 fluent traffic flow.

B. Results and Discussion
The learning curves for all controllers and all trials are shown in Fig. 5 and the results from the simulation runs are shown in Table III.
First, we investigate the difference between (a) and (b), i.e. the difference between using a safety layer or instead action masking to ensure safety. The most significant difference is that 2 of 5 agents from (a) get stuck in a local optimum around an episodic reward of −3000, while the other 3 agents from (a) and all 5 agents from (b) reach a level of around −1800. Another aspect is the faster convergence when using action masking. In (b), 3 of 5 agents reach a performance over −2000 in less than approx. 2.4 million steps, but in (a) 3 of 5 agents need around 4.3 million steps to reach the same level. Furthermore, agents trained with action masking reach a slightly higher cumulative reward. This can be seen in the  average cumulative reward for the best three agents of the controllers in Table III. While in (a) this value is −749.1, in (b) the cumulative reward is −707.1. The data demonstrate that the usage of action masking results in avoiding local optima, faster convergence, and better performances of the agents. This can be explained through the reduced number of possible actions, that come with action masking, and that leads to more efficient exploration. Considering the traffic metrics in Table III gives a mixed picture. On the one hand, the controller using action masking outperforms the safety layer version in all vehicle-related metrics (for stops the values are equal). But on the other hand, the safety layer version emphasizes more on reducing the waiting time for pedestrians, so that the average of this metric for the best three controllers in (a) amounts to 14.1s, while it is 18.7s for (b). Thus, the agents in (b) have learned to prioritize vehicles at the expense of pedestrians which leads to a higher cumulative reward.
In the following, we investigate the impact of extending the action masking mechanism to incorporate non-safety-related rules, so we compare the controllers of (b) and (c). One finding is, that the learning curves in (c) are more alike than those of (b). I.e. the shape of the curves, as well as the values, differ less from each other. An interesting finding was that there is a drop in the episodic reward at the beginning of the training in (b) and (c), but not in (a). The agents in (b) have shown a worse drop (trial 4 up to approx. −10500) than those of (c) (trial 4 up to approx. −7500). Why there is a drop when integrating action masking remains a subject for further research. Furthermore, the convergence of the agents in (c) was slightly faster than those in (b). These findings are consistent with the interpretation of our previous analysis of comparing (a) and (b). Integrating more rules in the action masking mechanism leads to a more efficient exploration (reduced number of actions) and therefore to faster convergence and more stable training. In addition, the standard deviations of all traffic metrics in Table III are lower in (c) than in (b) or equal (in case of stops). The performance of the control behavior is therefore less dependent on the initial training conditions when using action masking. However, there is one downside. By integrating more rules, the agent has less flexibility. In our case, this leads to slightly worse performance of the agents in (c). While the average cumulative reward of the best three controllers from (b) is −707.1, this value is −749.6 for (c).
V. CONCLUSION In this paper, we show an easy and practical approach to develop an RL-based traffic signal controller that acts at all times safe and can therefore be deployed in a real-world setting. We define a discrete action space that encompasses all possible traffic phases, which represent combinations of signal colors that allow non-or partial conflicting traffic flows. Most importantly, we extract traffic engineering domain knowledge about the interaction between phases as a temporal, directed graph and incorporate this graph via action masking into the RL algorithm. The action space is therefore safe-by-design. Empirical data gathered in an experiment with a realistic simulation scenario demonstrates the superiority of this approach over using a safety layer. Agents trained with our approach converge faster, reach a higher end performance, and avoid getting stuck in a local optimum.
In the next step, we extend the action masking mechanism to incorporate rules, which are not directly related to safety, but to the psychological impact on drivers. Without any restriction, the RL agent could produce phase trajectories that might be optimal in terms of optimizing the cumulative reward, but that has a negative impact on the psychological state of traffic participants. Therefore, they should be avoided. Our experiment has shown that incorporating such rules lead to even faster convergence and more stable training. But as a drawback, the performance of that agents is slightly lower, since the agents have less flexibility in the action selection process. For this reason, care must be taken to find a sensible balance between restricting the agent and performance.
