Lifting QBF Resolution Calculi to DQBF

We examine the existing resolution systems for quantified Boolean formulas (QBF) and answer the question which of these calculi can be lifted to the more powerful Dependency QBFs (DQBF). An interesting picture emerges: While for QBF we have the strict chain of proof systems Q-Res < IR-calc < IRM-calc, the situation is quite different in DQBF. Q-Res and likewise universal resolution are too weak: they are not complete. IR-calc has the right strength: it is sound and complete. IRM-calc is too strong: it is not sound any more, and the same applies to long-distance resolution. Conceptually, we use the relation of DQBF to EPR and explain our new DQBF calculus based on IR-calc as a subsystem of first-order resolutio

Ultraviolet astronomy with small space telescopes

After describing the present situation with astronomy in the ultraviolet (UV), reviewing a few past and proposed future missions, we present options to develop space missions that have been realized for modest costs. In this context, we bring together a few aspects of different missions and projects that, when combined, might result in a low-cost mission for imaging or low resolution spectroscopy in the UV

Роль малого и среднего предпринимательства в обеспечении конкурентоспособности российской экономики

The article considers the current state and trends in development of small and medium businesses in Russia’s economy. The authors analyze key external and internal reasons causing the problems of Russian small and medium businesses.В статье рассматривается текущее состояние и тенденции развития малого и среднего предпринимательства в российской экономике. Проанализированы основные объективные и субъективные причины, вызывающие проблемы функционирования российского малого и среднего предпринимательства

Inclination shallowing in the Permian/Triassic boundary sedimentary sections of the Middle Volga region in light of the new paleomagnetic data

© 2017, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. One of the key challenges which are traditionally encountered in studying the paleomagnetism of terrigenous sedimentary strata is the necessity to allow for the effect of shallowing of paleomagnetic inclinations which takes place under the compaction of the sediment at the early stages of diagenesis and most clearly manifests itself in the case of midlatitude sedimentation. Traditionally, estimating the coefficient of inclination flattening (f) implies routine re-deposition experiments and studying their magnetic anisotropy (Kodama, 2012), which is not possible in every standard paleomagnetic laboratory. The Elongation–Inclination (E–I) statistical method for estimating the coefficient of inclination shallowing, which was recently suggested in (Tauxe and Kent, 2004), does not require the investigation of the rock material in a specially equipped laboratory but toughens the requirements on the paleomagnetic data and, primarily, regarding the volume of the data, which significantly restricts the possibilities of the post factum estimation and correction for inclination shallowing. In this work, we present the results of the paleomagnetic reinvestigation of the Puchezh and Zhukov ravine (ravine) reference sections of the Upper Permian and Lower Triassic rocks in the Middle Volga region. The obtained paleomagnetic data allowed us to estimate the coefficient of inclination shallowing f by the E–I method: for both sections, it is f = 0.9. This method was also used by us for the paleomagnetic data that were previously obtained for the Permian–Triassic rocks of the Monastyrskii ravine (Monastirskoje) section (Gialanella et al., 1997), where the inclination shallowing coefficient was estimated at f = 0.6

Translational and Regulatory Challenges for Exon Skipping Therapies

Several translational challenges are currently impeding the therapeutic development of antisense-mediated exon skipping approaches for rare diseases. Some of these are inherent to developing therapies for rare diseases, such as small patient numbers and limited information on natural history and interpretation of appropriate clinical outcome measures. Others are inherent to the antisense oligonucleotide (AON)-mediated exon skipping approach, which employs small modified DNA or RNA molecules to manipulate the splicing process. This is a new approach and only limited information is available on long-term safety and toxicity for most AON chemistries. Furthermore, AONs often act in a mutation-specific manner, in which case multiple AONs have to be developed for a single disease. A workshop focusing on preclinical development, trial design, outcome measures, and different forms of marketing authorization was organized by the regulatory models and biochemical outcome measures working groups of Cooperation of Science and Technology Action: "Networking towards clinical application of antisense-mediated exon skipping for rare diseases." The workshop included participants from patient organizations, academia, and members of staff from the European Medicine Agency and Medicine Evaluation Board (the Netherlands). This statement article contains the key outcomes of this meeting.status: publishe

Optimal Cutting Problem

One of the tasks of the Construction office of company STOBET Ltd is to create large sheets of paper containing a lot of objects describing a building construction as tables, charts, drawings, etc. For this reason it is necessary to arrange the small patterns in a given long sheet of paper with a minimum wastage. Another task of the company is to provide a way of cutting a stock material, e.g. given standard steel rods, into different number of smaller sized details in a way that minimizes the wasted material

Incremental QBF Solving

We consider the problem of incrementally solving a sequence of quantified Boolean formulae (QBF). Incremental solving aims at using information learned from one formula in the process of solving the next formulae in the sequence. Based on a general overview of the problem and related challenges, we present an approach to incremental QBF solving which is application-independent and hence applicable to QBF encodings of arbitrary problems. We implemented this approach in our incremental search-based QBF solver DepQBF and report on implementation details. Experimental results illustrate the potential benefits of incremental solving in QBF-based workflows.Comment: revision (camera-ready, to appear in the proceedings of CP 2014, LNCS, Springer

QRAT+: Generalizing QRAT by a More Powerful QBF Redundancy Property

The QRAT (quantified resolution asymmetric tautology) proof system simulates virtually all inference rules applied in state of the art quantified Boolean formula (QBF) reasoning tools. It consists of rules to rewrite a QBF by adding and deleting clauses and universal literals that have a certain redundancy property. To check for this redundancy property in QRAT, propositional unit propagation (UP) is applied to the quantifier free, i.e., propositional part of the QBF. We generalize the redundancy property in the QRAT system by QBF specific UP (QUP). QUP extends UP by the universal reduction operation to eliminate universal literals from clauses. We apply QUP to an abstraction of the QBF where certain universal quantifiers are converted into existential ones. This way, we obtain a generalization of QRAT we call QRAT+. The redundancy property in QRAT+ based on QUP is more powerful than the one in QRAT based on UP. We report on proof theoretical improvements and experimental results to illustrate the benefits of QRAT+ for QBF preprocessing.Comment: preprint of a paper to be published at IJCAR 2018, LNCS, Springer, including appendi

ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ И НОРМАТИВНО-ПРАВОВЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ РАЗВИТИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО ФИНАНСОВОГО ЦЕНТРА КАК ВАЖНОГО ФАКТОРА ИНТЕГРАЦИИ СТРАН СНГ И ЕВРАЗЭС

The process of forming in Moscow a regional (to be in future transformed into a global) international Single Economic Space (SES) financial center should become for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Euroasian Economic Community (EvrAsES) countries an universal integration instrument to be used to create their common economic and commercial space. The international center along with SES national financial centers will form an internationally competitive polycentric financial network with single institutional (regulatory, law, customs, etc.)agreements. A mechanism should be formed to attract countries outside Customs Union to participate in creation of the international financial center.Формирование в Москве регионального (с последующей трансформацией в глобальный) международного финансового центра Единого Экономического Пространства (ЕЭП) должно стать универсальным инструментом механизма создания общего евроазиатского экономического и торгового пространства, развития интеграционных процессов стран СНГ и Евразийского Экономического Сообщества (ЕврАзЭС). Международный центр и национальные финансовые центры стран ЕЭП образуют конкурентоспособную в международном масштабе полицентрическую сеть финансовых центров, между которыми будут действовать институциональные (регуляторные, правовые и налоговые) соглашения единой финансовой системы. Необходима разработка механизма привлечения к процессу формирования этого центра стран, не входящих в Таможенный Союз