scholarly journals Beyond Objects in Space-Time: Towards a Movement Analysis Framework with ‘How’ and ‘Why’ Elements

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Saeed Rahimi ◽  
Antoni B. Moore ◽  
Peter A. Whigham

Current spatiotemporal data has facilitated movement studies to shift objectives from descriptive models to explanations of the underlying causes of movement. From both a practical and theoretical standpoint, progress in developing approaches for these explanations should be founded on a conceptual model. This paper presents such a model in which three conceptual levels of abstraction are proposed to frame an agent-based representation of movement decision-making processes: ‘attribute,’ ‘actor,’ and ‘autonomous agent’. These in combination with three temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal general forms of observations distinguish nine (3 × 3) representation typologies of movement data within the agent framework. Thirdly, there are three levels of cognitive reasoning: ‘association,’ ‘intervention,’ and ‘counterfactual’. This makes for 27 possible types of operation embedded in a conceptual cube with the level of abstraction, type of observation, and degree of cognitive reasoning forming the three axes. The conceptual model is an arena where movement queries and the statement of relevant objectives takes place. An example implementation of a tightly constrained spatiotemporal scenario to ground the agent-structure was summarised. The platform has been well-defined so as to accommodate different tools and techniques to drive causal inference in computational movement analysis as an immediate future step.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 417
Author(s):  
Sherli Koshy-Chenthittayil ◽  
Linda Archambault ◽  
Dhananjai Senthilkumar ◽  
Reinhard Laubenbacher ◽  
Pedro Mendes ◽  
...  

The human microbiome has been a focus of intense study in recent years. Most of the living organisms comprising the microbiome exist in the form of biofilms on mucosal surfaces lining our digestive, respiratory, and genito-urinary tracts. While health-associated microbiota contribute to digestion, provide essential nutrients, and protect us from pathogens, disturbances due to illness or medical interventions contribute to infections, some that can be fatal. Myriad biological processes influence the make-up of the microbiota, for example: growth, division, death, and production of extracellular polymers (EPS), and metabolites. Inter-species interactions include competition, inhibition, and symbiosis. Computational models are becoming widely used to better understand these interactions. Agent-based modeling is a particularly useful computational approach to implement the various complex interactions in microbial communities when appropriately combined with an experimental approach. In these models, each cell is represented as an autonomous agent with its own set of rules, with different rules for each species. In this review, we will discuss innovations in agent-based modeling of biofilms and the microbiota in the past five years from the biological and mathematical perspectives and discuss how agent-based models can be further utilized to enhance our comprehension of the complex world of polymicrobial biofilms and the microbiome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Dita Novizayanti ◽  
Eko Agus Prasetio ◽  
Manahan Siallagan ◽  
Sigit Puji Santosa

Currently, the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) draws much attention, as the environmental issue of reducing carbon emission is increasing worldwide. However, different countries face different challenges during this transition, particularly developing countries. This research aims to create a framework for the transition to EV in Indonesia through Agent-Based Modeling (ABM). The framework is used as the conceptual design for ABM to investigate the effect of agents’ decision-making processes at the microlevel into the number of adopted EV at the macrolevel. The cluster analysis is equipped to determine the agents’ characteristics based on the categories of the innovation adopters. There are 11 significant variables and four respondents’ clusters: innovators, early majority, late majority, and the uncategorized one. Moreover, Twitter data analytics are utilized to investigate the information engagement coefficient based on the agents’ location. The agents’ characteristics which emerged from this analysis framework will be used as the fundamental for investigating the effect of agents’ specific characteristics and their interaction through ABM for further research. It is expected that this framework will enable the discovery of which incentive scheme or critical technical features effectively increase the uptake of EV according to the agents’ specific characteristics.


