Furthering Intelligent Mobility Through the Adoption of AI in Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are set to remodel future transport; not only in terms of increased road safety and efficiency but also in the way passengers travel and experience each trip. Future driverless cars, enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), have the potential to revolutionise journeys and user experiences at a deeper level to provide more intelligent, responsive, and emotionally connected on-board assistance and solutions. Within this context, this paper provides an account of a multidisciplinary design-led innovation project which explored mobility to develop an understanding of the role of AI and AVs within tomorrow’s society. The aim was also to identify pain points of mobility and areas of opportunity, to simulate a set of future journeys and realise a series of design principles, value propositions and recommendations for stakeholders to action. A series of design thinking processes and tools were employed to investigate extreme journey scenarios in order to start questioning and then addressing tangible user needs and concerns in specific and unexpected situations. The research work conducted with a panel of industry experts proposes a distinctive approach to designing future travel experiences, which can help redefine autonomy whilst ensuring users’ needs and value are integrated into R&D processes

Dynamic Landscapes, Emerging Territories

As a result of the pressing environmental and technological conditions dominant today, new frontiers for architectural production are emerging. Fueled by accelerated change and increased connectivity, these trajectories operate across multiple scales and domains. The evolving relationship between place, technology, and occupancy formulates a complex active structure that tends to have fluctuating levels of activity and impact. These conditions are giving way to hybridized settings where the interdependence of digital and analog is altering the very politics of place and identity. In response to the prevalence of amalgamated settings, the paradigm of “Dynamic Landscapes, Emerging Territories” is presented. Dynamic Landscapes have definitions and presence in multiple locations simultaneously, requiring new methods of documentation and assessment in order to conceive appropriate design responses. The paper uses the Syrian Refugee Crisis as a case study for deciphering the implications inherent in displacement in the context of dynamic landscapes. Furthermore, it presents an opportunity to think of new architectural trajectories rooted and driven by the animation of such sites. Inherently dynamic, forced displacement presents rich emerging territories where design carries significant impact and facilitates a tangible reassessment of a refugee’s narrative. Supported by robust information networks and active feedback loops, displaced landscapes as such can learn from their residents and inform their imminent futures specifically, as well as our collective human occupancy at large. Within constantly changing milieus, architecture’s premises and processes are being challenged to respond to fluctuating contexts and provide for transient occupancies. While some may see this as a loss of spatial agency when it comes to design, these conditions present an opportunity to think of new architectural trajectories that are rooted and driven by the dynamism of multilayered landscapes and new approaches towards practice

Challenges and Opportunities for Seaports Towards Future Sustainability: The UK’s North East Smart Ports Testbed Case Study

Globalisation and technological advancements in the transport sector have entailed a significant expansion of the maritime and offshore energy industry, whilst redefining the role of shipping and ports in global and national supply chains. Ports (often urban-based) also play a significant role in their hinterland, through on-land business operations including logistics, renewable energy generation and decommissioning/recycling activities. However, the ports and maritime sector have been identified as lagging behind other fields in terms of both a digital transformation strategy (to monitor, manage, and support decision-making and investment) and their readiness to accommodate technological innovation and sustainable development (especially vis-a-vis carbon emissions reductions) at a time of increasingly stringent environmental requirements in the domain of sustainability and energy efficiency.As these are strategic objectives for ports to achieve, the North East of England Smart Ports Testbed project, as part of a wider set of engagement activities by key actors in this remit, was developed by a multi-disciplinary research team at Northumbria University together with stakeholders from local ports and businesses to tackle specific global-scale challenges at a regional level. Opportunities for sustainable growth, cleaner and integrated logistics were investigated through desk-top study and service design action research methods (workshops and interviews). Key research areas, which are also embedded into the UK’s Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges in terms of the future of mobility (the optimisation of freight, and increased safety), Artificial Intelligence, the data economy (understanding the types of data generated by ports, and how to valorise them), and clean growth (cutting carbon and other emissions/pollution) were explored. Furthermore, this project focus directly connects to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 9 (“Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”), 11 (“Affordable and Clean Energy”) and well as 8 (“Decent Work and Economic Growth”).The project contributed towards furthering the aims of the wider Smart Ports Testbed initiative by providing valuable insights to determine the focus areas of future technical and organisational solutions to be trialled at the ports in their quest to become smarter ports. The chapter will also provide an outlook on how some of those objectives can be framed and contribute towards increased circular economy efforts

Recipient memory-like lymphocytes remain unresponsive to graft antigens after CAMPATH-1H induction with reduced maintenance immunosuppression.

