ZTBus: A Dataset of 1000+ Complete, Second-Resolved Driving Missions of Inner-City Transit Buses

This paper presents the Zurich Transit Bus (ZTBus) dataset, which consists of data recorded during driving missions of electric city buses in Zurich, Switzerland. The data was collected over several years on two trolley buses as part of multiple research projects. It involves more than a thousand missions across all seasons, each mission usually covering a full day of operation. The ZTBus dataset contains detailed information on the vehicle's power demand, propulsion system, odometry, global position, ambient temperature, door openings, number of passengers, dispatch patterns within the public transportation network, etc. All signals are synchronized in time and include an absolute timestamp in tabular form. The dataset can be used as a foundation for a variety of studies and analyses. For example, the data can serve as a basis for simulations to estimate the performance of different public transit vehicle types, or to evaluate and optimize control strategies of hybrid electric vehicles. Furthermore, numerous influencing factors on vehicle operation, such as traffic, passenger volume, etc., can be analyzed in detail.Comment: This work has been submitted to Scientific Data for possible publicatio

A Case Study on the Use of Flexible Earth Retaining Structure In Instable Slopes

Recently new highway, motorway and railway projects take place in many developing countries within the aggressive infrastructure investment programme of governments. In rugged topography, engineers face the challenging problems of designing safe and cost effective cuts and fills for these projects especially under seismic loading and marginal stability conditions. Overall stability mechanism and safety of the cut generally controls the design decisions for the relevant section. In addition, because of the construction width limitations, in some mechanically stabilized earth wall projects sufficient width to accommodate the strip lengths of the retaining system cannot be provided. To eliminate all these problems, to minimize cut and backfill volumes and provide an innovative solution in such difficult terrains, soil nailing is implemented in the cut side together with the mechanically stabilized earth wall in the fill side together both are being flexible earth retaining structures. In addition, soil nails could be designed in such configuration and length that nails will also contribute to overall stability conditions of the cut slope. Furthermore, implementation of the system brings the advantage of reduction of both cut and fills volumes, therefore more cost effective and safer design. This paper presents application of this system in a recent case study, in Baku, Azerbaijan

Assessment of Liquefaction-Induced Foundation Soil Deformations

Although there exist some consensus regarding seismic soil liquefaction triggering assessment of free field soil sites, estimating the liquefaction triggering potential beneath building foundations still stays as a controversial and a difficult issue. Assessing liquefaction triggering potential under building foundations requires the estimation of cyclic and static stress state of the soil medium. In the recent studies (e.g. Unutmaz 2008), the cyclic stress ratio corrected for Kα and Kσ effects under and adjacent to building foundations subjected to cyclic loading are to be estimated with the help of a series of 2-D and 3-D numerical simulations for different generic cases. A representative and a maximum cyclic stress ratio terms of the soil-structure-earthquake interaction system, denoted as CSRSSEI,rep and CSRSSEI,max respectively was defined as a function of i) ratio of the pre-earthquake fundamental period of the structure and soil (σ), ii) free field spectral acceleration at the fixed-base period of the structure(SA), iii) the peak ground acceleration of the free field soil sites (PGA), and iv) aspect ratio of the structure (h/B). In this paper, the results of the previously mentioned numerical findings have been verified by using case histories documented after 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake, where significant foundation displacements were observed due to liquefaction of the underlying foundation soils. The foundation soil profiles of these case histories generally consist of silty soils, sand-silt mixtures and silt-clay mixtures. Overburden and procedure corrected SPT-N values vary in the range of 2 to 5 blows/30 cm in the upper 5 meters and gradually increases up to a maximum value of 25 blows/30 cm beyond depths of 5 to 8 m’s. Overlying structures are mainly 3 to 4 storey, residential buildings with no basements. As the concluding remark, the proposed simplified procedures are shown to predict cyclically-induced foundation settlements accurately within an accuracy factor of two (i.e.: predictions fall within 1:2 and 2:1 limits of the measured settlements)

Comparison of Dynamic Soil Modelling Using SCPT, SDMT and SASW

A site investigation campaign using cone penetration test (CPT), dilatometer test (DMT) are carried on alluvial deposits at a site located at Gemlik, Turkey towards the design of a newly planned hot reverse mill structure within the existing Borçelik steel factory. Site is located at the south of North Anatolian Fault that is sheared during 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake. In addition, the site is under the influence zone of another fault line going through the Gemlik Bay. Therefore, prediction of the behaviour of saturated alluvial deposits under a major expected design earthquake of the planned structures is the prime importance in terms of safety and meeting the performance criteria of the subject structures. Seismic cones (SCPT) and dilatometers (SDMT) together with spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) are also carried out in order to obtain shear wave velocity profile for seismic modelling. Data obtain from CPT, DMT, SCPT, SDMT and SASW is used for subsoil geotechnical modeling. Soil models are also supported with SPT data and laboratory test results. Obtained Vs profiles with various techniques are compared for whole site models and between closely located investigation pairs

