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Neural Profiling with fNIRS of Operator Performance in Teleoperated Human-like Social Robot Interactions
Get PDFSocial robot teleoperation is a skill that must be acquired through practice with the social robot. Mobile neuroimaging and human-computer interface performance met- rics permit the gathering of information from the operators’ systemic and behavioral responses associated with their skill acquisition. Profiling the skill levels of social robot operators using this information can help improve training protocols. In this study, thirty-two participants performed real-world social robot teleoperation tasks. Brain function signals from the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and behavioral data from interactions with the system were collected using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants were divided into two groups (high and low performance) based on an integrative metric of task efficiency, workload, and presence when operating the social robot. Significant differences were found in the operation time, width, and multiscale entropy of the hemoglobin oxygenation curve of the operator’s PFC. Functional connectivity in the PFC also depicted differences in the low- and high-performance groups when connectivity networks were compared and in the leaf fraction metrics of the functional networks. These findings contribute to understanding the operator’s progress during teleoperation training protocols and designing the interface to assist in enhancing task performance
What Prognostic Indicators and Treatment Mechanisms Exist for Efficacious Treatments in People With Patellofemoral Pain? A Secondary Meta-Regression With an Updated Search
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic and mechanistic variables associated with efficacious treatments in people with patellofemoral pain (PFP).
DESIGN: Updated intervention systematic review with de novo meta-regression.
LITERATURE SEARCH: We searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus from inception until October 2023 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving people with PFP.
STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: High-quality RCTs (scoring ≥7 on the PEDro scale) involving participants with PFP and at least one treatment arm involving an efficacious intervention.
DATA SYNTHESIS: We extracted homogenous pain and function data to calculate effect sizes to regress with baseline prognostic (e.g., symptom duration) and mechanistic (e.g., strength change) data.
RESULTS: Thirty-four high-quality RCTs involving 1,526 people with PFP were included. For knee-targeted exercise, we identified symptom duration (R₂ = 0.68), older age (R₂ = 0.31), and low baseline knee extensor strength (R₂= 1.0) as significant prognostic variables. For hip-and-knee-targeted exercise, we identified older age (R₂= 0.37), greater mass (R₂= 0.28), and greater baseline hip abduction torque (R₂= 1.0) as significant prognostic variables. We also identified a significant mechanistic association between pain and increased knee extensor torque (R₂= 0.99). For hip-targeted exercise, we identified lower height as a significant prognostic variable (R₂= 0.96-0.99) and a significant mechanistic association between both pain and function and increased hip abduction (R₂= 0.93-0.96) and hip external rotation (R₂= 0.96-0.97) strength.
CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged symptom duration, older age, and greater mass are prognostic variables for people with PFP. Increasing hip and knee muscle strength may be mechanisms underpinning positive responses to exercise therapy
Compensation Schemes and the Tort System in the Context of Occupational and Public Health
Get PDFCompensation schemes are certainly not a new phenomenon in England and Wales, and they are increasingly being used, and called for, to compensate victims in the field of occupational and public health. Despite their long existence, compensation schemes have always been thought to develop on ad hoc basis, without any real discernible logic behind them. This article suggests that, contrary to this idea, compensation schemes emerging in the field of occupational and public health are generally following an identifiable, if covert, pattern that is deeply rooted in their relationship with the tort system. This relationship, the article contends, is crucial not only to explain the creation and operation of compensation schemes but also to shed some light on the place and limits of the tort system in this legal system. More than that, this article demonstrates that the relationship between these two sources of compensation could be the key to offer the beginning of a categorisation of compensation schemes that could help identify which schemes are in need of reform
Introduction
Get PDFGiven its global success as a test for determining the content and permissible limitations of human rights, it is no surprise that proportionality has been the object of intense jurisprudential interest. But for the most part, philosophical analysis of proportionality has mainly drawn on the theory of practical reason, treating proportionality primarily as a formal method of argumentation.
