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Cities worldwide are facing the challenge of digital information governance: different and competing service providers operating Internet of Things (IoT) devices often produce and maintain large amounts of data related to the urban environment. As a consequence, the need for interoperability arises between heterogeneous and distributed information, to enable city councils to make data-driven decisions and to provide new and effective added value services to their citizens. In this paper, we present the Urban IoT suite of ontologies, a common conceptual model to harmonise the data exchanges between municipalities and service providers, with specific focus on the sharing mobility and electric mobility domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage (CH) contents are typically strongly interlinked, but published in heterogeneous, distributed local data silos, making it difficult to utilize the data on a global level. Furthermore, the content is usually available only for humans to read, and not as data for Digital Humanities (DH) analyses and application development. This application report addresses these problems by presenting a collaborative publication model for CH Linked Data and six design principles for creating shared data services and semantic portals for DH research and applications. This Sampo model has evolved gradually in 2002–2021 through lessons learned when developing the Sampo series of linked data services and semantic portals in use, including MuseumFinland (2004), CultureSampo (2009), BookSampo (2011), WarSampo (2015), Norssit Alumni (2017), U.S. Congress Prosopographer (2018), NameSampo (2019), BiographySampo (2019), WarVictimSampo 1914–1922 (2019), MMM (2020), AcademySampo (2021), FindSampo (2021), WarMemoirSampo (2021), and LetterSampo (2022). These Semantic Web applications surveyed in this paper cover a wide range of application domains in CH and have attracted up to millions of users on the Semantic Web, suggesting feasibility of the proposed Sampo model. This work shows a shift of focus in research on CH semantic portals from data aggregation and exploration systems (1. generation systems) to systems supporting DH research (2. generation systems) with data analytic tools, and finally to automatic knowledge discovery and Artificial Intelligence (3. generation systems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, at first, we define the notion of general fuzzy automaton over a field; we call this automaton vector general fuzzy automaton (VGFA). Moreover, we present the concept of max-min vector general fuzzy automaton. We show that if two max-min VGFA are similar, they constitute an isomorphism. After that, we prove that if two VGFA constitute an isomorphism with threshold α, they are equivalent with threshold α, where α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ]. Also, some examples are given to clarify these new notions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread use of sensors has resulted in an unprecedented amount of time series data. Time series mining has experienced a particular surge of interest, among which, subsequence matching is one of the most primary problem that serves as a foundation for many time series data mining techniques, such as anomaly detection and classification. In literature there exist many works to study this problem. However, in many real applications, it is uneasy for users to accurately and clearly elaborate the query intuition with a single query sequence. Consequently, in this paper, we address this issue by allowing users to submit a small query set, instead of a single query. The multiple queries can embody the query intuition better. In particular, we first propose a novel probability-based representation of the query set. A common segmentation is generated which can approximate the queries well, in which each segment is described by some features. For each feature, the corresponding values of multiple queries are represented as a Gaussian distribution. Then, based on the representation, we design a novel distance function to measure the similarity of one subsequence to the multiple queries. Also, we propose a breadth-first search strategy to find out similar subsequences. We have conducted extensive experiments on both synthetic and real datasets, and the results verify the superiority of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on games on augmenting systems with a coalition structure that can be seen as an extension of games with a coalition structure and games on augmenting systems. Considering the player payoffs, the quasi-Owen value is defined. To show the rationality of this payoff index, five representative axiomatic systems are established. The population monotonic allocation scheme (PMAS) and the core are introduced. Moreover, the relationships between the PMAS and quasi-Owen value as well as the core and quasi-Owen value are discussed. Finally, an illustrative example is given to show the concrete application of the new payoff indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many confidential multimedia, such as personal privacy, commercial, and military secrets, are transmitted on the Internet. To prevent this confidential multimedia from being eavesdropped on by illegal users, information-hiding technology is a leading research topic nowadays. One of the important research topics of information-hiding technology is coverless information hiding, which utilizes the unchanged property of its multimedia carrier to hide secret information. In this paper, we propose two schemes that employ the average pixel value of an image. The first is an extension of the Coverless Information Hiding Based on the Most Significant Bit (CIHMSB) scheme, referred to as E-CIHMSB. In the E-CIHMSB, we build an extended matrix containing the image fragment's average pixel value. The second scheme is a combination theory-based CIHMSB, referred to as CB-CIHMSB. In the CB-CIHMSB, we construct the combined matrix. E-CIHMSB and CB-CIHMSB embed the secret bits by changing the most significant bits of the chosen pixel in the matrix. Experimental results show that our schemes achieved higher hiding capacity than previous related schemes. Moreover, the proposed scheme is more robust against steganalysis tools and image quality attacks such as Additive Gaussian White Noise (AWGN), Salt & Pepper noise, low-pass filtering attacks, and JPEG compression attacks than CIHMSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical maps provide rich information for researchers in many areas, including the social and natural sciences. These maps contain detailed documentation of a wide variety of natural and human-made features and their changes over time, such as changes in transportation networks or the decline of wetlands or forest areas. Analyzing changes over time in such maps can be labor-intensive for a scientist, even after the geographic features have been digitized and converted to a vector format. Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are the appropriate representations to store and link such data and support semantic and temporal querying to facilitate change analysis. KGs combine expressivity, interoperability, and standardization in the Semantic Web stack, thus providing a strong foundation for querying and analysis. In this paper, we present an automatic approach to convert vector geographic features extracted from multiple historical maps into contextualized spatio-temporal KGs. The resulting graphs can be easily queried and visualized to understand the changes in different regions over time. We evaluate our technique on railroad networks and wetland areas extracted from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) historical topographic maps for several regions over multiple map sheets and editions. We also demonstrate how the automatically constructed linked data (i.e., KGs) enable effective querying and visualization of changes over different points in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a strategy for the semantic migration of Portuguese National Archives records into CIDOC-CRM standard, an ontology developed for museums, within the context of the EPISA project. The approach to automatically populate the CIDOC-CRM is based on Mapping Description Rules to semantically translate the archives descriptive information into CIDOC-CRM representation. The compliance of the CIDOC-CRM model recommendations guarantees that the populated CIDOC-CRM ontology of archives descriptive information verifies interoperability, and could be linked and integrated with other populated CIDOC-CRM ontologies. In the information modelling, requirements on the mapping representation, due to the intent of interpreting natural language text to automatically extract information of metadata text fields and to interpret natural language queries, are taken into account. To automatically interpret the Mapping Description Rules, OWL API was used to obtain the set of assertions that represents the information in the target ontology and two datasets are available with some migration examples. The exploration of the knowledge representation is done through some Description Logic queries to highlight the advantages of having this new representation of the National Archives. The evaluation of the resulting representation can be done automatically proving its correctness for the metadata that has a direct representation in CIDOC-CRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reusing ontologies for new purposes, or adapting them to new use-cases, is frequently difficult. In our experiences, we have found this to be the case for several reasons: (i) differing representational granularity in ontologies and in use-cases, (ii) lacking conceptual clarity in potentially reusable ontologies, (iii) lack and difficulty of adherence to good modeling principles, and (iv) a lack of reuse emphasis and process support available in ontology engineering tooling. In order to address these concerns, we have developed the Modular Ontology Modeling (MOMo) methodology, and its supporting tooling infrastructure, CoModIDE (the Comprehensive Modular Ontology IDE – "commodity"). MOMo builds on the established eXtreme Design methodology, and like it emphasizes modular development and design pattern reuse; but crucially adds the extensive use of graphical schema diagrams, and tooling that support them, as vehicles for knowledge elicitation from experts. In this paper, we present the MOMo workflow in detail, and describe several useful resources for executing it. In particular, we provide a thorough and rigorous evaluation of CoModIDE in its role of supporting the MOMo methodology's graphical modeling paradigm. We find that CoModIDE significantly improves approachability of such a paradigm, and that it displays a high usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a formal description of two legal domains. In addition, we describe the generation of various artificial datasets from these domains and explain the use of these datasets in previous experiments aligning learning and reasoning. These resources are made available for the further investigation of connections between arguments, cases and rules. The datasets are publicly available at https://github.com/CorSteging/LegalResources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent works in Explainable AI mostly address the transparency issue of black-box models or create explanations for any kind of models (i.e., they are model-agnostic), while leaving explanations of interpretable models largely underexplored. In this paper, we fill this gap by focusing on explanations for a specific interpretable model, namely pattern-based logistic regression (PLR) for binary text classification. We do so because, albeit interpretable, PLR is challenging when it comes to explanations. In particular, we found that a standard way to extract explanations from this model does not consider relations among the features, making the explanations hardly plausible to humans. Hence, we propose AXPLR, a novel explanation method using (forms of) computational argumentation to generate explanations (for outputs computed by PLR) which unearth model agreements and disagreements among the features. Specifically, we use computational argumentation as follows: we see features (patterns) in PLR as arguments in a form of quantified bipolar argumentation frameworks (QBAFs) and extract attacks and supports between arguments based on specificity of the arguments; we understand logistic regression as a gradual semantics for these QBAFs, used to determine the arguments' dialectic strength; and we study standard properties of gradual semantics for QBAFs in the context of our argumentative re-interpretation of PLR, sanctioning its suitability for explanatory purposes. We then show how to extract intuitive explanations (for outputs computed by PLR) from the constructed QBAFs. Finally, we conduct an empirical evaluation and two experiments in the context of human-AI collaboration to demonstrate the advantages of our resulting AXPLR method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persuasion is an important and yet complex aspect of human intelligence. When undertaken through dialogue, the deployment of good arguments, and therefore counterarguments, clearly has a significant effect on the ability to be successful in persuasion. Two key dimensions for determining whether an argument is "good" in a particular dialogue are the degree to which the intended audience believes the argument and counterarguments, and the impact that the argument has on the concerns of the intended audience. In this paper, we present a framework for modelling persuadees in terms of their beliefs and concerns, and for harnessing these models in optimizing the choice of move in persuasion dialogues. Our approach is based on the Monte Carlo Tree Search which allows optimization in real-time. We provide empirical results of a study with human participants that compares an automated persuasion system based on this technology with a baseline system that does not take the beliefs and concerns into account in its strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between logic programming and formal argumentation has been studied starting from the landmark 1995 paper of Dung. Subsequent work has identified a standard translation from logic programs to (instantiated) argumentation frameworks, under which pairwise correspondences hold between various logic programming semantics and various formal argumentation semantics. This includes the correspondence between 3-valued stable and complete semantics, between well-founded and grounded semantics and between 2-valued stable (LP) and stable (argumentation) semantics. In the current paper, we show that the existing translation is able to yield the additional correspondence between ideal semantics for logic programming and ideal semantics for formal argumentation. We also show that correspondence does not hold between eager semantics for logic programming and eager semantics for formal argumentation, at least when translating from logic programming to formal argumentation. Overall, the current work should be seen as completing the analysis of correspondences between mainstream admissibility-based argumentation semantics and their logic programming counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystal Structure Prediction (CSP) is one of the central and most challenging problems in materials science and computational chemistry. In CSP, the goal is to find a configuration of ions in 3D space that yields the lowest potential energy. Finding an efficient procedure to solve this complex optimisation question is a well known open problem. Due to the exponentially large search space, the problem has been referred in several materials-science papers as "NP-Hard and very challenging" without a formal proof. This paper fills a gap in the literature providing the first set of formally proven NP-Hardness results for a variant of CSP with various realistic constraints. In particular, we focus on the problem of removal: the goal is to find a substructure with minimal potential energy, by removing a subset of the ions. Our main contributions are NP-Hardness results for the CSP removal problem, new embeddings of combinatorial graph problems into geometrical settings, and a more systematic exploration of the energy function to reveal the complexity of CSP. In a wider context, our results contribute to the analysis of computational problems for weighted graphs embedded into the three-dimensional Euclidean space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consensus creation is a complex challenge in decision making for conflicting or quasi-conflicting evaluator groups. The problem is even more difficult to solve, if one or more respondents are non-expert and provide uncertain or hesitant responses in a survey. This paper presents a methodological approach, the Interval-valued Spherical Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, with the objective to handle both types of problems simultaneously; considering hesitant scoring and synthesizing different stakeholder group opinions by a mathematical procedure. Interval-valued spherical fuzzy sets are superior to the other extensions with a more flexible characterization of membership function. Interval-valued spherical fuzzy sets are employed for incorporating decision makers' judgements about the membership functions of a fuzzy set into the model with an interval instead of a single point. In the paper, Interval-valued spherical fuzzy AHP method has been applied to public transportation problem. Public transport development is an appropriate case study to introduce the new model and analyse the results due to the involvement of three classically conflicting stakeholder groups: passengers, non-passenger citizens and the representatives of the local municipality. Data from a real-world survey conducted recently in the Turkish big city, Mersin, help in understanding the new concept. As comparison, all likenesses and differences of the outputs have been pointed out in the reflection with the picture fuzzy AHP computation of the same data. The results are demonstrated and analysed in detail and the step-by-step description of the procedure might foment other applications of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: The International Alliance of Academies of Childhood Disability created a COVID-19 Task Force with the goal of understanding the global impact of COVID-19 on children with disabilities and their families. The aim of this paper is to synthesize existing evidence describing the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities, derived from surveys conducted across the globe. METHODS: A descriptive environmental scan of surveys was conducted. From June to November 2020, a global call for surveys addressing the impact of COVID-19 on disability was launched. To identify gaps and overlaps, the content of the surveys was compared to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. RESULTS: Forty-nine surveys, involving information from more than 17,230 participants around the world were collected. Overall, surveys identified that COVID-19 has negatively impacted several areas of functioning - including mental health, and human rights of people with disabilities and their families worldwide. CONCLUSION: Globally, the surveys highlight that impact of COVID-19 on mental health of people with disabilities, caregivers, and professionals continues to be a major issue. Rapid dissemination of collected information is essential for ameliorating the impact of COVID-19 across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the Cultural Heritage (CH) domain has gradually adopted Semantic Web (SW) technologies for organizing information and for tackling interoperability issues. Several semantic models have been proposed which accommodate essential aspects of information management: retrieval, integration, reuse and sharing. In this context, the CH subdomain of Conservation and Restoration (CnR) exhibits an increasing interest in SW technologies, in an attempt to effectively handle the highly heterogeneous and often secluded CnR information. This paper investigates semantic models relevant to the CnR knowledge domain. The scope, development methodology and coverage of CnR aspects are described and discussed. Furthermore, the evaluation, deployment and current exploitation of each model are examined, with focus on the types and variety of services provided to support the CnR professional. Through this study, the following research questions are investigated: To what extent the various aspects of CnR are covered by existing CnR models? To what extent existing CnR models incorporate models of the broader CH domain and of relevant disciplines (e.g., Chemistry)? In what ways and to what extent services built upon the reviewed models facilitate CnR professionals in their various tasks? Finally, based on the findings, fields of interest that merit further investigation are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typical case of producing records within the domain of conservation of cultural heritage is considered. During condition and collection surveys in memory organisations, surveyors observe types of multiple components of an object but without creating a record for each one. They also observe the absence of components. Such observations are significant to researchers and are documented in registration forms but they are not easy to implement using popular ontologies, such as the CIDOC CRM which primarily consider individuals. In this paper techniques for expressing such observations within the context of the CIDOC CRM in both OWL and