The Western Mistic, March 15, 1957

https://red.mnstate.edu/western-mistic/1713/thumbnail.jp

Interpretation of Natural-language Robot Instructions: Probabilistic Knowledge Representation, Learning, and Reasoning

A robot that can be simply told in natural language what to do -- this has been one of the ultimate long-standing goals in both Artificial Intelligence and Robotics research. In near-future applications, robotic assistants and companions will have to understand and perform commands such as set the table for dinner'', make pancakes for breakfast'', or cut the pizza into 8 pieces.'' Although such instructions are only vaguely formulated, complex sequences of sophisticated and accurate manipulation activities need to be carried out in order to accomplish the respective tasks. The acquisition of knowledge about how to perform these activities from huge collections of natural-language instructions from the Internet has garnered a lot of attention within the last decade. However, natural language is typically massively unspecific, incomplete, ambiguous and vague and thus requires powerful means for interpretation. This work presents PRAC -- Probabilistic Action Cores -- an interpreter for natural-language instructions which is able to resolve vagueness and ambiguity in natural language and infer missing information pieces that are required to render an instruction executable by a robot. To this end, PRAC formulates the problem of instruction interpretation as a reasoning problem in first-order probabilistic knowledge bases. In particular, the system uses Markov logic networks as a carrier formalism for encoding uncertain knowledge. A novel framework for reasoning about unmodeled symbolic concepts is introduced, which incorporates ontological knowledge from taxonomies and exploits semantically similar relational structures in a domain of discourse. The resulting reasoning framework thus enables more compact representations of knowledge and exhibits strong generalization performance when being learnt from very sparse data. Furthermore, a novel approach for completing directives is presented, which applies semantic analogical reasoning to transfer knowledge collected from thousands of natural-language instruction sheets to new situations. In addition, a cohesive processing pipeline is described that transforms vague and incomplete task formulations into sequences of formally specified robot plans. The system is connected to a plan executive that is able to execute the computed plans in a simulator. Experiments conducted in a publicly accessible, browser-based web interface showcase that PRAC is capable of closing the loop from natural-language instructions to their execution by a robot

Experiential Education: Teaching Elementary Mathematics With a Deweyan Framework

In the current educational climate in America, standardization is the driving force. Across the United States school districts are facing severe budget cuts which, when paired with legislature such as the No Child Left Behind Act, are creating a learning environment void of creativity and spontaneity. John Dewey, the father of progressive education, believed that learning should not be marked by rote memorization, but rather should aspire to actively engage students in experience and learning that erased boundaries between subject areas and integrated daily life practices. This thesis addresses the question of whether or not it is possible for a typical classroom teacher in the public elementary school setting to implement an experiential education framework into academic curriculum through the administration of a mathematics unit. Using the backdrop of art, music, and cooking, students will develop the necessary skills and knowledge to authentically use fractions

O problema da ordenação de permutações usando rearranjos de prefixos e sufixos

Orientador: Zanoni DiasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: O Problema das Panquecas tem como objetivo ordenar uma pilha de panquecas que possuem tamanhos distintos realizando o menor número possível de operações. A operação permitida é chamada reversão de prefixo e, quando aplicada, inverte o topo da pilha de panquecas. Tal problema é interessante do ponto de vista combinatório por si só, mas ele também possui algumas aplicações em biologia computacional. Dados dois genomas que compartilham o mesmo número de genes, e assumindo que cada gene aparece apenas uma vez por genoma, podemos representá-los como permutações (pilhas de panquecas também são representadas por permutações). Então, podemos comparar os genomas tentando descobrir como um foi transformado no outro por meio da aplicação de rearranjos de genoma, que são eventos de mutação de grande escala. Reversões e transposições são os tipos mais comumente estudados de rearranjo de genomas e uma reversão de prefixo (ou transposição de prefixo) é um tipo de reversão (ou transposição) que é restrita ao início da permutação. Quando o rearranjo é restrito ao final da permutação, dizemos que ele é um rearranjo de sufixo. Um problema de ordenação de permutações por rearranjos é, portanto, o problema de encontrar uma sequência de rearranjos de custo mínimo que ordene a permutação dada. A abordagem tradicional considera que todos os rearranjos têm o mesmo custo unitário, de forma que o objetivo é tentar encontrar o menor número de rearranjos necessários para ordenar a permutação. Vários esforços foram feitos nos últimos anos considerando essa abordagem. Por outro lado, um rearranjo muito longo (que na verdade é uma mutação) tem mais probabilidade de perturbar o organismo. Portanto, pesos baseados no comprimento do segmento envolvido podem ter um papel importante no processo evolutivo. Dizemos que essa abordagem é ponderada por comprimento e o objetivo nela é tentar encontrar uma sequência de rearranjos cujo custo total (que é a soma do custo de cada rearranjo, que por sua vez depende de seu comprimento) seja mínimo. Nessa tese nós apresentamos os primeiros resultados que envolvem problemas de ordenação de permutações por reversões e transposições de prefixo e sufixo considerando ambas abordagens tradicional e ponderada por comprimento. Na abordagem tradicional, consideramos um total de 10 problemas e desenvolvemos novos resultados para 6 deles. Na abordagem ponderada por comprimento, consideramos um total de 13 problemas e desenvolvemos novos resultados para todos elesAbstract: The goal of the Pancake Flipping problem is to sort a stack of pancakes that have different sizes by performing as few operations as possible. The operation allowed is called prefix reversal and, when applied, flips the top of the stack of pancakes. Such problem is an interesting combinatorial problem by itself, but it has some applications in computational biology. Given two genomes that share the same genes and assuming that each gene appears only once per genome, we can represent them as permutations (stacks of pancakes are also represented by permutations). Then, we can compare the genomes by figuring out how one was transformed into the other through the application of genome rearrangements, which are large scale mutations. Reversals and transpositions are the most commonly studied types of genome rearrangements and a prefix reversal (or prefix transposition) is a type of reversal (or transposition) which is restricted to the beginning of the permutation. When the rearrangement is restricted to the end of the permutation, we say it is a suffix rearrangement. A problem of sorting permutations by rearrangements is, therefore, the problem to find a sequence of rearrangements with minimum cost that sorts a given permutation. The traditional approach considers that all rearrangements have the same unitary cost, in which case the goal is trying to find the minimum number of rearrangements that are needed to sort the permutation. Numerous efforts have been made over the past years regarding this approach. On the other hand, a long rearrangement (which is in fact a mutation) is more likely to disturb the organism. Therefore, weights based on the length of the segment involved may have an important role in the evolutionary process. We say this is the length-weighted approach and the goal is trying to find a sequence of rearrangements whose total cost (the sum of the cost of each rearrangement, which depends on its length) is minimum. In this thesis we present the first results regarding problems of sorting permutations by prefix and suffix reversals and transpositions considering both the traditional and the length-weighted approach. For the traditional approach, we considered a total of 10 problems and developed new results for 6 of them. For the length-weighted approach, we considered a total of 13 problems and developed new results for all of themDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutora em Ciência da Computação140017/2013-52013/01172-0FAPESPCNP

The Response of High Elevation Wetlands to Past Climate Change, and Implications for the Future

As part of the ongoing investigation of mid-latitude fens in Colorado by University of Denver paleoenvironment researchers, research directed at examining the response of mid-latitude subalpine fens to past climatic events potentially analogous to modern anthropogenic climate change was undertaken. As part of this research, a 4.18 m sediment core was retrieved from Harbison Pond (2651 m elev) near Grand Lake, CO and a 3.12 m peat core was collected from Whiskey Fen (2792 m elev) in the Never Summer Range. Stratigraphic evidence indicates the kettle lake formed shortly after the Last Glacial Maximum, at least 16,201 cal yr BP and that peat began accumulating in Whiskey Fen 12,347 cal yr BP. The timing of the formation of this kettle lake provides new details towards the timing of glacial retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum. The recoverable pollen and microscopic charcoal records from Harbison Pond begin 8,804 cal yr BP and reveals that fire intensity and frequency was much greater in the early Holocene than present. Warmer and drier conditions than present during the Holocene Climatic Optimum decreased fire frequency likely due to a decrease in available fuel. Autochthonous production within Harbison Pond increased during this time, while peat stopped being produced in Whiskey Fen. About 2,000 yr BP, modern climate and vegetation conditions became established in the area.The amount of organic carbon storage in subalpine mid-latitude peatlands may be greatly underestimated by current national models, as Whiskey Fen and two other surveyed fens contained thousands of more tons of organic carbon than predicted. Projected anthropogenic climate change will have a larger impact on natural systems connected to mid-latitude subalpine fens than is currently being anticipated

Identifying Experiential Practices and Science in Mid-Eighteenth-Century British Cookbooks with Open-Access Sourcing

This dissertation serves as a proof of concept to demonstrate how combining SEO-optimized and open access digitized primary sources, popular historical accounts and traditional historiographical methods may open areas of inquiry within the history of science, technology, and medicine. The dissertation uses digitized copies of cookbooks published in England between 1740 and 1760 to investigate certain areas of daily life and daily knowledge that have been overlooked within the history of science. These texts indicate the presence of scientific and technological knowledge within daily kitchen management and offer an opportunity for historians to look further at how women established scientific and cultural authority within the kitchen. Moreover, the intentional limitation of this dissertation to SEO-optimized and open access digitized primary sources offers insight not only into avenues for further inquiry and opportunities for continued integration of digitized primary sources into formal historical inquiry, but also reveals the disadvantages of such a methodology

The Escape Artists

My thesis, “The Escape Artists”, is a collection of short fiction that represents most of the work I did as a creative writing master’s student. The title is taken from my longest story, a narrative about a young man’s struggle to avoid violence in a federal prison. As a title, “The Escape Artists” also captures major themes in my other stories; characters often pursue emotional escapism or literally seek to evade predators in my fiction. As a writer, I often explore breakdowns in social order, so my stories tend to be set in turbulent, oppressive political climates or else inside domestic struggles – a loss in a family or isolation between couples. The major concern of my writing is the way in which characters young and old, privileged and unprivileged, respond to challenges put upon them by contemporary circumstances outside their control. By setting my work in distinct locales, such as rural Egypt, urban New York, suburban Denver, or inside a South Dakota prison, I hope to offer a worldly reading. Through main characters that are children, young adults, and middle-aged men, I also wish to demonstrate the way priorities and insecurities evolve with age