Colors challenges in navigating autonomous vehicles

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (15) ◽  
pp. 282-1-282-6
Author(s):  
Dietmar Wueller

Will autonomous vehicles ever be able to drive around safely? In Germany lane markers on streets are white. In construction zones temporary markers are installed on top of the standard ones that are yellow and they direct the traffic e.g. into shifted lanes. So, the only differentiation is the color. But what about the white markers at times close to the sunset? Then we drive into Austria and the temporary markers are turning orange. Or driving in the US makes the whole country a construction zone because markers are always yellow. Automotive cameras are often times not RGB cameras. They have other color filters to maximize sensitivity, which often times does not help differentiating colors. So does the spectral reflectance matter? Which impact does the illumination have? And there are many different ones like daylight at different times of the day, different kinds of streetlights, different headlights of the cars etc. Traffic signs create another color problem. We drive from Switzerland to France. In Switzerland the freeway signs are green and the major road signs are blue. When you cross the French border, it is the other way around. How can these problems be solved?

Author(s):  
José van

The epilogue sketches a few scenarios on potential geopolitical consequences of the global paradigm shift toward multiple online platform “spheres.” Currently, the neoliberal US-based platform ecosystem dominates. This ecosystem revolves around the promotion of individualism and minimal state interference, leaving checks and balances to the market. On the other end of the ideological spectrum is the Chinese ecosystem, in which the autocratic regime controls the platform ecosystem via regulated censorship of tech corporations. Squeezed between the US and the Chinese models is the European Union, whose member states neither own nor operate any major platforms in either ecosystem. For European democracies to survive in the information age, its cities, national governments, and supranational legislature need to collaborate on a blueprint for a common digital strategy toward markets and public sectors.


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

This book challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics. From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, blame of the ‘other’, or victimization of the diseases’ victims. It is also claimed that when diseases were mysterious, without cures or preventive measures, they more readily provoked ‘sinister connotations’. The evidence for these assumptions, however, comes from a handful of examples—the Black Death, the Great Pox at the end of the sixteenth century, cholera riots of the 1830s, and AIDS, centred almost exclusively on the US experience. By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics, reaching back before the fifth-century BCE Plague of Athens to the eruption of Ebola in 2014, this study traces epidemics’ socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture. First, scholars, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics: their remarkable power to unify societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion. Second, hatred and violence cannot be relegated to a time when diseases were mysterious, before the ‘laboratory revolution’ of the late nineteenth century: in fact, modernity was the great incubator of a disease–hate nexus. Third, even with diseases that have tended to provoke hatred, such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, plague, and cholera, blaming ‘the other’ or victimizing disease bearers has been rare. Instead, the history of epidemics and their socio-psychological consequences has been richer and more varied than scholars and public intellectuals have heretofore allowed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 445-445
Author(s):  
Mengya Wang ◽  
Suzanne Bartholomae

Abstract Financial security in retirement is a major concern for many Americans. Numerous studies document that Americans are not prepared for retirement, with financial illiteracy cited as one reason Americans fail to plan. Employing data from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study (N=27,091), this study investigates actual financial literacy (AFL) and perceived financial literacy (PFL) and how combinations of this measure influences retirement planning, and varies based on years from retirement. This study found relatively low financial literacy and retirement preparedness levels among the US sample, even for those pre-retirees ages 55 to 64. Individually, PFL and AFL increased as one approached retirement. When combined, adults nearing retirement (55 to 64) comprised the greatest proportion of the high AFL and high PFL (29.9%) group compared to adults 20 years or more from retirement (18-44) who largely made up the low AFL and PFL (48%) group. Based on a logistic regression, adults closest to retirement (ages 55 to 64) are more likely to be planning compared to the other groups, as are adults who were financially confident, risk takers, highly educated, males, and white. Compared to adults with high AFL and high PFL, adults with low AFL and low PFL, or a combination (low PFL and high AFL, high PFL and low AFL) have lower odds of preparing for retirement. Both PFL and AFL influences retirement planning, and PFL may be as important as AFL. Our highlight the importance of policies and programs to support Americans with retirement planning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 555-561
Author(s):  
Louise Rosenmayr-Templeton

This industry update features a round-up of pharmaceutical news in May 2019 based on press releases and websites. The month was characterized by the achievement of significant milestones in gene therapy. The biggest of these was the US FDA’s approval of Zolgensma®. This medicine sums up the promise and price of genetic medicine. On one hand the clinical results show Zolgensma can dramatically improve the prognosis for infants with spinal muscular atrophy after just one administration, while on the other, it has been priced at around US$2.1 million. With more such therapies likely to reach the market, the debate on Zolgensma goes beyond cost, to overall affordability, the true meaning of cost–effectiveness and how to reward companies for effective, innovative medicines.


Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Miguel Ladero

Energy policies in the US and in the EU during the last decades have been focused on enhanced oil and gas recovery, including the so-called tertiary extraction or enhanced oil recovery (EOR), on one hand, and the development and implementation of renewable energy vectors, on the other, including biofuels as bioethanol (mainly in US and Brazil) and biodiesel (mainly in the EU) [...]


AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Chiodo

AbstractWe continuously talk about autonomous technologies. But how can words qualifying technologies be the very same words chosen by Kant to define what is essentially human, i.e. being autonomous? The article focuses on a possible answer by reflecting upon both etymological and philosophical issues, as well as upon the case of autonomous vehicles. Most interestingly, on the one hand, we have the notion of (human) “autonomy”, meaning that there is a “law” that is “self-given”, and, on the other hand, we have the notion of (technological) “automation”, meaning that there is something “offhand” that is “self-given”. Yet, we are experiencing a kind of twofold shift: on the one hand, the shift from defining technologies in terms of automation to defining technologies in terms of autonomy and, on the other hand, the shift from defining humans in terms of autonomy to defining humans in terms of automation. From a philosophical perspective, the shift may mean that we are trying to escape precisely from what autonomy founds, i.e. individual responsibility of humans that, in the Western culture, have been defined for millennia as rational and moral decision-makers, even when their decisions have been the toughest. More precisely, the shift may mean that we are using technologies, and in particular emerging algorithmic technologies, as scapegoats that bear responsibility for us by making decisions for us. Moreover, if we consider the kind of emerging algorithmic technologies that increasingly surround us, starting from autonomous vehicles, then we may argue that we also seem to create a kind of technological divine that, by being always with us through its immanent omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and inscrutability, can always be our technological scapegoat freeing us from the most unbearable burden of individual responsibility resulting from individual autonomy.


1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 833-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
R D Bingham ◽  
K K Sunmonu

In this paper, the changes in the US automobile industry which have occurred over the 1979–86 economic downturn and recovery are examined within the framework of Markusen's profit-cycle theory. When viewing the automobile indusltry as a whole, some of the findings support the profit-cycle theory and others do not. The theory is supported, however, within the context of two distinct automobile industries in the USA—one ‘Fordist’ and the other a Japanese ‘post-Fordist’ system. The Fordist system is entering the negative profit-cycle phase and the post-Fordist system is in the mature phase. The two systems have very different spatial configurations and are likely to have very different economic futures.


2021 ◽  
pp. 006996672110638
Author(s):  
Jai Mohan Pandit ◽  
Bino Paul

This study investigates human resource management (HRM) practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) based on a comparative analysis of India and the US. Although higher education in India has grown over the decades, its quality, in general, has not kept up with global standards. On the other hand, many US universities have performed consistently well in international university rankings. Based on qualitative research collected from principal stakeholders of HEIs in India and the US, HRM practices and policies followed by them are presented and discussed. Data collection for the research study was through web interviews during the period August–October 2020. The study reveals that Indian public HEIs do not have professional HRM teams. Also, they are in a formative stage in autonomous and private institutions. On the other hand, many HEIs in the US have developed mature HRM systems. This difference resonates in attributes such as structure of HRM, recruitment and selection processes, training and development programmes, performance management, career progression and talent retention.


1994 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 1027-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank N. Willis ◽  
Vicki A. Rawdon

Women have been reported to be more positive about same-gender touch, but cross-cultural information about this touch is limited. Male and female students from Chile (n = 26), Spain (n = 61), Malaysia (n = 32), and the US (n = 77) completed a same-gender touch scale. As in past studies, US women had more positive scores than US men. Malaysians had more negative scores than the other three groups. Spanish and US students had more positive scores than Chilean students. National differences in attitudes toward particular types of touch were also noted. The need for new methods for examining cross-cultural differences in touch was discussed.


Author(s):  
Victor Ei-Wen Lo ◽  
Shu-Min Chao

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of backrest angle and hand maneuver direction on maximum hand strength and to recommend a strength value for the hand-controlled stick of an aircraft. Methods: Forty-eight female subjects were recruited to perform simulated forward–backward and adduction–abduction maneuvers using control sticks. Each subject was free from musculoskeletal disorders and pain. The independent variables included four control maneuvers (forward, backward, adduction, abduction), two right-hand control stick locations (central, side), and three backrest angles (90°, 103°, 108°). The dependent variable was maximum hand strength. Results: The maximum strength for forward maneuvers with both central and side sticks was strongest at a 90° backrest angle (p < 0.001). The maximum strength for adduction maneuvers with both central and side sticks was also strongest at a 90° backrest angle (p < 0.001). On the other hand, the highest strength was observed at a 108° backrest angle when pulling the stick backward (p < 0.001). The abduction strength was significantly stronger than the adduction strength with a central stick (p < 0.001), but the adduction strength was significantly stronger than the abduction strength with a side stick (p < 0.001–p = 0.017). The forward and abduction strength were significantly different in different locations (p < 0.001). The recommended strength in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) by the US FAA is higher than the strength values observed in this study. Conclusions: The backrest angle, directions, and location affected the muscular strength. The recommended values should be reevaluated and adjusted for Taiwanese pilots.


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