Modeling and Predicting Future Trajectories of Moving Objects in a Constrained Network

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Advances in wireless sensor networks and positioning technologies enable traffic management (e.g. routing traffic) that uses real-time data monitored by GPS-enabled cars. Location management has become an enabling technology in such application. The location modeling and trajectory prediction of moving objects are the fundamental components of location management in mobile locationaware applications. In this paper, we model the road network and moving objects in a graph of cellular automata (GCA), which makes full use of the constraints of the network and the stochastic behavior of the traffic. A simulation-based method based on graphs of cellular automata is proposed to predict future trajectories. Our technique strongly differs from the linear prediction method, which has low prediction accuracy and requires frequent updates when applied to real traffic with velocity changes. The experiments, carried on two different datasets, show that the simulation-based prediction method provides higher accuracy than the linear prediction method

Molecular characterization of Thy1 expressing fear-inhibiting neurons within the basolateral amygdala

Molecular characterization of neuron populations, particularly those controlling threat responses, is essential for understanding the cellular basis of behaviour and identifying pharmacological agents acting selectively on fear-controlling circuitry. Here we demonstrate a comprehensive workflow for identification of pharmacologically tractable markers of behaviourally characterized cell populations. Thy1-eNpHR-, Thy1-Cre- and Thy1-eYFP-labelled neurons of the BLA consistently act as fear inhibiting or ‘Fear-Off' neurons during behaviour. We use cell-type-specific optogenetics and chemogenetics (DREADDs) to modulate activity in this population during behaviour to block or enhance fear extinction. Dissociated Thy1-eYFP neurons are isolated using FACS. RNA sequencing identifies genes strongly upregulated in RNA of this population, including Ntsr2, Dkk3, Rspo2 and Wnt7a. Pharmacological manipulation of neurotensin receptor 2 confirms behavioural effects observed in optogenetic and chemogenetic experiments. These experiments identify and validate Ntsr2-expressing neurons within the BLA, as a putative ‘Fear-Off' population

Disrupted Asymmetry of Inter- and Intra-Hemispheric Functional Connectivity at Rest in Medication-Free Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Disrupted functional asymmetry of cerebral hemispheres may be altered in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, little is known about whether anomalous brain asymmetries originate from inter- and/or intra-hemispheric functional connectivity (FC) at rest in OCD. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was applied to 40 medication-free patients with OCD and 38 gender-, age-, and education-matched healthy controls (HCs). Data were analyzed using the parameter of asymmetry (PAS) and support vector machine methods. Patients with OCD showed significantly increased PAS in the left posterior cingulate cortex, left precentral gyrus/postcentral gyrus, and right inferior occipital gyrus and decreased PAS in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), bilateral middle cingulate cortex (MCC), left inferior parietal lobule, and left cerebellum Crus I. A negative correlation was found between decreased PAS in the left DLPFC and Yale–Brown Obsessive-compulsive Scale compulsive behavior scores in the patients. Furthermore, decreased PAS in the bilateral MCC could be used to distinguish OCD from HCs with a sensitivity of 87.50%, an accuracy of 88.46%, and a specificity of 89.47%. These results highlighted the contribution of disrupted asymmetry of intra-hemispheric FC within and outside the cortico-striato-thalamocortical circuits at rest in the pathophysiology of OCD, and reduced intra-hemispheric FC in the bilateral MCC may serve as a potential biomarker to classify individuals with OCD from HCs

Game Analysis of Low Carbonization for Urban Logistics Service Systems

To improve carbon efficiency for an urban logistics service system composed of a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) and an e-business enterprise, a low-carbon operation game between them was studied. Considering low carbon technology investment cost and sales expansion effect of low carbon level, profit functions for both players were constituted. Based on their different bargaining capabilities, in total, five types of game scenarios were designed. Through analytical solution, Nash Equilibria under different scenarios were obtained. By analyzing these equilibria, four major propositions were given, in which some key variables and the system performance indexes were compared. Results show that the best system yields could only be achieved under the fully cooperative situation. Limited cooperation only for carbon emission reduction does not benefit the system performance improvement. E-business enterprise-leading game’s performance overtook 3PL-leading ones

A New Definition on Critical State of Granular Media Accounting for Fabric Anisotropy

Conventional critical state concept for granular media lacks a proper reference to the anisotropic fabric structure developed at critical state, and is thus incomplete. This paper presents a micromechanical study to identify the characteristics of fabric anisotropy when a granular assembly reaches critical state. Our study reveals a strikingly unique, path-independent relationship between the mean effective stress and a fabric anisotropy parameter, K, defined by the first joint invariant of the deviatoric stress tensor and the deviatoric fabric tensor, at critical state. Data from over 80 DEM simulations under different loading conditions and intermediate stress ratios suggest a power law for this relationship. The new finding on critical fabric anisotropy is further incorporated into the conventional critical state conditions to redefine the critical state concept for granular media. The new definition dictates that the critical state corresponds to a unique state with constant stress, constant void ratio and constant K. It defines a unique spatial critical state line for a granular medium in the three-dimensional space K-e-p'. The projection of this spatial line onto the e-p' plane is the conventional (unique) critical state line

A coupled FEM/DEM approach for hierarchical multiscale modelling of granular media

A hierarchical multiscale framework is proposed to model the mechanical behaviour of granular media. The framework employs a rigorous hierarchical coupling between the FEM and the discrete element method (DEM). To solve a BVP, the FEM is used to discretise the macroscopic geometric domain into an FEM mesh. A DEM assembly with memory of its loading history is embedded at each Gauss integration point of the mesh to serve as the representative volume element (RVE). The DEM assembly receives the global deformation at its Gauss point from the FEM as input boundary conditions and is solved to derive the required constitutive relation at the specific material point to advance the FEM computation. The DEM computation employs simple physically based contact laws in conjunction with Coulomb's friction for interparticle contacts to capture the loading-history dependence and highly nonlinear dissipative response of a granular material. The hierarchical scheme helps to avoid the phenomenological assumptions on constitutive relation in conventional continuum modelling and retains the computational efficiency of FEM in solving large-scale BVPs. The hierarchical structure also makes it ideal for distributed parallel computing to fully unleash its predictive power. Importantly, the framework offers rich information on the particle level with direct link to the macroscopic material response, which helps to shed lights on cross-scale understanding of granular media. The developed framework is first benchmarked by a simulation of single-element drained test and is then applied to the predictions of strain localisation for sand subject to monotonic biaxial compression, as well as the liquefaction and cyclic mobility of sand in cyclic simple shear tests. It is demonstrated that the proposed method may reproduce interesting experimental observations that are otherwise difficult to be captured by conventional FEM or pure DEM simulations, such as the inception of shear band under smooth symmetric boundary conditions, non-coaxial granular response, large dilation and rotation at the edges of shear band and critical state reached within the shear band. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd