Titel Deelnemers "A nonstandard hierarchy comparison theorem for the slow and fast growing hierarchy" "Wilfried Buchholz, Andreas Weiermann" "The Role of Hierarchy in Face-to-Face and E-Supported Mediations: The Use of an Online Intake to Balance Hierarchy" "Katalien Bollen, Martin Euwema" "This study investigates the effects of hierarchical differences on mediation satisfaction in e-supported mediations compared to face-to-face mediations. Specifically, we compare face-to-face mediations and mediations in which an online intake is used before the joint face-to-face session (hybrid types of mediation). We assume that the use of an online intake before the joint mediation mitigates the effects of hierarchy on parties’ satisfaction with the mediation. To test our hypotheses, we use data from real mediation cases dealing with hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. In line with our hypothesis, results show that supervisors feel more satisfied with the mediation when involved in a face-to-face mediation, but that subordinates and supervisors feel equally satisfied when an online intake is used before the mediation. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed." "Development of hierarchy and rank effects in weaned growing rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)" "H. Vervaecke, L. De Bonte, L. Maertens, Frank Tuyttens, J. M. G. Stevens, D. Lips" "Aggression among growing rabbits reduces production efficiency, and negatively affects the animal's welfare. Understanding hierarchy development may improve its predictive value with regard to differential access to resources and fitness. This could in turn lead to measures to reduce aggression. This study quantifies the development of a hierarchy among small groups of same-age rabbits kept in high density. We describe the development of the hierarchy in four mixed-sex groups formed after weaning at four weeks of age. The relationships between rank and aggressiveness, weight, sex and wound count were examined. To balance possible genetic effects, each group contained four full sibling dyads (N=8) with the male and female coming from the same litter (total N=32). Each group was housed in a wire mesh cage of 0.72 m(2) and was observed at 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 wk of age. All activities of focal individuals were scored and antagonistic interactions among all group members were sampled continuously. For rank order analysis, submissive behaviours shown after receiving aggression were used. Females were heavier than males (3.2 kg vs 3.0 kg: wk 12); this difference was statistically significant from the sixth week onwards. Two of the four groups developed significantly linear hierarchies from the age of ten and twelve weeks onwards, respectively. In these two groups, rank order did not correlate with body weight, sex or wound count. The group with the steepest hierarchy had the highest number of wounds. The results show that growing rabbits can form linear hierarchies by 10 weeks of age, but this tendency differs strongly among groups. The male and female rabbits did not form separate hierarchies, in contrast to their natural tendencies. This may be due to the high density, and may imply a lack of interaction freedom." "Hierarchy and the Nature of Information" "Ronald Cottam, Willy Ranson" "We address the nature of information from a systemic structural point of view. Starting fromthe Natural hierarchy of living systems, we elucidate its decomposition into two partial hierarchiesassociated with its extant levels and inter-level regions, respectively. External observation of ahierarchical system involves the generation of approximate hyperscalar representations of these twopartials, which then reintegrate to give a singular metascalar result. We relate Havel’s categories ofreality and Peirce’s categories of experience to this result, and indicate that the ultimate result of thereintegration of hyperscalar data and context is a sign which is information." "Towards a neural hierarchy of time scales for motor control" "Tim Waegeman, Francis wyffels, Benjamin Schrauwen" "Animals show remarkable rich motion skills which are still far from realizable with robots. Inspired by the neural circuits which generate rhythmic motion patterns in the spinal cord of all vertebrates, one main research direction points towards the use of central pattern generators in robots. On of the key advantages of this, is that the dimensionality of the control problem is reduced. In this work we investigate this further by introducing a multi-timescale control hierarchy with at its core a hierarchy of recurrent neural networks. By means of some robot experiments, we demonstrate that this hierarchy can embed any rhythmic motor signal by imitation learning. Furthermore, the proposed hierarchy allows the tracking of several high level motion properties (e.g.: amplitude and offset), which are usually observed at a slower rate than the generated motion. Although these experiments are preliminary, the results are promising and have the potential to open the door for rich motor skills and advanced control." "System Duality: Birational Hierarchy" "Willy Ranson" "System theory, and most particularly hierarchy theory, must be consistent with philosophy. In his book ""Logic in Reality"", Brenner reinforces the traditional philosophic position that an entity can only exist in relation to its non-existence. This leads to a duality in system theory which is consistent with the selective division of Nature into entity and ecosystem, where the two depend on different criteria and even different logics. A fascinating aspect of such a birational approach is that representations and properties only exist as intermediates between pairs of ideal extremes. Quantum logic, for example, no longer replaces post-Newtonian classical logic; it complements it, identifying all real