Performance Analysis of Hybrid and Full Electrical Vehicles Equipped with Continuously Variable Transmissions

The main aim of this paper is to study the potential impacts in hybrid and full electrical vehicles performance by utilising continuously variable transmissions. This is achieved by two stages. First, for Electrical Vehicles (EVs), modelling and analysing the powertrain of a generic electric vehicle is developed using Matlab/Simulink-QSS Toolkit, with and without a transmission system of varying levels of complexity. Predicted results are compared for a typical electrical vehicle in three cases: without a gearbox, with a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), and with a conventional stepped gearbox. Second, for Hybrid Electrical Vehicles (HEVs), a twin epicyclic power split transmission model is used. Computer programmes for the analysis of epicyclic transmission based on a matrix method are developed and used. Two vehicle models are built-up; namely: traditional ICE vehicle, and HEV with a twin epicyclic gearbox. Predictions for both stages are made over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC).The simulations show that the twin epicyclic offers substantial improvements of reduction in energy consumption in HEVs. The results also show that it is possible to improve overall performance and energy consumption levels using a continuously variable ratio gearbox in EVs

Environmental Law

In this survey period, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided two cases addressing the scope of agency discretion to interpret statutes. In Friends of the Everglades v. South Florida Water Management District, the Eleventh Circuit held that the Environmental Protection Agency’s adoption of the “unitary waters” definition of navigable waters under the Clean Water Act was reasonable even though that approach had been universally rejected by the courts as an interpretation of the statute prior to the agency’s rule. In Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida v. United States, the Eleventh Circuit upheld the United States Fish & Wildlife Service’s opinion that a water project in Florida would not jeopardize the survival of an endangered bird despite the project’s adverse effects on the bird’s habitat because the opinion was supported by adequate evidence. The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida held, in the latest round in the three-state battle for rights to the Chattahoochee River’s water, that the Army Corps of Engineers had violated federal law by the de facto reallocation of water stored in Lake Lanier in north Georgia for use as a municipal water supply. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, on an issue of first impression in the Eleventh Circuit, held that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over claims challenging federal and state agency permitting decisions regarding a natural gas pipeline because the Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave the federal circuit courts of appeal exclusive jurisdiction over permitting challenges to facilities or projects within its scope. Finally, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia held that in order for a defendant to have “contributed to” the handling or disposal of waste for purposes of liability under the citizen-suit provision of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the defendant must have done affirmative acts that resulted in contamination; mere passive conduct was insufficient. Nevertheless, the district court ruled that the defendant’s conduct created an issue of fact as to whether it could be liable as an “operator” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act

Environmental Law

In 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a plaintiff and the organization to which she belonged had standing, based on her claimed injury to her aesthetic well-being, to bring a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit against a developer who had allegedly filled a wetland in violation of its permit, even though the plaintiff had never visited the wetland and even though the wetland was on private property not accessible to the plaintiff. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama concluded that acid mine leachate from a refuse pile into groundwater, and from there into the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, was a point source discharge requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act. The United States District for the Northern District of Georgia, in a case involving claims arising out of the contamination of drinking water in Summerville, Georgia, with per and polyfluoroalkyl substances used in textile manufacturing, among other applications, addressed motions to dismiss on numerous grounds made by the defendants in the case and for the most part denied those motions. Finally, in an oil spill remediation and cost recovery contribution action brought by a private company who claimed that the United States Army Corps of Engineers was solely at fault in causing the spill, the United States District Court for the Eleventh Circuit, in an issue of first impression for the Court, held that the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) provides the exclusive remedy for parties seeking cost recovery due to an oil spill, that the OPA does not allow for a claim against the United States, superseding the Suits in Admiralty Act, and that the OPA does not provide a defense to liability for a responsible party based on the spill being the sole fault of the United State

General models of Einstein gravity with a non-Newtonian weak-field limit

We investigate Einstein theories of gravity, coupled to a scalar field \vphi and point-like matter, which are characterized by a scalar field-dependent matter coupling function e^{H(\vphi)}. We show that under mild constraints on the form of the potential for the scalar field, there are a broad class of Einstein-like gravity models -characterized by the asymptotic behavior of H- which allow for a non-Newtonian weak-field limit with the gravitational potential behaving for large distances as ln r. The Newtonian term GM/r appears only as sub-leading. We point out that this behavior is also shared by gravity models described by f(R) Lagrangians. The relevance of our results for the building of infrared modified theories of gravity and for modified Newtonian dynamics is also discussed.Comment: 9 page

Environmental Law

In 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, in an issue of first impression, concluded that the United States is not a person under the contribution provision of the Oil Pollution Act (OPA),2 and therefore the provision did not waive the sovereign immunity of the United States. For this and other reasons a plaintiff could not recover in contribution from the United States for the plaintiffs costs of cleaning up an oil spill, even where the plaintiff alleged the spill was the result of the sole negligence of the United States. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a dispositive ruling in the long-running dispute between Alabama and Georgia over the United States Corps of Engineers\u27 (Corps) allocation of water from Lake Lanier to municipal water supply in the metro Atlanta area. The court granted summary judgment to the Corps and affirmed that the Corps\u27 decision to allocate water for that purpose, including by direct withdrawals of water from the lake, and the Corps\u27 accompanying Environmental Impact Statement regarding that decision, was reasonable. Finally, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that a plaintiff had successfully stated claims against multiple defendants related to the supply, use, and disposal of toxic chemicals used in the manufacture of carpet that resulted in the contamination of surface water in the Coosa River Basin in northwestern Georgia and ultimately the contamination of the drinking water supply of Rome, Georgia

Environmental Law

Notable cases decided in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2019 all arose out of disputes that originated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Eleventh Circuit held that, in preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in connection with its decision to issue a dredge and fill permit under Section 404 of the CWA, the Corps of Engineers (Corps) was not required to consider potentially negative environmental effects resulting from activity made possible by the permit where the agency had no authority independently to regulate the effects. The court also held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the discretion to decide whether to commence withdrawal proceedings as to Alabama\u27s authority to operate the CWA\u27s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program even where the agency acknowledged that the state had not at all times fully complied with program requirements. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, one of several courts in the country taking up challenges to the EPA\u27s and the Corps\u27 2015 Rule defining the term Waters of the United States under the CWA, concluded that the Rule was beyond the scope of the agencies\u27 statutory authority in several respects, including the agencies\u27 use of the term interstate waters, which had been included in the regulatory definition of the term since 1978. Finally, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia concluded that the proper mechanism for a defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the 60-day ante litem notice under the CWA\u27s citizen-suit provision was a motion to dismiss for insufficiency of process under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(4), and that the plaintiffs\u27 failure in the notice to reference the specific statutory provision of the CWA which the plaintiffs claimed the defendants violated did not make the notice deficient so as to justify dismissal of the plaintiffs\u27 claim

Neuropharmacological aspects of cognitive neurorehabilitation in epilepsy.

The role of CNS neuromodulators in cognitive neurorehabilitation can be related to two main issues: 1) the negative impact on cognition of drug categories prescribed for different neurologic symptoms, such as spasticity, extrapyramidal symptoms, or epileptic seizures; 2) their possible role in neuroprotection and amelioration of the cognitive status of the patient, especially attention and memory. This paper reviews different pharmacological aspects of cognitive neurorehabilitation in epilepsy

Letter from Joseph M. Trimble to James B. Finley

Trimble asks Finley to send Brother Benedict Hutcheson (a single man) to the Augusta circuit. If this is not possible, Trimble asks Finley to suggest another candidate. He is hopeful that Sehon and Kavanugh will do a good job this year (1838-1839). [Edmund W. Sehon is the Ohio appointed agent for Augusta College and Hubbard H. Kavanaugh is the agent appointed by the Kentucky Conference]. The college session is progressing well, with quite a number of new students. Abstract Number - 637https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/1733/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Joseph M. Trimble to James B. Finley

Trimble reports that Sister Barwise, sister of Brother Luther Taylor (Indiana Conference), is visiting Columbus to get her son out of the penitentiary. He asks Finley to provide as much help as possible. Bishop Soule and all his tribe are in Cincinnati on their way south, but we can spare them all. George Maley has been appointed Presiding Elder of the Covington District, (Kentucky Conference, MEC South). Several preachers in the newly formed Kentucky Conference of the MECS are very dissatisfied -- Brush [George W.], Bruce [John G.], Atmore [William C.], Coleman [Thomas K.], and Harlan [L.D.]. The MEC churches in Cincinnati are all doing well and increasing in numbers. People like their preachers. Trimble would like Finley to reason with Judge McLean concerning attendance at Soule Chapel in Cincinnati (MECS) since it sets a bad example. Abstract Number - 300https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/1297/thumbnail.jp