RDFS are explored. OWL cardinality restrictions are considered and new special properties deriving from the CIDOC CRM are proposed, namely 'typed properties' and 'negative typed properties' which allow stating the types of multiple individuals and the absence of individuals. The nature of these properties is then explored in relation to their correspondence to longer property paths, their hierarchical arrangement and relevance to thesauri. An example from bookbinding history is used alongside a demonstration of the proposed solution with a dataset from the library collection of the Saint Catherine Monastery in Sinai, Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the transdisciplinarity of archaeological studies has greatly increased because of the mature interactions between archaeologists and scientists from different disciplines (called "archaeometers"). A number of diverse scientific disciplines collaborate to get an objective account of the archaeological records. A large amount of digital data support the whole process, and there is a great value in keeping the coherence of information and knowledge, as contributed by each intervening discipline. During the years, a number of representation models have been developed to account for the recording of the archaeological process in data bases. Lately, some semantic models, compliant with the CRMarchaeo reference model, have been developed to account for linking the institutional forms with the formal knowledge concerning the archaeological excavations and the related findings. On the contrary, the archaeometric processes have not been addressed yet in the Semantic Web community and only an upper reference model, called CRMsci, accounts for the representation of the scientific investigations in general. This paper presents a modular computational ontology for the interlinked representation of all the facts related to the archaeological and archaeometric analyses and interpretations, also connected to the recording catalogues. The computational ontology is compliant with CIDOC-CRM reference models CRMarchaeo and CRMsci and introduces a number of novel classes and properties to merge the two worlds in a joint representation. The ontology is in use in "Beyond Archaeology", a methodological project for the establishing of a transdisciplinary approach to archaeology and archaeometry, interlinked through a semantic model of processes and objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease is the world's fastest growing brain disorder, and exposure to environmental toxicants is the principal reason. In this paper, we consider alternative, but unsatisfactory, explanations for its rise, including improved diagnostic skills, aging populations, and genetic causes. We then detail three environmental toxicants that are likely among the main causes of Parkinson's disease— certain pesticides, the solvent trichloroethylene, and air pollution. All three environmental toxicants are ubiquitous, many affect mitochondrial functioning, and all can access humans via various routes, including inhalation and ingestion. We reach the hopeful conclusion that most of Parkinson's disease is thus preventable and that we can help to create a world where Parkinson's disease is increasingly rare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an automated procedure to prove polyhedral abstractions (also known as polyhedral reductions) for Petri nets. Polyhedral abstraction is a new type of state space equivalence, between Petri nets, based on the use of linear integer constraints between the marking of places. In addition to defining an automated proof method, this paper aims to better characterize polyhedral reductions, and to give an overview of their application to reachability problems. Our approach relies on encoding the equivalence problem into a set of SMT formulas whose satisfaction implies that the equivalence holds. The difficulty, in this context, arises from the fact that we need to handle infinite-state systems. For completeness, we exploit a connection with a class of Petri nets, called flat nets, that have Presburger-definable reachability sets. We have implemented our procedure, and we illustrate its use on several examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a concrete and a symbolic rewriting logic semantics for parametric time Petri nets with inhibitor arcs (PITPNs), a flexible model of timed systems where parameters are allowed in firing bounds. We prove that our semantics is bisimilar to the "standard" semantics of PITPNs. This allows us to use the rewriting logic tool Maude, combined with SMT solving, to provide sound and complete formal analyses for PITPNs. We develop and implement a new general folding approach for symbolic reachability, so that Maude-with-SMT reachability analysis terminates whenever the parametric state-class graph of the PITPN is finite. Our work opens up the possibility of using the many formal analysis capabilities of Maude—including full LTL model checking, analysis with user-defined execution strategies, and even statistical model checking—for such nets. We illustrate this by explaining how almost all formal analysis and parameter synthesis methods supported by the state-of-the-art PITPN tool Roméo can be performed using Maude with SMT. In addition, we also support analysis and parameter synthesis from parametric initial markings, as well as full LTL model checking and analysis with user-defined execution strategies. Experiments show that our methods outperform Roméo in many cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logical modeling is a powerful tool in biology, offering a system-level understanding of the complex interactions that govern biological processes. A gap that hinders the scalability of logical models is the need to specify the update function of every vertex in the network depending on the status of its predecessors. To address this, we introduce in this paper the concept of strong regulation, where a vertex is only updated to active/inactive if all its predecessors agree in their influences; otherwise, it is set to ambiguous. We explore the interplay between active, inactive, and ambiguous influences in a network. We discuss the existence of phenotype attractors in such networks, where the status of some of the variables is fixed to active/inactive, while the others can have an arbitrary status, including ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set C of vertices in a graph G = (V, E) is an identifying code if it is dominating and any two vertices of V are dominated by distinct sets of codewords. This paper presents a survey of Iiro Honkala's contributions to the study of identifying codes with respect to several aspects: complexity of computing an identifying code, combinatorics in binary Hamming spaces, infinite grids, relationships between identifying codes and usual parameters in graphs, structural properties of graphs admitting identifying codes, and number of optimal identifying codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing the rotation distance between two binary trees with n internal nodes efficiently (in poly(n) time) is a long standing open question in the study of height balancing in tree data structures. In this paper, we initiate the study of this