Study of the optimization of a miniaturized gas sensor for odor monitoring

Climate change and the crisis of non-renewable natural resources have fostered a change in people's mentality, pushing them towards a future of shared mobility. This study aims to offer a solution to one of the main drawbacks of this type of mobility, the discomfort generated by malodors and poor air quality in shared-use vehicles. To that end, the use of an odor monitoring module is proposed which, through gas sensors, allows to improve the air quality inside vehicles after its use. In this thesis we find a study of the technology for odor tracking, the design and manufacture of a prototype for the module and its subsequent implementation in vehicles. The study concludes with pilot tests on different vehicles which contribute to the parameterization of the system, laying the foundations for projects with real application

Efficiency of the Portuguese metros. is it different from other European metros?

This research analyses the performance of Portuguese metros in the European context. By means of two non-parametric benchmarking techniques, respectively performance indicators and data envelopment analysis, we compute the efficiency of 37 European metros. In order to provide statistical inference and robustness to our results we apply the recent technique of bootstrap. We also use the partial frontiers (order-m) to identify outliers and the double bootstrap procedure in a second stage methodology to take into account the influence of the operational environment. The results show important levels of inefficiency both in the Portuguese metros and in other European metros.Metro; Efficiency; Portugal; Performance Indicator; Data Envelopment Analysis

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

Prevalence of organic gunshot residues in police vehicles

The present study investigated the organic gunshot residue (OGSR) background level of police vehicles in Switzerland. Specimens from 64 vehicles belonging to two regional police services were collected and analysed by LC-MS in positive mode. The driver’s and back seats were sampled separately to monitor potential differences between locations and to assess the risks of a suspect being contaminated by OGSR during transportation to a police station. The results showed that most of the 64 vehicles were uncontaminated (44 driver’s seats and 38 back seats respectively). Up to six of the seven targeted compounds were detected in a single sample, once on a driver’s seat and twice on back seats. The contamination frequency generally decreased as the number of compounds detected together increased. The amounts detected were in the low ng range and less than amounts generally detected just after discharge on a shooter. Our data indicated that detecting a combination of four or more compounds on a police vehicle seat appears to be a relatively rare occurrence. The background contamination observed was most probably due to secondary transfer from police officers (e.g. through recent participation in a shooting session or firearm manipulation) or from firearms stored in the vehicles. The present results might be used as a recommendation to minimize contact of a suspect with contaminated surfaces if OGSR is implemented in routine work in parallel to IGSR analysis

Inflow process of pedestrians to a confined space

To better design safe and comfortable urban spaces, understanding the nature of human crowd movement is important. However, precise interactions among pedestrians are difficult to measure in the presence of their complex decision-making processes and many related factors. While extensive studies on pedestrian flow through bottlenecks and corridors have been conducted, the dominant mode of interaction in these scenarios may not be relevant in different scenarios. Here, we attempt to decipher the factors that affect human reactions to other individuals from a different perspective. We conducted experiments employing the inflow process in which pedestrians successively enter a confined area (like an elevator) and look for a temporary position. In this process, pedestrians have a wider range of options regarding their motion than in the classical scenarios; therefore, other factors might become relevant. The preference of location is visualized by pedestrian density profiles obtained from recorded pedestrian trajectories. Non-trivial patterns of space acquisition, e.g., an apparent preference for positions near corners, were observed. This indicates the relevance of psychological and anticipative factors beyond the private sphere, which have not been deeply discussed so far in the literature on pedestrian dynamics. From the results, four major factors, which we call flow avoidance, distance cost, angle cost, and boundary preference, were suggested. We confirmed that a description of decision-making based on these factors can give a rise to realistic preference patterns, using a simple mathematical model. Our findings provide new perspectives and a baseline for considering the optimization of design and safety in crowded public areas and public transport carriers.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

State of Utah v. Jamie Lee Moreno : Brief of Appellee

APPEAL FROM A CONVICTION FOR POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, A THIRD DEGREE FELONY, IN VIOLATION OF UTAH CODE ANN. § 58-37- 8(2)(a)(i) (1990), IN THE THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR SALT LAKE COUNTY, UTAH, THE HONORABLE JAMES S. SAWAYA, PRESIDING

State of Utah v. Jamie Lee Moreno : Brief of Appellee

APPEAL FROM A CONVICTION FOR POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, A THIRD DEGREE FELONY, IN VIOLATION OF UTAH CODE ANN. § 58-37- 8(2)(a)(i) (1990), IN THE THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR SALT LAKE COUNTY, UTAH, THE HONORABLE JAMES S. SAWAYA, PRESIDING