1,935 research outputs found
Correspondence: a cyber disagreement
No full textPolicymakers and pundits have been sounding alarms about internet insecurity for years, so the first appearance of anything in International Security (IS) on this topic is a welcomed development. In the fall 2013 issue, Lucas Kello takes the security studies community to task for ignoring cyber perils, while Erik Gartzke argues that cyberwar is of limited political utility.1 Kello writes that “[t]he Clausewitzian philosophical framework misses the essence of the cyber danger and conceals its true significance: the virtual weapon is expanding the range of possible harms between the concepts of war and peace, with important consequences for national and international security” (p. 22). Gartzke counters, “War is fundamentally a political process, as Carl von Clausewitz famously explained. … The internet is generally an inferior substitute for terrestrial force in performing the functions of coercion or conquest” (p. 42). If Kello is right, then the long silence in IS on cybersecurity suggests that scholars have neglected a major transformation in security affairs. If Gartzke is right, then scholars can be forgiven their bemusement with inflated cyber rhetoric
Supplemental Material - Evolution of explorative and exploitative search strategies in collective foraging
No full textSupplemental Material for Evolution of explorative and exploitative search strategies in collective foraging by Ketika Garg, Paul E Smaldino, and Christopher T Kello in Collective Intelligence.</p
Factors affecting in vitro propagation of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz.) Euphorbiaceae, varieties of ‘Kello’ and ‘Qulle’
No full textCassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz.) is a perennial shrub of the Euphorbiaceae family native of eastern tropical South America, grown in the tropics of Africa and Asia for its tuberous roots. Its cultivation is constrained by several problems including the use of cuttings infected with diseases and pests, the lack of high quality seed, low productivity, high heterozygosity, low fertility, poor seed set and seed germination. The objective of this study was to find the optimal conditions for micropropagation of two varieties of cassava released for farmers for the production of high quality planting materials. These include determination of the effect of temperature on bud-break of mother plants, differences in concentrations of salt, sucrose, and thidiazuron (TDZ) in a semi-solid MS medium, pH, two-step MS medium and repeated subcultures. The mean number of shoots per plant for axillary bud-break was highest (10.8) at 26°C for that from ‘Kello’ and 9.8 at 30°C for that from ‘Qulle’. The highest mean number of shoots per explant was obtained on MS medium containing 0.2 mg/L TDZ for both varieties on both semi-solid and two-step MS medium culture system. Maximum mean shoot number was obtained on MS medium of a quarter and full salt strength for ‘Kello’ and ‘Qulle’, respectively. The highest mean number of shoots per explant for ‘Kello’ (4.10) and ‘Qulle’ (2.40) was obtained at pH 5.6 and 6.6, respectively. ‘Kello’ produced 3.70 shoots per explant on MS medium containing 1.5% sucrose. Repeated subculturing of ‘Qulle’ resulted in gradual loss of multiplication rate from the third subculture onwards. The present study contributes to optimization of micropropagation of cassava.Key words/phrases: Liquid medium, Salt strength, Shoot multiplication, Sucrose, TDZ
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An Extended, Dynamic Account of Collaborative Remembering and Information Search
No full textOur memories are collections of the information we have experienced and learned over the course of our lives. While the nature of memory has been studied extensively in the history of the cognitive and psychological sciences, relatively little is known about how we sift through that information space to bring up any given thought at a given moment. According to the extended, dynamical systems framework, the mind is interwoven inextricably into its environment, and so the process of memory retrieval must be considered from a contextually-situated perspective. The goal of the current project is to highlight the importance of a key component of any memory system’s context: the social interactive context. Using both empirical and computational methodologies, the interdisciplinary studies described herein compare the processes employed by individuals and collaborating dyads while searching through information space. Inspiration is drawn from the domains of ecological foraging and particle diffusion in statistical physics to explain foraging dynamics, and from complex systems science to explore collaboration dynamics.Ultimately, the project argues that not only is the social collaborative context an important modulator of memory processes at an individual level, but that in some cases people might be able to coordinate their memory processes, coming together to act as one. Through technological advancements, we are increasingly able to communicate and work collaboratively on all sorts of projects. Thus, a call is made for ongoing research to consider the conditions in which we can optimize information retrieval in these collaborative scenarios.This dissertation, An Extended, Dynamic Account of Collaborative Remembering and Information Search, is submitted by Janelle Szary in 2015 in partial fulfillment of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, under the guidance of dissertation committee co-chairs Rick Dale and Christopher T. Kello
Developing the customer satisfaction - Case Järven Kello ja Kulta Ky
No full textSatisfied customers are proven to be more loyal than unsatisfied customers. Loyalty means long-term customers together with extra marketing through word of mouth. Customer satisfaction is doubtlessly a critical matter for customer-centric firm and it is affecting straight to productivity and viability.
