Physical Environment Information Research Articles

MissII: Missing Information Imputation for Traffic Data

Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSS) offer a new perspective for applying advanced information technology to improve urban transportation. However, real-world traffic datasets collected from sensing devices like loop sensors often contain corrupted or missing values. The incompleteness of traffic data poses great challenges to downstream data analysis tasks and applications. Most existing data-driven methods only impute missing values based on observed data or hypothetical models, thus ignoring the incorporation of social world information into traffic data imputation. The connection between real-world social activities and CPSS is crucial. In this paper, a novel theory-guided traffic data imputation framework, namely MissII, is proposed. In MissII, we first estimate the traffic flow between two PoIs (Points of Interest) according to spatial interaction theory by considering the physical environment information (e.g., population distributions) and human social interactions (e.g., destination choice game). Moreover, we further refine the estimated traffic flow by considering the effects of road interactions and PoIs. Then, the estimated traffic flow is input into the non-parametric GAN model as real samples to guide the training process. Extensive experiments are conducted on real-world traffic dataset to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

A predictive 6G network with environment sensing enhancement: From radio wave propagation perspective

In order to support the future digital society, sixth generation (6G) network faces the challenge to work efficiently and flexibly in a wider range of scenarios. The traditional way of system design is to sequentially get the electromagnetic wave propagation model of typical scenarios firstly and then do the network design by simulation offline, which obviously leads to a 6G network lacking of adaptation to dynamic environments. Recently, with the aid of sensing enhancement, more environment information can be obtained. Based on this, from radio wave propagation perspective, we propose a predictive 6G network with environment sensing enhancement, the electromagnetic wave propagation characteristics prediction enabled network (EWaveNet), to further release the potential of 6G. To this end, a prediction plane is created to sense, predict and utilize the physical environment information in EWaveNet to realize the electromagnetic wave propagation characteristics prediction timely. A two-level closed feedback workflow is also designed to enhance the sensing and prediction ability for EWaveNet. Several promising application cases of EWaveNet are analyzed and the open issues to achieve this goal are addressed finally.

Application of environmental management accounting by small and medium enterprises in South Africa

By focusing on environmental management accounting in SMEs, the study helps SME managers to effectively understand and find better ways of improving environmental management. The paper investigates environmental management accounting applications in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in Gauteng province. Small and medium enterprises were chosen based on their exclusion from the mainstream research on environmental management accounting (EMA). To achieve the main aim of the study, 24 in-depth interviews were undertaken among SMEs’ managers, accountants, chief executive officers, and owners. The study found that physical EMA is more common in SMEs than monetary EMA. 77% of SMEs’ respondents confirm using physical environmental information in their operations. Therefore, SMEs prefer EMA practices with little cost or no cost attached and practices that can effectively generate returns in the short term. In addition, the avoidance of monetary EMA is anchored on the premise of avoiding costly projects with no immediate material financial returns. Therefore, EMA is critical for SMEs to achieve sustainability.

Urban function recognition by integrating social media and street-level imagery

Recognizing urban functions is crucial for understanding urban spatial structures and urban planning. Previous work has investigated urban functions based on human activities that were derived from mobile phone positioning data, check-in data, taxi data, etc. However, urban functions can only be comprehensively sensed from both human activities and the physical environment together. To do so, a deep learning method was proposed to predict urban functions by integrating social media data and street-level imagery. The verbs extracted from social media posts were taken as the proxy for human activities, and we identified urban physical environmental information from street-level imagery. Then urban functions were uncovered from both the verbs in terms of human activities and street-level imagery from the perspective of the physical environment. Twelve types of urban function were recognized by verbs in social media posts, which were then improved by integrating street-level imagery within the 5th Ring Road of Beijing, China. The experiment demonstrated that verbs as direct proxies for human activities can avoid noise, and the multi-source data integration eliminated biases caused by a single data source. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of urban structure and dynamics for urban management and planning.

