Quantum modeling of uncertainty in classical rule-based systems

[Resumo] A incerteza é un dos obstáculos cardinais cando se traballa con intelixencia artificial - é dicir, a información xestionada pode ser incompleta, incorrecta ou imprecisa. É particularmente un dos temas máis esenciais e relacionados cos sistemas baseados en regras. Aínda que a estatística foi historicamente o principal formalismo para representar a ambigüidade, existen métodos numéricos alternativos para cuantificalo (por exemplo, conxuntos difusos ou funcións de crenza). A incerteza asociada a unha hipótese pódese considerar consecuencia da propagación da imprecisión a través das distintas lóxicas inferenciais dun sistema. Tendo en conta isto, é posible modelar a ambigüidade? propón unha solución a este problema. O obxectivo principal deste traballo é reunir e avaliar a fondo un sistema cuántico baseado en regras que funciona de xeito análogo ao seu predecesor convencional. Este novo sistema trata a incerteza como un efecto positivo do carácter probabilístico inherente da mecánica cuántica. Trátase dun traballo de AI que usa técnicas de computación cuántica para resolver o problema de incerteza nos sistemas baseados en regras.[Abstract] Uncertainty is one of the cardinal obstacles when working with artificial intelligence — i.e., the managed information may be incomplete, incorrect or imprecise. It is particularly one of rule-based systems’ (RBS) most essential and convoluted issues. Albeit statistics has been historically the leading formalism to represent ambiguity, there exist alternative numerical methods to quantify it (e.g., fuzzy sets or belief functions). The associated uncertainty of a hypothesis can be considered a consequence of the propagation of imprecision through the different inferential logics of a system. Considering this, is it possible to model ambiguity? A solution to this problem is proposed by. The main goal of this work is to assemble and evaluate thoroughly a QRBS that works analogously to its conventional predecessor. This new system treats uncertainty as an innate aftereffect of the inherent probabilistic nature of QM. It is a work of AI that uses QC techniques to solve the problem of uncertainty in RBSs.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.FIC). Enxeñaría informática. Curso 2018/201

The intelligence-led national security architecture of Ghana and its three pre-conditions

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonIn chronological order, this dissertation takes the reader through the story of Ghana, covering many decades of its historical and political journey to date. Whilst doing so, it also explains how such a journey helped define the evolution of the country’s intelligence-led national security architecture from the pre-colonial era to what it is today. Besides going through the decades, it also zooms in analytically on the relevance of the architecture under respective governments throughout the country’s history. The historical analysis indicated that throughout Ghana’s history, whenever a new administration assumes office and immediately puts in place an intelligence-led national security architecture to help attain and maintain domestic stability, is when the country is most stable. However, whenever there is absence of intelligence-led national security architecture, the country’s political and security landscape becomes unstable. Such trend has been consistent since independence to date, and not only that when one pushes further back into pre-independence as part of Ghana’s backstory, the trend is still applicable. This analysis helped establish that there is a relationship between the country’s domestic stability and its intelligence-led national security architecture, which embodies three pre-conditions: (1) Establish National Security Institutions, (2) Embark on Intelligence Activities, and (3) Implement Interagency Intelligence Coordination. Additionally, the age of the country’s democracy, the political and security landscape of the sub-region where Ghana is situated, and Ghana’s security sector governance, and oversight responsibilities; have all been evaluated to help argue the relationship between the role of the intelligence-led national security architecture and current domestic stability. Hence underscoring the relevance of the pivotal role being played by Ghana’s intelligence-led national security architecture in the fight to maintain stability in the country

Le Prince et le problème de la corruption : réflexions sur une aporie machiavélienne

