Inflow Process: A Counterpart of Evacuation

Experimental study and numerical simulation of evacuation from a dormitory

Effect of uncertain information on pedestrian dynamics under adverse sight conditions

CellEVAC: An adaptive guidance system for crowd evacuation through behavioral optimization

Introduction Body-powered prostheses are still essential in practice. There are two types of mechanisms to manipulate body-powered prostheses: voluntary closing (VC) and voluntary opening (VO). However, there are no studies investigating which is better suited for what type of movement in daily life. Materials and Methods The participants were eight right-handed, able-bodied adults. They were divided into two groups: a VC-to-VO group, in which the VC type was practiced first and then the VO type, and a VO-to-VC group, in which they practiced in the opposite order. VC/VO-type terminal device (EquiluxTM) was attached to a body-powered prosthesis simulator for the left hand, and the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure (SHAP) tasks were practiced repeatedly. We compared the VC type and VO type for the number of practices to reach a plateau, Index of Functionality (IOF) score, the six prehensile pattern scores, and the time required for the 26 SHAP tasks. Scores were also compared before and after practice. In addition, changes in IOF and scores for each of the six patterns with proficiency were compared between VC type and VO type. Results Significant improvements were observed with manipulation practice for both types of devices. The mean SHAP scores at the plateau were 82.6 for VO type and 92.0 for VC type, with VC type significantly higher than VO type. In the six prehensile pattern scores, only two patterns, Tripod and Power, showed significant differences. When comparing the time required, Food Cutting task was an exception and significantly faster in the VC type, while there were no significant differences for the other tasks. Conclusions It was suggested that the VC type is more suitable for tasks requiring grip strength. Clinical Relevance We believe that this research will improve the daily lives of individuals with upper-limb amputation.

Evacuation dynamics of pedestrians passing through a low-boundary exit in the context of sound signal

Fast Evacuation Method: Using an effective dynamic floor field based on efficient pedestrian assignment

We have introduced the study of synthesis pathways using two experiments: 1-the determination of the glycemic index (GI) of some foods and the effects of fiber and fat on the GI; 2-the determination of blood glucose levels after the ingestion of meals with high and low glycemic loads (GL). After a practice assembly, when the foods and meals that were eaten by the students were tallied, the students were divided into groups. At the next class, three members of each group, who had fasted for 8 hr, ingested 50 g of carbohydrate in food or a meal. After ingestion, the blood glucose was measured with a portable device every 30 min for a period of 2 hr. Discussion of the data obtained in experiment 1 allowed the students to understand the mechanism of action of insulin and to understand how the GI, as presented in the literature, is determined. The students also concluded that the addition of fiber to food reduces the glycemic response even with high GI foods, and these results could be a useful strategy for diet prescription. Discussion of experiment 2 allowed the students to understand that the amount of food intake is a determining factor for the glycemic response and subsequent release of insulin. These experimental observations allowed the students to transfer theoretical knowledge to their daily lives very easily. The students approved the classes and felt encouraged to study the synthesis pathways and metabolic integration in the fed state.

Existing crowd evacuation simulation methods commonly face challenges of low efficiency in path planning and insufficient realism in pedestrian movement during the evacuation process. In this study, we propose a novel crowd evacuation path planning approach based on the learning curve–deep deterministic policy gradient (LC‐DDPG) algorithm. The algorithm incorporates dynamic experience pool and a priority experience sampling strategy, enhancing convergence speed and achieving higher average rewards, thus efficiently enabling global path planning. Building upon this foundation, we introduce a double‐layer method for crowd evacuation using deep reinforcement learning. Specifically, within each group, individuals are categorized into leaders and followers. At the top layer, we employ the LC‐DDPG algorithm to perform global path planning for the leaders. Simultaneously, at the bottom layer, an enhanced social force model guides the followers to avoid obstacles and follow the leaders during evacuation. We implemented a crowd evacuation simulation platform. Experimental results show that our proposed method has high path planning efficiency and can generate more realistic pedestrian trajectories in different scenarios and crowd sizes.

