The 2007 IEEE CEC simulated car racing competition

This paper describes the simulated car racing competition that was arranged as part of the 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. Both the game that was used as the domain for the competition, the controllers submitted as entries to the competition and its results are presented. With this paper, we hope to provide some insight into the efficacy of various computational intelligence methods on a well-defined game task, as well as an example of one way of running a competition. In the process, we provide a set of reference results for those who wish to use the simplerace game to benchmark their own algorithms. The paper is co-authored by the organizers and participants of the competition.

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Joint remembering in collaborative design: a multimodal approach in the case of a video design studio

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of joint remembering in collaborative design. Joint remembering sequences are identified on the basis of questions that act as triggers to specific interactive sequences. The sequences are situated in the ongoing collaborative design process, and empirical evidence is provided that illustrates how the interweaving of verbal, bodily, social and material resources supports joint remembering. Three examples of joint remembering sequences in co-design are analysed from a corpus of interactions (45+ hours of audio and video recording), collected during an observational study of a team of four 3D designers working on a TV commercial. This study suggests that questions acting as reminders foster the formation of multimodal remembering sequences (MRSs) that connect multiple timescales over the duration of co-design projects. In the corpus under study, MRSs enable designers to plan future actions and make decisions on the fly.     

Grouping genetic operators for the delineation of functional areas based on spatial interaction

The delineation of functional economic areas, or market areas, is a problem of high practical relevance, since the delineation of functional sets such as economic areas in the US, Travel-to-Work Areas in the United Kingdom, and their counterparts in other OECD countries are the basis of many statistical operations and policy making decisions at local level. This is a combinatorial optimisation problem defined as the partition of a given set of indivisible spatial units (covering a territory) into regions characterised by being (a) self-contained and (b) cohesive, in terms of spatial interaction data (flows, relationships). Usually, each region must reach a minimum size and self-containment level, and must be continuous. Although these optimisation problems have been typically solved through greedy methods, a recent strand of the literature in this field has been concerned with the use of evolutionary algorithms with ad hoc operators. Although these algorithms have proved to be successful in improving the results of some of the more widely applied official procedures, they are so time consuming that cannot be applied directly to solve real-world problems. In this paper we propose a new set of group-based mutation operators, featuring general operations over disjoint groups, tailored to ensure that all the constraints are respected during the operation to improve efficiency. A comparative analysis of our results with those from previous approaches shows that the proposed algorithm systematically improves them in terms of both quality and processing time, something of crucial relevance since it allows dealing with most large, real-world problems in reasonable time.     

Synthesis and characterization of pyrene-centered oligothiophenes

A series of materials for field effect transistors (FETs), with pyrene at the core and four substituted thiophene arms of different lengths (1–3 thiophene units) have been synthesized using Suzuki cross-coupling reactions and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, UV–vis absorption, emission spectroscopy, and in one case by X-ray crystallography.     

The ‘measure of a man’ and the ethos of hospitality: towards an ethical dwelling with technology

In this paper, I argue for the impossible possibility of an ethical dwelling with technology. In arguing for an ethical comportment in our dealing with technology, I am not only arguing for the consideration of the ethical implications of technology (which we already do) but also, and more importantly, for an ethics of technological artefacts qua technology. Thus, I attempt to argue for a decentering (or rather overcoming) of anthropocentric ethics, urging us to move beyond any centre, whatever it may be—anthropological, biological, etc. I argue that if we take ethics seriously we must admit that our measure cannot be that of man. To develop the argument, I use an episode in Star Trek where the fate of the highly sophisticated android Commander Data is to be decided. I show how the moral reasoning about Data remains anthropocentric but hints to other possibilities. I proceed to use the work of Derrida and Levinas (with some help from Heidegger) to suggest a possible way to think (and do) an ethos beyond traditional ethics—an ethics of hospitality in which we dwell in a community of those that have nothing in common.     

Effect of the temperature on the strength of adhesively bonded single lap and T joints for the automotive industry

Adhesively bonded lap and T joints are used extensively in the manufacture of automotive structures. In order to determine the effect of using a structural adhesive instead of spot-welding, a detailed series of tests, supported by finite element analyses, was conducted using a range of loadings. The adhesive was a toughened epoxy and the adherend was a grade of mild steel typical of that used in the manufacture of car bodyshells. The lap joints were tested in tension (which creates shear across the bondline) and three point bending. Previous studies at room temperature have shown that joint failure is dictated by adherend yielding and adhesive strain to failure. In the present study, to asses the effect of temperature that an automotive joint might experience in service, tests were carried out at ?40 and +90 °C. It is shown that the failure criterion proposed at room temperature is still valid at low and high temperatures, the failure envelope moving up and down as the temperature increases or decreases, respectively.     

Disinhibitory psychopathology and delay discounting in alcohol dependence: Personality and cognitive correlates.

Increased discounting of delayed rewards may reflect a decision bias that contributes to excessive use of alcohol and more generally, to an impulsive, disinhibitory predisposition that is characterized by a preference for immediate over long-term rewards. The current study examined the association between delay discounting of rewards and the covariation among several types of disinhibitory problems that are often comorbid with alcohol dependence (AD). Lifetime problems with alcohol, marijuana, other drugs, childhood conduct disorder, and adult antisocial behavior were assessed in a sample of 426 young adults, 257 of whom had a lifetime diagnosis of AD. Higher delay discounting rates were associated with the covariation among all domains of disinhibitory problems and were not uniquely associated with any one domain. Higher delay discounting rates also were associated with lower intelligence, lower working memory capacity, and higher trait impulsivity. The results suggest that increased delay discounting of rewards may reflect aspects of a general vulnerability to externalizing, disinhibitory disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibition of food poisoning and pathogenic bacteria by Lactobacillus plantarum strain 2.9 isolated from ben saalga, both in a culture medium and in food

The bacteriocinogenic strain Lactobacillus plantarum 2.9 isolated from the traditional pearl millet-based African fermented food ben saalga was tested for inhibition of food poisoning and pathogenic bacteria in MRS broth and in a malted millet flour slurry. In MRS broth, strain 2.9 completely eliminated Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica cells within 48 h incubation at 22–30 °C. A much lower inhibition was observed at 15 °C. The inhibitory effect of strain 2.9 on the above-mentioned target bacteria was corroborated in the malted millet flour slurry, reducing viable cell counts below detection levels after 8 h storage for B. cereus or after 24 h for S. enterica and 48 h for E. coli. An Enterobacter aerogenes strain was only moderately inhibited in the slurry. Results from the present study suggest that strain 2.9 could be used as starter culture to improve the microbiological safety of fermented ben saalga.     

Motion of rigid aggregates under different flow conditions

The response of rigid aggregates to different flow fields is investigated theoretically using model clusters with realistic three-dimensional structure composed of identical spherical primary particles. The aim is to relate the main fluid dynamic properties of the system with the geometry and morphology of the aggregates. Our simulations are based on Stokesian dynamics. The dilute limit of a colloidal aggregate system was studied, where aggregates are very far from each other, and hence, mutual inter-aggregate interactions are negligible. The motion of aggregates is characterized in terms of translational mobility and angular velocity, and the ability of simple models, based on either the simplified aggregate geometry or the concept of permeability, to capture the main features of the motion is examined.