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The article discusses about Rogan Brown, a British artist based in France. Topics discussed include his artistic realm of the paper sculptures cut into circuitous mazes resembling coral reefs or cell cultures observed through microscopes; an effect of superposition which densifies the work and gives it a remarkable solidity, and the time and precision poured into his sculptures being clear evidence of Rogan's sense of wonder and reverence for nature.

The article discusses research by Richard Cook at University College London which found that players who have been blindfolded are more likely to win games of rock, paper, scissors, indicating that sighted players imitate the actions of others.

The article presents a report by Richard Cook of University College London which found that people copy the gestures of their opponents in games of rock-paper-scissors, suggesting that the brain has evolved to mimic social partners.

This section offers news clippings on dance-related issues as of September 2007. An interview with dancer Brendan Cole, which he recalls his experience in the World Youth Championships, is presented on the August 11 issue of "The Times." The robot called HRP-2 or Promet can reportedly imitate the steps of a dancer, according to a report by scientists on the August 8 issue of "The Guardian."

In light of the dynamic interaction between epidemic spreading and behavior responses, the development of a comprehensive epidemic model is both crucial and challenging. In this paper, based on the evolutionary game theory, we investigate the co-evolution of adherence strategy decision-making and epidemic spreading, with a particular focus on the role of conformity. Considering individual self-determination and population imitation, we analyze two distinct strategy updating rules: profit-driven decision-making and conformity-driven decision-making. We also account for the influence of neighbors' strategies on epidemic spread rates. Extensive simulations are conducted to analyze epidemic phase transitions and the distribution of infected individuals at the stationary state of the epidemic. By analyzing the adoption of strategies under different scenarios of conformity fractions, we find that conformity widens the disparity between different strategies over time. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that conformity promotes the adherence strategy, which helps reduce the size of the epidemic. • The adherence strategy is analyzed on an evolutionary game-based SIS epidemic model. • Self-determination and imitation are considered in the choice of adherence strategy. • We analyze two strategy updating rules: profit-driven and conformity-driven. • Simulations show that conformity widens the disparity between the two strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English logician and mathematician Alan Turing, in an attempt to develop a working definition of intelligence free of the difficulties and philosophical pitfalls of defining exactly what constitutes the mental process of intelligent reasoning, devised a test, instead, of intelligent behavior. The idea, codified in his celebrated 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and intelligence," was specified as an "imitation game'' in which a judge attempts to distinguish which of two agents is a human and which a computer imitating human responses by engaging each in a wide ranging conversation of any topic and tenor. Turing's reasoning was, presuming that intelligence only practically determinable behaviorally, that any agent that was indistinguishable in behavior from an intelligent agent was, for all intents and purposes,intelligent. It is presumably uncontroversial that humans are intelligent as evidenced by their conversational behavior. Thus, any agent that can be mistaken by virtue of its conversational behavior with a human must he intelligent.

