A generation-oriented workbench for performance grammar: Capturing linear order variability in German and Dutch

We describe a generation-oriented workbench for the Performance Grammar (PG) formalism, highlighting the treatment of certain word order and movement constraints in Dutch and German. PG enables a simple and uniform treatment of a heterogeneous collection of linear order phenomena in the domain of verb constructions (variably known as Cross-serial Dependencies, Verb Raising, Clause Union, Extraposition, Third Construction, Particle Hopping, etc.). The central data structures enabling this feature are clausal “topologies”: one-dimensional arrays associated with clauses, whose cells (“slots”) provide landing sites for the constituents of the clause. Movement operations are enabled by unification of lateral slots of topologies at adjacent levels of the clause hierarchy. The PGW generator assists the grammar developer in testing whether the implemented syntactic knowledge allows all and only the well-formed permutations of constituents

A generation-oriented workbench for performance grammar: Capturing linear order variability in German and Dutch

We describe a generation-oriented workbench for the Performance Grammar (PG) formalism, highlighting the treatment of certain word order and movement constraints in Dutch and German. PG enables a simple and uniform treatment of a heterogeneous collection of linear order phenomena in the domain of verb constructions (variably known as Cross-serial Dependencies, Verb Raising, Clause Union, Extraposition, Third Construction, Particle Hopping, etc.). The central data structures enabling this feature are clausal “topologies”: one-dimensional arrays associated with clauses, whose cells (“slots”) provide landing sites for the constituents of the clause. Movement operations are enabled by unification of lateral slots of topologies at adjacent levels of the clause hierarchy. The PGW generator assists the grammar developer in testing whether the implemented syntactic knowledge allows all and only the well-formed permutations of constituents

Computing Probabilistic Bisimilarity Distances for Probabilistic Automata

The probabilistic bisimilarity distance of Deng et al. has been proposed as a robust quantitative generalization of Segala and Lynch's probabilistic bisimilarity for probabilistic automata. In this paper, we present a characterization of the bisimilarity distance as the solution of a simple stochastic game. The characterization gives us an algorithm to compute the distances by applying Condon's simple policy iteration on these games. The correctness of Condon's approach, however, relies on the assumption that the games are stopping. Our games may be non-stopping in general, yet we are able to prove termination for this extended class of games. Already other algorithms have been proposed in the literature to compute these distances, with complexity in $\textbf{UP} \cap \textbf{coUP}$ and \textbf{PPAD}. Despite the theoretical relevance, these algorithms are inefficient in practice. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first practical solution. The characterization of the probabilistic bisimilarity distance mentioned above crucially uses a dual presentation of the Hausdorff distance due to M\'emoli. As an additional contribution, in this paper we show that M\'emoli's result can be used also to prove that the bisimilarity distance bounds the difference in the maximal (or minimal) probability of two states to satisfying arbitrary $\omega$-regular properties, expressed, eg., as LTL formulas

Generalized bisimulation metrics

International audienceThe pseudometric based on the Kantorovich lifting is one of the most popular notion of distance between probabilistic processes proposed in the literature. However, its application in verification is limited to linear properties. We propose a generalization which allows to deal with a wider class of properties, such as those used in security and privacy. More precisely, we propose a family of pseudometrics, parametrized on a notion of distance which depends on the property we want to verify. Furthermore, we show that the members of this family still characterize bisimilarity in terms of their kernel, and provide a bound on the corresponding distance between trace distributions. Finally, we study the instance corresponding to differential privacy, and we show that it has a dual form, easier to compute. We also prove that the typical process-algebra constructs are non-expansive, thus paving the way to a modular approach to verification

