bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Addressing the Exposure Problem of Bidding Agents Using Flexibly Priced Options
Authors: Robu Valentin  , Vetsikas Ioannis A.  , Gerding Enrico H.  , Jennings Nicholas R.
Published: February 2025

In this paper we introduce a new option pricing mechanism for reducing the exposure problem encountered by bidding agents with complementary valuations when participating in sequential, second-price auction markets. Existing option pricing models have two main drawbacks: they either apply fixed exercise prices, which may deter bidders with low valuations, thereby decreasing allocative efficiency, or options are offered for free, in which case bidders are less likely to exercise them, thereby reducing seller revenues. The proposed mechanism involving flexibly priced options addresses these problems by calculating the exercise price as well as the option price based on the bids received during an auction. For this new model, which extends and encompasses all the previous models examined, we derive the optimal strategies for a bidding agent with complementary preferences. Finally, we use these strategies to evaluate the proposed option mechanism through Monte-Carlo simutions, and compare it to existing mechanisms, both in terms of the seller revenue and the social welfare. We show that our new mechanism achieves higher market efficiency compared to having no options and free options, while achieving higher revenues for the seller than any existing option mechanism.
Abduction of distributed theories through local interactions
Authors: Bourgne Gauvain  , Inoue Katsumi  , Maudet Nicolas
Published: February 2025

What happens when distributed sources of information (agents) hold and acquire information locally, and have to communicate with neighbouring agents in order to refine their hypothesis regarding the actual global state of this environment? This question occurs when it is not be possible (e. g. for practical or privacy concerns) to collect observations and knowledge, and centrally compute the resulting theory. In this paper, we assume that agents are equipped with full clausal theories and individually face abductive tasks, in a globally consistent environment. We adopt a learner/critic approach. Previous work in this line mostly relied on some assumptions of compositionality (which allow to treat each piece of exchanged information separately). Because no shared background knowledge is assumed to start with, this does not hold here. We design a protocol guaranteeing convergence to a situation “sufficiently” satisfying as far as consistency of the system is concerned, and discuss its other properties.
Behavior-analysis and -prediction for agents in real-time and dynamic adversarial environments
Authors: Rachuy Carsten  , Visser Ubbo
Published: February 2025

We present an approach for recognition and subsequent prediction of spatio-temporal patterns in a physical real-time environment. The motivation is to provide a domain-independent approach for the analysis of agent's behavior in adversarial multi-agent scenarios. The goal is to create an opponent- specific model, which is used for behavior prediction. We develop a framework for representing a set of hierarchically structured facts, events and actions using temporal logic. Recognition, learning, and prediction is performed using a probabilistic approach utilizing Bayesian Networks. The system is applied to the domain of the RoboCup 3D Simulation League and evaluated with regard to the recognition-, prediction- and realtime capabilities.
Dialectical Proofs for Constrained Argumentation
Authors: Devred Caroline  , Doutre Sylvie  , Lefèvre Claire  , Nicolas Pascal
Published: February 2025

Constrained argumentation frameworks (CAF) generalize Dung's frameworks by allowing additional constraints on arguments to be taken into account in the definition of acceptability of arguments. These constraints are expressed by means of a logical formula which is added to Dung's framework. The resulting system captures several other extensions of Dung's original system. To determine if a set of arguments is credulously inferred from a CAF, the notion of dialectical proof (alternating pros and cons arguments) is extended for Dung's frameworks in order to respect the additional constraint. The new constrained dialectical proofs are computed by using Answer Set Programming.
cf2 Semantics Revisited
Authors: Gaggl Sarah Alice  , Woltran Stefan
Published: February 2025

Abstract argumentation frameworks nowadays provide the most popular formalization of argumentation on a conceptual level. Numerous semantics for this paradigm have been proposed, whereby cf2 semantics has shown to nicely solve particular problems concernend with odd-length cycles in such frameworks. In order to compare different semantics not only on a theoretical basis, it is necessary to provide systems which implement them within a uniform platform. Answer-Set Programming (ASP) turned out to be a promising direction for this aim, since it not only allows for a concise representation of concepts inherent to argumentation semantics, but also offers sophisticated off-the-shelves solvers which can be used as core computation engines. In fact, many argumentation semantics have meanwhile been encoded within the ASP paradigm, but not all relevant semantics, among them cf2 semantics, have yet been considered. The contributions of this work are thus twofold. Due to the particular nature of cf2 semantics, we first provide an alternative characterization which, roughly speaking, avoids the recursive computation of sub-frameworks. Then, we provide the concrete ASP-encodings, which are incorporated within the ASPARTIX system, a platform which already implements a wide range of semantics for abstract argumentation.
How Argumentation can Enhance Dialogues in Social Networks
Authors: Heras Stella  , Atkinson Katie  , Botti Vicente  , Grasso Floriana  , Julian Vicente  , McBurney Peter
Published: February 2025

