619 research outputs found
Plurality, Identity, Democracy, Globalization... A conversation with Sunil Khilnani
No full textabstract
Rossella Ciocca interviews Sunil Khilnani author of the much appraised The Idea of India: one of the best non-fictional introductions to the complexities of politics in contemporary India. The strengths and weaknesses of present-day uneven modernity are discussed around a few strategic topics. First of all plurality, which in its linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic variety has been vindicated since Independence as a foundational value, is seen as the quintessential resource for achosen practice of syncretism but also in danger of becoming the very source of fragmentation and implosion in a country increasingly maimed by fundamentalism and fanaticism. Democracy is then interrogated between the comfortable perspective of the firmly established and normally operating mechanisms of democratic routine, on the one hand, and the flawsof a still dramatically unjust system of distribution of rights and opportunities, on the other. Identity politics is in turn analysed both in its positive action of mobilizing society around the problem of social upgrading and in its unwelcome side effects of increasing practices of rigid and restricted classification fomenting division and violent sectarianism. In the end Indian growing cultural appeal upon the globalized scene is questioned in its complex relationship with the country’s quest for a role of protagonist in political as well as economic affairs upon a new multilateral international stage
An initial hierarchical systems structure for systemic hazard analysis of autonomous ships
No full text| openaire: EC/H2020/730888/EU//RESETSafety assurance of autonomous ships is one of the major long-term challenges faced by the maritime world. Applying systemic hazard analysis methods at this early stage will guide the design and operation of safe autonomous ships. This paper proposes an initial hierarchical ship systems structure that could be the basis for a systemic hazard analysis of autonomous ship systems and operations. The approach is based on the systems theory and the principle of hierarchy and has been developed via the combination of models used in past research projects and requirements of the STCW convention. For enabling the operation of autonomous ships, the ship crew functions are either replaced by ship technical systems or assigned to the Shore-Based Control Centre (SCC).Peer reviewe
Managing risks in maritime remote pilotage using the basis of the Formal Safety Assessment
No full textMaritime pilotage is conducted in congested areas, where the risk of collision and grounding accidents is high. Hence, the pilotage operation is safety critical and has been established as a mandatory service in many countries. However, with Remote Pilotage (RP) and related technological transformation, there is a need to adapt risk management methods to address emerging risks. This thesis aims to develop a framework to manage risks in RP by identifying gaps in the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) framework and proposes novel solutions to fulfill them.
The thesis investigates Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for creating unambiguous system description models for the risk management process. Furthermore, this thesis addresses the selection challenge in MBSE by proposing a framework that assists system developers in choosing suitable MBSE language. Building upon the model, the thesis combines, System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and Bayesian Network (BN) for hazard identification and risk analysis. To reduce the limitations of other STPA-BN studies, the thesis explores the application of complexity reduction techniques such as the Parent Divorcing Technique, Noisy-OR gates, and the sub-models. Moreover, the thesis extends the STPA-BN method with a cost-benefit analysis using Influence Diagrams (IDs) for selecting a cost-effective Risk Control Option (RCO). Lastly, the thesis provides a methodology for the automatic generation of a BN risk model using an incident database and programming language, which facilitates real-time risk monitoring.
The proposed frameworks and solutions are then applied to RP for managing risks in early design phases. System description models, developed with selected MBSE language, are used together with STPA to identify the RP risk events such as losses, accidents, hazards, and causal factors. For each of these risk events, the occurrence probability is determined using a BN model. The model shows that the losses with high occurrence probability are loss of customer satisfaction, damage to the ship, injury to people, and damage to the environment. Furthermore, the model shows that collision and contact accidents have a higher occurrence probability than grounding during RP in Finnish fairways. For controlling these risk events in RP, an ID is developed and numerous RCOs are evaluated based on cost-benefit analysis. As a result, a cost-effective RCO for RP is proposed in the thesis. Finally, an automatic generation of BN risk models using a pilotage incident database and Python is demonstrated. The developed tool generates and updates the BN model providing the occurrence probability of risk events for real-time risk monitoring.
