Shared Authority Concerns in Automated Driving Applications

Given the move toward driverless cars, which includes the more short-term goal of driving assistance, what the appropriate shared authority and interaction paradigms should be between human drivers and the automation remains an open question until more principled research and testing has occurred. It is unclear at this time how robust driverless cars are to system failures (including human failures) and operations in degraded sensor environments. Automation onboard such vehicles is inherently brittle and can only account for what it is programmed to consider. Communication between what is technically a very complex system to a human population of extreme variability in driving skills and attention management will be difficult, since the driver will need to be appropriately informed of the state of the system, including limitations, and will need to build appropriate trust in the automation’s capabilities (neither too much or too little). Further complicating this problem is the significant body of research demonstrating that automated systems can lead to boredom, which encourages distraction. This leaves operators unaware of the state of the vehicle (aka, mode confusion) and ill-suited to respond quickly and appropriately in case of a potential accident. Over time, operator skill degradation due to automation use can further reduce the human ability to respond to emergent driving demands, and will likely lead to risk homeostasis even in normal operations. Each of these issues are well-known to the human systems engineering community, but it is unclear that these issues are being considered by driverless car designers or that manufactures are conducting human-in-the-loop tests with representative members of the driving population. Until these tests show that the vehicles account for the aforementioned issues, driverless cars will not be safe for unrestricted access and use on U.S. roadways. Moreover, there are significant socio-technical considerations that do not appear to be a concern in the push to introduce this technology on a wide scale. The utilitarian approach quoted by many in the press, i.e., that driverless cars will eventually kill people but that this should be acceptable due to the likely reduction in overall deaths (which is not yet proven) demonstrates an insensitivity to a deontological perspective that causes many people to be uncomfortable with such a significant shift in responsibility and accountability to computers

Opportunities and challenges of unplanned follow-up interviews: Experiences with Polish migrants in London

Although there is growing interest in qualitative longitudinal research as a way of taking time seriously (ADAM, 2000), this approach still holds many challenges for the social researcher. In this article we use a reflexive approach, drawing on a Goffmanian analysis of self-presentation, to consider our separate but related experience of re-interviewing Polish migrants over intervals of several years. In each case, the repeat interviews were not part of the original research design and were undertaken years later for a range of different reasons. After briefly presenting case studies from our individual interviews, we critically reflect upon some opportunities and challenges of researching change through time. We first consider the ways in which repeat interviews may challenge earlier analyses and findings. We then explore some of the ethical considerations involved in unplanned repeat interviews. Next, we reflect upon dilemmas about self-revelation, particularly in contexts of social media and on-line technologies. Finally, we discuss what we have learned from our different experiences and what implications there are for this kind of ad hoc longitudinal research in migration studies

Illuminating the bacterial microbiome of Australian ticks with 16S and Rickettsia-specific next-generation sequencing

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies show that mosquito and tick microbiomes influence the transmission of pathogens, opening new avenues for vector-borne pathogen control. Recent microbiological studies of Australian ticks highlight fundamental knowledge gaps of tick-borne agents. This investigation explored the composition, diversity and prevalence of bacteria in Australian ticks (n = 655) from companion animals (dogs, cats and horses). Bacterial 16S NGS was used to identify most bacterial taxa and a Rickettsia-specific NGS assay was developed to identify Rickettsia species that were indistinguishable at the V1-2 regions of 16S. Sanger sequencing of near full-length 16S was used to confirm whether species detected by 16S NGS were novel. The haemotropic bacterial pathogens Anaplasma platys, Bartonella clarridgeiae, “Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum” and Coxiella burnetii were identified in Rhipicephalus sanguineus (s.l.) from Queensland (QLD), Western Australia, the Northern Territory (NT), and South Australia, Ixodes holocyclus from QLD, Rh. sanguineus (s.l.) from the NT, and I. holocyclus from QLD, respectively. Analysis of the control data showed that cross-talk compromises the detection of rare species as filtering thresholds for less abundant sequences had to be applied to mitigate false positives. A comparison of the taxonomic assignments made with 16S sequence databases revealed inconsistencies. The Rickettsia-specific citrate synthase gene NGS assay enabled the identification of Rickettsia co-infections with potentially novel species and genotypes most similar (97.9–99.1%) to Rickettsia raoultii and Rickettsia gravesii. “Candidatus Rickettsia jingxinensis” was identified for the first time in Australia. Phylogenetic analysis of near full-length 16S sequences confirmed a novel Coxiellaceae genus and species, two novel Francisella species, and two novel Francisella genotypes. Cross-talk raises concerns for the MiSeq platform as a diagnostic tool for clinical samples. This study provides recommendations for adjustments to Illuminaʼs 16S metagenomic sequencing protocol that help track and reduce cross-talk from cross-contamination during library preparation. The inconsistencies in taxonomic assignment emphasise the need for curated and quality-checked sequence databases

Plausibility functions and exact frequentist inference

In the frequentist program, inferential methods with exact control on error rates are a primary focus. The standard approach, however, is to rely on asymptotic approximations, which may not be suitable. This paper presents a general framework for the construction of exact frequentist procedures based on plausibility functions. It is shown that the plausibility function-based tests and confidence regions have the desired frequentist properties in finite samples---no large-sample justification needed. An extension of the proposed method is also given for problems involving nuisance parameters. Examples demonstrate that the plausibility function-based method is both exact and efficient in a wide variety of problems.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Status, Testosterone, and Human Intellectual Performance: Stereotype Threat as Status Concern

Results from two experiments suggest that stereotype-threat effects are special cases of a more general process involving the need to maintain or enhance status. We hypothesized that situations capable of confirming a performance stereotype might represent either a threat to status or an opportunity for enhancement of status, depending on the nature of the stereotype. The positive relationship between baseline testosterone and status sensitivity led us to hypothesize that high testosterone levels in males and females would amplify existing performance expectations when gender-based math-performance stereotypes were activated. In Study 1, high-testosterone females performed poorly on a math test when a negative performance stereotype was primed. In Study 2, high-testosterone males excelled on a math test when a positive performance stereotype was primed. The moderating effect of testosterone on performance suggests that a stereotype-relevant situation is capable of conferring either a loss or a gain of status on targets of the stereotype.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Application of whey of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana fermented by lactic acid bacteria as a bread biopreservative agent

A total of nine isolated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from tomato and sourdough with antifungal activity were employed to revaluate the whey of Mozzarella di Bufala through the fermentation process for 72 h at 37 °C. Then, the fermented whey (BWF) was characterised and used as biopreservative in bread formulation. L. plantarum TR7 and L. plantarum TR2 strains showed average lactic acid concentration in BWF of 13.8 g L 1. Also, the bread volatile organic compounds (VOC) analysis showed an increase in hexanal, benzeneacetaldehyde, benzaldehyde and pyrazine tetramethyl when using BWF as ingredient. Moreover, the DPPH-inhibitory activity of bread with BWF extract also reflected a 33% rise in comparison with control bread. The application of BWF as a biopreservation agent in bread showed an increase in shelf life compared with bread with 0.3% calcium propionate and bread control for 2 and 15 days, respectively. BWF can be used as an interesting biopreservation strategy of bread

Coeliac disease-associated risk variants in TNFAIP3 and REL implicate altered NF-kappaB signalling

Objective: Our previous coeliac disease genome-wide association study (GWAS) implicated risk variants in the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region and eight novel risk regions. To identify more coeliac disease loci, we selected 458 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that showed more modest association in the GWAS for genotyping and analysis in four independent cohorts. Design: 458 SNPs were assayed in 1682 cases and 3258 controls from three populations (UK, Irish and Dutch). We combined the results with the original GWAS cohort (767 UK cases and 1422 controls); six SNPs showed association with p Results: We identified two novel coeliac disease risk regions: 6q23.3 (OLIG3-TNFAIP3) and 2p16.1 (REL), both of which reached genome-wide significance in the combined analysis of all 2987 cases and 5273 controls (rs2327832 p= 1.3x10(-08), and rs842647 p= 5.26x10(-07)). We investigated the expression of these genes in the RNA isolated from biopsies and from whole blood RNA. We did not observe any changes in gene expression, nor in the correlation of genotype with gene expression. Conclusions: Both TNFAIP3 (A20, at the protein level) and REL are key mediators in the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) inflammatory signalling pathway. For the first time, a role for primary heritable variation in this important biological pathway predisposing to coeliac disease has been identified. Currently, the HLA risk factors and the 10 established non-HLA risk factors explain similar to 40% of the heritability of coeliac disease

Calibration of the Gamma-RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) at a Polarized Hard X-Ray Beam

The Gamma-RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) is a concept for an astronomical hard X-ray Compton polarimeter operating in the 50 - 500 keV energy band. The instrument has been optimized for wide-field polarization measurements of transient outbursts from energetic astrophysical objects such as gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. The GRAPE instrument is composed of identical modules, each of which consists of an array of scintillator elements read out by a multi-anode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT). Incident photons Compton scatter in plastic scintillator elements and are subsequently absorbed in inorganic scintillator elements; a net polarization signal is revealed by a characteristic asymmetry in the azimuthal scattering angles. We have constructed a prototype GRAPE module containing a single CsI(Na) calorimeter element, at the center of the MAPMT, surrounded by 60 plastic elements. The prototype has been combined with custom readout electronics and software to create a complete "engineering model" of the GRAPE instrument. This engineering model has been calibrated using a nearly 100% polarized hard X-ray beam at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. We find modulation factors of 0.46 +/- 0.06 and 0.48 +/- 0.03 at 69.5 keV and 129.5 keV, respectively, in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. In this paper we present details of the beam test, data analysis, and simulations, and discuss the implications of our results for the further development of the GRAPE concept.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in NIM-

Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP

We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a ``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt, tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm