Biology helps you to win a game

We present a game of interacting agents which mimics the complex dynamics found in many natural and social systems. These agents modify their strategies periodically, depending on their performances using genetic crossover mechanisms, inspired by biology. We study the performances of the agents under different conditions, and how they adapt themselves. In addition the dynamics of the game is investigated.Comment: 4 pages including 6 figures. Uses REVTeX4. Submitted for Conference Proceedings of the "Unconventional Applications of Statistical Physics", Kolkat

Estimation of temporal and spatial variations in groundwater recharge in unconfined sand aquifers using Scots pine inventories

Acknowledgements. This study was made possible through funding from the EU 7th Framework programme GENESIS (contract number 226536), AQVI project (no. 128377) in Academy of Finland AKVA research programme, the Renlund Foundation, VALUE doctoral school and Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki ry. We would like to express our gratitude to Geological survey of Finland, Finnish Forest Administration (Metsähallitus) and Finnish Forest Centre (Metsäkeskus), Finnish meteorological institute, Finnish environmental administration and National land survey of Finland for providing data sets and expert knowledge that made this study possible in its current extent. To reproduce the research in the paper, data from above-mentioned agencies can be made available for purchase on request from the corresponding agency, other data can be provided by the corresponding author upon request. We thank Per-Erik Jansson for his assistance with the CoupModel and Jarkko Okkonen (GTK), anonymous reviewer, and Angelo Basile for their critical comments that significantly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Many-core compiler fuzzing

We address the compiler correctness problem for many-core systems through novel applications of fuzz testing to OpenCL compilers. Focusing on two methods from prior work, random differential testing and testing via equivalence modulo inputs (EMI), we present several strategies for random generation of deterministic, communicating OpenCL kernels, and an injection mechanism that allows EMI testing to be applied to kernels that otherwise exhibit little or no dynamically-dead code. We use these methods to conduct a large, controlled testing campaign with respect to 21 OpenCL (device, compiler) configurations, covering a range of CPU, GPU, accelerator, FPGA and emulator implementations. Our study provides independent validation of claims in prior work related to the effectiveness of random differential testing and EMI testing, proposes novel methods for lifting these techniques to the many-core setting and reveals a significant number of OpenCL compiler bugs in commercial implementations

Skill, substance and authority:the metaphorical uses of mindful* in the new york times and twitter

