Theory evaluation is a key problem in many areas: machine learning, scientific discovery, inverse engineering, decision making, software engineering, design, human sciences, etc. If we have a set of theories that are able to explain the same set of phenomena, we need a criterion to choose which one is best. There are, of course, many possible criteria. Model simplicity is one of the most common...

Abstract Violent coniflicts, particularly at election times in Africa, are a common cause of instability and economic disruption. This paper studies how firms react to electoral violence using the case Kenyan ower exporters during 2008 post-election as an example. The induced large negative supply shock that reduced exports primarily through workers' absence had heterogeneous effects: larger th...

In this paper, we settle a problem in probabilistic verification of infinite–state process (specifically, probabilistic pushdown process). We show that model checking stateless probabilistic pushdown process (pBPA) against probabilistic computational tree logic (PCTL) is undecidable.

In this draft, we settle a problem in probabilistic verification of infinite–state processes (probabilistic pushdown systems). We show that model checking stateless probabilistic pushdown systems (pBPA) against probabilistic computational tree logic (PCTL) is undecidable.

While ever-growing bio-ethanol production poses considerable challenges to the bioenergy supply chain, the risk of refinery operation disruptions further compromises the efficiency and reliability of the energy supply system. This paper applies discrete and continuous reliable facility location models to the design of reliable bio-ethanol supply chains so that the system can hedge against poten...

Emerging business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications are exhibiting increasing reliance on the dependability of computer and communication systems. This dependency dramatically magnifies the consequence of damages resulting from even simple system faults and intrusions, together referred to as disruptions. Although several piecemeal solutions address concerns related to the secur...

Existing gate-level probabilistic approaches to power estimation fail to accurately model the glitch filtering by inertial delays. This effect can have a significant impact on the power dissipation of a circuit and therefore it should not be neglected, especially when dynamic power estimation and optimization are desired. We propose a glitch filtering method, which enhances the accuracy of the ...

Cloud computing is a new technological paradigm offering computing infrastructure, software and platforms as a pay-as-you-go subscription based service. Many potential customer’s of cloud services require essential cost assessments to be undertaken before transitioning to the cloud. Current assessment techniques are imprecise and rely on simplified resource requirements that fail to account for...