Time Travel Research Articles

MFAN: Mixing Feature Attention Network for trajectory prediction

Accurate trajectory prediction of surrounding agents is essential for autonomous vehicles, where the key challenge is to understand the complex interactions among agents. Previous works treat all interacted features between agents equally in modeling interaction, while neglecting their different importance to the interaction, thus inevitably limiting the interaction modeling ability. Besides, existing methods suffer from significant performance degradation when domain shifts, resulting in severely deviant prediction from reality. To address these issues, we propose a novel prediction framework, dubbed Mixing Feature Attention Network (MFAN). Specifically, the proposed mixing feature attention is a parallel design to adaptively determine the importance of different interacted features and simultaneously capture the global interaction feature to improve interaction modeling. Meanwhile, the spatial global interaction is modeled from a spatial edge-featured graph input to capture the enhanced spatial interaction. The temporal motion pattern is modeled from a temporal edge-featured graph input to enhance the domain adaption. Finally, we estimate the parameters of bivariant Gaussian distribution for trajectory prediction. Experimental results show that our method achieves superior performance in trajectory prediction while maintaining low computational complexity and performs accurate prediction even when domain shifts.

POST-IVUS: A perceptual organisation-aware selective transformer framework for intravascular ultrasound segmentation.

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is recommended in guiding coronary intervention. The segmentation of coronary lumen and external elastic membrane (EEM) borders in IVUS images is a key step, but the manual process is time-consuming and error-prone, and suffers from inter-observer variability. In this paper, we propose a novel perceptual organisation-aware selective transformer framework that can achieve accurate and robust segmentation of the vessel walls in IVUS images. In this framework, temporal context-based feature encoders extract efficient motion features of vessels. Then, a perceptual organisation-aware selective transformer module is proposed to extract accurate boundary information, supervised by a dedicated boundary loss. The obtained EEM and lumen segmentation results will be fused in a temporal constraining and fusion module, to determine the most likely correct boundaries with robustness to morphology. Our proposed methods are extensively evaluated in non-selected IVUS sequences, including normal, bifurcated, and calcified vessels with shadow artifacts. The results show that the proposed methods outperform the state-of-the-art, with a Jaccard measure of 0.92 for lumen and 0.94 for EEM on the IVUS 2011 open challenge dataset. This work has been integrated into a software QCU-CMS2 to automatically segment IVUS images in a user-friendly environment.

Temporal Logic Motion Planning With Convex Optimization via Graphs of Convex Sets

Temporal Logic Motion Planning With Convex Optimization via Graphs of Convex Sets

HAND GESTURE RECOGNITION

Continuous and dynamic gesture recognition is a vital research area that aims to develop systems capable of interpreting and understanding hand gestures involving continuous motion and temporal dynamics. This project focuses on addressing the challenges associated with recognizing and analyzing gestures that go beyond static poses. By leveraging techniques such as temporal modeling, motion analysis, and deep learning, the goal is to develop algorithms and models that can robustly track and interpret the fluidity and expressiveness of human hand movements. The project aims to enhance the understanding of gesture sequencing, timing, and smooth transitions between different poses and gestures. The research outcomes will contribute to the advancement of intuitive human-computer interaction, enabling users to express themselves more naturally and seamlessly in applications such as virtual reality, gaming, and humanrobot interaction. Through the use of relevant datasets and advanced algorithms, this project seeks to explore novel approaches in continuous and dynamic gesture recognition and pave the way for future advancements in this field