Dans les études sur la corruption politique, on trouve fréquemment des retours au lieu commun que les problèmes d’abus de charge publique en vue d’un intérêt privé ne peuvent être réglés sans la magie du leadership (l’anglicisme malheureux s’impose ici), cette qualité énigmatique de commandement qui saurait mettre en place les dispositifs d’incitatifs, de surveillance et de contrôle nécessaires pour contrer les abus. Mais un tel argument mène à une aporie, car les études qui placent ainsi leur confiance dans cet énigmatique leadership sont également traversées par l’idée, aussi un lieu commun, que toute autorité qui n’est pas sujette à la surveillance et au contrôle aura tendance à être corrompue. Dans cet essai, je propose de lire Le Prince de Machiavel comme une méditation sur le paradoxe suivant : l’autorité du principe est à la fois la source de la purification politique et la cause principale de la corruption. Le Prince, souvent considéré comme un texte fondateur des « leadership ethics », sera mal compris s’il n’est pas lu à la lumière de la préoccupation centrale de Machiavel républicain : la corruption.In studies on political corruption one sees frequent appeals to the cliché that the abuse of public office for private gain cannot be fought without the magic of ‘leadership’, that enigmatic quality that enables rulers to put in place the incentive structures and the institutions of surveillance and control that ensure integrity. But this argument leads to a catch-22, for these very studies that place their confidence in the power of leaders are equally committed to the view (also a commonplace) that all authority that is not subject to surveillance and control is liable to corruption.  In this paper, I propose to read Machiavelli’s Prince as a meditation on the following paradox: the authority of the prince is both the source of political purification and the principal cause of corruption. The Prince, often considered a foundational text for ‘leadership ethics,’ will be misunderstood if its counsels are not read in light of the central preoccupation of the republican Machiavelli: corruption.

Circumstances short of global war: British defence, colonial internal security, and decolonisation in Kenya, 1945-65

This thesis fills a significant gap in current secondary literature on post-war British defence and internal security policy. Hitherto, post-war British defence policy in Kenya has only been considered in passing, in relation to the larger question of Middle East strategy. Very little attention has been paid to Kenya's particular importance in the post-1956 ‘east of Suez’ role. Current works on British internal security policy in Kenya concentrate either on post-war policing in general or, more specifically, on the British counter-insurgency campaign during the Mau Mau revolt (1952-6). In examining post-war British defence and internal security policy and practice in Kenya until 1965, this thesis demonstrates the essential continuity in British strategic priorities in the area. Far from having to ‘scram from Africa’, Britain adapted its defence requirements to an acceptable minimum, thereby ameliorating the more ‘extreme’ face of African nationalism, and denying it political capital with which to apply pressure to Britain's ‘moderate’ collaborators. The success of this flexible approach to defensive requirements is clear because, in losing its politically unacceptable army base, Britain gained a great deal in terms of retention of communications, leave camp, overflying, staging and training rights and facilities, in exchange for arming and training the Kenyan military and assisting in the maintenance of post-independence internal security. Such arrangements continued well beyond the apparent demise of the ‘east of Suez role’. This thesis sets British internal security policy in Kenya in its broad Cold War context (1945-65). Even after apparent military victory in 1956, Britain remained fearful of a recurrence of Mau Mau, and the possible failure of attempts to fudge a ‘political solution’ in Kenya. Britain also had to ensure that its ‘moderate’ successors would be safe from the more radical elements in Kenya African politics, especially given the earlier contradictions inherent in the divisive political and socio-economic reforms which had been designed to foster economic and political stability. Quite simply, therefore, this study demonstrates that British defence and internal security interests in Kenya were far more important, and far more intricately connected with the transfer of political power, than has hitherto been acknowledged

