S-convexity revisited (fuzzy): long version

In this revisional article, we criticize (strongly) the use made by Medar et al., and those whose work they base themselves on, of the name ‘convexity’ in definitions which intend to relate to convex functions, or cones, or sets, but actually seem to be incompatible with the most basic consequences of having the name ‘convexity’ associated to them. We then believe to have fixed the ‘denominations’ associated with Medar’s (et al.) work, up to a point of having it all matching the existing literature in the field [which precedes their work (by long)]. We also expand his work scope by introducing s ₁-convexity concepts to his group of definitions, which encompasses only convex and its proper extension, s ₂-convex, so far. This article is a long version of our previous review of Medar’s work, published by FJMS (Pinheiro, M.R.: S-convexity revisited. FJMS, 26/3, 2007).     

The conformal ‘bratwurst’ mapsand associated Faber polynomials

Summary. Conformal maps from the exterior of the closed unit disk onto the exterior of ‘bratwurst’ shape sets in the complex plane are constructed. Using these maps, coefficients for the computation of the corresponding Faber polynomials are derived. A ‘bratwurst’ shape set is the result of deforming an ellipse with foci on the real axis, by conformally mapping the real axis onto the unit circle. Such sets are well suited to serve as inclusion sets for sets associated with a matrix, for example the spectrum, field of values or a pseudospectrum. Hence, the sets can be applied in the construction and analysis of a broad range of iterative methods for the solution of linear systems. The main advantage of the approach is that the conformal maps are derived from elementary transformations, allowing an easy computation of the associated transfinite diameter, asymptotic convergence factor and Faber polynomials. Numerical examples are given. Received October 7, 1998 / Revised version received March 15, 1999 / Published online April 20, 2000 –? Springer-Verlag 2000     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis>/<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>/∞ system revisited: finiteness,summability, long range dependence,and reverse engineering

We explore M/G/∞ systems ‘fed’ by Poissonian inflows with infinite arrival rates. Three processes – corresponding to the system's state, workload, and queue-size – are studied and analyzed. Closed form formulae characterizing the system's stationary structure and correlation structure are derived. And, the issues of queue finiteness, workload summability, and Long Range Dependence are investigated. We then turn to devise a ‘reverse engineering’ scheme for the design of the system's correlation structure. Namely: how to construct an M/G/∞ system with a pre-desired ‘target’ workload/queue auto-covariance function. The ‘reverse engineering’ scheme is applied to various examples, including ones with infinite queues and non-summable workloads. AMS Subject Classifications Primary: 60K25; Secondary: 60G55, 60G10     

Open-source machine learning: R meets Weka

Two of the prime open-source environments available for machine/statistical learning in data mining and knowledge discovery are the software packages Weka and R which have emerged from the machine learning and statistics communities, respectively. To make the different sets of tools from both environments available in a single unified system, an R package RWeka is suggested which interfaces Weka’s functionality to R. With only a thin layer of (mostly R) code, a set of general interface generators is provided which can set up interface functions with the usual “R look and feel”, re-using Weka’s standardized interface of learner classes (including classifiers, clusterers, associators, filters, loaders, savers, and stemmers) with associated methods.     

Self-regulation through social institutions: A framework for the design of open agent-based electronic marketplaces

In this paper, we argue that allowing self-interested agents to activate social institutions during runtime can improve the robustness (i.e., stability, reliability, or scalability) of open multiagent systems (MAS). Referring to sociological theory, we consider institutions to be rules that need to be activated and adopted by the agent population during runtime and propose a framework for self-regulation of MAS for the domain of electronic marketplaces. The framework consists of three different institutional types that are defined by the mechanisms and instances that generate, change or safeguard them. We suggest that allowing autonomous agents both the reasoning about their compliance with a rule and the selection of an adequate institutional types helps to balance the trade-off between the autonomy of self-interested agents and the maintenance of social order (cf. Castelfranchi, 2000) in MAS, and to ensure almost the same qualities as in closed environments. A preliminary report of the evaluation of the prototype by empirical simulations is given. Christian S. Hahn studied computer science and economics at Saarland University and received his diploma in 2004. Currently, he works in a project of the priority program ‘Socionics’ funded by the German Research Foundation at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Bettina Fley studied sociology, economics, law, and social and economic history at the University of Hamburg and received her diploma in 2002. She currently works in a project in the priority program ‘Socionics’, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), at the Department of Technology Assessment at the Hamburg University of Technology. Michael Florian, received his master in sociology at the University of Münster, where he also finished his doctoral degree in 1993. Since 1995, he holds a position as a senior researcher (‘Oberingenieur’) at the Department of Technology Assessment at the Hamburg University of Technology and heads the sociological part of a project in the priority program ‘Socionics’ funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).     

