DScent Final Report

DScent was a joint project between five UK universities combining research theories in the disciplines of computational inference, forensic psychology and expert decision-making in the area of counter-terrorism. This document discusses the work carried out by Leeds Metropolitan University which covers the research, design and development work of an investigator support system in the area of deception using artificial intelligence. For the purposes of data generation along with system and hypothesis testing the project team devised two closed world games, the Cutting Corners Board Game and the Location Based Game. DScentTrail presents the investigator with a ‘scent trail’ of a suspect’s behaviour over time, allowing the investigator to present multiple challenges to a suspect from which they may prove the suspect guilty outright or receive cognitive or emotional clues of deception (Ekman 2002; Ekman & Frank 1993; Ekman & Yuille 1989; Hocking & Leathers 1980; Knapp & Comadena 1979). A scent trail is a collection of ordered, relevant behavioural information over time for a suspect. There are links into a neural network, which attempts to identify deceptive behavioural patterns of individuals. Preliminary work was carried out on a behavioural based AI module which would work separately alongside the neural network, with both identifying deception before integrating their results to update DScentTrail. Unfortunately the data that was necessary to design such a system was not provided and therefore, this section of research only reached its preliminary stages. To date research has shown that there are no specific patterns of deceptive behaviour that are consistent in all people, across all situations (Zuckerman 1981). DScentTrail is a decision support system, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), which is intended to be used by investigators and attempts to find ways around the problem stated by Zuckerman above

DScentTrail: A new way of viewing deception

The DScentTrail System has been created to support and demonstrate research theories in the joint disciplines of computational inference, forensic psychology and expert decision-making in the area of counter-terrorism. DScentTrail is a decision support system, incorporating artificial intelligence, and is intended to be used by investigators. The investigator is presented with a visual representation of a suspect‟s behaviour over time, allowing them to present multiple challenges from which they may prove the suspect guilty outright or receive cognitive or emotional clues of deception. There are links into a neural network, which attempts to identify deceptive behaviour of individuals; the results are fed back into DScentTrail hence giving further enrichment to the information available to the investigator

Evaluating the Impact of Critical Factors in Agile Continuous Delivery Process: A System Dynamics Approach

Continuous Delivery is aimed at the frequent delivery of good quality software in a speedy, reliable and efficient fashion – with strong emphasis on automation and team collaboration. However, even with this new paradigm, repeatability of project outcome is still not guaranteed: project performance varies due to the various interacting and inter-related factors in the Continuous Delivery 'system'. This paper presents results from the investigation of various factors, in particular agile practices, on the quality of the developed software in the Continuous Delivery process. Results show that customer involvement and the cognitive ability of the QA have the most significant individual effects on the quality of software in continuous delivery

A systematic review of the discriminating biomechanical parameters during the single leg squat

Objective: To determine whether there are common biomechanical parameters when analysing the single leg squat movement to compare pathological and non-pathological groups and whether these parameters are able to effectively distinguish between groups. Methods: Five electronic databases were searched using MESH terms, keywords and phrases across four constructs: squat, biomechanical measures, region of interest, study design. Studies were selected based on inclusion of a quantitative biomechanical measure, compared between a pathological and a non-pathological group, and participants performed a single leg squat movement. Results: Fifteen studies were included and reviewed, where the majority of studies investigated patellofemoral pain. There was considerable variation in the biomechanical outcome measure used to compare between groups. The frontal plane projection angle was the most commonly reported measure. There was considerable variation in the manner in which the single leg squat was performed. Conclusion: Due to variation in how the single leg squat was performed, it was not possible to determine specific biomechanical parameters that distinguish between pathological and non-pathological groups. Frontal plane projection angle appeared to be a parameter that could be effectively utilised. Standardisation of the single leg squat movement is needed to allow comparison between studies of pathological and non-pathological groups

R^4 counterterm and E7(7) symmetry in maximal supergravity

The coefficient of a potential R^4 counterterm in N=8 supergravity has been shown previously to vanish in an explicit three-loop calculation. The R^4 term respects N=8 supersymmetry; hence this result poses the question of whether another symmetry could be responsible for the cancellation of the three-loop divergence. In this article we investigate possible restrictions from the coset symmetry E7(7)/SU(8), exploring the limits as a single scalar becomes soft, as well as a double-soft scalar limit relation derived recently by Arkani-Hamed et al. We implement these relations for the matrix elements of the R^4 term that occurs in the low-energy expansion of closed-string tree-level amplitudes. We find that the matrix elements of R^4 that we investigated all obey the double-soft scalar limit relation, including certain non-maximally-helicity-violating six-point amplitudes. However, the single-soft limit does not vanish for this latter set of amplitudes, which suggests that the E7(7) symmetry is broken by the R^4 term.Comment: 33 pages, typos corrected, published versio

The Structure of n-Point One-Loop Open Superstring Amplitudes

In this article we present the worldsheet integrand for one-loop amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric superstring theory involving any number n of massless open string states. The polarization dependence is organized into the same BRST invariant kinematic combinations which also govern the leading string correction to tree level amplitudes. The dimensions of the bases for both the kinematics and the associated worldsheet integrals is found to be the unsigned Stirling number S_3^{n-1} of first kind. We explain why the same combinatorial structures govern on the one hand finite one-loop amplitudes of equal helicity states in pure Yang Mills theory and on the other hand the color tensors at quadratic alpha prime order of the color dressed tree amplitude.Comment: 75 pp, 8 figs, harvmac TeX, v2: published versio

the fire assay reloaded

The fire assay process is still the most accurate and precise method for measuring the gold content in gold alloys. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy have been applied to observe the change in microstructure of the samples undergoing the fire assay process. The performed observations reveal that the microstructure of the specimen is more complex than expected. Before the parting stage, the specimen is not a perfect gold–silver binary alloy but contains also copper–silver oxides and other residual compounds. The parting stage appears to be a dealloying process leading to a nanoporous gold nanostructure. What observed after partition explains the evolution of the shape and colour of the specimen and may allow for a better comprehension of the procedure and an improvement in the method