The biophysical basis and clinical applications of rheoencephalography

Rheoencephalography methods for determining aviators potentially subject to cerebrovascular diseas

Psychological approaches to the study of saving / 7

Bibliography: p. 95-114

Source Code Verification for Embedded Systems using Prolog

System relevant embedded software needs to be reliable and, therefore, well tested, especially for aerospace systems. A common technique to verify programs is the analysis of their abstract syntax tree (AST). Tree structures can be elegantly analyzed with the logic programming language Prolog. Moreover, Prolog offers further advantages for a thorough analysis: On the one hand, it natively provides versatile options to efficiently process tree or graph data structures. On the other hand, Prolog's non-determinism and backtracking eases tests of different variations of the program flow without big effort. A rule-based approach with Prolog allows to characterize the verification goals in a concise and declarative way. In this paper, we describe our approach to verify the source code of a flash file system with the help of Prolog. The flash file system is written in C++ and has been developed particularly for the use in satellites. We transform a given abstract syntax tree of C++ source code into Prolog facts and derive the call graph and the execution sequence (tree), which then are further tested against verification goals. The different program flow branching due to control structures is derived by backtracking as subtrees of the full execution sequence. Finally, these subtrees are verified in Prolog. We illustrate our approach with a case study, where we search for incorrect applications of semaphores in embedded software using the real-time operating system RODOS. We rely on computation tree logic (CTL) and have designed an embedded domain specific language (DSL) in Prolog to express the verification goals.Comment: In Proceedings WLP'15/'16/WFLP'16, arXiv:1701.0014

Robo-Bureaucrat and the Administrative Separation of Powers

This Essay argues that the administrative state\u27s use of artificial intelligence (AI) creates concentrated, unchecked power at the agency leadership level. The Essay draws from Professor Jon Michaels\u27 theory of the administrative separation of powers, and it describes how AI in government disrupts this separation. To alleviate this concern, the Essay puts forward one modest proposal: Congress should amend federal public sector labor law to require collective bargaining over an agency’s decision to use AI

Stakeholder perceptions : the impact of a university-based laboratory school on a campus-based university educator preparation program

Field of study: Educational leadership and policy analysis.Dr. Carole Edmonds, Dissertation Supervisor.Includes vita."May 2018."A gap in research on the impact of a university-based laboratory school on a campus-based educator preparation program and a decrease in the number of university-based laboratory schools requires current laboratory school programs to evaluate strengths and weaknesses to provide quality evaluative data to ensure continued viability. This qualitative study sought to expand the extant research by identifying perceptions of stakeholders, educator preparation program students, faculty, administrators, and laboratory school teachers, parents, and administrators--to examine the impact of a laboratory school on an educator preparation program. The case study outlined stakeholder perceptions at one university and one laboratory school and investigated the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the impact of a university-based laboratory school to a campus-based educator preparation program. Four major themes emerged related to the impact of a laboratory school on an educator preparation program include: experimentation, early practice and ability to bridge theory to practice, expertise of faculty and teachers, and safety and support of environment to practice new learning. A fifth overarching theme was identified as significant to research: complexity of the organization.Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-144)

PRIMA — Privacy research through the perspective of a multidisciplinary mash up

Based on a summary description of privacy protection research within three fields of inquiry, viz. social sciences, legal science, and computer and systems sciences, we discuss multidisciplinary approaches with regard to the difficulties and the risks that they entail as well as their possible advantages. The latter include the identification of relevant perspectives of privacy, increased expressiveness in the formulation of research goals, opportunities for improved research methods, and a boost in the utility of invested research efforts

Supporting the well-being of student veterans and service members: Contextual factors and self-determination

The present study investigated the well-being of student veterans and service members (SVSMs), a rapidly-growing subpopulation of college students in the U.S. with unique needs and lived experiences, through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT posits that contextual factors relate to well-being via perceived satisfaction of three basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation. A path model tested these SDT-stipulated relations in a sample of 182 SVSMs from the three Regent universities in Iowa, incorporating four SVSM-specific contextual factors (i.e., Office of veterans and military services (OVMS) support, veteran-friendly campus perception, veteran identity centrality, and positive regard for veteran identity). The model yielded a good fit; however, not all of the hypothesized relations were significant. Veteran-friendly campus perception and positive regard for veteran identity emerged as robust direct predictors of psychological need satisfaction and indirect predictors of well-being (i.e., globally and specific to the academic domain). OVMS support had a significant relationship only with perceived relatedness, and veteran identity centrality did not have significant direct or indirect relations with any of the psychological needs or well-being. Perceived competence was a robust mediator of multiple relations between contextual factors and well-being, and perceived relatedness also mediated some of the relations between contextual factors and well-being. The predictive utility of volitional autonomy and academic intrinsic motivation was not supported in the present study. Conclusions, implications, and future directions for research are discussed

