Safety-Aware Apprenticeship Learning

Apprenticeship learning (AL) is a kind of Learning from Demonstration techniques where the reward function of a Markov Decision Process (MDP) is unknown to the learning agent and the agent has to derive a good policy by observing an expert's demonstrations. In this paper, we study the problem of how to make AL algorithms inherently safe while still meeting its learning objective. We consider a setting where the unknown reward function is assumed to be a linear combination of a set of state features, and the safety property is specified in Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic (PCTL). By embedding probabilistic model checking inside AL, we propose a novel counterexample-guided approach that can ensure safety while retaining performance of the learnt policy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on several challenging AL scenarios where safety is essential.Comment: Accepted by International Conference on Computer Aided Verification (CAV) 201

Multicultural identity integration versus compartmentalization as predictors of subjective well-being for Third Culture Kids: The mediational role of self-concept consistency and self-efficacy

Globalization has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), defined as being raised in a culture other than that of their parents (or the passport country) and meaningfully interacting with different cultures. Inconsistencies regarding the effect of multicultural and transient experiences on well-being exist in the psychological literature. We aimed to reveal associations between multicultural identity configurations (integration, categorization, compartmentalization) and well-being with the mediating role of self-concept consistency and self-efficacy. Participants ( = 399, = 21.2 years) were students at an international university in the United Arab Emirates. We used the Multicultural Identity Integration Scale, the Berne Questionnaire of Subjective Well-Being, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Self-Consistency Subscale from the Self-Construal Scale. The findings suggest that not merely exposure to diversity but also internal integration versus identity compartmentalization moderate the well-being of TCKs. We explained such mechanisms via partial mediation of self-consistency and self-efficacy. Our study contributed to a better understanding of the TCKs' identity paradigm and pointed to multicultural identity integration as vital to TCKs' well-being via its effect on self-consistency and self-efficacy. Conversely, identity compartmentalization decreased well-being via a reduction in the sense of self-consistency

Multimedia Advocacy for Person Centred Planning: Small Research Pilot Report

The Rix Centre has been commissioned by the Royal Borough of Greenwich to devise and conduct a pilot study of the Multimedia Advocacy Approach being applied to Person-Centred Planning with the young people from Charlton Park Academy in Greenwich. This commission was one of the initiatives as part of Greenwich Special Educational Needs and Disability Pathfinder project. Royal Borough of Greenwich is one of 20 Pathfinders across England appointed by the Government to test new approaches to supporting children with special needs

PRISM: a tool for automatic verification of probabilistic systems

Probabilistic model checking is an automatic formal verification technique for analysing quantitative properties of systems which exhibit stochastic behaviour. PRISM is a probabilistic model checking tool which has already been successfully deployed in a wide range of application domains, from real-time communication protocols to biological signalling pathways. The tool has recently undergone a significant amount of development. Major additions include facilities to manually explore models, Monte-Carlo discrete-event simulation techniques for approximate model analysis (including support for distributed simulation) and the ability to compute cost- and reward-based measures, e.g. "the expected energy consumption of the system before the first failure occurs". This paper presents an overview of all the main features of PRISM. More information can be found on the website: www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~dxp/prism

New Ecological Paradigm and third culture kids: Multicultural identity configurations, global mindset and values as predictors of environmental worldviews

Ecological degradation threatens human survival, increasing the need to understand factors related to pro‐environmental attitudes and worldviews. In a globalising world, new paradigms arise as central to social sciences, including the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the multicultural identities of individuals raised between the cultures, third culture kids (TCKs). NEP is an ecocentric perspective that stresses the interdependence between nature and humans, opposite to anthropocentrism. TCKs' exposure to cultural diversity during developmental years might support global issues engagement and ecocentric worldviews. The present study focused on non‐Western TCKs (N = 399; mean age 21 years), aiming to explore whether multicultural identity configurations (integration, categorisation, compartmentalisation), values dimensions (self‐transcendence, openness and conservation) and global mindset predicted ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews. The results demonstrated that TCKs were ecocentrically inclined. The path model revealed that ecocentrism could be directly positively predicted by integrated multicultural identity, self‐transcendence and a global mindset. Anthropocentrism was predicted by multicultural identity categorisation and conservation values. Also, values of self‐transcendence and openness buffered the impact of compartmentalisation and categorisation on ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. This study set innovative directions in multiculturism and environmentalism discourse through understanding a multicultural identity's relationships with pro‐environmental attitudes

A mass action model of a fibroblast growth factor signaling pathway and its simplification

We consider a kinetic law of mass action model for Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) signaling, focusing on the induction of the RAS-MAP kinase pathway via GRB2 binding. Our biologically simple model suffers a combinatorial explosion in the number of differential equations required to simulate the system. In addition to numerically solving the full model, we show that it can be accurately simplified. This requires combining matched asymptotics, the quasi-steady state hypothesis, and the fact subsets of the equations decouple asymptotically. Both the full and simplified models reproduce the qualitative dynamics observed experimentally and in previous stochastic models. The simplified model also elucidates both the qualitative features of GRB2 binding and the complex relationship between SHP2 levels, the rate SHP2 induces dephosphorylation and levels of bound GRB2. In addition to providing insight into the important and redundant features of FGF signaling, such work further highlights the usefulness of numerous simplification techniques in the study of mass action models of signal transduction, as also illustrated recently by Borisov and co-workers (Borisov et al. in Biophys. J. 89, 951–66, 2005, Biosystems 83, 152–66, 2006; Kiyatkin et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 281, 19925–9938, 2006). These developments will facilitate the construction of tractable models of FGF signaling, incorporating further biological realism, such as spatial effects or realistic binding stoichiometries, despite a more severe combinatorial explosion associated with the latter

Explicit Model Checking of Very Large MDP using Partitioning and Secondary Storage

The applicability of model checking is hindered by the state space explosion problem in combination with limited amounts of main memory. To extend its reach, the large available capacities of secondary storage such as hard disks can be exploited. Due to the specific performance characteristics of secondary storage technologies, specialised algorithms are required. In this paper, we present a technique to use secondary storage for probabilistic model checking of Markov decision processes. It combines state space exploration based on partitioning with a block-iterative variant of value iteration over the same partitions for the analysis of probabilistic reachability and expected-reward properties. A sparse matrix-like representation is used to store partitions on secondary storage in a compact format. All file accesses are sequential, and compression can be used without affecting runtime. The technique has been implemented within the Modest Toolset. We evaluate its performance on several benchmark models of up to 3.5 billion states. In the analysis of time-bounded properties on real-time models, our method neutralises the state space explosion induced by the time bound in its entirety.Comment: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24953-7_1

W2ID – Web 2.0 for People with Intellectual Disabilities

This report describes the work undertaken by the W2ID project partnership over two years of activity from January 2011. The W2ID project aimed to improve the employability skills, active citizenship and community participation of the European intellectual disability community. The Project co-developed and distributed a fully participatory Web.2.0-based peer-learning system called 'Klikin' that features 'easy-build' website software alongside learning and support resources. This was trialled and evaluated in a Pilot with a range of young learners and adults with intellectual disability in 5 European countries: Portugal, Latvia, Finland, United Kingdom and Austria. The W2ID project engaged partner organisations from across Europe that included national service provider agencies as well as smaller teaching and training organisations, a research and development centre and a pan European agency for organisations that deliver services for people with disabilities. The diverse expertise of the project partners and the input of people with intellectual disabilities were combined in the project to establish an innovative and inclusive European Web system. By actively involving the intellectual disability community as co-developers and participants, the project created a unique peer-learning network that enabled people to build and share personal experiences, knowledge and information. The project goal set out to make it easier for people of all abilities to participate in Web 2.0 activity such as generating their own content and using tools like blogs, social networks and wiki websites to enrich their lives. Participants with intellectual disabilities worked with partners to explore how cameras, microphones, computers and online software packages could be made more accessible for as wide a range of people to use as possible. A major review of the preferred activities of web users with intellectual disability was firstly undertaken. Learners with intellectual disability told the project partners what they like to do online; what they would like to do but found difficult; and what tools and websites they found most interesting and useful. This study informed the development of a new 'Klikin' online package and a European Support Hub website with training and support resources with a network of 'easy-build wiki websites', linked to national Web Portals managed for each of the participating countries. Over the second year of the project the Portals, Wiki Websites and the Support Hub have been populated with a mix of web 2.0 tools, advice and multimedia stories, that celebrate the lives of Europeans with intellectual disabilities and inspire the target group to use the Web in creative, safe and social ways. The W2ID project developed a clear brief from the people with intellectual disabilities who took part. Project partners refined the software packages and learning approaches to create the project‟s uniquely accessible online resource set. Participants were recruited for a pilot delivery of the Klikin system in year two of the Project, with training and support provided for the numerous organisations that took part in this large-scale project trial. Learners and their supporters participated in an in-depth survey of their experience of taking part in the Klkin pilot and their views about Web 2.0 technologies and what they could achieve. This evaluation survey demonstrated considerable personal impact for learners who took part in Klikin and has provided the first piece of authoritative research-based evidence of the potential benefit of the use of these technologies for inclusive lifelong learning. The Project partners also worked together to come up with a model that will enable Klikin to remain an easy to access resource for learners with intellectual disabilities, beyond the life of the project and into the future. Partners have formed an Alliance that will coordinate joint work across European countries to promote and deliver the Klikin package and continue the partnership to keep abreast of technological changes in the world of the Web and the further opportunities that these might bring for people at risk of exclusion in the future. The project developed a website to introduce the project in easy to understand terms, using multimedia content to help make the information accessible for potential participants with intellectual disabilities (www.w2id.eu ). A „European Support Hub‟ was also created, with resources and inspiring stories about the rich variety of ways in which the Klikin package has been used by learners, to help with the recruitment and dissemination process (http://blog.klikin.eu ). Over 370 people with intellectual disabilities took part in the W2ID project pilot and produced more than 140 'wiki websites' of multimedia content about themselves, their jobs and activities, what they like to do when they go out in their local communities and their interest in ICT, the web and multimedia. Most of these websites have been published on the Project‟s 'Klikin' European Portal where they can be accessed via sections organised according to the different languages used by the partner organisations (www.klikin.eu) The project partnership embraced a uniquely diverse range of organisations and the innovative teaching and learning methods that have been applied have resulted in the development of a rich and complex Klikin package. Over the project period this has built into an innovative online resource that has been developed in a genuinely inclusive programme of work across the partner countries. The project team are confident that this is an exemplary contribution to the quest for a really inclusive World Wide Web for all the citizens of the European Community