Non-periodic driving of coupled oscillators:a spherical swing

Nonlinearly coupled, damped oscillators at 1:1 frequency ratio, one oscillator being driven coherently for efficient excitation, are exemplified by a spherical swing with some phase-mismatch between drive and response. For certain damping range, excitation is found to succeed if it lags behind, but to produce a chaotic attractor if it leads the response. Although a period-doubhng sequence, for damping increasing, leads to the attractor, this is actually born as a hard (as regards amplitude) bifurcation at a zero growth-rate parametric line; as damping decreases, an unstable fixed point crosses an invariant plane to enter as saddle-focus a phase-space domain of physical solutions. A second hard bifurcation occurs at the zero mismatch line, the saddle-focus leaving that domain. Times on the attractor diverge when approaching either fine, leading to exactly one-dimensional and noninvertible limit maps, which are analytically determined.

Using floating car data to analyse the effects of ITS measures and eco-driving

The road transportation sector is responsible for around 25% of total man-made CO2 emissions worldwide. Considerable efforts are therefore underway to reduce these emissions using several approaches, including improved vehicle technologies, traffic management and changing driving behaviour. Detailed traffic and emissions models are used extensively to assess the potential effects of these measures. However, if the input and calibration data are not sufficiently detailed there is an inherent risk that the results may be inaccurate. This article presents the use of Floating Car Data to derive useful speed and acceleration values in the process of traffic model calibration as a means of ensuring more accurate results when simulating the effects of particular measures. The data acquired includes instantaneous GPS coordinates to track and select the itineraries, and speed and engine performance extracted directly from the on-board diagnostics system. Once the data is processed, the variations in several calibration parameters can be analyzed by comparing the base case model with the measure application scenarios. Depending on the measure, the results show changes of up to 6.4% in maximum speed values, and reductions of nearly 15% in acceleration and braking levels, especially when eco-driving is applied.

When and how to support renewables? Letting the data speak. Bruegel Working Paper 2014/01, February 2014

Low-carbon energy technologies are pivotal for decarbonising our economies up to 2050 while ensuring secure and affordable energy. Consequently, innovation that reduces the cost of low-carbon energy would play an important role in reducing transition costs. We assess the two most prominent innovation policy instruments (i) public research, development and demonstration (RD&D) subsidies and (ii) public deployment policies. Our results indicate that both deployment and RD&D coincide with increasing knowledge generation and the improved competitiveness of renewable energy technologies. We find that both support schemes together have a greater effect that they would individually, that RD&D support is unsurprisingly more effective in driving patents and that timing matters. Current wind deployment based on past wind RD&D spending coincides best with wind patenting. If we look into competitiveness we find a similar picture, with the greatest effect coming from deployment. Finally, we find significant cross-border effects, especially for winddeployment. Increased deployment in one country coincides with increased patenting in nearby countries. Based on our findings we argue that both deployment and RD&D support are needed to create innovation in renewable energy technologies. However, we worry that current support is unbalanced. Public spending on deployment has been two orders of magnitude larger (in 2010 about €48 billion in the five largest EU countries in 2010) than spending on RD&D support (about €315 million). Consequently, basing the policy mix more on empirical evidence could increase the efficiency of innovation policy targeted towards renewable energy technologies.

Understanding youthful risk taking and driving.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Thinking Local About Self-Driving Cars: a Local Framework for Autonomous Vehicle Development in the United States

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Are insect immune suppressors driving cellular uptake reactions?

Many insect parasitoids that deposit their eggs inside immature stages of other insect species inactivate the cellular host defence to protect the growing embryo from encapsulation. Suppression of encapsulation by polydnavirus-encoded immune-suppressors correlates with specific alterations in hemocytes, mainly cytoskeletal rearrangements and actin-cytoskeleton breakdown. We have previously shown that the Cotesia rubecula polydnavirus gene product CrV1 causes immune suppression when injected into the host hemocoel. CrV1 is taken up by hemocytes although no receptors have been found to bind the protein. Instead CrV1 uptake depends on dimer formation, which is required for interacting with lipophorin, suggesting a CrV1-lipophorin complex internalisation by hemocytes. Since treatment of hemocytes with oligomeric lectins and cytochalasin D can mimic the effects of CrV1, we propose that some dimeric and oligomeric adhesion molecules are able to cross-link receptors on the cell surface and depolymerise actin by leverage-mediated clearance reactions in the hemolymph.

