2,404 research outputs found
Data Persistence in Eiffel
This dissertation describes an extension to the Eiffel programming language that provides automatic object persistence (the ability of programs to store objects and later recreate those objects in a subsequent execution of a program). The mechanism is orthogonal to other aspects of the Eiffel language. The mechanism serves four main purposes: 1) it gives Eiffel programmers a needed service, filling a gap between serialization, which provides limited persistence functions and database-mapping, which is cumbersome to use; 2) it greatly reduces the coding burden incurred by the programmer when objects must persist, allowing the programmer to focus instead on the business model; 3) it provides a platform for testing the benefits of orthogonal persistence in Eiffel, and 4) it furnishes a model for orthogonal persistence in other object-oriented languages.
During my research, I created a prototype implementation of the persistence mechanism using it effectively in several programs. Performance measurements showed acceptable performance with some increase in program memory usage. The prototype gives the programmer the ability to add automatic persistence to existing code with the addition of only a few lines of code. The size of this additional code remains constant regardless of the total number of lines of code in the project. Eiffel syntax remains unchanged and nonpersistent Eiffel code runs as is while incur- ring only a very small speed penalty
Girt by sea: understanding Australiaâs maritime domains in a networked world
This study aims to provide the background, language and context necessary for an informed understanding of the challenges and dilemmas faced by those responsible for the efficacy of Australiaâs maritime domain awareness system.
Abstract
Against a rapidly changing region dominated by the rise of China, India and, closer to home, Indonesia, Australiaâs approaches to understanding its maritime domains will be influenced by strategic factors and diplomatic judgements as well as operational imperatives. Australiaâs alliance relationship with the United States and its relationships with regional neighbours may be expected to have a profound impact on the strength of the information sharing and interoperability regimes on which so much of Australiaâs maritime domain awareness depends.
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it seeks to explain in plain English some of the principles, concepts and terms that maritime domain awareness practitioners grapple with on a daily basis. Second, it points to a series of challenges that governments face in deciding how to spend scarce tax dollars to deliver a maritime domain awareness system that is necessary and sufficient for the protection and promotion of Australiaâs national interests
Not Congruent but Quite Complementary: U.S. and Chinese Approaches to Nontraditional Security
U.S.-China relations, difficult in the best of times, have lurched in a dangerous direction since 2009. Against the backdrop of a weakened global economy and sharpened ideological tensions, there has been a disturbing new atmosphere of crisis in East Asia over the last two years, with incidents occurring in greater frequency and sowing serious doubts about the sustainability of the long peace that this region has enjoyed for decades. Indeed, any one of the following incidents could have escalated into a serious regional crisis: the sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan; the collision between a Japanese coast guard cutter and a Chinese fishing trawler and the ensuing Chinese restrictions on the export of rare-earth minerals; and a string of confrontations between Chinese patrol ships and vessels from both Vietnam and the Philippines.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1008/thumbnail.jp
Kani: A Lightweight and Highly Hackable Framework for Building Language Model Applications
Language model applications are becoming increasingly popular and complex,
often including features like tool usage and retrieval augmentation. However,
existing frameworks for such applications are often opinionated, deciding for
developers how their prompts ought to be formatted and imposing limitations on
customizability and reproducibility. To solve this we present Kani: a
lightweight, flexible, and model-agnostic open-source framework for building
language model applications. Kani helps developers implement a variety of
complex features by supporting the core building blocks of chat interaction:
model interfacing, chat management, and robust function calling. All Kani core
functions are easily overridable and well documented to empower developers to
customize functionality for their own needs. Kani thus serves as a useful tool
for researchers, hobbyists, and industry professionals alike to accelerate
their development while retaining interoperability and fine-grained control.Comment: In submission to NLP-OS
Exchange Market Pressure in African Lusophone Countries
This paper explores the credibility of exchange rate arrangements for the five African Portuguese-speaking (PALOP) countries. Our working hypothesis is that credibility necessarily implies low mean exchange market pressure (EMP), low EMP conditional volatility and low-severity EMP crises. In addition, economic fundamentals must account for EMP dynamics. We also seek evidence of a risk-return relationship for mean EMP and of âbad newsâ (negative shocks) having a greater impact on EMP volatility than âgood newsâ (positive shocks). Using our econometric models, we are able to rank PALOP countriesâ conditional volatility in ordinal terms. Our main conclusion is that countries with currency pegs, such as Guinea-Bissau (GB) and Cape Verde (CV), clearly have lower volatility when compared to those with managed floats and are therefore more credible. Moreover, EMP crises episodes under pegs are much less severe. We find that economic fundamentals correctly account for mean EMP in all countries and that the risk-return relationship is much more favourable for investors under currency pegs, as the increase in volatility is lower for the same rate of return. The exception to this finding is Mozambique (MOZ), which apparently has a risk-return profile akin to that enjoyed by countries with pegs. A plausible reason is that MOZ has the only managed float in our sample implementing monetary and exchange rate policy within the confines of an IMF framework, which establishes floors for international reserves and ceilings for the central bankâs net domestic assets. This intuition needs to be tested, however. EMP conditional volatility is generally driven by changes in domestic credit (lowers it) and foreign reserve changes (raises it). The first effect is more pronounced under currency pegs, but also under MOZâs managed float. âBad newsâ increases volatility more that âgood newsâ only in the case of CVâs currency peg, which we take to be another sign of its credibility. A few striking cross-country comparisons also emerge in our analysis. Among countries with managed floats, we find that Angola (ANG) has the most severe EMP crises whilst MOZ has the least severe. SĂŁo TomĂ© & PrincĂpe (STP), meanwhile, lies between these two extremes but its EMP crises behaviour is clearly much closer to that of MOZ. STPâs credibility may also be improving since its volatility has declined as of 2002 and its level is now much closer to that of MOZ, whose managed float has lowest volatility of such arrangements.
