Development and application of dynamic models for predicting transit arrival times

Stochastic variations in traffic conditions and ridership often have a negative impact in transit operations resulting in the deterioration of schedule/headway adherence and lengthening of passenger wait times. Providing accurate information on transit vehicle arrival times is critical to reduce the negative impacts on transit users. In this study, models for dynamically predicting transit arrival times in urban settings are developed, including a basic model, a Kalman filtering model, link-based and stop-based artificial neural networks (ANNs) and Neural/Dynamic (ND) models. The reliability of these models is assessed by enhancing the microscopic simulation program CORSIM which can calculate bus dwell and passenger wait times based on time-dependent passenger demands and vehicle inter-departure times (headways) at stops. The proposed prediction models are integrated with the enhanced CORSIM individually to predict bus arrival times while simulating the operations of a bus transit route in New Jersey. The reliability analysis of prediction results demonstrates that ANNs are superior to the basic and Kalman filtering models. The stop-based ANN generally predicts more accurately than the link-based ANN. By integrating an ANN (either link-based or stop-based) with the Kalman filtering algorithm, two ND models (NDL and NDS) are developed to decrease prediction error. The results show that the performance of the ND models is fairly close. The NDS model performs better than the NDL model when stop-spacing is relatively long and the number of intersections between a pair of stops is relatively large. In the study, an application of the proposed prediction models to a real-time headway control model is also explored and experimented through simulating a high frequency light rail transit route. The results show that with the accurate prediction of vehicle arrival information from the proposed models, the regularity of headways between any pair of consecutive operating vehicles is improved, while the average passenger wait times at stops are reduced significantly

Financial development, input of public finance and urbanization in China

This paper studies the effects of financial development and input of public finance on urbanization in China. It shows that the input of public finance has an obvious influence on the urbanization, but the financial development does not in the short run, that in the long run there is a relationship of equilibrium among them and the effects of the efficiency of financial development and the input of public finance are obvious, and that the contribution of the financial development to the urbanization is relatively greater in the longer periods

Systemic Design Method for Co-creation of 3D Printing Service

[EN] Background: As one of the objectives of Design for Additive Manufacture, the customized geometry promotes 3D printing to increasingly realize product customization in the service market. Defined as a business strategy which focuses on customer experience and interaction, co-creation is expected to obtain a fast-growing market volume. Recently, some co-creation of 3D printing service (3DPS) has been released to realize value creation. Despite of its rapid growth, there are rare researches on this field, especially those about its design method. Aim: To define a systematic design method for developing the co-creation of 3DPS. Method: Firstly, this research distinguished ambiguous type and definite type of 3DPS cocreation. The latter was taken as the current research object, because it presents the services scope more clearly. Furthermore, in order to solve the problem about the research, that is, what the essential components constructing the 3DPS co-creation are, evidence needed to be collected based on observation of the mentioned cases. Therefore, holistic multiple-case study of 3DPS co-creation samples was designed and conducted, as it was herein applied as the research method. This research is divided into three sections. The first section presents the preparation for data collection, including case selection and the formulation of evidence collection. The second section analyzes the collected evidences. Based on the evidence analysis, the third section concludes the knowledge of 3DPS cocreation. In order to collect adequate evidences, a pair of models was applied to build a framework. The first one is the Den Hertog's service innovation model which presents four dimensions including new service concept, new client interface, new service delivery system, and technological options. The other model refers to the building blocks of interactions for value co-creation: dialogue, access, risk-benefits, and transparency. It presents the components in basis construction, which are necessary for the interactions between a consumer and a service provider. Finding: the system of 3DPS co-creation is composed by three dialogues including related accesses and interfaces, and the to-be-3D printed outcome. The three accesses provide customers with the entrances of knowing service concept, co-creating geometry, and accepting service delivery. The interfaces bring corresponding dialogues between accesses and customer to reach each process goal. The outcome of co-creation refers to the 3D printed artifact or 3D digital model. Conclusion: This research proposes a four-step systemic design method for co-creation of 3DPS. Firstly, the dialogue with the interface of service concept introduction and the access to know it is constructed. Secondly, the dialogue based on the interface of cocreation with design variables, and the access of co-creating geometry is built. WebGL supports its 3D graphics. Thirdly, the interface of purchasing or downloading, and the access of accepting service delivery compose the dialogue of this step. Fourthly, the customized artifact shall be treated by 3D printing and then delivered to customers; or a 3D digital model gets ready for downloading.Zhou, D.; Jiang, J.; Zou, Y. (2016). Systemic Design Method for Co-creation of 3D Printing Service. En Systems&design:beyond processes and thinking. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 883-900. https://doi.org/10.4995/IFDP.2015.3144OCS88390

A Research into the Design Strategies for Public Seating in a Windy Environment

Abstract-Public seating, as one of the most important urban infrastructures, has been widely installed throughout cities. Little prior research has paid attention to the influence of the natural environment on public seating services and citizens. Based on quantitative data collection statistics from public seating occupancy in a specific windy environment, and user-centred behavioural observations and interviews, this research generated results in the form of charts, texts and images. Based on the findings of this research, design strategies for public seating in seaside windy environment can be deduced, aimed at creating high levels of comfort and satisfaction for the public

Construction of an infectious cloning system of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and identification of glycoprotein 5 as a potential determinant of virulence and pathogenicity