[Display omitted] • A med-point-example learning strategy is proposed to get stronger exploitation. • A random learning strategy is introduced to obtain stronger exploration. • The two learning strategies are hybridized to balance exploitation and exploration. • A worst-best example learning strategy is embedded to maximize the performance. • The proposed algorithm has greater advantages on test sets and engineering problems. Social Learning Particle Swarm Optimization (SL-PSO) greatly improves the optimization performance of PSO. In solving complex optimization problems, however, it still has some deficiencies, such as poor search ability and low search efficiency. Hence, an improved SL-PSO, namely, Three-Learning Strategy PSO (TLS-PSO) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a med-point-example learning strategy and a random learning strategy are proposed to replace the imitation component and social influence component of SL-PSO to enhance the exploitation and exploration, respectively. Secondly, the two learning strategies are combined cleverly into an updating equation to balance exploration and exploitation. Finally, a worst-best example learning strategy is merged skillfully to construct TLS-PSO with hybrid learning mechanism and further enhance the search ability. The experimental results on the complex functions from CEC2013 and CEC2017 test sets indicate that TLS-PSO has better performance compared with state-of-the-art PSO variants and other algorithms. For example, TLS-PSO has an advantage over SL-PSO on 50 of the 56 functions from CEC2013, its running time is less than SL-PSO's and it has higher search efficiency. Simulation results on the 10 engineering problems also show that TLS-PSO outperforms 7 excellent algorithms, such as IUDE and iLSHADE ∊ . It is expected to solve practical problems better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An original combination of evolutionary game theory and membrane computing. • A general way to encode evolutionary game theory in membrane computing. • Ability to simulate games in nested compartments and migration. • A novel cellular-inspired framework to run evolutionary game theory. Evolutionary Game Theory studies the spreading of strategies in populations. An important question of the area concerns the possibility that certain population structures can facilitate the spreading of more cooperative behaviours associated to the sustainability and resilience of many different systems ranging from ecological to socio-economic systems. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to study the spreading of behaviours in structured populations by combining Evolutionary Game Theory and membrane computing. We show that there is a general way to encode Evolutionary Game Theory into membrane computing, leading to a novel computational framework which can be used to study, analyze and simulate the spreading of behaviours in structured populations organized in communicating compartments. The proposed approach allows to extend the works on membrane systems, population and ecological dynamics, and, at the same time, suggests a novel bio-inspired framework, based on formal languages theory, to investigate the dynamics of evolving structured populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinated and ordered collective behaviors that emerge from decentralized and local self-organizing interactions among individuals widely exists in many biological groups. The classical models often focus on the imitation of biological phenomena with the given position and velocity, but ignore the modeling of individual perception during the emergence of collective behaviors. Based on the mechanism of visual perception, we present a model named visual perception-decision-propulsion (VPDP) and clearly define several evaluation indicators to explore the emergence of collective obstacle avoidance in flocks. Within this model, there is no centralized control and no information exchange among individuals. Instead, individuals interacting with others merely rely on the perceptual information represented by whether the visual field is occupied by neighbors. We demonstrate that our model effectively achieves collective obstacle avoidance, preserving a safe distance between individuals and obstacles while maintaining relatively good coherence. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis of the parameters indicates the robustness of our VPDP model. Hence, this paper provides a novel model for collective obstacle avoidance based on visual perception as well as a detailed analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Proposing a learning algorithm to improve the social engagement behaviors of children with autism. • The proposed algorithm is a risk-averse Multi-Armed Bandit algorithm based on Entropic Value-at-Risk. • Assessing our proposed algorithm on children with autism while imitating a robot's movements. • Featuring the robustness, risk-avoidance, and better performance of the proposed algorithm. • Enhancing the social engagement behaviors of children with autism during task imitation. The stochastic multi-armed bandit problem is a standard model to solve the exploration–exploitation trade-off in sequential decision problems. In clinical trials, which are sensitive to outlier data, the goal is to learn a risk-averse policy to provide a trade-off between exploration, exploitation, and safety. In this paper, we present a risk-averse multi-armed bandit algorithm to solve a decision-making problem based on the social engagement behaviors of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The algorithm is carried out when children interact with a humanoid robot and imitate a sequence of the robot's movements. The proposed algorithm is based on the Best Empirical Sampled Average algorithm under Entropic Value-at-Risk as a risk measure to decide on the best sequence of movements that can improve the social engagement behaviors of the children with ASD while imitating the robot's movements. We provide a detailed experimental analysis to compare the performance of our proposed algorithm to some well-known risk-averse multi-armed bandit algorithms on some artificial scenarios and our real-world problem. The experimental results report that the proposed algorithm outperforms its competitors in terms of robustness, risk avoidance, and cumulative regret, promoting the social engagement behaviors of children with ASD when imitating a robot's movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the voter model, agents possess binary opinions. At each time step, an agent is selected along with a social neighbor and adopts the opinion of that neighbor at the next time step. In this paper, we delve into a variant of the voter model known as an imitation model based on the majority. This model represents a network opinion framework where individuals, situated on the vertex set of a finite connected graph interpreted as a social network, exhibit one of two competing opinions labeled as + 1 and − 1. The agent alters its opinion solely when the count of social neighbors holding opposing viewpoints exceeds those aligning with the agent's opinion. We explore the conditions leading to a consensus and investigate the probability of consensus on a finite connected social graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how Bad Vöslau, a small spa town in Austria, ended up with the largest collection of New Zealand kea in captivity. Topics covered include the establishment of the animal-research facility Haidlhof Research Station, how Raoul Schwing, head of Haidlhof's Kea Lab, began his work with kea and the precautionary measures that must be considered in visiting the aviary. It also discusses the history of kea in Austria.

