Self-motivated agents that learn

Tese de mestrado em Informática, apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa, através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2013We propose an architecture for the creation of agents with the capacity to learn how to act autonomously, from their interactions with the environment. Predefined solutions such as manually specified behaviors, goals or rewards are avoided in order to maximize autonomous adaptation to unforeseen conditions. We use internal needs to motivate agents to act in an attempt to fulfil them. As a consequence of its interactions with the environment, agents make observations which are used to formulate hypotheses and discover the rules that govern the relationship between the agents actions and their consequences. These rules are then used as criteria in the decision making process. Thus, agents behaviors depend on previous interactions and evolve with experience. We started by proposing a single agent architecture and created simple agents defined by sensors, needs and actuators. These agents adapted autonomously to the environment by discovering behaviors which fulfilled their needs. The single agent approach did not scale well neither allowed the satisfaction of multiple needs simultaneously. In order to face these shortcomings we propose a multiagent architecture which solves the scalability problem found in the single agent approach and offers the capacity to fulfil several needs simultaneously

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21

Measurement of associated W plus charm production in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the tt¯ production cross section in the dilepton channel in pp collisions at s√ = 8 TeV

The top-antitop quark ( tt¯ ) production cross section is measured in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 8 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.3 fb−1. The measurement is performed by analysing events with a pair of electrons or muons, or one electron and one muon, and at least two jets, one of which is identified as originating from hadronisation of a bottom quark. The measured cross section is 239 ± 2 (stat.) ± 11 (syst.) ± 6 (lum.) pb, for an assumed top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV, in agreement with the prediction of the standard model

Impacts of Mowing on Bird Abundance, Distribution, and Hazards to Aircraft at Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts

Few studies have measured the impacts of mowing on bird use of habitat and the risk of bird collisions with aircraft on North American airfields. The need for this research has increased as airfields become some of the only large contiguous grasslands available to rare migratory birds in some areas. I studied bird abundance, distribution and behaviors at Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts, USA in June and July 2004. I compared my data with bird strike records to discern any patterns associated with mowing of airfield vegetation. There was no difference in total number of birds or species between mowed and unmowed plots adjacent to runways and taxiways. There were more Upland Sandpipers and Eastern Meadowlarks in mowed vegetation and more sparrows (Grasshopper and Savannah) in unmowed vegetation. From 1997 to 2005, swallows were the birds most often struck by aircraft in June and July at Westover, and were also the second most numerous birds in both mowed and unmowed plots. Bird species that pose high Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH) risk at Westover included Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron, and Canada Goose. I did not observe those species in paired plots of mowed or unmowed airfield vegetation adjacent to runways and taxiways at Westover. I opportunistically observed 64 incidents where species that pose high BASH risk were in or adjacent to areas where aircraft operate. Birds struck most frequently at Westover between April 1997 and January 2005 were “swallows”, American Kestrel, Killdeer, Horned Lark, Eastern Meadowlark, and Mourning Dove. Current mowing practices at Westover may have adverse effects on Upland Sandpiper and Grasshopper Sparrow, both state-listed, rare, grassland birds, but may not measurably reduce overall risk to aircraft, given the continued presence of large, high BASH risk species. I recommend methods to reduce threats posed by high-risk species at Westover, and further research to seek ways to reduce adverse effects of mowing on state-listed, rare, migratory species of birds