Process-evaluation of tropospheric humidity simulated by general circulation models using water vapor isotopologues: 1. Comparison between models and observations

The goal of this study is to determine how H_2O and HDO measurements in water vapor can be used to detect and diagnose biases in the representation of processes controlling tropospheric humidity in atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs). We analyze a large number of isotopic data sets (four satellite, sixteen ground-based remote-sensing, five surface in situ and three aircraft data sets) that are sensitive to different altitudes throughout the free troposphere. Despite significant differences between data sets, we identify some observed HDO/H_2O characteristics that are robust across data sets and that can be used to evaluate models. We evaluate the isotopic GCM LMDZ, accounting for the effects of spatiotemporal sampling and instrument sensitivity. We find that LMDZ reproduces the spatial patterns in the lower and mid troposphere remarkably well. However, it underestimates the amplitude of seasonal variations in isotopic composition at all levels in the subtropics and in midlatitudes, and this bias is consistent across all data sets. LMDZ also underestimates the observed meridional isotopic gradient and the contrast between dry and convective tropical regions compared to satellite data sets. Comparison with six other isotope-enabled GCMs from the SWING2 project shows that biases exhibited by LMDZ are common to all models. The SWING2 GCMs show a very large spread in isotopic behavior that is not obviously related to that of humidity, suggesting water vapor isotopic measurements could be used to expose model shortcomings. In a companion paper, the isotopic differences between models are interpreted in terms of biases in the representation of processes controlling humidity

Deep Innovation Protection: Confronting the Credit Assignment Problem in Training Heterogeneous Neural Architectures

Deep reinforcement learning approaches have shown impressive results in a variety of different domains, however, more complex heterogeneous architectures such as world models require the different neural components to be trained separately instead of end-to-end. While a simple genetic algorithm recently showed end-to-end training is possible, it failed to solve a more complex 3D task. This paper presents a method called Deep Innovation Protection (DIP) that addresses the credit assignment problem in training complex heterogenous neural network models end-to-end for such environments. The main idea behind the approach is to employ multiobjective optimization to temporally reduce the selection pressure on specific components in multi-component network, allowing other components to adapt. We investigate the emergent representations of these evolved networks, which learn to predict properties important for the survival of the agent, without the need for a specific forward-prediction loss

Geostatistics to evaluate the automatic acquisiton of sound pressure levels in pig nursery facilities

Este trabalho teve o objetivo de estudar a influência da distribuição de decibelímetros na captação automática dos níveis de pressão sonora, em ambiente de produção intensiva de suínos. O experimento foi conduzido em sala do setor de creche de uma granja comercial de suínos situada no município de Monte Mor, Estado de São Paulo. A sala foi dividida em dez quadrantes idênticos, e os decibelímetros foram instalados no centro geométrico de cada quadrante. Utilizou-se a geoestatística para avaliar a dependência espacial entre os decibelímetros e para predizer os níveis de pressão sonora em locais onde estes não foram instalados. Os dados foram analisados pela correlação entre os decibelímetros e por intermédio da geoestatística, que possibilitou afirmar que não houve dependência espacial entre os pontos de registro dos níveis de pressão sonora. Por intermédio da interpolação dos pontos de captura utilizando o processo de krigagem, foi possível predizer os níveis de pressão sonora nos locais onde não havia decibelímetros no interior da instalação. Verificou-se homogeneidade de propagação dos níveis de pressão sonora no interior da instalação, concluindo que, para o ambiente avaliado, o uso de somente um equipamento para o registro automático dos níveis de pressão sonora é suficiente.The objective of this work was to study the influence of decibelimeters distribution in the automatic acquisition of sound pressure levels in pig nursery facilities. The experiment was conducted in a nursering room of a commercial swine's facility situated in the city of Monte Mor, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The room was divided in ten identical quadrants and the geometrical center of each quadrant was installed the decibelimeters. Geostatistics was used to evaluate the spatial dependence among the decibelimeters and to predict sound pressure levels in the places that they were not installed. Data were analyzed by the correlation among decibelimeters and through geostatistics, being possible to affirm that there was no spatial dependence between recording points of the sound pressure levels. Through interpolation of registration points using kriging process, was possible to predict sound pressure levels in places with no decibelimeters inside the facility. It was verified homogeneity in the sound pressure levels propagation inside the facility, concluding that to the evaluated environment, the use of only one equipment to the automatic registration of sound pressure levels is enough

