Validating Operator Event Sequence Diagrams: The case of an automated vehicle to human driver handovers

Predicting what drivers will do as vehicle control is handed over to them from automation is a relatively new challenge for the motor vehicle industry. Operator Event Sequence Diagrams (OESDs) offer a way of modeling the interactions between the driver and vehicle automation in the handover of control. In this paper, two studies are presented in which a range of handover strategies are tested. The anticipated driver strategies were modeled using OESDs to serve as predictions of driver behavior. Drivers were then observed in two separate studies: (1) using a Lower-Fidelity (vehicle seat and controls) simulator and (2) using a Higher-Fidelity (whole vehicle) simulator. Driver behavior during a takeover task was categorized according to the signal detection paradigm into hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections. The results showed that for all strategies in both sets of studies, the median criterion for validity was exceeded ( > 0.8), suggesting that OESDs made good predictions of driver behavior during the handover of the vehicle from automation to manual control.     

Impact of Changes in Sugar Exudate Created by Biological Damage to Tomato Plants on the Persistence of Escherichia coli O157:H7

ABSTRACT: The survival of enteric pathogens on vegetable leaves improves due to presence of phytopathogens. Phytopathogen damage alters the microenvironment on the leaf surface. The objective of this study was to identify differences in sugar concentrations in tomato leaves damaged by biotropic plant pathogens and determine if these differences affect Escherichia coli O157:H7 survival. E. coli O157:H7 survived better on tomato plants damaged by Xanthomonas campestris than on healthy plants (P = 0.012). The most common sugars and sugar alcohols in the damaged leaf exudate were glucose, fructose, inositol, and sucrose. The abundance of sucrose and inositol differed between the healthy and infected plants (P < 0.05). In this study, it was found that phytopathogen damaged plants increased sugar availability on the leaf surface for E. coli O157:H7 to proliferate. Keeping plants free from biological damage can limit the amount of leaching of sugars that could allow human pathogens to proliferate. There is the possibility of increasing food safety of vegetable products by limiting phytopathogenic damage to plants.     

定制边界滑移平行轴承的挤压效应(英文)

作者最近提出了一种利用滑块入口处的壁面滑移产生流体动压的新型轴承.笔者针对该类新轴承的油膜挤压问题,提出了基于滑移临界剪应力的数学模型,并给出了解析解.结果显示压力分布为分段光滑的抛物线,在滑移/非滑移边界,存在不连续的压力梯度.不同参数条件下的计算给出了不同的压力分布和壁面滑移类型.结果显示,对于代表滑块非浸润区长度的参数xt,最大压力并不总是随参数xt的减小而减小.存在一个参数xt的区间,在该区间内最大压力不变.与经典的挤压膜轴承类似,压力随膜厚的增加或趋进速度的减小而减小.笔者还发现临界剪应力的对挤压效应有重要的影响,揭示了此类新型轴承的一些内在的特性.     

Application of mid-infrared spectroscopy to the development and transfer of a manufacturing process for an active pharmaceutical ingredient

The use of in situ mid-infrared spectroscopy to support the development of a pharmaceutical manufacturing process is disclosed. Data on this two-stage telescoped reaction from several reaction scales (<50 mL to 1600 liters) and at multiple manufacturing locations is shown. In addition to providing data on both reactions in the telescope, the mid-IR data has been used to monitor an intermediate distillation operation and therefore it has been possible to profile the whole process. Data is also shown on aliquot addition during the first chemical transformation, which is used to check the instrumentation.     

Classification of South African red and white wines according to grape variety based on the non-coloured phenolic content

The phenolic content of South African wines was investigated for the purpose of their classification according to variety or cultivar. Twenty-two phenolic compounds were quantified by liquid chromatography in 55 red wines of five varieties and in 38 white wines of three varieties. Data were compared to literature values reported for wines from across the globe. ANOVA was used to determine significant concentration differences between the different varieties. Further grouping of the data was investigated by principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Finally, linear discriminant analysis was used to derive classification functions for the effective recognition of red and white wine varieties which allowed 100.0% and 97.4% correct recognition of red and white wines, respectively.     

Involving Support Partners in Obesity Treatment.

In this study, the authors examined whether the number or success of weight loss partners influences participants' outcomes in behavioral weight loss treatment. Overweight participants (n = 109) assigned to an exercise intensive group in a larger trial were encouraged to invite up to 3 partners to attend treatment. Weight losses at 6, 12, and 18 months were not associated with the number of partners (0-3) but were associated with the weight loss success of the partners. Participants with at least 1 successful partner (weight loss ≥10% at 6 months) lost significantly (p = .004) more weight at 6, 12, and 18 months than those with no successful partners and those without partners. Interclass correlations of weight change between participants and their partner(s) were strong at all time points (ps     

Dynamics of rotating paramagnetic particle chains simulated by particle dynamics,Stokesian dynamics and lattice Boltzmann methods

Paramagnetic particles, when subjected to external unidirectional rotating magnetic fields, form chains which rotate along with the magnetic field. In this paper three simulation methods, particle dynamics (PD), Stokesian dynamics (SD) and lattice Boltzmann (LB) methods, are used to study the dynamics of these rotating chains. SD simulations with two different levels of approximations—additivity of forces (AF) and additivity of velocities (AV)—for hydrodynamic interactions have been carried out. The effect of hydrodynamic interactions between paramagnetic particles under the effect of a rotating magnetic field is analyzed by comparing the LB and SD simulations, both of which include hydrodynamic interactions, with PD simulations in which hydrodynamic interactions are neglected. It was determined that for macroscopically observable properties like average chain length as a function of Mason number, reasonable agreement is found between all the three methods. For microscopic properties like the force distribution on each particle along the chain, inclusion of hydrodynamic interaction becomes important to understand the underlying physics of chain formation. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.