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection of pigs causes a variety of clinical manifestations, depending on the pathogenicity and virulence of the specific strain. Identification and characterization of potential determinant(s) for the pathogenicity and virulence of these strains would be an essential step to precisely design and develop effective anti-PRRSV intervention. In this study, we report the construction of an infectious clone system based on PRRSV vaccine strain SP by homologous recombination technique, and the rescue of a chimeric rSP-HUB2 strain by replacing the GP5 and M protein-coding region from SP strain with the corresponding region from a highly pathogenic strain PRRSV-HUB2. The two recombinant viruses were shown to be genetically stable and share similar growth kinetics, with rSP-HUB2 exhibiting apparent growth and fitness advantages. Compared to in cells infected with PRRSV-rSP, infection of cells with rSP-HUB2 showed significantly more inhibition of the induction of type I interferon (IFN-β) and interferon stimulator gene 56 (ISG56), and significantly more promotion of the induction of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, ISG15 and ISG20. Further overexpression, deletion and mutagenesis studies demonstrated that amino acid residue F16 in the N-terminal region of the GP5 protein from HUB2 was a determinant for the phenotypic difference between the two recombinant viruses. This study provides evidence that GP5 may function as a potential determinant for the pathogenicity and virulence of highly pathogenic PRRSV

Mito-TEMPO Alleviates Renal Fibrosis by Reducing Inflammation, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Background. Renal fibrosis is a common pathological symptom of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Many studies support that mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress are implicated in the pathogenesis of CKD. In our study, we investigated the benefits and underlying mechanisms of Mito-TEMPO on renal fibrosis in 5/6 nephrectomy mice. Methods. Mice were randomly divided into five groups as follows: control group, CKD group, CKD + Mito-TEMPO (1 mg·kg−1·day−1) group, CKD + Mito-TEMPO (3 mg·kg−1·day−1) group, and Mito-TEMPO group (3 mg·kg−1·day−1). Renal fibrosis was evaluated by PAS, Masson staining, immunohistochemistry, and real-time PCR. Oxidative stress markers such as SOD2 activity and MDA level in serum and isolated mitochondria from renal tissue were measured by assay kits. Mitochondrial superoxide production was evaluated by MitoSOX staining and Western blot. Mitochondrial dysfunction was assessed by electron microscopy and real-time PCR. ER stress-associated protein was measured by Western blot. Results. Impaired renal function and renal fibrosis were significantly improved by Mito-TEMPO treatment. Furthermore, inflammation cytokines, profibrotic factors, oxidative stress markers, mitochondrial dysfunction, and ER stress were all increased in the CKD group. However, these effects were significantly ameliorated in the Mito-TEMPO treatment group. Conclusions. Mito-TEMPO ameliorates renal fibrosis by alleviating mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress possibly through the Sirt3-SOD2 pathway, which sheds new light on prevention of renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease

INTERCONNECT STRUCTURE TO IMPROVE CHIP SIGNAL INTEGRITY AND MECHANICAL RELIABILITY

Techniques are presented herein that support a novel chip interconnect structure, encompassing convex- and concave-shaped copper joint pillars, for connecting a chip (that follows the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) next generation (NG) common electrical input/output (CEI)-224 gigabit per second (G) framework) to a printed circuit board (PCB). Aspects of the presented techniques provide excellent signal integrity (SI) performance (including return loss, insertion loss, and impedance discontinuity) in support of, for example, a 102.4 terabit (T) per second switch comprising, among other things, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having 512 lanes of 224G Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) capacity. Under further aspects of the techniques, mechanical performance and long-term reliability are significantly improved

A Systematic Study of Dysregulated MicroRNA in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that modulate the cellular transcriptome at the post-transcriptional level. miRNA plays important roles in different disease manifestation, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Many studies have characterized the changes of miRNAs in T2DM, a complex systematic disease; however, few studies have integrated these findings and explored the functional effects of the dysregulated miRNAs identified. To investigate the involvement of miRNAs in T2DM, we obtained and analyzed all relevant studies published prior to 18 October 2016 from various literature databases. From 59 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria, we identified 158 dysregulated miRNAs in seven different major sample types. To understand the functional impact of these deregulated miRNAs, we performed targets prediction and pathway enrichment analysis. Results from our analysis suggested that the altered miRNAs are involved in the core processes associated with T2DM, such as carbohydrate and lipid metabolisms, insulin signaling pathway and the adipocytokine signaling pathway. This systematic survey of dysregulated miRNAs provides molecular insights on the effect of deregulated miRNAs in different tissues during the development of diabetes. Some of these miRNAs and their mRNA targets may have diagnostic and/or therapeutic utilities in T2DM

Nearly quantized conductance plateau of vortex zero mode in an iron-based superconductor

Majorana zero-modes (MZMs) are spatially-localized zero-energy fractional quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics that hold a great promise for topological quantum computing. Due to its particle-antiparticle equivalence, an MZM exhibits robust resonant Andreev reflection and 2e2/h quantized conductance at low temperature. By utilizing variable-tunnel-coupled scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we study tunneling conductance of vortex bound states on FeTe0.55Se0.45 superconductors. We report observations of conductance plateaus as a function of tunnel coupling for zero-energy vortex bound states with values close to or even reaching the 2e2/h quantum conductance. In contrast, no such plateau behaviors were observed on either finite energy Caroli-de Genne-Matricon bound states or in the continuum of electronic states outside the superconducting gap. This unique behavior of the zero-mode conductance reaching a plateau strongly supports the existence of MZMs in this iron-based superconductor, which serves as a promising single-material platform for Majorana braiding at a relatively high temperature