Expedient and Monotone Learning Rules

This paper considers learning rules for environments in which little prior and feedback information is available to the decision-maker. Two properties of such learning rules, absolute expediency and monotonicity, are studied. The paper provides some necessary and some sufficient conditions for these properties. A number of examples show that there is quite a large variety of learning rules which have these properties. It is also shown that all learning rules that have these properties are, in some sense, related to replicator dynamics of evolutionary game theory.Absolute expediency, monotonicity, learning rule, decision making

In situ generation of Mes2Mg as a non-nucleophilic carbon-centred base reagent for the efficient one-pot conversion of ketones to silyl enol ethers

Treatment of commercially available MesMgBr with 1,4-dioxane produces the key Mes2Mg reagent in situ which then mediates the deprotonation of ketones to deliver trimethylsilyl enol ethers, at readily accessible temperatures and without any nucleophilic addition, in an expedient and high yielding one-pot process

Culture Techniques for Rearing Soil Anthropods

Excerpt: Interest in soil biology has been prompted by recent investigations into the action of insecticides on plants and animals. Observations in the field must be supplemented by laboratory investigations conducted under controlled conditions. Consequently, it becomes necessary to rear and handle soil animals under artificial situations for bio-assay and life cycle studies. When large numbers of individuals are required, special problems in maintenance and manipulation arise. Relatively inexpensive and simple methods for such projects are essential and this paper describes some of those techniques which we have found expedient

Oxidative Heck desymmetrisation of 2,2-disubstituted cyclopentene-1,3-diones

Oxidative Heck couplings have been successfully developed for 2,2-disubstituted cyclopentene-1,3-diones. The direct coupling onto the 2,2-disubstituted cyclopentene-1,3-dione core provides a novel expedient way of enantioselectively desymmetrising all-carbon quaternary centres

The Role of Social Goals in Students’ Academic Help Seeking and Help Giving Among Peers

This study examined the role of social achievement goals in academic help giving among peers within a high school. Students (n = 794) filled out surveys assessing their social goals, how often they are asked for help by their peers, and the type of help they gave to peers (instrumental vs. expedient). Controls included students’ grade point average, popularity, and personal help seeking preferences. Results demonstrated positive benefits of social development goals on students’ reports of how often they were asked for help and type of help given to their peers and negative impacts of social demonstration-avoidance goals on help giving. The findings complement achievement goal theory and provide a more comprehensive understanding of academic help seeking

Composing, Researching and Ways of Talking

© Copyright Cambridge University Press 2015This reply addresses a number of misunderstandings that have arisen with regard to my argument in ‘Composition is not Research’; notably that it rests on a definition of research derived from ‘scientific method’, and that it somehow entails the view that composers should not be asked to write about their music. It is argued here that referring to composition as ‘research’ is at best a perverse (if institutionally expedient) way of talking about what composers have always done, and at worst leads to a distorted picture of compositional work and musical value

The use of graphics in the design of the human-telerobot interface

The Man-Systems Telerobotics Laboratory (MSTL) of NASA's Johnson Space Center employs computer graphics tools in their design and evaluation of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) human/telerobot interface on the Shuttle and on the Space Station. It has been determined by the MSTL that the use of computer graphics can promote more expedient and less costly design endeavors. Several specific examples of computer graphics applied to the FTS user interface by the MSTL are described

Atwood's machine with a massive string

The dynamics of Atwood's machine with a string of significant mass are described by the Lagrangian formalism, providing an eloquent example of how the Lagrangian approach is a great deal simpler and so much more expedient than the Newtonian treatment.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure