All Else Being Equal Be Empowered

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com . Copyright Springer DOI : 10.1007/11553090_75The classical approach to using utility functions suffers from the drawback of having to design and tweak the functions on a case by case basis. Inspired by examples from the animal kingdom, social sciences and games we propose empowerment, a rather universal function, defined as the information-theoretic capacity of an agent’s actuation channel. The concept applies to any sensorimotoric apparatus. Empowerment as a measure reflects the properties of the apparatus as long as they are observable due to the coupling of sensors and actuators via the environment.Peer reviewe

Evaluating the role of hydrocarbon seepage in carbonate mound formation (offshore Ireland) using basin modelling

The goal of this project was to assess whether deep water coral mound growth on the continental slope of the north Atlantic could be related to active hydrocarbon leakage. The objects of interest are numerous buried and non-buried carbonate mounds, consisting mainly of corals, carbonate crusts and fine grained clastic sediments in the Porcupine Basin, which is located on the eastern Atlantic continental slope 200 km offshore Ireland and contains the sub-commercial Connemara oil field.To evaluate the possible link between hydrocarbon leakage and mound growth we used 2D and 3D basin modelling in combination with geochemical analysis of sediments from gravity cores. A total of 5 intersecting seismic lines were used as a basis for 2D modelling of basin evolution, hydrocarbon generation and migration. Data from six exploration wells were used for calibration of the basin burial and thermal history using vitrinite reflectance, bottom hole temperatures and apatite fission track data. 3D basin modelling was performed using data provided by UCD in the northern part of the Porcupine Basin.The results of this study indicate that a link between modelled hydrocarbon leakage and carbonate mound growth is possible both in the Belgica mound province on the eastern flank of the basin where stratigraphic pinch outs of carrier beds can lead to the localised leakage of hydrocarbons to the seafloor, as well as in the Hovland Magellan mound area in the northern half of the Porcupine Basin, where small-scale structural closures mapped on the main Miocene surfaces correlate roughly to observed mound locations.This study demonstrates the applicability of basin modelling in testing and identifying geologic processes related to geosphere/biosphere interactions

The Value of Information for Populations in Varying Environments

The notion of information pervades informal descriptions of biological systems, but formal treatments face the problem of defining a quantitative measure of information rooted in a concept of fitness, which is itself an elusive notion. Here, we present a model of population dynamics where this problem is amenable to a mathematical analysis. In the limit where any information about future environmental variations is common to the members of the population, our model is equivalent to known models of financial investment. In this case, the population can be interpreted as a portfolio of financial assets and previous analyses have shown that a key quantity of Shannon's communication theory, the mutual information, sets a fundamental limit on the value of information. We show that this bound can be violated when accounting for features that are irrelevant in finance but inherent to biological systems, such as the stochasticity present at the individual level. This leads us to generalize the measures of uncertainty and information usually encountered in information theory

A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio emissions from distant astronomical sources. Some are known to repeat, but most are single bursts. Nonrepeating FRB observations have had insufficient positional accuracy to localize them to an individual host galaxy. We report the interferometric localization of the single-pulse FRB 180924 to a position 4 kiloparsecs from the center of a luminous galaxy at redshift 0.3214. The burst has not been observed to repeat. The properties of the burst and its host are markedly different from those of the only other accurately localized FRB source. The integrated electron column density along the line of sight closely matches models of the intergalactic medium, indicating that some FRBs are clean probes of the baryonic component of the cosmic web

Waste and Encapsulation Storage Facility (WESF) Essential and Support Drawing List

The drawings identified in this document will comprise the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility essential and support drawing list. This list will replace drawings identified as the ''WESF Essential and support drawing list''. Additionally, this document will follow the applicable requirements of HNF-PRO-242 ''Engineering Drawing Requirements'' and FSP-WESF-001, Section EN-1 ''Documenting Engineering Changes''. An essential drawing is defined as an engineering drawing identified by the facility staff as necessary to directly support the safe operation or maintenance of the facility. A support drawing is defined as a drawing identified by the facility staff that further describes the design details of structures, systems, or components shown on essential drawings or is frequently used by the support staff

Waste and Encapsulation Storage Facility (WESF) Essential and Support Drawing List

The drawings identified in this document will comprise the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility essential and support drawing list. This list will replace drawings identified as the ''WESF Essential and support drawing list''. Additionally, this document will follow the applicable requirements of HNF-PRO-242 ''Engineering Drawing Requirements'' and FSP-WESF-001, Section EN-1 ''Documenting Engineering Changes''. An essential drawing is defined as an engineering drawing identified by the facility staff as necessary to directly support the safe operation or maintenance of the facility. A support drawing is defined as a drawing identified by the facility staff that further describes the design details of structures, systems, or components shown on essential drawings or is frequently used by the support staff