pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Towards a Cognitive Design Pattern for Collective Decision-Making

We introduce the concept of cognitive design pattern to provide a design methodology for distributed multi-agent systems. A cognitive design pattern is a reusable solution to tackle problems requiring cognitive abilities (e.g., decision-making, attention, categorisation). It provides theoretical models and design guidelines to define the individual control rules in order to obtain a desired behaviour for the multi-agent system as a whole. In this paper, we propose a cognitive design pattern for collective decision-making inspired by the nest-site selection behaviour of honeybee swarms. We illustrate how to apply the pattern to a case study involving spatial factors: the collective selection of the shortest path between two target areas. We analyse the dynamics of the multi-agent system and we show a very good agreement with the predictions of the macroscopic model
An Experiment in Automatic Design of Robot Swarms: AutoMoDe-Vanilla, EvoStick, and Human Experts

We present an experiment in automatic design of robot swarms. For the first time in the swarm robotics literature, we perform an objective comparison of multiple design methods: we compare swarms designed by two automatic methods---vanilla and stick---with swarms manually designed by human experts. vanilla and stick have been previously published and tested on two tasks. To evaluate their generality, in this paper we test them without any modification on five new tasks. Besides confirming that vanilla is effective, our results provide new insight into the design of robot swarms. In particular, our results indicate that, at least under the adopted experimental protocol, not only does automatic design suffer from the reality gap, but also manual design. The results also show that both manual and automatic methods benefit from bias injection. In this work, bias injection consists in restricting the design search space to the combinations of pre-existing modules. The results indicate that bias injection helps to overcome the reality gap, yielding better performing robot swarms
Can frogs find large independent sets in a decentralized way? Yes they can!

The problem of identifying a maximal independent (node) set in a given graph is a fundamental problem in distributed computing. It has numerous applications, for example, in wireless networks in the context of facility location and backbone formation. In this paper we study the ability of a bio-inspired, distributed algorithm, initially proposed for graph coloring, to generate large independent sets. The inspiration of the considered algorithm stems from the self-synchronization capability of Japanese tree frogs. The experimental results confirm, indeed, that the algorithm has a strong tendency towards the generation of colorings in which the set of nodes assigned to the most-used color is rather large. Experimental results are compared to the ones of recent algorithms from the literature. Concerning solution quality, the results show that the frog-inspired algorithm has advantages especially for the application to rather sparse graphs. Concerning the computation round count, the algorithm has the advantage of converging within a reasonable number of iterations, regardless of the size and density of the considered graph.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Diversity rate of change measurement for particle swarm optimisers

The diversity of a particle swarm can reflect  the swarm's
explorative/exploitative behaviour at a given time step. This paper pro-
poses a diversity rate of change measure to quantify the rate at which
particle swarms decrease their diversity over time. The proposed measure
is based on a two-piecewise linear approximation of diversity measurements  sampled at regular time steps. The proposed measure is the slope
of the  first of the two lines. It is shown that, when comparing the measure among different algorithms, the measure reflects  the differences in
the behaviour of algorithms in terms of their exploration-exploitation
trade-o . The measure can potentially be used to characterise and classify different algorithms based on algorithm behaviour.http://link.springer.combookseries/558hb201
On making nD images well-composed by a self-dual local interpolation

International audienceNatural and synthetic discrete images are generally not well-composed, leading to many topological issues: connectivities in binary images are not equivalent, the Jordan Separation theorem is not true anymore, and so on. Conversely, making images well-composed solves those problems and then gives access to many powerful tools already known in mathematical morphology as the Tree of Shapes which is of our principal interest. In this paper, we present two main results: a characterization of 3D well-composed gray-valued images; and a counter-example showing that no local self-dual interpolation satisfying a classical set of properties makes well-composed images with one subdivision in 3D, as soon as we choose the mean operator to interpolate in 1D. Then, we briefly discuss various constraints that could be interesting to change to make the problem solvable in nD
Algorithms for Fast Digital Straight Segments Union

International audienceGiven two Digital Straight Segments (DSS for short) of known minimal characteristics, we investigate the union of these DSSs: is it still a DSS ? If yes, what are its minimal characteristics ? We show that the problem is actually easy and can be solved in, at worst, logarithmic time using a state-of-the-art algorithm. We moreover propose a new algorithm of logarithmic worst-case complexity based on arithmetical properties. But when the two DSSs are connected, the time complexity of this algorithm is lowered to O(1) and experiments show that it outperforms the state-of-the art one in any case
Architecture Strategies for Cyber-Foraging: Preliminary Results from a Systematic Literature Review

