Advanced Low-Floor Vehicle (ALFV) Specification Research

This report details the results of research on market comparison, operational cost efficiencies, and prototype tests conducted on a novel design for an Advanced Low Floor Vehicle (ALFV), flex-route transit bus. Section I describes how the need for such a bus arises from a combination of diminishing transit funding from the federal government and demographic and transportation factors. Section II describes the unique features of this bus design that render it suitable for rural and urban operation, including improved transit passenger and wheelchair accessibility, reduced maintenance, structural design features, safety provisions, and the technical specifications of this design. Section III details the potential differences in capital and operational costs of procuring and operating this bus in a fleet. Potential cost reductions due to the long-life vehicle concept, maneuverability, operational savings (from APTA Bus Roadeo tests), and reserve fleet savings are explored. Section IV refers to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) new model bus tests (“Altoona Testing”). However, at the this time, the Altoona Bus Test Report for these tests is not yet released by the bus manufacturer, Ride Solution, Inc., as is its right under the Bus Testing Regulation. The report must be released to the public before this bus can be purchased by a transit agency using FTA funds. In addition to the standard Altoona Bus Test, additional research was conducted to determine the turning ability, suspension travel, ramp travel index, field of view for the driver, compliance to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, and timed assessment of wheelchair securement. Section IV also presents the results of these tests. Section V presents results from a market comparison that included the buses in this mid-size category that were tested at Altoona and are expected to be available for FTA grantees to purchase. The specifications and performance of the ALFV bus are compared with these buses. Section VI presents a flex-route utilization plan, and Section VII provides the results from a survey of transit professionals about their interest in the features of this bus design. Section VIII gives Ride Solution’s experience in developing the concept for ALFV. Conclusions of this report are presented in Section IX, followed by the references and appendices

ToppGene Suite for gene list enrichment analysis and candidate gene prioritization

ToppGene Suite (http://toppgene.cchmc.org; this web site is free and open to all users and does not require a login to access) is a one-stop portal for (i) gene list functional enrichment, (ii) candidate gene prioritization using either functional annotations or network analysis and (iii) identification and prioritization of novel disease candidate genes in the interactome. Functional annotation-based disease candidate gene prioritization uses a fuzzy-based similarity measure to compute the similarity between any two genes based on semantic annotations. The similarity scores from individual features are combined into an overall score using statistical meta-analysis. A P-value of each annotation of a test gene is derived by random sampling of the whole genome. The protein–protein interaction network (PPIN)-based disease candidate gene prioritization uses social and Web networks analysis algorithms (extended versions of the PageRank and HITS algorithms, and the K-Step Markov method). We demonstrate the utility of ToppGene Suite using 20 recently reported GWAS-based gene–disease associations (including novel disease genes) representing five diseases. ToppGene ranked 19 of 20 (95%) candidate genes within the top 20%, while ToppNet ranked 12 of 16 (75%) candidate genes among the top 20%

PosMed (Positional Medline): prioritizing genes with an artificial neural network comprising medical documents to accelerate positional cloning

PosMed (http://omicspace.riken.jp/) prioritizes candidate genes for positional cloning by employing our original database search engine GRASE, which uses an inferential process similar to an artificial neural network comprising documental neurons (or ‘documentrons’) that represent each document contained in databases such as MEDLINE and OMIM. Given a user-specified query, PosMed initially performs a full-text search of each documentron in the first-layer artificial neurons and then calculates the statistical significance of the connections between the hit documentrons and the second-layer artificial neurons representing each gene. When a chromosomal interval(s) is specified, PosMed explores the second-layer and third-layer artificial neurons representing genes within the chromosomal interval by evaluating the combined significance of the connections from the hit documentrons to the genes. PosMed is, therefore, a powerful tool that immediately ranks the candidate genes by connecting phenotypic keywords to the genes through connections representing not only gene–gene interactions but also other biological interactions (e.g. metabolite–gene, mutant mouse–gene, drug–gene, disease–gene and protein–protein interactions) and ortholog data. By utilizing orthologous connections, PosMed facilitates the ranking of human genes based on evidence found in other model species such as mouse. Currently, PosMed, an artificial superbrain that has learned a vast amount of biological knowledge ranging from genomes to phenomes (or ‘omic space’), supports the prioritization of positional candidate genes in humans, mouse, rat and Arabidopsis thaliana

Identification of candidate disease genes by integrating Gene Ontologies and protein-interaction networks: case study of primary immunodeficiencies

Disease gene identification is still a challenge despite modern high-throughput methods. Many diseases are very rare or lethal and thus cannot be investigated with traditional methods. Several in silico methods have been developed but they have some limitations. We introduce a new method that combines information about protein-interaction network properties and Gene Ontology terms. Genes with high-calculated network scores and statistically significant gene ontology terms based on known diseases are prioritized as candidate genes. The method was applied to identify novel primary immunodeficiency-related genes, 26 of which were found. The investigation uses the protein-interaction network for all essential immunome human genes available in the Immunome Knowledge Base and an analysis of their enriched gene ontology annotations. The identified disease gene candidates are mainly involved in cellular signaling including receptors, protein kinases and adaptor and binding proteins as well as enzymes. The method can be generalized for any disease group with sufficient information

Disease Gene Characterization through Large-Scale Co-Expression Analysis

In the post genome era, a major goal of biology is the identification of specific roles for individual genes. We report a new genomic tool for gene characterization, the UCLA Gene Expression Tool (UGET).Celsius, the largest co-normalized microarray dataset of Affymetrix based gene expression, was used to calculate the correlation between all possible gene pairs on all platforms, and generate stored indexes in a web searchable format. The size of Celsius makes UGET a powerful gene characterization tool. Using a small seed list of known cartilage-selective genes, UGET extended the list of known genes by identifying 32 new highly cartilage-selective genes. Of these, 7 of 10 tested were validated by qPCR including the novel cartilage-specific genes SDK2 and FLJ41170. In addition, we retrospectively tested UGET and other gene expression based prioritization tools to identify disease-causing genes within known linkage intervals. We first demonstrated this utility with UGET using genetically heterogeneous disorders such as Joubert syndrome, microcephaly, neuropsychiatric disorders and type 2 limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD2) and then compared UGET to other gene expression based prioritization programs which use small but discrete and well annotated datasets. Finally, we observed a significantly higher gene correlation shared between genes in disease networks associated with similar complex or Mendelian disorders.UGET is an invaluable resource for a geneticist that permits the rapid inclusion of expression criteria from one to hundreds of genes in genomic intervals linked to disease. By using thousands of arrays UGET annotates and prioritizes genes better than other tools especially with rare tissue disorders or complex multi-tissue biological processes. This information can be critical in prioritization of candidate genes for sequence analysis

Modellering av Drivlinan och Estimering av Kopplingstemperatur i en Tung Lastbil

An existing drivetrain model with clutch temperature dynamics has been used to simulate the behaviour of a heavy duty truck. During the implementation of the model in MATLAB/Simulink modularity and simplicity was greatly emphasized. This was done in order to facilitate the use of the model in various applications as well as making it easy to understand. The main contributions of the thesis is however the adaptation of a clutch temperature and wear observer for use in an on-line application in the gearbox management system (GMS). The process of taking the observer from an off-line simulation environment to running on-line includes taking into consideration the configuration and limitations of the GMS as well as adapting the interface of the observer. Concretely this means dealing with the limitations of the available data types in the GMS, compensating for the effect of biased measurements as well as accounting for the different dynamics of the sensor-types used in the clutch.In a simulation environment the performance of the adapted observer has been studied and its ability to compensate for heat expansion and wear in the clutch shown.En existerande drivlinemodell med temperaturdynamik i kopplingen har använts för att simulera beteendet hos en lastbil. Vid implementation av modellen i MATLAB/Simulink betonades vikten av en enkel och modulär struktur. Detta gjordes för att underlätta användning av modellen i olika applikationer samt för att göra den lätt att förstå.De huvudsakliga bidragen i uppsatsen är anpassningen av en temperatur- och slitageobeservatör på kopplingen för användning i realtid av växellådans styrenhet. För att ta observatören från simulerings- till realtidsmiljö måste styrenhetens konfiguration och begränsningar beaktas samt gränssnittet hos observatören anpassas. Konkret betyder detta att hänsyn till begränsningarna hos de olika datatyper som används i kopplingens styrenhet tagits, att den negativa inverkan som brusiga mätsignaler kan få begränsats samt att skillnader i dynamik hos de olika sensortyper som används i kopplingen kompenserats för. Med simuleringar har prestandan hos den anpassade observatören studerats samt dess förmåga att kompensera för värmeutvidgning och slitage i kopplingen visats

Ledarskap under stress : En teoriprövande fallstudie på BA01

Inriktningen för det svenska försvaret är att uppnå ett flexibelt och rörligt insatsförsvar. Akut stress under krigsliknande situationer är något dagens officer kan komma att ställas inför, vilket ställer höga krav på officeren och de militära ledarskapsförmågorna. Med tanke på den nya inriktningen inom Försvarsmakten är det högst aktuellt att undersöka om det officeren lär sig under utbildning stämmer överens med verkligheten och om teorier kan anses som relevanta även under insats. Är teorier som lärs ut vid Försvarsmaktens ledarskapsutbildning tillämpbara i praktiken? Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om teorier kring ledarskap under stress, som lärs ut inom Försvarsmakten, överensstämmer med officerens ledarskap vid internationella insatser. Genom en deduktiv logik genomförs en teoriprövande fallstudie på BA01, utifrån en kvalitativ metod och textanalys. Det utvalda fallet analyseras utifrån en svensk modell för ledarskap under akut stress. Slutsatserna för denna undersökning är: -          Vald teori fungerar i praktiken och är ytterst relevant för militärt ledarskap i internationella insatser. -          En stabil grund i det vardagliga ledarskapet, kopplat till ledaren och organisationen, gynnar beslutsfattande under akut stress. -          Det är viktigt att förstå vilka bakomliggande faktorer som kan påverka ledarskapet under akut stress och ämnet måste därför undersökas från flera perspektiv och ses som en del av ett större sammanhang. -          Ledarskap påverkas av förhållandet mellan chefen och dennes underställda, men även hur väl samarbetet fungerar inom organisationen såväl med likställda som högre chefer. Ledarskap bör därför analyseras utifrån olika nivåer. -          Ett situationsanpassat ledarskap, en förmåga att analysera vilket förhållningssätt är mest lämpligt vid tillfället, bör finnas hos varje ledare

Icke-verbal kommunikation i flerspråkiga utbildningsverksamheter för yngre barn : Ur en specialpedagogs och en logopeds synvinkel

Icke-verbal kommunikation är ett viktigt komplement till det verbala språket, inte främst i utbildningsverksamheter med yngre barn. Syftet med studien är att undersöka en logopeds och en specialpedagogs syn på hur och om icke-verbal kommunikation används medvetet som ett pedagogiskt verktyg i flerspråkiga verksamheter för yngre barn och varför det används. För att ta reda på det har vi genomfört kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med en logoped och en specialpedagog samt utgått från John Deweys pragmatiska perspektiv. Genom arbetet har vi kommit fram till att icke-verbal kommunikation är av vikt för att förstärka och förtydliga det verbala språket och att icke-verbal kommunikation är bra för alla men nödvändigt för vissa. Det är upp till pedagogerna att ha den kunskapen för att använda det med ett tydligt syfte för det individuella barnets skull. Slutsatserna som dras i studien visar bland annat att gester, kroppsspråk och olika former av material används som medveten icke-verbal kommunikation i flerspråkiga verksamheter och detta används i situationer under hela dagen i framför allt samspelssituationer, i interaktion, i situationer där något behöver förtydligas samt när någon kommer till en ny språkig miljö. Detta i syfte att skapa förståelse, göra sig förstådd, förtydliga, kommunicera, uttrycka kommunikation på ett annat sätt och för att fungera språkfrämjande. Non-verbal communication is an important complement to the verbal language in activities with younger children. The purpose of the study is to investigate the views of a speech therapist and a special education teacher on how and if non-verbal communication is used deliberately as a pedagogical tool in multilingual activities for younger children and why it´s used. To find out, we conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews and based our work on John Deweys pragmatic perspective. We have come to the conclusion that non-verbal communication is important to reinforce and clarify the verbal language and that it´s good for everyone but necessary for some. It´s up to the educators to have knowledge, in order to use it with a clear purpose for the individual child´s sake. Some of the conclusions drawn in the study show that gestures, body language and different types of materials are used as conscious non-verbal communication in multilingual activities and is used in situations throughout the day in mainly interaction situations, in interaction, in situations where something needs to be clarified and when someone comes to a new linguistic environment. This is for the purpose of creating understanding, making oneself understood, clarifying, communicating, expressing communication in a different way and to function as a language promoter