Needs Exploration for Long-Term Autonomous Marine Systems: Working Report

Partial grant progress reportWeeks-to-months long crewless missions in the marine domain present unique challenges for autonomous systems. At these mission lengths, the platform must take on self-assessment and mission planning tasks as well as short-term autonomy tasks such as navigation. The results of a four-prong research program to explore these challenges are reported here. Existing vessels were reviewed and analyzed, and a new rating system was constructed. Interviews with human crew members were carried out to identify assessment and planning approaches. A simplified simulation and an STPA-inspired analysis were used to identify areas where research would be beneficial. From these investigations, it is clear that existing planning systems rely heavily on humans to integrate different sources of information. Humans make decisions today based on shared experience and implicit criteria. Automating this process is a significant challenge. Three test cases are proposed to explore the identified research needs, one on fuel management, one on design and operational support of machinery systems, and one on adapting and updating risk criteria in service.The authors wish to acknowledge the funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-20-1-2044, Dr. Paul Hess, ONR Code 331, which supported this work.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/173163/1/LTA_Summer_Report_2021_001.pdfDescription of LTA_Summer_Report_2021_001.pdf : ReportSEL

Café Shapiro Anthology, Selected Poems and Short Stories from the 22nd Annual Café Shapiro

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149461/1/CafeShapiro2019.pd

Delayed colorectal cancer care during covid-19 pandemic (decor-19). Global perspective from an international survey

Background The widespread nature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been unprecedented. We sought to analyze its global impact with a survey on colorectal cancer (CRC) care during the pandemic. Methods The impact of COVID-19 on preoperative assessment, elective surgery, and postoperative management of CRC patients was explored by a 35-item survey, which was distributed worldwide to members of surgical societies with an interest in CRC care. Respondents were divided into two comparator groups: 1) ‘delay’ group: CRC care affected by the pandemic; 2) ‘no delay’ group: unaltered CRC practice. Results A total of 1,051 respondents from 84 countries completed the survey. No substantial differences in demographics were found between the ‘delay’ (745, 70.9%) and ‘no delay’ (306, 29.1%) groups. Suspension of multidisciplinary team meetings, staff members quarantined or relocated to COVID-19 units, units fully dedicated to COVID-19 care, personal protective equipment not readily available were factors significantly associated to delays in endoscopy, radiology, surgery, histopathology and prolonged chemoradiation therapy-to-surgery intervals. In the ‘delay’ group, 48.9% of respondents reported a change in the initial surgical plan and 26.3% reported a shift from elective to urgent operations. Recovery of CRC care was associated with the status of the outbreak. Practicing in COVID-free units, no change in operative slots and staff members not relocated to COVID-19 units were statistically associated with unaltered CRC care in the ‘no delay’ group, while the geographical distribution was not. Conclusions Global changes in diagnostic and therapeutic CRC practices were evident. Changes were associated with differences in health-care delivery systems, hospital’s preparedness, resources availability, and local COVID-19 prevalence rather than geographical factors. Strategic planning is required to optimize CRC care