We present a dynamic programming-based solution to the problem of maximizing the probability of attaining a target set before hitting a cemetery set for a discrete-time Markov control process. Under mild hypotheses we establish that there exists a deterministic stationary policy that achieves the maximum value of this probability. We demonstrate how the maximization of this probability can be c...

The existence of a Byzantine church north of Tell Hesbh was confirmed by a sounding done in 1976 as part of the Andrews University Expedition. As a follow-up to that, Baptist Bible College of Pennsylvania sponsored a four-week expedition' to the site for the purpose of expanding the excavation of the church. The probe of 1976 had established the existence of three strata at the site: an Ayyilbi...

It is well known that some XML elements correspond to objects (in the sense of object-orientation) and others do not. The question we consider in this paper is what benefits we can derive from paying attention to such object semantics, particularly for the problem of keyword queries. Keyword queries against XML data have been studied extensively in recent years, with several lowest-common-ances...