PUCK: an automated prompting system for smart environments: toward achieving automated prompting—challenges involved

The growth in popularity of smart environments has been quite steep in the last decade and so has the demand for smart health assistance systems. A smart home-based prompting system can enhance these technologies to deliver in-home interventions to users for timely reminders or brief instructions describing the way a task should be carried out for successful completion. This technology is in high demand given the desire of people who have physical or cognitive limitations to live independently in their homes. In this paper, with the introduction of the “PUCK” prompting system, we take an approach to automate prompting-based interventions without any predefined rule sets or user feedback. Unlike other approaches, we use simple off-the-shelf sensors and learn the timing for prompts based on real data that are collected with volunteer participants in our smart home test bed. The data mining approaches taken to solve this problem come with the challenge of an imbalanced class distribution that occurs naturally in the data. We propose a variant of an existing sampling technique, SMOTE, to deal with the class imbalance problem. To validate the approach, a comparative analysis with cost-sensitive learning is performed.     

Immunoglobulin 1 (IgG1) Fc-glycosylation profiling of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies from human serum

In several autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), autoantibodies are thought to be the driving force of pathogenicity. Glycosylation of the Fc-part of human Igs is known to modulate biological activity. Hitherto, glycosylation of human IgG-Fc has been analyzed predominantly at the level of total serum IgG, revealing reduced galactosylation in RA. Given the pathogenic relevance of autoantibodies in RA, we wished, in the present study, to address the question whether distinct Fc-glycosylation features are observable at the level of antigen-specific IgG subpopulations. For this purpose, we have developed a method for the microscale purification and Fc-glycosylation analysis of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA). ACPA represent a group of autoantibodies that occur with unique specificity in RA patients. Their presence is associated with increased inflammatory disease activity and rapid joint destruction. Results indicate that ACPA of the IgG1 subclass vary considerably from total serum IgG1 with respect to Fc-galactosylation, with galactosylation being higher on ACPA than on serum IgG1 for some patients, while other patients show higher galactosylation on serum IgG1 than on ACPA. Using this method, studies can be performed on the biological and clinical relevance of ACPA glycosylation within RA patient cohorts.     

Anthropomorphism and AI: Turingʼs much misunderstood imitation game

The widespread tendency, even within AI, to anthropomorphize machines makes it easier to convince us of their intelligence. How can any putative demonstration of intelligence in machines be trusted if the AI researcher readily succumbs to make-believe? This is (what I shall call) the forensic problem of anthropomorphism. I argue that the Turing test provides a solution. This paper illustrates the phenomenon of misplaced anthropomorphism and presents a new perspective on Turing?s imitation game. It also examines the role of the Turing test in relation to the current dispute between human-level AI and ‘mindless intelligence’.     

Career involvement of women in dual-career families: The influence of sex role identity.

Studied the influence of sex-role identity on the career involvement of 70 25–45 yr old professional women who were members of dual-career families that included young children. As predicted, Ss categorized as masculine on the Personality Research Form, ANDRO scales, were employed a significantly greater proportion of time after having children than Ss categorized as feminine. In addition, the more equalitarian the marriage, the more likely S was to continue her career participation after having children. Regardless of employment status and the equalitarianism of the marriage, Ss reported that they spent significantly more time alone with their children than their husbands did. Implications for various counseling situations are noted. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What Turing Did after He Invented the Universal Turing Machine

Alan Turing anticipated many areas of current research incomputer and cognitive science. This article outlines his contributionsto Artificial Intelligence, connectionism, hypercomputation, andArtificial Life, and also describes Turing's pioneering role in thedevelopment of electronic stored-program digital computers. It locatesthe origins of Artificial Intelligence in postwar Britain. It examinesthe intellectual connections between the work of Turing and ofWittgenstein in respect of their views on cognition, on machineintelligence, and on the relation between provability and truth. Wecriticise widespread and influential misunderstandings of theChurch–Turing thesis and of the halting theorem. We also explore theidea of hypercomputation, outlining a number of notional machines thatcompute the uncomputable.     

The interaction between skill, postures, forces and back pain in wool handling

Wool handling is an important rural occupation where workers process 200 or more fleeces daily, separating them into various quality components. Loads and postures they experience carry substantial risk of low back pain (LBP). Although a formal skill training structure exists, interaction with loads and LBP is unknown. We examined whether skill and LBP influenced trunk postures and loads of 60 wool handlers representing 3 skill levels. LBP prevalence ranged from 20% for junior (lowest skill) to 45% for open class (highest skill) wool handlers. Open class wool handlers demonstrated increased lateral bend and more axially twisted postures, generating greater medio-lateral shear forces and lateral bend and axial twist moments. LBP was associated with open class wool handlers spending more time in severe axially twisted postures. These findings suggest that skill-based training needs to be reviewed to reduce the quantity of axially twisted posture which may help reduce the prevalence of LBP in this workforce.     

Effect of grain-boundary crystallization on the high-temperature strength of silicon nitride

Si₃N₄ specimens having the composition 88.7 wt% Si₃N₄-4.9wt% SiO₂-6.4wt% Y₂O₃ (85.1 mol% Si₃N₄-11.1 mol% SiO₂-3.8mol% Y₂O₃) were sintered at 2140° C under 25 atm N₂ for 1 h and then subjected to a 5 h anneal at 1500° C. Crystallization of an amorphous grainboundary phase resulted in the formation of Y₂Si₂O₇. The short-time 1370° C strength of this material was compared with that of material of the same composition having no annealing treatment. No change in strength was noted. This is attributed to the refractory nature of the yttrium-rich grain-boundary phase (apparently identical in both glassy and crystalline phases) and the subsequent domination of the failure process by common processing flaws.Chemical analysis of the medium indicated 5.25 wt% O₂, 0.46 wt% C, 0.8 wt% Al, and expressed in p.p.m. 670 Ca, 30 Cu, 2000 Fe, <2 Ti, 370 Cr, 130 Mg, 90 Mn, <10 V, <20 Zr, 2000 Mo, 240 Ni, 130 Zn, <30 Pb, <60 Sn.     

An extension of singular value analysis for assessing manipulated variable constraints

A new approach called feasible output radius analysis for linear or linearised models is introduced to address the problem of scaling dependency. This problem arises when assessing the effect of manipulated variable constraints (MVCs) on the closed-loop performance of chemical processes prior to carrying out control designs. The new indicators, and can be used to rank alternative control schemes on the basis that the larger and , the better the closed-loop performance in the presence of control constraints. These indicators are determined from extending the concept of the ‘feasible output amplitude region’ and are independent of the input scaling chosen. Theoretical analysis shows that this method is an extension of the more traditional singular value analysis approach and is more flexible in dealing with various kinds of manipulated variable constraints. A case study, i.e. a two-CSTR process, is investigated using the new method. Via the case study, some superior characteristics of the new technique are demonstrated, such as ease of calculation, and flexibility in coping with different kinds of constraints.