Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Reflections From The Wearable Computing Conference In Toronto, Canada, Nick Rheinberger, Katina Michael, Alexander Hayes

Alexander Hayes Mr.

Could sports men and women who are monitored using wearable computers actually be playing to a global theatre to ensure the upkeep of their performance benchmarks instead of consciously watching and reacting to what is happening in the game they are playing? What are the social implications of heart rate monitors and GPS units now embedded into player clothing? What were some of the reflections from the IEEE ISTAS13 meeting on Wearable Computers in Every Day Life? What were some of the main messages that you walked away with from that conference? What made the greatest impression on us was …

Impact Of Wind Generator Control Strategies On Flicker Emission In Distribution Networks, Lasantha Meegahapola, Sarath Perera

Dr Lasantha G Meegahapola

Renewable power generators are increasingly being integrated to electricity networks to achieve future renewable energy targets in power generation. In particular, wind power generation has already reported substantial penetration levels in electricity networks. Traditionally, flicker phenomenon is considered to be one of the power quality issues in power distribution networks due to fluctuating consumer loads connected to the network. Large-scale integration of wind power generators may create significant voltage fluctuations in distribution feeders due to stochastic and intermittent nature of the wind resources. This study aims to investigate and characterize the flicker emission under different control strategies for DFIG based …

Capability Curve Based Enhanced Reactive Power Control Strategy For Stability Enhancement And Network Voltage Management, Lasantha Meegahapola, Tim Littler, Sarath Perera

Dr Lasantha G Meegahapola

Reactive power has become a vital resource in modern electricity networks due to increased penetration of distributed generation. This paper examines the extended reactive power capability of DFIGs to improve network stability and capability to manage network voltage profile during transient faults and dynamic operating conditions. A coordinated reactive power controller is designed by considering the reactive power capabilities of the rotor-side converter (RSC) and the grid-side converter (GSC) of the DFIG in order to maximise the reactive power support from DFIGs. The study has illustrated that, a significant reactive power contribution can be obtained from partially loaded DFIG wind …

No Limits To Watching?, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

M. G. Michael

Little by little, the introduction of new body-worn technologies is transforming the way people interact with their environment and one another, and perhaps even with themselves. Social and environmental psychology studies of human-technology interaction pose as many questions as answers. We are learning as we go: 'learning by doing' through interaction and 'learning by being'. Steve Mann calls this practice existential learning; wearers become photoborgs, a type of cyborg (cybernetic organism) whose primary intent is image capture from the domains of the natural and artificial. This approach elides the distinction between the technology and the human; they coalesce into one.

No Limits To Watching?, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Little by little, the introduction of new body-worn technologies is transforming the way people interact with their environment and one another, and perhaps even with themselves. Social and environmental psychology studies of human-technology interaction pose as many questions as answers. We are learning as we go: 'learning by doing' through interaction and 'learning by being'. Steve Mann calls this practice existential learning; wearers become photoborgs, a type of cyborg (cybernetic organism) whose primary intent is image capture from the domains of the natural and artificial. This approach elides the distinction between the technology and the human; they coalesce into one.

Dynamic Channel Allocation For Mobile Cellular Systems Using A Control Theoretical Approach, Yaya Wei, Chuang Lin, Raad Raad, Fengyuan Ren

Dr Raad Raad

The guard channel scheme in wireless mobile networks has attracted and is still drawing research interest owing to easy implementation and flexible control. Dynamic guard channel schemes have already been proposed in the literature to adapt to varying traffic load. This paper presents a novel control-theoretic approach to dynamically reserve guard channels called PI-Guard Channel (PI-GC) controller that maintains the handoff blocking probability (HBP) to a predefined value; while it still improves the channel resource utilization.

