Information-gathering Function Research Articles

Development of a continuum robot enhanced with distributed sensors for search and rescue

Continuum robots can enter narrow spaces and are useful for search and rescue missions in disaster sites. The exploration efficiency at disaster sites improves if the robots can simultaneously acquire several pieces of information. However, a continuum robot that can simultaneously acquire information to such an extent has not yet been designed. This is because attaching multiple sensors to the robot without compromising its body flexibility is challenging. In this study, we installed multiple small sensors in a distributed manner to develop a continuum-robot system with multiple information-gathering functions. In addition, a field experiment with the robot demonstrated that the gathered multiple information has a potential to improve the searching efficiency. Concretely, we developed an active scope camera with sensory functions, which was equipped with a total of 80 distributed sensors, such as inertial measurement units, microphones, speakers, and vibration sensors. Herein, we consider space-saving, noise reduction, and the ease of maintenance for designing the robot. The developed robot can communicate with all the attached sensors even if it is bent with a minimum bending radius of 250 mm. We also developed an operation interface that integrates search-support technologies using the information gathered via sensors. We demonstrated the survivor search procedure in a simulated rubble environment of the Fukushima Robot Test Field. We confirmed that the information provided through the operation interface is useful for searching and finding survivors. The limitations of the designed system are also discussed. The development of such a continuum robot system, with a great potential for several applications, extends the application of continuum robots to disaster management and will benefit the community at large.

Publicly Funded Objectors

Abstract On paper, class actions run like clockwork. But practice suggests the need for tune-ups: sometimes judges still approve settlements rife with red flags, and professional objectors may be more concerned with shaking down class counsel than with improving class member’s outcomes. The lack of data on the number of opt-outs, objectors, and claims rates fuels debates on both sides, for little is known about how well or poorly class members actually fare. This reveals a ubiquitous problem — information barriers confront judges, objectors, and even reformers. Rule 23’s answer is to empower objectors. At best, objectors are a partial fix. They step in as the adversarial process breaks down in an attempt to resurrect the information-generating function that culture creates. And, as the proposed changes to Rule 23’s handling of objectors reflect, turmoil exists over how to encourage noble objectors that benefit class members while staving off those that namely seek rents from class counsel. The U.S. class-action scheme is not the only one that relies on private actors to perform public functions: citizens privately fund political campaigns, and private lobbyists provide research and information to lawmakers about public bills and policies. Across disciplines, the best responses to those challenges have often been to level up, not down. This Article therefore proposes a leveling up approach to address judges’ information deficit such that they can better perform their monitoring role. By relying on public funds to subsidize data collection efforts and nonprofit objectors’ information-gathering function, we can disrupt private class counsel’s disproportionate influence.

Chinese People’s Liberation Army in China’s people’s congresses: how the PLA utilizes people’s congresses

ABSTRACTThe main purpose of this research is to expose political functions of the delegates to the local people’s congresses in China. It focuses on the local people’s congress delegates selected from the circles of the People’s Liberations Army (PLA).Using the data from the Jiangsu Province Yangzhou Municipal People’s Congress from 1998 to 2015, this research examines how the information gathering function of the local people’s congresses has changed over the last decade or so. In particular, analyzing the contents of the bills submitted to the people’s congress by the delegates selected from the PLA circles, this research depicts how the PLA has gradually started expressing its demands through the people’s congresses over the last decade.At the end of the 1990s, the PLA almost never submitted bills to the local people’s congresses. In regards to this reason, an individual familiar with the local people’s congresses responded that “even if the PLA had any demands it did not submit bills since it was able to solve these issues within its own system.” However, in the recent years, the PLA has been submitting its requests to the people’s congresses in the form of bills. This research explores the political meaning of the change in the relationship between the local people’s congresses and the PLA.

