pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Lowering the Learning Curve for Declarative Programming: A Python API for the IDP System

First Online: 17 December 2016Programmers may be hesitant to use declarative systems, because of the associated learning curve. In this paper, we present an API that integrates the IDP Knowledge Base system into the Python programming language. IDP is a state-of-the-art logical system, which uses SAT, SMT, Logic Programming and Answer Set Programming technology. Python is currently one of the most widely used (teaching) languages for programming. The first goal of our API is to allow a Python programmer to use the declarative power of IDP, without needing to learn any new syntax or semantics. The second goal is allow IDP to be added to/removed from an existing code base with minimal changes.status: publishe
Piecewise Conserved Quantities

We review the treatment of conservation laws in spacetimes that are glued
together in various ways, thus adding a boundary term to the usual conservation
laws. Several examples of such spacetimes will be described, including the
joining of Schwarzschild spacetimes of different masses, and the possibility of
joining regions of different signatures. The opportunity will also be taken to
explore some of the less obvious properties of Lorentzian vector calculus.Comment: To appear in Gravity and the Quantum, Springer 2017
  (http://www.springer.com/in/book/9783319516998
100 years of the Cosmological Constant: what's next?

The Cosmological Constant $\Lambda$, in different incarnations, has been with
us for 100 years. Many surveys of dark energy are underway, indicating so far
that the data are consistent with a dark energy equation of state of $w=-1$,
i.e. a $\Lambda$ term in Einstein's equation, although time variation of $w$ is
not yet ruled out. The ball is now back in the theoreticians' court, to explain
the physical meaning of $\Lambda$. We discuss sociological aspects of this
field, in particular to what extent the agreement on the cold dark matter +
$\Lambda$ concordance model is a result of the globalization of research and
over-communication.Comment: A slightly modified version of the article published in the book
  "Gravity and the Quantum", in honour of T. Padmanabhan on the occasion of his
  60th birthday, J.S. Bagla and S. Engineer (eds), Springer "Fundamental
  Theories of Physics" 2017, 187, 6 pages, no figure
From Quantum to Classical in the Sky

Inflation has by-far set itself as one of the prime ideas in the current
cosmological models that seemingly has an answer for every observed phenomenon
in cosmology. More importantly, it serves as a bridge between the early quantum
fluctuations and the present-day classical structures. Although the transition
from quantum to classical is still not completely understood till date, there
are two assumptions made in the inflationary paradigm in this regard:
  (i) the modes (metric perturbations or fluctuations) behave classically once
they are well outside the Hubble radius and,
  (ii) once they become classical they stay classical and hence can be
described by standard perturbation theory after they re-enter the Hubble
radius.
  We critically examine these assumptions for the tensor modes of (linear)
metric perturbations in a toy three stage universe with (i) inflation, (ii)
radiation-dominated and (iii) late-time accelerated phases. The
quantum-to-classical transition for these modes is evident from the evolution
of Wigner function in phase space and its peaking on the classical trajectory.
However, a better approach to quantify the degree of classicality and study its
evolution was given by Mahajan and Padmanabhan [1] using a classicality
parameter constructed from the parameters of the Wigner function. We study the
evolution of the classicality parameter across the three phases and it turns
out that the first assumption holds true, there is emergence of classicality on
Hubble exit, however the latter assumption of "once classical, always
classical" seems to lie on a shaky ground.Comment: Contribution to the Festschrift in honor of Prof. T. Padmanabhan on
  the occassion of his 60th birthday. Extending the results of arXiv:1308.4976
  to tensor perturbations. Title from my poster presented at ICTP Summer School
  on Cosmology, June 201
Classical and quantum: a conflict of interest

We highlight three conflicts between quantum theory and classical general
relativity, which make it implausible that a quantum theory of gravity can be
arrived at by quantising classical gravity. These conflicts are: quantum
nonlocality and space-time structure; the problem of time in quantum theory;
and the quantum measurement problem. We explain how these three aspects bear on
each other, and how they point towards an underlying noncommutative geometry of
space-time.Comment: 15 pages. Published in `Gravity and the quantum' [Essays in honour of
  Thanu Padmanabhan on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday] Eds. Jasjeet
  Singh Bagla and Sunu Engineer (Springer, 2017
Boundary terms of the Einstein-Hilbert action