Many websites nowadays allow social networking between their users in an explicit or implicit way. In this work, we show how the theory of argumentation schemes can provide a valuable help to formalize and structure on-line discussions and user opinions in decision support and business oriented websites that hold social networks among their users. A real study case is considered and analysed. Then, guidelines for website and system design are provided to enhance social decision support and recommendations with argumentation.
Consolidating diagram types from several agent-oriented methodologies
Authors: Henderson-Sellers Brian
Published: February 2025

Development and acceptance of a modelling language (ML) for agent-oriented software development has many facets. To complement the “bottom-up” suggestions of icons for particular fine-scale agent-oriented concepts, here we address “top-down” the overall system-level goals and how we might depict them in diagrams. Then, having identified a suite of viewpoints, we recommend a number of diagram types that could constitute such a standard AOSE ML – recommendations based on an analysis of the theoretical literature and over twenty extant AOSE methodologies (and accompanying MLs).
Forecasting Online Auctions using Dynamic Models
Authors: Jank Wolfgang  , Shmueli Galit
Published: February 2025

We propose a dynamic forecasting model for price in online auctions. One of the key features of our model is that it operates during the live-auction, generating real-time forecasts which makes it different from previous static models. Our model is also different with respect to how information about price is incorporated. While one part of the model is based on the more traditional notion of an auction's price-level, another part incorporates its dynamics in the form of price-velocity and -acceleration. In that sense, it incorporates key features of a dynamic environment such as an online auction. The use of novel functional data methodology allows us to measure, and subsequently include, dynamic price characteristics. We illustrate our model on a diverse set of eBay auctions across many different book categories. It achieves significantly higher prediction accuracy compared to standard approaches.
Generative Structure Learning for Markov Logic Networks
Authors: Dinh Quang-Thang  , Exbrayat Matthieu  , Vrain Christel
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we present a generative algorithm to learn Markov Logic Network (MLN) structures automatically, directly from a training dataset. The algorithm follows a bottom-up approach by first heuristically transforming the training dataset into boolean tables, then creating candidate clauses using these boolean tables and finally choosing the best clauses to build the MLN. Comparisons to the state-of-the-art structure learning algorithms for MLNs in two real-world domains show that the proposed algorithm outperforms them in terms of the conditional log likelihood (CLL), and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUC).
Reasoning about Normative Systems
Authors: van der Hoek Wiebe
Published: February 2025

We develop a model of normative systems, where roughly speaking the model is a transition-based system and a norm is the result of flagging some of the transitions as undesirable. We then use a language that is close to that of Computation Tree Logic to reason about such systems. We demonstrate how our framework facilitates to reason about the following three settings:
Bridging the Gap Between Neural Network and Kernel Methods: Applications to Drug Discovery
Authors: Baldi Pierre  , Azencott Chloe  , Swamidass S. Joshua
Published: February 2025

We develop a hybrid machine learning architecture, the Influence Relevance Voter (IRV), where an initial geometry- or kernel- based step is followed by a feature-based step to derive the final prediction. While other implementations of the general idea are possible, we use a k-Nearest-Neighbor approach to implement the first step, and a Neural Network approach to implement the second step for a classification problem. In this version of the IRV, the rank and similarities of the k nearest neighbors of an input are used to compute their individual relevances. Relevances are combined multiplicatively with the class membership values to produce influences. Finally the influences of all the neighbors are aggregated to produce the final probabilistic prediction. IRVs have several advantages: they can be trained fast, they are easily interpretable and modifiable, and they are not prone to overfitting since they rely on extensive weight sharing across neighbors. The IRV approach is applied to the problem of predicting whether a given compound is active or not with respect to a particular biochemical assay in drug discovery and shown to perform well in comparison to other predictors. In addition, we also introduce and demonstrate a new approach, the Concentrated ROC (CROC), for assessing prediction performance in situations ranging from drug discovery to information retrieval, where ROC curves are not adequate, because only a very small subset of the top ranked positives is practically useful. The CROC approach uses a change of coordinates to smoothly magnify the relevant portion of the ROC curve.
Protocol Composition Logic
Authors: Datta Anupam  , Mitchell John C.  , Roy Arnab  , Stiller Stephan Hyeonjun
Published: February 2025

Protocol Composition Logic (PCL) is a logic for proving authentication and secrecy properties of network protocols. This chapter presents the central concepts of PCL, including a protocol programming language, the semantics of protocol execution in the presence of a network attacker, the syntax and semantics of PCL assertions, and axioms and proof rules for proving authentication properties. The presentation draws on a logical framework enhanced with subtyping, setting the stage for mechanizing PCL proofs. and gives a new presentation of PCL semantics involving honest and unconstrained principals. Other papers on PCL provide additional axioms, proof rules, and case studies of standardized protocols in common use.
Shapes: Surveying Crypto Protocol Runs
Authors: Guttman Joshua D.
Published: February 2025

