Application of Floating Pedal Regenerative Braking for a Rear-Wheel-Drive Parallel-Series Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle with an Automatic Transmission

As the world continues to move further away from our reliance on fossil fuels, hybrid vehicles are becoming ever more popular. Braking is a system on both hybrid and normal vehicles that involves a significant amount of power and energy. A hybrid can recapture some of that energy using regenerative braking. In this thesis, a method is devised to blend hydraulic and regenerative braking in the most effective manner. A MATLAB Simulink model was built to simulate a parallel-series plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The model allows for the implementation of a regenerative brake controller that utilizes floating pedal regen, custom shift logic, and brake pedal blended regen. The floating pedal controller activates regenerative braking when the driver releases the accelerator pedal. This is done by remapping the pedal based on vehicle speed, gear position, and wheel torques. The custom shift logic utilizes the motor rpm and efficiencies curves to determine when to shift the transmission. The brake pedal regen is added to the hydraulic braking based on brake pedal position. This regenerative brake controller can recharge the battery by 2% SOC during one deceleration event from 130 kph to 20 kph, while maintaining a comfortable deceleration rate less than 3m/sec^2

From One Human to the Next: How Stories Might Save Our Lives

On the morning of October 1, 2015, a young man walked into a college writing classroom with a gun and killed nine people, injured many others, then shot himself

Understanding Mentorship for Underserved Undergraduate Students: A case for holistic mentorship, effective messaging and the removal of silos

Mentorship for historically underserved undergraduate students at their institutions of higher education is a much-studied area of research (Crisp et al., 2017). Existing research has explored how students’ individual aspects of identity impact their access to mentoring (Crisp, 2009; Lund et al., 2019). However, there is a lack of research that studies access to mentoring for the whole student, particularly at small liberal arts schools like TU. Intersectionality has been recognized as an important concept (Crenshaw, 1991) which this study drew on to understand how identity impacts mentorship (Bass, 2012). I conducted a transformative mixed methods case study, which involved the collection, analysis, and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data. Student participants responded to a question series presented in survey, interview, and focus group format. Administrator and staff leader participants responded to a single question series presented in interview format. All questions were formed based on the following central questions: (1) How do underserved undergraduate students access mentoring at a specific institution (TU) using an equity model of Integrative Coaching and other mentoring programs? (2) What factors contribute to undergraduate students’ engagement in Integrative Coaching and other mentoring programs? (3) How does mentoring, through Integrative Coaching and other sources, meet the varied needs of diverse students? The findings show that, when they understand how to access mentorship and believe that their needs will be met by a mentoring relationship in which they experience fit, diverse undergraduate students access mentorship from different sources: themselves, peers, and staff or faculty. Finally, the study illuminated both short-term and long-term opportunities to enhance the student experience of mentoring including effective messaging about mentorship, creating a central location on campus where students know they can access a variety of support, the inclusion of mentorship as a High-Impact Practice, and a general movement towards removing problematic silos at institutions of higher education

Evaluating the social structure of captive Rothschild’s giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi): Relevance to animal management and animal welfare

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.Social network analysis (SNA) is useful for evaluating management zoo regimes to ensure that any fitness benefits of sociality are preserved in captive-housed groups. This paper explores the association patterns of 13 giraffes housed at Longleat Safari Park, UK. Wild giraffes exhibit a fission–fusion social system with preferential bonding. As zoo-housed giraffes are common, they are excellent study subjects for using SNA to investigate key aspects of sociality within a managed social environment. Social bonds were assessed over different seasons and data from two study periods (2011 and 2015) were analyzed to see consistency of “social type” (i.e., more social or more solitary). Associations showed the occurrence of consistent preferential bonds between named individuals but time of year influenced the patterns of social bonds. Female-female bonds and female-offspring bonds appeared to be strongest. For animals present in 2011 and 2015, differences in time spent socializing between years were apparent. Results suggest that giraffes may be flexible in their choice of social partner and zoo-managed herds should include a range of individuals from which each animal can choose a preferred associate

Restrictive and repetitive behaviours and anxiety: A systematic review and Autistic traits and anxiety: The mediating role of coping style

This DClinPsy thesis has been written in the format of three papers: a systematic review, an empirical paper and a critical reflection paper. Papers 1 and 2 will be submitted for publication in the journal entitled Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Paper 3 is not intended for submission. Paper one presents a systematic review investigating the relationship between Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviours (RRB) and anxiety symptoms. Paper two presents a quantitative study which explores the mediating role coping style has between autistic traits and symptoms of anxiety. Paper three presents a critical reflection on the process of conducting the research along with the methodological strengths and limitations contained in this thesis. The implications of the research for clinical practice and the relevance for clinical psychology are discussed

Human beings as islands of stability: Monitoring body states using breath profiles

By checking the reproducibility of conventional mid-infrared Fourier spectroscopy of human breath in a small test study (15 individuals), we found that a set of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of the individual breath samples remains reproducible at least for 18 months. This set forms a unique individual's "island of stability" (IOS) in a multidimensional VOC concentration space. The IOS stability can simultaneously be affected by various life effects as well as the onset of a disease. Reflecting the body state, they both should have different characteristics. Namely, they could be distinguished by different temporal profiles: In the case of life effects (beverage intake, physical or mental exercises, smoking etc.), there is a non-monotonic shift of the IOS position with the return to the steady state, whereas a progressing disease corresponds to a monotonic IOS shift. As a first step of proving these dependencies, we studied various life effects with the focus on the strength and characteristic time of the IOS shift. In general, our results support homeostasis on a long time scale of months, allostasis on scales of hours to weeks or until smoke quitting for smokers, as well as resilience in the case of recovery from a disease

Social networks research in ex situ populations: Patterns, trends, and future directions for conservation‐focused behavioral research

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The spreadsheet of raw data that includes all information on the articles collected for the literature is included as supplementary material.Social networks research using non-human animals has grown over the past decade, utilizing a wide range of species to answer an array of pure and applied questions. Network approaches have relevance to conservation, evaluating social influences on fecundity, health, fitness and longevity. While the application of network approaches to in situ populations with conservation concern appears in published literature, the degree to which ex situ and zoo-housed populations are the focus of “social networks for conservation research” is limited. Captive environments provide scientists with an ability to understand the social behavior of species that may be hard to observe consistently in the wild. This paper evaluates the scope of network research involving ex situ populations, analyzing output from 2010 to 2019 to determine trends in questions and subjects using ex situ populations. We show that only 8.2% of ex situ social network analysis (SNA) implications are of conservation-focus, apparent in papers relating to birds, carnivores, bats, primates, reptiles, and ungulates. Husbandry and welfare questions predominate in ex situ network research, but over half of these papers have nonpractical application (basic science). The chance of a citation for a basic science paper was 95.4% more than for a conservation-based paper. For taxonomic groups, primate-focused papers had the most citations. The focus of ex situ conservation-based networks research may be driven by the needs of conservation programs (e.g., population recovery outcomes) or by a need to evaluate the efficacy of ex situ conservation goals. We evaluate our findings considering the IUCN's One Plan Approach to conservation to show how in situ and ex situ network research is applicable to global conservation efforts. We have identified that there is a lack of application and evaluation of SNA to wildlife conservation. We highlight future areas of research in zoos and hope to stimulate discussion and collaboration between relevant parties