From Cognition to Consciousness:\ud a discussion about learning, reality representation and decision making.

The scientific understanding of cognition and consciousness is currently hampered by the lack of rigorous and universally accepted definitions that permit comparative studies. This paper proposes new functional and un- ambiguous definitions for cognition and consciousness in order to provide clearly defined boundaries within which general theories of cognition and consciousness may be developed. The proposed definitions are built upon the construction and manipulation of reality representation, decision making and learning and are scoped in terms of an underlying logical structure. It is argued that the presentation of reality also necessitates the concept of ab- sence and the capacity to perform transitive inference. Explicit predictions relating to these new definitions, along with possible ways to test them, are also described and discussed

Better Optimism By Bayes: Adaptive Planning with Rich Models

The computational costs of inference and planning have confined Bayesian model-based reinforcement learning to one of two dismal fates: powerful Bayes-adaptive planning but only for simplistic models, or powerful, Bayesian non-parametric models but using simple, myopic planning strategies such as Thompson sampling. We ask whether it is feasible and truly beneficial to combine rich probabilistic models with a closer approximation to fully Bayesian planning. First, we use a collection of counterexamples to show formal problems with the over-optimism inherent in Thompson sampling. Then we leverage state-of-the-art techniques in efficient Bayes-adaptive planning and non-parametric Bayesian methods to perform qualitatively better than both existing conventional algorithms and Thompson sampling on two contextual bandit-like problems.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Efficient Bayes-Adaptive Reinforcement Learning using Sample-Based Search

Bayesian model-based reinforcement learning is a formally elegant approach to learning optimal behaviour under model uncertainty, trading off exploration and exploitation in an ideal way. Unfortunately, finding the resulting Bayes-optimal policies is notoriously taxing, since the search space becomes enormous. In this paper we introduce a tractable, sample-based method for approximate Bayes-optimal planning which exploits Monte-Carlo tree search. Our approach outperformed prior Bayesian model-based RL algorithms by a significant margin on several well-known benchmark problems -- because it avoids expensive applications of Bayes rule within the search tree by lazily sampling models from the current beliefs. We illustrate the advantages of our approach by showing it working in an infinite state space domain which is qualitatively out of reach of almost all previous work in Bayesian exploration.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, includes supplementary material. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 201

Deep Reinforcement Learning with Double Q-learning

The popular Q-learning algorithm is known to overestimate action values under certain conditions. It was not previously known whether, in practice, such overestimations are common, whether they harm performance, and whether they can generally be prevented. In this paper, we answer all these questions affirmatively. In particular, we first show that the recent DQN algorithm, which combines Q-learning with a deep neural network, suffers from substantial overestimations in some games in the Atari 2600 domain. We then show that the idea behind the Double Q-learning algorithm, which was introduced in a tabular setting, can be generalized to work with large-scale function approximation. We propose a specific adaptation to the DQN algorithm and show that the resulting algorithm not only reduces the observed overestimations, as hypothesized, but that this also leads to much better performance on several games.Comment: AAAI 201

Sugar preference and the importance of viscosity in Apis cerana, the Asian honeybee

The Asian honeybee, Apis cerana java (AHB) is a tropical bee species that recently breached quarantine in northern Australia. It is classed as an invasive pest with the potential to detrimentally impact upon Australian beekeeping and other agricultural industries. New research is investigating the behaviour and ecotoxicology of AHB with the aim of developing and optimising trapping stations to impede colony spread. Whilst sugar feeding preferences in the temperate species Apis mellifera have been extensively investigated, preferences in AHB are much less known. This information is crucial to the design of an efficient AHB trapping station. Here, we investigate the sugar solution preferences of AHB using the sugars most common found in nectar. We tested glucose and fructose (hexose sugars), sucrose (a disaccharide sugar) and various mixtures. We also used manipulated solution viscosity through the addition of tylose. We found that, as for Apis mellifera, AHB displayed a strong preference for equicaloric solutions of sucrose over hexose solutions, with both hexoses equally attractive. However, whilst Apis mellifera displayed a strong preference for glucose-fructose- sucrose over an equicaloric sucrose solution, AHB displayed no preference between equicaloric solutions of sucrose, glucose-fructose and glucose-fructose-sucrose. In addition, when sucrose concentrations were fixed and viscosity was manipulated using tylose, AHB showed a preference for more viscous solutions than was predicted by a recently published model of nectar-feeding. We discuss these results in light of this model and the ecology of AHB

