A Review on Improving the Autonomy of Unmanned Surface Vehicles through Intelligent Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres

In recent years unmanned vehicles have grown in popularity, with an ever increasing number of applications in industry, the military and research within air, ground and marine domains. In particular, the challenges posed by unmanned marine vehicles in order to increase the level of autonomy include automatic obstacle avoidance and conformance with the Rules of the Road when navigating in the presence of other maritime traffic. The USV Master Plan which has been established for the US Navy outlines a list of objectives for improving autonomy in order to increase mission diversity and reduce the amount of supervisory intervention. This paper addresses the specific development needs based on notable research carried out to date, primarily with regard to navigation, guidance, control and motion planning. The integration of the International Regulations for Avoiding Collisions at Sea within the obstacle avoidance protocols seeks to prevent maritime accidents attributed to human error. The addition of these critical safety measures may be key to a future growth in demand for USVs, as they serve to pave the way for establishing legal policies for unmanned vessels.

Risk-informed decision-making in the presence of epistemic uncertainty

An important issue in risk analysis is the distinction between epistemic and aleatory uncertainties. In this paper, the use of distinct representation formats for aleatory and epistemic uncertainties is advocated, the latter being modelled by sets of possible values. Modern uncertainty theories based on convex sets of probabilities are known to be instrumental for hybrid representations where aleatory and epistemic components of uncertainty remain distinct. Simple uncertainty representation techniques based on fuzzy intervals and p-boxes are used in practice. This paper outlines a risk analysis methodology from elicitation of knowledge about parameters to decision. It proposes an elicitation methodology where the chosen representation format depends on the nature and the amount of available information. Uncertainty propagation methods then blend Monte Carlo simulation and interval analysis techniques. Nevertheless, results provided by these techniques, often in terms of probability intervals, may be too complex to interpret for a decision-maker and we, therefore, propose to compute a unique indicator of the likelihood of risk, called confidence index. It explicitly accounts for the decisionmaker’s attitude in the face of ambiguity. This step takes place at the end of the risk analysis process, when no further collection of evidence is possible that might reduce the ambiguity due to epistemic uncertainty. This last feature stands in contrast with the Bayesian methodology, where epistemic uncertainties on input parameters are modelled by single subjective probabilities at the beginning of the risk analysis process.

A design model: the Autism Spectrum Disorder Classroom Design Kit

Architects and designers have a responsibility to provide an inclusive built environment. However for those with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the built environment can be a frightening and confusing place, difficult to negotiate and tolerate. The challenge of integrating more fully into society is denied by an alienating built environment. For ASD pupils in a poorly designed school, their environment can distance them from learning. Instead, if more at ease in their surroundings, in an ASD-friendly environment, the ASD pupil stands a greater chance of doing better.

However a difficulty exists in that most architects are not knowledgeable in designing for those with ASD. Any available design guidelines for architects tend, because of the inherent difficulties associated with a spectrum, to be general in their information. Therefore, if wanting to provide an ASD-friendly learning environment, there is a need to ensure that teachers, as the experts, can most clearly and effectively impart their knowledge and requirements to architects.

This paper sets out the challenges and difficulties inherent in the design process when designing for ASD. It then sets out an alternative strategy to the usual method of drawing-centric dialogue between teacher and architect by using models instead as a basis for a more common language. An ASD Classroom Design Kit was designed and developed by Queen’s University of Belfast Architecture students. It was then used by ASD teaching staff from the Southern Education and Library Board in Northern Ireland as a case study to trial its effectiveness. The paper outlines how the study was carried out before concluding with reflections by both teaching staff and architect on using the ASD Classroom Design Kit.

It is hoped that this paper will firstly highlight the need for better dialogue between expert and architect when considering ASD and the Built Environment and secondly, that it may encourage others to consider using models to convey their ideas and knowledge when designing, not just for ASD, but for other Special Educational Needs and disabilities.

A Qualitative Evaluation of the Provision of Bereavement Care Accessed by Service Users Living in a Health and Social Care Trust Area in Northern Ireland

Within the health and social care sector in the United Kingdom, the
management of death and bereavement has become increasingly
challenging. This service evaluation sought to explore the bereavement
care offered to individuals living in one Health and Social Care
Trust catchment area of Northern Ireland. Qualitative interviews
were conducted with key government and voluntary agency staff.
The findings indicated that much of the bereavement provision is
based on the interest and initiative of individual staff members, with
few processes to assess the level of bereavement care needed and those
best skilled to provide it. Recommendations are made for a bereavement
care strategy that outlines a bereavement needs assessment process,
identifying the scope of interventions and protocols for practice.

