Commercial Transport Research Articles

Genetic Characterization of Lasi and Makrani Camel Breeds of Lasbela, Balochistan by Using Microsatellite Markers

Camel is a heat resistant animal reared in desert and hot areas for meat, milk production and for draught purpose. In past camels has been used as major source for commercial transportation. Beside the other districts of Balochistan of Pakistan, Lasbela district has a reasonable population of camels consisting 2.4% of the total livestock population. The prominent camel breeds are Lasi and Makrani with an emerging new hybrid (Dati) of both the known breeds. Microsatellite markers have widely been used to characterize the genetic diversification among the camel breeds. Current study performed on 45 samples from the 3 breeds of the district. Genomic DNA was extracted, amplified by using specific primers for VOLP10 microsatellite marker. The sequencing results revealed >30 dimer GT repeats with a break of a dimer (TT) and in 5 samples the GT repeats were found continuously in heterozygous condition. Results of the current study suggest that microsatellite markers can have a better use for genetic characterization among different breeds.

Achieving Diesel Powertrain Ownership Parity in Battery Electric Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles Using a Rapid Recurrent Recharging Architecture

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Battery electric vehicles (BEV) in heavy duty (HD) commercial freight transport face challenging technoeconomic barriers to adoption. Specifically, beyond safety and compliance, fleet and operational logistics require both high up-time and parity with diesel system productivity/Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to enable strong adoption of electrified powertrains. At present, relatively high energy storage prices coupled with the increased weight of BEV systems limit the practicality of HD commercial freight transport to shorter range applications, where smaller batteries will suffice for the mission energy requirements (single operational shift). This paper presents an approach to extend the feasibility of BEV HD trucking for a broad range of applications. The concept is based on the leveraging rapid and recurrent recharging of a BEV HD truck that may either already make frequent stops due to shipment drop-offs/reloading or be required to make frequent stops along with longer missions for recharging. While the challenges of the latter are well appreciated, the concept proposed explores making minimal impact to overall mission time by targeting high C-rate charging while optimizing the frequency (miles) through which these events must occur. The concept optimizes battery size and chemistry, such that the expected life (years and total energy throughput) is balanced with the depth of discharge between recharging events, thus making complete use of the energy available through the life of the battery system. The solution is constrained to minimize the impact on payload capacity. The paper analyzes critical levers in achieving diesel price parity (based on a simplified vehicle TCO), achieved through different purchase options (including lease versus buy) and operational models (half-life swap out). Finally, the paper identifies the application design domain where these solutions are viable with limited impact on fleet operations.</div></div>

OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN JOS METROPOLIS, NIGERIA.

The mobility of people and materials especially in the present days is one of the greatest challenges facing public transport services in an urban area. Thus, necessitate the investigation into the operational characteristics of public transportation in Jos Metropolis, Nigeria. The inquiry into the operational characteristics of public transportation in Jos was done via the collection of primary and secondary data and the primary data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The primary data were obtained through administering of questionnaires to commercial transport operators at 2 selected bus parks, 3 motor Parks, 7 Tricycle parks and 5 motorcycle stand points. Oral interview was also done on commercial transport operators to extract necessary information in relation to the aim and objectives of the study. Findings revealed that majority (77.3%) of public transport operators in Jos falls below 41 years, 93.3% earns between N1,000 to NN80,000 monthly, 48.5% were married while, 89% were literate, 58% of public transport vehicles were owned by individuals with 35%overloading of buses occurring at peak periods during week days. This study therefore, recommends that in Jos metropolis, Government should encourage and introduce the use of high occupancy vehicles as a means of public transport at designated traffic corridors to increase carrying capacity of vehicles in order reduce waiting time of passengers at bus parks. Also, avenues for soft loan scheme must be encouraged to help prospective operators in order to be able to afford buying vehicles for public transport services. Finally, Gender sensitive policies must be formulated by the Government to encourage female membership and participation.