?Por qu? mataron a mi abuelo? Relato de una memoria fragmentada

89 P?ginasRecurso Electr?nicoEl presente proyecto rinde un homenaje a Vidal Antonio Ducuara, l?der ind?gena de la una de la comunidad de Vuelta del Rio en Ortega ?Tolima, una de las tantas v?ctimas del conflicto armado colombiano. La importancia que tiene la memoria hist?rica para los pueblos ind?genas es fundamental para la reivindicaci?n de su territorio ancestral y sus creencias. Partiendo de la pregunta ?Por qu? mataron a mi abuelo? Encontramos como a trav?s del relato ?ntimo de amigos y familiares, nos brinda la posibilidad de abordar esta investigaci?n desde la sensibilidad y los afectos que mueven al ser humano, enfrentando la desaparici?n de su origen y la perdida de la identidad. Por tal raz?n es fundamental que el relato audiovisual de cuenta de esa memoria hist?rica, permitiendo el estudio de casos como el del se?or Vidal Antonio Ducuara asesinado en 1994 por entes de violencia.ABSTRACT. This project aims to demonstrate the lack of care and compensation to the victims of violence in Colombia in the community of Vuelta del Rio in Ortega Tolima, alongside with the importance of historical memory for indigenous peoples to claim their ancestral land and their beliefs. Starting with the question, ?Why killed my Grandfather? Found as through the intimate story of family and friends, gives us the opportunity to address this research since the sensitivity and affections that move the human being, facing the loss of their origin and loss of identity. For this reason it is essential that the audiovisual narrative account of that historical memory, allowing the study of cases like Mr. Vidal Antonio Ducuara murdered in 1994 by entities of violence.INTRODUCCI?N 9 1. OBJETIVOS 12 1.1. OBJETIVO GENERAL 12 1.2. OBJETIVOS ESPEC?FICOS 12 2. METODOLOG?A 13 3. MARCO TE?RICO 20 4. ?POR QU? MATARON A MI ABUELO? 20 4.1. SIGUIENDO EL RASTRO 20 4.2. LA LEY Y SUS V?CTIMAS 22 4.3 BREVE HISTORIA Y ANTECEDENTES 24 4.4. SIN TERRITORIO, CON VIOLENCIA SIMB?LICA, Y LEYES ABSURDAS 25 4.5. EL RELATO ?NTIMO COMO PARTE DE LA CONSTRUCCI?N DE LA MEMORIA 29 5. EL CINE DOCUMENTAL CONSTRUYE OTRAS REALIDADES 32 5.1 LA MEMORIA AUDIOVISUAL Y SU APORTE A LA HISTORIA 34 5.2. EL AUDIOVISUAL COMO HERRAMIENTA EN LA CONSTRUCCI?N DEL RELATO ?NTIMO 36 5.3 LA HISTORIA CONTADA DESDE EL AUDIOVISUAL 38 5.4 LA IMPORTANCIA DEL RELATO AUDIOVISUAL 40 5.5 EL RELATO DE UNA MEMORIA FRAGMENTADA 42 5.6 DESDE LA IMAGEN. POR: DIEGO F. AVENDA?O R 43 6. INVESTIGACI?N EN EL AUDIOVISUAL 46 6.1 EL CINE EN LA INVESTIGACI?N 46 6.2 LA INVESTIGACI?N DESDE EL DIRECTOR 47 6.3 EL DOCUMENTAL DESDE OTRAS PEL?CULAS 49 6.4 FOTOGRAF?A, LOCACIONES Y PUESTA EN ESCENA 56 6.5 SONIDO EN EL MONTAJE AUDIOVISUAL 60 6.6 LOS PERSONAJES Y SU PROTAGONISTA 61 6.7 SINOPSIS DE ?POR QU? MATARON A MI ABUELO? 67 7. CONCLUSIONES 68 8. RECOMENDACIONES 69 9. REFERENCIAS 70 10. ANEXOS 7

An empirical revision of the definition of science fiction: it is all in the techne...

Researchers employ science fiction and fantasy in public engagement, advocacy, and education as significant sources of insights to identify public interests, inspire public policy, and influence future science. These uses of science fiction as a source that is expected to reflect public interests are undermined if the examples employed by researchers are interpreted differently by the intended audience or beneficiaries of research. We surveyed the public to identify their definitions and discovered a categorization based on clearly defined features. These align with some academic theories but differ from postmodern approaches as the analysis suggests science fiction can be defined categorically. The empirical survey data are consistent and demonstrate an unmistakable distinction between popular definitions of science fiction and fantasy. Our theoretical analysis implies some definitions may be confused by evaluating secondary "fuzzy" characteristics as if they were fundamental features of the genre. We suggest Wittgenstein's family resemblances, between subjects associated with the genre at any specific time, should be interpreted as an ephemeral grouping validated by correlation with enduring core features, rather than definitive. On the basis of the common themes identified from the survey responses and a critique of existing genre models, we suggest the classical concept of techne may best describe the empirical essence of science fiction. Researchers intending to employ science fiction for applications that have an influence in the public realm may wish to consider this when designing their research