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Many everyday human skills can be framed in terms of performing some task subject to constraints imposed by the task or the environment. Constraints are usually unobservable and frequently change between contexts. In this thesis, we explore the problem of learning control policies from data containing variable, dynamic and non-linear constraints on motion. We show that an effective approach for doing this is to learn the unconstrained policy in a way that is consistent with the constraints. We propose several novel algorithms for extracting these policies from movement data, where observations are recorded under different constraints. Furthermore, we show that, by doing so, we are able to learn representations of movement that generalise over constraints and can predict behaviour under new constraints. In our experiments, we test the algorithms on systems of varying size and complexity, and show that the novel approaches give significant improvements in performance compared with standard policy learning approaches that are naive to the effect of constraints. Finally, we illustrate the utility of the approaches for learning from human motion capture data and transferring behaviour to several robotic platforms.

BACKGROUND: This study sought to identify factors associated with school personnel’s support for tobacco- free policies in Uganda in 2007 and 2011. METHODS: Data were obtained from the combination of the 2007 (n=515) and 2011 (n=682) Ugandan Global School Personnel Survey (GSPS). Analyses included chi-square statistics and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the participants, 92.9% supported the tobacco- free policies and 61.9% (n=727) of the schools had a policy restricting tobacco use within the school premises by personnel and students. However only 52.8% (n=370) of those with school policy reported complete enforcement of the school policy. A greater proportion of non-smokers than smokers were in support of a school policy (94.8% vs. 57.7%; p<0.05). Believing that teacher tobacco use influences student use (OR=8.9; 95% CI= 2.41- 33.47) and supporting increase in price of tobacco products (OR=6.4; 95% CI=1.34- 30.58) were significantly associated with support for policy. Those who supported school tobacco-free policy were also more likely to be of the opinion that tobacco industry should be allowed to sponsor school events (OR=4.4; 95% CI= 1.26- 15.23). CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco control interventions should promote personnel’s enforcement of the policies and raise awareness of Tobacco Industry Advertising Promotion and Sponsorship (TAPS) strategies. / Dissertation (MPH)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MPH / Unrestricted

In this work we introduce a novel queueing model with two classes of users in which, instead of accessing a resource, users wait in the system to match with a candidate from the other class. The users are selective and the matchings occur probabilistically. This new model is useful for analysing the traffic in web portals that match people who provide a service with people who demand the same service, e.g. employment portals, matrimonial and dating sites and rental portals. We first provide a Markov chain model for these systems and derive the probability distribution of the number of matches up to some finite time given the number of arrivals. We then prove that if no control mechanism is employed these systems are unstable for any set of parameters. We suggest four different classes of control policies to assure stability and conduct analysis on performance measures under the control policies. Contrary to the intuition that the rejection rate should decrease as the users become more likely to be matched, we show that for certain control policies the rejection rate is insensitive to the matching probability. Even more surprisingly, we show that for reasonable policies the rejection rate may be an increasing function of the matching probability. We also prove insensitivity results related to the average queue lengths and waiting times. Further, to gain more insight into the behaviour of probabilistic matching systems, we propose approximation methods based on fluid and diffusion limits using different scalings. We analyse the basic properties of these approximations and show that some performance measures are insensitive to the matching probability agreeing with the results found by the exact analysis. Finally we study the optimal control and revenue management for the systems with the objective of profit maximization. We formulate mathematical models for both unobservable and observable systems. For an unobservable system we suggest a deterministic optimal control, while for an observable system we develop an optimal myopic state dependent pricing.

