Parking in a small parking lot within limited space poses a difficult task. It often leads to deviations between the final parking posture and the target posture. These deviations can lead to partial occupancy of adja...Parking in a small parking lot within limited space poses a difficult task. It often leads to deviations between the final parking posture and the target posture. These deviations can lead to partial occupancy of adjacent parking lots, which poses a safety threat to vehicles parked in these parking lots. However, previous studies have not addressed this issue. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the impact of parking deviation of existing vehicles next to the target parking lot(PDEVNTPL) on the automatic ego vehicle(AEV) parking, in terms of safety, comfort, accuracy, and efficiency of parking. A segmented parking training framework(SPTF) based on soft actor-critic(SAC) is proposed to improve parking performance. In the proposed method, the SAC algorithm incorporates strategy entropy into the objective function, to enable the AEV to learn parking strategies based on a more comprehensive understanding of the environment. Additionally, the SPTF simplifies complex parking tasks to maintain the high performance of deep reinforcement learning(DRL). The experimental results reveal that the PDEVNTPL has a detrimental influence on the AEV parking in terms of safety, accuracy, and comfort, leading to reductions of more than 27%, 54%, and 26%respectively. However, the SAC-based SPTF effectively mitigates this impact, resulting in a considerable increase in the parking success rate from 71% to 93%. Furthermore, the heading angle deviation is significantly reduced from 2.25 degrees to 0.43degrees.展开更多
在规模化养殖模式下,畜禽在生长过程中会不可避免地面对各种不利因素,导致体内产生氧化应激,严重影响其生长发育。畜禽体内存在多种抗氧化因子来应对氧化应激。其中,帕金森相关蛋白7(Parkinson’s Disease-Associated Protein 7,PARK7)...在规模化养殖模式下,畜禽在生长过程中会不可避免地面对各种不利因素,导致体内产生氧化应激,严重影响其生长发育。畜禽体内存在多种抗氧化因子来应对氧化应激。其中,帕金森相关蛋白7(Parkinson’s Disease-Associated Protein 7,PARK7)基因是细胞氧化应激中重要的调控因子之一。PARK7通过自身半胱氨酸的氧化水平感受氧化应激信号,并通过Nrf2、ERK1/2和PI3K/Akt等途径促进抗氧化酶的生成,提高细胞的抗氧化能力,从而减轻氧化应激引起的损伤。本文对PARK7基因在氧化应激中的调控作用和通路进行综述,将有助于畜禽氧化应激的调节机制研究。展开更多
With a surge in the university’s student and staff population, parking problems and congestion have rapidly intensified. The recent inclusion of women drivers, particularly during official working hours, has exacerba...With a surge in the university’s student and staff population, parking problems and congestion have rapidly intensified. The recent inclusion of women drivers, particularly during official working hours, has exacerbated these challenges. This pressing issue underscores the critical necessity for a structured approach to managing university entries and overseeing parking at the gates. The proposed smart parking management system aims to address these concerns by introducing a design concept that restricts unauthorized access and provides exclusive parking privileges to authorized users. Through image processing, the system identifies available parking spaces, relaying real-time information to users via a mobile application. This comprehensive solution also generates detailed reports (daily, weekly, and monthly), aiding university safety authorities in future gate management decisions.展开更多
Parkinson's disease is characterized by the selective degeneration of dopamine neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway and dopamine deficiency in the striatum.The precise reasons behind the specific degeneration of t...Parkinson's disease is characterized by the selective degeneration of dopamine neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway and dopamine deficiency in the striatum.The precise reasons behind the specific degeneration of these dopamine neurons remain largely elusive.Genetic investigations have identified over 20 causative PARK genes and 90 genomic risk loci associated with both familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease.Notably,several of these genes are linked to the synaptic vesicle recycling process,particularly the clathrinmediated endocytosis pathway.This suggests that impaired synaptic vesicle recycling might represent an early feature of Parkinson's disease,followed by axonal degeneration and the eventual loss of dopamine cell bodies in the midbrain via a"dying back"mechanism.Recently,several new animal and cellular models with Parkinson's disease-linked mutations affecting the endocytic pathway have been created and extensively characterized.These models faithfully recapitulate certain Parkinson's disease-like features at the animal,circuit,and cellular levels,and exhibit defects in synaptic membrane trafficking,further supporting the