Author(s):  
Gavindya Jayawardena ◽  
Sampath Jayarathna

Eye-tracking experiments involve areas of interest (AOIs) for the analysis of eye gaze data. While there are tools to delineate AOIs to extract eye movement data, they may require users to manually draw boundaries of AOIs on eye tracking stimuli or use markers to define AOIs. This paper introduces two novel techniques to dynamically filter eye movement data from AOIs for the analysis of eye metrics from multiple levels of granularity. The authors incorporate pre-trained object detectors and object instance segmentation models for offline detection of dynamic AOIs in video streams. This research presents the implementation and evaluation of object detectors and object instance segmentation models to find the best model to be integrated in a real-time eye movement analysis pipeline. The authors filter gaze data that falls within the polygonal boundaries of detected dynamic AOIs and apply object detector to find bounding-boxes in a public dataset. The results indicate that the dynamic AOIs generated by object detectors capture 60% of eye movements & object instance segmentation models capture 30% of eye movements.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroki Koda ◽  
Zin Arai ◽  
Ikki Matsuda

AbstractUnderstanding social organization is fundamental for the analysis of animal societies. In this study, animal single-file movement data ‒serialized order movements generated by simple bottom-up rules of collective movements— are informative and effective observations for the reconstruction of animal social structures using agent-based models. For simulation, artificial 2-dimensional spatial distributions were prepared with the simple assumption of clustered structures of a group. Animals in the group are either independent or dependent agents. Independent agents distribute spatially independently each one another, while dependent agents distribute depending on the distribution of independent agents. Artificial agent spatial distributions aim to represent clustered structures of agent locations ‒a coupling of “core” or “keystone” subjects and “subordinate” or “follower” subjects. Collective movements were simulated following two simple rules, 1) initiators of the movement are randomly chosen, and 2) the next moving agent is always the nearest neighbor of the last moving agents, generating “single-file movement” data. Finally, social networks were visualized, and clustered structures reconstructed using a recent major social network analysis (SNA) algorithm, the Louvain algorithm, for rapid unfolding of communities in large networks. Simulations revealed possible reconstruction of clustered social structures using relatively minor observations of single-file movement, suggesting possible application of single-file movement observations for SNA use in field investigations of wild animals.


Author(s):  
Chihiro Kamio ◽  
Tatsuhito Aihara ◽  
Gaku Minorikawa

Abstract Human movement data can contribute to the quality improvement of industrial and medical products affected by such movement. Such data can be used to improve the quality of industrial products as well as in healthcare applications, such as the development of artificial joints. To develop and design artificial joints with enhance durability, it is necessary to set up standards of durability using human movement data in daily life. The aim of this study is to obtain data that contributes to the improvement in durability of artificial elbow joints. We have developed a wearable device that can measure its self-acceleration, angular velocity, and quaternions to collect human movement data continuously for long-term. Additionally, we collected the arm movement data of 30 participants using the developed device. The participants of this study carried on with their normal lives with the measuring device worn on their wrist. This study calculated the posture of the wrist over time using quaternions and mainly analyzed posture changes. We clarified the characteristics and trends of the movement of bending the elbow in daily human life.


2013 ◽  
pp. 344-359
Author(s):  
Paul L. Drnevich ◽  
Thomas H. Brush ◽  
Alok Chaturvedi

Most strategic decision-making (SDM) approaches advocate the importance of decision-making processes and response choices for obtaining effective outcomes. Modern decision-making support system (DMSS) technology is often also needed for complex SDM, with recent research calling for more integrative DMSS approaches. However, scholars tend to take disintegrated approaches and disagree on whether rational or political decision-making processes result in more effective decision outcomes. In this study, the authors examine these issues by first exploring some of the competing theoretical arguments for the process-choice-effectiveness relationship, and then test these relationships empirically using data from a crisis response training exercise using an intelligent agent-based DMSS. In contrast to prior research, findings indicate that rational decision processes are not effective in crisis contexts, and that political decision processes may negatively influence both response choice and decision effectiveness. These results offer empirical evidence to confirm prior unsupported arguments that response choice is an important mediating factor between the decision-making process and its effectiveness. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and the application of agent-based simulation DMSS technologies for academic research and practice.


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