The Long-Term Effectiveness of Eco-Driving Training: A Pilot Study

Eco-driving has been proven to have a great benefit in reducing vehicle fuel consumption in many developed countries. However, the potential of ecodriving on energy-saving in China is not very clear. Taking three taxi drivers from Beijing Beiqi Taxi Group Company as examples, the petrol consumption, travel distance and many other factors influencing vehicle fuel use before and after ecodriving training were collected through survey forms. The short-term and long-term effect of eco-driving was compared. The results showed that, taking one month as the statistical cycle, the benefit of eco-driving in saving fuel consumption averaged is 19.04%; while it reduced to 14.41% after four months from taking eco-driving training. Thus, drivers would partially regressed back to less economically driving behaviors and thus resulting in lower fuel savings after sometime. This study laid a foundation to evaluate the benefit of eco-driving in saving energy use

LIN28 Is Involved in Glioma Carcinogenesis and Predicts Outcomes of Glioblastoma Multiforme Patients

LIN28, an evolutionarily conversed RNA binding protein which can bind to the terminal loops of let-7 family microRNA precursors and block their processing to maturation, is highly expressed in several subsets of tumors that carry poor prognoses, such as ovarian carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, colon carcinoma and germ cell carcinoma. However, there has been no study on the expression of LIN28 in glioma tissues or their importance as a prognostic predictor of glioma patients. This study aimed to examine the expression of LIN28 in glioma and correlate the results to patient outcome. We found that LIN28 expression was significantly higher in the group of patients with a poor prognosis compared to patients with a good prognosis by gene microarray. Log-rank analysis showed patients with higher LIN28 expression level in tumor had a shorter progression-free survival and overall survival times compared to those with lower LIN28 expression level. Similar results were also obtained from the tissue microarray analysis. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed high LIN28 expression was an independent prognostic factor for a shorter progression-free survival and overall survival in GBM patients. Furthermore in vitro experiments showed that down-regulation of LIN28 in U251 and U373 cells caused cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase, delayed cell proliferation, increased apoptosis, and resulted in fewer colonies compared to controls. Summarily, our data provides a potential target for cancer therapy as an approach to overcome the poor options currently available for GBM patients

Biomechanical Effects of Two forms of PGF2α on ex-vivo Rabbit Cornea.

PURPOSE:To investigate the biomechanical effects of two synthetic prostaglandin F2α analogues (PGF2α), namely Travoprost and Tafluprost, on the ex-vivo rabbit cornea. MATERIALS AND METHODS:96 eyes of 48 Japanese white rabbits were divided into 3 equal groups randomly; the Travoprost treated group (Tra), the Tafluprost treated group (Taf) and the control group (Co). Eyes in Tra and Taf groups were preserved in storage medium for 10 days with 1:10 Travoprost and Tafluprost diluents, respectively; while the Co eyes were preserved in a similar but PGF2α-free medium. 24 corneas of each group were tested under inflation conditions with up to 30 mmHg posterior pressure. The pressure-deformation data obtained experimentally were used in an inverse analysis process to derive the stress-strain behavior of the tissue, using which the tangent modulus, a direct measure of the tissue's material stiffness, was calculated. The remaining 8 specimens of each group were analyzed using electron microscopy for fibril diameter and interfibrillar spacing. RESULTS:Although the central corneal thickness increased significantly in the three groups after storage (p< 0.01), it was similar in all groups both before (p= 0.598) and after storage (p= 0.181). After treatment with Travoprost and Tafluprost, the corneas exhibited lower tangent modulus (by 29.2% and 29.8%, respectively at 6 kPa stress) and larger stromal interfibril spacing (by 21.9% and 23.6%) compared with the control group. There was no significant change in fibril diameter with either Travoprost or Tafluprost treatment (p= 0.769). CONCLUSIONS:The results demonstrated significant reductions in tangent modulus and increases in interfibrillar spacing, which were of similar magnitudes, with the application of two different forms of PGF2α

Underestimated ecosystem carbon turnover time and sequestration under the steady state assumption: a perspective from long‐term data assimilation

