The RobotCub Approach to the Development of Cognition

This paper elaborates on the workplan of an initiative in embodied cognition: RobotCub. Our goal here is to provide background and to motivate our long-term plan of empirical research including brain and robotic sciences following the principles of epigenetic robotics

Status Report on the Low-Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA)

The 75-keV injector and 6.7-MeV RFQ that comprise the first portion of the cw, 100-mA proton linac for the accelerator production of tritium (APT) project have been built and operated. The LEDA RFQ has been extensively tested for pulsed and cw output-beam currents <=100 mA. Up to 2.2 MW of cw rf power from the 350-MHz rf system is coupled into the RFQ, including 670 kW for the cw proton beam. The emittance for a 93-mA pulsed RFQ output beam, as determined from quadrupole-magnet-scan measurements, is ex x ey = 0.25 x 0.31 (pi mm mrad)2 [rms normalized]. A follow-on experiment, to intentionally introduce and measure beam halo on the RFQ output beam, is now being installed.Comment: Paper TUD14 for the XX International Linac Conference (LINAC2000), 3 pages, 10 figure

New mobilities across the lifecourse: a framework for analysing demographically-linked drivers of migration

Migration, along with fertility and mortality, is one of the fundamental drivers of population change. Taking the lifecourse as the central concern, the authors set out a theoretical framework and define some key research questions for a programme of research that explores how the linked lives of mobile people are situated in time-space within the economic, social and cultural structures of contemporary society. Drawing on methodologically innovative techniques, these perspectives can offer conceptually significant and policy relevant insights into the changing nature and meanings of migration across the lifecourse

Double Bubbles in Assets Markets with Multiple Generations

We construct an asset market in a finite horizon overlapping-generations environment. Subjects are tested for comprehension of their fundamental value exchange environment, and then reminded during each of 25 periods of its declining new value. We observe price bubbles forming when new generations enter the market with additional liquidity and bursting as old generations exit the market and withdrawing cash. The entry and exit of traders in the market creates an M shaped double bubble price path over the life of the traded asset. This finding is significant in documenting that bubbles can reoccur within one extended trading horizon and, consistent with previous cross-subject comparisons, shows how fluctuations in market liquidity influence price paths. We also find that trading experience leads to price expectations that incorporate fundamental value.Asset Markets, Price Bubbles, Laboratory Experiments, Overlapping Generations

ECONOMICS OF SOME SWINE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS WITH REFERENCE TO ANIMAL WELFARE

Livestock Production/Industries,

Radio Spectrum and the Disruptive Clarity OF Ronald Coase.

In the Federal Communications Commission, Ronald Coase (1959) exposed deep foundations via normative argument buttressed by astute historical observation. The government controlled scarce frequencies, issuing sharply limited use rights. Spillovers were said to be otherwise endemic. Coase saw that Government limited conflicts by restricting uses; property owners perform an analogous function via the "price system." The government solution was inefficient unless the net benefits of the alternative property regime were lower. Coase augured that the price system would outperform the administrative allocation system. His spectrum auction proposal was mocked by communications policy experts, opposed by industry interests, and ridiculed by policy makers. Hence, it took until July 25, 1994 for FCC license sales to commence. Today, some 73 U.S. auctions have been held, 27,484 licenses sold, and $52.6 billion paid. The reform is a textbook example of economic policy success. We examine Coase‘s seminal 1959 paper on two levels. First, we note the importance of its analytical symmetry, comparing administrative to market mechanisms under the assumption of positive transaction costs. This fundamental insight has had enormous influence within the economics profession, yet is often lost in current analyses. This analytical insight had its beginning in his acclaimed early article on the firm (Coase 1937), and continued into his subsequent treatment of social cost (Coase 1960). Second, we investigate why spectrum policies have stopped well short of the property rights regime that Coase advocated, considering rent-seeking dynamics and the emergence of new theories challenging Coase‘s property framework. One conclusion is easily rendered: competitive bidding is now the default tool in wireless license awards. By rule of thumb, about$17 billion in U.S. welfare losses have been averted. Not bad for the first 50 years of this, or any, Article appearing in Volume II of the Journal of Law & Economics.