Session Based Differentiated Quality Of Service Admission Control For Web Servers, Yaya Wei, Chuang Lin, Fengyuan Ren, Eryk Dutkeiwicz, Raad Raad

Dr Raad Raad

Recent advance-session based admission control (SBAC) has resulted in protecting the server from entering a regime in which latencies are excessive or session throughput collapses due to dropped requests and aborted sessions. The goal of this work is to introduce differentiated QoS to SBAC. We propose a two-threshold SBAC scheme (QSBAC). It can provide high throughput for preferred clients especially in overload situation. Furthermore, to adapt to varying traffic loads, a dynamic QSBAC (DQSBAC) scheme is also proposed. The experimental results show that comparing with SBAC scheme, both QSBAC scheme and DQSBAC scheme can sustain higher session throughput for preferred …

Inertial Sensing For Human Motor Control Symmetry In Injury Rehabilitation, Matthew Field, David Stirling, Montserrat Ros, Zengxi Stephen Pan, Fazel Naghdy

zengxi pan

This paper proposes a series of methods for representing changes in human motion during injury rehabilitation using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors. Tracking the changes over a recovery period requires methods for evaluating the similarity of movement in an impaired state against a non-impaired state. We investigate the use of motion analyses such as the centre of mass (COM) tipping distance, the variance of joint velocity eigenvalues and the cumulative state changes of Gaussian mixture models (GMM) for monitoring the symmetry between the left and right sides of body during rehabilitation exercises. The methods are tested on an injured athlete …

Adaptive Sliding Mode Control Of Tri-Layer Conjugated Polymer Actuators, Xiangjiang Wang, Gursel Alici, Chuc Nguyen

Chuc Huu Nguyen

This paper proposes an adaptive sliding mode control methodology to enhance the positioning ability of conducting polymer actuators typified by tri-layer conjugated polymer actuators. This is motivated by the search for an effective control strategy to command such actuators to a desired configuration in the presence of parametric uncertainties and unmodeled disturbances. After analyzing the stability of the adaptive sliding mode control system, experiments were conducted to demonstrate its satisfactory tracking ability, based on a series of experimental results. Implementation of the control law requires a valid model of the conducting polymer actuator and boundaries of the uncertainties and disturbances. …

Social Implications Of Wearable Computing And Augmediated Reality In Every Day Life (Ieee Symposium On Technology And Society, Istas13), Katina Michael

Associate Professor Katina Michael

It was in July 2012 that Steve Mann and I corresponded on the possibility of hosting a conference on wearable computing in Toronto, Canada. Steve had just returned home from a family holiday to France and publicly blogged about an unfortunate incident that had happened to him while away. On 17th July 2012 he posted: “Physical assault by McDonald’s for wearing Digital Eye Glass”. We both knew the timing was right for such an event that was not just a technical engineering or applied orientation on the theme of smart worlds, but an event that would grapple with the dichotomies …

Potential Roles Of Abundant Extracellular Chaperones In The Control Of Amyloid Formation And Toxicity, Mark R. Wilson, Justin J. Yerbury, Stephen Poon

Mark R Wilson

The in vivo formation of fibrillar proteinaceous deposits called amyloid is associated with more than 40 serious human diseases, collectively referred to as protein deposition diseases. In many cases the amyloid deposits are extracellular and are found associated with newly identified abundant extracellular chaperones (ECs). Evidence is presented suggesting an important regulatory role for ECs in amyloid formation and disposal in the body. A model is presented which proposes that, under normal conditions, ECs stabilize extracellular misfolded proteins by binding to them, and then guide them to specific cell receptors for uptake and subsequent degradation. Thus ECs and their receptors …

Dangerous Psychopaths: Criminally Responsible But Not Morally Responsible, Subject To Criminal Punishment And To Preventive Detention, Ken M. Levy

Ken Levy

How should we judge psychopaths, both morally and in the criminal justice system? This Article will argue that psychopaths are generally not morally responsible for their bad acts simply because they cannot understand, and therefore be guided by, moral reasons.

