Indoor localisation with Android devices

This project analyses WiFiSLAM, an indoor positioning system for mobile phones that tries to estimate the position by analysing WiFi signals.

The Geographical Scope of Industrial Location Determinants: An Alternative Approach

This paper considers the estimation of the geographical scope of industrial location determinants. While previous studies impose strong assumptions on the weighting scheme of the spatial neighbour matrix, we propose a exible parametrisation that allows for di fferent (distance-based) de finitions of neighbourhood and di fferent weights to the neighbours. In particular, we estimate how far can reach indirect marginal e ffects and discuss how to report them. We also show that the use of smooth transition functions provides tools for policy analysis that are not available in the traditional threshold modelling. Keywords: count data models, industrial location, smooth transition functions, threshold models. JEL-Codes: C25, C52, R11, R30.

Indoor Multipurpose Use and Training Facility Revenue Bond Funds, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Independent Auditor's Report Financial Statements and Supplemental Information, June 30, 2004

State University Audit Report

Temporo-parietal cortex encodes location of the self: joining fMRI with neuroscience robotics to study bodily self-consciousness

Neuroimaging of the self has focused on high-level mechanisms such as language, memory or imagery of the self and implicated widely distributed brain networks. Yet recent evidence suggests that low-level mechanisms such as multisensory and sensorimotor integration may play a fundamental role in self-related processing. In the present study we used visuotactile multisensory conflict, robotics, virtual reality, and fMRI to study such low-level mechanisms by experimentally inducing changes in self-location. Participants saw a video of a person's back (body) or an empty room (no-body) being stroked while a MR-compatible robotic device stroked their back. The latter tactile input was synchronous or asynchronous with respect to the seen stroking. Self-location was estimated behaviorally confirming previous data that self-location only differed between the two body conditions. fMRI results showed a bilateral activation of the temporo-parietal cortex with a significantly higher BOLD signal increase in the synchronous/body condition with respect to the other conditions. Sensorimotor cortex and extrastriate-body-area were also activated. We argue that temporo-parietal activity reflects the experience of the conscious 'I' as embodied and localized within bodily space, compatible with clinical data in neurological patients with out-of-body experiences.

Diseño, implementación y validación de un sistema de localización híbrido basado en una red de sensores inalámbricos (WSN)

Aquest projecte estudia la implementació d’un sistema de localització híbrid amb la combinació del posicionament GPS y el posicionament obtingut mitjançant mesures de potència rebuda (RSS) utilitzant una xarxa de sensors sense fils (WSN). Inicialment s’analitzen les característiques principals de les WSN y les tècniques de posicionament GPS y RSS. A continuació es proposen tècniques de localització híbrides que combinen el posicionament bàsic brindat per la WSN (GPS y RSS)per obtenir posicionament tant en escenaris interiors com exteriors a més d’obtenir una precisió major que les precisions bàsiques. Una vegada s’han analitzat els conceptes bàsics y s’han proposat les tècniques a utilitzar en el sistema de localització híbrida s’expliquen els aspectes d’implementació relacionats amb la programació de la WSN. Finalment, després d’analitzar els resultats de diverses mesures, queda present la necessitat de tècniques d’estimació d’error en el posicionament, per això es proposa una tècnica d’estimació d’error per ser utilitzada en les estimacions híbrides y obtenir així el funcionament desitjat de les tècniques híbrides.

A WiMAX-based implementation of network MIMO for indoor wireless systems

It is well known that multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can bring numerous benefits, such as higher spectral efficiency, to point-to-point wireless links. More recently, there has been interest in extending MIMO concepts tomultiuser wireless systems. Our focus in this paper is on network MIMO, a family of techniques whereby each end user in a wireless access network is served through several access points within its range of influence. By tightly coordinating the transmission and reception of signals at multiple access points, network MIMO can transcend the limits on spectral efficiency imposed by cochannel interference. Taking prior information-theoretic analyses of networkMIMO to the next level, we quantify the spectral efficiency gains obtainable under realistic propagation and operational conditions in a typical indoor deployment. Our study relies on detailed simulations and, for specificity, is conducted largely within the physical-layer framework of the IEEE 802.16e Mobile WiMAX system. Furthermore,to facilitate the coordination between access points, we assume that a high-capacity local area network, such as Gigabit Ethernet,connects all the access points. Our results confirm that network MIMO stands to provide a multiple-fold increase in spectralefficiency under these conditions.