Mobile devices have become for many the preferred way of interacting with the Internet, social media and the enterprise. However, mobile devices still do not have the computing power and battery life that will allow them to perform effectively over long periods of time or for executing applications that require extensive communication or computation, or low latency. Cyber-foraging is a technique to enable mobile devices to extend their computing power and storage by offloading computation or data to more powerful servers located in the cloud or in single-hop proximity. This paper presents the preliminary results of a systematic literature review (SLR) on architectures that support cyber-foraging. The preliminary results show that this is an area with many opportunities for research that will enable cyber-foraging solutions to become widely adopted as a way to support the mobile applications of the present and the future
Enactment of Components Extracted from an Object-Oriented Application

International audienceSoftware architecture plays an important role for the application understanding be-fore its maintenance. Unfortunately, for legacy systems code often there is no corre-sponding (or up to date) architecture. So, several work tackle this problem by extracting components from the legacy system and define their links. Although these components allow to get an architectural view of the legacy system, they still can't be easily im-plemented in a concrete framework. In fact, restructuring completely the legacy system facilitates the mapping between the architectural elements and their corresponding ones in the code. This paves the way to the future maintenance of the system. Our approach aims to reach this complete restructuring. Thus it goes beyond what exists in the state of the art by proposing a technique that makes components extracted from object-oriented applications implementable within a concrete component model. This is done by using class instances that compose the extracted components to infer possible instances the components. Thus, we propose for each extracted component its provided and required interfaces, and a way to construct its instances. We validated the feasibility of the proposed approach through the Spring framework and we illustrated it through a legacy Java application
A Rule-based Framework for Enhancing Architectural Decision Guidance

Architectural decision-making is a non-trivial process for architects in software development\ud
projects. In many cases, such a process starts by identifying architectural issues that\ud
an architect should make decisions about. In the second step, the architects explore available\ud
alternatives to solve the architectural issues. In the final step, the architects choose\ud
one of the candidate alternatives for each issue, based on the decision drivers. Notable\ud
progress has been made to assist practitioners in choosing one alternative among the possible\ud
alternatives. Several methods and tools have been developed for documenting the\ud
rationale and the outcome of the decision-making process. There is, nevertheless, little\ud
research focusing on identifying architectural issues that are eligible for a particular\ud
project. In the absence of systematic methods of identifying architectural issues, practitioners\ud
mainly start their architectural decision-making process based on intuition and\ud
prior experience, which may be insufficient due to cognitive biases.\ud
We have investigated the industrial context to understand the attitudes and challenges\ud
of large-scale enterprises in making and reusing architectural decisions. Then, we have\ud
reviewed the literature to identify the gap in developing architectural knowledge about\ud
the past into architectural decision guidance for the future. Afterwards, we have tackled\ud
the problem of enhancing architectural guidance by developing a framework called Semi\ud
Automated Design Guidance Enhancer (SADGE). SADGE extracts architectural issues\ud
from project documents and domain literature by applying natural language processing\ud
(NLP). This encourages practitioners to identify more architectural issues in the early\ud
phases of their projects, making them more prepared for the later phases, when changing\ud
and/or refactoring the architecture is more costly.\ud
Finally, we have evaluated the framework by conducting a case study on project documents\ud
and running experiments with IT students and expert IT architects. The results\ud
of the evaluation show that SADGE extracts architectural issues with a significant recall\ud
while reducing the manual knowledge processing effort notably. The evaluation also reveals\ud
that the experts believe that the framework can be very helpful for them to either\ud
reduce the amount of text to read, or to identify hot spots in their documents that need\ud
extra attention.\ud
The main contributions of this thesis are:\ud
C1 An overview of the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in making and reusing\ud
architectural decisions.\ud
C2 A rule-based framework for developing architectural knowledge in project documents\ud
and domain literature into architectural decision guidance.\ud
C3 Results of empirical evaluation of developing architectural decision guidance by\ud
employing a rule-based framework
Segmentation of Skin Lesions Using Level Set Method

Diagnosis of skin cancers with dermoscopy has been widely accepted as a clinical routine. However, the diagnostic accuracy using dermoscopy relies on the subjective judgment of the dermatologist. To solve this problem, a computer-aided diagnosis system is demanded. Here, we propose a level set method to fulfill the segmentation of skin lesions presented in dermoscopic images. The differences between normal skin and skin lesions in the color channels are combined to define the speed function, with which the evolving curve can be guided to reach the boundary of skin lesions. The proposed algorithm is robust against the influences of noise, hair, and skin textures, and provides a flexible way for segmentation. Numerical experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the novel algorithm
Asymmetry of Risk and Value of Information

