Interaction and Experience in Enactive Intelligence and Humanoid Robotics

We overview how sensorimotor experience can be operationalized for interaction scenarios in which humanoid robots acquire skills and linguistic behaviours via enacting a “form-of-life”’ in interaction games (following Wittgenstein) with humans. The enactive paradigm is introduced which provides a powerful framework for the construction of complex adaptive systems, based on interaction, habit, and experience. Enactive cognitive architectures (following insights of Varela, Thompson and Rosch) that we have developed support social learning and robot ontogeny by harnessing information-theoretic methods and raw uninterpreted sensorimotor experience to scaffold the acquisition of behaviours. The success criterion here is validation by the robot engaging in ongoing human-robot interaction with naive participants who, over the course of iterated interactions, shape the robot’s behavioural and linguistic development. Engagement in such interaction exhibiting aspects of purposeful, habitual recurring structure evidences the developed capability of the humanoid to enact language and interaction games as a successful participant

6-Amino-1-benzyl-4-(4-chloro­phen­yl)-3-(4-pyrid­yl)-1,4-dihydro­pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole-5-carbonitrile

The crystal structure of the title compound, C25H18ClN5O, was determined in the course of our studies on the synthesis of 1,4-dihydro­pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole as an inhibitor of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The compound was prepared via a base-catalysed synthesis from 1-benzyl-3-(4-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazol-5(4H)-one with p-chloro­aldehyde and malononitrile. The crystal data obtained were used to generate a three-dimensional pharmacophore model for in silico database screening. The phenyl ring is disordered over two positions, with site occupancy factors of 0.55 and 0.45. The dihedral angles between the 1,4-dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole unit and the chloro­phenyl and pyridine rings are 83.7 (1) and 16.0 (1)°, respectively. The chloro­phenyl and pyridine rings make a dihedral angle of 86.8 (2)°

Demography and the tragedy of the commons

Individual success in group-structured populations has two components. First, an individual gains by outcompeting its neighbors for local resources. Second, an individual's share of group success must be weighted by the total productivity of the group. The essence of sociality arises from the tension between selfish gains against neighbors and the associated loss that selfishness imposes by degrading the efficiency of the group. Without some force to modulate selfishness, the natural tendencies of self interest typically degrade group performance to the detriment of all. This is the tragedy of the commons. Kin selection provides the most widely discussed way in which the tragedy is overcome in biology. Kin selection arises from behavioral associations within groups caused either by genetical kinship or by other processes that correlate the behaviors of group members. Here, I emphasize demography as a second factor that may also modulate the tragedy of the commons and favor cooperative integration of groups. Each act of selfishness or cooperation in a group often influences group survival and fecundity over many subsequent generations. For example, a cooperative act early in the growth cycle of a colony may enhance the future size and survival of the colony. This time-dependent benefit can greatly increase the degree of cooperation favored by natural selection, providing another way in which to overcome the tragedy of the commons and enhance the integration of group behavior. I conclude that analyses of sociality must account for both the behavioral associations of kin selection theory and the demographic consequences of life history theory

THE ROLE OF THE INTERNAL ROTATION OF THE UPPER ARM IN JAVELIN THROWING

We performed a kinematic and inverse dynamic study with javelin throwers in order to assess the role of the internal rotation of the upper arm in javelin throwing and then compare the findings to baseball throwing. On the one hand, the results show an equal behaviour of the angular velocity, torque and power curves compared to baseball pitching. The evaluated peak values differ on the other hand. Hence, the different release velocities in baseball pitching and this study could serve as an explanation for the different values, which can vary enormously

Pathophysiological Role of Omega Pore Current in Channelopathies

In voltage-gated cation channels, a recurrent pattern for mutations is the neutralization of positively charged residues in the voltage-sensing S4 transmembrane segments. These mutations cause dominant ion channelopathies affecting many tissues such as brain, heart, and skeletal muscle. Recent studies suggest that the pathogenesis of associated phenotypes is not limited to alterations in the gating of the ion-conducting alpha pore. Instead, aberrant so-called omega currents, facilitated by the movement of mutated S4 segments, also appear to contribute to symptoms. Surprisingly, these omega currents conduct cations with varying ion selectivity and are activated in either a hyperpolarized or depolarized voltage range. This review gives an overview of voltage sensor channelopathies in general and focuses on pathogenesis of skeletal muscle S4 disorders for which current knowledge is most advanced

Robots Learning to Say `No': Prohibition and Rejective Mechanisms in Acquisition of Linguistic Negation

© 2019. Copyright held by the owener/author(s).'No' belongs to the first ten words used by children and embodies the first active form of linguistic negation. Despite its early occurrence the details of its acquisition process remain largely unknown. The circumstance that `no' cannot be construed as a label for perceptible objects or events puts it outside of the scope of most modern accounts of language acquisition. Moreover, most symbol grounding architectures will struggle to ground the word due to its non-referential character. In an experimental study involving the child-like humanoid robot iCub that was designed to illuminate the acquisition process of negation words, the robot is deployed in several rounds of speech-wise unconstrained interaction with naïve participants acting as its language teachers. The results corroborate the hypothesis that affect or volition plays a pivotal role in the socially distributed acquisition process. Negation words are prosodically salient within prohibitive utterances and negative intent interpretations such that they can be easily isolated from the teacher's speech signal. These words subsequently may be grounded in negative affective states. However, observations of the nature of prohibitive acts and the temporal relationships between its linguistic and extra-linguistic components raise serious questions over the suitability of Hebbian-type algorithms for language grounding.Peer reviewe

Comparison of Commonly Used Cooling Concepts for Electrical Machines in Automotive Applications

The thermal design of electrical machines has numerous influencing factors. This paper compares different cooling methods, their volume flow rates and other machine parameters with regard to the continuous power of a PMSM. Understanding the characteristics of different heat sinks depending on their operating point is important for an expedient design in order to avoid derating due to overtemperatures. As a design guideline, this contribution shows the influence of stator cooling jackets, rotor shaft cooling and direct end winding cooling for different machine lengths and volume flow rates. Both water and oil are investigated as coolants. With increasing machine dimensions, end winding cooling becomes less effective for heat sources in the center of the machine while the heat transferred in the cooling jacket increases. A sensitivity study of other machine parameters, such as the maximum allowed magnet temperature or the coolant inlet temperature, improves the understanding of the reader as to how the continuous power of a PMSM can be increased when the rotor temperature limits the performance

Einfluss von außerschulischen Lernorten auf die Gestaltung von technisch geprägten Karrierewegen: Eine empirische Analyse der Effekte des Engagements im Schüler - Institut für Technik und angewandte Informatik (SITI) e.V. auf die Berufswahl

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