Surrogate Search As a Way to Combat Harmful Effects of Ill-behaved Evaluation Functions

Recently, several researchers have found that cost-based satisficing search with A* often runs into problems. Although some "work arounds" have been proposed to ameliorate the problem, there has been little concerted effort to pinpoint its origin. In this paper, we argue that the origins of this problem can be traced back to the fact that most planners that try to optimize cost also use cost-based evaluation functions (i.e., f(n) is a cost estimate). We show that cost-based evaluation functions become ill-behaved whenever there is a wide variance in action costs; something that is all too common in planning domains. The general solution to this malady is what we call a surrogatesearch, where a surrogate evaluation function that doesn't directly track the cost objective, and is resistant to cost-variance, is used. We will discuss some compelling choices for surrogate evaluation functions that are based on size rather that cost. Of particular practical interest is a cost-sensitive version of size-based evaluation function -- where the heuristic estimates the size of cheap paths, as it provides attractive quality vs. speed tradeoffsComment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1103.368

Biotechnology to Combat COVID-19

This book provides an inclusive and comprehensive discussion of the transmission, science, biology, genome sequencing, diagnostics, and therapeutics of COVID-19. It also discusses public and government health measures and the roles of media as well as the impact of society on the ongoing efforts to combat the global pandemic. It addresses almost every topic that has been studied so far in the research on SARS-CoV-2 to gain insights into the fundamentals of the disease and mitigation strategies. This volume is a useful resource for virologists, epidemiologists, biologists, medical professionals, public health and government professionals, and all global citizens who have endured and battled against the pandemic

Preferences for Processes: the Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice

This Article examines a conceptual distinction between product-related information (such as whether a consumer good threatens to harm its user) and process-related information (such as whether a good’s production harmed workers, animals, or the environment) that has appeared in various guises within international trade law; domestic environmental, health, and safety regulation; and constitutional commercial speech jurisprudence. This process/product distinction tends to dismiss information concerning processes as unworthy of attention from consumers or regulators, at least so long as the processes at issue do not manifest themselves in the physical or compositional characteristics of resulting end products. Proponents have offered the process/product distinction as a useful device for determining when consumer product regulations are likely to have drifted beyond the satisfaction of significant consumer interest into areas of unjustified alarm, disguised protectionism, or excessive encroachment onto competing interests, such as the speech concerns of product manufacturers or the domestic sovereignty of foreign nations. As this Article shows, however, the process/product distinction proves far too thin and formalistic of a conceptual device, once one examines the full panoply of reasons why consumers might express preferences for processes. Thus, rather than dismissing process preferences as especially likely to be ill-informed or otherwise objectionable, this Article argues in favor of acknowledging and accommodating such preferences within theoretical frameworks for policy analysis. Indeed, in view of several growing phenomena — including the cultural and political significance attached to the consumption function, the effort by regulatory cost-benefit analysts to ground public policies on the values revealed by individuals acting in their roles as market actors, and the integration of global product markets without similarly expansive integration of the global regulatory system — this Article concludes that, in the future, process preferences may serve as indispensable outlets for public-regarding behavior

Adopting the UNESCO Ethics Model to Critique Disease Mongering

The question this dissertation seeks to address is if the process of disease mongering can be ethically assessed. Chapter one provides a broad scope of the ethical challenge of disease mongering, UNESCO model framework, ADHD and PMDD. Chapter two examines disease mongering and its driving forces in detail. Chapter three provides an overview of the UNESCO model framework. Chapter four ethically examines disease mongering in conjunction with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Chapter five examines disease mongering in association with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Chapter six concludes that examined through the UNESCO model ethical framework disease mongering is occurring for both ADHD and PMDD, and provides remarks for the addressing this in the future

McNair Research Journal

Full issue of the Georgia Southern University McNair Journal presented by the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program at Georgia Southern University. Fifty Years of Brown: An analysis of the impact of Brown on the educational system in Statesboro, Georgia Reece Anthony The Use of Natural Transformation in Actinobacillus pleuropnemoniae to Generate Confirmatory Mutants in a Stereotype 1 Strain Leandra D. Burwell Global outsourcing: A study of attitudes held by Georgia Southern Students Patricia Dugan A Comparison of Theweleit\u27s Red Nurse/White Nurse Figures with the Jezebel/Mammy figures of African Slave Women in the Southern, Ante-Bellum Plantation System Aziza el-Shair The Effects of Technological Advancements on Ethical Principles Kendrick J. Hamilton Survivor Guilt and First-Generation College Students: The role of family support Dia Y. Harden Early Warning Signs of Fraudulent Financial Reporting in the Healthcare Industry Shaketa Jackson BET on Black: A content analysis of African American representation in commercials on BET Gloria T. Morgan Who will be affected by the Proposed Changes to the HOPE Scholarship Rebecca Perkins The Environmental pH Affect on Actinobacillus pleuropnemoniae ApxI Toxin Production Earnest V. Powell The Seeker Sensitive Message of Contemporary Protestant Christianity Richard Preville Quantitative Precipitation Forecast Using Neural Networks Jamison Smallwood Sister-to-sister Connections: Fostering healthy relationships among Black Women Brandee A. Thomas Portraying John Brown in the New York Times: A content analysis Patricia Thomas Racial Identity and Satisfaction at Georgia Southern University Takeshia Toles Representation of African Americans in Contemporary Popular Children\u27s Picture Books Pamela Walker A Measurement of Physical Activity and Fitness of Undergraduate Georgia Southern University Students Kamilah Whippl