Congruences between derivatives of abelian <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis>-functions at <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>=0

Let K/k be a finite abelian extension of global fields. We prove that a natural equivariant leading term conjecture implies a family of explicit congruence relations between the values at s=0 of derivatives of the Dirichlet L-functions associated to K/k. We also show that these congruences provide a universal approach to the ‘refined abelian Stark conjectures’ formulated by, inter alia, Stark, Gross, Rubin, Popescu and Tate. We thereby obtain the first proofs of, amongst other things, the Rubin–Stark conjecture and the ‘refined class number formulas’ of both Gross and Tate for all extensions K/k in which K is either an abelian extension of ℚ or is a function field. Mathematics Subject Classification (1991)  Primary 11G40; Secondary 11R65; 19A31; 19B28     

Roof duality,complementation and persistency in quadratic 0–1 optimization

The paper is concerned with the ‘primal’ problem of maximizing a given quadratic pseudo-boolean function. Four equivalent problems are discussed—the primal, the ‘complementation’, the ‘discrete Rhys LP’ and the ‘weighted stability problem of a SAM graph’. Each of them has a relaxation—the ‘roof dual’, the ‘quadratic complementation,’ the ‘continuous Rhys LP’ and the ‘fractional weighted stability problem of a SAM graph’. The main result is that the four gaps associated with the four relaxations are equal. Furthermore, a solution to any of these problems leads at once to solutions of the other three equivalent ones. The four relaxations can be solved in polynomial time by transforming them to a bipartite maximum flow problem. The optimal solutions of the ‘roof-dual’ define ‘best’ linear majorantsp(x) off, having the following persistency property: if theith coefficient inp is positive (negative) thenx _i=1 (0) in every optimum of the primal problem. Several characterizations are given for the case where these persistency results cannot be used to fix any variable of the primal. On the other hand, a class of gap-free functions (properly including the supermodular ones) is exhibited.     

Squared polynomial extrapolation methods with cycling: an application to the positron emission tomography problem

Roland and Varadhan (Appl. Numer. Math., 55:215–226, 2005) presented a new idea called “squaring” to improve the convergence of Lemaréchal’s scheme for solving nonlinear fixed-point problems. Varadhan and Roland (Squared extrapolation methods: A new class of simple and efficient numerical schemes for accelerating the convergence of the EM algorithm, Department of Biostatistics Working Paper. Johns Hopkins University, , 2004) noted that Lemaréchal’s scheme can be viewed as a member of the class of polynomial extrapolation methods with cycling that uses two fixed-point iterations per cycle. Here we combine these two ideas, cycled extrapolation and squaring, and construct a new class of methods, called squared polynomial methods (SQUAREM), for accelerating the convergence of fixed-point iterations. Our main goal is to evaluate whether the squaring device is effective in improving the rate of convergence of cycled extrapolation methods that use more than two fixed-point iterations per cycle. We study the behavior of the new schemes on an image reconstruction problem for positron emission tomography (PET) using simulated data. Our numerical experiments show the effectiveness of first- and higher-order squared polynomial extrapolation methods in accelerating image reconstruction, and also their relative superiority compared to the classical, “unsquared” vector polynomial methods.     

