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Stander, Charnelle. "Prehospital emergency care provider’s understanding of their responsibilities towards a mental health care user, during a behavioural emergency." Master's thesis, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31266.
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Background: Prehospital emergency care providers in South Africa are regularly called to assist with the management of mental healthcare users. The Mental Health Care Act no 17 of 2002 regulates mental healthcare in South Africa but makes no reference to the roles and responsibilities of prehospital emergency care providers in the provision of mental healthcare, rather giving the South African Police Services authority over the wellbeing of a mental healthcare user outside the hospital setting. Aims: To investigate what prehospital emergency care providers understand their responsibilities are towards a mental healthcare user and the community during the management of a behavioural emergency. Setting: Prehospital emergency care providers from the three main levels of care, currently operational within the boundaries of Pretoria. Methods: A grounded theory qualitative study design was chosen using semi-structured focus groups for each level of prehospital emergency care; Basic Life Support, Intermediate Life Support and Advanced Life Support. Data from each focus group was collected through audio recordings, transcribed and analysed using a framework approach. Results: A total of 19 prehospital emergency care providers from all three main levels of care participated in the focus group discussions (4 BLS, 6 ILS and 9 ALS). Four main themes were identified: Perceptions of behavioural emergencies, responsibilities, understanding of legislation and barriers experienced. Conclusion: Participants placed high value on their moral and medical responsibilities towards a mental healthcare user and would like to have the backing of legislation to fulfil their role. There is a desire for better education, skill development and awareness of mental healthcare in the prehospital emergency care setting.
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Kamarudin, N. S. "Emergency fund provision among young student adults in Malaysia : a behavioural perspective." Thesis, University of Salford, 2016. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/39375/.
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Financial behaviour is complex and difficult to measure. Existing literature on the emergency fund remains lacking in terms of its theoretical testing and modelling, not to mention its accurate definition of emergency fund behaviour itself. Prior studies also suffer from providing sufficient country-contextual evidence on emergency fund behaviour, notably in the instance of Malaysia. Compounding this, the question of how young student adults allocate their emergency fund has yet to be adequately explored by existing studies, primarily due to data limitations. The issues of financial behaviour, financial problems and financial stresses among young adults are still being addressed by many studies. These tend to argue that young adults have less ability to allocate or achieve the recommended adequate level of emergency fund holding. It is these gaps that this thesis will address. This research uses modified theory of planned behaviour as a research conceptual framework to investigate and understand the emergency fund behaviour among young student adults in Malaysia. The data were collected using online questionnaires and survey interviews. The emergency fund behaviour measurement and Emergency Fund Formation Behaviour (EFFB) models were developed. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were adopted as data analysis tools for this research. The definition of emergency fund behaviour was positioned in relation to two main financial behaviours: saving and investment. The results from the modelling revealed that attitude and propensity to plan were found to significantly contribute to emergency fund formation intentions and behaviour. The subjective norms and perceived behaviour controls were found not to be significant to fund formation intentions and behaviour. The emergency event from young student adults’ perspective was explored and contributes to additional current literature. This research also found that not all young student adults achieved the total three months expenses recommended adequacy level of emergency fund holding. Previous experience of emergency events was found to be the factor that prompted them to achieve the recommended adequacy level. Their intention was to continue to borrow from informal channels, such as family and friends,if they lacked emergency funds in future. Other factors, such as financial aid, did not necessarily determine their ability to achieve the adequacy level. This research also found that a significant proportion of young student adults chose to use savings accounts and current accounts as their emergency fund. Some also used their student loan (PTPTN) money as source of emergency fund allocation. In addition, the use of gold as an emergency fund financial instrument was also found to be relevant to the Malaysian context. The holding of gold was a behaviour found not to be gender-related. In terms of the financial instruments categories, most of the young student adults in this research were found holding intermediate fund rather than other emergency fund categories. The modelling and deeper understanding of emergency fund behaviour revealed overall of emergency fund formation behaviour and preference for financial products in response to future emergencies. This finding will help financial service providers and financial educators to offer more effective advice and fulfil the needs of their clients. Moreover, this research makes a significant contribution to the field of personal financial planning by improving our understanding of the application of behavioural finance theory, and suggesting that behavioural factors contribute to an individual’s financial planning and actions.
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Carter, Holly Elisabeth. "Crowd behaviour in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies : behavioural and psychological responses to incidents involving emergency decontamination." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48843/.
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Planning for incidents involving mass decontamination has focused almost exclusively on technical aspects of decontamination, with little attempt to understand public experiences and behaviour. This thesis aimed to examine relevant theory and research, in order to understand public behaviour during incidents involving mass decontamination, and to develop theoretically-derived recommendations for emergency responders. As these incidents involve groups, it was expected that social identity processes would play an important role in public responses. A review of small-scale incidents involving decontamination is presented, along with a review of decontamination guidance documents for emergency responders. This literature shows that responder communication strategies play an important role in public experiences and behaviour, but that the importance of communication is not reflected in guidance documents. Theories of mass emergency behaviour, in particular the social identity approach, are reviewed, in order to generate hypotheses and recommendations for the management of incidents involving mass decontamination. It is hypothesised that effective responder communication will increase public compliance and cooperation, and reduce anxiety, mediated by social identity variables (e.g. perceptions of responder legitimacy, identification with emergency responders and other members of public, and collective agency). The empirical research presented in this thesis tests the hypotheses and recommendations derived from the social identity approach. The research includes: a responder interview study; three studies of volunteer feedback from field exercises; a visualisation experiment; and a mass decontamination field experiment. Findings show that effective responder communication consistently results in increased willingness to comply with decontamination, and increased public cooperation; this relationship is mediated by social identity variables. Results support the hypotheses, and show that an understanding of the social identity approach facilitates the development of effective responder communication strategies for incidents involving mass decontamination. Four theoretically-derived, and evidence-based, recommendations for emergency responders are generated as a result of this thesis.
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Flewellen, Rashid W. "Behavioural Intention to Provide Screening and Brief Intervention for Alcohol-Related Injury in the Emergency Department: A Guiding Framework Using The Theory of Planned Behaviour." Thesis, Curtin University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59108.
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Alcohol-related injury is a significant public health challenge particularly in Emergency Departments (ED). Staff responses are invariably influenced by a number of factors, that include perceptions of people affected by alcohol, confidence in the ability to respond and demands on limited resources. This thesis aimed to identify attitudes and beliefs associated with responses to alcohol related injury (ARI). The research objective was to answer the following question: “What factors influence an evidence-based response for ED clinicians managing such injuries?” Diverse factors such as low fidelity within intervention implementation, and misconceptions about the role of public health in emergency medicine as well as findings from this study, will contribute to the ability to understand the response.
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Gibson, Samantha. "Investigating the impact of providing a cognitive behavioural therapy intervention for frequent attenders at the Emergency Department with medically unexplained symptoms : a mixed method study." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2018. http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/33901/.
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Background: There are a cohort of people who attend the Emergency Department (ED) extremely frequently. In many cases the symptoms driving their presentations are medically unexplained (MUS). Objectives: The aim of the research was to identify if providing a CBT intervention to frequently attending (high risk) patients with MUS in the healthcare setting they are comfortable with (ED) had impacted attendance patterns and if so how? Design: A mixed method approach was utilised to investigate the impact of providing CBT to ‘high risk’ group of frequent attenders with Medically Unexplained Symptoms at the Emergency Department. Quantitative participants were an opportunistic sample consisting of 50 of the most frequently attending (high risk) patients at the Emergency Department allocated to either control or intervention group. The qualitative research design employed semi-structured interviews. Ten participants were recruited from patients who had attended the CBT intervention. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Thematic Analysis. Results: The patients who received the CBT intervention had significantly (p=0.001) reduced their ED attendances and inpatient bed days (p=0.001) following the intervention. In addition, the qualitative approach identified four meaningful themes through thematic analysis: The ED and Me; Psychological Impact; My Treatment and The Long-term Impact: What’s Changed? Conclusion: This study has given a detailed insight into the patients’ perspectives that supports the statistical data of their behaviour pre and post intervention. This study supported the declaration that providing a CBT intervention to high risk frequent attenders with MUS in the ED has a measurable impact on their health care utilisation, not only in the ED, but across the hospital.
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Tříšková, Petra. "Emergentní chování v komplexních informačních systémech." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2012. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-124693.
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This thesis concerns with both practical and theoretical aspects of phenomenon called Emergence. First part has been devoted to the research of available specialized resources on emergent topic and also on main features of complex systems. Acquired knowledge of two topics has been implemented on a real practical example of complex information system by creation of method which purpose is to help finding and determining emergent behavior. Last part of the thesis brings outcome of analysis of real system and discusses the recommendations for researchers on how to determine emergent behavior in their own systems.
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Israelsson, Markus. "Simulating crowd behaviour in an emergency situation." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-97854.
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In this thesis we have tried to simulate a crowd of humans in emergency situations. Based on previous research we have implemented a system that simulate human crowds in emergency situations. In this system each crowd member (called agents) is affected by forces from the surrounding environment which direct the movement of each agent. The forces can be either real physical forces or they can be psychological forces that represents humans tendency to stay a certain distance from inanimate obstacles and other crowd members. In our system the crowd can consist of different populations separated by average values of the properties each agent in the crowd has. The properties are easy to modify and are used as a way of modeling individuality for each agent. Changing properties changes the outcome of a simulation. The results are saved in a file that can be used for further analysis. Our most important result is that we have been able to use our system to make conclusions about real life crowd behaviour and also seen crowd effects in our simulations that are apparent in real life. Some of the results shows that in crowds where people try to help each other escape more people will survive. A crowd effect observed is arch like formations around doors. These formations breaks which let some people escape then the arch reforms and the pattern is repeated. This is particularly visible when the average speed of the crowd members is high. Our system still lacks some functionality which would allow easier use of the system and more accurate simulations.
