Desired Action Research Articles

On Torque Vectoring Control: Review and Comparison of State-of-the-Art Approaches

Torque vectoring is a widely known technique to improve vehicle handling and to increase stability in limit conditions. With the advent of electric vehicles, this is becoming a key topic since it is possible to have distributed powertrains, i.e., multiple motors are adopted, in which each motor is controlled separately from the others. Moreover, electric motors deliver the torque required by the controller faster and more precisely than internal combustion engines, active differentials and conventional hydraulic brakes. The state of the art of Direct Yaw Moment Control (DYC) techniques, ranging from classical to modern control theories, are analyzed and discussed in this paper. The aim is to give an overview of the currently available approaches while identifying their drawbacks regarding performances and robustness when dealing with common issues like model uncertainties, external disturbances, friction limit and common state estimation problems. This contribution analyzes all the steps from the lateral dynamics reference generation to the desired control action computation and allocation to the available actuators. In addition, some of the presented control logic is evaluated in a simulation environment for a passenger car. Results of both open-loop and closed-loop maneuvers allow the comparison and clarification of each control strategy’s key advantages.

Controllable Video Generation With Text-Based Instructions

Most of the existing studies on controllable video generation either transfer disentangled motion to an appearance without detailed control over motion or generate videos of simple actions such as the movement of arbitrary objects conditioned on a control signal from users. In this study, we introduce Controllable Video Generation with text-based Instructions (CVGI) framework that allows text-based control over action performed on a video. CVGI generates videos where hands interact with objects to perform the desired action by generating hand motions with detailed control through text-based instruction from users. By incorporating the motion estimation layer, we divide the task into two sub-tasks: (1) control signal estimation and (2) action generation. In control signal estimation, an encoder models actions as a set of simple motions by estimating low-level control signals for text-based instructions with given initial frames. In action generation, generative adversarial networks (GANs) generate realistic hand-based action videos as a combination of hand motions conditioned on the estimated low control level signal. Evaluations on several datasets (EPIC-Kitchens-55, BAIR robot pushing, and Atari Breakout) show the effectiveness of CVGI in generating realistic videos and in the control over actions.

OLDER ADULTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF SIGNALS COMMUNICATED BY ROBOT COMPANIONS FOR CAREGIVING

Abstract Robotic animal-like companions for older adults are promising technologies to address companionship and new models of care. Our project, Affordable Robotic Intelligence for Elderly Support, aims to design smart communication capabilities in an Ageless Innovation Joy for All™ robotic cat. The cat robot with enhanced capabilities uses intuitive digital cues, including display screen, sound, and LED to create affordances to communicate various interaction intents to engage users into desirable actions. We conducted a study with 315 participants to understand the efficacy of designed affordances. A total of 8 affordances for 8 task scenarios, each with 3 variations of complete or incomplete information, simulating possible experiences were tested with users. Participants were randomly assigned to the conditions “full” (=display+sound+LED), “no_display” (=sound+LED), and “no_sound” (=display+LED) and were asked to provide a response interpretation of the experience signals and rank a list of potential interpretations in order of possibility. Results indicate that participants in the full experience group liked the robot the most (M=6.95 on a scale of 1-10) and gave the highest probability of the robot being a pleasant companion to older adults (M=7.17), compared to the no_display group (M_likability=6.01; M_companionship=6.58) and the no_sound group (M_likability=6.35; M_companionship=6.96). Participants in “no_display” had the greatest difficulty at inferring the robot’s intent. However, the no_sound group had less difficulty understanding the robot than the “full” experience group. Sound (e.g., meowing) appeared to be ambiguous, and removing it improved the communicability of the designed interface of this robot companion.

Voter habituation and opinion activation in misreporting voting behavior in the 2020 presidential election

ABSTRACT Pre-election surveys are commonly used to predict turnout and vote choice, but anticipating who votes is challenging. Often survey respondents do not truthfully report their behavior and specifically overreport socially desirable actions like voting. In this study, we analyze factors influencing misreporting voting and vote method in a pre-election web survey of registered voters in the 2020 presidential election. More specifically, we test how voter habits (administrative data from the Florida voter file) and contextual factors (elite messaging, COVID-19 infection rates, and competitiveness) have impacted the likelihood of misreporting voting and vote method in the 2020 presidential election. We find that voter habits regarding voting and vote method significantly reduce the likelihood of misreporting such behaviors. Finally, in speaking to opinion activation, we demonstrate with our Florida survey and the 2020 Cooperative Election Study, that Trump supporters were significantly and substantially, more inclined to disclaim voting by mail when in fact they did.