Patterns of antihypertensive prescribing, discontinuation and switching among a Hong Kong Chinese population from over one million prescriptions

Hypertension is an alarming public health problem among Chinese. The present study evaluated the prescribing patterns, discontinuation and switching profiles of antihypertensive agents and their associated factors in one Hong Kong Chinese population. Data were retrieved from computerized records for patients prescribed anti-hypertensive agents in government primary care clinics of Hong Kong from January, 2004 to June, 2007. A total of 1,069,836 antihypertensive drug visits, representing 67,028 patients, were analyzed. The most commonly prescribed drugs were Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs) (49%), b-Blockers (BBs) (46%) and Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEIs) (19%). Thiazide diuretic prescribing was low (13%) and on the decline (14% in 2004 to 12% in 2007). Prescribing of ACEIs was rising (16% in 2004 to 23% in 2007). Patients’ age, gender, and socio-economic status were independent predictors of class of anti-hypertensive prescribed but explained less than 3.5% of the variation observed. Drug discontinuation was highest for BBs (21%) and lowest for CCBs (12%). The high rates of discontinuation in BBs remained apparent after controlling for confounding variables. Switching was less common than discontinuation and was most likely with thiazide diuretics. To summarize, prescribing of CCBs and BBs were high and that of thiazide diuretics particularly low in this Chinese population when compared with international trends. CCBs may be a particularly favorable antihypertensive treatment in Chinese, given the high discontinuation rates of BBs and international guidelines advising against the use of BBs as first-line therapy. The low use of thiazide diuretics warrants further clinical and cost effectiveness studies among Chinese

Highly Efficient Year-Round Energy and Comfort Optimization of HVAC Systems in Electric City Buses

In this paper, we present a novel approach to perform highly efficient numerical simulations of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system of an electric city bus. The models for this simulation are based on the assumption of a steady-state operation. We show two approaches to obtain the minimum energy requirement for a certain thermal comfort criterion under specific ambient conditions. Due to the computationally efficient approach developed, we can evaluate the model on a large dataset of 7500 scenarios in various ambient conditions to estimate the year-round performance of the system subject to different comfort requirements. Compared to a heating strategy based on positive temperature coefficient (PTC) elements, we can thus show that a heat pump (HP) can reduce the annual mean power consumption by up to 60%. Ceiling-mounted radiant heating elements complementing a PTC heating system can reduce the annual mean power consumption by up to 10%, while they cannot improve the energy efficiency when used in conjunction with a HP. Finally, a broad sensitivity study reveals the fact that improving the HP's heating-mode coefficient of performance (COP) manifests the largest leverage in terms of mean annual power consumption. Moreover, the annual energy expenditure for cooling are around eight times smaller than those for heating. The case study considered thus reveals that the advantages of improving the COP of the cooling mode are significantly lower.Comment: This work has been accepted to IFAC for publication under a Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC-N

Geriatric pharmacotherapy : optimisation through integrated approach in the hospital setting

Since older patients are more vulnerable to adverse drug-related events, there is a need to ensure appropriate prescribing in these patients in order to prevent misuse, overuse and underuse of drugs. Different tools and strategies have been developed to reduce inappropriate prescribing; the available measures can be divided into medication assessment tools, and specific interventions to reduce inappropriate prescribing. Implicit criteria of inappropriate prescribing focus on appropriate dosing, search for drug-drug interactions, and increase adherence. Explicit criteria are consensus-based standards focusing on drugs and diseases and include lists of drugs to avoid in general or lists combining drugs with clinical data. These criteria take into consideration differences between patients, and stand for a medication review, by using a systematic approach. Different types of interventions exist in order to reduce inappropriate prescribing in older patients, such as: educational interventions, computerized decision support systems, pharmacist-based interventions, and geriatric assessment. The effects of these interventions have been studied, sometimes in a multifaceted approach combining different techniques, and all types seem to have positive effects on appropriateness of prescribing. Interdisciplinary teamwork within the integrative pharmaceutical care is important for improving of outcomes and safety of drug therapy. The pharmaceutical care process consists offour steps, which are cyclic for an individual patient. These steps are pharmaceutical anamnesis, medication review, design and follow-up of a pharmaceutical care plan. A standardized approach is necessary for the adequate detection and evaluation of drug-related problems. Furthermore, it is clear that drug therapy should be reviewed in-depth, by having full access to medical records, laboratory values and nursing notes. Although clinical pharmacists perform the pharmaceutical care process to manage the patient’s drug therapy in every day clinical practice, the physician takes the ultimate responsibility for the care of the patient in close collaboration with nurses