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Anastopoulos, Charalabos. "Emergence of classical behaviour in quantum systems." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.243292.
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Hendriks-Jansen, Horst. "Situated activity, interactive emergence, and human thought." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.386443.
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Chibaya, Colin. "An investigation into XSets of primitive behaviours for emergent behaviour in stigmergic and message passing antlike agents." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012965.
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Ants are fascinating creatures - not so much because they are intelligent on their own, but because as a group they display compelling emergent behaviour (the extent to which one observes features in a swarm which cannot be traced back to the actions of swarm members). What does each swarm member do which allows deliberate engineering of emergent behaviour? We investigate the development of a language for programming swarms of ant agents towards desired emergent behaviour. Five aspects of stigmergic (pheromone sensitive computational devices in which a non-symbolic form of communication that is indirectly mediated via the environment arises) and message passing ant agents (computational devices which rely on implicit communication spaces in which direction vectors are shared one-on-one) are studied. First, we investigate the primitive behaviours which characterize ant agents' discrete actions at individual levels. Ten such primitive behaviours are identified as candidate building blocks of the ant agent language sought. We then study mechanisms in which primitive behaviours are put together into XSets (collection of primitive behaviours, parameter values, and meta information which spells out how and when primitive behaviours are used). Various permutations of XSets are possible which define the search space for best performer XSets for particular tasks. Genetic programming principles are proposed as a search strategy for best performer XSets that would allow particular emergent behaviour to occur. XSets in the search space are evolved over various genetic generations and tested for abilities to allow path finding (as proof of concept). XSets are ranked according to the indices of merit (fitness measures which indicate how well XSets allow particular emergent behaviour to occur) they achieve. Best performer XSets for the path finding task are identifed and reported. We validate the results yield when best performer XSets are used with regard to normality, correlation, similarities in variation, and similarities between mean performances over time. Commonly, the simulation results yield pass most statistical tests. The last aspect we study is the application of best performer XSets to different problem tasks. Five experiments are administered in this regard. The first experiment assesses XSets' abilities to allow multiple targets location (ant agents' abilities to locate continuous regions of targets), and found out that best performer XSets are problem independent. However both categories of XSets are sensitive to changes in agent density. We test the influences of individual primitive behaviours and the effects of the sequences of primitive behaviours to the indices of merit of XSets and found out that most primitive behaviours are indispensable, especially when specific sequences are prescribed. The effects of pheromone dissipation to the indices of merit of stigmergic XSets are also scrutinized. Precisely, dissipation is not causal. Rather, it enhances convergence. Overall, this work successfully identify the discrete primitive behaviours of stigmergic and message passing ant-like devices. It successfully put these primitive behaviours together into XSets which characterize a language for programming ant-like devices towards desired emergent behaviour. This XSets approach is a new ant language representation with which a wider domain of emergent tasks can be resolved.
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Marrison, Claire. "The simulation of emergency escape behaviour : an innovation in methodology." Thesis, Cranfield University, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.292307.
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Freeman, Toby, and toby freeman@flinders edu au. "The Role of Health Professionals in the Prevention of Smoking- and Alcohol-Related Harms: Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Work Behaviours." Flinders University. School of Psychology, 2007. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20070703.133715.
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Professional practice change and the transfer of research into practice are critical issues for the public health field. The program of research presented here investigated the potential for practice change in dental hygienists and Emergency Department nurses provision of brief interventions targeting smoking (of tobacco) and alcohol consumption respectively. Smoking and risky alcohol consumption are two high prevalence public health issues that have a substantial impact on the burden of death and illness in Australia.
Research on dental hygienists and nurses uptake of these interventions is limited and has largely focused on descriptions of perceived barriers. Little research has been conducted on the attitudes and motivations of health professionals to engage in these interventions. The present research was designed to address that gap. Specifically, two behaviours by dental hygienists and Emergency Department nurses were investigated: identification of patients at risk and provision of assistance to such patients.
The program of research applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour to these behaviours in order to:
1) examine the role of dental hygienists and Emergency Department nurses in the provision of brief interventions for smoking and alcohol consumption respectively,
2) assess the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand and predict health professionals identifying and assisting behaviour,
3) assess the ability of the theory to account for the influence of organisational factors on workers behaviour, and
4) design and evaluate a Theory of Planned Behaviour-based professional practice change intervention.
This is the first research to apply the Theory of Planned Behaviour to these behaviours, to examine the potential of the theory to account for the influence of organisational factors on workers behaviour, and to trial an intervention targeting behaviour in an organisational setting.
The four studies undertaken provided a comprehensive application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour.
In the first study, a meta-analysis of published research examined the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to predict behaviours in an organisational setting. This was the first meta-analysis of studies applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour applications to organisational settings. The findings were comparable to results of a meta-analysis of studies applying the theory to social and health behaviours, supporting the application of the theory to the organisational setting, and also highlighted the potential importance of perceived behavioural control for work behaviours. Studies 2 to 4 were designed to follow Ajzen and Fishbeins (1975) 3-step methodology for applying the theory.
In Study 2, the behavioural, normative, and control beliefs held by dental hygienists and Emergency Department nurses, and potentially relevant organisational factors, such as workload and available support, were identified through in-depth qualitative interviews.
Study 3 measured the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to predict dental hygienists and Emergency Department nurses frequency of identifying and assisting. The theory was most successful in predicting dental hygienists frequency of assisting patients who smoke. The self-efficacy dimension of perceived behavioural control was the strongest predictor of this behaviour. The findings for Emergency Department nurses indicated that subjective norms were an important predictor of intentions to identify and assist patients. The Theory of Planned Behaviour accounted for the influence of organisational factors on behaviour for both dental hygienists and nurses.
Study 4 involved a randomised controlled trial which evaluated a professional intervention targeting dental hygienists assistance of patients who smoke. Trends indicated potential benefits of the intervention, but overall no significant changes in dental hygienists role adequacy, role legitimacy, and targeted control beliefs emerged. This outcome was attributed to ceiling effects and the influence of a media campaign that coincided with the intervention.
The research presented here provides partial support for the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to professional practice change efforts. Specifically, the ability of the theory to explain the impact of organisational factors and identify variables most predictive of behaviour may provide valuable insight for prioritising future professional practice change efforts.
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Kitto, Kirsty, and Kirsty Kitto@flinders edu au. "Modelling and Generating Complex Emergent Behaviour." Flinders University. School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, 2006. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20060626.132947.
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Despite a general recognition of the importance of complex systems, there is a dearth of general models capable of describing their dynamics. This is attributed to a complexity scale; the models are attempting to describe systems at different parts of the scale and are hence not compatible. We require new models capable of describing complex behaviour at different points of the complexity scale. This work identifies, and proceeds to examine systems at the high end of the complexity scale, those which have not to date been well understood by our current modelling
methodology. It is shown that many such models exhibit what might be termed contextual dependency, and that it is precisely this feature which is not well understood by our current modelling methodology. A particular problem is
discussed; our apparent inability to generate systems which display high end complexity, exhibited by for example
the general failure of strong ALife. A new model, Process Physics, that has been developed at Flinders University is discussed, and arguments are presented that it exhibits high end complexity. The features of this model that
lead to its displaying such behaviour are discussed, and the generalisation of this model to a broader range of complex systems is attempted.
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Freund, Julia. "Emergence of individual behavioural traits and associated hippocampal plasticity in genetically identical mice." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-165013.
