“God knows what I do”: Ritual Free Spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-146
Keyword(s):  
Impact ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (10) ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
Akira Kawai ◽  
Masahiro Kenmotsu

Traffic congestion in parking lots is a common phenomenon across the world and larger commercial facilities with multiple parking areas may be particularly affected as many users struggle to gain access to sought-after parking spots close to their destinations. These popular zones often see traffic jams forming as many vehicles arrive within these regions, while less popular areas may remain free from congestion. This creates a very uneven distribution of traffic, with motorists in popular areas becoming trapped and unable to leave bottleneck regions. As a result, the car park management industry has taken an interest in research into parking guidance. Parking guidance has been developed to help improve efficiencies in car parks, guiding drivers to specific spaces using GPS technology to highlight free spaces near their location detailing the most efficient way to get to that spot. Associate Professor Akira Kawai, who is based at Shiga University in Japan, has been working on a KAKEN project that seeks to leverage real-time positional information to help guide drivers to free spaces within parking lots.


Robotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
H. S. Hewawasam ◽  
M. Yousef Ibrahim ◽  
Gayan Kahandawa ◽  
T. A. Choudhury

Abstract This paper presents a new algorithm to navigate robots in dynamically cluttered environments. The proposed algorithm uses basic concepts of space attraction (hence the term Agoraphilic) to navigate robots through dynamic obstacles. The new algorithm in this paper is an advanced development of the original Agoraphilic navigation algorithm that was only able to navigate robots in static environments. The Agoraphilic algorithm does not look for obstacles (problems) to avoid but rather for a free space (solutions) to follow. Therefore, it is also described as an optimistic navigation algorithm. This algorithm uses only one attractive force created by the available free space. The free-space concept allows the Agoraphilic algorithm to overcome inherited challenges of general navigation algorithms. However, the original Agoraphilic algorithm has the limitation in navigating robots only in static, not in dynamic environments. The presented algorithm was developed to address this limitation of the original Agoraphilic algorithm. The new algorithm uses a developed object tracking module to identify the time-varying free spaces by tracking moving obstacles. The capacity of the algorithm was further strengthened by the new prediction module. Future space prediction allowed the algorithm to make decisions considering future growing/diminishing free spaces. This paper also includes a bench-marking study of the new algorithm compared with a recently published APF-based algorithm under a similar operating environment. Furthermore, the algorithm was validated based on experimental tests and simulation tests.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e041705
Author(s):  
Ben Wamamili ◽  
Sheleigh Lawler ◽  
Mark Wallace-Bell ◽  
Coral Gartner ◽  
David Sellars ◽  
...  

ObjectivesExamine the patterns of cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use (vaping), the perceived harm of e-cigarettes compared with tobacco cigarettes, and associations between smoking and vaping with student characteristics.DesignCross-sectional studies.SettingThe University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and eight New Zealand (NZ) universities.ParticipantsStudents at UQ: 4957 (70.8% aged <25 years, 63.0% women) and NZ: 1854 (82.5% aged <25 years, 60.1% women).MethodsΧ2 tests compared smoking by age and gender, and vaping by age, gender and smoking status. Two-sided p<0.05 was considered significant and 95% CIs reported where appropriate. Multinomial logistic regression examined associations between smoking and vaping (exclusive smoking, exclusive vaping, dual use and non-use) with age, gender and student type (domestic vs international).ResultsSmoking (UQ vs NZ, 95% CI): ever 45.2% (43.8% to 46.6%) vs 50.0% (47.7% to 52.3%), current 8.9% (8.1% to 9.7%) vs 10.4% (9.1% to 11.9%) and daily 5.2% (4.6% to 5.8%) vs 5.6% (4.6% to 6.7%), and not smoking in indoor 98.3% vs 87.7% or outdoor smoke-free spaces 83.8% vs 65.3%.Vaping (UQ vs NZ, 95% CI): ever 20.9% (19.8% to 22.1%) vs 37.6% (35.4% to 39.9%), current 1.8% (1.5% to 2.2%) vs 6.5% (5.4% to 7.7%) and daily 0.7% (0.5% to 1.0%) vs 2.5% (1.9% to 3.4%), and not vaping in indoor 91.4% vs 79.6% or outdoor smoke-free spaces 84.4% vs 71.3%. Of respondents, 71.7% (70.3% to 73.2%) vs 75.3% (72.9% to 77.6%) perceived e-cigarettes as less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.Men were more likely than women to smoke and vape, and to believe that e-cigarettes are less harmful. Regression models containing all predictors for smoking and vaping were significant and the effect of gender was significant for dual use, exclusive smoking and exclusive vaping (all p<0.01). Men had higher odds for smoking, vaping or dual use.ConclusionsResults suggest significant differences in patterns of smoking and vaping of university students in Australia and NZ, and a strong influence of gender on smoking and vaping.


