Integration of technologies for understanding the functional relationship between reef habitat and fish growth and production

Functional linkage between reef habitat quality and fish growth and production has remained elusive. Most current research is focused on correlative relationships between a general habitat type and presence/absence of a species, an index of species abundance, or species diversity. Such descriptive information largely ignores how reef attributes regulate reef fish abundance (density-dependent habitat selection), trophic interactions, and physiological performance (growth and condition). To determine the functional relationship between habitat quality, fish abundance, trophic interactions, and physiological performance, we are using an experimental reef system in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico where we apply advanced sensor and biochemical technologies. Our study site controls for reef attributes (size, cavity space, and reef mosaics) and focuses on the processes that regulate gag grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis) abundance, behavior and performance (growth and condition), and the availability of their pelagic prey. We combine mobile and fixed-active (fisheries) acoustics, passive acoustics, video cameras, and advanced biochemical techniques. Fisheries acoustics quantifies the abundance of pelagic prey fishes associated with the reefs and their behavior. Passive acoustics and video allow direct observation of gag and prey fish behavior and the acoustic environment, and provide a direct visual for the interpretation of fixed fisheries acoustics measurements. New application of biochemical techniques, such as Electron Transport System (ETS) assay, allow the in situ measurement of metabolic expenditure of gag and relates this back to reef attributes, gag behavior, and prey fish availability. Here, we provide an overview of our integrated technological approach for understanding and quantifying the functional relationship between reef habitat quality and one element of production – gag grouper growth on shallow coastal reefs

A Human Information Behavior Approach to a Philosophy of Information

This paper outlines the relation between philosophy of information (PI) and human information behavior (HIB). In this paper, we first briefly outline the basic constructs and approaches of PI and HIB. We argue that a strong relation exists between PI and HIB, as both are exploring the concept of information and premise information as a fundamental concept basic to human existence. We then exemplify that a heuristic approach to PI integrates the HIB view of information as a cognitive human- initiated process by presenting a specific cognitive architecture for information initiation based on modular notion from HIB/evolutionary psychology and the vacuum mechanism from PI.published or submitted for publicatio

Integrating information and knowledge for enterprise innovation

It has widely been accepted that enterprise integration, can be a source of socio-technical and cultural problems within organisations wishing to provide a focussed end-to-end business service. This can cause possible “straitjacketing” of business process architectures, thus suppressing responsive business re-engineering and competitive advantage for some companies. Accordingly, the current typology and emergent forms of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies are set in the context of understanding information and knowledge integration philosophies. As such, key influences and trends in emerging IS integration choices, for end-to-end, cost-effective and flexible knowledge integration, are examined. As touch points across and outside organisations proliferate, via work-flow and relationship management-driven value innovation, aspects of knowledge refinement and knowledge integration pose challenges to maximising the potential of innovation and sustainable success, within enterprises. This is in terms of the increasing propensity for data fragmentation and the lack of effective information management, in the light of information overload. Furthermore, the nature of IS mediation which is inherent within decision making and workflow-based business processes, provides the basis for evaluation of the effects of information and knowledge integration. Hence, the authors propose a conceptual, holistic evaluation framework which encompasses these ideas. It is thus argued that such trends, and their implications regarding enterprise IS integration to engender sustainable competitive advantage, require fundamental re-thinking

Colony-Enhanced Recurrent Neural Architecture Search: Collaborative Ant-Based Optimization

Crafting neural network architectures manually is a formidable challenge often leading to suboptimal and inefficient structures. The pursuit of the perfect neural configuration is a complex task, prompting the need for a metaheuristic approach such as Neural Architecture Search (NAS). Drawing inspiration from the ingenious mechanisms of nature, this paper introduces Collaborative Ant-based Neural Topology Search (CANTS-N), pushing the boundaries of NAS and Neural Evolution (NE). In this innovative approach, ant-inspired agents meticulously construct neural network structures, dynamically adapting within a dynamic environment, much like their natural counterparts. Guided by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), CANTS-N's colonies optimize architecture searches, achieving remarkable improvements in mean squared error (MSE) over established methods, including BP-free CANTS, BP CANTS, and ANTS. Scalable, adaptable, and forward-looking, CANTS-N has the potential to reshape the landscape of NAS and NE. This paper provides detailed insights into its methodology, results, and far-reaching implications