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Die Erforschung der Zusammenhänge zwischen Gehirnplastizität und individuellem Verhalten gestaltet sich aufgrund ihrer Komplexität im Tiermodell schwierig. Die vorliegende Studie wurde im mit dem Ziel konzipiert, die Individualitätsentwicklung bei Mäusen mit den gleichen physiologischen und genetischen Voraussetzungen in einer komplexen räumlichen und sozialen Umgebung zu beschreiben. Ich untersuchte die Korrelation dieser Entwicklung mit der Neurogenese im adulten Hippokampus als Maß für Gehirnplastizität. Zu diesem Zweck wurden zwei je mit einem automatisierten RFID-Tracking-System ausgestattete Großgehege mit jeweils 40 Tieren besiedelt. Die Bewegungen der Tiere wurden kontinuierlich aufgezeichnet und es wurden zudem direkte Verhaltensbeobachtungen durchgeführt. Die Tiere zeigten eine normale physiologische Entwicklung. Die Roaming Entropy (RE), ein Maß für die Gleichmäßigkeit, mit der die Tiere ihr Gehege nutzten, beschreibt das Erkundungsverhalten der einzelnen Mäuse. Die kumulativ erworbenen RE-Werte (cRE) in jedem der beiden Gehege wurden mit der Zeit zunehmend verschieden. Es war nicht möglich, aufgrund kleiner anfänglicher Unterschiede die Endwerte zu berechnen. Das bedeutet, dass die Tiere erst durch die andauernde Interaktion mit ihrer Umwelt und den Artgenossen unterschiedlicher wurden. Darüber hinaus sind die cRE-Werte am Endpunkt positiv mit den Neurogenesewerten korreliert. Dies beweist, dass während der Entwicklung auftretende Faktoren die Individualitätsentwicklung beeinflussen. Dieser Prozess benötigt plastische Hirnstrukturen und formt diese wiederum. Die Verhaltensanalysen zeigten, dass Tiere, die viele Antennenkontakte sammelten („most active“, MA) nicht zwangsläufig auch hohe cRE-Werte hatten. MA-Mäuse waren häufiger an sozialen Interaktionen beteiligt als Tiere mit wenigen Antennenkontakten („least active“, LA), akkumulierten über die Zeit niedrigere cRE-Werte und standen vermutlich weiter unten in der sozialen Hierarchie. Zusammenfassend kann man sagen, dass das Ausmaß der räumlichen Exploration und die allmähliche Erweiterung der Erfahrung mit einer gesteigerten Plastizität des Gehirns in Form von adulter Neurogenese verbunden war. Die Daten zeigen, dass Tiere mit den gleichen Voraussetzungen sich dennoch auf zunehmend divergierende, individuelle Art entwickeln. Dies ist zumindest teilweise durch leicht unterschiedliche epigenetische Voraussetzungen zu erklären, die durch das Wechselspiel mit dem komplexen Umfeld weiter auseinanderdriften. Auch scheint es, dass Individuation lebenden Organismen inhärent und Voraussetzung für evolutionäre Prozesse ist. Die Studie zeigt, dass die Unterschiede in individuellem Verhalten und Gehirnstruktur nicht allein durch Genen und Umweltbedingungen festgelegt sind, sondern auch durch Faktoren, die sich während der ontogenetischen Entwicklung entfalten, beeinflusst werden. Der beschriebene Versuchsaufbau stellt darüber hinaus ein Tiermodell für die Untersuchung von Mechanismen und modulierenden Faktoren auf die strukturellen Grundlagen der Plastizität als individuelle Reaktion auf die gemeinsam genutzte Umgebung darThe complex nature of the relationship between brain plasticity and individual behaviour renders its investigation using animal models difficult. The present study was designed to describe the emergence of individuality in mice with the same physiological, environmental and genetic preconditions in response to complex environmental and social cues. I investigated the correlation of this development to brain plasticity, namely neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus. To this end, two large, multi-level enclosures fitted with and automated RFID tracking system were populated with 40 animals to each. The mice were continuously tracked and live behaviour observations were done. The animals showed normal physiological development. The Roaming Entropy (RE), a measure for the evenness of their usage of the enclosure, describes the exploration behaviour of each animal. Cumulatively acquired RE scores (cRE) within an enclosure increasingly diverged with time. Small differences at the beginning were not predictive of the end values. Thus, the animals became different through the continued interaction with environment and conspecifics. Moreover, the cRE values at the end point positively correlated with the amount of hippocampal neurogenesis. This proves that factors emerging during development contribute to individuality development. These factors at the same time shape and rely on plastic brain structures. Behavioural analyses showed that animals with a high amount of antenna contacts (most active, MA mice) were not necessarily those with high cRE values. MA mice were more often involved in social interactions than the least active mice (least active, LA), accumulated lower cRE scores over time and seemed to be lower in the social hierarchy. In conclusion, the amount of spatial exploration and gradual broadening of experience was linked to brain plasticity in the form of elevated levels of hippocampal neurogenesis. The data shows that animals with same preconditions still develop along increasingly divergent, individual paths. This is probably partly given through slightly different epigenetic preconditions, drifting further apart by interaction with the complex environment. Also, individuation seems to be inherent in living organisms and necessary for evolutionary processes. The study shows firstly that differences in individual behaviour and brain structure are defined not only by genes and the environment but also modulated by factors unfolding or emerging during ontogenetic development. The present paradigm moreover introduces an animal model for studying mechanisms and influences on the structural basis of plasticity as an individual response to the nonshared environment
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McQuoid, Malcolm Robert. "A neural architecture for emergent serial behaviour." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.389104.
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Al-Hudhud, Ghada A. K. "Multi-agent communication protocols with emergent behaviour." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.422586.
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Santer, Roger D. "The role of the DCMD neuron in triggering emergency avoidance reactions in locusts and robots." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.289095.
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Wang, Sunrise. "Evolving controllable emergent crowd behaviours with Neuro-Evolution." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20015.
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Crowd simulations have become increasingly popular in films over the past decade, appearing in large crowd shots of many big name block-buster films. An important requirement for crowd simulations in films is that they should be directable both at a high and low level, and be believable. As agent-based techniques allow for low-level directability and more believable crowds, they are typically used in this field. However, due to the bottom-up nature of these techniques, achieving high level direct ability requires the modification of agent-level parameters until the desired crowd behaviour emerges. As manually adjusting parameters is a time consuming and tedious process, this thesis investigates a method for automating this, using Neuro-Evolution (NE). This is achieved by using Artificial Neural Networks as the agent controllers within an animated scene, and evolving these with an Evolutionary Algorithm so that the agents behave as desired. To this end, this thesis proposes, implements, and evaluates a system that allows for the low-level control of crowds using NE. Overall, this approach shows very promising results, with the time taken to achieve the desired crowd behaviours being either on par or faster than previous methods.
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Thamel, Prasadini. "Classification of Articulated hauler braking behaviours." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för maskinteknik (MT), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-95146.
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This study is performed to identify the customer braking behaviors of Articulated haulers. The data files from the different customer sites are used to analyses the data. The braking definition for the braking event was created to identify the braking events by using of output braking pressure. Also the statistical features related to the vehicle were calculated for identified braking events. Furthermore the braking events were classified according to the classification rules which were created based on calculated statistical features.The final results ( classification) motivates and satisfies with the aim of the project.
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James, Hannah Victoria Arnison. "Becoming human : the emergence of modern human behaviour within South Asia." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609772.
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Pickton, John-Nathan Edward. "Periodic behaviours emergent in discrete systems with random dynamics." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43209/.
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Periodic behaviours in continuous media can be described with great power and economy using conceptual machinery such as the notion of a field. However periodic effects can also be `observed' in collections of discrete objects, be they individuals sending emails, fire-flies signalling to attract mates, synapses firing in the brain or photons emerging from a cavity. The origin of periodic behaviours becomes more difficult to identify and interpret in these instances; particularly for systems whose individual components are fundamentally stochastic and memoryless. This thesis describes how periodic behaviour can emerge from intrinsic fluctuations in a fully discrete system that is completely isolated from any external coherent forcing. This thesis identifies the essential elements required to produce naturally emerging periodic behaviours in a collection of interacting `particles' which are constrained to a finite set of `states', represented by the nodes of a network. The network can be identified with a type of a spatial structure throughout which particles can move by spontaneously jumping between nodes. The particles interact by affecting the rate at which other particles jump. In such systems it is the collective ensemble of particles, rather than the individual particles themselves, that exhibit periodic behaviours. The existence or non-existence of such collective periodic behaviours is attributed to the structure of the network and the form of interaction between particles that together describe the microscopic dynamics of the system. This thesis develops a methodology for deriving the macroscopic description of the ensemble of particles from the microscopic dynamics that govern the behaviour of individual particles and uses this to find key ingredients for collective periodic behaviour. In order for periodic behaviours to emerge and persist it is necessary that the microscopic dynamics be irreversible and hence violate the principle of detailed balance. However such a condition is not sufficient and irreversibility must also manifest on the macroscopic level. Simple systems that admit collective periodic behaviours are presented, analysed and used to hypothesise on the essential elements needed for such behaviour. Important general results are then proven. It is necessary that the network have more than two nodes and directed edges such that particles jump between states at different rates in both directions. Perhaps most significantly, it is demonstrated that collective periodic behaviours are possible without invoking `action at a distance' - there need not be a field providing a mechanism for the interactions between particles.
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Walters, Kathryn. "Form from flat : Exploring emergent behaviour in woven textiles." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-14893.
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The character of woven textiles is dependent on both the materials and the loom technology used. While digitally-controlled jacquard looms are a major development in weaving technology, they have mostly been used in developing representational and pictorial weaving. Such three-dimensional weaving as exists, utilises materials in predictably similar ways. Here, through systematic experimentation, three shrinking and two resisting yarns have been combined in multi-layer weaves in order to explore their potential for form-generating behaviour. Three-dimensional form occurs when the shrinking yarn/s place the resisting yarn/s under tension. To relieve this tension, the resisting yarn moves within the weave, creating waves or folds. The resulting form is highly sensitive to variation, demonstrating emergent behaviour, and identifying the woven textile as a complex system. Demonstrating the variety of form possible from a limited number of materials, the results represent a small body of work aiming to re-form weaving. The exploration of synergistic material combinations is therefore shown to be an exercise of value to fields from art textiles through to industry. It demonstrates that there is great development potential in woven textiles. Understanding the behaviour of materials is fundamental to furthering form-based weaving.
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Grant, Pauline. "The human factors associated with responding to emergency vehicles." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2017. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2044.
Full textAbstract:
Emergency vehicles undertake emergency driving, using lights and sirens, to move rapidly through traffic in response to situations where life and property are at risk. For the emergency driving to be effective, other motorists need to drive in a manner that facilitates their passage. Despite laws to support this, problematic encounters can result in emergency vehicles being unable to get through. The current research expanded on earlier exploratory research into motorists’ encounters with emergency vehicles (Grant, 2010) to examine psychological factors involved with motorists’ responses to emergency vehicles. A construct validity approach was used to develop a scale through which a larger representative sample could be assessed. A qualitative study with emergency service drivers and motorists combined with existing literature to provide the basis for the scale development, and the subsequent testing and refinement resulted in the Responding to Emergency Vehicles Scale (REVS).
