Pumping the Brakes on Robot Cars: Current Urban Traveler Willingness to Consider Driverless Vehicles

A growing literature suggests that widespread travel conducted through driverless connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) accessed as a service, in contrast to those personally owned, could have significant impacts on the sustainability of urban transportation. However, it is unclear how the general public currently considers willingness to travel in driverless vehicles, and if they would be more comfortable doing so in one personally owned or one accessed as a service. To address this, we collected travel survey data by intercepting respondents on discretionary or social trips to four popular destinations in a medium-size U.S. city in the spring of 2017. After collecting data on how the respondent reached the survey site and the trip’s origin and destination, survey administrators then asked if respondents would have been willing to make their current trip in either a personally-owned driverless vehicle or through a driverless vehicle service. Over one-third expressed willingness to use both forms, while 31% were unwilling to use either. For those that considered only one, slightly more favored the personally-owned model. Consideration of an existing mobility service was consistently a positive and significant predictor of those that expressed willingness to travel in a driverless vehicle, while traveling downtown negatively and significantly influenced consideration of at least one form of driverless vehicle. These findings highlight the diverse public views about the prospect of integration of CAVs in transportation systems and raise questions about the assumption that travelers to central city locations would be early adopters of automated vehicle mobility services.The research reported here was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), SPEED Program Grant No. 83594901the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI) and University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows progra

Spectral variations of the X-ray binary pulsar LMC X-4 during its long period intensity variation and a comparison with Her X-1

We present spectral variations of the binary X-ray pulsar LMC X-4 using the RXTE/PCA observations at different phases of its 30.5 day long super-orbital period. Only out of eclipse data were used for this study. During the high state of the super-orbital period of LMC X-4, the spectrum is well described by a high energy cut-off power-law with a photon index in the range of 0.7-1.0 and an iron emission line. In the low state, the spectrum is found to be flatter with power-law photon index in the range 0.5-0.7. A direct correlation is detected between the continuum flux in 7-25 keV energy band and the iron emission line flux. The equivalent width of the iron emission line is found to be highly variable during low intensity state, whereas it remains almost constant during the high intensity state of the super-orbital period. It is observed that the spectral variations in LMC X-4 are similar to those of Her X-1 (using RXTE/PCA data). These results suggest that the geometry of the region where the iron line is produced and its visibility with respect to the phase of the super-orbital period is similar in LMC X-4 and Her X-1. A remarkable difference between these two systems is a highly variable absorption column density with phase of the super-orbital period that is observed in Her X-1 but not in LMC X-4.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

A multi-scale framework for fuel station location: from highways to street intersections

Electric drive vehicles (plug-in electric vehicle or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) have been promoted by governments to foster a more sustainable transportation future. Wider adoption of these vehicles, however, depends on the availability of a convenient and reliable refueling/recharging infrastructure. This paper introduces a path-based, multi-scale, scenario-planning modeling framework for locating a system of alternative-fuel stations. The approach builds on (1) the Flow Refueling Location Model (FRLM), which assumes that drivers stop along their origin-destination routes to refuel, and checks explicitly whether round trips can be completed without running out of fuel, and (2) the Freeway Traffic Capture Method (FTCM), which assesses the degree to which drivers can conveniently reach sites on the local street network near freeway intersections. This paper extends the FTCM to handle cases involving clusters of nearby freeway intersections, which is a limitation of its previous specification. Then, the cluster-based FTCM (CFTCM) is integrated with the FRLM and the DFRLM (FRLM with Deviations) to better conduct detailed geographic optimization of this multi-scale location planning problem. The main contribution of this research is the introduction of a framework that combines multi-scale planning methods to more effectively inform the early development stage of hydrogen refueling infrastructure planning. The proposed multi-scale modeling framework is applied to the Hartford, Connecticut region, which is one of the next areas targeted for fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) market and infrastructure expansion in the United States. This method is generalizable to other regions or other types of fast-fueling alternative fuel vehicles