Artistic Expression Goes Green

The paper is a critical discussion of the rich and insightful final chapter of Mitchell Green’s Self-Expression. There, Green seeks to elucidate the compelling, but inchoate intuition that when we’re fully and most expertly expressing ourselves, we can ‘push out’ from within not just our inner representations, but also the ways that we feel. I question, first, whether this type of ‘qualitative expression’ is really distinct from the other expressive forms that Green explores, and also whether it’s genuinely ‘expressive’. I then scrutinize the nature of the ‘qualitative congruences’ that lie at the heart of Green’s theory; and I wonder whether they can play the role Green claims they can in providing a novel account of artistic expression.     

The Blackwell and Dubins Theorem and Rényi’s Amount of Information Measure: Some Applications

This survey paper provides first for an overview of how quantum-like concepts could be used in macroscopic environments like economics. The paper then argues for the use of the concept of a quantum mechanical wave function as an ‘information wave function’. A rationale is provided on why such interpretation is reasonable. After having defined the ‘information wave function’, Ψ(q), we argue how | Ψ(q)| ² can be interpreted as a Radon-Nikodym derivative. We consider how we can connect, using the | Ψ(q)| ², the Blackwell and Dubins (Ann. Math. Stat. 33:882–886, 1961) Theorem with Rényi’s (Proceedings of the Fourth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, 1961) measure of quantity of information. We also define ‘ambiguity of information’ and ‘multi-sourced information’.     

Ploucquet’s “Refutation” of the Traditional Square of Opposition

In the 18th century, Gottfried Ploucquet developed a new syllogistic logic where the categorical forms are interpreted as set-theoretical identities, or diversities, between the full extension, or a non-empty part of the extension, of the subject and the predicate. With the help of two operators ‘O’ (for “Omne”) and ‘Q’ (for “Quoddam”), the UA and PA are represented as ‘O(S) – Q(P)’ and ‘Q(S) – Q(P)’, respectively, while UN and PN take the form ‘O(S) > O(P)’ and ‘Q(S) > O(P)’, where ‘>’ denotes set-theoretical disjointness. The use of the symmetric operators ‘–’ and ‘>’ gave rise to a new conception of conversion which in turn lead Ploucquet to consider also the unorthodox propositions O(S) – O(P), Q(S) – O(P), O(S) > Q(P), and Q(S) > Q(P). Although Ploucquet’s critique of the traditional theory of opposition turns out to be mistaken, his theory of the “Quantification of the Predicate” is basically sound and involves an interesting “Double Square of Opposition”. My thanks are due to Hanno von Wulfen for helpful discussions and for transforming the word-document into a Latex-file.     

Experiments with an interactive paired comparison simplex method for molp problems

In this paper, an interactive paired comparison simplex based method formultiple objective linear programming (MOLP) problems is developed and compared to other interactive MOLP methods. The decision maker (DM)’s utility function is assumed to be unknown, but is an additive function of his known linearized objective functions. A test for ‘utility efficiency’ for MOLP problems is developed to reduce the number of efficient extreme points generated and the number of questions posed to the DM. The notion of ‘strength of preference ’ is developed for the assessment of the DM’s unknown utility function where he can express his preference for a pair of extreme points as ‘strong ’, ‘weak ’, or ‘almost indifferent ’. The problem of ‘inconsistency of the DM’ is formalized and its resolution is discussed. An example of the method and detailed computational results comparing it with other interactive MOLP methods are presented. Several performance measures for comparative evaluations of interactive multiple objective programming methods are also discussed. All rights reserved. This study, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the authors.     

Remarks on the Zeros of the Associated Legendre Functions with Integral Degree

We present some formulas for the computation of the zeros of the integral-degree associated Legendre functions with respect to the order. Work supported in part by the ‘Anillo Ecuaciones Asociadas a Reticulados’, financed by the World Bank through the ‘Programa Bicentenario de Ciencia y Tecnología’, and by the ‘Programa Reticulados y Ecuaciones’ of the Universidad de Talca.     

Heavy-traffic analysis for the GI/G/1 queue with heavy-tailed distributions

We consider a GI/G/1 queue in which the service time distribution and/or the interarrival time distribution has a heavy tail, i.e., a tail behaviour like t ^−ν with 1 < ν ⩽ 2 , so that the mean is finite but the variance is infinite. We prove a heavy-traffic limit theorem for the distribution of the stationary actual waiting time W. If the tail of the service time distribution is heavier than that of the interarrival time distribution, and the traffic load a → 1, then W, multiplied by an appropriate ‘coefficient of contraction’ that is a function of a, converges in distribution to the Kovalenko distribution. If the tail of the interarrival time distribution is heavier than that of the service time distribution, and the traffic load a → 1, then W, multiplied by another appropriate ‘coefficient of contraction’ that is a function of a, converges in distribution to the negative exponential distribution. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On some classes of regular semigroups

An idempotent e of a semigroup S is called right [left] principal (B.R. Srinivasan, [2]) if fef=fe [fef=ef] for every idempotent f of S. Say that S has property (LR) [(LR₁)] if every ℒ-class of S contains atleast [exactly] one right principal idempotent. There and six further properties obtained by replacing, ‘ℒ-class’ by ‘ℛ-class’ and/or ‘right principal’ by ‘left principal’ are examined. If S has (LR₁), the set of right principal elementsa of S (aa′ is right principal for some inversea′ ofa) is an inverse subsemigroup of S, generalizing a theorem of Srinivasan [2] for weakly inverse semigroups. It is shown that the direct sum of all dual Schützenberger representations of an (LR) semigroup is faithful (cf[1], Theorem 3.21, p. 119). Finally, necessary and sufficient conditions are given on a regular subsemigroup S of the full transformation semigroup on a set in order that S has each of the properties (LR), (LR₁), etc.     

Internal Diffusion Limited Aggregation on Discrete Groups Having Exponential Growth

The internal diffusion limited aggregation (DLA) has been introduced by Diaconis and Fulton [Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Pol. Torino 49, 95–119 (1991)]. It is a growth model defined on an infinite set and associated to a Markov chain on this set. We focus here on sets which are finitely generated groups with exponential growth. We prove a shape theorem for the internal DLA on such groups associated to symmetric random walks. For that purpose, we introduce a new distance associated to the Green function, which happens to have some interesting properties. In the case of homogeneous trees, we also get the right order for the fluctuations of that model around its limiting shape. Sébastien Blachère’s research was supported by the ESF program ‘Phase transition and fluctuation phenomena for random dynamics in spatially extended systems’ ref. 554 and by Marie Curie Fellowship HPMF-CT-2002-02137. Sara Brofferio’s research was supported by Marie Curie Fellowship HPMF-CT-2002-02137.     

Banzhaf Measures for Games with Several Levels of Approval in the Input and Output

An axiomatic characterization of ‘a Banzhaf score’ notion is provided for a class of games called (j,k) simple games with a numeric measure associated to the output set, i.e., games with n players, j ordered qualitative alternatives in the input level and k possible ordered quantitative alternatives in the output. Three Banzhaf measures are also introduced which can be used to determine a player's ‘a priori’ value in such a game. We illustrate by means of several real world examples how to compute these measures. Research partially supported by Grant BFM 2003-01314 of the Science and Technology Spanish Ministry and the European Regional Development Fund.     

Constructing greedy linear extensions by interchanging chains

A natural way to prove that a particular linear extension of an ordered set is ‘optimal’ with respect to the ‘jump number’ is to transform this linear extension ‘canonically’ into one that is ‘optimal’. We treat a ‘greedy chain interchange’ transformation which has applications to ordered sets for which each ‘greedy’ linear extension is ‘optimal’.     

Program explanations and causal relevance

Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit have defended a non-reductive account of causal relevance known as the ‘program explanation account’. Allegedly, irreducible mental properties can be causally relevant in virtue of figuring in non-redundant program explanations which convey information not conveyed by explanations in terms of the physical properties that actually do the ‘causal work’. I argue that none of the possible ways to spell out the intuitively plausible idea of a program explanation serves its purpose, viz., defends non-reductive physicalism against Jaegwon Kim’s Causal Exclusion Argument according to which non-reductive physicalism is committed to epiphenomenalism because irreducible mental properties are ‘screened off’ from causal relevance by their physical realizers. Jackson and Pettit’s most promising explication of a program explanation appeals to the idea of invariance of effect under variation of realization, but I show that invariance of effect under variation of realization is neither necessary nor sufficient for causal relevance.