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Predicate Calculus for Perception-led Automata
No full textArtificial Intelligence is a fuzzy concept. My role, as I see it, is to put
down a working definition, a criterion, and a set of assumptions to set
up equations for a workable methodology. This research introduces the
notion of Artificial Intelligent Agency, denoting the application of Artificial
General Intelligence. The problem being handled by mathematics and
logic, and only thereafter semantics, is Self-Supervised Machine Learning
(SSML) towards Intuitive Vehicle Health Management, in the domain of
cybernetic-physical science.
The present work stems from a broader engagement with a major multinational
automotive OEM, where Intelligent Vehicle Health Management
will dynamically choose suitable variants only to realise predefined variation
points. Physics-based models infer properties of a model of the system,
not properties of the implemented system itself. The validity of their
inference depends on the models’ degree of fidelity, which is always an approximate
localised engineering abstraction. In sum, people are not very
good at establishing causality.
To deduce new truths from implicit patterns in the data about the physical
processes that generate the data, the kernel of this transformative technology
is the intersystem architecture, occurring in-between and involving the physical and engineered system and the construct thereof, through the communication core at their interface. In this thesis it is shown that the
most practicable way to establish causality is by transforming application models into actual implementation. The hypothesis being that the ideal source of training data for SSML, is an isomorphic monoid of indexical facts, trace-preserving events of natural kind
A qualitative study with perspectives from African-Caribbean, Irish and white- British families
No full textIn the UK, it is estimated, by the year 2025, 50,000 people from minority ethnic communities will be living with dementia. Focusing on people with dementia who have immigrated to the UK from Ireland and the Caribbean, the aim of this thesis was to explore how these families perceived and coped with dementia, to find out whether there were specific cultural influences that required distinctive support.
Two systematic literature reviews were conducted; one explored how people from Irish and African Caribbean backgrounds cope with chronic illnesses. The second, considered how interventions can be successfully adapted for different cultural groups. Twenty-four families (eight Irish, eight African Caribbean, and eight white British) were involved in this study. Families, including the person with dementia where possible, took part in interviews. Using an analytic template based on the self-regulatory model of illness, relevant interview material was collated under ten themes: dementia identity, cure, personal control, treatment control, timeline, emotions, causes, coherence, consequences, and coping.
Minority ethnic groups distrusted formal services, often due to past discrimination. They experienced care home environments as culturally alien and community stigma discouraged them from using mainstream services. There was a high level of familism and trust between family members, and families looked to their own communities for support. These communities were not always dementia aware and there were high levels of stigma. Based on these finding and preliminary co-design work, future work should consider developing interventions to address stigma in communities and raise awareness in health care professionals.Alzheimer’s societ
The design and development of a serious game intervention to engage service users who experience psychosis and staff who work with them in activities that promote recovery
No full textBackground: For those who experience serious mental illness (SMI), there is a poor fit between treatment provided and the meeting of service user need. Alternative explanations of mental illness and the recovery agenda have changed the way SMI is understood and treated. Serious games, by creating an entertaining and educational experience, have shown promise in the promotion of pro-health behaviours. By applying a research-through-design approach, this thesis will seek to create intermediate-level knowledge that is generative to the future design and development of serious games for the promotion of treatment for people who experience SMI.
Method: Service Users who experience SMI and Staff who work with them were engaged in separate focus groups (N=43) and joint design workshops (N=22) to co-design and co-develop a serious game intervention. At each stage, design insights contemporaneous to that stage were identified and successively refined.
Findings: The following five generalisable design insights of (1). Collaboration is possible with autonomy; (2). Engagement in learning content is best achieved via practical, applied, problem-based learning of psychosocial skills; (3). Learning is best achieved via discrete, repeatable, and measurable gameplay activities; (4). Collaboration and competition are compatible, and (5). Heuristics can inform the development of game concepts, were identified.
Conclusion: The use of serious games to engage people who experience SMI in treatment is possible. However, to ensure engagement, designers need to create an entertaining and educational experience. This thesis provides the intermediate-level knowledge required for the designer to achieve this
The Impact Of leadership Styles On Employee Engagement In The UAE GHQ Civil Defence
No full textThis work attempts to explore the relationship between leadership style and employee engagement and determine how engagement (measured through the dimensions of vigour, absorption, and dedication) can influence strategic policy. The research collects data through a survey with 287 employees and semi-structured interviews with 10 leaders from different departments within the GHQ Civil Defence Council in the UAE.
The survey findings indicate a higher prevalence of the authoritarian leadership style, compared to the democratic, transformational, and transactional styles, as well as a relatively high level of employee engagement. Nevertheless, the interview findings suggest that leaders perceive employee engagement differently from the employees. The leaders report practicing a rather diverse range of leadership approaches and styles compared to the survey results, including autocratic, transactional, transformational, and situational styles. The interviews further reveal a lack of support for employee voice and autonomy among the leaders, indicating a tendency towards sole decision-making. The study emphasizes the importance of hierarchy and tradition in shaping leadership style within the organization, while highlighting the challenges posed by COVID-19 and remote working.
The findings are used to develop a leadership and engagement model. Recommendations for improving employee engagement through leadership in the GHQ Civil Defence included increasing consistency in leadership styles, supporting employee voice, and strengthening team relations. The research contributes to understanding the relationship between leadership style and employee engagement, emphasising the role of local culture and organizational traditions. It also underscores the negative impact of autocratic and transactional leadership styles on engagement
An exploration of the changing understandings of physical impairment and disability in early medieval England: a bioarchaeological, funerary, and historical approach
Get PDFYesThis paper explores experiences and perceptions of physical impairment and disability in early medieval England, contrasting pre-Christian (AD 5th–early 7th centuries) and Christian (AD late 8th–11th centuries) communities through a combination of bioarchaeological, clinical, funerary, historical, and theoretical analyses. By comparing understandings of physical impairment and disability in the pre-Christian and Christian periods, this paper investigates how political rearrangements and the growing power of the Church might have influenced changing contemporary perceptions of physical impairment and disability.
This research has found that the funerary treatment of individuals with physical impairment in the pre-Christian period was extremely variable within and between cemeteries, and there is evidence for arguably positive, normative, and potentially negative burial treatment. Although mortuary treatment of Christian-era individuals with physical impairment was somewhat variable, this variation was much more subtle. This reflects the overall Christian-era pattern in burial form, and strongly negative or positive mortuary treatment was not identified among the individuals with physical impairment. Based on this evidence, it is proposed that administrative and judicial standardisation, conversion to Christianity, and the spread of Christian morals and doctrine influenced the reduction in mortuary variability observed in individuals with physical impairment and/or disability in the 8th–11th centuries in England
Demountable reinforced concrete slabs using dry connection
Get PDFYesThis paper presents an experimental investigation of a new dry connection for reinforced concrete slab elements. Seven full-scale slabs were tested; one slab was monolithic as control specimens, while the other six were assembled using top and bottom steel plates joined by high tensile steel bolts. Two scenarios were proposed for the connection, a simple bolted connection, and a connection with a shear key. The parameters studied were the use of stirrups at the connection section, the step size of the shear key as well as the bolt diameter and number. The test results showed that using a shear key at the assembled section in demountable slabs is more efficient than the simple bolted connection, providing higher flexural stiffness, load capacity, and less deflection. However, increasing the shear key step size improved the flexural performance of the demountable slabs. In addition, adding stirrups to the assembled section enhanced the flexural stiffness and the total load capacity of the demountable slabs. Furthermore, the predictions for the moment capacity and deflection demountable slabs have reasonably good agreement with the experimental results but require additional calibrated data from experiments to be generalized.Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS
Moral Emotions and Justifying Beliefs about Meat, Fish, Dairy and Egg Consumption: A Comparative Study of Dietary Groups