Impact damage and repair of composite structures

This paper gives an overview of the work carried out in a GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) program, under the chairmanship of the author, to develop and validate analytical and numerical methods to characterise real impact damage in composite structures, particularly those designed to sustain load in a postbuckled state, and to study the durability of bonded repairs. GARTEUR is an inter-governmental agreement between the seven European countries with the largest direct employment in the Aerospace industry, to mobilise scientific and technical knowledge between the member countries. A number of Action Groups have been launched, since GARTEUR’s inception in the early 1970s, to address specific technical issues of interest to the participating members. The research presented in this paper was performed under Action Group 28 with partners from ONERA, EADS-CCR (France), DLR, AIRBUS-Deutschland, EADS-M (Germany), CIRA (Italy), INTA (Spain), SICOMP, Saab, (Sweden), NLR (The Netherlands), QinetiQ, BAE Systems, Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom). The Action Group tasks were divided into four Work Elements (WEs): WE1-Prediction and characterisation of impact damage, WE2- Postbuckling with delamination, WE3-Repair and WE4-Fatigue. This paper outlines the main developments and achievements within each Work Element.

Can we meet targets for biofuels and renewable energy in transport given the constraints imposed by policy in agriculture and energy?

The deployment of biofuels is significantly affected by policy in energy and agriculture. In the energy arena, concerns regarding the sustainability of biofuel systems and their impact on food prices led to a set of sustainability criteria in EU Directive 2009/28/EC on Renewable Energy. In addition, the 10% biofuels target by 2020 was replaced with a 10% renewable energy in transport target. This allows the share of renewable electricity used by electric vehicles to contribute to the mix in achieving the 2020 target. Furthermore, only biofuel systems that effect a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with the fuel they replace are allowed to contribute to meeting the target. In the agricultural arena, cross-compliance (which is part of EU Common Agricultural Policy) dictates the allowable ratio of grassland to total agricultural land, and has a significant impact on which biofuels may be supported. This paper outlines the impact of these policy areas and their implications for the production and use of biofuels in terms of the 2020 target for 10% renewable transport energy, focusing on Ireland. The policies effectively impose constraints on many conventional energy crop biofuels and reinforce the merits of using biomethane, a gaseous biofuel. The analysis shows that Ireland can potentially satisfy 15% of renewable energy in transport by 2020 (allowing for double credit for biofuels from residues and ligno-cellulosic materials, as per Directive 2009/28/EC) through the use of indigenous biofuels: grass biomethane, waste and residue derived biofuels, electric vehicles and rapeseed biodiesel. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inclusion & the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Resource Base In Mainstream Schools: Physical Factors to Maximise Effectiveness.

As a society, we have a responsibility to provide an inclusive built environment. As part of the need to promote inclusion, there is now a growing trend to place pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) into a mainstream school setting. This is often facilitated by providing a specialist SEN resource base located within the mainstream school. If so, the following paper outlines why the whole school should be considered when locating and implementing a SEN resource base. It also highlights the wider opportunities for enhancing inclusion for SEN pupils if giving holistic thought to the wider context of the resource base. It then indicates a four-stage approach, using the ASD pupil as an illustrative example, to help evaluate the optimum SEN resource base location within a mainstream school setting. Finally it highlights in conclusion, some benefits and challenges for an enriched school environment for all pupils, if considering genuine inclusion.

