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Spatial navigation is influenced by landmarks, which are prominent visual features in the environment. Although previous research has focused on finding advantages of landmarks on wayfinding via experimentation; however, less attention has been given to identifying the key attributes of landmarks that facilitate wayfinding, including the study of neural correlates (involving electroencephalogram, EEG analyses). In this paper, we combine behavioral measures, virtual environment, and EEG signal-processing to provide a holistic investigation about the influence of landmarks on performance during navigation in a maze-like environment. In an experiment, participants were randomly divided into two conditions, Landmark-enriched (LM+; N = 17) and Landmark-devoid (LM-; N = 18), and asked to navigate from an initial location to a goal location in a maze. In the LM+ condition, there were landmarks placed at certain locations, which participants could use for wayfinding in the maze. However, in the LM- condition, such landmarks were not present. Beyond behavioral analyses of data, analyses were carried out of the EEG data collected using a 64-channel device. Results revealed that participants took less time and committed fewer errors in navigating the maze in the LM+ condition compared to the LM- condition. EEG analyses of the data revealed that the left-hemispheric activation was more prominent in the LM+ condition compared to the LM- condition. The event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) of the theta frequency band, revealed activation in the left posterior inferior and superior regions in the LM+ condition compared to the LM- condition, suggesting an occurrence of an object-location binding in the LM+ condition along with spatial transformation between representations. Moreover, directed transfer function method, which measures information flow between two regions, showed a higher number of active channels in the LM- condition compared to the LM+ condition, exhibiting additional wiring cost associated with the cognitive demands when no landmark was available. These findings reveal pivotal role of the left-hemispheric region (especially, parietal cortex), which indicates the integration of available sensory cues and current memory requirements to encode contextual information of landmarks. Overall, this research helps to understand the role of brain regions and processes that are utilized when people use landmarks in navigating maze-like environments.

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Aim:The present study focuses on analyzing the effects of Sudarshan Kriya yoga (SKY) on EEG as well as ECG signals for stress regulation. To envision the regulation of stress Determination Test (DT) has been used. We have chosen a control group for contriving a cogent comparison that could be corroborated using statistical tests.Subjects and Methods:A total of 20 subjects were taken in the study, of which 10 were allotted to a control group. Electroencephalograph was taken during a DT task, before and after SKY the sky session with 30 days of SKY session given to the experimental group. No SKY was given to the control group.Results:We quantified mental stress using EEG, ECG and DT synergistically and used SKY to regulate it. We observed that alpha band power decreases in the frontal lobe of the brain with increasing mental stress while frontal brain asymmetry decreases with increasing stress tolerance.Conclusions:These EEG, ECG and DT shows a significant decrement in mental stress and improvement in cognitive performance after SKY, indicating SKY as a good alternative of medication for stress management.

In this paper, a parallel fuzzy proportional plus fuzzy integral plus fuzzy derivative (FP+FI+FD) controller is proposed. It is derived from the conventional parallel proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. It preserves the linear structure of a conventional parallel PID controller, with analytical formulas. The final shape of the controller is a discrete-time fuzzy version of a conventional parallel PID controller. Computer simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the FP+FI+FD controller for setpoint tracking and load-disturbance rejection for some complex processes, such as first-and second-order processes with delay, inverse response process with and without delay and higher order processes. Also, the performance of the proposed fuzzy controller is evaluated experimentally on highly nonlinear liquid-flow process with a hysteresis characteristic due to a pneumatic control valve. The simulation and real time control is done using National Instrument TM hardware and software (LabVIEW TM ). The response of the FP+FI+FD controller is compared with the conventional parallel PID controller, tuned with the Ziegler-Nichols (Z-H) andÅström-Hägglund (A-H) tuning technique. It is observed that the FP+FI+FD controller performed much better than the conventional PI/PID controller. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed parallel FP+FI+FD controller.

The main objective of this paper is to control the speed of Nonlinear Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) by controlling the throttle position. Various control techniques such as well known Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller in conjunction with state feedback controller (SFC) such as Pole Placement Technique (PPT), Observer Based Controller (OBC) and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) Controller are designed. Some Intelligent control techniques e.g. fuzzy logic PD, Fuzzy logic PI along with Adaptive Controller such as Self Organizing Controller (SOC) is also designed. The design objective in this research paper is to provide smooth throttle movement, zero steady-state speed error, and to maintain a Selected Vehicle (SV) speed. A comparative study is carried out in order to identify the superiority of optimal control technique so as to get improved fuel economy, reduced pollution, improved driving safety and reduced manufacturing costs.

Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a type of rhythmic breathing activity, trivially a form of Pranayama that stimulates physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. The objective of the present work is to verify the effect of meditation in optimizing task efficiency and regulating stress. It builds on to quantitatively answer if SKY will increase workload tolerance for divided attention tasks in the people sank in it. EEG and ECG recordings were taken from a total of twenty-five subjects who had volunteered for the experiment. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups of ‘control’ and ‘experimental.’ Their objective scores were collected from the experiment based on NASA’s multi-attribute task battery II and was utilized for workload assessment. Both the groups had no prior experience of SKY. The experimental group was provided with an intervention of SKY for a duration of 30 min everyday. Pre- and post-meditation data were acquired from both groups over a period of 30 and 90 days. It was observed that subjective score of workload (WL) was significantly reduced in the experimental group and performance of the subject increased in terms of task performance. Another astute observation included a considerable increase and decrease in the alpha and beta energies and root mean square of the EEG signal for the experimental group and control group, respectively. In addition to this sympathovagal balance index also decreased in experimental group which indicated reduction in stress. SKY had an effect on stress regulation which in turn enhanced their WL tolerance capacity for a particular multitask activity.