Leveraging explicitly disclosed location information to understand tourist dynamics: a case study

In recent years, the large deployment of mobile devices has led to a massiveincrease in the volume of records of where people have been and when they were there.The analysis of these spatio-temporal data can supply high-level human behaviorinformation valuable to urban planners, local authorities, and designer of location-basedservices. In this paper, we describe our approach to collect and analyze the history ofphysical presence of tourists from the digital footprints they publicly disclose on the web.Our work takes place in the Province of Florence in Italy, where the insights on thevisitors’ flows and on the nationalities of the tourists who do not sleep in town has beenlimited to information from survey-based hotel and museums frequentation. In fact, mostlocal authorities in the world must face this dearth of data on tourist dynamics. In thiscase study, we used a corpus of geographically referenced photos taken in the provinceby 4280 photographers over a period of 2 years. Based on the disclosure of the locationof the photos, we design geovisualizations to reveal the tourist concentration and spatiotemporalflows. Our initial results provide insights on the density of tourists, the points ofinterests they visit as well as the most common trajectories they follow.

Indoor Multipurpose Use and Training Facility Revenue Bond Funds, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Independent Auditor's Report, Financial Statements and Supplemental Information, June 30, 2005

State University Audit Report

Sex differences: From mental rotation to object location memory, an ERP study

Sex differences in cognition have been largely investigated. The most consistent sex differences favoring females are observed in object location memory involving the left hemisphere whereas the most consistent sex differences favoring males are observed in tasks that require mental rotation involving the right hemisphere. Here we used a task involving these two abilities to see the impact of mental rotation on object location memory. To that end we used a combination of behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) electroencephalography (EEG) measures.A computer screen displayed a square frame of 4 pairs of images (a "teddy" bear, a shoe, an umbrella and a lamp) randomly arranged around a central fixation cross. After a 10-second interval for memorization, images disappeared and were replaced by a test frame with no image but a random pair of two locations marked in black. In addition, this test frame was randomly displayed either in the original orientation (0° rotation) or in the rotated one (90° clockwise - CW - or 90° counterclockwise - CCW). Preceding the test frame, an arrow indicating the presence or the absence of rotation of the frame was displayed on the screen. The task of the participants (15 females and 15 males) was to determine if two marked locations corresponded or not to a pair of identical images. Each response was followed by feedback.Findings showed no significant sex differences in the performance of the original orientation. In comparison with this position, the rotation of the frame produced an equal decrease of male and female performance. In addition, this decrease was significantly higher when the rotation of the frame was in a CCW direction. We further assessed the ERP when the arrow indicated the direction of rotation as stimulus-onset, during four time windows representing major components C1, P1, N1 and N2. Although no sex differences were observed in performance, brain activities differed according to sex. Enhanced amplitudes were found for the CCW compared to CW rotation over the right posterior areas for the P1, N1 and N2 components for men as well as for women. Major topographical differences related to sex were measured for the CW rotation condition as marked lateralized amplitude: left-hemisphere amplitude larger than right one was measured during P1 time range for men. These similar patterns prolonged from P1 to N1 for women. Early distinctions were found in interaction with sex between CCW and CW waveform amplitudes, expressing over anterior electrode sites during C1 time range (0-50 ms post-stimulus).In conclusion (i) women do not outperform men in object location memory in this study (absence of rotation condition); (ii) mental rotation, in particular the direction of rotation, influences performance on object location memory; (iii) CCW rotation is associated with activity in the right parietal hemisphere whereas the CW rotation involves the left parietal hemisphere; (iv) this last effect is less pronounced in males, which could explain why greater involvement of right parietal areas in men and of bilateral posterior areas in women is generally reported in mental rotation tasks; and (v) the early distinctions between both directions of rotation located over anterior sites could be related to sex differences in their respective involvement of control mechanisms.

New Trends in Public Facility Location Modeling

The past four decades have witnessed an explosive growth in the field of networkbased facility location modeling. This is not at all surprising since location policy is one of the most profitable areas of applied systems analysis in regional science and ample theoretical and applied challenges are offered. Location-allocation models seek the location of facilities and/or services (e.g., schools, hospitals, and warehouses) so as to optimize one or several objectives generally related to the efficiency of the system or to the allocation of resources. This paper concerns the location of facilities or services in discrete space or networks, that are related to the public sector, such as emergency services (ambulances, fire stations, and police units), school systems and postal facilities. The paper is structured as follows: first, we will focus on public facility location models that use some type of coverage criterion, with special emphasis in emergency services. The second section will examine models based on the P-Median problem and some of the issues faced by planners when implementing this formulation in real world locational decisions. Finally, the last section will examine new trends in public sector facility location modeling.

Indoor Multipurpose Use and Training Facility Revenue Bond Funds, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Independent Auditor's Report, Basic Financial Statements and Supplementary Information, June 30, 2006

State University Audit Report

Incorporating waiting time in competitive location models: formulations and heuristics

In this paper we propose a metaheuristic to solve a new version of the Maximum Capture Problem. In the original MCP, market capture is obtained by lower traveling distances or lower traveling time, in this new version not only the traveling time but also the waiting time will affect the market share. This problem is hard to solve using standard optimization techniques. Metaheuristics are shown to offer accurate results within acceptable computing times.

La prévention du tabagisme passif [Prevention of air pollution by indoor tobacco smoke in France]

A majority of smokers and non-smokers mind tobacco smoke. Passive smoking causes death by sudden infant death, lung cancer and coronary heart disease. 3000 to 6000 persons are killed every year in France. The lack of implementation of the Evin's law published in 1991 explains why non-smokers are not given the protection they can expect. The trend of scientific knowledge and of French and international public opinions support a growing demand for a complete protection of non-smokers with a total ban of smoking in all public or working places.

Sex differences: From mental rotation to object location memory, an ERP study

Sex differences in cognition have been largely investigated. The most consistent sex differences favoring females are observed in object location memory involving the left hemisphere whereas the most consistent sex differences favoring males are observed in tasks that require mental rotation involving the right hemisphere. Here we used a task involving these two abilities to see the impact of mental rotation on object location memory. To that end we used a combination of behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) electroencephalography (EEG) measures.A computer screen displayed a square frame of 4 pairs of images (a "teddy" bear, a shoe, an umbrella and a lamp) randomly arranged around a central fixation cross. After a 10-second interval for memorization, images disappeared and were replaced by a test frame with no image but a random pair of two locations marked in black. In addition, this test frame was randomly displayed either in the original orientation (0° rotation) or in the rotated one (90° clockwise - CW - or 90° counterclockwise - CCW). Preceding the test frame, an arrow indicating the presence or the absence of rotation of the frame was displayed on the screen. The task of the participants (15 females and 15 males) was to determine if two marked locations corresponded or not to a pair of identical images. Each response was followed by feedback.Findings showed no significant sex differences in the performance of the original orientation. In comparison with this position, the rotation of the frame produced an equal decrease of male and female performance. In addition, this decrease was significantly higher when the rotation of the frame was in a CCW direction. We further assessed the ERP when the arrow indicated the direction of rotation as stimulus-onset, during four time windows representing major components C1, P1, N1 and N2. Although no sex differences were observed in performance, brain activities differed according to sex. Enhanced amplitudes were found for the CCW compared to CW rotation over the right posterior areas for the P1, N1 and N2 components for men as well as for women. Major topographical differences related to sex were measured for the CW rotation condition as marked lateralized amplitude: left-hemisphere amplitude larger than right one was measured during P1 time range for men. These similar patterns prolonged from P1 to N1 for women. Early distinctions were found in interaction with sex between CCW and CW waveform amplitudes, expressing over anterior electrode sites during C1 time range (0-50 ms post-stimulus).In conclusion (i) women do not outperform men in object location memory in this study (absence of rotation condition); (ii) mental rotation, in particular the direction of rotation, influences performance on object location memory; (iii) CCW rotation is associated with activity in the right parietal hemisphere whereas the CW rotation involves the left parietal hemisphere; (iv) this last effect is less pronounced in males, which could explain why greater involvement of right parietal areas in men and of bilateral posterior areas in women is generally reported in mental rotation tasks; and (v) the early distinctions between both directions of rotation located over anterior sites could be related to sex differences in their respective involvement of control mechanisms.

Locating emergency services with priority rules: The priority queuing covering location problem

One of the assumptions of the Capacitated Facility Location Problem (CFLP) is thatdemand is known and fixed. Most often, this is not the case when managers take somestrategic decisions such as locating facilities and assigning demand points to thosefacilities. In this paper we consider demand as stochastic and we model each of thefacilities as an independent queue. Stochastic models of manufacturing systems anddeterministic location models are put together in order to obtain a formula for thebacklogging probability at a potential facility location.Several solution techniques have been proposed to solve the CFLP. One of the mostrecently proposed heuristics, a Reactive Greedy Adaptive Search Procedure, isimplemented in order to solve the model formulated. We present some computationalexperiments in order to evaluate the heuristics performance and to illustrate the use ofthis new formulation for the CFLP. The paper finishes with a simple simulationexercise.