Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Based on Reinforcement Learning for Heavy-Duty BEVs

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are playing an increasingly important role in supporting the driver to create safer and more efficient driving conditions. Among all ADAS, adaptive cruise control (ACC) is a system that provides consistent aid, especially in highway mobility, guaranteeing safety by minimizing the possible risk of collision due to variations in the speed of the vehicle in front, automatically adjusting the vehicle velocity and maintaining the correct spacing. Theoretically, this type of system also makes it possible to optimize road throughput, increasing its capacity and reducing traffic congestion. However, it was found in practice that the current generation of ACC systems does not guarantee the so-called string stability of a vehicle platoon and can therefore lead to an actual decrease in traffic capacity. To overcome these issues, new cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) systems are being proposed that exploit vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) connectivity, which can provide additional safety and robustness guarantees and introduce the possibility of concretely improving traffic flow stability

Can neutral and ionized PAHs be carriers of the UV extinction bump and the diffuse interstellar bands?

Up to now, no laboratory-based study has investigated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) species as potential carriers of both the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) and the 2175 A UV bump. We examined the proposed correlation between these two features by applying experimental and theoretical techniques on two specific medium-sized/large PAHs (dibenzorubicene C30H14 and hexabenzocoronene C42H18) in their neutral and cationic states. It was already shown that mixtures of sufficiently large, neutral PAHs can partly or even completely account for the UV bump. We investigated how the absorption bands are altered upon ionization of these molecules by interstellar UV photons. The experimental studies presented here were realized by performing matrix isolation spectroscopy with subsequent far-UV irradiation. The main effects were found to be a broadening of the absorption bands in the UV combined with slight red shifts. The position of the complete pi - pi* absorption structure around 217.5 nm, however, remains more or less unchanged which could explain the observed position invariance of the interstellar bump for different lines of sight. This favors the assignment of this feature to the interstellar PAH population. As far as the DIBs are concerned, neither our investigations nor the laboratory studies carried out by other research groups support a possible connection with this class of molecules. Instead, there are reasonable arguments that neutral and singly ionized cationic PAHs cannot be made responsible for the DIBs.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Detection of C60 in the proto-planetary nebula IRAS 01005+7910

We report the first detection of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in a proto-planetary nebula (PPN). The vibrational transitions of C60 at 7.0, 17.4, and 18.9um are detected in the Spitzer/IRS spectrum of IRAS 01005+7910. This detection suggests that fullerenes are formed shortly after the asymptotic giant branch but before the planetary nebulae stage. A comparison with the observations of C60 in other sources is made and the implication on circumstellar chemistry is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Observation of ultrafast internal conversion in fullerene anions in solution

The ultrafast decay rates of photoexcited View the MathML source ions have been measured in the condensed phase. The mechanism for decay is internal conversion, and the decay rate is a strong function of the charge on the ion. A bottleneck in the ground state recovery has also been detected, and its interpretation is discussed

Cardiovascular risk evaluation and prevalence of silent myocardial ischemia in subjects with asymptomatic carotid artery disease

Introduction: Silent ischemia is an asymptomatic form of myocardial ischemia, not associated with angina or anginal equivalent symptoms, which can be demonstrated by changes in ECG, left ventricular function, myocardial perfusion, and metabolism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of silent myocardial ischemia in a group of patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Methods: A total of 37 patients with asymptomatic carotid plaques, without chest pain or dyspnea, was investigated. These patients were studied for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, and family history of cardiac disease, and underwent technetium-99 m sestamibi myocardial stress-rest scintigraphy and echo-color Doppler examination of carotid arteries. Results: A statistically significant relationship (P = 0.023) was shown between positive responders and negative responders to scintigraphy test when both were tested for degree of stenosis. This relationship is surprising in view of the small number of patients in our sample. Individuals who had a positive scintigraphy test had a mean stenosis degree of 35% ± 7% compared with a mean of 44% ± 13% for those with a negative test. Specificity of our detection was 81%, with positive and negative predictive values of 60% and 63%, respectively. Conclusion: The present study confirms that carotid atherosclerosis is associated with coronary atherosclerosis and highlights the importance of screening for ischemic heart disease in patients with asymptomatic carotid plaques, considering eventually plaque morphology (symmetry, composition, eccentricity or concentricity of the plaque, etc) for patient stratification.Introduction: Silent ischemia is an asymptomatic form of myocardial ischemia, not associated with angina or anginal equivalent symptoms, which can be demonstrated by changes in ECG, left ventricular function, myocardial perfusion, and metabolism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of silent myocardial ischemia in a group of patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Methods: A total of 37 patients with asymptomatic carotid plaques, without chest pain or dyspnea, was investigated. These patients were studied for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, and family history of cardiac disease, and underwent technetium-99 m sestamibi myocardial stress-rest scintigraphy and echo-color Doppler examination of carotid arteries. Results: A statistically significant relationship (P = 0.023) was shown between positive responders and negative responders to scintigraphy test when both were tested for degree of stenosis. This relationship is surprising in view of the small number of patients in our sample. Individuals who had a positive scintigraphy test had a mean stenosis degree of 35% ± 7% compared with a mean of 44% ± 13% for those with a negative test. Specificity of our detection was 81%, with positive and negative predictive values of 60% and 63%, respectively. Conclusion: The present study confirms that carotid atherosclerosis is associated with coronary atherosclerosis and highlights the importance of screening for ischemic heart disease in patients with asymptomatic carotid plaques, considering eventually plaque morphology (symmetry, composition, eccentricity or concentricity of the plaque, etc) for patient stratification. © 2011 Ciccone et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd

apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and multiple coronary artery left ventricular fistulas a case report

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sotos syndrome isolated left ventricular non compaction cardiomyopathy and ventricular pre excitation a case report

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