Continuous cellular automata on irregular tessellations : mimicking steady-state heat flow

Leaving a few exceptions aside, cellular automata (CA) and the intimately related coupled-map lattices (CML), commonly known as continuous cellular automata (CCA), as well as models that are based upon one of these paradigms, employ a regular tessellation of an Euclidean space in spite of the various drawbacks this kind of tessellation entails such as its inability to cover surfaces with an intricate geometry, or the anisotropy it causes in the simulation results. Recently, a CCA-based model describing steady-state heat flow has been proposed as an alternative to Laplace's equation that is, among other things, commonly used to describe this process, yet, also this model suffers from the aforementioned drawbacks since it is based on the classical CCA paradigm. To overcome these problems, we first conceive CCA on irregular tessellations of an Euclidean space after which we show how the presented approach allows a straightforward simulation of steady-state heat flow on surfaces with an intricate geometry, and, as such, constitutes an full-fledged alternative for the commonly used and easy-to-implement finite difference method, and the more intricate finite element method

Tracking uncertainty in a spatially explicit susceptible-infected epidemic model

In this paper we conceive an interval-valued continuous cellular automaton for describing the spatio-temporal dynamics of an epidemic, in which the magnitude of the initial outbreak and/or the epidemic properties are only imprecisely known. In contrast to well-established approaches that rely on probability distributions for keeping track of the uncertainty in spatio-temporal models, we resort to an interval representation of uncertainty. Such an approach lowers the amount of computing power that is needed to run model simulations, and reduces the need for data that are indispensable for constructing the probability distributions upon which other paradigms are based

The Tension Between Privacy and Security

A Review of President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, Liberty and Security in a Changing World, 2013 and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, Joseph A. Cannataci, 2016

A threshold for majority in the context of aggregating partial order relations

We consider a voting problem where voters have expressed their preferences on a single set of objects. These preferences take the shape of strict partial order relations. In order to allow extraction of a unique strict partial order relation corresponding to a social set of preferences, we determine the minimum number of votes a pairwise preference should receive in order to qualify as a social pairwise preference. Transitive closure of the social pairwise preferences will result in the social set of preferences. At the same time, the social set of preferences needs to be cycle-free, and the minimum number of votes should be determined with this constraint in mind. We provide an example application

Leyes que rigen la libertad de expresión del historiador: una visión comparativa en el mundo contemporáneo (Debates)

This article provides a comparative approach to laws that interfere directly with the free expression of historians, that is, with respect to what they say and write. This body of international law is gathered together into four groups: memory laws, blasphemy laws, hate speech laws, and laws against genocide denial. To examine each group, the article provides a definition and identifies how standards overlap. Finally, the most relevant debates are summarized with respect to their consequences for practicing history.Este artículo muestra una perspectiva comparativa de las leyes que interfieren directamente con la libertad de expresión de los historiadores, es decir, con lo que cuentan y escriben. Este corpus de legislación internacional se agrupa en cuatro grupos: leyes de memoria, leyes contra la blasfemia, leyes contra las expresiones de odio, y leyes contra la negación del genocidio. Para estudiar cada grupo, el artículo propone una definición e identifica la manera en que las normas se superponen entre sí. Finalmente, se sintetizan los debates más relevantes en relación con las consecuencias para la práctica de la historia