Self-Management Strategies for Problem Gambling in the Context of Poverty and Homelessness

Problem gambling and gambling disorder are serious public health issues that disproportionately affect persons experiencing poverty, homelessness, and multimorbidity. Several barriers to service access contribute to low rates of formal treatment-seeking for problem gambling compared with treatments for other addictions. Given these challenges to treatment and care, self-management may be a viable alternative or complement to formal problem gambling interventions. In this study, we described problem gambling self management strategies among persons experiencing poverty and homelessness. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 adults experiencing problem gambling and poverty/homelessness, and employed qualitative content analysis to code and analyze the data thematically. We identified five types of self-management strategies: (1) seeking information on problem gambling, (2) talking about gambling problems, (3) limiting money spent on gambling, (4) avoiding gambling providers, and (5) engaging in alternative activities. Although these strategies are consistent with previous research, the social, financial,housing, and health challenges of persons experiencing poverty and homelessness shaped their self-management experiences and approaches in distinct ways. Approaches to problem gambling treatment should attend to the broader context in which persons experience and attempt to self-manage problem gambling.

Tool-based Support for the FAIR Principles for Control Theoretic Results: The "Automatic Control Knowledge Repository"

In 2016 a collection of guiding principles for the management of scientific data was proposed by a consortium of scientists and organizations under the acronym FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability). As many other disciplines, control theory also is affected by the (mostly unintended) disregard of these principles and to some degree also suffers from a reproducibility crisis. The specific situation for that discipline, however, is more related to software, than to classical numerical data. In particular, since computational methods like simulation, numeric approximation or computer algebra play an important role, the reproducibility of results relies on implementation details, which are typically out of scope for written papers.While some publications do reference the source code of the respective software, this is by far not standard in industry and academia. Additionally, having access to the source code does not imply reproducibility due to dependency issues w. r. t. hardware and software components. This paper proposes a tool based approach consisting of four components to mitigate the problem: a) an open repository with a suitable data structure to publish formal problem specifications and problem solutions (each represented as source code) along with descriptive metadata, b) a web service that automatically checks the solution methods against the problem specifications and auxiliary software for local testing, c) a computational ontology which allows for semantic tagging and sophisticated querying the entities in the repo and d) a peer-oriented process scheme to organize both the contribution process to that repository and formal quality assurance.

Scaffolded Self-Explanation with Visual Representations Promotes Efficient Learning in Early Algebra

Although visual representations are generally beneficial for learners, past research also suggests that often only a subset of learners benefits from visual representations. In this work, we designed and evaluated anticipatory diagrammatic self- explanation, a novel form of instructional scaffolding in which visual representations are used to guide learners’ inference generation as they solve algebra problems in an Intelligent Tutoring System. We conducted a classroom experiment with 84 students in grades 5-8 in the US to investigate the effectiveness of anticipatory diagrammatic self-explanation on algebra performance and learning. The results show that anticipatory diagrammatic self-explanation benefits learners on problem-solving performance and the acquisition of formal problem-solving strategies. These effects mostly did not depend on students’ prior knowledge. We analyze and discuss how performance with the visual representation may have influenced the enhanced problem-solving performance.

Human-robot Interaction in Collaborative Robotic Systems

Purpose or research is to find solvable tasks for increasing the effectiveness of collaborative interaction between people and robots in ergatic robotic systems, or, in other words, in collaborative robotic systems. Methods. A comprehensive analysis of works published in highly rated peer-reviewed open-access scientific publications was carried out to achieve this goal. Main terms and concepts of collaborative robotics are described in § 1 and their current understanding in the research community is also described. The structure of workspaces in interaction zone of a person and robot is described. The criteria for assigning robot to the class of collaborative ones are also described. The criteria for safe interaction of a person and robot in a single workspace is described in § 2. Various grounds for classifying human-robot interactions in collaborative RTAs are described in § 3. Results. A significant part of published works about collaborative robotics is devoted to the organization of safe man and robot interaction. Less attention is paid to the effectiveness improvement of such interaction. An up-to-date task in the problem of efficiency improvement of collaborative robotic systems is the identification of tasks that have already been solved in other areas - in particular, in the field of organizational systems management. The possibility of using the term "team" for collaborative robots in a collaborative PTC is stated in § 4. A formal problem setting of optimal distribution in teamwork of collaborative robots, similar to the problem of heterogeneous team formation in the theory of organizational systems management is proposed in § 5. Conclusions. Proposed task setting of optimal distribution of works in collaborative robots’ team shows possibility of using results obtained in group of mathematical models of commands formation and functioning for control of collaborative robotic systems in order to increase efficiency of people and robots interaction. It is prospectively to continue the search for adapting models and governance mechanisms to the theory of organizational system management and integrated activities methodology.