Assessment of physical/mechanical properties and cytotoxicity of dual-cured resin cements containing Sr-bioactive glass nanoparticles and calcium phosphate.

The aim was to develop dual-cured resin cements containing Sr-bioactive glass nanoparticles (Sr-BGNPs; 5 or 10 wt%) and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate (MCPM; 3 or 6 wt%). Effects of additives on degree of monomer conversion (DC), biaxial flexural strength/modulus, shear bond strength (SBS), mass/volume change, color stability, ion release, and cytotoxicity were examined. Controls included material without reactive fillers and Panavia SA Plus (PV). Experimental cements showed higher DC than PV regardless of light activation (p<0.05). Mean SBS and color stability were comparable between experimental cements and PV. Cell viability upon the exposure to sample extracts of experimental cements was 80%-92%. High additive concentrations led to lower strength and modulus than PV (p<0.05). The additives increased mass change, reduced color stability, and promoted ion release. The experimental resin cements demonstrated acceptable mechanical/chemical properties and cytotoxicity. The additives reduced the strength but provided ion release, a desirable action to prevent recurrent caries.

Adoption Theories for Internet Banking in Uganda

A lot of academic research has been done on Internet banking (IB). This study examines the IB literature through the prisms of nine adoption hypotheses. This review indicates that IB adoption is a complicated and multifaceted process; joint consideration of customers' personal, social, psychological, utilitarian, and behavioral aspects is essential; managers and system developers ought to implement a customer-centric approach focusing on managing belief formation rather than directly impacting behavior. However, the quality of IB research is unclear, and there is little consensus on the methodologies and conceptualizations employed to comprehend the ideas that actually shape IB behavior. There is a dearth of research on the use of interventions that can help managers make wise choices and hasten the adoption process. Understanding the cognitive, emotional, and contextual processes of the client is more crucial than adoption itself because it will ultimately lead to the desired action.

A Mind Genomics Cartography of Shopping Behavior for Food Products during the Covid -19 Pandemic

Abstract The study presents a new approach to understand the mind of the persons in order to drive desired action in crisis situation, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. Understand the mind of the shopper in a pandemic situation, with massive uncertainty, should provide direction for governments and the retail trade to adopt practices and communications which will reassure their customers. This study investigates the nature of what people will do to reassure themselves in the pandemic, and has been executed during the period of the pandemic, making the study relevant to the actual events taking place. The focus of the study is on the likelihood of buying ordinary food, given certain descriptions. The study revealed three mind-sets, clusters of individuals who respond to the pandemic in one of three ways. These are: Mind-Set 1: Focus on sanitation &amp; supply; Mind-Set 2: Focus on budget for lifestyle; Mind-Set 3: Focus on shopping, personal needs, consumption. These mind-sets are distributed through the population, and are not limited to specific age or gender. The paper closes with the PVI, personal viewpoint identifier, to assign a new person to one of the three mind-sets.

Application of sample displacement batch chromatography for fractionation of proteoforms.

Fractionation of proteoforms is currently the most challenging topic in the field of proteoform analysis. The need for considering the existence of proteoforms in experimental approaches is not only important in Life Science research in general but especially in the manufacturing of therapeutic proteins (TPs) like recombinant therapeutic antibodies (mAbs). Some of the proteoforms of TPs have significantly decreased actions or even cause side effects. The identification and removal of proteoforms differing from the main species, having the desired action, is challenging because the difference in the composition of atoms is often very small and their concentration in comparison to the main proteoform can be low. In this study, we demonstrate that sample displacement batch chromatography (SDBC) is an easy-to-handle, economical, and efficient method for fractionating proteoforms. As a model sample a commercial ovalbumin fraction was used, containing many ovalbumin proteoforms. The most promising parameters for the SDBC were determined by a screening approach and applied for a 10-segment fractionation of ovalbumin with cation exchange chromatography resins. Mass spectrometry of intact proteoforms was used for characterizing the SDBC fractionation process. By SDBC, a significant separation of different proteoforms was obtained.

