Damages for Mental Suffering in Discrimination Cases

This article explores the legal basis for an award of damages for mental suffering caused by unlawful racial discrimination. It necessarily includes religious and nationality discrimination,since these three areas are intertwined in the law. For the most part, the legal principles are applicable alike to all three forms of discrimination. Mental suffering is treated as an element of compensatory damages on the theory that the purpose of such an award is to compensate the claimant for his loss and not necessarily to penalize the discriminator. Punishment enters the analysis only to the extent that the prevailing legal rules governing damage awards for mental suffering are different in cases involving intentional conduct from those applicable to negligence

Damages for Mental Suffering in Discrimination Cases

This article explores the legal basis for an award of damages for mental suffering caused by unlawful racial discrimination. It necessarily includes religious and nationality discrimination,since these three areas are intertwined in the law. For the most part, the legal principles are applicable alike to all three forms of discrimination. Mental suffering is treated as an element of compensatory damages on the theory that the purpose of such an award is to compensate the claimant for his loss and not necessarily to penalize the discriminator. Punishment enters the analysis only to the extent that the prevailing legal rules governing damage awards for mental suffering are different in cases involving intentional conduct from those applicable to negligence

Ocean acoustical ray-tracing : Software Ray

A new computer program for accurate calculation of acoustic ray paths through a range-varing ocean sound channel has been written. It is based on creating a model of the speed of sound in the ocean, consistent with input data, that produces the smoothest possible wavefronts. This scheme eliminates "false caustics" from the wavefront. It may be useful in calculating an approximate solution to the full wave equation at megameter ranges.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-86-C-0358 and the Office of Naval Technology under contract N00014-90-C-0098

The Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for space habitation and exploration

The “Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration” is a novel system concept that provides a platform for integrating sensors and actuators with daily astronaut intravehicular activities to improve health and performance, while reducing the mass and volume of the physiologic adaptation countermeasure systems, as well as the required exercise time during long-duration space exploration missions. The V2Suit system leverages wearable kinematic monitoring technology and uses inertial measurement units (IMUs) and control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) within miniaturized modules placed on body segments to provide a “viscous resistance” during movements against a specified direction of “down”—initially as a countermeasure to the sensorimotor adaptation performance decrements that manifest themselves while living and working in microgravity and during gravitational transitions during long-duration spaceflight, including post-flight recovery and rehabilitation. Several aspects of the V2Suit system concept were explored and simulated prior to developing a brassboard prototype for technology demonstration. This included a system architecture for identifying the key components and their interconnects, initial identification of key human-system integration challenges, development of a simulation architecture for CMG selection and parameter sizing, and the detailed mechanical design and fabrication of a module. The brassboard prototype demonstrates closed-loop control from “down” initialization through CMG actuation, and provides a research platform for human performance evaluations to mitigate sensorimotor adaptation, as well as a tool for determining the performance requirements when used as a musculoskeletal deconditioning countermeasure. This type of countermeasure system also has Earth benefits, particularly in gait or movement stabilization and rehabilitation.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX11AR25G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX12AQ58G

Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration

The Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration is a visionary system concept that will revolutionize space missions by providing a platform for integrating sensors and actuators with daily astronaut intravehicular activities to improve human health and performance. The V2Suit uses control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) within a miniaturized module placed on body segments to provide a viscous resistance during movements _ a countermeasure to the sensorimotor and musculoskeletal adaptation performance decrements that manifest themselves while living and working in microgravity and during gravitational transitions during long-duration spaceflight, including post-flight recovery and rehabilitation. Through an integrated design, system initialization, and control systems approach the V2Suit is capable of generating this viscous resistance along an arbitrarily specified direction of down. When movements are made, for example, parallel to that down direction a resistance is applied, and when the movement is perpendicular to that direction no resistance is applied. The V2Suit proposes to be a countermeasure to this spaceflight-related adaptation and de-conditioning and the unique sensorimotor characteristics associated with living and working in 0-G, which are critical for future long-duration space missions. This NIAC Phase II project leveraged the study results from Phase I and focused on detailing several aspects of the V2Suit concept, including a wearable CMG architecture, control steering laws, human-system integration evaluations, developing a brassboard prototype unit as a proof-of-concept, as well as evaluating the concept in the context of future space exploration missions. A human mission to Mars, such as that outlined in the Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0, provides a framework for determining the concept of operations and requirements for the V2Suit system. Mars DRA 5.0 includes approximately 180 day 0-G transits to- and from- Mars, as well as a 500 day stay on the surface (~3/8-G) (Figure 3). Accordingly, there are four gravitational transitions associated with this mission: 1-G to 0-G (Earth launch), 0-G to 3/8-G (Mars landing), 3/8-G to 0-G (Mars launch), and 0-G to 1-G (Earth landing). This reference mission provided the basis for developing high-level operational requirements to guide the subsequent study and design of the key V2Suit components

