Search results for: distracted driving

Authors: Huma Aly, Caramel Rodger, Saman Zafar

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The present study explored the role of caste system in determining and understanding various personality characteristics related to different castes. It analyzed various personality characteristics of Arains, Jutts and Sheikhs caste of Pakistan. Reasons for the emphasis on within caste marriage in relation to personality characteristics were identified. In the present study a sample of 200 unmarried students were taken from different institutes of Lahore, Pakistan. 117 students were taken from Fast University and 83 from LUMS (Lahore University of Management and Sciences) on the basis of purposive and convenience sampling. 76 Arains, 59 Sheikhs and 65 Jutts were taken. Non-probability purposive sampling, quantitative research method, big five personality scale were used. Kruskal Wallis test was used as three independent groups were taken in the study. Results revealed various personality characteristics associated with different castes namely Arain, Jutts and Sheikhs. Individuals belonging to Jutts caste were reported to be high on being talkative, findings faults, doing thorough job, being depressed, reservedness, quarrelling, reliable, tensed, deep thinker, worrying a lot, imaginative, lazy, inventive, assertive, cold aloof, preserved and rude. Arains were reported to be original, helpful, careless,relaxed, curious, enthusiastic, forgiving, quiet, trusting, moody, shy, retaining anger, routinely working, planners, nervous, playing with ideas, artistic, cooperative, easily distracted and sophisticated. Lastly, Sheikhs were reported to be energetic, disorganized, stable. This study will play a significant part in changing the traditional viewpoint of majority of elders of our society who still have immense association with the caste they belong to.

Keywords: castes, personality, Arains, Jutts, Sheikhs, Pakistan

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Authors: Sakapas Saengchai, Wilasinee Jintalikitdee, Matinee Kongsatit, Natapol Puaprasert

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The study on promotion of public participation in community planning is a qualitative research. The data collection tools included participating observation, in-depth interview and focus group of executives of sub-district administrative organizations, sub-district headmen, community leaders of 5 villages, including civil society forums for exchanging ideas of village members. The study results revealed that key promotions of public participation in community planning were as follows: 1) Perception on public authorities’ information: Public relations should be set and information on community planning, key principles of local people participation should be prepared. Collaboration with community leaders in each village via sub-district administrative organizations should be established. 2) Discussion: In civil society forums, village members should brainstorm their opinions towards community development, village development, quality of life, current situation and problems to be revolved. 3) Participation: Members of each village should jointly participate, with community leaders, in setting sub-district development policies and community development projects. 4) Collaboration: To achieve goals, communities of each member should participate in project implementation and activities of community plans. 5) People power promotion: In each stage of communication planning, community leaders, village committees, local people should jointly set directions of village development and make decisions. This will enhance their joint learning and create community driving power. Community will become strong leading to sustainable self-reliance.

Keywords: people participation, community plans, community development, community driving power

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Authors: Yating Yang, Xue Zhang, Chengli Zhao

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In the increasingly interconnected global environment brought about by globalization, it is crucial for countries to timely grasp the development motivations in relevant research fields of other countries and seize development opportunities. Motivation, as the intrinsic driving force behind actions, is abstract in nature, making it difficult to directly measure and evaluate. Drawing on the ideas of social influence network theory, the research motivations of a country can be understood as the driving force behind the development of its science and technology sector, which is simultaneously influenced by both the country itself and other countries/regions. In response to this issue, this paper improves upon Friedkin's social influence network theory and applies it to motivation description, constructing a dynamic alliance network and hostile network centered around the United States and China, as well as a sensitivity matrix, to remotely assess the changes in national research motivations under the influence of international relations. Taking artificial intelligence as a case study, the research reveals that the motivations of most countries/regions are declining, gradually shifting from a neutral attitude to a negative one. The motivation of the United States is hardly influenced by other countries/regions and remains at a high level, while the motivation of China has been consistently increasing in recent years. By comparing the results with real data, it is found that this model can reflect, to some extent, the trends in national motivations.

Keywords: influence network theory, remote assessment, relation matrix, dynamic sensitivity matrix

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Authors: Ren Moses, Emmanuel Kidando, Eren Ozguven, Yassir Abdelrazig

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Although older drivers (defined as those of age 65 and above) are less involved with speeding, alcohol use as well as night driving, they are more vulnerable to severe crashes. The major contributing factors for severe crashes include frailty and medical complications. Several studies have evaluated the contributing factors on severity of crashes. However, few studies have established the impact of travel time reliability (TTR) on road safety. In particular, the impact of TTR on senior adults who face several challenges including hearing difficulties, decreasing of the processing skills and cognitive problems in driving is not well established. Therefore, this study focuses on determining possible impacts of TTR on the traffic safety with focus on elderly drivers. Historical travel speed data from freeway links in the study area were used to calculate travel time and the associated TTR metrics that is, planning time index, the buffer index, the standard deviation of the travel time and the probability of congestion. Four-year information on crashes occurring on these freeway links was acquired. The binary logit model estimated using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling technique was used to evaluate variables that could be influencing elderly crash severity. Preliminary results of the analysis suggest that TTR is statistically significant in affecting the severity of a crash involving an elderly driver. The result suggests that one unit increase in the probability of congestion reduces the likelihood of the elderly severe crash by nearly 22%. These findings will enhance the understanding of TTR and its impact on the elderly crash severity.

