Beowulf the RPG

As the recent 3D movie rendition of Beowulf proves, the Anglo -Saxon epic is still in the minds of storytellers even over a thousand years after the first scops recited it. Recently in human history, video games have appeared as a form of storytelling. In particular, the role-playing game genre particularly suits epic stories, and thus would be an ideal carrier for the themes and adventures which have made Beowulf stand the test of time. Thus, this thesis seeks to create a faithful adaption of Beowulf

Nonlinear stochastic vibration analysis for energy harvesting and other applications

With the rapid development of electronic technology, the power consumption of electronic devices has decreased significantly. Consequently, there is substantial interest in harvesting energy from ambient sources, such as vibration, in order to power small-scale wireless devices. To design optimal vibration harvesting systems it is important to determine the maximum power obtainable from a given vibration source. Initially, white noise base excitation of a general nonlinear energy harvester model is considered. The power input from white noise is known to be proportional both to the total oscillating mass of the system and the magnitude of the noise spectral density, regardless of the internal mechanics of the system. This power is split between undesirable mechanical damping and useful electrical dissipation, where the form of the stiffness profile and device parameters determine the relative proportion of energy dissipated by each mechanism. An upper bound on the electrical power is derived and used to guide towards optimal harvesting devices, revealing that low stiffness systems exhibit maximum performance. Many engineering applications will exhibit more complicated spectra than the flat spectrum of white noise. Expanding upon the white noise analysis, a method to investigate the power dissipation of nonlinear oscillators under non-white excitation is developed by extending the Wiener series. The relatively simple first term of the series, together with the excitation spectrum, is found to completely define the power dissipated. An important property of this first term, namely that the integral over its frequency domain representation is proportional to the oscillating mass, is derived and validated both numerically and experimentally, using a base excited cantilever beam with a nonlinear restoring force produced by magnets. Another form of excitation prevalent in many mechanical systems is a combination of deterministic and broadband random vibration. Lastly, the Duffing oscillator is used to illustrate the behaviour of a nonlinear system under this form of excitation, where the response is observed to spread around the attractor that would be seen if purely deterministic excitation was present. The ability of global weighted residual methods to produce the complex responses typical of nonlinear oscillators is assessed and found to be accurate for systems with weak nonlinearity

Family therapy interventions for psychopathy

Research into developmental aspects of antisocial behaviour and psychopathy has made strong progress in recent decades. The findings most notably informed by growing evidence regarding callous-unemotional (CU) traits suggest that the neurodevelopmental abnormalities associated with psychopathy emerge early in life, and are shaped by genetics, biology, and environmental factors. In line with this, initial trials of intervention programs for antisocial youth with CU traits have begun to show the potential for family-based interventions to reduce antisocial behaviour as well as CU traits when delivered early in life. Importantly, this research also suggests family interventions may need to be adapted to meet the unique needs of high CU youth. This chapter reviews current best approaches to adapting family interventions for antisocial youth with CU traits. We further argue that it is timely to examine the integration of current theories of antisocial behaviour with emerging scientific frameworks for personalizing clinical intervention. Three core issues are discussed in accordance with scientific frameworks for personalizing interventions relevant to adapting family interventions for high CU youth: (i) research supporting family interventions as an evidence supported treatment for antisocial behaviour as the primary problem (ii) research supporting family-based interventions as the best model of intervention for antisocial youth with CU traits, and (iii) putative treatment strategies that may be integrated or adapted for family interventions such that programs are tailored to the unique developmental aspects of antisocial behaviour among high CU youth. An evaluation of promising best-treatment approach(es) is discussed as well as future directions for research

A hybrid Finite Element-Statistical Energy Analysis method for impulsive and transient loading

The hybrid approach coupling Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) and the finite element method has become a prominent technique for analysing structures under steady-state loads in the ‘mid-frequency’ range where some components behave in a deterministic manner with low modal density and others in a statistical manner with high modal density and statistical overlap. In this paper, the method is extended from its current steady-state capability to provide calculation of structural responses under impulsive and time-varying loads. Similar to the steady-state method, a system is split into deterministic components that are modelled using the finite element approach and statistical components that are modelled as SEA subsystems. An evolutionary spectrum approach based on the Priestley description of random processes is applied to model the response of both the SEA and deterministic components which are coupled by considering a power balance between the SEA subsystems. The diffuse field reciprocity relationship that relates the reverberant forces generated by a subsystem to the energy within it is explored under transient conditions where it is found that it can be important to account for the build-up of a reverberant field following an impulse. Results from the method are compared against finite element simulations for a system of plates coupled by a beam and it is found to generate predictions with the accuracy expected of an SEA-based method, although deterministic oscillations of the deterministic system at early times are not accounted for.MH

A framework for simultaneous task allocation and planning under uncertainty

We present novel techniques for simultaneous task allocation and planning in multi-robot systems operating under uncertainty. By performing task allocation and planning simultaneously, allocations are informed by individual robot behaviour, creating more efficient team behaviour. We go beyond existing work by planning for task reallocation across the team given a model of partial task satisfaction under potential robot failures and uncertain action outcomes. We model the problem using Markov decision processes, with tasks encoded in co-safe linear temporal logic, and optimise for the expected number of tasks completed by the team. To avoid the inherent complexity of joint models, we propose an alternative model that simultaneously considers task allocation and planning, but in a sequential fashion. We then build a joint policy from the sequential policy obtained from our model, thus allowing for concurrent policy execution. Furthermore, to enable adaptation in the case of robot failures, we consider replanning from failure states and propose an approach to preemptively replan in an anytime fashion, replanning for more probable failure states first. Our method also allows us to quantify the performance of the team by providing an analysis of properties such as the expected number of completed tasks under concurrent policy execution. We implement and extensively evaluate our approach on a range of scenarios. We compare its performance to a state-of-the-art baseline in decoupled task allocation and planning: sequential single-item auctions. Our approach outperforms the baseline in terms of computation time and the number of times replanning is required on robot failure

Evaluation of the Wellspring Model for Improving Nursing Home Quality

Examines how successfully the Wellspring model improved the quality of care for residents of eleven nonprofit nursing homes in Wisconsin. Looks at staff turnover, and evaluates the impact on facilities, employees, residents, and cost