Virtual environment trajectory analysis:a basis for navigational assistance and scene adaptivity

This paper describes the analysis and clustering of motion trajectories obtained while users navigate within a virtual environment (VE). It presents a neural network simulation that produces a set of five clusters which help to differentiate users on the basis of efficient and inefficient navigational strategies. The accuracy of classification carried out with a self-organising map algorithm was tested and improved to in excess of 85% by using learning vector quantisation. This paper considers how such user classifications could be utilised in the delivery of intelligent navigational support and the dynamic reconfiguration of scenes within such VEs. We explore how such intelligent assistance and system adaptivity could be delivered within a Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) context

An Evidence Review of Behavioural Economics in the Justice Sector

Behavioural economics combines elements of economics and psychology to better understand how and why people behave the way they do in the real world. While behavioural economics originally sought to better understand economic decision-making, it has since grown in scope and application, and it is increasingly used by governments, government departments and other organisations to shape and implement public policies in a range of policy areas. This Review considers the application of behavioural economics theories and concepts (commonly referred to as behavioural insights) to the justice sector in a range of areas of justice policy in different jurisdictions. Areas of justice policy include improving immigration and integration policies, tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, improving policing, community safety and penal policy, making court systems more efficient, accessible and fair, and addressing broader challenges and opportunities presented by innovation and climate change. This Review is broken into two main parts. Part 1 is about behavioural economics generally. It explains the background to the field and its evolution to the present day and contextualises behavioural economics within the broader fields of economics and psychology. The main concepts and theories of behavioural economics are explained. Part 1 also addresses how behavioural economics research is conducted, explains some of the critical and ethical debates that have emerged within the field, and evaluates how and why behavioural economics emerged as a popular tool for policy design. Part 2 is about the application of behavioural economics to the justice sector. It is broken down into a series of policy areas within the justice sector. These areas were pre-identified by the authors with the Department of Justice as being particularly relevant to its work to inform and assist with policy formation. The specific areas are: - immigration and integration, - domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, - policing, community safety and penal policy, - court systems and access to justice, and - innovation and climate action. Part 2 presents case studies of policy interventions informed by behavioural economics theories and concepts from other jurisdictions in each of these areas. Often these —— 4 interventions are pre-tested for their effectiveness before their wider roll-out in the general population. Alongside specific policy interventions, Part 2 also considers literature that assesses how behavioural economics theories and concepts can help to better understand and solve policy problems that arise in the justice sector. The Review concludes with observations and analysis of the implications of behavioural economics research for the justice sector, and how best to harness it to improve justice policies in the future

Differentiable Shadow Mapping for Efficient Inverse Graphics

We show how shadows can be efficiently generated in differentiable rendering of triangle meshes. Our central observation is that pre-filtered shadow mapping, a technique for approximating shadows based on rendering from the perspective of a light, can be combined with existing differentiable rasterizers to yield differentiable visibility information. We demonstrate at several inverse graphics problems that differentiable shadow maps are orders of magnitude faster than differentiable light transport simulation with similar accuracy -- while differentiable rasterization without shadows often fails to converge.Comment: CVPR 2023, project page: https://mworchel.github.io/differentiable-shadow-mappin

Recipe for Bias: An Empirical Look at the Interplay between Institutional Incentives and Bounded Rationality in Prosecutorial Decision Making, A

Prosecutors wield tremendous power, which is kept in check by a set of unique ethical obligations. In explaining why prosecutors sometimes fail to honor these multiple and arguably divergent obligations, scholars tend to fall into two schools of thought. The first schoolfocuses upon institutional incentives that promote abuses ofpower. These scholars implicitly treat the prosecutor as a rational actor who decides whether to comply with a rule based on an assessment of the expected costs and benefits of doing so. The second school focuses upon bounded human rationality, drawing on the teachings of cognitive science to argue that prosecutors transgress not because of sinister motives but because they labor under the same cognitive limitations that all humans do. In this Article, I begin to unify these two schools of thought into a comprehensive approach. I apply the lessons of cognitive science to identify the ways in which prosecutors\u27 distinctive institutional environment may undermine not just their willingness to play fair but also their ability to do so. Research on the psychological effects of accountability demonstrates that, when people are judged primarily for their ability to persuade others of their position, they are susceptible to defensive bolstering at the expense of objectivity. I argue that prosecutors operate under precisely such a system and are therefore particularly susceptible to biases that undermine their ability to honor obligations that require some objectivity on their part. In support of this claim, I present the results of two original experiments demonstrating that holding people accountable for their ability to persuade others of a suspect\u27s guilt exacerbates common cognitive biases relevant to prosecutorial decision making. I discuss the implications of this research in light of current issues surrounding defendants\u27 rights to pre-trial discovery, the use of informant testimony, and prosecutors\u27 roles in criminal investigation

