Playing Doom with Anticipator-A3C Based Agents Using Deep Reinforcement Learning and the ViZDoom Game-AI Research Platform

The built-in game agents act according to the pre-written scripts and make decisions, take actions like they have been stated. They acquire and take advantage of unfair information, instead of acting flexibly like human players, who make decisions only based on game screens. This chapter focuses on studying the application of Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning in games agents and the improvement of the related algorithms. The goal is to develop a game agent that makes decisions in human’s way and gets rid of relying on unfair information. A game agent (CNN) is implemented by augmenting the A3C algorithm. This agent takes the original real-time game screen as the input of the network, and then output the matching policy. The agent interacts with ViZDoom and reads the real-time game screen to make decisions for controlling the character to act. This chapter improved the A3C algorithm by adding an anticipator network to the original model structure. The goal of doing this is to make the agent act more like human players. It will generate anticipation before making decisions, then combine the real-time game screen with anticipation images together as a whole input of the network defined by the A3C algorithm. It can use the combination of the data to make decisions and output the discrete actions. Because the method only changes the structure of data for the input of the network, so it is a model-free method and can be easily transplanted to other algorithms. The performance of A3C is compared with variants proposed in this chapter, analyzed the differences between them and gathered the experimental data from the latest articles as a comparison which studies the same problem. The result shows, that the A3C algorithm with Anticipation performs better than the A3C algorithm

Measuring Urban Sustainability through Compact City Approach: A Case Study of Lahore

Achieving urban sustainability has become a prime goal for urban planners. However due to its subjective nature, it is complicated to integrate urban sustainability concept in planning practices. Moreover, it is advocated that measure of urban sustainability through the compact city is a vital solution for city management. However, due to dynamic nature of the city structures around the world, there exists a limited consensus on parameters and dimensions to measure urban compactness especially in the towns developed in unplanned manners. This study aims to explore different dimensions and relevant indicators to understand and measure compactness in the context of Lahore. The findings of the research reflected that the key factors for the urban sustainability in a compact city are density, transportation and landuse. Density profile in Lahore shows that new residential schemes are rapidly occupying the vacant land and consequently increasing average trip distances and urban sprawl. Besides this, landuse breakup in Lahore is highly variant because of the rapid change in its uses. Average land consumption per person in Lahore is 51 square meter which is on the lower side and would have grave consequences for public rely on car use in future. Moreover, public transport accessibility in Lahore is another problem faced by the general public. Finally, it is concluded that Lahore is a compact city to some extent with the absence of sustainability concepts due to lack of regularity authority control and haphazard development. The situation needs immediate attention of authorities otherwise use of public transportation will be decline and cars will encroach major part of ones' land consumption

Assessment of socio-economic profile and residents’ satisfaction living in apartments and single unit houses in Islamabad, Pakistan

Cities in Pakistan, because of rapid pace of urbanization, are unable to provide adequate housing supply to cater to the needs of the people. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, has a population of two million with a growth rate of six percent. Construction of apartment buildings, as one of the alternatives to fulfil the housing needs, is on the rise. However, apartments are being designed without considering the needs of the residents. This research focuses on assessment of socio-economic profile and satisfaction of residents of single unit houses vis-à-vis of those living in apartments. Fried and Gleicher’s approach was used in this research. This study analysed the socioeconomic characteristics, level of satisfaction of residents; drivers and barriers that influence the residential satisfaction of residents in two types of residential units in Islamabad. This study finds that residents of both housing types were equally satisfied with housing attributes and surrounding neighborhood while the residents of single unit houses were more satisfied with facilities, maintenance and culture. This study suggests that more focus should be given to factors like open space, basic amenities, privacy while designing an apartment building

The Assessment and Mapping of Urban Visual Pollution through an Assembly of Open Source Geospatial Tools

Urban surroundings and spaces are losing their identity due to the visual pollution in the urban panorama of already densely populated cities in the developing countries. Quantitative assessment of visual pollution and its spatial mapping are very recent and relatively un-explored branches of urban studies. The diversity of visual pollution objects (VPOs) and their traits, the subjectivity of observers, the scale of urban space and dependency on subjective variables are the key challenges for quantification during visual pollution assessment (VPA). A paper-based score-card type VPA tool using Analytical Hierarchy Process to addressthese issues has previously been developed. However, considering the challenges associated with the deployment of paper-based tool for VPA (which include the inability to handle variety of data types such as text, numeric, geolocation, images, etc.), the natural progression is the development of a mobile-based solution which matches the fast-growing mobile penetration rate of urban centres and provides a turn-key solution to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in primary data collection. On the other hand, academic research on the spatial mapping of visual pollution has slightly progressed to explore its cartographic dimension. This research presents a spatial decision support system comprising of a combination of open source tools to collect, store and present VPA data for any urban space of any scale. The system employs Open Data Kit (ODK) to build its mobile-based VPA tool which can be used to collect VPO attributes using any Android device. The collected data is streamed to a web-based data management module of the systemin real time which is built upon ODK Aggregate and PostgreSQL. Furthermore, the web-based visualisation module of the system is built upon some other major open source tools including OpenGeo Suite and PHP.The visualisation module presents the results of visual pollution index (VPI) in the form of a web-based dashboard containing real-time choropleth maps which can be filtered for any specific VPO. This research demonstrates the strengths of open geospatial tools to solve challenges of primary data collection on a diverse range of VPOs along with the systematic capturing of their spatial location and visual images. Furthermore, it proves the ability of open source web mapping tools to display visual pollution assessments in most appropriate cartographic representation. Resultantly, it offers the practitioner urban planners a tested mechanism to assess and map the levels of urban visual pollution in an urban space and help them take effective measures to improve the visual image of the city

