Analysing the behaviour of robot teams through relational sequential pattern mining

This report outlines the use of a relational representation in a Multi-Agent domain to model the behaviour of the whole system. A desired property in this systems is the ability of the team members to work together to achieve a common goal in a cooperative manner. The aim is to define a systematic method to verify the effective collaboration among the members of a team and comparing the different multi-agent behaviours. Using external observations of a Multi-Agent System to analyse, model, recognize agent behaviour could be very useful to direct team actions. In particular, this report focuses on the challenge of autonomous unsupervised sequential learning of the team's behaviour from observations. Our approach allows to learn a symbolic sequence (a relational representation) to translate raw multi-agent, multi-variate observations of a dynamic, complex environment, into a set of sequential behaviours that are characteristic of the team in question, represented by a set of sequences expressed in first-order logic atoms. We propose to use a relational learning algorithm to mine meaningful frequent patterns among the relational sequences to characterise team behaviours. We compared the performance of two teams in the RoboCup four-legged league environment, that have a very different approach to the game. One uses a Case Based Reasoning approach, the other uses a pure reactive behaviour.Comment: 25 page

Less is More: Exploiting the Standard Compiler Optimization Levels for Better Performance and Energy Consumption

This paper presents the interesting observation that by performing fewer of the optimizations available in a standard compiler optimization level such as -O2, while preserving their original ordering, significant savings can be achieved in both execution time and energy consumption. This observation has been validated on two embedded processors, namely the ARM Cortex-M0 and the ARM Cortex-M3, using two different versions of the LLVM compilation framework; v3.8 and v5.0. Experimental evaluation with 71 embedded benchmarks demonstrated performance gains for at least half of the benchmarks for both processors. An average execution time reduction of 2.4% and 5.3% was achieved across all the benchmarks for the Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 processors, respectively, with execution time improvements ranging from 1% up to 90% over the -O2. The savings that can be achieved are in the same range as what can be achieved by the state-of-the-art compilation approaches that use iterative compilation or machine learning to select flags or to determine phase orderings that result in more efficient code. In contrast to these time consuming and expensive to apply techniques, our approach only needs to test a limited number of optimization configurations, less than 64, to obtain similar or even better savings. Furthermore, our approach can support multi-criteria optimization as it targets execution time, energy consumption and code size at the same time.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 71 benchmarks used for evaluatio

Gender differences in the temporal voice areas

There is not only evidence for behavioral differences in voice perception between female and male listeners, but also recent suggestions for differences in neural correlates between genders. The fMRI functional voice localizer (comprising a univariate analysis contrasting stimulation with vocal versus non-vocal sounds) is known to give robust estimates of the temporal voice areas (TVAs). However there is growing interest in employing multivariate analysis approaches to fMRI data (e.g. multivariate pattern analysis; MVPA). The aim of the current study was to localize voice-related areas in both female and male listeners and to investigate whether brain maps may differ depending on the gender of the listener. After a univariate analysis, a random effects analysis was performed on female (n = 149) and male (n = 123) listeners and contrasts between them were computed. In addition, MVPA with a whole-brain searchlight approach was implemented and classification maps were entered into a second-level permutation based random effects models using statistical non-parametric mapping (SnPM; Nichols & Holmes 2002). Gender differences were found only in the MVPA. Identified regions were located in the middle part of the middle temporal gyrus (bilateral) and the middle superior temporal gyrus (right hemisphere). Our results suggest differences in classifier performance between genders in response to the voice localizer with higher classification accuracy from local BOLD signal patterns in several temporal-lobe regions in female listeners

Impact of HPV Education on Knowledge, Perception, and Cultural influence among African American Parents

Background: Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical and penial cancer can be prevented. An effective vaccine has been approved for both boys and girls since 2006. Despite recommendation from the Center of Disease Control, vaccination initiation and completion rates among African American adolescents in the United States are lower than average in the nation. Objectives: The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to identify African-American parents’ knowledge and perceptions of sexually transmitted HPV infection and the HPV vaccination. The secondary objective was to use a single-group pre-test post-test research design to examine the effectiveness of an HPV education program developed for African-American parents on HPV knowledge, perceptions, cultural influence and comfort level in discussing HPV with health care providers. Methods: A descriptive, single-group pre-test post-test and HPV educational program research design was used. Pre-testing, post-testing and HPV educational program were administered face to face with a convenience sample of African American parents to assess their knowledge, perception and cultural influences toward HPV, the HPV vaccine and provider comfort. Paired t test and descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. Results: A total of 102 African American parents participated in this study. This study found a statistically significant relationship between African American parents, cultural influence and lack of knowledge as a barrier to healthcare and the HPV vaccine using paired t-test analysis (p = 0.001). The cultural influence questionnaire had a mean of 14.76 (SD=1.68) indicating a strong correlation between the influence culture has with African Americans in making healthcare decisions for themselves and their children. The pre-and post-knowledge questionnaire had a mean of 4.29 (SD=2.59), the pre-and post-perception questionnaire had a mean of 2.63 (SD=1.81), indicating a positive trend in improved knowledge and perception towards the HPV vaccine after implementation of the developed HPV education program. The HPV education program had a mean of 4.78 (SD=.413) to the question that the HPV program gave motivation to parents to request the HPV vaccine for their child. These responses support a need for providers to consider the impact culture has on African American parents and the need to implement educational strategies to increase African American Parents regarding knowledge of HPV and the HPV vaccine in order to increase vaccination rates in this community. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Improving the knowledge of HPV infections in African American Parents can lead to improved health outcomes. Identifying educational and cultural barriers are key to improving educational interventions needed by healthcare providers in order to reach the African American parent population. Addressing noted barriers may improve the decision of African American parents to permit their children to receive and complete the much-needed HPV vaccination series