The present study investigated the interactions between motor action and cognitive processing with particular reference to kanji-culture individuals. Kanji-culture individuals often move their finger as if they are writing when they are solving cognitive tasks, for example, when they try to recall the spelling of English words. This behavior is called kusho, meaning air-writing in Japanese. However, its functional role is still unknown. To reveal the role of kusho behavior in cognitive processing, we conducted a series of experiments, employing two different cognitive tasks, a construction task and a stroke count task. To distinguish the effects of the kinetic aspects of kusho behavior, we set three hand conditions in the tasks; participants were instructed to use either kusho, unrelated finger movements or do nothing during the response time. To isolate possible visual effects, two visual conditions in which participants saw their hand and the other in which they did not, were introduced. We used the number of correct responses and response time as measures of the task performance. The results showed that kusho behavior has different functional roles in the two types of cognitive tasks. In the construction task, the visual feedback from finger movement facilitated identifying a character, whereas the kinetic feedback or motor commands for the behavior did not help to solve the task. In the stroke count task, by contrast, the kinetic aspects of the finger movements influenced counting performance depending on the type of the finger movement. Regardless of the visual condition, kusho behavior improved task performance and unrelated finger movements degraded it. These results indicated that motor behavior contributes to cognitive processes. We discussed possible mechanisms of the modality dependent contribution. These findings might lead to better understanding of the complex interaction between action and cognition in daily life.

Do elicited promises affect people's trust? —Observations in the trust game experiment

To construct an appropriate motor command from signals that provide a representation of desired action, the nervous system must take into account the dynamic characteristics of the motor plant to be controlled. In the oculomotor system, signals specifying desired eye velocity are thought to be transformed into motor commands by an inverse dynamic model of the eye plant that is shared for all types of eye movements and implemented by a weighted combination of eye velocity and position signals. Neurons in the prepositus hypoglossi and adjacent medial vestibular nuclei (PH-BT neurons) were traditionally thought to encode the "eye position" component of this inverse model. However, not only are PH-BT responses inconsistent with this theoretical role, but compensatory eye movement responses to translation do not show evidence for processing by a common inverse dynamic model. Prompted by these discrepancies between theoretical notions and experimental observations, we reevaluated these concepts using multiple-frequency rotational and translational head movements. Compatible with the notion of a common inverse model, we show that PH-BT responses are unique among all premotor cell types in bearing a consistent relationship to the motor output during eye movements driven by different sensory stimuli. However, because their responses are dynamically identical to those of motoneurons, PH-BT neurons do not simply represent an internal component of the inverse model, but rather its output. They encode and distribute an estimate of the motor command, a signal critical for accurate motor execution and learning.

This study was aimed at examining the assumption that three-dimensional (3D) hand movements follow specific paths that are dictated by the operation of a Listing's law constraint at the intrinsic joint level of the arm. A kinematic model was used to simulate hand paths during 3D point-to-point movements. The model was based on the assumption that the shoulder obeys a 2D Listing's constraint and that rotations are about fixed single-axes. The elbow rotations were assumed to relate linearly to those of the shoulder. Both joints were assumed to rotate without reversals, and to start and end rotating simultaneously with zero initial and final velocities. Model predictions were compared to experimental observations made on four right-handed individuals that moved toward virtual objects in "extended arm", "radial", and "frontal plane" movement types. The results showed that the model was partially successful in accounting for the observed behavior. Best hand-path predictions were obtained for extended arm movements followed by radial ones. Frontal plane movements resulted in the largest discrepancies between the predicted and the observed paths. During such movements, the upper arm rotation vectors did not obey Listing's law and this may explain the observed discrepancies. For other movement types, small deviations from the predicted paths were observed which could be explained by the fact that single-axis rotations were not followed even though the rotation vectors remained within Listing's plane. Dynamic factors associated with movement execution, which were not taken into account in our purely kinematic approach, could also explain some of these small discrepancies. In conclusion, a kinematic model based on Listing's law can describe an intrinsic joint strategy for the control of arm orientation during pointing and reaching movements, but only in conditions in which the movements closely obey the Listing's plane assumption.

Since the metaverse was introduced, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) are increasingly being used for VR gaming, sports and 3D films. Additionally, the Pancake optical module has made HMDs smaller and lighter, which greatly increased its comfortability. However, during real use, there will inevitably be a lot of user head mouvements, such as shaking, lowering and raising, etc., which will cause certain displacement of the HMDs due to its inertia. Then the relative displacement of HMDs may affect the pressure and pressure-bearing area of the head, which leads to user discomfort.Currently, the research on the comfort of HMDs primarily focuses on the static scenarios without mouvement. This paper investigated the relative displacement and user comfort of the HMDs in motion. The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between HMDs' displacement and the contact area in order to provide design guidances and insights for HMDs, particularly the binding area. This paper also proposed an effective experimental method for measuring the relative displacement of HMDs, which can be used to assess the dynamic stability.A simple VR environment was bulit to guide the participant’s head movements by moving circular lightened dots, for simulating the head mouvements in daily life. At the same time, a wearable ruler sticker was designed to measure the displacement of the HMDs relative to the head.The experimenter took measurements of participants’ heads and assisted them to get familiar with the HMDs, and then pasted ruler stickers on the participants’ faces. The participants put on the HMD and adjust it to a comfortable position. Then they completed the head movement under the guidance of the VR environment and repeated it for 5 times. The same procedure was repeated after changing the contact area of the binding with 40mm*40mm foam cotton pieces. The HMD’s position was recorded before and after the mouvement.The results shows that, the HMDs exhibit a significant displacement relative to the head, after performing typical head motions, which causes some slight discomfort. Meanwhile, after doing a data correlation with SPSS, it can be found that the contact area of the binding is one of the main reasons for HMDs’ displacement. And the displacement can be greatly reduced and the pressure comfort rarely changes when the contact area of the bindings is increased, which has a positive impact on the overall comfort evaluation. Besides, we believe that in addition to the contact area, the mass distribution, pressure, and materials also have an effect on the relative displacement of HMDs, which might be the focus of future research. In future, new prototypes will be developed to increase the accuracy of environmental variables control and the evaluation of different factors.

IntroductionAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is reportedly related to difficulties in the visual processing of human motion, such as biological motion and gestures. Moreover, neurotypical (here, we mention it as individuals without a diagnosis) adults with autistic traits are clumsier than those without autistic traits when passing by others. It is still unclear whether the clumsiness derived from atypical visual processing of another’s approaching gait motion. We aim to address this question by investigating the association between autistic traits in neurotypical adults and the visual processing of an approaching life-sized avatar’s gait.MethodsWe clarified a typical visual motion processing and autistic traits in daily life in 26 neurotypical adults by analyzing the subthreshold autism trait questionnaire (SATQ) score, a 24-item self-report scale of ASD, and event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to walking motion of a passing avatar. Videos of walking life-sized virtual avatars approaching and retreating were presented as visual stimuli.Results and discussionThe association between the participants’ SATQ scores and the latencies and amplitudes of the ERPs was examined. ERP components (N170 and P200) components were identified at T5 and T6 electrodes. Participants reporting higher SATQ scores had longer latencies of P200 at T6 and lower amplitudes of P200 at T5 and T6 electrodes for the approaching avatar than those reporting lower SATQ scores. These findings indicate that adults with autistic traits have delayed and less sensitive visual processing of the approaching avatar. It suggests that while passing another person, these individuals have atypical visual processing of their approach. This study may contribute to elucidating autistic traits from the perspective of visual processing in an environment simulating daily life.

by governing the autonomic outflow to the heart and blood vessels, arterial baroreceptors play a central role in controlling short-term blood pressure responses to the hemodynamic perturbations continuously occurring in daily life. Abnormalities in baroreflex function are thought to play an