findings from human genetics and clinical studies.In this review,we will first summarize the cellular and molecular findings from the models of two Parkinson's disease-linked clathrin uncoating proteins:auxilin(DNAJC6/PARK19)and synaptojanin 1(SYNJ1/PARK20).The mouse models carrying these two PARK gene mutations phenocopy each other with specific dopamine terminal pathology and display a potent synergistic effect.Subsequently,we will delve into the involvement of several clathrin-mediated endocytosis-related proteins(GAK,endophilin A1,SAC2/INPP5 F,synaptotagmin-11),identified as Parkinson's disease risk factors through genome-wide association studies,in Parkinson's disease pathogenesis.We will also explore the direct or indirect roles of some common Parkinson's disease-linked proteins(alpha-synuclein(PARK1/4),Parkin(PARK2),and LRRK2(PARK8))in synaptic endocytic trafficking.Additionally,we will discuss the emerging novel functions of these endocytic proteins in downstream membrane traffic pathways,particularly autophagy.Given that synaptic dysfunction is considered as an early event in Parkinson's disease,a deeper understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic vesicle endocytic trafficking may unveil novel to rgets for early diagnosis and the development of interventional therapies for Parkinson's disease.Future research should aim to elucidate why generalized synaptic endocytic dysfunction leads to the selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons in Parkinson's disease.展开更多
Vegetation resilience(VR),providing an objective measure of ecosystem health,has received considerable attention,however,there is still limited understanding of whether the dominant factors differ across different cli...Vegetation resilience(VR),providing an objective measure of ecosystem health,has received considerable attention,however,there is still limited understanding of whether the dominant factors differ across different climate zones.We took the three national parks(Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park,HTR;Wuyishan National Park,WYS;and Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park,NTL)of China with less human interference as cases,which are distributed in different climatic zones,including tropical,subtropical and temperate monsoon climates,respectively.Then,we employed the probabilistic decay method to explore the spatio-temporal changes in the VR and their natural driving patterns using Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR)model as well.The results revealed that:(1)from 2000 to 2020,the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)of the three national parks fluctuated between 0.800 and 0.960,exhibiting an overall upward trend,with the mean NDVI of NTL(0.923)>HTR(0.899)>WYS(0.823);(2)the positive trend decay time of vegetation exceeded that of negative trend,indicating vegetation gradual recovery of the three national parks since 2012;(3)the VR of HTR was primarily influenced by elevation,aspect,average annual temperature change(AATC),and average annual precipitation change(AAPC);the WYS'VR was mainly affected by elevation,average annual precipitation(AAP),and AAPC;while the terrain factors(elevation and slope)were the main driving factors of VR in NTL;(4)among the main factors influencing the VR changes,the AAPC had the highest proportion in HTR(66.7%),and the AAP occupied the largest area proportion in WYS(80.4%).While in NTL,elevation served as the main driving factor for the VR,encompassing 64.2%of its area.Consequently,our findings indicated that precipitation factors were the main driving force for the VR changes in HTR and WYS national parks,while elevation was the main factors that drove the VR in NTL.Our research has promoted a deeper understanding of the driving mechanism behind the VR.展开更多
Microplastics (MPs) have been an emerging concern due to their harmful effects on the ecosystem and are ubiquitous in various habitats, from marine to terrestrial environments. However, studies on the presence of MPs ...Microplastics (MPs) have been an emerging concern due to their harmful effects on the ecosystem and are ubiquitous in various habitats, from marine to terrestrial environments. However, studies on the presence of MPs in recreational areas are limited. One of the previous works has reported that urban recreational parks are considered “sinks” for plastic debris, including MPs. In this study, low-density MPs (LD-MPs) in soil samples collected from recreational parks of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE) were isolated by density flotation method. Results showed that these parks have varying levels of LD-MPs caused by various anthropogenic activities, such as sludge use and application of reclaimed water from wastewater treatment facilities in those areas. These plastic particles were isolated in 87% of the soil samples, with an average concentration of 1550 ± 340 MPs/kg. Predominantly, these comprised large LD-MPs (300 - 5000 μm), with red and blue being the most common colors. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy identified possible synthetic polymers, including polyethylene and polypropylene. Additionally, a negative correlation was observed between LD-MP concentration and soil pH and moisture content, indicating potential adverse effects on soil health. These findings highlight the need for monitoring and managing microplastic pollution in urban recreational areas to mitigate its ecological impacts.展开更多
The history of mankind contains so many illustrations of well-classified and violent struggles against various animals over crop production in agricultural fields, attacks on human life or competition in order to have...The history of mankind contains so many illustrations of well-classified and violent struggles against various animals over crop production in agricultural fields, attacks on human life or competition in order to have access to certain natural resources. The aim of this study is to characterise the human-wildlife conflicts that occur around the KBNP, especially with regard to primates. Surveys were carried out in 260 households selected using the snowball method. The results showed that human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP are characterised by the destruction of crops in riparian fields by monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas, the destruction of houses, physical attacks and zoonoses. Despite the conservation and protection measures for wildlife and local populations put in place by the Park’s managers, conflicts between local populations and the Park’s wild animals are still visible. These conflicts lead to the detention of wild animals by local people roaming in the villages and to poaching on the Park’s boundaries. The weakness of the community management policy on the part of the park managers and the resentment of the indigenous peoples towards the restriction of their access to natural resources are the major constraints on the sustainable management of conflicts between the local populations and the wild animals in the KBNP. The strategies for the sustainable resolution of human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP must be geared towards and integrated into a community conservation approach.展开更多
Ensuring adequate access to truck parking is critical to the safe and efficient movement of freight traffic. There are strict federal guidelines for commercial truck driver rest periods. Rest areas and private truck s...Ensuring adequate access to truck parking is critical to the safe and efficient movement of freight traffic. There are strict federal guidelines for commercial truck driver rest periods. Rest areas and private truck stops are the only places for the trucks to stop legally and safely. In locations without sufficient parking areas, trucks often park on interstate ramps, which create safety risks for other interstate motorists. Historically, agencies have employed costly and time intensive manual counting methods, camera surveillance, and driver surveys to assess truck parking. Connected truck data, available in near real-time, offers an efficient alternative to practitioners to assess truck parking patterns and identify areas where there may be insufficient safe parking spaces. This paper presents a case study of interstate I-70 in east central Indiana and documents the observed spatiotemporal impacts of a rest area closure on truck parking on nearby interstate ramps. Results showed that there was a 28% increase in parking on ramps during the rest area closure. Analysis also found that ramps closest to the rest area were most impacted by the closure, seeing a rise in truck parking sessions as high as 2.7 times. Parking duration on the ramps during rest area closure also increased drastically. Although it was expected that this would result in increased parking by trucks on adjacent ramps, this before, during, after scenario provided an ideal scenario to evaluate the robustness of these techniques to assess changing parking characteristics of long-haul commercial trucks. The data analytics and visualization tools presented in this study are scalable nationwide and will aid stakeholders in informed data-driven decision making when allocating resources towards improving the nations commercial vehicle parking infrastructure.展开更多
