Smart automotive technology adherence to the law: (de)constructing road rules for autonomous system development, verification and safety

Driving is an intuitive task that requires skill, constant alertness and vigilance for unexpected events. The driving task also requires long concentration spans, focusing on the entire task for prolonged periods, and sophisticated negotiation skills with other road users including wild animals. Modern motor vehicles include an array of smart assistive and autonomous driving systems capable of subsuming some, most, or in limited cases, all of the driving task. Building these smart automotive systems requires software developers with highly technical software engineering skills, and now a lawyer’s in-depth knowledge of traffic legislation as well. This article presents an approach for deconstructing the complicated legalese of traffic law and representing its requirements and flow. Our approach (de)constructs road rules in legal terminology and specifies them in ‘structured English logic’ that is expressed as ‘Boolean logic’ for automation and ‘Lawmaps’ for visualization. We demonstrate an example using these tools leading to the construction and validation of a ‘Bayesian Network model’. We strongly believe these tools to be approachable by programmers and the general public, useful in development of Artificial Intelligence to underpin motor vehicle smart systems, and in validation to ensure these systems are considerate of the law when making decisions.fals

Cardiorespiratory and Neuromuscular Effects of Freshwater Cyanophyte Anabena flosaquae in Rats

Anatoxin-a, recognised as a potent toxin warfare agent, is considered as a weapon of mass destruction due to its lethal anticholinesterase activity. The intravenous administration of cell-free extract of Anabena flosaquae UTEX-2383(anatoxin-a) produced a transient vasodepressor response followed by a sustained rise in blood pressure. The vasodepressor effect was potentiated by physostigmine and antagonised by atropine and bilateral vagotomy, suggesting the involvement of cholinergic system. On the contrary, the vasopressor response was antagonised by hexamethonium prazosin and hemicholinium-3, indicating that the toxin stimulates the sympathetic system through the release of catecholamines from nerve endings. Prolonged apnoea with attendant bronchoconstriction was observed corresponding to bradycardia and vasppressor response which remained unaltered by atropine while antagonised by bilateral vagotomy. The extract when administered intra-arterially did not modify the apnoea induced by veratridine; but phenyldiguanide potentiated the bronchoconstriction, indicating the involvement of pulmonary vagal afferents. The extract produced a dose- and time-dependent blockade of indirect muscle twitch recorded from gastrocnemius muscle. The neuromuscular blockade was potentiated by neostigmine but unaltered by DTC

Marine cage farming of Asian seabass under participatory mode - A success story

Karwar Research Centre of ICAR-CMFRI in association with the Directorate of fisheries, Govt. of Goa identified Polem village ( 14° 54' 21.12" N ; 74° 04' 32.20" E) in south Goa for the cage culture demonstration under the proejct 'National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA)'. Awareness programmes were conducted for the fishermen communities in the village regarding the present status of marine fisheries resources of India and future prospects

Observations on variations in physico-chemical water parameters of marine fish cage farm off Karwar

An investigation was undertaken to study the fluctuations in the water quality parameters in a marine fish cage culture site off Karwar during the period 2009-2011. Two stations viz., one from cage site (Station 1) and the other away from the cage site (Station 2) were selected for the study. Water samples were collected at weekly intervals. Temperature of Station 1 varied from 28.5 ± 0.89 oC to 32.5 ± 1.04 oC during the first crop of Asian seabass culture in 2009-10 and it ranged between 26.7 ± 0.83 to 32.5 ± 0.79 oC during the second crop of seabass culture in 2010- 11. The salinity was minimum during July 2010 and maximum in May 2010. There was no significant difference observed between the water quality parameters of the two stations (p>0.05). However, difference in salinity was significant between the two culture periods in Station 1 (p<0.05). No significant difference was observed in the nutrient levels of the cage and reference sites and also between the two crops. No significant difference was observed between the mean weight of the fish and temperature of both the sites and periods. A positive correlation was observed between the weight gain of fish and salinity of water at cage site

In vitro antileishmanial and antischistosomal activities of anemonin isolated from the fresh leaves of Ranunculus multifidus forsk

Leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) infecting the world's poorest populations. Effectiveness of the current antileishmanial and antischistosomal therapies are significantly declining, which calls for an urgent need of new effective and safe drugs. In Ethiopia fresh leaves of Ranunculus multifidus Forsk. are traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments including leishmaniasis and eradication of intestinal worms. In the current study, anemonin isolated from the fresh leaves of R. multifidus was assessed for its in vitro antileishmanial and antischistosomal activities. Anemonin was isolated from the hydro-distilled extract of the leaves of R. multifidus. Antileishmanial activity was assessed on clinical isolates of the promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania aethiopica and L. donovani clinical isolates. Resazurin reduction assay was used to determine antipromastigote activity, while macrophages were employed for antiamastigote and cytotoxicity assays. Antischistosomal assays were performed against adult Schistosoma mansoni and newly transformed schistosomules (NTS). Anemonin displayed significant antileishmanial activity with IC50 values of 1.33 nM and 1.58 nM against promastigotes and 1.24 nM and 1.91 nM against amastigotes of L. aethiopica and L. donovani, respectively. It also showed moderate activity against adult S. mansoni and NTS (49% activity against adult S. mansoni at 10 microM and 41% activity against NTS at 1 microM). The results obtained in this investigation indicate that anemonin has the potential to be used as a template for designing novel antileishmanial and antischistosomal pharmacophores

Note on the ocean sunfish, Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) landed at Karwar, west coast of India

The spine tail devil ray Mobula japanica (Muller & Henle, 1841) is a large zooplanktivorous ray circumglobally distributed within tropical to warm temperate waters. This species belong to the family Mobulidae. In the genus Mobula, the mouth is located ventrally and is currently represented by nine recognised species

Farming of cobia, Rachycentron canadum (Linnaeus 1766) in open sea floating cages in India

Experiments on culture and growth performance of cobia were undertaken in marine cages installed in the Arabian Sea off Karwar on the south-west coast of India. Hatchery produced cobia fingerlings were stocked at two densities of 3.5 fish cubic m-1 and 14.1 fish cubic m-1 in circular HDPE cages. Mean weight and specific growth rate (SGR) of cobia stocked @ 3.5 fish cubic m -1 were 10.5 kg and 2.2% day-1, respectively, at 300 days of culture (DOC). Cobia stocked @ of 14.1 fish cubic m-1 attained an average weight of 3.68 kg and SGR of 1.9% day-1 at 300 DOC. SGR was found to be positively correlated with water temperature and salinity during the culture period. No significant variation was found in SGR and feed conversion ratio of cobia stocked at two different densities. However, absolute growth rate, relative growth rate and mean weight of cobia varied significantly between the two groups

Foreign objects observed in the stomach of a cobia (Rachycentron canadum) reared in sea cage at Karwar

Revival of short neck clam Paphia malabarica Chemnitz, 1782 In Kali estuary, Karwar, Karnatak