Perspective Taking Through Simulation

Robots that operate among humans need to be able to attribute mental states in order to facilitate learning through imitation and collaboration. The success of the simulation theory approach for attributing mental states to another person relies on the ability to take the perspective of that person, typically by generating pretend states from that person’s point of view. In this paper, internal inverse and forward models are coupled to create simulation processes that may be used for mental state attribution: simulation of the visual process is used to attribute perceptions, and simulation of the motor control process is used to attribute potential actions. To demonstrate the approach, experiments are performed with a robot attributing perceptions and potential actions to a second robot

Normal background concentrations (NBCs) of contaminants in English soils : final project report

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to give guidance on what are normal levels of contaminants in English soils in support of the Part 2A Contaminated Land Statutory Guidance. This has initially been done by studying the distribution of four contaminants – arsenic, lead, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and asbestos – in topsoils from England. This work was extended to a further four contaminants (cadmium, copper, nickel and mercury) which enabled methodologies developed to be tested on a larger range of contaminants. The first phase of the Project gathered data sets that were: nationally extensive; systematically collected so a broad range of land uses were represented; and collected and analysed to demonstrably and acceptable levels of quality. Information on the soil contaminant concentrations in urban areas was of particular importance as the normal background is considered to be a combination of both natural and diffuse anthropogenic contributions to the soil. Issues of soil quality are most important in areas where these affect most people, namely, the urban environment. The two principal data sets used in this work are the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) rural and urban topsoils (37,269 samples) and the English NSI (National Soil Inventory) topsoils (4,864 samples) reanalysed at the BGS laboratories by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRFS) so both data sets were highly compatible. These two data sets provide results for most inorganic element contaminants, though results explored for mercury and BaP are drawn from a variety of different and much less extensive data sets

Group a streptococcal serotypes isolated from healthy schoolchildren in iran

Serotypes of group A streptococci are still a major cause of pharyngitis and some post-infectious sequelae such as rheumatic fever. As part of the worldwide effort to clarify the epidemiological pattern of group A streptococci in different countries, the present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Streptococcus pyogenes serotypes in Iran. A total of 1588 throat swabs were taken from healthy school children in the city of Gorgan during February and March 1999. Of those isolates, 175 resulted positive for group A streptococci. The distribution pattern was similar for girls and boys, with 10.8 and 11.2, respectively. Urban school children showed a higher rate of colonization compared to those in rural areas. Serotyping was performed on 65 of the positive isolates using standard techniques, and only 21 (32) were M-type isolates. Their profiles fell into four types with M1 predominating, which could reflect the presence of rheumatic fever in the region. However, when isolates were challenged for T-antigen types, nearly all were positive (94). The pattern of T types was diverse (18 types), with the most common T types being T1 (26), TB3264 (15), TB\1-19 & B\25\1-19 (9.2) and T2 & 2\28 (7.7). When isolates were tested for opacity factor, only 23 (35) were positive while 34 (52) responded to the serum opacity reaction test. Although the number of isolates in this study was not sufficient to make any epidemiological conclusions, the scarcity of serotyping studies in Iran could render these data useful for future attempts to develop a streptococcal vaccine

The complex geometry of holographic flows of quiver gauge theories

We argue that the complete Klebanov-Witten flow solution must be described by a Calabi-Yau metric on the conifold, interpolating between the orbifold at infinity and the cone over T^(1,1) in the interior. We show that the complete flow solution is characterized completely by a single, simple, quasi-linear, second order PDE, or "master equation," in two variables. We show that the Pilch-Warner flow solution is almost Calabi-Yau: It has a complex structure, a hermitian metric, and a holomorphic (3,0)-form that is a square root of the volume form. It is, however, not Kahler. We discuss the relationship between the master equation derived here for Calabi-Yau geometries and such equations encountered elsewhere and that govern supersymmetric backgrounds with multiple, independent fluxes.Comment: 26 pages, harvmac + amssy

