Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development bec... more Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development become distinct categories later in development. To make a measure on a developing system assumes we can first identify the category of what we are about to measure-and that the category even exists at the point of observation. That is, in the course of development, measurable variables emerge, and the ability to measure emerges. Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational ca...
Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically a... more Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically and empirically. It is therefore a useful starting point for discussing the properties of dissipative structures and developing an analogy between such structures and development and evolution. Both the simplifications involved in the Bénard cells and the possibilities that are nonetheless allowed are remarkable. We will present some positive and negative analogies with more complex systems, and give two examples from biology, one from evolution, and the other from development.
Abstract. Privacy has become increasingly important to the database commu-nity which is reflected... more Abstract. Privacy has become increasingly important to the database commu-nity which is reflected by a noteworthy increase in research papers appearing in the literature. While researchers often assume that their definition of “privacy ” is universally held by all readers, this is rarely the case; so many papers addressing key challenges in this domain have actually produced results that do not consider the same problem, even when using similar vocabularies. This paper provides an explicit definition of data privacy suitable for ongoing work in data repositories such as a DBMS or for data mining. The work contributes by briefly providing the larger context for the way privacy is defined legally and legislatively but pri-marily provides a taxonomy capable of thinking of data privacy technologically. We then demonstrate the taxonomy’s utility by illustrating how this perspective makes it possible to understand the important contribution made by researchers to the issue of privacy. The...
Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically a... more Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically and empirically. It is therefore a useful starting point for discussing the properties of dissipative structures and developing an analogy between such structures and development and evolution. Both the simplifications involved in the Bénard cells and the possibilities that are nonetheless allowed are remarkable. We will present some positive and negative analogies with more complex systems, and give two examples from biology, one from evolution, and the other from development.
University Microfilms order no. UMI00288356. Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of British Columbia, 199... more University Microfilms order no. UMI00288356. Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of British Columbia, 1990. Includes bibliographical references.
ABSTRACT Since the 1970s the Canadian Prairies have experienced a steady replacement of summer fa... more ABSTRACT Since the 1970s the Canadian Prairies have experienced a steady replacement of summer fallow with continuous cropping practices. It has been suggested that such regional scale changes in agricultural land use result in the modification of the regional climate and its variability. Our study explores this influence using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to determine whether agricultural land use variables can discriminate the classes of exceedance (positive/negative beyond a given small scale variability range) found in the maximum and minimum daily temperature, diurnal temperature range (DTR), daily precipitation and daily incoming solar radiation. These classes of exceedance describe whether the climate was warmer/cooler, drier/wetter and sunnier/cloudier relative to the small scale variability range. The land use data consisted of summer fallow, annuals and perennials for the 127 ecodistricts in the Prairies ecozone. The climate data were neighbouring station data interpolated to the ecodistrict's centroid. Both data sets covered the period 1951–2006 and the analysis covered the entire data period with focus on 1971–2006 that coincided with the decline in summer fallow practice. It considered the primary growing season months of June, July and August and used the winter months of January and February as a contrast. Our approach showed that where large scale changes in agricultural land cover occurs we can establish a statistical relationship between such changes and the modification of the climate's variability. June coincided with the period of maximum positive growth rate and hence land cover change. The greatest discriminating power was therefore found to occur in June for the exceedance classes of maximum and minimum temperature and solar radiation over the 1971–2006 period with success rates ranging from 85 to 93%. The greatest success in discriminating the DTR classes was at 82% in July.
Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development bec... more Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development become distinct categories later in development. To make a measure on a developing system assumes we can first identify the category of what we are about to measure -- and that the category even exists at the point of observation. That is, in the course of development, measurable variables emerge, and the ability to measure emerges. Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational calculus, corresponds with the generalization from dynamical to developmental systems, dynamical systems emerging as a special case of temporal and spatial scale invariance in the generating process. KEYWORDS: Developmental systems, functions, relations, fuzzy sets, vague sets
This guide, like all field guides, is a labour of love and a community effort. We thank all those... more This guide, like all field guides, is a labour of love and a community effort. We thank all those who devoted time in finding field sites, editing the text for scientific veracity and practical utility, contributing photos, and accompanying the authors on field trips. While the text conveys basic information on recognizing the plants in various stages, the emphasis is on the pic- tures, which reflect the changes in a plant through a growing season from flowering stage to fruit matura- tion. We hope these pictures convey not only useful information, but also a sense of the subtle beauty and intricacy of our familiar native species when examined up close (many of the pictures are shot with a macro lens or through a dissecting microscope). Brian Capon, in his introduction to “Botany for Gardeners,” expresses a common sentiment that draws people to the plant world whether as a hobby, as a business, or as a scholarly activity: “Some of us look at plants as a source of liveli- hood, while others find them intriguing subjects for scientific study. But most enjoy plants for the sheer delight of having them in their every day surroundings, to savor the varied colours, tex- tures, tastes and aromas that they alone can offer. Plants stimulate the senses, give peace to the weary mind and satisfy man’s spiritual being in search for answers to the mystery of life.”
Stability is a concern in complex networks as disparate as power grids, ecosystems, financial net... more Stability is a concern in complex networks as disparate as power grids, ecosystems, financial networks, the Internet, and metabolisms. I introduce two forms of topological stability that are relevant to network architectures: cut and connection stability. Cut-stability concerns a network’s ability to resist being broken into pieces. Connection-stability concerns a network’s ability to resist the spread of viral processes.
These two forms of stability are antagonistic. Therefore, no network can ever be com- pletely architecturally stable. Changes to network topology that increase one form of sta- bility, compromise the other. This may seem disappointing, but there is good news. Dy- namic processes can stabilize a network and compensate for architectural limitations. Let us call such stabilizing processes, ‘resilient mechanisms’. Such resilient mechanisms can be abstracted from stabilizing processes in biology, or designed de novo.
Resilient processes have evolved to dynamically stabilize biological networks in the face of architectural limitations. They have been studied by biologists in several areas from homeostasis to evolutionary robustness. These processes exist today because they have been effective over evolutionary time scales. This provides an opportunity for computer scientists to learn from biology about processes that can stabilize the complex networks characteristic of distributed systems.
I introduce a multi-agent framework, Probabilistic Network Models (PNMs), within which we can test different candidate resilient processes under varying network architec- tures. I focus on a PNM for a viral instability where the resilient process is the simple immune response of sending a warning message. Counter-intuitively, network architectures that favour the virus, also favour the warning message running ahead. Dynamic resilience, thus allows for an architectural weakness in connection-stability to be circumvented by pro- cesses as simple as sending a warning message.
Computer literacy can no longer be reduced to knowing how to operate a computer. Nonetheless, it ... more Computer literacy can no longer be reduced to knowing how to operate a computer. Nonetheless, it must embrace making use of computers to solve problems. This paper describes a post- secondary computer literacy course with this objective, focusing on problem solving using computers, and encouraging methodological thinking. The course includes “real” computer science topics that are tailored to fit the backgrounds of non- computing related majors. The paper also shares our preliminary observations from running the course.
Privacy has become increasingly important to the database community which is reflected by a notew... more Privacy has become increasingly important to the database community which is reflected by a noteworthy increase in research papers appearing in the literature. While researchers often assume that their definition of “privacy” is universally held by all readers, this is rarely the case; so many papers addressing key challenges in this domain have actually produced results that do not consider the same problem, even when using similar vocabularies. This paper provides an explicit definition of data privacy suitable for ongoing work in data repositories such as a DBMS or for data mining. The work contributes by briefly providing the larger context for the way privacy is defined legally and legislatively but primarily provides a taxonomy capable of thinking of data privacy technologically. We then demonstrate the taxonomy’s utility by illustrating how this perspective makes it possible to understand the important contribution made by researchers to the issue of privacy. The conclusion of this paper is that privacy is indeed multifaceted so no single current research effort adequately addresses the true breadth of the issues necessary to fully understand the scope of this important issue.
Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development bec... more Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development become distinct categories later in development. To make a measure on a developing system assumes we can first identify the category of what we are about to measure-and that the category even exists at the point of observation. That is, in the course of development, measurable variables emerge, and the ability to measure emerges. Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational ca...
Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically a... more Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically and empirically. It is therefore a useful starting point for discussing the properties of dissipative structures and developing an analogy between such structures and development and evolution. Both the simplifications involved in the Bénard cells and the possibilities that are nonetheless allowed are remarkable. We will present some positive and negative analogies with more complex systems, and give two examples from biology, one from evolution, and the other from development.
Abstract. Privacy has become increasingly important to the database commu-nity which is reflected... more Abstract. Privacy has become increasingly important to the database commu-nity which is reflected by a noteworthy increase in research papers appearing in the literature. While researchers often assume that their definition of “privacy ” is universally held by all readers, this is rarely the case; so many papers addressing key challenges in this domain have actually produced results that do not consider the same problem, even when using similar vocabularies. This paper provides an explicit definition of data privacy suitable for ongoing work in data repositories such as a DBMS or for data mining. The work contributes by briefly providing the larger context for the way privacy is defined legally and legislatively but pri-marily provides a taxonomy capable of thinking of data privacy technologically. We then demonstrate the taxonomy’s utility by illustrating how this perspective makes it possible to understand the important contribution made by researchers to the issue of privacy. The...
Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically a... more Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely studied dissipative systems, both theoretically and empirically. It is therefore a useful starting point for discussing the properties of dissipative structures and developing an analogy between such structures and development and evolution. Both the simplifications involved in the Bénard cells and the possibilities that are nonetheless allowed are remarkable. We will present some positive and negative analogies with more complex systems, and give two examples from biology, one from evolution, and the other from development.
University Microfilms order no. UMI00288356. Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of British Columbia, 199... more University Microfilms order no. UMI00288356. Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of British Columbia, 1990. Includes bibliographical references.
ABSTRACT Since the 1970s the Canadian Prairies have experienced a steady replacement of summer fa... more ABSTRACT Since the 1970s the Canadian Prairies have experienced a steady replacement of summer fallow with continuous cropping practices. It has been suggested that such regional scale changes in agricultural land use result in the modification of the regional climate and its variability. Our study explores this influence using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to determine whether agricultural land use variables can discriminate the classes of exceedance (positive/negative beyond a given small scale variability range) found in the maximum and minimum daily temperature, diurnal temperature range (DTR), daily precipitation and daily incoming solar radiation. These classes of exceedance describe whether the climate was warmer/cooler, drier/wetter and sunnier/cloudier relative to the small scale variability range. The land use data consisted of summer fallow, annuals and perennials for the 127 ecodistricts in the Prairies ecozone. The climate data were neighbouring station data interpolated to the ecodistrict's centroid. Both data sets covered the period 1951–2006 and the analysis covered the entire data period with focus on 1971–2006 that coincided with the decline in summer fallow practice. It considered the primary growing season months of June, July and August and used the winter months of January and February as a contrast. Our approach showed that where large scale changes in agricultural land cover occurs we can establish a statistical relationship between such changes and the modification of the climate's variability. June coincided with the period of maximum positive growth rate and hence land cover change. The greatest discriminating power was therefore found to occur in June for the exceedance classes of maximum and minimum temperature and solar radiation over the 1971–2006 period with success rates ranging from 85 to 93%. The greatest success in discriminating the DTR classes was at 82% in July.
Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development bec... more Development is characterized by increasing specification. Vague patterns early in development become distinct categories later in development. To make a measure on a developing system assumes we can first identify the category of what we are about to measure -- and that the category even exists at the point of observation. That is, in the course of development, measurable variables emerge, and the ability to measure emerges. Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational calculus, corresponds with the generalization from dynamical to developmental systems, dynamical systems emerging as a special case of temporal and spatial scale invariance in the generating process. KEYWORDS: Developmental systems, functions, relations, fuzzy sets, vague sets
This guide, like all field guides, is a labour of love and a community effort. We thank all those... more This guide, like all field guides, is a labour of love and a community effort. We thank all those who devoted time in finding field sites, editing the text for scientific veracity and practical utility, contributing photos, and accompanying the authors on field trips. While the text conveys basic information on recognizing the plants in various stages, the emphasis is on the pic- tures, which reflect the changes in a plant through a growing season from flowering stage to fruit matura- tion. We hope these pictures convey not only useful information, but also a sense of the subtle beauty and intricacy of our familiar native species when examined up close (many of the pictures are shot with a macro lens or through a dissecting microscope). Brian Capon, in his introduction to “Botany for Gardeners,” expresses a common sentiment that draws people to the plant world whether as a hobby, as a business, or as a scholarly activity: “Some of us look at plants as a source of liveli- hood, while others find them intriguing subjects for scientific study. But most enjoy plants for the sheer delight of having them in their every day surroundings, to savor the varied colours, tex- tures, tastes and aromas that they alone can offer. Plants stimulate the senses, give peace to the weary mind and satisfy man’s spiritual being in search for answers to the mystery of life.”
Stability is a concern in complex networks as disparate as power grids, ecosystems, financial net... more Stability is a concern in complex networks as disparate as power grids, ecosystems, financial networks, the Internet, and metabolisms. I introduce two forms of topological stability that are relevant to network architectures: cut and connection stability. Cut-stability concerns a network’s ability to resist being broken into pieces. Connection-stability concerns a network’s ability to resist the spread of viral processes.
These two forms of stability are antagonistic. Therefore, no network can ever be com- pletely architecturally stable. Changes to network topology that increase one form of sta- bility, compromise the other. This may seem disappointing, but there is good news. Dy- namic processes can stabilize a network and compensate for architectural limitations. Let us call such stabilizing processes, ‘resilient mechanisms’. Such resilient mechanisms can be abstracted from stabilizing processes in biology, or designed de novo.
Resilient processes have evolved to dynamically stabilize biological networks in the face of architectural limitations. They have been studied by biologists in several areas from homeostasis to evolutionary robustness. These processes exist today because they have been effective over evolutionary time scales. This provides an opportunity for computer scientists to learn from biology about processes that can stabilize the complex networks characteristic of distributed systems.
I introduce a multi-agent framework, Probabilistic Network Models (PNMs), within which we can test different candidate resilient processes under varying network architec- tures. I focus on a PNM for a viral instability where the resilient process is the simple immune response of sending a warning message. Counter-intuitively, network architectures that favour the virus, also favour the warning message running ahead. Dynamic resilience, thus allows for an architectural weakness in connection-stability to be circumvented by pro- cesses as simple as sending a warning message.
Computer literacy can no longer be reduced to knowing how to operate a computer. Nonetheless, it ... more Computer literacy can no longer be reduced to knowing how to operate a computer. Nonetheless, it must embrace making use of computers to solve problems. This paper describes a post- secondary computer literacy course with this objective, focusing on problem solving using computers, and encouraging methodological thinking. The course includes “real” computer science topics that are tailored to fit the backgrounds of non- computing related majors. The paper also shares our preliminary observations from running the course.
Privacy has become increasingly important to the database community which is reflected by a notew... more Privacy has become increasingly important to the database community which is reflected by a noteworthy increase in research papers appearing in the literature. While researchers often assume that their definition of “privacy” is universally held by all readers, this is rarely the case; so many papers addressing key challenges in this domain have actually produced results that do not consider the same problem, even when using similar vocabularies. This paper provides an explicit definition of data privacy suitable for ongoing work in data repositories such as a DBMS or for data mining. The work contributes by briefly providing the larger context for the way privacy is defined legally and legislatively but primarily provides a taxonomy capable of thinking of data privacy technologically. We then demonstrate the taxonomy’s utility by illustrating how this perspective makes it possible to understand the important contribution made by researchers to the issue of privacy. The conclusion of this paper is that privacy is indeed multifaceted so no single current research effort adequately addresses the true breadth of the issues necessary to fully understand the scope of this important issue.