problem bounding the rank of the trees given at the input (defined in [1] in the context of decision trees). We define the rank-bounded rotation distance between two given full binary trees T1 and T2 (with n internal nodes) of rank at most r = max{rank(T1), rank(T2)}, denoted by dR(T1, T2), as the length of the shortest sequence of rotations that transforms T1 to T2 with the restriction that the intermediate trees must be of rank at most r. We show that the rotation distance problem reduces in polynomial time to the rank bounded rotation distance problem. This motivates the study of the problem in the combinatorial and algorithmic frontiers. Observing that trees with rank 1 coincide exactly with skew trees (full binary trees where every internal node has at least one leaf as a child), we show the following results in this frontier: • We present an O(n2) time algorithm for computing dR(T1, T2). That is, when the given full binary trees are skew trees (we call this variant the skew rotation distance problem) - where the intermediate trees are restricted to be skew as well. In particular, our techniques imply that for any two skew trees dR(T1, T2) ≤ n2. • We show the following upper bound: for any two full binary trees T1 and T2 of rank r1 and r2 respectively, we have that: dR(T1, T2) ≤ n2(1 + (2n + 1)(r1 + r2 – 2)) where r = max{r1, r2}. This bound is asymptotically tight for r = 1. En route to our proof of the above theorems, we associate full binary trees to permutations and relate the rotation operation on trees to transpositions in the corresponding permutations. We give exact combinatorial characterizations of permutations that correspond to full binary trees and full skew binary trees under this association. We also precisely characterize the transpositions that correspond to the set of rotations in full binary trees. We also study bi-variate polynomials associated with binary trees (introduced by [2]), and show characterizations and algorithms for computing rotation distances for the case of full skew trees using them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foucaud et al. recently introduced and initiated the study of a new graph-theoretic concept in the area of network monitoring. Given a graph G = (V(G), E(G)), a set M ⊆ V(G) is a distance-edge-monitoring set if for every edge e ∈ E(G), there is a vertex x ∈ M and a vertex y ∈ V(G) such that the edge e belongs to all shortest paths between x and y. The smallest size of such a set in G is denoted by dem(G). Denoted by G – e (resp. G\u) the subgraph of G obtained by removing the edge e from G (resp. a vertex u together with all its incident edges from G). In this paper, we first show that dem(G – e) – dem(G) ≤ 2 for any graph G and edge e ∈ E(G). Moreover, the bound is sharp. Next, we construct two graphs G and H to show that dem(G) – dem(G\u) and dem(H \ v) – dem(H) can be arbitrarily large, where u ∈ V(G) and v ∈ V(H). We also study the relation between dem(H) and dem(G), where H is a subgraph of G. In the end, we give an algorithm to judge whether the distance-edge-monitoring set still remain in the resulting graph when any edge of a graph G is deleted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foucaud et al. recently introduced and initiated the study of a new graph-theoretic concept in the area of network monitoring. Given a graph G = (V(G), E(G)), a set M ⊆ V(G) is a distance-edge-monitoring set if for every edge e ∈ E(G), there is a vertex x ∈ M and a vertex y ∈ V(G) such that the edge e belongs to all shortest paths between x and y. The smallest size of such a set in G is denoted by dem(G). Denoted by G – e (resp. G\u) the subgraph of G obtained by removing the edge e from G (resp. a vertex u together with all its incident edges from G). In this paper, we first show that dem(G – e) – dem(G) ≤ 2 for any graph G and edge e ∈ E(G). Moreover, the bound is sharp. Next, we construct two graphs G and H to show that dem(G) – dem(G\u) and dem(H \ v) – dem(H) can be arbitrarily large, where u ∈ V(G) and v ∈ V(H). We also study the relation between dem(H) and dem(G), where H is a subgraph of G. In the end, we give an algorithm to judge whether the distance-edge-monitoring set still remain in the resulting graph when any edge of a graph G is deleted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing the rotation distance between two binary trees with n internal nodes efficiently (in poly(n) time) is a long standing open question in the study of height balancing in tree data structures. In this paper, we initiate the study of this problem bounding the rank of the trees given at the input (defined in [1] in the context of decision trees). We define the rank-bounded rotation distance between two given full binary trees T1 and T2 (with n internal nodes) of rank at most r = max{rank(T1), rank(T2)}, denoted by dR(T1, T2), as the length of the shortest sequence of rotations that transforms T1 to T2 with the restriction that the intermediate trees must be of rank at most r. We show that the rotation distance problem reduces in polynomial time to the rank bounded rotation distance problem. This motivates the study of the problem in the combinatorial and algorithmic frontiers. Observing that trees with rank 1 coincide exactly with skew trees (full binary trees where every internal node has at least one leaf as a child), we show the following results in this frontier: • We present an O(n2) time algorithm for computing dR(T1, T2). That is, when the given full binary trees are skew trees (we call this variant the skew rotation distance problem) - where the intermediate trees are restricted to be skew as well. In particular, our techniques imply that for any two skew trees dR(T1, T2) ≤ n2. • We show the following upper bound: for any two full binary trees T1 and T2 of rank r1 and r2 respectively, we have that: dR(T1, T2) ≤ n2(1 + (2n + 1)(r1 + r2 – 2)) where r = max{r1, r2}. This bound is asymptotically tight for r = 1. En route to our proof of the above theorems, we associate full binary trees to permutations and relate the rotation operation on trees to transpositions in the corresponding permutations. We give exact combinatorial characterizations of permutations that correspond to full binary trees and full skew binary trees under this association. We also precisely characterize the transpositions that correspond to the set of rotations in full binary trees. We also study bi-variate polynomials associated with binary trees (introduced by [2]), and show characterizations and algorithms for computing rotation distances for the case of full skew trees using them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cultural heritage, many projects execute Named Entity Linking (NEL) through global Linked Open Data (LOD) references in order to identify and disambiguate entities in their local datasets. It allows users to obtain extra information and contextualise the data with it. Thus, the aggregation and integration of heterogeneous LOD are expected. However, such development is still limited partly due to data quality issues. In addition, analysis on the LOD quality has not sufficiently been conducted for cultural heritage. Moreover, most research on data quality concentrates on ontology and corpus level observations. This paper examines