Application of Suction-cup-attached VHF Transmitters to the Study of Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, Surfacing Behavior in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Suction-cup-attached VHF radio transmittes were deployed on belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in Cook Inlet, Alaska, in 1994 and 1995 to characterize the whales' surfacing behavior. Data from video recordings were also used to characterize behavior of undisturbed whales and whales actively pursued for tagging. Statistics for dive intervals (time between the midpoints of contiguous surfacings) and surfacing intevals (time at the surface per surfacing) were estimated. Operations took place on the tidal delta of the Susitna and Little Susitna Rivers. During the 2-yr study, eight whales were successfully tagged, five tags remained attached for >60 min, and data from these were used in the analyses. Mean dive interval was 24.1 sec (interwhale SD=6.4 sec, n=5). The mean surfacing interval, as determined from the duration of signals received from the radio transmitters, was 1.8 sec (SD=0.3 sec, n=125) for one of the whales. Videotaped behaviors were categorized as "head-lifts" or "slow-rolls." Belugas were more likely to head-lift than to slow-roll during vessel approaches and tagging attempts when compared to undisturbed whales. In undisturbed groups, surfacing intervals determined from video records were significantly different between head-lifting (average = 1.02 sect, SD=0.38 sed, n=28) and slow-rolling whales (average = 2.45 sec, SD=0.37 sec, n=106). Undisturbed juveniles exhibited shorter slow-roll surfacing intervals (average = 2.25 sec, SD=0.32 sec, n=36) than adults (average = 2.55 sec, SD=0.36 sec, n=70). We did not observe strong reactions by the belugas to the suction-cup tags. This tagging method shows promise for obtaining surfacing data for durations of several days

Proceedings of QG2010: The Third Workshop on Question Generation

These are the peer-reviewed proceedings of "QG2010, The Third Workshop on Question Generation". The workshop included a special track for "QGSTEC2010: The First Question Generation Shared Task and Evaluation Challenge". QG2010 was held as part of The Tenth International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS2010)

The roots of self-awareness

In this paper we provide an account of the structural underpinnings of self-awareness. We offer both an abstract, logical account-by way of suggestions for how to build a genuinely self-referring artificial agent-and a biological account, via a discussion of the role of somatoception in supporting and structuring self-awareness more generally. Central to the account is a discussion of the necessary motivational properties of self-representing mental tokens, in light of which we offer a novel definition of self-representation. We also discuss the role of such tokens in organizing self-specifying information, which leads to a naturalized restatement of the guarantee that introspective awareness is immune to error due to mis-identification of the subject

Highlights of the SLD Physics Program at the SLAC Linear Collider

Starting in 1989, and continuing through the 1990s, high-energy physics witnessed a flowering of precision measurements in general and tests of the standard model in particular, led by e+e- collider experiments operating at the Z0 resonance. Key contributions to this work came from the SLD collaboration at the SLAC Linear Collider. By exploiting the unique capabilities of this pioneering accelerator and the SLD detector, including a polarized electron beam, exceptionally small beam dimensions, and a CCD pixel vertex detector, SLD produced a broad array of electroweak, heavy-flavor, and QCD measurements. Many of these results are one of a kind or represent the world's standard in precision. This article reviews the highlights of the SLD physics program, with an eye toward associated advances in experimental technique, and the contribution of these measurements to our dramatically improved present understanding of the standard model and its possible extensions.Comment: To appear in 2001 Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science; 78 pages, 31 figures; A version with higher resolution figures can be seen at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/slacpubs/8000/slac-pub-8985.html; Second version incorporates minor changes to the tex