A MDE-based optimisation process for Real-Time systems

The design and implementation of Real-Time Embedded Systems is now heavily relying on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) as a central place to define and then analyze or implement a system. MDE toolchains are taking a key role as to gather most of functional and not functional properties in a central framework, and then exploit this information. Such toolchain is based on both 1) a modeling notation, and 2) companion tools to transform or analyse models. In this paper, we present a MDE-based process for system optimisation based on an architectural description. We first define a generic evaluation pipeline, define a library of elementary transformations and then shows how to use it through Domain-Specific Language to evaluate and then transform models. We illustrate this process on an AADL case study modeling a Generic Avionics Platform

Atlanta Consultation II: On the Future of the NPT

The Middle Powers Initiative, a program of the Global Security Institute, organized an Extraordinary Strategy Consultation on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2005 Review Conference in cooperation with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, January 26-28, 2005.Entitled Atlanta Consultation II: On the Future of the NPT, the gathering involved high-level representatives of key governments and was modeled after the successful Atlanta Consultation I held at The Carter Center in 2000. This report helped identify workable proposals for governments to consider as they prepared for the 2005 Review

A Concurrent Fuzzy-Neural Network Approach for Decision Support Systems

Decision-making is a process of choosing among alternative courses of action for solving complicated problems where multi-criteria objectives are involved. The past few years have witnessed a growing recognition of Soft Computing technologies that underlie the conception, design and utilization of intelligent systems. Several works have been done where engineers and scientists have applied intelligent techniques and heuristics to obtain optimal decisions from imprecise information. In this paper, we present a concurrent fuzzy-neural network approach combining unsupervised and supervised learning techniques to develop the Tactical Air Combat Decision Support System (TACDSS). Experiment results clearly demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed technique

Double elevation: Autonomous weapons and the search for an irreducible law of war

What should be the role of law in response to the spread of artificial intelligence in war? Fuelled by both public and private investment, military technology is accelerating towards increasingly autonomous weapons, as well as the merging of humans and machines. Contrary to much of the contemporary debate, this is not a paradigm change; it is the intensification of a central feature in the relationship between technology and war: Double elevation, above one's enemy and above oneself. Elevation above one's enemy aspires to spatial, moral, and civilizational distance. Elevation above oneself reflects a belief in rational improvement that sees humanity as the cause of inhumanity and de-humanization as our best chance for humanization. The distance of double elevation is served by the mechanization of judgement. To the extent that judgement is seen as reducible to algorithm, law becomes the handmaiden of mechanization. In response, neither a focus on questions of compatibility nor a call for a 'ban on killer robots' help in articulating a meaningful role for law. Instead, I argue that we should turn to a long-standing philosophical critique of artificial intelligence, which highlights not the threat of omniscience, but that of impoverished intelligence. Therefore, if there is to be a meaningful role for law in resisting double elevation, it should be law encompassing subjectivity, emotion and imagination, law irreducible to algorithm, a law of war that appreciates situated judgement in the wielding of violence for the collective

Attention Allocation Aid for Visual Search

This paper outlines the development and testing of a novel, feedback-enabled attention allocation aid (AAAD), which uses real-time physiological data to improve human performance in a realistic sequential visual search task. Indeed, by optimizing over search duration, the aid improves efficiency, while preserving decision accuracy, as the operator identifies and classifies targets within simulated aerial imagery. Specifically, using experimental eye-tracking data and measurements about target detectability across the human visual field, we develop functional models of detection accuracy as a function of search time, number of eye movements, scan path, and image clutter. These models are then used by the AAAD in conjunction with real time eye position data to make probabilistic estimations of attained search accuracy and to recommend that the observer either move on to the next image or continue exploring the present image. An experimental evaluation in a scenario motivated from human supervisory control in surveillance missions confirms the benefits of the AAAD.Comment: To be presented at the ACM CHI conference in Denver, Colorado in May 201

Re-nuclearization or Disarmament: A Fateful Choice for Humanity

In light of the real possibility that terrorists could acquire and use nuclear weapons to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, never has the need to eliminate the threat posed by nuclear weapons been more urgent. Tragically, this sense of urgency was not shared by many delegates to thethird and final meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT). The meeting at the U.N. in New York ended May 7, 2004 in disarray, the delegates unable to agree even on an agenda and background documentation for the Review Conference. Acrimony and weak leadership characterized the PrepComm. Issues of substance concerning the future of nuclear weapons were lost in the procedural wrangling that dominated the final two days of the two-week meeting. This is the last of three reports on the meetings in 2002, 2003 and 2004, of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The first two reports, "The NPT: Crisis and Challenge" (2002) and "Ritualistic Facade" (2003), are available on Senator Roche's website (http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/droche)