The issue of putting a price on trees with high conservation values : a critical review of two monetary valuation tools for trees

I takt med att skyddsvärda träd i städer minskar har flera värderingsverktyg skapats för att skydda dessa genom att ge träd ett ekonomiskt värde. Många av dessa har fått kritik för att inte spegla trädens fulla värde. Uppsatsens syfte är att kritiskt diskutera monetär värdering av naturskyddsvärden, för att belysa problematiken i att använda ekonomiska värderingsverktyg på träd med naturskyddsvärde. Detta görs genom Alnarpsmodellen, ett strukturellt värderingsverktyg, och MyTree, ett instrumentellt värderingsverktyg. Respektive verktygs parametrar undersöks först enskilt för att studera hur de påverkar värderingen. Därefter används verktygen för att värdera nio fiktiva träd, med olika grad av skyddsvärde utifrån egenskaperna storlek och skick. Detta för att undersöka hur verktygen värderar träd med olika grad av skyddsvärde. Studien visar att de båda verktygen ger ett högre värde för ökad trädstorlek vilket speglar ett träds naturskyddsvärde. Vad det gäller skick ger de båda verktygen högst värde till träd utan håligheter, lägre eller lika högt värde för träd med håligheter, och lägst värde för döda träd, vilket inte speglar ett träds naturskyddsvärde. Verktygens problem diskuteras genom tidigare kvantifieringskritik. Det synliggörs då att verktygen bland annat förenklar verkligheten, endast tar hänsyn till generaliserade objektiva värden och är baserat på vad grundarna bakom verktygen anser vara mest värdefullt. Detta kan leda till att felaktiga beslut fattas kring det som har värderats. Däremot finns det en nytta med värderingsverktyg och en styrka med att kombinera ekonomiska värden med subjektiv bedömning eftersom ekonomi har en central roll i beslutsfattande. Detta exemplifieras med fall där värderingsverktyg har använts och gynnat urbana träd och ekologiska funktioner. Slutsatsen från detta arbete är att värderingsverktyg bör användas medvetet då de inte alltid samspelar med naturskyddsvärden. Vi kan konstatera att argumentationen för att bevara urbana träd bör grunda sig i trädets mjuka värden, anpassat efter situation, där stöd i siffror från värderingsverktyg är ett värdefullt tillägg.As trees with high conservation values in cities decrease, several valuation tools have been created to protect trees by giving them economic value. Many of these have been criticized for not reflecting the full value of trees. This work aims to critically discuss the monetary valuation of nature conservation values and to highlight the problems of using economic valuation tools on trees with high nature conservation values. This is done through the Alnarp model, a structural valuation tool, and MyTree, an instrumental valuation tool. Each tool's parameters are first studied individually to analyze how they affect the valuation. Then, the tools are used to monetize nine fictitious trees with varying degrees of conservation value based on size and condition. This provides insight into how the tools value trees with different degrees of conservation value. The study shows that both tools give a higher value for increased tree size, which reflects a tree's nature conservation value. Regarding condition, both tools give the highest value to trees without cavities, lower or equally high value for trees with cavities, and the lowest value for dead trees, which does not reflect a tree's nature conservation value. The problems with the tools are discussed through previous criticism of quantification. It is then revealed that the tools simplify reality, only consider generalized objective values, and are based on what the founders of the tools consider to be most valuable. This can lead to incorrect decisions being made about what has been valued. However, there is a benefit with valuation tools and a strength in combining economic values with subjective assessment, as economics plays a central role in decision-making. This is exemplified by cases where valuation tools have been used and benefited urban trees and ecological functions. The conclusion of this study is that valuation tools should be used consciously as they do not always reflect nature conservation values. We can conclude that the argument for preserving urban trees should be based on the tree's soft values, adapted to the situation, where support in numbers from valuation tools is a valuable addition