Embodied Evolution in Collective Robotics: A Review

This paper provides an overview of evolutionary robotics techniques applied to on-line distributed evolution for robot collectives -- namely, embodied evolution. It provides a definition of embodied evolution as well as a thorough description of the underlying concepts and mechanisms. The paper also presents a comprehensive summary of research published in the field since its inception (1999-2017), providing various perspectives to identify the major trends. In particular, we identify a shift from considering embodied evolution as a parallel search method within small robot collectives (fewer than 10 robots) to embodied evolution as an on-line distributed learning method for designing collective behaviours in swarm-like collectives. The paper concludes with a discussion of applications and open questions, providing a milestone for past and an inspiration for future research.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

SAMI: Service-Based Arbitrated Multi-Tier Infrastructure for Mobile Cloud Computing

Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is the state-ofthe- art mobile computing technology aims to alleviate resource poverty of mobile devices. Recently, several approaches and techniques have been proposed to augment mobile devices by leveraging cloud computing. However, long-WAN latency and trust are still two major issues in MCC that hinder its vision. In this paper, we analyze MCC and discuss its issues. We leverage Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to propose an arbitrated multi-tier infrastructure model named SAMI for MCC. Our architecture consists of three major layers, namely SOA, arbitrator, and infrastructure. The main strength of this architecture is in its multi-tier infrastructure layer which leverages infrastructures from three main sources of Clouds, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and MNOs' authorized dealers. On top of the infrastructure layer, an arbitrator layer is designed to classify Services and allocate them the suitable resources based on several metrics such as resource requirement, latency and security. Utilizing SAMI facilitate development and deployment of service-based platform-neutral mobile applications.Comment: 6 full pages, accepted for publication in IEEE MobiCC'12 conference, MobiCC 2012:IEEE Workshop on Mobile Cloud Computing, Beijing, Chin

Urban Gleaning: Promoting Food Security Through Opportunistic Design Strategies

In an effort to improve food literacy, food security, and food access, concerned citizens have, over the course of the past several decades, developed new types of landscapes for urban gleaning. While these design interventions vary in scope and approach, they share a common fundamental desire: to invite others to join in a harvest picked from the city. This paper addresses the broad context of urban gleaning through the specific lens of two case studies in Northampton, MA, and suggests that these types of nontraditional agricultural sites have the potential to radically restructure cityscapes. Moreover, while urban gleaning efforts rarely engage the design and planning disciplines in a formal way, this paper argues that future urban agriculture efforts could benefit from a more integrated design approach. In so doing, new types of food provisioning systems, designed to fit into urban wastescapes, might offer even more productive returns for the community engagement, food culture, and food security of the future city. In an effort to improve food literacy, food security, and food access, concernedcitizens have, over the course of the past several decades, developed new typesof landscapes for urban gleaning. While these design interventions vary inscope and approach, they share a common fundamental desire: to invite othersto join in a harvest picked from the city. This paper addresses the broad contextof urban gleaning through the specific lens of two case studies inNorthampton, MA, and suggests that these types of nontraditional agriculturalsites have the potential to radically restructure cityscapes. Moreover, whileurban gleaning efforts rarely engage the design and planning disciplines in aformal way, this paper argues that future urban agriculture efforts could benefitfrom a more integrated design approach. In so doing, new types of foodprovisioning systems, designed to fit into urban wastescapes, might offer evenmore productive returns for the community engagement, food culture, andfood security of the future city.Informal urbanism has gained important disciplinary ground in the pastdecade, emerging as a popular design method that encourages, among otherthings, engaged citizenship, visionary planning, utopian social processes andradical self-reliance (Douglas, 2011; Hou, 2010). Within this emergentdisciplinary sphere, the design, planting and stewardship of informal gardensin the public realm can be understood as a sub-genre with unique applicationsfor urban engagement. Unlike the highly specialized and formalized urbanfarming approaches of cities and towns, informal agriculture efforts on urbanlands tend to be fueled by ground-up, opportunistic, and unsanctionedinterventions (Reynolds, 2008). Because of these qualities, the design andorganizational structure of these informal interventions remain relativelyunderexplored within the realm of planning and design disciplines, andinherently more difficult to locate, quantify and understand (Douglas, 2014).The impulse to thread gleaning gardens into the fabric of the city is rooted inthe desire to create opportunities to share food across an urban scale, drawingon volunteer efforts and incorporating leftover or unproductive landscapes(Finn, 2014; McLain et al., 2014). This type of farming can occur on bot