Defeasible Systems in Legal Reasoning: A Comparative Assessment

Different formalisms for defeasible reasoning have been used to represent legal knowledge and to reason with it. In this work, we provide an overview of the following logic-based approaches to defeasible reasoning: Defeasible Logic, Answer Set Programming, ABA+, ASPIC+, and DeLP. We compare features of these approaches from three perspectives: the logical model (knowledge representation), the method (computational mechanisms), and the technology (available software). On this basis, we identify and apply criteria for assessing their suitability for legal applications. We discuss the different approaches through a legal running example

Argumentation and Defeasible Reasoning in the Law

Different formalisms for defeasible reasoning have been used to represent knowledge and reason in the legal field. In this work, we provide an overview of the following logic-based approaches to defeasible reasoning: defeasible logic, Answer Set Programming, ABA+, ASPIC+, and DeLP. We compare features of these approaches under three perspectives: the logical model (knowledge representation), the method (computational mechanisms), and the technology (available software resources). On top of that, two real examples in the legal domain are designed and implemented in ASPIC+ to showcase the benefit of an argumentation approach in real-world domains. The CrossJustice and Interlex projects are taken as a testbed, and experiments are conducted with the Arg2P technology

Charge migration induced by attosecond pulses in bio-relevant molecules

After sudden ionization of a large molecule, the positive charge can migrate throughout the system on a sub-femtosecond time scale, purely guided by electronic coherences. The possibility to actively explore the role of the electron dynamics in the photo-chemistry of bio-relevant molecules is of fundamental interest for understanding, and perhaps ultimately controlling, the processes leading to damage, mutation and, more generally, to the alteration of the biological functions of the macromolecule. Attosecond laser sources can provide the extreme time resolution required to follow this ultrafast charge flow. In this review we will present recent advances in attosecond molecular science: after a brief description of the results obtained for small molecules, recent experimental and theoretical findings on charge migration in bio-relevant molecules will be discussed

A dispersion-engineered multi-pass cell for single-stage post compression of an Ytterbium laser

Post-compression methods for ultrafast laser pulses typically face challenging limitations including saturation effects and temporal pulse break-up when large compression factors and broad bandwidths are targeted. To overcome these limitations, we exploit direct dispersion control in a gas-filled multi-pass cell, enabling for the first time single-stage post-compression of 150 fs pulses and up to 250 uJ pulse energy from an Ytterbium (Yb) fiber laser down to sub-20 fs. Dispersion-engineered dielectric cavity mirrors are used to achieve nonlinear spectral broadening dominated by self-phase-modulation over large compression factors and bandwidths at 98% throughput. Our method opens a route towards single-stage post-compression of Yb lasers into the few-cycle regime

Arguing about the existence of conflicts

In this paper we formalise a meta-argumentation framework as an ASPIC+ extension which enables reasoning about conflicts between formulae of the argumentation language. The result is a standard abstract argumentation framework that can be evaluated via grounded semantics

Application of Matched-Filter Concepts to Unbiased Selection of Data in Pump-Probe Experiments with Free Electron Lasers

Pump-probe experiments are commonly used at Free Electron Lasers (FEL) to elucidate the femtosecond dynamics of atoms, molecules, clusters, liquids and solids. Maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements is often a primary need of the experiment, and the aggregation of repeated, rapid, scans of the pump-probe delay is preferable to a single long-lasting scan. The limited availability of beamtime makes it impractical to repeat measurements indiscriminately, and the large, rapid flow of single-shot data that need to be processed and aggregated into a dataset, makes it difficult to assess the quality of a measurement in real time. In post-analysis it is then necessary to devise unbiased criteria to select or reject datasets, and to assign the weight with which they enter the analysis. One such case was the measurement of the lifetime of Intermolecular Coulombic Decay in the weakly-bound neon dimer. We report on the method we used to accomplish this goal for the pump-probe delay scans that constitute the core of the measurement; namely we report on the use of simple auto- and cross-correlation techniques based on the general concept of “matched filter”. We are able to unambiguously assess the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each scan, which then becomes the weight with which a scan enters the average of multiple scans. We also observe a clear gap in the values of SNR, and we discard all the scans below a SNR of 0.45. We are able to generate an average delay scan profile, suitable for further analysis: in our previous work we used it for comparison with theory. Here we argue that the method is sufficiently simple and devoid of human action to be applicable not only in post-analysis, but also for the real-time assessment of the quality of a dataset

Security Messages: Or, How I Learned to Stop Disregarding and Heed the Warning

Attacks on information security continue to be reported in the media, and result in large losses for organizations. While some attacks are the result of sophisticated threats, others can be traced to failures by organizational insiders to observe basic security policies such as using caution when opening unsolicited email attachments. Faced with the challenges and time demands of everyday stressors, security policy compliance can be costly for individuals; security actions require time and distract attention from other primary tasks. This costliness can lead individuals to ignore prompts to perform security updates, scan their computers for threats, or reboot their computers to apply security updates. This dissertation contains three studies that address the following overarching research question: How can end-user adherence to security messages be better understood and improved, and how can theory inform security-message design? First, two complementary studies are presented that examine the integration of media naturalness theory into a security message context using field study and fMRI designs. Study 1, the field study, unobtrusively captures objective measures of attention from Amazon Mechanical Turk users (N=510) as they perform a between-subjects deception protocol. Study 2, the fMRI study, examines neural activations from a within-subjects participant design (N=23) in response to different security message designs with integrated emotive human facial expressions. Data from studies 1 and 2 show that warnings with integrated facial expressions of threat (fear, disgust) generally elicited greater adherence rates and higher evidence of cognition and elaboration than did warnings with integrated neutral facial expressions or than did warnings with no integrated facial expressions, supporting our hypotheses. Study 3 explores the pattern of risk taking and analysis that users engage in when interacting with interruptive security messages. The corroboration of multiple behavioral dependent variables suggests that users predominantly use a bimodal risk tradeoff paradigm when interacting with interruptive security messages. All three studies address the overarching research question of understanding and improving end user adherence to security messages