The data obtained throughout development of the scale, from 1089 participants, were used to investigate psychological factors associated with responding to emergency vehicles and have identified the following overarching factors: Reasons for responding to emergency vehicles; attitudes and beliefs about emergency vehicles/services; appraisal of the encounter and their ability to respond; prior associations with emergency services personnel, or vehicles; and beliefs around punishment. The study also explored participants’ demographic factors relative to their reported driving behaviours during emergency vehicle encounters. Lastly, it identified the needs of the emergency service drivers during encounters, suggesting that existing road safety messages were inconsistent with actual needs of emergency service drivers, and suggested an alternative model of response.
Overall, the psychological factors provided an understanding of the participants’ aptitude to be trained to respond more effectively. Their strong pro-social intentions indicated an intention to respond appropriately to emergency vehicles and they were cognisant of the potential consequences of not doing so. Their generally positive views about emergency vehicles as well as associated services, and beliefs in the appropriateness of punishment further supported their willingness to respond appropriately. Finally, participants reported that they were aroused by emergency vehicles encounters, but not stressed to the extent they were incapable of responding.
Whilst the research was undertaken from a predominately theoretical lens, the applied nature of the phenomenon under scrutiny yielded findings that can inform policy around responding to emergency vehicles. Specifically, the findings suggest the need to embed explicit training on emergency vehicles within the existing driver training framework. They also recommend amendment to the road safety message used to guide motorists’ actions during encounters with emergency vehicles. Future studies could confirm the appropriateness of the recommended response model with a larger sample of emergency service drivers, and use the REVS to assess larger samples and different driving populations.
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Mirabeau, Laurent. "From autonomous strategic behaviour to emergent strategy: an exploratory study." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=86612.
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This dissertation reports findings from an exploratory study of the formation of emergent strategy (Mintzberg 1978; Mintzberg & Waters 1985) in large and complex organizations. The study tracks autonomous strategic behaviour (Burgelman, 1983b), which is theorized and shown to be an important precursor to emergent strategy, using a single case study covering a period of ten years at a large telecommunications company. Building on Bower and Burgelman's model (Bower, 1970; Burgelman, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c), the dissertation develops a process model for emergent strategy which features four key components: project definition; mobilizing wider support to provide impetus; manipulating strategic context; and embedding within structural context. In addition, the study identifies four paths for emergent strategy formation by distinguishing between initiatives resulting from new ideas and initiatives resulting from the recycling of preexisting ideas from prior projects; and between projects for which "promoting" is an early priority versus those for which "executing" is an early priority. The study also identifies mechanisms through which autonomous strategic behaviour becomes "ephemeral" and disappears rather than enduring to become realized as emergent strategy.Cette étude exploratoire analyse la formation de la stratégie émergente (Mintzberg 1978; Mintzberg et Waters 1985) au sein des entreprises complexes de grande envergure. Notre étude fait un examen systématique des comportements stratégiques autonomes (Burgelman, 1983b), que l'on théorise comme précurseurs importants de la stratégie émergente. La recherche utilise une étude du cas d'une grande entreprise de télécommunication couvrant une période de dix ans. S'appuyant sur les travaux de Bower et Burgelman (Bower, 1970; Burgelman, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c), nous développons un modèle de processus qui comprend quatre composantes, soit : la définition du projet, la mobilisation de bases de support élargies pour donner de l'impulsion, la manipulation du contexte stratégique, ainsi que l'inclusion au sein du contexte structurel. De plus, l'étude identifie quatre chemins pour la formation de la stratégie émergente en différentiant d'une part les projets issus d'une nouvelle idée, plutôt que ceux faisant appel à une idée préexistante, et d'une part, les projets que l'on « soutient d'abord », de ceux que l'on « exécute d'abord », L'étude identifie aussi les mécanismes par lesquels les comportements stratégiques autonomes deviennent « éphémère» et disparaissent plutôt que de perdurer dans le temps et se réaliser en stratégie émergente.
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Mina, Petros. "Mathematical modelling and analysis of emergent behaviour in bacterial populations." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.628994.
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This thesis develops and analyses an agent based model of a bacterial Eschericia coli population in a quorum motivated by published experimental work The E. coli cells harbour a synthetic genetic regulatory network that is responsible for oscillatory behaviour across the population. The model is used to understand whether the collective oscillations seen in the experiments are an outcome of coupled oscillators synchronising or if they are an emergent property of the population. A bottom-up approach is used whereby an ordinary differential equation model is developed based on the biochemical dynamics that result from the introduced genetic network This model is studied using numerical bifurcation analysis, from the single cell level to see whether oscillatory behaviour exists and if such behaviour persists when groups of coupled cells are considered. Subsequently, the model is extended and an explicit spatial dimension is included to study any spatiotemporal effects that can affect the nature of oscillations. The spatial model is implemented in BSim, a novel software platform developed in Bristol, by students of the Bristol Centre for Complexity Sciences, to study bacterial population dynamics in silica. Finally, we study the possibility of controlling the cellular population, an area that has received a lot of attention recently in cellular biology. Specifically, we compare the performance of open and closed loop control in entraining the population to follow a non-native oscillating period. Vve also compare the ability to make the population track a non-oscillating signal. Our results indicate that the oscillatory behaviour seen in the published experiments is an emergent population level property. The onset and synchronisation of oscillations are dependent on cell density and the speed of diffusion of the coupling chemical in the environment medium. Also, the oscillating population is best controlled with closed loop methods.
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Gibson, Stacey L. "Individual Emergency Preparedness in Canada: Widening the Lens on the Social Environment." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/24099.
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The goal of this thesis was to reposition individual preparedness within a social environmental context. First, a theoretical model was developed to more accurately represent the social environmental considerations neglected in current preparedness research and policy. A series of three studies tested this model using a mixed-methods approach: First, subjective conceptualizations of preparedness were explored in a qualitative analysis (N = 12). Findings revealed that participants evaluated their readiness not in terms of prescribed activities, but perceptions about their current resourcefulness as well as past local hazards. Participants’ had positive social environments which also reinforced their perceived coping ability in future emergency events. Subsequent thesis studies investigated the role social environment further, using quantitative data. The second study explicitly tested whether perceptions of risk and coping could explain differences in preparedness based on demographic attributes linked to variations in social environment. Data from a survey examining Canadians perceptions regarding terrorism threats (N = 1503) revealed that greater anticipated response was significantly associated with increased age, as well as female gender, higher education levels, and higher income levels. Statistically significant differences in threat appraisals were also reported based on these demographic groupings. However, mediation analyses demonstrated that with the exception of gender, differences in anticipated response could not be explained via risk perceptions or perceived coping efficacy, suggesting that social environment’s role in preparedness is not related to the internal processes often targeted in current campaigns. The third study used a multilevel design to investigate the contextual role of neighbourhood social environment in anticipated emergency response. Results demonstrated that a more deprived social neighbourhood context was related to lowered anticipated emergency response. This relationship was maintained after controlling for significant individual-level factors such as previous experience and sociodemographics, highlighting the importance of neighbourhood social context in facilitating emergency preparedness. Taken together, these findings provide novel evidence that focusing preparedness strategies to primarily target internal processes is misguided, and that future research and policy must position preparedness efforts in the context of existing social environmental resources and barriers in order to build capacity for effective emergency response.
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Mitsopoulos, Constantinos. "Reinforcement learning approaches to the analysis of the emergence of goal-directed behaviour." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2018. http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/334/.
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Over recent decades, theoretical neuroscience, helped by computational methods such as Reinforcement Learning (RL), has provided detailed descriptions of the psychology and neurobiology of decision-making. RL has provided many insights into the mechanisms underlying decision-making processes from neuronal to behavioral levels. In this work, we attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of RL methods in explaining behavior in a normative setting through three main case studies. Evidence from literature shows that, apart from the commonly discussed cognitive search process, that governs the solution procedure of a planning task, there is an online perceptual process that directs the action selection towards moves that appear more ‘natural’ at a given configuration of a task. These two processes can be partially dissociated through developmental studies, with perceptual processes apparently more dominant in the planning of younger children, prior to the maturation of executive functions required for the control of search. Therefore, we present a formalization of planning processes to account for perceptual features of the task, and relate it to human data. Although young children are able to demonstrate their preferences by using physical actions, infants are restricted because of their as-yet-undeveloped motor skills. Eye-tracking methods have been employed to tackle this difficulty. Exploring different model-free RL algorithms and their possible cognitive realizations in decision making, in a second case study, we demonstrate behavioral signatures of decision making processes in eye-movement data and provide a potential framework for integrating eye-movement patterns with behavioral patterns. Finally, in a third project we examine how uncertainty in choices might guide exploration in 10-year-olds, using an abstract RL-based mathematical model. Throughout, aspects of action selection are seen as emerging from the RL computational framework. We, thus, conclude that computational descriptions of the developing decision making functions provide one plausible avenue by which to normatively characterize and define the functions that control action selection.
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Van, Zyl Jandre. "Leadership behaviour that facilitate shared leadership emergence in internationally dispersed non-formal teams." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/79673.