The von Neumann and Morgenstern theory postulates that rational choice under
uncertainty is equivalent to maximization of expected utility (EU). This view
is mathematically appealing and natural because of the affine structure of the
space of probability measures. Behavioural economists and psychologists, on the
other hand, have demonstrated that humans consistently violate the EU postulate
by switching from risk-averse to risk-taking behaviour. This paradox has led to
the development of descriptive theories of decisions, such as the celebrated
prospect theory, which uses an $S$-shaped value function with concave and
convex branches explaining the observed asymmetry. Although successful in
modelling human behaviour, these theories appear to contradict the natural set
of axioms behind the EU postulate. Here we show that the observed asymmetry in
behaviour can be explained if, apart from utilities of the outcomes, rational
agents also value information communicated by random events. We review the main
ideas of the classical value of information theory and its generalizations.
Then we prove that the value of information is an $S$-shaped function, and that
its asymmetry does not depend on how the concept of information is defined, but
follows only from linearity of the expected utility. Thus, unlike many
descriptive and `non-expected' utility theories that abandon the linearity
(i.e. the `independence' axiom), we formulate a rigorous argument that the von
Neumann and Morgenstern rational agents should be both risk-averse and
risk-taking if they are not indifferent to information.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
ArgPROLEG:A normative framework for the JUF theory

In this paper we propose ArgPROLEG, a normative framework for legal reasoning based on PROLEG, an implementation of the Japanese “theory of presupposed ultimate facts”(JUF). This theory was mainly developed with the purpose of modelling the process of decision making by judges in the court. Not having complete and accurate information about each case, makes uncertainty an unavoidable part of decision making for judges. In the JUF theory each party that puts forward a claim, due to associated burden of proof to each claim, it needs to prove it as well. Not being able to provide such a proof for a claim, enables the judges to discard that claim although they might not be certain about the truth. The framework that we offer benefits from the use of argumentation theory as well as normative framework in multi-agent systems, to bring the reasoning closer to the user. The nature of argumentation in dealing with incomplete information on the one hand and being presentable in the form of dialogues on the other hand, has furthered the emergence and popularity of argumentation in modelling legal disputes. In addition, the use of multiple agents allows more flexibility for the behaviour of the parties involved
Semantic Similarity: Foundations

This paper investigates measures of semantic similarity  between conversations from an axiomatic perspective. We abstract away from real conversations, representing them as sequences of formulas, equipped with a notion of semantic interpretation that maps them into a different space. An example we use to illustrate our approach is the language of propositional logic with its classical semantics. We introduce and study a range of different candidate properties for metrics on such conversations, for the structure of the semantic space, and for the behavior of the interpretation function, and their interactions. We define four different metrics and explore their properties in this setting
Gravity and Scalar Fields

Gravity theories with non-minimally coupled scalar fields are used as
characteristic examples in order to demonstrate the challenges, pitfalls and
future perspectives of considering alternatives to general relativity. These
lecture notes can be seen as an illustration of concepts, subtleties and
techniques present in all alternative theories, but they also provide a brief
review of generalised scalar-tensor theories.Comment: 21 pages, based on a lecture given at the Seventh Aegean Summer
  School "Beyond Einstein's Theory of Gravity
Holographic Chern-Simons Theories

Chern-Simons theories in three dimensions are topological field theories that
may have a holographic interpretation for suitable chosen gauge groups and
boundary conditions on the fields. Conformal Chern-Simons gravity is a
topological model of 3-dimensional gravity that exhibits Weyl invariance and
allows various holographic descriptions, including Anti-de Sitter, Lobachevsky
and flat space holography. The same model also allows to address some aspects
that arise in higher spin gravity in a considerably simplified setup, since
both types of models have gauge symmetries other than diffeomorphisms. In these
lectures we summarize briefly recent results.Comment: 20 pp, invited lectures prepared for the 7th Aegean Summer School
  "Beyond Einstein's Theory of Gravity", 201
Modified gravity and coupled quintessence

The distinction between modified gravity and quintessence or dynamical dark
energy is difficult. Many models of modified gravity are equivalent to models
of coupled quintessence by virtue of variable transformations. This makes an
observational differentiation between modified gravity and dark energy very
hard. For example, the additional scalar degree of freedom in $f(R)$-gravity or
non-local gravity can be interpreted as the cosmon of quintessence.
Nevertheless, modified gravity can shed light on questions of interpretation,
naturalness and simplicity. We present a simple model where gravity is modified
by a field dependent Planck mass. It leads to a universe with a cold and slow
beginning. This cosmology can be continued to the infinite past such that no
big bang singularity occurs. All observables can be described equivalently in a
hot big bang picture with inflation and early dark energy.Comment: 18 page
The effective field theory of inflation/dark energy and the Horndeski
  theory

