Speeding up Learning with Dynamic Environment Shaping in Evolutionary Robotics

Evolutionary Robotics is a promising approach to automatically build efficient controllers using stochastic optimization techniques. However, works in this area are often confronted to complex environments where even simple tasks cannot be achieved. In the scope of this paper, we propose an approach based on explicit problem decomposition and dynamic environment shaping to ease the learning task

The global carbon cycle and its changes over glacial–interglacial cycles

Carbon is an essential element for life, food and energy. It is also a key component of greenhouse gases and, thus, plays an important role in past and present climatic changes

La capacité en droit criminel : analyse juridique et médicale du seuil d’intervention de la justice criminelle en matière de négligence pénale

Dans l’article qui suit, les auteurs proposent une analyse juridique et médicale de la capacité en matière de crimes de négligence. Après avoir exposé les fondements qui gouvernent la responsabilité normative en droit pénal canadien, ils procèdent à un examen exhaustif et critique de la faute en matière de négligence pénale, de la capacité nécessaire à sa constatation et des troubles physiques, psychiques et neuropsychiques pouvant empêcher sa réalisation.In the ensuing article, the authors offer a legal and medical analytic approach to legal capacity in matters of criminal negligence. Following an analysis of the basis governing normative liability in Canadian criminal law, they then turn to a critical and exhaustive analysis of the concept of fault in matters of criminal negligence, the requisite capacity for mentally apprehending such fault and the physical, psychological and neuropsychological disturbances that may bar such understanding

Platelet aggregating activity of lysophosphatidic acids is not related to their calcium ionophore properties

AbstractThe calcium ionophore properties of A23187 and of two lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) analogs (1-palmitoyl- and 1-hexadecyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphate or P-GPA and H-GPA, respectively) were compared using platelet membrane vesicles loaded with 45Ca. Half maximal effect (HME) was obtained at 5 μM and 10 μM for H-GPA and P-GPA, respectively, against 0.7 μM for A23187, which released 2 times more Ca. The three compounds also induced platelet aggregation with a HME at 0.5 μM, 0.3 μM and 0.01 μM for A23187, P-GPA and H-GPA, respectively. The clear dissociation between the two effects appearing for both LPA raises some doubt about the general idea that (lyso) PA participate in cell activation through their calcium ionophore properties

Contribution à l’étude des Tabanidae (Diptera) de Camargue

Horse flies belonging to 21 species were collected at 32 sites in La Camargue and the surrounding areas (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) with C02-baited “ Manitoba ” traps or hand net, from May to September. The most common species were Hybomitra expollicata, Tabanus autumnalis, Hybomitra ciureai, Haematopota pluvialis, Haematopota bigoti and Atylotus quadrifarius. H. expol licata is a spring species, but T. autumnalis is a summer species ; H. expollicata and T. autumnalis are anautogenous. The mean life span of field-collected, caged and sweetened water-fed females H. expollicata is about 5 weeks ; and the maximum life span 9 weeks. Mature larvae and pupae were collected from the pupal habitats along the banks of marshes ; the larvae of H. expollicata were found in a decaying litter (mean density : 9,3 tabanids per square meter)) ; the larvae of T. autumnalis were found in a sandy soil (density : 1,8). The pupa of H. expollicata is parasitized by Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera) . Gulls and egrets are predators of the immature tabanids

Simbad : an Autonomous Robot Simulation Package for Education and Research

Simbad is an open source Java 3d robot simulator for scientific and educational purposes. It is mainly dedicated to researchers and programmers who want a simple basis for studying Situated Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and more generally AI algorithms, in the context of Autonomous Robotics and Autonomous Agents. It is is kept voluntarily readable and simple for fast implementation in the field of Research and/or Education. Moreover, Simbad embeds two stand-alone additional packages : a Neural Network library (feed-forward NN, recurrent NN, etc.) and an Artificial Evolution Framework for Genetic Algorithm, Evolutionary Strategies and Genetic Programming. These packages are targeted towards Evolutionary Robotics. The Simbad Package is available from http://simbad.sourceforge.net/ under the conditions of the GPL (GNU General Public Licence)

Evolutionary Robotics: Incremental Learning of Sequential Behavior

International audienceIn the scope of this short paper, we demonstrate the advantage of several reformulations of a fitness function for a standard foraging task in Evolutionary Robotics