This research was completed for Järven Kello ja Kulta, an organization which exists to retail products and services of goldsmith industry and drive economic growth of small city called Uusikaupunki by family-owned entrepreneurship. This customer-centric firm attempts to attract more customers and therefore seeks to know what their current customer satisfaction level is. Goal of this thesis is to give right tools for the case company to increase their current customer satisfaction level, to strengthen their market position and to attract new customers as well.
The findings of secondary data led to several best practices recommendations, as well as potential marketing methods which could be used by Järven Kello ja Kulta. Based on the research, was decided that the primary research should focus on the customers’ perceptions and expectations of Järven Kello ja Kulta, and what issues are valued by customers alike. Primary research consisted of a 7 questions survey that was distributed online and in person, overall acquired 123 responses, with information about the purchasing habits in general and experiences based on the case company specifically. Survey was finished off with key demographic questions. Data collected was analyzed together with SERVQUAL-method. Target group in this study consisted of case company’s existing customers. This survey proved to be crucial to my understandings of the industry and gave me some insights to the main issues Järven Kello ja Kulta should focus on.
The aim of this research was to clarify the current situation of customer satisfaction regarding product range, quality of products, prices, services and overall store. Based on the results it can be said that customers are overall satisfied and they greatly appreciate good customer service and high-quality products in the industry. The recommendations center on adapting new models to have even better results on custom-er service level as well as targeting right segment. According to the data achieved the persona was created to help the company in the future. In this study the author became aware of some key target issues through the survey included the prospects of jewelry industry as well as the current situation
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The Complexity Matching hypothesis for human communication
No full textThe study of human communication incorporates disciplines across the sciences and the humanities. One question that is important for better understanding and explaining human communication is how information is transmitted from one person to another person during an interaction. To communicate, humans produce and perceive complex behaviors such as vocalizations and body movements. Although researchers are beginning to better understand the production and perception of communicative behaviors, less work has focused on investigating the functions of these behaviors for information transmission during an interaction. Here, in collaboration with various co-authors, I present a hypothesis for human communication that has specific predictions for information transmission across individuals during an interaction.The Complexity Matching hypothesis for human communication suggests that when the complex, hierarchical patterns of communicative behavior between individuals match, information transmission is enhanced. This hypothesis is motivated by work in statistical mechanics showing that when complex properties of two networks match, information transmission across the networks is optimal. In this dissertation, I present three projects that seek to test the Complexity Matching hypothesis for human communication.First, I present initial observations of the production and convergence of hierarchical patterns of vocalizations during conversation. This study provides initial support for the Complexity Matching hypothesis and provides insights into the hierarchical properties of communicative behavior.Next, I test the key prediction of the Complexity Matching hypothesis for human communication: enhanced information transmission. Pairs of adults were given a dyadic problem-solving task of building a tower structure out of a limited amount of materials. We observed that dyads built taller tower structures when their hierarchical patterns of vocalizations and body movements matched. These results provide initial support for the information transmission prediction of the Complexity Matching hypothesis.Finally, I investigate the development of hierarchical structure in human communication. This study follows daylong vocal recordings of infants and their caregivers across the first two years of life. We observed evidence for hierarchical patterns of vocalizations at the earliest recordings session (second week of life) and a dynamic trajectory of complexity matching and other vocal coordination patterns across development.This dissertation, The Complexity Matching Hypothesis for Human Communication, is submitted by Drew H. Abney in 2016 in partial fulfillment of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, under the guidance of dissertation committee chair Christopher T. Kello
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From a Dyad to a Flock – Complexity Matching to Loose Coupling
No full textRanging over a wide array of interactions, coordination comprises the simple to complex interactions that occur within our daily lives. Many events we encounter ask us to work alone or
with a group to achieve a common goal. These goals frequently set the stage for how we find a
deeper understanding of underlying principles of coordination. Here, began by focusing on the
interaction between two individuals cooperating, and how coupling strength could modulate the
connection shared between them. In these initial studies we found that principles and measures of
complexity matching applied similarly within and between individuals, and perceptual-motor
performance can be facilitated by loose response coupling. We concluded that complexity matching
observed between individuals can similarly occur within one individual, suggesting a general
principle of interaction at work. When response coupling was absent in the dyadic condition, the
degree of complexity matching was significantly reduced. The connection shared between the
coupled cooperative agents influenced their overall shared success. Expanding upon this research,
we asked investigated coordination within larger groups. To do this, we need to find a situation that
fit within coordination but allowed for larger group sizes.
