Fees and Surcharging in automatic teller machine networks: Non-bank ATM providers versus large banks

This paper develops a spacial model of ATM networks to explore the implications for banks and non-banks of interchange fees, foreign fees and surcharges applied to transactions by customers at other than an own-bank ATM. Surcharging raises the price (foreign fee plus surcharge) paid by customers above the joint profit-maximizing level achieved by setting the interchange fee at marginal cost and not surcharging. Similar size banks would agree not to surcharge, but such an agreement is typically not possible between a bank and a non-bank. A high cost of teller transactions modifies the tendency towards high ATM fees.

Children's representations of asthma : developmental changes and influences on knowledge, asthma control, management and perceptions of quality of life

A between and within group design using a semi-structured interview was used to explore the content of children's illness representations of their asthma and the influence of these representations on knowledge, asthma management , asthma control and perceived quality of life. A sample of 41 asthmatic children and their parents were recruited from GP practices. Children were divided into two age groups 8-11 years and 12-16 years. Test-retest reliability was performed on a sample from each age group. Children were found to have similar illness representations across the age groups although developmental patterns were found in the beliefs children offered about the cause of their asthma, and in the way in which illness representations influenced outcome. For the younger children, causal attributions appear to be more influential in outcome than the constellation of illness representations that were tested Older children appeared to be beginning to approximate more adult patterns of holding a set of beliefs that influenced outcome. A major issue in the study was the variable reliability of the measures used Stability over time for the younger children was attributed to greater parental influence. The instability of measures over time for older children was considered to reflect developmental influences. Some support was found for the proposed self-regulatory function of illness representations although the complexity of findings highlights the need for longitudinal research to track developmental changes in children's illness representations. The implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed

The development of rail-head acoustic roughness

A model of the development of rail-head acoustic roughness on tangent track has been formulated. The model consists of a two-dimensional time domain wheel-rail interaction force calculation, with the normal force used as the input to a two-dimensional rolling contact and wear model. The possibility of multiple wear mechanisms arising from stress concentrations is considered by using a wear coefficient that can vary with the conditions at each point in the contact. The contact model is based on a variational technique, taking account of non-Hertzian and transient effects. A novel feature of the rolling contact model is the introduction of a velocity-dependent friction coefficient. In rolling contact this leads to a high frequency stick-slip oscillation in the slip zone at the trailing edge. Roughness development depends on the dynamics of the track. Roughness growth has often been linked to the pinned-pinned frequency and other resonances of the coupled track and vehicle system. Here the effect of different vehicle and track parameters on track dynamics, wear and roughness development has been examined. Rail dampers are studied as they change the dynamic response of the track. Results are presented in the form of roughness growth rate functions both for individual vehicle types and for mixed traffic. The model parameters match those at a site used for measurements of roughness development taken by Deutsche Bahn AG as part of the EU project Silence. The study shows that it is important to include non-Hertzian effects when studying roughness with wavelengths shorter than 100 mm. With a non-Hertzian contact model, no mechanism has been found for consistently increasing roughness levels. The model predicts that roughness wavelengths shorter than the contact length will wear away. Rail dampers are shown to reduce the pinned-pinned frequency and smooth the peaks and troughs in the track receptance. Rail dampers also reduce the dynamic wheel-rail interaction forces, especially around the pinned-pinned resonance, and shift the force spectrum to lower frequencies or longer wavelengths. However, rail dampers are not predicted to affect roughness growth rates significantly

AR Point&Click: An Interface for Setting Robot Navigation Goals

This paper considers the problem of designating navigation goal locations for interactive mobile robots. We propose a point-and-click interface, implemented with an Augmented Reality (AR) headset. The cameras on the AR headset are used to detect natural pointing gestures performed by the user. The selected goal is visualized through the AR headset, allowing the users to adjust the goal location if desired. We conduct a user study in which participants set consecutive navigation goals for the robot using three different interfaces: AR Point & Click, Person Following and Tablet (birdeye map view). Results show that the proposed AR Point&Click interface improved the perceived accuracy, efficiency and reduced mental load compared to the baseline tablet interface, and it performed on-par to the Person Following method. These results show that the AR Point\&Click is a feasible interaction model for setting navigation goals.Comment: 6 Pages, 5 Figures, 4 Table

Social Cue Analysis using Transfer Entropy

Robots that work close to humans need to understand and use social cues to act in a socially acceptable manner. Social cues are a form of communication (i.e., information flow) between people. In this paper, a framework is introduced to detect and analyse social cues and information transfer directionality using an information-theoretic measure, namely, transfer entropy. We demonstrate the framework in three settings involving social interactions between humans: object-handover, group-joining and person-following. Results show that transfer entropy can identify information flows between agents, when and where they occur, and their relative strength. For instance, in a person-following scenario, we find that head orientation of a predictor is particularly informative, and the different times and locations that this is used to convey information to a leader influences their behaviour. Potential applications of the framework include information flow or social cue analysis for interactive robot design, or socially-aware robot planning.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Preprin

Performing the Community, Telling the Self: Storytelling by Members of a Group Home for Men With Mental Retardation.

This study uses an ethnographic approach to examine the stories told by members of a group home for men with mental retardation. The author contends that the culture of the group home works to constrain how group home members interact within this community. The author argues, however, that despite the cultural constraints, the men use storytelling to establish their individuality, even though the stories themselves, in their content and in the performance of their telling, often reify cultural constraints and their cultural constructions. The author recounts how she, as ethnographer, interacted within this community. After identifying, describing, and analyzing eight communication situations and reviewing the existing literature on Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Mental Retardation, the author identifies the two cultural codes that influence communication within this community: compliance and self-reliance. Compliance functions as the dominant code; self-reliance, an ancillary code. Next, the author examines the imperializing function of member storytelling. Imperialized tellings generate and reproduce the group home\u27s culture, patterns of speaking, and status differentials. The author identifies a number of status-related subject positions created through storytelling: privileged teller, simultaneous teller, enforced teller, preferred listener, and enforced listener. Direct Care Workers assume subject positions of privileged teller and preferred listener, markers of status within this community. Group home members assume subject positions of enforced teller, enforced listener, and simultaneous teller, marking their status as occupants of the lowest social position within this community. The author examines the localizing function of member storytelling. Localized tellings are those tellings where a resident remembers or imagines identities, communities, cultures and patterns of interaction outside the space of the group home. The residents used localized tellings as a way to reclaim their individuality. Group home members are capable of performing a number of roles: cultural constructions (group home member, one who complies, one who acts in a self-reliant manner), narrative constructions (self-reliant narrators, compliant narrators, enforced tellers, enforced listeners, and simultaneous tellers), and localized constructions (personas of their own making). The group home members, although they share common identities and living spaces, maintain their senses of individuality

On-The-Go Robot-to-Human Handovers with a Mobile Manipulator

Existing approaches to direct robot-to-human handovers are typically implemented on fixed-base robot arms, or on mobile manipulators that come to a full stop before performing the handover. We propose "on-the-go" handovers which permit a moving mobile manipulator to hand over an object to a human without stopping. The on-the-go handover motion is generated with a reactive controller that allows simultaneous control of the base and the arm. In a user study, human receivers subjectively assessed on-the-go handovers to be more efficient, predictable, natural, better timed and safer than handovers that implemented a "stop-and-deliver" behavior.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, submitted to RO-MAN 202