Scholars and lawyers who endorse the same conclusion automatically tend to infer from this premise that psychopaths should not be held criminally punishable for their criminal acts. These scholars and lawyers are making this assumption (that just criminal punishment requires moral responsibility) on the basis of one of two deeper assumptions: that either criminal punishment directly requires moral responsibility or …

What Are The Relations Among Stress Perception, Health Perception And Activity Participation In School-Aged Children?, Allison Caplin

Honors Theses and Capstones

This correlational study examined possible relations among children’s activity patterns, perceived stress, and perceived health. A variety of self-report questionnaires were administered to a sample of 33 school age children. The Pediatric Activity Sort (PACS) was used to measure activity participation, a health questionnaire was used to assess health, and the Childhood Stress Questionnaire (CSQ) was used to measure perceived stress. Correlations showed no significant relationships between stress level and the amount of reported activity participation. The absence of significant relationships may be due to testing a sample of middle to upper class, Caucasian children, as there was a skewed …

Roles Of Perceived Control And Planning In Ranch Drought Preparedness, Tonya Haigh, Cody Knutson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Ranchers in the Great Plains and across the United States face the threat of periodic drought. Though ranchers might minimize losses through drought-preparedness activities, many do not adequately prepare for drought, in part because of perceptions that the outcomes of drought management are not controllable. We explore how drought planning activities affect ranchers' perceptions of control and drought preparedness using the theories of planned behavior and goal attainment as guiding frameworks. Ten Great Plains ranchers who had engaged in drought management activities were interviewed about their plans. From the interviews, three activities emerged that appeared to increase ranchers' perceived control …

Integrated Seat And Suspension Control For A Quarter Car With Driver Model, Haiping Du, Weihua Li, Nong Zhang

Professor Weihua Li

In this paper, an integrated vehicle seat and sus pension control strategy for a quarter car with driver model is proposed to improve suspension performance on driver ride comfort. An integrated seat and suspension model that includes a quarter-car suspension, a seat suspension, and a 4-degree-of freedom (DOM) driver body model is presented first. This in1 tegrated model provides a platform to evaluate ride comfort 1performance in terms of driver head acceleration responses under typical road disturbances and to develop an integrated control of seat and car suspensions. Based on the integrated model, an H∞ state feedback controller is designed …

Feedback Regulation Of Temporal Muscle Activation Patterns For Postural Control Before And After Peripheral Neuropathy, L Ting, D Lockhart, P Stapley, J Macpherson

Dr Paul J Stapley

Introduction: Neural mechanislllS determining temporal pattcl1ls of muscle activity during poshlral responses are not understood. Fulluwing pyridoxine inuuced somatosensory loss in cats, unset latencies of automatic poshu-al responses are delayed, and balance is impaired. We introduce a new method for correlating temporal patterns of muscle activation with task-level variahles in the context of postural responses to perturbation. Methods: We measured postmal responses to support smface tronslations before and after loss of group I afferents indnced by pyridoxine intoxication. We reconstructed temporal EMG patterns llsing a feedback loop with delays, on CoM acceleration. velocity, and displacement. Resnlts: Prior to lesion, temporal …

Neck Muscle Fatigue And Postural Control In Patients With Whiplash Injury, Paul Stapley, Maria Beretta, Elena Toffola, Marco Schieppati

Dr Paul J Stapley

Objectives: To examine if patients with whiplash injury show identifiable increases in neck muscle fatigability and associated increase in postural body sway after contractions of dorsal neck muscles, and if physiotherapy treatment reduces these effects. Methods: Sway was measured during stance in 13 patients before and after 5 min of isometric dorsal neck muscle contractions and after recovery, pre- and post-physiotherapy, using a force platform. Amplitude and median frequency of neck muscle EMG were calculated during the contracting period. After each stance trial, patients gave a subjective score of sway. Results: Pre-treatment, seven patients showed EMG signs of fatigue (increases …

A Common Neural Substrate For The Control Of Anticipatory And Compensatory Postural Responses, Paul Stapley, Benedicte Schepens, Trevor Drew

