The Principal Principle Implies the Principle of Indifference

We argue that David Lewis’s principal principle implies a version of the principle of indifference. The same is true for similar principles that need to appeal to the concept of admissibility. Such principles are thus in accord with objective Bayesianism, but in tension with subjective Bayesianism. 1 The Argument 2 Some Objections Me

Investigation of a teleo-reactive approach for the development of autonomic manager systems

As the demand for more capable and more feature-rich software increases, the complexity in design, implementation and maintenance also increases exponentially. This becomes a problem when the complexity prevents developers from writing, improving, fixing or otherwise maintaining software to meet specified demands whilst still reaching an acceptable level of robustness. When complexity becomes too great, the software becomes impossible to effectively be managed by even large teams of people. One way to address the problem is an Autonomic approach to software development. Autonomic software aims to tackle complexity by allowing the software to manage itself, thus reducing the need for human intervention and allowing it to reach a maintainable state. Many techniques have been investigated for development of autonomic systems including policy-based designs, utility-functions and advanced architectures. A unique approach to the problem is the teleo-reactive programming paradigm. This paradigm offers a robust and simple structure on which to develop systems. It allows the developer the freedom to express their intentions in a logical manner whilst the increased robustness reduces the maintenance cost. Teleo-Reactive programming is an established solution to low-level agent based problems such as robot navigation and obstacle avoidance, but this technique shows behaviour which is consistent with higher-level autonomic solutions. This project therefore investigates the extent of the applicability of teleo-reactive programming as an autonomic solution. Can the technique be adapted to allow a more ideal fitness for purpose' for autonomics whilst causing minimal changes to the tried and tested original structure and meaning? Does the technique introduce any additional problems and can these be addressed with improvements to the teleo-reactive framework? Teleo-Reactive programming is an interesting approach to autonomic computing because in a Teleo-Reactive program, its state is not predetermined at any moment in time and is based on a priority system where rules execute based on the current environmental context (i.e. not in any strict procedural way) whilst still aiming at the intended goal. This method has been shown to be very robust and exhibits some of the qualities of autonomic software

Using Historical Interlibrary Loan Data and OCLC to Downsize our Print Journal Collection

In 2014 Wayne State University closed its Science & Engineering Library (SEL) converting the building into a mediated storage collection. In 2017 the University received funding from the State of Michigan to convert the SEL into lab and classroom space intended to support our various STEM programs. This project would have a significant impact on our print journal collection, system wide, due to the 600,000 volumes housed in SEL and the limited available space to absorb them in other parts of the library system. This challenge required a radical downsizing of this collection in the most responsible way possible while minimizing the deleterious impact on faculty and student research. Our starting point was using historical data extracted from our Atlas© Illiad database covering 2010-15, in addition to other data sources. Using historical document delivery and lending data we were able to lay the groundwork for making informed decisions about retention candidates. In order to advance the project we partnered with OCLC’s Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) to provide us with access to our Illiad data, title level holdings in Worldcat to compare our titles to, and the technical expertise needed to clean-up and make sense of the data. As we began work on the project the criteria we considered included: usage, special collection status, completeness of the run held, alternative sources of access, and content issues. From a Collection Development perspective, the main focus of this project has been assuring that the faculty and students will continue to have access to the content of weeded journals and would experience minimum delay between the point of identification and having it in-hand. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate one of many possible uses of the data currently sitting in various ILL databases that can be used to make data-driven collection management decisions

Blockchain for Power Grids

Sharing information is an important part of regulating and maintaining efficient and safe power grids. This project’s goal is to develop a way of using blockchain technology to share transaction information among different power grids in a secure, controlled, monitored, and efficient manner. The biggest concern regarding the data is integrity. By leveraging blockchain technology, the data will be reliable and resilient to attacks, such as man-in-the-middle and data spoofing attacks. The Hyperledger Fabric implementation provides a permissioned network in which power grids will act as nodes that maintain ledger information. By using a distributed ledger to validate transactions through the process of consensus, the system can share information in a manner that is more secure and transparent than traditional information sharing systems in which data is less secure and takes longer to validate. The additional layers of security and speed that Hyperledger technology provides help to prevent issues, such as power grid failures, that could stem from the latency or integrity issues involved with traditional methods of validating, processing, and reacting to shared data

Leopards provide public health benefits in Mumbai, India

Populations of large carnivores are often suppressed in human-dominated landscapes because they can kill or injure people and domestic animals. However, carnivores can also provide beneficial services to human societies, even in urban environments. We examined the services provided by leopards (Panthera pardus) to the residents of Mumbai, India, one of the world's largest cities. We suggest that by preying on stray dogs, leopards reduce the number of people bitten by dogs, the risk of rabies transmission, and the costs associated with dog sterilization and management. Under one set of assumptions, the presence of leopards in this highly urbanized area could save up to 90 human lives per year. A further indirect benefit of leopard presence may be an increase in local abundance of other wildlife species that would otherwise be predated by dogs. The effective conservation of carnivores in human-dominated landscapes involves difficult trade-offs between human safety and conservation concerns. Quantitative assessments of how large carnivores negatively and positively affect urban ecosystems are critical, along with improved education of local communities about large carnivores and their impacts

Ferrets exclusively synthesize Neu5Ac and express naturally humanized influenza A virus receptors

Mammals express the sialic acids ​N-acetylneuraminic acid (​Neu5Ac) and ​N-glycolylneuraminic acid (​Neu5Gc) on cell surfaces, where they act as receptors for pathogens, including influenza A virus (IAV). ​Neu5Gc is synthesized from ​Neu5Ac by the enzyme cytidine monophosphate-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH). In humans, this enzyme is inactive and only ​Neu5Ac is produced. Ferrets are susceptible to human-adapted IAV strains and have been the dominant animal model for IAV studies. Here we show that ferrets, like humans, do not synthesize ​Neu5Gc. Genomic analysis reveals an ancient, nine-exon deletion in the ferret CMAH gene that is shared by the Pinnipedia and Musteloidia members of the Carnivora. Interactions between two human strains of IAV with the sialyllactose receptor (sialic acid—α2,6Gal) confirm that the type of terminal sialic acid contributes significantly to IAV receptor specificity. Our results indicate that exclusive expression of ​Neu5Ac contributes to the susceptibility of ferrets to human-adapted IAV strains

Reliability of Various Size Oxide Aperture VCSELs,"

Abstract This paper presents Honeywell's most recent work on 850-nm oxide aperture vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) reliability. The VCSELs studied have a range of aperture diameters from about 5 to 20 µm and the reliability effect of aperture diameter is of principal interest in this paper. Larger apertures generally exhibit greater reliability. Electrostatic discharge (ESD) sensitivity thresholds of the various oxide aperture VCSELs is discussed, again showing dependence on diameter, with larger being better. Results for humidity exposure are presented. Here we find no aperture size dependence, because none of the tested designs show significant susceptibility to humidity-induced degradation. It is demonstrated that, in addition to end-of-life degradation, VCSELs generally exhibit variation of performance characteristics during the early part of operating life. This often leads to a requirement for device burn-in. Honeywell's work in the area of wafer stabilization (trademarked under the name STABILAZE, patent pending) is introduced, showing how critical device parameters such as threshold and slope efficiency can be made to be unvarying over the product's life without the need for costly component or module-level burnins