Understanding the characteristics of the microenvironments in urban street canyons through analysis of pollution measured using a novel pervasive sensor array.

This paper presents results of comprehensive analyses of data from the first 122 commercially available wireless environmental pervasive sensors (motes), developed by Newcastle University and deployed in England. Measurements of pollution, meteorology and traffic are used to investigate the complexity of the physical and chemical processes governing the levels of traffic-related pollution in urban areas. Following a brief introduction on health impacts associated with air quality, description of the mote technology is given. Cluster analysis statistics to investigate the relationship between different pollutant types and traffic data demonstrated that traffic flow regimes alone cannot be used to estimate diurnal kerbside pollutant concentrations. Also, the absolute levels, whilst dependent on meteorological conditions and static parameters are only partially governed by the pollutant dispersion. The research clearly illustrates the benefits and added value of pervasive concentration measurement in urban micro environments with potential to effectively evaluate human exposure to transport-related emissions.

Analysing the effect of gender on the human-machine interaction in level 3 automated vehicles.

The emergence of the level 3 automated vehicles (L3 AVs) can enable drivers to be completely disengaged from driving and safely perform other non-driving related tasks, but sometimes their takeover of control of the vehicle is required. The takeover of control is an important human-machine interaction in L3 AVs. However, little research has focused on investigating the effect of gender on takeover performance. In order to fill this research gap, a driving simulator study with 76 drivers (33 females and 43 males) was conducted. The participants took over control from L3 AVs, and the timing and quality of takeover were measured. The results show that although there was no significant difference in most of the measurements adopted to quantify takeover performance between female and male. Gender did affect takeover performance slightly, with women exhibited slightly better performance than men. Compared to men, women exhibited a smaller percentage of hasty takeovers and slightly faster reaction times as well as slightly more stable operation of the steering wheel. The findings highlight that it is important for both genders to recognise they can use and interact with L3 AVs well, and more hands-on experience and teaching sessions could be provided to deepen their understanding of L3 AVs. The design of the car interiors of L3 AVs should also take into account gender differences in the preferences of users for different non-driving related tasks.

Submicrometer infrared surface imaging using a scanning-probe microscope and an optical parametric oscillator laser.

Submicrometer IR surface imaging was performed with a resolution better than the diffraction limit. The apparatus was based on an IR optical parametric oscillator laser and a commercial atomic force microscope and used, as the detection mechanism, induced resonant oscillations in an atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever. For the first time to our knowledge this was achieved with top-down illumination and a benchtop IR source, thus extending the range of potential applications of this technique. IR absorption and AFM topography images of polystyrene beads were recorded simultaneously with an image resolution of 200 nm.