Automatic train control using neuro-fuzzy modeling and optimal control techniques

In rapid transit applications, it is often necessary to optimize the ride of the train for certain parameters based upon time of day, occupant density, and system-wide scheduling. Trade-offs have to be made between energy conservation, time minimization, and ride comfort. Typically the dynamics of the train are not well known (or not initially known at all), change over time, and are non-linear. In the past, a transit control engineer would typically use P-I control but could spend days or weeks on-site adjusting the P-I constants to obtain a ride that felt good and met the design constraints. This process was both time consuming and expensive. This paper presents a control scheme for a rapid transit train that uses optimal concepts coupled with fuzzy control and neuro-fuzzy modeling techniques. The optimal controller allows users to define different ride types by adjusting weights on the cost equation. The controller design is done almost automatically, with minimal control engineer effort needed, by post-processing data collected from the train. The post-processing process uses neuro-fuzzy modeling techniques to create a dynamic model for the train, which can be used with optimal techniques to obtain fuzzy control rules for controlling the train. Once the initial design is in place, the controller becomes adaptive and fine-tunes itself to match the dynamics of the particular train that it is on

The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Crime

Evidence shows that education, labor market conditions for ex-offenders, and wages influence crime rates. The relationship between wages and crime specifically, has interesting potential policy implications, especially in arguments for increasing the minimum wage. Economists speculate that increasing the minimum wage may help reduce crime by increasing wages and thus increasing the opportunity cost of committing crime, making it riskier and less necessary for people to supplement their incomes through illegal avenues. Using crime data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and minimum wage data from Vaghul & Zipperer (2016), I employ a two-way fixed effects framework to analyze the effects of changes in the minimum-to-median wage ratio on various crime outcomes, including total crime rates and 16-24 year old crime rates. I find no effect on Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) crime rates with changes in the minimum-to-median wage ratio

Probing the capabilities of copper complexes with nitrogen and sulfur containing macrocyclic ligands as aziridination catalysts

Aziridines are three-membered rings containing one nitrogen atom. They are useful as synthetic intermediates in many organic reactions. Much work has been devoted to synthesizing their analogs, cyclopropanes and epoxides, but little work has been done on the aziridination reaction. This study endeavored to probe the efficiencies of novel copper aziridination catalysts with N3 and S3 macrocyclic ligands compared to an NS2 analog for the reaction with the nitrene precursor (N-(paratosylsulfonyl) imino)phenyliodinane, PhINTs, and the olefin styrene. The nitrogen containing catalyst complex gave higher yields than the sulfur containing catalyst complex. Both ligands were found to decrease the yield of the aziridination reaction relative to the catalyst complex Cu(acac)2. However, for the N3 ligand system, only a slight decrease occurred and the possibility remains that the system could be adjusted to obtain higher yields. Preliminary studies using an NS2 macrocyclic ligand in the copper catalyst complex showed it to have slightly higher yields than the N3 and S3 systems

Sébastien Genvo, Introduction aux enjeux artistiques et culturels des jeux vidéo

Le jeu vidéo a trente ans. Les jeux d’aujourd’hui n’ont plus rien à voir avec ceux des premières générations de consoles et de jeux d’arcade. De jeux purement textuels, nous sommes passés à la manipulation de séquences vidéo, l’animation 3D et le son spatialisé en temps réel. Au-delà des améliorations de l’interface, l’évolution des capacités des ordinateurs et des consoles, des techniques de programmation, de domaines comme l’intelligence artificielle, la simulation en temps réel de phénomèn..

En quoi les jeux vidéos sont-ils différents.... ?

International audienceStarting from an analysis of what differentiates video games from other media, considered from the point of view of aesthetics, creative processes and the organization of this production, we show that this analysis is the foundation of the pedagogy that has been developed for more than fifteen years at the Graduate School of Digital Games and Interactive Media (Enjmin) and the basis of a set of research developed at the CEDRIC laboratory.Dans cet article nous partons d’une analyse de ce qui différencie les jeux vidéo des autres media considéré du point de vue de l’esthétique, des processus de création et l’organisation de cette production. Nous montrons que cette analyse est le fondement de la pédagogie qui a été développée depuis plus de quinze ans à l’Ecole Nationale des jeux et Media Interactifs Numériques (Enjmin) et d’un ensemble de thèmes de recherche développés au CEDRIC

Representations of the family in postwar British amateur film: family histories in the Lane and Scrutton collection at the East Anglian Film Archive

This article examines the construction of the postwar British family in amateur film with reference to the Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton collection held at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), particularly the films covering 1948 – 1961. Heather Norris Nicholson argues that home movies contribute to 'an understanding of leisure and visual-related practices of consumption as well as the social processes by which people came to give themselves, and others, identities' in the mid-twentieth century (Nicholson, 2004, p. 323). By considering the social and historical contexts in which these home movies were produced, and using accompanying notes by one of the filmmaker’s sons, the leisure time films of Lane and Scrutton can be analysed in order to understand how the amateur cine hobby ideologically constructed family, community and national identity in postwar Britain. The images of Christmas parties, daytrips and holidays in these films reveal much about this particular family, and are therefore very illuminating to the social historian and film scholar of today

Méthode de game design pour la création d'un profil psychologique du joueur.