Mapping the Exposure of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins and Common Bottlenose Dolphins to Different Categories of Vessel Traffic in Maui Nui, Hawai‘i

The increase and diversification of vessel traffic worldwide has resulted in a variety of known disturbances to dolphins. As a remote island chain, the Hawaiian Islands rely heavily on the marine environment for transportation, recreation, and fishing that aggregates into significant levels of vessel traffic. Given the known presence of dolphins in this region, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the relative exposure risk that vessel traffic poses to island-associated dolphin populations in Hawai‘i. This research identified the spatial distribution of pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) and common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and determined the extent of their overlap with various categories of vessel traffic in Maui Nui, Hawai‘i. Species distribution was determined using kernel density estimates based on sighting data from 50 spotted dolphin sightings and 75 bottlenose dolphin sightings collected from 2013 to 2018. A combination of vessel GPS and Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) vessel tracks were used to quantify vessel traffic within the study area, resulting in 22,464 vessel tracks that were subsequently compiled into categories for analysis from 2014 to 2017. Risk of vessel exposure between vessels and dolphins, or co-occurrence, was determined by calculating the product of predicted dolphin density and predicted vessel density. Both species were exposed to vessel traffic risk over 100% of their distribution, but their highest exposure risk varied spatially, with high risk defined as > 0.25 on a normalized scale of low (0) to high (1) risk. The highest vessel exposure risk for spotted dolphins occurred in deeper, offshore waters, while the highest risk for bottlenose dolphins was in shallow, coastal waters. The vessel categories with the largest area of high risk to spotted dolphins were tour vessel and commercial fishing vessel traffic, while commercial transportation traffic had the highest exposure risk for bottlenose dolphins. This article provides baseline information for understanding the vulnerability of two island-associated dolphin populations to the threat of vessel traffic and highlights the differences in relative exposure risk based on species and vessel categories.

Urban open space resilience evaluation of air pollution disasters based on monitoring data of national monitoring stations in Hangzhou

Using air quality monitoring data of 2018, 2020 and 2021 from national monitoring stations in Hangzhou, the disaster cycles, with levels of ozone (O3), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and coarse particulate matter (PM10) were determined. The damage to human health from pollutants, which represents the loss of open space functionality, was determined by a review of the literature. Using the theory of resilience evaluation, a correlation was established between pollutant concentrations and system functions, and resilience performance curves of different types of open spaces were constructed for the urban open space pollutant disaster cycle to evaluate the resilience and related properties for open space responses to O3, PM2.5, and PM10 pollution disasters. The results indicate that open spaces in scenic and cultural areas are more resilient to pollution than residential areas and commercial transportation residential mixed zones. All open spaces were the most robust to PM10 and had the highest redundancy for O3 and PM10, while had the lowest redundancy for PM2.5. All open spaces responded most rapidly to PM2.5, partly because of larger scale meteorological changes in cities. All open spaces had the strongest resilience to PM10 disasters, followed by O3 disasters, with the worst resilience to PM2.5 disasters, with a resilience index range of [0.5, 1]. The results and methods can help enhance urban resilience by bringing new ideas and broadening urban resilience theory and research. The strategy of enhancing greenery in urban open spaces was found to significantly reduce the impact of air pollution disasters, thereby reducing human health damage to users of open spaces. This is significant for enhancing urban resilience and building urban health infrastructure.

Examining Multiteam Systems Across Context and Type: A Historiometric Analysis of Failed MTS Performance.

