title: A distributed adaptive debugger server

authors: Wong, Derek Antony

abstract: A model and corresponding protocol suitable for debugging distributed embedded systems is developed. Protocol design issues and a formal model of the debugger server are defined with the intent of developing an extensible debug server to aid the development of dynamically retargettable debug clients suitable for application to heterogeneous distributed systems. 

The thesis considers one of the major problems faced in embedded systems, that of dynamic configuration of system components. The namespace model described solves these issues in a way that provides for the development of dynamic “hot insertion, plug and play” systems. This model is applied throughout the design of the protocol toward the development of debug services. 

The model is formally developed using the specification language, VDM-SL. Specifications of the model are given implicitly and then derived to an explicit executable form except for target-dependencies. Informal correctness proofs are carried out where necessary to show that the transformation from implicit to explicit form is valid and that the model and protocols themselves are valid. The specifications have been syntax and type checked using the IFAD VDM Toolbox; a CASE tool based on the 1996 ISO VDM-SL standard that provides an environment for the development and testing of VDM-SL specifications.

text: A distributed adaptive debugger server A model and corresponding protocol suitable for debugging distributed embedded systems is developed. Protocol design issues and a formal model of the debugger server are defined with the intent of developing an extensible debug server to aid the development of dynamically retargettable debug clients suitable for application to heterogeneous distributed systems. 

The thesis considers one of the major problems faced in embedded systems, that of dynamic configuration of system components. The namespace model described solves these issues in a way that provides for the development of dynamic “hot insertion, plug and play” systems. This model is applied throughout the design of the protocol toward the development of debug services. 

The model is formally developed using the specification language, VDM-SL. Specifications of the model are given implicitly and then derived to an explicit executable form except for target-dependencies. Informal correctness proofs are carried out where necessary to show that the transformation from implicit to explicit form is valid and that the model and protocols themselves are valid. The specifications have been syntax and type checked using the IFAD VDM Toolbox; a CASE tool based on the 1996 ISO VDM-SL standard that provides an environment for the development and testing of VDM-SL specifications.

year: 2001

title: Human factors affecting the control and perception of motor vehicle dynamics

authors: Spackman, Kerry

abstract: Vehicle Dynamics Engineers (VDEs) responsible for developing passenger vehicles and Elite Race Drivers were analysed over a 5 year period using telemetry data. Investigations were undertaken in an attempt to identify the most important rate limiting factors for each profession and to develop effective training methods for them. 

In a preliminary investigation it was found that the VDEs were unable to reliably detect certain changes to a vehicle’s dynamic behaviour despite their high confidence that they were doing so. This result led to the main VDE study where the VDEs were assessed using a Rotary vestibular platform, the RAF Basic Attributes tests and telemetry analysis of their performance while they evaluated changes to a vehicle’s dynamic behaviour. It was found that there was no significant relation between either the Attributes scores or vestibular performance and the VDEs’ ability to discriminate changes to the dynamic behaviour of a vehicle, termed their Evaluation performance. 

After the VDE’s baseline Evaluation performance was established, they received individual training to improve both their performance at sensing dynamic motion (Perceptual performance) and their consistency and accuracy of controlling vehicle motion (Control performance). The VDEs were then retested to determine the effect of this training on their Evaluation performance. Whereas before training most VDEs scored in the worst Evaluation performance category, after training most scored in the highest Evaluation performance category. A new mathematical technique for analysing telemetry data was developed which allowed us to separately determine the effects of Perceptual performance and Control performance on Evaluation performance. It was found that improving the VDE’s Perceptual performance accounted for all improvements in their Evaluation performance whereas Control performance was unrelated to their Evaluation performance. This finding led to the development of a new Human Factors training program which will be instituted for all Ford’s professional VDEs from 1996 onward. 

In the Elite race driver study, a mathematical model was developed which allowed us to simulate the effect of altering a driver’s curvature control strategy, which is a key component of a driver’s style, on lap times. It was found that all drivers tested, with the notable exception of 3 times World Formula 1 Champion Jackie Stewart, had inadequate and / or faulty cognitive models for optimising curvature control when compared to our computer simulations. Training the subjects to improve their curvature control model produced substantial objective improvements in performance whereas additional unaided practice produced no improvement. For example a 19 year old N.Z. race driver was trained in one afternoon to lap faster than the current World Touring Car champion using the same vehicle.

text: Human factors affecting the control and perception of motor vehicle dynamics Vehicle Dynamics Engineers (VDEs) responsible for developing passenger vehicles and Elite Race Drivers were analysed over a 5 year period using telemetry data. Investigations were undertaken in an attempt to identify the most important rate limiting factors for each profession and to develop effective training methods for them. 

In a preliminary investigation it was found that the VDEs were unable to reliably detect certain changes to a vehicle’s dynamic behaviour despite their high confidence that they were doing so. This result led to the main VDE study where the VDEs were assessed using a Rotary vestibular platform, the RAF Basic Attributes tests and telemetry analysis of their performance while they evaluated changes to a vehicle’s dynamic behaviour. It was found that there was no significant relation between either the Attributes scores or vestibular performance and the VDEs’ ability to discriminate changes to the dynamic behaviour of a vehicle, termed their Evaluation performance. 

After the VDE’s baseline Evaluation performance was established, they received individual training to improve both their performance at sensing dynamic motion (Perceptual performance) and their consistency and accuracy of controlling vehicle motion (Control performance). The VDEs were then retested to determine the effect of this training on their Evaluation performance. Whereas before training most VDEs scored in the worst Evaluation performance category, after training most scored in the highest Evaluation performance category. A new mathematical technique for analysing telemetry data was developed which allowed us to separately determine the effects of Perceptual performance and Control performance on Evaluation performance. It was found that improving the VDE’s Perceptual performance accounted for all improvements in their Evaluation performance whereas Control performance was unrelated to their Evaluation performance. This finding led to the development of a new Human Factors training program which will be instituted for all Ford’s professional VDEs from 1996 onward. 

In the Elite race driver study, a mathematical model was developed which allowed us to simulate the effect of altering a driver’s curvature control strategy, which is a key component of a driver’s style, on lap times. It was found that all drivers tested, with the notable exception of 3 times World Formula 1 Champion Jackie Stewart, had inadequate and / or faulty cognitive models for optimising curvature control when compared to our computer simulations. Training the subjects to improve their curvature control model produced substantial objective improvements in performance whereas additional unaided practice produced no improvement. For example a 19 year old N.Z. race driver was trained in one afternoon to lap faster than the current World Touring Car champion using the same vehicle.

year: 1996

title: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony

authors: Murphy, Ngahuia Aroha Grace

subjects: Native women's ceremony

abstract: This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

text: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

year: 2019