BACKGROUND: Treatment with CAMPATH-1H at the time of transplantation allows reduced maintenance immunosuppression. We hypothesized that CAMPATH-1H induction would modulate the response of repopulating leukocytes to donor alloantigens. METHODS: The phenotype, proliferative and stimulatory capacity of peripheral blood leukocytes from 14 renal transplant recipients treated with CAMPATH-1H and reduced immunosuppression with mycophenolate mofetil and tacrolimus were investigated for the first six months after transplantation. The impact of immunosuppressive drugs on leukocytes that escape depletion was also evaluated in vitro. RESULTS: CAMPATH-1H therapy caused a significant decrease in the number of B and T cells, with CD4 T central memory cells being the most resistant to depletion. The recovery of CD8 T cells was faster than that of CD4 T cells. Lymphopenia correlated with a decrease in both proliferative and effector responses, however, the recipient T cells remained responsive to third-party antigens. Dendritic cells (DC) were also depleted but to a lesser extent than lymphocytes; lymphoid DC were more resistant than myeloid DC; these changes correlated with decreased allostimulatory capacity. One of the patients experienced rejection that was treated successfully. The rejection was associated with a high proportion of CD4 T effector memory cells and myeloid DC, increased proliferation and enhanced effector activity to donor antigens. In vitro studies confirmed that the reduced dose of immunosuppressive drugs used could prevent activated T cells from switching to the effector compartment, suppressing both their proliferation and effector activity. CONCLUSIONS: CAMPATH-1H induction combined with reduced maintenance immunosuppression is sufficient to control the effector phase of immune response to donor antigens

Liver transplantation from non-heart-beating donors: current status and future prospects.

Liver transplantation is the treatment of choice for many patients with acute and chronic liver failure, but its application is limited by a shortage of donor organs. Donor organ shortage is the principal cause of increasing waiting lists, and a number of patients die while awaiting transplantation. Non-heart-beating donor (NHBD) livers are a potential means of expanding the donor pool. This is not a new concept. Prior to the recognition of brainstem death, organs were retrieved from deceased donors only after cardiac arrest. Given the preservation techniques available at that time, this restricted the use of extrarenal organs for transplantation. In conclusion, after establishment of brain death criteria, deceased donor organs were almost exclusively from heart-beating donors (HBDs). To increase organ availability, there is now a resurgence of interest in NHBD liver transplantation. This review explores the basis for this and considers some of the published results

Impact of immunosuppression on the incidence of early subclinical renal allograft rejection: implications for protocol biopsy policy.

In order to determine the impact of immunosuppression (IS) on the incidence of early subclinical rejection (SCR), we studied two groups of patients receiving different immunosuppressive regimens. Patients received cyclosporin (CsA), azathioprine and prednisolone (group 1; n = 304) or IS according to immunological risk (group 2; n = 150). The highest-risk patients received basiliximab induction, tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and prednisolone; medium-risk patients CsA, MMF and prednisolone; low-risk CsA, azathioprine and prednisolone. Protocol biopsies were performed in all patients, irrespective of graft function, on days 7 and 28 post-transplantation. Only patients with good stable function at the time of biopsy were included for assessment of SCR. Group 2 patients showed significant reductions in total rejection frequency (32.6% vs. 57.2%, P = <0.0001) and SCR frequency in day 7 protocol biopsies (2% vs. 13%, P = <0.05). In group 2 patients, all SCRs, but not borderline changes, were treated. Untreated borderline changes did not have an adverse impact on graft function at 1 year post-transplantation. New immunosuppressive regimens may reduce subclinical in addition to clinical rejection-frequency, suggesting that the relative benefit of early protocol biopsies in detecting SCR is also reduced

Hepatic steatosis and normothermic perfusion-preliminary experiments in a porcine model.

BACKGROUND: Steatotic livers are increasingly common in the donor population. Cold storage of steatotic livers exacerbates ischemia-reperfuson injury and risks primary nonfunction and recipient death. Normothermic preservation avoids prolonged cooling of the organ and may be well suited to the preservation and resuscitation of damaged livers. By ex vivo normothermic perfusion, it may be possible to preserve and improve steatotic livers, so that transplantation is a viable option. METHODS: In a porcine model, streptozotocin was used to induce a hyperglycemic, ketotic state that, together with a high fat diet, resulted in mild hepatic steatosis at 5 weeks. A blood-based oxygenated ex vivo normothermic preservation system was then used to compare extended preservation of normal and mildly steatotic porcine livers at physiological pressures and flows. Serial liver biopsies were stained with Oil Red O, a specialist triglyceride stain, and were analyzed using custom-designed image analysis to quantify the degree of lipid deposition. RESULTS: Steatotic livers were capable of correcting the perfusate base excess and maintaining factor V and bile production and showed markers of liver injury comparable with normal livers. Steatotic livers had a significantly higher urea production and required no glucose support. Preliminary results suggest that prolonged normothermic perfusion results in a reduction in steatosis. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that steatotic livers can be successfully preserved using normothermic preservation for prolonged periods and that normothermic preservation facilitates a reduction in hepatic steatosis. Further studies are now needed including transplantation of steatotic livers after normothermic preservation