Generating Levels That Teach Mechanics

The automatic generation of game tutorials is a challenging AI problem. While it is possible to generate annotations and instructions that explain to the player how the game is played, this paper focuses on generating a gameplay experience that introduces the player to a game mechanic. It evolves small levels for the Mario AI Framework that can only be beaten by an agent that knows how to perform specific actions in the game. It uses variations of a perfect A* agent that are limited in various ways, such as not being able to jump high or see enemies, to test how failing to do certain actions can stop the player from beating the level.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, PCG Workshop at FDG 2018, 9th International Workshop on Procedural Content Generation (PCG2018

Unimpaired Neuropsychological Performance and Enhanced Memory Recall in Patients with Sbma: A Large Sample Comparative Study.

Peculiar cognitive profile of patients with SBMA has been described by fragmented literature. Our retrospective study reports the neuropsychological evaluations of a large cohort of patients in order to contribute towards the understanding of this field. We consider 64 neuropsychological evaluations assessing mnesic, linguistic and executive functions collected from 2013 to 2015 in patients attending at Motor Neuron Disease Centre of University of Padova. The battery consisted in: Digit Span forwards and backwards, Prose Memory test, Phonemic Verbal fluency and Trail making tests. ANCOVA statistics were employed to compare tests scores results with those obtained from a sample of healthy control subjects. Multiple linear regressions were used to study the effect on cognitive performance of CAG-repeat expansion, the degree of androgen insensitivity and their interaction to cognitive performance. Statistical analyses did not reveal altered scores in any neuropsychological tests among those adopted. Interestingly, patients performed significantly better in the Prose Memory test's score. No relevant associations were found with genetic, hormonal or clinical patients' profile. Results inconsistent with previous studies have been interpreted according to the phenomenon of somatic mosaicism. We suggest a testosterone-related and the mood state-dependant perspectives as two possible interpretations of the enhanced performances in the Prose Memory test. Further studies employing more datailed tests batteries are encouraged

Designing Chatbots for Crises: A Case Study Contrasting Potential and Reality

Chatbots are becoming ubiquitous technologies, and their popularity and adoption are rapidly spreading. The potential of chatbots in engaging people with digital services is fully recognised. However, the reputation of this technology with regards to usefulness and real impact remains rather questionable. Studies that evaluate how people perceive and utilise chatbots are generally lacking. During the last Kenyan elections, we deployed a chatbot on Facebook Messenger to help people submit reports of violence and misconduct experienced in the polling stations. Even though the chatbot was visited by more than 3,000 times, there was a clear mismatch between the users’ perception of the technology and its design. In this paper, we analyse the user interactions and content generated through this application and discuss the challenges and directions for designing more effective chatbots

Marine climatological datasets for the Maltese Islands

During the last 25 years of activity, the Physical Oceanography Research Group, previously known as the PO-Unit, and currently established within the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta, has been promoting the downscaling of broad scope marine core services to higher resolution local scale domains for the Maltese Islands. Several services are delivered either by an intrinsic data elaboration or by making use of and integrating the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) data to local marine data streams. Local observations are also integrated with higher resolution forecasts for the preparation and provision of dedicated services that address real specific needs of sub-regional and coastal users. This effort has yielded valuable climatological datasets covering the Maltese coastal waters and spanning over several years. This work focusses on the climatologies derived from numerical models and satellites, and compiled within the Interreg MED programme AMAre (Actions for Marine Protected Areas) project.peer-reviewe

Surface curvature effects on performance of a laboratory scale tidal turbine

This paper presents numerical study of the surface curvature effects on the performance of a 3D lab scale tidal turbine (E387) using Eppler 387 airfoil. The prescribed surface curvature distribution blade design method is used to remove the surface curvature discontinuity of E387 turbine and the redesigned turbine is denoted as A7 turbine. The two turbines are analysed using in-house BEM code and CFD RANS. The performance of E3787 turbine obtained from BEM and RANS match well with the experimental results from reported literature. The A7 turbine has mildly better performance at low tip speed ratio (1-4.25) at which the blade is partly or fully stalled

Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation for Soft Continuum Manipulator

Taking inspiration from the properties of magnetic fields, we propose a reactive navigation method for soft continuum manipulators operating in unknown environments. The proposed navigation method outperforms previous works since it is able to successfully achieve collision-free movements towards the goal in environments with convex obstacles without relying on a priori information of the obstacles' shapes and locations. Simulations for the kinematic model of a soft continuum manipulator and preliminary experiments with a 2-segments soft continuum arm are performed, showing promising results and the potential for our approach to be applied widely

Bidding for Success? Impacts of the European Capital of Culture Bid

The increasingly multifaceted nature of event impacts makes them even more attractive as a potential solution to a range of urban and regional problems. As a result, competition to stage major cultural and sporting events is intensifying, and the cost of bidding is also rising. Given that such bidding processes only produce one winner, this means that a growing number of disappointed cities have to justify the costs of bidding for major events. In this context, we analyse the bidding process for the European Capital of Culture in the Netherlands (2018) and its impacts on local social structures. In particular the article focuses on the less tangible, non-economic effects of bidding for events, establishing a framework based on network formation, public support for the bidding process and social cohesion. The conclusions point to the key role of sociality and networking for events, which should therefore be developed throughout the bidding process for successful impacts, either the event is won or not

HIPSTER A Python package for particle physics analyses

HIPSTER (Heavily Ionising Particle Standard Toolkit for Event Recognition) is an open source Python package designed to facilitate the use of TensorFlow in a high energy physics analysis context. The core functionality of the software is presented, with images from the MoEDAL experiment Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) serving as an example dataset. Convolutional neural networks are selected as the classification algorithm for this dataset and the process of training a variety of models with different hyper-parameters is detailed. Next the results are shown for the MoEDAL problem demonstrating the rich information output by HIPSTER that enables the user to probe the performance of their model in detail.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, contribution to CHEP 2018 conferenc

Навчальний посібник для курсантів, студентів, слухачів вищих навчальних закладів МВС України

Історія держави і права України : практикум / М. Ю. Бурдін, О. А. Гавриленко, І. Д. Коцан та ін. ; за ред. М. Ю. Бурдіна. – Харків : ФОП Бровін О.В., 2017. – 444 с.Навчальний посібник призначений для підготовки до семінарських занять з навчального курсу «Історія держави і права України» – обов’язкової дисципліни у вищих навчальних закладах юридичного профілю. Книга містить плани семінарів та методичні вказівки до кожної з тем, а також теми рефератів, перелік літератури для їх написання, тестові завдання, питання для самоконтролю та перелік контрольних питань, які виносяться на екзамен. Значне місце відведено текстам пам’яток права, вивчення яких надасть можливість виявити особливості побудови та функціонування державних інституцій, з’ясувати специфіку розвитку вітчизняного права на різних етапах його еволюції. Видання орієнтовано не лише на курсантів, студентів, слухачів, але й на тих, хто цікавиться історією вітчизняного права.Учебное пособие предназначено для подготовки к семинарским занятиям по учебному курсу «История государства и права Украины» - обязательной дисциплины в высших учебных заведениях юридического профиля. Книга содержит планы семинаров и методические указания к каждой из тем, а также темы рефератов, перечень литературы для их написания, тестовые задания, вопросы для самоконтроля и перечень контрольных вопросов, которые выносятся на экзамен. Значительное место отведено текстам памятников права, изучение которых позволит выявить особенности построения и функционирования государственных институтов, выяснить специфику развития отечественного права на различных этапах его эволюции. Издание ориентировано не только на курсантов, студентов, слушателей, но и на тех, кто интересуется историей отечественного права