Genome Integrity: A new open access journal

The full and final version of this article can be found at the link belowThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Multi-Task Policy Search for Robotics

© 2014 IEEE.Learning policies that generalize across multiple tasks is an important and challenging research topic in reinforcement learning and robotics. Training individual policies for every single potential task is often impractical, especially for continuous task variations, requiring more principled approaches to share and transfer knowledge among similar tasks. We present a novel approach for learning a nonlinear feedback policy that generalizes across multiple tasks. The key idea is to define a parametrized policy as a function of both the state and the task, which allows learning a single policy that generalizes across multiple known and unknown tasks. Applications of our novel approach to reinforcement and imitation learning in realrobot experiments are shown

Point configurations that are asymmetric yet balanced

A configuration of particles confined to a sphere is balanced if it is in equilibrium under all force laws (that act between pairs of points with strength given by a fixed function of distance). It is straightforward to show that every sufficiently symmetrical configuration is balanced, but the converse is far from obvious. In 1957 Leech completely classified the balanced configurations in R^3, and his classification is equivalent to the converse for R^3. In this paper we disprove the converse in high dimensions. We construct several counterexamples, including one with trivial symmetry group.Comment: 10 page

Escaping Antiangiogenic Therapy: Strategies Employed by Cancer Cells

Indexación: Web of ScienceTumor angiogenesis is widely recognized as one of the hallmarks of cancer. Consequently, during the last decades the development and testing of commercial angiogenic inhibitors has been a central focus for both basic and clinical cancer research. While antiangiogenic drugs are now incorporated into standard clinical practice, as with all cancer therapies, tumors can eventually become resistant by employing a variety of strategies to receive nutrients and oxygen in the event of therapeutic assault. Herein, we concentrate and review in detail three of the principal mechanisms of antiangiogenic therapy escape: (1) upregulation of compensatory/alternative pathways for angiogenesis; (2) vasculogenic mimicry; and (3) vessel co-option. We suggest that an understanding of how a cancer cell adapts to antiangiogenic therapy may also parallel the mechanisms employed in the bourgeoning tumor and isolated metastatic cells delivering responsible for residual disease. Finally, we speculate on strategies to adapt antiangiogenic therapy for future clinical uses.http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/9/148

Shared geriatric mental health care in a rural community

Introduction: A pilot project in shared mental health care was initiated to explore opportunities to increase the capacity of the rural primary care system as a resource for older people with mental health needs. This was done within a framework for the delivery of best practices in geriatric mental health outreach. Methods: Shared-care strategies combining education and clinical consultation between mentor psychiatrists and family physicians were implemented and then evaluated after one year to identify key factors in the success of approaches to shared mental health care for older people in a rural setting. Results: Results provided new insights into shared care between primary care and specialty geriatric mental health services, rural geriatric mental health service delivery, developmental phases in service learning approaches, and building knowledge networks to promote continuing best practices. Conclusion: The results from the project's process evaluation have been integrated into the development of a permanent shared geriatric mental health care service for the rural setting. Preparation for an outcome evaluation that will focus on the impact on patient care has also been initiated

Design of a five-axis ultra-precision micro-milling machine—UltraMill. Part 2: Integrated dynamic modelling, design optimisation and analysis

Using computer models to predict the dynamic performance of ultra-precision machine tools can help manufacturers to substantially reduce the lead time and cost of developing new machines. However, the use of electronic drives on such machines is becoming widespread, the machine dynamic performance depending not only on the mechanical structure and components but also on the control system and electronic drives. Bench-top ultra-precision machine tools are highly desirable for the micro-manufacturing of high-accuracy micro-mechanical components. However, the development is still at the nascent stage and hence lacks standardised guidelines. Part 2 of this two-part paper proposes an integrated approach, which permits analysis and optimisation of the entire machine dynamic performance at the early design stage. Based on the proposed approach, the modelling and simulation process of a novel five-axis bench-top ultra-precision micro-milling machine tool—UltraMill—is presented. The modelling and simulation cover the dynamics of the machine structure, the moving components, the control system and the machining process and are used to predict the entire machine performance of two typical configurations

Atomistic studies of transformation pathways and energetics in plutonium

One of the most challenging problems in understanding the structural phase transformations in Pu is to determine the energetically favored, continuous atomic pathways from one crystal symmetry to another. This problem involves enumerating candidate pathways and studying their energetics to garner insight into instabilities and energy barriers. The purpose of this work is to investigate the energetics of two transformation pathways for the delta to alpha' transformation in Pu that were recently proposed [Lookman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100:145504, 2008] on the basis of symmetry. These pathways require the presence of either an intermediate hexagonal closed-packed (hcp) structure or a simple hexagonal (sh) structure. A subgroup of the parent fcc and the intermediate hexagonal structure, which has trigonal symmetry, facilitates the transformation to the intermediate hcp or sh structure. Phonons then break the translational symmetry from the intermediate hcp or sh structure to the final monoclinic symmetry of the alpha' structure. We perform simulations using the modified embedded atom method (MEAM) for Pu to investigate these candidate pathways. Our main conclusion is that the path via hcp is energetically favored and the volume change for both pathways essentially occurs in the second step of the transformation, i.e. from the intermediate sh or hcp to the monoclinic structure. Our work also highlights the deficiency of the current state-of-the-art MEAM potential in capturing the anisotropy associated with the lower symmetry monoclinic structure.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Philos. Ma