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Globalisation and the increased complexity of organisations creates the need for alternative leadership approaches that can harness the collective intellectual capital that exists within the dispersed employees of organisations. As dispersion of teams increase, some traditional leadership approaches become less effective. Shared leadership however, has greater effects on team performance when team dispersion increases. Studies into shared leadership increased over the past decade, however the antecedents that facilitate shared leadership are still not exhaustive, and the majority of studies have been in co-located and formal teams.
This study explored how shared leadership can be facilitated in internationally dispersed non-formal teams through increased team connectedness, leader humility, empowering leadership, participative leadership, and quality leader-member exchanges. This qualitative study inductively explored the perspectives of twelve purposively sampled internationally dispersed team members, who represented three different functional non-formal teams. Semi-structured in depth interviews were conducted, after which the data was analysed using categorical aggregation and thematic analysis.
The study offers a theoretical framework of leadership in internationally dispersed non-formal teams, which serve as a basic for future empirical research. It provides leaders of teams and organisations, as well as human resource practitioners with guidance on how to achieve the benefits of shared leadership of teams in this context.
This study was limited to one large multi-national organisation (Hilti Corporation), which operates in the global construction and industrial sectors. Participants represented nine nationalities, dispersed across eight countries, on four continents.Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
pt2021
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted
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Scott, Deborah Anne. "Improving the measurement and surveillance of child abuse in Queensland emergency departments." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/60054/1/Deborah_Scott_Thesis.pdf.
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There are no population studies of prevalence or incidence of child maltreatment in Australia. Child protection data gives some understanding but is restricted by system capacity and definitional issues across jurisdictions. Child protection data currently suggests that numbers of reports are increasing yearly, and the child protection system then becomes focussed on investigating all reports and diluting available resources for those children who are most in need of intervention. A public health response across multiple agencies enables responses to child safety across the entire population. All families are targeted at the primary level; examples include ensuring all parents know the dangers of shaking a baby or teaching children to say no if a situation makes them uncomfortable. The secondary level of prevention targets families with a number of risk factors, for example subsidised child care so children aren't left unsupervised after school when both parents have to be at work or home visiting for drug-addicted parents to ensure children are cared for. The tertiary response then becomes the responsibility of the child protection system and is reserved for those children where abuse and neglect are identified. This model requires that child safety is seen in a broader context than just the child protection system, and increasingly health professionals are being identified as an important component in the public health framework.
If all injury is viewed as preventable and considered along a continuum of 'accidental' through to 'inflicted', it becomes possible to conceptualise child maltreatment in an injury context. Parental intent may not be to cause harm to the child, but by lack of insight or concern about risk, the potential for injury is high. The mechanisms for unintentional and intentional injury overlap and some suggest that by segregating child abuse (with the possible exception of sexual abuse) from unintentional injury, child abuse is excluded from the broader injury prevention initiative that is gaining momentum in the community. This research uses a public health perspective, specifically that of injury prevention, to consider the problem of child abuse.
This study employed a mixed method design that incorporates secondary data analysis, data linkage and structured interviews of different professional groups. Datasets from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) and The Department of Child Safety (DCS) were evaluated. Coded injury data was grouped according to intent of injury according to those with a code that indicated the ED presentation was due to child abuse, a code indicating that the injury was possibly due to abuse or, in the third group, the intent code indicated that the injury was unintentional and not due to abuse. Primary data collection from ED records was undertaken and information recoded to assess reliability and completeness. Emergency department data (QISU) was linked to Department of Child Safety Data to examine concordance and data quality. Factors influencing the collection and collation of these data were identified through structured interview methodology and analysed using qualitative methods.
Secondary analysis of QISU data indicated that codes lacking specific information on the injury event were more likely to also have an intent code indicating abuse than those records where there was specific information on the injury event. Codes for abuse appeared in only 1.2% of the 84,765 records analysed. Unintentional injury was the most commonly coded intent (95.3%).
In the group with a definite abuse code assigned at triage, 83% linked to a record with DCS and cases where documentation indicated police involvement were significantly more likely to be associated with a DCS record than those without such documentation. In those coded with an unintentional injury code, 22% linked to a DCS record with cases assigned an urgent triage category more likely to link than those with a triage category for resuscitation and children who presented to regional or remote hospitals more likely to link to a DCS record than those presenting to urban hospitals. Twenty-nine per cent of cases with a code indicating possible abuse linked to a DCS record. In documentation that indicated police involvement in the case, a code for unspecified activity when compared to cases with a code indicating involvement in a sporting activity and children less than 12 months of age compared to those in the 13-17 year old age group were all variables significantly associated with linkage to a DCS record.
Only 13% of records contained documentation indicating that child abuse and neglect were considered in the diagnosis of the injury despite almost half of the sample having a code of abuse or possible abuse.
Doctors and nurses were confident in their knowledge of the process of reporting child maltreatment but less confident about identifying child abuse and neglect and what should be reported. Many were concerned about implications of reporting, for the child and family and for themselves. A number were concerned about the implications of not reporting, mostly for the wellbeing of the child and a few in terms of their legal obligations as mandatory reporters.
The outcomes of this research will help improve the knowledge of barriers to effective surveillance of child abuse in emergency departments. This will, in turn, ensure better identification and reporting practises; more reliable official statistical collections and the potential of flagging high-risk cases to ensure adequate departmental responses have been initiated.
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Artis, Laura. "Emergency department staff attitudes towards people who self-harm and the influences of norms on behaviour." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3718.
Full textAbstract:
Patients who self-harm reported negative staff attitudes towards them on presentation to an Emergency Department (ED). The present research aims to explore staff attitudes and behaviours (own and perception of others’) and the impact of this on behaviour, barriers and facilitators of effective treatment, and team identification and norms. Ten staff members from one ED were interviewed, representing all major professional groups working non-therapeutically in the ED. A thematic framework analysis was applied and cross-referenced with another researcher and participants for validation. Analysis identified the following themes: Beliefs about self-harm, attitudes and behaviours, influences on behaviour, and identity, culture and role; related through an overarching theme of balancing difference and diversity. Evidence of PI was found, although interviewees were able to accurately recognise a mixture of beliefs and attitudes in both themselves and others. Influences on behaviour and identity were important in gaining a contextual perspective, and the concept of a ‘fluid team’, relating to patient needs, was highlighted. Results suggest that exposure of the phenomenon of PI may be useful, in conjunction with training to minimise feelings of failure/frustration. This could increase understanding and improve patient care; however, further research is required prior to this. Team stability must, however, be considered. Limitations included restricted participation across one ED and a powerful advocate for mental health patients. Although this is positive for the department, it may set it apart from others.
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Borg, James Martin. "The emergence and utility of social behaviour and social learning in artficial evolutionary systems." Thesis, Keele University, 2018. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/4533/.
Full textAbstract:
The questions to be addressed here are all aimed at beginning to assess the emergence and utility of social behaviour and social learning in artificial evolutionary systems. Like any biological adaptation, the adaptation to process and use social information must lead to an overall increase in the long term reproductive capability of any population utilising such an adaptation - this increase in fecundity also being accompanied by increased survivability and therefore adaptability. In nature, social behaviours such as co-operation, teaching and agent aggregation, all seem to provide improved levels of fitness, resulting in an improved and more robust set of general behaviours - in the human case these social behaviours have led to cumulative culture and the ability to rapidly adapt to, and thrive in, an astonishing number of environments. In this thesis we begin to look at why the evolutionary adaptation to process and use social information, leading to social learning and social behaviour, proves to be such a useful adaptation, and under which circumstances we would expect to see this adaptation, and its resulting mechanisms and strategies, emerge. We begin by asking these questions in two contexts; firstly what does social learning enable that incremental genetic evolution alone does not, and secondly what benefit does social learning provide in temporally variable environments. We go on to assess how differing social learning strategies affect the utility of social learning, and whether social information can be utilised by an evolutionary process without any accompanying within-lifetime learning processes (and whether the accommodation of social information results in any notable behavioural changes). By addressing the questions posed here in this way, we can begin to shed some light on the circumstances under which the adaptations for the accommodation and use of social information begin to emerge, and ultimately lead to the emergence of robust socially intelligent artificial agents.
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Jahren, Ole Henrik. "Emergent Behaviour in the Frequency-Power Spectrum of Discrete Dynamic Networks." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for datateknikk og informasjonsvitenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-23038.
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In the fields of cellular automata and complex systems, emergence isoften used as an interpretation of system behaviour. Computation and theresulting output are both products of the systems trajectory in the basinof attraction, where the output data is a point or cyclic attractor. Assuch, the system outputs only a single variable, the states of all unitsin the system. This work diverges from the norm on two aspect. Instead ofexploring Cellular Automata as the computational architecture, BooleanNetworks, a specialisation of the more generalised Discrete DynamicNetworks, will be used. Secondly, a different approach in interpretingthe behaviour is taken. Instead of looking directly at the state of thesystem, the trajectory in the basin of attraction is instead transformedto a frequency-power spectrum representing the system output. This allowsan easy interpretation of the output (peeks) to several output variables,were each variables can be given as the power at different frequenciesin the frequency-power spectrum.Because of the difficulty in programming, i.e. designing, Discrete DynamicNetworks with the desired characteristics, a Genetic Algorithm will beused to evolve the networks. This thesis takes an experimental approach,evolving Discrete Dynamic Networks capable of producing differentnumber of peaks in the frequency-power spectrum. The results show thatDiscrete Dynamic Network exhibiting the desired emergent behaviour weresuccessfully evolved.
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Beyls, Peter F. E. "Music as complex emergent behaviour : an approach to interactive music systems." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/872.
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This thesis suggests a new model of human-machine interaction in the domain of non-idiomatic musical improvisation. Musical results are viewed as emergent phenomena issuing from complex internal systems behaviour in relation to input from a single human performer. We investigate the prospect of rewarding interaction whereby a system modifies itself in coherent though non-trivial ways as a result of exposure to a human interactor. In addition, we explore whether such interactions can be sustained over extended time spans. These objectives translate into four criteria for evaluation; maximisation of human influence, blending of human and machine influence in the creation of machine responses, the maintenance of independent machine motivations in order to support machine autonomy and finally, a combination of global emergent behaviour and variable behaviour in the long run. Our implementation is heavily inspired by ideas and engineering approaches from the discipline of Artificial Life. However, we also address a collection of representative existing systems from the field of interactive composing, some of which are implemented using techniques of conventional Artificial Intelligence. All systems serve as a contextual background and comparative framework helping the assessment of the work reported here. This thesis advocates a networked model incorporating functionality for listening, playing and the synthesis of machine motivations. The latter incorporate dynamic relationships instructing the machine to either integrate with a musical context suggested by the human performer or, in contrast, perform as an individual musical character irrespective of context. Techniques of evolutionary computing are used to optimise system components over time. Evolution proceeds based on an implicit fitness measure; the melodic distance between consecutive musical statements made by human and machine in relation to the currently prevailing machine motivation. A substantial number of systematic experiments reveal complex emergent behaviour inside and between the various systems modules. Music scores document how global systems behaviour is rendered into actual musical output. The concluding chapter offers evidence of how the research criteria were accomplished and proposes recommendations for future research.
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Brown, J. F. "An analysis of the role of naming in the emergence of novel stimulus relations in the aphasic population." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.242565.
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Tewari, Anurag. "Adaptive tension, self-organization and emergence : A complex system perspective of supply chain disruptions." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2017. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/12603.
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The purpose of this thesis was to explore how microstate human interactions produce macro level self-organization and emergence in a supply disruption scenario, as well as discover factors and typical human behaviour that bring about disruptions. This study argues that the complex adaptive system’s view of complexity is most suited scholarly foundation for this research enquiry. Drawing on the dissipative structure based explanation of emergence and self-organization in a complex adaptive system, this thesis further argues that an energy gradient between the ongoing and designed system conditions, known as adaptive tension, causes supply chains to self-organize and emerge.
This study adopts a critical realist ontology operationalized by a qualitative case research and grounded theory based analysis. The data was collected using repertory grid interviews of 22 supply chain executives from 21 firms. In all 167 cases of supply disruptions were investigated.
Findings illustrate that agent behaviours like loss of trust, over ambitious pursuit, use of power and privilege, conspiring against best practices and heedless performance were contributing to disruption. Impacted by these behaviours, supply chains demonstrated impaired disruption management capabilities and increased disruption probability. It was also discovered that some of these system patterns and microstate agent behaviours pushed the supply chains to a zone of emergent complexity where these networks self-organized and emerged into new structures or embraced changes in prevailing processes or goals. A conceptual model was developed to explain the transition from micro agent behaviour to system level self-organization and emergence. The model described alternate pathways of a supply chain under adaptive tension.
The research makes three primary research contributions. Firstly, based upon the theoretical model, this research presents a conceptualization of supply chain emergence and self-organization from dissipative structures and adaptive tension based view of complexity. Secondly, it formally introduces and validates the role of behavioural and cognitive element of human actions in a supply chain scenario. Lastly, it affirms the complex adaptive system based conceptualization of supply chain networks. These contributions succeed in providing organizations with an explanation for observed deviations in their operations performance using a behavioural aspect of human agents.
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Farine, Damien R. "Emergent social structure and collective behaviour from individual decision-making in wild birds." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9c574271-1814-4fdc-9819-b457924ae816.
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Social behaviour is shaped by complex relationships between evolutionary and ecological processes interacting at different scales. Benefits gained from social associations can range from predator dilution to collective sensing, but little is known about how these can be influenced by social structure and phenotypic composition. In this thesis, I investigated how individual decision-making affects phenotypic social structure, and how this mediates social behaviour through emergent properties of collective group behaviour. First, using mixed-species flocks as a model system, I showed individual tits (Paridae, chapter 2) and thornbills (Acanthizae, chapter 3) varied significantly in their social positions. Within-species variation in network position was as large as between-species variation, sug- gesting that prescribing functional roles at the species level may not sufficiently account for potential differences in fitness operating at the individual level. Rather, this suggested that structure may be driven by phenotypic traits, underpinning network structure (chapter 4). Next, I used an extensive data set of foraging records to explore factors determining the composition, of flocks of great tits (Parus major, chapter 5). For example, assortment by dispersal phenotype (immigration status) was the result of spatial disaggregation, and I showed that this may facilitate social selection for breeding territories (chapter 6). Finally, I investigated how decision-making shaped mixed-species social structure. I found that tits used a common strategy for managing pressures of predation and starvation by shifting from exploration to exploitation at different times of the day (chapter 7). I then found that a very simple interaction rule successfully replicated mixed-species group structure (chapter 8). Strikingly, the same rule was applied to both conspecifics and het- erospecifics, potentially playing an important role in the maintenance of flock structure. Through experimental manipulation of ecological conditions, I found that heightened per- ceived predation resulted in stronger social attraction overall, whereas increased competition led to a reduction in attraction to conspecifics (chapter 9). Simulations suggested this could be one potential mechanism underpinning fission-fusion dynamics in these species. Together, the results in this thesis form a framework linking social behaviour to individ- ual fitness where natural selection is shaped by the social environment. This approach may prove useful for testing whether following common social rules reduces variance in benefits accrued by individuals, and how within-species variation in social behaviour can impact emergent properties of groups.
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Schwartz, Ilan. "Usage of Multi User Online Computer Games as a Simulation Platform in the Disaster and Emergency Management Arena." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Natural Hazards Research Centre, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4335.
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Emergency response agencies that need to care for large crowds in real-life events, report a constant
lack in human volunteers in large numbers for training purposes. Moreover, existing computerized
training aides either totally omit affected crowds in their scenarios, or represent them as computer
generated models. A potential solution that can provide real human input in large numbers for
training purposes can be found in the form of Massive Multi-user Online Role-Playing computer
Games (MMORPGs) that attract millions of users on a daily basis.
In order to evaluate the use of MMORPGs as an emergency simulation platform I had to examine
the in-game behaviour of participants, usability issues, data collection methods, and data reliability. I
did so by constructing a multi-user computer game that included food shortage and a pandemic
spread scenarios. Data collected included every possible item that could be technically logged, both
qualitative (questionnaires, user’s self tagging of events) and quantitative (all in-game actions and
their coordinates, players and virtual environment in-game status).
The abundance of data enabled easy triangulation and verification. The main findings were:
participants attention span was about 90 minutes, they demonstrated only a narrow range of
behaviours necessary for their in-game survival, and this behaviour followed loosely real life
behaviour patterns. Usability wise participants ignored interface components and in-game tasks that
interfered with their game flow. Data reliability: unlike other methods that rely solely on participants
accounts, the game had the ability to compare between actions to questionnaire answers, and was
able to detect inconsistencies between people’s actions within the game and their accounts of their
actions. The ability to create spatial maps of event types enabled a fast way to visually analyze data.
The research concludes that MMORPGs can be used as an emergency simulation platform if: 1) its
duration fits the participants’ attention span (as a result aspects of human behaviour that happen over
a prolonged period of time will not be demonstrated); 2) the demographic composition of
participants fits that of the population examined by the simulation; 3) participants should be properly
reimbursed for their time; 4) it is known that participants’ in-game behaviour might be negatively
influenced by lack of real-life experience of similar events; 5) in-game rules and mechanisms are set
to filter out game abuse; 6) preliminary sessions are run to determine ideal attention span and data
skewing factor.