The effect of age, gender and attitudes on self-regulation in driving

Self-regulation in driving has primarily been studied as a precursor to driving cessation in older people, who minimise driving risk and compensate for physical and cognitive decline by avoiding driving in challenging circumstances, e.g. poor weather conditions, in the dark and at busy times. This research explores whether other demographic groups of drivers adopt self-regulatory behaviours and examines the effects of affective and instrumental attitudes on self-regulation across the lifespan. Quantitative data were collected from 395 drivers. Women were significantly more likely than men to engage in self-regulation, and to be negatively influenced by their emotions (affective attitude). A quadratic effect of age on self-regulation was determined such that younger and older drivers reported higher scores for self-regulation than middle-years' drivers. However, this effect was affected by experience such that when experience was controlled for, self-regulation increased with age. Nevertheless, anxious driving style and negative affective attitude were independent predictors of self-regulation behaviours. Results suggest that self-regulation behaviours are present across the driving lifespan and may occur as a result of driving anxiety or low confidence rather than as an effect of ageing.

The drivers of perception: Identifying the driving factors of resident perceptions of municipal service quality in cities of South Florida

The idea of comparative performance assessment is crucial. Recent study findings show that in South Florida the use by most municipalities of external benchmarks for performance comparison is virtually non-existent. On one level this study sought to identify the factors impacting resident perceptions of municipal service quality. On a different and more practical level, this study sought to identify a core set of measures that could serve for multi jurisdictional comparisons of performance. ^ This study empirically tested three groups of hypotheses. Data were collected via custom designed survey instruments from multiple jurisdictions, representing diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and across two counties. A second layer of analysis was conducted on municipal budget documents for the presence of performance measures. A third layer of analysis was conducted via face-to-face interviews with residents at the point of service delivery. Research questions were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistic methodologies. ^ Results of survey data yielded inconsistent findings. In absolute aggregated terms, the use of sociological determinants to guide inquiry failed to yield conclusive answers regarding the factors impacting resident perceptions of municipal service quality. At disaggregated community levels, however, definite differences emerged but these had weak predictive ability. More useful were the findings of performance measures reporting via municipal budget documents and analyses of interviews with residents at the point of service delivery. Regardless of socio-economic profile, neighborhood characteristics, level of civic engagement or type of community, the same aspects were important to citizens when making assessments of service quality. For parks and recreation, respondents most frequently cited maintenance, facility amenities, and program offerings as important while for garbage collection services timely and consistent service delivery mattered most. Surprisingly municipalities participating in the study track performance data on items indicated as important by citizen assessments but regular feed back from residents or reporting to the same is rarely done. ^ The implications of these findings suggest that endeavors, such as the one undertaken in this study, can assist in determining a core set of measures for cross jurisdictional comparisons of municipal service quality, improving municipal delivery of services, and to communicate with the public. ^

Appropriate Polypharmacy and Medicine Safety: When Many is not Too Many

The use of multiple medicines (polypharmacy) is increasingly common in middle-aged and older populations. Ensuring the correct balance between the prescribing of ‘many’ drugs and ‘too many’ drugs is a significant challenge. Clinicians are tasked with ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate combinations of medications based on the best available evidence, and that medication use is optimised according to patients’ clinical needs (appropriate polypharmacy). Historically, polypharmacy has been viewed negatively because of the associated medication safety risks, such as drug interactions and adverse drug events. More recently, polypharmacy has been identified as a risk factor for under-prescribing, such that patients do not receive necessary medications and this can also pose risks to patients’ safety and well-being. The negative connotations that have long been associated with the term polypharmacy could potentially be acting as a driving factor for under-prescribing, whereby clinicians are reluctant to prescribe necessary medicines for patients who are already receiving ‘many’ medicines. It is now recognised that the prescribing of ‘many’ medicines can be entirely appropriate in patients with several chronic conditions and that the risks of adverse drug events that have been associated with polypharmacy may be greatly reduced when patients’ clinical context is taken into consideration. In this article, we outline the current perspectives on polypharmacy and make the case for adopting the term ‘appropriate polypharmacy’ in differentiating between the prescribing of ‘many’ drugs and ‘too many’ drugs. We also outline the inherent challenges in doing so and provide recommendations for future clinical practice and research.

