Fuzzy logic-based observation and evaluation of pedestrians’ behavioral patterns by age and gender

Pedestrian behavior is affected by a multitude of factors such as age, gender, and operating conditions. However, traditional statistical analysis based on observed movements or questionnaire survey is unable to model decision-making process of each pedestrian. This study develops an innovative approach based on fuzzy logic to model the underlying cognitions and behavioral patterns of pedestrians as inferred from field observation in order to evaluate age and gender effect of pedestrians in crossing a signalized crosswalk and when jaywalking. Fuzzy sets and rules are created to model the relationship between human cognitions and decisions of an individual pedestrian. Through calibrating the membership functions of different age and gender groups, behavioral patterns of pedestrians are evaluated and compared. Different from most previous studies, both older and younger pedestrians are found to be less risk-taking than adult pedestrians. Moreover, significant gender difference is found only for cognitions of most hazardous conditions. Consistent with previous studies, it is seen that men have better cognitive skills than women at detecting hazardous situations. The findings from this study are useful to better design safe pedestrian crossing facilities. The fuzzy logic-based approach also provides an innovative way to simulate pedestrian movements in microscopic simulation models.     

ONE BRAIN,TWO MINDS: AN ESSAY ON PRIMORDIAL AND ADVANCED MENTAL ACTIVITY

The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective. By Michael Robbins. London/New York: Routledge, 2011. 240 pp.     

FINDING THE SOMETHING IN NOTHING

Formless Infinity: Clinical Explorations of Matte Blanco and Bion. By Riccardo Lombardi. Translated by Karen Christenfeld, Gina Atkinson, Andrea Sabbadini, and Philip Slotkin. London/New York: Routledge, 2016. 282 pp.     

EAST ASIA AND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE—A PERSONAL QUEST

This essay is a reflection on the ways we understand East Asia, as well as how East Asia is related to our knowledge construction. In spite of the personal tone, which I use strategically to formulate arguments in a carefully designed narrative flow, the article remains critical throughout and its conclusion is clear: exploration of the essence of East Asian civilization can constitute a meaningful effort to reevaluate and even restructure our current world of knowledge.     

A Note on the Interpolation Property in Tense Logic

It is proved that all bimodal tense logics which contain the logic of the weak orderings and have unbounded depth do not have the interpolation property.     

A Completeness Proof for a Logic with an Alternative Necessity Operator

We show the completeness of a Hilbert-style system LK defined by M. Valiev involving the knowledge operator K dedicated to the reasoning with incomplete information. The completeness proof uses a variant of Makinson's canonical model construction. Furthermore we prove that the theoremhood problem for LK is co-NP-complete, using techniques similar to those used to prove that the satisfiability problem for propositional S5 is NP-complete.     

Synchronization of Logics

Motivated by applications in software engineering, we propose two forms of combination of logics: synchronization on formulae and synchronization on models. We start by reviewing satisfaction systems, consequence systems, one-step derivation systems and theory spaces, as well as their functorial relationships. We define the synchronization on formulae of two consequence systems and provide a categorial characterization of the construction. For illustration we consider the synchronization of linear temporal logic and equational logic. We define the synchronization on models of two satisfaction systems and provide a categorial characterization of the construction. We illustrate the technique in two cases: linear temporal logic versus equational logic; and linear temporal logic versus branching temporal logic. Finally, we lift the synchronization on formulae to the category of logics over consequences systems.     

A logic of comparative obligation

Normal systems of modal logic, interpreted as deontic logics, are unsuitable for a logic of conflicting obligations. By using modal operators based on a more complex semantics, however, we can provide for conflicting obligations, as in [9], which is formally similar to a fragment of the logic of ability later given in [2], Having gone that far, we may find it desirable to be able to express and consider claims about the comparative strengths, or degrees of urgency, of the conflicting obligations under which we stand. This paper, building on the formalism of the logic of ability in [2], provides a complete and decidable system for such a language.