“It’s not what you say, but how you say it”:How the provision of qualitative, quantitative and monetary environmental information influences companies’ internal decision making

Increasingly, companies are taking into account environmental issues, such as climate change, in their decision making. Information on environmental issues can be provided for this purpose in qualitative, quantitative physical, or quantitative monetary forms. Previous studies show that the way in which information is provided significantly affects how the respective problem is perceived and responded to and in turn how this influences decision making. This paper builds on a survey-based experiment among business students. Using generalized estimating equations, it analyses the effects on companies’ decision making of providing different types of environmental information. The results show that providing solely monetized environmental information can potentially devalue the perceived importance of the information and that monetization may decrease the effect of favorable environmental information on willingness to pay in companies’ internal decision making. On the other hand, providing quantitative physical environmental information is likely to increase the importance ascribed to environmental issues. Thus, this article highlights that “how you say it” in terms of providing environmental information is important for companies’ internal decision making.

Utilization of Physical Environment Information and AI in Estimation of Distribution of Coral Coverage

Utilization of Physical Environment Information and AI in Estimation of Distribution of Coral Coverage

Simple and effective calculations about spectral power distributions of outdoor light sources for computer vision.

The spectral power distributions (SPD) of outdoor light sources are not constant over time and atmospheric conditions, which causes the appearance variation of a scene and common natural illumination phenomena, such as twilight, shadow, and haze/fog. Calculating the SPD of outdoor light sources at different time (or zenith angles) and under different atmospheric conditions is of interest to physically-based vision. In this paper, for computer vision and its applications, we propose a feasible, simple, and effective SPD calculating method based on analyzing the transmittance functions of absorption and scattering along the path of solar radiation through the atmosphere in the visible spectrum. Compared with previous SPD calculation methods, our model has less parameters and is accurate enough to be directly applied in computer vision. It can be applied in computer vision tasks including spectral inverse calculation, lighting conversion, and shadowed image processing. The experimental results of the applications demonstrate that our calculation methods have practical values in computer vision. It establishes a bridge between image and physical environmental information, e.g., time, location, and weather conditions.

Node Deployment Models and their Performance Parameters for Wireless Sensor Network: A Perspective

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a group of a densely distributed sensor nodes that monitors physical environmental information and send data to one or many base stations (BS) through wireless links. Node deployment is a fundamental issue which is to be solved in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Node deployment can be random or deterministic in nature. A proper node deployment scheme not only reduces the network cost but also increases degree, coverage and lifetime of a WSN with the reduction in delay. In this paper an overview of existing node deployment schemes are discussed then different parameters that enhance the efficiency are also highlighted. On the basis of that a new deployment scheme is proposed in which sensing area is divided into small circles and nodes are placed at the center and at the ends of the diameter. This pattern has two-coverage and has a degree of four. Simulation results show that proposed pattern uses fewer nodes and provides better coverage and degree than other schemes such as triangle, square and hexagon. In addition to this it is an efficient energy saver which provides minimum delay as compared to other schemes.

Adhesive Plaster-Type Human Activity Monitoring Device

In this study, the development of an adhesive plaster-type human activity monitoring device is presented. It is a wearable sensor system designed for monitoring human activity and health conditions to improve safety, healthcare and the quality of life. The device is attached on the human's chest for monitoring vital signals — electrocardiogram (ECG) and physical environmental information — acceleration, humidity, pressure and temperature. The entire device can fabricated within a 110 x 22 mm 2 area and is only 7 grams. Because of the small size and low weight, it can be worn comfortably. I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the proportion of patients with lifestyle-related diseases caused by poor dietary habits, overwork and stress are increasing significantly. Moreover, due to the birthrate decline, improvements in health care and medicine, the elderly population is also increasing rapidly. To improve health, the quality of life and the prolonged medical care for elderly people, daily activity monitoring is becoming more important. To achieve this, we have realized a small-sized and low-weight adhesive plaster-type human activity monitoring device which can be comfortably and conveniently worn on the chest for monitoring the user's ECG, acceleration, humidity, pressure and temperature. II. DEVICE DETAILS Figure 1 and 2 show the block diagram and image of the monitoring device, respectively. The entire device is composed of three blocks - the Main block, RF block and Power block, and stretchable wiring is used to connect each block to allow flexibility. The device can be fabricated with an area of 110 x 22 mm 2 and is only 7 grams. The main block is composed of an ECG amplifier circuit, a 3-axes accelerometer, an altimeter sensor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor and an 8051 MCU. The RF block is equipped with a Bluetooth module. The power block is composed of a regulator and a typical coin-sized rechargeable lithium-ion battery (3.7V, 75 mAh).

Interoperability of middleware for context‐aware services

AbstractIn the ubiquitous computing environment, it is desirable to provide context‐aware services enabled by using physical environmental information acquired from massive embedded sensors. One issue in providing these services is interoperability of different middleware systems. Among these middleware systems service roaming occurs during performance of the service. This paper presents our approach to the technology for interoperating different middleware systems, composed of sharing the information of resources by normalization of profiles, normalization of service descriptions, and adaptation of original specifications which cannot be normalized. These techniques are based on the model of Super Distributed Objects (SDO) that is standardized in OMGW. In order to verify these techniques, we have experimented with the interoperation of different middleware systems. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(2): 67–74, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10260

Augmented Reality E-Commerce System: A Case Study

In this study, an augmented reality (AR) e-commerce system was developed and a usability study was conducted to compare the AR e-commerce system with the traditional e-commerce system. The AR e-commerce system was developed as an Internet plug-in, which can be accessed with different computers. Study results show that the AR e-commerce system can provide more information and more direct experiences to online customers, by combining physical environment information with virtual product models. Online shoppers can “test use” products while shopping online and acquire more information about the products. Thus, customers can make better purchasing decisions and have a better chance to purchase the “right” products.

GIS・画像解析システムを用いた過去の河川氾濫状況再現手法の開発

To estimate condition of river ecosystem in past, we developed a system which quantitatively reconstruct physical environment information and river flooding condition. The system have characteristic which reconstruct river morphology and flooding condition from topographic map and measurement of river channel morphology, using Geographic information System (GIS), image analysis and numerical simulation. The water lever of river flood condition in 1892 which is reconstructed by the system matched with the result of water level recorded in past document. The result indicated the efficiency and possibility of the system in river ecosystem restoration project.

Interoperability of Middleware for Context-Aware Services

In the ubiquitous computing environment, it is expected to provide context-aware services enabled by using physical environmental information acquired from massive embedded sensors. One of issues to provide these services is interoperability of different middleware. Among these middleware a service roaming is occurred during executing the service. This paper provides our approaches of technologies for interoperating different middleware, composed of sharing information of resources by normalization of profiles, normalization of service description and adapting original specifications which cannot be normalized. These techniques are based on the model of Super Distributed Objects (SDO) that is standardized in OMGTM. In order to verify these techniques, we have experimented interoperation of different middleware.

Architecture and Community Variability within the Antelope Creek Phase of the Texas Panhandle

This study is concerned with examining the causes underlying cultural variation. The rationale for examining cultural variation is to elucidate the adaptive relationship of the cultural system within its natural and social environmental contexts. Changes in the environment will engender fundamental modifications of the entire cultural system, which in preindustrial semi-sedentary cultures will be manifested by alterations in architectural, community and settlement patterns, along with other tangible aspects of the cultural system. The study focuses on delineating cultural variability of the Antelope Creek phase, a late prehistoric village manifestation on the Southern High Plains of North America. Architectural remains from 28 extensively excavated sites from an 80 kilometer segment of the Canadian River are used to delineate the range of household and community patterns within the settlement system. Artifactual, mortuary, chronometric and physical environmental information are used in conjunction with the architectural data to examine functional, social, temporal and spatial factors potentially contributing to the household and community variability. IV Many community trends not reconciled by these factors are comprehensible when the natural and social context of the larger region is considered. The present environmental conditions are marginal for dependable maize production, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions indicate that xeric conditions were intensifying throughout the duration of the manifestation. The presence of springs issuing fossil water from the Ogallala aquifer during the on-set of drought conditions underlies the development of the Antelope Creek cultural system. Intensification of drought conditions adversely affected the economic base. In an attempt to alleviate the resulting population stress, a series of "buffering mechanisms" were implemented in a futile attempt to maintain the Plains Village pattern. A break down in social cohesion, shifts in settlement patterns towards lateral tributaries, expansion of trade networks with adjacent groups, and the development of raiding behavior were unsuccessfully employed to retain the Antelope Creek cultural system. Ultimately these measures proved to be inadequate, and by the sixteenth century, other major alterations in settlement and subsistence patterns were required, which radically changed the cultural system. Ultimately these measures proved to be inadequate, and by the sixteenth century, other major alterations in settlement and subsistence patterns were required, which radically changed the cultural system.