This collection of essays focuses on a hitherto underexplored philosophical aspect of proportionality, namely, its relationship with the moral concept of freedom. In recent years this connection has come to the fore, for example in controversies over the lawfulness of government measures aiming to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, such as restrictions of movement and economic activity and compulsory vaccinations. The issue is typically framed in terms of the proportionality between the public benefit of these measures and the intensity of the interference with human rights such as privacy. However, for many scholars this framing is deeply problematic. It assumes that such restrictions amount to losses of valuable rights, which must be offset by an overriding public benefit. But, so the argument goes, we do not have even a prima facie right to be a public threat, for example by carrying a contagious virus; to think otherwise is to assume an antisocial notion of personal freedom. It is precisely this assumption to which, for these scholars, the proportionality doctrine is committed, because it typically adopts a not particularly discriminating definition of what counts as a prima facie interference with human rights. As a result, almost any activity or personal preference, however harmful, triggers a proportionality assessment
Communication of trustworthiness in human and synthesised speech
Get PDFThis thesis investigates how trustworthiness is communicated in human and synthesised speech. Prior studies, largely based on young, white, Western participants, have overlooked how vocal trustworthiness perceptions may vary across age and ethnicity. This work addresses that gap by including under-represented groups such as older black and south Asian speakers and listeners. The thesis adopts a multi-stage design, beginning with a systematic review that maps conceptual and methodological gaps in the literature. The following studies aim to address these limitations. Study 1 introduces an open-access dataset of 1,152 speech samples from 96 demographically diverse speakers (by age, sex, and ethnicity), examining how trustworthy vs neutral vocal intent is expressed. Drawing on this dataset, Study 2 explores how perceived trustworthiness aligns with core social perceptions of warmth and competence, as shaped by vocal cues. Multi-part Study 3 extends the analysis to the role of cognitive biases, demographic variation, and trust predispositions. Finally, Study 4 compares human and real-world synthesised voices, bridging trustworthiness perception across speaker identities. Collectively, the findings converge on a set of acoustic features — perceived pitch, speech rate, HNR, shimmer and LTAS — that reliably shape trustworthiness impressions across both human and synthesised voices. Trustworthiness impressions were boosted with explicit vocal intent, especially where speaker group membership was uncertain or ambiguous. Listener predispositions shaped evaluations in distinct ways, highlighting that trustworthiness impressions are not only about how a voice sounds, but also who is listening and what they bring to this process. By integrating speaker intent, listener bias, and speaker nature (human vs synthesised), the thesis offers invaluable cross-validation of trust-relevant acoustic cues across production and perception replication of trustworthy human and synthesised voices. It advances theoretical models of vocal impression formation and offers practical guidance for designing socially attuned, trust-enhancing voice technologies for diverse user groups
A unified Bayesian framework for mortality model selection
Get PDFIn recent years, a wide range of mortality models has been proposed to address the diverse factors influencing mortality rates, which has highlighted the need to perform model selection. Traditional mortality model selection methods, such as AIC and BIC, often require fitting multiple models independently and ranking them based on these criteria. This process can fail to account for uncertainties in model selection, which can lead to overly optimistic prediction intervals, and it disregards the potential insights from combining models. To address these limitations, we propose a novel Bayesian model selection framework that integrates model selection and parameter estimation into the same process. This requires creating a model-building framework that will give rise to different models by choosing different parametric forms for each term. Inference is performed using the reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm, which is devised to allow for transition between models of different dimensions, as is the case for the models considered here. We develop modeling frameworks for data stratified by age and period and for data stratified by age, period, and product. Our results are presented in two case studies
To Waive or Not to Waive: Questioning the Use of Legal Waivers in Business Human Rights
Get PDFLegal waivers embedded in corporate settlement agreements are commonly framed as neutral devices of dispute resolution. They promise finality, prevent double recovery and manage litigation risk. Yet in practice, waivers function as structural tools of accountability avoidance. This article examines the use of legal waivers within operational-level grievance mechanisms, focusing on three dimensions: the UNGPs’ procedural formalism, the cost dynamics of corporate settlements, and the opacity created by confidentiality provisions. It argues that the UNGPs’ emphasis on process legitimacy neglects the substantive consequences of waivers, that cost volatility incentivises their routine use, and that confidentiality provisions entrench information asymmetry while obstructing judicial oversight. The article concludes by advancing a hybrid regulatory model which prohibits blanket confidentiality of terms governing settlement agreements and advocates for greater transparency through a differentiated disclosure regime and increased judicial scrutiny by domestic courts
Photosynthetic advantage without growth superiority: Sorghum’s paradoxical response to future climate stresses compared to maize
Get PDFRising atmospheric CO2 is projected to reach 700 μmol/mol by 2100, increasing global temperatures by ∼3 °C and exacerbating drought frequency. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), a drought-tolerant alternative to maize (Zea mays), may gain relevance under future climates. Here we grew sorghum and maize in growth chambers under ambient (400 μmol/mol CO2, 24/18 °C day/night) and future (700 μmol/mol CO2, 27/21 °C day/night) environmental conditions, with and without drought. Drought was imposed by withholding water until soil moisture reached 20 % field capacity, which was then maintained for one week. Under high CO2 and high temperature, although both maize and sorghum achieved comparable biomass, growth was only promoted in sorghum by 67 %. Its stomatal anatomical traits reduced cumulative transpiration by 18 % while maintaining carbon assimilation, thereby improving water-use efficiency. With combined high CO2, high temperature and drought, maize and sorghum exhibited comparable biomass, but sorghum maintained gas exchange and quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII). Additionally, sorghum increased root growth, further mitigating future drought impacts on its growth compared to future control conditions. In contrast, maize photosynthesis and the quantum yield of PSII were severely impaired, thereby restricting growth. Thus the photosynthetic and water-use efficiency strategies of sorghum show its considerable potential as a future alternative crop, but further studies should verify whether these strategies persist during the reproductive stage and contribute to enhanced yield stability