Autonomous Vehicles in Road Tunnels : A Risk Safety Perspective

This study examines the challenges associated with deploying autonomous vehicles (AVs) in road tunnels, focusing on both operational aspects and vehicle-human interaction. This work explored that road tunnels present unique constraints, such as limited visibility and confined spaces, which necessitate careful consideration for AV integration. It is observed that factors like varying light conditions and restricted communication capabilities within tunnels impact AVs' performance. Additionally, the study investigates and categorizes challenges related to tunnel geometries, infrastructure modifications, sensor technologies, emergency situations, and human-machine interaction. Furthermore, this work comprehensively explored academic and non-academic literature, gathering contemporary knowledge on AVs in road tunnels in one place to provide a foundational base for researchers on this topic. In this regard, the adopted methodological framework is also presented for researchers' review. The other notable contribution is to specifically highlight the critical operational issues of human-AV interaction in tunnel environments. In the last section, it also proposes potential solutions to these issues. In doing so, it keeps the directional approach open for other researchers as there are insightful risk-related implications for further research in this significant domain

Distress Risk and Stock Returns in An Emerging Market

This study examines the link between financial distress and market performance of firm in the form of share performance by using Z-Score bankruptcy prediction model as the proxy of distress risk and the subsequent realized stock returns of the distress-listed companies as a proxy of systematic risk. The sample is drawn from Karachi Stock Exchange listed companies. We found that distress risk is not significant enough to explain the expected stock returns in the case of the Pakistani distress listed-firms. Altman’s (1968) measure of distress is operationalized to test the financial health of firms. The results show that distressed firms outperform as compare to healthy firms. This study deduces that distress risk is a systematic risk in relation to the Pakistani stock market to some extent. Keywords: Financial distress, Share returns, KSE, Distressed companies, Bankruptcy risk, systematic ris

A configuration memory architecture for fast run-time reconfiguration of FPGAs

This paper presents a configuration memory architecture that offers fast FPGA reconfiguration. The underlying principle behind the design is the use of fine-grained partial reconfiguration that allows significant configuration re-use while switching from one circuit to another. The proposed configuration memory works by reading on-chip configuration data into a buffer, modifying them based on the externally supplied data and writing them back to their original registers. A prototype implementation of the proposed design in a 90nm cell library indicates that the new memory adds less than 1% area to a commercially available FPGA implemented using the same library. The proposed design reduces the reconfiguration time for a wide set of benchmark circuits by 63%. However, power consumption during reconfiguration increases by a factor of 2.5 because the read-modify-write strategy results in more switching in the memory array

A Rare Case of Nasal-Orbital-Cranial Aneurysmal Bone Cyst

case of aneurysmal bone cyst involving ethmoidal sinuses, maxillary sinuses, frontal sinuses, sphenoidal sinuses, basisphenoid bone, and left orbit with intracranial extension in a 9 year old female. The diagnosis was confirmed using CT, MRI-brain, CT-angio brain imaging. The finding of nasal-orbital-cranial aneurysmal bone cyst was confirmed on Histopathology. Two staged surgical excision planned and done, i.e. trans-cranial and trans-nasal excision

A Configuration System Architecture Supporting Bit-Stream Compression for FPGAs

This paper presents an investigation and design of an enhanced on-chip configuration memory system that can reduce the time to (re)configure an FPGA. The proposed system accepts configuration data in a compressed form and performs decompression internally, The resulting FPCA can be (re)configured in time proportional to the size of the compressed bit-stream. The compression technique exploits the redundancy present in typical configuration data. An analysis of configurations corresponding to a set of benchmark circuits reveals that data that controls the same types of configurable elements have a common byte that occurs at a significantly higher frequency. This common byte is simply broadcast to all instances of that element. This step is followed by byte updates if required. The new configuration system has modest hardware requirements and was observed to reduce reconfiguration time for the benchmark set by two-thirds on average

Turbulence behind 3D multi-scale sparse grids

A fundamentally new idea in grid generated turbulence is the 3D Sparse Grid (3DS) concept [N. A. Malik. Sparse 3D Multi-Scale Grid Turbulence Generator. US Patent No. US 9,599,269 B2 (2017)] which reduces the effective blockage ratio compared to the 2D flat fractal grids, s 3DS Lt s 2DF , and possess a much greater parameter space which could allow further optimization of the turbulence as compared to the 2D fractal (2DF) grids. Here, we report on some theoretical results regarding blockage ratio reduction in a 3-frame 3DS system, and some results from Direct Numerical Simulations comparing the turbulence characteristics generated by 3DS with Regular (RG) and 2DF grids cases.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

2-Amino-1,3-benzothia­zol-3-ium dihydrogen phosphate

The cation of the title compound, C7H7N2S+·H2PO4 −, is almost planar (r.m.s deviation = 0.017 Å for all non-H atoms). In the crystal structure, the cations and anions are connected by N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, with π–π stacking inter­actions between neighbouring 1,3-thia­zole and benzene rings [centroid–centroid distance = 3.5711 (11) Å], forming a three-dimensional network

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe