Second order ancillary: A differential view from continuity

Second order approximate ancillaries have evolved as the primary ingredient for recent likelihood development in statistical inference. This uses quantile functions rather than the equivalent distribution functions, and the intrinsic ancillary contour is given explicitly as the plug-in estimate of the vector quantile function. The derivation uses a Taylor expansion of the full quantile function, and the linear term gives a tangent to the observed ancillary contour. For the scalar parameter case, there is a vector field that integrates to give the ancillary contours, but for the vector case, there are multiple vector fields and the Frobenius conditions for mutual consistency may not hold. We demonstrate, however, that the conditions hold in a restricted way and that this verifies the second order ancillary contours in moderate deviations. The methodology can generate an appropriate exact ancillary when such exists or an approximate ancillary for the numerical or Monte Carlo calculation of $p$-values and confidence quantiles. Examples are given, including nonlinear regression and several enigmatic examples from the literature.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/10-BEJ248 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Nontrivial solutions for nonvariational quasilinear neumann problems

We consider a nonlinear nonvariational Neumann problem with a nonsmooth potential. Using the spectrum of the assymptotic (as |x| - ∞) differential operator and degree theoretic techniques based on the degree map of certain multivalued perturbations of (S)+-operators, we establish the existence of at least one nontrivial smooth solution

Search Based Clustering for Protecting Software with Diversified Updates

Reverse engineering is usually the stepping stone of a variety of attacks aiming at identifying sensitive information (keys, credentials, data, algorithms) or vulnerabilities and flaws for broader exploitation. Software applications are usually deployed as identical binary code installed on millions of computers, enabling an adversary to develop a generic reverse-engineering strategy that, if working on one code instance, could be applied to crack all the other instances. A solution to mitigate this problem is represented by Software Diversity, which aims at creating several structurally different (but functionally equivalent) binary code versions out of the same source code, so that even if a successful attack can be elaborated for one version, it should not work on a diversified version. In this paper, we address the problem of maximizing software diversity from a search-based optimization point of view. The program to protect is subject to a catalogue of transformations to generate many candidate versions. The problem of selecting the subset of most diversified versions to be deployed is formulated as an optimisation problem, that we tackle with different search heuristics. We show the applicability of this approach on some popular Android apps

New (e,2e) Studies of Atomic and Molecular Targets

We report new coplanar (e,2e) measurements characterised by large energy transfer and close to minimum momentum transfer from the projectile to the target. Ionisation of the two-electron targets He and H2 is investigated under these particular kinematics. The experimental data are compared with the predictions of the most elaborate theoretical models. The obtained good agreement motivated us to extend our research to the case of more complex targets such as Ar. Comparison with the most elaborate models in the case of multi-electron targets is excellent. Destructive and constructive interference effects in the case of H2 are observed and discussed