the quality of the eleven major LOD sources used for NEL in cultural heritage with an emphasis on instance-level connectivity and graph traversals. Standardised linking properties are inspected for 100 instances/entities in order to create traversal route maps. Other properties are also assessed for quantity and quality. The outcomes suggest that the LOD is not fully interconnected and centrally condensed; the quantity and quality are unbalanced. Therefore, they cast doubt on the possibility of automatically identifying, accessing, and integrating known and unknown datasets. This implies the need for LOD improvement, as well as the NEL strategies to maximise the data integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use a pseudo-algorithmic procedure for assessing an AI-generated text. We apply the Comprehensive Assessment Procedure for Natural Argumentation (CAPNA) in evaluating the arguments produced by an Artificial Intelligence text generator, GPT-3, in an opinion piece written for the Guardian newspaper. The CAPNA examines instances of argumentation in three aspects: their Process, Reasoning and Expression. Initial Analysis is conducted using the Argument Type Identification Procedure (ATIP) to establish, firstly, that an argument is present and, secondly, its specific type in terms of the argument classification framework of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA). Procedural Questions are then used to test the acceptability of the argument in each of the three aspects. The analysis shows that while the arguments put forward by the AI text generator are varied in terms of their type and follow familiar patterns of human reasoning, they contain obvious weaknesses. From this we can conclude that the automated generation of persuasive, well-reasoned argumentation is a far more difficult task than the generation of meaningful language, and that if AI systems producing arguments are to be persuasive, they require a method of checking the plausibility of their own output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the popularity of mobile communication, many computing devices are exposed to remote environments without physical protection so that these devices easily suffer from leakage attacks (e.g., side-channel attacks). Under such leakage attacks, when a computing device performs some cryptographic algorithm, an adversary may acquire partial bits of secret keys participated in this cryptographic algorithm. To resist leakage attacks, researchers offer leakage-resilient cryptography as a solution. A signcryption scheme combines signing and encrypting processes to simultaneously provide both authentication and confidentiality, which is an important cryptographic primitive. Indeed, many leakage-resilient signcryption schemes under various public key system (PKS) settings were proposed. Unfortunately, these schemes still have two shortcomings, namely, bounded leakage resilience and conditionally continuous leakage resilience. In this paper, a "fully" continuous leakage-resilient certificate-based signcryption (FCLR-CBSC) scheme is proposed. Security analysis is formally proved to show that our scheme possesses both authentication and confidentiality against two types of adversaries in the certificate-based PKS setting. Performance analysis and simulation experience show that our scheme is suited to run on both a PC and a mobile device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation can be the greatest hope of overcoming economic challenges. This paper aims to evaluate countries concerning their innovation performances. We introduce an innovation performance evaluation methodology by considering objective factors and applying seven reliable MCDM methods: MEREC, CODAS, MABAC, MARCOS, CoCoSo, WASPAS, and MAIRCA. MEREC calculates the relative weights of indicators considered, while the other techniques decide the ranking order of G7 countries. The Borda rule is then employed to gain an aggregated ranking order. "Business sophistication" is the most critical indicator, whereas the US has the best position regarding the overall ranking. Sensitivity control is as well conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single biggest obstacle in performing comprehensive cross-lingual discourse analysis is the scarcity of multilingual resources. The existing resources are overwhelmingly monolingual, compelling researchers to infer the discourse-level information in the target languages through error-prone automatic means. The current paper aims to provide a more direct insight into the cross-lingual variations in discourse structures by linking the annotated relations of the TED-Multilingual Discourse Bank, which consists of independently annotated six TED talks in seven different languages. It is shown that the linguistic labels over the relations annotated in the texts of these languages can be automatically linked with English with high accuracy, as verified against the relations of three diverse languages semi-automatically linked with relations over English texts. The resulting corpus has a great potential to reveal the divergences in local discourse relations, as well as leading to new resources, as exemplified by the induction of bilingual discourse connective lexicons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glottocodes constitute the backbone identification system for the language, dialect and family inventory Glottolog (https://glottolog.org). In this paper, we summarize the motivation and history behind the system of glottocodes and describe the principles and practices of data curation, technical infrastructure and update/version-tracking systematics. Since our understanding of the target domain -- the dialects, languages and language families of the entire world -- is continually evolving, changes and updates are relatively common. The resulting data is assessed in terms of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. As such the glottocode-system responds to an important challenge in the realm of Linguistic Linked Data with numerous NLP applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for reusable, interoperable, and interlinked linguistic resources in Natural Language Processing downstream tasks has been proved by the increasing efforts to develop standards and metadata suitable to represent several layers of information. Nevertheless, despite these efforts, the achievement of full compatibility for metadata in linguistic resource production is still far from being reached. Access to resources observing these standards is hindered either by (i) lack of or incomplete information, (ii) inconsistent ways of coding their metadata, and (iii) lack of maintenance. In this paper, we offer a quantitative and qualitative analysis of descriptive metadata and resources availability of two main metadata repositories: LOD Cloud and Annohub. Furthermore, we introduce a metadata enrichment, which aims at improving resource information, and a metadata alignment to META-SHARE ontology, suitable for easing the accessibility and interoperability of such resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An image or volume of interest in positron emission tomography (PET) is reconstructed from gamma rays emitted from a radioactive tracer, which are then captured and used to estimate the tracer's location. The image or volume of interest is reconstructed by estimating the pixel or voxel values on a grid determined by the scanner. Such an approach is usually associated with limited resolution of the reconstruction, high computational complexity due to slow convergence and noisy results. This paper presents a novel method of PET image reconstruction using the underlying assumption that the originals of interest can be modelled using Gaussian mixture models. Parameters are estimated from one-dimensional projections using an iterative algorithm resembling the expectation-maximization algorithm. This presents a complex computational problem which is resolved by a novel approach that utilizes L 1 minimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, masks have become essential items for all people to protect themselves from the virus. Because of considering multiple factors when selecting an antivirus mask, the decision-making process has become more complicated. This paper proposes an integrated approach that uses F-BWM-RAFSI methods for antivirus mask selection process with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, sensitivity analysis was demonstrated by evaluating the effects of changing the weight coefficients of the criterion on the ranking results, simulating changes in Heronian operator parameters, and comparing the obtained solution to other MCDM approaches to ensure its robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smallest enclosing circle is a well-known problem. In this paper, we propose modifications to speed-up the existing Weltzl's algorithm. We perform the preprocessing to reduce as many input points as possible. The reduction step has lower computational complexity than the Weltzl's algorithm and thus speed-ups its computation. Next, we propose some changes to Weltzl's algorithm. In the end are summarized results, that show the speed-up for 10 6 input points up to 100 times compared to the original Weltzl's algorithm. Even more, the proposed algorithm is capable to process significantly larger data sets than the standard Weltzl's algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose modifications of the well-known algorithm of particle swarm optimization (PSO). These changes affect the mapping of the motion of particles from continuous space to binary space for searching in it, which is widely used to solve the problem of feature selection. The modified binary PSO variations were tested on the dataset SVC2004 dedicated to the problem of user authentication based on dynamic features of a handwritten signature. In the example of k-nearest neighbours (kNN), experiments were carried out to find the optimal subset of features. The search for the subset was considered as a multicriteria optimization problem, taking into account the accuracy of the model and the number of features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models and solves the scheduling problem of cable manufacturing industries that minimizes the total production cost, including processing, setup, and storing costs. Two hybrid meta-heuristics, which combine simulated annealing and variable neighbourhood search algorithms with tabu search algorithm, are proposed. Applying some case-based theorems and rules, a special initial solution with optimal setup cost is obtained for the algorithms. The computational experiments, including parameter tuning and final experiments over the benchmarks obtained from a real cable manufacturing factory, show superiority of the combination of tabu search and simulated annealing comparing to the other proposed hybrid and classical meta-heuristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Going from natural language directions to fully specified executable plans for household robots involves a challenging variety of reasoning steps. In this paper, a processing pipeline to tackle these steps for natural language directions is proposed and implemented. It uses the ontological Socio-physical Model of Activities (SOMA) as a common interface between its components. The pipeline includes a natural language parser and a module for natural language grounding. Several reasoning steps formulate simulation plans, in which robot actions are guided by data gathered using human computation. As a last step, the pipeline simulates the given natural language direction inside a virtual environment. The major advantage of employing an overarching ontological framework is that its asserted facts can be stored alongside the semantics of directions, contextual knowledge, and annotated activity models in one central knowledge base. This allows for a unified and efficient knowledge retrieval across all pipeline components, providing flexibility and reasoning capabilities as symbolic knowledge is combined with annotated sub-symbolic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of knowledge graphs can be assessed by a validation against specified constraints, typically use-case specific and modeled by human users in a manual fashion. Visualizations can improve the modeling process as they are specifically designed for human information processing, possibly leading to more accurate constraints, and in turn higher quality knowledge graphs. However, it is currently unknown how such visualizations support users when viewing RDF constraints as no scientific evidence for the visualizations' effectiveness is provided. Furthermore, some of the existing tools are likely suboptimal, as they lack support for edit operations or common constraints types. To establish a baseline, we have defined visual notations to represent RDF constraints and implemented them in UnSHACLed, a tool that is independent of a concrete RDF constraint language. In this paper, we (i) present two visual notations that support all SHACL core constraints, built upon the commonly used visualizations VOWL and UML, (ii) analyze both notations based on cognitive effective design principles, (iii) perform a comparative user study between both visual notations, and (iv) present our open source tool UnSHACLed incorporating our efforts. Users were presented RDF constraints in both visual notations and had to answer questions based on visualization task taxonomies. Although no statistical significant difference in mean error rates was observed, all study participants preferred ShapeVOWL in a self assessment to answer RDF constraint-related questions. Furthermore, ShapeVOWL adheres to more cognitive effective design principles according to our performed comparison. Study participants argued that the increased visual features of ShapeVOWL made it easier to spot constraints, but a list of constraints - as in ShapeUML - is easier to read. However, also that more deviations from the strict UML specification and introduction of more visual features can improve ShapeUML. From these findings we conclude that ShapeVOWL has a higher potential to represent RDF constraints more effective compared to ShapeUML. But also that the clear and efficient text encoding of ShapeUML can be improved with visual features. A one-size-fits-all approach to RDF constraint visualization and editing will be insufficient. Therefore, to support different audiences and use cases, user