Two-level distributed fully-predictive frequency control scheme for inverter-based AC Microgrid considering communication delay

Amid the current development of decentralized renewable energy sources, the research of multi-agent-based control for the next generation of the intelligent power system has become one of the most trending and worth-noticing topics in the smart grid research community. Serving as a contribution to the research orientation, this paper proposes a novel two-layer distributed fully-predictive frequency control scheme for an inverter-based three-phase three-wire AC microgrid. The key feature of the suggested methodology is the incorporation of objective functions and dynamic models as constraints in the predictive formulation of both primary and secondary layers in the microgrid control hierarchy. In our study, the controller is designed based on constrained cost function minimization using Quadratic Programming (QP) and the utilization of local measurements and information from surrounding distributed generators to achieve the desired control action. Along with the integration of virtual impedance, second-order generalized integrator phase-lock loop, and harmonic suppression constraint functions, the proposed control scheme shows great response against all variations of load changes, communication delay, communication network failure, and Plug-n-Play capability test. The performance of the proposed controller is verified and evaluated on the 4-DGs microgrid model using MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Career progression and skills in Smart Local Energy Systems

Newly emerging digitally-connected and renewables-based energy systems (often referred to as ‘Smart Local Energy Systems’) aim to generate, supply, manage and balance energy across all vectors as well as to improve efficiencies and deliver social, environmental and economic benefits to the local communities. This paper presents a qualitative study of fifty current Smart Local Energy System professionals to report on the career progression paths taken to engage in this newly emerging sector. Based on the careers of these professionals, we sketched examples of career progression paths in various sub-sectors of the Smart Local Energy System, as well as discussed the factors that foster professional development. Drawing on the evidence from this study, a set of desirable actions for employers, policy makers, teaching and training providers, and accrediting bodies are also discussed.

Delving Into Feminine Stereotypes: Female CEOs and the Corporate Social (Ir)Responsibility–Firm Performance Relationship

In this study, we advance a more nuanced view of gender-based stereotypes about female chief executive officers (CEOs) to shed light on the divergent findings about outcomes associated with their firms’ actions. We draw on gender stereotyping literature and its delineation between prescriptive and descriptive gender stereotypes— how women ought to be/act versus how they actually are/act—to theorize that not all female CEOs embody the same prescriptive feminine ideals and, thus, variance in how they are perceived may affect outcomes manifesting from certain firm actions. Specifically, we theorize that there also exists a “double-edged” sword among female CEOs such that the more a female CEO is seen as descriptively aligning with prescriptive ideals of feminine actions and perceptions, the stronger the associated outcomes for their firms will be, whether positive or negative. We test how perceptions of communality and attractiveness—the two most desirable prescriptive perceptions for how women ought to be—affect the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSiR) to firm performance relationship, which align, or fail to align, respectively, with desirable prescriptive feminine actions of helping or hurting others and society. We find that the more a female CEO descriptively aligns with such communality and attractiveness prescriptions, the stronger the CSR and CSiR to firm performance relationship will be. The results of our study suggest that the gendered beliefs to which female CEOs are subjected are more nuanced and complex than the current literature explains, contributing to theory and practice alike.

A Review on Liposomes as a Drug Delivery System

Nanoparticle systems have been perceived as the ultimate goal for effective drug delivery for decades. The ideal nanoparticle carries the drug-load safely to a predefined target. There, it is capable of releasing its cargo intracellular or in the extracellular space where the drug can be directly internalized and exert the desired action. Enroute, the nanoparticle prevents unwanted interactions of the drug-load with non-target tissues and where needed, it will enhance the circulation time of the encapsulated drug and enable sustained release. In this context, liposomes, a class of synthetic lipid nanoparticles have been explored in depth. Liposomes are microscopic self-assembling unilamellar or multilamellar vesicles made up of phospholipid bilayer. Both the hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs can be attached to the lipid bilayer of liposomes and can show their efficacy in the target cell of the human body. Liposomes can significantly alter the pharmacokinetics of drugs. They have been investigated for diverse applications such as treatment of cancer, delivery of gene and vaccine, treatment of lung and skin diseases, treatment of tumours, and imaging tumours at the site of infection. They are leading present-day smart delivery systems due to their flexible biophysical and physicochemical properties, which permit easy control to address different delivery concerns. This review will discuss various advances and updates in liposome-assisted drug delivery and the current clinical use of liposomes for biomedical applications.

Information Operations as a Means of Cognitive Superiority - Theory and Term Research in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The goal of today's information operations is to overthrow reality, i.e. to establish an imposed perception and understanding that lead to the same thinking, which will ultimately cause the desired action. Therefore, the mass media no longer transmit only interpretations of past events or model a narrative, but also teach the target audience how to think correctly, thus producing a behavioral outcome of a political and social character. Consequently with the political-security evolution, communication has become a means of a new hybrid war where the goal is cognitive superiority as the ultimate tool of subjugation and rule. This paper deals with the theory and research of the term information operations and cognitive superiority in Bosnia and Herzegovina through a sociological field survey of residents with the aim of inductively determining the level of knowledge and awareness of the public about them.

