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.     

The combinatorics and extreme value statistics of protein threading

In protein threading, one is given a protein sequence, together with a database of protein core structures that may contain the natural structure of the sequence. The object of protein threading is to correctly identify the structure(s) corresponding to the sequence. Since the core structures are already associated with specific biological functions, threading has the potential to provide biologists with useful insights about the function of a newly discovered protein sequence. Statistical tests for threading results based on the theory of extreme values suggest several combinatorial problems. For example, what is the number of waysm′=# _t {L _i >x _i } _i ⁼⁰ⁿ of choosing a sequence {X _i } _i ⁼¹ⁿ from the set {1, 2, ...,t}, subject to the difference constraints {L _i =X _i+1?X _i >x _i } _i ⁼⁰ⁿ , whereX ₀=0,X _n+1=t+1, and {x _i } _i ⁼⁰ⁿ is an arbitrary sequence of integers? The quantitym′ has many attractive combinatorial interpretations and reduces in special continuous limits to a probabilistic formula discovered by the Finetti. Just as many important probabilities can be derived from de Finetti's formula, many interesting combinatorial quantities can be derived fromm′. Empirical results presented here show that the combinatorial approach to threading statistics appears promising, but that structural periodicities in proteins and energetically unimportant structure elements probably introduce statistical correlations that must be better understood.     

Critical reflexivity in financial markets: a Hawkes process analysis

We model the arrival of mid-price changes in the E-mini S&P futures contract as a self-exciting Hawkes process. Using several estimation methods, we find that the Hawkes kernel is power-law with a decay exponent close to ?1.15 at short times, less than ≈ 10³ s, and crosses over to a second power-law regime with a larger decay exponent ≈–1.45 for longer times scales in the range [10³ ,10⁶ ] seconds. More importantly, we find that the Hawkes kernel integrates to unity independently of the analysed period, from 1998 to 2011. This suggests that markets are and have always been close to criticality, challenging a recent study which indicates that reflexivity (endogeneity) has increased in recent years as a result of increased automation of trading. However, we note that the scale over which market events are correlated has decreased steadily over time with the emergence of higher frequency trading.     

Effects of combined dimension reduction and tabulation on the simulations of a turbulent premixed flame using a large-eddy simulation/probability density function method

A turbulent lean-premixed propane–air flame stabilised by a triangular cylinder as a flame-holder is simulated to assess the accuracy and computational efficiency of combined dimension reduction and tabulation of chemistry. The computational condition matches the Volvo rig experiments. For the reactive simulation, the Lagrangian Large-Eddy Simulation/Probability Density Function (LES/PDF) formulation is used. A novel two-way coupling approach between LES and PDF is applied to obtain resolved density to reduce its statistical fluctuations. Composition mixing is evaluated by the modified Interaction-by-Exchange with the Mean (IEM) model. A baseline case uses In Situ Adaptive Tabulation (ISAT) to calculate chemical reactions efficiently. Its results demonstrate good agreement with the experimental measurements in turbulence statistics, temperature, and minor species mass fractions. For dimension reduction, 11 and 16 represented species are chosen and a variant of Rate Controlled Constrained Equilibrium (RCCE) is applied in conjunction with ISAT to each case. All the quantities in the comparison are indistinguishable from the baseline results using ISAT only. The combined use of RCCE/ISAT reduces the computational time for chemical reaction by more than 50%. However, for the current turbulent premixed flame, chemical reaction takes only a minor portion of the overall computational cost, in contrast to non-premixed flame simulations using LES/PDF, presumably due to the restricted manifold of purely premixed flame in the composition space. Instead, composition mixing is the major contributor to cost reduction since the mean-drift term, which is computationally expensive, is computed for the reduced representation. Overall, a reduction of more than 15% in the computational cost is obtained.     

Ein in der reinen Zahlentheorie unbeweisbarer Satz über endliche Folgen von natürlichen Zahlen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Ordered priority queues

A new data structure called ordered priority queue is introduced in this paper. Elements stored in the data structure have a primary order (key) and a secondary order (priority) associated with them. An ordered min-priority queue allows users to find the minimum priority element in any range (according to key order) inO(logn) time. Such a data structure withn elements can be created inO(n logn) time usingO(n) storage. A specific implementation based on median split trees is presented. Sequential access of the elements can be done inO(n log logn) time andO(logn) extra storage.This work was supported in part by NASA under grant NAG 5-739.     

Underwater measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity using Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments

A laboratory underwater acoustic measurement technique, Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments (SIRE), is developed analytically and validated experimentally and numerically. Unlike standard free or diffuse field techniques, SIRE enables the measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity in an environment with inexact field conditions. The technique takes advantage of underwater vector sensors, measuring only acoustic pressure and the normal component of particle velocity/acceleration, and supersonic wavenumber filtering in the near field of a source. The result is outward-propagating acoustic waves separated from interfering incoming and/or evanescent waves. The SIRE technique was experimentally applied to monopole and dipole sources and the results are compared with theory and standard methods. SIRE is shown to accurately measure radiated sound power to within the limits of ANSI S12.51 and to accurately measure the directivity indices of simple sources to within ±3 dB. A coupled finite element/boundary element model of a point-driven, thin-walled cylinder is also developed to establish the limitations of the SIRE technique. The model results show that the measurement standoff distance should be less than the reciprocal of the largest wavenumber in the frequency band of interest. Furthermore, the maximum measurement grid spacing must be less than twice the standoff distance.     

High P–T Raman study of transitions in relaxor multiferroic Pb(Fe0.5Nb0.5)O3

The vibrational and structural properties of Pb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ have been investigated using Raman spectroscopy up to 40 GPa at 300 K and from 300 to 415 K at selected pressures. The measurements reveal three phase transitions, at 5.5, 8.7, and 24 GPa at room temperature. The temperature dependences of the spectra indicate transitions at 1.5 GPa, at 335 and 365 K. The results are consistent with the appearance of an intermediate tetragonal P4mm phase between the ferroelectric R3m and paraelectric Pm‐3m phases. A P–T phase diagram is proposed that allows further insight into the magnetoelectric coupling present in this material. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.