Heeding the stains: Lacan and organizational change

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to add to current discussions on the use of Lacanian psychoanalysis in organizational change. Specifically, It argues that critiques of Lacan's work must be acknowledged and incorporated into these discussions. To date, there remains a silence surrounding these critiques within organization studies.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the existing studies that draw upon Lacan's work in the context of organizational change initiatives. It highlights the value of this theory. Next, it outlines critiques of Lacan's concepts of phallus and incest taboo, and show how these concepts can be exclusionary.
Findings: The paper finds that there remains little debate within organization studies around such critiques. Lacan tends to be employed in ways that risk reproducing particular, exclusionary aspects of his theory. A homophobic and patriarchal legacy persists in appropriations of his writing. It outlines alternative ways of reading Lacan, which aim to avoid such exclusions. It shows how introducing such alternatives is a difficult project, first, given the silence surrounding critiques of Lacan in the organizational change literature. Second, following Foucault, It argues that language has power: a patriarchal schema is self-reinforcing in its persistence within a particular discipline, and thus difficult to dislodge.
Research limitations/implications: Given these findings, the paper concludes that organization theorists and practitioners ought to engage with critiques of Lacan's work, when employing it in their own. The silence surrounding such legacies is dangerous. It argues that the first step in engaging with Lacan's work should be to give voice to such critiques, if his writing is to be employed in the practice and study of organizational change.
Originality/value: This paper provides a unique engagement with Lacan's work in the context of the study and practice of organizational change interventions. It presents an evaluation of well-known critiques and useful recommendations for theorists and practitioners considering a Lacanian approach to this area of management studies. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Protecting peaceful protest:The OSCE/ODIHR and freedom of peaceful assembly

This article reviews ongoing work to increase awareness of, and raise standards in relation to, freedom of peaceful assembly across Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. The work is led by the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE). The article begins by highlighting the importance of freedom of peaceful assembly within democratic societies, and then describes the development of the ODIHR Guidelines on Peaceful Assembly. The article outlines some of the key issues of contention relating to the regulation of freedom of assembly, and discusses the process of reviewing the existing and draft legislation against the standards articulated in the Guidelines. In this context, the article also explores the potential for constructive engagement between government, civil society, and the OSCE to facilitate legislative amendments that respect key human rights norms and principles. Finally, the article reviews recent developments in training monitors of public assemblies with the aim of building local monitoring capacity and thus developing an evidence base of the practical implementation of laws relating to freedom of peaceful assembly. © The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Forced Labour in Northern Ireland: exploiting vulnerability

This report explores the extent of forced labour among new migrants to Northern Ireland and outlines a number of recommendations for tackling the problem.

Sensory-motor problems in Autism

Despite being largely characterised as a social and cognitive disorder, strong evidence indicates the presence of significant sensory-motor problems in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This paper outlines our progression from initial, broad assessment using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) to subsequent targeted kinematic assessment. In particular, pronounced ASD impairment seen in the broad categories of manual dexterity and ball skills was found to be routed in specific difficulties on isolated tasks, which were translated into focused experimental assessment. Kinematic results from both subsequent studies highlight impaired use of perception-action coupling to guide, adapt and tailor movement to task demands, resulting in inflexible and rigid motor profiles. In particular difficulties with the use of temporal adaption are shown, with "hyperdexterity" witnessed in ballistic movement profiles, often at the cost of spatial accuracy and task performance. By linearly progressing from the use of a standardised assessment tool to targeted kinematic assessment, clear and defined links are drawn between measureable difficulties and underlying sensory-motor assessment. Results are specifically viewed in-light of perception-action coupling and its role in early infant development suggesting that rather than being 'secondary' level impairment, sensory-motor problems may be fundamental in the progression of ASD. This logical and systematic process thus allows a further understanding into the potential route of observable motor problems in ASD; a vital step if underlying motor problems are to be considered a fundamental aspect of autism and allow a route of non-invasive preliminary diagnosis.

Management research on multinational corporations:A methodological critique

In the context of burgeoning research on multinational corporations (MNCs), this paper addresses the issue of the representativeness of databases of MNCs in Ireland. It identifies some important deficiencies in existing databases much used by scholars in the field. Drawing on the international literature, it finds that this problem also characterises research on MNCs in many other countries. In the Irish context, we find that the extant empirical research has generally excluded two key categories of MNCs, namely, (a) foreign MNCs which are not grant-aided by the main industrial promotions agencies and (b) Irish-owned MNCs. The paper outlines our experience in identifying and addressing these deficiencies and describes the methods that might be employed in more precisely defining the MNC population in Ireland. More generally the paper reviews some of the issues and obstacles confronting scholars investigating the MNC sector in Ireland and abroad.

Language Teacher Education in Ireland, North and South

The European Union considers modern languages among the basic skills or key competencies required by all its citizens and is concerned to promote excellence in the teaching and learning of languages as well as greater diversity in the range of languages available to learners in the Member States, as witnessed by the recent European Commission Action Plan, Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004-2006. This consideration, the changing socio-cultural demography of Ireland, the need for more joined-up thinking in the context of language teaching in schools, and in the context of language teacher education in particular, form the back-drop to the paper. Among the challenges facing modern/world languages’ education in Ireland identified in the paper are, lack of a languages’ policy, lack of a languages’ strategy, and lack of an integrated language curriculum and by implication, a whole school approach to language teaching and learning. The paper refers to positive signs that are occurring in this context as well, e.g. official recognition to Irish as a working language in the European Union and in the Official Languages Act in Ireland (2003). The paper reports on the recent first ever all Ireland cross-border conference in the context of language teacher education. It outlines the background, aims, and content of the conference that includes findings from a study about the impact of autonomous language teaching and learning supported by the European Language Portfolio in the context of post-primary language teacher education in Ireland. The paper shows data from the first ever survey on language teacher education provision, policy and practice across colleges in Ireland, North and South. Initial teacher education is on the cusp of change. This paper highlights several key issues facing language teacher education. This paper has implications for Irish as well as international readers, and is aimed at supporting all those who want to bring about improvement in this important area.

Retinal and choroidal responses to panretinal photocoagulation: an ultrastructural perspective

BACKGROUND: There have been few histological or ultrastructural studies of the outer retina and choriocapillaris following panretinal photocoagulation therapy. This investigation examines the long-term morphological effects of panretinal photocoagulation in two patients with type II diabetes who had received laser treatment more than 6 months prior to death.

METHODS: Regions of retina and choroid from each patient were fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde, dissected out and examined using light microscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy.

RESULTS: After removing the neural retina, scanning electron microscopy of non-photocoagulated areas of the eye cups revealed normal cobblestone-like retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Regions with laser scars showed little RPE infiltration into the scar area, although large rounded cells often appeared in isolation within these areas. Sections of the retina and choroid in burn regions showed a complete absence of the outer nuclear layer and photoreceptor cells, with the inner retinal layers lying in close apposition to Bruch's membrane. Non-photocoagulated regions of the retina and choroid appeared normal in terms of both cell number and cell distribution. The RPE layer was absent within burn scars but many RPE-like cells appeared markedly hypertrophic at the edges of these regions. Bruch's membrane always remained intact, although the underlying choriocapillaris was clearly disrupted at the point of photocoagulation burns, appearing largely fibrosed and non-perfused. Occasional choroidal capillaries occurring in this region were typically small in profile and had plump non-fenestrated endothelium.

CONCLUSIONS: This study outlines retinal and choroidal cell responses to panretinal photocoagulation in diabetic patients and demonstrates an apparent reduction in the capacity of these tissues to repair laser damage.

Receptor-mediated endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of insulin and low-density lipoprotein by retinal vascular endothelial cells

PURPOSE: The authors investigated the receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) and intracellular trafficking of insulin and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in cultured retinal vascular endothelial cells (RVECs). METHODS: Low-density lipoprotein and insulin were conjugated to 10 nm colloidal gold, and these ligands were added to cultured bovine RVECs for 20 minutes at 4 degrees C. The cultures were then warmed to 37 degrees C and fixed after incubation times between 30 seconds and 1 hour. Control cells were incubated with unconjugated gold colloid at times and concentrations similar to those of the ligands. Additional control cells were exposed to several concentrations of anti-insulin receptor antibody or a saturating solution of unconjugated insulin before incubation with gold insulin. RESULTS: Using transmission electron microscopy, insulin gold and LDL gold were both observed at various stages of RME. Insulin-gold particles were first seen to bind to the apical plasma membrane (PM) before clustering in clathrin-coated pits and internalization in coated vesicles. Gold was later visualized in uncoated cytoplasmic vesicles, corresponding to early endosomes and multivesicular bodies (MVBs) or late endosomes. In several instances, localized regions of the limiting membrane of the MVBs appeared coated, a feature of endosomal membranes not previously described. After RME at the apical PM and passage through the endosomal system, the greater part of both insulin- and LDL-gold conjugates was seen to accumulate in large lysosome-like compartments. However, a small but significant proportion of the internalized ligands was transcytosed and released as discrete membrane-associated quanta at the basal cell surface. The uptake of LDL gold was greatly increased in highly vacuolated, late-passage RVECs. In controls, anti-insulin receptor antibody and excess unconjugated insulin caused up to 89% inhibition in gold-insulin binding and internalization. CONCLUSION: These results illustrate the internalization and intracellular trafficking by RVECs of insulin and LDL through highly efficient RME, and they provide evidence for at least two possible fates for the endocytosed ligands. This study outlines a route by which vital macromolecules may cross the inner blood-retinal barrier.