The article presents apologies from various New Zealanders including television commentator David Slack, journalist Deborah Coddington and Boxing coach Billy Graham to their old school teachers. Coddington mentioned that she was the one of the notorious student who participated in the funeral of her teacher Mrs Clark. Graham apologizes to his teacher Mrs Moss at Naenae Intermediate School for mimic her voice.

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a nonlinear imitation rule into an evolutionary prisoner’s dilemma game and investigate how the nonlinear imitation rule affects cooperation. Based on the original version of the proportional imitation rule, the imitation probability for each individual is regulated by a parameter , which tunes the dependence of the imitation probability on the payoff difference. The results show that there exists an optimal value of at which the cooperation level reaches its highest value. We carry out the simulations in different types of networks with different mean degrees. Results show that the optimal behavior of cooperation induced by the variation of is robust. More importantly, from the results we can conclude that there are two crucial factors determining the optimal behavior of cooperation: One is the parameter , and the other is the regime of payoff difference supporting strong variation of the dependence of the imitation probability on the payoff difference. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Imitation is a powerful tool for gestural interaction between children and for teaching behaviors to children by parent. Furthermore, others' action can be a hint for acquiring a new behavior that might not be the same as the original action. The importance is how to map or represent others' action into new one in the internal state space. A good instructor can teach an action to a learner by understanding the mapping or imitating method of the learner. This indicates a robot also can acquire various behaviors using interactive learning based on imitation. This paper proposes structured learning for a partner robot based on the interactive teaching mechanism. The proposed method is composed of a spiking neural network, self-organizing map, steady-state genetic algorithm, and softmax action selection. Furthermore, we discuss the interactive learning of a human and a partner robot based on the proposed method through experiment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article informs that language that most clearly communicates is the one that most treacherously lies, for it obliterates the actuality of things. The author have come to believe that the imitation of reality in art, or mimesis, is a mistake. If you put enough lines on the paper in the thrown-away style maybe something called story will happen. And if it doesn't happen one can escape into empty signifleds. The slow creep of early postmodernism, except that the word hadn't been invented. Emptiness was a pregnant moral silence.

Presents information on the annual imitation of League of Nations and the U.S. Senate by groups of students representing colleges and universities in the northeastern quarter of the United States. Representation of each country by one or more students in the Model League; Address of each student by the name of one actual member of that august body in the Model Senate; Endorsement of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Supreme Court proposal in its present form by the Model Senate; Adoption of a federal act for maximum hours and minimum wages which proposes a national standards board to determine a minimum subsistence level for the whole country by the Model Senate.

Imitation exerts enormous influence over society, and business and finance in particular. And its influence has grown as the avenues by which people imitate--and are imitated--have multiplied and the process has gotten faster. Thousands of communications channels make it possible for virtually anyone in the developed world to know, almost instantaneously, what others do, think, believe, claim, or predict. More significantly, we can and do act upon such knowledge. The resulting fads and fashions, bubbles and crashes are ever more frequent, severe, and complex. The information age has cast up more than its share of paradoxes, including this one: When information is plentiful, we often use it not to make better decisions but to imitate others--and their mistakes. In consumer purchases, financial markets, and corporate strategy, what others do matters more to us than the facts. When there's too much information, imitation becomes a convenient heuristic. This is the basis for a self-referential society. Imitation has its virtues, but it also promotes instability and unpredictability. That's because, by definition a multiplier, it can swell a single opinion into a mass movement or catapult the smallest player to the forefront of a market. Mastering the dynamics of self-reference won't ensure mastery of its consequences. But businesses that understand how imitation works can at least attempt to gird themselves against its worst effects--by accounting for it in their forecasts and risk-management plans, by becoming more sensitive to unexpectedly changing circumstances, and by avoiding mindless imitation of other companies' moves. In some instances, they may even be able to build strategies around self-reference and use the tools of imitation to capture new business. That won't make the world any less confusing. But it may make it more profitable. INSETS: The Blind Leading the Blind;Ditto Masters;Different Drummers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the adventures of E.E. Paramore, a businessman, who died in California on May 25, 1928. Report that he devoted as much time and attention to yachting, his favorite sport, as to any of them and his great passion was for ships; Personality of Paramore; Report that he had the most extraordinary gift of mimicking the way people talked and could apparently, reproduce the local accents and dialects of every part of the U.S.; Report that perhaps the most extraordinary thing about all the reminiscences was the love of life which they revealed; Report that his manners had the heartiness of the West and the dignity and ease of the South; Report that his last years were troubled by the anxiety to make money to leave to his sons, who were perfectly well able to take care of themselves.

