Crowdfunding for financing wearable technologies

We explore electronic crowdfunding platforms as a means of receiving money and other resources by an entrepreneur from many parties for financing wearable technology project. The electronic platform determines the cost of funding for the entrepreneur and the return investors will receive per period. This research aims to develop a framework to understand and evaluate the quantitative and qualitative implications of various crowdfunding platforms for the entrepreneur and his investment decisions in wearable technologies. We consider a debt financing based platform and examine its operational implications on the entrepreneur's decisions. In addition, we identify the incentive problems that occur in these models. © 2016 IEEE

Alternative formulations of the theory of evidence based on basic plausibility and commonality assignments

In this paper we introduce indeed two alternative formulations of the theory of evidence by proving that both plausibility and commonality functions share the same combinatorial structure of sum function of belief functions, and computing their Moebius inverses called basic plausibility and commonality assignments. The equivalence of the associated formulations of the ToE is mirrored by the geometric congruence of the related simplices. Applications to the probabilistic approximation problem are briefly presented

More than a decade of developmental gene expression atlases: where are we now?

To unravel regulatory networks of genes functioning during embryonic development, information on in situ gene expression is required. Enormous amounts of such data are available in literature, where each paper reports on a limited number of genes and developmental stages. The best way to make these data accessible is via spatio-temporal gene expression atlases. Eleven atlases, describing developing vertebrates and covering at least 100 genes, were reviewed. This review focuses on: (i) the used anatomical framework, (ii) the handling of input data and (iii) the retrieval of information. Our aim is to provide insights into both the possibilities of the atlases, as well as to describe what more than a decade of developmental gene expression atlases can teach us about the requirements of the design of the ‘ideal atlas’. This review shows that most ingredients needed to develop the ideal atlas are already applied to some extent in at least one of the discussed atlases. A review of these atlases shows that the ideal atlas should be based on a spatial framework, i.e. a series of 3D reference models, which is anatomically annotated using an ontology with sufficient resolution, both for relations as well as for anatomical terms

Dual properties of the relative belief of singletons

In this paper we prove that a recent Bayesian approximation of belief functions, the relative belief of singletons, meets a number of properties with respect to Dempster’s rule of combination which mirrors those satisfied by the relative plausibility of singletons. In particular, its operator commutes with Dempster’s sum of plausibility functions, while perfectly representing a plausibility function when combined through Dempster’s rule. This suggests a classification of all Bayesian approximations into two families according to the operator they relate to

Preference-based Semantics for Nonmonotonic Logics

A variant is proposed of the preference-based semantics for nonmonotonic logics that was originally considered by Shoham (1987,1988). In this variant it is not assumed that preferences between standard models are aggregated into one preference order. This allows the capturing of all main nonmonotonic formalisms, including Default Logic of Reiter (1980). The preferential models introduced in this paper are motivated from an epistemic point of view, and are therefore called epistemic preference models. The consequence operations induced by epistemic preference models are characterized. Further, the view is defended that the rationality of cumulative monotonicity does not imply that nonmonotonic logics have to be cumulative, but only that a rational agent should not believe a set of default rules that induces a noncumulative consequence operation

A preferential model semantics for default logic

Shoham proposed a uniform approach to systems for nonmonotonic reasoning, which consists in considering standard logics augmented with a preference relation on the interpretations. Circumscription can easily seen to be a special case of this preference logic framework, but capturing default logic turned out to be, more difficult, and is even thought to be impossible by some researchers of nonmonotonic reasoning. In this paper a preferential model semantics for default logic is given, by defining a preference relation on partial models called hypervaluations. Alternatively, Kripke models for K45 could have been used instead of hypervaluations. The given semantics slightly strengthens Shoham's notion of preferential entailment, and reflection on the question why such a strengthening is necessary provides some insight into the relation between default logic and circumscription

On the justification of Dempster's rule of combination

In Dempster-Shafer theory it is claimed that the pooling of evidence is reflected by Dempster's rule of combination, provided certain requirements are met. The justification of this claim is problematic, since the existing formulations of the requirements for the use of Dempster's rule are not completely clear. In this paper, randomly coded messages, Shafer's canonical examples for Dempster-Shafer theory, are employed to clarify these requirements and to evaluate Dempster's rule. The range of applicability of Dempster-Shafer theory will turn out to be rather limited. Further, it will be argued that the mentioned requirements do not guarantee the validity of the rule and some possible additional conditions will be described