Interactive Actor Analysis for Rural Water Management in The Netherlands: An Application of the Transactional Approach

Recent developments in the policy sciences emphasize the social environment in which decisions are made. The ‘network metaphor’ is often used to describe the key role of interactions between interdependent actors involved in decision making. These interactions take place in a policy arena drawn up by actors with an interest in and control over decisions on the issues addressed. Interdependencies, caused by the need for actors to increase their means of realizing objectives, are the driving force behind these interactions. Dependency relations are of special interest to water management and river basin management because of the fundamental asymmetrical interdependencies that exist in river basins between upstream and downstream stakeholders. Coleman’s linear system of action models decision making process involving dependencies between multiple stakeholders as exchange of control over issues, while interactions are required to negotiate exchanges of control. We developed an interactive method for actor analysis based on Coleman’s linear system of action and applied it to the national rural water management policy domain in The Netherlands. The method is firmly rooted in mathematical sociology and defies the criticism that methods for actor and stakeholder analysis do not specify a theoretical basis explaining the causal relations between the variables analyzed and policy change. With the application to the rural water management policy arena we intended to increase our insight into the practical applicability of this analytic method in an interactive workshop, the acceptability of the approach for the participating actors, its contribution to the process of decision making and our understanding of the rural water management policy arena in The Netherlands. We found that the Association of Water Authorities, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture are the most powerful actor in the policy domain, while governance and cost and benefits of rural water management are the most salient issues. Progress in policy development for rural water management is probably most promising for the issues governance, costs and benefits, safety and rural living conditions through improved interaction between the Association of Water Authorities, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rural Credit Bank. Besides these analytic results the interactive approach implemented increased the participants understanding of their dependency on other actors in the rural water management policy domain and supported them in developing a sound perspective on their dependency position. We concluded that the method developed is acceptable to real-world policy decision makers, can successfully be applied in an interactive setting, potentially contributes to the process of decision making by increasing the participants understanding of their dependency position, has the potential to delivers valuable advice for future decision-making and increases our understanding of policy development for rural water management in general.     

Neurocontrol: Recent advances and links with the human brain

One of the aims in the AI research, is to understand the principles and mechanisms of intelligence in the human brain. Definitely the brain is a neurocontroller, a collection of neurons which learn to output the right actions or decisions over time. This paper describes recent neurocontrol designs which are considered the state-of-the-art for intelligent control and their plausibility as models of the human brain.     

A Study of Strategies for Computerized Critiquing of Programmers

This paper summarizes an empirical study of performance by, and reactions of, programmers using expert critiquing systems during a programming task. The study tests hypotheses about the value of various strategies for critic timing, agency, dialogue, and strategy. Performance statistics and reactions were collected from 39 competent programmers participating in the trials. Among other findings, results indicate that textual explanations and repair suggestions speed up programming time 3.5-fold relative to non-textual debuggers. However, a tenth of the subjects refuse to use the critics, and another fifth of the subjects indicate they do not like to read the textual suggestions. These and other lessons learned are reviewed herein.     

The reception of my Freud-critique in the psychoanalytic literature.

Responds to comments made over the years by Peter Caws (see record 2003-09630-003), Zvi Lothane (see record 2006-05420-005), Charles Hanly (1988), W. W. Meissner (see record 1991-03025-001), Paul Robinson (1993), Michael Scriven (1959), and Jon Mills, in response to the present author's crique of Freud. Some of the very extensive body of commentary on my psychoanalytic writings has been gratifyingly favorable, while other responses have been more or less adverse, and even denunciatory. Therefore, in this survey of "The Reception of My Freud-Critique in the Psychoanalytic Literature," I include my critical reactions to selected objections to my views, as well as noteworthy commendations of them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于DDPG算法的路径规划研究

路径规划是人工智能领域的一个经典问题,在国防军事、道路交通、机器人仿真等诸多领域有着广泛应用,然而现有的路径规划算法大多存在着环境单一、离散的动作空间、需要人工构筑模型的问题。强化学习是一种无须人工提供训练数据自行与环境交互的机器学习方法,深度强化学习的发展更使得其解决现实问题的能力得到进一步提升,本文将深度强化学习的DDPG(Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient)算法应用到路径规划领域,完成了连续空间、复杂环境的路径规划。     

Desired change in couples: Gender differences and effects on communication.

Using a sample (N = 453) drawn from a representative sampling frame of couples who are married or living together and have a 3 to 7 year-old child, this study investigates (a) the amount and specific areas of change desired by men and women, (b) the relation between relationship adjustment and desired change; and (c) the ways in which partners negotiate change. On the Areas of Change Questionnaire, women compared with men, wanted greater increases in their partners’ emotional and companionate behaviors, instrumental support, and parenting involvement; men wanted greater increases in sex. Using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (Kenny, 1996), both men’s and women’s relationship adjustment predicted desired change (i.e., actor effects), over and above the effects of their partners’ adjustment (i.e., partner effects); partner effects were not significant. Each couple was also observed discussing the man’s and the woman’s top desired change area. Both men and women behaved more positively during the partner-initiated conversations than during their own-initiated conversations. Women, compared with men, were more negative in their own and in their partners’ conversations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multi-actor perspectives on human robotic collaboration implementation in the heavy automotive manufacturing industry - A Swedish case study

Implementing an industrial collaborative robot for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in the automotive manufacturing industry is an emerging technology-driven solution aiming to increase production efficiency and reduce the human operator's ergonomic load. Successful implementation of innovative technology depends on technical feasibility and on the acceptance by the affected actors. Many studies exist that focus on the technical aspects of HRC, however, research that focuses on understanding the multi-actor concerns of HRC adoption is rare. In an effort to support the successful adoption of industrial collaborative robots, this study aims to understand the concerns of the various actors who work at the operational and management levels influencing future HRC adoption in the heavy automotive manufacturing industry.A literature review was conducted to understand the HRC implementation challenges and the methods used to investigate multi-actor involvement in advance of, and during, the implementation stage. After reviewing existing studies, the actor analysis method was selected to present the actors' perceptions using the action, factor, and goal (AFG) list to understand different actors’ opinions of HRC adoption, using a Swedish heavy vehicle manufacturing company case study.The case study results showed that the actors from the same organization had different concerns but mostly positive expectations for future HRC adoption. The actors’ perception map shows the details pertaining to Actions, Concerns, and Goals as well as the logical flow between these elements in regards to HRC future adoption. The involvement of different actor groups prior to new solution implementation contributes to a holistic view of potential implementation influences and challenges in the organization. Actor analysis can provide a set of analysis processes that comply with multi-actor perceptions to understand future adoption challenges from different perspectives. In the next step, safety-related issues and under-development standardization are the key challenges of HRC implementation.