Genetic Programming for Smart Phone Personalisation

Personalisation in smart phones requires adaptability to dynamic context based on user mobility, application usage and sensor inputs. Current personalisation approaches, which rely on static logic that is developed a priori, do not provide sufficient adaptability to dynamic and unexpected context. This paper proposes genetic programming (GP), which can evolve program logic in realtime, as an online learning method to deal with the highly dynamic context in smart phone personalisation. We introduce the concept of collaborative smart phone personalisation through the GP Island Model, in order to exploit shared context among co-located phone users and reduce convergence time. We implement these concepts on real smartphones to demonstrate the capability of personalisation through GP and to explore the benefits of the Island Model. Our empirical evaluations on two example applications confirm that the Island Model can reduce convergence time by up to two-thirds over standalone GP personalisation.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figure

Impacts of Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Services Delivery in the Black Hills Ecoregion from 1950 to 2010

Environmental degradation generated by land use choices and human activities is the first driver of change in the provision of ecosystem goods and services. One of the challenges in ecosystem services research is to evaluate the contribution of each land cover unit to ecosystem services delivery while considering multiple services. In this thesis, I develop a framework to assess the capacity of many land covers to independently produce ecosystem services (i.e., potential production) and the capacity of the whole landscape to deliver multiple services to the population (i.e., potential supply). In the first part, this methodology is used to report on the change in ecosystem services delivery in the Black Hills ecoregion resulting from land cover modifications over a 60-year period. The trajectories of change in the Black Hills land cover are quantified using manual land cover mapping on aerial photographs from circa 1950 and circa 2010. In the second part, the same methodology is applied to the Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National park, in order to compare different management systems in the Black Hills and their implications for ecosystems services delivery over time. Although the trends of changes vary among the case studies following management directions and actions, most of the land cover conversions from 1950 and 2010 occurred on public land and affected ecosystem services delivery by the landscape. The three major net land cover changes were a loss of dense forest, a gain of medium and open forests, and a decrease in grassland/shrubland area. Even though the main drivers of change were not always human-induced, managers have been working to restore ecosystems, enhance their functionalities, and thus have been moving the landscape toward a higher level of ecosystems services delivery. By identifying the relationships between past and current land management, land cover changes and their drivers, and ecosystem services, this study contributes to a better understanding of land management results and their impacts upon Black Hills ecoregion sustainability and ecosystem services delivery

Synchroneity of major late Neogene sea level fluctuations and paleoceanographically controlled changes as recorded by two carbonate platforms

Shallow-water carbonate systems are reliable recorders of sea level fluctuations and changes in ambient seawater conditions. Drilling results from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Legs 133 and 166 indicate that the timing of late Neogene sedimentary breaks triggered by sea level lowerings is synchronous in the sedimentary successions of the Queensland Plateau and the Great Bahama Bank. This synchrony indicates that these sea level changes were eustatic in origin. The carbonate platforms were also affected by contemporary, paleoceanographically controlled fluctuations in carbonate production. Paleoceanographic changes are recorded at 10.7, 3.6, and 1.7–2.0 Ma. At the Queensland Plateau, sea surface temperature shifts are documented by shifts from tropical to temperate carbonates (10.7 Ma) and vice versa (3.6 Ma); the modern tropical platform was established at 2.0–1.8 Ma. At Great Bahama Bank, changes were registered in compositional variations of platform-derived sediment, such as major occurrence of peloids (3.6 Ma) and higher rates of neritic carbonate input (1.7 Ma). The synchroneity of these changes attests to the far-field effects of modifications in the oceanographic circulation on shallow-water, low-latitude carbonate production

Territorial disputes and nationalism: a comparative case study of China and Vietnam

In autocracies, nationalism appears to have merged with geopolitical thinking. In light of this geopoliticisation of nationalism, it is surprising that the literature has paid virtually no attention to the role of territorial disputes as a conditioning factor. The present study seeks to further enhance the field by factoring in the role of territorial disputes in triggering different expressions of nationalism. It develops an analytical framework for typologies of nationalism according to four territorial disputes: China’s dispute with Vietnam over maritime territory in the South China Sea, China’s dispute with Japan over maritime territory in the East China Sea, Vietnam’s dispute with Cambodia over territorial border demarcations, and Vietnam’s dispute with China over maritime territory in the South China Sea. The respective disputes of China and Vietnam are analysed and tested against criteria of expressions of nationalism in autocracies. We find that territorial disputes and therefore external context are important conditioning factors of nationalism in autocracies

Colloque international sur les événements de la limite cénomanien-turonien : Grenoble, 24-26 mai 1991 : résumés Cenomanian-turonian boundary events

Géologie alpine. Mémoire H. S. ; 17 129 p.Ce document reprend les courtes communications de ce Colloque sur les événements liés à la limite cénomanien-Turonie

