Towards Understanding the Benefits and Challenges of Demand Responsive Public Transit- A Case Study in the City of Charlotte, NC

Access to adequate public transportation plays a critical role in inequity and socio-economic mobility, particularly in low-income communities. Low-income workers who rely heavily on public transportation face a spatial disparity between home and work, which leads to higher unemployment, longer job searches, and longer commute times. The overarching goal of this study is to get initial data that would result in creating a connected, coordinated, demand-responsive, and efficient public bus system that minimizes transit gaps for low-income, transit-dependent communities. To create equitable metropolitan public transportation, this paper evaluates existing CATS mobile applications that assist passengers in finding bus routes and arrival times. Our community survey methodology includes filling out questionnaires on Charlotte's current bus system on specific bus lines and determining user acceptance for a future novel smart technology. We have also collected data on the demand and transit gap for a real-world pilot study, Sprinter bus line, Bus line 7, Bus line 9, and Bus lines 97-99. These lines connect all of Charlotte City's main areas and are the most important bus lines in the system. On the studied routes, the primary survey results indicate that the current bus system has many flaws, the major one being the lack of proper timing to meet the needs of passengers. The most common problems are long commutes and long waiting times at stations. Moreover, the existing application provides inaccurate information, and on average, 80 percent of travelers and respondents are inclined to use new technology.Comment: 22 pages, 54 figure

A Novel Neural Network Approach for Predicting the Arrival Time of Buses for Smart On-Demand Public Transit

Among the major public transportation systems in cities, bus transit has its problems, including more accuracy and reliability when estimating the bus arrival time for riders. This can lead to delays and decreased ridership, especially in cities where public transportation is heavily relied upon. A common issue is that the arrival times of buses do not match the schedules, resulting in latency for fixed schedules. According to the study in this paper on New York City bus data, there is an average delay of around eight minutes or 491 seconds mismatch between the bus arrivals and the actual scheduled time. This research paper presents a novel AI-based data-driven approach for estimating the arrival times of buses at each transit point (station). Our approach is based on a fully connected neural network and can predict the arrival time collectively across all bus lines in large metropolitan areas. Our neural-net data-driven approach provides a new way to estimate the arrival time of the buses, which can lead to a more efficient and smarter way to bring the bus transit to the general public. Our evaluation of the network bus system with more than 200 bus lines, and 2 million data points, demonstrates less than 40 seconds of estimated error for arrival times. The inference time per each validation set data point is less than 0.006 ms

Comparative Study of Different Design Configurations Based on the Daylight and Visual Comfort Performance of Electrochromic Glass in a side-lit Office building

The objective of this research is to demonstrate the application of an optimization framework to assess and improve the impacts of workstation properties in relation to the performance of electrochromic glass regarding daylight and visual comfort. This framework is executed through a simulation-based parametric modeling workflow of an open-plan office to optimize partition layout, height, direction to windows, and materiality in response to annual glare probability (DGP) and climate-based daylighting metrics. In this paper, different office layouts equipped with Electrochromic glass, located in a mixed-humid climate has been simulated with DIVA plug-in for Rhinoceros/grasshopper software to maximize the daylight and reduce the visual discomfort. The results of the optimization study show that the visual comfort and daylighting can be increased from 17 % to 36 UDI (100–2000 lx) while maintaining the percentage of occupied hours glare between 3.1 and 4.1. Considering these two aspects, the workstation with opaque 42” partition height in perimeter and 60” in Interior (“Pre 42_Int 60”) layout in 10° oriented towards the south perform the best with the Electrochromic user-based schedule

Visual Comfort Assessment of Different Shading Strategies in a Commercial Office Building in the Southeastern US

It is challenging to design buildings that simultaneously consider both the dynamic nature of daylight and specific occupant preferences. The authors have investigated this problem by studying the performance of four specific shading strategies using quantitative measurements of occupants visual comfort: discomfort glare and daylight availability. This paper specifically evaluates the performance of four shading strategies, two types of electrochromic (EC) glass, an automated fabric roller shade, and a venetian blind in a building located in the Southeastern United States. This paper examines how these technologies impact occupant visual comfort and it also examines how the buildings perform relative to the two metrics outlined in IES LM-83-12. Horizontal illuminance and high dynamic range images were recorded to assess the existing luminous environment in order to better understand the potential of various shading strategies. Calibrated daylighting models were also constructed in DIVA. Our results suggest that perimeter-zone occupants benefits from EC glass as it can reduce more than 40% of glare annually in this zone. Findings from the interior zones are shown that all four shading strategies perform quite similarly in regards to reducing the glare. This study suggest that by providing a designer at early-design-stage with direct information related to the level of daylight availability and glare condition within a space will lead to improve occupant’s visual comfort

Berberine Supplement and Resistance Training May Ameliorate Diazinon Induced Neural Toxicity in Rat Hippocampus Via the Activation of the TrkB and ERK Signaling Pathway

Background: Diazinon is an organophosphate pesticide that is broadly applied to control insectswhich causes oxidative damages in hippocampus tissue. We aimed to examine whether resistancetraining and berberine supplementation can protect the hippocampus against berberine-inducedneural toxicity.Methods: Fifty-six male Wistar rats were assigned randomly into eight groups of seven including:Control (Ctrl), Sham (normal saline), T1 (diazinon + berberine chloride (2 mg/kg) + resistancetraining), T2 (diazinon + berberine chloride [15 mg/kg] + resistance training), T3 (diazinon), T4(diazinon +resistance training), T5 (diazinon + berberine chloride [2 mg/kg]), and T6 (diazinon+ berberine chloride [15 mg/kg]). In the experimental groups, diazinon was intraperitoneallyadministered at a dose of 1.5 mg/kg. In the training groups, rats were trained every three days for sixweeks and 8-12 dynamic movements (repetitions) during each climb (six climbs for two sets). Theexpression of hippocampus PI3K and CDK genes and TrkB and ERK protein levels were evaluated inthe brain of diazinon-treated rats.Results: The protein expression of ERK and TrkB were increased following the treatment of diazinonintoxicated rats with berberine and resistance training (P=0.001). The administration of berberineat a dose of 15 mg/kg in combination with resistance training significantly (P=0.001) decreasedthe cell death rate in the hippocampus. Diazinon treatment caused extensive apoptosis in thehippocampus region of the rats’ brain (P=0.001). The gene expression of PI3K and CDK wassignificantly increased and the cell death rate significantly decreased (P=0.001) in the hippocampusfollowing the treatment of rats with berberine and resistance training.Conclusion: Six weeks of resistance training in combination with berberine treatment significantlyreduced apoptosis in the hippocampus region of diazinon-intoxicated rats. It seems theneuroprotection effects of berberine and resistance training are mediated by the stimulation of theexpression of enzymes responsible for the antioxidant defense within neuronal cell

The Interactive Effect of Swimming Training and Curcumin on Bcl- 2 and Bax Gene Expression in the Rat Cardiac Tissue during the Withdrawal Period of Excessive Ethanol Consumption

Introduction: Excessive consumption of ethanol can lead to development of apoptosis in cardiac tissue. Then, this study aimed to investigate anti-apoptotic effects of swimming training and curcumin during the withdrawal period of excessive ethanol consumption in rats. Methods: In an experimental study, 40 rats were selected and exposed to ethanol (25% w/v) every eight hours for four days by gavage. After 7 days of quitting ethanol consumption, they were placed in 5 groups of 8 each, including 1- control, 2-curcumin, 3-swimming training, 4-curcumin and swimming training, and 5- DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide). Groups 3 and 4 performed five swimming training sessions per week for two weeks and groups 2 and 4 were received curcumin (50 mg/kg body weight) five times a week for two weeks by intraperitoneal injection. The two-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis of data (P≤0.05). Results: Swimming training causes significant increase in Bcl-2 and significant decrease in Bax in the cardiac tissue of the rats received ethanol (P ≤ 0.05). Curcumin also significantly increased Bcl- 2 and decreased Bax (P ≤ 0.05). Curcumin and swimming training have interactive effects on the reduction of Bax in the cardiac tissue of rats (P ≤ 0.05). However, the concurrence of these two factors did not have a significant interactive effect on Bcl-2 elevation and Bax/Bcl- 2 gene expression regulation (P ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results, swimming training and curcumin consumption alone had a significant effect on reducing the ethanol-induced apoptosis in cardiac tissues of the rats during the withdrawal period of excessive ethanol use. Furthermore, results showed that swimming training with curcumin consumption had a significant interactive effect on reducing Bax gene expression. However the interactive effect of the combination of training and curcumin on Bcl- 2 and Bax/Bcl- 2 ratio was not significant, but it is more effective than the effect of each intervention alone. Consequently, it seems that the combination of swimming training and curcumin may be used during the withdrawal period of excessive ethanol consumption to modulate apoptotic process

Beyond arrows: energy performance of a new, naturally ventilated, double-skin facade configuration for a high-rise office building in Chicago

Designers tend to rely on their intuition when designing naturally ventilated buildings without detailed analyses for the long term. It may be argued that for many standard and smaller buildings, designing for natural ventilation is straightforward: a simple process of drawing diagrams to illustrate how air flows within the building, which can achieve satisfactory comfort conditions. However, there is a significant lack of information in the current literature to demonstrate the complexity and challenges in designing large, naturally ventilated buildings. This is especially true when the new double-skin facade (DSF) configuration is used as a means of conserving energy while providing superior thermal comfort. For these types of buildings, it is important to have the tools to evaluate a design???s predicted performance to achieve successful natural ventilation concepts. It has been learned that significant energy saving is possible by exploiting natural ventilation in a DSF configuration. To determine if a DSF configuration will provide a better thermal comfort through natural ventilation, this research uses building simulation tools (EnergyPlus) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze various thermal-comfort parameters through parametric studies in the facade. This thesis presents three significant contributions for the evaluation of natural ventilation in high rise office buildings with DSF configuration: ??? A methodology for assessing the performance of naturally ventilated DSF buildings through an airflow modeling was developed by three-dimensional analysis using gFluent. Buoyancy, wind, and combined ventilation strategies for a commercial office building with an open floor plan layout were evaluated using the k-?? model. ??? Models to simulate the specific DSF typology and couple the envelope-level results to a building simulation program. ??? A framework for comparing and evaluating the conventional facade solution with a new configuration of naturally ventilated DSF

Beyond Arrows: Energy Performance of a New, Naturally Ventilated Double-Skin Facade Configuration for a High-Rise Office Building in Chicago

218 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010.This thesis presents three significant contributions for the evaluation of natural ventilation in high rise office buildings with DSF configuration: • A methodology for assessing the performance of naturally ventilated DSF buildings through an airflow modeling was developed by three-dimensional analysis using Fluent. Buoyancy, wind, and combined ventilation strategies for a commercial office building with an open floor plan layout were evaluated using the k-epsilon model. • Models to simulate the specific DSF typology and couple the envelope-level results to a building simulation program. • A framework for comparing and evaluating the conventional facade solution with a new configuration of naturally ventilated DSF.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD