Trapped Modes in a Three-Layer Fluid

In this work, trapped mode frequencies are computed for a submerged horizontal circular cylinder with the hydrodynamic set-up involving an infinite depth three-layer incompressible fluid with layer-wise different densities. The impermeable cylinder is fully immersed in either the bottom layer or the upper layer. The effect of surface tension at the surface of separation is neglected. In this set-up, there exist three wave numbers: the lowest one on the free surface and the other two on the internal interfaces. For each wave number, there exist two modes for which trapped waves exist. The existence of these trapped modes is shown by numerical evidence. We investigate the variation of these trapped modes subject to change in the depth of the middle layer as well as the submergence depth. We show numerically that two-layer and single-layer results cannot be recovered in the double and single limiting cases of the density ratios tending to unity. The existence of trapped modes shows that in general, a radiation condition for the waves at infinity is insufficient for the uniqueness of the solution of the scattering problem.     

Correction to: Shared school transportation: determinants of carpooling as children’s school travel mode in California

Transportation - In the online published article, in figure 2 a value is missing in column 4. The correct figure is given in this correction. The original article has been corrected.     

Shared school transportation: determinants of carpooling as children’s school travel mode in California

Transportation - Carpooling has potential as an alternative mode of school transportation along with other viable options, especially at a time when technology continues to increase our reliance...     

Influence of vehicular traffic on urban air quality – A case study of Hyderabad,India

In the present study, impact of vehicular traffic emissions on black carbon aerosol mass concentration, trace gases and ground reaching solar radiation were analyzed during nationwide truck strike of 5–12 January, 2009 over urban environment of Hyderabad, India. A significant reduction of about 57%, 60%, 40% and 50% was observed in black carbon, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ozone respectively during nationwide truck strike period. Results of the study are important for source apportionment of pollutants as the strike created natural laboratory for studying the impact of diesel operated trucks on urban air quality.     

Efficient clustering and simulated annealing approach for circuit partitioning

Circuit net list bipartitioning using simulated annealing technique has been proposed in the paper. The method converges asymptotically and probabilistically to global optimization. The circuit net list is partitioned into two partitions such that the number of interconnections between the partitions is minimized. The proposed method begins with an innovative clustering technique to obtain a good initial solution. Results obtained show the versatility of the proposed method in solving non polynomial hard problems of circuit net list partitioning and show an improvement over those available in literature.     

An optimization model to determine an appropriate budget for improving work zone safety

In order to keep up with demand, government agencies must maintain and rehabilitate roadways so the supply to the public is met. However, while maintaining and rehabilitating roadways, work zones are a major threat to both the safety of the drivers, as well as the workers. In the U.S., 799 people were killed in work zone crashes in 2017 which comprises 2.1% of total fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. It is therefore crucial to maximize the safety within the work zone while maintaining under a limited budget. The purpose of this study is to improve work zone safety within a limited budget most efficiently. This study will develop an optimization model to determine appropriate budget for improving work zone safety. The appropriate budget can be defined as the budget below which the rate of safety improvement per dollar spending is higher than the spending above the budget. The primary factors in the model included a wide range of safety countermeasures and the implementation costs. The model identified a best mix of safety countermeasures minimizing expected number of crashes based on the crash modification factors of the safety countermeasures within an appropriate budget. The appropriate budget was determined by conducting a sensitivity analysis. The developed methodology utilized a linear integer programming to identify the best mix of safety countermeasures. The methodology was implemented on a work zone project as a case study. The developed methodology will help engineers in making funding decisions to improve safety on work zones.     

