Routing Problems for Unmanned Surface Vehicles with Limited Battery Life

Given a set of locations (i.e. bridges, bays, docks, etc.) that must be inspected and a set ofwaypoints, we design and implement a model to route a fleet of unmanned surface vehicles via a set of waypoints that allow the aforementioned locations to be surveilled. Furthermore, the velocity at which the vehicles traverse each part of the route is dependent upon the level of surveillance required for each site. More specifically, the model constructs the optimal set of routes for at most K unmanned surface vehicles that minimizes the fleet\u27s total distance, subject to distance, battery life, and site number constraints, while ensuring that a set of sites are covered during the tours. In addition, the model also determines the velocity of each vehicle along each arc of the tour, where the velocity is dependent upon the importance of the sites that are covered along that arc. Lastly, we modify, design, and implement heuristics to construct feasible solutions

Does "Could" Lead to Good? Toward a Theory of Moral Insight

We introduce the construct of moral insight and study how it can be elicited when people face ethical dilemmas—challenging decisions that feature tradeoffs between competing and seemingly incompatible values. Moral insight consists of discovering solutions that move beyond selecting one conflicting ethical option over another. Moral insight encompasses both a cognitive process and a discernible output: it involves the realization that an ethical dilemma might be addressed other than by conceding one set of moral imperatives to meet another, and it involves the generation of solutions that allow competing objectives to be met. Across four studies, we find that moral insight is generated when individuals are prompted to consider the question "What could I do?" in place of their intuitive approach of considering "What should I do?" Together, these studies point toward a theory of moral insight and important practical implications

Expanding Ethical Standards of HMR: Necessary Evils and the Multiple Dimensions of Impact

Ethical challenges abound in HRM. Each day, in the course of executing and communicating HR decisions, managers have the potential to change, shape, redirect, and fundamentally alter the course of other people\u27s lives. Managers make hiring decisions that reward selected applicants with salaries, benefits, knowledge, and skills, but leave the remaining applicants bereft of these opportunities and advantages. Managers make promotion decisions that reward selected employees with raises, status, and responsibility, leaving other employees wondering about their future and their potential. Managers make firing and lay-off decisions in order to improve corporate performance, all the while harming the targeted individuals and even undermining the commitment and energy of survivors. Even when managers complete performance appraisals and deliver performance feedback, they may inspire one employee and devastate another. For each HR practice, there are winners and there are losers: Those who get the job, or receive a portfolio of benefits, and those who do not

The role of reactive oxygen intermediates in experimental coccidioidomycois in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Coccidioidomycosis is usually a self-limited infection in immunocompentent people. In immunocompentent human beings second infections due to <it>Coccidioides </it>are very rare, indicating that recovery from infection results in protective immunity. In experimental animals, immunization with several different proteins or attenuated mutants protects against a virulent challenge. To explore what mechanisms are responsible for protective immunity, we investigated the course of <it>Coccidioides </it>infection in the gp91^phoxknock out mouse that has a defect in the oxidative burst that results in chronic granulomatous disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that the gp91^phoxknock out mice were somewhat more resistant to intraperitoneal infection and equally as resistant to low dose intranasal infection, but slightly more susceptible to high dose intranasal infection compared to control mice. The gp91^phoxknock out mice made a more robust inflammatory response to infection than controls, as measured by histology and production of inflammatory cytokines. The gp91^phoxknock out mice were as protected by immunization with the recombinant <it>Coccidioides </it>protein Ag2/PRA as the controls were against either intraperitoneal or intranasal infection. <it>Coccidioides immitis </it>arthroconidia and spherules were significantly more resistant to H₂O₂treatment in vitro than <it>Aspergillus fumigatus </it>spores.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data suggest that oxidative burst may not be required for protective immunity to coccidioidomycois.</p

Antithrombotic Choice and Timing in Patients Presenting with Symptomatic Hemorrhagic Conversion of Ischemic Stroke

The primary aim of this research project is to determine the optimal time for antithrombotic agent initiation post ischemic stroke without resulting hemorrhagic conversion. We hypothesize that not only is hemorrhagic conversion risk often inaccurately estimated, but also that antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants may pose similar risk of hemorrhagic conversion, particularly when initiated seven days post ischemic stroke. This risk potentially outweighs their protective effects against recurrent stroke. We are in the process of identifying patients with hemorrhagic conversion of ischemic stroke at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and will analyze the type and timing of antithrombotic agents. Additional risk factors studied include mechanism and location of stroke, infarct volume, atrial fibrillation, LDL levels, statin therapy, chronic diseases, and substance abuse. We will perform a multivariate analysis to evaluate for associations among the risk factors. Due to unexpectedly lower rates of patients with hemorrhagic conversion and difficulties obtaining data due to coding variability, we do not currently have sufficient data for a full analysis (N=50). Interesting trends seen in the data include that 22 out of our 50 patients bled on aspirin monotherapy. However, there is a need for more patient data to begin drawing statistically significant conclusions. Once data collection is completed, we anticipate identifying specific antithrombotic therapies and timing of therapies that have strong associations with hemorrhagic conversion. This will help to develop evidence-based guidelines for management of acute ischemic stroke treatment at a large comprehensive stroke center with diverse patient population

Residual and Dynamic Range of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Glaucoma: Comparison of Three OCT Platforms

To estimate visual field (VF) sensitivity at which retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning reaches the measurement floor and at which RNFL stops thinning (change points), the dynamic range of RNFL thickness, and the number of steps from normal to RNFL floor among three optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices

Long-Term Memory for Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Requires Dopamine in the Nucleus Accumbens and Basolateral Amygdala

The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) is essential for learning in a Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm known as fear-potentiated startle (FPS). Mice lacking the ability to synthesize DA fail to learn the association between the conditioned stimulus and the fear-inducing footshock. Previously, we demonstrated that restoration of DA synthesis to neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) was sufficient to restore FPS. Here, we used a target-selective viral restoration approach to determine which mesocorticolimbic brain regions receiving DA signaling from the VTA require DA for FPS. We demonstrate that restoration of DA synthesis to both the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) is required for long-term memory of FPS. These data provide crucial insight into the dopamine-dependent circuitry involved in the formation of fear-related memory

Convergent Processing of Both Positive and Negative Motivational Signals by the VTA Dopamine Neuronal Populations

Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have been traditionally studied for their roles in reward-related motivation or drug addiction. Here we study how the VTA dopamine neuron population may process fearful and negative experiences as well as reward information in freely behaving mice. Using multi-tetrode recording, we find that up to 89% of the putative dopamine neurons in the VTA exhibit significant activation in response to the conditioned tone that predict food reward, while the same dopamine neuron population also respond to the fearful experiences such as free fall and shake events. The majority of these VTA putative dopamine neurons exhibit suppression and offset-rebound excitation, whereas ∼25% of the recorded putative dopamine neurons show excitation by the fearful events. Importantly, VTA putative dopamine neurons exhibit parametric encoding properties: their firing change durations are proportional to the fearful event durations. In addition, we demonstrate that the contextual information is crucial for these neurons to respectively elicit positive or negative motivational responses by the same conditioned tone. Taken together, our findings suggest that VTA dopamine neurons may employ the convergent encoding strategy for processing both positive and negative experiences, intimately integrating with cues and environmental context