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Smith, Sheree Margaret Stewart. "A critical analysis of the relationship between health promoting behaviours, an individual's health risk, asthma severity and control, and patient centred asthma education in the emergency department." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2006. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16921/1/Sheree_Smith_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Asthma affects over 2.2 million people in Australia. Asthma morbidity is increasing while mortality is decreasing. People with asthma experience shortness of breath as their airways narrow and become inflamed. After an episode of acute asthma many patients experience a relapse requiring further emergency department care. Numerous studies have been undertaken to identify the determinants of asthma morbidity and these studies have primarily used asthma oriented and co-morbidity scales such as anxiety and depression indices. Other studies in this area have indicated psychosocial factors such as coping, asthma attitudes and beliefs that may be linked to people with asthma who are non-compliant or adherent to treatment. Currently, there is no research available that has examined the link between general health promoting behaviours, an individual’s risk behaviour assessment and a brief asthma education encounter that is patient-centred. This study provides a description of the health promoting and risk taking behaviours of people who attend the emergency department with acute asthma. Secondly, it examines the effectiveness of patient-centred education compared with standard education. One hundred and forty-six people with acute asthma who attended the emergency departments of the Princess Alexandra and Mater Adult Public Hospitals were enrolled in this study. Participants self-reported health promoting and risk taking behaviours by completing the questionnaire that contained the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLPII) and the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) instruments. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was also incorporated into the questionnaire to ascertain levels of anxiety and depression in this acute asthma group of people. The asthma education curriculum had the same topics for both the standard education and the patient-centred groups. However, the patient-centred group were able to prioritise the order of the topics according to their identified need. Secondly, the patient-centred group were asked two questions to ascertain the most important issue and asthma issue for them at that point in time. Both groups of participants were educated using the Asthma Foundation Leaflet “Asthma - Basic Facts” during the individual education session. There were 56% females and 44% males with a mean age (+SD) of 34 (13.8) years with 70.3% reported year 12 or above education and 49% of participants earned less that $20,000. Nearly half of the participants were admitted to a hospital ward following emergency department assessment and care. A large proportion of the participants had either moderate or severe asthma. The health behaviour findings from this study suggest people with acute asthma follow preventive health recommendations and safety guidelines more so than the wider community. However, they did not self-initiate home based health actions such as breast self-examination. At the time of attendance to the emergency department with acute asthma there were no statistical difference between the patient-centred education and standard format education groups for age, gender, education, income, asthma control and previous emergency department attendances. The patient-centred education group had fewer re-attendances in the four months after the education intervention when compared with prior emergency department attendances than the control group (p=0.057; p=0.486). In conclusion, people with acute asthma report undertaking a number of preventive health behaviours and actions according to national guidelines and safety recommendations. They report a lack of self-initiated home based health behaviours. Further research is required to investigate the impact on the National Asthma Council’s recommendations of the importance of asthma action plans on people who follow preventive health guidelines and who lack self-initiative abilities. In terms of asthma education, patient-centred education when compared to standard format education may be useful in reducing further emergency department attendances for acute asthma. More research is required to identify other key education issues for people with acute asthma.
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Smith, Sheree Margaret Stewart. "A critical analysis of the relationship between health promoting behaviours, an individual's health risk, asthma severity and control, and patient centred asthma education in the emergency department." Queensland University of Technology, 2006. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16921/.
Full textAbstract:
Asthma affects over 2.2 million people in Australia. Asthma morbidity is increasing while mortality is decreasing. People with asthma experience shortness of breath as their airways narrow and become inflamed. After an episode of acute asthma many patients experience a relapse requiring further emergency department care. Numerous studies have been undertaken to identify the determinants of asthma morbidity and these studies have primarily used asthma oriented and co-morbidity scales such as anxiety and depression indices. Other studies in this area have indicated psychosocial factors such as coping, asthma attitudes and beliefs that may be linked to people with asthma who are non-compliant or adherent to treatment. Currently, there is no research available that has examined the link between general health promoting behaviours, an individual’s risk behaviour assessment and a brief asthma education encounter that is patient-centred. This study provides a description of the health promoting and risk taking behaviours of people who attend the emergency department with acute asthma. Secondly, it examines the effectiveness of patient-centred education compared with standard education. One hundred and forty-six people with acute asthma who attended the emergency departments of the Princess Alexandra and Mater Adult Public Hospitals were enrolled in this study. Participants self-reported health promoting and risk taking behaviours by completing the questionnaire that contained the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLPII) and the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) instruments. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was also incorporated into the questionnaire to ascertain levels of anxiety and depression in this acute asthma group of people. The asthma education curriculum had the same topics for both the standard education and the patient-centred groups. However, the patient-centred group were able to prioritise the order of the topics according to their identified need. Secondly, the patient-centred group were asked two questions to ascertain the most important issue and asthma issue for them at that point in time. Both groups of participants were educated using the Asthma Foundation Leaflet “Asthma - Basic Facts” during the individual education session. There were 56% females and 44% males with a mean age (+SD) of 34 (13.8) years with 70.3% reported year 12 or above education and 49% of participants earned less that $20,000. Nearly half of the participants were admitted to a hospital ward following emergency department assessment and care. A large proportion of the participants had either moderate or severe asthma. The health behaviour findings from this study suggest people with acute asthma follow preventive health recommendations and safety guidelines more so than the wider community. However, they did not self-initiate home based health actions such as breast self-examination. At the time of attendance to the emergency department with acute asthma there were no statistical difference between the patient-centred education and standard format education groups for age, gender, education, income, asthma control and previous emergency department attendances. The patient-centred education group had fewer re-attendances in the four months after the education intervention when compared with prior emergency department attendances than the control group (p=0.057; p=0.486). In conclusion, people with acute asthma report undertaking a number of preventive health behaviours and actions according to national guidelines and safety recommendations. They report a lack of self-initiated home based health behaviours. Further research is required to investigate the impact on the National Asthma Council’s recommendations of the importance of asthma action plans on people who follow preventive health guidelines and who lack self-initiative abilities. In terms of asthma education, patient-centred education when compared to standard format education may be useful in reducing further emergency department attendances for acute asthma. More research is required to identify other key education issues for people with acute asthma.
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Mollona, Edoardo. "Resource accumulation systems, corporate competence evolution and emergent strategic behaviour : a feedback approach." Thesis, London Business School (University of London), 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.300802.
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Pearce, Celia. "Playing ethnography : a study of emergent behaviour in online games and virtual worlds." Thesis, University of the Arts London, 2006. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/2300/.
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This study concerns itself with the relationship between game design and emergent social behaviour in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds. This thesis argues for a legitimisation of the study of ‘communities of play’, alongside communities perceived as more ‘serious’, such as communities of interest or practice. It also identifies six factors that contribute to emergent social behaviour and investigates the relationship between group and individual identity, and the emergent ways in which these arise from and intersect with the features and mechanics of the game worlds themselves. Methodology: Under the rubric of ‘design research’, this study was conducted as an ethnographic intervention, an anthropological investigation that deliberately privileged the online experience whilst acknowledging the performative nature of both game play and the research process itself. The research was informed by years of professional practical experience in game design and playtesting, as well as by qualitative methods derived from the fields of Anthropology, Sociology, Computermediated Communications and the emerging field of Game Studies. The process of conducting the eighteen-month ethnographic study followed the progress of a sub-set of members of the ‘Uru Diaspora,’ a group of 10,000 players who were made refugees when the massively multiplayer game ‘Uru: Ages Beyond Myst’ was closed in February of 2004. Uru refugees immigrated into other virtual worlds, using their features and capabilities to create ethnic communities that emulated the culture, artefacts and environments of the original Uru world. Over time, players developed ‘hybrid’ cultures, integrating the Uru culture with that of their new homes, and eventually creating entirely new Uru and Myst-inspired content. The outcome is the identification of six factors that serve as ‘engines for emergence’ and discusses their relationship to each other, to game design, and to emergent behaviour. These include: • Play Ecosystems: Fixed-Synthetic vs. Co-Created Worlds: Online games and virtual worlds exist along a spectrum, with environments entirely authored by the designer at one end, and those comprised primarily of player-created content and assets on the other, with a range of variations between. The type of world will impact the sort of emergent behaviour that occurs, and worlds that include player-created content will be more inclined to promote emergent behaviour. • Communities of Play: Distributed groups formed around play demonstrate distinct characteristics based on shared values and play styles. The study describes in detail one such play community, and analyses the ways in which its characteristic play styles drove its emergent behaviours. • The Social Construction of Avatar Identity: Individual avatar identity is constructed through an emergent process engaging social feedback. • Intersubjective Flow: A social reading of the psychological notion of ‘flow’ that describes the way in which flow dynamics occur in a social context through play. • Productive Play: Countering the traditional contention that play is inherently ‘unproductive’ as some scholars suggest, the thesis argues that play can be seen as a form of cultural production, as well as fulcrum for creative activity. • Porous Magic Circles and the ‘Ludisphere’: The magic circle, which bounds play activities, is more porous than game scholars had previously believed. The term ‘ludisphere' is used to describe the larger context of aggregated play space via the Internet. Also identified are leakages between ‘virtual worlds’ and ‘real life’. By identifying these factors and attempting to trace their roots in game design, the study aims to contribute a new approach to the making and analysis of user experience and creativity ‘in game’. The thesis posits that by achieving a deeper cultural understanding of the relationship between design and emergent behaviour, it is possible to make steps forward in the study of ‘emergence’ itself as a design material.
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Hind, Colene. "Organisational practices and individual innovation behaviour: a non-linear approach to modelling the emergence of corporate entrepreneurship." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29870.
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Background: Successful corporate entrepreneurship is credited with various positive organisational outcomes and achievements. At the wellspring of corporate entrepreneurship is the individual member of the organisation tasked with innovative behaviour. Corporate entrepreneurship emerges within the interface between innovative individuals and the organisational system they function in. Classical theorising that follows reductionist approaches in the pursuit of pure causality has failed to explain the emergence of corporate entrepreneurship within the dynamic and non-linear processes that constitute the complexity embedded in organisations.
Research statement: Corporate entrepreneurship as an emergent process within an organisation comprises various elements that when studied through classical theories and methods fail to explain the process as a whole. An alternative theory and method is needed if corporate entrepreneurship is to be understood as a complex, dynamic and non-linear phenomenon.
Method of analysis: A two-phase sequential explanatory mixed method of analysis is employed. Quantitative data, that was gathered using existing measuring instruments, includes variables related to human capital and organisational practices and individual innovative behaviour. The data is presented to the Self-Organising Maps software, which utilises the principles of Artificial neural networks to cluster it. Phase 2 comprises a qualitative exploration with subject matter experts, of outlying cluster patterns produced by the quantitative results.
