Smart Tail-Light System

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Safety Vehicle Research, 29% of all vehicle accidents are rear end collisions. Many are a result of failure to respond to a slowing or stopped vehicle. [1] The purposed LED rear lighting system will incorporate attention getting techniques to increase vehicle visibility to other drivers. Due to the small size and stature of the 2015 human powered vehicle called Joey, it will be out of the ordinary when traveling on roadways. “Three in four (72%) bicyclists who rode after dark said they tried to do something to make themselves more visible.” [2] When this vehicle is out on the road after dark, a strong notification system is essential. With this attention getting system, the probability of vehicle collisions can be reduced. The use of tail lights on bicycle is a very common occurrence. Most states require a minimum of a red reflector on the rear of the bicycle. Many bicycles are now outfitted with aftermarket lighting systems. The use of a sequential tail lighting notification system is an advanced method. More than a flashing light, the system design uses safety statistics to determine optimum attention getting flashing frequencies and patterns. [1] It is the inconsistent pattern is what alerts approaching vehicles. The phenomenon of losing touch or becoming detached while driving is call psychological disassociation. The approaching driver could be in this state of daydreaming and only alterations to the environment can break the disassociation. Vehicle taillights are the main defense to this syndrome, but they do not work for vehicles that are moving slowly but not breaking in front of a rapidly approaching vehicle. The principle of the smart light system is to generate this alteration and break the trance of the disassociation

The University of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team

The University of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team’s 2016 vehicle, Klokan, was designed, manufactured and tested with safety, reliability, performance and ease of use in mind. The vehicle is a fully faired tadpole trike with a lightweight aluminum frame constructed from 6061-T6 tubing having a total weight of 8.9 lbs. To complement the lightweight frame, the fairing is constructed from polycarbonate, PETG and carbon fiber strips which combine into a lightweight, easy to manufacture weather barrier and aerodynamic structure. Klokan was designed to be a safe and efficient mode of everyday transportation which ensures that riders are sufficiently protected by a rollover protection system (RPS) which was designed to meet the ASME HPVC requirements with a minimum safety factor of two. The project scope includes all aspects of design and fabrication to create a vehicle that is easy to manufacture, easy to use, safe, and low cost to facilitate its usability in everyday situations. The team completed research on how to improve the manufacturability, reliability, and performance through analysis of designs, computer based modeling, and physical testing to validate that the bike meets team goals as well as exceeding the requirements set by the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Competition. The frame was designed in a manner that reduces welding through the use of bends and allows for precision fixturing to be manufactured and used to construct multiple frames quickly and efficiently. The fairing’s modular construction reduces the need for specialized tooling while minimizing weight and construction time. The team designed and successfully implemented an innovative rollover warning system which actively monitors the percentage of vehicle load on each tire and warns the driver through audible tone and visual warning light prior to a dangerous rollover becoming imminent

Long-range electron tunnelling in oligo-porphyrin molecular wires

Short chains of porphyrin molecules can mediate electron transport over distances as long as 5-10 nm with low attenuation. This means that porphyrin-based molecular wires could be useful in nanoelectronic and photovoltaic devices, but the mechanisms responsible for charge transport in single oligo-porphyrin wires have not yet been established. Here, based on electrical measurements of single-molecule junctions, we show that the conductance of the oligo-porphyrin wires has a strong dependence on temperature, and a weak dependence on the length of the wire. Although it is widely accepted that such behaviour is a signature of a thermally assisted incoherent ( hopping) mechanism, density functional theory calculations and an accompanying analytical model strongly suggest that the observed temperature and length dependence is consistent with phase-coherent tunnelling through the whole molecular junction

Large conductance changes in peptide single molecule junctions controlled by pH

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

In situ atomic-scale observation of monolayer graphene growth from SiC

Because of its high compatibility with conventional microfabrication processing technology, epitaxial graphene (EG) grown on SiC shows exceptional promise for graphene-based electronics. However, to date, a detailed understanding of the transformation from three-layer SiC to monolayer graphene is still lacking. Here, we demonstrate the direct atomic-scale observation of EG growth on a SiC (1 (1) over bar 00) surface at 1,000 degrees C by in situ transmission electron microscopy in combination with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. Our detailed analysis of the growth dynamics of monolayer graphene reveals that three SiC (1 (1) over bar 00) layers decompose successively to form one graphene layer. Sublimation of the first layer causes the formation of carbon clusters containing short chains and hexagonal rings, which can be considered as the nuclei for graphene growth. Decomposition of the second layer results in the appearance of new chains connecting to the as-formed clusters and the formation of a network with large pores. Finally, the carbon atoms released from the third layer lead to the disappearance of the chains and large pores in the network, resulting in a whole graphene layer. Our study presents a clear picture of the epitaxial growth of the monolayer graphene from SiC and provides valuable information forfuture developments in SiC-derived EG technology