The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) has been identified as a promising but challenging topic to transform information towards the generation ...of knowledge and intelligence. Achievement of integrating these two concepts and enabling technologies will have a significant impact on solving problems in the civil, building and infrastructure sectors. However, since GIS and BIM were originally developed for different purposes, numerous challenges are being encountered for the integration. To better understand these two different domains, this paper reviews the development and dissimilarities of GIS and BIM, the existing integration methods, and investigates their potential in various applications. This study shows that the integration methods are developed for various reasons and aim to solve different problems. The parameters influencing the choice can be summarized and named as “EEEF” criteria: effectiveness, extensibility, effort, and flexibility. Compared with other methods, semantic web technologies provide a promising and generalized integration solution. However, the biggest challenges of this method are the large efforts required at early stage and the isolated development of ontologies within one particular domain. The isolation problem also applies to other methods. Therefore, openness is the key of the success of BIM and GIS integration.
•Downshift is effective in improving the energy efficiency of electric vehicles.•Energy improvement of downshift varies with vehicle speed and brake strength.•The designed nonlinear sliding mode ...observer is accurate in estimating bake torque.•The proposed resembling PWM method is practical to regulate hydraulic pressure.•The effect of downshift on braking safety and comfort can be restrained by control.
Downshift during regenerative braking helps to improve the energy efficiency of electric vehicles. Two main problems are involved in the downshift process. One is the determination of optimal downshift point, and the other is the cooperative control of regenerative braking and hydraulic braking. In order to achieve a systemic solution to these problems, a hierarchical control strategy is brought forward for an electric vehicle with a two-speed automated mechanical transmission. For the upper controller, an off-line calculation and on-line look-up table method is adopted to obtain the optimal downshift point, and a series regenerative braking distribution strategy is designed. For the medium controller, a nonlinear sliding mode observer is designed to obtain the actual hydraulic brake torque. For the lower controller, cooperative control of regenerative braking and hydraulic braking is given to ensure brake safety during downshift process, and a resembling pulse width modulation method is proposed to regulated the hydraulic brake torque. Simulation results and hardware-in-loop test show that the proposed algorithm is effective in improving the energy efficiency of electric vehicles.
This study presents an early-warning system for working in hot and humid environment. The developed system can monitor workers' heat strain level when they have to work under such hostile conditions ...continuously. Health alert messages with corresponding intervention measures will be prompted to workers to safeguard their wellbeing. Heat strain is evaluated by a subjective index perception rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and an objective heat strain indicator heart rate. A database containing 550 sets of synchronized work-related, environmental, and personal data were used to construct the prediction model. Artificial neural networks were applied to forecast the RPE of construction workers. Statistical measures including MAPE, RMSE and R2 confirm that the established model is good fitting with high accuracy. The proposed system could be automated by integrating smart sensor technology, location tracking technology, and information communication technology, which could be in the form of GSM based environmental sensor, smart bracelet, and smart phone application, to protect the wellbeing for those who have to work in hot and humid conditions.
•An early-warning system for working in hot and humid environment is developed.•Workers' heat strain level can be monitored when they perform tasks in hot weather.•Health alert messages with corresponding intervention measures can be prompted.
Extensive research has explored the association between heavy metal exposure and various health outcomes, including malignant neoplasms, hypertension, diabetes, and heart diseases. This study aimed ...to investigate the relationship between patterns of exposure to a mixture of seven heavy metals and these health outcomes.
Blood samples from 7,236 adults in the NHANES 2011-2016 studies were analyzed for levels of cadmium, manganese, lead, mercury, selenium, copper, and zinc. Cluster analysis and logistic regression identified three distinct patterns of mixed heavy metal exposure, and their associations with health outcomes were evaluated.
