autonomous (but noncommensurable) world hypotheses, this study enunciates an explicit notion of rhetorical pluralism that goes beyond simple relativism. This account can be labeled “evidentiary pluralism,” since it internalizes standards for evaluation to specific worldviews and recognizes their changeable nature in the context of critical disagreement.

Nature, Love and the Limits of Male Power1

It has long been taboo for feminist theorists to draw on notions of nature in their conceptualizations of gender relations. Objecting to this nature-phobia, I argue that we need to anchor our social theories in explicit notions of the natural necessities on which any social structure draws and must ultimately accommodate. Such a reference to a ‘natural ontological order’ is needed not only for explaining how power structures can get a hold over people, but also for specifying the ways in which the natural necessities impose absolute constraints on the forms that oppressive structures can take, ultimately creating a conatus to getting rid of the oppressive structure. In the human-social realm a crucial aspect of nature is those basic human needs that any society must meet in order to reproduce itself. One such human need that has been theoretically overlooked, although often implicitly assumed, is the need for love. Drawing on Anna G. Jónasdóttir's theory of ‘love power’, I elaborate on the contradictions inherent in the power that men acquire by exploiting women's love, arguing that these contradictions can be understood only with reference to natural necessities.

A network-conscious π-calculus and its coalgebraic semantics

Traditional process calculi usually abstract away from network details, modeling only communication over shared channels. They, however, seem inadequate to describe new network architectures, such as Software Defined Networks, where programs are allowed to manipulate the infrastructure. In this paper we present the Network Conscious π-calculus ( NCPi), a proper extension of the π-calculus with an explicit notion of network: network links and nodes are represented as names, in full analogy with ordinary π-calculus names, and observations are routing paths through which data is transported. However, restricted links do not appear in the observations, which thus can possibly be as abstract as in the π-calculus. Then we construct a presheaf-based coalgebraic semantics for NCPi along the lines of Turi–Plotkin's approach, by indexing processes with the network resources they use: we give a model for observational equivalence in this context, and we prove that it admits an equivalent nominal automaton (HD-automaton), suitable for verification. Finally, we give a concurrent semantics for NCPi where observations are multisets of routing paths. We show that bisimilarity for this semantics is a congruence, and this property holds also for the concurrent version of the π-calculus.