More work for Big Mother: Revaluing care and control in smart homes

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110223
Author(s):  
Jathan Sadowski ◽  
Yolande Strengers ◽  
Jenny Kennedy

The home is an ever-changing assemblage of technologies that shapes the organisation and division of housework and supports certain models of what that work entails, who does it and for what purposes. This paper analyses core tensions arising through the ways smart homes are embedding logics of digital capitalism into home life and labour. As a critical way of understanding these techno-political shifts in the means of social reproduction, we advance the concept of Big Mother – a system that, under the guise of maternal care, seeks to manage, monitor and marketise domestic spaces and practices. We identify three tensions arising in the relationships between care and control as they are mediated through the Big Mother system: (a) outsourcing autonomy through enhanced control and choice, (b) increased monitoring for efficient management and (c) revaluation of care through optimisation of housework. For each area, we explore how emerging technological capacities promise to enhance our abilities to care for our homes, families and selves. Yet, at the same time, these innovations also empower Big Mother to enrol people into new techniques of surveillance, new forms of automation and new markets of data. Our purpose in this paper is to push back against the influential ideas of smart homes based on luxury surveillance and caring systems by showing that they exist in constant relation with a supposedly antithetical version of the smart home represented by Big Mother.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vũ Xuân Hùng

In the process of teaching, technical teaching facilities are both a content and a means of conveying information, they help the lecturer organize and control the students' cognitive activities, in addition, they also help students be interested in learning, practice practical skills from which to form active and creative learning methods. Teaching technology is one of the necessary conditions to help teachers carry out their related work of educating, teaching and bringing up, and intellectual development, arouse the inherent intelligence qualities of students. Currently, the management of technical teaching facilities at the Central Kindergartens College has been carried out on a regular basis and achieved certain results, but in fact, there are still many inadequacies. Finding a number of limitations in the management of teaching technical facilities, thereby proposing solutions to overcome those limitations, improve the efficiency of investment, preservation and use of teaching technical facilities in the trend of Industry Revolution 4.0, improving the quality of teaching at Central Kindergarten Pedagogy colleges in the current period is a very important and urgent task.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-183
Author(s):  
Phudit Ampririt ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Makoto Ikeda ◽  
Keita Matsuo ◽  
Leonard Barolli ◽  
...  

The Fifth Generation (5G) networks are expected to be flexible to satisfy demands of high-quality services such as high speed, low latencies and enhanced reliability from customers. Also, the rapidly increasing amount of user devices and high user’s requests becomes a problem. Thus, the Software-Defined Network (SDN) will be the key function for efficient management and control. To deal with these problems, we propose a Fuzzy-based SDN approach. This paper presents and compares two Fuzzy-based Systems for Admission Control (FBSAC) in 5G wireless networks: FBSAC1 and FBSAC2. The FBSAC1 considers for admission control decision three parameters: Grade of Service (GS), User Request Delay Time (URDT) and Network Slice Size (NSS). In FBSAC2, we consider as an additional parameter the Slice Priority (SP). So, FBSAC2 has four input parameters. The simulation results show that the FBSAC2 is more complex than FBSAC1, but it has a better performance for admission control.


Author(s):  
Ju Xie ◽  
Xing Xu ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Haobin Jiang

The driver model is the decision-making and control center of intelligent vehicle. In order to improve the adaptability of intelligent vehicles under complex driving conditions, and simulate the manipulation characteristics of the skilled driver under the driver-vehicle-road closed-loop system, a kind of human-like longitudinal driver model for intelligent vehicles based on reinforcement learning is proposed. This paper builds the lateral driver model for intelligent vehicles based on optimal preview control theory. Then, the control correction link of longitudinal driver model is established to calculate the throttle opening or brake pedal travel for the desired longitudinal acceleration. Moreover, the reinforcement learning agents for longitudinal driver model is parallel trained by comprehensive evaluation index and skilled driver data. Lastly, training performance and scenarios verification between the simulation experiment and the real car test are performed to verify the effectiveness of the reinforcement learning based longitudinal driver model. The results show that the proposed human-like longitudinal driver model based on reinforcement learning can help intelligent vehicles effectively imitate the speed control behavior of the skilled driver in various path-following scenarios.


2014 ◽  
Vol 556-562 ◽  
pp. 1358-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Bo Zhu ◽  
Fen Zhu Ji ◽  
Xiao Xu Zhou

Wire of the brake pedal is not directly connected to the hydraulic environment in the braking By-wire system so the driver has no direct pedal feel. Then pedal simulator is an important part in the brake-by-wire system. A pedal force simulator was designed based on the traditional brake pedal curve of pedal force and pedal travel, AMESim and Matlab / Simulink were used as a platform to build simulation models and control algorithms. The simulation results show that the pedal stroke simulator and the control strategy meet the performance requirements of traditional braking system. It can be used in brake by wire system.