The Einstein-Hilbert action for general relativity is not well posed in terms
of the metric $g_{ab}$ as a dynamical variable. There have been many proposals
to obtain an well posed action principle for general relativity, e.g., addition
of the Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term to the Einstein-Hilbert action. These
boundary terms are dependent on what one fixes on the boundary and in
particular on spacetime dimensions as well. Following recent works of
Padmanabhan we will introduce two new variables to describe general relativity
and the action principle with these new dynamical variables will turn out to be
well posed. Then we will connect these dynamical variables and boundary term
obtained thereof to existing literature and shall comment on a few properties
of Einstein-Hilbert action which might have been unnoticed earlier in the
literature. Before concluding with future prospects and discussions, we will
perform a general analysis of the boundary term of Einstein-Hilbert action for
null surfaces as well.Comment: 26 pages, no figures; Dedicated to Prof. Padmanabhan on the occasion
  of his sixtieth birthday; Published in the book "Gravity and the Quantum",
  Eds. Jasjeet Singh Bagla and Sunu Engineer (Springer, 2017
The valuation difference rank of a quasi-ordered difference field

There are several equivalent characterizations of the valuation rank of an
ordered or valued field. In this paper, we extend the theory to the case of an
ordered or valued {\it difference} field (that is, ordered or valued field
endowed with a compatible field automorphism). We introduce the notion of {\it
difference rank}. To treat simultaneously the cases of ordered and valued
fields, we consider quasi-ordered fields. We characterize the difference rank
as the quotient modulo the equivalence relation naturally induced by the
automorphism (which encodes its growth rate). In analogy to the theory of
convex valuations, we prove that any linearly ordered set can be realized as
the difference rank of a maximally valued quasi-ordered difference field. As an
application, we show that for every regular uncountable cardinal $\kappa$ such
that $\kappa= \kappa^{< \kappa}$, there are $2^{\kappa}$ pairwise
non-isomorphic quasi-ordered difference fields of cardinality $\kappa$, but all
isomorphic as quasi-ordered fields.Comment: 15 pages, to appear in "New Pathways between Group Theory and Model
  Theory", Proceedings Memorial Conference R\"udiger G\"obel (2016
A Convolutional Neural Network Approach for Post-Processing in HEVC
  Intra Coding

Lossy image and video compression algorithms yield visually annoying
artifacts including blocking, blurring, and ringing, especially at low
bit-rates. To reduce these artifacts, post-processing techniques have been
extensively studied. Recently, inspired by the great success of convolutional
neural network (CNN) in computer vision, some researches were performed on
adopting CNN in post-processing, mostly for JPEG compressed images. In this
paper, we present a CNN-based post-processing algorithm for High Efficiency
Video Coding (HEVC), the state-of-the-art video coding standard. We redesign a
Variable-filter-size Residue-learning CNN (VRCNN) to improve the performance
and to accelerate network training. Experimental results show that using our
VRCNN as post-processing leads to on average 4.6% bit-rate reduction compared
to HEVC baseline. The VRCNN outperforms previously studied networks in
achieving higher bit-rate reduction, lower memory cost, and multiplied
computational speedup.Comment: MMM 201
Learning Safe Interactions and Full-Control

This chapter is concerned with the problem of learning how to interact safely with complex automated systems. With large systems, human-machine interaction errors like automation surprises are more likely to happen. Full-control mental models are formal system abstractions embedding the required information to completely control a system and avoid interaction surprises. They represent the internal system understanding that should be achieved by perfect operators. However, this concept provides no information about how operators should reach that level of competence. This work investigates the problem of splitting the teaching of full-control mental models into smaller independent learning units. These units each allow to control a subset of the system and can be learned incrementally to control more and more features of the system. This chapter explains how to formalize the learning process based on an operator that merges mental models. On that basis, we show how to generate a set of learning units with the required properties
Study, design, development and construction of a linear tribometer for testing human skin

The study of the tribological properties of the skin is a very important research field for medical
investigation, development of dermatological products and the analysis of the interactions between textile
products and the skin. To obtain these properties it is necessary to perform tests using tribological
equipments which can simulate the conditions to obtain reliable values that will allow the measurement of
skin wrinkling. The skin aggressions are usually analyzed using special equipments, known as tribometers,
that enable the performance of the tribological characterization of a pair of materials, in order to obtain
parameters such as friction coefficient and wear; for this purpose, the control of test variables, such as
normal applied load, displacement speed, environmental conditions and other relevant circumstances
which influence the interaction of surfaces in contact is required. The most important objective is the
evaluation of a concept commonly known as touch, difficult to define and measure (which is related to the
quantification of the level of comfort provided by the contact with the skin), with the requirement of
studying soft materials, namely the skin. For that purpose it became necessary to design and manufacture a
tribological equipment capable of responding to the demands of the required tests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The Stochastic Processes Generation in OpenModelica