Identity Narrative as an Unconscious Scaffold for Human Autobiography

Abstract Over the past years, a multi-disciplinary literature on the significance of personal narratives in autobiography and identity has emerged. This subject has been of interest to authors in the fields of humanities, psychology, and medicine alike. In this paper, we are proposing the term Identity Narrative (IdN) to define a cognitive and emotional framework that serves as an implicit (unconscious) scaffolding of memory on which to build human autobiography. The authors first classify narratives into external (universal history, the humanities, culture) and internal (autobiography, based on personal experiences, both directly and indirectly, through identification and education). All philosophy and social commentary has utilized history for the purposes of prediction and meaning-making. Personalities including Aristotle, St. Augustine, Rousseau, Freud, Marx, Spengler, and Benjamin Franklin have reread history to gain insight about human nature. History has inspired the enlightenment and renaissance of a new reality for humanity. It is widely known that history can also be misused to justify aggression and human suffering. The use of history to create deep convictions that annihilate moral imperatives is only possible because of unconsciously consolidated internal narratives, the IdN. IdN is reshaped through life, both by “bottom-up” acquisition of information, as well as a “top-down” learning model, which includes the following circumstances: (a) sudden insight and awareness; (b) experiences with high emotional valence; (c) high frequency of repetition; and (d) prolonged duration of exposure. In this way, IdN, a form of relatively stable unconscious, anoetic memory, provides a “first-person” experience to autobiography. Autobiography then, becomes part of auto-noetic consciousness, the human ability to mentally time travel and have self-knowledge. IdN parallels lifelong growth and development, language acquisition, and maturing of attachment. The extensive brain activation during communication and speech, revealed by neuroimaging studies, will be referred to as the “communication beltway.” We hypothesize that the alternation in activation between the default mode (midline structures) of the brain (previously associated with the Self) and the language brain creates a platform that encodes crucial components of IdN throughout life. In this way, IdN, autobiographical memory, and the language brain are parts of a larger biological substrate of social affiliations.

The Narrative Features of Involuntary Time Loops

ABSTRACT: This essay introduces the category of involuntary time loop (ITL) stories and investigates their narrative specificities. These are stories in which the protagonist repeatedly lives through a certain period of time while all or most of the other characters do not experience the repetition. After a certain amount of time has passed in the protagonist's timeline, or after a specific event has occurred in the storyworld, the loop resets, and the character finds herself back at the beginning. I will argue that the involuntary loop is distinct from other time loops as well as other forms of time travel narratives not only on the subject level but formally. For this purpose, the essay outlines a typology of ITL narratives from different genres and media. I will demonstrate how recent examples explore and expand the possibilities of this peculiar narrative device. Case studies include Stuart Turton's murder mystery novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018), Leslye Headland, Natasha Lyonne, and Amy Poehler's TV drama Russian Doll (2018), Max Barbakow's romantic comedy movie Palm Springs (2020), and the adventure video game 12 Minutes by developer and designer Luis Antonio (2020).

The Neuroscience of Literary Time Travel: How Literary Works Cross Historical Distance

ABSTRACT: How do literary works speak across historical distance? When critics attempt to answer this question, they typically invoke biological metaphors that testify to the inability of formal or historical categories alone to explain the mystery of how literary works reach across the boundary between life and death. This essay investigates the embodied cognitive processes that enable literary time travel by undertaking a neurophenomenological analysis of the relation between aesthetic experiences and their neural correlates. A neurophenomenological approach can clarify what eludes formalist and historicist accounts by correlating the intersubjective interactions that constitute aesthetic experience and the transpersonal biocultural processes underlying them. This essay explains how phenomenological theories of reading and aesthetic experience relate to neuroscientific research in four areas: embodied simulation; action understanding; brain-to-brain coupling; and the anti-entropic organization of "free energy" in predictive processing. Correlations between phenomenological theories of consciousness and neuroscientific findings about cognition show how the experience of interacting with past lives as we read is supported by embodied neurobiological processes that are ubiquitous in our everyday cognitive lives and that aesthetic experiences activate and exploit.

Combating Spurious Correlations in Loose‐fitting Garment Animation Through Joint‐Specific Feature Learning

AbstractWe address the 3D animation of loose‐fitting garments from a sequence of body motions. State‐of‐the‐art approaches treat all body joints as a whole to encode motion features, which usually gives rise to learned spurious correlations between garment vertices and irrelevant joints as shown in Fig. 1. To cope with the issue, we encode temporal motion features in a joint‐wise manner and learn an association matrix to map human joints only to most related garment regions by encouraging its sparsity. In this way, spurious correlations are mitigated and better performance is achieved. Furthermore, we devise the joint‐specific pose space deformation (PSD) to decompose the high‐dimensional displacements as the combination of dynamic details caused by individual joint poses. Extensive experiments show that our method outperforms previous works in most indicators. Moreover, garment animations are not interfered with by artifacts caused by spurious correlations, which further validates the effectiveness of our approach. The code is available at https://github.com/qiji77/JointNet.