Multiteam systems (MTSs) are complex organizational forms comprising interdependent teams that work towards their own proximal goals within and across teams to also accomplish a shared superordinate goal. MTSs operate within high-stakes, dangerous contexts with high consequences for suboptimal performance. We answer calls for nuanced exploration and cross-context comparison of MTSs “in the wild” by leveraging the MTS action sub-phase behavioral taxonomy to determine where and how MTS failures occur. To our knowledge, this is the first study to also examine how key MTS attributes (boundary status, goal type) influence MTS processes and performance. We conducted historiometric analysis on 40 cases of failed MTS performance across various contexts (e.g., emergency response, commercial transportation, military, and business) to uncover patterns of within- and between-team behaviors of failing MTSs, resulting in four themes. First, component teams of failing MTSs over-engaged in within-team alignment behaviors (vs. between-team behaviors) by enacting acting, monitoring, and recalibrating behaviors more often within than between teams. Second, failing MTSs over-focused on acting behaviors (vs. monitoring or recalibrating) and tended to not fully enact the action sub-phase cycle. Third and fourth, boundary status and goal type exacerbated these behavioral patterns, as external and physical MTSs were less likely to enact sufficient between-team behaviors or fully enact the action sub-phase cycle compared to internal and intellectual MTSs. We propose entrainment as a mechanism for facilitating MTS performance wherein specific, cyclical behavioral patterns enacted by teams align to facilitate goal achievement via three multilevel behavioral cycles (i.e., acting-focused, alignment-focused, and adjustment-focused). We argue that the degree to which these cycles are aligned both between teams and with the overarching MTS goal determines whether and how an MTS fails. Our findings add nuance beyond single-context MTS studies by showing that the identified behavioral patterns hold both across contexts and almost all types of MTS action-phase behaviors. We show that these patterns vary by MTS boundary status and goal type. Our findings inform MTS training best practices, which should be structured to integrate all component teams and tailored to both MTS attributes (i.e., boundary status, goal type) and situation type (e.g., contingency planning).

Multisensor monitoring and water quality prediction for live ornamental fish transportation based on artificial neural network

The microenvironment of live ornamental fish transportation is a significant source of fish mortality. The transportation time and density of fish have a significant impact on water quality. The previous studies measured water quality parameters with traditional and non-real-time methods, which cannot give the abrupt changing patterns during live transportation of ornamental fish. In this study, water quality key parameters in the microenvironment of goldfish were monitored using a multisensor box during the simulation transportation experiment. According to the findings, nitrite was not identified, and pH remained within the acceptable goldfish range even after 48 h of monitoring, indicating that these factors did not affect the goldfish physiology during commercial transport. The collected data were correlated with physiological health and fish behaviour to identify the most impactful parameters. Data sets went through a data screening process (data correction, filtering); ammonia nitrogen and dissolved oxygen fed into the multilayer neural network and regression analysis, with time and density as input variables. The neural network successfully predicts the dissolved oxygen and ammonia nitrogen with mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.2306 and 0.00775. The regression model achieved good prediction accuracy for only ammonia nitrogen, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.00484 and a relative average error of 4.58%. However, for future studies, the prediction model must account that the distinct physiology of the transported fish will result in distinct changes in water quality.

Energy Savings in Hydraulic Hybrid Transmissions through Digital Hydraulics Technology

Hydraulic hybrid drivetrains, which are fluid power technologies implemented in automobiles, present a popular alternative to conventional drivetrain architectures due to their high energy savings, flexibility in power transmission, and ease of operation. Hydraulic hybrid drivetrains offer multiple environmental benefits compared to other power transmission technologies. They provide heavy-duty vehicles, e.g., commercial transportation, construction equipment, wagon handling, drilling machines, and military trucks, with the potential to achieve better fuel economy and lower carbon emissions. Despite the preponderance of hydraulic hybrid transmissions, state-of-the-art hydraulic hybrid drivetrains have relatively low efficiencies, around 64% to 81%. This low efficiency is due to the utilization of conventional variable displacement pumps and motors that experience high power losses throughout the drive cycle and thus fail to maintain high operating efficiency at lower volumetric displacements. This work proposes and validates a new methodology to improve the overall efficiency of hydraulic hybrid drivetrains by replacing conventional pump/motor units with their digital counterparts. Compared to conventional pump/motors, the digital pump/motor can achieve higher overall efficiencies at a wide range of operating conditions. A proof-of-concept digital pump/motor prototype was built and tested. The experimental data were integrated into a multi-domain physics-based simulation model of a series hydraulic hybrid transmission. The proposed methodology permits enhancing the overall efficiency of a series hydraulic hybrid transmission and thus allows for energy savings. Simulating the system at moderate load-speed conditions allowed achieving a total efficiency of around 89%. Compared to the average efficiency of the series hydraulic hybrid drivetrains, our simulation results reveal that the utilization of the state-of-the-art digital pump enables improving the total efficiency of the series hydraulic hybrid drivetrain by up to 25%.

