Estimating topological entropy of multidimensional nonlinear cellular automata

Cellular automata are discrete dynamical systems whose configurations are determined by local rules acting on each cell in synchronous. Topological entoropy is a tool for measuring the complexity of these dynamical systems. In this paper we estimate topological entropy of a two-dimensional nonlinear cellular automaton. The method we use is that a one-dimensional cellular automaton with positive topological entoropy is “naturally” embedded into the twodimensional cellular automaton. Hence we obtain a multidimensional cellular automaton with infinite topological entoropy

Assumptions or accurate justifications? A critical analysis of the Select Committee report on the Manukau City Council (Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill 2010

In 2010 the then Manukau City Council proposed a local Bill to Parliament, the Manukau City Council (Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill. This Bill targeted the perceived negative consequences of street-based prostitution that existed within Manukau City. The Bill authorised the Manukau City Council to make bylaws that would specify certain places in the district where street-soliciting of prostitution could not occur. The Bill failed at its Second Reading, following a report by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee recommending that it not be passed. The three main justifications given by the Select Committee to this result are discussed in this paper and are determined as to whether they were accurate and appropriate, or if they were rather mere assumptions. These justifications are that existent laws provided a sufficient solution, the Bill would be an implicit amendment to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, and that the Bill would face enforcement problems if enacted. This paper finds that while the majority of the justifications given by the Select Committee were accurate, this did not stand true for all their reasoning. Ultimately it is argued that greater scrutiny must be given to Select Committee reports

Annie Ernaux, 1989: diaries, photographic writing and self-vivisection

A broad and inclusive account of the multiple manifestations of photography in contemporary French and francophone societies and cultures As part of the recent turn towards visual culture in French studies, photography has begun to receive increased attention from scholars in the field. This volume of eight orignial essays and an interview with the Director of one of France's leading photographic institutions (the Maison européenne de la photographie). Key Features A wide-ranging treatment of the multi-faceted reality of photography in French and francophone contexts Addresses individual photographers and writers (including Bruno Boudjelal, Stéphane Couturier, Raymond Depardon, Valerie Jouve and Roland Barthes, Sophie Calle, J.M.G. Le Clézio, Annie Ernaux, Hervé Guibert, Denis Roche) Includes an original interview with Jean-Luc Monterosso, Director of the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris Includes 15 colour and black/white illustration

Women looking at women, women looking at men

Akane Kanai, an MSc student at the LSE’s Gender Institute studying Gender, Media and Culture. Here she muses over differing utilisations and perceptions of masculine and feminine beauty, the diverging experiences of presenting the self and experiencing the presentation of others

Stepwise Acquisition of Dialogue Act Through Human-Robot Interaction

A dialogue act (DA) represents the meaning of an utterance at the illocutionary force level (Austin 1962) such as a question, a request, and a greeting. Since DAs take charge of the most fundamental part of communication, we believe that the elucidation of DA learning mechanism is important for cognitive science and artificial intelligence. The purpose of this study is to verify that scaffolding takes place when a human teaches a robot, and to let a robot learn to estimate DAs and to make a response based on them step by step utilizing scaffolding provided by a human. To realize that, it is necessary for the robot to detect changes in utterance and rewards given by the partner and continue learning accordingly. Experimental results demonstrated that participants who continued interaction for a sufficiently long time often gave scaffolding for the robot. Although the number of experiments is still insufficient to obtain a definite conclusion, we observed that 1) the robot quickly learned to respond to DAs in most cases if the participants only spoke utterances that match the situation, 2) in the case of participants who builds scaffolding differently from what we assumed, learning did not proceed quickly, and 3) the robot could learn to estimate DAs almost exactly if the participants kept interaction for a sufficiently long time even if the scaffolding was unexpected.Comment: Published as a conference paper at IJCNN 201