Edinburgh Napier University

About: Edinburgh Napier University is a education organization based out in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 2665 authors who have published 6859 publications receiving 175272 citations.

A Novel Generation-Adversarial-Network-Based Vehicle Trajectory Prediction Method for Intelligent Vehicular Networks

Abstract: Prediction of the future location of vehicles and other mobile targets is instrumental in intelligent transportation system applications. In fact, networking schemes and protocols based on machine learning can benefit from the results of such accurate trajectory predictions. This is because routing decisions always need to be made for the future scenario due to the inevitable latency caused by the processing and propagation of the routing request and response. Thus, to predict the high-precision trajectory beyond the state of the art, we propose a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based vehicle trajectory prediction method, GAN-VEEP, for urban roads. The proposed method consists of three components: 1) vehicle coordinate transformation for data set preparation; 2) neural network prediction model trained by GAN; and 3) vehicle turning model to adjust the prediction process. The vehicle coordinate transformation model is introduced to deal with the complex spatial dependence in the urban road topology. Then, the neural network prediction model learns from the behavior of vehicle drivers. Finally, the vehicle turning model can refine the driving path based on the driver’s psychology. Compared with its counterparts, the experimental results show that GAN-VEEP exhibits higher effectiveness in terms of the average accuracy, mean absolute error, and root-mean-squared error.

The water vapour sorption behaviour of three celluloses: analysis using parallel exponential kinetics and interpretation using the Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic model

Abstract: The objective of this study was to examine the water vapour sorption behaviour of three celluloses, which were originally derived from cotton fibers, using a dynamic vapour sorption apparatus, including analyses of the sorption rate and hysteresis occurring in the isotherm run. Cotton linter, α-cellulose, and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), respectively attained equilibrium moisture contents of 14.2, 20.6, and 16.9% at a relative humidity (RH) of 95%. All three cellulosic materials exhibited sorption hysteresis to varying degrees throughout the full RH range; the MCC and α-cellulose displayed the lowest and highest total hysteresis, respectively. The sorption kinetics were analysed in terms of the parallel exponential kinetics (PEK) model, with excellent fits to the data being obtained. The PEK data is further interpreted on the basis of two Kelvin-Voigt elements operating in series. Clear differences in behaviour were seen between the α–cellulose and the other two celluloses in this study. The relative importance of capillary condensation and matrix viscoelasticity with respect to sorption hysteresis is discussed.

Emperor penguin body surfaces cool below air temperature

Abstract: Emperor penguins Aptenodytes forsteri are able to survive the harsh Antarctic climate because of specialized anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations for minimizing heat loss. Heat transfer theory predicts that metabolic heat loss in this species will mostly depend on radiative and convective cooling. To examine this, thermal imaging of emperor penguins was undertaken at the breeding colony of Pointe Geologie in Terre Adelie (66°40′ S 140° 01′ E), Antarctica in June 2008. During clear sky conditions, most outer surfaces of the body were colder than surrounding sub-zero air owing to radiative cooling. In these conditions, the feather surface will paradoxically gain heat by convection from surrounding air. However, owing to the low thermal conductivity of plumage any heat transfer to the skin surface will be negligible. Future thermal imaging studies are likely to yield further insights into the adaptations of this species to the Antarctic climate.

Scottish visitor attractions – a collaborative future?

Abstract: Although interorganisational collaboration is increasingly being accepted as a necessary, even desirable strategy for the tourism industry as a whole, there would appear to be a number of impediments to the implementation of collaborative initiatives among operators of visitor attractions. This paper focuses on the visitor attractions sector in Scotland, where such impediments are considered to be particularly serious. For a number of reasons, however, collaboration may represent a crucial strategy for visitor attractions in Scotland as they enter the new millennium. This paper sets out to assess the potential for intrasectoral, interorganisational collaborative strategies in enhancing the long-term viability of the Scottish visitor attractions sector. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.