On the role of computers in creativity-support systems

We report here on our experiences with designing computer-based creativity-support systems over several years. In particular, we present the design of three different systems incorporating different mechanisms of creativity. One of them uses an idea proposed by Rodari to stimulate imagination of the children in writing a picture-based story. The second one is aimed to model creativity in legal reasoning, and the third one uses low-level perceptual similarities to stimulate creation of novel conceptual associations in unrelated pictures.We discuss lessons learnt from these approaches, and address their implications for the question of how far creativity can be tamed by algorithmic approaches

Coping with continuous human disturbance in the wild: insights from penguin heart rate response to various stressors.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A central question for ecologists is the extent to which anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. tourism) might impact wildlife and affect the systems under study. From a research perspective, identifying the effects of human disturbance caused by research-related activities is crucial in order to understand and account for potential biases and derive appropriate conclusions from the data. RESULTS: Here, we document a case of biological adjustment to chronic human disturbance in a colonial seabird, the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), breeding on remote and protected islands of the Southern ocean. Using heart rate (HR) as a measure of the stress response, we show that, in a colony with areas exposed to the continuous presence of humans (including scientists) for over 50 years, penguins have adjusted to human disturbance and habituated to certain, but not all, types of stressors. When compared to birds breeding in relatively undisturbed areas, birds in areas of high chronic human disturbance were found to exhibit attenuated HR responses to acute anthropogenic stressors of low-intensity (i.e. sounds or human approaches) to which they had been subjected intensely over the years. However, such attenuation was not apparent for high-intensity stressors (i.e. captures for scientific research) which only a few individuals experience each year. CONCLUSIONS: Habituation to anthropogenic sounds/approaches could be an adaptation to deal with chronic innocuous stressors, and beneficial from a research perspective. Alternately, whether penguins have actually habituated to anthropogenic disturbances over time or whether human presence has driven the directional selection of human-tolerant phenotypes, remains an open question with profound ecological and conservation implications, and emphasizes the need for more knowledge on the effects of human disturbance on long-term studied populations

Modulation of heart rate response to acute stressors throughout the breeding season in the king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus

International audience‘Fight-or-flight’ stress responses allow animals to cope adaptively tosudden threats by mobilizing energy resources and priming the bodyfor action. Because such responses can be costly and redirectbehavior and energy from reproduction to survival, they are likely to beshaped by specific life-history stages, depending on the availableenergy resources and the commitment to reproduction. Here, weconsider how heart rate (HR) responses to acute stressors areaffected by the advancing breeding season in a colonial seabird, theking penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus). We subjected 77 birds (44males, 33 females) at various stages of incubation and chick-rearingto three experimental stressors (metal sound, distant approach andcapture) known to vary both in their intensity and associated risk, andmonitored their HR responses. Our results show that HR increase inresponse to acute stressors was progressively attenuated with thestage of breeding from incubation to chick-rearing. Stress responsesdid not vary according to nutritional status or seasonal timing(whether breeding was initiated early or late in the season), butwere markedly lower during chick-rearing than during incubation.This pattern was obvious for all three stressors. We discuss how‘fight-or-flight’ responses may be modulated by considering theenergy commitment to breeding, nutritional status and reproductivevalue of the brood in breeding seabirds

A Web Services Based Resource Signaling Scheme in Multimedia Satellite Systems

Abstract — This paper introduces a Web Services based approach that extends resource reservation mechanism for interactive multimedia applications over multimedia satellite systems. It proposes a flexible and extensible scheme for the discovery of services in the network and the configuration of the satellite terminal when resources are requested. It finally presents experimental results of the proposed scheme over a realistic DVB-S2/RCS emulation platform

Comparaison de deux méthodes de dosage de la chloroquine dans les urines sur le terrain

Deux méthodes de dosage de la chloroquinurie, une méthode utilisant le bleu de bromothymol (Bergqvist) et une méthode utilisant l'hélianthine (Haskins et Mount ou HMM II), ont été réalisées conjointement chez des femmes suivies pendant leur grossesse, dont 21 recevaient une prophylaxie hebdomadaire de 300 mg de chloroquine en prise orale, les 24 femmes restantes ne prenant pas de traitement. La méthode de HMM II est plus sensible (100 %) et plus spécifique (91,7 %) que la méthode de Bergqvist (80,9 % et 83,3 % respectivement); les valeurs prédictive positive (91,3 % contre 80,9 %) et négative (100 % contre 91.3 %) sont également meilleures avec cette technique. En outre, la méthode de HMM II permet une estimation plus précise de la quantité de chloroquine éliminée dans les urines. Enfin, elle est plus rapide, plus simple d'utilisation et plus économique que la méthode de Bergqvist. Tous ces éléments en font la méthode de choix à appliquer sur le terrain. (Résumé d'auteur