Findings and conclusions: Theoretically, the study describes the relevant concepts of corporate entrepreneurship and organisational practices and complex adaptive systems theory as they pertain to the study. Empirically, the study maps the emergence of innovative behaviour in a manner that explores an alternative to mainstream purist causality. The study produces a conceptual framework that can be contextually adapted and applied in practice to gain understanding into the emergence of corporate entrepreneurship. The study concludes that our understanding of the emergence of corporate entrepreneurship can be enhanced through the use of methods that allow for the non-linear and dynamic nature of the phenomenon, rather than methods that attempt to reduce it.
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Samochine, Dmitri Alexandrovitch. "Toward an understanding of the concept of occupancy in relation to staff behaviour in fire emergency evacuation of retail stores." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.413860.
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Mercer, Sarah Jane. "A framework for exploiting emergent behaviour to capture 'best practice' within a programming domain." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432755.
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Inspection is a formalised process for reviewing an artefact in software engineering. It is proven to significantly reduce defects, to ensure that what is delivered is what is required, and that the finished product is effective and robust. Peer code review is a less formal inspection of code, normally classified as inadequate or substandard Inspection. Although it has an increased risk of not locating defects, it has been shown to improve the knowledge and programming skills of its participants. This thesis examines the process of peer code review, comparing it to Inspection, and attempts to describe how an informal code review can improve the knowledge and skills of its participants by deploying an agent oriented approach. During a review the participants discuss defects, recommendations and solutions, or more generally their own experience. It is this instant adaptability to new information that gives the review process the ability to improve knowledge. This observed behaviour can be described as the emergent behaviour of the group of programmers during the review. The wider distribution of knowledge is currently only performed by programmers attending other reviews. To maximise the benefits of peer code review, a mechanism is needed by which the findings from one team can be captured and propagated to other reviews / teams throughout an establishment. A prototype multi-agent system is developed with the aim of capturing the emergent properties of a team of programmers. As the interactions between the team members is unstructured and the information traded is dynamic, a distributed adaptive system is required to provide communication channels for the team and to provide a foundation for the knowledge shared. Software agents are capable of adaptivity and learning. Multi-agent systems are particularly effective at being deployed within distributed architectures and are believed to be able to capture emergent behaviour. The prototype system illustrates that the learning mechanism within the software agents provides a solid foundation upon which the ability to detect defects can be learnt. It also demonstrates that the multi-agent approach is apposite to provide the free flow communication of ideas between programmers, not only to achieve the sharing of defects and solutions but also at a high enough level to capture social information. It is assumed that this social information is a measure of one element of the review process's emergent behaviour. The system is capable of monitoring the team-perceived abilities of programmers, those who are influential on the programming style of others, and the issues upon which programmers agree or disagree. If the disagreements are classified as unimportant or stylistic issues, can it not therefore be assumed that all agreements are concepts of "Best Practice"? The conclusion is reached that code review is not a substandard Inspection but is in fact complementary to the Inspection model, as the latter improves the process of locating and identifying bugs while the former improves the knowledge and skill of the programmers, and therefore the chance of bugs not being encoded to start with. The prototype system demonstrates that it is possible to capture best practice from a review team and that agents are well suited to the task. The performance criteria of such a system have also been captured. The prototype system has also shown that a reliable level of learning can be attained for a real world task. The innovative way of concurrently deploying multiple agents which use different approaches to achieve the same goal shows remarkable robustness when learning from small example sets. The novel way in which autonomy is promoted within the agents' design but constrained within the agent community allows the system to provide a sufficiently flexible communications structure to capture emergent social behaviour, whilst ensuring that the agents remain committed to their own goals.
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Chang, Gabriel, and Michaela Stjerndal. "Investigating and Modeling the Emergent Flocking Behaviour of Sheep Under Threat with Fear Contagion." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-260246.
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Virtual environments can feel lifeless or robotic, and a way to combat this is the inclusion of living creatures with life-like behaviour. Wanting to bring this into computer animation, Craig W. Reynolds formulated a model to simulate the flocking behaviour of birds. Delgado-Mata made extensions upon Reynolds’ flocking model, and his model has in turn been used to simulate a sheep herding scenario. The herding scenario can extend into many peripheral fields, where an effective strategy for a single agent to maneuver a large group of unwilling agents can have many applications. This study investigates whether Delgado-Mata’s model is able to simulate the emergent behaviour of a herd of sheep under threat more realistically with or without fear contagion. This was done by comparing the results from the simulations, made with and without contagion, with the empirical data of another experiment. A modified version of DelgadoMata’s model was implemented in Unity 3D. A simple fear contagion model was used. The parameters used in the flocking model were chosen through manual trial and error. Analysis of the positional data of the virtual sheep and dog showed that including fear contagion increased the realism of the simulation. A higher resemblance between the simulation with the fear contagion model and the empirical experiment was found. The difference between the two model simulations was however not large, and the subject can be further investigated.Virtuella miljöer kan kännas livlösa eller robotiska, och ett sätt att motarbeta detta är att inkludera levande varelser med verklighetstrogna beteenden. Med mål att införa detta i datoranimation skapade Craig W. Reynolds en modell som simulerar fåglars svärmande flockbeteende. Delgado-Mata har byggt vidare på Reynolds modell och hans utökade modell har i sin tur använts för att simulera fårvallnings-scenariot. Vallnings-scenariot kan användas i många relaterade användningsområden, där en effektiv strategi för en individ att manövrera en stor grupp ovilliga individer kan ha många tillämpningar. I denna studie undersöks huruvida Delgado-Matas modell kan simulera fårs emergenta flockbeteende under hot mer realistiskt med eller utan rädslespridning inkluderat. Undersökningen gjordes genom jämförelse av resultaten från simuleringarna med och utan rädslespridning med data från en empirisk undersökning. En modifierad version av DelgadoMatas modell implementerades i Unity 3D. En simpel rädslespridningsmodell användes. Parametrarna som användes i den modifierade modellen valdes via manuell trial and error. Analys av positionsdata från de virtuella fåren och den virtuella hunden visade att inkluderandet av rädslespridning ökade realismen av simuleringen. En större likhet hittades mellan simuleringen med rädslespridningsmodellen och den empiriska undersökningen. Skillnaden mellan modellernas prestation var dock inte stor, och ämnet kan undersökas vidare.
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Shen, Xi. "Emergent behaviour of neural network models with learning mechanisms coupled with astrocyte and vascular dynamics." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.438196.
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Teer, Kerry. "Emergent untaught behaviour : stimulus equivalence and transitive inference in learning disabled and normally able people." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15134.
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The explanation of the emergence of untaught behaviour has been a topic of considerable interest in behaviour analysis. The experiments in this thesis were designed to examine some of the processes underlying these emergent relations. In doing this, two different paradigms were examined - stimulus equivalence and transitive inference. The experiments leading to a formal definition of equivalence relations are reported, and the demonstration of cognitive abilities with both humans and non-humans described. The explanations proposed for the basis of stimulus equivalence are discussed. Data from five experiments are then presented. Experiment 1 considered the role of naming in stimulus equivalence and Experiment 2 contrasted this performance with the establishment of transitive inference, both experiments being carried out with adults with learning disabilities as subjects. The results from these experiments suggested that while naming behaviour may help to establish emergent relations, it may not be the basis of stimulus equivalence, and that it may be possible to account for performance on both stimulus equivalence and transitive inference tests in terms of reinforcement contingencies. While subjects who display stimulus equivalence are likely to also display transitive inferences, the reverse relation may not be true. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the effects of a disruption of the baseline relations on performance on transitive inference and stimulus equivalence tasks. These experiments were both carried out with normally able adults, adults with learning disabilities, and normally developing young children. Experiment 5 was a replication of Experiment 4 with a tighter methodology and a larger number of subjects with learning disabilities. It is suggested that the results obtained in Experiments 4 and 5 can be explained by the development of contextual control of the equivalence relations. The results from these experiments suggested that the transitive inference and stimulus equivalence paradigms may respectively be concrete and abstract examples of more general emergent relations. These paradigms may also prove to be very useful teaching tools for helping to establish emergent relations.
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Freund, Julia Verfasser], Gerd [Akademischer Betreuer] [Kempermann, Elly [Akademischer Betreuer] Tanaka, and Sebastian [Akademischer Betreuer] Jessberger. "Emergence of individual behavioural traits and associated hippocampal plasticity in genetically identical mice / Julia Freund. Betreuer: Gerd Kempermann. Gutachter: Elly Tanaka ; Sebastian Jessberger." Dresden : Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1088185401/34.
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Freund, Julia [Verfasser], Gerd [Akademischer Betreuer] Kempermann, Elly Akademischer Betreuer] Tanaka, and Sebastian [Akademischer Betreuer] [Jeßberger. "Emergence of individual behavioural traits and associated hippocampal plasticity in genetically identical mice / Julia Freund. Betreuer: Gerd Kempermann. Gutachter: Elly Tanaka ; Sebastian Jessberger." Dresden : Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-165013.
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Freund, Julia [Verfasser], Gerd [Akademischer Betreuer] Kempermann, Elly [Akademischer Betreuer] Tanaka, and Sebastian [Akademischer Betreuer] Jessberger. "Emergence of individual behavioural traits and associated hippocampal plasticity in genetically identical mice / Julia Freund. Betreuer: Gerd Kempermann. Gutachter: Elly Tanaka ; Sebastian Jessberger." Dresden : Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1088185401/34.
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