Keywords: highway safety, travel time reliability, elderly drivers, traffic modeling

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Authors: William Albeiro Alvarez, Gloria Patricia Jaramillo, Ivan Reinaldo Sarmiento

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Understanding the behavior of individuals and the different human factors that influence the choice when faced with a complex system such as transportation is one of the most complicated aspects of measuring in the components that constitute the modeling of route choice due to that various behaviors and driving mode directly or indirectly affect the choice. During the last two decades, with the development of information and communications technologies, new data collection techniques have emerged such as GPS, geolocation with mobile phones, apps for choosing the route between origin and destination, individual service transport applications among others, where an interest has been generated to improve discrete choice models when considering the incorporation of these developments as well as psychological factors that affect decision making. This paper implements a discrete choice model that proposes and estimates a hybrid model that integrates route choice models and latent variables based on the observation on the route of a sample of public taxi drivers from the city of Medellín, Colombia in relation to its behavior, personality, socioeconomic characteristics, and driving mode. The set of choice options includes the routes generated by the individual service transport applications versus the driver's choice. The hybrid model consists of measurement equations that relate latent variables with measurement indicators and utilities with choice indicators along with structural equations that link the observable characteristics of drivers with latent variables and explanatory variables with utilities.

Keywords: behavior choice model, human factors, hybrid model, real time data

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Authors: Abdul Azarrudin M. A., Pothiraj K., Kandasamy Satish

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In the current automobile scenario, there comes a demand on more sophistication and comfort drive feel on passenger segments. The clutch pedal effort is one such customer touch feels in manual transmission vehicles, where the driver continuous to operate the clutch pedal in his entire the driving maneuvers. Hence optimum pedal efforts at green condition and over mileage to be ensured for fatigue free the driving. As friction is one the predominant factor and its tendency to challenge the technicality by causing the function degradation. One such semi-hydraulic systems shows load efficiency of about 70-75% over lifetime only due to the increase in friction which leads to the increase in pedal effort and cause fatigue to the vehicle driver. This work deals with the study of friction with different interfaces and its influence in the fulcrum points over mileage, with the objective of understanding the trend over mileage and determining the alternative ways of resolving it. In that one way of methodology is the reduction of friction by experimental investigation of various friction reduction interfaces like metal-to-metal interface and it has been tried out and is detailed further. Also, the specific attention has been put up considering the fulcrum load and its contact interfaces to move on with this study. The main results of the experimental data with the influence of three different contact interfaces are being presented with an ultimate intention of ending up into less fatigue with longer consistent pedal effort, thus smoothens the operation of the end user. The Experimental validation also has been done through rig-level test setup to depict the performance at static condition and in-parallel vehicle level test has also been performed to record the additional influences if any.

Keywords: automobile, clutch, friction, fork

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Authors: Tadele Tesfay Teame, Tsegaye Abrehame, Hágen István Zsombor

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Liquidity is one of the main concerns for banks, and thus achieving the optimum level of liquidity is critical. The main objective of this study is to discover the driving force of selected private commercial banks’ liquidity. In order to achieve the objective explanatory research design and quantitative research approach were used. Data has been collected from a secondary source of the sampled Ethiopian private commercial banks’ financial statements, the National Bank of Ethiopia, and the Minister of Finance, the sample covering the period from 2011 to 2022. Bank-specific and macroeconomic variables were analyzed by using the balanced panel fixed effect regression model. Bank’s liquidity ratio is measured by the total liquid asset to total deposits. The findings of the study revealed that bank size, capital adequacy, loan growth rate, and non-performing loan had a statistically significant impact on private commercial banks’ liquidity, and annual inflation rate and interest rate margin had a statistically significant impact on the liquidity of Ethiopian private commercial banks measured by L1 (bank liquidity). Thus, banks in Ethiopia should not only be concerned about internal structures and policies/procedures, but they must consider both the internal environment and the macroeconomic environment together in developing their strategies to efficiently manage their liquidity position and private commercial banks to maintain their financial proficiency shall have bank liquidity management policy by assimilating both bank-specific and macro-economic variables.

Keywords: liquidity, Ethiopian private commercial banks, liquidity ratio, panel data regression analysis

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Authors: Wei Ji

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This study was conducted in the Kansas City metropolitan area of the United States, which has experienced significant urban sprawling in recent decades. The remote sensing of land cover changes in this area spanned over four decades from 1972 through 2010. The project was implemented in two stages: the first stage focused on detection of long-term trends of urban land cover change, while the second one examined how to detect the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. For the first-stage study, six Landsat images were used with a time interval of about five years for the period from 1972 through 2001. Four major land cover types, built-up land, forestland, non-forest vegetation land, and surface water, were mapped using supervised image classification techniques. The study found that over the three decades the built-up lands in the study area were more than doubled, which was mainly at the expense of non-forest vegetation lands. Surprisingly and interestingly, the area also saw a significant gain in surface water coverage. This observation raised questions: How have human activities and precipitation variation jointly impacted surface water cover during recent decades? How can we detect such coupled impacts through remote sensing analysis? These questions led to the second stage of the study, in which we designed and developed approaches to detecting fine-scale surface waters and analyzing coupled effects of human impact and precipitation variation on the waters. To effectively detect urban landscape changes that might be jointly shaped by precipitation variation, our study proposed “urban wetscapes” (loosely-defined urban wetlands) as a new indicator for remote sensing detection. The study examined whether urban wetscape dynamics was a sensitive indicator of the coupled effects of the two driving forces. To better detect this indicator, a rule-based classification algorithm was developed to identify fine-scale, hidden wetlands that could not be appropriately detected based on their spectral differentiability by a traditional image classification. Three SPOT images for years 1992, 2008, and 2010, respectively were classified with this technique to generate the four types of land cover as described above. The spatial analyses of remotely-sensed wetscape changes were implemented at the scales of metropolitan, watershed, and sub-watershed, as well as based on the size of surface water bodies in order to accurately reveal urban wetscape change trends in relation to the driving forces. The study identified that urban wetscape dynamics varied in trend and magnitude from the metropolitan, watersheds, to sub-watersheds in response to human impacts at different scales. The study also found that increased precipitation in the region in the past decades swelled larger wetlands in particular while generally smaller wetlands decreased mainly due to human development activities. These results confirm that wetscape dynamics can effectively reveal the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. As such, remote sensing of this indicator provides new insights into the relationships between urban land cover changes and driving forces.

