891 research outputs found
Determining who responds better to a computer vs. human-delivered physical activity intervention: Results from the community health advice by telephone (CHAT) trial
Background
Little research has explored who responds better to an automated vs. human advisor for health behaviors in general, and for physical activity (PA) promotion in particular. The purpose of this study was to explore baseline factors (i.e., demographics, motivation, interpersonal style, and external resources) that moderate intervention efficacy delivered by either a human or automated advisor. Methods
Data were from the CHAT Trial, a 12-month randomized controlled trial to increase PA among underactive older adults (full trial N = 218) via a human advisor or automated interactive voice response advisor. Trial results indicated significant increases in PA in both interventions by 12 months that were maintained at 18-months. Regression was used to explore moderation of the two interventions. Results
Results indicated amotivation (i.e., lack of intent in PA) moderated 12-month PA (d = 0.55, p \u3c 0.01) and private self-consciousness (i.e., tendency to attune to one’s own inner thoughts and emotions) moderated 18-month PA (d = 0.34, p \u3c 0.05) but a variety of other factors (e.g., demographics) did not (p \u3e 0.12). Conclusions
Results provide preliminary evidence for generating hypotheses about pathways for supporting later clinical decision-making with regard to the use of either human- vs. computer-delivered interventions for PA promotion
High-Speed CMOS-Free Purely Spintronic Asynchronous Recurrent Neural Network
Neuromorphic computing systems overcome the limitations of traditional von
Neumann computing architectures. These computing systems can be further
improved upon by using emerging technologies that are more efficient than CMOS
for neural computation. Recent research has demonstrated memristors and
spintronic devices in various neural network designs boost efficiency and
speed. This paper presents a biologically inspired fully spintronic neuron used
in a fully spintronic Hopfield RNN. The network is used to solve tasks, and the
results are compared against those of current Hopfield neuromorphic
architectures which use emerging technologies
Short intense ion pulses for materials and warm dense matter research
We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the
Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, by generating beam spots size with radius r < 1 mm within 2 ns FWHM
and approximately 10^10 ions/pulse. To enable the short pulse durations and
mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.2 MeV Li+ ion beam is neutralized in a
1.6-meter drift compression section located after the last accelerator magnet.
An 8-Tesla short focal length solenoid compresses the beam in the presence of
the large volume plasma near the end of this section before the target. The
scientific topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of
radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics
including selected topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers
for inertial fusion energy. Here we describe the accelerator commissioning and
time-resolved ionoluminescence measurements of yttrium aluminium perovskite
using the fully integrated accelerator and neutralized drift compression
components.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Infrastructural Speculations: Tactics for Designing and Interrogating Lifeworlds
This paper introduces “infrastructural speculations,” an orientation toward speculative design that considers the complex and long-lived relationships of technologies with broader systems, beyond moments of immediate invention and design. As modes of speculation are increasingly used to interrogate questions of broad societal concern, it is pertinent to develop an orientation that foregrounds the “lifeworld” of artifacts—the social, perceptual, and political environment in which they exist. While speculative designs often imply a lifeworld, infrastructural speculations place lifeworlds at the center of design concern, calling attention to the cultural, regulatory, environmental, and repair conditions that enable and surround particular future visions. By articulating connections and affinities between speculative design and infrastructure studies research, we contribute a set of design tactics for producing infrastructural speculations. These tactics help design researchers interrogate the complex and ongoing entanglements among technologies, institutions, practices, and systems of power when gauging the stakes of alternate lifeworlds
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