A theoretical and practical approach to a persuasive agent model for change behaviour in oral care and hygiene

There is an increased use of the persuasive agent in behaviour change interventions due to the agent‘s features of sociable, reactive, autonomy, and proactive. However, many interventions have been unsuccessful, particularly in the domain of oral care. The psychological reactance has been identified as one of the major reasons for these unsuccessful behaviour change interventions. This study proposes a formal persuasive agent model that leads to psychological reactance reduction in order to achieve an improved behaviour change intervention in oral care and hygiene. Agent-based simulation methodology is adopted for the development of the proposed model. Evaluation of the model was conducted in two phases that include verification and validation. The verification process involves simulation trace and stability analysis. On the other hand, the validation was carried out using user-centred approach by developing an agent-based application based on belief-desire-intention architecture. This study contributes an agent model which is made up of interrelated cognitive and behavioural factors. Furthermore, the simulation traces provide some insights on the interactions among the identified factors in order to comprehend their roles in behaviour change intervention. The simulation result showed that as time increases, the psychological reactance decreases towards zero. Similarly, the model validation result showed that the percentage of respondents‘ who experienced psychological reactance towards behaviour change in oral care and hygiene was reduced from 100 percent to 3 percent. The contribution made in this thesis would enable agent application and behaviour change intervention designers to make scientific reasoning and predictions. Likewise, it provides a guideline for software designers on the development of agent-based applications that may not have psychological reactance

Sensor-based organizational design and engineering

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-127).We propose a sensor-based organizational design and engineering approach that combines behavioral sensor data with other sources of information such as e-mail, surveys, and performance data in order to design interventions aimed at improving organizational outcomes. The proposed system combines sensor measurements, pattern recognition algorithms, simulation and optimization techniques, social network analysis, and feedback mechanisms that aim at continuously monitoring and improving individual and group performance. We describe the system's general specifications and discuss several studies that we conducted in different organizations using the sociometric badge experimental sensing platform. We have deployed such system under naturalistic settings in more than ten organizations up to this date. We show that it is possible to automatically capture group dynamics, and analyze the relationship between organizational behaviors and both subjective and objective outcomes (such as job satisfaction, quality of group interaction, stress, productivity, and group performance). We propose the use of static and dynamic simulation models of group behavior captured by sensors, in order to optimize group configurations that maximize individual and group outcomes, both in terms of job quality characteristics and organizational performance.by Daniel Olguín Olguín.Ph.D

Human centric collaborative workplace: the human robot interaction system perspective

The implementation of smart technologies and physical collaboration with robots in manufacturing can provide competitive advantages in production, performance and quality, as well as improve working conditions for operators. Due to the rapid advancement of smart technologies and robot capabilities, operators face complex task processes, decline in competences due to robots overtaking tasks, and reduced learning opportunities, as the range of tasks that they are asked to perform is narrower. The Industry 5.0 framework introduced, among others, the human-centric workplace, promoting operators wellbeing and use of smart technologies and robots to support them. This new human centric framework enables operators to learn new skills and improve their competencies. However, the need to understand the effects of the workplace changes remain, especially in the case of human robot collaboration, due to the dynamic nature of human robot interaction. A literature review was performed, initially, to map the effects of workplace changes on operators and their capabilities. Operators need to perform tasks in a complex environment in collaboration with robots, receive information from sensors or other means (e.g. through augmented reality glasses) and decide whether to act upon them. Meanwhile, operators need to maintain their productivity and performance. This affects cognitive load and fatigue, which increases safety risks and probability of human-system error. A model for error probability was formulated and tested in collaborative scenarios, which regards the operators as natural systems in the workplace environment, taking into account their condition based on four macro states; behavioural, mental, physical and psychosocial. A scoping review was then performed to investigate the robot design features effects on operators in the human robot interaction system. Here, the outcomes of robot design features effects on operators were mapped and potential guidelines for design purposes were identified. The results of the scoping review showed that, apart from cognitive load, operators perception on robots reliability and their safety, along with comfort can influence team cohesion and quality in the human robot interaction system. From the findings of the reviews, an experimental study was designed with the support of the industrial partner. The main hypothesis was that cognitive load, due to collaboration, is correlated with quality of product, process and human work. In this experimental study, participants had to perform two tasks; a collaborative assembly and a secondary manual assembly. Perceived task complexity and cognitive load were measured through questionnaires, and quality was measured through errors participants made during the experiment. Evaluation results showed that while collaboration had positive influence in performing the tasks, cognitive load increased and the temporal factor was the main reason behind the issues participants faced, as it slowed task management and decision making of participants. Potential solutions were identified that can be applied to industrial settings, such as involving participants/operators in the task and workplace design phase, sufficient training with their robot co-worker to learn the task procedures and implement direct communication methods between operator and robot for efficient collaboration

Analysis of Land Use Change: Theoretical and Modeling Approaches

This Web Book provides information on basic concepts and trends in land use change, and then reviews the state of the art in land use theory and empirical modeling. It concludes by summarizing the main issues pertaining to theories and models of land use change, discusses selected issues in of a more general concern in the context of the analysis of land use change and outlines future research directions.https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/rri-web-book/1000/thumbnail.jp

