Maneuverable and Efficient Locomotion of a Myriapod Robot with Variable Body-Axis Flexibility via Instability and Bifurcation

Aoi Shinya, Yabuuchi Yuki, Morozumi Daiki, et al. Maneuverable and Efficient Locomotion of a Myriapod Robot with Variable Body-Axis Flexibility via Instability and Bifurcation. Soft Robotics 6, NT64 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2022.0177

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

"That's not how it should end!": the effect of reader/player response on the development of narrative

When the final instalment of the videogame series Mass Effect was released in March 2012, many fans used online forums to express displeasure at the game's ending. A surprising number suggested that Victorian writers such as Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were far more attentive and responsive to their audience's preferences than modern authors or videogame writers. This thesis, in part, seeks to explore the veracity of this idea through a creative-critical comparison of key examples of Victorian serial fiction and modern episodic videogames, and through the creation of an interactive novella. The creative-critical element of the thesis is produced in two formats which examine how serial texts may be considered 'interactive' due to the unique opportunity they provide for readers to influence the act of textual production; the extent to which videogames may be considered serial due to their structure, content, and modes of delivery; the controversies surrounding consumption of serials and videogames; and how techniques relating to characterisation, character death and endings operate within serial and interactive forms. Focussing primarily on Great Expectations, selected Sherlock Holmes stories, and the Mass Effect and Life is Strange videogame series, the role of writer and reader as collaborative participants in the creation of narrative content is examined in particular in relation to the tropes of the magic trick, the telepathic exchange and the detective duo. The creative component of the thesis puts some of these findings into practice by offering a story in which the reader-player gradually comes to realise the effect of their interventions in the narrative. Created using the authoring tool ChoiceScript, Writers Are Not Strangers plays with ideas of co-operation and control, and authorship and agency. Using a modular structure and quality-based salience (text dependent on previous user choices) this multi-branching, multiple-ended text attempts to craft a story in response to its reader, while never fully giving over control

MS FT-2-2 7 Orthogonal polynomials and quadrature: Theory, computation, and applications

Quadrature rules find many applications in science and engineering. Their analysis is a classical area of applied mathematics and continues to attract considerable attention. This seminar brings together speakers with expertise in a large variety of quadrature rules. It is the aim of the seminar to provide an overview of recent developments in the analysis of quadrature rules. The computation of error estimates and novel applications also are described

Generalized averaged Gaussian quadrature and applications

A simple numerical method for constructing the optimal generalized averaged Gaussian quadrature formulas will be presented. These formulas exist in many cases in which real positive GaussKronrod formulas do not exist, and can be used as an adequate alternative in order to estimate the error of a Gaussian rule. We also investigate the conditions under which the optimal averaged Gaussian quadrature formulas and their truncated variants are internal

Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors

This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed