Management of the rhesus monkey Macaca mulatta and hanuman langur Presbytis entellus in Himachal Pradesh, India

The rhesus monkey Macaca mulatta and Hanuman langur Presbytis entellus are distributed all over the State of Himachal Pradesh, India. Although both species inhabit forested areas, only rhesus monkeys seem also to have become urbanized. There are about 200,000 rhesus monkeys and 120,000 Hanuman langurs. A three-year survey at Shimla showed an increasing trend in their populations. Potential threats to survival of these primates differ in the 12 districts. The two species differ in feeding and habitat preferences. People's feelings, perceptions and attitudes reward them point to an incipient man-monkey conflict and erosion of conservation ethics. A comprehensive management plan for these primates should be formulated, and involve local people. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Limited

A Simultaneous Deterministic Perturbation Actor-Critic Algorithm with an Application to Optimal Mortgage Refinancing

We develop a simulation-based, two-timescale actor-critic algorithm for infinite horizon Markov decision processes with finite state and action spaces, with a discounted reward criterion. The algorithm is of the gradient ascent type and performs a search in the space of stationary randomized policies. The algorithm uses certain simultaneous deterministic perturbation stochastic approximation (SDPSA) gradient estimates for enhanced performance. We show an application of our algorithm on a problem of mortgage refinancing. Our algorithm obtains the optimal refinancing strategies in a computationally efficient manner

Relay Selection for Geographical Forwarding in Sleep-Wake Cycling Wireless Sensor Networks

Our work is motivated by geographical forwarding of sporadic alarm packets to a base station in a wireless sensor network (WSN), where the nodes are sleep-wake cycling periodically and asynchronously. We seek to develop local forwarding algorithms that can be tuned so as to tradeoff the end-to-end delay against a total cost, such as the hop count or total energy. Our approach is to solve, at each forwarding node enroute to the sink, the local forwarding problem of minimizing one-hop waiting delay subject to a lower bound constraint on a suitable reward offered by the next-hop relay; the constraint serves to tune the tradeoff. The reward metric used for the local problem is based on the end-to-end total cost objective (for instance, when the total cost is hop count, we choose to use the progress toward sink made by a relay as the reward). The forwarding node, to begin with, is uncertain about the number of relays, their wake-up times, and the reward values, but knows the probability distributions of these quantities. At each relay wake-up instant, when a relay reveals its reward value, the forwarding node's problem is to forward the packet or to wait for further relays to wake-up. In terms of the operations research literature, our work can be considered as a variant of the asset selling problem. We formulate our local forwarding problem as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) and obtain inner and outer bounds for the optimal policy. Motivated by the computational complexity involved in the policies derived out of these bounds, we formulate an alternate simplified model, the optimal policy for which is a simple threshold rule. We provide simulation results to compare the performance of the inner and outer bound policies against the simple policy, and also against the optimal policy when the source knows the exact number of relays. Observing the good performance and the ease of implementation of the simple policy, we apply it to our motivating problem, i.e., local geographical routing of sporadic alarm packets in a large WSN. We compare the end-to-end performance (i.e., average total delay and average total cost) obtained by the simple policy, when used for local geographical forwarding, against that obtained by the globally optimal forwarding algorithm proposed by Kim et al. 1].

GYROSONICS: SIGNATURE ANALYSIS AND REDUCED-ORDER MODELS

In this paper, the authors study the structure of a novel binaural sound with a certain phase and amplitude modulation and the response to this excitation when it is applied to natural rewarding circuit of human brain through auditory neural pathways. This novel excitation, also referred to as gyrosonic excitation in this work, has been found to have interesting effects such as stabilization effects on the left and right hemispheric brain signaling as captured by Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR) measurements, control of cardiac rhythms (observed from ECG signals), mitigation of psychosomatic syndrome, and mitigation of migraine pain. Experimental data collected from human subjects are presented, and these data are examined to categorize the extent of systems disorder and reinforcement reward due to the gyrosonic stimulus. A multi-path reduced-order model has been developed to analyze the GSR signals. The filtered results are indicative of complicated reinforcing reward patterns due to the gyrosonic stimulation when it is used as a control input for patients with psychosomatic and cardiac disorders.

Transmit power Control with ARQ in energy harvesting sensors: a decision-theoretic approach

This paper addresses the problem of finding optimal power control policies for wireless energy harvesting sensor (EHS) nodes with automatic repeat request (ARQ)-based packet transmissions. The EHS harvests energy from the environment according to a Bernoulli process; and it is required to operate within the constraint of energy neutrality. The EHS obtains partial channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter through the link-layer ARQ protocol, via the ACK/NACK feedback messages, and uses it to adapt the transmission power for the packet (re)transmission attempts. The underlying wireless fading channel is modeled as a finite state Markov chain with known transition probabilities. Thus, the goal of the power management policy is to determine the best power setting for the current packet transmission attempt, so as to maximize a long-run expected reward such as the expected outage probability. The problem is addressed in a decision-theoretic framework by casting it as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). Due to the large size of the state-space, the exact solution to the POMDP is computationally expensive. Hence, two popular approximate solutions are considered, which yield good power management policies for the transmission attempts. Monte Carlo simulation results illustrate the efficacy of the approach and show that the approximate solutions significantly outperform conventional approaches.

Relay Selection with Channel Probing in Sleep-Wake Cycling Wireless Sensor Networks

In geographical forwarding of packets in a large wireless sensor network (WSN) with sleep-wake cycling nodes, we are interested in the local decision problem faced by a node that has ``custody'' of a packet and has to choose one among a set of next-hop relay nodes to forward the packet toward the sink. Each relay is associated with a ``reward'' that summarizes the benefit of forwarding the packet through that relay. We seek a solution to this local problem, the idea being that such a solution, if adopted by every node, could provide a reasonable heuristic for the end-to-end forwarding problem. Toward this end, we propose a local relay selection problem consisting of a forwarding node and a collection of relay nodes, with the relays waking up sequentially at random times. At each relay wake-up instant, the forwarder can choose to probe a relay to learn its reward value, based on which the forwarder can then decide whether to stop (and forward its packet to the chosen relay) or to continue to wait for further relays to wake up. The forwarder's objective is to select a relay so as to minimize a combination of waiting delay, reward, and probing cost. The local decision problem can be considered as a variant of the asset selling problem studied in the operations research literature. We formulate the local problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and characterize the solution in terms of stopping sets and probing sets. We provide results illustrating the structure of the stopping sets, namely, the (lower bound) threshold and the stage independence properties. Regarding the probing sets, we make an interesting conjecture that these sets are characterized by upper bounds. Through simulation experiments, we provide valuable insights into the performance of the optimal local forwarding and its use as an end-to-end forwarding heuristic.

Accelerating Information Diffusion in Social Networks Under the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible Epidemic Model

Standard Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic models assume that a message spreads from the infected to the susceptible nodes due to only susceptible-infected epidemic contact. We modify the standard SIS epidemic model to include direct recruitment of susceptible individuals to the infected class at a constant rate (independent of epidemic contacts), to accelerate information spreading in a social network. Such recruitment can be carried out by placing advertisements in the media. We provide a closed form analytical solution for system evolution in the proposed model and use it to study campaigning in two different scenarios. In the first, the net cost function is a linear combination of the reward due to extent of information diffusion and the cost due to application of control. In the second, the campaign budget is fixed. Results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed system in accelerating and improving the extent of information diffusion. Our work is useful for devising effective strategies for product marketing and political/social-awareness/crowd-funding campaigns that target individuals in a social network.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality in constrained general sum stochastic games

In this paper we first derive a necessary and sufficient condition for a stationary strategy to be the Nash equilibrium of discounted constrained stochastic game under certain assumptions. In this process we also develop a nonlinear (non-convex) optimization problem for a discounted constrained stochastic game. We use the linear best response functions of every player and complementary slackness theorem for linear programs to derive both the optimization problem and the equivalent condition. We then extend this result to average reward constrained stochastic games. Finally, we present a heuristic algorithm motivated by our necessary and sufficient conditions for a discounted cost constrained stochastic game. We numerically observe the convergence of this algorithm to Nash equilibrium. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Feedback Capacity of the Binary Erasure Channel With a No-Consecutive-Ones Input Constraint

The input-constrained erasure channel with feedback is considered, where the binary input sequence contains no consecutive ones, i.e., it satisfies the (1, infinity)-RLL constraint. We derive the capacity for this setting, which can be expressed as C-is an element of = max(0 <= p <= 0.5) (1-is an element of) H-b (p)/1+(1-is an element of) p, where is an element of is the erasure probability and Hb(.) is the binary entropy function. Moreover, we prove that a priori knowledge of the erasure at the encoder does not increase the feedback capacity. The feedback capacity was calculated using an equivalent dynamic programming (DP) formulation with an optimal average-reward that is equal to the capacity. Furthermore, we obtained an optimal encoding procedure from the solution of the DP, leading to a capacity-achieving, zero-error coding scheme for our setting. DP is, thus, shown to be a tool not only for solving optimization problems, such as capacity calculation, but also for constructing optimal coding schemes. The derived capacity expression also serves as the only non-trivial upper bound known on the capacity of the input-constrained erasure channel without feedback, a problem that is still open.

Políticas públicas y desigualdades regionales en la distribución del ingreso en la Argentina

Resumen: El análisis de los indicadores de ingresos, desigualdad y pobreza en cada uno de los 32 centros urbanos muestra las grandes disparidades regionales de la Argentina. En la Zona Norte del país el ingreso per capita es un 35% inferior al promedio nacional, la pobreza es 4 veces mayor que en la capital y la distribución del ingreso es más desigual. Los datos estadísticos disponibles indican que el crecimiento económico y las políticas públicas que se han implementado recientemente han reducido los niveles de pobreza agregados, pero han tenido poco impacto en las regiones más pobres del país. Por otra parte, el impacto distributivo de las políticas y programas públicos en la Argentina es reducido cuando se los compara con lo que sucede en los países mas desarrollados. Se requiere el diseño y la implementación de nuevas políticas públicas de reducción de la pobreza que se focalicen en los problemas y dificultades específicas que enfrentan las regiones más pobres. Entre ellas se destaca la necesidad de políticas para disminuir la alta informalidad del empleo que caracteriza a estas zonas. Por otra parte, las nuevas políticas deberían transferir las responsabilidades y premiar los esfuerzos propios de los gobiernos locales, reemplazando la actual “cultura de la dependencia” de los programas del gobierno central por un desarrollo institucional local que enfatice la gestión eficiente de las administraciones públicas provinciales y el desarrollo del capital social local.

On the strategic equivalence of multiple-choice test scoring rules

A disadvantage of multiple-choice tests is that students have incentives to guess. To discourage guessing, it is common to use scoring rules that either penalize wrong answers or reward omissions. These scoring rules are considered equivalent in psychometrics, although experimental evidence has not always been consistent with this claim. We model students' decisions and show, first, that equivalence holds only under risk neutrality and, second, that the two rules can be modified so that they become equivalent even under risk aversion. This paper presents the results of a field experiment in which we analyze the decisions of subjects taking multiple-choice exams. The evidence suggests that differences between scoring rules are due to risk aversion as theory predicts. We also find that the number of omitted items depends on the scoring rule, knowledge, gender and other covariates.

Proceedings fo the Seventeenth Annual Sea Turtle Symposium, 4-8 March 1997, Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.

The 17th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium was held at the Delta Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida U.S.A. from March 4-8, 1997. The symposium was hosted by Florida Atlantic University, Mote Marine Laboratory, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Florida Atlantic University and the Comité Nacional para la Conservación y Protección de las Totugas Marinas. The 17th was the largest symposium to date. A total of 720 participants registered, including sea turtle biologists, students, regulatory personnel, managers, and volunteers representing 38 countries. In addition to the United States, participants represented Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bonaire, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, Guatemala, Greece, Honduras, India, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Seychelles, Scotland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In addition to the 79 oral, 2 video, and 120 poster presentations, 3 workshops were offered: Selina Heppell (Duke University Marine Laboratory) provided “Population Modeling,” Mike Walsh and Sam Dover (Sea World-Orlando) conducted “Marine Turtle Veterinary Medicine” and “Conservation on Nesting Beaches” was offered by Blair Witherington and David Arnold (Florida Department of Environmental Protection). On the first evening, P.C.H. Pritchard delivered a thoughtful retrospect on Archie Carr that showed many sides of a complex man who studied and wrote about sea turtles. It was a presentation that none of us will forget. The members considered a number of resolutions at the Thursday business meeting and passed six. Five of these resolutions are presented in the Commentaries and Reviews section of Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2(3):442-444 (1997). The symposium was fortunate to have many fine presentations competing for the Archie Carr Best Student Presentations awards. The best oral presentation award went to Amanda Southwood (University of British Columbia) for “Heart rates and dive behavior of the leatherback sea turtle during the internesting interval.” The two runners-up were Richard Reina (Australian National University) for “Regulation of salt gland activity in Chelonia mydas” and Singo Minamikawa (Kyoto University) for “The influence that artificial specific gravity change gives to diving behavior of loggerhead turtles”. The winner of this year’s best poster competition was Mark Roberts (University of South Florida) for his poster entitled “Global population structure of green sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) using microsatellite analysis of male mediated gene flow.” The two runners-up were Larisa Avens (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) for “Equilibrium responses to rotational displacements by hatchling sea turtles: maintaining a migratory heading in a turbulent ocean” and Annette Broderick (University of Glasgow) for “Female size, not length, is a correlate of reproductive output.” The symposium was very fortunate to receive a matching monetary and subscription gift from Anders J. G. Rhodin of the Chelonian Research Foundation. These enabled us to more adequately reward the fine work of students. The winners of the best paper and best poster awards received $400 plus a subscription to Chelonian Conservation and Biology. Each runner up received $100. The symposium owes a great debt to countless volunteers who helped make the meeting a success. Those volunteers include: Jamie Serino, Alan Bolton, and Karen Bjorndal, along with the UF students provided audio visual help, John Keinath chaired the student awards committee, Mike Salmon chaired the Program Commiteee, Sheryan Epperly and Joanne Braun compiled the Proceedings, Edwin Drane served as treasurer and provided much logistical help, Jane Provancha coordinated volunteers, Thelma Richardson conducted registration, Vicki Wiese coordinated food and beverage services, Jamie Serino and Erik Marin coordinated entertainment, Kenneth Dodd oversaw student travel awards, Traci Guynup, Tina Brown, Jerris Foote, Dan Hamilton, Richie Moretti, and Vicki Wiese served on the time and place committee, Blair Witherington created the trivia quiz, Tom McFarland donated the symposium logo, Deborah Crouse chaired the resolutions committee, Pamela Plotkin chaired the nominations committee, Sally Krebs, Susan Schenk, and Larry Wood conducted the silent auction, and Beverly and Tom McFarland coordinated all 26 vendors. Many individuals from outside the United States were able to attend the 17th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium thanks to the tireless work of Karen Eckert, Marydele Donnelly, and Jack Frazier in soliciting travel assistance for a number of international participants. We are indebted to those donating money to the internationals’ housing fund (Flo Vetter Memorial Fund, Marinelife Center of Juno Beach, Roger Mellgren, and Jane Provancha). We raise much of our money for international travel from the auction; thanks go to auctioneer Bob Shoop, who kept our auction fastpaced and entertaining, and made sure the bidding was high. The Annual Sea Turtle Symposium is unequaled in its emphasis on international participation. Through international participation we all learn a great deal more about the biology of sea turtles and the conservation issues that sea turtles face in distant waters. Additionally, those attending the symposium come away with a tremendous wealth of knowledge, professional contacts, and new friendships. The Annual Sea Turtle Symposium is a meeting in which pretenses are dropped, good science is presented, and friendly, open communication is the rule. The camaraderie that typifies these meetings ultimately translates into understanding and cooperation. These aspects, combined, have gone and will go a long way toward helping to protect marine turtles and toward aiding their recovery on a global scale. (PDF contains 342 pages)

The Value of Research Data

Scientific research revolves around the production, analysis, storage, management, and re-use of data. Data sharing offers important benefits for scientific progress and advancement of knowledge. However, several limitations and barriers in the general adoption of data sharing are still in place. Probably the most important challenge is that data sharing is not yet very common among scholars and is not yet seen as a regular activity among scientists, although important efforts are being invested in promoting data sharing. In addition, there is a relatively low commitment of scholars to cite data. The most important problems and challenges regarding data metrics are closely tied to the more general problems related to data sharing. The development of data metrics is dependent on the growth of data sharing practices, after all it is nothing more than the registration of researchers’ behaviour. At the same time, the availability of proper metrics can help researchers to make their data work more visible. This may subsequently act as an incentive for more data sharing and in this way a virtuous circle may be set in motion. This report seeks to further explore the possibilities of metrics for datasets (i.e. the creation of reliable data metrics) and an effective reward system that aligns the main interests of the main stakeholders involved in the process. The report reviews the current literature on data sharing and data metrics. It presents interviews with the main stakeholders on data sharing and data metrics. It also analyses the existing repositories and tools in the field of data sharing that have special relevance for the promotion and development of data metrics. On the basis of these three pillars, the report presents a number of solutions and necessary developments, as well as a set of recommendations regarding data metrics. The most important recommendations include the general adoption of data sharing and data publication among scholars; the development of a reward system for scientists that includes data metrics; reducing the costs of data publication; reducing existing negative cultural perceptions of researchers regarding data publication; developing standards for preservation, publication, identification and citation of datasets; more coordination of data repository initiatives; and further development of interoperability protocols across different actors.

Research Software Sustainability: Report on Knowledge Exchange Workshop

The report introduces software sustainability, provides definitions, clearly demonstrates that software is not the same as data and illustrates aspects of sustainability in the software lifecycle. The recommendations state that improving software sustainability requires a number of changes: some technical and others societal, some small and others significant. We must start by raising awareness of researchers’ reliance on software. This goal will become easier if we recognise the valuable contribution that software makes to research – and reward those people who invest their time into developing reliable and reproducible software. The adoption of software has led to significant advances in research. But if we do not change our research practices, the continued rise in software use will be accompanied by a rise in retractions. Ultimately, anyone who is concerned about the reliability and reproducibility of research should be concerned about software sustainability. Beside highlighting the benefits of software sustainability and addressing the societal and technical barriers to software sustainability, the report provides access to expertise in software sustainability and outlines the role of funders. The report concludes with a short landscape of national activities in Europe and outside Europe. As a result of the workshop steps will be explored to establish European coordination and cooperation of national initiatives.

Role of G protein coupled inwardly rectifier K+ channels (GIRK) on the neurobiology depression

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