Can models of agents be transferred between different areas?

One of the main reasons for the sustained activity and interest in the field of agent-based systems, apart from the obvious recognition of its value as a natural and intuitive way of understanding the world, is its reach into very many different and distinct fields of investigation. Indeed, the notions of agents and multi-agent systems are relevant to fields ranging from economics to robotics, in contributing to the foundations of the field, being influenced by ongoing research, and in providing many domains of application. While these various disciplines constitute a rich and diverse environment for agent research, the way in which they may have been linked by it is a much less considered issue. The purpose of this panel was to examine just this concern, in the relationships between different areas that have resulted from agent research. Informed by the experience of the participants in the areas of robotics, social simulation, economics, computer science and artificial intelligence, the discussion was lively and sometimes heated

Our Digital Legacy: an Archival Perspective

Our digital memories are threatened by archival hubris, technical misdirection, and simplistic application of rules to protect privacy rights. The obsession with the technical challenge of digital preservation has blinded much of the archival community to the challenges, created by the digital transition, to the other core principles of archival science - namely, appraisal (what to keep), sensitivity review (identifying material that cannot yet be disclosed for ethical or legal reasons) and access. The essay will draw on the considerations of appraisal and sensitivity review to project a vision of some aspects of access to the Digital Archive. This essay will argue that only by careful scrutiny of these three challenges and the introduction of appropriate practices and procedures will it be possible to prevent the precautionary closure of digital memories for long periods or, worse still, their destruction. We must ensure that our digital memories can be captured, kept, recalled and remain faithful to the events and circumstances that created them

Scene analysis in the natural environment

The problem of scene analysis has been studied in a number of different fields over the past decades. These studies have led to a number of important insights into problems of scene analysis, but not all of these insights are widely appreciated. Despite this progress, there are also critical shortcomings in current approaches that hinder further progress. Here we take the view that scene analysis is a universal problem solved by all animals, and that we can gain new insight by studying the problems that animals face in complex natural environments. In particular, the jumping spider, songbird, echolocating bat, and electric fish, all exhibit behaviors that require robust solutions to scene analysis problems encountered in the natural environment. By examining the behaviors of these seemingly disparate animals, we emerge with a framework for studying analysis comprising four essential properties: 1) the ability to solve ill-posed problems, 2) the ability to integrate and store information across time and modality, 3) efficient recovery and representation of 3D scene structure, and 4) the use of optimal motor actions for acquiring information to progress towards behavioral goals

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

Echolocating Bats Use a Nearly Time-Optimal Strategy to Intercept Prey

Acquisition of food in many animal species depends on the pursuit and capture of moving prey. Among modern humans, the pursuit and interception of moving targets plays a central role in a variety of sports, such as tennis, football, Frisbee, and baseball. Studies of target pursuit in animals, ranging from dragonflies to fish and dogs to humans, have suggested that they all use a constant bearing (CB) strategy to pursue prey or other moving targets. CB is best known as the interception strategy employed by baseball outfielders to catch ballistic fly balls. CB is a time-optimal solution to catch targets moving along a straight line, or in a predictable fashion—such as a ballistic baseball, or a piece of food sinking in water. Many animals, however, have to capture prey that may make evasive and unpredictable maneuvers. Is CB an optimum solution to pursuing erratically moving targets? Do animals faced with such erratic prey also use CB? In this paper, we address these questions by studying prey capture in an insectivorous echolocating bat. Echolocating bats rely on sonar to pursue and capture flying insects. The bat's prey may emerge from foliage for a brief time, fly in erratic three-dimensional paths before returning to cover. Bats typically take less than one second to detect, localize and capture such insects. We used high speed stereo infra-red videography to study the three dimensional flight paths of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, as it chased erratically moving insects in a dark laboratory flight room. We quantified the bat's complex pursuit trajectories using a simple delay differential equation. Our analysis of the pursuit trajectories suggests that bats use a constant absolute target direction strategy during pursuit. We show mathematically that, unlike CB, this approach minimizes the time it takes for a pursuer to intercept an unpredictably moving target. Interestingly, the bat's behavior is similar to the interception strategy implemented in some guided missiles. We suggest that the time-optimal strategy adopted by the bat is in response to the evolutionary pressures of having to capture erratic and fast moving insects

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

Nail-biting stuff? The effect of N-acetyl cysteine on nail-biting

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is a widely available nutraceutical with a variety of actions. As a precursor of cysteine and glutathione, it has antioxidant properties that may impact on mood and contribute to an effect on impulsivity and obsessive behaviour. Via its additional effect on glutamate via the cystine-glutamate exchange system, NAC has been shown to mediate impulsivity in preclinical models of addiction, reduce craving, and cue extinction. Further, by boosting glutathione, NAC acts as a potent antioxidant and has been shown in two positive, large-scale randomized placebo-controlled trials to affect negative symptoms in schizophrenia and depression in bipolar disorder. We describe three cases in which its actions specifically on nail-biting and associated anxiety may offer a potential treatment. The spontaneous findings are reported as part of an ongoing treatment trial examining the utility of NAC in bipolar disorder. Its actions, if robustly replicated, also point to potential treatment targets in glutathione or glutamate pathways in the brain.<br /

Epidermal Mosaicism and Blaschko\u27s Lines

To test the hypothesis that epidermal rather than dermal mosaicism determines Blaschko\u27s lines in hypomelanosis of Ito (HI), we studied the distribution of chromosomal mosaicism in four patients. In two, mosaicism had not been detected in lymphocytes or dermal fibroblasts, but was clearly shown in epidermal keratinocytes; furthermore, the abnormal cell line was confirmed to the hypopigmented epidermis and the normal epidermis contained only normal cells. Negative findings in the other two patients might be because of mosaicism which was undetected either because it was submicroscopic or because it was present in melanocytes, which have not yet been studied. These preliminary results support the ideas that (1) Blaschko\u27s lines represent single clones of epidermal cells; (2) in patients with HI and severe neurological involvement mosaicism, if detectable, is best shown in keratinocytes; and (3) the cytogenetic defect in epidermal cells may be directly responsible for the failure of pigmentation in HI

Lactobacillus plantarum CUL66 can impact cholesterol homeostasis in Caco-2 enterocytes

Hypercholesterolemia drives the development of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality in western society. Supplementation with probiotics that interfere with cholesterol metabolism may provide a contribution to disease prevention. Lactobacillus plantarum CUL66 (NCIMB 30280) has been assessed in vitro for its ability to impact cholesterol absorption. L. plantarum CUL66 tested positive for bile salt hydrolase activity and the ability to assimilate cholesterol from culture media. RT-qPCR analysis showed that the bacterium significantly decreased the expression of Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 and ATP-binding cassette transporter-1 in polarised Caco-2 cells after 6 h exposure. Conversely, the expression of ATP-binding cassette sub-family G member (ABCG)-5 and ABCG-8, and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase were significantly increased. Using a radiolabelled assay, we also observed significant reductions in the uptake and basolateral efflux of cholesterol by Caco-2 cells exposed to L. plantarum CUL66. This in vitro study identified L. plantarum CUL66 as a cholesterol lowering bacteria by highlighting its ability to beneficially regulate multiple in vitro events associated with intestinal cholesterol metabolism and provides evidence of efficacy for its inclusion in future in vivo studies