Expanding FLew with a Boolean connective

We expand FLew with a unary connective whose algebraic counterpart is the operation that gives the greatest complemented element below a given argument. We prove that the expanded logic is conservative and has the Finite Model Property. We also prove that the corresponding expansion of the class of residuated lattices is an equational class.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures in Soft Computing, published online 23 July 201

On completeness results for predicate lukasiewicz, product, gödel and nilpotent minimum logics expanded with truth-constants

In this paper we deal with generic expansions of first-order predicate logics of some left-continuous t-norms with a countable set of truth-constants. Besides already known results for the case of Lukasiewicz logic, we obtain new conservativeness and completeness results for some other expansions. Namely, we prove that the expansions of predicate Product, Gödel and Nilpotent Minimum logics with truth-constants are conservative, which already implies the failure of standard completeness for the case of Product logic. In contrast, the expansions of predicate Gödel and Nilpotent Minimum logics are proved to be strong standard complete but, when the semantics is restricted to the canonical algebra, they are proved to be complete only for tautologies. Moreover, when the language is restricted to evaluated formulae we prove canonical completeness for deductions from finite sets of premises.Peer Reviewe

Using Electronic Institutions to secure Grid environments

Abstract. As the technical infrastructure to support Grid environments matures, attention must be focused on integrating such technical infrastructure with technologies to support more dynamic access to services, and ensuring that such access is appropriately monitored and secured. Such capabilities will be key in providing a safe environment that allow the creation of virtual organisations at run time. This paper addresses this issue by analysing how work from within the field of Electronic Institutions (EIs) can be employed to provide security support for Grid environments, and introduces the notion of a Semantic Firewall (SFW) responsible for mediating interactions with protected services given a set of access policies. An overarching guideline is that such integration should be pragmatic, taking into account the real-life lessons learned whilst developing, deploying and using the GRIA infrastructure for Grid environments

Fitting in a complex chi^2 landscape using an optimized hypersurface sampling

Fitting a data set with a parametrized model can be seen geometrically as finding the global minimum of the chi^2 hypersurface, depending on a set of parameters {P_i}. This is usually done using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The main drawback of this algorithm is that despite of its fast convergence, it can get stuck if the parameters are not initialized close to the final solution. We propose a modification of the Metropolis algorithm introducing a parameter step tuning that optimizes the sampling of parameter space. The ability of the parameter tuning algorithm together with simulated annealing to find the global chi^2 hypersurface minimum, jumping across chi^2{P_i} barriers when necessary, is demonstrated with synthetic functions and with real data

Optimal Uncertainty Quantification

We propose a rigorous framework for Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in which the UQ objectives and the assumptions/information set are brought to the forefront. This framework, which we call \emph{Optimal Uncertainty Quantification} (OUQ), is based on the observation that, given a set of assumptions and information about the problem, there exist optimal bounds on uncertainties: these are obtained as values of well-defined optimization problems corresponding to extremizing probabilities of failure, or of deviations, subject to the constraints imposed by the scenarios compatible with the assumptions and information. In particular, this framework does not implicitly impose inappropriate assumptions, nor does it repudiate relevant information. Although OUQ optimization problems are extremely large, we show that under general conditions they have finite-dimensional reductions. As an application, we develop \emph{Optimal Concentration Inequalities} (OCI) of Hoeffding and McDiarmid type. Surprisingly, these results show that uncertainties in input parameters, which propagate to output uncertainties in the classical sensitivity analysis paradigm, may fail to do so if the transfer functions (or probability distributions) are imperfectly known. We show how, for hierarchical structures, this phenomenon may lead to the non-propagation of uncertainties or information across scales. In addition, a general algorithmic framework is developed for OUQ and is tested on the Caltech surrogate model for hypervelocity impact and on the seismic safety assessment of truss structures, suggesting the feasibility of the framework for important complex systems. The introduction of this paper provides both an overview of the paper and a self-contained mini-tutorial about basic concepts and issues of UQ.Comment: 90 pages. Accepted for publication in SIAM Review (Expository Research Papers). See SIAM Review for higher quality figure