Get PDFYesMeat eaters and meat abstainers differ in their beliefs and moral emotions related to meat consumption alongside gender differences. Few studies have investigated beliefs and moral emotions in pescatarians and vegans. Little is known about differences in moral emotions and beliefs regarding dairy, eggs, and fish or about speciesist beliefs within and between specific dietary groups. To address this gap, we investigated moral emotions (consumption-related disgust and guilt), attitudes towards animals (Animal Attitudes Scale) and justifying beliefs related to meat (Carnism Inventory), dairy, egg, and fish consumption in omnivores (n = 167), pescatarians (n = 110), vegetarians (n = 116), and vegans (n = 149). Results showed that people who consumed animal-derived products reported lower disgust and guilt and held stronger justifying beliefs about consumption of these products, than those who did not consume animal products. All dietary groups significantly differed from each other in their attitudes about using animals for human benefit, with omnivores showing the least positive attitudes towards animals, followed by pescatarians and vegetarians, and with vegans showing the most positive attitudes towards animals. Women experienced greater moral emotions and held fewer justifying beliefs than men within groups where animal products were consumed and this was related to the animal-based products they consume (i.e., fish for pescatarians and eggs/dairy for vegetarians). These findings emphasise the importance of considering a wider range of animal products, and dietary groups in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the psychological underpinnings of animal product consumption. The results highlight differences between dietary groups in attitudes and moral concern towards animals, which may be important to consider when designing interventions to reduce animal product consumption
Developing a new multidimensional index of bank stability and its usage in the design of optimal policy interventions
Get PDFYesThis study proposes an optimisation-based “benefit-of-the-doubt” (BoD) methodological framework for developing a new multidimensional index of bank stability. The proposed index has the ability to serve as a potent policy tool that overcomes the downsides of accounting- and market-based measures of bank stability. This data-driven approach generates endogenous weights for aggregating bank stability indicators and dimensions. Further, we integrate the BoD framework with a metafrontier approach, which we call a “meta-BoD framework”. The final outcomes of the suggested framework go beyond a scalar measure of bank stability and provide the unique weighting matrix that offers valuable policy-relevant insights about the most precarious areas of stability that require the attention of management and regulators for both micro- and macro-level policy interventions. In addition, it draws insightful information about the instability gaps across heterogenous bank groups. The study presents an illustrative example of the proposed framework to obtain a bank stability index using the dataset of 76 Indian banks operating between 2014 and 2018. The bank stability index is made up of 14 financial ratio indicators covering five dimensions of stability: asset quality, management efficiency, capital adequacy, profitability and liquidity. The findings offer the detailed information required for comprehending the evolution of bank stability and assessing instability gaps across bank groups
Designer benzodiazepines gidazepam and desalkygidazepam (bromonordiazepam): What do we know?
Get PDFYesDesigner benzodiazepines are one of the primary new psychoactive substances (NPS) threats around the world, being found in large numbers in post-mortem, driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) and drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) cases. Even though when compared to many other NPS types, such as opioids and cathinones, there are relatively few designer benzodiazepines being monitored. Recently a new NPS benzodiazepine has been reported in Europe, the USA and Canada, desalkygidazepam, also known as bromonordiazepam. This substance is a metabolite of the pro-drug gidazepam, a drug licenced for use in Ukraine and Russia under the name Gidazepam IC®. In the paper we review what is currently known about the use, pharmacology and analytical detection of gidazepam, its metabolite desalkygidazepam, and their other possible metabolites
Implementation relations and testing for cyclic systems: adding probabilities
Get PDFYesThis paper concerns the systematic testing of robotic control software based on state-based models. We focus on cyclic systems that typically receive inputs (values from sensors), perform computations, produce outputs (sent to actuators) and possibly change state. We provide a testing theory for such cyclic systems where time can be represented and probabilities are used to quantify non-deterministic choices, making it possible to model probabilistic algorithms. In addition, refusals, the inability of a system to perform a set of actions, are taken into account. We consider several possible testing scenarios. For example, a tester might only be able to passively observe a sequence of events and so cannot check probabilities, while in another scenario a tester might be able to repeatedly apply a test case and so estimate the probabilities of sequences of events. These different testing scenarios lead to a range of implementation relations (notions of correctness). As a consequence, this paper provides formal definitions of implementation relations that can form the basis of sound automated testing in a range of testing scenarios. We also validate the implementation relations by showing how observers can be used to provide an alternative but equivalent characterisation.EPSRC, United Kingdom grant EP/R025134/2 RoboTest: Systematic Model-Based Testing and Simulation of Mobile Autonomous Robots, the Spanish MINECO-FEDER grant PID2021- 122215NB-C31 (AwESOMe) and the Region of Madrid grant S2018/TCS-4314 (FORTE-CM) co-funded by EIE Funds of the European Union