Research prospect of autonomous driving decision technology under complex traffic scenarios

Decision-making system is the essential part of the autonomous vehicle “brain”, which determines the safety and stability of vehicles, and is also the key to reflect the intelligent level of autonomous vehicles. Compared with simple scenarios such as expressway, urban traffic scenarios have the characteristics of complex and frequent interaction between traffic participants. Carrying out in-depth research on complex traffic scenarios and optimizing autonomous decision-making algorithms are the key methods for the purpose of promoting the application of autonomous driving technologies. In the future, we can further combine the artificial intelligence methods such as cognitive or knowledge map, behaviour prediction of traffic participants, and humanoid intelligence, so as to enhance the intelligent level of autonomous driving.

On challenges to respect for autonomous decision making in primary care

Primary health care is characterised by timely and appropriate health care access, delivered continuously over time to a specific population, providing a comprehensive service, with coordination of care for those that need it. Practitioners deal with a multiplicity of clinical issues within longitudinal relationships, embedded in the context of families and communities. We propose that these aspects of primary care have a bearing on how matters of decision making are considered and implemented. Further, the standard account of autonomous decision making is not wholly adequate when applied to clinician–patient encounters in primary care. We add considerations of the impact of illness (however defined) and self-identity as also relevant to a more measured and full account. The context of primary care is quite different from that of secondary care. Although there are generalists who work in hospitals, we argue that this aspect and the other attributes of primary care generate special ethical considerations. One of these is how autonomy, or more fully, how respect for the principle of autonomy is considered and operationalised in community practice. In this study, we describe some theoretical aspects of autonomy and seek to apply, and challenge, these aspects in the context of clinical work in primary care. In doing so we will review the descriptors of primary care: why in essence it is different from other contexts of clinical work.

UAV Swarm Confrontation Using Hierarchical Multiagent Reinforcement Learning

With the development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, UAV swarm confrontation has attracted many researchers’ attention. However, the situation faced by the UAV swarm has substantial uncertainty and dynamic variability. The state space and action space increase exponentially with the number of UAVs, so that autonomous decision-making becomes a difficult problem in the confrontation environment. In this paper, a multiagent reinforcement learning method with macro action and human expertise is proposed for autonomous decision-making of UAVs. In the proposed approach, UAV swarm is modeled as a large multiagent system (MAS) with an individual UAV as an agent, and the sequential decision-making problem in swarm confrontation is modeled as a Markov decision process. Agents in the proposed method are trained based on the macro actions, where sparse and delayed rewards, large state space, and action space are effectively overcome. The key to the success of this method is the generation of the macro actions that allow the high-level policy to find a near-optimal solution. In this paper, we further leverage human expertise to design a set of good macro actions. Extensive empirical experiments in our constructed swarm confrontation environment show that our method performs better than the other algorithms.

Referral vs Transfer of Care: Ethical Options When Values Differ

Conscientious objection (CO) in medicine is where a healthcare professional (HCP) firmly opposes, with an expression of reasoned disapproval, a legally available procedure or treatment that is proscribed by one’s conscience. While there remains controversy regarding whether conscientious objection should be a part of medicine, even among those who support CO state that if the HCP does not provide the requested service such as abortion, physician assisted suicide, etc., there is an obligation on the part of the objecting HCP to refer to someone who will provide it. However, referral makes the referring HCP complicit in the act the referrer believes to be immoral since the referrer has a duty to know that the HCP who will accept the patient is not only able to do the procedure but is competent in its performance as well. The referrer thus facilitates the process. Since one has a moral obligation to limit complicity with immoral actions when it cannot be avoided, the alternative is to allow the patient to transfer care to another when the patient has made the autonomous decision to reject the advice of the HCP.

Qualitative study of GPs’ views and experiences of population-based preconception expanded carrier screening in the Netherlands: bioethical perspectives

ObjectiveBetween 2016 and 2017, a population-based preconception expanded carrier screening (PECS) test was developed in the Netherlands during a pilot study. It was subsequently made possible in mid-2018 for couples to ask to have such a PECS test from specially trained general practitioners (GPs). Research has described GPs as crucial in offering PECS tests, but little is known about the GPs’ views on PECS and their experiences of providing this test. This article presents a thematic analysis of the PECS practice from the perspective of GPs and a bioethical discussion of the empirical results.DesignEmpirical bioethics. A thematic analysis of qualitative semi-structured interviews was conducted, and is combined with an ethical/philosophical discussion.SettingThe Netherlands.Participants7 Dutch GPs in the Netherlands, interviewed in 2019–2020.ResultsTwo themes were identified in the thematic analysis: ‘Choice and its complexity’ and ‘PECS as prompting existential concerns’. The empirical bioethics discussion showed that the first theme highlights that several areas coshape the complexity of choice on PECS, and the need for shared relational autonomous decision-making on these areas within the couple. The second theme highlights that it is not possible to analyse the existential issues raised by PECS solely on the level of the couple or family. A societal level must be included, since these levels affect each other. We refer to this as ‘entangled existential genetics’.ConclusionThe empirical bioethical analysis leads us to present two practical implications. These are: (1) training of GPs who are to offer PECS should cover shared relational autonomous decision-making within the couple and (2) more attention should be given to existential issues evoked by genetic considerations, also during the education of GPs and in bioethical discussions around PECS.

AN OVERVIEW OF AGENT-BASED MODELLING APPROACHES FOR INTEGRATED FLOOD MANAGEMENT

Previously, Integrated Flood Management (IFM) system has been implemented by several hydrological researchers in order to minimize the global flood risk by providing a convincing flood risk assessment and management, as well as sustainable adaptation and disaster alleviation policy. Flood risk is dynamic interaction between natural disasters and human vulnerability. Basically, methods for quantifying flood risk are fully-fledged but tend to treat artificial and economic vulnerabilities as static or subject to changes in external trends. However, interpretive research is rarely conducted to investigate people’s decision-making and acknowledge to flood warnings during flood event. The integration of Agent-Based Model (ABM) in simulating the interactions and dynamic responses of individual or organizations in a spatial environment during the flood events or prior to the events were reviewed. The ABM model is defined as a computational method used to simulate the behaviour and the interaction of autonomous decision-making entities in a network or system it is used to evaluate their impact on the entire system. Therefore, the ABM approach has been chosen to emulate the complexity of the IFM process due to its capability and flexibility to simulate the dynamic of human-environment scenarios in the spatial environment.

Consent or Caring? Issues of Autonomy and Paternalism in the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa

<p>Denial is a characteristic feature of anorexia nervosa (AN) that may lead to treatment refusal. If an individual is refusing treatment autonomously, it should be accepted, while a lack of autonomy indicates paternalistic intervention may be justified. AN has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, so accepting refusal means accepting the risk of death, so should only be done with the certainty that it is autonomous. The current research is theoretical, reviewing the literature on ethical issues relating to autonomy and paternalism in AN in order to evaluate the evidence base for these assumptions. The aim is to develop a procedural model for establishing autonomy in those with AN. The result is the anorexia nervosa autonomous decision-making model (ANDMM), which provides guidance for responding to autonomous and non-autonomous treatment refusal.</p>

Consent or Caring? Issues of Autonomy and Paternalism in the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa

<p>Denial is a characteristic feature of anorexia nervosa (AN) that may lead to treatment refusal. If an individual is refusing treatment autonomously, it should be accepted, while a lack of autonomy indicates paternalistic intervention may be justified. AN has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, so accepting refusal means accepting the risk of death, so should only be done with the certainty that it is autonomous. The current research is theoretical, reviewing the literature on ethical issues relating to autonomy and paternalism in AN in order to evaluate the evidence base for these assumptions. The aim is to develop a procedural model for establishing autonomy in those with AN. The result is the anorexia nervosa autonomous decision-making model (ANDMM), which provides guidance for responding to autonomous and non-autonomous treatment refusal.</p>

Ethical dilemmas with little time for reflection: A discussion of the ethics of out-of-hospital refusals

In this article, we consider an approach for ethical decision-making for refusals in the out-of-hospital environment. Autonomy and beneficence are discussed as the two ethical principles central to guiding paramedic decision-making in this context. We describe some situations where the two principles may come into conflict and where the working paramedic may be faced with an ethical dilemma. These cases may involve temptations of medical paternalism, which we argue ought to be avoided if possible. A discussion on navigating between autonomy and beneficence will be presented in order to help paramedics sort through dilemmas when these principles conflict. We argue that when these principles are in conflict, autonomy should primarily be respected – however, we will examine situations where the principle of autonomy cannot be applied and the paramedic should either attempt to rectify the patient’s capacity for autonomous decision-making, or, if not possible, proceed with the principle of beneficence.