Keywords: urban land cover, human impact, climate change, rule-based classification, across-scale analysis

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Authors: Zhiyong Zheng, Xu Li, Liang Huang, Zhengliang Sun, Jianhua Xu

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Yaw angle plays a significant role in many vehicle safety applications, such as collision avoidance and lane-keeping system. Although the estimation of the yaw angle has been extensively studied in existing literature, it is still the main challenge to simultaneously achieve a reliable and cost-effective solution in complex urban environments. This paper proposes a multi-stage learning framework to estimate the yaw angle with a monocular camera, which can deal with the challenge in a more reliable manner. In the first stage, an efficient road detection network is designed to extract the road region, providing a highly reliable reference for the estimation. In the second stage, a variational auto-encoder (VAE) is proposed to learn the distribution patterns of road regions, which is particularly suitable for modeling the changing patterns of yaw angle under different driving maneuvers, and it can inherently enhance the generalization ability. In the last stage, a gated recurrent unit (GRU) network is used to capture the temporal correlations of the learned patterns, which is capable to further improve the estimation accuracy due to the fact that the changes of deflection angle are relatively easier to recognize among continuous frames. Afterward, the yaw angle can be obtained by combining the estimated deflection angle and the road direction stored in a roadway map. Through effective multi-stage learning, the proposed framework presents high reliability while it maintains better accuracy. Road-test experiments with different driving maneuvers were performed in complex urban environments, and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Keywords: gated recurrent unit, multi-stage learning, reliable estimation, variational auto-encoder, yaw angle

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Authors: Anisa Gumel

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This study examines the present condition of solid waste management in Nigeria. The author explores the challenges and opportunities affecting municipal solid waste management in "Nigeria" and determines the most profound challenges by analysing the interdependence and interrelationship among identified variables. In this study, multiple stakeholders, including 15 waste management professionals interviewed online, were utilised to identify the difficulties and opportunities affecting municipal solid waste in Nigeria. The interviews were transcribed and coded using NVivo to produce pertinent variables. An online survey of Nigerian internet and social media users was done to validate statements made by experts on the identified variable. In addition, a panel of five experts participated in a focus group discussion to discover the most influential factors that influence municipal solid waste management in Nigeria by analysing the interrelationships as well as the driving and reliant power of variables. The results show significant factors affecting municipal solid waste in Nigeria, including inadequate funding, lack of knowledge, and absence of legislation, as well as behavioural, financial, technological, and legal concerns grouped into five categories. Some claims stated by experts in the interview are supported by the survey data, while others are not. In addition, the focus group reveals patterns, correlations, and driving forces between variables that have been analysed. This study will provide decision-makers with a roadmap for resolving important waste management concerns in Nigeria and managing scarce resources effectively. It will also help non-governmental organisations combat malaria in Nigeria and other underdeveloped nations. In addition, the work contributes to the literature for future scholars to consult.

Keywords: municipal solid waste, stakeholders, public, experts

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Authors: Dogaru-Ulieru Valentin, Sălișteanu Ioan Corneliu, Ardeleanu Mihăiță Nicolae, Broscăreanu Ștefan, Sălișteanu Bogdan, Mihai Mihail

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The SiaMOTO system is a communications and data processing platform for vehicle traffic. The human factor is the most important factor in the generation of this data, as the driver is the one who dictates the trajectory of the vehicle. Like any trajectory, specific parameters refer to position, speed and acceleration. Constant knowledge of these parameters allows complex analyses. Roadways allow many vehicles to travel through their confined space, and the overlapping trajectories of several vehicles increase the likelihood of collision events, known as road accidents. Any such event has causes that lead to its occurrence, so the conditions for its occurrence are known. The human factor is predominant in deciding the trajectory parameters of the vehicle on the road, so monitoring it by knowing the events reported by the DiaMOTO device over time, will generate a guide to target any potentially high-risk driving behavior and reward those who control the driving phenomenon well. In this paper, we have focused on detailing the communication infrastructure of the DiaMOTO device with the traffic data collection server, the infrastructure through which the database that will be used for complex AI/DLM analysis is built. The central element of this description is the data string in CODEC-8 format sent by the DiaMOTO device to the SiaMOTO collection server database. The data presented are specific to a functional infrastructure implemented in an experimental model stage, by installing on a number of 50 vehicles DiaMOTO unique code devices, integrating ADAS and GPS functions, through which vehicle trajectories can be monitored 24 hours a day.

Keywords: DiaMOTO, Codec-8, ADAS, GPS, driver monitoring

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Authors: Mauro Iannazzone, Carmine D'Agostino

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Off-shore wind turbines are currently considered as a reliable source of renewable energy Worldwide and especially in the UK. Most of the operational off-shore wind turbines located in shallow waters (i.e. < 30 m) are supported on monopiles. Monopiles are open-ended steel tubes with diameter ranging between 4 to 6 m. It is expected that future off-shore wind farms will be located in water depths as high as 70 m. Therefore, alternative foundation arrangements are needed. Foundations for off-shore structures normally consist of open-ended piles driven into the soil by means of impact hammers. During pile installation, the soil inside the pile may be mobilized by the increasing shear strength such as to prevent more soil from entering the pile. This phenomenon is known as soil plugging, and represents an important issue as it may change significantly the driving resistance of open-ended piles. In fact, if the plugging formation is unexpected, the installation may require more powerful and more expensive hammers. Engineers need to estimate whether the driven pile will be installed in a plugged or unplugged mode. As a consequence, a prediction of the degree of soil plugging is required in order to correctly predict the drivability of the pile. This work presents a brief review of the state-of-the-art of pile driving and approaches used to predict formation of soil plugs. In addition, a novel analytical approach is proposed, which is based on the vertical equilibrium of a plugged pile. Differently from previous studies, this research takes into account the enhancement of the stress within the soil plug. Finally, the work presents and discusses a series of experimental tests, which are carried out on small-scale models piles to validate the analytical solution.

