Introduction to the 26th International Conference on Logic Programming Special Issue

This is the preface to the 26th International Conference on Logic Programming Special IssueComment: 6 page

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CHEMICAL USE REDUCTION ON THE SOUTH: DISCUSSION

Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Effect of Strong Electrostatic and Magnetostatic Fields on the Activity of Radioactive Nuclides

This experiment seeks to measure the effect of strong electrostatic and magnetostatic fields on the decay constant of short-lived radioactive isotopes. Though it is assumed in modern radioactivity theory that such fields should not have any measurable effect, conclusive evidence utilizing modern equipment is absent from published literature. Samples have been monitored that exhibit beta-minus, beta-plus, electron capture, and internal conversion modes of radioactive decay. Radioactive nuclides chosen for this study include I-128, Cs-134, and Cu-64. The half-lives in this collection of radioactive nuclides range from 25 minutes to 12.7 hours. Sodium Iodide detectors are used to monitor the samples both before and after they are placed in a strong static electric or magnetic field. Electric fields used in this study are about 20kV/cm and magnetic fields are inhomogeneous between 4.5kGauss and 7.5kGauss. From the data collected, the half-life of the sample during the time in the field is calculated, and this is compared to the normal half-life in the absence of strong electric or magnetic fields. This experiment is looking for very small deviations in the half-lives that escaped detection in earlier experiments that used cruder equipment

Modeling Electric Fields in Support of a Measurement of the Neutron Electric Dipole Moment

This research focuses on calculating electric fields in support of a proposed experiment to measure the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron at Las Alamos National Laboratory. The experiment will employ a very strong electric field to exert a torque on the neutrons EDM, if any exists. Field Precision software is used to calculate the theoretical electric fields in and around the central detector region of the proposed experimental setup. This research has two goals. The first is to seek out areas of high electric field in the apparatus that will cause arcing and disrupt the experiment. When these areas are found, the shapes of parts are changed to eliminate the problem. The second goal is to map the electric field in the central detector region where measurements are to be made. It is desirable to know the strength, direction, and uniformity of the electric field in this region. The results of this research will be crucial to the design and execution of the proposed experiment to measure the neutrons EDM, which will, in turn, have far reaching implications in theoretical particle physics

Modernization of EC Competition Law: Reform of Regulation No. 17

Ladies and Gentlemen, at last year\u27s conference I presented to you a wide variety of ongoing and proposed reforms with which the European Union intends to meet actual and future challenges for its competition policy. Today, one year later, we have made considerable progress in many respects. Most importantly, with our White Paper of 28 April 1999, we have launched the process for a fundamental reform of the rules implementing Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (‘EC Treaty‘), which are currently laid down in Council Regulation No. 17. Anticipating your expectations and my fellow panelists\u27 contributions, I will today concentrate on the reform of Regulation No. 17

claspfolio 2: Advances in Algorithm Selection for Answer Set Programming

To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP). Building on the award-winning, portfolio-based ASP solver claspfolio, we present claspfolio 2, a modular and open solver architecture that integrates several different portfolio-based algorithm selection approaches and techniques. The claspfolio 2 solver framework supports various feature generators, solver selection approaches, solver portfolios, as well as solver-schedule-based pre-solving techniques. The default configuration of claspfolio 2 relies on a light-weight version of the ASP solver clasp to generate static and dynamic instance features. The flexible open design of claspfolio 2 is a distinguishing factor even beyond ASP. As such, it provides a unique framework for comparing and combining existing portfolio-based algorithm selection approaches and techniques in a single, unified framework. Taking advantage of this, we conducted an extensive experimental study to assess the impact of different feature sets, selection approaches and base solver portfolios. In addition to gaining substantial insights into the utility of the various approaches and techniques, we identified a default configuration of claspfolio 2 that achieves substantial performance gains not only over clasp's default configuration and the earlier version of claspfolio 2, but also over manually tuned configurations of clasp.Comment: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP