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In Touch with Prairie Living, September 2022
Get PDFSeptember 2022 column for North Dakota and South Dakota newspapers
Relating Subjective Ride Quality Ratings to Objective Measures
Get PDFRaj Bridgelall is the program director for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) Center for Surface Mobility Applications & Real-time Simulation environments (SMARTSeSM).Agencies have long used subjective roughness ratings from panels of users to inform policy development on road maintenance strategies. The commoditization of electronics motivated the development of more objective, automated, and cost-effective measurement technologies. Consequently, there has been an explosion of ensemble measurements using smartphones or connected vehicles. Nevertheless, agencies have no means of relating those sensor-based measurements to their customary linguistic scale of human perceived roughness levels. This research relates subjective ratings of roughness from regular passengers of public bus transit to simultaneous smartphone-based objective measures of roughness. The findings are that regular bus riders consistently distinguished between the extreme values of measured roughness but not the intermediate values. Ratings are also less distinguishable for smoother rides than for rougher rides. The experiments also reveal a phenomenon of roughness acclimation that leads to biased ratings from regular users of a road segment.https://www.ugpti.org/about/staff/viewbio.php?id=7
Medication Safety and Opioid Risk Screenings Conducted by Nurses in Patients' Homes
Get PDFHome health patients are at risk of medication safety issues due to lack of pharmacy follow up. A Home Health Screening Program was created by NDSU?s ONE Program to expand medication safety and opioid risk screenings to these patients. Given the screening results, patients receive a combination of individualized interventions such as medication education, Deterra drug disposal bags, a pill organizer, a medication lock box, or Narcan. To date, more than 1,400 screenings have been completed. This program has helped address gaps in medication safety research and has provided critical safety information to a vulnerable population in North Dakota
Estimation of the Capacity of a Basic Freeway and Weaving Segment Under Traditional, Autonomous, and Connected Autonomous Vehicles, Using Oversaturated Traffic Condition Data
Get PDFAutonomous vehicles (AVs) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will be the standard in transportation in the future. The use of such vehicles could minimize traffic oscillation and travel time and boost safety and mobility on freeways. An AV is a self-driving vehicle that can make decisions by itself in any situation. CAVs include all the characteristics of AVs and additional communication with other vehicles or the infrastructure (signal system). The use of AVs and CAVs will substantially increase motorway capacity in upcoming decades. Moreover, vehicle dynamics will change as technology and algorithms become more commonplace. In the short term, capacity may have a negative impact on talent; however, as the algorithms become more aggressive, the results will improve.
Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) may need to be updated if freeway system capacity changes. As a result, the manual should focus on enhancing two freeway segments: the fundamental freeway portion and the weaving part (case study on U.S. 101 in Los Angeles, California). A microsimulation program developed by the Planung Transport Verkehr (PTV) in Karlsruhe, Germany, was used to calibrate and evaluate Wiedemann's behavioral car-following model (CFM). The Coexist project from Europe created three types of autonomous cars: AV-cautious, AV-normal, and AV all-knowing.
CFMs are vital because they measure the distance between vehicles. This is crucial for capacity. The capacity of AV cautious vehicles is decreased at all levels and penetrations. When AV-cautious autonomy evolves into AV all-knowing autonomy, the capacity of the weaving section and the BFS may rise by 33% and 36%, respectively.
