Ethics, organ donation and tax: a proposal

Five arguments are presented in favour of the proposal that people who opt in as organ donors should receive a tax break. These arguments appeal to welfare, autonomy, fairness, distributive justice and self-ownership, respectively. Eight worries about the proposal are considered in this paper. These objections focus upon no-effect and counter-productiveness, the Titmuss concern about social meaning, exploitation of the poor, commodification, inequality and unequal status, the notion that there are better alternatives, unacceptable expense, and concerns about the veto of relatives. The paper argues that none of the objections to the proposal is very telling

Intuitive Hand Teleoperation by Novice Operators Using a Continuous Teleoperation Subspace

Human-in-the-loop manipulation is useful in when autonomous grasping is not able to deal sufficiently well with corner cases or cannot operate fast enough. Using the teleoperator's hand as an input device can provide an intuitive control method but requires mapping between pose spaces which may not be similar. We propose a low-dimensional and continuous teleoperation subspace which can be used as an intermediary for mapping between different hand pose spaces. We present an algorithm to project between pose space and teleoperation subspace. We use a non-anthropomorphic robot to experimentally prove that it is possible for teleoperation subspaces to effectively and intuitively enable teleoperation. In experiments, novice users completed pick and place tasks significantly faster using teleoperation subspace mapping than they did using state of the art teleoperation methods.Comment: ICRA 2018, 7 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

The Living Temple by John Harvey Kellogg and Lessons of Leadership from Ellen White: Two Books—Two Years Apart

In contemporary society John H. Kellogg is more known for his medical inventions, than he is for the book The Living Temple, which was published in 1903. However, within Adventism the name Kellogg denotes crisis and controversy. The thesis of this paper is that Ellen White responded to Kellogg’s publication in three ways: personally—to John Kellogg, prophetically—to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and publicly—with the book The Ministry of Healing, which was published two years later in 1905. It is the public response that is of primary interest to this paper. Ellen White wrote many personal letters to Kellogg leading up to and following, his publication. She wrote letters of concern and warning to parents, ministers, teachers, and the leadership of the Church. In none of her letters did she hold back. It was important that members knew what the theories in Kellogg’s book represented, and why it could be so damaging to the mission of the Church. Kellogg is not mentioned in The Ministry of Healing, although his pantheistic theories are directly addressed. His book is not mentioned, but when you compare her book to his, it is evident that she is responding. For example, he begins with “The Mystery of Life,” she begins with “The True Medical Missionary.” By analyzing her responses, what lessons of leadership can we learn from how she publicly dealt with Kellogg’s book

A TALE OF TWO BOOKS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG’S LIVING TEMPLE AND ELLEN G. WHITE’S MINISTRY OF HEALING

In contemporary society John H. Kellogg is more known for his medical inventions, than he is for the book The Living Temple, which was published in 1903. However, within Adventism the name Kellogg denotes crisis and controversy. The thesis of this paper is that Ellen White responded to the Kellogg’s publication in three ways: personally—to John Kellogg; prophetically—to the Seventh-day Adventist Church; and publicly—with the book The Ministry of Healing, which was published two years later in 1905. It is the public response that is of primary interest to this paper. Ellen White wrote many personal letters to Kellogg leading up to and following, his publication. She wrote letters of concern and warning to parents, ministers, teachers, and church leaders. In none of her letters did she hold back. It was important that members knew what the theories in Kellogg’s book represented, and why it could be so damaging to the mission of the Church. Kellogg is not mentioned in The Ministry of Healing, although his pantheistic theories are directly addressed. His book is not mentioned, but when you compare her book to his, it is evident that she is responding. For example, he begins with “The Mystery of Life,” she begins with “The True Medical Missionary.” The fact that Kellogg had been the leader in the medical field among Seventh-day Adventists, and the degree of the controversy, gives credibility to the assertion that she would be concerned enough to respond, and that her response would concern medical mission work. By analyzing her responses, what can we learn from how she publicly dealt with Kellogg’s book

A sequent calculus for signed interval logic

We propose and discuss a complete sequent calculus formulation for Signed Interval Logic (SIL) with the chief purpose of improving proof support for SIL in practice. The main theoretical result is a simple characterization of the limit between decidability and undecidability of quantifier-free SIL. We present a mechanization of SIL in the generic proof assistant Isabelle and consider techniques for automated reasoning. Many of the results and ideas of this report are also applicable to traditional (non-signed) interval logic and, hence, to Duration Calculus.

A simple model for the formation of vegetated dunes

A simple model for the dynamics of dunes associated with vegetation is proposed. Using the model, formation processes of transverse dunes, parabolic dunes and elongated parabolic dunes according to two environmental factors: i)the amount of sand at the source, ii)the wind force, are simulated. The results have qualitative correspondence to the real counterpart, and the simplicity of the algorithm and the consequent easiness of the handling of this model provide us with wide applicability for the investigation of the complex interplay between vegetation and dunes.Comment: 4 figure

Managing risk with freight futures from IMAREX : testing hedging effectiveness and the unbiasedness hypothesis

This thesis investigates the hedging effectiveness and unbiasedness hypothesis of the IMAREX PM4TC freight futures contract. First, we present theory of dry bulk shipping and risk management. Then, we study hedging effectiveness of the futures contract. This is performed by using regression models and a VAR model to calculate constant hedge ratios and a VAR-GARCH model to calculate time-varying hedge ratios. We find the hedging effectiveness to range from 29,50% to 31,78%, when hedging one of the four T/C routes underlying the futures contract. Hedging with time-varying hedge ratios is in most cases shown to be superior to hedging with a constant hedge ratio. Finally, the unbiasedness hypothesis is studied. We find that one month to maturity futures contracts give an unbiased prediction of the spot price at maturity. This implies that a hedger can trade in one month to maturity futures contracts without paying a risk premium. A rolling hedge can thus be executed efficiently. In addition, the futures price can be used to guide in decision making. Unbiasedness is also indicated for two and three months to maturity contracts, but, due to a small data sample and residual diagnostics problems, we have not drawn any conclusions. Acknowledgements We would like to thank our advisors, Associate Professor Jonas Andersson and Professor Siri Pettersen Strandenes, for their contributions and helpful comments. At Jebsens, Jermyn Chua, Magnar Ekerhovd, Frode Høyland and Michael Tysoe have been very helpful with their support and clarifying observations. Our thanks also go to Mikal Bøe and Lene Marie Refvik at IMAREX, who have been cooperative by answering questions and supplying us with freight futures data. In addition, we would like to express our appreciation to John Michalis and Janet Sykes at The Baltic Exchange, who have given us access to spot price data. Finally, we thank Kjetil Tversland for designing the front page and printing the thesis