Evaluating the impacts of urban freight traffic: application of micro-simulation at a large establishment

Heavy Goods Vehicles, HGV, and Light Goods Vehicles, LGV, are a significant contributor to air pollution problems in urban areas. This paper quantifies the contribution to the environment of the deliveries to a single, large city employer addressing a research gap in the literature. Analysis of data from comprehensive surveys carried out over two years demonstrated that freight delivery traffic generated by an urban establishment with multiple properties in a compact urban setting, is characterised by a high proportion of LGV consistent with recent national and international trends. Also, despite freight traffic is only 10% of local traffic, more than 50% serves the single establishment, suggesting a different approach to policy making driven by the employer should be explored. The modelling results showed, relatively, the largest contribution to total emissions comes from HGVs in the AM peak, 13.8%, 43.7%, 9.2% for CO2, NOx and PM respectively. LGV contribute less, with 5.5%, 3.8%, 6% for CO2, NOx and PM respectively but more responsible for local congestion due to their numbers. This research is the first known study of its type and with the unique combination of measurement and traffic microsimulation allowed consideration of more effective traffic management strategies as well as providing evidence to support a consolidation centre for deliveries outside the city with fewer electric or low emissions last mile vehicles reducing substantially the environmental impact. The research outputs are relevant to many other similar cases in UK and Europe. The paper contributes to the ongoing development of research and policy looking to achieve sustainable urban logistics through receiver and purchasing led initiatives

Testing for differential abundance in mass cytometry data.

When comparing biological conditions using mass cytometry data, a key challenge is to identify cellular populations that change in abundance. Here, we present a computational strategy for detecting 'differentially abundant' populations by assigning cells to hyperspheres, testing for significant differences between conditions and controlling the spatial false discovery rate. Our method (http://bioconductor.org/packages/cydar) outperforms other approaches in simulations and finds novel patterns of differential abundance in real data.This work was supported by Cancer Research UK (core funding to J.C.M., award no. A17197), the University of Cambridge and Hutchison Whampoa Limited. J.C.M. was also supported by core funding from EMBL

Semi-systematic literature citation database identifying research opportunities for more sustainable receiver led inbound logistics flows to large urban municipal organisations.

These citations databases support a semi-systematic literature review identifying research opportunities for more sustainable receiver led inbound logistics flows to large urban municipal organisations. The literature - a body of 229 works - was reviewed using online scholarly databases: the NOVELOG toolkit database, a CASP checklist, and textual-graphical analysis using word clouds. A two-stage approach was deployed, first scoping using a semi-systematic approach, then a narrative review, guided by the systematic review in terms of literature survey and selection

Urban freight concepts and practice: Would a traditional UCC scheme work?

This paper aimed to show that planner-led UCC solutions are untenable in the modern liberal economy. Our analysis suggests that the top down imposition of a Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) works only in clearly controlled domains. We have studied urban freight concepts and practice and it is our contention that most UCC initiatives fail in a liberal economy where free choice and market economics apply. In underpinning this contention we have compiled, analysed and categorised a set of the UCC schemes known to have operated, left evidence of their existence, and been captured by the research community. In this paper we present two case study examples that show that within the construction sector UCCs can be utilised successfully to create efficient and forward-thinking logistics operations. Whilst it might be true for the construction sector, we have not found evidence that it might be true for other sectors