Neural Network Prediction for Ice Shapes on Airfoils Using iceFoam Simulations

In this article the procedure and method for the ice accretion prediction for different airfoils using artificial neural networks (ANNs) are discussed. A dataset for the neural network is based on the numerical experiment results—obtained through iceFoam solver—with four airfoils (NACA0012, General Aviation, Business Jet, and Commercial Transport). Input data for neural networks include airfoil and ice geometries, transformed into a set of parameters using a parabolic coordinate system and Fourier series expansion. Besides input features include physical parameters of flow (velocity, temperature, droplets diameter, liquid water content, time of ice accretion) and angle of attack. The novelty of this work is in that the neural network dataset includes various airfoils and the data augmentation technique being a combination of all time slices. Several artificial neural networks (ANNs), fully connected networks (FCNNs), and convolutional networks (CNNs) were trained to predict airfoil ice shapes. Two different loss functions were considered. In order to improve performance of models, batch normalization and dropout layers were used. The most accurate results of ice shape prediction were obtained using CNN and FCNN that applied batch normalization and dropout layers to output neurons of each layer.

A View of Commercial Motorcycle Transportation in Sub-Saharan African Cities Through the Sustainable Development Lens

A View of Commercial Motorcycle Transportation in Sub-Saharan African Cities Through the Sustainable Development Lens

ATP bioluminescence method as a rapid tool for assessment of cleanliness of commercial animal transport trailers

Animal transportation is widely recognized as a significant risk for disease transmission. At present, cleanliness of animal transport trailers is mostly assessed through subjective visual inspection (i.e., ‘white-glove’ test), which may sometimes be supplemented by microbiological testing with results obtained after at least 2-3 days. In this study, the feasibility of using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence method as a rapid tool for objectively assessing animal transport trailer cleanliness was investigated. Eighteen newly-cleaned transport trailers were tested using both ATP bioluminescence and microbiological techniques. In each trailer, six (6) locations including floors, walls, ramps, partitions and trailer exterior surfaces were sampled using an ATP meter, and MacConkey and R2A agar contact plates. From a total of more than 500 paired samples collected from all the sampled trailers, significant correlation was found between ATP bioluminescence method and standard microbiological technique using R2A agar (r = 0.206; p = 0.001) and MacConkey agar (r = 0.154; p = 0.002) plates. Using a threshold or ‘Pass’ limit of 390 RLU per 100 cm2 of trailer surface, ATP method was able to provide a good objective measure of the surface cleanliness, thus may be considered as an additional tool available for rapid and less costly assessment of trailer surface cleanliness.

A new method for producing superior set yogurt, focusing on heat treatment and homogenization