A unified approach to evolving plasticity and neural geometry

Abstract—An ambitious long-term goal for neuroevolution, which studies how artificial evolutionary processes can be driven to produce brain-like structures, is to evolve neurocontrollers with a high density of neurons and connections that can adapt and learn from past experience. Yet while neuroevolution has produced successful results in a variety of domains, the scale of natural brains remains far beyond reach. This paper unifies a set of advanced neuroevolution techniques into a new method called adaptive evolvable-substrate HyperNEAT, which is a step toward more biologically-plausible artificial neural networks (ANNs). The combined approach is able to fully determine the geometry, density, and plasticity of an evolving neuromodulated ANN. These complementary capabilities are demonstrated in a maze-learning task based on similar experiments with animals. The most interesting aspect of this investigation is that the emergent neural structures are beginning to acquire more natural properties, which means that neuroevolution can begin to pose new problems and answer deeper questions about how brains evolved that are ultimately relevant to the field of AI as a whole. I

Dynamics of interacting skyrmions in magnetic nano-track

Controlling multiple skyrmions in nanowires is important for their implementation in racetrack memory or neuromorphic computing. Here, we report on the dynamical behavior of two interacting skyrmions in confined devices with a comparison to a single skyrmion case. Although the two skyrmions shrink near the edges and follow a helical path, their behavior is different. Because the leading skyrmion is between the edge and the trailing one, its size is reduced further and collapses at a lower current density compared to the single skyrmion case. For higher current density, both skyrmions are annihilated with a core-collapse mechanism for the leading one followed by a bubble-collapse mechanism for the trailing one

The Fractured Imaginary: Popular Thinking on Citizen Soldiers and Warfare in Fifth Century Athens

This dissertation establishes how different citizen soldiers were employed and evaluated in the imaginary of fifth century Athens and gives explanations why popular thinking on military personnel was organised in this way. In so doing it emerges that a particular citizen soldier figured in Athenian conceptions about many aspects of martial activity. Also, it has proven necessary to analyse several other conceptions concerning the waging of war in which military personnel strictly play no part because of their indirect but important influence on how this or that class of Athenian fighters was judged. As a result this study ends up throwing light on the ways in which fifth century Athenians conceived not only of citizen combatants but also of warfare in general. The dissertation begins by outlining the primary sources for the Athenian imaginary and its major characteristics. The numerous tragedies and comedies surviving from the fifth century are shown to be sure evidence for the imaginary and the funeral oration of the period to have had a vital role in the transmission of key elements of Athenian self-identity and their understanding of warfare. Although playwrights and public speakers were invariably members of the Athenian elite, the particular contexts in which they performed compelled them to take up and articulate the values and conceptions of their overwhelmingly non-elite audiences. The imaginary then had a decidedly popular character. It was also a sprawling cultural melange within which incongruous and even patently contradictory ideas could subsist side by side. The second part of this dissertation exposes that the citizen hoplite enjoyed a central and paradigmatic role in the popular thinking of fifth century Athens. It was only ever to the heavily armed soldier that poets and orators turned when they wanted to consider general aspects of warfare, the military obligations of citizenship, and gallant and fainthearted behaviour on the battlefield. The Athenian hoplite also served as the pivotal reference point for the marking out of age and gender distinctions within the city and of the differences in military morality between Greeks and barbarians. Critically, as the prevailing definitions of bravery and cowardice were modelled exclusively on the phalanx warfare of the hoplites, Athenian lightly armed troops, cavalrymen and perhaps even sailors with their very different modes of combat were judged one way or another to be cowardly. Yet the final part of this dissertation demonstrates that this normative status of the heavy infantryman in no way prevented citizen sailors from gaining recognition and positive evaluation of their metier and themselves in the Athenian imaginary of the fifth century. The citizen masses of this period saw their city as the major seapower in the Mediterranean and well understood that its formidable might and security rested on its navy. Fifth century Athenians also had a high regard of seamanship in general and great pride in the naval dominance of their city in particular. Indeed, superlative nautical skills were thought to be 'national' traits of the citizens of imperial Athens which they had enjoyed even in the esteemed age of the heroes. Contemporary citizen sailors themselves were also held to be the saviours of the city and were accorded extraordinary esteem and an exalted status if they perished at sea fighting for Athens. Finally, despite the fact that it directly contradicted their hoplite centred conception of bravery, fifth century Athenians firmly believed that fellow citizens serving as sailors could display gallantry in battle