Fan-Fiction, Liebesgeschichten, Erzählungen über Deportationen und Konzentrationslager: Eine Skizze zur digitalen Literatur über den Holocaust und Nationalsozialismus auf der Online-Plattform Wattpad

E-book platforms, such as Wattpad (wattpad.com) offer authors and readers, often rather young, the opportunity to publish their own stories on a wide varietyof topics and in different genre categories, e.g., fanfiction, time travel, love stories. Hundreds of texts in numerous languages and in different phases of creation and editing are to be found on Wattpad under the keywords Holocaust and National Socialism. This article introduces some examples of the wide range of texts and shows their form and content. Finally, the article seeks to point outsome aspects that make it worthwhile to take a closer look at these texts from a literary and didactic point of view and to investigate whether some of these texts, which have been largely ignored by literary and didactic studies so far, may be used for educational purposes.

Thermodynamic relationships between time, capital, and labour

In the theoretical achievements of economics, the past has left many insinuations, not always accurate terms and also controversies. This does not burden the scholars whose diligent efforts fell on the immature ground of general knowledge, in particular the lack of thermodynamics. The categories of capital, profit, labour are basic examples. There was also a lack of understanding of the nature of time. This issue was as if left to physicists, despite the fact that the use of present and future value was and is a significant achievement in economics and accounting. On the other hand, among those engaged in physics, there are divergences about time travel. The great idea of the economy as a game with nature with a non-zero positive sum has also not spread in economic theory, reinforcing the aspiration to belong to the natural sciences. Therefore, we take up the consideration of the capital-labour-time triad as an important basic element of economic knowledge. In our view, this correctly understood triad will correctly illuminate many economic issues and can form the hard core of a scientific program for improving economic and accounting theory. Thus, the epistemology of I. Lakatos defines the methodology of ongoing research, in which positive heuristics and empirical verification are the engine of scientific action.

On-demand transit user preference analysis using hybrid choice models

In light of the increasing interest to transform the fixed-route public transit (FRT) services into on-demand transit (ODT) services, there exists a strong need for a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of this shift on the users. Such an analysis can help municipalities and service providers to design and operate more convenient, attractive, and sustainable transit solutions. To understand the user preferences, we developed three hybrid choice models: integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV), latent class (LC), and latent class integrated choice and latent variable (LC-ICLV) models. We used these models to analyze the public transit user's preferences in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Hybrid choice models were estimated using a rich dataset that combined the actual level of service attributes obtained from Belleville's ODT service and self-reported usage behaviour obtained from a revealed preference survey of the ODT users. The latent class models divided the users into two groups with different travel behaviour and preferences. The results showed that the captive user's preference for ODT service was significantly affected by the number of unassigned trips, in-vehicle time, and main travel mode before the ODT service started. On the other hand, the non-captive user's service preference was significantly affected by the Time Sensitivity and the Online Service Satisfaction latent variables, as well as the performance of the ODT service and trip purpose. This study attaches importance to improving the reliability and performance of the ODT services and outlines directions for reducing operational costs by updating the required fleet size and assigning more vehicles for work-related trips.

Analysis of Mass Wasting Processes in the Slumgullion Landslide Using Multi-Track Time-Series UAVSAR Images

The Slumgullion landslide is a large translational debris slide whose currently active part has likely been sliding for approximately 300 years. Its permanent motion and evolutionary processes have attracted the attention of many researchers. In order to study its mass wasting processes and evolution trend, the spatial–temporal displacement of the Slumgullion landslide was retrieved using an adaptive pixel offset tracking (POT) method with multi-track Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) images. Based on three-dimensional displacement and slope information, we then revealed the spatial–temporal distribution of surface mass depletion or accumulation in the landslide, which provides a new perspective to analyze the evolutionary processes of landslides. The results indicate that the Slumgullion landslide had a spatially variable displacement, with a maximum displacement of 35 m. The novel findings of this study mainly include two parts. First, we found that the surface mass accumulated in the toe of the landslide and depleted in the top and middle area during the interval, which could increase the resisting force and decrease the driving force of the Slumgullion landslide. This result is compelling evidence which indicates the Slumgullion landslide should eventually tend to be stable. Second, we found that the distribution of geological structures can well explain some of the unique mass wasting in the Slumgullion landslide. The larger local mass depletion in the landslide neck area verifies that the sharp velocity increase in this region is not only caused by the reduction in width but is also significantly affected by the local normal faults. In summary, this study provides an insight into the relation between the landslide motion, mass volume change, and geological structure. The results demonstrate the great potential of multi-track airborne SAR for displacement monitoring and evolutionary analysis of landslides.

RealityReplay

Humans easily miss events in their surroundings due to limited short-term memory and field of view. This happens, for example, while watching an instructor's machine repair demonstration or conversing during a sports game. We present RealityReplay, a novel Mixed Reality (MR) approach that tracks and visualizes these significant events using in-situ MR visualizations without modifying the physical space. It requires only a head-mounted MR display and a 360-degree camera. We contribute a method for egocentric tracking of important motion events in users' surroundings based on a combination of semantic segmentation and saliency prediction, and generating in-situ MR visual summaries of temporal changes. These summary visualizations are overlaid onto the physical world to reveal which objects moved, in what order, and their trajectory, enabling users to observe previously hidden events. The visualizations are informed by a formative study comparing different styles on their effects on users' perception of temporal changes. Our evaluation shows that RealityReplay significantly enhances sensemaking of temporal motion events compared to memory-based recall. We demonstrate application scenarios in guidance, education, and observation, and discuss implications for extending human spatiotemporal capabilities through technological augmentation.

Chronological-safe kind of geometric phase for C60 fullerenes in Gödel space–times

In this paper, we investigate a rotating fullerene molecule with Ih symmetry within the framework of non-inertial space-times. We use a low-energy geometric theory to describe the molecule as a two-dimensional spherical space of Gödel type. Using the well-known fictitious ’t Hooft–Polyakov monopole to decouple the doublet associated with the lattice, we employ the Dirac factor method to derive a geometric phase for the fermions in the system. We also discuss the chronology protection feature of the phase through specific geometric considerations for the system.

Evaluation of user satisfaction in parents or caregivers of pediatric patients with colorectal pathology in the use of telemedicine

Because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, telemedicine has been implemented as an alternative channel for face-to-face medical care. It is essential to evaluate patient satisfaction regarding the use of telemedicine to assess its feasibility as a new care modality in the future. ObjectiveTo evaluate the user satisfaction of the parents or caregivers of pediatric patients with colorectal pathology regarding the use of telemedicine. Material and methodCross-sectional study using a survey with a Likert scale. The parents of patients with Hirschsprung disease, anorectal malformations, and severe constipation in a bowel management program were given the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) validated Spanish version through Google Forms. Results24 surveys were collected. 75 % consider that Telemedicine improves access to health care services and saves time traveling. 83 % report that they could express themselves adequately and felt comfortable using this means of communication. 57 % believe Telemedicine is an acceptable way to receive health care instructions. 75 % are satisfied with the system and would use it again. ConclusionTelemedicine care is a valuable tool to complement the care of pediatric patients with colorectal pathology, which is probably here to stay. Strategies should be implemented since it has great potential to complement face-to-face care, exceptionally patient follow-up, in parental satisfaction. Level of evidenceIII.

An axially symmetric spacetime with causality violation in Ricci-inverse gravity

In this paper, Ricci-inverse gravity is investigated. It is an alternative theory of gravity that introduces into the Einstein–Hilbert action an anti-curvature scalar that is obtained from the anti-curvature tensor which is the inverse of the Ricci tensor. An axially symmetric spacetime with causality violation is studied. Two classes of the model are discussed. Different sources of matter are considered. Then a direct relation between the content of matter and causality violation is shown. Our results confirm that Ricci-inverse gravity allows the existence of Closed Time-like Curves (CTCs) that lead to the violation of causality. Furthermore, a comparison is made between the results of general relativity and Ricci-inverse gravity. Other spacetimes, such as Gödel and Gödel-type universes, which are exact solutions of general relativity and allow for causality violations, are also explored in Ricci-inverse gravity framework.

Hopes over fears: Can democratic deliberation increase positive emotions concerning the future?

