5,524 research outputs found
Hybridisation for versatile decision-making in game opponent AI
Hybridisation for versatile decision-making in game opponent A
Recommended from our members
White-headed Vultures Trigonoceps occipitalis show visual field characteristics of hunting raptors
The visual fields of Aegypiinae vultures have been shown to be adapted primarily to meet two key perceptual challenges of their obligate carrion-feeding behaviour: scanning the ground and preventing the sun’s image falling upon the retina. However, field observations have shown that foraging White-headed Vultures (Trigonoceps occipitalis) are not exclusively carrion-feeders; they are also facultative predators of live prey. Such feeding is likely to present perceptual challenges that are additional to those posed by carrion-feeding. Binocularity is the key component of all visual fields and in birds it is thought to function primarily in the accurate placement and time of contact of the talons and bill, especially in the location and seizure of food items. We determined visual fields in White-headed Vultures and two species of carrion-eating Gyps vultures, and show that the visual field of White-headed Vultures have more similarities with those of predatory raptors (e.g. Accipitrid hawks), compared with the taxonomically more closely related Gyps vultures. We found that maximum binocular field width in White-headed vultures (30°) is significantly wider than Gyps vultures (20°). The broader binocular fields in White-headed Vultures probably facilitate accurate placement and timing of the talons when capturing evasive live prey
Still future II
Martin Fowler's work featured in this group exhibition featuring the work of eight contemporary artists working with social and political subjects. The exhibition took place at The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, Scotland
A pedagogical response to the challenges of delivering collaborative probation education in online environments.
This paper explores the challenges in delivering post graduate probation education in a predominately online environment. It discusses the key pedagogical theories underpinning the teaching approach, with a particular
emphasis on social constructivism, communities of practice and enquiry based learning. The complexities of engaging students in the types of discursive and collegiate activities inherent within these approaches whilst learning at a distance are discussed. A case study exploring the facilitation of a colloborative enquiry based task into the role of emotion work in probation practice is used to demonstrate our response to the challenges identified. Whilst the context of this paper is probation education, it has relevance to those teaching other disciplines within online settings
Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection: A pooled analysis of five prospective, observational studies
Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common, often fatal infection. Our aim was to describe how its clinical presentation varies between populations and to identify common determinants of outcome.
Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis on 3395 consecutive adult patients with S. aureus bacteraemia. Patients were enrolled between 2006 and 2011 in five prospective studies in 20 tertiary care centres in Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.
Results: The median age of participants was 64 years (interquartile range 50–75 years) and 63.8% were male. 25.4% of infections were associated with diabetes mellitus, 40.7% were nosocomial, 20.6% were caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), although these proportions varied significantly across studies. Intravenous catheters were the commonest identified infective focus (27.7%); 8.3% had endocarditis. Crude 14 and 90-day mortality was 14.6% and 29.2%, respectively. Age, MRSA bacteraemia, nosocomial acquisition, endocarditis, and pneumonia were independently associated with death, but a strong association was with an unidentified infective focus (adjusted hazard ratio for 90-day mortality 2.92; 95% confidence interval 2.33 to 3.67, p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: The baseline demographic and clinical features of S. aureus bacteraemia vary significantly between populations. Mortality could be reduced by assiduous MRSA control and early identification of the infective focus.Junta de AndalucÃa PI 0185/201
Deuce: A Lightweight User Interface for Structured Editing
We present a structure-aware code editor, called Deuce, that is equipped with
direct manipulation capabilities for invoking automated program
transformations. Compared to traditional refactoring environments, Deuce
employs a direct manipulation interface that is tightly integrated within a
text-based editing workflow. In particular, Deuce draws (i) clickable widgets
atop the source code that allow the user to structurally select the
unstructured text for subexpressions and other relevant features, and (ii) a
lightweight, interactive menu of potential transformations based on the current
selections. We implement and evaluate our design with mostly standard
transformations in the context of a small functional programming language. A
controlled user study with 21 participants demonstrates that structural
selection is preferred to a more traditional text-selection interface and may
be faster overall once users gain experience with the tool. These results
accord with Deuce's aim to provide human-friendly structural interactions on
top of familiar text-based editing.Comment: ICSE 2018 Paper + Supplementary Appendice
Scientific Paradigms and Urban Development: Alternative Models
Urban sprawl's negative impacts have been amply demonstrated, starting as long as 30 years ago, and most North American urban plans have, somewhere, reference to sprawl as bad policy (or, perhaps, absence of policy). Yet North Americans continue to tolerate the construction of more and more suburban subdivisions. This paper suggests an answer to this paradox. We argue that sprawl's attractiveness – if one can call it that – is buried deep in North American cultural predispositions, which we trace to quite specific interpretations of the mechanistic worldview that emerged from 17th and 18th century revolutions in natural philosophy. North American culture is a scientific culture as well as a suburban one. If mechanistic science and its peculiar view of nature is so pervasive and if suburban sprawl is both pervasive and dysfunctional, then this particular form of science and its cultural roots need to be carefully examined. We do this from the perspective of the 21st century, when quantum physics and new discoveries in the ecological and biological sciences are suggesting that many commonly accepted assumptions about physical reality inherited from 17th and 18th century science are flawed
Refactoring: improving the design of existing code
Bostonxxi, 431 p.: illus.; 25 cm
Sheep-Walk 1 [film]
Sheep-Walk 1 is a political modernist film (10 minutes 45 seconds) demythifying the 'ben and glen' pastoralism of Scottish Romanticism through the use of montage and stop motion animation
- …