Emergent Rhythmic Structures as Cultural Phenomena Driven by Social Pressure in a Society of Artificial Agents

This thesis studies rhythm from an evolutionary computation perspective. Rhythm is the most fundamental dimension of music and can be used as a ground to describe the evolution of music. More specifically, the main goal of the thesis is to investigate how complex rhythmic structures evolve, subject to the cultural transmission between individuals in a society. The study is developed by means of computer modelling and simulations informed by evolutionary computation and artificial life (A-Life). In this process, self-organisation plays a fundamental role. The evolutionary process is steered by the evaluation of rhythmic complexity and by the exposure to rhythmic material. In this thesis, composers and musicologists will find the description of a system named A-Rhythm, which explores the emerged behaviours in a community of artificial autonomous agents that interact in a virtual environment. The interaction between the agents takes the form of imitation games. A set of necessary criteria was established for the construction of a compositional system in which cultural transmission is observed. These criteria allowed the comparison with related work in the field of evolutionary computation and music. In the development of the system, rhythmic representation is discussed. The proposed representation enabled the development of complexity and similarity based measures, and the recombination of rhythms in a creative manner. A-Rhythm produced results in the form of simulation data which were evaluated in terms of the coherence of repertoires of the agents. The data shows how rhythmic sequences are changed and sustained in the population, displaying synchronic and diachronic diversity. Finally, this tool was used as a generative mechanism for composition and several examples are presented.Leverhulme Trus

Mining multimedia salient concepts for incremental information extraction

We propose a novel algorithm for extracting information by mining the feature space clusters and then assigning salient concepts to them. Bayesian techniques for extracting concepts from multimedia usually suffer either from lack of data or from too complex concepts to be represented by a single statistical model. An incremental information extraction approach, working at different levels of abstraction, would be able to handle concepts of varying complexities. We present the results of our research on the initial part of an incremental approach, the extraction of the most salient concepts from multimedia information

High-dimensional visual vocabularies for image retrieval

In this paper we formulate image retrieval by text query as a vector space classification problem. This is achieved by creating a high-dimensional visual vocabulary that represents the image documents in great detail. We show how the representation of these image documents enables the application of well known text retrieval techniques such as Rocchio tf-idf and naíve Bayes to the semantic image retrieval problem. We tested these methods on a Corel images subset and achieve state-of-the-art retrieval performance using the proposed methods

Has gene duplication impacted the evolution of Eutherian longevity?

One of the greatest unresolved questions in aging biology is determining the genetic basis of interspecies longevity variation. Gene duplication is often the key to understanding the origin and evolution of important Eutherian phenotypes. We systematically identified longevity‐associated genes in model organisms that duplicated throughout Eutherian evolution. Longevity‐associated gene families have a marginally significantly higher rate of duplication compared to non‐longevity‐associated gene families. Anti‐longevity‐associated gene families have significantly increased rate of duplication compared to pro‐longevity gene families and are enriched in neurodegenerative disease categories. Conversely, duplicated pro‐longevity‐associated gene families are enriched in cell cycle genes. There is a cluster of longevity‐associated gene families that expanded solely in long‐lived species that is significantly enriched in pathways relating to 3‐UTR‐mediated translational regulation, metabolism of proteins and gene expression, pathways that have the potential to affect longevity. The identification of a gene cluster that duplicated solely in long‐lived species involved in such fundamental processes provides a promising avenue for further exploration of Eutherian longevity evolution

