Bus accident analysis of routes with/without bus priority

This paper summarises findings on road safety performance and bus-involved accidents in Melbourne along roads where bus priority measures had been applied. Results from an empirical analysis of the accident types revealed significant reduction in the proportion of accidents involving buses hitting stationary objects and vehicles, which suggests the effect of bus priority in addressing manoeuvrability issues for buses. A mixed-effects negative binomial (MENB) regression and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) modelling of bus accidents considering wider influences on accident rates at a route section level also revealed significant safety benefits when bus priority is provided. Sensitivity analyses done on the BPNN model showed general agreement in the predicted accident frequency between both models. The slightly better performance recorded by the MENB model results suggests merits in adopting a mixed effects modelling approach for accident count prediction in practice given its capability to account for unobserved location and time-specific factors. A major implication of this research is that bus priority in Melbourne's context acts to improve road safety and should be a major consideration for road management agencies when implementing bus priority and road schemes.     

Permutation-based Power System Restoration in Smart Grid Considering Load Prioritization

Abstract

In the smart grid environment, a power system restoration plan with flexibility is needed to improve reliability and efficiency in an automated way. Traditional system restoration methods based on fixed time intervals may not meet the requirement. This article proposes a new permutation-based model for power system restoration within an optimized flexible duration considering available generator capability and load prioritization. By utilizing this new model, power system restoration is formulated as a permutation-based combinatorial optimization problem to maximize the restored load per unit time. Finally an action-by-action flexible time schedule is obtained for generator startup. A novel quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm, called the quantum-inspired differential evolutionary algorithm, has been applied to solve this problem due its to high population diversity and fast convergence. The effectiveness of the proposed restoration approach has been validated using IEEE 39- and 57-bus systems.     

Targeting Immune Senescence in Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is one of the main underlying causes of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). It is associated with chronic inflammation and intimal thickening as well as the involvement of multiple cell types including immune cells. The engagement of innate or adaptive immune response has either athero-protective or atherogenic properties in exacerbating or alleviating atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, the mechanism of action of immune cells, particularly monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and B- and T-lymphocytes have been discussed. Immuno-senescence is associated with aging, viral infections, genetic predispositions, and hyperlipidemia, which contribute to atherosclerosis. Immune senescent cells secrete SASP that delays or accelerates atherosclerosis plaque growth and associated pathologies such as aneurysms and coronary artery disease. Senescent cells undergo cell cycle arrest, morphological changes, and phenotypic changes in terms of their abundances and secretome profile including cytokines, chemokines, matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) expressions. The senescence markers are used in therapeutics and currently, senolytics represent one of the emerging treatments where specific targets and clearance of senescent cells are being considered as therapy targets for the prevention or treatment of atherosclerosis.     

Resource Allocation Based on User Pairing and Subcarrier Matching for Downlink Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Networks

The traditional orthogonal multiple access(OMA)is unable to satisfy the needs of large number of smart devices.To increase the transmission rate in the limited spectrum resource,implementation of both non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA)and successive interference cancelation(SIC)is essential.In this paper,an optimal resource allocation algorithm in NOMA is proposed to maximize the total system rate in a multi-sector multi-subcarrier relay-assisted communication network.Since the original problem is a non-convex problem with mixed integer programming which is non-deterministic polynomial-time(NP)-hard,a three-step solution is proposed to solve the primal problem.Firstly,we determine the optimal power allocation of the outer users by using the approach of monotonic discrimination,and then the optimal user pairing is determined.Secondly,the successive convex approximation(SCA)method is introduced to transform the non-convex problem involving central users into convex one,and the Lagrangian dual method is used to determine the optimal solution.Finally,the standard Hungarian algorithm is utilized to determine the optimal subcarrier matching.The simulation results show that resource allocation algorithm is able to meet the user performance requirements with NOMA,and the total system rate is improved compared to the existing algorithms.     

An Energy-Efficient Mobile-Sink Path-Finding Strategy for UAV WSNs

Data collection using a mobile sink in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has received much attention in recent years owing to its potential to reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes and thus enhancing the lifetime of the WSN. However, a critical issue of this approach is the latency of data to reach the base station. Although many data collection algorithms have been introduced in the literature to reduce delays in data delivery, their performances are affected by the flight trajectory taken by the mobile sink, which might not be optimized yet. This paper proposes a new path-finding strategy, called Energy-efficiency Path-finding Strategy (EPS) in the Air-Ground Collaborative Wireless Sensor Network (AGCWSN). The proposed approach is able to greatly enhance the efficiency of data collection. The performance of the proposed strategy is simulated and compared with the existing strategies over several parameters. The simulation results show that the mobile sink with EPS can collects data with lower data delivery delay as compared to other existing strategies. The number of data retransmissions between sensor nodes and mobile sink in EPS is also the lowest in EPS among several existing strategies. The data delivery delay is 66% and 120% lower than Rest Center Tractor Scanning (RCTS) and Non-stop Center Tractor Scanning (NCTS) in irregular and grid topology respectively. The data delivery delay is 62% lower than Two Row Scanning (TRS) in grid topology and 120% lower than RkM in irregular topology. The packet loss of EPS-2 is 1.3% lower than RkM.     

Tuning the Innate Immune Response to Cyclic Dinucleotides by Using Atomic Mutagenesis

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) trigger the innate immune response in eukaryotic cells through the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) signaling pathway. To decipher this complex cellular process, a better correlation between structure and downstream function is required. Herein, we report the design and immunostimulatory effect of a novel group of c-di-GMP analogues. By employing an “atomic mutagenesis” strategy, changing one atom at a time, a class of gradually modified CDNs was prepared. These c-di-GMP analogues induce type-I interferon (IFN) production, with some being more potent than c-di-GMP, their native archetype. This study demonstrates that CDN analogues bearing modified nucleobases are able to tune the innate immune response in eukaryotic cells.     

A review of antimicrobial fabric containing nanostructures metal‐based compound

Textile can be a potential microorganism's propagation site because it contacts with human skin endows optimal conditions combination of nutrient sources, temperature, and moisture which provides conducive environment for microorganism growth. Thus, the development of antibacterial textile is crucial to inhibit the growth of microorganisms for protection the health and safety of wearer. This review article focuses on several metal‐based nanoparticles possess biocidal feature namely, Ag, ZnO, Cu based, TiO₂, and other minor metals based such as iron based, CeO₂, Au, SiO₂, Ni, and Pt. The phenomenology of metal nanoparticles associated to the antibacterial effects and possible mechanisms of action against bacteria have been highlighted. This review also discussed the synthesis techniques and effects of incorporation additive materials of those metal‐based nanoparticles to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 2017. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Investigating the effect of pressure on a vertical two-phase upward flow with a high viscosity liquid

This article presents void fraction and pressure gradient data for sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) with gas densities of 28 and 45 kg/m³ and oil (with viscosity 35 times that for water) in a 127 mm diameter pipe. The superficial velocities of gas ranged from 0.1 to 3 m/s and those for liquid from 0.1 to 1 m/s, respectively. Measurements of void fraction data were recorded using a capacitance wire mesh sensor (WMS) system, which permits the 3D visualization of the flow patterns. All the data were obtained with a data acquisition frequency of 1,000 Hz. A differential pressure transducer was used to measure the pressure drops along the length of the pipe. The WMS provide time and cross-sectionally resolved data on void fraction and from an analysis of its output, flow patterns were identified using the characteristic signatures of probability density function (PDF) plot of time series of void fraction. The PDF plots showed the single peak shapes associated with bubbly and churn flows but not the twin-peaked shape usually seen in slug flows. This confirms previous work in larger diameter pipes but with less viscous liquids. For the bubble and churn flows investigated, the pressure gradient was observed to decrease with an increase in gas superficial velocity. Nevertheless, there was an insignificant observed effect of pressure on void fraction below certain transitional flow rates, the effect however became significant beyond these values. In the present work, wisps appear to be smaller, which might be due to the different fluid properties of the working fluids employed. In addition, wisps are easily revealed as long as there is a transition between churn and annular flows regardless of the pressure. Experimental data on void fraction and pressure gradient are compared against existing data. Reasonably good agreements were observed from the results of the comparison.