Notes on narrative, cognition, and cultural evolution

Drawing on non-Darwinian cultural-evolutionary approaches, the paper develops a broad, non-representational perspective on narrative, necessary to account for the narrative “ubiquity” hypothesis. It considers narrativity as a feature of intelligent behaviour and as a formative principle of symbolic representation (“narrative proclivity”). The narrative representation retains a relationship with the “primary” pre-symbolic narrativity of the basic orientational-interpretive (semiotic) behaviour affected by perceptually salient objects and “fits” in natural environments. The paper distinguishes between implicit narrativity (as the basic form of perceptual-cognitive mapping) of intelligent behaviour or non-narrative media, and the “narrative” as a symbolic representation. Human perceptual-attentional routines are enhanced by symbolic representations: due to its attention-monitoring and information-gathering function, narrative serves as a cognitive-exploratory tool facilitating cultural dynamics. The rise of new media and mass communication on the Web has thrown the ability of narrative to shape the public sphere through the ongoing process of negotiated sensemaking and interpretation in a particularly sharp relief.

Research of Engineering Spot Attendance and Employee Information Management Integration System

To improve the efficiency of engineering spot attendance and employee management, a novel integrated management system is designed. The system uses a three-tier logical architecture design, which can be divided into user interface layer, business logic layer and data store layer. The realization of information management is based on VB6.0 and ACCESS database programming technology. The development of attendance information gathering functions of engineering spots is based on radio frequency identification technology and non-contact IC card. The separation of business logic and user interface makes the system more security and extensible. Experimental results show that the system has high efficiency, and it has user-friendly, secure and practical advantages.

On the Information-Gathering Role of Firm-Sponsored Training for New Hires

According to Becker's human-capital theory, employers tend to underinvest in general training relative to specific training because it increases their existing employees' outside opportunities. We show that this is not necessarily true if training has an information-gathering function that allows an agent to learn his skills. An example is the training of new hires. When training creates an information asymmetry between the principal and the agent, the principal may overinvest in general training relative to specific training. General training helps the principal reduce the incentive problem inside the firm. Becker's result of underinvestment in general training may not hold when training creates asymmetric information. © 2009 Mohr Siebeck.

1A1-F17 受動倒立型センサノードによる環境情報収集(ネットワークロボティクス)

The paper reports the improvement prototype of sensor node for gathering disaster information and some experimental results for setting-up and organizing sensor network. New prototype of sensor node equips an advanced passive pendulum mechanism than the former model for setting the direction of built-in camera uniformly. The main improvement of the mechanism was achieved by the design variation of the mechanism that supported center of gravity. Moreover, the information gathering function was improved by dealing with moving image. The experiment confirmed the functional advancement of the mechanism and the information gathering performance.

A critical analysis of ‘false-feeding’ behavior in a cooperatively breeding bird: disturbance effects, satiated nestlings or deception?

False feeding,' where helpers arrive at nests with food but fail to provision the young, has been reported in several cooperative species. This and other potentially 'deceptive' behavior has been interpreted as indicating that helping may operate as a signal within such social groups. We critically examine these phenomena in the provisioning behavior of the bell miner Manorina melanophrys. Exces- sively close observation distances can artificially elevate the rate of false feeding in this (and other) species, but once this had been accounted for, there was little evidence for any 'deceptive' behavior by helpers or breeders. Natural and experimentally induced variation in the presence of a potential conspecific audience at the nest did not have any consistent influence upon the rate of false feeds, which was low at 7.94% of 6,880 nest visits. Instead, encountering unexpectedly low levels of brood demand provided a more parsimonious explanation for those visits where helpers failed to feed nestlings or ate the food themselves. Failure to completely transfer a load to nestlings was more likely when the load contained a high proportion of sticky lerp, indicating a simple prey-transfer problem. Finally, individu- als that arrived at nests without prey were often members of neighboring breeding pairs, suggesting that these few non- feeding visits may instead involve an information-gathering function. We, therefore, suggest that future studies explicitly exclude the possibility of observer disturbance and all aspects of normal provisioning behavior before applying the terms 'false feeding' or 'deceptive' and inferring anything more than straightforward helping at the nest.

