SaferDrive: an NLG-based Behaviour Change Support System for Drivers

Despite the long history of Natural Language Generation (NLG) research, the potential for influencing real world behaviour through automatically generated texts has not received much attention. In this paper, we present SaferDrive, a behaviour change support system that uses NLG and telematic data in order to create weekly textual feedback for automobile drivers, which is delivered through a smartphone application. Usage-based car insurances use sensors to track driver behaviour. Although the data collected by such insurances could provide detailed feedback about the driving style, they are typically withheld from the driver and used only to calculate insurance premiums. SaferDrive instead provides detailed textual feedback about the driving style, with the intent to help drivers improve their driving habits. We evaluate the system with real drivers and report that the textual feedback generated by our system does have a positive influence on driving habits, especially with regard to speeding

Fast and Furious: The Influence of Implicit Aggression, Premeditation, and Provoking Situations on Malevolent Creativity

Being intentionally harmful in original ways has been termed \u27malevolent creativity.\u27 The empirical study of malevolent creativity is still in its infancy, so developing a strong foundation of its antecedents is paramount. Three factors were identified as potentially influencing the generation of malevolently creative ideas: implicit aggression, which is aggression that is beyond one’s conscious awareness; premeditation, a facet of impulsivity that pertains to the degree of planning and forethought an individual engages in before acting; and situations that condone or otherwise provoke the use of malevolent creativity. Consistent with our hypotheses, and in accordance with the theory of trait activation, a 3-way interaction among those factors was obtained. Specifically, the interaction indicates that individuals who are more implicitly aggressive and less premeditative are more likely to be malevolently creative in response to situations that provoke malevolent creativity

Life-cycle costs of high-performance cells

A life cycle cost analysis of high efficiency cells was presented. Although high efficiency cells produce more power, they also cost more to make and are more susceptible to array hot-spot heating. Three different computer analysis programs were used: SAMICS (solar array manufacturing industry costing standards), PVARRAY (an array failure mode/degradation simulator), and LCP (lifetime cost and performance). The high efficiency cell modules were found to be more economical in this study, but parallel redundancy is recommended

Intergenerational transmission of economic success in Austria with a focus on migration and gender

In this paper, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of economic success in Austria using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2011 dataset (EU-SILC 2011). Starting point of the investigation is a two-step estimation procedure, where we detect a significant positve intergenerational association between the economic situation of the parental household and educational attainments as well as gross hourly wages of their male and female descendants independently. Furthermore, we shed some light on the intergenerational social mobility black box by explaining the direct effect of the income situation of the parental generation on attainable wages of the child generation within the transmission system. It turns out that this effect is significantly underestimated when applying ordinary least squares regressions only, where the perceived socioeconomic status is taken exogenous. Finally, we apply instrumental variable quantile regressions to demonstrate that the direct intergenerational economic association between parents and their descendants is strongest for top earners. Alongside this proceeding, we introduce an alternative way to think about the impact of a bundle of additional intergenerational transmission channels like cognitive ability, noncognitive personal traits, and aspects of physical appearance on an empirical level. Overall, the findings of the paper, where special attention is paid to migrants, offer a better understanding on the intergenerational transmission of economic success mechanism and to what extent this process influences income persistence between generations

MR Spectroscopic Imaging of Peripheral Zone in Prostate Cancer Using a 3T MRI Scanner: Endorectal versus External Phased Array Coils.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) detects alterations in major prostate metabolites, such as citrate (Cit), creatine (Cr), and choline (Ch). We evaluated the sensitivity and accuracy of three-dimensional MRSI of prostate using an endorectal compared to an external phased array "receive" coil on a 3T MRI scanner. Eighteen patients with prostate cancer (PCa) who underwent endorectal MR imaging and proton (1H) MRSI were included in this study. Immediately after the endorectal MRSI scan, the PCa patients were scanned with the external phased array coil. The endorectal coil-detected metabolite ratio [(Ch+Cr)/Cit] was significantly higher in cancer locations (1.667 ± 0.663) compared to non-cancer locations (0.978 ± 0.420) (P < 0.001). Similarly, for the external phased array, the ratio was significantly higher in cancer locations (1.070 ± 0.525) compared to non-cancer locations (0.521 ± 0.310) (P < 0.001). The sensitivity and accuracy of cancer detection were 81% and 78% using the endorectal 'receive' coil, and 69% and 75%, respectively using the external phased array 'receive' coil