A situation that fit these criteria existed in collective foraging. Collective foragers can
coordinate and cooperate flexibly over time despite changes to task demands, connectedness, and
environmental conditions. The coupling strength linking foragers together often shapes their
collective movements. Based on this, we created a scenario where varying degrees of coupling
strength bound cooperative agents together as they collectively coordinated their actions in search
of hidden targets. We found that loose and flexible coupling among search agents improved
collective performance, and that human players improved performance partly by subtle, indirect
effects on group interactions. Loose coupling emerged among agents when the rules of interaction
were weak enough for agents to act independently or interdependently, while still being strong
enough to help hold them together. Movement patterns showed loose coupling enabled collections
of agents to self-organize and reorganize into a greater diversity of ad hoc groupings. We continued
this work by investigating the link between cooperative interactions among larger groups of agents,
coupling strength, and group member effectiveness. By manipulating group member effectiveness,
group members performed the search task better than before, but without human intervention, the
individual movements of the more-optimal agents continued to lag humans. Based on these results,
we successfully instilled a unique agent with a form of memory which helped them to act in more
‘human-like’ ways.
Taken together, this dissertation supports a broader narrative where coordination depends on
the loose, and flexible alignment of available actions (Glassman, 1973; Kloos & Van Orden, 2009).
This adaptive reorganization of behaviors is supported by an exchange of information, dependent
upon the connections linking complex networks together (Nordham, Tognoli, Fuchs, & Kelso,
2018; Rigoli, Holman, Spivey, & Kello, 2014; Schloesser, Kello, & Marmelat, 2019; West,
Geneston, & Grigolini, 2008). Future work may continue to uncover the underpinnings of
interpersonal coordination – with humans, engineered agents, or both
Rhythm in speech and animal vocalizations: a cross-species perspective
No full textWhy does human speech have rhythm? As we cannot travel back in time to witness how speech developed its rhythmic properties and why humans have the cognitive skills to process them, we rely on alternative methods to find out. One powerful tool is the comparative approach: studying the presence or absence of cognitive/behavioral traits in other species to determine which traits are shared between species and which are recent human inventions. Vocalizations of many species exhibit temporal structure, but little is known about how these rhythmic structures evolved, are perceived and produced, their biological and developmental bases, and communicative functions. We review the literature on rhythm in speech and animal vocalizations as a first step toward understanding similarities and differences across species. We extend this review to quantitative techniques that are useful for computing rhythmic structure in acoustic sequences and hence facilitate cross-species research. We report links between vocal perception and motor coordination and the differentiation of rhythm based on hierarchical temporal structure. While still far from a complete cross-species perspective of speech rhythm, our review puts some pieces of the puzzle together
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Spatial Memory and Foraging: How Perfect Spatial Memory Improves Foraging Performance
No full textForaging is a search process common to all mobile organisms.
Spatial memory can improve foraging efficiency and efficacy,
and evidence indicates that many species—including
humans—actively utilize spatial memory to aid in their
foraging, yet most current models of foraging do not include
spatial memory. In this study, a simple online foraging game
was used to attempt to replicate and extend findings from a
recent study (Kerster, Rhodes, & Kello, 2016) to further
investigate the role of spatial memory in foraging. The game
involved searching a simple 2d space by clicking the mouse
to try and find as many resources as possible in 300 clicks.
Spatial information was displayed that provided complete
information about search history in order test how “perfect”
spatial memory improves search performance. Over 1000
participants were recruited to participate in the task using
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which allowed this test to be
performed across a wide parameter space of different resource
distributions. Results replicated many of the findings of
earlier studies, and demonstrated that spatial memory can
have a dramatic effect on search performance
Exploring the movement dynamics of deception
No full textBoth the science and the everyday practice of detecting a lie rest on the same assumption: hidden cognitive states that the liar would like to remain hidden nevertheless influence observable behavior. This assumption has good evidence. The insights of professional interrogators, anecdotal evidence, and body language textbooks have all built up a sizeable catalog of non-verbal cues that have been claimed to distinguish deceptive and truthful behavior. Typically, these cues are discrete, individual behaviors—a hand touching a mouth, the rise of a brow—that distinguish lies from truths solely in terms of their frequency or duration. Research to date has failed to establish any of these non-verbal cues as a reliable marker of deception. Here we argue that perhaps this is because simple tallies of behavior can miss out on the rich but subtle organization of behavior as it unfolds over time. Research in cognitive science from a dynamical systems perspective has shown that behavior is structured across multiple timescales, with more or less regularity and structure. Using tools that are sensitive to these dynamics, we analyzed body motion data from an experiment that put participants in a realistic situation of choosing, or not, to lie to an experimenter. Our analyses indicate that when being deceptive, continuous fluctuations of movement in the upper face, and somewhat in the arms, are characterized by dynamical properties of less stability, but greater complexity. For the upper face, these distinctions are present despite no apparent differences in the overall amount of movement between deception and truth. We suggest that these unique dynamical signatures of motion are indicative of both the cognitive demands inherent to deception and the need to respond adaptively in a social context. - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00140/abstract#sthash.hvDiQ3Bb.dpu
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