Surgical Site Infection Surveillance: Accomplishments and Pitfalls

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance is an important facet of hospital infection control processes, serving an important information-gathering function. However, emphasis on surgical outcome improvements and hospital cost containment may engender misleading interpretations of accumulated data unless thoughtful protocols and organized interpretation protocols are in place Methods: Review of pertinent English-language literature and synthesis by expert opinion Results: For many types of operations, the lowest rate of SSI that is achievable by state-ofthe- art prevention measures is not zero; some infections are unavoidable. Moreover, it is flawed to assume (or assert) that all SSIs are the "fault" of the surgeon or some perceived shortcoming of process; host factors (e.g., obesity, diabetes mellitus) may predominate in some cases. Observational studies yield flawed interpretations (if not flawed data) in the absence of rigid scientific protocols, courtesy of the post-hoc fallacy. Observation-mode SSI rates from two time periods may bear no true relation one to another, even if an "intervention" occurred in between. Furthermore, outcome data alone cannot specify which process or structure to alter if remediation is necessary. Accurate identification of remediable flaws requires direct observation of actual work Conclusions: Surgeons of all specialty areas fight a continuous battle to avoid infection complications. Complex processes of SSI prevention must be executed to perfection; even then, SSI may occur. Unfortunately, the pursuit of near-perfect future outcomes must be modulated using imperfect knowledge of past events

The engagement game

Engagement is a costly social institution for which virtually no economic analysis exists. We explore the information gathering function of engagement in a game with a proposer who offers a long or short engagement, and a respondent, who may reject the proposal at various stages. Whether the proposer is a suitable match is uncertain, but a long engagement yields information with which the respondent can update prior probabilities. We consider pooling, separating and mixed strategy equilibria and relate our findings to the evolving institution of engagement and institutional circumstances that will improve its efficiency in generating successful matches.

Net-generation attributes and seductive properties of the internet as predictors of online activities and internet addiction.

Born between 1977 and 1997, Net-generation is the first generation to grow up surrounded by home computers, video games, and the Internet. As children of the Baby Boomers, the Internet is the medium of choice for the Net-geners. Based on the assumption that Net-generation has unique characteristics, this study examined (1) how Net-geners addicted to the Internet differ from the non-addicted and (2) how these attributes, together with the seductive properties of the Internet, are related to Internet addiction. Data were gathered from a probability sample of 699 Net-geners between the ages of 16 and 24. Results show that Net-geners addicted to the Internet tend to be young female students. Being emotionally open on the Net and a heavy user of ICQ were most influential in predicting Net-geners' problematic use of the Internet. Addicted Net-geners are also strongly linked to the pleasure of being able to control the simulated world in online games. The finding reinforces previous research that "dependents" of the Internet spend most of their time in the synchronous communication environment engaging in interactive online games, chat rooms, and ICQ for pleasure-seeking or escape, while "non-dependents" use information-gathering functions available on the Internet. Furthermore, Internet addicts tend to watch television significantly less, indicating a displacement effect on traditional media use for the Net-generation.

A behavioral characterization of the effects of food deprivation on food and nonfood object interaction: an investigation of the information-gathering functions of exploratory behavior

Previous research has shown that exploratory behavior serves not only to procure food, but also as a means of general information gathering. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the function of exploratory behavior in rats by measuring behavior as they interacted with food and nonfood stimuli under different levels of food deprivation. Rats were food-deprived (0, 24, and 48 h), given free access to an open-field arena, and videotaped for a 20-min test session. The rats' behavior was assessed in a manner that isolated locomotor-, object-, and nonobject-related components. Deprivation did not affect locomotor activity levels; however, a decrease in rearing and propping against the test arena was shown. Rats distinguished between the food and nonfood objects because they attempted to ingest the food but not the nonfood object. Deprivation did result in increased contact with food objects; however, nonfood object interactions were maintained throughout the test session. These results suggest that exploratory behavior is separable from food seeking and functions in acquisition of information relating to multiple aspects of the environment.

The role of veterinary public health in the prevention of zoonoses.

