An Agent-based Modelling Framework for Driving Policy Learning in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

Due to the complexity of the natural world, a programmer cannot foresee all possible situations, a connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) will face during its operation, and hence, CAVs will need to learn to make decisions autonomously. Due to the sensing of its surroundings and information exchanged with other vehicles and road infrastructure, a CAV will have access to large amounts of useful data. While different control algorithms have been proposed for CAVs, the benefits brought about by connectedness of autonomous vehicles to other vehicles and to the infrastructure, and its implications on policy learning has not been investigated in literature. This paper investigates a data driven driving policy learning framework through an agent-based modelling approaches. The contributions of the paper are two-fold. A dynamic programming framework is proposed for in-vehicle policy learning with and without connectivity to neighboring vehicles. The simulation results indicate that while a CAV can learn to make autonomous decisions, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication of information improves this capability. Furthermore, to overcome the limitations of sensing in a CAV, the paper proposes a novel concept for infrastructure-led policy learning and communication with autonomous vehicles. In infrastructure-led policy learning, road-side infrastructure senses and captures successful vehicle maneuvers and learns an optimal policy from those temporal sequences, and when a vehicle approaches the road-side unit, the policy is communicated to the CAV. Deep-imitation learning methodology is proposed to develop such an infrastructure-led policy learning framework

Formamidines with antinociceptive and antiinflammatory activities

Pursuing our investigations on 7-amino-2,3-polymethyleneindole derivatives, a set of 7-(dimethylaminomethylene)-amino-2,3-polymethyleneindoles, together with some other aryl or cycloalkyl substituted formamidines, were prepared and tested for analgesic and antiinflammatory activities. Several compounds resulted endowed with one or both of these activities; the indole derivatives 1 and 2 exhibited a good degree of both of them

Amides and formamidines with antinociceptive activity: note II

Forty amides, formamidines and trifluoromethylsulfonylamides bearing on the nitrogen a cyclohexyl residue, eventually 2-substituted, were prepared and tested for analgesic activity against a chemical stimulus. Good activity was exhibited by amides 9, 11 and 28, by formamidine 34, as well as by triflyamide 40. Eleven additional compounds exhibited a moderate activity

Fungicidal activity of some o-nitrophenyl-hydrazones

The antimycotic activity of 16 o-nitrophenylhydrazones against strains of Hansenula anomala, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida parapsyliosis, and Cryptococcus albidus was tested. All 16 compounds inhibited growth of the yeast strains. The inhibitory activity of the 4 methyl-derivatives substituted on the aromatic nucleus was particularly significant

A new photophysics for 2D and 3D lead halide perovskites: Polaron plasma in equilibrium with bright excitons

Rapid advances in perovskite photovoltaics have produced efficient solar cells, with stability and duration improving thanks to variations in materials composition, including the use of layered 2D perovskites. A major reason for the success of perovskite photovoltaics is the presence of free carriers as majority optical excitations in 3D materials at room temperature. On the other hand, the current understanding is that in 2D perovskites or at cryogenic temperatures insulating bound excitons form, which need to be split in solar cells and are not beneficial to photoconversion. Here we apply a tandem spectroscopy technique that combines ultrafast photoluminescence and differential transmission to demonstrate a plasma of unbound charge carriers in chemical equilibrium with a minority phase of light-emitting excitons, even in 2D perovskites and at cryogenic temperatures. We validate the technique with 3D perovskites and investigate 2D compounds basded on both Pb and Sn as metal cation. The underlying photophysics is interpreted as formation of large polarons, charge carriers coupled to lattice deformations, in place of excitons. A conductive polaron plasma foresees novel mechanisms for LEDs and lasers, as well as a prominent role for 2D perovskites in photovoltaics

Transnational American Studies e nuovo nazionalismo: uno sguardo retrospettivo

Los relatos “Donaldson Park” y “Hacia la ciudad eléctrica”, reunidos en el volumen de cuentos Modo linterna, del argentino Sergio Chejfec (Buenos Aires, 1956), pueden verse como textos paradigmáticos para comprender las dinámicas de yuxtaposición que se dan entre espacios e identidades en la experiencia urbana del individuo contemporáneo. Con la intención de evaluar lo anterior, quiero proponer con este artículo una lectura de la identidad y el espacio como procesos articulados a través de las configuraciones múltiples del espacio trialéctico (Lefebvre [1974] 2013) y la trialéctica del ser (Soja 1996). La finalidad es analizar cómo la espacialidad en estos relatos propone una comprensión del individuo contemporáneo como un ser espacial, histórico y social, al mismo tiempo que formula una lectura del espacio como un punto de partida para llevar a cabo una interpretación de las configuraciones de la experiencia sensible que dan lugar a nuevos modos del sentir e inducen nuevas formas de interpretar el ser en el espacio.Modo linterna’s short-stories “Donaldson Park”and “Hacia la ciudad eléctrica”, by Argentinian author Sergio Chejfec (Buenos Aires, 1956), can be taken as paradigmatic texts to understand the juxtaposed dynamics between spaces and identities in the contemporary individual’s urban experience. In order to evaluate the latter, my aim in this paper is to propose a reading of identity and space as processes articulated through the multiple configurations of the trialectics of space (Lefebvre 2013 [1974]) and the trialectics of being (Soja 1996). The purpose of this article is to analyze how the spatiality depicted in Chejfec’s short-stories proposes an understanding of the contemporary individual as a spatial, historical and social being, while at the same it formulates a reading of space as a starting-point to carry out an interpretation of the configurations of the sensitive experience that gives rise to new modes of feeling and induces new forms to interpret the self in space

Tin-lead-metal halide perovskite solar cells with enhanced crystallinity and efficiency by addition of fluorinated long organic cation

Highly performing mixed Sn/Pb-metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are among the most promising options to reduce Pb content in perovskite devices and enable, owing to their reduced bandgap, the fabrication of all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Whereas pure-Pb perovskite devices exhibit efficiency up to 25.5%, alongside a high open-circuit voltage (≈1.2 V), Sn-Pb PSCs still show lower performances (22.2%) due to higher open-circuit voltage losses. Here, we introduced 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorophenethylammonium cations in a perovskite active layer of composition (FASnI3)0.5(MAPbI3)0.5 to obtain highly oriented films with improved thermal stability. The treated films exhibit merged grains with no evidence of 2D structures, which could help to reduce the trap state density at the surface and grain boundaries. Solar cells fabricated with the fluorinated cation added to the active layer displayed reduced trap-assisted recombination losses and lower background carrier density, which leads to enhanced open-circuit voltages with respect to the reference samples and the active layers incorporating unfluorinated phenethylammonium cations. The best device reached an efficiency of 19.13%, with an open-circuit voltage of 0.84 V, which is substantially improved with respect to the reference sample showing 17.47% efficiency and 0.77 V open-circuit voltage. More importantly, the fluorinated cations' addition is instrumental to improve the device's thermal stability; 90.3% of the solar cell initial efficiency is maintained after 90 min of thermal stress at 85 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere

Exciton dissociation in 2D layered metal-halide perovskites

: Layered 2D perovskites are making inroads as materials for photovoltaics and light emitting diodes, but their photophysics is still lively debated. Although their large exciton binding energies should hinder charge separation, significant evidence has been uncovered for an abundance of free carriers among optical excitations. Several explanations have been proposed, like exciton dissociation at grain boundaries or polaron formation, without clarifying yet if excitons form and then dissociate, or if the formation is prevented by competing relaxation processes. Here we address exciton stability in layered Ruddlesden-Popper PEA2PbI4 (PEA stands for phenethylammonium) both in form of thin film and single crystal, by resonant injection of cold excitons, whose dissociation is then probed with femtosecond differential transmission. We show the intrinsic nature of exciton dissociation in 2D layered perovskites, demonstrating that both 2D and 3D perovskites are free carrier semiconductors and their photophysics is described by a unique and universal framework

Nuovi derivati 1,2-difenil-imidazolici come potenti ed efficaci modulatori allosterici positivi del recettore GABA_A

Il complesso recettoriale GABAA è il più importante recettore inibitorio presente nel sistema nervoso centrale dei vertebrati. Il legame dell’acido γ-aminobutirrico (GABA) ai recettori GABAA induce l’apertura di un intrinseco canale al Cl- con conseguente iperpolarizzazione e inibizione della cellula. Recentemente presso i nostri laboratori abbiamo sviluppato una serie di 1,2-difenilimidazol-piperazine dotate di significativa affinità di legame per i recettori dopaminergici D2- simili, serotoninergici 5-HT1A e 5-HT2A. La nostra attenzione si è focalizzata sulla capacità di alcuni derivati di inibire in modo concentrazione-dipendente (0.1-300 µM) le correnti al Cl- evocate dal GABA su recettori GABAA umani espressi in oociti di Xenopus

Ag/In lead‐free double perovskites

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