Title: The relevance and sustainability of Investors in People. Purpose: The purpose of this research project is to explore and challenge the relevance and sustainability of Investors in People (IIP) involvement and recognition within seven case studies. Research design: Seven in-depth case studies combining thirty-eight semi-structured interviews are used to gather the appropriate insights. Findings: In essence, it is the studied organizations themselves that generate what the Leitch Report describes as the “untapped and vast” potential of their employees, not IIP involvement or recognition. The data collected challenges the direct relationship frequently proposed between IIP recognition and increases in business performance. The sample organizations have delivered performance improvements and success independently of IIP consideration, raising serious questions over the relevance and sustainability of the standard. These insights are supported by the lack of knowledge and understanding of the standard within the workforce. In addition, other quality improvement tools and techniques and industry standards are found to have a significant detrimental influence on the standing of IIP. Other influences are also found to impact negatively on the standing. Thus, this research project questions what contribution IIP can make towards national competitiveness when the standard is so withdrawn from the business performance improvements integrated. Even as a badge or plaque of external recognition, the assumptions surrounding the perceptual value of IIP are questioned when the impact of the standard’s logo/ symbols is considered to be nominal. A theoretical framework and alternative definition for IIP are developed to represent the findings within the seven organizations studied. Research limitations: Research is needed beyond the case samples studied to further explore and generalize the rhetoric and realities concerning the insights developed. Practical implications: HR practitioners and managers need to exhibit caution before considering IIP involvement and recognition. Indeed, practitioners need to consider that the asserted benefits associated with IIP may not match their expectations and provide the impact they seek. Originality/value: This research project provides HR practitioners and managers with a valuable and timely alternative discourse and perspective when considering employee development towards IIP recognition and the possibility of improved business performance and customer/employee perceptual value. In addition, the theoretical exemplars developed from the data set provide visual representations that can be used as pragmatic comparisons to develop the field of IIP further.

Epidemiological data suggest a positive relationship between increased calcium intake and decreased fat and total body mass in healthy people (McCarron et al. 1984, Davies et al., 2000). An in-vitro model suggesting the role of cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (cAMP) and phosphodiesterase 3B (PDE 3B) has been implicated in the relationship between calcium and lipolysis (Xue et al., 2001). The objective of the series of studies presented in this thesis was to investigate the ergogenicity of supplementary calcium in endurance exercise via studying its influence on substrate metabolism and body composition. Study 1 examined the effects of four weeks of calcium (citrate) supplementation (1000 mg elemental calcium/day) on 60 minutes of cycling at a submaximal intensity of 50%Wpeak. The results of this study indicated that calcium supplementation significantly improved body composition of the participants with a greater fat loss and increased lean mass observed in highly trained athletes as compared to the recreationally trained participants. In addition, four weeks of calcium supplementation also showed an enhanced trend of availability of fatty substrates in the plasma and consequently an increased trend towards higher fat oxidation during submaximal exercise. Study 2 and 3 thus examined the effects of calcium supplementation directly on performance during endurance events (25 and 10 mile cycling time trials (TT)) in highly trained athletes. Results from these studies indicate that following calcium supplementation there was a meaningful improvement in power output (PO) (~4%) during the 25TT and ~2.7% in 10TT with corresponding better completion times in both the time trials. This amounts to an increase in ~2-3% higher PO%peak and ~3-5% increase in power output at lactate threshold, with the higher percentages attributable to the 25TT and the lower end to the 10TT. This increase in PO was achieved without the corresponding increase in oxygen consumption, thus significantly improving the gross efficiency of the cyclists. In addition, four weeks of calcium supplementation once again exhibited the same trends in body composition as observed in study 1 of decreased fat mass and a concurrent increase in lean mass. The results from this set of investigation indicate that calcium plays a multifactorial role in performance enhancement of endurance events. This may have been achieved via a combination of influence on substrate metabolism and body composition. The impact of calcium on fatigue mechanisms and vascular tone may have also played a part in increasing PO and thus efficiency of the athletes. Thus the potential of calcium to enhance performance needs further investigation in studies with larger sample sizes and different training status of athletes.

We present an investigation into the design of an evolutionary mechanism for multiagent protocol constraint optimisation. Starting with a review of common population based mechanisms we discuss the properties of the mechanisms used by these search methods. We derive a novel algorithm for optimisation of vectors of real numbers and empirically validate the efficacy of the design by comparing against well known results from the literature. We discuss the application of an optimiser to a novel problem and remark upon the relevance of the no free lunch theorem. We show the relative performance of the optimiser is strong and publish details of a new best result for the Keane optimisation problem. We apply the final algorithm to the multi-agent protocol optimisation problem and show the design process was successful.