Extended shelf life (ESL) processing (i.e., heat treatment at 130°C for 2 s) is usually not used for producing set yogurt because of the fragility of the curd structure. We investigated the effects of homogenization conducted at higher pressure than the conventional conditions (10 MPa for the first stage and 5 MPa for the second stage) on the curd structure of set yogurt, with a focus on the fat globule size. Each yogurt mix was adjusted at the range of fat globule sizes from 0.45 μm to 1.1 μm by a homogenizer and then heated at 95°C for 5 min (conventional heat treatment), 120°C for 2 s, ESL processing, or 140°C for 2 s. The yogurt mixes were fermented by a common yogurt starter, and the curd texture of the obtained yogurts was evaluated. We observed that the curd hardness and curd firmness of the yogurt were each negatively correlated with the fat globule size regardless of the heat-treatment temperature. Compared with the curd obtained with conventional heat treatment, the ESL-processed curd was extremely fragile, but significantly smooth. With ESL processing, a curd hardness >40 g, which is a sufficient strength for commercial transport systems, was obtained by making the fat particle size <0.6 µm, using 2-stage homogenization pressure: 35 MPa for the first stage and 5 MPa for the second stage. A microscopy analysis indicated that the smaller fat globules reinforce the network structure. The yogurt made by ESL processing and that created with 35 + 5 MPa homogenization had significant sensory evaluation scores. Our results indicate that the combination of ESL processing and 35 + 5 MPa homogenization is a novel and useful method for manufacturing set yogurt.

Assessing the factors affecting implementation of unmanned aerial vehicles in Indian humanitarian logistics: a g-DANP approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting the implementation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Indian humanitarian logistics. The factors listed are significant as they are hindering the incorporation of this new technology into the humanitarian supply chain, thus creating inefficiencies in the humanitarian logistics sector.Design/methodology/approachThis research is approached using a two-step process. In the first step, the particular barriers for UAV implementation are determined by a literature review and consultation with experts. Next, the proposed framework, a combination of grey-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (grey-DEMATEL) and analytic network process (ANP), i.e. g-DANP, is used to determine a hierarchical structure for the factors and sub-factors. The grey hypothesis provides sufficient analytical data to an otherwise lacking DEMATEL technique. Also, the use of ANP gives weightage to each factor, allowing us to categorize their importance further.FindingsThis study reveals that factors like expensive commercial solutions and high transport energy costs are significant factors of the “cause” group, whereas the uncertain cost for maintenance and repair and deficiency of high-level computing are crucial factors of the “effect” category. The mentioned factors, along with many others, are the main reasons for the delayed incorporation of UAVs in humanitarian logistics.Practical implicationsThe results of this study present insights for humanitarian supply chain managers, UAV producers and policymakers. Those in the humanitarian logistics sector can use the findings of this study to plan for various challenges faced as they try and implement UAVs in their supply chain.Originality/valueThis research is unique as it analyses the general factors hindering the implementation of UAVs in Indian humanitarian logistics. The study enriches existing literature by providing an analytic approach to determine the weightage of various interrelations between the identified factors affecting UAV incorporation in the humanitarian supply chain.

Estimating the potential of electric mobility in commercial transport considering the availability of charging infrastructure – A behavioural model analysis for the city of Hamburg

To address climate change, transport policy tries to accelerate the electrification of vehicles. The impact of policy measures taken is difficult to predict especially in areas like commercial passenger transport where few research exists. In this study we estimate the impact of higher availability of charging infrastructure on the electrification potential of vehicles used in commercial passenger transport. For Hamburg we estimate that the electrification potential could increase by about 35%. We base this analysis on a company survey on vehicle usage patterns in commercial passenger transport and a ranked choice model to quantify the relationship between company sectors and tour patterns. This enables us to estimate the impact on electrification potential for overall Hamburg. The methodological contribution of this paper is to demonstrate a statistically viable approach to extrapolate insights from a behavioural survey to an overall region in the context of commercial passenger transport.

Application Prototype Attendance System Garuda Indonesia's Premium Service Assistant Employees Use The Waterfall Model

In the era of information technology which has developed rapidly, it becomes a challenge for users of information technology and encourages every activity of the organization to be able to use it as a support for work activities so as to produce fast and accurate information. PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk as a company engaged in commercial air transportation services that requires good management in employee attendance, special data collection needed to record attendance that can be well organized. The employee attendance process still uses the manual method even though it has been assisted by existing technology, namely using WhatsApp group media every day with a predetermined format and making chat results that have been carried out without a report recap for one month which risks losing attendance data and failures that have occurred. can harm the company. Based on these problems, an attendance system application prototype was made in order to minimize errors. The research method used includes observation, interviews, and literature study. While the system development method using the Waterfall model includes analysis, design, manufacture, testing and system maintenance. The prototype system application that will be developed is expected to be able to build this attendance system more quickly and precisely.

