Active Inference: Applicability to Different Types of Social Organization Explained through Reference to Industrial Engineering and Quality Management

Active inference is a physics of life process theory of perception, action and learning that is applicable to natural and artificial agents. In this paper, active inference theory is related to different types of practice in social organization. Here, the term social organization is used to clarify that this paper does not encompass organization in biological systems. Rather, the paper addresses active inference in social organization that utilizes industrial engineering, quality management, and artificial intelligence alongside human intelligence. Social organization referred to in this paper can be in private companies, public institutions, other for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and any combination of them. The relevance of active inference theory is explained in terms of variational free energy, prediction errors, generative models, and Markov blankets. Active inference theory is most relevant to the social organization of work that is highly repetitive. By contrast, there are more challenges involved in applying active inference theory for social organization of less repetitive endeavors such as one-of-a-kind projects. These challenges need to be addressed in order for active inference to provide a unifying framework for different types of social organization employing human and artificial intelligence.     

A Traditional Scientific Perspective on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness

This paper assesses two different theories for explaining consciousness, a phenomenon that is widely considered amenable to scientific investigation despite its puzzling subjective aspects. I focus on Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which says that consciousness is integrated information (as ϕ^Max) and says even simple systems with interacting parts possess some consciousness. First, I evaluate IIT on its own merits. Second, I compare it to a more traditionally derived theory called Neurobiological Naturalism (NN), which says consciousness is an evolved, emergent feature of complex brains. Comparing these theories is informative because it reveals strengths and weaknesses of each, thereby suggesting better ways to study consciousness in the future. IIT’s strengths are the reasonable axioms at its core; its strong logic and mathematical formalism; its creative “experience-first” approach to studying consciousness; the way it avoids the mind-body (“hard”) problem; its consistency with evolutionary theory; and its many scientifically testable predictions. The potential weakness of IIT is that it contains stretches of logic-based reasoning that were not checked against hard evidence when the theory was being constructed, whereas scientific arguments require such supporting evidence to keep the reasoning on course. This is less of a concern for the other theory, NN, because it incorporated evidence much earlier in its construction process. NN is a less mature theory than IIT, less formalized and quantitative, and less well tested. However, it has identified its own neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and offers a roadmap through which these NNCs may answer the questions of consciousness using the hypothesize-test-hypothesize-test steps of the scientific method.     

Deep Learning for Walking Behaviour Detection in Elderly People Using Smart Footwear

The increase in the proportion of elderly in Europe brings with it certain challenges that society needs to address, such as custodial care. We propose a scalable, easily modulated and live assistive technology system, based on a comfortable smart footwear capable of detecting walking behaviour, in order to prevent possible health problems in the elderly, facilitating their urban life as independently and safety as possible. This brings with it the challenge of handling the large amounts of data generated, transmitting and pre-processing that information and analysing it with the aim of obtaining useful information in real/near-real time. This is the basis of information theory. This work presents a complete system aiming at elderly people that can detect different user behaviours/events (sitting, standing without imbalance, standing with imbalance, walking, running, tripping) through information acquired from 20 types of sensor measurements (16 piezoelectric pressure sensors, one accelerometer returning reading for the 3 axis and one temperature sensor) and warn the relatives about possible risks in near-real time. For the detection of these events, a hierarchical structure of cascading binary models is designed and applied using artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms and deep learning techniques. The best models are achieved with convolutional layered ANN and multilayer perceptrons. The overall event detection performance achieves an average accuracy and area under the ROC curve of 0.84 and 0.96, respectively.     

一种“冻地”鸡血石相似玉石的宝石学及谱学研究

研究对象是一种与“冻地”鸡血石外观高度相似的玉石,该种玉石半透明“地”中含有橙红色矿物。利用X射线粉晶衍射仪、扫描电子显微镜、红外光谱仪、拉曼光谱仪对该玉石的宝石学及谱学特征进行研究。结果表明：该玉石“地”的主要组成矿物为有序度较高的地开石、橙红色矿物为雄黄;地开石晶体为自形假六边形片状,约15～20 μm,厚2～4 μm,粒径均一且形态一致,集合体在三维空间无序排列;部分样品“地”中含有少量黄铁矿、萤石、石英、方解石等矿物。“地”的红外光谱指纹区具有高岭石族矿物的主要特征峰,分别位于430,470,540,698,755,795,913,937,1 002,1 034和1 118 cm-1;官能团区以3 622,3 653和3 706 cm-1处的吸收峰为特征,3 622 cm-1吸收峰由内羟基OH1的面内伸缩振动引起,3 653 cm-1归属于内表面羟基OH2和OH4的同相伸缩振动;从高频峰到低频峰强度依次增大,且内表面羟基OH3伸缩振动引起的吸收峰位于3 706 cm-1,表明“地”为有序地开石;拉曼光谱测试表明“血”为雄黄,具有186,222,235,273,346和355 cm-1的特征拉曼位移,其中186和222 cm-1归属于S-As-S的弯曲振动,346和355 cm-1由As-S的伸缩振动引起;拉曼光谱同样可用于“地”的矿物组成研究,低频区具有133,241,266,336,436,463,747,792和914 cm-1的高岭石族矿物的特征位移,高频区可见三个与红外光谱相似的阶梯状谱峰,3 624 cm-1强度最大,归属于OH1的伸缩振动,次强峰3 646 cm-1由OH2和OH4的同相伸缩振动引起,归属于OH3的伸缩振动峰强度最小且位于3 706 cm-1,高频区拉曼位移特点指示“地”为地开石,且有序度较高,与红外光谱测试结论一致。尽管研究样品的“地”与“冻地”鸡血石的主要组成矿物相同,为地开石,且具有外观细腻、温润等特点,但其“血”并非辰砂而是雄黄,所以不应与鸡血石混淆,其正确的珠宝玉石名称应为“粘土矿物质玉”。     

