7,979 research outputs found
Flexibly Instructable Agents
This paper presents an approach to learning from situated, interactive
tutorial instruction within an ongoing agent. Tutorial instruction is a
flexible (and thus powerful) paradigm for teaching tasks because it allows an
instructor to communicate whatever types of knowledge an agent might need in
whatever situations might arise. To support this flexibility, however, the
agent must be able to learn multiple kinds of knowledge from a broad range of
instructional interactions. Our approach, called situated explanation, achieves
such learning through a combination of analytic and inductive techniques. It
combines a form of explanation-based learning that is situated for each
instruction with a full suite of contextually guided responses to incomplete
explanations. The approach is implemented in an agent called Instructo-Soar
that learns hierarchies of new tasks and other domain knowledge from
interactive natural language instructions. Instructo-Soar meets three key
requirements of flexible instructability that distinguish it from previous
systems: (1) it can take known or unknown commands at any instruction point;
(2) it can handle instructions that apply to either its current situation or to
a hypothetical situation specified in language (as in, for instance,
conditional instructions); and (3) it can learn, from instructions, each class
of knowledge it uses to perform tasks.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file
The X-ray luminosity function of AGN at z~3
We combine Lyman-break colour selection with ultradeep (> 200 ks) Chandra
X-ray imaging over a survey area of ~0.35 deg^2 to select high redshift AGN.
Applying careful corrections for both the optical and X-ray selection
functions, the data allow us to make the most accurate determination to date of
the faint end of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) at z~3. Our methodology
recovers a number density of X-ray sources at this redshift which is at least
as high as previous surveys, demonstrating that it is an effective way of
selecting high z AGN. Comparing to results at z=1, we find no evidence that the
faint slope of the XLF flattens at high z, but we do find significant (factor
~3.6) negative evolution of the space density of low luminosity AGN. Combining
with bright end data from very wide surveys we also see marginal evidence for
continued positive evolution of the characteristic break luminosity L*. Our
data therefore support models of luminosity-dependent density evolution between
z=1 and z=3. A sharp upturn in the the XLF is seen at the very lowest
luminosities (Lx < 10^42.5 erg s^-1), most likely due to the contribution of
pure X-ray starburst galaxies at very faint fluxes.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
X-ray properties of UV-selected star forming galaxies at z~1 in the Hubble Deep Field North
We present an analysis of the X-ray emission from a large sample of
ultraviolet (UV) selected, star forming galaxies with 0.74<z<1.32 in the Hubble
Deep Field North (HDF-N) region. By excluding all sources with significant
detected X-ray emission in the 2 Ms Chandra observation we are able to examine
the properties of galaxies for which the emission in both UV and X-ray is
expected to be predominantly due to star formation. Stacking the X-ray flux
from 216 galaxies in the soft and hard bands produces significant detections.
The derived mean 2-10 keV rest-frame luminosity is 2.97+/-0.26x10^(40) erg/s,
corresponding to an X-ray derived star formation rate (SFR) of 6.0+/-0.6
Msolar/yr. Comparing the X-ray value with the mean UV derived SFR, uncorrected
for attenuation, we find that the average UV attenuation correction factor is
\~3. By binning the galaxy sample according to UV magnitude and colour,
correlations between UV and X-ray emission are also examined. We find a strong
positive correlation between X-ray emission and rest-frame UV emission. A
correlation between the ratio of X-ray-to-UV emission and UV colour is also
seen, such that L(X)/L(UV) increases for redder galaxies. Given that X-ray
emission offers a view of star formation regions that is relatively unaffected
by extinction, results such as these can be used to evaluate the effects of
dust on the UV emission from high-z galaxies. For instance we derive a
relationship for estimating UV attenuation corrections as a function of colour
excess. The observed relation is inconsistent with the Calzetti et al. (2000)
reddening law which over predicts the range in UV attenuation corrections by a
factor of ~100 for the UV selected z~1 galaxies in this sample (abridged).Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Scale-freeness for networks as a degenerate ground state: A Hamiltonian formulation
The origin of scale-free degree distributions in the context of networks is
addressed through an analogous non-network model in which the node degree
corresponds to the number of balls in a box and the rewiring of links to balls
moving between the boxes. A statistical mechanical formulation is presented and
the corresponding Hamiltonian is derived. The energy, the entropy, as well as
the degree distribution and its fluctuations are investigated at various
temperatures. The scale-free distribution is shown to correspond to the
degenerate ground state, which has small fluctuations in the degree
distribution and yet a large entropy. We suggest an implication of our results
from the viewpoint of the stability in evolution of networks.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Europhysics lette
External field control of donor electron exchange at the Si/SiO2 interface
We analyze several important issues for the single- and two-qubit operations
in Si quantum computer architectures involving P donors close to a SiO2
interface. For a single donor, we investigate the donor-bound electron
manipulation (i.e. 1-qubit operation) between the donor and the interface by
electric and magnetic fields. We establish conditions to keep a donor-bound
state at the interface in the absence of local surface gates, and estimate the
maximum planar density of donors allowed to avoid the formation of a
2-dimensional electron gas at the interface. We also calculate the times
involved in single electron shuttling between the donor and the interface. For
a donor pair, we find that under certain conditions the exchange coupling (i.e.
2-qubit operation) between the respective electron pair at the interface may be
of the same order of magnitude as the coupling in GaAs-based two-electron
double quantum dots where coherent spin manipulation and control has been
recently demonstrated (for example for donors ~10 nm below the interface and
\~40 nm apart, J~10^{-4} meV), opening the perspective for similar experiments
to be performed in Si.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures. Changes in Eq. 24 plus minor typo
The X-ray emission of Lyman break galaxies
We present an analysis of the X-ray emission of a large sample of zâŒ3 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), based on Chandra/ACIS observations of several LBG survey fields. A total of 24 LBGs are directly detected in the X-ray, approximately doubling the number of known detections. Thirteen of the LBGs have optical spectroscopic signatures of active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity, but almost all the other X-ray detections are also likely to host an accreting black hole based on their X-ray properties. The AGN exhibit a wide range in X-ray luminosity, from weak Seyferts to bright quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). An optical spectroscopy identified approximately one-third of the X-ray-detected sources as broad-line QSOs, one-third as narrow-line AGN (NLAGN) and one-third as normal star-forming LBGs. The fraction of X-ray-detected LBGs is 3 per cent, much lower than that which has been found for submillimetre-selected galaxies. Two galaxies have X-ray luminosities, spectra and fX/fopt values that are consistent with emission from star formation processes and are identified as candidate X-ray bright, pure starburst galaxies at z⌠3. If powered solely by star formation, the sources would have star formation rates (SFRs) of 300â500 Mâ yrâ1. X-ray spectral analysis of the LBGs shows a mean photon index of Î= 1.96 , similar to local AGN. There is evidence for absorption in at least 40 per cent of the objects. Significantly more absorption is evident in the NLAGN, which is consistent with AGN unification schemes. After correction for absorption, the narrow- and broad-line objects show the same average luminosity. X-ray-detected LBGs, spectroscopically classified as normal galaxies, however, are less luminous in both soft and hard X-ray bands, indicating that the host galaxy is outshining any optical AGN signature. Turning to the X-ray emission from LBGs without direct detections, stacking the X-ray flux in the two deepest Chandra fields under consideration [the Hubble Deep Field-North (HDF-N) and GrothâWestphal Strip (GWS)] produced significant detections in each, although the GWS result was marginal. The detection in the HDF-N gives an X-ray-derived SFR of 42.4 ± 7.8 Mâ yr^â1 per LBG and, by comparing with the ultraviolet (UV) SFR, the implied UV extinction correction is 4.1 ± 0.8. The LBG sample was split into three bins based on UV magnitude to examine the correlation between UV and X-ray emission: for the limited statistics available, there was no evidence of any correlation
Perspective: Vitamin D deficiency and COVIDâ19 severity â plausibly linked by latitude, ethnicity, impacts on cytokines, ACE2 and thrombosis
Background
SARSâCoVâ2 coronavirus infection ranges from asymptomatic through to fatal COVIDâ19 characterized by a âcytokine stormâ and lung failure. Vitamin D deficiency has been postulated as a determinant of severity.
Objectives
To review the evidence relevant to vitamin D and COVIDâ19.
Methods
Narrative review.
Results
Regression modelling shows that more northerly countries in the Northern Hemisphere are currently (May 2020) showing relatively high COVIDâ19 mortality, with an estimated 4.4% increase in mortality for each 1 degree latitude north of 28 degrees North (P = 0.031) after adjustment for age of population. This supports a role for ultraviolet B acting via vitamin D synthesis. Factors associated with worse COVIDâ19 prognosis include old age, ethnicity, male sex, obesity, diabetes and hypertension and these also associate with deficiency of vitamin D or its response. Vitamin D deficiency is also linked to severity of childhood respiratory illness. Experimentally, vitamin D increases the ratio of angiotensinâconverting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to ACE, thus increasing angiotensin II hydrolysis and reducing subsequent inflammatory cytokine response to pathogens and lung injury.
Conclusions
Substantial evidence supports a link between vitamin D deficiency and COVIDâ19 severity but it is all indirect. Communityâbased placeboâcontrolled trials of vitamin D supplementation may be difficult. Further evidence could come from study of COVIDâ19 outcomes in large cohorts with information on prescribing data for vitamin D supplementation or assay of serum unbound 25(OH) vitamin D levels. Meanwhile, vitamin D supplementation should be strongly advised for people likely to be deficient
Learning in Tele-autonomous Systems using Soar
Robo-Soar is a high-level robot arm control system implemented in Soar. Robo-Soar learns to perform simple block manipulation tasks using advice from a human. Following learning, the system is able to perform similar tasks without external guidance. Robo-Soar corrects its knowledge by accepting advice about relevance of features in its domain, using a unique integration of analytic and empirical learning techniques
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