In Quest of information security in higher education institutions : security awareness, concerns and behaviour of students

Humans, often suggested as the weakest link in information security, require security education, training and awareness (SETA) programs to strengthen themselves against information security threats. These SETA programs improve security awareness (also called information security awareness or ISA) which makes users conscious about the information security threats and risks and motivates them to learn knowledge and measures to safeguard their information security. Studies have shown that most of the SETA programs do not achieve their desired objectives and been proven ineffective. This ineffectiveness is probably because: 1) current SETA programs are designed as a one-fits-all solution and are not tailored as per users’ needs, 2) users are not included in the design phase of the SETA programs and 3) the SETA programs lack theory-grounded approaches. Nonetheless, the relationship between ISA and security behaviour also needs explanation. This thesis sets out to address the issues mentioned above. In this thesis, four separate studies grounded in both quantitative and qualitative methods are conducted. Cross-sectional data from students of a single case was collected using online surveys, with one exception in which data was collected as part of a class assignment. The results showed that, in general, students believed they know more than they actually did. The impacts of gender, previous training, and educational discipline were evident on security knowledge, behaviour, perceived awareness and actual awareness. Students have a wide range of security concerns, related to their personal, social, technological, non-technological and institutional dimensions of everyday life, and not just technological and non-technological aspects as shown in the existing literature. Further, students differ significantly from security experts in terms of their security practices. However, aware students (having training in information security) were more similar in security practices to security experts than the unaware students (having no formal or informal information security training). Lastly, it was found that the relationship between ISA and security behaviour can be explained using Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills (IMB) model. The research presented in this thesis has implications for faculty members who teach students and the security professionals responsible for information security of higher education institutions.Ihminen mielletään usein tietoturvan heikoimmaksi lenkiksi. Jotta tietoturvauhkilta osattaisiin suojautua, tarvitaan erillistä tietoturvakoulutusta, -harjoitusta sekä -tietoisuutta. Erilaiset tietoturvakoulutukset lisäävät henkilön tietoisuutta erilaisista tietoturvauhkista ja -riskeistä sekä motivoivat oppimaan tapoja ja toimenpiteitä, jotka parantavat henkilökohtaista tietoturvaa. Tutkimuksissa on kuitenkin ilmennyt, että useimmat tietoturvakoulutukset eivät saavuta toivottuja tavoitteita, ja ne ovatkin osoittautuneet tehottomiksi. Tehottomuus johtuu todennäköisesti siitä, että (1) koulutuksia ei ole räätälöity käyttäjien tarpeiden mukaisiksi vaan yleisluontoisiksi, (2) käyttäjiä ei ole otettu mukaan koulutusten suunnitteluun, ja (3) koulutuksilta puuttuvat teoriapohjaiset lähestymistavat. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan yllä mainittuja epäkohtia ja selvitetään ihmisen tietoturvakäyttäytymisen ja -tietoisuuden suhdetta. Väitöskirjassa esitetyt tulokset saavutettiin tekemällä neljä erillistä tutkimusta kvantitatiivisin (määrällisin) ja kvalitatiivisin (laadullisin) menetelmin. Tietoa kerättiin tutkimusten kohteina olleilta opiskelijoilta verkkokyselyillä, paitsi yhdessä tapauksessa, jossa kysely toteutettiin osana kurssitehtävää. Tulokset osoittavat, että yleisesti opiskelijat mielsivät tietävänsä enemmän kuin todellisuudessa tiesivät. Sukupuolella, aiemmalla koulutuksella ja tieteenalalla oli selkeä vaikutus vastaajien tietoturvakäytökseen - sekä miellettyyn että varsinaiseen tietoisuuteen. Opiskelijoilla on monenlaisia tietoturvaan liittyviä huolenaiheita, jotka liittyvät persoonallisiin, sosiaalisiin, teknologisiin, ei-teknologisiin sekä arkisiin ulottuvuuksiin. Tämä poikkeaa nykyisen kirjallisuuden näkemyksestä, joka käsittää vain teknologisen ja ei-teknologisen ulottuvuuden. Opiskelijat eroavat merkittävästi tietoturvaasiantuntijoista tietoturvakäytäntöjensä suhteen. Tietoturvakoulutusta saaneet, tietoisemmat opiskelijat olivat käyttäytymiseltään lähempänä tietoturva-asiantuntijoita kuin vähemmän tietoiset ja vähemmän koulutusta aiheesta saaneet opiskelijat. Tutkimuksessa kävi ilmi myös, että tietoturvatietoisuuden ja -käyttäytymisen välistä suhdetta voidaan selittää käyttäen IMB-mallia (Information-Motivation- Behavioural Skills model). Tässä väitöskirjassa esitetty tutkimus ja sen tulokset ovat korkeakoulujen opetushenkilöstön ja tietoturvasta vastaavien ammattilaisten suoraan hyödynnettävissä

2014 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Eighth Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1008/thumbnail.jp