Because games set in persistent virtual game worlds (VGWs) have massive numbers of players, these games need methods of characterisation for playable characters (PCs) that differ from the methods used in traditional narrative media. VGWs have a number of particularly interesting qualities. Firstly, VGWs are places where players interact with and create elements carrying narrative potential. Secondly, players add goals, motives and driving forces to the narrative potential of a VGW, which sometimes originates from the ordinary world. Thirdly, the protagonists of the world are real people, and when acting in the world their characterisation is not carried out by an author, but expressed by players characterising their PCs. How they can express themselves in ways that characterise them depend on what they can do, and how they can do it, and this characterising action potential (CAP) is defined by the game design of particular VGWs. In this thesis, two main questions are explored. Firstly, how can CAP be designed to support players in expressing consistent  characters in VGWs? Secondly, how can VGWs support role-play in their rule-systems? By using iterative design, I explore the design space of CAP by building a semiautonomous agent structure, the Mind Module (MM) and apply it in five experimental prototypes where the design of CAP and other game features is derived from the MM. The term semiautonomy is used because the agent structure is designed to be used by a PC, and is thus partly controlled by the system and partly by the player. The MM models a PC's personality as a collection of traits, maintains dynamic emotional state as a function of interactions with objects in the environment, and summarises a PC's current emotional state in terms of `mood'.   The MM consists of a spreading-activation network of affect nodes that are interconnected by weighted relationships.  There are four types of affect node: personality trait nodes, emotion nodes, mood nodes, and sentiment nodes. The values of the nodes defining the personality traits of characters govern an individual PC's state of mind through these weighted relationships, resulting in values characterising for a PC's personality. The sentiment nodes constitute emotionally valenced connections between entities. For example, a PC can `feel' anger toward another PC. This thesis also describes a guided paper-prototype play-test of  the VGW prototype World of Minds, in which the game mechanics build upon the MM's model of personality and emotion. In a case study of AI-based game design, lessons learned from the test are presented. The participants in the test were able to form and communicate mental models of the MM and game mechanics, validating the design and giving valuable feedback for further development. Despite the constrained scenarios presented to test players, they discovered interesting, alternative strategies, indicating that for game design the `mental physics' of the MM may open up new  possibilities.The results of the play-test influenced the further development of the MM as it was used in the digital VGW prototype the Pataphysic Institute. In the Pataphysic Institute the CAP of PCs is largely governed by their mood. Depending on which mood  PCs are in they can cast different `spells', which affect values such as mental energy, resistance and emotion in their targets. The mood also governs which `affective actions' they can perform toward other PCs and what affective actions they are receptive to. By performing affective actions on each other PCs can affect each others' emotions, which - if they are strong - may result in sentiments toward each other. PCs' personalities govern the individual fluctuations of mood and emotions, and define which types of spell PCs can cast. Formalised social relationships such as friendships affect CAP, giving players more energy, resistance, and other benefits. PCs' states of mind are reflected in the VGW in the form of physical manifestations that emerge if an emotion is very strong. These manifestations are entities which cast different spells on PCs in close proximity, depending on the emotions that the manifestations represent. PCs can also partake in authoring manifestations that become part of the world and the game-play in it. In the Pataphysic Institute potential story structures are governed by the relations the sentiment nodes constitute between entities.Because games set in persistent virtual game worlds (VGWs) have massive numbers of players, these games need methods of characterisation for playable characters (PCs) that differ from the methods used in traditional narrative media. VGWs have a number of particularly interesting qualities. Firstly, VGWs are places where players interact with and create elements carrying narrative potential. Secondly, players add goals, motives and driving forces to the narrative potential of a VGW, which sometimes originates from the ordinary world. Thirdly, the protagonists of the world are real people, and when acting in the world their characterisation is not carried out by an author, but expressed by players characterising their PCs. How they can express themselves in ways that characterise them depend on what they can do, and how they can do it, and this characterising action potential (CAP) is defined by the game design of particular VGWs. In this thesis, two main questions are explored. Firstly, how can CAP be designed to support players in expressing consistent  characters in VGWs? Secondly, how can VGWs support role-play in their rule-systems? By using iterative design, I explore the design space of CAP by building a semiautonomous agent structure, the Mind Module (MM) and apply it in five experimental prototypes where the design of CAP and other game features is derived from the MM. The term \textit{semiautonomy} is used because the agent structure is designed to be used by a PC, and is thus partly controlled by the system and partly by the player. The MM models a PC's personality as a collection of traits, maintains dynamic emotional state as a function of interactions with objects in the environment, and summarises a PC's current emotional state in terms of `mood'.   The MM consists of a spreading-activation network of affect nodes that are interconnected by weighted relationships.  There are four types of affect node: personality trait nodes, emotion nodes, mood nodes, and sentiment nodes. The values of the nodes defining the personality traits of characters govern an individual PC's state of mind through these weighted relationships, resulting in values characterising for a PC's personality. The sentiment nodes constitute emotionally valenced connections between entities. For example, a PC can `feel' anger toward another PC. This thesis also describes a guided paper-prototype play-test of  the VGW prototype World of Minds, in which the game mechanics build upon the MM's model of personality and emotion. In a case study of AI-based game design, lessons learned from the test are presented. The participants in the test were able to form and communicate mental models of the MM and game mechanics, validating the design and giving valuable feedback for further development. Despite the constrained scenarios presented to test players, they discovered interesting, alternative strategies, indicating that for game design the `mental physics' of the MM may open up new  possibilities.The results of the play-test influenced the further development of the MM as it was used in the digital VGW prototype the Pataphysic Institute. In the Pataphysic Institute the CAP of PCs is largely governed by their mood. Depending on which mood  PCs are in they can cast different `spells', which affect values such as mental energy, resistance and emotion in their targets. The mood also governs which `affective actions' they can perform toward other PCs and what affective actions they are receptive to. By performing affective actions on each other PCs can affect each others' emotions, which - if they are strong - may result in sentiments toward each other. PCs' personalities govern the individual fluctuations of mood and emotions, and define which types of spell PCs can cast. Formalised social relationships such as friendships affect CAP, giving players more energy, resistance, and other benefits. PCs' states of mind are reflected in the VGW in the form of physical manifestations that emerge if an emotion is very strong. These manifestations are entities which cast different spells on PCs in close proximity, depending on the emotions that the manifestations represent. PCs can also partake in authoring manifestations that become part of the world and the game-play in it. In the Pataphysic Institute potential story structures are governed by the relations the sentiment nodes constitute between entities.