Application of the Online WhatIf? Planning Support System in Peri-urban Spatial Planning; Case study of Muzaffargarh, Pakistan

Out of South Asian countries, Pakistan is experiencing the fastest urbanization rate where more than half of the population will reside in urban areas after next seven years. Such a rapid transformation in urban areas calls for an extraordinary response from spatial planning agencies. Handling of complex urban phenomena with precision and time efficiency has created the dire need for shifting from manual planning processes to computer-assisted planning approaches. Although, previous studies on spatial planning practices in Pakistan have highlighted the stages and processes where adoption of planning support systems (PSS) can help improve the planning outcomes. However, the use of geospatial technologies and PSS have been quite limited in adoption and undertake by the planning profession. With the advent of Smart Cities renewed awareness and support of data driven approach and tools such as PSS have assisted in bridging this utilization gap. To improve the adoption of PSS in spatial planning, many researchers have emphasized the need for research into understandintg and documenting real world use cases in ofg PSS supported planning. This research documents the case study of Muzaffargarh as the first spatial planning practice in the country’s context where the Online WhatIf? PSS has been synchronized in the plan preparation process and used for the development of planning proposals. While documenting the detailsabout the employment of OWI in the preparation of peri-urban structure plan (PUSP), it captures the processes, opportunities and challenges along with the user feedback. The country context specific procedural details covering the datasets, planning factors and assumptions have been comprehensively explained. It has been ensured that the details are sufficient enough to act as a guide for future plan preparation tasks of similar nature. Similarly, challenges and opportunities have been documented as part of the lessons learnt. This research concludes that the Online WhatIf? (OWI) has demonstrated to be a very good fit in PUSP preparation. This PSS has shown to provide a consistent and structured process to interactively explore, future land development options, which is considered a useful approach in PUSP preparation

Detection of Paracetamol as substrate of the gut microbiome

Gut microbiome, a new organ; represent targets to alter pharmacokinetics of orally administered drugs. Recently, in vitro trials endorsed the idea that orally administered drugs interact and some of their quantity may be taken up by normal microbiome during transit through gut. Such transport mechanisms in microbiome may compete for drug with the host itself. Currently, no data confirms specific transport system for paracetamol uptake by gut microbiome. In vivo trial was conducted in normal healthy male rats (n=36). Paracetamol was administered orally in a single dose of 75mg/kg to isolate microbial mass after transit of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 hours post drug administration. Paracetamol absorbance by microbiome was pursued by injecting extracted microbial lysate in RP-HPLC-UV with C18 column under isocratic conditions at 207nm using acetonitrile and water (25:75 v/v) pH 2.50 as mobile phase. Paracetamol absorbance (14.10±0.75μg/mg of microbial mass) and percent dose recovery (13.16±0.55%) seen at transit of 4 hours was significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to other groups. Study confirms the hypothesis of homology between membrane transporters of the gut microbiome and intestinal epithelium. Orally administered drugs can be absorbed by gut microbes competitively during transit in small intestine and it varies at various transit times

A Hybrid Tool for Visual Pollution Assessment in Urban Environments

With increasing focus on more nuanced aspects of quality of life, the phenomenon of urban visual pollution has been progressively gaining attention from researchers and policy makers, especially in the developed world. However, the subjectivity and complexity of assessing visual pollution in urban settings remain a challenge, especially given the lack of robust and reliable methods for quantification of visual pollution. This paper presents a novel systematic approach for the development of a robust Visual Pollution Assessment (VPA) tool. A key feature of our methodology is explicit and systematic incorporation of expert and public opinion for listing and ranking Visual Pollution Objects (VPOs). Moreover, our methodology deploys established empirical complex decision-making techniques to address the challenge of subjectivity in weighting the impact of individual VPOs. The resultant VPA tool uses close-ended options to capture the presence and characteristics of various VPOs on a given node. Based on these inputs, it calculates a point based visual pollution scorecard for the observation point. The performance of the VPA tool has been extensively tested and verified at various locations in Pakistan. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such tool, both in terms of quantitative robustness and broad coverage of VPOs. Our VPA tool will help regulators in assessing and charting visual pollution in a consistent and objective manner. It will also help policy makers by providing an empirical basis for gathering evidence; hence facilitating evidence-based and evidence-driven policy strategies, which are likely to have significant impact, especially in the developing countries

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Stakeholders' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR): case studies from Bangladesh andPakistan

abstractpublished_or_final_versionUrban Planning and Environmental ManagementDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph