4,633 research outputs found
Granular discharge rate for submerged hoppers
The discharge of spherical grains from a hole in the bottom of a right
circular cylinder is measured with the entire system underwater. We find that
the discharge rate depends on filling height, in contrast to the well-known
case of dry non-cohesive grains. It is further surprising that the rate
increases up to about twenty five percent, as the hopper empties and the
granular pressure head decreases. For deep filling, where the discharge rate is
constant, we measure the behavior as a function of both grain and hole
diameters. The discharge rate scale is set by the product of hole area and the
terminal falling speed of isolated grains. But there is a small-hole cutoff of
about two and half grain diameters, which is larger than the analogous cutoff
in the Beverloo equation for dry grains
Ideal Bose gas in fractal dimensions and superfluid He in porous media
Physical properties of ideal Bose gas with the fractal dimensionality between
D=2 and D=3 are theoretically investigated. Calculation shows that the
characteristic features of the specific heat and the superfluid density of
ideal Bose gas in fractal dimensions are strikingly similar to those of
superfluid Helium-4 in porous media. This result indicates that the geometrical
factor is dominant over mutual interactions in determining physical properties
of Helium-4 in porous media.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Cognition as Embodied Morphological Computation
Cognitive science is considered to be the study of mind (consciousness and thought) and intelligence in humans. Under such definition variety of unsolved/unsolvable problems appear. This article argues for a broad understanding of cognition based on empirical results from i.a. natural sciences, self-organization, artificial intelligence and artificial life, network science and neuroscience, that apart from the high level mental activities in humans, includes sub-symbolic and sub-conscious processes, such as emotions, recognizes cognition in other living beings as well as extended and distributed/social cognition. The new idea of cognition as complex multiscale phenomenon evolved in living organisms based on bodily structures that process information, linking cognitivists and EEEE (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) cognition approaches with the idea of morphological computation (info-computational self-organisation) in cognizing agents, emerging in evolution through interactions of a (living/cognizing) agent with the environment
Some Experiments on the influence of Problem Hardness in Morphological Development based Learning of Neural Controllers
Natural beings undergo a morphological development process of their bodies
while they are learning and adapting to the environments they face from infancy
to adulthood. In fact, this is the period where the most important learning
pro-cesses, those that will support learning as adults, will take place.
However, in artificial systems, this interaction between morphological
development and learning, and its possible advantages, have seldom been
considered. In this line, this paper seeks to provide some insights into how
morphological development can be harnessed in order to facilitate learning in
em-bodied systems facing tasks or domains that are hard to learn. In
particular, here we will concentrate on whether morphological development can
really provide any advantage when learning complex tasks and whether its
relevance towards learning in-creases as tasks become harder. To this end, we
present the results of some initial experiments on the application of
morpho-logical development to learning to walk in three cases, that of a
quadruped, a hexapod and that of an octopod. These results seem to confirm that
as task learning difficulty increases the application of morphological
development to learning becomes more advantageous.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Closed-cycle, low-vibration 4 K cryostat for ion traps and other applications
In-vacuo cryogenic environments are ideal for applications requiring both low
temperatures and extremely low particle densities. This enables reaching long
storage and coherence times for example in ion traps, essential requirements
for experiments with highly charged ions, quantum computation, and optical
clocks. We have developed a novel cryostat continuously refrigerated with a
pulse-tube cryocooler and providing the lowest vibration level reported for
such a closed-cycle system with 1 W cooling power for a <5 K experiment. A
decoupling system suppresses vibrations from the cryocooler by three orders of
magnitude down to a level of 10 nm peak amplitudes in the horizontal plane.
Heat loads of about 40 W (at 45 K) and 1 W (at 4 K) are transferred from an
experimental chamber, mounted on an optical table, to the cryocooler through a
vacuum-insulated massive 120 kg inertial copper pendulum. The 1.4 m long
pendulum allows installation of the cryocooler in a separate, acoustically
isolated machine room. In the laser laboratory, we measured the residual
vibrations using an interferometric setup. The positioning of the 4 K elements
is reproduced to better than a few micrometer after a full thermal cycle to
room temperature. Extreme high vacuum on the mbar level is achieved.