It is critical to accurately estimate carbon (C) turnover time as it dominates the uncertainty in ecosystem C sinks and their response to future climate change. In the absence of direct observations of ecosystem C losses, C turnover times are commonly estimated under the steady state assumption (SSA), which has been applied across a large range of temporal and spatial scales including many at which the validity of the assumption is likely to be violated. However, the errors associated with improperly applying SSA to estimate C turnover time and its covariance with climate as well as ecosystem C sequestrations have yet to be fully quantified. Here, we developed a novel model-data fusion framework and systematically analyzed the SSA-induced biases using time-series data collected from 10 permanent forest plots in the eastern China monsoon region. The results showed that (a) the SSA significantly underestimated mean turnover times (MTTs) by 29%, thereby leading to a 4.83-fold underestimation of the net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in these forest ecosystems, a major C sink globally; (b) the SSA-induced bias in MTT and NEP correlates negatively with forest age, which provides a significant caveat for applying the SSA to young-aged ecosystems; and (c) the sensitivity of MTT to temperature and precipitation was 22% and 42% lower, respectively, under the SSA. Thus, under the expected climate change, spatiotemporal changes in MTT are likely to be underestimated, thereby resulting in large errors in the variability of predicted global NEP. With the development of observation technology and the accumulation of spatiotemporal data, we suggest estimating MTTs at the disequilibrium state via long-term data assimilation, thereby effectively reducing the uncertainty in ecosystem C sequestration estimations and providing a better understanding of regional or global C cycle dynamics and C-climate feedback

Nanoarchitectured Array Electrodes for Rechargeable Lithium- and Sodium-Ion Batteries

Rechargeable ion batteries have contributed immensely to shaping the modern world and been seriously considered for the efficient storage and utilization of intermittent renewable energies. To fulfill their potential in the future market, superior battery performance of high capacity, great rate capability, and long lifespan is undoubtedly required. In the past decade, along with discovering new electrode materials, the focus has been shifting more and more toward rational electrode designs because the performance is intimately connected to the electrode architectures, particularly their designs at the nanoscale that can alleviate the reliance on the materials' intrinsic nature. The utilization of nanoarchitectured arrays in the design of electrodes has been proven to significantly improve the battery performance. A comprehensive summary of the structural features and fabrications of the nanoarchitectured array electrodes is provided, and some of the latest achievements in the area of both lithium‐ and sodium‐ion batteries are highlighted. Finally, future challenges and opportunities that would allow further development of such advanced electrode configuration are discussed

Safety prompt advanced driver-assistance system with lane-change prediction and free space detection

With the map navigation system achieving the positioning accuracy at the lane level, the lane level navigation system began to be applied in digital navigation software. The new generation of navigation system allows human drivers to accurately identify road conditions without road experience. However, in actual use, drivers still need to complete lane-changing behavior independently. The navigation system does not provide relevant real-time traffic flow information and safety prediction. Therefore, this paper innovatively combines the free space detection and lane change prediction algorithm in actual driving, and puts forward this Safety Prompt Advanced Driver-Assistance System (SPADAS). It can predict the lane-change decision and lane-change trajectory around in a short period of time in the future according to the current state and historical trajectory of the surrounding vehicles, and combine these prediction information to provide the driver or the path planning module of the self-driving vehicle with the predicted free space in the near future. The free space provided by this Advanced Driver-Assistance System (ADAS) includes three types: continuing driving according to the current state or changing lanes to the left or right. At the same time, it also provides the required recommended driving trajectory. The evaluation test of this ADAS has been done through a simulation testbed of the NGSIM dataset built with Eclipse SUMO.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)Submitted/Accepted versionThis research is supported by A*STAR under its RIE2020 Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) Indus- try Alignment Fund - Pre-Positioning (IAF-PP) (Award A19D6a0053)

Information Volume Threshold for Graphical Variable Message Signs Based on Drivers’ Visual Cognition Behavior

Variable message signs (VMS) are widely employed to offer drivers dynamic traffic information. However, it is still lacking practical guidance about the information volume displayed on a graphical VMS. Building on the result of the subjective questionnaire survey, a static cognitive experiment was conducted to analyze the influence of volume information (i.e., elements and displaying the number of roads) of graphical VMS on drivers’ visual cognition characteristics and then determine the threshold number of roads displayed on VMS. Forty-five drivers participated in the static cognitive experiment. Five indicators, including visual cognition time, cognition accuracy, comprehension accuracy, general assessment, and information acceptance, were used to estimate the influences of graphical VMS. Study results by descriptive statistics and statistical hypothesis testing indicated that drivers also preferred auxiliary elements (i.e., distance or time information) besides basic design elements (i.e., driving direction, current position, and road name) displayed on graphical VMS. With the increase in information volume, driver visual cognition time increased while other companion indexes (i.e., visual cognition accuracy and comprehension accuracy) generally worsened. Combining the data of drivers’ objective behavior and subjective scoring, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method revealed that the number of roads shown on the graphical VMS should be no greater than five. The study results were verified by dynamic simulation experiments. This finding provides a supplement for the design standards and usage specifications for VMS