Intelligent Association Exploration and Exploitation of Fuzzy Agents in Ambient Intelligent Environments

This paper presents a novel fuzzy-based intelligent architecture that aims to find relevant and important associations between embedded-agent based services that form Ambient Intelligent Environments (AIEs). The embedded agents are used in two ways; first they monitor the inhabitants of the AIE, learning their behaviours in an online, non-intrusive and life-long fashion with the aim of pre-emptively setting the environment to the users preferred state. Secondly, they evaluate the relevance and significance of the associations to various services with the aim of eliminating redundant associations in order to minimize the agent computational latency within the AIE. The embedded agents employ fuzzy-logic due to its robustness to the uncertainties, noise and imprecision encountered in AIEs. We describe unique real world experiments that were conducted in the Essex intelligent Dormitory (iDorm) to evaluate and validate the significance of the proposed architecture and methods

A cooperative approach to academic entrepreneurial initiatives

In this article we introduce a novel entrepreneurial model, the “Faculty Cooperative”, an eco-system for creating and managing academic entrepreneurial initiatives. The goal of this model is to promote academic entrepreneurism, by providing a guiding concept and tools that overcome the lack of alignment between individual academic attributes and faculty efforts in driving academic spin-out companies. Through an empirical inquiry based on an academic spin-out company in a UK university context, we have explored the key activities, actors, organisational processes and outcomes related to the formation and development stages of the academic entrepreneurship process. The empirical evidence reveals that the key principles embodied by the “Faculty Cooperative Model” namely, openness, freedom and collective shareholding, are likely to promote the entrepreneurial culture within a university context. The paper argues for the importance of developing entrepreneurial culture in conventional research focused universities, which not only improves the traditional values of teaching and research, but also enhances the dynamic capabilities of universities in a global marketplace. It is suggested that the entrepreneurial ideal is not contradictory to the conventional university missions, rather it is complementary

Creative Science Injecting Innovation into the IT Industry

Product innovation can be both an opportunity and a concern for IT companies. Those driving innovation can gain unprecedented market openings, while those trailing can risk disaster. Companies such as Kodak and Nokia clearly show how disruptive innovations can threaten even the largest technological giants. Hence, companies both small and large have a keen interest in methods with the potential of improving their product innovation capability. In this article, I will describe a new product innovation tool called Science-Fiction Prototyping (SFP) which, perhaps surprisingly, seeks to encourage scientists and engineers to write fictional stories about their work. The story of SFP began with Brian Johnson, Intel's Futurist. Intel is the dominant company in the manufacture of integrated circuits (chips) for computers. Companies producing integrated circuits face a particularly difficult challenge as it can take 7+ years from the conception of a new chip to its delivery to customers which, in terms of current product and market dynamics, is a very long time. For example, new versions of mobile phones, pads and desktops appear as frequently as every 18 months meaning that chip designers need to think up to 4 generations ahead, a daunting challenge. Compounding the difficulties, traditional engineering education doesn't always prepare engineers well for tasks that need creative skills. Step in Brian David Johnson, Intel's futurist who had the idea that, if engineers were asked to write fiction rather than fact about extrapolating their technologies forward, it might help them escape the shackles of worrying about whether the technology would work, and allow them to make imaginative leaps that, in turn, could serve as motivational visions for their R&D programmes. The fictions he advocated were based on science, but extrapolated into the future and acting as prototypes to evaluate new ideas ….. Science-Fiction Prototyping (SFP) was born! The deliberately detailed analogy to real-life was an important feature which allowed SFP to function as a prototype (a narrative based simulation of a future reality) whereby different stakeholders could assess the idea's feasibility and usefulness, which differentiated it from earlier scenario or design-fiction based approaches. In parallel, Essex University were faced with the need to make a presentation to a non-technical audience at the 2004 United Nations Habitat Forum, explaining the risks that pervasive computing technologies presented to individual privacy. For that event we adopted a series of fictional vignettes to provide a conversation bridge between the researchers and the largely non-technical audience. The final piece of the jigsaw was a chance meeting with Brian Johnson at IE'07 in Ulm which brought together these two facets of science-fiction, prototyping and communications, giving birth to the Creative Science Foundation CSf (www.creative-science.org) with a mission to facilitate conversations between professionals and society at large, connecting companies/researchers to their customers and thereby enabling conversations about the kind of futures and innovations we all want. In the remainder of this article some current SFP activities will be described

The Changing Arctic : massive open online course.

The course aims to provide information on complex changes in the Arctic’s environment in an understandable way to inform students and society that will be inspired to value the Arctic and adapt sensitively to a new Arctic. After taking this course you will have an understanding of Arctic landscapes, how they were formed and how they are changing. You will also learn how scientists from countries around the North are working together to understand how these changes will affect vegetation, wildlife, the People of the North and the global community. You will experience a range of scientific topics, with up-to-date information on processes that will affect our future climate and the planet we share. We will discuss how the future Arctic environment will pose both challenges and opportunities to different sectors of the global community.Загл. с титул. экран

Strategies of Survival in Plants of the Fennoscandian Tundra

Many arctic species originated outside the Arctic and some of their physiological responses are similar to those in temperate latitudes. Unique adaptations to the Arctic have rarely been found. The recent influx of other species has, however, broken down reproductive barriers and gene flow has been stimulated. In extreme arctic environments, selection forces driving evolution are mainly of the physical environment and plant interactions are positive. Elsewhere, biotic factors, such as herbivory, are important and plant interactions become negative through competition. Physical selective forces operate in winter and summer. Low winter temperatures rarely affect arctic plants, but snow depth and duration influence species distributions. Deep and persistent snow deforms plants and limits the period of resource acquisition. Cryptogams are common in such snow beds. Little or no snow cover exposes plants to abrasion by wind-blown particles and desiccation. In such fell-field sites, deciduous species and xerophytes, such as evergreen cushion plants, are common. Arctic summers are short and developmental processes are extended beyond one growing season, with perennials predominating. Cushion plants efficiently increase their temperatures above ambient, while evergreen and deciduous ericaceous dwarf shrubs coexist and have complementary strategies for intercepting radiation in a low canopy. Tundra soils are generally infertile and may be disturbed by freeze/thaw cycles. Nutrients are conserved by cycling within shoots and between ramets within clones. Vegetative proliferation enhances the survival of young ramets, while physiological integration between ramets enables young ramets to forage across patchy environments. Negative plant-animal relationships are particularly important in the Subarctic. Periodic infestation of moth caterpillars defoliate large areas of mountain birch and stimulate increases in populations of their predators. Periodic population peaks of small rodents graze or kill much vegetation and they may moderate the dynamic structure of plant communities, as the plant species have different abilities to regenerate.Key words: arctic plants, tundra, winter, snow, frostMots clés: plantes arctiques, toundra, hiver, neige, ge

Embedded Interval Type-2 Neuro-Fuzzy Speed Controller for Marine Diesel Engines

Marine diesel engines operate in highly dynamic and uncertain environments, hence they require robust and accurate speed controllers that can handle the uncertainties encountered in these environments. The current speed controllers for marine diesel engines are based on PID and type-1 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) which cannot fully handle the uncertainties encountered in such environments. Type-2 FLCs can handle such uncertainties to produce a better control performance. However, manually designing a type-2 FLC is a difficult task. In this paper, we will introduce an embedded type-2 Neuro-Fuzzy Controller (T2NFC) which learns the parameters of interval type-2 FLC to control marine diesel engines. We have performed numerous experiments on a real diesel engine testing platform in which the T2NFC operated on an industrial embedded controller and handled the uncertainties to produce an accurate and robust speed controller that outperformed the currently used commercial engine controller, even though we have trained the T2NFC with data collected from the commercial controlle