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Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational calculus, corresponds with the generalization from dynamical to developmental systems, dynamical systems emerging as a special case of temporal and spatial scale invariance in the generating process. KEYWORDS: Developmental systems, functions, relations, fuzzy sets, vague sets
“Some of us look at plants as a source of liveli- hood, while others find them intriguing subjects for scientific study. But most enjoy plants for the sheer delight of having them in their every day surroundings, to savor the varied colours, tex- tures, tastes and aromas that they alone can offer. Plants stimulate the senses, give peace to the weary mind and satisfy man’s spiritual being in search for answers to the mystery of life.”
These two forms of stability are antagonistic. Therefore, no network can ever be com- pletely architecturally stable. Changes to network topology that increase one form of sta- bility, compromise the other. This may seem disappointing, but there is good news. Dy- namic processes can stabilize a network and compensate for architectural limitations. Let us call such stabilizing processes, ‘resilient mechanisms’. Such resilient mechanisms can be abstracted from stabilizing processes in biology, or designed de novo.
Resilient processes have evolved to dynamically stabilize biological networks in the face of architectural limitations. They have been studied by biologists in several areas from homeostasis to evolutionary robustness. These processes exist today because they have been effective over evolutionary time scales. This provides an opportunity for computer scientists to learn from biology about processes that can stabilize the complex networks characteristic of distributed systems.
I introduce a multi-agent framework, Probabilistic Network Models (PNMs), within which we can test different candidate resilient processes under varying network architec- tures. I focus on a PNM for a viral instability where the resilient process is the simple immune response of sending a warning message. Counter-intuitively, network architectures that favour the virus, also favour the warning message running ahead. Dynamic resilience, thus allows for an architectural weakness in connection-stability to be circumvented by pro- cesses as simple as sending a warning message.
Beginning with considerations of what can be observed in a developing system, I develop a conceptual framework for developmental systems, by proposing an extension of fuzzy set theory to deal with vague sets. Vague sets are represented as curvature in a sets-as-points space, and represent sets whose definitions are incomplete, and become increasingly specified over time. In the course of this program I use data operations on relations to expand beyond the limitations of functions, which are the basis of dynamical systems. The move from a functional to relational calculus, corresponds with the generalization from dynamical to developmental systems, dynamical systems emerging as a special case of temporal and spatial scale invariance in the generating process. KEYWORDS: Developmental systems, functions, relations, fuzzy sets, vague sets
“Some of us look at plants as a source of liveli- hood, while others find them intriguing subjects for scientific study. But most enjoy plants for the sheer delight of having them in their every day surroundings, to savor the varied colours, tex- tures, tastes and aromas that they alone can offer. Plants stimulate the senses, give peace to the weary mind and satisfy man’s spiritual being in search for answers to the mystery of life.”
These two forms of stability are antagonistic. Therefore, no network can ever be com- pletely architecturally stable. Changes to network topology that increase one form of sta- bility, compromise the other. This may seem disappointing, but there is good news. Dy- namic processes can stabilize a network and compensate for architectural limitations. Let us call such stabilizing processes, ‘resilient mechanisms’. Such resilient mechanisms can be abstracted from stabilizing processes in biology, or designed de novo.
Resilient processes have evolved to dynamically stabilize biological networks in the face of architectural limitations. They have been studied by biologists in several areas from homeostasis to evolutionary robustness. These processes exist today because they have been effective over evolutionary time scales. This provides an opportunity for computer scientists to learn from biology about processes that can stabilize the complex networks characteristic of distributed systems.
I introduce a multi-agent framework, Probabilistic Network Models (PNMs), within which we can test different candidate resilient processes under varying network architec- tures. I focus on a PNM for a viral instability where the resilient process is the simple immune response of sending a warning message. Counter-intuitively, network architectures that favour the virus, also favour the warning message running ahead. Dynamic resilience, thus allows for an architectural weakness in connection-stability to be circumvented by pro- cesses as simple as sending a warning message.