Impact of eBikes Usage on the Carriage Roads in Acadia National Park

Our goal was to identify and predict population trends of the Carriage Roads, in Acadia National Park, with a focus on the eBike user group. Using a trail camera and big-data, a mathematical model was established to estimate the daily population on the Carriage Roads. Additionally, data loggers and surveys were used to gain a stronger understanding of the mobility patterns of eBikes. A manual count of bikes was also conducted to determine the ratio of eBikes to traditional bikes

Small-Size Soccer Robots

The Small Size Soccer Robots MQP is an interdisciplinary first-year project that aims to design, fabricate, and test a multi-robot system for the international RoboCup Soccer League, targeting the Small Size League competitions. This project unites Robotics Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering teams to develop a team of small autonomous robots adept at playing soccer with a golf ball. The Small Size League highlights intelligent multi-robot/agent collaboration and control within a dynamic environment, employing a hybrid centralized/distributed system. The project encompasses various tasks, such as designing, fabricating, and integrating the robot's structural and electromechanical components, including the chassis, ball control, and drive systems. The team also designs, assembles, and implements the robot's electrical circuits, featuring the processor, motor controllers, solenoids, and power distribution, while developing corresponding firmware for seamless integration. Additionally, the team crafts software to govern robot movement and execute strategic game tactics, ensuring a competitive performance in the RoboCup Small Size League

Comparison between Spatially Resolved Airborne Flux Measurements and Emission Inventories of Volatile Organic Compounds in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is a major hotspot for ozone and particulate matter air pollution in the United States. Ozone and PM2.5 in this region have not improved substantially for the past decade, despite a reduction in vehicular emissions of their precursors, NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This reduction in traditional sources has made the current emission mixture of air pollutant precursors more uncertain. To map and quantify emissions of a wide range of VOCs in this urban area, we performed airborne eddy covariance measurements with wavelet analysis. VOC fluxes measured include tracers for source categories, such as traffic, vegetation, and volatile chemical products (VCPs). Mass fluxes were dominated by oxygenated VOCs, with ethanol contributing ∼29% of the total. In terms of OH reactivity and aerosol formation potential, terpenoids contributed more than half. Observed fluxes were compared with two commonly used emission inventories: the California Air Resources Board inventory and the combination of the Biogenic Emission Inventory System with the Fuel-based Inventory of Vehicle Emissions combined with Volatile Chemical Products (FIVE-VCP). The comparison shows mismatches regarding the amount, spatial distribution, and weekend effects of observed VOC emissions with the inventories. The agreement was best for typical transportation related VOCs, while discrepancies were larger for biogenic and VCP-related VOCs

Clinical and genetic risk factors for progressive fibrosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

BACKGROUND: Fibrosis-4 (FIB4) is a recommended noninvasive test to assess hepatic fibrosis among patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Here, we used FIB4 trajectory over time (ie, slope of FIB4) as a surrogate marker of liver fibrosis progression and examined if FIB4 slope is associated with clinical and genetic factors among individuals with clinically defined MASLD within the Million Veteran Program Cohort. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, FIB4 slopes were estimated through linear regression for participants with clinically defined MASLD and FIB4 <2.67 at baseline. FIB4 slope was correlated with demographic parameters and clinical outcomes using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard models. FIB4 slope as a quantitative phenotype was used in a genome-wide association analysis in ancestry-specific analysis and multiancestry meta-analysis using METAL. RESULTS: FIB4 slopes, generated from 98,361 subjects with MASLD (16,045 African, 74,320 European, and 7996 Hispanic), showed significant associations with sex, ancestry, and cardiometabolic risk factors (p < 0.05). FIB4 slopes also correlated strongly with hepatic outcomes and were independently associated with time to cirrhosis. Five genetic loci showed genome-wide significant associations (p < 5 × 10-8) with FIB4 slope among European ancestry subjects, including 2 known (PNPLA3 and TM6SF2) and 3 novel loci (TERT 5.1 × 10-11; LINC01088, 3.9 × 10-8; and MRC1, 2.9 × 10-9). CONCLUSIONS: Linear trajectories of FIB4 correlated significantly with time to progression to cirrhosis, with liver-related outcomes among individuals with MASLD and with known and novel genetic loci. FIB4 slope may be useful as a surrogate measure of fibrosis progression

Interactions between air pollution and terrestrial ecosystems: perspectives on challenges and future directions

Interactions between air pollution and terrestrial ecosystems play an important role in the Earth system. However, process-based knowledge of air pollution–terrestrial ecosystem interactions is limited, hindering accurate quantification of how changes in tropospheric chemistry, biogeochemical cycling, and climate affect air quality and its impact on humans and ecosystems. Here we summarize current challenges and future directions for advancing the understanding of air pollution–ecosystem interactions by synthesizing discussions from a multidisciplinary group of scientists at a recent Integrated Land Ecosystem–Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS) early-career workshop. Specifically, we discuss the important elements of air pollution–terrestrial ecosystem interactions, including vegetation and soil uptake and emissions of air pollutants and precursors, in-canopy chemistry, and the roles of human activities, fires, and meteorology. We highlight the need for a coordinated network of measurements of long-term chemical fluxes and related meteorological and ecological quantities with expanded geographic and ecosystem representation, data standardization and curation to reduce uncertainty and enhance observational syntheses, integrated multiscale observational and modeling capabilities, collaboration across scientific disciplines and geographic regions, and active involvement by stakeholders and policymakers. Such an enhanced network will continue to facilitate the process-level understanding and thus predictive ability of interactions between air pollution and terrestrial ecosystems and impacts on local-to-global climate and human health