17,275 research outputs found
Modularizing and Assembling Cognitive Map Learners via Hyperdimensional Computing
Biological organisms must learn how to control their own bodies to achieve
deliberate locomotion, that is, predict their next body position based on their
current position and selected action. Such learning is goal-agnostic with
respect to maximizing (minimizing) an environmental reward (penalty) signal. A
cognitive map learner (CML) is a collection of three separate yet
collaboratively trained artificial neural networks which learn to construct
representations for the node states and edge actions of an arbitrary
bidirectional graph. In so doing, a CML learns how to traverse the graph nodes;
however, the CML does not learn when and why to move from one node state to
another. This work created CMLs with node states expressed as high dimensional
vectors suitable for hyperdimensional computing (HDC), a form of symbolic
machine learning (ML). In so doing, graph knowledge (CML) was segregated from
target node selection (HDC), allowing each ML approach to be trained
independently. The first approach used HDC to engineer an arbitrary number of
hierarchical CMLs, where each graph node state specified target node states for
the next lower level CMLs to traverse to. Second, an HDC-based
stimulus-response experience model was demonstrated per CML. Because
hypervectors may be in superposition with each other, multiple experience
models were added together and run in parallel without any retraining. Lastly,
a CML-HDC ML unit was modularized: trained with proxy symbols such that
arbitrary, application-specific stimulus symbols could be operated upon without
retraining either CML or HDC model. These methods provide a template for
engineering heterogenous ML systems
A direct-laser-written heart-on-a-chip platform for generation and stimulation of engineered heart tissues
In this dissertation, we first develop a versatile microfluidic heart-on-a-chip model to generate 3D-engineered human cardiac microtissues in highly-controlled microenvironments. The platform, which is enabled by direct laser writing (DLW), has tailor-made attachment sites for cardiac microtissues and comes with integrated strain actuators and force sensors. Application of external pressure waves to the platform results in controllable time-dependent forces on the microtissues. Conversely, oscillatory forces generated by the microtissues are transduced into measurable electrical outputs. After characterization of the responsivity of the transducers, we demonstrate the capabilities of this platform by studying the response of cardiac microtissues to prescribed mechanical loading and pacing.
Next, we tune the geometry and mechanical properties of the platform to enable parametric studies on engineered heart tissues. We explore two geometries: a rectangular seeding well with two attachment sites, and a stadium-like seeding well with six attachment sites. The attachment sites are placed symmetrically in the longitudinal direction. The former geometry promotes uniaxial contraction of the tissues; the latter additionally induces diagonal
fiber alignment. We systematically increase the length for both configurations and observe a positive correlation between fiber alignment at the center of the microtissues and tissue length. However, progressive thinning and âneckingâ is also observed, leading to the failure of longer tissues over time. We use the DLW technique to improve the platform, softening
the mechanical environment and optimizing the attachment sites for generation of stable microtissues at each length and geometry. Furthermore, electrical pacing is incorporated into the platform to evaluate the functional dynamics of stable microtissues over the entire range of physiological heart rates. Here, we typically observe a decrease in active force and contraction duration as a function of frequency.
Lastly, we use a more traditional ?TUG platform to demonstrate the effects of subthreshold electrical pacing on the rhythm of the spontaneously contracting cardiac microtissues. Here, we observe periodic M:N patterns, in which there are ? cycles of stimulation for every ? tissue contractions. Using electric field amplitude, pacing frequency, and homeostatic beating frequencies of the tissues, we provide an empirical map for predicting the emergence of these rhythms
Message Journal, Issue 5: COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE Capturing visual insights, thoughts and reflections on 2020/21 and beyond...
If there is a theme running through the Message Covid-19 special issue, it is one of caring. Of our own and othersâ resilience and wellbeing, of friendship and community, of students, practitioners and their futures, of social justice, equality and of doing the right thing. The veins of designing with care run through the edition, wide and deep. It captures, not designers as heroes, but those with humble views, exposing the need to understand a diversity of perspectives when trying to comprehend the complexity that Covid-19 continues to generate.
As graphic designers, illustrators and visual communicators, contributors have created, documented, written, visualised, reflected, shared, connected and co-created, designed for good causes and re-defined what it is to be a student, an academic and a designer during the pandemic. This poignant period in time has driven us, through isolation, towards new rules of living, and new ways of working; to see and map the world in a different light. A light that is uncertain, disjointed, and constantly being redefined.
This Message issue captures responses from the graphic communication design community in their raw state, to allow contributors to communicate their experiences through both their written and visual voice. Thus, the reader can discern as much from the words as the design and visualisations.
Through this issue a substantial number of contributions have focused on personal reflection, isolation, fear, anxiety and wellbeing, as well as reaching out to community, making connections and collaborating. This was not surprising in a world in which connection with others has often been remote, and where ânormalâ social structures of support and care have been broken down. We also gain insight into those who are using graphic communication design to inspire and capture new ways of teaching and learning, developing themselves as designers, educators, and activists, responding to social justice and to do good; gaining greater insight into society, government actions and conspiracy. Introduction: Victoria Squire - Coping with Covid: Community, connection and collaboration: James Alexander & Carole Evans, Meg Davies, Matthew Frame, Chae Ho Lee, Alma Hoffmann, Holly K. Kaufman-Hill, Joshua Korenblat, Warren Lehrer, Christine Lhowe, Sara Nesteruk, Cat Normoyle & Jessica Teague, Kyuha Shim. - Coping with Covid: Isolation, wellbeing and hope: Sadia Abdisalam, Tom Ayling, Jessica Barness, Megan Culliford, Stephanie Cunningham, Sofija Gvozdeva, Hedzlynn Kamaruzzaman, Merle Karp, Erica V. P. Lewis, Kelly Salchow Macarthur, Steven McCarthy, Shelly Mayers, Elizabeth Shefrin, Angelica Sibrian, David Smart, Ane Thon Knutsen, Isobel Thomas, Darryl Westley. - Coping with Covid: Pedagogy, teaching and learning: Bernard J Canniffe, Subir Dey, Aaron Ganci, Elizabeth Herrmann, John Kilburn, Paul Nini, Emily Osborne, Gianni Sinni & Irene Sgarro, Dave Wood, Helena Gregory, Colin Raeburn & Jackie Malcolm. - Coping with Covid: Social justice, activism and doing good: Class Action Collective, Xinyi Li, Matt Soar, Junie Tang, Lisa Winstanley. - Coping with Covid: Society, control and conspiracy: Diana BĂŽrhalÄ, Maria BorČoi, Patti Capaldi, Tânia A. Cardoso, Peter Gibbons, Bianca Milea, Rebecca Tegtmeyer, Danne Wo
Strategies for Early Learners
Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address: ⢠Developing curriculum through the planning cycle ⢠Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning ⢠The three components of developmentally appropriate practice ⢠Importance and value of play and intentional teaching ⢠Different models of curriculum ⢠Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children) ⢠Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for childrenâs learning ⢠Appropriate guidance techniques to support childrenâs behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature. ⢠Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including o Physical development o Language and literacy o Math o Science o Creative (the visual and performing arts) o Diversity (social science and history) o Health and safety ⢠Making childrenâs learning visible through documentation and assessmenthttps://scholar.utc.edu/open-textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp
Monstrous Musical Moonshine: Explorations of Harmonic Spaces
This commentary provides context for a collection of compositions whose underlying structures are derived from and extend the harmonic theory based on rational intervals between pitches introduced by composer and music theorist James Tenney. The core component taken from Tenney is the measure of harmonic distance (distinct from pitch distance) between two notes. I have extended this to a measure of harmonic dispersion within any number of notes and applied this to developing chord sequences that are either gradually increasing or decreasing in harmonic dispersion. Furthermore, within such sequences the gradation in dispersion is as smooth as possible, both in terms of voicing (usually only one voice in the chord changes at a time) and dispersion level changing by a minimal amount at each stage. A further structural change, developed in later works, is what I term âunfoldingâ, by which a controlled level of repetition is introduced into the sequence, determined by both parametrised and aleatoric elements. The musical results are often microtonal but take into account the pragmatics of performance, and so are often quarter-tonal or based on the usual twelve-tone equal-tempered system. The resulting compositions are scored for live performers (soloists and ensembles), electronic synthesis, and hybrid scoring. The
culminating work is a setting of texts from Zen Buddhist sources for vocal soloists, choir, chanters, an instrumental ensemble and electronic synthesisers. Aside from the structural technicalities, my music focuses on non-narrative, often long-duration expressions, influenced by composers such as Morton Feldman and Eliane Radigue. While technicalities are interesting, the key objective is always to produce music, not mathematics, with the hope that the work will be of interest to listeners, not mathematicians. Ultimately, this project has been experimental, researching how complex structures could be manifest in music
Embodying entrepreneurship: everyday practices, processes and routines in a technology incubator
The growing interest in the processes and practices of entrepreneurship has
been dominated by a consideration of temporality. Through a thirty-six-month
ethnography of a technology incubator, this thesis contributes to extant
understanding by exploring the effect of space. The first paper explores how
class structures from the surrounding city have appropriated entrepreneurship
within the incubator. The second paper adopts a more explicitly spatial analysis
to reveal how the use of space influences a common understanding of
entrepreneurship. The final paper looks more closely at the entrepreneurs within
the incubator and how they use visual symbols to develop their identity. Taken
together, the three papers reject the notion of entrepreneurship as a primarily
economic endeavour as articulated through commonly understood language and
propose entrepreneuring as an enigmatic attractor that is accessed through the
ambiguity of the non-verbal to develop the ânewâ. The thesis therefore contributes
to the understanding of entrepreneurship and proposes a distinct role for the non-verbal in that understanding
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Gaslighting and dispelling: Experiences of NGO workers in navigating gendered corruption
How does corruption adopt gendered guises and how do women combat it in practice? Theorising from the basis of a 30-month ethnography within a womenâs NGO, the article proposes gaslighting as a way of interpreting gendered corruption, due to its elusive but pernicious nature. Gaslighting is posited as the deployment of tactics to make women doubt their sanity and as a means of securing personal advantage. Gaslighting triggers embodied forms of struggle, and the article offers the notion of dispelling as denoting the persistent, patient and reiterative counter-practice of NGO practitioners to assert democratic norms of liberty and equality. The article provides rich empirical insight both into how corruption is enacted through the citing of patriarchal norms and how such norms are contested through the bodies of practitioners. These insights are important at a time when governments globally claim gender equality while undermining it in practice
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