An Emphatic Approach to the Problem of Off-policy Temporal-Difference Learning

In this paper we introduce the idea of improving the performance of parametric temporal-difference (TD) learning algorithms by selectively emphasizing or de-emphasizing their updates on different time steps. In particular, we show that varying the emphasis of linear TD($\lambda$)'s updates in a particular way causes its expected update to become stable under off-policy training. The only prior model-free TD methods to achieve this with per-step computation linear in the number of function approximation parameters are the gradient-TD family of methods including TDC, GTD($\lambda$), and GQ($\lambda$). Compared to these methods, our _emphatic TD($\lambda$)_ is simpler and easier to use; it has only one learned parameter vector and one step-size parameter. Our treatment includes general state-dependent discounting and bootstrapping functions, and a way of specifying varying degrees of interest in accurately valuing different states.Comment: 29 pages This is a significant revision based on the first set of reviews. The most important change was to signal early that the main result is about stability, not convergenc

Renewing Film’s Public Emphasis

A review of Patricia White Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms (Duke University Press, 2015)

Acoustic emphasis in four year olds

Acoustic emphasis may convey a range of subtle discourse distinctions, yet little is known about how this complex ability develops in children. This paper presents a first investigation of the factors which influence the production of acoustic prominence in young children’s spontaneous speech. In a production experiment, SVO sentences were elicited from 4 year olds who were asked to describe events in a video. Children were found to place more acoustic prominence both on ‘new’ words and on words that were ‘given’ but had shifted to a more accessible position within the discourse. This effect of accessibility concurs with recent studies of adult speech. We conclude that, by age four, children show appropriate, adult-like use of acoustic prominence, suggesting sensitivity to a variety of discourse distinctions

CHANGING EMPHASIS IN AGRIBUSINESS CURRICULA

Required courses for agribusiness degrees at forty-three schools were divided into six categories. The ranges in the percentage of required credits by category were quite large. Industry leaders, alumni, and employers have suggested increasing the course work on communications and business skills to improve the curricula. However, a comparison of degree requirements over time for a sample of twelve programs did not reveal major increases in emphasis for these areas. Departments should consider customer needs and competing programs as they review their curricula and attempt to add more value to their educational products.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Parametric Macromodels of Differential Drivers with Pre-Emphasis

This paper discusses the extraction of behavioral models of differential drivers with pre-emphasis for the assessment of signal integrity and electromagnetic compatibility effects in multigigabit data transmission systems. A suitable model structure is derived and the procedure for its estimation from port transient waveforms is illustrated. The proposed methodology is an extension of the macromodeling based on parametric relations applied to plain differential drivers. The obtained models preserve the accuracy and efficiency strengths of behavioral parametric macromodels for conventional devices. A realistic application example involving a high-speed communication path and a 3.125 Gb/s commercial driver model with pre-emphasis is presente

Competition, non-financial measures and the effectiveness of management control system

This paper reports the results of an empirical study examining the relationship between the emphasis on non-financial measures and two other variables; the intensity of competition and the effectiveness of a management control system, in a manufacturing company. Two important issues focused in the study are: does competition compel managers to utilize more non-financial measures in decision making and is the emphasis given to non-financial measures worthwhile? Data from 105 manufacturing companies throughout Malaysia were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis. The results of both analyses indicate that the emphasis given to non-financial measures in decision making has a positive correlation with the effectiveness of a management control system and secondly, the intensity of competition faced by an organization is positively correlated with the emphasis on non-financial indicators. Descriptive analysis was also performed to evaluate the distribution of emphasis on non-financial measures by the age, location, ownership, size of an organization and its industry

Macrophages in endocrine glands, with emphasis on pancreatic islets

ABSTRACT We review here the macrophages found in endocrine tissues, placing emphasis on those residing in the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas. The islets represent the endocrine organ where macrophages have been examined in great detail and where our own studies and experience have been directed.</jats:p

Preventing hot beverage scald injuries to young children

The focus of the research proposal was two-fold: to analyse the emphasis placed on hot beverage scald injuries to under five year olds in current public education material for parents and caregivers; and to make practical recommendations in regard to more effective educational messages and preventative behaviour. We anticipated that there would be a lack of emphasis on hot beverage scald prevention in public education material when compared to the emphasis placed on preventing other scald hazards

Phase and amplitude pre-emphasis techniques for low-power serial links

A novel approach to equalization of high-speed serial links combines both amplitude pre-emphasis to correct for intersymbol interference and phase pre-emphasis to compensate for deterministic jitter, in particular, data-dependent jitter. Phase pre-emphasis augments the performance of low power transmitters in bandwidth-limited channels. The transmitter circuit is implemented in a 90-nm bulk CMOS process and reduces power consumption by pushing CMOS static logic to the output stage, a 4:1 output multiplexer. The received signal jitter over a cable is reduced from 16.15 ps to 10.29 ps with only phase pre-emphasis at the transmitter. The jitter is reduced by 3.6 ps over an FR-4 backplane interconnect. A transmitter without phase pre-emphasis consumes 18 mW of power at 6Gb/s and 600mVpp output swing, a power budget of 3mW/Gb/s, while a transmitter with phase pre-emphasis consumes 24mW, a budget of 4 mW/Gb/s