Aspects of Fijian syntax: a GPSG analysis

This thesis presents a basic Generative Grammar for the Fijian language. To be more precise it presents a grammar for the dialect spoken by Rev. Samuela Tamata, a native of the island of Kadavu. The data gathered from my informant supplemented (and typically confirmed) two non-Generative Grammars of Fijian which were at my disposal. These were Milner (1956) and Schuetz (1985). The former is a paedogogical work aimed at acquainting the beginner with the rudiments of Fijian. The latter provides a comprehensive description of the Fijian language based on extensive recent survey work. Unfortunately only a fraction of this work is devoted to sentence structure, the subject of this thesis.After setting the linguistic and non-linguistic background in Chapter 1, I proceed to outline the Generative Grammar which I assume for the majority of the thesis, namely Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar as presented by Gazdar et al. (1985).Chapter 3 then presents several revisions of the standard model. These were principally motivated by aspects of Fijian syntax e.g. the revision of the Subcategorization mechanism in the light of Object agreement on Verbs and the rejection of Slash Termination Metarules so that Unbounded Dependencies could terminate in Subject position.Chapter 4 provides a detailed analysis of the four subclasses of Noun i.e. Names, Pronouns, Common Nouns and Numerals. This is followed by an examination of Person and Number in conjoined Noun Phrases, a topic of particular interest to GPSG.Chapter 5 proceeds to an examination of various NP modifiers such as Adjective Phrases, Prepositional Phrases and Relative Clauses. The internal structure of Relative Clauses is however taken up in Chapter 8.Chapter 6 outlines the structure of the Fijian clause and comes to the perhaps surprising conclusion for a GPSG analysis that the Sentence is a projection from the Inflection rather than the Verb. (This IP analysis is however advocated in the Government and Binding theory of Chomsky (1986)).Chapter 7 attempts to deal with the variations in phrase ordering in Fijian. This involves firstly the introduction of a second [SLASHj-like feature to account for double extractions and secondly the positing of twin heads in flat VSO structures.In Chapter 8 we turn to Fijian Unbounded Dependencies, principally Topicalization and Relativization. We here present the evidence which led to our rejection of Slash Termination Metarules in Chapter 3 and argue against the need for the [WH] feature in Fijian Relative Clauses or Constituent Questions.CChapter 9 outlines the two raising constructions in Fijian; Subject-to-Subject Raising with impersonal verbs such as RAWA "possible" and Subject-to-Object Raising with verbs such as NUITAKA "expect". The latter construction is of particular interest since the rival Government and Binding theory claims that it is universally unacceptable!In Chapter 10 I change theoretical frameworks and present Government and Binding analyses of two topics of particular interest to that theory; namely multiple adjunction structures and Head-to-Head movement.Finally the Appendix includes a suggestion for an alternative Head Feature Convention for GPSG which operates on a more constrained notion of "Free Head Feature"

The effect of maximal isometric training on doublet-induced force enhancement and its relationship with changes in voluntary rate of force development

Motor unit double discharges (i.e. doublets), which are excitatory potentials that occur at shorter-than-normal intervals (e.g. 5-10 ms) during normal muscle activation, are known to cause muscle force to exceed that predicted from a standard, linear summation of twitch forces. However, although a marked increase in the occurrence of motor unit doublets at the onset of a contraction has been observed after explosive-type exercise training, and has been correlated with changes in RFD (Van Cutsem et al., 1998), little is known about the influence of strength training on the physiological and biomechanical benefits derived from the phenomenon. The present research examined the effects of 4 weeks of ‘explosive’ isometric knee extensor strength training on voluntary and electrically-evoked contractile RFD (calculated as the time derivative of the moment-time curve) in 8 untrained male participants. Electrical stimulation (NMES) trains were delivered to the muscle at 20 Hz and 40 Hz and incorporated short (5 and 10 ms) inter-pulse intervals (IPIs) at the onset of stimulation (i.e. variable-frequency trains; VFT). The influence of the short inter-pulse interval was assessed by comparison to a constant frequency train (i.e. the VFT:CFT ratio). Following the training, substantial improvements in maximum isometric knee extensor strength (MVC) (24.3 ± 13.3%, p = 0.002) and RFD measured to time intervals of 50 (55.5 ± 50.3%, p = 0.011), 100 (34.0 ± 47.2%, p = 0.01) and 150 ms (31.9 ± 38.2%, p = 0.02) were observed. RFD normalised to MVC (RFDnorm), measured to time intervals of 50 and 100 ms from the onset of contraction, improved by 44.9 ± 38.8% (p = 0.04) and 13.8 ± 12.2% (p = 0.01), respectively. There was a significant reduction in the VFT:CFT ratio after training when a 10-ms IPI preceded a 20-Hz train when measured to 30 (-13.7 ± 11.3%, p = 0.03), 50 (-13.9 ± 8.4%, p = 0.007), 100 (-8.6 ± 10.2%, p = 0.04), and 200 ms (-8.1 ± 5.3%, p = 0.009) as well as in the interval 100-200 ms (-7.4 ± 6.6%, p = 0.02). However, no significant changes were observed for other stimulation frequency-IPI combinations. Moderate-to-very strong positive correlations were observed between changes in RFDnorm and changes in VFT:CFT when measured within some time periods, particularly in the early phase of the contraction (r = 0.02 – 0.91). In conclusion, the effect of a high-frequency double discharge at stimulation onset remained unchanged or, under some conditions, was reduced after 4 weeks of explosive-type knee extensor training. Additionally, training-dependent improvements in the ability to rapidly reach a specified torque level relative to peak MVC torque (i.e. RFDnorm) were greater for those participants whose VFT:CFT ratio either did not decline or declined the least. These data provide evidence that explosive training may reduce the effect of a high frequency discharge at the onset of a contraction, and that greater increases in RFD may occur in those who most retain this ability