An Intelligent Reactive Controller for Ocean Science Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Most of the research activities performed during this grant period had to do with designing and implementing the Orca intelligent autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) controller. This entailed a requirements analysis early in the project, followed by the design and implementation of the program. The latter two activities were interleaved; Orca was designed and implemented in a phased manner, with each new version of the program having more functionality

The Agent Institute: Develop an Infrastructure for Agent-Based Research and Development for the State of Maine

This award provides support to establish The Agent Institute (AI), an organization anticipated to become self-sustaining and generally enhance research and development for the State of Maine. The AI will promote interactions between industry and foster computer-technology research, specifically in software development and software-hardware relationships in the area of robotics. Industrial applications in extreme or hazardous environments will be emphasized because agent-based systems are designed to read/sense environmental information, make decisions, and take actions based on the information sensed and processed. The award provides an initial two years of salary support to hire an executive director and an administrative assistant. These individuals will be responsible for developing a series of workshops designed to bring researchers and developers with interests and expertise in agent-based systems together in collaborative projects. Education and outreach efforts will also be part of the AI\u27s mission to bring knowledge about this area to K-12 educators and schools with the goal of encouraging students toward careers in agent-based systems and high technology in general

Lanczos modes for reduced-order control of flexible structures

Lanczos mode models represent low-frequency forced response better than do normal mode models and can be developed for both continuous and finite element structural representations. It was recommended that Lanczos mode models for systems with multiple input and/or rigid body modes should be developed; numerical stability of the Lanczos algorithm should be assessed; and control system designs employing the Lanczos mode models should be attempted

Multi-Modal Spatial Querying

This project investigates the use of two concurrent communication channels, graphics and speech, to achieve a successful interaction between a person and a geographic information system (GIS). The objective is to construct a multi-modal spatial query language in which users interact with a geographic database by drawing sketches of the desired configuration, while simultaneously talking about the spatial objects and the spatial relations drawn. This study will increase our understanding of multi-modal spatial interactions, and will lead to improved strategies for intelligent integration and processing of such multi-modal spatial queries in a GIS. The key to this interaction is the exploitation of complementary or redundant information present in both graphical and verbal descriptions of the same spatial scenes. A multiple-resolution model of spatial relations is used to capture the essential aspects of a sketch and its corresponding verbal description. The model stresses topological properties, such as containment and neighborhood, and considers metrical properties, such as distance and directions, as refinements where necessary. This model enables the retrieval of similar, not only exact, matches between a spatial query and a geographic database. Such new methods of multi-modal spatial querying and spatial similarity retrieval will empower experts as well as novice users to perform easier spatial searches, ultimately providing new user communities access to spatial databases

Should the goal for the treatment of soil transmitted Helminth (STH) infections be changed from morbidity control in children to community-wide transmission elimination?

Morbidity induced by infection with the major soil transmitted infections (STH—Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworms) results in an estimated 5.19 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [1]. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) policy for control centres on three groups, preschool aged children (pre-SAC), school-aged children (SAC), and women of child bearing age, on the basis that heavy infection in these groups will have a detrimental impact on anaemia, child growth, and development. The current WHO guidelines focus on school-aged children, both for monitoring infection and as a target for treatment, although treatment of pre-SAC and women of childbearing age is also recommended where sustainable delivery mechanisms exist, especially in areas of intense transmission [2,3]. The guidelines recommend treating SAC annually where any STH prevalence falls between 20% and 50% and twice a year where it exceeds 50% [3]. The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2012 endorsed WHO goals to scale up mass drug administration (MDA) for STH, so that by 2020, 75% of the pre-SAC and SAC in need will be treated regularly [4]. Building on an existing roadmap, WHO announced an intention to meet the target [2,5,6]. Progress has been good in some areas, but less so in others. In 2012, global coverage of those in need was 37% for SAC and 29% for pre-SAC [5]. Data for the more recent years is as yet to be published by WHO [5], but a huge gain in coverage is not expected, despite increased drug donations from the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture the main anthelmintics. This is due in part to the logistical challenges in getting even donated drugs to these populations, who are often beyond “the end of the road.” At present, many countries with endemic STH infections are not availing themselves of the freely donated drugs to treat children. We are still a long way from the 2020 target of 75%. Even if this target is reached, will it be enough to eliminate transmission and the disease arising from heavy infections with STH? If not, how should the guidelines be changed to push towards morbidity control, and ideally, the eventual elimination of transmission