Operational Considerations regarding On-Demand Air Mobility: A Literature Review and Research Challenges

The idea and development of on-demand air mobility (ODAM) services are revolutionizing our urban/regional transportation sector by exploring the third dimension: vertical airspace. The fundamental concept of on-demand air taxi operations is not new, but advances in aircraft design and battery/engine technology plus massive problems with congestion and increased travel demands around the world have recently led to a large number of studies which aim to explore the potential benefits of ODAM. Unfortunately, given the lack of an established, formal problem definition, missing reference nomenclature for ODAM research, and a multitude of publication venues, the research development is not focused and, thus, does not tap the full potential of the workforce engaged in this topic. This study synthesizes the recently published literature on operational aspects of ODAM. Our contribution consists of two major parts. The first part dissects previous studies and performs cross-comparison of report results. We cover five main categories: demand estimation methodology, infrastructure/port design/location problem, operational planning problem, operational constraints’ identification, and competitiveness with other transportation modes. The second part complements the report of aggregated findings by proposing a list of challenges as a future agenda for ODAM research. Most importantly, we see a need for a formal problem definition of ODAM operational planning processes, standard open datasets for comparing multiple performance dimensions, and a universal, multimodal transportation demand model.

Patriots in the Court of Pandæmonium: People, Paradox, and the Making of American Zealots

Political theorists often interrogate the constitution of “the people” as a formal theoretical problem. They have paid less attention, however, to how this problem confronts actors directly engaged in political crises, not as a problem of formal theory, but as an urgent problem of practice. Between 1771 and 1783, prominent Bostonians delivered passionate orations to memorialize the Boston Massacre on the annual observance of “Massacre Day.” Rather than focusing abstractly on the people as a formal problem, I turn to this neglected political holiday, examining it through the lenses of affect, performance, and narrative, to demonstrate how orators confronted the pressing problem of making a people. Using public rituals and speech to promote an identity that united powerful emotions with political principles, orators negotiated the paradoxical nature of the people by constructing a model of subjectivity, the patriotic zealot, that intensified political differences and motivated extreme political action.

On the relation between reactive synthesis and supervisory control of non-terminating processes

Reactive synthesis and supervisory control theory both provide a design methodology for the automatic and algorithmic design of digital systems from declarative specifications. The reactive synthesis approach originates in computer science, and seeks to synthesise a system that interacts with its environment over time and that, doing so, satisfies a prescribed specification. Here, the distinguishing feature when compared to other synthesis problems in computer science is that the interaction is temporal in that it explicitly refers to a sequence of computation cycles. Supervisory control originates in control theory and seeks to synthesise a controller that – in closed-loop configuration with a plant – enforces a prescribed specification over time. The distinguishing feature compared to other branches of control is that all dynamics are driven by discrete events as opposed to continuous signals. While both methods apparently are closely related, the technical details differ significantly. We provide a formal comparison which allows us to identify conditions under which one can solve one synthesis problem using methods from the other one; we also discuss how the resulting solutions compare. To facilitate this comparison, we give a unified introduction to reactive synthesis and supervisory control and derive formal problem statements and a characterisation of their solutions in terms of ω-languages. Recent contributions to the two fields address different aspects of the respective problem, and we expect the formal relationship identified in this paper to be useful in that it allows the application of algorithmic techniques from one field in the other.

Greek στωμύλος ‘chatty’

Gk. στωμύλος ‘chatty’ (Old Com.+) belongs with στόμα ‘mouth’; yet the serious formal problem with the -ω-, often acknowledged, remains without explanation. Part of the conundrum: despite the connection with στόμα (a synchronic n-stem and historically a men-stem), an n-stem or men-stem basis for στωμύλος is not workable. Two different solutions, however, can be proposed, on the basis of hitherto neglected Greek data; these point to the existence of forms that can support analyses in terms of vr̥ddhi (Solution #1) or in terms of a different type of morphological lengthened grade (Solution #2). These analyses, in turn, may shed light on the anomalous o-grade of Gk. στόμα itself, with broader implications for the study of PIE nominal morphology.

Reflection and practice on generative music structuring: the formal problem of ergodicity

This article approaches the subject of musical form from the standpoint of an algorithmic composition practice. It introduces the problem of ergodicity in music, a formal situation at which music development is perceived as static. The concepts of ​General Periodicity by Henri Pousseur and ​Temporal Gestalt by James Tenney gave support to a reflection on the nature of the problem, as well as to formulate a twofold structuring procedure based on ideas of continuity and segmentation of the musical course. The devised method was implemented as a computer program to produce entire pieces of music.

Developing Deep Learning Continuous Risk Models for Early Adverse Event Prediction in Electronic Health Records: an AKI Case Study

Early detection of patient deterioration is key to unlocking the potential for targeted preventative care and improving patient outcomes. This protocol describes a workflow for developing deep learning continuous risk models for early prediction of future acute adverse events from electronic health records (EHR), taking the prediction of the risk of future acute kidney injury (AKI) as an exemplar. The protocol consists of 34 steps grouped into the following stages: formal problem definition, data processing, model architecture selection, risk calibration and uncertainty, and evaluating model generalisability. For the protocol to be applicable to modelling the future risk of a particular condition, the problem formulation should be clinically and physiologically plausible and there needs to be sufficient associated predictive signal in routinely collected EHR data. Prospective validation is key in evaluating whether retrospective models developed by following the proposed protocol are clinically applicable and useful.