Syftet med fallstudien var att undersöka vad Airshoppen Travel Retail kan tänka på viddesignen av sin nya lagerlayout. För att genomföra studien har en teoretisk modell tagits fram som fokuserar på hur företags layout kan designas. Med den teoretiska modellen analyseras först två verksamheters lagerlayout. I nästa steg användes analysen för att vidare analysera och ge rekommendationer till Airshoppen Travel Retail angående vad företaget kan tänka på vid designen av sin nya lagerlayout. Genomförda intervjuer och observationer visade att utvecklingen av lagerverksamheternas processer anpassades till, och begränsades av, platsbristen. Tidigare forskning talade för att designen av ett lager ska grundas i valet av system. Bristfällig design kan leda till höga kostnader, begränsad flexibilitet och minskad effektivitet. En intressant aspekt som studien lyfte var att den tidigare forskningen främst fokuserar på att minska travel distance, medans studiens empiriska underlag visade att företag främst fokuserade på att öka plocksäkerhet och produktivitet. Studiens resultat presenterades som en rekommendation för hur Airshoppen Travel Retail kan designa sin lagerlayout. Resultatet visade vikten av att välja system i samband med kontrollregler för att undvika låsningar i layouten, att plocka i zoner kan leda till ökad effektivitet. Slutligen krävs noggranna kalkyler för företaget att avgöra om automation är en nödvändig och lönsam investering. / The purpose of the case study was to investigate what Airshoppen Travel Retail could take into consideration when designing their new warehouse layout. In order to carry out the study, a theoretical model was developed, the model focuses on how warehouse layout could be designed. The theoretical model analyzes the warehouse layout of two companies. The findings were then used to analyze and give recommendations to Airshoppen Travel Retail regarding what the company could take into consideration when designing their new warehouse layout. Interviews and observations showed that the development of the warehouses processes was adapted and limited by the lack of space in their warehouses. Previous research suggested that the design of a warehouse should be based on the choice of system, either manual or automatic. Inadequate design can lead to high costs, limited flexibility and reduced efficiency. An interesting aspect that the study highlighted was that the previous research mainly focuses on reducing travel distance, while the study's empirical basis showed that companies primarilyfocus on decreasing picking errors and increasing productivity. The results of the study were presented as recommendations to Airshoppen Travel Retail on how the company could design their new warehouse layout. The results showed the importance of choosing systems and control policies simultaneously to avoid limitations in the layout. Furthermore, with a manual system, implementation of zone picking could lead to increased efficiency. On a final note, careful calculations are required for the company to properly determine whether automation is a necessary and profitable investment.

Automated trust negotiation is the process of establishing trust between entities with no prior relationship through the iterative disclosure of digital credentials. One approach to negotiating trust is for the participants to exchange access control policies to inform each other of the requirements for establishing trust. When a policy is received at runtime, a compliance checker determines which credentials satisfy the policy so they can be disclosed. In situations where several sets of credentials satisfy a policy and some of the credentials are sensitive, a compliance checker that generates all the sets is necessary to insure that the negotiation succeeds whenever possible. Compliance checkers designed for trust management do not usually generate all the satisfying sets. In this thesis, we present two practical algorithms for generating all satisfying sets given a compliance checker that generates only one set. The ability to generate all of the combinations provides greater flexibility in how the system or user establishes trust. For example, the least sensitive credential combination could be disclosed first. These ideas have been implemented in TrustBuilder, our prototype system for trust negotiation.

