Golog programs allow to model complex behaviour of agents by combining primitive actions defined in a Situation Calculus theory using imperative and non-deterministic programming language constructs. In general, verifying temporal properties of Golog programs is undecidable. One way to establish decidability is to restrict the logic used by the program to a Description Logic (DL), for which recently some complexity upper bounds for verification problem have been established. However, so far it was open whether these results are tight, and lightweight DLs such as EL have not been studied at all. Furthermore, these results only apply to a setting where actions do not consume time, and the properties to be verified only refer to the timeline in a qualitative way. In a lot of applications, this is an unrealistic assumption. In this work, we study the verification problem for timed Golog programs, in which actions can be assigned differing durations, and temporal properties are specified in a metric branching time logic. This allows to annotate temporal properties with time intervals over which they are evaluated, to specify for example that some property should hold for at least n time units, or should become specified within some specified time window. We establish tight complexity bounds of the verification problem for both expressive and lightweight DLs. Our lower bounds already apply to a very limited fragment of the verification problem, and close open complexity bounds for the non-metrical cases studied before.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur den sociala indikationen tillämpats utifrån kön, ålder och social situation, samt huruvida det skett en förändring i tolkningen av vilka som innefattas av indikationen över tid. För att besvara frågeställningen analyserades 49 LVM-domar som omfattades av den sociala indikationen. Då det empiriska materialet bestod av domar föreföll en dokumentstudie utgöra ett bra metodval, därtill användes rättssociologisk metod samt tematisk analys som analysmetoder. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk utgjordes av socialkonstruktionismen, samt begrepp från livsloppsteorin och genusteorin. Dessa tre teorier låg till grund för analysen av domsskrivningarna gällande personerna domstolarna hade att pröva insatser gentemot. Av uppsatsens resultat framgick att det historiskt dömts fler män än kvinnor enligt den sociala indikationen, samt att medelåldern på män som dömts sjunkit över tid. I domarna beskrevs kvinnorna återkommande som vållande till sitt missbruk medan männen beskrevs som offer. Det framkom även en högre grad av skuldbeläggning av de kvinnor som saknade vårdnaden av sina barn kontra samma kategori män. Det har skett en förändring över tid av vilka som inbegripits i den sociala indikationen. Idag tycks det främst vara unga kriminellt belastade individer med narkotika och blandmissbruk som omfattas. Av resultatet framgår även att trots att lagen syftar till att stärka individens sociala nätverk anges det sällan i domarna på vilket sätt detta sker i det konkreta fallet. Uppsatsen visar även att majoriteten av de individer som dömts enligt den sociala indikationen har en svag social situation. De beskrivs även vara exkluderade från samhällets arbets- och bostadsmarknad, vilket går emot den sociala indikationens syfte.

Problématique : La compétence collective (CC), soit la combinaison dynamique des compétences individuelles, amènent des résultats supérieurs. Cette notion, peu étudiée en contexte infirmier, s’avère novatrice afin d’appréhender la performance des équipes soignantes. Objectif : Décrire la mise en œuvre de la CC par les infirmières en contexte d’observation à l’urgence d’un centre hospitalier québécois. Méthode : Étude de cas unique alliant sources documentaires (n = 32), observations (n = 3) et entrevues (n=3) selon la technique par incident critique. Résultats : Un déséquilibre (ex. instabilité, compétences) entraîne la combinaison des compétences individuelles centrée sur sa résolution visant une qualité des soins supérieure. Elle entraîne des résultats secondaires (développement des compétences, collaboration accrue). Différents facteurs individuels (compétence), collectifs (collaboration, relations), organisationnels (gestion, formation) et techniques (matériel, environnement) l’influencent. Conclusion : Les résultats soulignent l’apport significatif de la CC et les pistes d’action permettant d’améliorer la performance des équipes soignantes. / Background: Collective competence (CC) is a dynamic combination of individual competence that bring superior results. This notion, little studied in nursing context, proves innovative in order to understand the performance of health care teams. Aim: To describe the implementation of the CC by nurses in a context of observation n a Quebec hospital emergency department. Method: Single study case combining documentary sources (n = 32), observations (n = 3) and interviews (n = 3) according to the critical incident technique. Results: An imbalance (eg instability, competence) leads to the combination of individual competence centered on the resolution to a higher quality of care. It causes secondary outcomes (competence development, increased collaboration). Various individual (competence), collective (collaboration, relationships), organizational (management, training) and technical (equipment, environment) factors influence it. Conclusion: The results highlight the significant contribution of the CC and the courses of action to improve the performance of health care teams.