EFFECTS OF WOUND IRRIGATION SOLUTIONS ON HOST TISSUE: MURINE AIR POUCH INFECTION MODEL

Irrigation with antiseptic agents, antibiotics, and surfactants are used for treatment and prevention of infections. Despite desirable microbicidal actions, studies have demonstrated cytotoxic effects on host tissue that may impair healing. This study investigated the extent of tissue damage caused by commonly used irrigation solutions in the presence or absence of infection.Air pouches created in 60 balb/c mice were divided into two groups (n=30): infected with Staphylococcus aureus and control. One week later the infected group was subdivided into 5 subgroups (n=6) based on irrigation solutions and by day 0 (immediately) and day7 after irrigation (n=3). Solutions included Saline, Bacitracin, Clorpactin, Irrisept and Bactisure. In infected group wash fluid was collected for quantitative analysis of bacterial growth. At the specified times mice were sacrificed, pouch tissue sent for histology, and sections analyzed for inflammation, necrosis, and edema.Inflammation decreased in infected vs sterile pouches for all solutions except Bacitracin day 0 and for all solutions day 7 with significance in all except Bacitracin (p&lt;0.05). On day 0, necrosis increased in infected vs sterile pouches in Bacitracin (p=0.006), Irrisept (p=0.18), or Bactisure (p=0.07); however, on day 7, necrosis significantly decreased in infected pouches for all solutions (p&lt;0.05) except for Clorpactin (p=0.18). Edema decreased in infected vs sterile pouches on day 0 for all solutions with significance in saline, Irrisept, and Bacitracin (p&lt;0.05). On day 7, infected pouches had decreased edema in saline, Bacitracin, and Bactisure (p&lt;0.05) and increased in Irrisept (p&lt;0.05) and Clorpactin (p=0.069) compared to sterile pouches. Bacterial culture of washouts demonstrated that Clorpactin, Irrisept and Bactisure controlled the infection, whereas saline and Bacitracin showed bacterial multiplication 3.9 × 10^7 CFU/ml and 6.7 × 10^7 CFU/ml respectively. Bacitracin wash showed significantly more bacteria growth compared to Clorpactin (p=0.024), Irrisept (p=0.025) and Bactisure (p=0.025).Tissue damage varied with irrigation solutions and the presence or absence of infection. Presence of bacteria appeared to lead to less tissue inflammation and edema. Tissue necrosis varied over time with different solutions. Surgeons must weigh risks and benefits when selecting solutions and determining when to irrigate.

Variable Split Convolutional Attention: A novel Deep Learning model applied to the household electric power consumption

The accurate prediction of electric power consumption in the residential sector is a desirable action to minimize potential energy losses and maximize social welfare. The goal of this study is to propose a new Deep Learning Neural Network architecture for multivariate time series problems, which includes a novel attention mechanism applied to the Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Network model. The new attention mechanism is implemented with convolutional layers, splits the data by explanatory variable, incorporates the cyclical segmentation of data by day, and uses causal and roll padding to ensure proper information augmentation before convolutional operations. The output of the attention block is a bi-dimensional context map for each explanatory variable. Considering the Household Electric Power Consumption data set provided by the repository of the University of California at Irvine, the proposed Variable Split Convolutional Attention model is trained, tested, and compared with several alternatives. The main result of this study reveals that the innovative model exhibits the lowest forecasting error.

Communication and Raising Citizen's Consciousness of Climate Change Challenges and Adaptation in Nigeria

The global impact of climate change remains a grave concern to every nation, from severe droughts in East Africa to wildfires in Australia and extreme floods and landslides in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and, recently, the devastating floods witnessed in Nigeria, climate change challenges continue to escalate. Climate change is driving people out of their homes and ushering in a world of poverty. Extant literature avers that at the centre of mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and stimulating the desired action is communication. Consequently, this paper seeks to interrogate the centrality of communication as a tool in the hands of policymakers, the media and international donor agencies in stimulating public consciousness in Nigeria towards climate change challenges and adaptation. Leveraging a quantitative and exploratory approach and using surveys with structured and unstructured questionnaire questions, the study exposed gaps in citizens' knowledge of the causes of climate change and revealed the level of awareness of climate change challenges, people's attitudes to climate change, sources of information, and desired medium of communication among the Nigerian public. The study highlights the interplay between the contents of climate change communication and actionable steps that are easy to be understood and relatively simple to be followed by the citizens. Finally, the paper contends that much more needs to be done in sensitising citizens on climate change while suggesting a combination of alternative communication strategies that promise to stimulate citizens' awareness of climate change challenges and adaptation in Nigeria.