WebAL Comes of Age: A review of the first 21 years of Artificial Life on the Web

We present a survey of the first 21 years of web-based artificial life (WebAL) research and applications, broadly construed to include the many different ways in which artificial life and web technologies might intersect. Our survey covers the period from 1994—when the first WebAL work appeared—up to the present day, together with a brief discussion of relevant precursors. We examine recent projects, from 2010–2015, in greater detail in order to highlight the current state of the art. We follow the survey with a discussion of common themes and methodologies that can be observed in recent work and identify a number of likely directions for future work in this exciting area

Teleology and Realism in Leibniz's Philosophy of Science

This paper argues for an interpretation of Leibniz’s claim that physics requires both mechanical and teleological principles as a view regarding the interpretation of physical theories. Granting that Leibniz’s fundamental ontology remains non-physical, or mentalistic, it argues that teleological principles nevertheless ground a realist commitment about mechanical descriptions of phenomena. The empirical results of the new sciences, according to Leibniz, have genuine truth conditions: there is a fact of the matter about the regularities observed in experience. Taking this stance, however, requires bringing non-empirical reasons to bear upon mechanical causal claims. This paper first evaluates extant interpretations of Leibniz’s thesis that there are two realms in physics as describing parallel, self-sufficient sets of laws. It then examines Leibniz’s use of teleological principles to interpret scientific results in the context of his interventions in debates in seventeenth-century kinematic theory, and in the teaching of Copernicanism. Leibniz’s use of the principle of continuity and the principle of simplicity, for instance, reveal an underlying commitment to the truth-aptness, or approximate truth-aptness, of the new natural sciences. The paper concludes with a brief remark on the relation between metaphysics, theology, and physics in Leibniz

New Penrose Limits and AdS/CFT

We find a new Penrose limit of AdS_5 x S^5 giving the maximally supersymmetric pp-wave background with two explicit space-like isometries. This is an important missing piece in studying the AdS/CFT correspondence in certain subsectors. In particular whereas the Penrose limit giving one space-like isometry is useful for the SU(2) sector of N=4 SYM, this new Penrose limit is instead useful for studying the SU(2|3) and SU(1,2|3) sectors. In addition to the new Penrose limit of AdS_5 x S^5 we also find a new Penrose limit of AdS_4 x CP^3.Comment: 30 page

Born to learn: The inspiration, progress, and future of evolved plastic artificial neural networks

Biological plastic neural networks are systems of extraordinary computational capabilities shaped by evolution, development, and lifetime learning. The interplay of these elements leads to the emergence of adaptive behavior and intelligence. Inspired by such intricate natural phenomena, Evolved Plastic Artificial Neural Networks (EPANNs) use simulated evolution in-silico to breed plastic neural networks with a large variety of dynamics, architectures, and plasticity rules: these artificial systems are composed of inputs, outputs, and plastic components that change in response to experiences in an environment. These systems may autonomously discover novel adaptive algorithms, and lead to hypotheses on the emergence of biological adaptation. EPANNs have seen considerable progress over the last two decades. Current scientific and technological advances in artificial neural networks are now setting the conditions for radically new approaches and results. In particular, the limitations of hand-designed networks could be overcome by more flexible and innovative solutions. This paper brings together a variety of inspiring ideas that define the field of EPANNs. The main methods and results are reviewed. Finally, new opportunities and developments are presented