19,709 research outputs found
"The fridge door is open" : temporal verification of a robotic assistant's behaviours
Robotic assistants are being designed to help, or work with, humans in a variety of situations from assistance within domestic situations, through medical care, to industrial settings. Whilst robots have been used in industry for some time they are often limited in terms of their range of movement or range of tasks. A new generation of robotic assistants have more freedom to move, and are able to autonomously make decisions and decide between alternatives. For people to adopt such robots they will have to be shown to be both safe and trustworthy. In this paper we focus on formal verification of a set of rules that have been developed to control the Care-O-bot, a robotic assistant located in a typical domestic environment. In particular, we apply model-checking, an automated and exhaustive algorithmic technique, to check whether formal temporal properties are satisfied on all the possible behaviours of the system. We prove a number of properties relating to robot behaviours, their priority and interruptibility, helping to support both safety and trustworthiness of robot behaviours
Laid Off: American Workers and Employers Assess a Volatile Labor Market
This Work Trends survey shows that despite economic growth, worker concern for the economy, their job security, and the threat of terrorism is increasing; workers and employers express fear about outsourcing jobs abroad
Formal verification of an autonomous personal robotic assistant
Humanârobot teams are likely to be used in a variety of situations wherever humans require the assistance of robotic systems. Obvious examples include healthcare and manufacturing, in which people need the assistance of machines to perform key tasks. It is essential for robots working in close proximity to people to be both safe and trustworthy. In this paper we examine formal verification of a high-level planner/scheduler for autonomous personal robotic assistants such as Care-O-bot âą . We describe how a model of Care-O-bot and its environment was developed using Brahms, a multiagent workflow language. Formal verification was then carried out by translating this to the input language of an existing model checker. Finally we present some formal verification results and describe how these could be complemented by simulation-based testing and realworld end-user validation in order to increase the practical and perceived safety and trustworthiness of robotic assistants
Twistfield Perturbations of Vertex Operators in the Z_2-Orbifold Model
We apply Kadanoff's theory of marginal deformations of conformal field
theories to twistfield deformations of Z_2 orbifold models in K3 moduli space.
These deformations lead away from the Z_2 orbifold sub-moduli-space and hence
help to explore conformal field theories which have not yet been understood. In
particular, we calculate the deformation of the conformal dimensions of vertex
operators for p^2<1 in second order perturbation theory.Comment: Latex2e, 19 pages, 1 figur
Swimming in curved space or The Baron and the cat
We study the swimming of non-relativistic deformable bodies in (empty) static
curved spaces. We focus on the case where the ambient geometry allows for rigid
body motions. In this case the swimming equations turn out to be geometric. For
a small swimmer, the swimming distance in one stroke is determined by the
Riemann curvature times certain moments of the swimmer.Comment: 19 pages 6 figure
Financial and non-financial information transfer and communication within small and medium enterprises
This participant-observation study explores the process of gathering and evaluating both financial and non-financial information and communication and transfer of that information within a medium-sized electrical service company in Christchurch, New Zealand. The previous literature has established the importance and the main characteristics of small and medium enterprises, mainly studying manufacturing companies. However, there has been little research done in New Zealand on the overall communication process and the financial and non-financial information usage in a small-medium enterprise.
The Electrical Company has a flat structure which allows flexibility. The two owners understand the importance of financial management and use financial information extensively to ensure the business expenses are under control. The owners also gather and use non-financial information through talking to their accountant, their customers and people in the same industry and they keenly follow the news on the rebuilding of Christchurch after the recent earthquakes
âTrying to pin down jellyâ - exploring intuitive processes in quality assessment for meta-ethnography
Background:
Studies that systematically search for and synthesise qualitative research are becoming more evident in health care, and they can make an important contribution to patient care. However, there is still no agreement as to whether, or how we should appraise studies for inclusion. We aimed to explore the intuitive processes that determined the âqualityâ of qualitative research for inclusion in qualitative research syntheses. We were particularly interested to explore the way that knowledge was constructed.
Methods:
We used qualitative methods to explore the process of quality appraisal within a team of seven qualitative researchers funded to undertake a meta-ethnography of chronic non-malignant musculoskeletal pain. Team discussions took place monthly between October 2010 and June 2012 and were recorded and transcribed. Data was coded and organised using constant comparative method. The development of our conceptual analysis was both iterative and collaborative. The strength of this team approach to quality came from open and honest discussion, where team members felt free to agree, disagree, or change their position within the safety of the group.
Results:
We suggest two core facets of quality for inclusion in meta-ethnography - (1) Conceptual clarity; how clearly has the author articulated a concept that facilitates theoretical insight. (2) Interpretive rigour; fundamentally, can the interpretation âbe trusted?â Our findings showed that three important categories help the reader to judge interpretive rigour: (ii) What is the context of the interpretation? (ii) How inductive is the interpretation? (iii) Has the researcher challenged their interpretation?
Conclusions:
We highlight that methods alone do not determine the quality of research for inclusion into a meta-ethnography. The strength of a concept and its capacity to facilitate theoretical insight is integral to meta-ethnography, and arguably to the quality of research. However, we suggest that to be judged âgood enoughâ there also needs to be some assurance that qualitative findings are more than simply anecdotal. Although our conceptual model was developed specifically for meta-ethnography, it may be transferable to other research methodologies
The Dynamics of a Classical Spinning Particle in Vaidya Space-Time
Based on the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon (MPD) equations and the Vaidya
metric, the motion of a spinning point particle orbiting a non-rotating star
while undergoing radiation-induced gravitational collapse is studied in detail.
A comprehensive analysis of the orbital dynamics is performed assuming distinct
central mass functions which satisfy the weak energy condition, in order to
determine a correspondence between the choice of mass function and the spinning
particle's orbital response, as reflected in the gravitational waves emitted by
the particle. The analysis presented here is likely most beneficial for the
observation of rotating solar mass black holes or neutron stars in orbit around
intermediate-sized Schwarzschild black holes undergoing radiation collapse. The
possibility of detecting the effects of realistic mass accretion based on this
approach is considered. While it seems unlikely to observe such effects based
on present technology, they may perhaps become observable with the advent of
future detectors.Comment: REVTeX file, 20 pages, 26 figure
Characterizing Triviality of the Exponent Lattice of A Polynomial through Galois and Galois-Like Groups
The problem of computing \emph{the exponent lattice} which consists of all
the multiplicative relations between the roots of a univariate polynomial has
drawn much attention in the field of computer algebra. As is known, almost all
irreducible polynomials with integer coefficients have only trivial exponent
lattices. However, the algorithms in the literature have difficulty in proving
such triviality for a generic polynomial. In this paper, the relations between
the Galois group (respectively, \emph{the Galois-like groups}) and the
triviality of the exponent lattice of a polynomial are investigated. The
\bbbq\emph{-trivial} pairs, which are at the heart of the relations between
the Galois group and the triviality of the exponent lattice of a polynomial,
are characterized. An effective algorithm is developed to recognize these
pairs. Based on this, a new algorithm is designed to prove the triviality of
the exponent lattice of a generic irreducible polynomial, which considerably
improves a state-of-the-art algorithm of the same type when the polynomial
degree becomes larger. In addition, the concept of the Galois-like groups of a
polynomial is introduced. Some properties of the Galois-like groups are proved
and, more importantly, a sufficient and necessary condition is given for a
polynomial (which is not necessarily irreducible) to have trivial exponent
lattice.Comment: 19 pages,2 figure
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