COVID-19 posed challenges for global tourism management.Changes in visitor temporal and spatial patterns and their associated determinants pre-and peri-pandemic in Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks are analyzed.D...COVID-19 posed challenges for global tourism management.Changes in visitor temporal and spatial patterns and their associated determinants pre-and peri-pandemic in Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks are analyzed.Data was collected through social media programming and analyzed using spatiotemporal analysis and a geographically weighted regression(GWR)model.Results highlight that COVID-19 significantly changed park visitation patterns.Visitors tended to explore more remote areas peri-pandemic.The GWR model also indicated distance to nearby trails was a significant influence on visitor density.Our results indicate that the pandemic influenced tourism temporal and spatial imbalance.This research presents a novel approach using combined social media big data which can be extended to the field of tourism management,and has important implications to manage visitor patterns and to allocate resources efficiently to satisfy multiple objectives of park management.展开更多
Parking difficulties have become a social issue that people have to solve.Automated parking system is practicable for quick par operations without a driver which can also greatly reduces the probability of parking acc...Parking difficulties have become a social issue that people have to solve.Automated parking system is practicable for quick par operations without a driver which can also greatly reduces the probability of parking accidents.The paper proposes a Lyapunov-based nonlinear model predictive controller embedding an instructable solution which is generated by the modified rear-wheel feedback method(RF-LNMPC)in order to improve the overall path tracking accuracy in parking conditions.Firstly,A discrete-time RF-LNMPC considering the position and attitude of the parking vehicle is proposed to increase the success rate of automated parking effectively.Secondly,the RF-LNMPC problem with a multi-objective cost function is solved by the Interior-Point Optimization,of which the iterative initial values are described as the instructable solutions calculated by combining modified rear-wheel feedback to improve the performance of local optimal solution.Thirdly,the details on the computation of the terminal constraint and terminal cost for the linear time-varying case is presented.The closed-loop stability is verified via Lyapunov techniques by considering the terminal constraint and terminal cost theoretically.Finally,the proposed RF-LNMPC is implemented on a selfdriving Lincoln MKZ platform and the experiment results have shown improved performance in parallel and vertical parking conditions.The Monte Carlo analysis also demonstrates good stability and repeatability of the proposed method which can be applied in practical use in the near future.展开更多
Despite cities being recognized as being potential sources of microplastic pollution to the wider environment, most surveys of COVID-19 plastic-based litter have been undertaken through linear transects of marine beac...Despite cities being recognized as being potential sources of microplastic pollution to the wider environment, most surveys of COVID-19 plastic-based litter have been undertaken through linear transects of marine beaches. For the far fewer number of studies conducted on inland and urban locations, the site-specific focus has primarily been surveys along the length of streets. The present study is the first to specifically assess the standing stock (i.e., moment-in-time) of littered face masks for the entire surface area of urban parking lots. The density of face masks in 50 parking lots in a Canadian coastal town (0.00054 m2 ± 0.00051 m2) was found to be significantly greater than the background level of littering of town streets. Face mask density was significantly related to visitation “usage” of parking lots as gauged by the areal size of the lots and of their onsite buildings, as well as the number of vehicles present. Neither parking lot typology nor estimates of inferred export (various measures of wind exposure) and entrapment (various metrics of obstruction) of face masks had a significant influence on the extent of whole-lot littering. In consequence, modelling of the potential input of mask-derived microplastics to the marine environment from coastal communities can use the areal density of face masks found here in association with the total surface area of lots for individual municipalities as determined through GIS analysis.展开更多
As the pivotal green space,urban parks play an important role in urban residents’daily activities.Thy can not only bring people physical health,but also can be more likely to elicit positive sentiment to those who vi...As the pivotal green space,urban parks play an important role in urban residents’daily activities.Thy can not only bring people physical health,but also can be more likely to elicit positive sentiment to those who visit them.Recently,social media big data has provided new data sources for sentiment analysis.However,there was limited researches that explored the connection between urban parks and individual’s sentiments.Therefore,this study firstly employed a pre-trained language model(BERT,Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)to calculate sentiment scores based on social media data.Secondly,this study analysed the relationship between urban parks and individual’s sentiment from both spatial and temporal perspectives.Finally,by utilizing structural equation model(SEM),we identified 13 factors and analyzed its degree of the influence.The research findings are listed as below:①It confirmed that individuals generally experienced positive sentiment with high sentiment scores in the majority of urban parks;②The urban park type showed an influence on sentiment scores.In this study,higher sentiment scores observed in Eco-parks,comprehensive parks,and historical parks;③The urban parks level showed low impact on sentiment scores.With distinctions observed mainly at level-3 and level-4;④Compared to internal factors in parks,the external infrastructure surround them exerted more significant impact on sentiment scores.For instance,number of bus and subway stations around urban parks led to higher sentiment scores,while scenic spots and restaurants had inverse result.This study provided a novel method to quantify the services of various urban parks,which can be served as inspiration for similar studies in other cities and countries,enhancing their park planning and management strategies.展开更多
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(52222215, 52272420, 52072051)。
文摘Parking in a small parking lot within limited space poses a difficult task. It often leads to deviations between the final parking posture and the target posture. These deviations can lead to partial occupancy of adjacent parking lots, which poses a safety threat to vehicles parked in these parking lots. However, previous studies have not addressed this issue. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the impact of parking deviation of existing vehicles next to the target parking lot(PDEVNTPL) on the automatic ego vehicle(AEV) parking, in terms of safety, comfort, accuracy, and efficiency of parking. A segmented parking training framework(SPTF) based on soft actor-critic(SAC) is proposed to improve parking performance. In the proposed method, the SAC algorithm incorporates strategy entropy into the objective function, to enable the AEV to learn parking strategies based on a more comprehensive understanding of the environment. Additionally, the SPTF simplifies complex parking tasks to maintain the high performance of deep reinforcement learning(DRL). The experimental results reveal that the PDEVNTPL has a detrimental influence on the AEV parking in terms of safety, accuracy, and comfort, leading to reductions of more than 27%, 54%, and 26%respectively. However, the SAC-based SPTF effectively mitigates this impact, resulting in a considerable increase in the parking success rate from 71% to 93%. Furthermore, the heading angle deviation is significantly reduced from 2.25 degrees to 0.43degrees.
文摘在规模化养殖模式下,畜禽在生长过程中会不可避免地面对各种不利因素,导致体内产生氧化应激,严重影响其生长发育。畜禽体内存在多种抗氧化因子来应对氧化应激。其中,帕金森相关蛋白7(Parkinson’s Disease-Associated Protein 7,PARK7)基因是细胞氧化应激中重要的调控因子之一。PARK7通过自身半胱氨酸的氧化水平感受氧化应激信号,并通过Nrf2、ERK1/2和PI3K/Akt等途径促进抗氧化酶的生成,提高细胞的抗氧化能力,从而减轻氧化应激引起的损伤。本文对PARK7基因在氧化应激中的调控作用和通路进行综述,将有助于畜禽氧化应激的调节机制研究。
文摘With a surge in the university’s student and staff population, parking problems and congestion have rapidly intensified. The recent inclusion of women drivers, particularly during official working hours, has exacerbated these challenges. This pressing issue underscores the critical necessity for a structured approach to managing university entries and overseeing parking at the gates. The proposed smart parking management system aims to address these concerns by introducing a design concept that restricts unauthorized access and provides exclusive parking privileges to authorized users. Through image processing, the system identifies available parking spaces, relaying real-time information to users via a mobile application. This comprehensive solution also generates detailed reports (daily, weekly, and monthly), aiding university safety authorities in future gate management decisions.