Regeneration at a distance from the state: From radical imaginaries to alternative practices in Dutch farming

Modern industrial agriculture is increasingly confronted with social and environmental problems and contradictions. Glaring problems are widely acknowledged, but have not spurred a major shift towards a sustainable agricultural future. Meanwhile, many individual citizens, farmers and collective initiatives are, themselves, already busy navigating towards solutions. The role of ‘ordinary’ citizens, small-scale farmers, and alternative food networks in building food sovereignty has been widely discussed in the literature, and is acknowledged by scholars as crucial in navigating towards sustainable and agroecological food systems (Anderson et al., 2021; Duncan et al., 2020; Marsden et al., 2018; Vivero-Pol et al., 2019). Despite this potential, the practices of these individuals and groups have not yet been able to gain significant traction as part of building a broader, systemic political alternative in public discourse and policy making (Desmarais et al., 2017; IPES-Food, 2019; Marsden et al., 2018; Van der Ploeg, 2020). Instead, they have persisted in the margins with minimal support or recognition from governments and scientific institutions (Anderson, 2019; Anderson and Bruil, 2021; Vanloqueren and Baret, 2009). Mainstream political debates on the direction of food system change too often overlook these ‘seeds of change’ that are scattered all around them, dormant, and waiting for the right conditions to grow into robust alternatives. Agrarian political economy has long served as an important lens through which the com-plex processes that shape food systems can be understood (Buttel, 2001; Friedmann, 1993; Friedmann and McMichael, 1989). Traditionally, this scholarship has focused primarily on a critical analysis of the ways in which market dynamics and the modern state structure the organisation of agri-food systems (Bernstein, 2017; Tilzey, 2019). As food-system-related crises intensify, some scholars have identified a need to expand political economy scholarship beyond expert analysis to include a role of co-constructing, or ‘co-theorising’ (Carolan, 2013) alternatives, with citizens engaged in political praxis (Duncan et al., 2019; Levkoe et al., 2020). That is, in other words, a more post-structuralist agrarian political economy (and ecol-ogy), grounded in critical dialogue with social movements, civil society organizations, and citizens who are confronting norms and conventions in practice and building alternatives (Leff, 2015). Following from the need to broaden and connect such perspectives, this paper combines a ‘zoomed-out’ political economic analysis of Dutch agriculture with a more ‘zoomed-in’ em-pirical exploration of farmers working to build new food systems from the ground up. The main questions we address are: how do new entrant proto-regenerative farmers (a term which we explain below) in the Netherlands imagine and engage in the construction of regenerative socio-ecological relationships? What strategies do farmers use to carve out spaces of regenera-tion

Development of wireless network planning software for rural community use

Rural New Zealand has poor access to broadband Internet. The CRCnet project at the University of Waikato identified point-to-point wireless technology as an appropriate solution, and built networks for rural communities. The project identified viable solutions using low-cost wireless technologies and commodity hardware, allowing them to establish general construction guidelines for planning rural wireless networks. The CRCnet researchers speculated that these general construction guidelines had simplified the wireless network problem to a point at which it seemed feasible to embed the guidelines within a software tool. A significant observation by the CRCnet researchers was that community members are collectively aware of much of the local information that is required in the planning process. Bringing these two ideas together, this thesis hypothesises that a software tool could be designed to enable members of rural communities to plan their own wireless networks. To investigate this hypothesis, a wireless network planning system (WiPlan) was developed. WiPlan includes a tutorial that takes the unique approach of teaching the user process rather than the detail of network planning. WiPlan was evaluated using a novel evaluation technique structured as a roleplaying game. The study design provided participants with local knowledge appropriate for their planning roles. In two trials, WiPlan was found to support participants in successfully planning feasible networks, soliciting local knowledge as needed throughout the planning process. Participants in both trials were able to use the techniques introduced by the tutorial while planning their wireless network and successfully plan feasible wireless networks within budget in both study trials. This thesis explores the feasibility of designing a wireless networking planning tool, that can assist members of rural communities with no expertise in wireless network planning, to plan a feasible network and provides reasonable evidence to support the claim that such a planning tool is feasible