Abstract. This Master’s thesis examines metaphorical uses of mindfulness, mindful, and mindfully in contemporary discourse. It aims to see how mindfulness as a concept is transitioning from its Buddhist roots to the contemporary use. The thesis is a psycholinguistic study which aims to find the attitudes and emotions behind mindfulness by studying the extended metaphors that are used to describe mindfulness. The study is conducted by collecting two corpora of sentences and tweets that include the words mindfulness, mindful, or mindfully from The New York Times and Twitter. Theories of image schemas, conceptual metaphors, and sticky images are used to uncover the metaphors that mindfulness, mindful, or mindfully represent, and discourse analysis is used to pair the metaphors with research of Buddhist, secular, and popular mindfulness. There were altogether ten metaphors that emerged in the study: ENTITY, CONTAINER, SUBSTANCE, PHYSICAL BEING, PRODUCT, INSTRUMENT, SKILL, ACTIVITY, MENTAL STATE and AUTHORITY/PERSON. In addition, mindfulness is used linguistically as a modifier in both corpora. The corpus collected from Twitter entailed four more metaphors than the corpus from The New York Times and the common metaphors had different frequencies of occurrence in the two corpora. The differences between the two media were explained using theories of cultural materialism and participatory culture: The New York Times is an institute with an American set of values and cultural surrounding whereas Twitter is a platform of multiple values and cultures, and the contents are created by multiple voices. The theories provided a set of tools to compare the two media and explain the differences between the two corpora. One of the main differences was that the Twitter corpus entailed more metaphors which was found to be since Twitter users aim to gain attention by using colorful language whereas the readership and thus the funders of The New York Times expect more neutral and informative language, which guides the language used by the journalists. Another main difference between the two corpora was the occurrence of metaphors that referred to instrumental use and value of mindfulness. This was explained by the differences in cultural background of the two media: The New York Times, which had more metaphors of instrumental echo, is set in a deeply capitalist culture which instrumentalizes and commercializes immaterial things as well, whereas Twitter does not have a single cultural background but is a meeting place for several cultures and thus is not influenced by capitalism as much as the newspaper. The study sheds light on the contemporary discourse of mindfulness and demonstrates how it depends on the media where the discourse takes place whether mindfulness can be seen similarly to what its Buddhist roots suggest or whether it has shifted into a commercialized instrument.Tiivistelmä. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tarkastellaan sanaa mindfulness ja sen kahta eri englanninkielistä muotoa, mindful ja mindfully, nykyhetken julkisessa keskustelussa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, kuinka mindfulness-käsite on muuttunut buddhalaisista juuristaan nykyaikaan. Tutkielma on psykolingvistinen tutkimus, jossa pyritään selvittämään mindfulnessiin liittyviä asenteita ja tunteita mindfulnessia kuvailevien laajennettujen metaforien avulla. Tutkimus toteutettiin keräämällä kaksi korpusta, toisen The New York Times -sanomalehdestä ja toisen Twitteristä. Teorioita mielikuvaskeemoista, käsitemetaforista ja tahmeista käsitteistä (eng. sticky concepts) käytettiin selvittämään, millaisia metaforia sana mindfulness ilmentää. Diskurssianalyysia puolestaan käytettiin selittämään metaforien yhteyksiä buddhalaiseen, maallistuneeseen sekä kansantajuiseen käsitykseen mindfulnessista. Aineistosta nousi esiin kymmenen metaforaa: ENTITY, CONTAINER, SUBSTANCE, PHYSICAL BEING, PRODUCT, INSTRUMENT, SKILL, ACTIVITY, MENTAL STATE ja AUTHORITY/PERSON. Metaforisen käytön lisäksi sanaa mindfulness käytettiin kielellisenä määritteenä. Twitter-korpuksesta nousi esiin neljä metaforaa enemmän kuin The New York Times -korpuksesta. Lisäksi metaforien ilmentymissä oli määrällisiä eroja. Erot korpusten välillä selitettiin käyttäen kulttuurimaterialismin ja osallistuvan kulttuurin (eng. participatory culture) teorioita: The New York Times on instituutio, joka kantaa amerikkalaisia arvoja ja kulttuuria itsessään, kun taas Twitter on moniarvoinen ja monikulttuurinen yhteisö, jonka sisällön tuottaa moniääninen yhteisö. Teoriat tarjosivat työkalut kahden median taustojen selittämiseen ja korpuksista löytyneiden eroavaisuuksien avaamiseen. Yksi suurimmista eroavaisuuksista korpusten välillä oli se, että Twitter-korpuksesta löytyi neljä metaforaa enemmän kuin The New York Times -korpuksesta. Tämä selittyi medioiden erilaisilla käyttötarkoituksilla: Twitter-käyttäjät pyrkivät käyttämään värikästä kieltä saadakseen huomiota twiiteilleen, kun taas The New York Timesin kieltä ohjailee sen asiakaskunta, joka odottaa neutraalia ja informoivaa kieltä. Toinen suuri eroavaisuus korpusten välillä oli mindfulnessin välineelliseen käyttöön viittaavien metaforien määrä, joka selittyi medioiden kulttuurisilla taustoilla. The New York Times, jossa näitä välineellisiä metaforia oli enemmän, on osa kapitalistista kulttuuria, jossa myös aineettomat asiat kaupallistetaan ja välineellistetään. Twitterillä ei ole samanlaista yksikulttuurista taustaa, eikä siksi esimerkiksi kapitalismi näy siellä niin vahvasti. Tämä tutkimus valaisee sitä, kuinka mindfulnessin merkitys joko samanlaisena kuin se on buddhalaisissa juurissaan tai sitten kaupallistuneena instrumenttina riippuu siitä, missä mediassa mindfulnessista puhutaan

One Dimensional Kondo Lattice Model Studied by the Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method

Recent developments of the theoretical investigations on the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model by using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method are discussed in this review. Short summaries are given for the zero-temperature DMRG, the finite-temperature DMRG, and also its application to dynamic quantities. Away from half-filling, the paramagnetic metallic state is shown to be a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with the large Fermi surface. For the large Fermi surface its size is determined by the sum of the densities of the conduction electrons and the localized spins. The correlation exponent K_rho of this metallic phase is smaller than 1/2. At half-filling the ground state is insulating. Excitation gaps are different depending on channels, the spin gap, the charge gap and the quasiparticle gap. Temperature dependence of the spin and charge susceptibilities and specific heat are discussed. Particularly interesting is the temperature dependence of various excitation spectra, which show unusual properties of the Kondo insulators.Comment: 18 pages, 23 Postscript figures, REVTe