Integration of task level planning and diagnosis for an intelligent robot

A satellite floating space is diagnosed with a telerobot attached performing maintenance or replacement tasks. This research included three objectives. The first objective was to generate intelligent path planning for a robot to move around a satellite. The second objective was to diagnose possible faulty scenarios in the satellite. The third objective included two tasks. The first task was to combine intelligent path planning with diagnosis. The second task was to build an interface between the combined intelligent system with Robosim. The ability of a robot to deal with unexpected scenarios is particularly important in space since the situation could be different from time to time so that the telerobot must be capable of detecting that the situation has changed and the necessity may exist to alter its behavior based on the new situation. The feature of allowing human-in-the-loop is also very important in space. In some extreme cases, the situation is beyond the capability of a robot so our research project allows the human to override the decision of a robot

Benefits of pollution monitoring technology for greenhouse gas offset markets

Environmental economists have shown that tradable emission permit markets can reduce the costs to society of pollution reduction. However, when emissions are difficult to monitor and verify, offset credits from pollution reductions may be subject to price discounts that reduce social welfare. In this paper, we estimate the extent to which social welfare could be improved by using new technology to increase the accuracy with which pollution flows from agricultural fields can be monitored. We use a hypothetical case study of a situation in which farmers can reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Midwest agricultural land parcels and sell the resulting offset permits in a greenhouse gas tradable permit market. We simulate market outcomes with and without an inexpensive technology that increases the accuracy of emission estimates, reduces the discount to which agricultural offset permits are subject, and improves the performance of tradable permit system. We find that the benefits from such technology range as high as $138 for a 100 acre field if N2O emissions are an exponential function of nitrogen application rates. However, variation in the benefits to farmers of eliminating price discounts may mean efficient technology adoption is not uniform across space.tradable permit, greenhouse gases, uncertainty, technology

Medical students writing on death, dying and palliative care : a qualitative analysis of reflective essays

Background: Medical students and doctors are becoming better prepared to care for patients with palliative care needs and support patients at the end of life. This preparation needs to start at medical school. Objective: To assess how medical students learn about death, dying and palliative care during a clinical placement using reflective essays and to provide insights to improve medical education about end of life care and/or palliative care. Methods: Qualitative study in which all reflective essays written by third year medical students in one year from a UK medical school were searched electronically for those that included ‘death’, ‘dying’ and ‘palliative care’. The anonymised data were managed using QSR NVivo 10 software, and a systematic analysis was conducted in three distinct phases: (1) open coding; (2) axial coding and (3) selective coding. Ethical approval was received. Results: Fifty-four essays met the inclusion criteria from 241 essays screened for the terms ‘death’, ‘dying’ or ‘palliative’, 22 students gave consent for participation and their 24 essays were included. Saturation of themes was reached. Three overarching themes were identified: emotions, empathy, and experiential and reflective learning. Students emphasised trying to develop a balance between showing empathy and their emotional state. Students learned a lot from clinical encounters and watching doctors manage difficult situations, as well as from their refection during and after the experience. Conclusions: Reflective essays give insights into the way students learn about death, dying and palliative care and how it affects them personally as well as the preparation that is needed to be better equipped to deal with these kinds of experiences. Analysis of the essays enabled the proposal of new strategies to help make them more effective learning tools and to optimise students’ learning from a palliative care attachment

Stability of the proton-to-electron mass ratio

We report a limit on the fractional temporal variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio as, obtained by comparing the frequency of a rovibrational transition in SF6 with the fundamental hyperfine transition in Cs. The SF6 transition was accessed using a CO2 laser to interrogate spatial 2-photon Ramsey fringes. The atomic transition was accessed using a primary standard controlled with a Cs fountain. This result is direct and model-free

Preliminary Cultural Resources Investigations for the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, Hidalgo County, Texas

Archeological, archival, and geomorphologic investigations were conducted for the proposed Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge Project in Hidalgo County, Texas, by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. from October 12-27, 1992. The purposes of these investigations were to locate and record any cultural resources within the project area, determine their eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and designation as State Archeological Landmarks, and to provide an overview of the Holocene geomorphic history of the project area. The geomorphic history of the project area suggests that the Rio Grande has experienced continuous channel aggradation from the end of the Pleistocene to ca. 1000 B.P. Climatic changes and diminishing sediment loads led to channel incision around 1000 B.P., forming a low late Holocene terrace and resulting in increased sinuosity and a decreased channel width-to-depth ratio. The investigations included a stratified sample survey of approximately 162 hectares (400 acres) and the excavation of 16 backhoe trenches and 14 shovel tests. A total of 10 sites, consisting of 10 historic and 2 prehistoric components, were documented. Six standing architectural properties, each consisting of a structure or groups of structures, also were documented. Four of the sites (41HG153, 41HG155, 41HG156, and 41HG158) are considered to be potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and for designation as State Archeological Landmarks. Two of the architectural properties - the Carmichael and Sorenson farmsteads - also may be eligible for listing on the National Register. The four potentially eligible sites consist of four historic and two prehistoric components. The historic components date from the Texas Republic period to the early twentieth century, representing the establishment and development of the EI Capote Ranch community. The two prehistoric components (41HG153 and 41HG158), of which only 41HG153 is potentially eligible, represent Late Prehistoric and unknown prehistoric components, respectively

White Counselor Trainees\u27 Racial Identity and Working Alliance Perceptions

Racial identity has been theorized to significantly affect cross-racial counseling relationships (Helms, 1984, 1995). This study examined the direct impact of White racial identity of 124 counselor trainees on working alliance formation in a same-racial and cross-racial vicarious counseling analogue. Regardless of the race of the client, disintegration and reintegration attitudes negatively affected working alliance ratings, and pseudoindependent and autonomy attitudes positively affected working alliance ratings. Implications for counseling, supervision, training, and research are discussed