Modern carbonate sedimentary facies on the outer shelf and slope around New Caledonia

We investigated surface carbonate sediments at 33 sites on the outer shelf and slope around New Caledonia (163°-167°E, 20°-23°S), at water depths of 75-720m. Four carbonate sedimentary facies are recognized on the basis of sediment size fractions and predominant constituents: Facies 1, encrusted grains (rhodoliths and macroids), bryozoa, and benthic foraminifera; Facies 2, bryozoa, benthic foraminifera, and mud; Facies 3, plankton and mud; and Facies 4, ahermatypic corals. Facies distributions were constrained primarily by water depth, and secondarily by local seafloor geomorphology that, in some areas, allows transport of sediments to deeper water. Because the dominant facies (Facies 1 and 3), as well as lagoon and basin facies, are distributed worldwide at similar latitudes, facies around New Caledonia can be considered as representative of carbonate sedimentary facies distributed in tropical-subtropical regions

Enregistrement de l'eustatisme sur les marges ouest-téthysiennes au mézoïque : Colloque, Lyon 23 et 24 novembre 1989

Association des géologues du Sud-Est Géolologie alpine. Mémoire H. S. ; n° 18 136 p.Ce mémoire rassemble les interventions sur l'eustatisme et ses conséquences : - tectonique et sédimentation du Crétacé en Tunisie - stratigraphie séquentielle d'exxon - Bassin parisie

Language in shadow

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The Little Yellow Handbook. Guía para la transferencia de conocimiento en la industria agroalimentaria

Knowledge Transfer seems to have become one of the buzzwords within today’s research community. Everyone either seems to be doing it, wanting to be doing it, or is supposed to be doing it. Engaging with, and transferring knowledge into industry has made its way to the top of the agenda for many research institutions. Still, there are barriers and problems preventing individuals from engaging in effective knowledge transfer. However, it should come as no surprise that collaboration between academia and industry doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Researchers and academics on the one hand, and industry people on the other, are fundamentally different. Each side comes with their own areas of expertise, comfort zones, mindsets, values, aspirations, and last but not least, their own language and jargons. In order to effectively collaborate with industry, researchers have to learn to speak the same language as industry and gain an understanding for their objectives and priorities.La “Transferencia de Conocimiento” se ha convertido en una de las palabras de moda dentro de la comunidad investigadora. Parece que todo el mundo lo está haciendo bien, tiene ganas de hacerlo bien o supone que lo está haciendo bien. La colaboración con las empresas y la transferencia de conocimiento hacia ellas es un asunto prioritario en la agenda de muchas instituciones de investigación. A pesar de ello, todavía hay obstáculos y problemas que impiden a las personas participar en la transferencia de conocimiento de una forma efectiva. Sin embargo, no sorprende que la colaboración entre el mundo académico y el industrial no llegue de manera natural a todo el mundo. Los investigadores y académicos, por una parte, y los empresarios por el otro, son fundamentalmente diferentes. Cada parte tiene sus propias áreas de especialización, mentalidades, valores, aspiraciones, y por último pero no menos importante, su propio lenguaje y jerga. Con el fin de colaborar eficazmente con la industria, los investigadores deberían aprender a hablar el mismo idioma que las empresas y a mejorar la comprensión de sus objetivos y prioridades.Knowledge2Innovation. Promoting the exploitation of scientific knowledge through academia-industry cooperation in the Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy in Europe and beyond, financed by the European Commission DG Research under the 7th Framework Programme

Energy-efficient Localisation: GPS Duty Cycling with Radio Ranging

International audienceGPS is a commonly used and convenient technology for determining absolute position in outdoor environments, but its high power consumption leads to rapid battery depletion in mobile devices. An obvious solution is to duty cycle the GPS module, which prolongs the device lifetime at the cost of increased position uncertainty while the GPS is off. This paper addresses the tradeoff between energy consumption and localization performance in a mobile sensor network application. The focus is on augmenting GPS location with more energy- efficient location sensors to bound position estimate uncertainty while GPS is off. Empirical GPS and radio contact data from a large-scale animal tracking deployment is used to model node mobility, radio performance and GPS. Because GPS takes a considerable, and variable, time after powering up before it delivers a good position measurement, we model the GPS behaviour through empirical measurements of two GPS modules. These models are then used to explore duty cycling strategies for maintaining position uncertainty within specified bounds. We then explore the benefits of using short-range radio contact logging alongside GPS as an energy-inexpensive means of lowering uncertainty while the GPS is off, and we propose strategies that use RSSI ranging and GPS back-offs to further reduce energy consumption. Results show that our combined strategies can cut node energy consumption by one third while still meeting application-specific positioning criteria