3-5-man chess: Maximals and mzugs

This article reports the combined results of several initiatives in creating and surveying complete suites of endgame tables (EGTs) to the Depth to Mate (DTM) and Depth to Conversion (DTC) metrics. Data on percentage results, maximals and mutual zugzwangs, mzugs, has been filed and made available on the web, as have the DTM EGTs

The triple bind of narration: Fritz Schütze’s biographical interview in prison research and beyond

In this article we re-evaluate Fritz Schütze’s biographical interview method with its orientation towards the analysis of social problems experienced by the individual. We used Schütze’s method in a study of repeat offenders in a Polish prison, and on the basis of this experience we believe that we make two contributions – one to social science enquiry in general, and one to prison sociology. We argue that in social science research this method offers unique insights into the process of identity formation. These insights are made possible because of the ‘triple bind of narration’ inherent in Schütze’s method, that is to say the requirement to close, the requirement to condense and the requirement to provide detail. In relation to prison research we argue that Schütze’s method has rehabilitation value in making the interviewee/narrator re-evaluate their life through biography work. We also offer practical advice on how to conduct such interviews

RSA Keys Quality in a Real-world Organizational Certificate Dataset: a Practical Outlook

This research investigates the intricacies of X.509 certificates within a comprehensive corporate infrastructure. Spanning over two decades, the examined enterprise has heavily depended on its internal certificate authority and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to uphold its data and systems security. With the broad application of these certificates, from personal identification on smart cards to device and workstation authentication via Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), our study seeks to address a pertinent question on how prevalent are weak RSA keys within such a vast internal certificate repository. Previous research focused primarily on key sets publicly accessible from TLS and SSH servers or PGP key repositories. On the contrary, our investigation provides insights into the private domain of an enterprise, introducing new dimensions to this problem. Among our considerations are the trustworthiness of hardware and software solutions in generating keys and the consequential implications of identified vulnerabilities on organizational risk management. The obtained results can contribute to enhancing security strategies in enterprises

Situated Aesthetics: Interaction and Participation in Biofeedback Performances

This practice-based PhD explores how the implementation of biofeedback in audio-visual performances can challenge the traditional divisions between the roles of the artist, the audience and the artwork. This was achieved by designing a system to accommodate these performances and iterating the system across three performances. At the centre of the system is the use of biometric devices to collect real-time data from audience participants. Their brainwaves and heart rates were interfaced with audio-visual outputs which were made both visible and audible to them, thereby influencing the original data and creating a biofeedback loop. The first of the four experiments took place in a controlled studio environment without an audience and served to establish which technologies were most suited to this end. The technologies were tested for their prospective reliability and accessibility in a live performance environment, with the ultimate aim of enabling the greatest level of interaction between the roles of artist, audience and artwork. The following three experiments took place between 2015-18 and were funded by commissioning bodies to be hosted in galleries and exhibition spaces with an audience present. Each of these latter three performances continued to iterate the system’s design, implementing changes in response to the obstacles and opportunities presented at each stage of the process. The research question took as its starting point the principles of practice as research and the fields of social practice and cybernetics. Broadly defined, social practice is a field of art whose theory and practice foregrounds participation and an awareness of context and process in the production of artworks. Cybernetics is a field of science and philosophy which studies how systems self-regulate within, and adapt to, their environments through mechanisms of feedback and circularity, exploring principles of situatedness, embodiment, interaction and control. By drawing on the respective theories and practices of these fields, this thesis will document how they each informed the experiments in addressing the research question. Little research exists on the points of contact between social practice and cybernetics. Considered together, they mutually inform one another and present a number of illuminating points of departure when considering the embedded hierarchies and relationships between the roles of artist, audience and artwork

Generalized decomposition and cross entropy methods for many-objective optimization

Decomposition-based algorithms for multi-objective optimization problems have increased in popularity in the past decade. Although their convergence to the Pareto optimal front (PF) is in several instances superior to that of Pareto-based algorithms, the problem of selecting a way to distribute or guide these solutions in a high-dimensional space has not been explored. In this work, we introduce a novel concept which we call generalized decomposition. Generalized decomposition provides a framework with which the decision maker (DM) can guide the underlying evolutionary algorithm toward specific regions of interest or the entire Pareto front with the desired distribution of Pareto optimal solutions. Additionally, it is shown that generalized decomposition simplifies many-objective problems by unifying the three performance objectives of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms – convergence to the PF, evenly distributed Pareto optimal solutions and coverage of the entire front – to only one, that of convergence. A framework, established on generalized decomposition, and an estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) based on low-order statistics, namely the cross-entropy method (CE), is created to illustrate the benefits of the proposed concept for many objective problems. This choice of EDA also enables the test of the hypothesis that low-order statistics based EDAs can have comparable performance to more elaborate EDAs

MINERVA 2015

This issue of Minerva includes an interview with Honors alumnus and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bernard Lown; a celebration of retiring Assistant Dean, Barbara Ouellette; and memorial articles celebrating the lives of notable Honors supporters, Betsy Leitch and Dennis Rezendes. Other highlights include a spread on Honors student travel and community engagement; and an article on Honors graduate, Jill Pelto, whose artwork graces the front and back covers of the 2015 Minerva

Tortured Zionism: Messianism, Ambivalence, and Israel in post-Holocaust Jewish American literature

This dissertation examines post-Holocaust, Jewish American novelists that utilize messianism in their narratives to negotiate ambivalence about Zionism. Studying novels from the mid-1980’s to 2013, I look at the triangular relationship between Jewish American identification, the Holocaust, and Israel, to explore major topics in contemporary Jewry and fiction, including the homeland/ diaspora binary, the Jewish American writer’s ethical responsibility, the legacy of the Holocaust, the complexity surrounding Zionism, and the formalist experimentation of postmodernism. My study begins with Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and his use of the messianic figure, which works as a fulcrum to examine both the limitations of Holocaust art as a healing device, and post-Holocaust diasporic anxiety; Chabon suggests that this anxiety is exasperated by ambivalent feelings about Israel and a lingering hope in the actualization of the Zionist dream. I continue with Philip Roth’s Israel centered novels, The Counterlife and Operation Shylock, and his non-fictional, The Facts and Patrimony, delineating how Roth both depicts his writer protagonists’ progression towards Jewish collectivity and presents a template for Jewish American solidarity to Zionism. Roth identifies loyalty to Zionism with a Jewishness that is paternally engendered, and, in his rejection of messianic ideology, suggests that his model of Zionism can only exist when Jewish Americans critique Israel with honesty and complexity. My study ends with a gendered reading of Tova Reich’s Israel novels, which portray the disastrous consequences of the collision between messianic extremism and the Jewish mother. Within that dynamic, Reich delineates Zionism’s and Judaism’s patriarchal origins and inconsistencies, and reveals how extremists exploit those patriarchal elements to dangerous excess. Through the novels, Reich tacitly advocates for a complete revamping of Zionism and Judaism that eradicates hierarchy and chosenness and that is aligned with Judith Plaskow’s concept of feminist Judaism. Tortured Zionism utilizes post-colonial, post-Zionist, Jewish, gender, and formalistic hermeneutics to elucidate that contemporary Jewish American writers are rejecting a diasporist approach to Jewish American identity and are solidifying the importance of Israel in the Jewish American imagination, despite and because of the complex issues surrounding Zionism