Planck-Scale Unification and Dynamical Symmetry Breaking

We explore the possibility of unification of gauge couplings near the Planck scale in models of extended technicolor. We observe that models of the form G X SU(3)_c X SU(2)_L X U(1)_Y cannot be realized, due to the presence of massless neutral Goldstone bosons (axions) and light charged pseudo-Goldstone bosons; thus, unification of the known forces near the Planck scale cannot be achieved. The next simplest possibility, G X SU(4)_{PS} X SU(2)_L X U(1)_{T_{3R}}, cannot lead to unification of the Pati-Salam and weak gauge groups near the Planck scale. However, superstring theory provides relations between couplings at the Planck scale without the need for an underlying grand-unified gauge group, which allows unification of the SU(4)$_{PS}$ and SU(2)$_L$ couplings.Comment: LaTeX, 12 pages, FERMILAB-PUB-93/262-

Host-Associated and Free-Living Phage Communities Differ Profoundly in Phylogenetic Composition

Phylogenetic profiling has been widely used for comparing bacterial communities, but has so far been impossible to apply to viruses because of the lack of a single marker gene analogous to 16S rRNA. Here we developed a reference tree approach for matching viral sequences and applied it to the largest viral datasets available. The resulting technique, Shotgun UniFrac, was used to compare host-associated and non-host-associated phage communities (130 total metagenomes), and revealed a profound split similar to that found with bacterial communities. This new informatics approach complements analysis of bacterial communities and promises to provide new insights into viral community dynamics, such as top-down versus bottom-up control of bacterial communities by viruses in a range of systems

Validation of the SenseWear armband in circuit resistance training with different loads

The use of the SenseWear™ armband (SWA), an objective monitor of physical activity, is a relatively new device used by researchers to measure energy expenditure. These monitors are practical, relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use. The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of SWAs for the measurement of energy expenditure (EE) in circuit resistance training (CRT) at three different intensities in moderately active, healthy subjects. The study subjects (17 females, 12 males) undertook CRT at 30, 50 and 70% of the 15 repetition maximum for each exercise component wearing an SWA as well as an Oxycon Mobile (OM) portable metabolic system (a gold standard method for measuring EE). The EE rose as exercise intensity increased, but was underestimated by the SWAs. For women, Bland-Altman plots showed a bias of 1.13 ± 1.48 METs and 32.1 ± 34.0 kcal in favour of the OM system, while for men values of 2.33 ± 1.82 METs and 75.8 ± 50.8 kcal were recorded

Does religion influence entrepreneurial behaviour?

Religion cannot be ignored in assessing the range of cultural and institutional influences that impact on entrepreneurial activity. This article integrates key themes from sociology of religion in the context of emerging ideas about religion and entrepreneurship in order to highlight key research questions. New institutional theory is discussed as a potentially useful lens for viewing the range of means through which religious expression and institutions might support entrepreneurship. A macro-level empirical investigation of societal indicators of religious affiliation and regulation of religion alongside Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data highlights particular data correlations and mediating influences. A significant association between entrepreneurial activity and evangelical or Pentecostal Christian religious affiliation is found, along with evidence that the impact of religion on entrepreneurship is mediated through pluralism and regulation. In discussing these findings further, the article proposes a more integrated conceptual framework for understanding the link between religious drivers and entrepreneurship, alongside institutional mediation. This forms the basis for further research, focusing on individual experience rather than aggregate associations and exploring in further depth of the mediating impact of institutional arrangements

A deeply branching thermophilic bacterium with an ancient acetyl-CoA pathway dominates a subsurface ecosystem

<div><p>A nearly complete genome sequence of <em>Candidatus</em> ‘Acetothermum autotrophicum’, a presently uncultivated bacterium in candidate division OP1, was revealed by metagenomic analysis of a subsurface thermophilic microbial mat community. Phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated sequences of proteins common among 367 prokaryotes suggests that <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ is one of the earliest diverging bacterial lineages. It possesses a folate-dependent Wood-Ljungdahl (acetyl-CoA) pathway of CO₂ fixation, is predicted to have an acetogenic lifestyle, and possesses the newly discovered archaeal-autotrophic type of bifunctional fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase. A phylogenetic analysis of the core gene cluster of the acethyl-CoA pathway, shared by acetogens, methanogens, some sulfur- and iron-reducers and dechlorinators, supports the hypothesis that the core gene cluster of <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ is a particularly ancient bacterial pathway. The habitat, physiology and phylogenetic position of <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ support the view that the first bacterial and archaeal lineages were H₂-dependent acetogens and methanogenes living in hydrothermal environments.</p> </div

Control of Mobile Robots Using the Soar Cognitive Architecture

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77099/1/AIAA-37056-144.pd