Machine art or machine artists? Dennett, Danto, and the expressive stance

As art produced by autonomous machines becomes increasingly common, and as such machines grow increasingly sophisticated, we risk a confusion between art produced by a person but mediated by a machine, and art produced by what might be legitimately considered a machine artist. This distinction will be examined here. In particular, my argument seeks to close a gap between, on one hand, a philosophically grounded theory of art and, on the other hand, theories concerned with behavior, intentionality, expression, and creativity in natural and artificial agents. This latter set of theories in some cases addresses creative behavior in relation to visual art, music, and literature, in the frequently overlapping contexts of philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. However, research in these areas does not typically address problems in the philosophy of art as a central line of inquiry. Similarly, the philosophy of art does not typically address issues pertaining to artificial agents

The Interplay between Hormones and Irritable Bowel Disease

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThis thesis examines the underlying mechanisms causing the severe and often debilitating symptoms associated with both Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. These disorders are characterized by, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation and diarrhea, and the symptoms are often intermittent. The variable onset and offset of symptoms suggests that periodic fluctuations in body state or signaling may play a role in the etiology and presentation of symptoms. This thesis proposes that the actions of the main intestinal hormones and their interactions with other hormones such as estrogen and progesterone may explain the oscillatory nature of the symptomatology. Spikes in the hormone progesterone may induce IBS-like symptoms such as cramping and constipation thereby representing a potential mediator of IBS symptoms. Evaluating the hormone progesterone’s role in IBS and IBD may create a new target for therapeutic treatments. Moreover, hormonal-based therapy represents a potential means to treat the cause, rather than just the symptoms of IBS and IBD

Interactive intelligence: behaviour-based AI, musical HCI and the Turing Test

The field of behaviour-based artificial intelligence (AI), with its roots in the robotics research of Rodney Brooks, is not predominantly tied to linguistic interaction in the sense of the classic Turing test (or, "imitation game"). Yet, it is worth noting, both are centred on a behavioural model of intelligence. Similarly, there is no intrinsic connection between musical AI and the language-based Turing test, though there have been many attempts to forge connections between them. Nonetheless, there are aspects of musical AI and the Turing test that can be considered in the context of non-language-based interactive environments–-in particular, when dealing with real-time musical AI, especially interactive improvisation software. This paper draws out the threads of intentional agency and human indistinguishability from Turing’s original 1950 characterisation of AI. On the basis of this distinction, it considers different approaches to musical AI. In doing so, it highlights possibilities for non-hierarchical interplay between human and computer agents

Gas release and conductivity modification studies

The behavior of gas clouds produced by releases from orbital velocity in either a point release or venting mode is described by the modification of snowplow equations valid in an intermediate altitude regime. Quantitative estimates are produced for the time dependence of the radius of the cloud, the average internal energy, the translational velocity, and the distance traveled. The dependence of these quantities on the assumed density profile, the internal energy of the gas, and the ratio of specific heats is examined. The new feature is the inclusion of the effect of the large orbital velocity. The resulting gas cloud models are used to calculate the characteristics of the field line integrated Pedersen conductivity enhancements that would be produced by the release of barium thermite at orbital velocity in either the point release or venting modes as a function of release altitude and chemical payload weight

Unnecessary constraints: a challenge to some assumptions of digital musical instrument design

The enormous range of possibilities for digital musical instrument (DMI) design is often limited by the adoption of unnecessary conceptual constraints. When considered in relation to DMIs, a careful analysis of the underlying concepts makes it possible to reject certain assumptions and thereby to expand the current range of acceptable possibilities for future designs

An Evidenced-Based Project: Decreasing Fasting Glucose Levels Within Mississippi African Americans Through Accountability Groups

African Americans have the highest population with prediabetes diagnoses (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2020). In order to effectively address the lack of assistance needed to break health disparities related to prediabetes, it is crucial to understand why those barriers exist. Experts project that more than 470 million people will have prediabetes by 2030 (Tabak et al., 2012). Educating African Americans who have been previously diagnosed with prediabetes is vital in decreasing the stigma that surrounds communities in rural Central Mississippi. By maintaining accountability groups, fasting blood glucose can decrease and participants can increase their knowledge by understanding how to change their lifestyle and attain resources to live a sustainable and healthy life. Ten African American patients who reside in Rural Central Mississippi, are between the ages of 18-50, and have been diagnosed with prediabetes or are undiagnosed but meet the A1C requirements were a part of a study conducted by a principal investigator at a healthcare facility. Each participant would be monitored on their food intake, their exercising, glucose levels, and weight changes for three weeks. Additionally, the participants would answer pre-test questions related to their prediabetes and after three weeks, they would take the test again to see if their knowledge has increased. This evidence-based project aided in identifying if accountability groups were effective in decreasing fasting glucose levels and increasing knowledge of diabetes

Investigating the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation: Experimental case studies using a novel application of the subsumption architecture

This thesis investigates the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation. To explore the cognitive underpinnings of the collaborative process, a series of experimental case studies was undertaken in which expert improvisors performed with an artificial agent. The research connects ecological musicology and subsumption robotics, and builds upon insights from empirical psychology pertaining to the attribution of intentionality. A distinguishing characteristic of free improvisation is that no over-arching framework of formal musical conventions defines it, and it cannot be positively identified by sound alone, which poses difficulties for traditional musicology. Current musicological research has begun to focus on the social dimension of music, including improvisation. Ecological psychology, which focuses on the relation of cognition to agent–environment dynamics using the notion of affordances, has been shown to be a promising approach to understanding musical improvisation. This ecological approach to musicology makes it possible to address the subjective and social aspects of improvised music, as opposed to the common treatment of music as objective and neutral. The subjective dimension of musical listening has been highlighted in music cognition studies of cue abstraction, whereby listeners perceive emergent structures while listening to certain forms of music when no structures are identified in advance. These considerations informed the design of the artificial agent, Odessa, used for this study. In contrast to traditional artificial intelligence (AI), which tends to view the world as objective and neutral, behaviour-based robotics historically developed around ideas similar to those of ecological psychology, focused on agent–environment dynamics and the ability to deal with potentially rapidly changing environments. Behaviour-based systems that are designed using the subsumption architecture are robust and flexible in virtue of their modular, decentralised design comprised of simple interactions between simple mechanisms. The competence of such agents is demonstrated on the basis of their interaction with the environment and ability to cope with unknown and dynamic conditions, which suggests the concept of improvisation. This thesis documents a parsimonious subsumption design for an agent that performs musical free improvisation with human co-performers, as well as the experimental studies conducted with this agent. The empirical component examines the human experience of collaborating with the agent and, more generally, the cognitive psychology of collaborative improvisation. The design was ultimately successful, and yielded insights about cognition in collaborative improvisation, in particular, concerning the central relationship between perceived intentionality and affordances. As a novel application of the subsumption architecture, this research contributes to AI/robotics and to research on interactive improvisation systems. It also contributes to music psychology and cognition, as well as improvisation studies, through its empirical grounding of an ecological model of musical interaction

Triggering an aurora

Ambient ionospheric electron density studied as triggering mechanism of aurora

Reframing PTSD for computational psychiatry with the active inference framework

Introduction: Recent advances in research on stress and, respectively, on disorders of perception, learning, and behaviour speak to a promising synthesis of current insights from (i) neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience and psychology of stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and (ii) computational psychiatry approaches to pathophysiology (e.g. of schizophrenia and autism). Methods: Specifically, we apply this synthesis to PTSD. The framework of active inference offers an embodied and embedded lens through which to understand neuronal mechanisms, structures, and processes of cognitive function and dysfunction. In turn, this offers an explanatory model of how healthy mental functioning can go awry due to psychopathological conditions that impair inference about our environment and our bodies. In this context, auditory phenomena - known to be especially relevant to studies of PTSD and schizophrenia - and traditional models of auditory function can be viewed from an evolutionary perspective based on active inference. Results: We assess and contextualise a range of evidence on audition, stress, psychosis, and PTSD, and bring some existing partial models of PTSD into multilevel alignment. Conclusions: The novel perspective on PTSD we present aims to serve as a basis for new experimental designs and therapeutic interventions that integrate fundamentally biological, cognitive, behavioural, and environmental factors

ANALISIS TINDAK TUTUR DIREKTIF ANAK USIA 4-5 TAHUN PADA BAHASA DI TK HARAPAN BARU MEDAN

Penilitian   Mendeskripsikan bentuk tindak tutur di rektif yang digunakan anak 4-5 Tahun TAMAN Kanak kanak ( TK Harapan Baru Medan ) untuk mengetahui jenis tindak tutur direksi yang  sering di gunakan  anak usia 4-5 tahun  Di Perguruan TK Harapan Baru 3 Medan. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode dengan desain penelitian Kualitatif  dimana desaain penelitian ini  menggunakan teknik pengmpulan data denga menggunakan metode observasi langsung dan wawancara di lapangan. Dengan populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah peser ta  didik  berusia 4-5  Tahun  bentuk tindak tutur meminta secara langsung dan tidak langsung. Sedangkan bentuk mengizinkan secara lansung dan tidak langsung dan mengusulkan secara langsung  Selain itu faktor - faktor intensitas munculnya ketiga tuturan tersebut lebih  sering di bandingkan tindak tutur mengusulkan dan mengigizinkan dalam kehidupan. Hasil dari penelitian ini   Kata kunci : tindaktutur,  bahasa ana