OCS Title and Current MMS Regulatory Matters

In this paper, we attempt to set-forth our current thoughts on certain unique aspects of title to oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf ( OCS ) and attempt to encapsulate and comment upon certain of the current federal regulations applicable to leasing for the exploration and production of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico ( GOM )

Can bounded and self-interested agents be teammates? Application to planning in ad hoc teams

Planning for ad hoc teamwork is challenging because it involves agents collaborating without any prior coordination or communication. The focus is on principled methods for a single agent to cooperate with others. This motivates investigating the ad hoc teamwork problem in the context of self-interested decision-making frameworks. Agents engaged in individual decision making in multiagent settings face the task of having to reason about other agents’ actions, which may in turn involve reasoning about others. An established approximation that operationalizes this approach is to bound the infinite nesting from below by introducing level 0 models. For the purposes of this study, individual, self-interested decision making in multiagent settings is modeled using interactive dynamic influence diagrams (I-DID). These are graphical models with the benefit that they naturally offer a factored representation of the problem, allowing agents to ascribe dynamic models to others and reason about them. We demonstrate that an implication of bounded, finitely-nested reasoning by a self-interested agent is that we may not obtain optimal team solutions in cooperative settings, if it is part of a team. We address this limitation by including models at level 0 whose solutions involve reinforcement learning. We show how the learning is integrated into planning in the context of I-DIDs. This facilitates optimal teammate behavior, and we demonstrate its applicability to ad hoc teamwork on several problem domains and configurations

Mechanics and Control of Biomimetic Locomotion

Biomimetic locomotion refers to the movement of robotic mechanisms in ways that are analogous to the patterns of movement found in nature. This paper reviews progress towards the development of more unifying principles for the analysis and control of biomimetic robotic locomotion

Mechanics and Control of Biomimetic Locomotion

Biomimetic locomotion refers to the movement of robotic mechanisms in ways that are analogous to the patterns of movement found in nature. This paper reviews progress towards the development of more unifying principles for the analysis and control of biomimetic robotic locomotion

Original Research Body Mass Index is a Poor Predictor of Bedside Appendix Ultrasound Success or Accuracy

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between body mass index (BMI) and success or accuracy rate of beside ultrasound (BUS) for the diagnosis of appendicitis. Methods: Patients four years of age and older presenting to the emergency department with suspected appendicitis were eligible. Enrollment was by convenience sampling. After informed consent, BUS was performed by trained emergency physicians who had undergone a minimum of one-hour didactic training on the use of BUS to diagnose appendicitis. We ascertained subject outcomes by a combination of medical record review and telephone follow up. Calculated BMI for adults and children were divided into four categories (underweight, normal, overweight, obese) according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifications. Results: A total of 125 subjects consented for the study, and 116 of them had adequate image data for final analysis. Seventy (60%) of the subjects were children. Prevalence of appendicitis was 39%. Fifty-two (45%) of the BUS studies were diagnostic (successful). Overall accuracy rate was 75%. Analysis by chi-square test or Mann-Whitney U test did not find any significant correlation between BMI category and BUS success. Similarly, there was no significant correlation between BMI category and BUS accuracy. The same conclusion was reached when children and adults were analyzed separately, or when subjects were dichotomized into underweight/ normal and overweight/ obese categories. Conclusion: BMI category alone is a poor predictor of appendix BUS success or accuracy. [West J Emerg Med. 2016;17(4)454-459.