Keywords: off-shore wind turbines, pile installation, soil plugging, wind energy

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Authors: Bruno Gontijo Batista

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This paper analyzes how the Socially Aware Design (SAwD) and the Value-oriented and Culturally Informed Approach (VCIA) design model can be used to develop an edutainment game for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The SAwD approach seeks a design that considers new dimensions in human-computer interaction, such as culture, aesthetics, emotional and social aspects of the user's everyday experience. From this perspective, the game development was VCIA model-based, including the users in the design process through participatory methodologies, considering their behavioral patterns, culture, and values. This is because values, beliefs, and behavioral patterns influence how technology is understood and used and the way it impacts people's lives. This model can be applied at different stages of design, which goes from explaining the problem and organizing the requirements to the evaluation of the prototype and the final solution. Thus, this paper aims to understand how this model can be used in the development of an edutainment game for children with ADHD. In the area of education and learning, children with ADHD have difficulties both in behavior and in school performance, as they are easily distracted, which is reflected both in classes and on tests. Therefore, they must perform tasks that are exciting or interesting for them, once the pleasure center in the brain is activated, it reinforces the center of attention, leaving the child more relaxed and focused. In this context, serious games have been used as part of the treatment of ADHD in children aiming to improve focus and attention, stimulate concentration, as well as be a tool for improving learning in areas such as math and reading, combining education and entertainment (edutainment). Thereby, as a result of the research, it was developed, in a participatory way, applying the VCIA model, an edutainment game prototype, for a mobile platform, for children between 8 and 12 years old.

Keywords: ADHD, edutainment, SAwD, VCIA

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Authors: Ming Fang Hsieh

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the reading responses of infants and toddlers across different contexts in nursery centers. The study adopted Sipe’s framework for children’s literacy education to explore the reading behavior of infants and toddlers. The study was conducted at two nurseries. The sample comprised 46 infants and toddlers and 6 caregivers. The methods of data collection included observation of various reading activities, including shared reading in a group, one-on-one reading, and unstructured reading activities, as well as interviews with caregivers. The data obtained through observations and interviews were transcribed and analyzed. The caregivers and the children’s parents signed an informed consent form before the start of the study. There was no risk anticipated during the course of the study. The analysis revealed five types of reading responses exhibited by the infants and toddlers: (1) linguistic- verbally responding to reading, repeating vocabulary, and answering questions; (2) affective- concentrating on reading or requesting for repeated reading, leaning on books, and gazing at caregivers; (3) explosive- children under 18 months were observed manipulating books through their bodies or different movements like flipping, rotating, or tapping on books; (4) social- during unstructured reading context, children were seen interacting with peers or following the rules of reading, sitting properly, and choosing one book at a time; and (5) distracted responses- paying attention to something else instead of reading, walking around, and playing, which was usually observed during shared reading in a group. The study concluded that children’s distraction and explosive reading behaviors may be a part of the process of their emergent reading behavior. As children develop, they demonstrate an increase in verbal responses, improved concentration, and better behavior. The study suggests that adults should continue to provide appropriate reading opportunities beginning from infancy to nurture children’s reading behaviors.

Keywords: reading response, infants and toddlers, early reading, picture books

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Authors: Lucas Bublitz, Michael Herdrich

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By achieving the first commercialization approval in San Francisco the Autonomous Driving (AD) industry proves the technology maturity of the SAE L4 AD systems and the corresponding software and hardware stack. This milestone reflects the upcoming phase in the industry, where the focus is now about scaling and supervising larger autonomous vehicle (AV) fleets in different operation areas. This requires an operation framework, which organizes and assigns responsibilities to the relevant AV technology and operation stakeholders from the AV system provider, the Remote Intervention Operator, the MaaS provider and regulatory & approval authority. This holistic operation framework consists of technological, processual, and organizational activities to ensure safe operation for fully automated vehicles. Regarding the supervision of large autonomous vehicle fleets, a major focus is on the continuous field monitoring. The field monitoring approach must reflect the safety and security criticality of incidents in the field during driving operation. This includes an automatic containment approach, with the overall goal to avoid safety critical incidents and reduce downtime by a malfunction of the AD software stack. An End-to-end (E2E) field monitoring approach detects critical faults in the field, uses a knowledge-based approach for evaluating the safety criticality and supports the automatic containment of these E/E faults. Applying such an approach will ensure the scalability of AV fleets, which is determined by the handling of incidents in the field and the continuous regulatory compliance of the technology after enhancing the Operational Design Domain (ODD) or the function scope by Functions on Demand (FoD) over the entire digital product lifecycle.

Keywords: field monitoring, incident management, multicompliance management for AI in AD, root cause analysis, database approach

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Authors: Wei Liu, Xionghui Zhou, Qiang Niu, Yunhao Ni

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3D part library is an ideal approach to reuse the existing design and thus facilitates the modeling process, which will enhance the efficiency. In this paper, we implemented the thought on the SolidWorks platform. The system supports the functions of type and parameter selection, 3D template driving and part assembly. Finally, BOM is exported in Excel format. Experiment shows that our method can satisfy the requirement of die and mold designers.

