An Advanced Simulation Framework of an Integrated Vehicle-Powertrain Eco-Operation System for Electric Buses

vities of transit buses traveling along arterial roads and city streets consist of frequent stops and idling events at many predictable occasions, e.g., loading/unloading passengers at bus stops, approaching traffic signals or stop signs, and going through recurrent traffic congestion, etc. Besides designing transit buses with electric powertrain systems that can save a noticeable amount of energy thanks to regenerative breaking, this urban traffic environment also unfolds a number of opportunities to further improve their energy efficiency via vehicle connectivity and autonomy. Therefore, this paper proposes a complete and novel simulation framework of integrated vehicle/powertrain eco-operation system for electric buses (Eco-bus) by co-optimizing the vehicle dynamics and powertrain (VD&PT) controls. A comprehensive evaluation of the proposed system on mobility benefits and energy savings has been conducted over various traffic conditions. Simulation results are presented to showcase the superiority of the proposed simulation framework of the Eco-bus compared to the conventional bus, particularly in terms of mobility and energy efficiency aspects

A study of evacuation efficiency of a hopper-shape exit by using mice under high competition

Exit is the bottleneck of an evacuation from a room and the flow rate through an exit is believed to be depended on its width. A series of experiments were conducted in a bi-dimensional container where mice were driven to pass through two kinds of exit of the identical width, i.e., a conventional exit and a hopper-shape exit. The evacuation efficiency of the two exits was experimentally compared by using mice under competition. The results showed that a hopper-shape exit reduces the escape time by 25% compared with a conventional exit. Further study was conducted with the presence of a column in front of the two exits. The presence of a column in front of the conventional exit increases the escape time by 22.5%. On the contrary, the placement of column in front of the hopper-shape exit reduces the escape time by 48%. The study showed that the escape efficiency could be greatly improved by appropriately redesigning configuration of exit

Integrated Simulation Platform for Quantifying the Traffic-Induced Environmental and Health Impacts

Air quality and human exposure to mobile source pollutants have become major concerns in urban transportation. Existing studies mainly focus on mitigating traffic congestion and reducing carbon footprints, with limited understanding of traffic-related health impacts from the environmental justice perspective. To address this gap, we present an innovative integrated simulation platform that models traffic-related air quality and human exposure at the microscopic level. The platform consists of five modules: SUMO for traffic modeling, MOVES for emissions modeling, a 3D grid-based dispersion model, a Matlab-based concentration visualizer, and a human exposure model. Our case study on multi-modal mobility on-demand services demonstrates that a distributed pickup strategy can reduce human cancer risk associated with PM2.5 by 33.4% compared to centralized pickup. Our platform offers quantitative results of traffic-related air quality and health impacts, useful for evaluating environmental issues and improving transportation systems management and operations strategies.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figure

Downregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α by RNA interference alleviates the development of collagen-induced arthritis in rats

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common type of autoimmune arthritis. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) as a transcription factor in response to hypoxia suggests that it could be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of RA. In this study, we assessed whether the HIF pathway blockade attenuates the manifestations of RA in the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rat model. We constructed a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentiviral expression vector targeting HIF-1α (pLVX-shRNA-HIF-1α) and to achieve HIF-1α RNA interference. Quantitative RT-PCR, immunofluorescence staining, and western blot were used to detect the expressions of HIF-1α, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), phsopho (p)-p65, and p-IКBɑ mRNA and protein, respectively. Micro-computed tomography was used to investigate joint morphology at different time points after CIA induction. Moreover, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to monitor the expression of inflammatory cytokines. In vitro analyses revealed that pLVX-shRNA-HIF-1α effectively inhibited the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF and led to the activation of p-65 and p-IКBɑ, as well as decreased proinflammatory cytokine expression in cell culture. Inhibition of HIF-1α in rats decreased signs of a systemic inflammatory condition, together with decreased pathological changes of RA. Moreover, downregulation of HIF-1α expression markedly reduced the synovitis and angiogenesis. In conclusion, we have shown that pharmacological inhibition of HIF-1 may improve the clinical manifestations of RA

Arsenic and Cadmium Accumulation in Soil as Affected by Continuous Organic Fertilizer Application: Implications for Clean Production

As and Cd in soil can be assimilated and accumulated by vegetables and can be subsequently ingested by humans. Contradictory effects of organic fertilizer application on As and Cd accumulation in soil have been reported in previous studies. An eight-year greenhouse study was conducted on a sandy loam soil in Beijing, China to investigate the effects of organic fertilizer application rate on soil properties, and As and Cd accumulation in soil. The contamination risk of pak choi grown after eight years’ application of organic fertilizer was also evaluated. Soil organic carbon increased 3.0–3.8 times with low, medium and high rates of fertilizer application in 2018 compared to the initial soil. Organic fertilizer application significantly increased soil nutrients and microbial biomass while it mildly affected soil pH. The bioavailability of As/Cd has decreased after eight years’ application of organic fertilizer. Pak choi crop harvested from all three treatments in 2018 did not pose a threat to human health, even for life-time consumption. Soil total As content significantly decreased with organic fertilizer application, mainly due to the lower As content in the applied fertilizer than that in soil. Continuous application of clean organic fertilizer can be adopted to reduce the contamination risk of highly contaminated soil in the soil–plant system

Lane-Level Localization and Map Matching for Advanced Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Applications

USDOT Grant 69A3551747114Reliable, lane-level, absolute position determination for connected and automated vehicles (CAV\u2019s) is near at hand due to advances in sensor and computing technology. These capabilities in conjunction with high-definition maps enable lane determination, per lane queue determination, and enhanced performance in applications. This project investigated, analyzed, and demonstrated these related technologies. Project contributions include: (1) Experimental analysis demonstrating that the USDOT Mapping tool achieves internal horizontal accuracy better than 0.2 meters (standard deviation); (2) Theoretical analysis of lane determination accuracy as a function of both distance from the lane centerline and positioning accuracy; (3) Experimental demonstration and analysis of lane determination along the Riverside Innovation Corridor showing that for a vehicle driven within 0.9 meters of the lane centerline, the correct lane is determined for over 90% of the samples; (4) Development of a VISSIM position error module to enable simulation analysis of lane determination and lane queue estimation as a function of positioning error; (5) Development of a lane-level intersection queue prediction algorithm; Simulation evaluation of lane determination accuracy which matched the theoretical analysis; and (6) Simulation evaluation of lane queue prediction accuracy as a function of both CAV penetration rate and positioning accuracy. Conclusions of the simulation analysis in item (6) are the following: First, when the penetration rate is fixed, higher queue length estimation error occurs as the position error increases. However, the disparity across different position error levels diminishes with the decrease of penetration rate. Second, as the penetration rate decreases, the queue length estimation error significantly increases under the same GNSS error level. The current methods that exist for queue length prediction only utilize vehicle position and a penetration rate estimate. These results motivate the need for new methods that more fully utilize the information available on CAVs (e.g., distance to vehicles in front, back, left, and right) to decrease the sensitivity to penetration rate

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049