A Bayesian Demand-Side Management Strategy for Smart Micro-Grid

In this manuscript a novel strategy for distributed and autonomous demand-side energy management among users of a low-voltage micro-grid is developed. Its derivation is based on: a) modelling the energy consumption scheduling of the shiftable loads that belong to a given user as a noncooperative two-player game of incomplete information, in which the user itself plays against an opponent collecting all the other users of the same micro-grid; b) assuming that each user is endowed with statistical information about its behavior and that of its opponent, so that it can choose actions maximising its expected utility. Numerical results evidence the efficacy of the proposed strategy when employed to manage the charging of electric vehicles in a micro-grid

Computational Psychiatry and Psychometrics Based on Non-Conscious Stimuli Input and Pupil Response Output

It is well known from the technical literature that non-conscious perception of emotional stimuli affects behavior, perception, and even decision making [e.g., see Ref. (1) for a comprehensive review]. Non-conscious perception can be obtained by inducing sensory unawareness, e.g., through backward masking and binocular rivalry (1). Experiments adopting such paradigms have evidenced that non-consciously perceived emotional stimuli elicit activity in the amygdala, superior colliculus, basal ganglia, and pulvinar. More specifically, it has been shown that a subcortical fast route exists between the thalamus and the amygdala, which, in turn, project onto different cortical and subcortical structures [e.g., onto the nucleus accumbens, NAcc, when appetitive stimuli are perceived (2)]. These findings agree with the hypothesis about amygdala functionality proposed by LeDoux (3, 4). In fact, LeDoux has hypothized the existence of a thalamic pathway to the amygdala; such a pathway would allow to automatically detect evolutionary prepared visual stimuli (such as emotional faces, sexual-related stimuli, spiders, snakes, and injuries). Note that this model is also supported by other results acquired by different researchers that have employed masking in normal participants (5, 6) or have observed brain activity in patients affected by cortical blindness (7, 8). According to this model about amygdala functionality, the superior colliculus stimulates the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, which then arouses the amygdala (4, 9, 10). This suggests that salient features representing biologically prepared stimuli could be stored in the amygdala since birth. From an evolutionary perspective, this can be related to the fact that fast and implicit (or unconscious) reactions are needed in dangerous and highly dynamical environments. Moreover, even ontogenetic stimuli (e.g., weapons) are encoded within the amygdala through implicit learning during life (11, 12). These data evidence the importance of subcortical regions associated with implicit emotional processing. In fact, since the brain structure works like a hierarchical network (13) in which the limbic system represents a lower hierarchical level with respect to the higher cortical structure, it is likely that the overall perception and emotional appraisal are influenced by low-level evaluations. More specifically, the signals coming from lower and higher hierarchical levels determine prediction errors (or error signals) at intermediate levels; such error signals propagate through the entire hierarchical structure, determining cognitive perception, causes attributions, emotional evaluations, actions, and behaviors (14). Hence, if subcortical limbic-brainstem regions are defective, all the network hierarchy functioning will be compromised. As a matter of fact, a dysfunction in the limbic-brainstem regions is associated with various psychiatric disorders with higher cognitive deficits including autism, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD), attention deficits/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), neurosis, phobia, and others

Reduced-Complexity Algorithms for Indoor Map-Aware Localization Systems

The knowledge of environmental maps (i.e., map-awareness) can appreciably improve the accuracy of optimal methods for position estimation in indoor scenarios. This improvement, however, is achieved at the price of a significant complexity increase with respect to the case of map-unawareness, specially for large maps. This is mainly due to the fact that optimal map-aware estimation algorithms require integrating highly nonlinear functions or solving nonlinear and nonconvex constrained optimization problems. In this paper, various techniques for reducing the complexity of such estimators are developed. In particular, two novel strategies for restricting the search domain of map-aware position estimators are developed and the exploitation of state-of-the-art numerical integration and optimization methods is investigated; this leads to the development of a new family of suboptimal map-aware localization algorithms. Our numerical and experimental results evidence that the accuracy of these algorithms is very close to that offered by their optimal counterparts, despite their significantly lower computational complexity

Performance analysis of OFDM signalling over doubly-selective fading channels

A simple method for the evaluation of the error rate performance of OFDM signals transmitted over doubly-selective fading channels is described. The accuracy of the proposed technique is exemplified by simulation results. Power series models for multipath channels are employed to derive simple expressions for the average signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and the average error probability

Maximum-likelihood frequency recovery for OFDM signals transmitted over multipath fading channels

In this paper, a novel feedback frequency synchronizer for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signals transmitted over multipath fading channels is described. Its derivation is based on maximum-likelihood estimation techniques and assumes an approximate statistical knowledge of the communication channel. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed by computer simulation, and is compared with that provided by other synchronization algorithms and with Cramer-Rao bounds