European NCAP Program Developments to Address Driver Distraction, Drowsiness and Sudden Sickness

Driver distraction and drowsiness remain significant contributors to death and serious injury on our roads and are long standing issues in road safety strategies around the world. With developments in automotive technology, including driver monitoring, there are now more options available for automotive manufactures to mitigate risks associated with driver state. Such developments in Occupant Status Monitoring (OSM) are being incorporated into the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) Safety Assist protocols. The requirements for OSM technologies are discussed along two dimensions: detection difficulty and behavioral complexity. More capable solutions will be able to provide higher levels of system availability, being the proportion of time a system could provide protection to the driver, and will be able to capture a greater proportion of complex real-word driver behavior. The testing approach could initially propose testing using both a dossier of evidence provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) alongside selected use of track testing. More capable systems will not rely only on warning strategies but will also include intervention strategies when a driver is not attentive. The roadmap for future OSM protocol development could consider a range of known and emerging safety risks including driving while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, cognitive distraction, and the driver engagement requirements for supervision and take-over performance with assisted and automated driving features.

A conserved behavioral role for a nematode interneuron neuropeptide receptor

Neuropeptides are evolutionarily-conserved modulators of many aspects of animal behavior and physiology, and expand the repertoire of processes that can be controlled by a limited number of neurons. Deciphering the neuropeptidergic codes that govern distinct processes requires systematic functional analyses of neuropeptides and their cognate receptors. Even in well-studied model organisms like Caenorhabditis elegans, however, such efforts have been precluded by a lack of mutant reagents. Here, we generated and screened 21 C. elegans neuropeptide G-protein coupled receptor mutants with no pre-existing reagents for the touch-evoked escape response, and implicated six receptors expressed in diverse neuron classes representing multiple circuit levels in this behavior. We further characterized the mutant with the most severe phenotype, frpr-14, which was defective in multiple behavioral paradigms. We leveraged this range of phenotypes to reveal that FRPR-14 modulation of different pre-command interneuron classes, AVH and AIB, can drive distinct behavioral subsets, demonstrating cellular context-dependent roles for FRPR-14 signaling. We then show that Caenorhabditis briggsae CBR-FRPR-14 modulates an AVH-like interneuron pair to regulate the same behaviors as C. elegans but to a smaller extent. Our results also suggest that differences in touch-evoked escape circuit architecture between closely-related species results from changes in neuropeptide receptor expression pattern, as opposed to ligand-receptor pairing. This study provides insights into the principles utilized by a compact, multiplexed nervous system to generate intraspecific behavioral complexity and interspecific variation.

PARADOXICAL PRACTICES IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION / PARADOXES ORGANISATIONNAL DANS LES ORGANISATIONS PUBLIQUES : CAS D'UNE ORGANISATION A CARACTERE COMMERCIAL ET INDUSTRIEL

Public sector organizations are by nature complex multifunctional entities, attempting to reconcile partially conflicting objectives and considerations (Perrow, 1972). The advent of new public management (NPM) has only increased the number of paradoxes to be faced, since these new managerial requirements, focused on performance, efficiency and even profitability, were added to those, very present, linked to the essential principles of public action. In this study, we address the paradoxical nature of the daily work of proximity managers and identify strategies for managing the paradoxes they face. Our results confirmed two key points: 1) the presence of organizational paradoxes that affect the daily work of proximity managers; and 2) that proximity managers can respond to paradoxical tensions by applying different defensive and active approaches. They must then show a behavioral complexity that allows them to manage the paradoxes in order to take into account the multiplicity of tendencies that are expressed within the organization. Les organisations du secteur public sont par nature des entités multifonctionnelles complexes, qui tentent de concilier des objectifs et des considérations partiellement contradictoires (Perrow, 1972). L’avènement du new public management (NPM) n’a fait qu’augmenter le nombre de paradoxes à affronter, puisque ces nouvelles exigences managériales axées sur la performance, l’efficience voire la rentabilité, venaient se rajouter à celles, bien présentes, liées aux principes essentiels de l’action publique. Dans cette étude, nous abordons la nature paradoxale du travail quotidien des cadres de proximité et nous identifions les stratégies de gestion des paradoxes auxquels ils sont confrontés. Nos résultats ont permis de confirmer deux points essentiels : 1) la présence des paradoxes organisationnels qui se répercutent au niveau du travail quotidien des cadres de proximité; et 2) Ces derniers peuvent réagir aux tensions paradoxales en appliquant différentes défensives et actives. Ils doivent alors montrer une complexité comportementale leur permettant de gérer les paradoxes afin de prendre en compte la multiplicité des tendances qui s’expriment au sein de l’organisation. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0986/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Autonomous Weapons and Reactive Attitudes

The discourse surrounding Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) should encourage deeper consideration of how perceptions and reactive attitudes toward AWS could evolve in such a way to no longer reflect their deterministic nature. As AWS become more sophisticated and demonstrate increased behavioral complexity, it may well become more difficult for soldiers and policymakers to continue to view these systems dispassionately. This chapter draws on P.F. Strawson’s work to demonstrate how humans may find it impossible to fully rid themselves of reactive attitudes toward AWS. This chapter goes on to consider the consequences of humans and AWS in a shared environment. Human beings, whether enemy combatants or civilians, may respond to AWS not as sophisticated but ultimately deterministic actors, but rather as free agents and thus targets for feelings of gratitude or resentment. The link between behavior interpretation, perceived agency, and emotional attitudes has important implications for the deployment of AWS. A common argument in favor of AWS is that they would reduce collateral damage in counterinsurgency operations. It is far from certain that even the detached, calculated, and objective decision-making of an AWS would reduce the reactive response of the local populace. This chapter concludes by noting that some resentment to the lethal use of force is inevitable among civilians and combatants and argues that the deployment of an AWS is an unreliable tool for reducing this response.