Two new families of languages, the F(k) and U(k) languages, are Introduced each of which is, in some sense, a generalization of top-down deterministic languages. This leads us to new characterizations of s-grammars and LL(1) languages. We include a characterization of the unambiguous context-free languages, generalizations of the equivalence relation on s-grammars to LL(k) grammars, and a summa...

We introduce the notion of discrimination as a generalization of both sorting and partitioning and show that discriminators (discrimination functions) can be defined generically, by structural recursion on order and equivalence expressions denoting a rich class of total preorders and equivalence relations, respectively. Discriminators improve the asymptotic performance of generic comparison-bas...

Within African savannas, elephants often damage individual trees to the extent that they influence tree density. New research shows that mutualistic ants inhabiting certain species of Acacia protect trees from catastrophic herbivory by elephants. Protection by the ants stabilizes tree cover across savannas in what is otherwise a highly dynamic biome.

This paper studies the long-term impact of societal socialization on values using the example of doping behavior in sports. We apply the German Reunification Approach to the microcosm of Berlin and exploit its 40-year long division into a capitalist and a communist sector. We deliberately chose attitudes toward doping to test the impact of ideology on values since (i) post-1989 disappointed eco...

A top-down, step-wise progressive computing model is presented as a mode of granular computing. Based on a multilevel granular structure, progressive computing explores a sequence of refinements from coarser information granulation to finer information granulation. A basic progressive computing algorithm is introduced. Examples of progressive computing are provided.

In this paper, as a first step towards constructing a selective sound segregation model for use in modeling phenomena such as the cocktail party effect, we consider a basic problem of selective sound segregation for instrument sounds using a singlechannel method (monaural processing). We propose a model concept for selective sound segregation based on auditory scene analysis and then describe i...