Given a cryptographic protocol, and some assumptions, can we present everything that can happen, subject to these assumptions? The assumptions may include: (i) some behavior assumed to have occurred, (ii) some keys assumed to be uncompromised, and (iii) some values assumed to have been freshly chosen. An object representing these types of information is called a skeleton.
Security Analysis using Rank Functions in CSP
Authors: Schneider Steve
Published: February 2025

Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) is an abstract language for describing processes and reasoning about their interactions within concurrent systems. It is appropriate for investigating the overall behaviour that emerges. It has a mature theory, and powerful tool support [For03] and can be considered as an off-the-shelf framework which can be customised for particular domains through additional domain-specific constructions and theory. This chapter introduces the application of CSP to the analysis of security protocols. For the purposes of this chapter, we will introduce only those parts of CSP that we use in protocol analysis. Fuller descriptions of the language and theory can be found in [Hoa85,Ros97,Sch99].
Computational Soundness
Authors: Bresson Emmanuel  , Lakhnech Yassine  , Mazaré Laurent  , Warinschi Bogdan
Published: February 2025

Symbolic models for security are built around axioms that reflect appealing intuition regarding the security of basic primitives. The resulting adversaries however often seem unrealistically strong in some of their abilities and not sufficiently powerful in others. An interesting research direction pioneered by Abadi and Rogaway is to show that despite these apparent limitations symbolic models can be used to obtain results that are meaningful with respect to the more detailed and realistic models used in computational cryptography. This line of research is now known as computational soundness. This chapter describes in detail a computational soundness result that extends the original work of Abadi and Rogaway. We show that it is possible to reason about computational indistinguishability of distributions obtained by using symmetric encryption and exponentiation in finite groups with entirely symbolic methods. The result relies on standard notions of security for the encryption scheme and on a powerful generalization of the Diffie-Hellman assumption.
Constraint solving techniques and enriching the model with equational theories
Authors: Comon-Lundh Hubert  , Delaune Stéphanie  , Millen Jonathan K.
Published: February 2025

Derivability constraints represent in a symbolic way the infinite set of possible executions of a finite protocol, in presence of an arbitrary active attacker. Solving a derivability constraint consists in computing a simplified representation of such executions, which is amenable to the verification of any (trace) security property. Our goal is to explain this method on a non-trivial combination of primitives.
Using Horn Clauses for Analyzing Security Protocols
Authors: Blanchet Bruno
Published: February 2025

This chapter presents a method for verifying security protocols based on an abstract representation of protocols by Horn clauses. This method is the foundation of the protocol verifier ProVerif. It is fully automatic, efficient, and can handle an unbounded number of sessions and an unbounded message space. It supports various cryptographic primitives defined by rewrite rules or equations. Even if we focus on secrecy in this chapter, this method can also prove other security properties, including authentication and process equivalences.
RFID Electronic Visa with Personalized Verification
Authors: Błaśkiewicz Przemysław  , Cichoń Jacek  , Kutyłowski Mirosław  , Majcher Krzysztof
Published: February 2025

The paper presents a new approach for systems with electronic identification documents equipped with simple RFID tags. We assume that document verification is performed offline, but the number of document verifiers as well as the number of documents is controlled by the document issuer. The primary application in mind are visas on a paper sticker with an inbuilt RFID circuit. We also aim to provide simple solutions based on paper stickers with simple RFID for club cards, customer ID cards, public transportation multi-usage tickets, soccer game tickets, etc.
Reform Begets Reform: How Governments Have Responded to the New Public Management
Authors: Peters B. Guy
Published: February 2025

Governments are frequently involved in processes of administrative and policy reform. The reforms associated with the New Public Management (NPM) have been one of the largest and most sustained periods of reform, rivaling in magnitude if not in speed, those occurring during World War II in the history of the public sector. The emphasis on autonomous organizations and autonomous managers during the past several decades has created a number of benefits for the public sector and for citizens. However, the creation of high levels of autonomy created significant problems in the levels of coordination within the public service, with the paradoxical outcome that even if the performance of individual programs was being improved, the overall performance of government may have been decreased. There have been a variety of responses to the problems created by such reforms. The reaction to the continuing issues of policy coordination, as well as the increased demands for performance resulting from NPM. require governments to develop mechanisms for producing better coordinated and more effective governance schemes. These responses range from returning to well-worn paths for producing more effective integration of policy to more innovative solutions.
The Evolving Governance of Public Services in England: Extending Competition, Choice, Co-design and Co-production
Authors: Bailey Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

