EXEL : a language for interactive behavioral synthesis

This paper describes a new input language for behavioral synthesis called EXEL. EXEL is a powerful language that permits the user to specify partially designed structures in the language. It employs a mixed graphic/textual user interface to enhance user interactivity. EXEL's design model is comprehensive: it permits specification of synchronous and asynchronous behavior, and allows specification of general timing constraints. A flexible type construct permits the user to define operators and components to be used in the description. Finally, it simplifies compilation by using a small set of constructs for specifying timing and asynchronouos behavior. The compiler for EXEL runs on SUN-3 workstations and is written in C and SUNVIEW

On moments-preserving cosine families and semigroups in C[0,1]C[0,1]

We use the newly developed Kelvin's method of images \cite{kosinusy,kelvin} to show existence of a unique cosine family generated by a restriction of the Laplace operator in $C[0,1]$, that preserves the first two moments. We characterize the domain of its generator by specifying its boundary conditions. Also, we show that it enjoys inherent symmetry properties, and in particular that it leaves the subspaces of odd and even functions invariant. Furthermore, we provide information on long-time behavior of the related semigroup.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

The Evocative and Repertoire-Altering Effects of Contingency-Specifying Stimuli

The effects of deadlines in contingency-specifying stimuli among nine 4 to 5 year old children were investigated. Each child was given verbal statements differing in the specified deadline, the delivery of the reinforcer, and the opportunity to respond. The results indicated: (a) statements not specifying deadlines or reinforcers failed to control the children's behavior reliably, (b) specifying deadlines, either immediate or delayed, and immediate reinforcers exerted reliable control over the children's behavior when the opportunity to respond was immediately available, and (c) specifying delayed deadlines or no deadlines and immediate or delayed reinforcers did not reliably control the children's behavior when the opportunity to respond was delayed

Distinct roles of transcription factors EGL-46 and DAF-19 in specifying the functionality of a polycystin-expressing sensory neuron necessary for C. elegans male vulva location behavior

Caenorhabditis elegans polycystins LOV-1 and PKD-2 are expressed in the male-specific HOB neuron, and are necessary for sensation of the hermaphrodite vulva during mating. We demonstrate that male vulva location behavior and expression of lov-1 and pkd-2 in the ciliated sensory neuron HOB require the activities of transcription factor EGL-46 and to some extent also EGL-44. This EGL-46- regulated program is specific to HOB and is distinct from a general ciliogenic pathway functioning in all ciliated neurons. The ciliogenic pathway regulator DAF-19 affects downstream components of the HOB-specific program indirectly and is independent of EGL-46 activity. The sensory function of HOB requires the combined action of these two distinct regulatory pathways

Supporting Sustainable Food Consumption: Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) Aligns Intentions and Behavior

With growing awareness that sustainable consumption is important for quality of life on earth, many individuals intend to act more sustainably. In this regard, interest in reducing meat consumption is on the rise. However, people often do not translate intentions into actual behavior change. To address this intention-behavior gap, we tested the self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). Here, people identify and imagine a desired future and current obstacles standing in its way. They address the obstacles with if-then plans specifying when, where, and how to act differently. In a 5-week randomized controlled experimental study, we compared an information C MCII intervention with an information-only control intervention. As hypothesized, only MCII participants’ intention of reducing their meat consumption was predictive of their actual reduction, while no correspondence between intention and behavior change was found for control participants. Participants with a moderate to strong intention to reduce their meat consumption reduced it more in the MCII than in the control condition. Thus, MCII helped to narrow the intention-behavior gap and supported behavior change for those holding moderate and strong respective intentions

Formal Verification of Abstract SystemC Models

In this paper we present a formal verification approach for abstract SystemC models. The approach allows checking expressive properties and lifts induction known from bounded model checking to a higher level, to cope with the large state space of abstract SystemC programs. The technique is tightly integrated with our SystemC to C transformation and generation of monitoring logic to form a complete and efficient method. Properties specifying both hardware and software aspects, e.g. pre- and post-conditions as well as temporal relations of transactions and events, can be specified. As shown by experiments modern proof techniques allow verifying important non-trivial behavior. Moreover, our inductive technique gives significant speed-ups in comparison to simple methods

General self-motivation and strategy identification : Case studies based on Sokoban and Pac-Man

(c) 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.In this paper, we use empowerment, a recently introduced biologically inspired measure, to allow an AI player to assign utility values to potential future states within a previously unencountered game without requiring explicit specification of goal states. We further introduce strategic affinity, a method of grouping action sequences together to form "strategies," by examining the overlap in the sets of potential future states following each such action sequence. We also demonstrate an information-theoretic method of predicting future utility. Combining these methods, we extend empowerment to soft-horizon empowerment which enables the player to select a repertoire of action sequences that aim to maintain anticipated utility. We show how this method provides a proto-heuristic for nonterminal states prior to specifying concrete game goals, and propose it as a principled candidate model for "intuitive" strategy selection, in line with other recent work on "self-motivated agent behavior." We demonstrate that the technique, despite being generically defined independently of scenario, performs quite well in relatively disparate scenarios, such as a Sokoban-inspired box-pushing scenario and in a Pac-Man-inspired predator game, suggesting novel and principle-based candidate routes toward more general game-playing algorithms.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Geodesic analysis and steady accretion on a traversable wormhole

In this work, we analyze the behavior of light and matter as they pass near and through a traversable wormhole. In particular, we study the trajectories of massive and massless particles and the dust accretion around a traversable wormhole previously reported in Eur. Phys. J. C \textbf{82} (2022) no.7, 605. For massive particles, we integrate the trajectory equation for ingoing and outgoing geodesics and classify the orbits of particles scattered by the wormhole in accordance with their asymptotic behavior far from the throat. We represent all the time--like trajectories in an embedding surface where it is shown explicitly the trajectories of i) particles that deviate from the throat and remain in the same universe, ii) particles that traverse the wormhole to another universe, and iii) particles that get trapped in the wormhole in unstable circular orbits. For the massless particles, we numerically integrate the trajectory equation to show the ray-tracing around the wormhole specifying the particles that traverse the wormhole and those that are only deviated by the throat. For the study of accretion, we consider the steady and spherically symmetric accretion of dust. Our results show that the wormhole parameters can significantly affect the behavior of light and matter near the wormhole. Some comparisons with the behavior of matter around black holes are made