By ensuring safety and psychologically pleasant control behavior, we believe that our approach is a major step towards the deployment of RL-based traffic signal controllers to real-world scenarios. In our future work, we therefore plan to deploy this solution at the OWL322 intersection in Lemgo.Switzerland has quickly become a major destination for crypto trading.
This is mostly because of the low tax rates and the very welcoming regulatory requirements.
High Net and Institutional investors who have millions invested into Bitcoin (BTH) are now being invited by two prominent Swiss investors, Niklas Nikolajsen and Philipp Vonmoos to invest in their newly established Swiss Crypto Vault.
This special Swiss Crypto Value is supposed to be perfect for high net investors and institutions who want the assurance that their bitcoin is safe from hackers. Nikolajsen and Vonmoos are looking to attract investors from around the world with the promise that their Swiss Crypto Vault will be providing the best in security, storage, and encryption. When a client's bitcoin comes in, the only way it will be going out is with their personal approval.
Swiss Crypto Vault launched services this week and clients from around the world will be able to deposit other cryptocurrencies beside bitcoin. This includes Etherum and other popular cryptocurrencies. The Vault already has its first client in the form of Bitcoin Suisse, the brokerage firm that Nikolajsen founded. Bitcoin Suisse has already moved all of its assets to the bunker which boasts of deep underground storage, an authorization process that requires multiple signatories, state of the art encryption and top end firewalls.
This is not the first time Swiss bunkers have been used to store cryptocurrencies. They are notoriously well-made and are perfect for protecting cryptocurrencies from online hacking and the very physical threat of servers getting damaged. Considering these bunkers were made to withstand a nuclear attack, high net investors should be very confident of working with The Vault.
The Swiss investors expect banks and high end investors to sign contracts with them as they will have the assurance that their multi-million dollar investments in crypto are protected at all times.
Switzerland's banks have always been nervous about letting cryptocurrencies in, with concerns about legality and safety being the most-cited reasons. Despite this, Nikolajsen assures everyone that the Swiss financial regulator, Finma is well aware of his operation and everything is above board.Hi, I seem to be having a weird problem with the Flickr uploading thing. I'm using the latest version of Picajet FX (currently still trial), and I have Flickr uploader version  |||IP_ADDRESS|||.
I am trying to upload a few photos that have "nested" categories in PicaJet - e.g. UK->Brighton->Beach. When uploading them to flickr with the "use categories as tags" set to on, instead of having three separate tags (Uk, Brighton & beach) - the photos have a tag assigned "UKbrightonbeach" i.e. all one tag.
Is this a problem at flickr's end, a problem with the picajet categories, or the uploader.
Othe than this annoying thing, great software. If anyone can sort out this problem i may upgrade!&gt;	The fact that he had a bad debate a couple weeks ago and it blew up on the Internet is tantamount to his abilities bc it so rarely happens. 


Lmao  it wasn’t even a debate it was an interview.


 Literally just an interview and the hugely conservative bbc guy asks him simple questions and he completely falls apart, calling him someone on the left and then saying “i’m popular and you aren’t!” before leaving. 



If anything that video showed the true shapiro rather than the ones where he’s “debating” unprepared college students.Here's a quick look at the phone with the best smartphone ratings of 2008. Performance, functionality, productivity, user friendliness, size and value of all issues. Some of the big names in this industry are BlackBerry, Nokia, HTC, Apple and Palm, and they are regularly bringing new smartphones and upgrades for the current. And the tops for 2008 had many of these names, but in the end, like something, the smartphone is just as good as his needs. So you need to decide what your needs are and find the phone that best meets your needs.
RIM Blackberry Bold – This does not disappoint you. Awesome screen, great tools and multimedia performance are at the top of the line. This is one of the best.
Nokia E71