Denna rapport beskriver ett arbete som utförts i kursen TDDD96 - Kandidatprojekt i programvaruutveckling. Projektet gick ut på att utveckla en webbplattform för spelifierad tävlingsprogrammering åt UPP-gruppen på Institutionen för datavetenskap vid Linköpings universitet. Plattformen är tänkt att användas i programmeringskurser. Den innehåller funktioner som låter användare ladda upp spel och agenter via en hemsida där agenterna kan spela spelen mot varandra. Produkten består av en klient i form av en hemsida, och en server. Det finns även ett API för att skapa spel till plattformen. Rapporten beskriver dessa delar både på det tekniska planet samt hur utvecklingsprocesserna gick till. Utöver detta presenteras och diskuteras gruppens erfarenheter från projektet samt hur den slutgiltiga produkten förhåller sig till gruppens och kundens mål. Genom att använda kodgranskning under utvecklingen upplevde gruppen en ökad kvalitet på koden, men också att det stävjade utvecklingen i de fall då granskningen tog lång tid. Den viktigaste erfarenheten gruppen tog med sig från detta projekt är att kommunikationen har mycket stor betydelse för resultaten, och bör därför struktureras upp ordentligt. Genom att arbeta med kundens behov som högsta prioritet, dokumentera all kod väl och konstruera systemet modulärt för att främja vidareutveckling, kan en bra och välgjord produkt skapas som ger värde för kunden.