Debajyoti Choudhury

Gluon fusion into a very heavy neutrino pair by Higgs exchange is shown to lead to substantial production cross sections at $pp$ supercolliders even without any extra generation of quarks. Rates are calculated for scalar as well as pseudoscalar Higgs. The angular correlation between dileptons emerging from the decays of the neutrinos shows distinctive features for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos as well as for scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs

Cost-effectiveness of scaling up mass drug administration for the control of soil-transmitted helminths : a comparison of cost function and constant costs analyses

Background: The coverage of mass drug administration (MDA) for neglected tropical diseases, such as the soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), needs to rapidly expand to meet WHO's 2020 targets. We aimed to compare use of a cost function to take into account economies of scale to the standard method of assuming a constant cost per treatment when investigating the cost and cost-effectiveness of scaling up a STH MDA programme targeting Ascaris lumbricoides. Methods: We fitted a cost function describing how the costs of MDA change with scale to empirical cost data and incorporated it into a STH transmission model. Using this cost function, we investigated the consequences of taking into account economies of scale on the projected cost-effectiveness of STH control, by comparison with the standard method of assuming a constant cost per treatment. The cost function was fitted to economic cost data collected as part of a school-based deworming programme in Uganda using maximum likelihood methods. We used the model to investigate the total reduction in the overall worm burden, the total number of prevalent infection case-years averted, and the total number of heavy infection case-years averted. For each year, we calculated the effectiveness as the difference between the worm burden or number of cases and the number in absence of treatment. Findings: When using the cost function, the cost-effectiveness of STH control markedly increased as the programme was scaled up. By contrast, the standard method (constant cost per treatment) undervalued this and generated misleading conclusions. For example, when scaling up control in the projected district from 10% to 75% coverage of at-risk school-age children, the cost-effectiveness in terms of prevention of heavy burden infections was projected to increase by over 70% when using the cost function, but decrease by 18% when assuming a constant cost per treatment. Interpretation: The current exclusion of economies of scale in most economic analyses must be addressed if the most cost-effective policies for the control of neglected tropical diseases are to be formulated. These findings are also relevant to other large-scale disease interventions

Cost-effectiveness of scaling up mass drug administration for the control of soil-transmitted helminths: a comparison of cost function and constant costs analyses.

BACKGROUND: The coverage of mass drug administration (MDA) for neglected tropical diseases, such as the soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), needs to rapidly expand to meet WHO's 2020 targets. We aimed to compare use of a cost function to take into account economies of scale to the standard method of assuming a constant cost per treatment when investigating the cost and cost-effectiveness of scaling up a STH MDA programme targeting Ascaris lumbricoides. METHODS: We fitted a cost function describing how the costs of MDA change with scale to empirical cost data and incorporated it into a STH transmission model. Using this cost function, we investigated the consequences of taking into account economies of scale on the projected cost-effectiveness of STH control, by comparison with the standard method of assuming a constant cost per treatment. The cost function was fitted to economic cost data collected as part of a school-based deworming programme in Uganda using maximum likelihood methods. We used the model to investigate the total reduction in the overall worm burden, the total number of prevalent infection case-years averted, and the total number of heavy infection case-years averted. For each year, we calculated the effectiveness as the difference between the worm burden or number of cases and the number in absence of treatment. FINDINGS: When using the cost function, the cost-effectiveness of STH control markedly increased as the programme was scaled up. By contrast, the standard method (constant cost per treatment) undervalued this and generated misleading conclusions. For example, when scaling up control in the projected district from 10% to 75% coverage of at-risk school-age children, the cost-effectiveness in terms of prevention of heavy burden infections was projected to increase by over 70% when using the cost function, but decrease by 18% when assuming a constant cost per treatment. INTERPRETATION: The current exclusion of economies of scale in most economic analyses must be addressed if the most cost-effective policies for the control of neglected tropical diseases are to be formulated. These findings are also relevant to other large-scale disease interventions. FUNDING: GlaxoSmithKline, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Partnership for Child Development, and Wellcome Trust