Compositional closure for Bayes Risk in probabilistic noninterference

We give a sequential model for noninterference security including probability (but not demonic choice), thus supporting reasoning about the likelihood that high-security values might be revealed by observations of low-security activity. Our novel methodological contribution is the definition of a refinement order and its use to compare security measures between specifications and (their supposed) implementations. This contrasts with the more common practice of evaluating the security of individual programs in isolation. The appropriateness of our model and order is supported by our showing that our refinement order is the greatest compositional relation --the compositional closure-- with respect to our semantics and an "elementary" order based on Bayes Risk --- a security measure already in widespread use. We also relate refinement to other measures such as Shannon Entropy. By applying the approach to a non-trivial example, the anonymous-majority Three-Judges protocol, we demonstrate by example that correctness arguments can be simplified by the sort of layered developments --through levels of increasing detail-- that are allowed and encouraged by compositional semantics

Gated ‘communities’ - their lifestyle versus urban governance

Today there is a widespread fear of crime on a global scale. This can be seen as a response to social inequalities, social polarisation and the fragmentation of cities, which has been caused by neo-liberalism. Worldwide, an increasing number of higher income groups have looked to security measures, such as cameras, fences, walls and gates, to separate themselves from other people in the city. These physical measures, in combination with hired guards, replace the ‘older’ social control mechanisms, which are based on social cohesion within the community concerned. One may question whether those living in gated ‘communities’ indeed feel responsible for other urbanites. In other words, will such a hard closure (physically-marked segregation) lead to soft closure, reflected in social-cultural and political segregation. What is the impact of the lifestyle(s) of those living in gated communities on the dynamics of the city, urban identity and urban governance?

Whalesong

Smith to travel to Regent meeting -- Micro-Computer Lab opens -- Holiday Closure -- Rational planning needed -- Special Olympics -- Whalesong Quality -- Adams-Down Syndrome Educator -- Whalesong debuts in 1976 -- Larsen; Alger strengthen UAJ Ski Team -- Student Commissioner ends term in office -- Ex-Seahawk Offensive Lineman to visit UAJ -- New Book chronicling LSD history doing well -- College officials "barnstorm" for funds -- Fergle University's mail order diplomas -- 9-1/2 Weeks - Basinger stunning -- Espresso Bars, latest in Yuppie Phenomena -- Dvorak; Keyboard innovation -- Beeton/Koester attend conferences on women's studies -- UAJ proposed in 1946 -- UAJ's Campus Security receives high marks -- Sharon Cook - "Job most enjoyable" -- NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWS SHORTS -- Classified

Finding Place for Freedom, Security and Justice: The European Un-ion’s Claim to Territorial Unity

Legal and political analyses tend to downplay the problem of spatiality evoked in the notion of an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, focusing instead on the dis-tinct policy fields covered by this triad of values. Whatever its merits, this analytic strategy neglects the central claim hidden in what seems to be but a flatulent title: the closure of space into a legal place, into a bounded region, is ingredient to the very possibility and concrete realization of freedom, security and justice. This paper explores this claim in four stages. Initially it examines and rejects the preliminary objection that globalisation marks the irreversible decline of legal place as a consti-tutive feature of social life. Then it develops a legal topology of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, arguing that two different modes of the inside/outside distinc-tion are at stake in Articles 61 and 63 ECT. Subsequently, drawing on Communica-tion 459/98 and the Preambles to the Treaties, the paper outlines a topogenesis of the Area, describing the representational process by which its boundaries are pos-ited. The paper concludes by asserting that the primacy of security over freedom and justice is related to the paradox governing a fledgling European public order: in the process of enforcing the Union’s claim to an own place, the Area of Freedom, Secu-rity and Justice becomes unrecognisable as the Union’s own place.European identity; spatial theory; immigration policy; security/internal

Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire?

We use firm closure data from social security records for Austria 1978-1998 to investigate the effect of age on employment prospects. We rely on exact matching to compare workers displaced due to firm closure with similar non-displaced workers. We then use a difference-in- difference strategy to analyze employment and earnings of older relative to prime-age workers in the displacement and non-displacement groups. Results suggest that immediately after plant closure the old have lower re-employment probabilities as compared to prime-age workers but later they catch up. While among the young the employment prospects of the displaced remain persistently different from those of the non-displaced, among the old the effect of displacement fades away, and actually disappears even immediately after plant closure when the effect of tenure based severance payment is controlled for. Our evidence suggests that increasing the retirement age does not necessarily produce individuals who are “too old to work but too young to retire”.Aging; Employability; Plant Closures; Matching

A need basis for values

Values are viewed as partly based on needs, but little research has been devoted to testing this relationship. The need to attain or avoid cognitive closure may be an important cognitive-motivational factor underlying the endorsement and pursuit of particular values. The present research provided an empirical test of the relations between individual differences in the need for cognitive closure (NFCC) and Schwartz’s ten values. One hundred men and women from a southeastern British university completed measures of NFCC and basic values. Consistent with hypotheses, the results indicated that NFCC was positively associated with valuing Security, Conformity, and Tradition and negatively associated with valuing Stimulation and Self-Direction. In addition, NFCC was unrelated to valuing Hedonism, Power, Universalism, and Benevolence, but negatively related to valuing Achievement. Consistent with theories of epistemic closure, this research supports the idea that individual differences in NFCC give rise to values which match and satisfy individual needs to attain or avoid cognitive closure

FLA Report on the Closure of Jerzees de Honduras

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide.  Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_Report_Closure_JerzeesdeHonduras.pdf: 73 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020