文摘Parkinson's disease is characterized by the selective degeneration of dopamine neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway and dopamine deficiency in the striatum.The precise reasons behind the specific degeneration of these dopamine neurons remain largely elusive.Genetic investigations have identified over 20 causative PARK genes and 90 genomic risk loci associated with both familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease.Notably,several of these genes are linked to the synaptic vesicle recycling process,particularly the clathrinmediated endocytosis pathway.This suggests that impaired synaptic vesicle recycling might represent an early feature of Parkinson's disease,followed by axonal degeneration and the eventual loss of dopamine cell bodies in the midbrain via a"dying back"mechanism.Recently,several new animal and cellular models with Parkinson's disease-linked mutations affecting the endocytic pathway have been created and extensively characterized.These models faithfully recapitulate certain Parkinson's disease-like features at the animal,circuit,and cellular levels,and exhibit defects in synaptic membrane trafficking,further supporting the findings from human genetics and clinical studies.In this review,we will first summarize the cellular and molecular findings from the models of two Parkinson's disease-linked clathrin uncoating proteins:auxilin(DNAJC6/PARK19)and synaptojanin 1(SYNJ1/PARK20).The mouse models carrying these two PARK gene mutations phenocopy each other with specific dopamine terminal pathology and display a potent synergistic effect.Subsequently,we will delve into the involvement of several clathrin-mediated endocytosis-related proteins(GAK,endophilin A1,SAC2/INPP5 F,synaptotagmin-11),identified as Parkinson's disease risk factors through genome-wide association studies,in Parkinson's disease pathogenesis.We will also explore the direct or indirect roles of some common Parkinson's disease-linked proteins(alpha-synuclein(PARK1/4),Parkin(PARK2),and LRRK2(PARK8))in synaptic endocytic trafficking.Additionally,we will discuss the emerging novel functions of these endocytic proteins in downstream membrane traffic pathways,particularly autophagy.Given that synaptic dysfunction is considered as an early event in Parkinson's disease,a deeper understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic vesicle endocytic trafficking may unveil novel to rgets for early diagnosis and the development of interventional therapies for Parkinson's disease.Future research should aim to elucidate why generalized synaptic endocytic dysfunction leads to the selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons in Parkinson's disease.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant no.31971639)the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(grant no.2023J01477)the Special Investigation on Science and Technology Infrastructure Resources(grant no.2019FY202108)for their support of this research。
文摘Vegetation resilience(VR),providing an objective measure of ecosystem health,has received considerable attention,however,there is still limited understanding of whether the dominant factors differ across different climate zones.We took the three national parks(Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park,HTR;Wuyishan National Park,WYS;and Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park,NTL)of China with less human interference as cases,which are distributed in different climatic zones,including tropical,subtropical and temperate monsoon climates,respectively.Then,we employed the probabilistic decay method to explore the spatio-temporal changes in the VR and their natural driving patterns using Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR)model as well.The results revealed that:(1)from 2000 to 2020,the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)of the three national parks fluctuated between 0.800 and 0.960,exhibiting an overall upward trend,with the mean NDVI of NTL(0.923)>HTR(0.899)>WYS(0.823);(2)the positive trend decay time of vegetation exceeded that of negative trend,indicating vegetation gradual recovery of the three national parks since 2012;(3)the VR of HTR was primarily influenced by elevation,aspect,average annual temperature change(AATC),and average annual precipitation change(AAPC);the WYS'VR was mainly affected by elevation,average annual precipitation(AAP),and AAPC;while the terrain factors(elevation and slope)were the main driving factors of VR in NTL;(4)among the main factors influencing the VR changes,the AAPC had the highest proportion in HTR(66.7%),and the AAP occupied the largest area proportion in WYS(80.4%).While in NTL,elevation served as the main driving factor for the VR,encompassing 64.2%of its area.Consequently,our findings indicated that precipitation factors were the main driving force for the VR changes in HTR and WYS national parks,while elevation was the main factors that drove the VR in NTL.Our research has promoted a deeper understanding of the driving mechanism behind the VR.
文摘Microplastics (MPs) have been an emerging concern due to their harmful effects on the ecosystem and are ubiquitous in various habitats, from marine to terrestrial environments. However, studies on the presence of MPs in recreational areas are limited. One of the previous works has reported that urban recreational parks are considered “sinks” for plastic debris, including MPs. In this study, low-density MPs (LD-MPs) in soil samples collected from recreational parks of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE) were isolated by density flotation method. Results showed that these parks have varying levels of LD-MPs caused by various anthropogenic activities, such as sludge use and application of reclaimed water from wastewater treatment facilities in those areas. These plastic particles were isolated in 87% of the soil samples, with an average concentration of 1550 ± 340 MPs/kg. Predominantly, these comprised large LD-MPs (300 - 5000 μm), with red and blue being the most common colors. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy identified possible synthetic polymers, including polyethylene and polypropylene. Additionally, a negative correlation was observed between LD-MP concentration and soil pH and moisture content, indicating potential adverse effects on soil health. These findings highlight the need for monitoring and managing microplastic pollution in urban recreational areas to mitigate its ecological impacts.
