Developing Conversational Agents for Use in Criminal Investigations

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in environments that involve high risk and high consequence decision-making is severely hampered by critical design issues. These issues include system transparency and brittleness, where transparency relates to (i) the explainability of results and (ii) the ability of a user to inspect and verify system goals and constraints; and brittleness, (iii) the ability of a system to adapt to new user demands. Transparency is a particular concern for criminal intelligence analysis, where there are significant ethical and trust issues that arise when algorithmic and system processes are not adequately understood by a user. This prevents adoption of potentially useful technologies in policing environments. In this article, we present a novel approach to designing a conversational agent (CA) AI system for intelligence analysis that tackles these issues. We discuss the results and implications of three different studies; a Cognitive Task Analysis to understand analyst thinking when retrieving information in an investigation, Emergent Themes Analysis to understand the explanation needs of different system components, and an interactive experiment with a prototype conversational agent. Our prototype conversational agent, named Pan, demonstrates transparency provision and mitigates brittleness by evolving new CA intentions. We encode interactions with the CA with human factors principles for situation recognition and use interactive visual analytics to support analyst reasoning. Our approach enables complex AI systems, such as Pan, to be used in sensitive environments, and our research has broader application than the use case discussed.

Magnetoelastic Materials for Monitoring and Controlling Cells and Tissues

Advances in cell and tissue therapies are slow to be implemented in the clinic due to the limited standardization of safety and quality control techniques. Current approaches for monitoring cell and tissue manufacturing processes are time and labor intensive, costly, and lack commercial scalability. One method to improving in vitro manufacturing processes includes utilizing the coupled magnetic and mechanical properties of magnetoelastic (ME) materials as passive and wireless sensors and actuators. Specifically, ME materials can be used in quantifying cell adhesion, detecting contamination, measuring biomarkers, providing biomechanical stimulus, and enabling cell detachment in bioreactors. This review outlines critical design considerations for ME systems and summarizes recent developments in utilizing ME materials for sensing and actuation in cell and tissue engineering.

“Data Hegemony”: Reflections for the Application and Development Direction of Metaverse Technology in Urban Design based on Digital

This paper is based on the phenomenon of Tittytainment and big data control. It discusses the ways in which working youths live and work in their large suburban communities in Beijing as well as their leisure and entertainment activities. Then develops a problem statement and research questions. In addition, the project explores this reality phenomenon dialectically through the analysis and speculation of the new virtual reality technology “Metaverse.” Based on a critical design approach, the phenomenon is explored through a detailed description and examination of reality, before critically suggesting the possibility of future social control by big data companies through the “metaverse” space. Furthermore, this paper alerts to the neoliberalism that dominates globalization through anti-utopian expressions, waking up young people who are compromised by big data control and addicted to Tittytainment.

Thermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Axially Crowned Rollers

This work presents a comprehensive numerical study of thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication performance in axially crowned rollers, based on a full-system finite element approach. Axial crowning has always been introduced to finite line contacts, as a mean for improving film thickness. Its influence on friction has often been overlooked though. The current work reveals that axial crowning has a negative influence on friction, increasing it significantly with respect to the reference case of straight rollers. It is shown that, with increased crowning height (or reduced crowning radius), minimum film thickness is increased, but so is friction. Therefore, film thickness enhancement comes at the expense of a deterioration in friction. Besides, achieving sufficient enhancements in minimum film thickness would require using relatively low crowning radii, which would lead to a substantial increase in friction. The frictional increase is traced back to an overall increase in contact pressures and effective contact area within the lubricating conjunction. It is also shown that, when film thickness is the most critical design parameter, the best compromise between enhanced film thickness and deteriorated friction would be to combine axial crowning with roller-end profiling. However, when friction is the most critical design parameter, a simple roller-end profiling would offer the best compromise.

Development of pumps with improved anti-cavitation characteristics

When considering the creation of pumps with improved anti-cavitation characteristics, the results of an in-depth analysis of the problem of pumping viscous liquids at high temperatures are presented. On the example of the technological process of evaporation of sugar syrup on a film evaporator of the latest type, the problem of the occurrence of cavitation when pumping viscous liquids at high temperatures was revealed. After analyzing the existing machines used for the specified operating conditions, critical design and operating parameters were identified that affect the appearance of cavitation. Namely, the appearance of cavitation is influenced by the reduced diameter of the impeller inlet, the diameter of the impeller inlet, the number of blades, the width of the blades and the rotor speed. To study the level of influence of these parameters, a method of physical modeling was chosen, an experimental stand was designed and manufactured. Studies have been carried out on the operation of the pump with and without a reducer. The work with a two- and three-blade inducer is analyzed, the work with an open and closed impeller, with one and two-level blade system is investigated. As a result of the analysis of experimental data, the optimal design of the hydraulic part with a three-blade reducer and a semi-open impeller with a two-level blade system was chosen. In turn, this made it possible to reduce the compression of the flow at the inlet to the impeller without loss of energy efficiency; the angles of inclination of the inducer and impeller blades were synchronized. The experience gained made it possible to design and manufacture an industrial sample of a cantilever pump with an inducer and a semi-open impeller. Thus, allowing to solve the problem of pumping thick syrup on a film evaporating unit of the Teofipol sugar plant (Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine), with a cavitation reserve of 1.5 m.