Older Adult Injury Risk Assessment in the Driving and Occupational Environments

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Development of an innovative non rule-based energy management strategy for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle, structured for predictive driving controls based on external information knowledge

Recently, the interest of the automotive market for hybrid vehicles has increased due to the more restrictive pollutants emissions legislation and to the necessity of decreasing the fossil fuel consumption, since such solution allows a consistent improvement of the vehicle global efficiency. The term hybridization regards the energy flow in the powertrain of a vehicle: a standard vehicle has, usually, only one energy source and one energy tank; instead, a hybrid vehicle has at least two energy sources. In most cases, the prime mover is an internal combustion engine (ICE) while the auxiliary energy source can be mechanical, electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic. It is expected from the control unit of a hybrid vehicle the use of the ICE in high efficiency working zones and to shut it down when it is more convenient, while using the EMG at partial loads and as a fast torque response during transients. However, the battery state of charge may represent a limitation for such a strategy. That’s the reason why, in most cases, energy management strategies are based on the State Of Charge, or SOC, control. Several studies have been conducted on this topic and many different approaches have been illustrated. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop an online (usable on-board) control strategy in which the operating modes are defined using an instantaneous optimization method that minimizes the equivalent fuel consumption of a hybrid electric vehicle. The equivalent fuel consumption is calculated by taking into account the total energy used by the hybrid powertrain during the propulsion phases. The first section presents the hybrid vehicles characteristics. The second chapter describes the global model, with a particular focus on the energy management strategies usable for the supervisory control of such a powertrain. The third chapter shows the performance of the implemented controller on a NEDC cycle compared with the one obtained with the original control strategy.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome With Synchronous Gastric Cancer: When The Symptoms Suggest Something Else.

Although myelodysplastic syndromes have a clear definition in theory, the morphologic dysplasia associated with ineffective hematopoiesis may be subtle and difficult to recognize and can commonly be mimicked by systemic conditions, such as infections, autoimmune disorders, nutritional deficiencies, toxic factors and non-hematological malignancies. However, myelodysplastic syndromes may truly coexist with other systemic diseases, which can be masked when the patient's symptoms are attributed exclusively to myelodysplastic syndromes without further investigation. To better illustrate this, we herein describe two cases associated with synchronous gastric cancers.

Medication Adherence And Quality Of Life Among The Elderly With Diabetic Retinopathy.

one hundred (n=100) elderly outpatients with diabetic retinopathy taking antihypertensives and/or oral antidiabetics/insulin were interviewed. Adherence was evaluated by the adherence proportion and its association with the care taken in administrating medications and by the Morisky Scale. The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) was used to evaluate HRQoL. most (58%) reported the use of 80% or more of the prescribed dose and care in utilizing the medication. The item stopping the drug when experiencing an adverse event, from the Morisky Scale, explained 12.8% and 13.5% of the variability of adherence proportion to antihypertensives and oral antidiabetics/insulin, respectively. there was better HRQoL in the Color Vision, Driving and Social Functioning domains of the NEI VFQ-25. Individuals with lower scores on the NEI VFQ-25 and higher scores on the Morisky Scale presented greater chance to be nonadherent to the pharmacological treatment of diabetes and hypertension.

Gluttonous predators: how to estimate prey size when there are too many prey

Prey size is an important factor in food consumption. In studies of feeding ecology, prey items are usually measured individually using calipers or ocular micrometers. Among amphibians and reptiles, there are species that feed on large numbers of small prey items (e.g. ants, termites). This high intake makes it difficult to estimate prey size consumed by these animals. We addressed this problem by developing and evaluating a procedure for subsampling the stomach contents of such predators in order to estimate prey size. Specifically, we developed a protocol based on a bootstrap procedure to obtain a subsample with a precision error of at the most 5%, with a confidence level of at least 95%. This guideline should reduce the sampling effort and facilitate future studies on the feeding habits of amphibians and reptiles, and also provide a means of obtaining precise estimates of prey size.

Cumulative doses of radioiodine in the treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: knowing when to stop

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the efficacy of cumulative doses (CDs) of 131I-iodide therapy (RIT) in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The probability of progressive disease according to CDs was evaluated in patients < 45 years old and > 45 years old and correlated to tumor-node-metastasis (TNM), thyroglobulin values, histological types and variants, age, and zduration of the disease. RESULTS: At the end of a follow-up period of 69 ± 56 months, 85 out of 150 DTC patients submitted to fixed doses RIT had no evidence of disease, 47 had stable disease and 18 had progressive disease. Higher CDs were used in the more aggressive variants (p < 0.0001), higher TNM stages (p < 0.0001), and follicular carcinomas (p = 0.0034). Probability of disease progression was higher with CDs > 600 mCi in patients > 45 years old and with CDs > 800 mCi in patients < 45 years. CONCLUSION: Although some patients may still respond to high CDs, the impact of further RIT should be carefully evaluated and other treatment strategies may be warranted.