Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

An Architecture for Believable Socially Aware Agents

The main focus of this thesis is to solve the believability problem in video game agents by integrating necessary psychological and sociological foundations by means of role based architecture. Our design agent also has the capability to reason and predict the decisions of other actors by using its own mental model. The agent has a separate mental model for every actor

Linking Attitudes, Policy, and Forest Cover Change in Buffer Zone Communities of Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Deforestation in Nepal threatens the functioning of complex social-ecological systems, including rural populations that depend on forests for subsistence, as well as Nepal’s biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Reliance on forest resources, coupled with high population densities and rates of growth, highlights the importance of studying the relationship between human communities, forest cover and trends through time, and forest management institutions. A Master Plan for Nepal’s Forestry Sector (MPFS), enacted in 1989, laid the foundation for modern community-based forest management in Nepal. In 2014, the MPFS reached the end of its 25-year lifespan, after successfully ushering in significant institutional changes that fundamentally transformed the management of Nepal’s forests, mostly through devolving management and benefits from the national level to local communities. Here, we examine the effectiveness of the MPFS to offer insight into this complex coupled human and natural system. Using remote sensing techniques and Landsat satellite imagery, the 25-year anniversary of the MPFS was used to explore forest cover trends in the buffer zone Village Development Committees surrounding Chitwan National Park (CNP). An in-country household survey was then conducted to: (1) understand how local attitudes toward forest conservation-related behaviors correlated with empirical forest cover trends; and (2) understand which socio-demographic variables influenced supportive attitudes. The survey was conducted in two rural communities in southern Nepal—one that has experienced significant forest loss, the other forest gain—compare with forest cover trends as indicated by the results from Chapter 1. Lastly, we used an agent-based model (ABM) to explore what effect village attitudes toward forest conservation would have on the extent of forest cover if improved policies are implemented, population growth rate fluctuates, and villages are able to cooperate by mimicking each other’s attitudes and behaviors. Results suggest that since the MPFS was enacted, there was first a continued decrease in forest cover, followed by a significant increase overall. Survey results suggest a significant difference in attitudes toward forest conservation in the two areas studied, and in both study sites, participation in community forestry strengthened support for conservation, supportive forest conservation-related attitudes aligned with forest cover gain in recent years, and a negative relationship was found between economic status and having supportive attitudes. Additionally, on average, respondents did not feel that the current national political climate in Nepal supported sustainable forestry. The results from the ABM suggest that improving forest-related policies would have a dramatic effect on the forest cover over time, the ability for villages to cooperate will likely have little effect on forest cover, and population growth rate will likely have a significant effect on forest extent. We also found that despite clear strengths, there are challenges with using ABM to model forest conservation dynamics and land use/land cover change at different scales. These data offer insight into the success of modern community-based forest management policies and supporting institutions, and are especially important as Nepal’s Master Plan for the Forestry Sector has expired and the country is in the process of structuring a new Forestry Sector Strategy

Basic Social Math: A Linguistic Upgrade for Decision Analysis and Social Dynamics Research.

There are foundational errors in the mathematical frameworks currently used in Economic and Decision Theories. Recent systemic failures in the interdependent business and educational sectors also show that many practices based on these theories are unsustainable in the changing dynamics of the global economy. A new approach is needed in social science research and systems engineering. This paper examines how the new understandings of complex systems, the role of emotion in cognition, and the core dynamics of decision making can help us correct these errors and to create a general framework for systemic innovation. It argues for the development of more rigorous linguistic tools that can objectively analyze social dynamics from an empirical perspective rather than from subjective cultural frames. In order to upgrade theories and adapt practices in social and educational systems, we need to first correct problems at the fundamental end of the mathematical framework that is used for such analysis. Examples of complex systems are explored within the operational context of cross-cultural language and insurance classrooms at Yamamah University in order to define the methods and illustrate the approach of Basic Social Math to correcting errors and testing theories in the social sciences

Principles of cooperation across systems: from human sharing to multicellularity and cancer

abstract: From cells to societies, several general principles arise again and again that facilitate cooperation and suppress conflict. In this study, I describe three general principles of cooperation and how they operate across systems including human sharing, cooperation in animal and insect societies and the massively large-scale cooperation that occurs in our multicellular bodies. The first principle is that of Walk Away: that cooperation is enhanced when individuals can leave uncooperative partners. The second principle is that resource sharing is often based on the need of the recipient (i.e., need-based transfers) rather than on strict account-keeping. And the last principle is that effective scaling up of cooperation requires increasingly sophisticated and costly cheater suppression mechanisms. By comparing how these principles operate across systems, we can better understand the constraints on cooperation. This can facilitate the discovery of novel ways to enhance cooperation and suppress cheating in its many forms, from social exploitation to cancer.The final version of this article, as published in Evolutionary Applications, can be viewed online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.12303/abstract

X-Machines for Agent-Based Modeling

This book discusses various aspects of agent-based modeling and simulation using FLAME (Flexible Large-scale Agent-Based Modeling Environment) which is a popular agent-based modeling environment that enables automatic parallelization of models. Along with a focus on the software engineering principles in building agent-based models, the book comprehensively discusses how models can be written for various domains including biology, economics and social networks. The book also includes examples to guide readers on how to write their own models

How does climate change affect human behavior? - Empirical evidence from three of the most exposed regions to rising sea-levels: Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

This cumulative dissertation comprises four essays that deal with the complex nexus of climate migration. In order to deal with the complexity, a behavioural economics perspective is adopted, which puts individual decisions at the centre of the analysis in order to better understand the behaviour of people who are particularly affected by climate change. The four papers in this thesis cover a wide range of methods, including quantitative surveys, economic experiments and model-based simulations. The data were collected between 2017 and 2019 in three of the most affected coastal regions by sea-level rise: the Solomon Islands, Bangladesh and Vietnam. One of the most important innovations, besides the behavioural economics approach, is the study of people who differ in their exposure to the effects of sea-level rise. The surveys and experiments were conducted with people within the respective region who are more or less affected by the effects of sea-level rise. This approach ensures that the participants do not differ so much in other characteristics (social, economic, cultural or historical). Such an approach makes it possible to test the reality of climate migration by providing a complete picture of the preferences, motivations, living conditions and actions of people who could be potential climate migrants

Artificial Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy

Attention in the AI safety community has increasingly started to include strategic considerations of coordination between relevant actors in the field of AI and AI safety, in addition to the steadily growing work on the technical considerations of building safe AI systems. This shift has several reasons: Multiplier effects, pragmatism, and urgency. Given the benefits of coordination between those working towards safe superintelligence, this book surveys promising research in this emerging field regarding AI safety. On a meta-level, the hope is that this book can serve as a map to inform those working in the field of AI coordination about other promising efforts. While this book focuses on AI safety coordination, coordination is important to most other known existential risks (e.g., biotechnology risks), and future, human-made existential risks. Thus, while most coordination strategies in this book are specific to superintelligence, we hope that some insights yield “collateral benefits” for the reduction of other existential risks, by creating an overall civilizational framework that increases robustness, resiliency, and antifragility