Exploiting Large Neuroimaging Datasets to Create Connectome-Constrained Approaches for more Robust, Efficient, and Adaptable Artificial Intelligence

Despite the progress in deep learning networks, efficient learning at the edge (enabling adaptable, low-complexity machine learning solutions) remains a critical need for defense and commercial applications. We envision a pipeline to utilize large neuroimaging datasets, including maps of the brain which capture neuron and synapse connectivity, to improve machine learning approaches. We have pursued different approaches within this pipeline structure. First, as a demonstration of data-driven discovery, the team has developed a technique for discovery of repeated subcircuits, or motifs. These were incorporated into a neural architecture search approach to evolve network architectures. Second, we have conducted analysis of the heading direction circuit in the fruit fly, which performs fusion of visual and angular velocity features, to explore augmenting existing computational models with new insight. Our team discovered a novel pattern of connectivity, implemented a new model, and demonstrated sensor fusion on a robotic platform. Third, the team analyzed circuitry for memory formation in the fruit fly connectome, enabling the design of a novel generative replay approach. Finally, the team has begun analysis of connectivity in mammalian cortex to explore potential improvements to transformer networks. These constraints increased network robustness on the most challenging examples in the CIFAR-10-C computer vision robustness benchmark task, while reducing learnable attention parameters by over an order of magnitude. Taken together, these results demonstrate multiple potential approaches to utilize insight from neural systems for developing robust and efficient machine learning techniques.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Social Class Myopia: The Case of Psychology and Labor Unions

This article explores the potential for a research agenda that includes scholarship on working class issues and organized labor. Such an agenda is consistent with the official mission of American Psychological Association—to advance knowledge that benefits society and improves people\u27s lives. I focus on our paucity of interest in the institution that gives the American working class a voice—the labor union. We know that work is one of the central focuses in the lives of most people and that the work experience is deeply implicated in satisfaction with life. The efforts of organized labor to achieve economic fairness and justice, and a healthy workplace environment, are intertwined with multiple corollary consequences that constitute a wide and complex spectrum—from physical job safety and economic security on one end, to the psychological benefits of heightened self-esteem, respect, dignity, empowerment, and affiliation on the other—all related to satisfaction with life. In addition, by advancing and protecting the rights of workers, unions are part of the larger movement for civil rights

The ‘mosaic habitat’ concept in human evolution: past and present

The habitats preferred by hominins and other species are an important theme in palaeoanthropology, and the ‘mosaic habitat’ (also referred to as habitat heterogeneity) has been a central concept in this regard for the last four decades. Here we explore the development of this concept – loosely defined as a range of different habitat types, such as woodlands, riverine forest and savannah within a limited spatial area– in studies of human evolution in the last sixty years or so. We outline the key developments that took place before and around the time when the term ‘mosaic’ came to wider palaeoanthropological attention. To achieve this we used an analysis of the published literature, a study of illustrations of hominin evolution from 1925 onwards and an email survey of senior researchers in palaeoanthropology and related fields. We found that the term mosaic starts to be applied in palaeoanthropological thinking during the 1970’s due to the work of a number of researchers, including Karl Butzer and Glynn Isaac , with the earliest usage we have found of ‘mosaic’ in specific reference to hominin habitats being by Adriaan Kortlandt (1972). While we observe a steady increase in the numbers of publications reporting mosaic palaeohabitats, in keeping with the growing interest and specialisation in various methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, we also note that there is a lack of critical studies that define this habitat, or examine the temporal and spatial scales associated with it. The general consensus within the field is that the concept now requires more detailed definition and study to evaluate its role in human evolution

Personal Papers (MS 80-0002)

Letter, using Western Union, from Isaac H. Kempner to Whiteface Inn asking if the check was paid to them

Quantitative CrossNational Research Methods

Quantitative nation comparisons pose inevitable trade-offs. One is that much of the contextual reality of individual nations is sacrificed for the sake of broader generalization. We fail to capture the uniqueness that defines a nation’s culture, historical heritage, and endemic logic. The interpretation of a variable may, indeed, only be possible when its is studied contextually (Ragin, 1987; and Lieberson, 1991). Boolean analysis, as Ragin argues, helps overcome this dilemma. It has advantages, such as its ability to build conjunctural models with very few cases, and its ability to analyze non-events. But it needs to be guided by strong theory and substantial knowledge, its applicability is limited to relatively few cases, and it may be too biased in favor of non-additive, conjunctural models. For an empirical application, see Ragin (1994). See also Section 2.3, no. 72. A second trade-off has to do with the often limited number of observations available, especially in studies of advanced (OECD) democracies where the N rarely exceeds 25. In broader World comparisons, however, the N approaches 200. Many attempt to supplement few nations with over-time data, as in the case of pooled cross sectiona

Challenges and prospects for trans-boundary fisheries in Lakes Chiuta and Kariba

"Debating land reform, natural resources and poverty"Community-based conservation (CBC) is a prominent feature of conservation and development policy and practice in southern Africa. It is a generic concept defining different configurations of controlling access to and use of land and natural resources in southern Africa – and has led to the development of policies and legislation in support of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) and co-management arrangements. Both concepts largely revolve around the premise of devolution of control and management authority over natural resources to facilitate conservation and use of, and local access to, resources. A focus on regional economic integration has offered an opportunity for extending the experiences of CBNRM and comanagement to resources occurring along international boundaries. Different trans-boundary natural resources management (TBNRM) programmes have been initiated in southern Africa. The experience of two inshore fisheries on Lakes Chiuta and Kariba highlights the challenges of TBNRM, especially at local resource users’ level. A proposal for meaningful engagement of local resource-dependent people is suggested in the form of a trans-boundary commons regulated through co-management institutions. Broad implications of this suggestion, including terrestrial TBNRM progammes, are briefly discussed