Issues and progress in the prediction of ocean submesoscale features and internal waves

Data-constrained dynamical ocean modeling for the purpose of detailed forecasting and prediction continues to evolve and improve in quality. Modeling methods and computational capabilities have each improved. The result is that mesoscale phenomena can be modeled with skill, given sufficient data. However, many submesoscale features are less well modeled and remain largely unpredicted from a deterministic event standpoint, and possibly also from a statistical property standpoint. A multi-institution project is underway with goals of uncovering more of the details of a few submesoscale processes, working toward better predictions of their occurrence and their variability. A further component of our project is application of the new ocean models to ocean acoustic modeling and prediction. This paper focuses on one portion of the ongoing work: Efforts to link nonhydrostatic-physics models of continental-shelf nonlinear internal wave evolution to data-driven regional models. Ocean front-related effects are also touched on.United States. Office of Naval Research (United States. Dept. of Defense. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Ocean Acoustics Program Award N00014-11-1-0701))United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-12-1-0944)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-1061160

Multiscale multiphysics data-informed modeling for three-dimensional ocean acoustic simulation and prediction

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 146(3), (2019): 1996-2015, doi:10.1121/1.5126012.Three-dimensional (3D) underwater sound field computations have been used for a few decades to understand sound propagation effects above sloped seabeds and in areas with strong 3D temperature and salinity variations. For an approximate simulation of effects in nature, the necessary 3D sound-speed field can be made from snapshots of temperature and salinity from an operational data-driven regional ocean model. However, these models invariably have resolution constraints and physics approximations that exclude features that can have strong effects on acoustics, example features being strong submesoscale fronts and nonhydrostatic nonlinear internal waves (NNIWs). Here, work to predict NNIW fields to improve 3D acoustic forecasts using an NNIW model nested in a tide-inclusive data-assimilating regional model is reported. The work was initiated under the Integrated Ocean Dynamics and Acoustics project. The project investigated ocean dynamical processes that affect important details of sound-propagation, with a focus on those with strong intermittency (high kurtosis) that are challenging to predict deterministically. Strong internal tides and NNIW are two such phenomena, with the former being precursors to NNIW, often feeding energy to them. Successful aspects of the modeling are reported along with weaknesses and unresolved issues identified in the course of the work.This work was supported by Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Initiative (MURI) Grant No. N00014-11-1-0701, managed by the Office of Naval Research Ocean Acoustics Program, and National Science Foundation Grant No. OCE-1060430. Final manuscript preparation was supported by ONR Ocean Acoustics Grant Nos. N00014-17-1-2624 and N00014-17-1-2692. P.F.J.L. also thanks ONR and NSF for research support under Grant Nos. N00014-13-1-0518 (Multi-DA) and OCE-1061160 (ShelfIT) to MIT, respectively. The MSEAS-based series of simulations for the New Jersey shelf region examined here was accelerated toward completion by the interest in realistic 3D acoustic fields expressed by Dr. Ivars Kirsteins at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.2020-03-3

Lewy body dementia: The caregiver experience of clinical care

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is the second most common cause of dementia, however, little is known about how the clinical diagnosis of LBD is obtained in the community or the caregiver experience while seeking the diagnosis

Lewy Body Dementia: Caregiver Burden and Unmet Needs

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a common cause of dementia but to date, little is known about caregiver burden. The Lewy Body Dementia Association (www.LBDA.org) conducted a web-based survey of 962 caregivers (mean age 56y; 88% women). The most common initial symptoms were cognitive (48%), motor (39%), or both (13%). Caregivers expressed concerns about fear of future (77%), feeling stressed (54%), loss of social life (52%) and uncertainty about what to do next (50%). Caregivers reported moderate to severe burden; 80% felt the people around them did not understand their burden and 54% reported feelings of isolation with spousal caregivers reporting more burden than non-spousal caregivers. Only 29% hired in-home assistance while less than 40% used respite or adult day care, geriatric case managers or attended a support group meeting. Lack of service utilization occurred despite two-thirds of caregivers reporting medical crises requiring emergency services, psychiatric care or law enforcement. Caregivers reported preferences for web-based information, directories of LBD expert providers, information on LBD research and location of local support groups. These findings highlight significant unmet needs for LBD caregivers and provide targets for intervention to reduce caregiver burden. Community resources such as the Lewy Body Dementia Association may serve this end, while also providing practical information and support for caregivers