entities as compromises between the two. This albeit philosophically non-traditional included middle is identical to that of the philosophical logic of Stéphane Lupasco, and to the implications of Brenner's ""Logic in Reality"". This presages a major philosophical change in the way Science can be carried out. What we wish to do is to bring all of Science under a generalized umbrella of entity and ecosystem, and then characterize different types of entity by their more or less important relationships with their relevant ecosystems. The most general way to do this is to move the ecosystemic paradigm up to the level of its encompassing logic, creating a complementary pair of conceivably different logics - one for the entity we are focusing on; one for the ecosystem within which it exists - and providing for their quasi-autonomous birational interaction. We present a representation of natural hierarchy which is itself dual in character, and counsel that monorational constructions are ineffective. As an example, we present a dual formulation of entropy." "A novel obfuscation: class hierarchy flattening" "Christophe Foket, Bjorn De Sutter, Bart Coppens" "This paper presents class hierarchy flattening, a novel obfuscation technique for programs written in object-oriented, managed programming languages. Class hierarchy flattening strives for maximally removing the inheritance relations from object-oriented programs, thus hiding the overall design of the program from reverse engineers and other attackers. We evaluate the potential of class hierarchy flattening by means of a fully automated prototype tool for Java bytecode. For real-life programs from the DaCapo benchmark suite, we demonstrate that the transformation effectively hinders both human and tool analyses, and that it does so at limited overheads." "Applying analytic hierarchy process to adaptation to saltwater intrusion in Vietnam" "Linh Nguyen Thi Dieu, Brent Bleys" "Given the multidimensional nature of climate change issues, decision-making in climate change adaptation is a complex process, and suitable decision support methods are needed. The aim of this paper was to rank saltwater intrusion adaptation options for farmers in two provinces in the central coastal region of Vietnam using the analytical hierarchy process method. Data for the analysis were obtained through a literature review, field observations, and face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions with key informants. We combined two ways of weighting to arrive at final scores for each of the identified adaptation options: prioritizing criteria and subcriteria by pairwise comparison and rating the different alternatives with respect to the lowest level subcriteria. In doing so, we also investigated differences in the priority sets and final rankings of the analytical hierarchy process applications in both provinces. In our study, we worked with group consensus scores on both the criteria weights and the ratings for the different adaptation options for each of the criteria. Our results revealed that “sustainability and equity” was the most important criteria, while coherence ranked lowest. The final ranking of adaptation options differed between both provinces due to differences in the geographical and socioeconomic characteristics of the study areas. The consistency ratios for all pairwise matrices were less than 0.1, indicating that judgments from the focus group discussions with respect to the different criteria were highly consistent. A sensitivity analysis of our results confirmed the robustness of the rankings in our research." "Application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for landslide susceptibility mapping: a case study from the Tinau watershed, west Nepal" "Prabin Kayastha, Dhital Megh Raj" "Landslide problems are abundant in the mountainous areas of Nepal due to a unique combination of adverse geological conditions, abundant rainfall and anthropogenic factors, which leads to enormous loss of life and property every year. To control such problems, systematic studies of landslides are necessary, including inventory mapping and risk assessment. This study applies the Analytical Hierarchy Process method in the Tinau watershed, Nepal. A landslide susceptibility map is prepared on the basis of available digital data of topography, geology, land-use and hydrology. The landslide susceptibility map is validated through physical and statistical methods. The results reveal that the predicted susceptibility levels are found to be in good agreement with the past landslide occurrences, and, hence, the map is trustworthy for future land-use planning." "A Biosemiotic View on Consciousness Derived from System Hierarchy" "Willy Ranson" "We strongly believe that high levels of conceptual consciousness are impossible without embodiment, and that therefore any idea that consciousness could transcend the physicality of life is mistaken. The derivation of consciousness from lower more localized forms of awareness poses a more pragmatic question: why, from a high level of consciousness, are we apparently unaware of these lower awarenesses? The adoption of a carrier-plus-signal description for the mutual observation of the two hyperscales suggests that these lower level awarenesses may well be present, but that they may not occupy the center of attention, and may only be recognizable as lower-level 'neural noise'. Striking support for neural birationality comes from the degree to which the two hemispheres of the brain apparently concentrate on different styles of processing (Glickstein and Berlucchi 2010): ""linear, sequential, logical, symbolic for the left hemisphere and holistic, random, intuitive, concrete, nonverbal for the right"" (Rock 2004), corresponding to the dual rationalities we have described, and to the primitives of logic and emotion, respectively (Cottam et al. 2008b)."