The results of this thesis demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed framework. Furthermore, this thesis provides an essential foundation for managing risks in RP and facilitates its development. Last but not least, the thesis provides tools and methods supporting stakeholders in making risk-based decisions involving advanced systems
Assessment of the Required Subdivision Index for autonomous ships based on equivalent safety
No full textIn recent years, a significant amount of research has been conducted on autonomous ships. Since it is assumed that these ships will sail with a significantly reduced crew or even without people on board, the design of the ship needs reconsideration. The absence of people on board and the associated safety measures could result in a more efficient design. However, to achieve the required design freedom, the existing regulatory framework will have to be amended. In this article, we will focus on potential changes in the Convention for Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) and in particular on the Required Subdivision Index. The evaluation is performed by using the principle of equivalent safety, which will ensure that unmanned ships will be at least as safe as manned ships. The index gives a requirement for the allowed probability of sinking when a ship is damaged due to collision or contact. The safety level is related to the safety of ship, cargo, environment and crew. If the crew is no longer present, the consequences of an incident will be less severe, since the probability of casualties is no longer present. If the principle of equivalent safety is applied, a lower subdivision index can be accepted for unmanned autonomous vessels. In this article, the level of risk that a manned ship is subjected to will be derived by means of a risk analysis. In this risk analysis all logical consequences of a collision will be taken into account, covering both the probability of losing the entire ship and the consequences of the cases where the ship will not sink. Thereafter, the Required Subdivision Index for unmanned ships, which ensures an equivalent safety level to an equivalent manned ship, is established. The sensitivity of the result to changes in the data is discussed as well.Ship Design, Production and Operation
The Fight Against Government Secrecy
No full textLocal journalist and author Miranda Spivack has a new book out, Backroom Deals in Our Backyard: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back. Sunil Dasgupta talks to Spivack about the book, why transparency has been a persistent problem in government, and how the public can fight back. Music by Washington art-pop rock band Catscan!https://open.spotify.com/episode/1UrBdTiUInvcV3xXgjK1R
The Long and Continuing Fight to Save Public Education
No full textEpisode · I Hate Politics Podcast · With school boards around the country under attack from right-wing extremists, a veteran Silver-Spring based education reporter and author, Karen Chenoweth, has founded a resource to help school board candidates and school board members fight back. Sunil Dasgupta talks to Chenoweth about her website democracy-education.org and her mission. Music from Finster.https://open.spotify.com/episode/7gUiArNXgofhVTx1vweJE
On Barthes’ biography
No full textThis article presents an interview with Tiphaine Samoyault, author of Roland Barthes, Biographie (Éditions du Seuil, 2015). There is always a difficulty in approaching the biography of Roland Barthes, who famously gave us the thesis of the ‘death of the author’. Nonetheless, Samoyault’s lengthy study can be considered the closest thing to an ‘official’ biography. Unlike other biographers, she was given access to and granted permission to cite from a wide range of private papers and materials. This inside view has not stopped her from detailing some of the more sensitive sides of Barthes’ life, and importantly she has been able to reassess aspects of his writings and relationship to other key thinkers of the time and the wider politics. As part of the interview, various extracts from the biography are woven into the dialogue, allowing those unfamiliar with it to gain more direct access to the book itself
What AMZN HQ2 Search Tells Us About Government Transparency
No full textThere is a long tradition in political philosophy where democracy and transparency are equated. A new article in the Policy Studies Journal, by UMBC colleagues UMBC’s Eric Stokan, Ian Anson, University of Texas Austin’s Nathan Jensen studied the impact of government transparency on Amazon’s search for its second headquarters to find surprising conclusions: https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.70016 . Sunil Dasgupta talks with lead author Eric Stokan. Music by Frederick, MD,- based country-folk singer-songwriter Susanna Laird.https://open.spotify.com/episode/2bNPVzoK9pPWHkFYzINHU
Application of GNSS Precise Point Positioning to Low-Cost Hardware for cm-level Positioning
No full textPrecise Point Positioning (PPP) offers high-precision GNSS positioning solutions. The advent of low-cost hardware provides an affordable alternative to costly geodetic-grade hardware, broadening the accessibility of high-precision positioning across many applications. However, this hardware produces measurements with higher noise levels, reduced multipath suppression, and lower carrier-to-noise density ratios (C/N0), restricting its ability to achieve cm-level accuracy. This study addresses these limitations by developing a novel C/N0-based empirical observation weighting model to accompany the signal characteristics of low-cost hardware. This model enhances positioning accuracy by emphasizing high-quality signals above a nominal C/N0 threshold and down-weighting observations below it. The proposed model reduces float to carrier-phase integer ambiguity resolution (fixed) convergence time by 71% for 5 cm and 38% for 2.5 cm horizontal error thresholds for the static dataset tested, demonstrating the potential of low-cost GNSS devices as viable, high-precision positioning solutions
A Bosnian refugee who became a great story-teller: Adnan Mahmutovic on what drives him as a person and author
No full textAdnan Mahmutovic is fast becoming a literary phenomenon across the Anglophonic world, courtesy a strong narrative voice that is unique and spotlights the human endurance in most extreme conditions, including war, ethnic cleansing and survival in new places as a refugee. His recent novel Thinner than a hair is in news; so is the collection of short fiction How to fare well and stay fair. Adnan has a PhD in English literature and an MFA in creative writing, and is currently a lecturer and writer-in-residence at the Department of English, Stockholm University. Fellow writer Sunil Sharma interviewed Adnan by email
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