The effective field theory (EFT) of cosmological perturbations is a useful
framework to deal with the low-energy degrees of freedom present for inflation
and dark energy. We review the EFT for modified gravitational theories by
starting from the most general action in unitary gauge that involves the lapse
function and the three-dimensional geometric scalar quantities appearing in the
Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. Expanding the action up to quadratic
order in the perturbations and imposing conditions for the elimination of
spatial derivatives higher than second order, we obtain the Lagrangian of
curvature perturbations and gravitational waves with a single scalar degree of
freedom. The resulting second-order Lagrangian is exploited for computing the
scalar and tensor power spectra generated during inflation. We also show that
the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order equations of
motion-Horndeski theory-belongs to the action of our general EFT framework and
that the background equations of motion in Horndeski theory can be conveniently
expressed in terms of three EFT parameters. Finally we study the equations of
matter density perturbations and the effective gravitational coupling for dark
energy models based on Horndeski theory, to confront the models with the
observations of large-scale structures and weak lensing.Comment: 39 pages, no figures, lecture note for the 7th Aegean Summer School,
  Paros, 23-28 September, 201
Hairy black holes in theories with massive gravitons

This is a brief survey of the known black hole solutions in the theories of
ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity. Various black holes exist in these
theories, in particular those supporting a massive graviton hair. However, it
seems that solutions which could be astrophysically relevant are the same as in
General Relativity, or very close to them. Therefore, the no-hair conjecture
essentially applies, and so it would be hard to detect the graviton mass by
observing black holes.Comment: References added. 20 pages, 3 figures, based on the talk given at the
  7-th Aegean Summer School "Beyond Einstein's theory of gravity", September
  201
Higher-Spin Theory and Space-Time Metamorphoses

Introductory lectures on higher-spin gauge theory given at 7 Aegean workshop
on non-Einstein theories of gravity. The emphasis is on qualitative features of
the higher-spin gauge theory and peculiarities of its space-time
interpretation. In particular, it is explained that Riemannian geometry cannot
play a fundamental role in the higher-spin gauge theory. The higher-spin
symmetries are argued to occur at ultra high energy scales beyond the Planck
scale. This suggests that the higher-spin gauge theory can help to understand
Quantum Gravity. Various types of higher-spin dualities are briefly discussed.Comment: 37 pages, no figures; V2: references adde
Probabilistic Reuse of Past Search Results

In this paper, a new Monte Carlo algorithm to improve precision of information retrieval by using past search results is presented. Experiments were carried out to compare the proposed algorithm with traditional retrieval on a simulated dataset. In this dataset, documents, queries, and judgments of users were simulated. Exponential and Zipf distributions were used to build document collections. Uniform distribution was applied to build the queries. Zeta distribution was utilized to simulate the Bradford’s law representing the judgments of users. Empirical results show a better performance of our algorithm compared with traditional retrieval
A Synergy of Artificial Bee Colony and Genetic Algorithms to Determine the Parameters of the Σ-Gram Distance

In a previous work we presented the Σ-gram distance that computes the similarity between two sequences. This distance includes parameters that we calculated by means of an optimization process using artificial bee colony. In another work we showed how population-based bio-inspired algorithms can be sped up by applying a method that utilizes a pre-initialization stage to yield an optimal initial population. In this paper we use this pre-initialization method on the artificial bee colony algorithm to calculate the parameters of the Σ-gram distance. We show through experiments how this pre-initialization method can substantially speed up the optimization process
Assessment of innovative solutions for non-load bearing masonry enclosures

This paper presents some of the results of the research project “Masonry Enclosures”
developed in the framework of the transnational access (TA) to LNEC’s
triaxial shake table within the FP7 project SERIES.In order to ensure that in-plane and out-of-plane damage of masonry
infill walls due to seismic actions complies with the performance levels’ requirements,
Eurocode 8 imposes the use of reinforced solutions. Nevertheless, it does
not provide any design rules or methodologies for such reinforced masonry enclosures.
An experimental programme was thus defined for assessing the response of
innovative solutions for non-load bearing masonry enclosures using LNEC’s triaxial
shake table. Two reinforcement solutions were tested on single leaf clay brick
infill walls: (i) horizontal reinforcement in the bedding planes of the masonry units
and (ii) reinforced mortar coating. Furthermore, a testing device for masonry infill
panels was specifically conceived for this project. A detailed description of the
methods used is given and the experimental results are partially presented and interpreted
on the basis of the structural response and its evolution with damage.(undefined