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For robots to effectively bootstrap the acquisition of language, they must handle referential uncertainty-the problem of deciding what meaning to ascribe to a given word. Typically when socially grounding terms for space and time, the underlying sensor or representation was specified within the grammar of a conversation, which constrained language learning to words for innate features. In this paper, we demonstrate that cross-situational learning resolves the issues of referential uncertainty for bootstrapping a language for episodic space and time; therefore removing the need to specify the underlying sensors or representations a priori. The requirements for robots to be able to link words to their designated meanings are presented and analyzed within the Lingodroids-language learning robots-framework. We present a study that compares predetermined associations given a priori against unconstrained learning using cross-situational learning. This study investigates the long-term coherence, immediate usability and learning time for each condition. Results demonstrate that for unconstrained learning, the long-term coherence is unaffected, though at the cost of increased learning time and hence decreased immediate usability.

Abstract If DNA storage had been known and used 4000 years ago, we would have been able to validate the life of the prophets and been able to learn more about their teaching and whether they died peacefully or crossed the Red Sea. But with Svalbard Vault, we are holding the world's largest collection of agricultural biodiversity. Seeds and DNA data tubes can be perfectly preserved for 10,000 years. So, if the Svalbard survives 30 centuries, then people in 4010 will be able to listen to our music and learn about our government and our lifestyle. This chapter will give the reader some back in the future excitement.

Taxonomic free sorting (TFS) is a fast, reliable and new technique in sensory science. The method extends the typical free sorting task where stimuli are grouped according to similarities, by asking respondents to combine their groups two at a time to produce a hierarchy. Previously, TFS has been used for the visual assessment of packaging whereas this study extends the range of potential uses of the technique to incorporate full sensory analysis by the target consumer, which, when combined with hedonic liking scores, was used to generate a novel preference map. Furthermore, to fully evaluate the efficacy of using the sorting method, the technique was evaluated with a healthy older adult consumer group. Participants sorted eight products into groups and described their reason at each stage as they combined those groups, producing a consumer-specific vocabulary. This vocabulary was combined with hedonic data from a separate group of older adults, to give the external preference map. Taxonomic sorting is a simple, fast and effective method for use with older adults, and its combination with liking data can yield a preference map constructed entirely from target consumer data.

This work aims to show that a model produced to generate adverbs of manner can be generalized and applied to a variety of neutral animated signs for avatar sign language synthesis. This paper presents the generalization of a new approach that was first presented at SLTAT 2019 in Hamburg for modeling language processes that manifest themselves as modifications to the visual-manual channel. This work discusses extensions for generalizability to the model to be effective for a broader range of signs including one-handed and two-handed signs, repeating and non-repeating signs, signs with contact, and additional rotational adjustments to the wrists. This paper also includes interim results from an ongoing user study.

Chapter 1 explores the viral dramaturgy that circulated between Antonin Artaud (among the first to conceptualize theatre as a viral contagion) and the Living Theatre The third viral dramaturgy exploited these via a dramaturgy of "publicly performed fiction - spectacular stories unbounded by theatrical stages" (113) In I Viral Performance: Contagious Theaters from Modernism to the Digital Age i , Miriam Felton-Dansky addresses these problems by way of the concept of "viral performance " [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Theatre Survey is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

Tropical storms are becoming more intense and less predictable – and there is little doubt remaining that we are to blame, says Michael Le Page

Monarchy and historiography. The royal biography 'revisited' Biographies of Kings and Queens have often been considered a discredited historiographical genre, particularly in the Netherlands. Wrongly so. The dynastic international networks of Kings and their role in politics provide fascinating viewpoints on national and transnational political history, changing social relations, and the cultivation of rituals. This article outlines the positive appraisal of the royal biography since the late 1980s in the Netherlands and elaborates more generally what kind of contributions this genre offers to the historiography of political culture. Two recent studies illustrate this: Cees Fasseur's biography on Queen Wilhelmina (2012) - a short and updated version of his earlier published biography on the Dutch Queen - and the extensive biography on the Belgium King Leopold I (2011) by Gita Deneckere. The two biographies also clarify the paradox of the immense popularity of the hereditary monarchy in modern democracies, how these monarchies adapt to new circumstances and appeals to the imagination of the masses.