During the 1980s and 1990s reforms within the English public sector sought to increase value for money by increasing the scope for competition in the provision of public services in order to reduce their costs and by setting targets for service delivery. During the 2000s attention focused on giving service users increased scope for choice of both service provider and service form so as to increase further the value of public services. Increasing the scope for user choice of the form of service received is also intended to lead to the co-design and co-production of services, this implying a quite radical change in the nature of the welfare state and its system of governance. This paper assesses the rationale for these reforms and critically appraises their effectiveness.
Innovation in Public Governance in Singapore: Solving the Housing Shortage and Curbing Corruption
Authors: Quah Jon S.T.
Published: February 2025

When the People's Action Party (PAP) government assumed office in Singapore in June 1959, it was saddled with a serious housing shortage and rampant corruption. This chapter analyzes the innovative approaches to resolve these problems by explaining why the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has been more effective than its predecessor in providing public housing for Singaporeans, and why the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) has succeeded in minimizing corruption in Singapore. Apart from being effective organizations which recruited competent personnel, the HDB and CPIB also benefited from the PAP government's commitment to solve the housing shortage and to curb corruption as reflected in the provision of the necessary legislation, personnel, and budget, to enable both agencies to perform effectively.
User-Generated AI for Interactive Digital Entertainment
Authors: Ram Ashwin
Published: February 2025

User-generated content is everywhere: photos, videos, news, blogs, art, music, and every other type of digital media on the Social Web. Games are no exception. From strategy games to immersive virtual worlds, game players are increasingly engaged in creating and sharing nearly all aspects of the gaming experience: maps, quests, artifacts, avatars, clothing, even games themselves. Yet, there is one aspect of computer games that is not created and shared by game players: the AI. Building sophisticated personalities, behaviors, and strategies requires expertise in both AI and programming, and remains outside the purview of the end user.
LUNA: Hard Real-Time, Multi-Threaded, CSP-Capable Execution Framework
Authors: Bezemer M.M.  , Wilterdink R.J.W.  , Broenink J.F.
Published: February 2025

Modern embedded systems have multiple cores available. The CTC++ library is not able to make use of these cores, so a new framework is required to control the robotic setups in our lab. This paper first looks into the available frameworks and compares them to the requirements for controlling the setups. It concludes that none of the available frameworks meet the requirements, so a new framework is developed, called LUNA. The LUNA architecture is component based, resulting in a modular structure. The core components take care of the platform related issues. For each supported platform, these components have a different implementation, effectively providing a platform abstraction layer. High-level components take care of platform-independent tasks, using the core components. Execution engine components implement the algorithms taking care of the execution flow, like a CSP implementation. The paper describes some interesting architectural challenges encountered during the LUNA development and their solutions. It concludes with a comparison between LUNA, C++CSP2 and CTC++. LUNA is shown to be more efficient than CTC++ and C++CSP2 with respect to switching between threads. Also, running a benchmark using CSP constructs, shows that LUNA is more efficient compared to the other two. Furthermore, LUNA is also capable of controlling actual robotic setups with good timing properties.
Performance of the Distributed CPA Protocol and Architecture on Traditional Networks
Authors: Chalmers Kevin
Published: February 2025

Performance of communication mechanisms is very important in distributed systems frameworks, especially when the aim is to provide a particular type of behaviour across a network. In this paper, performance measurements of the distributed Communicating Process Architectures networking protocol and stack is presented. The results presented show that for general communication, the distributed CPA architecture is close to the baseline network performance, although when dealing with parallel speedup for the Mandelbrot set, little performance is gained. A discussion into the future direction of the distributed CPA architecture and protocol in relation to occam-π and other runtimes is also presented.
The Computation Time Process Model
Authors: Korsgaard Martin  , Hendseth Sverre
Published: February 2025

In traditional real-time multiprocessor schedulability analysis it is required that all tasks are entirely serial. This implies that if a task is written in a parallel language such as occam, all parallelism in the task must be suppressed to enable schedulability analysis. Part of the reason for this restriction is the difficulty in analysing execution times of programs with a complex parallel structure. In this paper we introduce an abstract model for reasoning about the temporal properties of such programs. Within this model, we define what it means for a process to be easier to schedule than another, and the notion of upper bounds on execution times. Counterintuitive temporal behaviour is demonstrated to be inherent in all systems where processes are allowed an arbitrary parallel structure. For example, there exist processes that are guaranteed to complete on some schedule, that may not complete if executing less than the expected amount of computation. Not all processes exhibit such counterintuitive behaviour, and we identify a subset of processes that are well-behaved in this respect. The results from this paper is a necessary prerequisite for a complete schedulability analysis of systems with an arbitrary parallel structure.
Process-Oriented Subsumption Architectures in Swarm Robotic Systems
Authors: Posso Jeremy C.  , Sampson Adam T.  , Simpson Jonathan  , Timmis Jon
Published: February 2025

Previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of using process-oriented programming to implement simple subsumption architectures for robot control. However, the utility and scalability of process-based subsumption architectures for more complex tasks and those involving multiple robots has not been proven. We report our experience of applying these techniques to the implementation of a standard foraging problem in swarm robotics, using occam-π to implement a subsumption control system. Through building a system with a realistic level of complexity, we have discovered both advantages and disadvantages to the process-oriented subsumption approach for larger robot control systems.
CONPASU-tool: A Concurrent Process Analysis Support Tool based on Symbolic Computation
Authors: Isobe Yoshinao
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an analysis-methodof concurrentprocesses with value-passing which may cause infinite-state systems. The method consists of two steps: sequentialisation and state-reduction. In the sequentialisation, the symbolic transition graph of a given concurrent process is derived by symbolic operational semantics. In the state-reduction,the numberof states in the symbolic transition graph is reduced by removingneedless internal transitions. Furthermore,this paper introducesan analysis-tool called CONPASU, which implements the analysis-method, and demonstrates how CONPASU can be used for automatically analyzing concurrent processes. For example, it can extract abstract behaviors, which are useful for understanding complex behaviors, by focusing on some interesting events.
Development of an ML-based Verification Tool for Timed CSP Processes
Authors: Yamakawa Takeshi  , Ohashi Tsuneki  , Fukunaga Chikara
Published: February 2025

We report the development of a verification tool for Timed CSP processes. The tool has been built on the functional programming language ML. The tool interprets processes described in both timed and untimed CSP, converting them to ML functions, and executing those functions for the verification of refinement in the timed traces and timewise traces models. Using the programmability of higher order functionality, the description of CSP processes with ML has been synthesised naturally. The effectiveness of the tool is demonstrated with an example analysing implementations of Fischer's algorithm for the exclusive control of a shared resource in a multi-processor environment.
Mobile Processes and Call Channels with Variant Interfaces (a Duality)
Authors: Bonnici Eric  , Welch Peter H.
Published: February 2025

The current model of mobile processes in occam-π implements a single interface for host processes to use. However, different hosts holding different kinds of resource will naturally require different interfaces to interact with their visitors. So, current occam-π mobiles have to offer a single union of all the interfaces needed and hosts must provide dummy arguments for those irrelevant to its particular calls. This opens the possibilty of programming errors in both hosts and mobile should those dummies mistakenly be used. This paper considers a revised model for mobile processes that allows many interfaces. It also proposes the concept of variant call channels, that expands on a mechanism proposed for the occam3 language, and shows a simple duality between the revised mobile processes and mobile variant call channels. An implementation of mobile variant call channels, via source-code transformation to standard occam-π mobile channel bundles, is presented. This gives a demonstration implementation for the revised mobile process model and an operational semantics. The paper is illustrated with a case study based on the Santa Claus problem, where the elves and reindeer are mobile processes.
Programming the CELL-BE using CSP
Authors: Skovhede Kenneth  , Larsen Morten N.  , Vinter Brian
Published: February 2025

The current trend in processor design seems to focus on using multiple cores, similar to a cluster-on-a-chip model. These processors are generally fast and power efficient, but due to their highly parallel nature, they are notoriously difficult to program for most scientists. One such processor is the CELL broadband engine (CELL-BE) which is known for its high performance, but also for a complex programming model which makes it difficult to exploit the architecture to its full potential. To address this difficulty, this paper proposes to change the programming model to use the principles of CSP design, thus making it simpler to program the CELL-BE and avoid livelocks, deadlocks and race conditions. The CSP model described here comprises a thread library for the synergistic processing elements (SPEs) and a simple channel based communication interface. To examine the scalability of the implementation, experiments are performed with both scientific computational cores and synthetic workloads. The implemented CSP model has a simple API and is shown to scale well for problems with significant computational requirements.
Modular Approach for a New Ontology
Authors: Dmitrieva Julia  , Verbeek Fons J.
Published: February 2025

In the life sciences researchers are working with large amount of data from different domains that frequently overlap. Overlapping information can be utilized at the moment the domains are integrated. A typical case is the drug discovery process in which the information from different domains, e.g. diseases, proteins, pathways, drugs, etc. need to be integrated in order to connect a disease with genes, pathways and find a potential chemical compound that can be active as a drug. However, information from different domains is often available in different ontologies. In order to combine these data an ontology integration approach is required.
26. Zinc and Skin
Authors: Jansen Judith  , Rink Lothar
Published: February 2025

Zinc has been empirically used to treat skin affections for thousands of years. However, even today, the mechanisms by which zinc influences physiological and pathological skin conditions are not entirely known. In this chapter, the association of zinc deficiency and skin symptoms will be discussed, as well as the role of zinc concerning wound healing taking the underlying mechanisms into account. Furthermore, an overview of possible therapeutic applications of zinc regarding selected skin disorders will be given.
2. Discovery of Zinc Deficiency in Humans and its Impact Fifty Years Later
Authors: Prasad Ananda
Published: February 2025