interfaces of RDF constraint editors need to support different visual notations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract argumentation, as originally defined by Dung, is a model that allows the description of certain information about arguments and relationships between them: in an abstract argumentation framework (AF), the agent knows for sure whether a given argument or attack exists. It means that the absence of an attack between two arguments can be interpreted as "we know that the first argument does not attack the second one". But the question of uncertainty in abstract argumentation has received much attention in the last years. In this paper, we survey approaches that allow to express information like "There may (or may not) be an attack between these arguments". We describe the main models that incorporate qualitative uncertainty (or ignorance) in abstract argumentation, as well as some applications of these models. We also highlight some open questions that deserve some attention in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Knödel graph WΔ,n is a Δ-regular bipartite graph on n ≥ 2Δ vertices where n is an even integer. In this paper We obtain some results about the distances of two vertices in the Knödel graphs and by them, we prove that diam (W Δ , n) = 1 + ⌈ n − 2 2 Δ − 2 ⌉ , where Δ ≥ 2 and n ≥ (2Δ – 5)(2Δ – 2) + 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let be a set of connected graphs. Then a spanning subgraph A of G is called an -factor if each component of A is isomorphic to some member of. Especially, when every graph in is a path, A is a path factor. For a positive integer d ≥ 2, we write ≥d = {i|i ≥ d}. Then a ≥d-factor means a path factor in which every component admits at least d vertices. A graph G is called a (≥d,m)-factor deleted graph if G – E′ admits a ≥d-factor for any E′ ⊆ E(G) with |E′| = m. A graph G is called a (≥d, k)-factor critical graph if G – Q has a ≥d-factor for any Q ⊆ V (G) with |Q| = k. In this paper, we present two degree conditions for graphs to be (≥3,m)-factor deleted graphs and (≥3, k)-factor critical graphs. Furthermore, we show that the two results are best possible in some sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several dietary patterns and nutritional supplements have been linked to the development, progression, and symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). Most of the evidence, at this point, is preliminary and based largely on observational studies. Interventional studies are scarce, so the evidence on effectiveness remains inconclusive. Dietary interventions could, analogous to exercise, potentially have a beneficial effect on disease symptoms as well as on the progression of the disease and should therefore be researched in high quality studies. Further work is also needed to study whether dietary interventions, when applied to an at-risk population, have any potential to postpone the onset of manifest PD. In this paper, we summarize all ongoing clinical trials on dietary interventions in PD. We found 10 ongoing studies, all aimed at a different intervention. These studies are mostly exploratory in nature or represent phase I or phase II trials focusing on safety, biological responses, and symptomatic effects. Taken together, we conclude that research on dietary interventions in persons with PD is still in its early days. The results of the various ongoing trials are expected to generate new hypotheses and will help to shape the agenda for future research on this important topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, guidance exists to aid clinicians and patients deciding when treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) should be initiated and which therapies to consider. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends that before starting PD treatment clinicians should discuss the following: the patient's individual clinical circumstances; lifestyle; preferences; needs and goals; as well as the potential benefits and harms of the different drug classes. Individualization of medicines and management in PD significantly improves patients' outcomes and quality of life. This article aims to provide simple and practical guidance to help clinicians address common, but often overlooked, co-morbidities. A multi-disciplinary group of PD experts discussed areas where clinical care can be improved by addressing commonly found co-morbidities in people with Parkinson's (PwP) based on clinical experience and existing literature, in a roundtable meeting organized and funded by Bial Pharma UK Ltd. The experts identified four core areas (bone health, cardiovascular risk, anticholinergic burden, and sleep quality) that, if further standardized may improve treatment outcomes for PwP patients. Focusing on anticholinergic burden, cardiac risk, sleep, and bone health could offer a significant contribution to personalizing regimes for PwP and improving overall patient outcomes. Within this opinion-based paper, the experts offer a list of guiding factors to help practitioners in the management of PwP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let us consider some class of (Petri) nets. The corresponding Synthesis problem consists in deciding whether a given labeled transition system (TS) A can be implemented by a net N of that class. In case of a negative decision, it may be possible to convert A into an implementable TS B by applying various modification techniques, like relabeling edges that previously had the same label, suppressing edges/states/events, etc. It may however be useful to limit the number of such modifications to stay close to the original problem, or optimize the technique. In this paper, we show that most of the corresponding problems are NP-complete if the considered class corresponds to so-called flip-flop nets or some flip-flop net derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distance mean function measures the average distance of points from the elements of a given set of points (focal set) in the space. The level sets of a distance mean function are called generalized conics. In case of infinite focal points the average distance is typically given by integration over the focal set. The paper contains a survey on the applications of taxicab distance mean functions and generalized conics' theory in geometric tomography: bisection of the focal set and reconstruction problems by coordinate X-rays. The theoretical results are illustrated by implementations in Maple, methods and examples as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Getting complete results when processing aggregate queries on public SPARQL endpoints is challenging, mainly due to the application of quotas. Although Web preemption supports processing of aggregate queries online, on preemptable SPARQL servers, data transfer is still very large when processing count-distinct aggregate queries. In this paper, it is shown that count-distinct aggregate queries can be approximated with low data transfer by extending the partial aggregation operator with HyperLogLog++ sketches. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms existing approaches by orders of magnitude in terms of the amount of data transferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]