The objective of this exploratory research was to investigate the interplay among emotion, risk perception, and situation awareness as potential risk factors within the health care domain. To accomplish this objective, a two-phase study approach was employed. In Phase I, a proof-of-concept testbed of the emotional interface concept, namely Wearable Avatar Risk Display (WARD), was tested as the primary communication medium to explore participants' emotional responses and risk choices under the influence of the validated International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Based on the lessons learned, a limited prototype of WARD was further refined and then implemented in a formative evaluation. The formative evaluation employed two medical students from the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) to investigate their emotional response, risk perception, and situation awareness using the MicroSim InHospital under the influence of the validated film-based Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs). In Phase II, 32 new medical students from VCOM participated in 2 (intervention) x 2 (film) between-subjects study for addressing three research questions. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Results from Phase I indicated the need for MIPs, as well as shed light on the feasibility of employing anthropomorphic computer characters as intervention devices. Participants found anthropomorphic computer characters to be meaningful as virtual assistants in a team environment. The Facial Expression Coding System also indicated that participants experienced high levels of happiness/amusement when a happy and credible anthropomorphic computer character was introduced under angry emotional induction via MIPs. Physiological states results confirmed that participants' heart rate variability was affected significantly after the use of anthropomorphic computer characters, verifying that their utilization was potentially effective. The lessons I learned from the Phase I results led me to refine procedures and training/evaluation techniques, and to introduce anthropomorphic computer characters with minimal intrusiveness during the Phase II study. Findings from Phase II showed that one particular medical item, wiping contaminated spills, was found to be influenced by induced anger. Moreover, mixed support for using anthropomorphic computer characters and text interventions was also found for the medical and general risk perception ratings under induced anger. Sub-constructs within 3-D SART correlated with emotional responses and anthropomorphic computer character intervention. Two additional items, supply of attention and complexity of the situation, were also found to be influenced by anthropomorphic computer character intervention. Content analysis using the Word-Frequency List method resulted in positive responses for both anthropomorphic computer character and text interventions. Using Two-sample t tests, text based interventions led to a higher level of subjective happiness as measured by PANAS-X. Multiple regressions were also conducted and resulted in six equations for predicting the influence of emotion on situation awareness and medical based risk perception. / Ph. D.

A warfighter's situation awareness is vital to their survival and lethality on the battlefield. Situation awareness, achieved through audition, allows the warfighter to quickly and accurately locate the position of fellow warfighters and potential threats. However, hearing loss, acoustic trauma, or the use of hearing protection can diminish this vital ability to locate sounds in the environment accurately. The introduction of electronically modulated hearing protection and enhancement devices (HPED) is an attempt to improve auditory situation awareness for the warfighter. Currently, however, there are no auditory fitness-for-duty measures that allow an warfighter, commander, or medical personnel to assess localization performance in the open-ear or with hearing protection. Such an assessment is important for pre-placement of a warfighter into a hearing critical job and also as a readiness metric prior-to and during a deployment. The ability to measure performance with a hearing protector will also assist warfighters in selecting protection that will afford maximum performance. This study examined a set of auditory fitness for duty (AFFD) test/stimulus combinations designed to quantify horizontal localization performance. Three listening conditions were used throughout the study; they included an open-ear condition as well as in-the- ear HPED and over-the-ear HPED. The Peltor Com-Tac