1999 ◽  
Vol 09 (04n05) ◽  
pp. 471-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEONIDAS J. GUIBAS ◽  
JEAN-CLAUDE LATOMBE ◽  
STEVEN M. LAVALLE ◽  
DAVID LIN ◽  
RAJEEV MOTWANI

This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of one or more pursuers in a polygonal environment to eventually "see" an evader that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. This problem was first introduced by Suzuki and Yamashita. Our study of this problem is motivated in part by robotics applications, such as surveillance with a mobile robot equipped with a camera that must find a moving target in a cluttered workspace. A few bounds are introduced, and a complete algorithm is presented for computing a successful motion strategy for a single pursuer. For simply-connected free spaces, it is shown that the minimum number of pursuers required is Θ( lg  n). For multiply-connected free spaces, the bound is [Formula: see text] pursuers for a polygon that has n edges and h holes. A set of problems that are solvable by a single pursuer and require a linear number of recontaminations is shown. The complete algorithm searches a finite graph that is constructed on the basis of critical information changes. It has been implemented and computed examples are shown.


2021 ◽  
Vol 410 ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
Tien Hiep Nguyen ◽  
Yury V. Konyukhov ◽  
Van Minh Nguyen

The impact of Fe, Co, Ni nano-additives on the density, microhardness and bending strength was investigated for several sintered pellets. Fe, Co, Ni nanopowders (NP) were prepared in the size range 67-94 nm using chemical metallurgy techniques. These powders (0.5 wt. %) were dispersed into three sets of micron powders: Co (+0.5 wt. % Co NP); Fe (+0.5 wt. % Fe NP); Fe+0.5wt. % C (+0.5 wt. % Co and 0.5 wt. % Ni NP). Mixtures were further mixed and processed using a magnetic mill and a turbulent mixer. Sintering was carried out using spark plasma sintering (SPS) as well as pressureless sintering (PS). The densities of sintered pellets were found to increase by 2.5-3% (SPS) and 3-5% (PS) in the presence of nano-additives; corresponding increases in microhardness and bending strength were determined to be 7.9-11.1% and 17.9-38.7%, respectively. These results are discussed in terms enhanced packing due to interparticle sliding and the filling of free spaces with the nanodisperse phase.


Author(s):  
Joshua Clark Davis

Chapter four investigates a wide range of businesses that feminists created in the 1970s, including credit unions, printing presses, bookstores, and mail-order catalogs. Arguing that male-controlled, American corporate capitalism was one of society’s most powerful perpetuators of sexism and patriarchy, feminist entrepreneurs believed their products and services offered women economic independence from men and publicized the cause of women’s liberation in the wider public. Feminist businesses were particularly interested in creating democratic workplaces with collectives and other participatory organizational models and they sought to operate storefronts as autonomous “free spaces” for their movement, as well as for women more generally. The decline of second-wave feminism would however prove very challenging to feminist businesses in the 1980s, as did the difficulties of operative collectives in the long term.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 774-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Dilworth ◽  
Denka Kutzarova ◽  
Mikhail I. Ostrovskii

AbstractMain results of the paper are as follows:(1) For any finite metric space $M$ the Lipschitz-free space on $M$ contains a large well-complemented subspace that is close to $\ell _{1}^{n}$.(2) Lipschitz-free spaces on large classes of recursively defined sequences of graphs are not uniformly isomorphic to $\ell _{1}^{n}$ of the corresponding dimensions. These classes contain well-known families of diamond graphs and Laakso graphs.Interesting features of our approach are: (a) We consider averages over groups of cycle-preserving bijections of edge sets of graphs that are not necessarily graph automorphisms. (b) In the case of such recursive families of graphs as Laakso graphs, we use the well-known approach of Grünbaum (1960) and Rudin (1962) for estimating projection constants in the case where invariant projections are not unique.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document