Predicción de las propiedades mecánicas del cemento en la micro-escala

Prediction of the mechanical properties of cement paste at microscale has been done in this contribution by making use of 3D lattice fracture model. The microstructure of cement paste is simulated by HYMOSTRUC3D first, which is represented in terms of sphere particles. Then the microstructure is converted into a voxel-based image, and a lattice system is constructed based on the image of the microstructure through ImgLat (Image to Lattice). A virtual uni-axial tensile test is configured and the fracture process is simulated by GLAK (Generalized Lattice Analysis Kernel). The outputs of fracture process simulation are the load-displacement diagram and micro-cracks propagation. The load-displacement diagram reveals the tensile behavior of cement paste at microscale, from which the elastic modulus and tensile strength can be obtained. A numerical experiment is carried out to show how the model works, and the final results also demonstrate the feasibility of the above modeling procedure.En el presente trabajo se ha realizado una predicción de las propiedades mecánicas del cemento en la micro-escala, empleando un modelo de fractura reticular 3D. En primer lugar se simula la micro-estructura del cemento mediante el código HYMOSTRUC3D, representando dicha micro-estructura mediante partículas esféricas. A continuación, la micro-estructura generada se convierte en una imagen basada en “vóxeles”, y se construye un sistema reticular basado en esa imagen mediante el código ImgLat (Image to Lattice). Se define un ensayo de tensión uniaxial virtual, y se simula el proceso de fractura usando el código GLAK (Generalized Lattice Análisis Kernel). Los resultados obtenidos de esta simulación del proceso de fractura son diagramas de carga-desplazamiento y propagación de micro-roturas. El diagrama de carga-desplazamiento caracteriza el comportamiento a fractura de la pasta de cemento en la micro-escala, y a partir de éste se puede obtener la resistencia a fractura y el módulo de elasticidad del material. Con el objetivo de mostrar el funcionamiento de la simulación, se ha realizado un experimento teórico, cuyos resultados sirven para validar el modelo empleado

Clustering and light profiles of galaxies in the environment of 20 Ultra Steep Spectrum Radio sources

We have analyzed galaxy properties in the neighborhood of 20 Ultra-Steep Spectrum Radio sources (USS) taken from the WISH catalog of De Breuck et al. (2002). Galaxies in these USS fields were identified in deep observations that were carried out in the K'-band using the OSIRIS imager at the CTIO 4m telescope. We find a statistically significant signal of clustering around our sample of USS. The angular extension of the detected USS-galaxy clustering is theta_c~20" corresponding to a spatial scale ~120 h^{-1}kpc, assuming the sources are at z~1 in a Omega_m=0.3, Omega_{\Lambda}=0.7 model universe. These results are in agreement with those obtained by Best (2000) for radio galaxy-galaxy correlation, and Best et al. (2003) for radio-loud AGN-galaxy correlation. We have also analyzed the light distribution of the galaxies by fitting Sersic's law profiles. Our results show no significant dependence of the galaxy shape parameters on the projected distance to the USS.Comment: Accepted for its publication in Astronomical Journal, 9 figure

Imaging and Spectroscopy of Ultra Steep Spectrum Radio Sources

We present a sample of 40 Ultra Steep Spectrum (USS, $\alpha \leq -1.3$, $S_{\nu}\propto \nu^{\alpha}$) radio sources selected from the Westerbork in the Southern Hemisphere (WISH) catalog. The USS sources have been imaged in K--band at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and with the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal. We also present VLT, Keck and Willian Herschel Telescope(WHT) optical spectroscopy of 14 targets selection from 4 different USS samples. For 12 sources, we have been able to determine the redshifts, including 4 new radio galaxies at z > 3. We find that most of our USS sources have predominantly small (6'') radio sizes and faint magnitudes (K~18). The mean K-band counterpart magnitude is $\bar{K}$=18.6. The expected redshift distribution estimated using the Hubble K-z diagram has a mean of $\bar{z}_{exp}$$\sim$2.13, which is higher than the predicted redshift obtained for the SUMSS-NVSS sample and the expected redshift obtained in the 6C$^{**}$ survey. The compact USS sample analyzed here may contain a higher fraction of galaxies which are high redshift and/or are heavily obscured by dust. Using the 74, 352 and 1400 MHz flux densities of a sub-sample, we construct a radio colour-colour diagram. We find that all but one of our USS sources have a strong tendency to flatten below 352 MHz. We also find that the highest redshift source from this paper (at z=3.84) does not show evidence for spectral flattening down to 151 MHz. This suggests that very low frequency selected USS samples will likely be more efficient to find high redshift galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages including 44 PostScript figures and 4 tables. Version with all figures available from http://www.eso.org/~cdebreuc/papers.htm