Property Testing with Online Adversaries

The online manipulation-resilient testing model, proposed by Kalemaj, Raskhodnikova and Varma (ITCS 2022 and Theory of Computing 2023), studies property testing in situations where access to the input degrades continuously and adversarially. Specifically, after each query made by the tester is answered, the adversary can intervene and either erase or corrupt $t$ data points. In this work, we investigate a more nuanced version of the online model in order to overcome old and new impossibility results for the original model. We start by presenting an optimal tester for linearity and a lower bound for low-degree testing of Boolean functions in the original model. We overcome the lower bound by allowing batch queries, where the tester gets a group of queries answered between manipulations of the data. Our batch size is small enough so that function values for a single batch on their own give no information about whether the function is of low degree. Finally, to overcome the impossibility results of Kalemaj et al. for sortedness and the Lipschitz property of sequences, we extend the model to include $t<1$, i.e., adversaries that make less than one erasure per query. For sortedness, we characterize the rate of erasures for which online testing can be performed, exhibiting a sharp transition from optimal query complexity to impossibility of testability (with any number of queries). Our online tester works for a general class of local properties of sequences. One feature of our results is that we get new (and in some cases, simpler) optimal algorithms for several properties in the standard property testing model.Comment: To be published in 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS 2024

The Nutritional Value of Normal and High Lysine Corns for Weanling and Growing-Finishing Swine When Fed at Four Lysine Levels

One-hundred-ninety-two weanling pigs from two separate trials, (initial weight 6.0 and 5.6 kg) and 400 growing-finishing pigs (initial weight 17 kg) were fed normal and high lysine corn diets containing four levels of lysine in a 2 • 4 factorial arrangement. Crossbred (Large White • Landrace x Duroc) pigs were used in all experiments. The objectives of the experiments were to (1) compare normal and high lysine corn when fed at different lysine levels, (2) determine the lysine requirements for the three stages of growth and (3) evaluate the effect of protein level on the lysine requirement. All diets were balanced on a lysine basis. The results indicated that both weanling and growing-finishing pig performance and final carcass composition were similar for pigs fed normal or high lysine corn diets balanced on a lysine basis

Cultural Militarism, Militaristic Politics and Potential Praetorianism During the First Fifty Years of Israel

The article endeavours to account for the intriguing socio-political phenomenon, illustrated by the case of Israel, that military coups (or praetorianism) are thwarted not because of the resilience of democratic institutions and the absence of war, but because the society is culturally militaristic and is in a protracted state of war. This argument, which hypothesizes an inverse relationship between militarism and praetorianism, is based on an examination of the Israeli state from its foundation up until the present day. During that period, the depiction of the Israeli nation-in-arms has been embodied by non-praetorian militarism.The article endeavours to account for the intriguing socio-political phenomenon, illustrated by the case of Israel, that military coups (or praetorianism) are thwarted not because of the resilience of democratic institutions and the absence of war, but because the society is culturally militaristic and is in a protracted state of war. This argument, which hypothesizes an inverse relationship between militarism and praetorianism, is based on an examination of the Israeli state from its foundation up until the present day. During that period, the depiction of the Israeli nation-in-arms has been embodied by non-praetorian militarism

Guardians or Oppressors: the Israeli and Turkish Armies in neoliberal contexts

In this essay, Uri Ben-Eliezer recalls the centrality of the army in the Israeli state and offers two divergent interpretations of such a place in a neoliberal context. He draws a comparison with the role and place of the army in Turkey.Dans cet essai, Uri Ben-Eliezer rappelle le caractère central de l’institution militaire au sein de l’État d’Israël et apporte deux interprétations possibles d’une telle importance dans un contexte néolibéral. Il esquisse au passage une comparaison avec le rôle et la place de l’armée en Turquie

The ‘symbolic homeland’ in the Jewish Italian Diaspora: the celebration of civil religion in Italy

In this article, the attitudes of the Italian Jewish diaspora towards Israel, seen as a symbolic homeland, are analyzed. This analysis is based on the theoretical discourse on diaspora. Attitudes are explored through the participation of Italian Jews in the celebration of Yom ha atzma’ut. Given the significance of Israel’s Independence Day in the sequence of the three-day civil religious commemoration in Israel – which constitutes a sort of national narrative – the entire sequence is also considered in the analysis of the Italian diaspor