Multilevel Multimodal Network Modelling: The Spatial Impacts of The Public Transport on Urban Systems

Transportation plays an essential role in supporting people and freight movement in cities and regions. The physical infrastructure of the transport network is usually embedded as a part of urban structure to link spaces and cover a significant amount of ground. However, accessibility studies, especially the space syntax theory and measurements, mainly focus on modelling and analysing the street network without concerning the public transport network. Although space syntax methodology has been proved to successfully examine the configurational urban form and the related effects on the pedestrian and vehicular flow within the street network, the effect of rail-based public transport is still missing in most space syntax studies. Therefore, this study applied a synthetic methodology to examine the multilevel multimodal network by combining railways and streets into a united network model. An Integrated Urban Model (IUM) has been developed to uncover the network and land use accessibility in cities and regions. This study further explored the distance cost in Depthmap by adopting time-cost distance for every segment based on the speed of transport modes for multimodal travelling. The results indicated that the multilevel multimodal model could provide a new vision of the network centrality. The study demonstrated that the concept of time-cost distance, along with metric distance and angular cost, could be a new approach for measuring the accessibility of the multilevel network in cities and regions

The impact of a new public transport system on neighbourhoods surrounding stations: The cases of Bermondsey and West Ham with the Jubilee Line extension in London

[EN] The impact of new public transport systems on towns and suburbs has been widely considered to be a significant aspect of urban development. However, spatial configurations which could stimulate transformation around neighbourhood of stations have not been clearly identified. It could be argued that the implementation of transport systems and the creation of new stations would enhance capacity of transport network and accessibility around vicinity of stations. Furthermore, the dynamics of pedestrian flow, generated by new public transport systems, might encourage socio-economic activities around stations. Therefore, the aims of this study are to verify the impact of urban morphology on station neighbourhoods and identify whether stations are embedded in the best location for optimising urban redevelopment. This paper analyses the surroundings of two stations – Bermondsey and West Ham – along the Jubilee Line Extension in London using Space Syntax measures. A spatial analysis with demographic and land use data reveals that the location of stations within urban layout would be the determinant in optimising socio-economic development in the neighbourhoods. It also suggests that Space Syntax could be an effective analytical methodology to understand the relationship between transport system and urban morphologyChen, PN.; Karimi, K. (2018). The impact of a new public transport system on neighbourhoods surrounding stations: The cases of Bermondsey and West Ham with the Jubilee Line extension in London. En 24th ISUF International Conference. Book of Papers. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1449-1459. https://doi.org/10.4995/ISUF2017.2017.5971OCS1449145

Analysis and modelling of the multilevel transport network : the metro and railway system in greater London

Transport development has become more and more important among all aspects of urban development in recent years. To accommodate the rising demand for daily travel and commutes, the public transport system, especially the rail system, is considered the better solution for sustainable mobility, instead of the road system for vehicles. Studies in urban morphology usually focus on the model of urban form without concerning the multi-dimensional network of public transport, whereas transport planning and engineering emphasise the capacity and travel demand within the road network, which disregards the spatial effect of the urban form. This research aims to bridge the gap between these two disciplines by developing an Integrated Urban Model (IUM), which combined various layers of urban information and dataset, including spatial network, land use and census. It seeks to identify the complex interrelationship between urban form networks and the socio-economic community by the synthetic analysis of the IUM. A multilevel multimodal network model has been built for the case of Greater London to combine the street network with the Metro/Rail network to investigate the network accessibility. In addition, this study applied space syntax theory and methodology as the primary approach to reveal the potential flow and movement pattern of the multilevel multimodal network. The result indicated that the multilevel network model with space syntax accessibility measurements could provide an interpretative overview of spatial distribution in both global and local scales. The IUM also allowed the spatial impact of public transport network to be uncovered through geodatabase modelling and spatial analysis

Improving Performance of CIGS Solar Cells by Annealing ITO Thin Films Electrodes

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were grown on glass substrates by direct current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Annealing at the optimal temperature can considerably improve the composition, structure, optical properties, and electrical properties of the ITO film. An ITO sample with a favorable crystalline structure was obtained by annealing in fixed oxygen/argon ratio of 0.03 at 400°C for 30 min. The carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity, band gap, transmission in the visible-light region, and transmission in the near-IR regions of the ITO sample were -1.6E+20 cm−3, 2.7E+01 cm2/Vs, 1.4E-03 Ohm-cm, 3.2 eV, 89.1%, and 94.7%, respectively. Thus, annealing improved the average transmissions (400–1200 nm) of the ITO film by 16.36%. Moreover, annealing a copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) solar cell at 400°C for 30 min in air improved its efficiency by 18.75%. The characteristics of annealing ITO films importantly affect the structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties of ITO films that are used in solar cells

Fabricating an Amperometric Cholesterol Biosensor by a Covalent Linkage between Poly(3-thiopheneacetic acid) and Cholesterol Oxidase

In this study, use of the covalent enzyme immobilization method was proposed to attach cholesterol oxidase (ChO) on a conducting polymer, poly(3-thiopheneacetic acid), [poly(3-TPAA)]. Three red-orange poly(3-TPAA) films, named electrodes A, B and C, were electropolymerized on a platinum electrode by applying a constant current of 1.5 mA, for 5, 20 and 100 s, respectively. Further, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylamiopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC · HCl) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) were used to activate the free carboxylic groups of the conducting polymer. Afterwards, the amino groups of the cholesterol oxidase were linked on the activated groups to form peptide bonds. The best sensitivity obtained for electrode B is 4.49 mA M−1 cm−2, with a linear concentration ranging from 0 to 8 mM, which is suitable for the analysis of cholesterol in humans. The response time (t95) is between 70 and 90 s and the limit of detection is 0.42 mM, based on the signal to noise ratio equal to 3. The interference of species such as ascorbic acid and uric acid increased to 5.2 and 10.3% of the original current response, respectively, based on the current response of cholesterol (100%). With respect to the long-term stability, the sensing response retains 88% of the original current after 13 days

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for neonatal congenital diaphragmatic hernia: The initial single-center experience in Taiwan

Background/Purpose Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a treatment option for stabilizing neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in a critical condition when standard therapy fails. However, the use of this approach in Taiwan has not been previously reported. Methods The charts of all neonates with CDH treated in our institute during the period 2007–2014 were reviewed. After 2010, patients who could not be stabilized with conventional treatment were candidates for ECMO. We compared the demographic data of patients with and without ECMO support. The clinical course and complications of ECMO were also reviewed. Results We identified 39 neonates with CDH with a median birth weight of 2696 g (range, 1526–3280 g). Seven (18%) of these patients required ECMO support. The APGAR score at 5 minutes differed significantly between the ECMO and non-ECMO groups. The survival rate was 84.6% (33/39) for all CDH patients and 57.1% (4/7) for the ECMO group. The total ECMO bypass times in the survivors was in the range of 5–36 days, whereas all nonsurvivors received ECMO for at least 36 days (mean duration, 68 days). Surgical bleeding occurred in four of seven patients in the ECMO group. Conclusion The introduction of ECMO rescued some CDH patients who could not have survived by conventional management. Prolonged (i.e., > 36 days) ECMO support had no benefit for survival

A cytoplasmic RNA virus generates functional viral small RNAs and regulates viral IRES activity in mammalian cells

The roles of virus-derived small RNAs (vsRNAs) have been studied in plants and insects. However, the generation and function of small RNAs from cytoplasmic RNA viruses in mammalian cells remain unexplored. This study describes four vsRNAs that were detected in enterovirus 71-infected cells using next-generation sequencing and northern blots. Viral infection produced substantial levels (\u3e105 copy numbers per cell) of vsRNA1, one of the four vsRNAs. We also demonstrated that Dicer is involved in vsRNA1 generation in infected cells. vsRNA1 overexpression inhibited viral translation and internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) activity in infected cells. Conversely, blocking vsRNA1 enhanced viral yield and viral protein synthesis. We also present evidence that vsRNA1 targets stem-loop II of the viral 5′ untranslated region and inhibits the activity of the IRES through this sequence-specific targeting. Our study demonstrates the ability of a cytoplasmic RNA virus to generate functional vsRNA in mammalian cells. In addition, we also demonstrate a potential novel mechanism for a positive-stranded RNA virus to regulate viral translation: generating a vsRNA that targets the IRES