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Submitted by Rosivalda Pereira (mrs.pereira@ufma.br) on 2017-05-19T18:03:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaMagdaMagnaniDelfim.pdf: 1633720 bytes, checksum: 8f0c30aa591345f98a4076ef34926227 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-19T18:03:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaMagdaMagnaniDelfim.pdf: 1633720 bytes, checksum: 8f0c30aa591345f98a4076ef34926227 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-19 / Brazilian health system (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS) has, legally guaranteed, as one of its principle, participation of civil society in health councils and conferences - institutionalized participation - as guarantee that society are involved in the process of formulation and control of health policies. Equally important, is the non-institutionalized participation, which it consists in political performance of users daily based, social movements, popular movements, forums, social networks and collective existing in society. Taking into account that, society participation as producer of necessities to the life for their own players and adding to the fact that society and the processes that permeate the individual determine their health condition and welfare, becomes essential understand this context. Thus, understanding the social participation in health matters at a community ascribed to a Family Health Strategy team may contribute to studies of social sciences applied to health and development of a healthy society. This article is about a social research with qualitative research methodology of descriptive and analytical character, which the applied technique for primary data collection was semi-structured individual interview oriented by a guide. Participants of this article were people of the community from neighborhood Alonso Costa assisted at a Local Basic Health Unit ascribed to the team of ESF 031 in São José de Ribamar - Maranhão. Content analysis allowed knowing historical process and learning that trajectory of social participation at this community is marked by empowerment of community residents, with institutional support, guided by political and partisan interests, also by interest of people that live in the community and relationship with these people with health professionals. These factors have exerted a decisive role and conditioning factor for current decadence of the social movements at community. Yet, despite decades of praxis, social participation in formal spaces - institutionalized - is not known and/or is not accessible for most people and the non-institutionalized participation is surrounded by a number of factors that limit and discourage the community in the continuity of old social movements. Has identified as limiting factor of social participation in health the lack of information access and empowerment, nonexistence of a legitimate representative, distancing of institutionalized participation, poor involvement of health professionals with community, a not collaborative rivalry and the predominance of partisan politics logic, in addition to not solving basics necessities satisfactorily. It is still necessary to keep in mind that the process of empowerment for social participation in health matters reflects a collective daily effort that requires permanent investment "the" and "in" human capital. / O Sistema Único de Saúde brasileiro (SUS) tem como um de seus princípios, legalmente garantidos, a participação da sociedade civil nos conselhos e conferências de Saúde – participação institucionalizada – como garantia de que a população participa do processo de formulação e controle das políticas de saúde. Tão importante quanto, é a participação não institucionalizada, que consiste na atuação política cotidiana de usuários, movimentos sociais, movimentos populares, fóruns, redes sociais e entre coletivos existentes na sociedade. Considerando a participação social como a produção de necessidades da vida por seus próprios protagonistas e agregando-se ao fato de que a sociedade e os processos que permeiam o indivíduo determinam sua condição de saúde e bem-estar, torna-se imprescindível compreender este contexto. Assim, a compreensão da participação social em saúde em uma Comunidade adscrita a uma equipe da Estratégia Saúde da Família pode contribuir com estudos das ciências sociais aplicadas à saúde e ao desenvolvimento de uma sociedade saudável. Trata-se de uma pesquisa social com metodologia de pesquisa qualitativa, cuja técnica empregada para foi entrevista na modalidade semiestruturada individual orientada por roteiro. Os participantes do estudo foram pessoas da Comunidade do Bairro Vila Alonso Costa atendidas na Unidade Básica de Saúde local e adscritas à equipe da ESF 031 do município de São José de Ribamar - Maranhão. A análise de conteúdo permitiu conhecer os processos históricos locais e apreender que a trajetória de participação social da Comunidade foi marcada pelo empoderamento dos moradores, com apoio institucional, guiado por interesse comunitário e vínculo com os profissionais de saúde, mas também por interesses políticos e partidários. Tais fatores exerceram papel determinante e condicionante para a decadência atual dos movimentos sociais da Comunidade. Ainda, apesar de décadas de práxis, a participação social em espaços formais – institucionalizada – não é conhecida e/ou não está ao alcance da maior parte das pessoas e a participação não-institucionalizada é cercada por vários fatores que limitam e desmotivam a Comunidade na continuidade dos movimentos passados. Identificou-se como fatores que limitam a prática da participação social em saúde a falta de acesso à informação e empoderamento, a inexistência de um representante legítimo, o distanciamento da participação institucionalizada, o pobre envolvimento dos profissionais da saúde com a Comunidade, a rivalidade não colaborativa e predomínio da lógica da política partidária, além da não resolução das necessidades básicas de modo satisfatório. Ainda é preciso ter em mente que o processo de empoderamento para a participação social em saúde reflete um esforço coletivo cotidiano que necessita permanentemente de investimento “do” e “no” capital humano.