The article provides information on a study conducted by a researcher at the Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, according to which teaching children with autism to imitate others would help in improving a broad range of social skills. The study found that toddlers and preschoolers with autism who were taught to imitate skills made more attempts to draw the examiner's attention to an object through gestures and eye contact.

The article discusses the findings of a research study published in the May 2016 issue of the journal "Current Biology" and conducted by psychologists Janine Oostenbroek, Virginia Slaughter and their colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia to investigate newborn imitation of adults.

The article looks at the role of imitation in successful businesses. It is noted that although innovation is a valued element of company strategy, businesses that respond to or legally copy their competitors' innovations are often as profitable as those who develop their own new products. Various examples of this phenomenon are presented, including the generic pharmaceuticals industry, the disposable diapers brand Pampers, and the fast food chain McDonald's.

The article focuses on the exploration of invader/settler identity in the fiction of Australian writer Murray Bail. Bail reveals how mimicry in various guises has worked as relentlessly in his homeland against the formation of a free, innovative society as in communities built overtly on structures of oppression.

The article highlights a study concerning imitation learning or modeling. The study aims to explore the nature of modifying teacher behavior using audio video-taped models in a micro-teaching setting. The author discusses several theories that have been developed to explain the motivation underlying imitative behavior. The relationship of social reinforcement to imitation learning is also analyzed and discussed. Several studies previously done on imitation learning are also summarized by the author.

The article focuses on the role of English grammar collocation as a tool in teaching the sentence construction and clear expression of ideas. It mentions that as teachers of English language as a foreign language, they should teach the students the right thing to do and not to think. It states that second language acquisition is a process of imitation and students should follow the teachers. It also states that learning any language depends on the relationship of elements with each other.

The article discusses issues related to skeuomorphism, the phenomenon in which a product mimics aspects of the look and feel of an old-fashioned equivalent that were once important to its function but are now merely ornamental. It mentions that there are times when a skeuomorphic approach is necessary for comprehension. It adds that Apple uses skeuomorphism in many of its icons such as the Address Book.

The article presents a training session which aims to suggest to teacher, workshop leader, or trainer a possible strategy to several topics often tackled in teacher training sessions. It states that the session is designed to teach people how to become a better person and teacher by learning from other people. It notes that imitating others in order to learn is a way of reaching one's potential.

The article presents information on the book "The Mirrors of Washington." Shoddiness is to be expected in imitations, and "The Mirrors of Washington" is no exception to the general rule. Although there is seemingly perfect freedom from restraint, the book fails to achieve the character of the book "The Mirrors of Downing Street." It lacks that spontaneity, that genuine weakness with smallness and meanness in high places, that suggestion of outraged hope and faith that appear in the first book. One does not discern an angry truth-telling, one discerns too plainly an, eye to the fattening of royalties, and the consequent throwing in of the tabasco at fairly regular intervals for the pleasing of a public taste craving hot stuff.

The article profiles performer Lucho Navarro who imitates the sound of nearly everything including rifle fire, hoofbeats, and helicopters. Navarro reportedly gave up his aspirations for the quiet life as an electrical engineer to devote himself to noisemaking. It adds that he has performed in Chile and South America and is said to be developing a bouquet of New York sounds after landing numerous contracts throughout the U.S.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of pretending to be someone else.

The author of this article comments on her hairstyle and efforts she undertook to make it look curly. For the last 20 years she had blown dry her tight ringlets into straight sticks with a professional twin-turbo 2600-watt hair dryer powerful enough to heat a small apartment. In grade school, she longed to look like her friend Mary Pinnell, who had shiny chestnut-colored hair that flowed straight down, stopping in an even line just above her waist. When Pinnell walked, her curtain of hair swung rhythmically, like a pendulum. She was perfect in every way, from her pug nose to her tiny, well-proportioned frame, the hair her crowning glory.

The article presents several anecdotes which depict the copied manners of negroes in New England. It highlights the story of a man named Cuffee who copied the behavior and action of gentlemen in his master's neighborhood. It mentions the enactment of the tragic character Jane Shore by a British actress.