Proceedings of the Vision Zero Summit 2019 12–14 November 2019 Helsinki, Finland

The Vision Zero Summit was held on 12–14 November 2019 in Helsinki Finland, and organized by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, with the support of our partners. Vision Zero is a strategy and a holistic mindset. It is continuous improvement of safety, health, and wellbeing at work, not just a numerical goal. This summit focused on discussing different aspects of Vision Zero, taking the Vision Zero thinking and actions to the next level, and sharing best practices and lessons learned. One theme of the Summit was worded as Rethinking Vision Zero, which is a reminder that there are many perspectives to Vision Zero. Vision Zero Summit was one of the side events of Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. One of the Vision Zero Summit’s goal was to provide new ideas and perspectives, as well as strengthen participants professional networks. This Proceedings publication is a compilation of the papers presented on 12–14 November 2019 in the Vision Zero Summit 2019 in Helsinki

Modeling Learner Mood In Realtime Through Biosensors For Intelligent Tutoring Improvements

Computer-based instructors, just like their human counterparts, should monitor the emotional and cognitive states of their students in order to adapt instructional technique. Doing so requires a model of student state to be available at run time, but this has historically been difficult. Because people are different, generalized models have not been able to be validated. As a person’s cognitive and affective state vary over time of day and seasonally, individualized models have had differing difficulties. The simultaneous creation and execution of an individualized model, in real time, represents the last option for modeling such cognitive and affective states. This dissertation presents and evaluates four differing techniques for the creation of cognitive and affective models that are created on-line and in real time for each individual user as alternatives to generalized models. Each of these techniques involves making predictions and modifications to the model in real time, addressing the real time datastream problems of infinite length, detection of new concepts, and responding to how concepts change over time. Additionally, with the knowledge that a user is physically present, this work investigates the contribution that the occasional direct user query can add to the overall quality of such models. The research described in this dissertation finds that the creation of a reasonable quality affective model is possible with an infinitesimal amount of time and without “ground truth” knowledge of the user, which is shown across three different emotional states. Creation of a cognitive model in the same fashion, however, was not possible via direct AI modeling, even with all of the “ground truth” information available, which is shown across four different cognitive states

Constructing an Early Modern Queen: Posturing, Mimicry, and the Rhetoric of Authority

As the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, a woman executed for treason, Elizabeth Tudor stood at the center of discourses that often sought to contain or even destroy her. Early on, Elizabeth understood that constant re-invention, performance, and mimicry were key strategies for survival. When she finally ascended the throne in 1558, Elizabeth continued to use these rhetorical methods to retain her autonomy, as far as possible, garnering public support and the loyalty of her court. Although Elizabeth has long been acknowledged as a historical icon and has received considerable scholarly attention, particularly from feminist and feminist-leaning scholars, her status as a skilled rhetor and use of strategic imitation has only been briefly considered. This project will examine Elizabeth as an iconic rhetor, one with the semblance of power and agency within the confines of gendered discourses. Analyzing her performance through the lens of mimicry and historical inaccessibility, as outlined in the theories of Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, this project considers the following lines of inquiry: Tudor era debates regarding pedagogical strategies and their intersection with rhetorical theories; the influence of early instructors, both women and men, on Elizabeth’s rhetorical strategy; and Elizabeth\u27s emulative self-fashioning as it appears in her speeches, behavior, letters, and portraits. This project suggests that as a seminal figure at the start of the modern moment, Elizabeth’s deft use of mimicry to establish and maintain her royal authority is significant within the rhetorical tradition

Privatization, State Militarization through War, and Durable Social Exclusion in Post-Soviet Armenia

In the literature focusing on various aspects of the twin transitions from socialism, development and social well-being are mainly analyzed with respect to privatization process (Stark and Bruszt 1998, Applegate 1994); economic growth and institutional design (North 1990; Elster, Offe, and Preuss 1998; Kolodko 1999; Norgaard 2000); party and election politics, the development of social networks and deliberative associations (Stark and Bruszt 1998); and the bargaining power of labor (Bandelj and Mahutga 2005). While the importance of these factors is not underestimated, this study addresses a significantly understudied theme – social exclusion as a consequence of overweening state power. The problem of social exclusion cuts to the core of the distribution of power in society; and in most of the post-Soviet societies, there has occurred predominantly negative change in societal power after 1990s, with vast power concentrated in the hands of governing elites. In the case of Armenia, the problem is specifically striking. This dissertation centers around durable social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia generated as a consequence of the twin transition and explores the conditions that explain the high degree of social exclusion in contemporary Armenian society. It aims to answer the following research question: what factors contributed to the development of durable social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia from 1988-2008? As an exploratory case study based on the examination of recent socio-economic and, more notably, political developments of post-Soviet Armenian state, this dissertation generates new hypotheses to study social exclusion. Appending to the mainstream literature that focuses on primarily the socio-economic drivers of social exclusion, I emphasize that not only consequences of economic reform affect the level of social exclusion, but also, and more significantly, the historic trajectory of the society. I argue that privatization was an important but not a sufficient factor in the emergence of social exclusion in post-Soviet Armenia. State militarization through war was another necessary and largely overlooked condition for the persistence of social exclusion in Armenia. The assessment of these hypotheses provides evidence that allows a test of whether privatization and militarization are plausible factors for the persistence of social exclusion in other developing countries