Watchmen: vazios, tragédia e poesia visual moderna

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-graduação em Literatura, Florianópolis, 2009A presente dissertação é uma análise da história em quadrinhos Watchmen, de Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons, dividida em três partes: uma análise do processo de leitura das histórias em quadrinhos em geral, uma leitura da obra Watchmen e uma relação formal de Watchmen em relação à poesia visual moderna. Primeiramente a leitura e o processo de compreensão das histórias em quadrinhos são pensadas em relação a algumas ideias da semiologia, de proposições da estética da recepção, e da fenomenologia da percepção. A partir das proposições teóricas é investigada a importância exercida pelos vazios textuais nas histórias em quadrinhos como espaços de projeção interpretativa do leitor. Após é feita uma leitura da obra Watchmen como parábola da guerra fria e sua relação com a narrativa trágica, onde se aproxima a figura do super-herói de aspectos composicionais do herói trágico de várias épocas. Por fim, é feita uma relação de aproximação entre as estratégias narrativas de Watchmen com procedimentos formais da poesia visual. Esta relação aproxima estratégias narrativas, capítulos e a própria materialidade de Watchmen a aspectos formais da obra de Stephané Mallarmé, dos caligramas de Guillaume Apollinaire, e da autorreferencialidade temática do concretismo brasileiro.This thesis is an analysis of the comic book Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and is divided into three parts: an analysis of the reading process carried out in comic books, a reading of some Watchmen's particularities and a formal approach of the work towards modern poetry. First, the process of reading and understanding in comics are considered in relation to some ideas of semiology, to reception theory and to phenomenology of perception. From these propositions, the importance of the textual gaps on comics, the empty spaces between each frame, as a space for the reader's interpretative projection, is studied. It then analyses Watchmen as a parable for the Cold War and its relation to the tragic narrative, where the picture of the superhero is compared to the tragic hero's compositional features of various epochs. Lastly, it relates the work's narrative strategies to formal procedures of modern visual poetry. This relation will connect parts of the narrative, chapters and the very materiality of the novel to formal aspects of Stepháne Mallarmé's work, the caligrams of Guillaume Apollinaire, and the thematic self-referentiality of Brazilian Concretism

The Problematic of Privacy in the Namespace

In the twenty-first century, the issue of privacy--particularly the privacy of individuals with regard to their personal information and effects--has become highly contested terrain, producing a crisis that affects both national and global social formations. This crisis, or problematic, characterizes a particular historical conjuncture I term the namespace. Using cultural studies and the theory of articulation, I map the emergent ways that the namespace articulates economic, juridical, political, cultural, and technological forces, materials, practices and protocols. The cohesive articulation of the namespace requires that privacy be reframed in ways that make its diminution seem natural and inevitable. In the popular media, privacy is often depicted as the price we pay as citizens and consumers for security and convenience, respectively. This discursive ideological shift supports and underwrites the interests of state and corporate actors who leverage the ubiquitous network of digitally connected devices to engender a new regime of informational surveillance, or dataveillance. The widespread practice of dataveillance represents a strengthening of the hegemonic relations between these actors--each shares an interest in promoting an emerging surveillance society, a burgeoning security politics, and a growing information economy--that further empowers them to capture and store the personal information of citizens/consumers. In characterizing these shifts and the resulting crisis, I also identify points of articulation vulnerable to rearticulation and suggest strategies for transforming the namespace in ways that might empower stronger protections for privacy and related civil rights

Soldiers and Societies in Revolt: Military Doctrine in the Arab Spring

This dissertation explores civil-military relations in democratizing contexts, specifically how the historical relationship between the military and the broader public shapes responses to political crises such as riots and revolutions. I develop a novel theory, rooted in civil-military relations literature from political science and sociology, for how an army's historical interactions with the population and with foreign sponsors create doctrine by shaping organizational culture and practices toward the population. Doctrine, in turn, influences the military’s response to a popular uprising. The foundations of military doctrine are historical and include the military's institutional origins, role in national independence, and relationship to the ruling party. Subsequently, doctrinal innovation occurs as a result of interacting with the domestic population and foreign military sponsors. The dissertation features qualitative case studies of Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria during the Arab Spring and a quantitative data analysis of major uprisings worldwide since 1950. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence demonstrate that the nature of military doctrine explains soldiers' behavior during popular uprisings better than alternative arguments based on capacity, patronage, and ethnicity

La lena

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2009-201