SEDLIN forms homodimers: characterisation of SEDLIN mutations and their interactions with transcription factors MBP1, PITX1 and SF1

BACKGROUND SEDLIN, a 140 amino acid subunit of the Transport Protein Particle (TRAPP) complex, is ubiquitously expressed and interacts with the transcription factors c-myc promoter-binding protein 1 (MBP1), pituitary homeobox 1 (PITX1) and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1). SEDLIN mutations cause X-linked spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDT). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated the effects of 4 missense (Asp47Tyr, Ser73Leu, Phe83Ser and Val130Asp) and the most C-terminal nonsense (Gln131Stop) SEDT-associated mutations on interactions with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1 by expression in COS7 cells. Wild-type SEDLIN was present in the cytoplasm and nucleus and interacted with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1; the SEDLIN mutations did not alter these subcellular localizations or the interactions. However, SEDLIN was found to homodimerize, and the formation of dimers between wild-type and mutant SEDLIN would mask a loss in these interactions. A mammalian SEDLIN null cell-line is not available, and the interactions between SEDLIN and the transcription factors were therefore investigated in yeast, which does not endogenously express SEDLIN. This revealed that all the SEDT mutations, except Asp47Tyr, lead to a loss of interaction with MBP1, PITX1 and SF1. Three-dimensional modelling studies of SEDLIN revealed that Asp47 resides on the surface whereas all the other mutant residues lie within the hydrophobic core of the protein, and hence are likely to affect the correct folding of SEDLIN and thereby disrupt protein-protein interactions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Our studies demonstrate that SEDLIN is present in the nucleus, forms homodimers and that SEDT-associated mutations cause a loss of interaction with the transcription factors MBP1, PITX1 and SF1.This work was supported by the Oliver Bird Fund (Studentship No. RHE/00029/G), The Nuffield Foundation (J.J.), Arthritis Research Campaign (Grant ID 16438) (M.A.N. and R.V.T.), European Community Framework 7 programme grant TREAT-OA (HEALTH-F2-2008-00) (M.A.N. and R.V.T.) and the Medical Research Council (J.J., M.A.N. and R.V.T.). J.J. was an Oliver Bird funded PhD student

A century of tree line changes in sub-Arctic Sweden shows local and regional variability and only a minor influence of 20th century climate warming

Aim Models project that climate warming will cause the tree line to move to higher elevations in alpine areas and more northerly latitudes in Arctic environments. We aimed to document changes or stability of the tree line in a sub-Arctic model area at different temporal and spatial scales, and particularly to clarify the ambiguity that currently exists about tree line dynamics and their causes. Location The study was conducted in the Tornetrask area in northern Sweden where climate warmed by 2.5 degrees C between 1913 and 2006. Mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) sets the alpine tree line. Methods We used repeat photography, dendrochronological analysis, field observations along elevational transects and historical documents to study tree line dynamics. Results Since 1912, only four out of eight tree line sites had advanced: on average the tree line had shifted 24 m upslope (+0.2 m year-1 assuming linear shifts). Maximum tree line advance was +145 m (+1.5 m year-1 in elevation and +2.7 m year-1 in actual distance), whereas maximum retreat was 120 m downslope. Counter-intuitively, tree line advance was most pronounced during the cooler late 1960s and 1970s. Tree establishment and tree line advance were significantly correlated with periods of low reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) population numbers. A decreased anthropozoogenic impact since the early 20th century was found to be the main factor shaping the current tree line ecotone and its dynamics. In addition, episodic disturbances by moth outbreaks and geomorphological processes resulted in descent and long-term stability of the tree line position, respectively. Main conclusions In contrast to what is generally stated in the literature, this study shows that in a period of climate warming, disturbance may not only determine when tree line advance will occur but if tree line advance will occur at all. In the case of non-climatic climax tree lines, such as those in our study area, both climate-driven model projections of future tree line positions and the use of the tree line position for bioclimatic monitoring should be used with caution