Use of Deadly Force by Peacekeepers Operating Outside of Armed Conflict Situations: What Laws Apply?
Indigenous capability building as an intervention strategy for sustainable enerby implementation in vulnerable societies.
Geospatial regions have different requirements for energy development due to variations in environmental, economic, social, and political constraints which influence their energy demand profiles and generation capacities. These constraints determine the policy, strategy, and implementation priorities for sustainable energy consumption, generation, and distribution. This PhD research project focuses on the role of interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology; and its iterative feedback loop mechanism to encourage the implementation of sustainable energy systems in a vulnerable society. As a novel contribution to knowledge and practice, this PhD work concludes that: 1. Establishing a local business case for indigenous, appropriate technology, utilising a solid network which receives committed, political support, is an effective intervention strategy to fast track the deployment of sustainable energy systems, which breaks the cycle of vulnerability through social transformation and community empowerment. 2. Being aware of their own Western-Educated-Industrialised-Rich-Democratic (WEIRD) mindsets is a first step for knowledge exchange practitioners to overcome cultural differences and to introduce the intervention strategy. This was synthesised from the following new understandings which were obtained as the outputs of this PhD research: 1. Re-interpretation of the theory of vulnerable societies in relation to sustainable energy; 2. Re-interpretation of the theory of sustainable energy in relation to the proposed fourth dimension of sustainability; 3. Re-interpretation on the theory of appropriate technology in relation to technological independence and indigenous wisdom; 4. Novel conceptual model of a vulnerable societys problem system; 5. Novel conceptual model of the interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology in vulnerable societies. It is expected that the outcome of this PhD research can bridge the gaps identified in theoretical sustainable energy policies whilst in practice provide sound advice and confidence for policy makers and initiative implementers in grounding equal access to energy as a fundamental agent of change towards sustainable societal development
Exploration Of Studentsâ Argumentation Skill Assisted Format Representation In Solving Electrical Concept
The argumentation skill is one of the supporting abilities in determining the quality of thinking in the era of the 4.0 revolution. The development of argumentation skills is important to be implemented in solving physics problems, especially in exploring how they solve problems and understand concepts so that misconceptions do not occur. This study aims to determine the improvement of students' argumentation skills in solving electrical concept problems before and after the intervention. This type of research uses a mixed method model research method with an embedded experimental design. The research subjects consisted of 32 students of the Department of Physics Education at Musamus University who had or are currently taking the magnetic electricity course. The results showed that students' argumentation skills improved along with the help of worksheets assisted with representation formats during lecture
a digital humanities platform to explore the Portuguese cultural heritage
LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022139The ROSSIO Infrastructure is developing a free and open-access platform for aggregating, organising, and connecting the digital resources in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities provided by Portuguese higher education and cultural institutions. This paper presents an overview of the ROSSIO Infrastructure, its main objectives, the institutions involved, and the services offered by the infrastructureâs aims through its platformânamely, a discovery portal, digital exhibitions, collections, and a virtual research environment. These services rely on a metadata-aggregation solution for bringing the digital objectsâ metadata from the providing institutions into ROSSIO. The aggregated datasets are converted into linked data and undergo an enrichment process based on controlled vocabularies, which are developed and published by ROSSIO. The paper will describe this process, the applications involved, and how they interoperate. We will further reflect on how these services may enhance the dissemination of science, considering the FAIR principles.publishersversionpublishe
The Left and Humanitarian Intervention
Although the author concedes that much criticism from the left alleging ulterior imperialist motives of missions for âhumanitarian interventionâ is valid; nevertheless, the author argues that it would be wrong to rule out the concept of humanitarian intervention, even when conducted by imperialist powers for imperialist motives. The concept of ârescueâ remains a valid humanitarian concept, and a logical foundation for solidarity with populations who find themselves under assault and defenseless. The author considers various regulative principles that may guide more careful thinking about humanitarian intervention
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