Biomaker CA: a Biome Maker project using Cellular Automata

We introduce Biomaker CA: a Biome Maker project using Cellular Automata (CA). In Biomaker CA, morphogenesis is a first class citizen and small seeds need to grow into plant-like organisms to survive in a nutrient starved environment and eventually reproduce with variation so that a biome survives for long timelines. We simulate complex biomes by means of CA rules in 2D grids and parallelize all of its computation on GPUs through the Python JAX framework. We show how this project allows for several different kinds of environments and laws of 'physics', alongside different model architectures and mutation strategies. We further analyze some configurations to show how plant agents can grow, survive, reproduce, and evolve, forming stable and unstable biomes. We then demonstrate how one can meta-evolve models to survive in a harsh environment either through end-to-end meta-evolution or by a more surgical and efficient approach, called Petri dish meta-evolution. Finally, we show how to perform interactive evolution, where the user decides how to evolve a plant model interactively and then deploys it in a larger environment. We open source Biomaker CA at: https://tinyurl.com/2x8yu34s .Comment: 20 pages, 23 figures. For code base, see https://tinyurl.com/2x8yu34

Lockage of the Lower Don: history, problems, purposes

This paper presents the physical and geographical characteristics of the Lower Don as well as the history of its lockage. During the low water levels in the upper and lower reaches of the Volga and on the Don River below the Tsimlyansk water-engineering system, ship companies are experiencing difficulties with vessels being loaded at full load because of insufficient depth. The use of flexible impounding dams is proposed, which during low-water seasons induce the water level rise in navigable rivers and during flooding, they are arranged in the apron of the channel

Safe Maneuvering Near Offshore Installations: A New Algorithmic Tool

Maneuvers of human-operated and autonomous marine vessels in the safety zone of drilling rigs, wind farms and other installations present a risk of collision. This article proposes an algorithmic toolkit that ensures maneuver safety, taking into account the restrictions imposed by ship dynamics. The algorithms can be used for anomaly detection, decision making by a human operator or an unmanned vehicle guidance system. We also consider a response to failures in the vessel's control systems and emergency escape maneuvers. Data used by the algorithms come from the vessel's dynamic positioning control system and positional survey charts of the marine installations

Deep Integration of INS and DP: from Theory to Experiments

The recent progress of measurement devices and algorithms of inertial navigation opens up the perspective of deep integration between inertial navigation systems (INS) and dynamic positioning (DP) systems. In the literature, novel mathematical algorithms for INS-guided sensor fusion and sensor fault isolation have recently been proposed, aimed primarily at robust and resilient observation of the vessel’s attitude and position. Much less has been done for experimental testing of INS-guided DP systems in real environmental conditions. In this paper, we report experimental results (from bench tests to real sea trials), demonstrating the efficacy of a fiber-optic inertial measurement sensor in a real DP system. Besides this, we discuss some new applications of INS systems in DP operations and relevant mathematical algorithms

Совершенствование системы внешнего муниципального финансового контроля в условиях реформирования публичной власти

The subject. The implementation of external municipal financial control cannot be called fully competent in Russia. Many practical problems are currently being addressed mainly through the transfer of powers to implement external financial control to a higher level. Amendment to Art. 131–133 of the Russian Federation's Constitution in terms of clarifying the powers of local self-government and incorporating it into public authority, predetermines subsequent amendments to the legislation on local self-government, which can be aimed, among other things, at improving the system of external municipal financial control. The aim of the article is to confirm or disprove the following hypothesis. The reform of public authority will lead to a change in the system of external municipal financial control. Therefore it is possible to propose ways to improve the activities of municipal auditing and accounting authorities on the basis of constitutional novels and the analysis of the existing problems of implementing external municipal financial control. The methodology. The authors apply general scientific methods of comparative, logical and statistical research. The study is based on the analysis of academic literature, statistical data about the practice of the auditing and accounting bodies of municipalities. Russian judicial practice is also analyzed. The main results, scope of application. The organization of a modern system of external municipal financial control shows that it actually works only at the level of urban districts and municipal regions, and that is not always effective. Municipal control and accounting bodies are not created in settlements and the authority to exercise external financial control is transferred either to the level of the municipal district or to the level of the region of the Russian Federation. Conclusion. The municipal auditing and accounting body should retain the authority to exercise control without transferring it to the level of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. However, at the same time, its role should be strengthened by increasing its status (for example, fixing at the federal level the criteria for the number of employees of the control and accounting body, financial support guarantees).В статье обозначен ряд проблем деятельности муниципальных контрольно-счетных органов и обозначены пути их решения. Отмечается неэффективность внешнего муниципального финансового контроля и бесперспективность попыток решать проблемы в этой сфере только за счет передачи полномочий по его осуществлению на вышестоящий уровень. Отмечается, что поправки к ст. 131–133 Конституции РФ в части уточнения полномочий местного самоуправления и включения его в состав органов публичной власти могут быть использованы для совершенствования системы внешнего муниципального финансового контроля. Делается вывод о том, что муниципальный контрольно-счетный орган должен сохранить за собой полномочия по осуществлению контроля без передачи их на уровень субъекта Российской Федерации. Однако в то же время роль такого органа должна быть усилена за счет повышения его статуса (закрепления на федеральном уровне критериев численности работников контрольно-счетного органа, гарантий финансовой поддержки)

Definitions, methods, and applications in interpretable machine learning.

Machine-learning models have demonstrated great success in learning complex patterns that enable them to make predictions about unobserved data. In addition to using models for prediction, the ability to interpret what a model has learned is receiving an increasing amount of attention. However, this increased focus has led to considerable confusion about the notion of interpretability. In particular, it is unclear how the wide array of proposed interpretation methods are related and what common concepts can be used to evaluate them. We aim to address these concerns by defining interpretability in the context of machine learning and introducing the predictive, descriptive, relevant (PDR) framework for discussing interpretations. The PDR framework provides 3 overarching desiderata for evaluation: predictive accuracy, descriptive accuracy, and relevancy, with relevancy judged relative to a human audience. Moreover, to help manage the deluge of interpretation methods, we introduce a categorization of existing techniques into model-based and post hoc categories, with subgroups including sparsity, modularity, and simulatability. To demonstrate how practitioners can use the PDR framework to evaluate and understand interpretations, we provide numerous real-world examples. These examples highlight the often underappreciated role played by human audiences in discussions of interpretability. Finally, based on our framework, we discuss limitations of existing methods and directions for future work. We hope that this work will provide a common vocabulary that will make it easier for both practitioners and researchers to discuss and choose from the full range of interpretation methods