Search results for "Control"
showing 10 items of 13168 documents
Me, My Bot and His Other (Robot) Woman? Keeping Your Robot Satisfied in the Age of Artificial Emotion
2018
With a backdrop of action and science fiction movie horrors of the dystopian relationship between humans and robots, surprisingly to date-with the exception of ethical discussions-the relationship aspect of humans and sex robots has seemed relatively unproblematic. The attraction to sex robots perhaps is the promise of unproblematic affectionate and sexual interactions, without the need to consider the other&rsquo
Damage identification of a jacket support structure for offshore wind turbines
2020
Offshore jacket structures are regarded as a suitable type of support structure for offshore wind turbines in immediate water depths. Because of the welded tubular members used and environmental conditions, offshore jackets are often subjected to fatigue damages during their service life. Underwater sensors can provide measurements of the structural vibration signals and provide an efficient way to detect damages at early stages. In this work, simplified forms of the damages are assumed, random damages are imposed on the jacket structure, and damaged indicators are established from combination of modal shapes. Then, a response surface is constructed mapping the damage indicators and damages…
Challenges influencing the safety of migrant workers in the construction industry: A qualitative study in Italy, Spain, and the UK
2021
Abstract The construction industry is notoriously high risk for accidents, injuries, and deaths, particularly for non-national or migrant workers, who comprise a significant proportion of the workforce. This paper presents an international, qualitative study focused on exploring the challenges which influence the safety of migrant construction workers in Italy, Spain, and the UK. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature, we formulated two research questions about the challenges relating to safety that migrant workers face and the challenges to safety training effectively improving migrant workers’ safety behaviours. We present our template analysis of semi-structured interviews and…
Introduction to Spreadsheet Modeling and Metaheuristics
2017
Models, as a simplified representation of reality, are used daily in an attempt to control or understand some aspects of a real system. Simplification of reality is the accepted view of the modeling process, which assumes that reality represents the absolute truth. Without getting too deep into a philosophical discourse, it is worth mentioning the notion of model-dependent realism, a phrase coined by physicists Stephen Hawkings and Leonard Molinow in their book The Grand Design. Model-dependent realism “is based on the idea that our brains interpret the input from our sensory organs by making a model of the world to aid in the decision-making process.” This implies that more than one model …
Learning automata-based solutions to the optimal web polling problem modelled as a nonlinear fractional knapsack problem
2011
We consider the problem of polling web pages as a strategy for monitoring the world wide web. The problem consists of repeatedly polling a selection of web pages so that changes that occur over time are detected. In particular, we consider the case where we are constrained to poll a maximum number of web pages per unit of time, and this constraint is typically dictated by the governing communication bandwidth, and by the speed limitations associated with the processing. Since only a fraction of the web pages can be polled within a given unit of time, the issue at stake is one of determining which web pages are to be polled, and we attempt to do it in a manner that maximizes the number of ch…
A systematic review of human behaviour in and around floodwater
2020
Abstract Flooding can have a major impact on people's safety and livelihood. Understanding people's flood-related behaviours may assist in the development of more effective strategies aimed at lessening the impact of floods including mortality and morbidity. This systematic review examined peer-reviewed literature published from January-1989 to April-2019 on human behaviour in and around floodwater to identify behaviour patterns as well as protective and risk factors. We extracted three main themes from a thematic analysis of included studies (N = 54): activities and risk-taking behaviours (n = 24); loss reduction, knowledge, and warnings (n = 37); and diet and hygiene (n = 4). This review …
Survey of Cyber Threats in Air Traffic Control and Aircraft Communications Systems
2018
Air traffic control systems based on the ADS-B standard have been widely adopted in civil aviation to the point that they are now considered the de facto standard. ADS-B provides major benefits to airports and airlines by increasing the safety of air traffic management and control and allowing more flights to travel near busy airports. However, the ADS-B technology lacks sufficient security measures. The ADS-B system is vulnerable and exposed to cyberattacks. We survey the potential known threats and attacks against ADS-B and assess the potential cybersecurity threats to air traffic management and control. The widespread use of ADS-B and the lack of security features in it, i.e., all the AD…
The ELECTRE I method to support the FMECA
2018
Abstract In traditional Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), risk priorities of failure modes are determined through the Risk Priority Number (RPN), which is a function of the three risk parameters Occurrence (O), Severity (S), and Detection (D). In the present paper, an alternative approach to RPN is proposed for the criticality assessment of system failure modes. Particularly, the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method ELECTRE I is proposed to select the most critical failure mode in the set of the failure modes charactering a complex system. The method has been applied to a case study previously proposed by Zammori and Gabrielli (2012).
Efficient Protection for VDI Workstations
2019
Many enterprises migrate to a private cloud VDI environment. In such an environment multiple workstations are served by a single powerful server. On such an environment each VDI workstation receives only a limited CPU power. An average of less than a quarter of a core per planned VDI workstation is a common setup. Under such cases, anti-virus and application control software load is multiplied by the number of VDI workstation running on each server. These security applications take merely a few percentages of a single core on a normal desktop. However, on a VDI server where the multiple VDI workstations run on a single server, they may consume 20-25 percent the load. Naturally, such an incr…
The impact on disaster governance of the intersection of environmental hazards, border conflict and disaster responses in Ladakh, India
2018
Abstract The Indian border region of Ladakh, in Jammu and Kashmir State, has a sensitive Himalayan ecosystem and has experienced natural hazards and disasters of varying scales over the decades. Ladakh is also situated on a fault-line of multiple tensions, including ongoing border disagreements and intermittent conflict with China and Pakistan. The Indian army has thus become a permanent fixture in the region. This paper examines the implications of the intersection of these environmental and security factors for disaster governance in the region. Using Social Domains theory, the paper argues first, that a hazard-centred paradigm of ‘universal’ disaster science emerges from the colonial per…