Veterinary public health is a component of public health activities devoted to the application of professional veterinary skills, knowledge, and resources for the protection and improvement of public health. VPH activities involve a very diverse range of functions within public health which reflect the broad community of interests between veterinary and human medicine. Zoonoses continue to represent an important health hazard in most parts of the world, where they cause considerable expenditure and losses for the health and agricultural sectors. Although the situation is improving in the industrialized world, zoonoses prevention and control will remain an area of major concern in most developing countries. Recent observations in these countries show that expenses related to the prevention of zoonotic diseases in humans are likely to increase dramatically in the near future. Programmes for their control and eventual elimination in animal reservoirs are urgently needed. The technical knowledge exists to bring diseases such as brucellosis, rabies, and bovine tuberculosis under control during the first decade of the next century. To achieve this goal, constant efforts will be needed for the next 15 to 20 years. In addition, as trade in animal products and the movement of human populations continues to increase, the risk that zoonotic diseases will be introduced or reintroduced into certain areas is likewise increasing. Over the past five years, a number of zoonotic diseases have emerged as either new pathological entities or known agents appearing in new areas or as new strains. Through its coordinating and information gathering functions, the WHO Emerging Disease Surveillance and Control Division provides a source of both practical and technical guidance that can help solve these and other threats to human health posed by animals.

A stochastic dominance analysis of the turnover related performance of mutual funds

Mutual fund performance relative to portfolio turnover is examined for funds in different investment categories using non-parametric, stochastic dominance criteria. We find that, in general, high-turnover funds are at least equally preferable to those with low turnover. This suggests that the costs of obtaining and exploiting information are, on average, compensated for by the subsequent return distribution. The exception is maximum capital gains funds. Here, high-turnover funds clearly dominate those with low turnover and the information gathering function is profitable.

The Need for Site-Specific Legal Research on Sustainable Farming Practices and Systems:

Lawyers are information and communication specialists. They are trained to gather information, determine which items of information are relevant facts, and present those facts to decisionmakers in a persuasive manner which recommends a particular outcome. In this information gathering function, lawyers are much lie scientists. Yet facts can be subjective and interpretive. Like historians, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists and others, lawyers are scientists of human behavior, and of how to regulate human behavior.

HBS communication function and routing management in various networks

The Home Bus System (HBS) constitutes a common communication bus to integrate the information of many home-use appliances. A new address description expanding the HBS standard is specified for establishing the intersubnetwork communications in an HBS network to which subnetworks containing different-type subnetworks are connected. The authors discuss how the address descriptions for the different-type of subnetworks can be made common, and the routing information for the communication across subnetworks can be described. The routing process and information-gathering functions at the gateway are specified. The routing information-gathering function for the terminal is also defined. The address assignments for portable terminals are also prescribed. The authors describe how the portable terminals can be moved among HBS subnetworks by using wide broadcasting technique. >

The user interface and program structure of a graphical VLSI layout editor

In this paper the user interface and program organization of the SYMPLE VLSI symbolic layout editor is examined. The user interface is driven by a small interpreter that is constructed from a LISP-like language at run time and has access to a consistent library of menus and graphical information-gathering functions. To improve maintainability, the editor has been constructed in a modular form with well-defined interfaces.

The user interface and program structure of a graphical VLSI layout editor

In this paper the user interface and program organization of the SYMPLE VLSI symbolic layout editor is examined. The user interface is driven by a small interpreter that is constructed from a LISP-like language at run time and has access to a consistent library of menus and graphical information-gathering functions. To improve maintainability, the editor has been constructed in a modular form with well-defined interfaces.

Job Search and Participation

The main purpose of this paper is to consider the question of labour force participation within a generalized model of job search. The only important restrictions placed oni the search model are that search takes place sequentially and that the individual be able to search only a finite number of times in his lifetime. Other less important restrictions are placed to simplify the exposition. The most important of these is, perhaps, that the individual holds his beliefs about the sequence of the distributions of job offers with complete certainty. This implies that search is used as a job-finding activity and not as an information-gathering one. Although some workers may use search for informationgathering purposes, we would expect the job-finding process to satisfy the same qualitative properties whether the information-gathering function is taken into account or not (Rothschild, 1974; Kohn and Shavell, 1974). The optimal policy is obtained in the next section for a general utility function and any sequence of distributions of job offers. Section II derives the dynamic properties of the model and utilizes the general framework to analyse the questions of optimal responses to a changing environment and participation and job search over the cycle. Section III concludes the paper with a brief summary.