Body Mass Index is a Poor Predictor of Bedside Appendix Ultrasound Success or Accuracy

Objectives: To determine whether there is a relationship between body mass index (BMI) and success or accuracy rate of BUS for the diagnosis of appendicitis. Methods: Patients 4 years of age and older presenting to the emergency department with suspected appendicitis were eligible.Enrollment was by convenience sampling. After informed consent, BUS wasperformed by trained emergency physicians who had undergone a minimum of 1-hour didactic training on the use of BUS to diagnose appendicitis. Subject outcomes were ascertained by a combination of medical recordreview and telephone follow-up.  Calculated BMI for adults and children were divided into 4 categories(underweight, normal, overweight, obese) according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifications.Results: A total of 125 subjects consented for the study, and 116 of them had adequate image data for final analysis.  Seventy (60%) of the subjects werechildren.  Prevalence of appendicitis was 39%.  Fifty-two (45%) of the BUS studies were diagnostic (successful). Overall accuracy rate was 75%.  Analysis by Chi-square test or Mann Whitney U did not find any significant correlation between BMI category and BUS success. Similarly, there was no significant correlation between BMI category and BUS accuracy.  Same conclusion was reached when children and adults were analyzed separately, or when subjects were dichotomized into underweight/ normal and overweight/ obesecategories.  Conclusion: BMI category alone is a poor predictor of appendix BUS success or accuracy

Bedside Ultrasonography as an Adjunct to Routine Evaluation of Acute Appendicitis in the Emergency Department

Introduction: Appendicitis is a common condition presenting to the emergency department (ED). Increasingly emergency physicians (EP) are using bedside ultrasound (BUS) as an adjunct diagnostic tool. Our objective is to investigate the test characteristics of BUS for the diagnosis of appendicitis and identify components of routine ED workup and BUS associated with the presence of appendicitis.Methods: Patients four years of age and older presenting to the ED with suspected appendicitis were eligible for enrollment. After informed consent was obtained, BUS was performed on the subjects by trained EPs who had undergone a minimum of one-hour didactic training on the use of BUS to diagnose appendicitis.They then recorded elements of clinical history, physical examination, white blood cell count (WBC) with polymophonuclear percentage (PMN), and BUS findings on a data form. We ascertained subject outcomes by a combination of medical record review and telephone follow-up.Results: A total of 125 subjects consented for the study, and 116 had adequate image data for final analysis. Prevalence of appendicitis was 40%. Mean age of the subjects was 20.2 years, and 51% were male. BUS was 100% sensitive (95% CI 87-100%) and 32% specific (95% CI 14-57%) for detection of appendicitis, with a positive predictive value of 72% (95% CI 56-84%), and a negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI 52-100%).  Assuming all non-diagnostic studies were negative would yield a sensitivity of 72% and specificity of 81%. Subjects with appendicitis had a significantly higher occurrence of anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and a higher WBC and PMN count when compared to those without appendicitis. Their BUS studies were significantly more likely to result in visualization of the appendix, appendix diameter >6mm, appendix wall thickness >2mm, periappendiceal fluid, visualization of the appendix tip, and sonographic Mcburney’s sign (p<0.05). In subjects with diagnostic BUS studies, WBC, PMN, visualization of appendix, appendix diameter >6mm, appendix wall thickness >2mm, periappendiceal fluid were found to be predictors of appendicitis on logistic regression.Conclusion: BUS is moderately useful for appendicitis diagnosis. We also identified several components in routine ED workup and BUS that are associated with appendicitis generating hypothesis for future studies. [West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(7):-0.

Non-decoupled Locomotion and Manipulation Planning for Low-Dimensional Systems

International audienceWe demonstrate the possibility of solving planning problems by inter-leaving locomotion and manipulation in a non-decoupled way. We choose three low-dimensional minimalistic robotic systems and use them to illustrate our paradigm: a basic one-legged locomotor, a two-link manipulator with a manipulated object, and a simultaneous locomotion-and-manipulation system. Using existing motion planning and control methods initially designed for either locomotion or manipulation tasks, we see how they apply to both our locomotion-only and manipulation-only systems through parallel derivations, and extend them to the simultaneous locomotion-and-manipulation system. Motion planning is solved for these three systems using two different methods : (i) a geometric path-planning-based one, and (ii) a kinematic control-theoretic-based one. Motion control is then derived by dynamically realizing the geometric paths or kinematic trajectories under the Couloumb friction model using torques as control inputs. All three methods apply successfully to all three systems, showing that the non-decoupled planning is possible