5,488 research outputs found
Learning spillover and analogy-based expectations: a multi-game experiment
We consider a multi-game interactive learning environment and ask ourselves
whether long run behaviors in one game are a¤ected by behaviors in the other,
i.e whether there are learning spillovers. Our main �nding is that learning
spillovers arise whenever the feedback provided to subjects about past play is
not easily accessible game by game and thus subjects get a more immediate
impression about aggregate distributions. In such a case, long run behaviors
stabilize to an analogy-based expectation equilibrium (Jehiel 2005), thereby
suggesting how one should broaden the notion of equilibrium to cope with
learning spillovers
Shakespeare, Serlio, and Giulio Romano
The Winter’s Tale is the only play by Shakespeare to refer to a specific artist of the Renaissance, namely Giulio Romano (c.1499–1546), to whom the statue of Hermione is attributed. The reference is all the more puzzling because Giulio Romano was better known as a painter and architect than as a sculptor. This article surveys recent work that has addressed the question of how Shakespeare knew about Giulio Romano, and what significance the reference may have. It then suggests a possible source in Robert Peake’s translation of Sebastiano Serlio’s highly influential works on architecture, entered in the Stationers’ Register a few months after the first recorded performance of The Winter’s Tale. With their many illustrations and descriptions of theatres ancient and modern, these volumes are likely to have been of interest to Shakespeare. In the volume that discusses the classical orders of architecture, Giulio Romano is singled out for praise due to his ability to combine elements of nature and art, the rustic with the refined—a theme that is explicitly and repeatedly addressed in The Winter’s Tale
Disposable labour, passive victim, active threat: migrant/non-migrant othering in three British television documentaries
This article analyses discourses about migration within three documentaries that were broadcast on terrestrial British television in January 2014: The Truth about Immigration in the UK and The Hidden World of Britain’s Immigrants, both broadcast on BBC 2, and Episode 2 of Benefits Street, broadcast on Channel 4. The methodology involved a detailed analysis of the documentaries, situated within a Marxist analysis of British capitalism, the capitalist crisis, and the economic and political position of migrants. Amidst the contradictions and complexities that were identified within these documentaries, representations of 'migrants' can be grouped into three categories: disposable labour; passive victim; and active threat. We argue these discursive roles reflect and reinforce capitalist exploitation, by constructing 'migrants' as a mutable 'other' to divide the working class
Nanoengineering Carbon Allotropes from Graphene
Monolithic structures can be built into graphene by the addition and
subsequent re-arrangement of carbon atoms. To this end, ad-dimers of carbon are
a particularly attractive building block because a number of emerging
technologies offer the promise of precisely placing them on carbon surfaces. In
concert with the more common Stone-Wales defect, repeating patterns can be
introduced to create as yet unrealized materials. The idea of building such
allotropes out of defects is new, and we demonstrate the technique by
constructing two-dimensional carbon allotropes known as haeckelite. We then
extend the idea to create a new class of membranic carbon allotropes that we
call \emph{dimerite}, composed exclusively of ad-dimer defects.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Rfx6 Maintains the Functional Identity of Adult Pancreatic β Cells.
SummaryIncreasing evidence suggests that loss of β cell characteristics may cause insulin secretory deficiency in diabetes, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that Rfx6, whose mutation leads to neonatal diabetes in humans, is essential to maintain key features of functionally mature β cells in mice. Rfx6 loss in adult β cells leads to glucose intolerance, impaired β cell glucose sensing, and defective insulin secretion. This is associated with reduced expression of core components of the insulin secretion pathway, including glucokinase, the Abcc8/SUR1 subunit of KATP channels and voltage-gated Ca2+ channels, which are direct targets of Rfx6. Moreover, Rfx6 contributes to the silencing of the vast majority of “disallowed” genes, a group usually specifically repressed in adult β cells, and thus to the maintenance of β cell maturity. These findings raise the possibility that changes in Rfx6 expression or activity may contribute to β cell failure in humans
Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at risk for autism
Children’s assignment of novel words to nameless objects, over objects
whose names they know (mutual exclusivity; ME) has been described
as a driving force for vocabulary acquisition. Despite their ability to use
ME to fast-map words (Preissler & Carey, 2005), children with autism
show impaired language acquisition. We aimed to address this puzzle
by building on studies showing that correct referent selection using
ME does not lead to word learning unless ostensive feedback is
provided on the child’s object choice (Horst & Samuelson, 2008). We
found that although toddlers aged 2;0 at risk for autism can use ME to
choose the correct referent of a word, they do not benefit from feedback
for long-term retention of the word–object mapping. Further, their
difficulty using feedback is associated with their smaller receptive
vocabularies. We propose that difficulties learning from social feedback,
not lexical principles, limits vocabulary building during development
in children at risk for autism
Cubic Augmentation of Planar Graphs
In this paper we study the problem of augmenting a planar graph such that it
becomes 3-regular and remains planar. We show that it is NP-hard to decide
whether such an augmentation exists. On the other hand, we give an efficient
algorithm for the variant of the problem where the input graph has a fixed
planar (topological) embedding that has to be preserved by the augmentation. We
further generalize this algorithm to test efficiently whether a 3-regular
planar augmentation exists that additionally makes the input graph connected or
biconnected. If the input graph should become even triconnected, we show that
the existence of a 3-regular planar augmentation is again NP-hard to decide.Comment: accepted at ISAAC 201
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