Background: Component-based modeling language Modelica (OpenModelica is open
source implementation) is used for the numerical simulation of complex
processes of different nature represented by ODE system. However, in
OpenModelica standard library there is no routines for pseudo-random numbers
generation, which makes it impossible to use for stochastic modeling processes.
Purpose: The goal of this article is a brief overview of a number of algorithms
for generation a sequence of uniformly distributed pseudo random numbers and
quality assessment of the sequence given by them, as well as the ways to
implement some of these algorithms in OpenModelica system. Methods: All the
algorithms are implemented in C language, and the results of their work tested
using open source package DieHarder. For those algorithms that do not use bit
operations, we describe there realisation using OpwnModelica. The other
algorithms can be called in OpenModelica as C functions Results: We have
implemented and tested about nine algorithms. DieHarder testing revealed the
highest quality pseudo-random number generators. Also we have reviewed
libraries Noise and AdvancedNoise, who claim to be adding to the Modelica
Standard Library. Conclusions: In OpenModelica system can be implemented
generators of uniformly distributed pseudo-random numbers, which is the first
step towards to make OpenModelica suitable for simulation of stochastic
processes.Comment: in English, in Russia
Matrix Semigroup Freeness Problems in SL (2, \mathbb Z).

In this paper we study decidability and complexity of decision problems on matrices from the special linear group SL(2,Z). In particular, we study the freeness problem: given a finite set of matrices G generating a multiplicative semigroup S, decide whether each element of S has at most one factorization over G. In other words, is G a code? We show that the problem of deciding whether a matrix semigroup in SL(2,Z) is non-free is NP-hard. Then, we study questions about the number of factorizations of matrices in the matrix semigroup such as the finite freeness problem, the recurrent matrix problem, the unique factorizability problem, etc. Finally, we show that some factorization problems could be even harder in SL(2,Z), for example we show that to decide whether every prime matrix has at most k factorizations is PSPACE-hard
On the Feasibility of Malware Authorship Attribution

There are many occasions in which the security community is interested to
discover the authorship of malware binaries, either for digital forensics
analysis of malware corpora or for thwarting live threats of malware invasion.
Such a discovery of authorship might be possible due to stylistic features
inherent to software codes written by human programmers. Existing studies of
authorship attribution of general purpose software mainly focus on source code,
which is typically based on the style of programs and environment. However,
those features critically depend on the availability of the program source
code, which is usually not the case when dealing with malware binaries. Such
program binaries often do not retain many semantic or stylistic features due to
the compilation process. Therefore, authorship attribution in the domain of
malware binaries based on features and styles that will survive the compilation
process is challenging. This paper provides the state of the art in this
literature. Further, we analyze the features involved in those techniques. By
using a case study, we identify features that can survive the compilation
process. Finally, we analyze existing works on binary authorship attribution
and study their applicability to real malware binaries.Comment: FPS 201
Out-of-equilibrium physics in driven dissipative coupled resonator
  arrays

Coupled resonator arrays have been shown to exhibit interesting many- body
physics including Mott and Fractional Hall states of photons. One of the main
differences between these photonic quantum simulators and their cold atoms
coun- terparts is in the dissipative nature of their photonic excitations. The
natural equi- librium state is where there are no photons left in the cavity.
Pumping the system with external drives is therefore necessary to compensate
for the losses and realise non-trivial states. The external driving here can
easily be tuned to be incoherent, coherent or fully quantum, opening the road
for exploration of many body regimes beyond the reach of other approaches. In
this chapter, we review some of the physics arising in driven dissipative
coupled resonator arrays including photon fermionisa- tion, crystallisation, as
well as photonic quantum Hall physics out of equilibrium. We start by briefly
describing possible experimental candidates to realise coupled resonator arrays
along with the two theoretical models that capture their physics, the
Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard and Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonians. A brief review of the
analytical and sophisticated numerical methods required to tackle these systems
is included.Comment: Chapter that appeared in "Quantum Simulations with Photons and
  Polaritons: Merging Quantum Optics with Condensed Matter Physics" edited by
  D.G.Angelakis, Quantum Science and Technology Series, Springer 201
Information competencies of historians as archive users: A Slovenia/UK comparison

This paper reports a study of the characteristics, skills and competencies of historians, both amateur and professional, as users of archives. It makes two main comparisons: between professional historians and amateurs, typically genealogists and family historians; and between participants in Slovenia and in the United Kingdom. The study is in two parts. First, a detailed and comprehensive literature analysis, including information competencies of archivists where relevant, as well as those of users, to identify the main issues to be examined. Second, a Delphi study with a small panel of archivists from both countries, to establish consensus or divergence of opinion, and to explore the differences, if any, between amateur and professional historians, and will also investigate any national differences. The results show a high degree of consensus, and point to common issues in the skills and competencies needed by both groups, which should be explored in a larger study
“Bibliostory—Educational Comic Stories.” A Social Constructivist Approach to Media and Information Literacy Education for Children and Adolescents