This study provides a method for evaluating the capacity of freeways, which we estimate using AV levels and penetrations. Transportation planners and traffic engineers may utilize these capabilities to design better traffic planning and traffic-management technology in the future. For example, highway capacity will be restricted if the AV mix is largely AV-cautious. However, the solution is likely not to expand capacity but to find ways to manage traffic as new technology develops and moves to CAVs. This research aids in the planning and design of how to bring AVs and CAVs to market
A Study of Inverter-Based Resources on Power Grid Operation Under Uncertain Operating Conditions
Get PDFThe electric power grid is undergoing a rapid change predominantly driven by high penetration levels of renewable energy resources (RERs) such as wind and solar. These resources are interfaced with the power grid through power electronic inverters that use control algorithms to define their performance characteristics. As a group, these types of resources are commonly referred to as inverter-based RERs (IB-RERs). While IB-RERs use power electronic controls to change active and reactive power injection, the fast inverter controls, separating the power source from the grid, have changed grid dynamics and posed new challenges to maintaining reliable and safe grid operation. Moreover, the variable nature of IB-RERs generation under uncertain weather conditions further challenge the grid operation under uncertain operating conditions resulting from an imbalance in electricity generation and demand. To effectively manage IB-RERs for providing reliable grid services, this dissertation studies the impact of IB-RERs on grid operation at the transmission- and distribution- levels while considering uncertain operating conditions. More specifically, the probabilistic collocation method is introduced to quantify the uncertainty of renewable generation and load demands on the distribution system operation. Also, the probabilistic collocation method is integrated with grid assessment to assess the grid stiffness under uncertain operating conditions. In addition, the impact of transmission-level disturbances on solar generator operation in distribution systems is investigated by a real-time electromagnetic simulator. The proposed method and analysis results are useful for guiding grid planning and operation to address the emerging issues of integrating the high penetration of IB-RERs into the power grid for reliable grid services
In Touch with Prairie Living, March 2022
Get PDFMarch 2022 column for North Dakota and South Dakota newspapers
Biomass Yield and Nutritive Value of Annual Forage Mixes Compared With Monocrops
Get PDFForage mixes could serve as a cover crop mix to protect the soil during the winter, for prevented planting areas or as a high nutritious feed for grazing livestock. The objective of this study was to determine the nutritive value and productivity of selected annual forage mixes compared with forage sorghum monocrops. The nutritive value of annual forage mixes and monocrops varied across environments and between treatments. Monocultures produced more biomass than annual forage mixes. The three most productive mixes in comparison to the others were hybrid brassica/oat/forage pea/forage sorghum x sudangrass/sweet sorghum blend/foxtail millet, turnip/forage sorghum x sudangrass/sweet sorghum blend/forage pea/hybrid brassicas/oat/faba bean/forage pea, and forage sorghum x sudangrass/radish mix. The latter being the most cost-effective mix. Forage sorghum dominated annual forage mixes at a planting rate of 2.2 kg/ha. These results emphasize how forage annual mixes can provide additional forage for livestock
Wellness in Educational Facilities
Get PDFUniversally children are sent to attend school to
gain basic knowledge in most communities. In the United
States the standard is about 7 hours a day, 5 days a
week, for 13 years. These educational institutions that are
in place have a strong impact on the growth and development of
young individuals.
Many schools are historical or show strong elements that
speak to the time they were built. These elements include
architectural style, classroom size, amounts, and types, and systems
within the building. As communities grow from the framework
in which the school was originally constructed, there lies the
opportunity to be more intentional with updates and redesign.
To foster intellectual growth, those who attend need to have the
ability to grow mentally and emotionally. Creating safe spaces for
the youth aids the cultivation of skill sets needed for success and
well-being. Moving forward, schools need to be places of relief
and positive stimulation. Green building design, incorporating WELL
building standards, using space psychology, connecting the school?s
surroundings to their environment, and ensuring safety are all
strong goals to create more positive learning environments. These
positive learning environments will encourage focus, exploration, and
collaboration of ideas and learning
Characterization and Detection of Bacterial Pathogens of Common Bean
Get PDFCommon bacterial blight (CBB) (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli (Xap) and X. fuscans pv. fuscans (Xff), halo blight (Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola (Psp)), and bacterial brown spot (P. syringae pv. syringae (Pss)), are yield-limiting diseases of common bean in North Dakota and Minnesota. The objectives of this research were to optimize a multiplex quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for rapid detection and quantification of four bacterial pathovars in common bean seed, leaf, and pod tissue; determine the aggressiveness of Xap and Xff isolates; and determine the race types of Psp isolates in North Dakota and Minnesota. A fourplex qPCR assay was optimized, and novel primers and probe were designed for pathovar-specific detection of Pss. Significant differences were observed in Xap/Xff aggressiveness across isolates evaluated and in susceptibility of the differential lines (P <.0001). The 60 Psp isolates were identified as Race 6, the predominant race in the region
Evaluation of the Relationship Between Scapular Dyskinesis and Acromiohumeral Distance
Get PDFThis study analyzed the interaction between scapular dyskinesis (SDK) and acromiohumeral distance (AHD). Diagnostic ultrasound (DUS) was used to measure the AHD of 33 participants between 10 and 120o of weighted arm elevation in the scapular and frontal planes. Images were collected every 10o as the participant raised and held the weight at each increment. This process was completed bilaterally prior to completion of the Scapular Dyskinesis Test (SDT) to diagnose the presence of SDK. Intra-rater reliability was assessed with ICC (3,1) and four multilinear regressions were used to evaluate the relationship between AHD and SDK. Results indicated nearly perfect inter-rater reliability and a significant, positive relationship between AHD and SDK of the non-dominant arm in the scapular and frontal plane of movement