Deliberative mini-publics have often been considered to be a potential way to promote future-oriented thinking. Still, thinking about the future can be hard as it can evoke negative emotions such as stress and anxiety. This article establishes why a more positive outlook towards the future can benefit long-term decision-making. Then, it explores whether and to what extent deliberative mini-publics can facilitate thinking about the future by moderating negative emotions and encouraging positive emotions. We analyzed an online mini-public held in the region of Satakunta, Finland, organized to involve the public in the drafting process of a regional plan extending until the year 2050. In addition to the standard practices related to mini-publics, the Citizens’ Assembly included an imaginary time travel exercise, Future Design, carried out with half of the participants. Our analysis makes use of both survey and qualitative data. We found that democratic deliberation can promote positive emotions, like hopefulness and compassion, and lessen negative emotions, such as fear and confusion, related to the future. There were, however, differences in how emotions developed in the various small groups. Interviews with participants shed further light onto how participants felt during the event and how their sentiments concerning the future changed.

The portrait of Jane Austen in chick lit style (“Jane in Love” by R. Givney)

The article studies Rachel Givney’s novel “Jane in Love”, which conjectures the biography of Jane Austen who is considered to be the mother of chick lit. The study proves that Givney uses: 1) the principles and techniques of chick lit, a modern literary genre of the post-feminist era, at the same time revising the matrix of chick lit; 2) a fabulous narrative theme, discovered by V. Propp, which also undergoes some revision. Givney rethinks the happy ending conceptually important for chick lit and for the fairy tale with regard to a psychological novel devoted to an artist who has found his voice and his place in world literature. In her narrative about Jane Austen, a time traveler, the writer conceptualizes her significance for modern English culture and the Englishmen structuring her novel with formulas-codes of Jane Austen’s oeuvre. The main storyline of her novels is devoted to the complexities of love, and their plots assume a certain set of components. A love affair with a happy ending in the spirit of the Cinderella fairy tale is the main formula of Jane Austen’s novels, which is in demand in chick lit. R. Givney reduces this formula and fills it with a new content: her Jane Austen sacrifices a man for the sake of the future.

Improvement of Socio-Economic Activities at the Island of Semau based on Sustainable Road and Bridge Management Strategy

A stable functional condition of roads is a guarantee of smooth, safe and comfortable socio-economic travel in an area. However, there is a limited ability to provide and/or manage development funds to preserve the road and bridge infrastructure. So far, every year the government tries to update the data base based on the result of road and bridge functional condition survey, intended to determine their priority handling. Result of field observation shows that the condition of some road links was in a poor level category so that it may affect the accessibility and mobility around the island of Semau, especially on the main connecting road to the location of main tourism objects. In addition, the type of land use and/or the availability of various supporting tourism facilities is very limited. These might influence the tourism area's attractiveness and/or the trip attractiveness due to the required time travel as well as travel cost. The limited or unavailability of local pavement material make it worst (high construction and/or preservation costs). Accordingly, the aim of this study is 1) to identify the determinant variables behind such transportation system problems, particularly based on the current physical and functional connectivity of roads and bridges, including variables that influencing the institutional capability arrangement 2) to recommend the appropriate strategy in road and bridge preservation and land use utilization. Keywords: Physical and functional connectivity; Surface distress index; Socio-economic trip; Sustainable management strategy; Transportation system management

“That Further by Faith”: Ancestral Futurity, Reincarnation, and the Conjuration of Denmark Vesey’s Revolutionary Religious Perspective

This article expresses the importance and theoretical viability of Black religious communities reflecting on armed struggle as an option in their pursuit of liberation. African Americans have wrestled with various perspectives on what forms of resistance to white supremacy were religiously legitimate and those that were deemed practical. From moral suasion, immigration, a Black separate state, to violent resistance, Black people in the United States have debated these perspectives and have charted paths forward that continue to be accompanied by Black suffering and death at the hands of racists to the present day. While moral suasion has obtained a hegemonic place in mainstream Black political discourse, violent resistance has often been characterized as both religiously illegitimate and impractical. However, by using concepts from Afrofuturism and traditional African religion, the author will present Denmark Vesey as a model for contemporary Black religio-political thought. Using the themes of “past future”, time travel, resurrection, reincarnation, trance, and conjure, the author grounds himself in an African-centered epistemology that transcends the limitations of the Eurocentric model limited only to scientific “reality”. The author claims that by conjuring Vesey’s revolutionary interreligious Pan-African approach, it will provide more options for Black religio-political theory and praxis.