Search results for "WL"
showing 10 items of 4149 documents
Knowledge representation for robotic vision based on conceptual spaces and attentive mechanisms
1995
A new cognitive architecture for artificial vision is proposed. The architecture is aimed for an autonomous intelligent system, as several cognitive hypotheses have been postulated as guidelines for its design. The design is based on a conceptual representation level between the subsymbolic level processing the sensory data, and the linguistic level describing scenes by means of a high-level language. The architecture is also based on the active role of a focus of attention mechanism in the link between the conceptual and the linguistic level. The link between the conceptual level and the linguistic level is modelled as a time-delay attractor neural network.
Radical innovation by theoretical abstraction - a challenge for the user-centred designer
2016
AbstractIt is generally accepted that scientific disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology contribute beneficially to design by providing understanding of users’ needs, experiences, and desires. Arguably, however, these disciplines have more to contribute, because they include theories and models that can be applied as design frames and principles. More specifically, goal-setting, visualization, thematization, and conceptual reconfiguration are general mechanisms through which theories translate into design contributions. Actualizing radical design solutions via these mechanisms is discussed: theories provide appropriate means of abstraction, which allows ‘distance’ from u…
Multiplayer 3D Game in Supporting Team-Building Activities in a Work Organization
2012
The aim of this study was to enhance and analyze communication and team-building activities in work teams that played a 3D multiplayer game. This paper reports the preliminary findings of the multi-methodological empirical study on players' perceived effects of the game play on team-building.
Factors in the global assimilation of collaborative information technologies: an exploratory investigation in five regions
2008
The diffusion of innovation theory is deployed to investigate the global assimilation of collaborative information technologies (CITs). Based on the concepts of IT acquisition and utilization, an assimilation framework is presented to highlight four states (limited, focused, lagging, and pervasive) that capture the assimilation of conferencing and groupware CITs. Data collected from 538 organizations in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Norway, and Switzerland are aggregated and analyzed to explore assimilation patterns and the influence of decision-making pattern, functional integration, promotion of collaboration, organization size, and IT function size on the assimilation of CITs.…
University Students´ Knowledge Construction during Face to Face Collaborative Writing
2014
Collaborative writing combines social processes of writing with cognitive knowledge construction processes, and thus may lead to deeper learning than individual working. This study examined students’ knowledge construction during face-to-face collaborative writing. University students (n = 21) prepared themselves for the collaborative task by reading about developmental theories in a course book and writing individual summaries of them. In small groups, the students discussed each others’ summaries and wrote a joint essay on one of the theories. The data comprise the students’ individual summaries (n = 21), the students’ discussions during the essay writing (8177 speech turns), and the stud…
Regulation of type IV collagen gene expression and degradation in fast and slow muscles during dexamethasone treatment and exercise.
2003
Glucocorticoids have anti-anabolic effects on many tissues and can cause muscle atrophy. However, their effects on type IV collagen gene expression and degradation in skeletal muscle have not been studied previously. Rats were treated daily with dexamethasone or saline. Half the groups of experimental and control animals were also subjected to daily endurance or uphill running exercise to determine the possible preventive effects of exercise. After an experimental period of 3 or 10 days, the extensor digitorum longus, soleus and tibialis anterior muscles were studied. Dexamethasone treatment for 10 days reduced muscle weight and type IV collagen mRNA abundance in all muscles. Gene expressio…
Emergent Collective Behaviors in a Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning Pedestrian Simulation: A Case Study
2015
In this work, a Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning framework is used to generate simulations of virtual pedestrians groups. The aim is to study the influence of two different learning approaches in the quality of generated simulations. The case of study consists on the simulation of the crossing of two groups of embodied virtual agents inside a narrow corridor. This scenario is a classic experiment inside the pedestrian modeling area, because a collective behavior, specifically the lanes formation, emerges with real pedestrians. The paper studies the influence of different learning algorithms, function approximation approaches, and knowledge transfer mechanisms on performance of learned ped…
Territoire et énergie : politiques locales, échelles d'intervention et instruments de mobilisation, de connaissance et d'action
2011
The thesis is about French local authorities' energy policies, and more particularly about regional policies. In a context of reassessment of fossil fuel-based energy systems, local authorities have a key role to play. Indeed, energy systems are complex and require to act locally, in order to keep fair access for consumers and to adapt supply to needs and uses. In the same way, environmental constraints and sustainable exploitation of local resources involve to have a good knowledge of territory and of local energy potential. But, local authorities do not know much about boundaries and about components of territorial energy systems. The main purpose of the thesis is to determine structure a…
Towards artificial intelligence : advances, challenges, and risks
2019
This text contains some reflections on artificial intelligence (AI). First, I differentiate between strong and weak AI, as well as the concepts related to general and specific AI. Following this, I briefly describe the main current AI models and discuss the need to provide common-sense knowledge to machines in order to advance towards the goal of a general AI. Next, I talk about the current trends in AI based on the analysis of large amounts of data, which has recently allowed experts to make spectacular progress. Finally, I discuss other topics which, now and in the future, will continue to be key in AI, before closing with a brief reflection on the risks of AI.
Communication Design for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge. Languages, Tools, Technologies, Collaborative Processes for Museum Education
2019
Il testo propone l’analisi di un articolato processo di ricerca-azione, avviato in occasione di alcune sperimentazioni didattico-scientifiche nate dalla collaborazione tra le discipline del design, della rappresentazione multimediale, delle scienze botaniche nell’Università di Palermo. L’esperienza proposta è stata centrata sulla comunicazione scientifica e sull’elaborazione di prodotti comunicativi per la didattica museale e istituzionale dell’Orto Botanico di Palermo. In quest’occasione sono stati sperimentati strumenti progettuali, tecnologie e modalità di espressione successivamente rielaborati anche in un progetto di sviluppo territoriale, che ha portato alla realizzazione del “Micromu…