Fast algorithms for min independent dominating set

We first devise a branching algorithm that computes a minimum independent dominating set on any graph with running time O*(2^0.424n) and polynomial space. This improves the O*(2^0.441n) result by (S. Gaspers and M. Liedloff, A branch-and-reduce algorithm for finding a minimum independent dominating set in graphs, Proc. WG'06). We then show that, for every r>3, it is possible to compute an r-((r-1)/r)log_2(r)-approximate solution for min independent dominating set within time O*(2^(nlog_2(r)/r))

Sources, mobility and bioaccessibility of potentially harmful elements in UK soils

Potentially harmful elements (PHE) occur both naturally from geogenic sources and from anthropogenic derived pollution. Anthropogenic sources can be further categorised into those derived from point sources. A point source is a single identifiable source which is confined to a very small area such as that arising from disposal of waste material or from an industrial plant. Diffuse pollution arises where substances are widely used and dispersed over an area as a result of land use activities, often associated with urban development. Examples of diffuse pollution include atmospheric deposition of contaminants arising from industry, domestic coal fires and traffic exhaust, and disposal of domestic coal ash. The total concentration and the chemical form and hence the mobility of the PHE in a soil is highly dependent on the source

Mesons as qbar-q Bound States from Euclidean 2-Point Correlators in the Bethe-Salpeter Approach

We investigate the 2-point correlation function for the vector current. The gluons provide dressings for both the quark self energy as well as the vector vertex function, which are described consistently by the rainbow Dyson-Schwinger equation and the inhomogeneous ladder Bethe-Salpeter equation. The form of the gluon propagator at low momenta is modeled by a 2-parameter ansatz fitting the weak pion decay constant. The quarks are confined in the sense that the quark propagator does not have a pole at timelike momenta. We determine the ground state mass in the vector channel from the Euclidean time Fourier transform of the correlator, which has an exponential falloff at large times. The ground state mass lies around 590 MeV and is almost independent of the model form for the gluon propagator. This method allows us to stay in Euclidean space and to avoid analytic continuation of the quark or gluon propagators into the timelike region.Comment: 21 pages (REVTEX), 8 Postscript figure

Generating socially appropriate tutorial dialog

Analysis of student-tutor coaching dialogs suggest that good human tutors attend to and attempt to influence the motivational state of learners. Moreover, they are sensitive to the social face of the learner, and seek to mitigate the potential face threat of their comments. This paper describes a dialog generator for pedagogical agents that takes motivation and face threat factors into account. This enables the agent to interact with learners in a socially appropriate fashion, and foster intrinsic motivation on the part of the learner, which in turn may lead to more positive learner affective states

Cosmic D--term Strings as Wrapped D3 Branes

We describe cosmic D--term strings as D3 branes wrapped on a resolved conifold. The matter content that gives rise to D--term strings is shown to describe the world--volume theory of a space--filling D3 brane transverse to the conifold which itself is a wrapped D5 brane. We show that, in this brane theory, the tension of the wrapped D3 brane mathces that of the D--term string. We argue that there is a new type of cosmic string which arises from fractional D1 branes on the world--volume of a fractional D3 brane.Comment: 13 pages in phyzzx.tex; eq. (17) corrected, other minor corrections; v3: more minor correction

Coisotropic D8-branes and Model-building

Up to now chiral type IIA vacua have been mostly based on intersecting D6-branes wrapping special Lagrangian 3-cycles on a CY three-fold. We argue that there are additional BPS D-branes which have so far been neglected, and which seem to have interesting model-building features. They are coisotropic D8-branes, in the sense of Kapustin and Orlov. The D8-branes wrap 5-dimensional submanifolds of the CY which are trivial in homology, but contain a worldvolume flux that induces D6-brane charge on them. This induced D6-brane charge not only renders the D8-brane BPS, but also creates D=4 chirality when two D8-branes intersect. We discuss in detail the case of a type IIA Z2 x Z2 orientifold, where we provide explicit examples of coisotropic D8-branes. We study the chiral spectrum, SUSY conditions, and effective field theory of different systems of D8-branes in this orientifold, and show how the magnetic fluxes generate a superpotential for untwisted Kahler moduli. Finally, using both D6-branes and coisotropic D8-branes we construct new examples of MSSM-like type IIA vacua.Comment: 63 pages, 11 figures. Typos corrected and comments adde