Effects of stress during commercial hatching on growth, egg production and feather pecking in laying hens.

Every year, billions of egg layer chicks around the world are hatched under highly stressful, industrial circumstances. Here, it is investigated how the stressful procedure in the commercial hatchery, including incubation, hatching, processing, and transport affects the chicks with regards to traits relevant for the egg production industry. These traits were compared to those of a control group hatched in a small incubator and handled gently och quietly in a quiet room without any processing and transport. The chicks were weighed at hatch and at eight additional time points: 4 days, 1 week (w), 2 w, 3 w, 5 w, 8 w, 20 w and 25 w of age. Feather pecking was studied at 15 w of age and damages to the feathers and injuries on the comb and wattle were assessed at 25 w of age. From 19 w of age, eggs were collected on three days per week, counted and weighed. Chicks from a commercial hatchery had a lower hatch weight than control chicks (p<0.001). At 20 w of age, the weight of the commercial hatched chicks was still numerically lower, although this did not reach statistical significance. Commercially hatched chicks tended to show more feather pecking behaviour at 15 w of age compared to control chicks (p<0.1), although feather condition at 25 w of age showed the opposite pattern. Regarding production, commercially hatched chickens laid fewer (p<0.05) and smaller (p<0.05) eggs than chicks hatched and handled under calm circumstances. From this experiment, it is concluded that the stressful experience in the commercial hatchery has an overall negative effect on traits relevant for the industry.

Purchase intention and actual purchase of cargo cycles: Influencing factors and policy insights

To support the penetration of cargo cycles in commercial transport, this research aims at identifying the significant influencing factors for their purchase, using data from Europe’s largest cargo cycle testing project “Ich entlaste Städte”. This is achieved by developing binary logit models for the intention to purchase (stated at the end of a 3-month vehicle trial), and the actual purchase decision made (queried three months or later, after the end of the trial). Prior to the estimation of the logit models, latent variables have been constructed using explanatory factor analysis. Based on the estimation results, factors that influence the actual purchase decision include catchment area of cargo cycle trips, daily usage during the trial phase, trial phase season, type of cargo cycle tested, mode substituted by cargo cycles during the trial phase and business sector. Furthermore, four other factors, which are latent variables constructed through exploratory factor analysis, are found to have significant influence: perception of operational, soft and cost benefits, as well as importance of deterioration of conditions for conventional vehicles. Based on the influence of these factors, policy measures are suggested under the following categories: (i) Regulation, (ii) Infrastructure, (iii) Finance, (iv) Campaigns and (v) Trial schemes. The data from the project shows the existence of a difference between the intention and the actual purchase decision (around 50% higher intent compared to realized purchase). This implies that there is a need to convert intention to actual decision, when making conclusions based on intention. A comparison, made between the binary logit models of intention and actual purchase decision, brings out the reality that the latter is influenced by hard facts like the deteriorating conditions (e.g., vehicle access restrictions) for conventional vehicles, while the former is influenced by operational concerns towards cargo cycles. This observation suggests the necessity of formulating measures to foster the market penetration of cargo cycles.

Commercial air transport in Africa: changing structure and development of country pairs

Commercial air transport in Africa: changing structure and development of country pairs

Development and Application of a Bayesian Network-Based Model for Systematically Reducing Safety Risks in the Commercial Air Transportation System

Development and Application of a Bayesian Network-Based Model for Systematically Reducing Safety Risks in the Commercial Air Transportation System

Mobile Carbon Capture for Long-Haul Commercial Transport: Design, Integration and Results

Mobile Carbon Capture for Long-Haul Commercial Transport: Design, Integration and Results