Exceptional Driving Principles for Autonomous Vehicles

Public expectations for automated vehicles span a broad range, from mobility for passengers, to road user safety, to compliance with the traffic code. In most ordinary situations, these expectations can be satisfied simultaneously. But these various expectations can also lead to exceptional scenarios where certain objectives, such as those related to safety, are in tension with road rules. Exceptional driving scenarios challenge motion planning algorithms in automated vehicles to find solutions that are legally grounded, ethically sound, and technically feasible. The general public’s familiarity with exceptional driving scenarios comes from the classic Trolley Car problem in philosophy, asking who should live and who should die in an unavoidable collision. These discussions tend to take a consequentialist view by framing the ethical action as the one that achieves the best outcome. By taking a different perspective that views driving as a social contract, the AV\u27s ethical obligations are limited to meeting the duty of care owed to other road users. With this perspective, the existing legal system in the US provides a framework for choosing appropriate behaviors in exceptional driving cases and for answering the Trolley Car problem. This work outlines principles that prioritize care for humans, respect the authority of human-defined traffic law, and ensure that the vehicle avoids decisions that introduce unreasonable risks. Developing AVs that can legally and ethically negotiate exceptional driving scenarios is simply a matter of translating the principles into engineering requirements with no need for new laws or endless philosophical debate

Comparative and Functional Genomics of Rhodococcus opacus PD630 for Biofuels Development

The Actinomycetales bacteria Rhodococcus opacus PD630 and Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 bioconvert a diverse range of organic substrates through lipid biosynthesis into large quantities of energy-rich triacylglycerols (TAGs). To describe the genetic basis of the Rhodococcus oleaginous metabolism, we sequenced and performed comparative analysis of the 9.27 Mb R. opacus PD630 genome. Metabolic-reconstruction assigned 2017 enzymatic reactions to the 8632 R. opacus PD630 genes we identified. Of these, 261 genes were implicated in the R. opacus PD630 TAGs cycle by metabolic reconstruction and gene family analysis. Rhodococcus synthesizes uncommon straight-chain odd-carbon fatty acids in high abundance and stores them as TAGs. We have identified these to be pentadecanoic, heptadecanoic, and cis-heptadecenoic acids. To identify bioconversion pathways, we screened R. opacus PD630, R. jostii RHA1, Ralstonia eutropha H16, and C. glutamicum 13032 for growth on 190 compounds. The results of the catabolic screen, phylogenetic analysis of the TAGs cycle enzymes, and metabolic product characterizations were integrated into a working model of prokaryotic oleaginy.Cambridge-MIT InstituteMassachusetts Institute of Technology. (Seed Grant program)Shell Oil CompanyNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.)United States. National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health. Department of Health and Human Services (Contract No. HHSN272200900006C

Track E Implementation Science, Health Systems and Economics

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138412/1/jia218443.pd

Accumulation of lignin residues in organic matter fractions of lowland rice soils: a pyrolysis-GC-MS study

In tropical Asia, multiple annual cropping of lowland rice and the associated submerged soil conditions have been linked to long-term changes in nitrogen (N) cycling and the chemical nature of soil organic matter. To identify changes in organic matter properties, two humic acid fractions and whole soil samples were obtained from field treatments of lowland rice that varied in cropping intensity, fertilizer management, and location. These samples were methylated and analyzed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. With compounds expressed in relative abundance, whole soil was enriched in nonmethoxybenzene compounds and heterocyclic N compounds compared with extracted humic acids. The young mobile humic acid (MHA) fraction had a wide diversity of methoxybenzenes that are associated with lignin residues. The more recalcitrant calcium humate (CaHA) fraction had characteristics intermediate between whole soil and MHA. Under intensified cropping and increased soil submergence, lignin residues increased in relative abundance in all three fractions. Heterocyclic N compounds decreased with intensified cropping, consistent with previous analysis by 15N nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Their parent compounds may be primarily naturally occurring heterocyclic N compounds. For whole soil, and especially the MHA, submergence effects were accentuated in treatments with high fertilizer rates, trends that may be related to the balance between input rates and degradation rates of crop residues. The ratio of myristic acid: stearic acid varied with soil submergence, fertilizer rate, and type of fraction in patterns following the abundance of methoxybenzenes. In general, responses of the MHA and CaHA to field treatments were representative of whole soil

Autoplay: Automatic player creation using conceptual clustering

Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games entail a lot of difficulty due to the sheer number of tasks to perform (i.e. attach, build) and factors to consider (i.e strategy-formulation, resource-handling). However, the main source of challenge found in RTS games comes from an opponent. A limitation exists in that current AI agents in games need to be given an unfair advantage to simulate difficulty. Once a payer learns to counter the strategy, it may lead to a decrease in the variety, difficulty, and playability of a game if he cannot find human opponents. An agent capable of learning and modeling a player\u27s moves can help alleviate this problem by providing a means for the agent to vary its moves from a prewritten, scripted AI. User modeling (UM) is the process of obtaining relevant user information to be able to create a model based from a user\u27s behavior (Rosson, 1998). This research applies UM by having an agent model a player and uses this to implement a capable AI opponent. This is done by obtaining relevant user actions and corresponding environment states. This is done by obtaining relevant user actions and corresponding environment states. This research tackles problems involve in modifying an RTS game to fit the agent (for the player to train or fight) and the user model, and constructing a user model. All these three algorithms failed to come up with a useful model. The set of games was then trimmed down to 7 games, and the algorithms constructed the user model of a player and the agent acted like the player. However, there were several factors that greatly hindered the agent\u27s performance. Some of these factors were the inclusion of irrelevant attributes and failing to consider relevant attributes

Neutralizing property of Bryophyllum pinnatum (Katakataka) and Eleusine indica (Paragis) leaves extract against Naja philippinensis venom

Indirect hemolytic assay was used in vitro testing, wherein in 30 ul of venon was applied to the wells on agarose-erythrocyte-egg yolk plate and were incubated overnight at 37°C and produced a hemolytic halo, after which different treatment concentrations of Bryophyllum pinnatum and Eleusine indica crude extracts were used in increasing order (10, 30, 50, 70 and 100 ug/mL). In vivo phase include the administration of the extracts on Eudrilus euginae (10, 30, 50, 70 and 100 ug/mL). In vivo phase include the administration of the extracts on Eudrilus euginae (African Night crawler) wherein at their posterior end and its motor skills were observed for 24 hours, with monitoring interval of 30 minutes. After observation, the living and the dead earthworms were counted. Results of the study showed that phytochemical testing shows that Bryophyllum pinnatum leaves extracts has flavonoid (quercetin) while Eleusine indica leaves extracts has phenol (gallic acid). Indirect hemolytic assay results shows both crude extracts reduced the hemolytic halo of the venom. Bryophyllum pinnatum and Eleusine indica exhibit neutralizing property in which the length of survival of earthworms varies on the crude extract concentration that is monitored for 24 hours. The study conclude that there is a significant difference between Bryophyllum pinnatum leaves extracts and commercially available antivenom on 10, 30, 50, 70 mg/dl concentrations while the 100 mg/dl has no significant difference. While the Eleusine indica leaves extract and commercially available antivenom has significant difference on 10, 70 and 100 mg/dl concentration while in 30 and 50 mg/dl which has no significance difference