Reasoning about the garden of forking paths

Lazy evaluation is a powerful tool for functional programmers. It enables the concise expression of on-demand computation and a form of compositionality not available under other evaluation strategies. However, the stateful nature of lazy evaluation makes it hard to analyze a program's computational cost, either informally or formally. In this work, we present a novel and simple framework for formally reasoning about lazy computation costs based on a recent model of lazy evaluation: clairvoyant call-by-value. The key feature of our framework is its simplicity, as expressed by our definition of the clairvoyance monad. This monad is both simple to define (around 20 lines of Coq) and simple to reason about. We show that this monad can be effectively used to mechanically reason about the computational cost of lazy functional programs written in Coq.

Understanding the relevance of Dhammapada in modern mind: A conceptual study

Lord Buddha was the great preacher of non-violence and humanism. Dhammapada is an essential treatise on Buddhism. It regards as the most concise expression of Buddha's teachings from ancient to the present day. After the passing away of Lord Buddha, Arhants were accumulating to exercise his teaching. They collected some poetic speeches and many pieces of advice of Buddha, which is known as Tripitaka. We find Dhammapada as a part of Khuddaka Nikāya of the Sutta pitaka. Dhammapada is a reflective and poetical thought in Buddhist literature. Today we are facing different kinds of challenges. Especially the new generation becomes intolerant and violent because they are confused and sometimes, they are misguided. They do not have a clear path in their lives. As a result, they become frustrated. This paper attempts to show how the Dhammapada can become a significant and essential text to reduce the aggressive manifestation of intolerance from the early to modern-day. This paper also focuses on some positive teachings of Lord Buddha, such as 'Four Noble Truths, 'Eight-Fold Paths,' 'Pratitya samudpāda,' which offer definite ways to be patient and tolerant some extent.

"Syntactic stylistics in contemporary Russian comics"

This paper explores the usage of devices of syntactic stylistics in contemporary Russian comics. The research aims to determine the functions that are achieved through elements of expressive syntax. The objective is to explore comics style in general, as well as devices on the phonostylistic, graphostylistic and the lexical stylistics plane. During the research, the analytic and synthetic method of scientific research was used, as well as the procedure of modern stylistic and syntactic analysis. The paper collects and analyzes examples of contemporary Russian comics that contain the following devices of syntactic stylistics: ellipsis, parcellation, nominative clauses, inversion and ecphonesis. The conclusion reached is that expressive syntax devices, as well as numerous other stylistic devices, are very frequently used in Russian comics. The function of these devises consists in conveying the features of conversational style, heroes’ emotional states, their relation to specific events, in achieving the verbal characterization of characters, in conveying the dynamics of action, emphasizing messages, as well as in formulating a concise expression which constitutes one of the main distinctive features of comics style.

Resilience of Urban Technical Networks

The need to overcome the insulated treatment of urban technical infrastructures according to the nature of the transferred flows is argued. The operation of urban technical networks is affected by endogenous and exogenous random events with consequences for users. By identifying these operational risks and the difficulties of estimating the impact on the performance of the urban technical networks, the authors chose to study the risk management through a concise expression—in relation to the engineering resilience and its connections with vulnerability. Further, the research is confined to the case of urban traffic networks for which the resilience is expressed by the capabilities of these networks of resistance and risk absorption (both motivated by the redundancy in design and execution). The dynamics of the network, in correlation with the resistance and absorption capacities, is introduced by three states for which the signal graph is built. In a stationary regime, the probability of each state is computed. These probabilities allow the calculation of the entropy of the network, relevant for assessing the preservation of the network functionality.

On the logical properties of Keynes’s theorising, and different approaches to the Keynes–institutionalism nexus

This paper replies to Hodgson (2019), which responds to my analysis and critique in O'Donnell (2018). My present aim is clarification of our respective positions, our agreements and disagreements, and their underlying causes. To this end, I elaborate further on the logic underpinning my initial paper, comment on several (not all) key points in Hodgson's response, and conclude with the matter of our different agendas. Space limitations preclude fuller discussion and encourage concise expression.

Quintilian on the Quotable

The sententia, which I translate as “a concise expression of one’s sense of things,” plays an important role in Quintilian’s approach to the formation of an orator and to the forms public speech should take. Passages about sententiae, which appear across the Institutio Oratoria, show how Quintilian attempts to temper a generational frenzy for making clever quips: by reminding readers that sententiae also can be familiar lines of verse or prose circulating in culture and by advising readers that sentence-length variety increases an orator’s affective and communicative efficacy. Studying sententiae in Quintilian enriches our understanding of past and present attitudes toward what one might generally call being quotable. These days, quotable forms include sound bites and tweets, and some critics view those short forms as analogous to sententiae. Quintilian’s views on sententiae, therefore, not only prove applicable to on-going debates about the place of quotable forms in rhetorical pedagogy and practice but also might help channel those debates in more productive directions.

The enduring legacy of the “constant-field equation” in membrane ion transport

In 1943, David Goldman published a seminal paper in The Journal of General Physiology that reported a concise expression for the membrane current as a function of ion concentrations and voltage. This body of work was, and still is, the theoretical pillar used to interpret the relationship between a cell’s membrane potential and its external and/or internal ionic composition. Here, we describe from an historical perspective the theory underlying the constant-field equation and its application to membrane ion transport.