Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems

Roboticists are trying to replicate animal behavior in artificial systems. Yet, quantitative bounds on capacity of a moving platform (natural or artificial) to express information in the environment are not known. This paper presents a measure for the capacity of motion complexity -- the expressivity -- of articulated platforms (both natural and artificial) and shows that this measure is stagnant and unexpectedly limited in extant robotic systems. This analysis indicates trends in increasing capacity in both internal and external complexity for natural systems while artificial, robotic systems have increased significantly in the capacity of computational (internal) states but remained more or less constant in mechanical (external) state capacity. This work presents a way to analyze trends in animal behavior and shows that robots are not capable of the same multi-faceted behavior in rich, dynamic environments as natural systems.Comment: Rejected from Nature, after review and appeal, July 4, 2018 (submitted May 11, 2018

Organizing Knowledge in Implementation of Knowledge Management as Strategy for Competitive Bussiness at PT Telkom

This study is entitled Organizing Knowledge in Implementation of Knowledge Management. The research was conducted in bussines organization. The research objectives are to find out new concept in coverage of knowledge by knowledge management implementation at Telkom organizing explicit knowledge ; to analysis personal characteristic knowledge manager. This research use by qualitative methode with case study approach at Telkom Japati 1st street Bandung. Technique of gathering data uses observation, archived record, interview, documentation dan physical ware. From the results of studies that have been done, so the conclusion can be drawn as follows: Knowledge management which is done by making taxonomy based processes and business operations is called as knowledge centers that are stored on the intranet while competency-based stream called virtual competency center. Organizing knowledge in virtual storage by creating taxonomy of knowledge toward process and operating bussines, tree types of knowledge are:Structure knowledge: unstructure knowledge and less structure knowledge. For other media are managed by a special unit that is the library. The technology media support information and communications intended to improve information transfer and sharing of knowledge organization as a whole through cooperation and communication between individuals. Recomendation: It is better to make guidelines of writing articles on KM Tool, in order to avoid a flood of information that is not need. For example the text have been made by others. .It is better also to make the theme of writing, so that the contributors will more focus in creating the knowledge. Therefore, it will give deep exploration a theme. Form of virtual communication in KM should also explore the tacit knowledge. It is appropriate if the contributors are also allowed to create works that are audio-visual format. For example how to use technology in the 3.5 G DAT file format, or how to assemble the satellite Telkom2. Keyword: Business communication; Knowledge management; Organizational Communication; Organizing knowledge; Knowledge strorag

A hypothesis on improving foreign accents by optimizing variability in vocal learning brain circuits

Rapid vocal motor learning is observed when acquiring a language in early childhood, or learning to speak another language later in life. Accurate pronunciation is one of the hardest things for late learners to master and they are almost always left with a non-native accent. Here I propose a novel hypothesis that this accent could be improved by optimizing variability in vocal learning brain circuits during learning. Much of the neurobiology of human vocal motor learning has been inferred from studies on songbirds. Jarvis (2004) proposed the hypothesis that as in songbirds there are two pathways in humans: one for learning speech (the striatal vocal learning pathway), and one for production of previously learnt speech (the motor pathway). Learning new motor sequences necessary for accurate non-native pronunciation is challenging and I argue that in late learners of a foreign language the vocal learning pathway becomes inactive prematurely. The motor pathway is engaged once again and learners maintain their original native motor patterns for producing speech, resulting in speaking with a foreign accent. Further, I argue that variability in neural activity within vocal motor circuitry generates vocal variability that supports accurate non-native pronunciation. Recent theoretical and experimental work on motor learning suggests that variability in the motor movement is necessary for the development of expertise. I propose that there is little trial-by-trial variability when using the motor pathway. When using the vocal learning pathway variability gradually increases, reflecting an exploratory phase in which learners try out different ways of pronouncing words, before decreasing and stabilizing once the ‘best’ performance has been identified. The hypothesis proposed here could be tested using behavioral interventions that optimize variability and engage the vocal learning pathway for longer, with the prediction that this would allow learners to develop new motor patterns that result in more native-like pronunciation

Standing strong: Pedagogical approaches to affirming identity in dance

In this paper, I reflect on research undertaken with third year University students in dance. To contextualise my research, I begin by providing a brief introduction to my specific approach to feminist and phenomenological research in dance, outlining an epistemological strategy of embodied ways of knowing. Discussion of narrative methodologies follows, leading into an autoethnographic narrative based on the research with students. Rich material drawn from students’ assessments, my class plans and teacher’s recollections are woven together in the form of an autoethnographic narrative. This narrative allows me to feature the students as characters and to highlight their specific experiences of masculinity and femininity, cultural difference and embodiment within their varied dance knowledges. Reflecting through and on the narrative, I derive key pedagogical approaches from my own teaching and learning experiences. I conclude by suggesting that pedagogical approaches involving embodied ways of knowing may potentially support students to affirm their identity through dance

Theories of the development of human communication

This article considers evidence for innate motives for sharing rituals and symbols from animal semiotics, developmental neurobiology, physiology of prospective motor control, affective neuroscience and infant communication. Mastery of speech and language depends on polyrhythmic movements in narrative activities of many forms. Infants display intentional activity with feeling and sensitivity for the contingent reactions of other persons. Talk shares many of its generative powers with music and the other ‘imitative arts’. Its special adaptations concern the capacity to produce and learn an endless range of sounds to label discrete learned understandings, topics and projects of intended movement

A Developmental Learning Approach of Mobile Manipulator via Playing

Inspired by infant development theories, a robotic developmental model combined with game elements is proposed in this paper. This model does not require the definition of specific developmental goals for the robot, but the developmental goals are implied in the goals of a series of game tasks. The games are characterized into a sequence of game modes based on the complexity of the game tasks from simple to complex, and the task complexity is determined by the applications of developmental constraints. Given a current mode, the robot switches to play in a more complicated game mode when it cannot find any new salient stimuli in the current mode. By doing so, the robot gradually achieves it developmental goals by playing different modes of games. In the experiment, the game was instantiated into a mobile robot with the playing task of picking up toys, and the game is designed with a simple game mode and a complex game mode. A developmental algorithm, “Lift-Constraint, Act and Saturate,” is employed to drive the mobile robot move from the simple mode to the complex one. The experimental results show that the mobile manipulator is able to successfully learn the mobile grasping ability after playing simple and complex games, which is promising in developing robotic abilities to solve complex tasks using games