This thesis is about common-sense psychology and its role in cognitive science. Put simply, the argument is that common-sense psychology is important because it offers clues to some complex problems in cognitive science, and because common-sense psychology has significant effects on our intuitions, both in science and on an everyday level. The thesis develops a theory of anthropomorphism in common-sense psychology. Anthropomorphism, the natural human tendency to ascribe human characteristics (and especially human mental characteristics) to things that aren't human, is an important theme in the thesis. Anthropomorphism reveals an endemic anthropocentricity that deeply influences our thinking about other minds. The thesis then constructs a descriptive model of anthropomorphism in common-sense psychology, and uses it to analyse two studies of the ascription of mental states. The first, Baron- Cohen et al. 's (1985) false belief test, shows how cognitive modelling can be used to compare different theories of common-sense psychology. The second study, Searle's (1980) `Chinese Room', shows 'that this same model can reproduce the patterns of scientific intuitions taken to systems which pass the Turing test (Turing, 1950), suggesting that it is best seen as a common-sense test for a mind, not a scientific one. Finally, the thesis argues that scientific theories involving the ascription of mentality through a model or a metaphor are partly dependent on each individual scientist's common-sense psychology. To conclude, this thesis develops an interdisciplinary study of common-sense psychology and shows that its effects are more wide ranging than is commonly thought. This means that it affects science more than might be expected, but that careful study can help us to become mindful of these effects. Within this new framework, a proper understanding of common-sense psychology could lay important new foundations for the future of cognitive science.

PhD / The aim of this thesis was to investigate the possibility of integrating frozen-thawed boar semen into reproductive technologies and into commercial production of pigs in Australia. This was to be achieved by establishing a semen freezing and AI regime that was of a standard acceptable to industry, and integrating the resultant frozen-thawed sperm into other reproductive technologies, such as flow cytometric sperm sorting and IVF. Initially, a protocol for freezing and thawing boar semen was established, based on the method described by Westendorf et al. (1975) and attempts were made to modify this protocol to improve the post-thaw sperm quality, as determined by in vitro assessment of motility, acrosome integrity and longevity. First, the egg yolk used in the freezing extenders was investigated, and the chicken yolk was replaced with either duck or quail yolk. It was shown that there was no benefit in substituting yolk from duck or quail for the chicken yolk traditionally used in freezing extender. Second, the effect of seminal plasma addition to the freezing extender, or seminal plasma addition to resuspension medium post-thaw was tested. Incorporating whole seminal plasma into the freezing extender at levels above 50% was found to be detrimental to post-thaw sperm quality. Reducing levels to 20% of the final volume improved acrosome integrity, but adversely affected motility of sperm. However, adding 20% seminal plasma to the resuspension medium used after thawing of boar semen had no significant influence on sperm quality compared with resuspension in medium without seminal plasma. The antioxidant catalase, and the iron chelator desferal added to the freezing extender, did not improve post-thaw sperm quality, nor was any benefit seen with addition of these substrates to the resuspension medium post-thaw. However, the bioactive phospholipid PAF and its regulating enzyme PAF:AH appeared to enhance post-thaw motility and acrosome integrity of sperm, respectively, when added to the semen pre-freezing. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions imposed on rPAF:AH as a research drug, it was not possible to test the in vivo effects at this time. After the in vitro experiments were completed, the in vivo fertility of frozen-thawed sperm was tested using the optimal freezing protocol and a novel technology, enabling non-surgical deep intrauterine insemination of sows. The aim was to establish the lowest possible dose of frozen-thawed sperm that could be used, without compromising fertility. Successful pregnancies were achieved with doses as low as 62.5 x 106 frozen-thawed sperm but the farrowing rates were too low to be practicable on a commercial scale. This is the first report of litters born after insemination of such a low dose of frozen-thawed sperm and using the novel DIU insemination technique. However, it was concluded that a double dose of 250 x 106 frozen-thawed sperm was the minimum dose required for maintaining acceptable fertility. Reduction in sperm numbers to such an extent made it possible to consider non-surgical insemination of sex-sorted, frozen-thawed semen. Previously, pregnancies had been achieved only after surgical insemination of sex-sorted boar sperm, or with DIU insemination of unfrozen sperm, immediately after sex-sorting. The low numbers of sex-sorted sperm available restricted the inseminate dose used here to 50 x106 motile sperm. A litter of 5 piglets was born after a low-dose, DIU insemination of sex-sorted, frozen-thawed sperm. This is the first report of piglets born after insemination with sex-sorted frozen-thawed sperm and non-surgical insemination. The low farrowing rate achieved in this experiment prompted the investigation of integrating sex-sorted, frozen-thawed boar sperm into IVF. Morulae were produced after IVF with sex-sorted, frozen-thawed sperm and successfully transferred using non-surgical techniques. This is the first report of pregnancy achieved with non-surgical transfer of embryos produced after IVF and IVC of IVM oocytes with sex-sorted, frozen-thawed boar sperm. Unfortunately, the pregnancy did not hold, and the embryos were lost prior to Day 32, but PCR of non-transferred embryos confirmed successful pre-selection of sex. Overall, this thesis demonstrated that it is still not economically feasible to incorporate frozen-thawed boar semen into the commercial production of pigs although it has considerable application in breeding programmes. However, the development of novel techniques enabling reduction in sperm dose, and for non-surgical transfer of embryos into recipient sows and incorporation of frozen-thawed semen into these technologies means that progress is being made with the integration of reproductive technologies and frozen-thawed semen into the pig industry.

The face inversion effect has been widely documented as an effect of the uniqueness of face processing. Using a computational model, we show that the face inversion effect is a byproduct of expertise with respect to the face object class. In simulations using HMAX, a hierarchical, shape based model, we show that the magnitude of the inversion effect is a function of the specificity of the representation. Using many, sharply tuned units, an ``expert'' has a large inversion effect. On the other hand, if fewer, broadly tuned units are used, the expertise is lost, and this ``novice'' has a small inversion effect. As the size of the inversion effect is a product of the representation, not the object class, given the right training we can create experts and novices in any object class. Using the same representations as with faces, we create experts and novices for cars. We also measure the feasibility of a view-based model for recognition of rotated objects using HMAX. Using faces, we show that transfer of learning to novel views is possible. Given only one training view, the view-based model can recognize a face at a new orientation via interpolation from the views to which it had been tuned. Although the model can generalize well to upright faces, inverted faces yield poor performance because the features change differently under rotation.

I present a system for robust leaderless organization of an amorphous network into hierarchical clusters. This system, which assumes that nodes are spatially embedded and can only talk to neighbors within a given radius, scales to networks of arbitrary size and converges rapidly. The amount of data stored at each node is logarithmic in the diameter of the network, and the hierarchical structure produces an addressing scheme such that there is an invertible relation between distance and address for any pair of nodes. The system adapts automatically to stopping failures, network partition, and reorganization.

Type-omega DPLs (Denotational Proof Languages) are languages for proof presentation and search that offer strong soundness guarantees. LCF-type systems such as HOL offer similar guarantees, but their soundness relies heavily on static type systems. By contrast, DPLs ensure soundness dynamically, through their evaluation semantics; no type system is necessary. This is possible owing to a novel two-tier syntax that separates deductions from computations, and to the abstraction of assumption bases, which is factored into the semantics of the language and allows for sound evaluation. Every type-omega DPL properly contains a type-alpha DPL, which can be used to present proofs in a lucid and detailed form, exclusively in terms of primitive inference rules. Derived inference rules are expressed as user-defined methods, which are "proof recipes" that take arguments and dynamically perform appropriate deductions. Methods arise naturally via parametric abstraction over type-alpha proofs. In that light, the evaluation of a method call can be viewed as a computation that carries out a type-alpha deduction. The type-alpha proof "unwound" by such a method call is called the "certificate" of the call. Certificates can be checked by exceptionally simple type-alpha interpreters, and thus they are useful whenever we wish to minimize our trusted base. Methods are statically closed over lexical environments, but dynamically scoped over assumption bases. They can take other methods as arguments, they can iterate, and they can branch conditionally. These capabilities, in tandem with the bifurcated syntax of type-omega DPLs and their dynamic assumption-base semantics, allow the user to define methods in a style that is disciplined enough to ensure soundness yet fluid enough to permit succinct and perspicuous expression of arbitrarily sophisticated derived inference rules. We demonstrate every major feature of type-omega DPLs by defining and studying NDL-omega, a higher-order, lexically scoped, call-by-value type-omega DPL for classical zero-order natural deduction---a simple choice that allows us to focus on type-omega syntax and semantics rather than on the subtleties of the underlying logic. We start by illustrating how type-alpha DPLs naturally lead to type-omega DPLs by way of abstraction; present the formal syntax and semantics of NDL-omega; prove several results about it, including soundness; give numerous examples of methods; point out connections to the lambda-phi calculus, a very general framework for type-omega DPLs; introduce a notion of computational and deductive cost; define several instrumented interpreters for computing such costs and for generating certificates; explore the use of type-omega DPLs as general programming languages; show that DPLs do not have to be type-less by formulating a static Hindley-Milner polymorphic type system for NDL-omega; discuss some idiosyncrasies of type-omega DPLs such as the potential divergence of proof checking; and compare type-omega DPLs to other approaches to proof presentation and discovery. Finally, a complete implementation of NDL-omega in SML-NJ is given for users who want to run the examples and experiment with the language.