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Fair division is typically framed from a centralized perspective. We study a decentralized variant of fair division inspired by the dynamics observed in community-based targeting, mutual aid networks, and community resource management paradigms. We develop an approach for decentralized fair division and compare it with a centralized approach with respect to fairness and social welfare guarantees. In the context of the existing literature, our decentralized model can be viewed as a relaxation of previous models of sequential exchange in light of impossibility results concerning the inability of those models to achieve desirable outcomes. We find that in settings representative of many real world situations, the two models of resource allocation offer contrasting fairness and social welfare guarantees. In particular, we show that under appropriate conditions, our model of decentralized allocation can ensure high-quality allocative decisions in an efficient fashion.

When verifying computer systems we sometimes want to study their asymptotic behaviors, i.e., how they behave in the long run. In such cases, we need real analysis, the area of mathematics that deals with limits and the foundations of calculus. In a prior work, we used real analysis in ACL2s to study the asymptotic behavior of the RTO computation, commonly used in congestion control algorithms across the Internet. One key component in our RTO computation analysis was proving in ACL2s that for all alpha in [0, 1), the limit as n approaches infinity of alpha raised to n is zero. Whereas the most obvious proof strategy involves the logarithm, whose codomain includes irrationals, by default ACL2 only supports rationals, which forced us to take a non-standard approach. In this paper, we explore different approaches to proving the above result in ACL2(r) and ACL2s, from the perspective of a relatively new user to each. We also contextualize the theorem by showing how it allowed us to prove important asymptotic properties of the RTO computation. Finally, we discuss tradeoffs between the various proof strategies and directions for future research., Comment: In Proceedings ACL2-2023, arXiv:2311.08373

The challenge of establishing assurance in autonomy is rapidly attracting increasing interest in the industry, government, and academia. Autonomy is a broad and expansive capability that enables systems to behave without direct control by a human operator. To that end, it is expected to be present in a wide variety of systems and applications. A vast range of industrial sectors, including (but by no means limited to) defense, mobility, health care, manufacturing, and civilian infrastructure, are embracing the opportunities in autonomy yet face the similar barriers toward establishing the necessary level of assurance sooner or later. Numerous government agencies are poised to tackle the challenges in assured autonomy. Given the already immense interest and investment in autonomy, a series of workshops on Assured Autonomy was convened to facilitate dialogs and increase awareness among the stakeholders in the academia, industry, and government. This series of three workshops aimed to help create a unified understanding of the goals for assured autonomy, the research trends and needs, and a strategy that will facilitate sustained progress in autonomy. The first workshop, held in October 2019, focused on current and anticipated challenges and problems in assuring autonomous systems within and across applications and sectors. The second workshop held in February 2020, focused on existing capabilities, current research, and research trends that could address the challenges and problems identified in workshop. The third event was dedicated to a discussion of a draft of the major findings from the previous two workshops and the recommendations., Comment: A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) workshop report, 28 pages

This paper describes in detail the example introduced in the preliminary evaluation of THRIVE. Specifically, it evaluates THRIVE over an abstraction of the ground model proposed for a critical component belonging to a medical device used by optometrists and ophtalmologits to dected visual problems., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

Self-similarity is the property of a system being similar to a part of itself. We posit that a special class of behaviourally self-similar systems exhibits a degree of resilience to adversarial behaviour. We formalise the notions of system, adversary and resilience in operational terms, based on transition systems and observations. While the general problem of proving systems to be behaviourally self-similar is undecidable, we show, by casting them in the framework of well-structured transition systems, that there is an interesting class of systems for which the problem is decidable. We illustrate our prescriptive framework for resilience with some small examples, e.g., systems robust to failures in a fail-stop model, and those avoiding side-channel attacks., Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2016, arXiv:1608.02692

Using methods of Marklof and Str\"ombergsson we establish several limit laws for metric parameters of random Cayley graphs of finite abelian groups with respect to a randomly chosen set of generators of a fixed size. Doing so we settle a conjecture of Amir and Gurel-Gurevich., Comment: 12 pages, revised version

The role of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) in defining the field and the curriculum content for graduate study is examined on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. Stressed is the organization's potential future role as the field confronts changing political, social, economic, and technological environments at the end of the 20th century. (Author/MSE)

One successful model for instruction in English as a second language (ESL) takes its core texts from a single recurring publication or broadcast. The use of one periodical maximizes the opportunity to become familiar with the format, topics, and common story genres or scripts. Script theory, which views texts as answers to predictable questions based on script type, builds on the predictable periodical format. In the case of one business ESL course, the periodical used is the weekly business-related television program, the Wall Street Journal Report (WSJR). The program's structure is consistent, and the different types of scripts give predictable kinds of content that can be analyzed in class. The students, with the teacher's guidance, can help select the segments to be used in class, and can be required to look for related texts from other sources. The finding and synthesizing of other texts is an active and rewarding learning task for the students. The headline for each story can be used for discussion of the text's focus or perspective, and vocabulary learning can be organized by script type, topic, or attitude conveyed (e.g., tentativeness or controversial nature of the topic). These texts are also good sources of idioms. (MSE)