In collaboration with the Max-Planck-Intitut f\"ur Kernphysik (MPIK), such a
setup is now in operation at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
for a next-generation optical clock experiment using highly charged ions
A Theory of Cheap Control in Embodied Systems
We present a framework for designing cheap control architectures for embodied
agents. Our derivation is guided by the classical problem of universal
approximation, whereby we explore the possibility of exploiting the agent's
embodiment for a new and more efficient universal approximation of behaviors
generated by sensorimotor control. This embodied universal approximation is
compared with the classical non-embodied universal approximation. To exemplify
our approach, we present a detailed quantitative case study for policy models
defined in terms of conditional restricted Boltzmann machines. In contrast to
non-embodied universal approximation, which requires an exponential number of
parameters, in the embodied setting we are able to generate all possible
behaviors with a drastically smaller model, thus obtaining cheap universal
approximation. We test and corroborate the theory experimentally with a
six-legged walking machine. The experiments show that the sufficient controller
complexity predicted by our theory is tight, which means that the theory has
direct practical implications. Keywords: cheap design, embodiment, sensorimotor
loop, universal approximation, conditional restricted Boltzmann machineComment: 27 pages, 10 figure
Profiling unauthorized natural resource users for better targeting of conservation interventions
Unauthorized use of natural resources is a key threat to many protected areas. Approaches to reducing this threat include law enforcement and integrated conservation and development (ICD) projects, but for such ICDs to be targeted effectively, it is important to understand who is illegally using which natural resources and why. The nature of unauthorized behavior makes it difficult to ascertain this information through direct questioning. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, has many ICD projects, including authorizing some local people to use certain nontimber forest resources from the park. However, despite over 25 years of ICD, unauthorized resource use continues. We used household surveys, indirect questioning (unmatched count technique), and focus group discussions to generate profiles of authorized and unauthorized resource users and to explore motivations for unauthorized activity. Overall, unauthorized resource use was most common among people from poor households who lived closest to the park boundary and farthest from roads and trading centers. Other motivations for unauthorized resource use included crop raiding by wild animals, inequity of revenue sharing, and lack of employment, factors that created resentment among the poorest communities. In some communities, benefits obtained from ICD were reported to be the greatest deterrents against unauthorized activity, although law enforcement ranked highest overall. Despite the sensitive nature of exploring unauthorized resource use, management‐relevant insights into the profiles and motivations of unauthorized resource users can be gained from a combination of survey techniques, as adopted here. To reduce unauthorized activity at Bwindi, we suggest ICD benefit the poorest people living in remote areas and near the park boundary by providing affordable alternative sources of forest products and addressing crop raiding. To prevent resentment from driving further unauthorized activity, ICDs should be managed transparently and equitably
Avaliação do desempenho reprodutivo do rebanho leiteiro do Estado de Rondônia: formação e gestão de banco de dados.
Para que o produtor se adapte aos novos moldes de produção, um intenso controle sobre os dados do rebanho deve ser empregado nos sistemas de produção de leite. Além de produzir com eficiência, sustentabilidade ambiental, responsabilidade social e sem desperdícios é preciso desenvolver habilidades no gerenciamento e motivação de pessoas para comprar insumos, na venda da produção e na gestão adequada dos custos. Desta forma, há necessidade que o produtor desenvolva ferramentas e práticas de monitoramento de seus dados para processar, interpretar e transformá–los em informação. Vários fatores afetam o registro e gestão dos dados da fazenda. O efetivo uso de registros representa um “divisor de águas” na medicina moderna do gado de leite. A coleta de dados permite a definição de valores-referência (benchmarks), padrões, níveis de interferência e objetivos. Os registros proveem acesso aos resultados de performance do rebanho e, quando surgem os problemas, servem como a maior fonte de informação para o diagnóstico. Como a produção de leite tem aumentado consideravelmente na maioria das bacias leiteiras do Brasil, os profissionais “de campo” devem estar cada vez mais dedicados à análise e organização dos dados de produção.bitstream/item/57917/1/doc142-rebanholeiteiro.pd
Open-Ended Evolutionary Robotics: an Information Theoretic Approach
This paper is concerned with designing self-driven fitness functions for
Embedded Evolutionary Robotics. The proposed approach considers the entropy of
the sensori-motor stream generated by the robot controller. This entropy is
computed using unsupervised learning; its maximization, achieved by an on-board
evolutionary algorithm, implements a "curiosity instinct", favouring
controllers visiting many diverse sensori-motor states (sms). Further, the set
of sms discovered by an individual can be transmitted to its offspring, making
a cultural evolution mode possible. Cumulative entropy (computed from ancestors
and current individual visits to the sms) defines another self-driven fitness;
its optimization implements a "discovery instinct", as it favours controllers
visiting new or rare sensori-motor states. Empirical results on the benchmark
problems proposed by Lehman and Stanley (2008) comparatively demonstrate the
merits of the approach
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