Essentiality of zinc for humans and its deficiency was recognized in 1963. During the past 50 years, it has become apparent that deficiency of zinc in humans is widely prevalent. Nutritional deficiency of zinc may affect nearly 2 billion subjects in the developing world. Consumption of cereal proteins high in phytate decreases the bio-availability of zinc. Conditioned deficiency of zinc is also very common. Growth retardation, hypogonadism in males, rough skin, impaired immunity, neuro-sensory disorder and cognitive impairment are some of the major clinical manifestations of zinc deficiency. Zinc is involved in many biochemical functions and nearly 2000 transcription factors require zinc for gene expression. Zinc is also an effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. In therapeutic dosages, zinc has been used for the treatment of acute diarrhea decreasing mortality in millions of affected infants and children, common cold, Wilson's disease, sickle cell disease and for the prevention of blindness in patients with age related macular degeneration.
6. Zinc Signaling
Authors: Haase Hajo  , Rink Lothar
Published: February 2025

The majority of cellular zinc is tightly bound to proteins, where it has either catalytic or structural functions. Nevertheless, a regulatory role for zinc also exists, which is mediated by the small fraction of free or loosely bound zinc. This chapter discusses the role of free zinc in signal transduction. Different types of zinc signals were observed in eukaryotic cells, ranging from fast changes in less than a minute to signals that accompany cellular differentiation and last for several days. A range of molecular targets for these zinc signals has been identified, including a regulation of the activity of several kinases, phosphatases, phosphodiesterases, caspases, and transcription factors.
Self-Supervised Clustering for Codebook Construction: An Application to Object Localization
Authors: Ribes Arturo  , Ji Senshan  , Ramisa Arnau  , Lopez de Mantaras Ramon
Published: February 2025

Approaches to object localization based on codebooks do not exploit the dependencies between appearance and geometric information present in training data. This work addresses the problem of computing a codebook tailored to the task of localization by applying regularization based on geometric information. We present a novel method, the Regularized Combined Partitional-Agglomerative clustering, which extends the standard CPA method by adding extra knowledge to the clustering process to preserve as much geometric information as needed. Due to the time complexity of the methodology, we also present an implementation on the GPU using nVIDIA CUDA technology, speeding up the process with a factor over 100x.
Evolutionary Approach to Investigations of Cognitive Systems
Authors: Red'ko Vladimir  , Koval Anton
Published: February 2025

Evolutionary approach to investigations of cognitive systems is analyzed. Modeling of cognitive evolution (a study of evolution of animal cognitive features) is considered. Backgrounds of models of cognitive evolution that are developed in the area of research “Adaptive behavior” are outlined. Our initial models of cognitive evolution investigations are described. The sketch program for future modeling of cognitive evolution is proposed.
A Multimodal Hypertensor Architecture for Association Formation
Authors: Vineyard Craig M.  , Verzi Stephen J.  , Bernard Michael L.  , Caudell Thomas P.
Published: February 2025

Several fields of study have developed sophisticated techniques to process signals of varying types. For example, pattern recognition techniques may seek to convert an audio waveform to a text transcription or to process an image and classify the represented object. However, much of this research focuses upon a single signal type. While such an approach has many useful applications, there are many domains which receive an influx of differing signal types. The brain receives a variety of sensory input signals and although each input stream does receive its share of individual processing, additional insight also comes from the converged processing of all input modalities. Such an occurrence takes place within the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and hippocampus. Consequently, we have designed a neural network architecture inspired by hippocampus connectivity and functionality which associates multimodal inputs.
Decision making processes in the fruit fly: a computational model
Authors: Arena Paolo  , Patané Luca  , Termini Pietro Savio
Published: February 2025

Visual learning is an important aspect of fly life. Flies are able to extract visual cues from objects, like colors, vertical and horizontal distributedness, and others, that can be used for learning to associate a meaning to specific features (i.e. a reward or a punishment). Interesting biological experiments show trained stationary flying flies avoiding flying towards specific visual objects, appearing on the surrounding environment. A decision making process has been identified in the flies that had been trained to avoid objects with specific visual features. In presence of a feature the fly has to decide which features are the most relevant to make a choice. The decision making strategy is guided by a pre-wired hierarchical categorization of the features that, for instance, leads the fly to give more importance to color with respect to shape. A bio-inspired architecture has been proposed to model the fly behavior and experiments on roving robots were performed. Statistical comparisons have been considered and mutant-like effect on the model has been also investigated.
On the time complexity of regularized least square
Authors: Gori Marco
Published: February 2025