Keywords: part library, SolidWorks, automatic assembly, intelligent

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Authors: Natsuki Tsuda, Kiyotaka Obunai, Kazuya Okubo, Hideyuki Tashiro, Yoshinori Yamaji, Hideyuki Kato

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The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of belt stiffness on the performance of the CVT unit, such as the required pulley thrust force and the ratio coverage. The CVT unit consists of the V-grooved pulleys and the rubber CVT belt. The width of the driving pulley groove was controlled by the stepper motor, while that of the driven pulley was controlled by the hydraulic pressure. The generated mechanical power on the motor was transmitted from the driving axis to the driven axis through the CVT unit. The rotational speed and the transmitting torque of both axes were measured by the tachometers and the torque meters attached with these axes, respectively. The transmitted, mechanical power was absorbed by the magnetic powder brake. The thrust force acting on both pulleys and the force between both shafts were measured by the load cell. The back face profile of the rubber CVT belt along with width direction was measured by the 2-dimensional laser displacement meter. This paper found that when the stiffness of the rubber CVT belt in the belt width direction was reduced, the thrust force required for shifting was reduced. Moreover, when the stiffness of the rubber CVT belt in the belt width direction was reduced, the ratio coverage of the CVT unit was reduced. Due to the decrement of stiffness in belt width direction, the excessive concave deformation of belt in pulley groove was confirmed. Because of this excessive concave deformation, apparent wrapping radius of belt would have been reduced. Proposed model could be effectively estimated the difference of ratio coverage due to concave deformation. The proposed model could also be utilized for designing the rubber CVT belt with optimal bending stiffness in width direction.

Keywords: CVT, countinuously variable transmission, rubber, belt stiffness, transmission

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Authors: Dominic Huschke, Rudolf Keil

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New driving functionalities like highly automated driving have a major impact on the electrics/electronics architecture of future vehicles and inevitably lead to higher safety requirements. Partly due to these increased requirements, the vehicle industry is increasingly looking at semiconductor switches as an alternative to conventional melting fuses. The protective functionality of semiconductor switches can be implemented in hardware as well as in software. A current approach discussed in science and industry is the implementation of a model of the protected low voltage power cable on a microcontroller to calculate its temperature. Here, the information regarding the current is provided by the continuous current measurement of the semiconductor switch. The signal to open the semiconductor switch is provided by the microcontroller when a previously defined limit for the temperature of the low voltage power cable is exceeded. A setup for the testing of the described principle for electronic fuse protection of a low voltage power cable is built and successfullyvalidated with experiments afterwards. Here, the evaluation criterion is the deviation of the measured temperature of the low voltage power cable from the specified limit temperature when the semiconductor switch is opened. The analysis is carried out with an assumed ambient temperature as well as with a measured ambient temperature. Subsequently, the experimentally performed investigations are simulated in a virtual environment. The explicit focus is on the simulation of the behavior of the microcontroller with an implemented model of a low voltage power cable in a real-time environment. Subsequently, the generated results are compared with those of the experiments. Based on this, the completely virtual design of the described approach is assumed to be valid.

Keywords: automotive wire harness, electronic fuse protection, low voltage power cable, semiconductor-based fuses, software-based validation

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Authors: Eun Young Park, Jongwon Park

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A physical touch of a product can provide ample diagnostic information about the product attributes and quality. However, consumers’ product judgments and purchases can be erroneously influenced by non-diagnostic haptic information. For example, consumers’ evaluations of the coffee they drink could be affected by the heaviness of a cup that is used for just serving the coffee. This important issue has received little attention in prior research. The present research contributes to the literature by identifying when and how non-diagnostic haptic information can have an influence and why such influence occurs. Specifically, five studies experimentally varied the content of non-diagnostic haptic information, such as the weight of a cup (heavy vs. light) and the texture of a cup holder (smooth vs. rough), and then assessed the impact of the manipulation on product judgments and decisions. Results show that non-diagnostic haptic information has a biasing impact on consumer judgments. For example, the heavy (vs. light) cup increases consumers’ perception of the richness of coffee in it, and the rough (vs. smooth) texture of a cup holder increases the perception of the healthfulness of fruit juice in it, which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions of the product. When consumers are cognitively distracted during the touch experience, the impact of the content of haptic information is no longer evident, but the valence (positive vs. negative) of the haptic experience influences product judgments. However, consumers are able to avoid the impact of non-diagnostic haptic information, if and only if they are both knowledgeable about the product category and undistracted from processing the touch experience. In sum, the nature of the influence by non-diagnostic haptic information (i.e., assimilation effect vs. contrast effect vs. null effect) is determined by the content and valence of haptic information, the relative impact of which depends on whether consumers can identify the content and source of the haptic information. Theoretically, to our best knowledge, this research is the first to document the empirical evidence of the interplay between cognitive and affective processes that determines the impact of non-diagnostic haptic information. Managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: consumer behavior, haptic information, product judgments, touch effect

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Authors: Amani Waheed, Adel Mishriky, Rasha Farouk, Essam Abdallah, Sarah Hussein

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Background: Occupational stress plays a crucial role in professional drivers' health. They are exposed to high workloads, low physical activity, high demand and low decisions as well as poor lifestyle factors including poor diet, sedentary work, and smoking. Dyslipidemia is a well-established modifiable cardiovascular risk factor. Occupational stress and other forms of chronic stress have been associated with raised levels of atherogenic lipids. Although stress management has some evidence in improving lipid profile, the association between occupational stress and dyslipidemia is not clear. Objectives: To assess the relational between occupational stress and lipid profile among professional drivers. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted at a large company in Ismailia City, Egypt, where, 131 professional drivers divided into 44 car drivers, 43 bus drivers, and 44 truck drivers were eligible after applying exclusion criteria. Occupational stress index (OSI), non-occupational risk factors of dyslipidemia were assessed using interview structured questionnaire. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and lipid profile were measured. Results: The mean of total OSI score was 79.98 ± 6.14. The total OSI score is highest among truck drivers (82.16 ± 4.62), then bus drivers (80.26 ± 6.02) and lowest among car drivers (77.55 ± 6.79) with statistically significant. Eighty percent had Dyslipidemia. The duration of driving hours per day, exposure to passive smoking and increased BMI were the risk factors. No statistical significance between Total OSI score and dyslipidemia. Using, logistic regression analysis, occupational stress, duration of driving hours per day, and BMI were positive significant predictors for dyslipidemia. Conclusion: Professional drivers are exposed to occupational stress. A high proportion of drivers have dyslipidemia. Total OSI score doesn't have statistically significant relation with dyslipidemia.

Keywords: body mass index, dyslipidaemia, occupational stress, professional drivers

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Authors: Adrián P. Gómez Mañas

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Autonomous vehicles have already transformed urban policies and cities. This is the main assumption of our research, which aims to understand how the representations of the possible arrival of autonomous vehicles already transform priorities or actions in transport and more largely, urban policies. This research is done within the framework of a Ph.D. doctorate directed by Professor Xavier Desjardins at the Sorbonne University of Paris. Our hypotheses are: (i) the perspectives, representations, and imaginaries on autonomous vehicles already affect the stakeholders of urban policies; (ii) the discourses on the opportunities or threats of autonomous vehicles reflect the current strategies of the stakeholders. Each stakeholder tries to integrate a discourse on autonomous vehicles that allows them to change as little as possible their current tactics and strategies. The objective is to eventually make a comparison between three different cases: Paris, United Arab Emirates, and Bogota. We chose those territories because their contexts are very different, but they all have important interests in mobility and innovation, and they all have started to reflect on the subject of self-driving mobility. The main methodology used is to interview actors of the metropolitan area (local officials, leading urban and transport planners, influent experts, and private companies). This work is supplemented with conferences, official documents, press articles, and websites. The objective is to understand: 1) What they know about autonomous vehicles and where does their knowledge come from; 2) What they expect from autonomous vehicles; 3) How their ideas about autonomous vehicles are transforming their action and strategy in managing daily mobility, investing in transport, designing public spaces and urban planning. We are going to present the research and some preliminary results; we will show that autonomous vehicles are often viewed by public authorities as a lever to reach something else. We will also present that speeches are very influenced by local context (political, geographical, economic, etc.), creating an interesting balance between global and local influences. We will analyze the differences and similarities between the three cases and will try to understand which are the causes.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, self-driving mobility, urban planning, urban mobility, transport, public policies

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Authors: Felice De Luca, Vincenzo Galdi, Piera Stella, Vito Calderaro, Adriano Campagna, Antonio Piccolo

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Sustainable mobility has become one of the major issues of recent years. The challenge in reducing polluting emissions as much as possible has led to the production and diffusion of vehicles with internal combustion engines that are less polluting and to the adoption of green energy vectors, such as vehicles powered by natural gas or LPG and, more recently, with hybrid and electric ones. While on the one hand, the spread of electric vehicles for private use is becoming a reality, albeit rather slowly, not the same is happening for vehicles used for public transport, especially those that operate in the congested areas of the cities. Even if the first electric buses are increasingly being offered on the market, it remains central to the problem of autonomy for battery fed vehicles with high daily routes and little time available for recharging. In fact, at present, solid-state batteries are still too large in size, heavy, and unable to guarantee the required autonomy. Therefore, in order to maximize the energy management on the vehicle, the optimization of driving profiles offer a faster and cheaper contribution to improve vehicle autonomy. In this paper, following the authors’ precedent works on electric vehicles in public transport and energy management strategies in the electric mobility area, an eco-driving strategy for electric bus is presented and validated. Particularly, the characteristics of the prototype bus are described, and a general-purpose eco-drive methodology is briefly presented. The model is firstly simulated in MATLAB™ and then implemented on a mobile device installed on-board of a prototype bus developed by the authors in a previous research project. The solution implemented furnishes the bus-driver suggestions on the guide style to adopt. The result of the test in a real case will be shown to highlight the effectiveness of the solution proposed in terms of energy saving.

Keywords: eco-drive, electric bus, energy management, prototype

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Authors: Odunayo S. Faluse, Roger Telfer

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Customer relationship management is a business strategy that is centred on the idea that ‘Customer is the driving force of any business’ i.e. Customer is placed in a central position in any business. However, this belief coupled with the advancement in information technology in the past twenty years has experienced a change. In any form of business today it can be concluded that customers are the modern dictators to whom the industry always adjusts its business operations due to the increase in availability of information, intense market competition and ever growing negotiating ideas of customers in the process of buying and selling. The most vital role of any organization is to satisfy or meet customer’s needs and demands, which eventually determines customer’s long-term value to the industry. Therefore, this paper analyses and describes the application of customer relationship management operational strategies in some of the major industries in business. Both developed and up-coming companies nowadays value the quality of customer services and client’s loyalty, they also recognize the customers that are not very sensitive when it comes to changes in price and thereby realize that attracting new customers is more tasking and expensive than retaining the existing customers. However, research shows that several factors have recently amounts to the sudden rise in the execution of CRM strategies in the marketplace, such as a diverted attention of some organization towards integrating ideas in retaining existing customers rather than attracting new one, gathering data about customers through the use of internal database system and acquiring of external syndicate data, also exponential increase in technological intelligence. Apparently, with this development in business operations, CRM research in Academia remain nascent; hence this paper gives detailed critical analysis of the recent advancement in the use of CRM and key research opportunities for future development in using the implementation of CRM as a determinant factor for successful business optimization.