Elemental Analysis of Stone Fruits by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and Direct Mercury Analysis

This study reports the concentrations of eight trace essential (Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Cr, Co, V, and Se) and four toxic elements (Pb, As, Cd, and Hg) in commonly consumed stone fruits from South Korea. The samples were digested by microwave-induced combustion and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The concentrations of mercury were analyzed by direct mercury analysis (DMA). The analytical techniques were validated by linearity, limits of detection and quantification, precision, recovery, and for accuracy by analyzing a spinach leave-certified reference material; satisfactory results were obtained in all cases. The concentrations of essential trace elements varied considerably among the stone fruits. Generally stone fruits contained comparatively high concentrations of Zn (0.946 to 7.86?µg/g) and Mn (below the limit of detection to 1.66?µg/g), while lower contents of Cu (0.214 to 1.24?µg/g), Cr (0.032 to 0.114?µg/g), Ni (0.006 to 0.091?µg/g), Co (0.004 to 0.016?µg/g), V (below the limit of detection to 0.023?µg/g), and Se (0.0002 to 0.005?µg/g) were obtained. The concentrations (µg/g) of toxic metals were 0.007 (peach) to 0.016 (cherry) for Pb, 0.001 (plum) to 0.007 (cherry) for As, 0.002 (apricot and cherry) to 0.003 (peach) for Cd, and 0.0003 (peach) to 0.0016 (jujube) for Hg. The values for the estimated dietary intakes, target hazard quotients, and hazard indices were lower than the recommended safety limits by World Health Organization. Therefore, the analyzed stone fruits were deemed to be safe for human consumption.     

管流系统的可控扰动装置及其应用

阐述了具有可控人工扰动装置的低背景湍动液体管流系统的研制和评价要点在及在高分子减阻液研究中的应用，并指出了这种实验系统在液体内流研究中的重要意义。     

弹性杆与结构接触冲击的冲击力计算研究

本文提出了一种将杆与结构的接触冲击问题简化为集中力与集中阻尼的常规结构动力学问题的计算模型。对于大型结构，可采用一种特殊的人工边界，只需对人工边界域内的结构用有限元法进行计算。这种人工边界是齐次的，可根据冲击影响区的大小人为地确定     

沙苑子提取液对不同体系中草酸钙晶体生长影响的研究

通过与水、氯化钠、正常人尿液体系的比较,重点研究了结石患者尿液体系中加入中药沙苑子提取液对草酸钙晶体生长的的影响,利用SEM,FTIR和XRD等测试手段对所得晶体进行表征。结果发现:在结石患者尿液体系中形成的草酸钙晶体为一水草酸钙(COM)晶体,而在这4种体系中加入沙苑子提取液后,只形成二水草酸钙(COD)晶体,表明沙苑子提取液能抑制COM晶体生长,并且随着沙苑子提取液浓度增大,抑制作用增强。沙苑子抑制草酸钙晶体生长的可能机理进行了探讨。     

Formation of artificial micro‐pits on Al alloy with the photon rupture method and the localized corrosion behavior of the formed pits

An in situ artificial micro‐pit fabrication method with an area selective electrochemical measurement technique was applied to investigate the effect of the geometry of artificially formed pits on their localized corrosion behavior in anodized 1000 series aluminum. This technique enables the fabrication of artificial micro‐pits with different aspect ratios (pit depth/pit diameter) in solutions. The aspect ratios of the fabricated artificial micro‐pits in this experiment could be varied from 0.13 to 1.83 by controlling the irradiation time of the focused pulsed YAG laser beam. By applying a constant potential to the final laser‐beam‐irradiated spot in chloride environments, localized dissolution occurred only at the laser beam irradiated area, because the anodic oxide film acted as an insulator. The corrosion current and charge increase with increasing aspect ratio at any applied potential. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.