IITM was used as the over-the- ear HPED and the Etymotic EB15 BlastPLGTM was used as the in-the-ear HPED. Stimuli consisted of filtered pink-noise that differed in both duration and frequency. Frequencies ranged from 500-1000 Hz (low) and 3000-6000 Hz (high) and durations included 300 ms (short) and 3 seconds (long). Stimuli were presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL. AFFD measures were specifically designed to measure current performance or to predict performance after training. Measures of current performance include an accuracy test measured in four quadrants (Left-Front, Right-Front, Left-Rear, and Right- Rear) and a front-back confusion test (FBCT). Accuracy within each quadrant was reduced to a mean absolute error, in degrees, for stimuli presented at 30 deg and 60 deg from the medial plane. FBCT consisted of a percent correct for stimuli presented at 0 deg and 180deg. Measures of post-training performance include an inter-aural cues test and a front-back difference test FBDT. The IACT and FBDT required participants to identify if two sequential stimuli were presented from the same or different locations. The IACT was tested in the left-front and right-front quadrants (for stimuli at 30 deg and 60 deg) and the FBCT was tested with stimuli at 0 deg and 180 deg These tests also provided a percent. Results show that the high-frequency long-duration (H-Long) stimuli predicted current localization performance well, for all listening conditions. Other AFFD test/stimulus combinations were also found to predict performance for a given listening condition, but not for all conditions. AFFD measures designed to predict post-training performance did not show any AFFD test/stimuli combinations that worked for all listening conditions. There were some combinations that worked for a given listening condition but not all conditions. A further analysis of the data showed that the limited number and types of HPEDs used may have confounded these results. Passive hearing protectors as well as HPEDs are known to disturb the spectral and temporal auditory cues that allow for accurate localization. While these cues are disturbed they are often still present in the signal heard by the listener. With training/use of a hearing protector, auditory learning may occur that allows these cues to be used again to accurately locate a sound source. Auditory learning was assessed by providing HPED training/use to novice hearing protection users. Pre and post-training testing was performed with the open-ear, in-the-ear HPED, and over-the-ear HPED. Training was provided for only one type of HPED. Results indicate that auditory learning occurred for the training HPED only. There was no crossover of auditory learning to the non-training protector. Other measures of auditory learning included a subjective confidence rating of the HPED and a measure of response time for the localization task. Results showed that confidence increased for the HPED that was used in training. However, no changes in response time were found for any listening condition. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that AFFD measures continue to be developed for implementation as pre-placement, HPED selection, return-to-duty, and readiness metrics for U.S. military personnel. It is also recommended that objective and subjective measures of hearing protection performance consider the effect of auditory learning. The rating or ranking of HPEDs by novice users of such a device, without adequate training/use to allow for auditory learning, should be weighed carefully. / Ph. D.

Plusieurs études indiquent que les hommes évitent davantage les discussions conjugales conflictuelles que les femmes. L'objectif principal de cette étude consiste à examiner le rôle du pouvoir conjugal comme prédicteur du retrait des hommes. Cent trente-deux couples participent à l'étude. Ils complètent des questionnaires évaluant le retrait, le pouvoir conjugal, l'ajustement conjugal, la satisfaction conjugale, ainsi qu'un questionnaire socio-démographique. L'hypothèse principale est testée à l'aide d'une analyse de régression. Trois variables prédisent, ensemble, 49% du retrait des hommes: l'ajustement conjugal, l'asymétrie dans le pouvoir conjugal des femmes et la durée de vie commune. Le retrait des hommes ne semble donc pas associé à leur pouvoir conjugal. Par ailleurs, les résultats de cette étude suggèrent que les hommes et les femmes diffèrent dans leurs sphères d'influence au sein du couple, que les hommes sont plus satisfaits de leur relation de couple que les femmes et que l'ajustement conjugal des hommes est lié à leur pouvoir conjugal.