Aviation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 130-135
Author(s):  
Vaidotas Kondroška ◽  
Jonas Stankūnas

This work reviews the innovative and progressive methods of determination and analysis of safety objectives using Vilnius A-SMGCS example. The aim of the analysis is to determine how failures in this system could affect flight safety in Vilnius aerodrome. Identified safety objectives will limit the frequency of occurrence of hazards enough for the associated risk to be acceptable, and will ensure that appropriate mitigation means are reflected subsequently as Safety Requirements for the system. Analysis reflects aspects of A-SMGCS Safety objectives, which should be taken into consideration. Santrauka Darbe apžvelgiami progresyvūs saugos tikslų analizės metodai pagal Vilniaus aerodromo automatizuotos antžeminio eismo stebėjimo ir kontrolės sistemos veiklos pavyzdį. Analizuojama, kaip šios sistemos sutrikimai gali paveikti skrydžių saugą Vilniaus aerodrome. Remiantis galimų pavojų skrydžių saugai analize, tyrime nustatyti saugos tikslai, pagal kuriuos vėliau bus numatomos riziką mažinančios priemonės (galimų pavojų neutralizavimui ar kylančios rizikos sumažinimui iki priimtino lygio). Straipsnyje pateikiami veiksniai, kuriuos reikėtų įvertinti nustatant aerodromo automatizuotos antžeminio eismo stebėjimo ir kontrolės sistemos saugos tikslus.


2000 ◽  
Vol 1730 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Buttlar ◽  
Diyar Bozkurt ◽  
Barry J. Dempsey

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) spends $2 million annually on reflective crack control treatments; however, the cost-effectiveness of these treatments had not been reliably determined. A recent study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of IDOT reflective crack control System A, which consists of a nonwoven polypropylene paving fabric, placed either in strips longitudinally over lane-widening joints or over the entire pavement (area treatment). The study was limited to projects constructed originally as rigid pavements and subsequently rehabilitated with one or more bituminous overlays. Performance of 52 projects across Illinois was assessed through crack mapping and from distress and serviceability data in IDOT’s condition rating survey database. Comparisons of measured reflective cracking in treated and control sections revealed that System A retarded longitudinal reflective widening crack development, but it did not significantly retard transverse reflective cracking, which agrees with earlier studies. However, both strip and area applications of these fabric treatments appeared to improve overall pavement serviceability, and they were estimated to increase rehabilitation life spans by 1.1 and 3.6 years, respectively. Reduction in life-cycle costs was estimated to be 4.4 and 6.2 percent when placed in medium and large quantities, respectively, and to be at a break-even level for small quantities. However, life-cycle benefits were found to be statistically insignificant. Limited permeability testing of field cores taken on severely distressed transverse joints suggested that waterproofing benefits could exist even after crack reflection. This was consistent with the observation that, although serviceability was generally improved with area treatment, crack reflection was not retarded relative to untreated areas.


2009 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Sekyiamah ◽  
H. Kim

A wastewater treatment plant consists of unit processes designed to achieve specific waste reduction goals. Offensive odors associated with these treatment processes are a constant source of public complaints. The purpose of this study was to statistically determine the process parameters that influence the formation of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the secondary treatment system. A statistical model was developed to relate the process parameters to the formation of VSCs in this system. The model established that F/M ratio, sludge blanket depth and SSV60 were the dominant process parameters that influenced the formation of VSCs in the secondary sedimentation basin. This model provides a useful tool for plant engineers to predict and control the VSC formation in a secondary activated sludge treatment system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Balasubramanian ◽  
Shailesh S. Mhaskar ◽  
Krishna Sukumaran ◽  
A. Panigrahi ◽  
Kurmaraguru Vasagam ◽  
...  

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), farming of species from different trophic levels and with complimentary ecosystem function, is regarded as a suitable approach to develop a sustainable aquaculture system. In order to establish an IMTA system, a study was carried out in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra, India for selected tropical brackish-water species. Two equal sized pens (250 m2) were constructed for IMTA and control respectively in each land based system and open water cages were set in the estuary. Different combinations of fed species (Chanos chanos, Etroplus suratensis, Mugil cephalus, Penaeus indicus) and an extractive crop (Crassostrea madrasensis) were stocked in IMTA experimental system whereas monoculture of P. indicus served as control. Water quality characteristics were found to be within the admissible limits. Soil organic carbon was found to be lesser in the IMTA system compared to control. The productivity of IMTA system was higher than control: 3250 kg h-1 vs 2000 kg ha-1. Further, income and benefit-cost ratio was found to be higher in IMTA pens. The present study concludes that IMTA is a possible option for system diversification as well as species diversification without compromising economic profitability of culture.


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