Générer du gameplay est un incontournable objectif de la réalisation d un jeu. Nous le recherchons lorsque nous nous rentrons dans la bulle ludique. Pourtant, les éléments produits par les game designer sont des systèmes de jeu, des règles, une simulation, etc. Pour que ce système permette la naissance du gameplay, les game designers doivent nécessairement tenter de modéliser le joueur. Empiriquement ils manipulent des modèles psychologiques et sociologiques du joueur : Courbe d apprentissage, gestion de la difficulté, degré d efficience (etc.). Au cœur de la session de jeu industriel et chercheur ont besoin de moyens pour mieux cerner le joueur. La question que nous nous posons est celle de la détection des traits psychologiques, d éléments caractérisant du joueur, au travers du gameplay ou, pour le moins, engagé dans une expérience ludique. Nous proposons une méthode de game design dédiée à la création d un profil psychologique du joueur. Nous avons pu l expérimenter lors d un travail de collaboration avec INETOP et Paris Ouest sur la question des tests d orientation professionnelle. Il s agit du serious game JEU SERAI, développé en partenariat avec l industriel Wizarbox. Cette première expérimentation nous permet d envisager un développement de ce champ de recherche à la croisée des sciences de l informatique, de la psychologie et des sciences cognitives.Can we track psychological player s traits or profile through gameplay or, at least, when the player is engaged in a ludic experience? We propose a game design methodology dedicated to the generation of psychological profile of the player. The main experimentation, a vocational guidance game, was created with academic experts and industrial game developpers. The first results set the basis of the exploration of a field at the crossover of computer sciences, in particular game design, psychology and cognitive sciences.PARIS-CNAM (751032301) / SudocSudocFranceF

De la Métaphore à la tâche (une bibliothèque de concepts métaphoriques pour le prototypage de techniques d'interactions.)

Nous présentons dans cette thèse les bases d un dialogue entre le modèle cognitif dit incarné et le développement de styles et techniques d interaction pour les interfaces graphiques en 3 dimensions. Ce modèle cognitif, structuré entre autres par Lakoff et Johnson, décrit les correspondances métaphoriques que nous construisons naturellement entre des idées abstraites et les modèles mentaux provenant de notre expérience perceptive. Dortier résume la cognition incarnée en disant que les idées ont des formes, des couleurs, suscitent des goûts et des dégoûts. Cette vision intégrée des systèmes perceptifs et cognitifs s applique non seulement à la représentation mentale des objets ou des personnes, mais aussi aux idées abstraites quelles soient morales, philosophiques ou scientifiques.Ce modèle met en évidence le rôle de ces corrélations en tant que source de compréhension et d action et a fait émerger le concept d interfaces énactives. Aujourd hui elles se présentent comme un regard commun sur les projets émergents d interfaces homme-machine. Des projets, tels que les interfaces tangibles, les systèmes de capture de gestes et d autres solutions logicielles et matérielles multimodales, se servent de notre aptitude à structurer métaphoriquement l information produite par notre action sur le monde, pour créer des interfaces universellement appréhendables.Nous avons illustré l application de ce modèle sur des projets d interfaces graphiques pour la réalisation de tâches dans des contextes hétérogènes. Nous avons ciblé les dispositifs multimédia pour le grand public et les stratégies pour la réussite de ces interfaces en tant qu outil pédagogique pour les musées, expositions et outils de travail collaboratifs. Notre première application est le projet de médiation graphique pour accéder à une base de données d'objets numérisés en 3D pour le Musée des Arts et Métiers. Dans ce projet les objets numérisés sont affichés selon une métaphore de fluides et particules dotés d électromagnétisme. La navigation dans ce catalogue se veut claire et pervasive. Nous avons analysons la capacité des métaphores de construire des ponts cohérents entre les diverses plateformes d accès au catalogue. Dans une seconde implémentation nous employons les métaphores liés à la notion visuelle de profondeur et de densité pour proposer une ligne du temps en 3 dimensions pour la visualisation de donnés temporelles pour EDF. Finalement nos synthétisons les relations entre les ensembles de métaphores pour les appliquer aux composantes d interaction. La structure résultante se présente sous forme d un Framework conceptuel d agents et styles d interaction qui peut servir en tant qu outil de prototypage mais aussi comme catalyseur pour la conception d interfaces innovantes.Embodied cognition has emerged over the last decades as a new paradigm of the human reasoning system. Large numbers of researchers agree on the influences of perceptual and motor activity on our thinking and representational mechanisms. The importance of embodied mind theory is growing in the field of cognitive science. It is now the conceptual support for innovative projects in human computer interaction (HCI). The new paradigms of HCI are shifting towards the venue of natural, invisible and pervasive interfaces. Office tasks of the 80s and their related interfaces are now being replaced by multimodal commands (gesture, voice) and contextual or social inputs. From graphical user interfaces to tangible and multimodal devices, new sets of innovative interaction techniques are emerging and these can no longer rely on classic metaphors and visual analogies. To increase the meaning of new commands and representations of post-wimp interaction techniques and to build coherent and consistent metaphors between different platforms and embedded devices in our environment, researchers have turned their attention to the embodied vision of the cognitive system.We present in this thesis the embodied cognitive paradigm and how it has been adopted by the HCI community. We illustrate this model by analyzing several tasks carried out in heterogeneous environments. Thereafter, proposals are made on how museums, exhibitions and collaboration tools may use embodied metaphors as a design strategy to produce innovative multimedia devices. The first application was one of mediating access to a database of digitized 3D objects for the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris. In this project the digitized objects are displayed in a metaphor of fluids and particles managed by electromagnetic forces that guide the semantics of the user s search. Browsing tasks in this catalog are intended to be clear and coherent between different platforms in order to respect the user s levels of desired engagement. An analysis is made of the ability of metaphors to build bridges between the various platform interfaces. In the second application, metaphors related to the concept of visual depth and density was used to propose a 3D timeline so as to visualize temporal data. Finally, the framework synthesizes the embodied metaphorical mappings in a large set of components which will be applied as building blocks when prototyping interaction techniques. This structure takes the form of a conceptual Framework of interaction agents which might serve not only as a tool for prototyping interfaces but also as a catalyst for generating innovative ideas.PARIS-CNAM (751032301) / SudocSudocFranceF