文摘The history of mankind contains so many illustrations of well-classified and violent struggles against various animals over crop production in agricultural fields, attacks on human life or competition in order to have access to certain natural resources. The aim of this study is to characterise the human-wildlife conflicts that occur around the KBNP, especially with regard to primates. Surveys were carried out in 260 households selected using the snowball method. The results showed that human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP are characterised by the destruction of crops in riparian fields by monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas, the destruction of houses, physical attacks and zoonoses. Despite the conservation and protection measures for wildlife and local populations put in place by the Park’s managers, conflicts between local populations and the Park’s wild animals are still visible. These conflicts lead to the detention of wild animals by local people roaming in the villages and to poaching on the Park’s boundaries. The weakness of the community management policy on the part of the park managers and the resentment of the indigenous peoples towards the restriction of their access to natural resources are the major constraints on the sustainable management of conflicts between the local populations and the wild animals in the KBNP. The strategies for the sustainable resolution of human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP must be geared towards and integrated into a community conservation approach.
文摘Ensuring adequate access to truck parking is critical to the safe and efficient movement of freight traffic. There are strict federal guidelines for commercial truck driver rest periods. Rest areas and private truck stops are the only places for the trucks to stop legally and safely. In locations without sufficient parking areas, trucks often park on interstate ramps, which create safety risks for other interstate motorists. Historically, agencies have employed costly and time intensive manual counting methods, camera surveillance, and driver surveys to assess truck parking. Connected truck data, available in near real-time, offers an efficient alternative to practitioners to assess truck parking patterns and identify areas where there may be insufficient safe parking spaces. This paper presents a case study of interstate I-70 in east central Indiana and documents the observed spatiotemporal impacts of a rest area closure on truck parking on nearby interstate ramps. Results showed that there was a 28% increase in parking on ramps during the rest area closure. Analysis also found that ramps closest to the rest area were most impacted by the closure, seeing a rise in truck parking sessions as high as 2.7 times. Parking duration on the ramps during rest area closure also increased drastically. Although it was expected that this would result in increased parking by trucks on adjacent ramps, this before, during, after scenario provided an ideal scenario to evaluate the robustness of these techniques to assess changing parking characteristics of long-haul commercial trucks. The data analytics and visualization tools presented in this study are scalable nationwide and will aid stakeholders in informed data-driven decision making when allocating resources towards improving the nations commercial vehicle parking infrastructure.
基金This research was supported by the UBC APFNet Grant(Project ID:2022sp2 CAN).
文摘COVID-19 posed challenges for global tourism management.Changes in visitor temporal and spatial patterns and their associated determinants pre-and peri-pandemic in Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks are analyzed.Data was collected through social media programming and analyzed using spatiotemporal analysis and a geographically weighted regression(GWR)model.Results highlight that COVID-19 significantly changed park visitation patterns.Visitors tended to explore more remote areas peri-pandemic.The GWR model also indicated distance to nearby trails was a significant influence on visitor density.Our results indicate that the pandemic influenced tourism temporal and spatial imbalance.This research presents a novel approach using combined social media big data which can be extended to the field of tourism management,and has important implications to manage visitor patterns and to allocate resources efficiently to satisfy multiple objectives of park management.