The Application of Group Work Method to Increasing Student Learning Activity in the Learning Process

The purpose of this study is to analyze how using group work techniques has increased student learning activity. Class action research is the approach employed in this study. Planning, carrying out, observing, and reflecting are the four stages of this process. This study was carried out between March and May with participants in classes V. The study was done over the course of two cycles, with two meetings per cycle. The findings indicated that student learning activity increased with each cycle. This is demonstrated by the results of the students that participated in cycle I, where five students achieved a percentage of 15.62% and an average student learning activity of 62.19%. As opposed to cycle II, where 28 (twenty eight) students were active, the average student learning activity was 88.92% and the percentage of active students was 87.50%. In light of the average percentage of active students meeting the desired action intervention results, i.e. 80%, it can be stated that the implementation of the group work approach can boost the activeness of student learning. Increased student learning activity was accompanied by successful learning outcomes, namely 83.

Eastern Orthodoxy as a Resource of Ethics and Social Sustainability for the Challenges Faced by the Digital Transformation of Society

This study focuses on the potential of harnessing the power of the local Eastern Orthodox religious teachings in creating a socially sustainable glocalized digital transformation for Romania. First, we investigated within the scientific literature the ways religion might impact social action, and where does spirituality intersect with digitalization. Second, we devised a questionnaire with items targeting religious styles and the perception of digitalization during the pandemic and in the foreseeable future along with inquiring about which institutions should get more involved in directing digital development. The sample was constituted of 170 adult residents from Bucharest and Constanta urban areas, most of them having graduated from university, with the sample being balanced between the engineering domains and the humanities domains of study. Thirdly, we employed statistical data analysis in order to explore differences in perception of risks, benefits, and in the desired action towards the digital transformation, between the different flavours of spirituality and religiousness. The aim of the study is to obtain valuable insights for creating a bridge between spiritual preachers, digital policymakers, and the civil society, driving development towards spiritually and economically sustainable goals, for a conscious society and a healthy environment.

Co-creating the future of heritage in-the-making: empirical evidence from community deliberation at Naxos Island, Greece

ABSTRACT Although participatory heritage has become a ‘buzzword’ of cultural policy, it remains a challenging field for related practice. Set at Naxos Island, Greece, the research presented in this article forms part of a bigger project exploring the values and meaning-making processes in rural landscape, currently at risk of neglect and over-tourism. Here, we test the usability of the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) as a tool for allowing citizens to deliberate and devise community desirable actions for the protection and invigoration of rural monuments. As we discuss, apart from enriching our participatory ‘toolbox’, NGT can offer some insight into bottom-up processes of valuing the past and producing its historicity. Furthermore, our workshop participants initiate a dialogue, wherein they advocate for ‘hands-on’ solutions, which although fit largely with standard heritage management practice, are rearranged in alternative hierarchies; an atypical organisation of actions that reflects community aspirations to preserve a yet unsettled type of heritage that is currently ‘in-the-making’. This supports our main theoretical argument that participatory approaches shall not be treated instrumentally but positioned as part of a wider prefigurative politics project to resist dominant conservative and positivist processes of heritagisation.

Ready for Action! Destination Climate Change Communication: An Archetypal Branding Approach.

At the destination level, destination branding may coexist with climate change communication. These two communication streams often overlap because they are both designed for large audiences. This poses a risk to the effectiveness of climate change communication and its ability to prompt a desired climate action. The viewpoint paper advocates the use of archetypal branding approach to ground and center climate change communication at a destination level while concurrently maintaining the uniqueness of destination branding. Three archetypes of destinations are distinguished: villains, victims, and heroes. Destinations should refrain from actions that would make them appear to be climate change villains. A balanced approach is further warranted when portraying destinations as victims. Lastly, destinations should aim at assuming the heroic archetypes by excelling in climate change mitigation. The basic mechanisms of the archetypal approach to destination branding are discussed alongside a framework that suggests areas for further practical investigation of climate change communication at a destination level.