Pattern 1 exhibited higher odds ratios (ORs) for malignancy during NHANES 2011-2012 (OR = 1.33) and 2015-2016 (OR = 1.29) compared to pattern 2. Pattern 3 showed a lower OR for malignancy during NHANES 2013-2014 (OR = 0.62). For hypertension, pattern 1 displayed higher ORs than pattern 2 for NHANES 2011-2012 (OR = 1.26), 2013-2014 (OR = 1.31), and 2015-2016 (OR = 1.41). Pattern 3 had lower ORs for hypertension during NHANES 2013-2014 (OR = 0.72) and 2015-2016 (OR = 0.67). In terms of heart diseases, pattern 1 exhibited higher ORs than pattern 2 for NHANES 2011-2012 (OR = 1.34), 2013-2014 (OR = 1.76), and 2015-2016 (OR = 1.68). Pattern 3 had lower ORs for heart diseases during NHANES 2013-2014 (OR = 0.59) and 2015-2016 (OR = 0.52). However, no significant trend was observed for diabetes. All three patterns showed the strongest association with hypertension among the health outcomes studied.
The identified patterns of seven-metal mixtures in NHANES 2011-2016 were robust. Pattern 1 exhibited higher correlations with hypertension, heart disease, and malignancy compared to pattern 2, suggesting an interaction between these metals. Particularly, the identified patterns could offer valuable insights into the management of hypertension in healthy populations.
Sensing technologies demonstrate promising potential in providing the construction industry with a safe, productive, and high-quality process. The majority of sensing technologies in the construction ...research area have been focused on construction automation research in prefabrication, on-site operation, and logistics. However, most of these technologies are either not implemented in real construction projects or are at the very early stages in practice. The corresponding applications are far behind, even in extensively researched aspects such as Radio Frequency Identification, ultra-wideband technology, and Fiber Optic Sensing technology. This review systematically investigates the current status of sensing technologies in construction from 187 articles and explores the reasons responsible for their slow adoption from 69 articles. First, this paper identifies common sensing technologies and investigates their implementation extent. Second, contributions and limitations of sensing technologies are elaborated to understand the current status. Third, key factors influencing the adoption of sensing technologies are extracted from construction stakeholders' experience. Demand towards sensing technologies, benefits and suitability of them, and barriers to their adoption are reviewed. Lastly, the governance framework is determined as the research tendency facilitating sensing technologies adoption. This paper provides a theoretical basis for the governance framework development. It will promote the sensing technologies adoption and improve construction performance including safety, productivity, and quality.
•A methodological effort toward weightless index constructions.•A novel weightless algorithm for constructing composite sustainability indexes.•Applicable framework of comparative experiments to ...optimize algorithm parameters.•Assessing global sustainability with novel weightless composite index algorithm.
A composite index based on selected indicators is a widely used tool for guiding, monitoring, and evaluating a society’s level of sustainability. However, determining the weight of each indicator is typically a methodologically problematic and highly controversial process. This paper proposes a weightless strategy for constructing composite sustainability indices based on the mathematical optimization concept of Pareto fronts. The core idea is to model each indicator as an individual objective and explore Pareto fronts within the resulting multi-objective solution space. In practice, a total of 24 typical implementations of the strategy were realized to represent four categories with varying parameter settings, i.e., straightforward/hierarchical implementations with/without avoiding basic indicator accuracy issues. Comparative experiments demonstrated that a hierarchical approach utilizing the goodness of variance fit-based (GVF = 0.80) natural breaks to nullify accuracy problems is the most effective implementation. To demonstrate its usefulness, the strategy implemented using this approach was applied to analyze the world’s sustainability by revising the well-known sustainable society index. This study provides a novel paradigm of composite sustainability indices and represents the first assessment of world sustainability using multiple criteria (indicators) without weights.
Privacy amplification is an indispensable step in postprocessing of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which is used to distill unconditional secure keys from identical corrected ...keys between two distant legal parties. The processing speed of privacy amplification has a significant effect on the secret key rate of a CV-QKD system. We report the high-speed parallel implementation of the length-compatible privacy amplification algorithm based on a graphic processing unit. The length-compatible algorithm is used to satisfy the security requirements of privacy amplification at different transmission distances when considering finite-size effect. We achieve the speed of privacy amplification over 1 Gb/s at arbitrary input length and the speed is one to two orders of magnitude faster than previous demonstrations, which supports the high-speed real-time CV-QKD system and ensures the security of privacy amplification.
The integration of building information modeling (BIM) and geographic information system (GIS) is attracting more attention than ever due to its potential benefits for both the architecture, ...engineering, and construction (AEC) domain and the geospatial industry. The main challenge in BIM and GIS integrated application comes from the fundamental data conversion, especially for the geometric information. BIM and GIS use different modeling paradigms to represent objects. The BIM dataset takes, for example, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) that use solid models, such as boundary representation (B-Rep), swept solid, constructive solid geometry (CSG), and clipping, while the GIS dataset mainly uses surface models or B-Rep. The fundamental data conversion between BIM and GIS is the foundation of BIM and GIS integrated application. However, the efficiency of data conversion has been greatly impaired by the human intervention needed, especially for the conversion of the clipping geometry. The goal of this study is to automate the conversion of IFC clipping representation into the shapefile format. A process-level approach was developed with an algorithm for instantiating unbounded half spaces using B-Rep. Four IFC models were used to validate the proposed method. The results show that (1) the proposed approach can successfully automate the conversion of IFC clipping representation into the shapefile format; and (2) increasing boundary size has no effect on the file size of unbounded half spaces, but slightly increases the producing time of half spaces and processing time of building components. The efficiency of this study can be further improved by using an open-source package, instead of using the low-efficiency packages provided by ArcGIS.
In this paper, the high-dimensional distributed state estimation problem is investigated for a class of sensor networks within the cubature Kalman filtering (CKF) framework. The network consists of ...two types of nodes, i.e., communication ones and sensor ones. First, a hybrid consensus-based cubature Kalman filtering (HCCKF) is developed by blending the two existing approaches, namely, consensus on measurements (CM) and consensus on information (CI). As a result, the proposed filtering algorithm has complementary features of CM and CI, which turns out to be a better solution to the distributed state estimation problem. Secondly, estimation errors in HCCKF are proved to be exponentially bounded in mean square. Finally, a target tracking case-study in an example sensor network is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed HCCKF.
Heparin, a mammalian polysaccharide, is a widely used anticoagulant medicine to treat thrombotic disorders. It is also known to improve outcomes in sepsis, a leading cause of mortality resulted from ...infection-induced immune dysfunction. Whereas it is relatively clear how heparin exerts its anticoagulant effect, the immunomodulatory mechanisms enabled by heparin remain enigmatic. Here, we show that heparin prevented caspase-11-dependent immune responses and lethality in sepsis independent of its anticoagulant properties. Heparin or a chemically modified form of heparin without anticoagulant function inhibited the alarmin HMGB1-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) interaction and prevented the macrophage glycocalyx degradation by heparanase. These events blocked the cytosolic delivery of LPS in macrophages and the activation of caspase-11, a cytosolic LPS receptor that mediates lethality in sepsis. Survival was higher in septic patients treated with heparin than those without heparin treatment. The identification of this previously unrecognized heparin function establishes a link between innate immune responses and coagulation.
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•Heparin prevents caspase-11-dependent immune responses and lethality in sepsis•Non-anticoagulant heparin prevents caspase-11-dependent coagulation and lethality•Heparin inhibits caspase-11 activation by blocking cytosolic delivery of LPS•Glycocalyx degradation, prevented by heparin, promotes cytosolic delivery of LPS
Caspase-11, a cytosolic receptor of LPS, triggers lethal immune responses in sepsis. Tang et al. reveal that heparin prevents cytosolic delivery of LPS and caspase-11 activation in sepsis through inhibiting the heparanase-mediated glycocalyx degradation and the HMGB1-LPS interaction.
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