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针对具有模糊因数的多目标交通问题,提出了一种优先模糊目标规划方法。本文首先建立了模糊目标的隶属度函数,其次,将隶属度函数的最高度作为期望水平并引入了偏差变量,从而将隶属度函数转化为隶属度目标。通过最小化负偏差变量得到最满意解。对模糊目标不同优先级结构下的解进行了敏感性分析,并用欧氏距离函数确定了最佳的目标优先级结构,通过最小化后悔值达到决策区域理想点决策值,得到决策单元最满意解。最后,应用实例对本文方法进行分析验证。     

白藜芦醇对重症急性胰腺炎大鼠肝脏的保护作用

目的 探讨白藜芦醇对实验性重症急性胰腺炎(severe acute pancreatitis, SAP)大鼠肝功能的保护作用.方法 96只成年雄性SD大鼠随机分为假手术(sham operation, SO)组、重症急性胰腺炎(SAP)组、地塞米松(dexamethasone, DEX)治疗组和白藜芦醇(resveratrol, RES)治疗组.各组大鼠均于制模后3、6、12h采集标本.生化方法进行肝功能测定;酶联免疫吸附试验(enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, ELISA)测定血清TNF-α和IL-6含量;透射电镜观察胰腺和肝脏超微结构的变化;RT-PCR检测凋亡调控基因Bax、Bcl-2和caspase-3 mRNA表达;Western Blot检测凋亡调控基因Bax、Bcl-2、caspase-3和线粒体内细胞色素C蛋白的表达.结果 SAP组各时间点血清谷丙转氨酶(alanine aminotransferase, ALT)、谷草转氨酶(aspartate aminotransferase, AST)和总胆红素(total bilirubin, TBIL)水平均明显高于SO组(P＜0.05),RES组和DEX组肝功损害较SAP组明显降低(P＜0.05).RES组和DEX组TNF-α、IL-6含量均明显低于SAP组(P＜0.05).SAP组出现明显细胞肿胀、毛细血管淤血、血栓形成、线粒体肿胀和细胞凋亡等超微结构的变化,RES组和DEX组上述改变明显减轻.RES组Bax、caspase-3 mRNA表达显著低于SAP组(P＜0.05),Bcl-2 mRNA表达明显高于SAP组.Western blot 检测结果与RT-PCR结果一致.RES组各项指标与DEX组差异不显著(P＞0.05).结论 白藜芦醇可以降低SAP大鼠肝细胞凋亡的发生,从而起到减轻SAP介导的肝脏功能损伤的作用.     

Modeling and analysis of a fuel-injection pump used in diesel engines

The Fuel-Injection Pump (FIP) used in diesel engine has a higher-pair cam-mechanism to pressurize the fuel for injection. This paper proposes a methodology to model FIP from a multibody Dynamics (MBD) perspective. The results from the model include the temporal behavior of driving torque, contact Hertz stress and reaction forces at various joints. The model helps the designer to assess the effect of various cam profiles, link parameters and other design variables. It is necessary that these parameters be optimized for future high pressure applications. For this purpose, a cam-mechanism with offset follower axis is analysed. Decoupled Natural Orthogonal Complement (DeNOC) matrices based algorithm is used to model FIP without and with offset cam-mechanism. The study shows that, the offset cam-mechanism allows reduction in the side-thrust, reaction forces, and the contact Hertz stress acting on the cam-follower interface. As a typical case, for an FIP working around a pressure value of 600 bar, an optimum offset value is found to be 9.5 mm and it shows a reduction of about 45% in side thrust values. To validate the modeling approach, experimental studies are performed on pump without and with offset cam-mechanism. Experimental results are in qualitative agreement with the theoretical model results.     

Real world driving cycle for motorcycles in Edinburgh

Knowledge of the driving cycle is an important requirement in the evaluation of exhaust emissions. Data were collected from trips performed on five routes between the home addresses in the surrounding areas and place of work at Napier University in Edinburgh. A real world Edinburgh motorcycle driving cycle (EMDC) is developed for each of the urban and rural roads, using this data. Forty-four trips were made on the routes in both urban and rural areas. We assess motorcycle speed, percentage time spent in cruise, accelerations, decelerations and idling and their statistical validity over trip lengths. The results show that EMDC has a cycle length of 770 and 656 s for urban and rural trips, which are higher than those of the European Commission’s driving cycle for cars used for emission estimations of motorcycles. Time spent in acceleration and deceleration modes of EMDC are found to be significantly higher than in other driving cycle studies, reflecting diverse driving conditions in Edinburgh.