10,470 research outputs found
A novel planning approach for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) sector: the use of object-oriented bayesian networks
Conventional approaches to design and plan water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) interventions are not suitable for capturing the increasing complexity of the context in which these services are delivered. Multidimensional tools are needed to unravel the links between access to basic services and the socio-economic drivers of poverty. This paper applies an object-oriented Bayesian network to reflect the main issues that determine access to WaSH services. A national Program in Kenya has been analyzed as initial case study. The main findings suggest that the proposed approach is able to accommodate local conditions and to represent an accurate reflection of the complexities of WaSH issues, incorporating the uncertainty intrinsic to service delivery processes. Results indicate those areas in which policy makers should prioritize efforts and resources. Similarly, the study shows the effects of sector interventions, as well as the foreseen impact of various scenarios related to the national Program.Preprin
Spectral Norm of Symmetric Functions
The spectral norm of a Boolean function is the sum
of the absolute values of its Fourier coefficients. This quantity provides
useful upper and lower bounds on the complexity of a function in areas such as
learning theory, circuit complexity, and communication complexity. In this
paper, we give a combinatorial characterization for the spectral norm of
symmetric functions. We show that the logarithm of the spectral norm is of the
same order of magnitude as where ,
and and are the smallest integers less than such that
or is constant for all with . We mention some applications to the decision tree and communication
complexity of symmetric functions
A Survey of Quantum Learning Theory
This paper surveys quantum learning theory: the theoretical aspects of
machine learning using quantum computers. We describe the main results known
for three models of learning: exact learning from membership queries, and
Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) and agnostic learning from classical or
quantum examples.Comment: 26 pages LaTeX. v2: many small changes to improve the presentation.
This version will appear as Complexity Theory Column in SIGACT News in June
2017. v3: fixed a small ambiguity in the definition of gamma(C) and updated a
referenc
Combining All Pairs Shortest Paths and All Pairs Bottleneck Paths Problems
We introduce a new problem that combines the well known All Pairs Shortest
Paths (APSP) problem and the All Pairs Bottleneck Paths (APBP) problem to
compute the shortest paths for all pairs of vertices for all possible flow
amounts. We call this new problem the All Pairs Shortest Paths for All Flows
(APSP-AF) problem. We firstly solve the APSP-AF problem on directed graphs with
unit edge costs and real edge capacities in
time,
where is the number of vertices, is the number of distinct edge
capacities (flow amounts) and is the time taken
to multiply two -by- matrices over a ring. Secondly we extend the problem
to graphs with positive integer edge costs and present an algorithm with
worst case time complexity, where is
the upper bound on edge costs
Discrete and fuzzy dynamical genetic programming in the XCSF learning classifier system
A number of representation schemes have been presented for use within
learning classifier systems, ranging from binary encodings to neural networks.
This paper presents results from an investigation into using discrete and fuzzy
dynamical system representations within the XCSF learning classifier system. In
particular, asynchronous random Boolean networks are used to represent the
traditional condition-action production system rules in the discrete case and
asynchronous fuzzy logic networks in the continuous-valued case. It is shown
possible to use self-adaptive, open-ended evolution to design an ensemble of
such dynamical systems within XCSF to solve a number of well-known test
problems
Privacy-Aware Processing of Biometric Templates by Means of Secure Two-Party Computation
The use of biometric data for person identification and access control is gaining more and more popularity. Handling biometric data, however, requires particular care, since biometric data is indissolubly tied to the identity of the owner hence raising important security and privacy issues. This chapter focuses on the latter, presenting an innovative approach that, by relying on tools borrowed from Secure Two Party Computation (STPC) theory, permits to process the biometric data in encrypted form, thus eliminating any risk that private biometric information is leaked during an identification process. The basic concepts behind STPC are reviewed together with the basic cryptographic primitives needed to achieve privacy-aware processing of biometric data in a STPC context. The two main approaches proposed so far, namely homomorphic encryption and garbled circuits, are discussed and the way such techniques can be used to develop a full biometric matching protocol described. Some general guidelines to be used in the design of a privacy-aware biometric system are given, so as to allow the reader to choose the most appropriate tools depending on the application at hand
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