Investigating Initial Driver Intention on Overtaking on Rural Roads

Driver intention recognition is essential to the development of advanced driver assistance systems providing real-time support. Current approaches for the recognition of overtaking intentions focus on drivers’ observable behaviors, neglecting the fact that the intention to overtake a slower lead car emerges earlier than the resulting behavior. This paper aims to distinguish the "intention emerging process", when drivers form the initial intention to overtake, from the "action executing process", when drivers execute the overtaking maneuver. A driving simulator study has been conducted to investigate the influence of the lead vehicle type and lead vehicle speed on initiating driver’ intention on overtaking on rural roads, and the effect of the complexity of the oncoming traffic on executing overtaking. The results show that the initial driver intention to overtake appears much earlier than the execution of the overtaking maneuver. The lead vehicle speed has a significant influence on initial driver intention in the "intention emerging process", while time to overtake increases with the number of the oncoming vehicles in the "action execution process". These results can contribute to the development of models for driver intention recognition by extending the prediction horizon from the recognition to a prediction of driving maneuvers. Document type: Conference objec

A novel, aerosol-nanocrystal floating-gate device for non-volatile memory applications

This paper describes the fabrication, and structural and electrical characterization of a new, aerosol-nanocrystal floating-gate FET, aimed at non-volatile memory (NVM) applications. This aerosol-nanocrystal NVM device features program/erase characteristics comparable to conventional stacked gate NVM devices, excellent endurance (>l0^5 P/E cycles), and long-term non-volatility in spite of a thin bottom oxide (55-60Å). In addition, a very simple fabrication process makes this aerosol-nanocrystal NVM device a potential candidate for low cost NVM applications

Offset Calculation for Registration-Free EM-based Liver Navigation

Precise placement of ablation needles for the treatment of liver tumors remains difficult due to poor visibility of potential tumor targets in ultrasound imaging. Various groups have carried out extensive efforts to develop image-guidance and surgical navigation technology for the realm of oncologic liver surgery. Due to additional complexity and disruption in the clinical workflow, the barriers to introducing these systems on a larger clinical level remains high. In this work we present an initial evaluation towards a novel and simple method for accurate image-guided targeting of liver tumors based on EM-tracking and with-out requiring patient-to-image registration. The initial feasibility of the 3D offset calculation from fluoroscopy images is demonstrated

Fission barriers and asymmetric ground states in the relativistic mean field theory

The symmetric and asymmetric fission path for 240Pu, 232Th, and 226Ra is investigated within the relativistic mean field model. Standard parametrizations which are well fitted to nuclear ground state properties are found to deliver reasonable qualitative and quantitative features of fission, comparable to similar nonrelativstic calculations. Furthermore, stable octupole deformations in the ground states of Radium isotopes are investigated. They are found in a series of isotopes, qualitatively in agreement with nonrelativistic models. But the quantitative details differ amongst the models and between the various relativsitic parametrizations.Comment: 30 pages RevTeX, 7 tables, 12 low resolution Gif figures (high resolution PostScript versions are available at http://www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~bender/nucl_struct_publications.html or at ftp://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/pub/bender

Target-driven sustainable product development

Figuring in sustainability in product development requires a profound understanding of the cause and effect of engineering decisions along the full spectrum of the product lifecycle and the triple bottomline of sustainability. Sustainability design targets can contribute to mitigating the complexity involved, by means of a formalised problem description. This article discusses how sustainability design targets can be defined and presents methods for systematically implementing these targets into the design process. To that end, different means of decision support mechanisms are presented. They comprise (a) use cases of target breakdowns in subsystems, (b) systematic reduction of solution space and (c) assistance in design activities to ensure achievement of sustainability design targets. This paper explains how interfaces to engineering tools such as Computer Aided Design/Engineering (CAD/CAE) or Product Data/Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) can be put in place to make the process of retrieving information and providing decision support more seamless

Разработка проекта противодымной защиты ООО "Юргинский машзавод" гостиница "Сибирь"

Объектом исследования являются возможные перспективные состояния инженерно-технических составляющих обеспечения пожарной безопасности в организации ООО "Юргинский машзавод" Гостиница "Сибирь". Цель работы: проанализировать возможности и разработать систему мер противодымной защиты направленную на обеспечение своевременной и безопасной эвакуации. В процессе исследования проводилось изучение обеспечения пожарной безопасности на объекте, анализ возможных вариантов развития и последствий пожара, а также определения причин и вероятности его возникновения. Оценка наиболее опасной пожарной ситуации и ее последствия.The object of research is possible long-term condition of the engineering and technical components of fire safety in the organization of "Yurga engineering plant" Hotel "Siberia". The purpose of research is to analyze the opportunities and develop a system of smoke protection measures aimed at ensuring timely and safe evacuation. The study was carried out to study fire safety at the facility, analyze possible scenarios and consequences of fires and determine causes and probability fires. The most dangerous fire situations and their consequences were estimated

Chemical characterization of secondary organic aerosol at a rural site in the southeastern US: insights from simultaneous high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) and FIGAERO chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) measurements

The formation and evolution of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) were investigated at Yorkville, GA, in late summer (mid-August to mid-October 2016). The organic aerosol (OA) composition was measured using two online mass spectrometry instruments, the high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) and the Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight iodide-adduct chemical ionization mass spectrometer (FIGAERO-CIMS). Through analysis of speciated organics data from FIGAERO-CIMS and factorization analysis of data obtained from both instruments, we observed notable SOA formation from isoprene and monoterpenes during both day and night. Specifically, in addition to isoprene epoxydiol (IEPOX) uptake, we identified isoprene SOA formation from non-IEPOX pathways and isoprene organic nitrate formation via photooxidation in the presence of NO_x and nitrate radical oxidation. Monoterpenes were found to be the most important SOA precursors at night. We observed significant contributions from highly oxidized acid-like compounds to the aged OA factor from FIGAERO-CIMS. Taken together, our results showed that FIGAERO-CIMS measurements are highly complementary to the extensively used AMS factorization analysis, and together they provide more comprehensive insights into OA sources and composition