基金Supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No.2021YFB2501800)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.52172384)+1 种基金Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province of China (Grant No.2021RC3048)State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing Technology for Vehicle of China (Grant No.72275004)。
文摘Parking difficulties have become a social issue that people have to solve.Automated parking system is practicable for quick par operations without a driver which can also greatly reduces the probability of parking accidents.The paper proposes a Lyapunov-based nonlinear model predictive controller embedding an instructable solution which is generated by the modified rear-wheel feedback method(RF-LNMPC)in order to improve the overall path tracking accuracy in parking conditions.Firstly,A discrete-time RF-LNMPC considering the position and attitude of the parking vehicle is proposed to increase the success rate of automated parking effectively.Secondly,the RF-LNMPC problem with a multi-objective cost function is solved by the Interior-Point Optimization,of which the iterative initial values are described as the instructable solutions calculated by combining modified rear-wheel feedback to improve the performance of local optimal solution.Thirdly,the details on the computation of the terminal constraint and terminal cost for the linear time-varying case is presented.The closed-loop stability is verified via Lyapunov techniques by considering the terminal constraint and terminal cost theoretically.Finally,the proposed RF-LNMPC is implemented on a selfdriving Lincoln MKZ platform and the experiment results have shown improved performance in parallel and vertical parking conditions.The Monte Carlo analysis also demonstrates good stability and repeatability of the proposed method which can be applied in practical use in the near future.
文摘Despite cities being recognized as being potential sources of microplastic pollution to the wider environment, most surveys of COVID-19 plastic-based litter have been undertaken through linear transects of marine beaches. For the far fewer number of studies conducted on inland and urban locations, the site-specific focus has primarily been surveys along the length of streets. The present study is the first to specifically assess the standing stock (i.e., moment-in-time) of littered face masks for the entire surface area of urban parking lots. The density of face masks in 50 parking lots in a Canadian coastal town (0.00054 m2 ± 0.00051 m2) was found to be significantly greater than the background level of littering of town streets. Face mask density was significantly related to visitation “usage” of parking lots as gauged by the areal size of the lots and of their onsite buildings, as well as the number of vehicles present. Neither parking lot typology nor estimates of inferred export (various measures of wind exposure) and entrapment (various metrics of obstruction) of face masks had a significant influence on the extent of whole-lot littering. In consequence, modelling of the potential input of mask-derived microplastics to the marine environment from coastal communities can use the areal density of face masks found here in association with the total surface area of lots for individual municipalities as determined through GIS analysis.
基金R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission(No.KM202211417015)Academic Research Projects of Beijing Union University(No.ZK10202209)+1 种基金The team-building subsidy of“Xuezhi Professorship”of the College of Applied Arts and Science of Beijing Union University(No.BUUCAS-XZJSTD-2024005)Academic Research Projects of Beijing Union University(No.ZKZD202305).
文摘As the pivotal green space,urban parks play an important role in urban residents’daily activities.Thy can not only bring people physical health,but also can be more likely to elicit positive sentiment to those who visit them.Recently,social media big data has provided new data sources for sentiment analysis.However,there was limited researches that explored the connection between urban parks and individual’s sentiments.Therefore,this study firstly employed a pre-trained language model(BERT,Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)to calculate sentiment scores based on social media data.Secondly,this study analysed the relationship between urban parks and individual’s sentiment from both spatial and temporal perspectives.Finally,by utilizing structural equation model(SEM),we identified 13 factors and analyzed its degree of the influence.The research findings are listed as below:①It confirmed that individuals generally experienced positive sentiment with high sentiment scores in the majority of urban parks;②The urban park type showed an influence on sentiment scores.In this study,higher sentiment scores observed in Eco-parks,comprehensive parks,and historical parks;③The urban parks level showed low impact on sentiment scores.With distinctions observed mainly at level-3 and level-4;④Compared to internal factors in parks,the external infrastructure surround them exerted more significant impact on sentiment scores.For instance,number of bus and subway stations around urban parks led to higher sentiment scores,while scenic spots and restaurants had inverse result.This study provided a novel method to quantify the services of various urban parks,which can be served as inspiration for similar studies in other cities and countries,enhancing their park planning and management strategies.