Our paper presents a theoretical background for a Polish comic book “Bibliostory—educational comic stories” (Pl. Bibliostory—edukacyjne historie komiksowe). The comic targets children between 9 and 12 years of age and youths from 13 to 16 years of age. Each story illustrates one issue, such as information searching, organization of information, plagiarism, and information problem solving strategy. Bibliostory is based on two constructivist pedagogical concepts: the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and case-based learning/teaching. These concepts, on application level, are first of all associated with designing educational situations and relationships between teachers and students (educators and learners). The aim of our paper is to present the possibilities of application of these concepts in the educational comic books. We describe the general assumptions of two concepts, then we focus on elements applied in Bibliostory project. We also provide a review of literature on the educational potential of comic books.Zuza Wiorogórska’s work was carried out during her stay as the visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, thanks to a scholarship from the Kosciuszko Foundation. Ewa Rozkosz’s work was carried out thanks to the grant awarded by the Faculty of Education of the University of Lower Silesia for the project “Społeczno-kulturowe podejście w projektowaniu materiałów edukacyjnych na potrzeby edukacji medialnej I inforamacyjnej dzieci i młodzieży na przykładzie »Bibliostory«” (nr 05/ WGW/dok/2016)
Assessing awareness of library services

In this paper, the authors present interim research results from an ongoing ethnographic examination of eight engineering undergraduate students from two technology universities in Prague, Czech Republic. A multi-layered data gathering strategy was employed, including semi-structured in-person interviews as well as in situ and virtual observations of participants interacting with learning environments. This data enabled the authors to examine whether or not students are aware of library services. “Library services” are here broadly defined to include not only traditional support services but also new, emerging areas of activity which can be categorized under the broader concept of undergraduate student support. Findings indicate very poor awareness of library offerings although participants were aware of the library as a study space. The authors additionally touch briefly upon the concept of “backward design” for service development, in which research data is gathered and considered prior to service design and launch
Bringing LTL model checking to biologists

The BioModelAnalyzer (BMA) is a web based tool for the development of discrete models of biological systems. Through a graphical user interface, it allows rapid development of complex models of gene and protein interaction networks and stability analysis without requiring users to be proficient computer programmers. Whilst stability is a useful specification for testing many systems, testing temporal specifications in BMA presently requires the user to perform simulations. Here we describe the LTL module, which includes a graphical and natural language interfaces to testing LTL queries. The graphical interface allows for graphical construction of the queries and presents results visually in keeping with the current style of BMA. The Natural language interface complements the graphical interface by allowing a gentler introduction to formal logic and exposing educational resources.Peer-reviewedPost-print18th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation VMCAI 2017, Pari
Spatio-Colour Aspl\"und 's Metric and Logarithmic Image Processing for
  Colour Images (LIPC)

Aspl\"und 's metric, which is useful for pattern matching, consists in a
double-sided probing, i.e. the over-graph and the sub-graph of a function are
probed jointly. This paper extends the Aspl\"und 's metric we previously
defined for colour and multivariate images using a marginal approach (i.e.
component by component) to the first spatio-colour Aspl\"und 's metric based on
the vectorial colour LIP model (LIPC). LIPC is a non-linear model with
operations between colour images which are consistent with the human visual
system. The defined colour metric is insensitive to lighting variations and a
variant which is robust to noise is used for colour pattern matching
Sparse Linear Models applied to Power Quality Disturbance Classification

Power quality (PQ) analysis describes the non-pure electric signals that are
usually present in electric power systems. The automatic recognition of PQ
disturbances can be seen as a pattern recognition problem, in which different
types of waveform distortion are differentiated based on their features.
Similar to other quasi-stationary signals, PQ disturbances can be decomposed
into time-frequency dependent components by using time-frequency or time-scale
transforms, also known as dictionaries. These dictionaries are used in the
feature extraction step in pattern recognition systems. Short-time Fourier,
Wavelets and Stockwell transforms are some of the most common dictionaries used
in the PQ community, aiming to achieve a better signal representation. To the
best of our knowledge, previous works about PQ disturbance classification have
been restricted to the use of one among several available dictionaries. Taking
advantage of the theory behind sparse linear models (SLM), we introduce a
sparse method for PQ representation, starting from overcomplete dictionaries.
In particular, we apply Group Lasso. We employ different types of
time-frequency (or time-scale) dictionaries to characterize the PQ
disturbances, and evaluate their performance under different pattern
recognition algorithms. We show that the SLM reduce the PQ classification
complexity promoting sparse basis selection, and improving the classification
accuracy