Communication and coordination in complex sociotechnical systems require continuous assessment on its artefacts and how they are utilized to improve system performance. Situation Awareness (SA) is considered as a fundamental concept in designing and understanding interactions between human and non-human agents (i.e., information systems) that impact system performance. The interaction efficiency is partly determined by quality of information or SA distributed across agents to ensure the accuracy of decision making and resource allocations. Disrupting SA distribution between agents can significantly affect operations of the system with financial and safety consequences. This research applied the Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) theory to study and improve patient flow management. The main objective of this research was to advance methodology in the DSA literature for (1) deriving design implications from DSA models, and (2) developing quantitative DSA models to formally compare system designs. This DSA research was situated in the domain of patient flow management. Data were collected using the three-part method of data elicitation, extraction, and representation to investigate DSA at a patient flow command and control center at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, VA. The data used were elicited from observations and interviews on workers daily activities and available historical database (i.e., TeleTracking). Then, data were represented into a combined network to highlight social, task and knowledge elements in patient flows for studying and assessing patient flow management. The influence of the DSA on complex systems was examined qualitatively and quantitatively. The DSA combined network qualitatively characterized patient flow management and identified deficiencies of the command-and-control center functions. The network characterized admission, clinical (inside-hospital) transportation, discharge, and environmental services functions managed by Carilion Transfer and Communications Center (CTaC). These characterizations led to the identification of design principles on job roles, tasks performed, and SA transactions and distribution adopted by the state-of-the-art patient flow management facility. In addition, the network representing the current operation of CTaC illustrated the connection between functional groups, arbitration of resources, and job roles that could become the bottlenecks in transmitting SA. The network also helped identify inefficient task loops, which resulted in delay due to missing/poor SA, and task orders that could be modified to improve the patient flow and thus reduce the likelihood of delay. The qualitative (i.e., combined network) model was partially translated into a quantitative model based on discrete event simulation (DES) and agent-based modeling (ABM) to simulate patient transportation inside the hospital. The simulation model consisted of 28 patient origins, 29 equipment origins, 12 destinations, and more than 200 entities (i.e., simulation objects). The model was validated by lack of significant difference on various outcome metrics between 100 simulation replications and historical data using one-way t-tests. The simulation model captured the distribution and transactions of knowledge elements between agents within the modeled processes. Further, the model successfully verified the deficiencies in the existing system (i.e., delay and cancelation), attributing various instances of deficiency to be either SA related or non-SA related. The simulation model tested two interventions for eliminating SA deficiencies revealed by the qualitative model: (1) updating the wards nurse before picking up patients from inpatient floor, and (2) updating the X-ray nurse/team before arriving with the patient. Both interventions involved updates from the transporters to nurses, transmitting SA on the estimated time of arrival and patient information for the nurse to become aware of the transport status. The simulation ran for 1500 replications for results on transport time and cancellation rate on these two interventions. One-way t-tests revealed that the intervention to update the wards nurse resulted in significant reductions in mean transport and cancellation rate time compared to historical data (i.e., TeleTracking), yielding 0.42 minutes to 1.24 minutes reduction in transport time and 2% to 5% less cancelations. However, the second intervention resulted in a significant increase in transport time and thus was ineffective. DES and ABM supplemented the qualitative modeling with quantitative evidence on DSA concepts and assessment of potential interventions for improving DSA in patient flow management. Specifically, the DES and ABM enabled comparison and prediction of performance outcome from recommended changes to communication protocols. These findings indicate that DSA is a promising framework for analyzing communication and coordination in complex systems and assessing improvement on SA design quantitatively. / Doctor of Philosophy / Hospitals aim to provide care and treatment to patients in a timely and effective manner but their operations can be hindered by delays and long treatment times, resulting in high operating cost. A potential cause of this problem is the complexity of patient treatment process and the number agents involved. The treatment is provided through nurses, doctors, and technicians who work together to deliver care to patients. They all rely on the information from various medical devices and communicate patient-related information continuously to streamline patient movement towards different locations for different retreatments in the hospital. Thus, studying and improving communication and coordination between the medical staff could improve patient flow that in turn reduce idling resources and patient time in hospital, thereby lowering the healthcare cost without sacrificing quality of care. This dissertation investigated patient movement in the hospital adopting Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA). DSA models communication and coordination by examining the distribution of situation awareness (SA) between human and machine agents for a given task. The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate how to develop DSA models for studying and improving patient flow management. The dissertation showed how to build a network model that illustrated how SA were generated and distributed amongst hospital staff and information systems to manage admission, discharge, room cleaning, and patient transportation. The network model also helped identified the deficiencies associated with different activities. Further, simulation was used to study the processes and SA communicated quantitively. The simulation model was able to show how one recommended change to the communication protocol could reduce patient transport time and cancellation for one route but another. This dissertation enhanced the methodology DSA for real-world applications and demonstrated the method to quantify SA distribution and transaction in complex system.

Situation (al) awareness (SA) is critical to analyze, predict and perform tasks effectively in a dynamic environment. Many studies on SA have ignored network dynamism and its effect on SA, focusing on simple environments. Many studies involving the network and SA have refrained from attempting to model information space dynamism (i.e. dynamic scenarios which may have more than one probable outcome). Few studies have identified the need for a flexible, robust and overarching framework which could model both the network and information space dynamisms and provide for analysis of different types of networks (heterogeneous/homogeneous) at multiple scales. We utilize the NCOPP (Network Centric Operations Performance & Prediction), a uniform framework with "plug-&-play" capabilities to provide analysis and performance prediction of networked information systems. In this work, we demonstrate the flexibility of the NCOPP framework and its ability to model a hierarchical sensor system satisfactorily. We model the network & information space dynamisms using probability and statistics theory (e.g. Bayesian prediction, probability distribution curves). We model the behavior of entities/nodes involved in the process of sharing information to achieve greatly improved situation awareness about a dynamic environment within hierarchical information network systems. Our behavior model mathematically represents how successful/unsuccessful predictions critically impact the achievement of effective situation awareness. In the behavior model, we tie together the cost of considering predictions which accounts for limited resources and the indirect effect of unsuccessful predictions. We research and show how the NCOPP framework can model real world networked information systems at different levels of granularity. We leverage the framework's capabilities to perform experiments that not only assist in an objective comparison of distributed information filtering and central data processing paradigms but also provide important insights into the effect of network dynamism on the quality and completeness of information in the system. We demonstrate the ability of incorporating key network information, in the process of achieving SA to improve the performance of the system. We exhibit the improvement in performance achieved with inclusion of the network characteristics during dynamic allocation of resources. We were able to show that simple hierarchical filtering (via distributed processing) results in significant reduction in the information in regards to "false alarms" when compared to systems employing central information processing. Experimental results show a direct positive impact in the completeness of SA when information sharing in hierarchical systems is supplemented by network delay information. Overall, we demonstrated the ability of the NCOPP framework to provide meaningful insights into the interactions of key factors involved in operation of networked information systems, with a particular emphasis on SA. / Master of Science

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to fundamentally change the way we interact with information. Direct perception of computer generated graphics atop physical reality can afford hands-free access to contextual information on the fly. However, as users must interact with both digital and physical information simultaneously, yesterday's approaches to interface design may not be sufficient to support the new way of interaction. Furthermore, the impacts of this novel technology on user experience and performance are not yet fully understood. Driving is one of many promising tasks that can benefit from AR, where conformal graphics strategically placed in the real-world can accurately guide drivers' attention to critical environmental elements. The ultimate purpose of this study is to reduce pedestrian accidents through design of driver interfaces that take advantage of AR head-up displays (HUD). For this purpose, this work aimed to (1) identify information requirements for pedestrian collision warning, (2) design AR driver interfaces, and (3) quantify effects of AR interfaces on driver performance and experience. Considering the dynamic nature of human-environment interaction in AR-supported driving, we took an ecological approach for interface design and evaluation, appreciating not only the user but also the environment. The requirement analysis examined environmental constraints imposed on the drivers' behavior, interface design translated those behavior-shaping constraints into perceptual forms of interface elements, and usability evaluations utilized naturalistic driving scenarios and tasks for better ecological validity. A novel AR driver interface for pedestrian collision warning, the virtual shadow, was proposed taking advantage of optical see-through HUDs. A series of usability evaluations in both a driving simulator and on an actual roadway showed that virtual shadow interface outperformed current pedestrian collision warning interfaces in guiding driver attention, increasing situation awareness, and improving task performance. Thus, this work has demonstrated the opportunity of incorporating an ecological approach into user interface design and evaluation for AR driving applications. This research provides both basic and practical contributions in human factors and AR by (1) providing empirical evidence furthering knowledge about driver experience and performance in AR, and, (2) extending traditional usability engineering methods for automotive AR interface design and evaluation. / Ph. D.

This thesis analyzes the use of hidden Markov models (HMM) in wireless communication systems. HMMs are a probabilistic method which is useful for discrete channel modeling. The simulations done in the thesis verified a previously formulated methodology. Power delay profiles (PDP) of twelve wireless receivers were used for the experiment. To reduce the computational burden, binary HMMs were used. The PDP measurements were sampled to identify static receivers and grid-based analysis. This work is significant as it has been performed in a new environment. Stochastic game theory is analyzed to gain insight into the decision-making process of HMMs. Study of game theory is significant because it analyzes rational decisions in detail by attaching risk and reward to every possibility. Network security situation awareness has emerged as a novel application of HMMs in wireless networking. The dually stochastic nature of HMMs is applied in this process for behavioral analysis of network intrusion. The similarity of HMMs to artificial neural networks makes it useful for such applications. This application was performed using simulations similar to the original works. / Master of Science