The SPS Agreement ten years after

The SPS Agreement has a two-fold objective. It aims to both: (i) recognise the sovereign right of Members to provide the level of health protection they deem appropriate; and (ii) ensure that SPS measures do not represent unnecessary, arbitrary, scientifically unjustifiable, or disguised restrictions on international trade.To meet this objective, countries have the right to set their own food safety and animal and plant health standards. At the same time, however, the SPS Agreement requires that such regulations be based on science, that they be applied only to the extent necessary to protect health, and that they not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail. Several mechanisms have been created to help WTO Members to implement the Agreement. Among these mechanisms those dealing with the transparency of SPS measures and the SPS Committee are, supported by the WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures, key pillars to a proper implementation of the Agreement. These mechanisms have been used throughout the last ten years. A non-negligible number of procedures has been developed, tested and improved aiming at helping Members in the implementation of the Agreement. The SPS Committee became the unavoidable forum for the discussion of questions dealing with food safety, animal health and/or plant protection related to international trade. During its meetings, Members discuss specific trade concerns with their trading partners, thus avoiding numerous potential trade disputes. Last but not least, the Dispute Settlement Mechanism has been used several times to resolve conflicts that could not be sorted out bilaterally. The resolution of such conflicts ensured the application of trade law and helped clarifying several provisions of the Agreement. However, not everything is solved and several Members, in particular developing country members, face significant difficulties with the implementation of the Agreement. Although they are often due to technological and financial constrains, obsolete or non-existing infrastructures, absence of qualified experts or outdated SPS legislation, these difficulties still also illustrate a deficient knowledge and understanding of the Agreement in many of these countries. Therefore, strong cooperation and technical assistance are necessary, especially in a field where special and differential treatment is not easily applicable.L'Accord sur l'application des mesures sanitaires et phytosanitaires (Accord SPS) a un double objectif, à savoir: (i) reconnaître le droit souverain des pays membres (les Membres) de l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC) d'assurer le niveau de protection sanitaire et phytosanitaire qu'ils considèrent approprié et (ii) faire en sorte que les mesures SPS ne représentent pas des restrictions inutiles, arbitraires, scientifiquement injustifiables ou déguisées au commerce international. Pour atteindre cet objectif, l'Accord reconnaît que les Membres ont le droit d'adopter des mesures SPS pour obtenir le niveau approprié de protection de la vie ou de la santé qu'ils ont eux-mêmes déterminé. Ce droit à la protection de la santé s'accompagne d'obligations fondamentales. En particulier, les pays peuvent prendre des mesures SPS à condition qu'elles ne soient appliquées que dans la mesure nécessaire pour protéger la vie ou la santé, qu'elles soient fondées sur des principes scientifiques et qu'elles n'établissent pas de discrimination injustifiable entre les Membres. Plusieurs mécanismes ont été créés pour aider les Membres dans la mise en oeuvre de l'Accord. Parmi eux, des mécanismes concernant la transparence des mesures sanitaires et phytosanitaires et un Comité SPS qui s'appuient sur les Procédures de règlements de différends de l'OMC, constituent les piliers de la mise en oeuvre. En 10 ans, ces mécanismes ont été mis à l'épreuve. Un nombre non négligeable de procédures a été développé, testé et amélioré visant toujours à aider les Membres dans cette mise en oeuvre. Le Comité SPS est devenu le forum incontournable pour la discussion des questions relevant de l'innocuité des aliments, de la santé animale et/ou de la protection des végétaux ayant un rapport avec le commerce international. Les Membres y discutent les problèmes commerciaux spécifiques qu'ils rencontrent dans leurs relations avec leurs partenaires commerciaux. Ils désamorcent ainsi de nombreux conflits commerciaux potentiels. Enfin, le mécanisme de résolution de différends a été utilisé à plusieurs reprises pour résoudre des conflits insolubles de façon bilatérale. La résolution de ces conflits a fait prévaloir le droit et a aidé à éclaircir un certain nombre de dispositions de l'Accord. Tout n'est cependant pas rose et de nombreux Membres, en particulier des pays en développement, rencontrent des difficultés considérables dans la mise en oeuvre de l'Accord. Souvent dues à des contraintes technologiques et financières, infrastructures obsolètes ou inexistantes, absence d'experts qualifiés ou législations sanitaires désuètes, ces difficultés démontrent aussi souvent une connaissance défectueuse de leurs droits et des alternatives existantes, d'où l'importance d'une forte coopération et assistance technique, notamment lorsqu'un traitement spécial et différencié se trouve être d'une utilisation délicate en matière de protection de la santé

Transferring Visual Attributes from Natural Language to Verified Image Generation

Text to image generation methods (T2I) are widely popular in generating art and other creative artifacts. While visual hallucinations can be a positive factor in scenarios where creativity is appreciated, such artifacts are poorly suited for cases where the generated image needs to be grounded in complex natural language without explicit visual elements. In this paper, we propose to strengthen the consistency property of T2I methods in the presence of natural complex language, which often breaks the limits of T2I methods by including non-visual information, and textual elements that require knowledge for accurate generation. To address these phenomena, we propose a Natural Language to Verified Image generation approach (NL2VI) that converts a natural prompt into a visual prompt, which is more suitable for image generation. A T2I model then generates an image for the visual prompt, which is then verified with VQA algorithms. Experimentally, aligning natural prompts with image generation can improve the consistency of the generated images by up to 11% over the state of the art. Moreover, improvements can generalize to challenging domains like cooking and DIY tasks, where the correctness of the generated image is crucial to illustrate actions

Spatial dynamics of labor markets in Brazil

There was substantial spatial variation in labor market outcomes in Brazil over the 1990s. In 2000, about one-fifth of workers lived in apparently economically stagnant municipios where real wages declined but employment increased faster than the national population growth rate. More than one-third lived in apparently dynamic municipios, experiencing both real wage growth and faster-than-average employment growth. These areas absorbed more than half of net employment growth over the period. To elucidate this spatial variation, the authors estimate spatial labor supply and demand equations describing wage and employment changes of Brazilian municipios. They use Conley's spatial GMM technique to allow for instrumental variable estimation in the presence of spatially autocorrelated errors. The main findings include: (1) a very strong influence of initial workforce educational levels on subsequent wage growth (controlling for possibly confounding variables such as remoteness and climate); (2) evidence of positive spillover effects of own-municipio growth onto neighbors'wage and employment levels; (3) an exodus from farming areas; (4) relatively elastic response of wages to an increase in labor supply; and (5) evidence of a local multiplier effect from government transfers.Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Economic Growth,Municipal Financial Management,Achieving Shared Growth

A direct communication proposal to test the Zoo Hypothesis

Whether we are alone in the universe is one of the greatest mysteries facing humankind. Given the >100 billion stars in our galaxy, many have argued that it is statistically unlikely that life, including intelligent life, has not emerged anywhere else. The lack of any sign of extraterrestrial intelligence, even though on a cosmic timescale extraterrestrial civilizations would have enough time to cross the galaxy, is known as Fermi's Paradox. One possible explanation for Fermi's Paradox is the Zoo Hypothesis which states that one or more extraterrestrial civilizations know of our existence and can reach us, but have chosen not to disturb us or even make their existence known to us. I propose here a proactive test of the Zoo Hypothesis. Specifically, I propose to send a message using television and radio channels to any extraterrestrial civilization(s) that might be listening and inviting them to respond. Even though I accept this is unlikely to be successful in the sense of resulting in a response from extraterrestrial intelligences, the possibility that extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring us cannot be dismissed and my proposal is consistent with current scientific knowledge. Besides, issuing an invitation is technically feasible, cheap and safe, and few would deny the profound importance of establishing contact with one or more extraterrestrial intelligences. A website has been set up (http://active-seti.info) to encourage discussion of this proposal and for drafting the invitation message.Comment: 16 page