20,212 research outputs found
Optimizing the computation of overriding
We introduce optimization techniques for reasoning in DLN---a recently
introduced family of nonmonotonic description logics whose characterizing
features appear well-suited to model the applicative examples naturally arising
in biomedical domains and semantic web access control policies. Such
optimizations are validated experimentally on large KBs with more than 30K
axioms. Speedups exceed 1 order of magnitude. For the first time, response
times compatible with real-time reasoning are obtained with nonmonotonic KBs of
this size
Exchange, interaction and settlement in northwestern Botswana: past and present perspective
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 3
S+Net: extending functional coordination with extra-functional semantics
This technical report introduces S+Net, a compositional coordination language
for streaming networks with extra-functional semantics. Compositionality
simplifies the specification of complex parallel and distributed applications;
extra-functional semantics allow the application designer to reason about and
control resource usage, performance and fault handling. The key feature of
S+Net is that functional and extra-functional semantics are defined
orthogonally from each other. S+Net can be seen as a simultaneous
simplification and extension of the existing coordination language S-Net, that
gives control of extra-functional behavior to the S-Net programmer. S+Net can
also be seen as a transitional research step between S-Net and AstraKahn,
another coordination language currently being designed at the University of
Hertfordshire. In contrast with AstraKahn which constitutes a re-design from
the ground up, S+Net preserves the basic operational semantics of S-Net and
thus provides an incremental introduction of extra-functional control in an
existing language.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, 3 table
Lexicalization and Grammar Development
In this paper we present a fully lexicalized grammar formalism as a
particularly attractive framework for the specification of natural language
grammars. We discuss in detail Feature-based, Lexicalized Tree Adjoining
Grammars (FB-LTAGs), a representative of the class of lexicalized grammars. We
illustrate the advantages of lexicalized grammars in various contexts of
natural language processing, ranging from wide-coverage grammar development to
parsing and machine translation. We also present a method for compact and
efficient representation of lexicalized trees.Comment: ps file. English w/ German abstract. 10 page
Ancient origin and maternal inheritance of blue cuckoo eggs
Maternal inheritance via the female-specific W chromosome was long ago proposed as a potential solution to the evolutionary enigma of co-existing host-specific races (or 'gentes') in avian brood parasites. Here we report the first unambiguous evidence for maternal inheritance of egg colouration in the brood-parasitic common cuckoo Cuculus canorus. Females laying blue eggs belong to an ancient (∼2.6 Myr) maternal lineage, as evidenced by both mitochondrial and W-linked DNA, but are indistinguishable at nuclear DNA from other common cuckoos. Hence, cuckoo host races with blue eggs are distinguished only by maternally inherited components of the genome, which maintain host-specific adaptation despite interbreeding among males and females reared by different hosts. A mitochondrial phylogeny suggests that blue eggs originated in Asia and then expanded westwards as female cuckoos laying blue eggs interbred with the existing European population, introducing an adaptive trait that expanded the range of potential hosts
Network-aware Evaluation Environment for Reputation Systems
Parties of reputation systems rate each other and use ratings to compute reputation scores that drive their interactions. When deciding which reputation model to deploy in a network environment, it is important to find the
most suitable model and to determine its right initial configuration. This calls for an engineering approach for describing, implementing and evaluating reputation
systems while taking into account specific aspects of both the reputation systems and the networked environment where they will run. We present a software tool (NEVER) for network-aware evaluation of reputation systems and their rapid prototyping through experiments performed according to user-specified parameters. To demonstrate effectiveness of NEVER, we analyse reputation models based on the beta distribution and the maximum likelihood estimation
- …