Accelerating Reinforcement Learning by Composing Solutions of Automatically Identified Subtasks

This paper discusses a system that accelerates reinforcement learning by using transfer from related tasks. Without such transfer, even if two tasks are very similar at some abstract level, an extensive re-learning effort is required. The system achieves much of its power by transferring parts of previously learned solutions rather than a single complete solution. The system exploits strong features in the multi-dimensional function produced by reinforcement learning in solving a particular task. These features are stable and easy to recognize early in the learning process. They generate a partitioning of the state space and thus the function. The partition is represented as a graph. This is used to index and compose functions stored in a case base to form a close approximation to the solution of the new task. Experiments demonstrate that function composition often produces more than an order of magnitude increase in learning rate compared to a basic reinforcement learning algorithm

An update on domineering on rectangular boards

Domineering is a combinatorial game played on a subset of a rectangular grid between two players. Each board position can be put into one of four outcome classes based on who the winner will be if both players play optimally. In this note, we review previous work, establish the outcome classes for several dimensions of rectangular board, and restrict the outcome class in several more.Comment: 9 pages. References fixe

Homotopically trivializing the circle in the framed little disks

This paper confirms the following suggestion of Kontsevich. In the appropriate derived sense, an action of the framed little disks operad and a trivialization of the circle action is the same information as an action of the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen operad. This improves an earlier result of the author and Bruno Vallette.Comment: 36 pages. This version accepted for publication by the Journal of Topolog

The imperative for consultation and involvement in child nutrition research: Adding perspectives from qualitative research

This chapter highlights the need for an understanding of the views of children and the way they view food and nutrition knowledge and behaviour. We argue that this is necessary to help understand behaviour, to inform practice and to devise realistic research and evaluation strategies. Many existing approaches to research adopt a positivist approach and tend to exclude qualitative work because of the lack of control groups and validated measures. We set out how, by using qualitative research techniques and examples from our own work, the views of young people can be used to inform underlying behaviour. What we know about the behaviour of a community or group of individuals is often added to by qualitative data and this is not always so in experimental studies. For example attempts to change the behaviour of young people in eating in fast food restaurants is tempered by the fact that the reasons they do this are influenced by issues other than knowledge about the food on offer; or in the case of fruit and vegetable schemes it is necessary to understand the mindset of children to consuming fruit and vegetables. These raise the classic contradiction between knowledge and behaviour and the translation of research findings into practice and shaping what works. Determining audience needs, wants and perceptions is one of the key principles of good quality public health nutrition prevention work and is in-keeping with the need to create supportive environments for health and strengthening community action for health. We set out the need for understanding the mindset of young people, along with the links between research and action. We explore the use of existing evidence and gaps in the evidence base which includes an argument for research to have utility and be linked to programme interventions; indicating a shift from traditional evidence-based practice and a plea for evaluation and research on the use of evidence in practice. Such an approach will enable health practitioners to gain a better understanding of how to implement strategies associated with childhood nutrition and healthy eating in their working environment

The contribution of O(alpha) radiative corrections to the renormalised anisotropy and application to general tadpole improvement schemes: addendum to "One loop calculation of the renormalised anisotropy for improved anisotropic gluon actions on a lattice" [hep-lat/0208010]

General O(alpha) radiative corrections to lattice actions may be interpreted as counterterms that give additive contributions to the one-loop renormalisation of the anisotropy. The effect of changing the radiative coefficients is thus easily calculable. In particular, the results obtained in a previous paper for Landau mean link improved actions apply in any tadpole improvement scheme. We explain how this method can be exploited when tuning radiatively improved actions. Efficient methods for self-consistently tuning tadpole improvement factors are also discussed.Comment: 3 pages of revte

A criterion for existence of right-induced model structures

Suppose that $F: \mathcal{N} \to \mathcal{M}$ is a functor whose target is a Quillen model category. We give a succinct sufficient condition for the existence of the right-induced model category structure on $\mathcal{N}$ in the case when $F$ admits both adjoints. We give several examples, including change-of-rings, operad-like structures, and anti-involutive structures on infinity categories. For the last of these, we explore anti-involutive structures for several different models of $(\infty, 1)$-categories, and show that known Quillen equivalences between base model categories lift to equivalences

Cones in homotopy probability theory

This note defines cones in homotopy probability theory and demonstrates that a cone over a space is a reasonable replacement for the space. The homotopy Gaussian distribution in one variable is revisited as a cone on the ordinary Gaussian.Comment: 8 pages. Missing reference adde

The minimal model for the Batalin-Vilkovisky operad

The purpose of this paper is to explain and to generalize, in a homotopical way, the result of Barannikov-Kontsevich and Manin which states that the underlying homology groups of some Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras carry a Frobenius manifold structure. To this extent, we first make the minimal model for the operad encoding BV-algebras explicit. Then we prove a homotopy transfer theorem for the associated notion of homotopy BV-algebra. The final result provides an extension of the action of the homology of the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen moduli space of genus 0 curves on the homology of some BV-algebras to an action via higher homotopical operations organized by the cohomology of the open moduli space of genus zero curves. Applications in Poisson geometry and Lie algebra cohomology and to the Mirror Symmetry conjecture are given.Comment: New section added containing applications to Poisson geometry, Lie algebra cohomology and to the Mirror Symmetry conjecture. [36 pages, 4 figures