Agent-based pedestrian modelling

When the focus of interest in geographical systems is at the very fine scale, at the level of streets and buildings for example, movement becomes central to simulations of how spatial activities are used and develop. Recent advances in computing power and the acquisition of fine scale digital data now mean that we are able to attempt to understand and predict such phenomena with the focus in spatial modelling changing to dynamic simulations of the individual and collective behaviour of individual decision-making at such scales. In this Chapter, we develop ideas about how such phenomena can be modelled showing first how randomness and geometry are all important to local movement and how ordered spatial structures emerge from such actions. We focus on developing these ideas for pedestrians showing how random walks constrained by geometry but aided by what agents can see, determine how individuals respond to locational patterns. We illustrate these ideas with three types of example: first for local scale street scenes where congestion and flocking is all important, second for coarser scale shopping centres such as malls where economic preference interferes much more with local geometry, and finally for semi-organised street festivals where management and control by police and related authorities is integral to the way crowds move

Anonymity in Predicting the Future

Consider an arbitrary set $S$ and an arbitrary function $f : \mathbb{R} \to S$. We think of the domain of $f$ as representing time, and for each $x \in \mathbb{R}$, we think of $f(x)$ as the state of some system at time $x$. Imagine that, at each time $x$, there is an agent who can see $f \upharpoonright (-\infty, x)$ and is trying to guess $f(x)$--in other words, the agent is trying to guess the present state of the system from its past history. In a 2008 paper, Christopher Hardin and Alan Taylor use the axiom of choice to construct a strategy that the agents can use to guarantee that, for every function $f$, all but countably many of them will guess correctly. In a 2013 monograph they introduce the idea of anonymous guessing strategies, in which the agents can see the past but don't know where they are located in time. In this paper we consider a number of variations on anonymity. For instance, what if, in addition to not knowing where they are located in time, agents also do not know the rate at which time is progressing? What if they have no sense of how much time elapses between any two events? We show that in some cases agents can still guess successfully, while in others they perform very poorly.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

Atomic Hydrogen-Bearing Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies: A Look Into AGC 749290

This research examines properties of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in order to discover more about why and how these galaxies exist. UDGs are galaxies that have very little star content for their given radius, so they appear very dim optically but can be observed in radio wavelengths. We worked with data taken from the Very Large Array, which observed radio emission from gas within the galaxies. To analyze the data, we first used CASA, a specific radio astronomy software, to remove interference from the data, calibrate the data, and create images that show the gas distribution in the galaxies. From CASA, we were able to obtain spectra and velocity maps of the galaxies, which we then used to measure the galaxies\u27 gas mass and motions using code in IDL. Through this process, we determined that the galaxies are rotating, their gas content extends past what we can see optically, and in one instance, the gas distribution is misaligned from what we see in the optical image, which is not a typical characteristic. Future work involves analyzing these galaxies deeper and comparing multiple properties such as color, rotation rate, gas mass ratios, and dark matter content to that of typical galaxies and find where there are differences. By measuring and comparing each of these properties in these atypical galaxies, we will have better constraints on galaxy models which will allow us to more fully understand galaxy formation and evolution

Software engineering : theory, experiment, practice or performance

Forty years ago, the very first programmers were wondering how to make the best use of stored program computers. By twenty years ago, that handful of programmers had grown into a software industry so large that it faced a major crisis. Today, another twenty years on, we are beginning to see how that crisis helped to move the industry from an organised craft into a profession. We still have a software crisis, though it is no longer the old one and no longer even considered a crisis. It seems likely that we will always have a crisis, a situation where our propensity for producing programs outstrips our understanding of new programming concepts. What the last twenty years have accomplished in a quiet way is the subject of this talk and I would like to show you how, and how far, theory, experiment and practice have worked together, often unintentionally, to achieve performance in software engineering

Read, watch, listen: a commentary on eye tracking and moving images

Eye tracking is a research tool that has great potential for advancing our understanding of how we watch movies. Questions such as how differences in the movie influences where we look and how individual differences between viewers alters what we see can be operationalised and empirically tested using a variety of eye tracking measures. This special issue collects together an inspiring interdisciplinary range of opinions on what eye tracking can (and cannot) bring to film and television studies and practice. In this article I will reflect on each of these contributions with specific focus on three aspects: how subtitling and digital effects can reinvigorate visual attention, how audio can guide and alter our visual experience of film, and how methodological, theoretical and statistical considerations are paramount when trying to derive conclusions from eyetracking data

The representation of scientific research in the national curriculum and secondary school pupils’ perceptions of research, its function, usefulness and value to their lives

Young people’s views on what research is, how it is conducted and whether it is important, influences the decisions they make about their further studies and career choices. In this paper we report the analysis of questionnaire data with a particular focus on pupil perceptions of research in the sciences and of the scientific method. The questionnaire was a 25-item Likert Scale (1-5) distributed to seven collaborating schools. We received 2634 returns from pupils across key stages 3, 4 and 5. We also asked teachers to complete the questionnaire in order to explore how they thought their pupils would respond. We received 54 teacher responses. Statistically significant differences in the responses were identified through a chi-square test on SPSS. As what is being taught influences secondary pupil views on research we also consider how the term ‘research’ appears in the national curriculum for England and Wales and the three main English exam boards. The main theoretical construct that informs our analysis of the questionnaire data and the national curriculum is Angela Brew’s 4-tier descriptor of perceptions of research (domino, trading, layer, journey). We use this framework in order to map what, when and how research is presented to school pupils in England and Wales. We also use this framework in order to highlight and discuss certain pupil views that emerged from the questionnaire data and which indicate areas where curriculum and pedagogy intervention may be necessary: pupils seem less confident in their understanding of research as involving the identification of a research question; and, they often see research as a means to confirm one’s own opinion. They do however understand research as involving the generation of new knowledge and the collection of new data, such as interviews and questionnaires as well as laboratory work, field trips and library searches and they appear relatively confident in their statements about their ability to do research, their school experiences of research and the importance of research in their future career choice