Dr Paul J Stapley

We have shown previously that reticulospinal neurones (RSNs) in the brainstem pontomedullary reticular formation (PMRF) contribute to the production of the anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) that precede reaching movements executed in a standing pOSition (Schepens and Drew, 2004, 2006; Schepens, Stapley and Drew, 2008). More recently (Stapley and Drew, 2009), we have also shown that cells in the PMRF contribute to the production of the compensatory responses that are produced by unexpected perturbations (drops) of the support surface from under one paw during quiet stance. In this poster we address the question of whether the same cells in the PMRF …

Posture Control During Online Corrections Of Arm Movements Is Predictive, Julia Leonard, Paul Stapley

Dr Paul J Stapley

The control of reaching to a target in standing involves the feed-forward programming of associated postural adjustments (a PAs) that decelerate the body and arm toward the target (Leonard et ai, 2009). However, little is known about the control of aPAs in situations where the final position of the target goal shifts after the reach movement has been initiated. We hypothesized that a predictive reprogramming of the aPA would occur prior to the adjustment of the arm movement to ensure correct execution of the reaching movement. Using a double step paradigm, we investigated the postural adjustments in standing humans exposed …

Independent Control Of Limb Force Underlies Stability During Voluntary Head Movements In Standing Humans, Paul Stapley, Alicia Hilderley, Julia Leonard

Dr Paul J Stapley

Postural stability during voluntary head movements is maintained through the integration of vestibular and neck afferent inputs. These inputs combine to accurately estimate trunk position in space, relative to a turning head. In animals, a loss of vestibular information leads to an active destabilization of balance as neck afferent information is interpreted as a movement of the trunk under a stable head (Stapley et al. 2006).

Neuromuscular Control And Exercise-Related Leg Pain In Triathletes, Andrew Chapman, Paul Hodges, Andrew Briggs, Paul Stapley, Bill Vicenzino

Dr Paul J Stapley

Previous studies have shown that cycling can directly influence neuromuscular control during subsequent running in some highly trained triathletes. A relationship between this altered neuromuscular control of running and musculoskeletal pain and injury has been proposed; however, this link has not been investigated. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of cycling on neuromuscular control during subsequent running in highly trained triathletes with and without exercise-related leg pain (ERLP). METHODS: Participants were 34 highly trained triathletes: 10 triathletes with a history of ERLP and 24 training-matched control triathletes with no history of ERLP. Knee and ankle kinematics and leg …

Antecedents To Mobbing, Anita Lois Lane

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The research examines possible antecedents to mobbing behavior. Mobbing typically occurs following a bullying incident. Dyadic Power Theory (Dunbar, 2004) is applied to the behaviors associated with this phenomenon. Indirect Interpersonal Aggression can be perceived as a communicative strategy to demonstrate control attempts. Those who lack in self-assurance may be more apt to join in with the mob and cultivate mobbing episodes in the adult world. Emerging adults are entering vocational spheres in large numbers. Becoming aware of unethical communicative behaviors that lead to severe workplace and individual consequences is the focus of this study.

Diabetes And Cognitive Deficits In Chronic Schizophrenia: A Case-Control Study, Mei Han, Xu-Feng Huang, Da Chun Chen, Meihong Xiu, Thomas R. Kosten, Xiang Yang Zhang

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Cognitive impairment occurs in both schizophrenia and diabetes. There is currently limited understanding whether schizophrenia with diabetes has more serious cognitive deficits than schizophrenia without diabetes or diabetes only. This study assessed cognitive performance in 190 healthy controls, 106 diabetes only, 127 schizophrenia without diabetes and 55 schizophrenia with diabetes. This study was conducted from January 2008 to December 2010. Compared to healthy controls, all patient groups had significantly decreased total and five index RBANS scores (all p<0.01-p

Evaluating A New Infection Prevention And Control Programme (Ipcp): Tool Development And Use In The Republic Of Kiribati, P-A Zimmerman, H Yeatman, M Jones, H Murdoch

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Abstract of poster presentation that presented at the 2nd International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC 2013), Geneva, Switzerland, 25-28 June 2013.

The Effects Of Inhibitory Control Training On Alcohol Consumption, Implicit Alcohol-Related Cognitions And Brain Electrical Activity, Claire Bowley, Cameron Faricy, Bronwyn Hegarty, Stuart J. Johnstone, Janette L. Smith, Peter J. Kelly, Jacqueline A. Rushby

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study aimed to replicate findings that alcohol consumption and positive implicit beer-related cognitions can be reduced using inhibitory control (IC) training, with the addition of an active training control. Frontal EEG asymmetry, an objective psychophysiological index of approach motivation, was used as a dependent measure to examine training outcomes. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two IC training conditions (Beer NoGo or Beer Go) or a Brief Alcohol Intervention (BAI) (i.e. the active training control). The IC training tasks consistently paired a stimulus that required a response with images of water (Beer NoGo) or images of beer (Beer …

Vibration Control Of Vehicle Seat Integrating With Chassis Suspension And Driver Body Model, Haiping Du, Weihua Li, Nong Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Vehicle seat suspension is one of very important components to provide ride comfort, in particular, commercial vehicles, to reduce driver fatigue due to long hours driving. This paper presents a study on active control of seat suspension to reduce vertical vibration transmitted from uneven road profile to driver body. The control problem will be firstly studied by proposing an integrated seat suspension model which includes vehicle chassis suspension, seat suspension, and driver body model. This is a new concept in the field of study because most of the current active and semi-active seat suspension studies only consider seat suspension or …

Capability Curve Based Enhanced Reactive Power Control Strategy For Stability Enhancement And Network Voltage Management, Lasantha Meegahapola, Tim Littler, Sarath Perera

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Reactive power has become a vital resource in modern electricity networks due to increased penetration of distributed generation. This paper examines the extended reactive power capability of DFIGs to improve network stability and capability to manage network voltage profile during transient faults and dynamic operating conditions. A coordinated reactive power controller is designed by considering the reactive power capabilities of the rotor-side converter (RSC) and the grid-side converter (GSC) of the DFIG in order to maximise the reactive power support from DFIGs. The study has illustrated that, a significant reactive power contribution can be obtained from partially loaded DFIG wind …

Inertial Sensing For Human Motor Control Symmetry In Injury Rehabilitation, Matthew Field, David Stirling, Montserrat Ros, Zengxi Stephen Pan, Fazel Naghdy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper proposes a series of methods for representing changes in human motion during injury rehabilitation using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors. Tracking the changes over a recovery period requires methods for evaluating the similarity of movement in an impaired state against a non-impaired state. We investigate the use of motion analyses such as the centre of mass (COM) tipping distance, the variance of joint velocity eigenvalues and the cumulative state changes of Gaussian mixture models (GMM) for monitoring the symmetry between the left and right sides of body during rehabilitation exercises. The methods are tested on an injured athlete …

Towards Improved Steel Alloy Designs For Control Of Weld Heat Affected Zone Properties, F J. Barbaro, Z Zhu, L Kuzmikova, H Li, J M. Gray

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper reviews the current technology related to control of weld HAZ properties in high strength steels. The debate related to appropriate balance of Ti and N is addressed and it appears that a stoichiometric ratio provides optimum fracture toughness. The results are significant because despite the well established difficulties in controlling Ti/N ratio, this data now provides guidance in terms of alloy design to achieve optimum fracture toughness in the HAZ of welds. The enhanced resistance to grain coarsening behaviour of high Nb steels has now provided another incremental improvement in the weldability of steels for critical applications such …

Fuzzy Control Of A Conjugated Polymer Actuator, Mohammadreza Sabetghadam, Mehmet Itik, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Polypyrrole actuators may represent time varying and nonlinear dynamics as the solvent evaporation continuously affects their performance. Linear models can be used to design controllers for polypyrrole actuators to some extent but their performance may not be sufficient in order to comply with the requirements for applications where high precision is necessary. This paper proposes a Fuzzy Logic controller to improve the tracking performance of a trilayer polypyyrole conducting polymer actuator. As the fuzzy controller does not require a model for the system, the nonlinearities and uncertainties can be handled effectively. Experimental results show that fuzzy control improves the tracking …