In the general framework of kernel machines, the adoption of the hinge loss has become more popular than square loss, also because of computational reasons. Since learning reduces to a linear system of equations, in case of very large tasks for which the number of examples is proportional to the input dimension, the solution of square loss regularization is O(ℓ3), where ℓ is the number of examples, and it has been claimed that learning is unaffordable for large scale problems. However, this is only an upper bound, and in-depth experimental analyses indicate that for linear kernels (or in other cases where the kernel matrix will be sparse or decomposed in a way that is known a priori), regularized least square (RLS) is substantially faster than support vector machine (SVM) both at training and test times. In this paper, we give theoretical results to support those experimental findings by proving that there are conditions under which learning of square loss regularization is Θ(ℓ) even for large input dimensions d for which d ≃ ℓ.
Open Access to Legal Scholarship and Open Archives: Towards a Better Future?
Authors: Guarda Paolo
Published: February 2025

The logic of Open Access (OA) is gradually spreading within the scientific community, mainly thanks to the help of important areas of public libraries. OA basically describes a phenomenon in which many scientific communities publish their results (papers, articles, books, etc.), through Internet, on archives and journals accessible to anyone (and without payment of a price). Despite the initial delay, the OA movement is quickly growing in importance for legal scholarship. Nonetheless, the institutional arrangements and the technological features of OA to legal scholarship are variegated and pose a vast array of problems. This paper analyzes the state of the art of the different types of Open Archives used by the legal scholars and identifies the key features of a possible, future open repository dedicated to the Italian legal literature.
Knowledge Base Modeling and Design Procedure
Authors: Burita Ladislav  , Do Petr  , Ondryhal Vojtech
Published: February 2025

The article is based on the defense research project “Knowledge Management of the NEC in the Army of the Czech Republic – MENTAL”. The theoretical basis of the project is Topic Maps. The key issue for the project solution is designing and creating a suitable ontology. The implementation environment is technology Tovek Tools and ATOM2. The paper describes the procedure from the selection of an Upper Ontology through the Core Ontology design to the processing of the Domain Ontology. Ontology definitions are stated and their meaning is explained. The paper next explains the ways reusing of an existing taxonomy in an ontology construction, presents the possibilities of using the taxonomy built in the selected domain when creating its domain ontology, explains the difference between taxonomies and ontologies in various contexts, and focuses on the description of the specific domain ontology and the use of the existing taxonomy for its building.
Future Directions of Context Modelling and Cross-Cultural Communication
Authors: Heimbûrger Anneli  , Kiyoki Yasushi  , Jaakkola Hannu  , Suhardijanto Totok
Published: February 2025

In our paper we discuss advanced viewpoints to “Kansei” and cross-cultural computing, to context modelling, context-sensitive information systems, and cross-cultural software engineering. Culture is embodied in how people interact with other individuals and with their environment. It is a way of life formed under specific historical, natural and social conditions. Culture can be considered as one example of context. A computational method, a computer system, or an application is context-sensitive if it includes context-based functions and if it uses context to provide relevant information and services to the user, where relevancy depends on the user's impressions and the situation at hand. Because of globalization, cultural competence together with context sensitive information systems and their development has become an important dimension for success in today's international business and research.
Influence of Mechanical Forces on Cells and Tissues
Authors: Stoltz J.F.  , Huselstein C.  , de Isla N.
Published: February 2025

Almost all cells in the human body are subjected to mechanical stresses. These forces can vary from a few Pascals (shear stress) to some Mega Pascals (on hip cartilage). It is now well known that mechanical forces have a decisive effect on cellular physiology. However, although the main biological effects of mechanical forces are well documented, the relation between mechanical stress and physiological phenomena is mainly unknown (mechanotransduction phenomenon). In this chapter, some effects of mechanical stresses on different cells (endothelial cells, vascular or muscular cells, chondrocyte, etc.) are summarized.
Gene Therapy of Osteochondral Defects
Authors: Madry Henning  , Cucchiarini Magali
Published: February 2025

Articular cartilage defects are an unsolved problem in clinical orthopaedics as such lesions often do not heal on themselves and no treatment leads to full and long-term regeneration. Although gene therapy is an attractive concept to treat cartilage damage, current research indicates that an adaptation of gene transfer techniques to the problem of a circumscribed defect is required in order to successfully implement this approach. In particular, the local availability of the therapeutic gene product in the defects is desirable. Current strategies aim at inducing chondrogenic pathways in the repair tissue that fills the defect, including the stimulation of chondrocyte proliferation, maturation, and matrix synthesis via direct or indirect approaches. A better understanding of the basic scientific aspects of cartilage defect repair, the identification of new targets, and the development of improved delivery techniques may allow to translate gene therapy for cartilage defects in the clinics. The first experimental steps provide reason for cautious optimism.
An Ontology for Skill and Competency Management
Authors: Fazel-Zarandi Maryam  , Fox Mark S.
Published: February 2025

