Search results for "Cybernetics"

Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA)

2010

Stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) is a family of methods for aiding multicriteria group decision making in problems with uncertain, imprecise or partially missing information. These methods are based on exploring the weight space in order to describe the preferences that make each alternative the most preferred one, or that would give a certain rank for a specific alternative. The main results of the analysis are rank acceptability indices, central weight vectors and confidence factors for different alternatives. The rank acceptability indices describe the variety of different preferences resulting in a certain rank for an alternative, the central weight vectors represe…

2021

Abstract In an ever-evolving technological landscape that challenges teaching professionals' digital competence, this study complements previous studies by providing an overall picture of teaching professionals' digital competence. We employed regression models on two large-scale assessment data sets on teachers from 11 countries—namely, the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS; n = 50,800) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC; n = 2590)—to investigate through the theoretical lens of digital competence how teaching professionals' skills, attitudes and knowledge distribute and relate, and how they are associated with personal and contex…

Three Approaches to School Health Education as a Means to Higher Levels of Health Literacy

2014

It is widely acknowledged that school health education is an important means for supporting the development of pupils’ health literacy. A growing number of papers have described or suggested a variety of classroom-based and whole-school practices for developing health literacy. However, few of these papers have systematically addressed the various ways of approaching health education in schools or sought to analyze how these approaches differ from each other. This paper aims to do this. It does so by representing three approaches to school health education: the facts and skills approach, the individual thinking approach, and the personal growth and citizenship approach. The approaches diffe…

Editorial: Recent Advances in Symbiosis Research: Integrative Approaches

2016

Symbiosis research is being transformed by new model systems and technologies that bring forth unexpected discoveries. Technological advances such as those stemming from Next Generation Sequencing enable detailed insights into the molecular bases of symbiotic relationships, and have revolutionized the study of complex microbial communities. As new data gathers, the need grows for a conceptual framework that helps organize and make sense of the information. Here, we present some ground-breaking works pushing the boundaries of our understanding of symbiosis in a variety of systems, as well as some state-of-the-art attempts at putting forward organizing principles for the whole of symbiology.

Ku teologicznemu pojęciu religii

2018

The concept of religion is a fundamental concept of religiological sciences. Still it is not devoid of difficulties. Its critics attempt to prove that plurality and variety of religious phenomena excludes the possibility to define religion. On the other hand the lack of the general concept of religion constitutes a serious problem for theology of religion since it is difficult to study relationships between Christianity and other religions not knowing what religion is and what its theological essence is. The present article consists of three parts. The first part analyses the history of the concept of religion (Latin religio). Second part considers the problem of the definition of religion.…

Most-favored-customer pricing, product variety, and welfare

2013

Abstract Most-favored-customer (MFC) clauses are usually seen as anticompetitive co-ordination devices that firms adopt for the purpose of higher prices. Here, I examine the welfare impact of MFC clauses under endogenous product variety. Product variety is relevant because prospective higher prices from MFC clauses can be anticipated by multi-product firms in their provision of product lines. Under such circumstances, I find that these clauses can be socially harmful, but this is not always the case: they tend to be socially neutral for relatively large fixed costs of product-line assortment, harmful for intermediate costs, and beneficial for relatively small costs.

Nature Inspired Scenes for Guided Mindfulness Training: Presence, Perceived Restorativeness and Meditation Depth

2019

Practicing mindfulness-based stress reeducation and other contemplative practices generates a number of health and human performance benefits. However, limited access to qualified training and practice support, as well as poor practice environments, makes it difficult to sustain the habits necessary to develop the attentional regulation skills needed to benefit from mindfulness. In this paper, we report on our research, which focuses on developing immersive environments to support mindfulness-based stress reduction practices. We specifically look at how the design of a virtual environment can foster a restorative experience, if that restorative experience is associated with the depth of the…

ROMOT: A Robotic 3D-Movie Theater Allowing Interaction and Multimodal Experiences

2017

In this paper we introduce ROMOT, a RObotic 3D-MOvie Theater. ROMOT is built with a robotic motion platform, includes multimodal devices and supports audience-film interaction. Differently from other similar systems, ROMOT is highly versatile as it can support different setups, integrated hardware and contents. Regarding to the setups, here we present a first-person movie, a mixed reality environment, a virtual reality interactive environment and an augmented reality mirror-based scene. Regarding to integrated hardware, the system currently integrates a variety of devices and displays that allow audiences to see, hear, smell, touch and feel the movement, all synchronized with the filmic exp…

AMP: Artist-based Musical Preferences Derived from Free Verbal Responses and Social Tags

2011

Operational definitions of music preferences are at the core of psychological research exploring individual differences (personality, expertise) and their relation to a variety of musical behaviors. However, the measurement instruments for music preferences mostly rely on subjective likings for genres, a notion known to be problematic in several ways. We present a framework to derive music preferences based on free responses about liked and disliked artists. The framework utilizes social tags and online databases to aggregate comparable data to the existing genre-based measures. This framework was tested in a sample of 408 participants, who indicated their musical preferences using a genre-…

What effect can manual therapy have on a patient's pain experience?

2015

Manual therapy (MT) is a passive, skilled movement applied by clinicians that directly or indirectly targets a variety of anatomical structures or systems, which is utilized with the intent to create beneficial changes in some aspect of the patient pain experience. Collectively, the process of MT is grounded on clinical reasoning to enhance patient management for musculoskeletal pain by influencing factors from a multidimensional perspective that have potential to positively impact clinical outcomes. The influence of biomechanical, neurophysiological, psychological and nonspecific patient factors as treatment mediators and/or moderators provides additional information related to the proces…