Weak axial variations in B(z) or φ(z) in “axisymmetric” plasma traps cause a fraction of the particles to be trapped axially, with a velocity-space separatrix between trapped and passing populations. The trapped and passing particles experience different dynamics in response to a variety of θ-asymmetries in the E × B rotating plasma, so a discontinuity in the velocity-space distribution f(v) te...

A novel way to describe the complexity of biological and engineering approaches depending on the number of different base materials is proposed: Either many materials are used (material dominates) or few materials (form dominates) or just one material (structure dominates). The complexity of the approach (in biology as well as in engineering) increases with decreasing number of base materials. ...

Reinforcement Learning algorithms such as SARSA with an eligibility trace, and Evolutionary Computation methods such as genetic algorithms, are competing approaches to solving Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) which occur in many fields of Artificial Intelligence. A powerful form of evolutionary algorithm that has not previously been applied to POMDPs is the cultural algor...

Adults integrate multisensory information optimally (e.g., Ernst and Banks, 2002) while children do not integrate multisensory visual-haptic cues until 8-10 years of age (e.g., Gori et al., 2008). Before that age strong unisensory dominance occurs for size and orientation visual-haptic judgments, possibly reflecting a process of cross-sensory calibration between modalities. It is widely recogni...