Learning latent actions to control assistive robots

Autonomous Robots - Assistive robot arms enable people with disabilities to conduct everyday tasks on their own. These arms are dexterous and high-dimensional; however, the interfaces people must...     

A Nitpick Analysis of Mobile IPv6

A lightweight formal method enables partial specification and automatic analysis by sacrificing breadth of coverage and expressive power. NP is a specification language that is a subset of Z, and Nitpick is a tool that quickly and automatically checks properties of finite models of systems specified in NP. We used NP to state two critical acyclicity properties of Mobile IPv6, a new internetworking protocol that allows mobile hosts to communicate with each other. In our Nitpick analysis of Mobile IPv6 we discovered a design flaw: one of the acyclicity properties does not hold. It takes only two hosts to exhibit this flaw. This paper gives self-contained overviews of Mobile IPv6 and of NP and Nitpick sufficient to understand the details of our specification and analysis. Received September 1997 / Accepted in revised form January 2000     

The influence of previous experiences on participant performance during maritime simulation testing

Motion simulation platforms are often used to study the effects of moving environments on the postural stability of maritime workers. During motion simulation studies, the effects of previous experience are not often considered when recruiting control participants. Previous experience in motion simulation studies may violate assumptions of novice participants, and previous experiences in activities that regularly challenge balance may also influence performance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of previous participation in motion simulation studies or previous skill training (specifically dance) on postural stability and lower limb neuromuscular activity in a simulated ocean environment. Thirty-seven participants were recruited; 12 participants with previous motion bed experience, 13 dancers, and 12 control participants. Results indicated that both motion bed experience and dance training had significantly better postural stability performance and decreased lower limb muscle activity compared to truly inexperienced control subjects during motion simulation testing.     

Urban teens: Trauma, posttraumatic growth, and emotional distress among female adolescents.

Urban teens face many traumas, with implications for potential growth and distress. This study examined traumatic events, posttraumatic growth, and emotional distress over 18 months among urban adolescent girls (N = 328). Objectives were to (a) describe types of traumatic events, (b) determine how type and timing of events relate to profiles of posttraumatic growth, and (c) prospectively examine effects of event type and posttraumatic growth on short- and long-term emotional distress with controls for pre-event distress. Results indicate that type of event was related to profiles of posttraumatic growth, but not with subsequent emotional distress. When baseline emotional distress was controlled, posttraumatic growth was associated with subsequent reductions in short- and long-term emotional distress. Implications for future research and clinical practice with adolescents are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social identities and intergroup bias in immigrant and nonimmigrant children.

Ethnic and American identity, as well as positivity and negativity toward multiple social groups, were assessed in 392 children attending 2nd or 4th grade in various New York City neighborhoods. Children from 5 ethnic groups were recruited, including White and Black Americans, as well as recent immigrants from China, the Dominican Republic, and the former Soviet Union. For ethnic minority children, greater positivity bias (evaluating one's ingroup more positively than outgroups) was predicted by immigrant status and ethnic identity, whereas negativity bias (evaluating outgroups more negatively than one's ingroup) was associated with increased age, immigrant status, and (among 4th graders only) ethnic identity. In addition, a more central American identity was associated with less intergroup bias among ethnic minority children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterizing and Mining the Citation Graph of the Computer Science Literature

Citation graphs representing a body of scientific literature convey measures of scholarly activity and productivity. In this work we present a study of the structure of the citation graph of the computer science literature. Using a web robot we built several topic-specific citation graphs and their union graph from the digital library ResearchIndex. After verifying that the degree distributions follow a power law, we applied a series of graph theoretical algorithms to elicit an aggregate picture of the citation graph in terms of its connectivity. We discovered the existence of a single large weakly-connected and a single large biconnected component, and confirmed the expected lack of a large strongly-connected component. The large components remained even after removing the strongest authority nodes or the strongest hub nodes, indicating that such tight connectivity is widespread and does not depend on a small subset of important nodes. Finally, minimum cuts between authority papers of different areas did not result in a balanced partitioning of the graph into areas, pointing to the need for more sophisticated algorithms for clustering the graph.     

Assessing text representations with recognition: The interaction of domain knowledge and text coherence.

Readers construct at least 2 interrelated mental representations when they comprehend a text: a textbase and a situation model. Two experiments were conducted with recognition memory to examine how domain knowledge and text coherence influence readers' textbase and situation-model representations. In Experiment 1, participants made remember-know judgments to text ideas. Knowledge and coherence interacted to influence remember judgments differently than know judgments. In Experiment 2, the authors used the process-dissociation procedure to obtain recollection and familiarity estimates. Knowledge and coherence interacted to influence recollection estimates but not familiarity estimates. The authors claim that recollection and familiarity can be used as markers of the different processes involved in constructing a textbase and a situation model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dynamics of power in psychotherapy.

Feminist psychology has brought a renewed interest in the issue of power in the treatment relationship. Power as an important facet in psychotherapy is explored here particularly with regard to the conceptualization of power within the modality of treatment and with regard to the potential influence of stereotyping in the treatment relationship. Cognitions about power and stereotyping, like countertransference, are conceptualized as a dynamic force that may prescribe the power distribution and roles in the treatment relationship. These factors may operate outside the conscious awareness of either or both the therapist and the patient and may bias the clinical judgment of the therapist and/or undermine a patient's sense of empowerment. Practical solutions to deal with these dynamic forces are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computational thinking and thinking about computing

Computational thinking will influence everyone in every field of endeavour. This vision poses a new educational challenge for our society, especially for our children. In thinking about computing, we need to be attuned to the three drivers of our field: science, technology and society. Accelerating technological advances and monumental societal demands force us to revisit the most basic scientific questions of computing.