Keywords: agriculture, banking, business strategies, CRM, education, healthcare

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Authors: Daniel L. Clinciu, IkromAbdulaev, Brian D. Oscar

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Various personality profile tests are used to identify personality strengths and limits in individuals, helping both individuals and managers to optimize work and team effort in organizations. One such test, Hartman’s personality profile emphasizes four driving "core motives" influenced or affected by both strengths and limitations. The driving core motives are classified into four colors: Red-motivated by power; Blue-discipline and loyalty; White-peace; and Yellow–fun loving. Two shortcomings of Hartman’s personality test are noted; 1) only one choice for every item/situation allowed and 2) selection of a choice even if not applicable. A test taker may be as much nurturing as he is opinionated but since “opinionated” seems less attractive the individual would likely select nurturing, causing a misidentification in personality strengths and limits. Since few individuals have a "strong" personality, it is difficult to assess their true personality strengths and limits allowing either only one choice or requiring unwanted choices, undermining the potential of the test. We modified Hartman’s personality profile allowing test takers to make either multiple choices for any item/situation or leave them blank when not applying. Sixty-eight participants (38 males and 30 females), 17-49 years old, from countries in Asia, Europe, N. America, CIS, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania were included. 58 participants (85.3%) reported the modified test, allowing either multiple or no choices better identified their personality strengths and limits, while 10 participants (14.7%) expressed the original (one choice version) is sufficient. The overall results show our modified test enhanced the identification and balance of personality strengths and limits, aiding test takers, managers, and firms to better understand personality strengths and limits, particularly useful in making task-related, teamwork, and management decisions.

Keywords: organizational behavior, personality tests, personality limitations, personality strengths, task management, team work

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Authors: Adriane Amend, Leidiene Ferreira Santos, Daniella Pires Nunes

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The experience of assuming or caring for older persons dependents by relatives is a complex task that encompasses or affective involvement, the demand for technical activities and or psychological support. It would be necessary to understand the situations related to the caregiver, the person and the environment, which help the family difficulty, as a caregiver to lead this role. Objective: To identify the forces that drive and restrict the care process of family caregivers of the older adults. Method: Descriptive and exploratory research, with a qualitative approach, which has as a reference the Force Field Theory. Five family caregivers of older adult’s dependents residing in the city of Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil will participate. The data were collected from December 2021 to February 2022, through a semi-structured individual interview, and submitted to content analysis. Results: As forces that drive or process of caring for family caregivers were: the account of compassionate attitudes and patience of the caregiver (I); to the collaboration of the other person to the care and to the body structure of the same (Other); and the supports of other people not cared for and structural, such as adaptations in the room, read and bathroom, as in the presence of air conditioners (Environment). Among the restrictive forces of care we mention difficulties in delegating care to another person, or stress of care and other personal demands (I); imposition of the older person about care and e a transfer from bed to hip (Other); e lack of accessibility of the house and absence of air conditioning and hospital bed (Environment). Conclusion: The results show that there are driving forces with the caregiver's attitude and feelings, a bond as an idol and support for the caregiver and the environment. On the other hand, conflicting ties, absence of physical structure and daily and continuous care shifts, can significantly compromise well-being or the cycle of older adult, caregiver and care.

Keywords: caregivers, frail elderly, perception, geriatric nursing

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Authors: Udayan Patankar, Shashwati Bhagat, Vilas Nitneware, Ants Koel

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An ISM band power amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier used to convert a low-power radio-frequency signal into a larger signal of significant power, typically used for driving the antenna of a transmitter. Due to drastic changes in telecommunication generations may lead to the requirements of improvements. Rapid changes in communication lead to the wide implementation of WLAN technology for its excellent characteristics, such as high transmission speed, long communication distance, and high reliability. Many applications such as WLAN, Bluetooth, and ZigBee, etc. were evolved with 2.4GHz to 5 GHz ISM Band, in which the power amplifier (PA) is a key building block of RF transmitters. There are many manufacturing processes available to manufacture a power amplifier for desired power output, but the major problem they have faced is about the power it consumed for its proper working, as many of them are fabricated on the GaN HEMT, Bi COMS process. In this paper we present a CMOS Base two stage cascode design of power amplifier working on 2.4GHz ISM frequency band. To lower the costs and allow full integration of a complete System-on-Chip (SoC) we have chosen 0.13µm low power CMOS technology for design. While designing a power amplifier, it is a real task to achieve higher power efficiency with minimum resources. This design showcase the Multi biased Cascode methodology to implement a two-stage CMOS power amplifier using ADS and LTSpice simulating tool. Main source is maximum of 2.4V which is internally distributed into different biasing point VB driving and VB driven as required for distinct stages of two stage RF power amplifier. It shows maximum power added efficiency near about 70.195% whereas its Power added efficiency calculated at 1 dB compression point is 44.669 %. Biased MOSFET is used to reduce total dc current as this circuit is designed for different wireless applications comes under 2.4GHz ISM Band.

Keywords: RFIC, PAE, RF CMOS, impedance matching

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Authors: Susan Marie R. De La Cruz, Bernadette F. De La Cruz, Georgia D. Demavibas

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This study determined the top 10 perceived students’ academic needs, personal needs, personal obstacles in achieving their academic goals, are as they need assistance, and their perceived feelings in math, reading and writing. The North Carolina State College, Student Support Services needs assessment survey was used. The respondents were the randomly chosen122Graduate school students. The top 10 academic needs are as follows: need to improve memory, communication skills, study habits, time management skills, career decisions, vocabulary, math skills, test taking skills, reading comprehension, and the need to reduce math anxiety. Top 10 personal needs are as follows: difficulty meeting deadline, difficulty managing money, inadequate computer skills, afraid of failing graduate school, difficulty participating in class/group discussions, absence from school, anxiety during exams, little or no experience with internet, personal counseling needs, and unsure of university academic procedures. Students’ top 10 perceived personal obstacles were as follows: issues surrounding sickness in family, lack of time management, lack of money, feeling tired, fears to speak in class, poor study habits, problems at home, late in class, too shy, and always feeling sick and easily distracted. Students felt need assistance in areas surrounding personal budget, stress management, motivation, anxiety, depressions, leadership development and goals/decision making. It is recommended that enrichment activities be provided to respond to students’ academic and personal needs. Also, Graduate School Guidance Counselor collaborates with other licensed Guidance Counselors in other colleges to have a well-coordinated and effective delivery of services responsive to students’ needs.

Keywords: academic needs, guidance counsellors, guidance service, needs assessment survey, personal needs, student services

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Authors: Michael Naderhirn, Marco Pavone

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Problem statement, motivation, and aim of work: So far, the development of control algorithms was done by control engineers in a way that the controller would fit a specification by testing. When it comes to the certification of an autonomous car in highly complex scenarios, the challenge is much higher since such a controller must mathematically guarantee to implement the rules of the road while on the other side guarantee aspects like safety and real time executability. What if it becomes reality to solve this demanding problem by combining Formal Verification and System Theory? The aim of this work is to present a workflow to solve the above mentioned problem. Summary of the presented results / main outcomes: We show the usage of an English like language to transform the rules of the road into system specification for an autonomous car. The language based specifications are used to define system functions and interfaces. Based on that a formal model is developed which formally correctly models the specifications. On the other side, a mathematical model describing the systems dynamics is used to calculate the systems reachability set which is further used to determine the system input boundaries. Then a motion planning algorithm is applied inside the system boundaries to find an optimized trajectory in combination with the formal specification model while satisfying the specifications. The result is a control strategy which can be applied in real time independent of the scenario with a mathematical guarantee to satisfy a predefined specification. We demonstrate the applicability of the method in simulation driving scenarios and a potential certification. Originality, significance, and benefit: To the authors’ best knowledge, it is the first time that it is possible to show an automated workflow which combines a specification in an English like language and a mathematical model in a mathematical formal verified way to synthesizes a controller for potential real time applications like autonomous driving.

Keywords: formal system verification, reachability, real time controller, hybrid system

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Authors: Waleed Ahmed, Huang Xiaohua, Wilayat Ali

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The wheelchair users are generally exposed to physical and psychological health problems, e.g., pressure sores and pain in the hip joint, associated with seating posture or being inactive in a wheelchair for a long time. Reclining Wheelchair with back, thigh, and leg adjustment helps in daily life activities and health preservation. The seat elevating function of an electric wheelchair allows the user (lower limb amputation) to reach different heights. An electric wheelchair is expected to ease the lives of the elderly and disable people by giving them mobility support and decreasing the percentage of accidents caused by users’ narrow sight or joystick operation errors. Thus, this paper proposed the design, analysis and obstacle avoidance control of an electric wheelchair with sit-sleep-seat elevation functions. A 3D model of a wheelchair is designed in SolidWorks that was later used for multi-body dynamic (MBD) analysis and to verify driving control system. The control system uses the fuzzy algorithm to avoid the obstacle by getting information in the form of distance from the ultrasonic sensor and user-specified direction from the joystick’s operation. The proposed fuzzy driving control system focuses on the direction and velocity of the wheelchair. The wheelchair model has been examined and proven in MSC Adams (Automated Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems). The designed fuzzy control algorithm is implemented on Gazebo robotic 3D simulator using Robotic Operating System (ROS) middleware. The proposed wheelchair design enhanced mobility and quality of life by improving the user’s functional capabilities. Simulation results verify the non-accidental behavior of the electric wheelchair.

Keywords: fuzzy logic control, joystick, multi body dynamics, obstacle avoidance, scissor mechanism, sensor

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Authors: Saad Roustom, Hajo Ribberink

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In most cities in the world, traffic has increased strongly over the last decades, causing high levels of congestion and deteriorating inner-city air quality. This study analyzes the impact of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on traffic performance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under different CAV penetration rates in mixed fleet environments of CAVs and driver-operated vehicles (DOVs) and under three different traffic demand levels. Utilizing meso-scale traffic simulations of the City of Ottawa, Canada, the research evaluates the traffic performance of three distinct CAV driving behaviors—Cautious, Normal, and Aggressive—at penetration rates of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, across three different traffic demand levels. The study employs advanced correlation models to estimate GHG emissions. The results reveal that Aggressive and Normal CAVs generally reduce traffic congestion and GHG emissions, with their benefits being more pronounced at higher penetration rates (50% to 100%) and elevated traffic demand levels. On the other hand, Cautious CAVs exhibit an increase in both traffic congestion and GHG emissions. However, results also show deteriorated traffic flow conditions when introducing 25% penetration rates of any type of CAVs. Aggressive CAVs outperform all other driving at improving traffic flow conditions and reducing GHG emissions. The findings of this study highlight the crucial role CAVs can play in enhancing urban traffic performance and mitigating the adverse impact of transportation on the environment. This research advocates for the adoption of effective CAV-related policies by regulatory bodies to optimize traffic flow and reduce GHG emissions. By providing insights into the impact of CAVs, this study aims to inform strategic decision-making and stimulate the development of sustainable urban mobility solutions.

Keywords: connected and automated vehicles, congestion, GHG emissions, mixed fleet environment, traffic performance, traffic simulations

Procedia PDF Downloads 46