Fuzzy Ensembles for Embedding Adaptive Behaviours in Semi-Autonomous Avatars in 3D Virtual Worlds

Semi-autonomous avatars should be both realistic and believable. The goal is to learn from and reproduce the behaviours of the user-controlled input to enable semi-autonomous avatars to plausibly interact with their human-controlled counterparts. A powerful tool for embedding autonomous behaviour is learning by imitation. Hence, in this paper an ensemble of fuzzy inference systems cluster the user input data to identify natural groupings within the data to describe the users movement and actions in a more abstract way. Multiple clustering algorithms are investigated along with a neuro-fuzzy classifier; and an ensemble of fuzzy systems are evaluated.

Childrens experiences of domestic violence and abuse: Siblings accounts of relational coping

This article explores how children see their relationships, particularly their sibling relationships, in families affected by domestic violence (DV) and how relationality emerges in their accounts as a resource to build an agentic sense of self. The ‘voice’ of children is largely absent from the DV literature, which typically portrays them as passive, damaged and relationally incompetent. Children’s own understandings of their relational worlds are often overlooked, and consequently, existing models of children’s social interactions give inadequate accounts of their meaning-making-in-context. Drawn from a larger study of children’s experiences of DV and abuse, this article uses two case studies of sibling relationships to explore young people’s use of relational resources, for coping with violence in the home. The article explores how relationality and coping intertwine in young people’s accounts and disrupts the taken-for-granted assumption that children’s ‘premature caring’ or ‘parentification’ is (only) pathological in children’s responses to DV. This has implications for understanding young people’s experiences in the present and supporting their capacity for relationship building in the future.

Towards a positive cross-cultural lexicography: Enriching our emotional landscape through 216 ‘untranslatable’ words pertaining to well-being

Although much attention has been paid to culture-specific psychopathologies, there have been no comparable attempts to chart positive mental states that may be particular to certain cultures. This paper outlines the beginnings of a positive cross-cultural lexicography of ‘untranslatable’ words pertaining to wellbeing, culled from across the world’s languages. A quasi-systematic search uncovered 216 such terms. Using grounded theory, these words were organised into three categories: feelings (comprising positive and complex feelings); relationships (comprising intimacy and pro-sociality); and character (comprising personal resources and spirituality). The paper has two main aims. First, it aims to provide a window onto cultural differences in constructions of wellbeing, thereby enriching our understanding of wellbeing. Second, a more ambitious aim is that this lexicon may help expand the emotional vocabulary of English speakers (and indeed speakers of all languages), and consequently enrich their experiences of wellbeing. The paper concludes by setting out a research agenda to pursue these aims further.