Katastrophen und Katastrophenvorsorge in Jena aus Sicht der Bevölkerung

Das Working-Paper „Katastrophen und Katastrophenvorsorge in Jena aus Sicht der Bevölkerung“ stellt Ergebnisse einer Studie zur Wahrnehmung von Katastrophen und Katastrophenvorsorge in Jena vor, die im Rahmen des vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) finanzier-ten Projekts „INVOLVE – Verringerung sozialer Vulnerabilität durch freiwilliges Engagement“ durch-geführt wurde. Es werden qualitative Ergebnisse aus Expert*inneninterviews, Workshops und Gruppendiskussionen, v.a. aber die Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Bevölkerungsbefragung darge-stellt. Im Mittelpunkt der Forschung stand sowohl in der qualitativen wie quantitativen Befragung die Wahrnehmung und Einschätzung von Katastrophen, Katastrophenschutz sowie Vorsorgemaß-nahmen gegenüber den Szenarien Starkregen/Hochwasser, Hitzewellen sowie sozioökonomische Krise. Es zeigt sich, dass „Katastrophe“ von Katastrophenschutzexpert*innen anders definiert wird als von den Befragten, die potenziell von einer Katastrophe betroffen sein könnten. Zugleich wird deutlich, dass „klassische Naturkatastrophen“ als Gefahr im Bewusstsein und dem daraus resultie-renden Vorsorgeverhalten deutlich weniger präsent sind als sozioökonomische Aspekte, wie bspw. Angst vor gesellschaftlicher Spaltung oder Existenzsicherungsängsten. Derweil ist das Gefühl sozia-ler Kohäsion in der direkten Nachbarschaft sehr hoch, ebenso wie das Vertrauen in Organisationen des Katastrophenschutzes wie das Technische Hilfswerk (THW), Feuerwehren oder Hilfsorganisati-onen.The working paper "Disasters and Disaster Risk Reduction in Jena" provides an overview of a case study conducted within the framework of the INVOLVE project "INitiate VOLunteerism to counter VulnErability" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Primarily the results of a quantitative survey of the population, but also qualitative results from expert inter-views, workshops and group discussions are presented. Central to the research in the qualitative and quantitative survey were the perception and assessment of disasters, disaster management as much as preventive measures for heavy rain/flood, heatwaves as well as socio-economic crisis. As it turns out, the definition of a disaster varies greatly between civil protection experts and those potentially affected. At the same time, it can be shown that “natural disasters” are much less per-ceived as a risk in the public awareness – and therefore less considered within precautionary be-havior – than socio-economic aspects such as the fear of social division or for a secure livelihood. Simultaneously, though, the feeling of social cohesion in the direct neighborhood is very strong, as is the trust in civil protection organizations like the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), fire brigades or aid organizations

Automated Handling of Auxiliary Materials using a Multi-Kinematic Gripping System

Using a special, multi-kinematic gripping system, the vacuum bagging process in the manufacturing of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) can be automated. Using the example of a parabolic rear pressure bulkhead, the flexibility of the multi-kinematic system is used to handle largely different sized cut-pieces of auxiliary materials. Avoiding the need for special gripping systems for each part greatly reduces the cost for automation because it allows using a single system for a broad variety of different tasks. With a genetic algorithm for optimization, the high redundancy created by using several robots with each 6 or 7 degrees of freedom can be solved. The overall process is simulated using a 3D visualization environment and therefore can be programmed completely offline before being executed with real robot hardwar

The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Task Type on Malevolent Creativity

Malevolent creativity (MC), or intending to inflict harm in original ways, is an aspect of creativity that has received little empirical attention. It reasons that generating malevolently creative products in response to a problem is dependent upon individual differences and environmental factors, especially with regard to the social and emotional content of a particular problem. A personality variable strongly associated with how individuals acknowledge and respond to such social and emotional content is emotional intelligence (EI). Individuals with higher EI often solve problems in cooperative, beneficial, and positive ways, which seems contrary to solving a problem with MC. In addition to testing whether EI is negatively related to MC in general, we analyzed whether that negative relationship would persist even after controlling for cognitive ability and task effects. Those questions were examined across two studies. Results suggest that individuals with lower EI are more likely to respond to different types of problems with increased instances of MC even when the social or emotional content of those problems are factored out. The implications and limitations of these studies, as well as future directions for the study of MC, are discussed