To stay competitive within the market, organizations need to understand the skills and competencies of their human resources in order to best utilize them. This paper focuses on the problem of modeling human resources in a dynamic environment, and presents a formal ontology for representing, inferring, and validating skills and competencies over time.
A two-phase bidirectional heuristic search algorithm
Authors: Javier Francisco  , Mandow Pulido L.  , de la Cruz J.L. Pérez
Published: February 2025

This work describes a new best-first bidirectional heuristic search algorithm with two phases. The new algorithm is based on a critical review of the basic search reduction operations in previous algorithms like BS* or Switch-A*. The general guideline is to let search fronts meet as close to midground as possible. In a first phase, search is discontinued at nodes as soon as the opposite frontier is met, terminating when one of the fronts runs out of open nodes. In a second phase, unidirectional search is conducted from the discontinued nodes until an optimal solution can be guaranteed. The new algorithm is tested on random instances of the 15-puzzle and on path-finding problems. A significant improvement in efficiency is observed when compared with other bidirectional algorithms.
Markov Constraints for Generating Lyrics with Style
Authors: Barbieri Gabriele  , Pachet François  , Roy Pierre  , Degli Esposti Mirko
Published: February 2025

We address the issue of generating texts in the style of an existing author, that also satisfy structural constraints imposed by the genre of the text. We focus on song lyrics, for which structural constraints are well-defined: rhyme and meter. Although Markov processes are known to be suitable for representing style, they are difficult to control in order to satisfy non-local properties, such as structural constraints, that require long distance modeling. We show that the framework of Constrained Markov Processes allows us to precisely generate texts that are consistent with a corpus, while being controllable in terms of rhymes and meter, a result that no other technique, to our knowledge, could achieve to date. Controlled Markov processes consist in reformulating Markov processes in the context of constraint satisfaction. We describe how to represent stylistic and structural properties in terms of constraints in this framework and we provide an evaluation of our method by comparing it to both pure Markov and pure constraint-based approaches. We show how this approach can be used for the semi-automatic generation of lyrics in the style of a popular author that has the same structure as an existing song.
What Does it Take to Enforce an Argument? Minimal Change in abstract Argumentation
Authors: Baumann Ringo
Published: February 2025

Argumentation is a dynamic process. The enforcing problem in argumentation, i.e. the question whether it is possible to modify a given argumentation framework (AF) in such a way that a desired set of arguments becomes an extension or a subset of an extension, was first studied in [3] and positively answered under certain conditions. In this paper, we take up this research and study the more general problem of minimal change. That is, in brief, i) is it possible to enforce a desired set of arguments, and if so, ii) what is the minimal number of modifications (additions or removals of attacks) to reach such an enforcement, the so-called characteristic. We show for several Dung semantics that this problem can be decided by local criteria encoded by the so-called value functions. Furthermore, we introduce the corresponding equivalence notions between two AFs which guarantee equal minimal efforts needed to enforce certain subsets, namely minimal-E-equivalence and the more general minimal change equivalence. We present characterization theorems for several Dung semantics and finally, we show the relations to standard and the recently proposed strong equivalence [9] for a whole range of semantics.
An O(nlog n) Bound Consistency Algorithm for the Conjunction of an alldifferent and an Inequality between a Sum of Variables and a Constant, and its Generalization
Authors: Beldiceanu Nicolas  , Carlsson Mats  , Petit Thierry  , Régin Jean-Charles
Published: February 2025

This paper gives an O(nlog n) bound-consistency filtering algorithm for the conjunction alldifferent(V0,V1,…,Vn−1)∧ f(V0)⌖f(V1)⌖…⌖f(Vn−1)≤ cst, (V0,V1,…,Vn−1,cst∈+), where (,⌖) is a commutative group, f is a unary function, and both ⌖ and f are monotone increasing. This complexity is equal to the complexity of the bound-consistency algorithm of the alldifferent constraint.
Context-Aware Access Control for RDF Graph Stores
Authors: Costabello Luca  , Villata Serena  , Gandon Fabien
Published: February 2025

We present SHI3LD, an access control framework for RDF stores. Our solution supports access from mobile devices with context-aware policies and is exclusively grounded on standard Semantic Web languages. Designed as a pluggable filter for generic SPARQL endpoints, the module uses RDF named graphs and SPARQL to protect triples. Evaluation shows faster execution time for low-selective queries and less impact on larger datastores.
On computing correct processes and repairs sing partial behavioral models
Authors: Mayer Wolfgang  , Friedrich Gerhard  , Stumptner Markus
Published: February 2025

Diagnosis and repair of failed process executions is an important task for almost any process oriented application. Because in practice complete specifications of process activities are not available, diagnosis and repair methods for partial behavior models are of great importance. We show that if the assumption of complete behavioral models is lifted, basic diagnosis and repair problems reside on the second level of the Polynomial Hierarchy.