Enhanced Nitrous Oxide Decomposition on Zirconium-Supported Rhodium Catalysts by Iridium Augmentation.

The effective elimination of NO from automobile exhaust at low temperatures poses significant challenges. Compared to other materials, supported RhO catalysts exhibit high NO decomposition activities, even in the presence of O, CO, and HO. Metal additives can enhance the low-temperature NO decomposition activities over supported RhO catalysts; however, the enhancement mechanism and active sites require further investigation.

Practical one-shot data-driven design of fractional-order PID controller: Fictitious reference signal approach.

This study proposes a one-shot data-driven tuning method for a fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controller. The proposed method tunes the FOPID controller in the model-reference control formulation. A loss function is defined to evaluate the match between a given reference model and the closed-loop response while explicitly considering the closed-loop stability.

Catalytic NH oxidation affected by the nanometric roughness of the platinum overlayer.

Pulsed cathodic arc-plasma deposition was employed to create a few nanometre-thick Pt overlayer on a 50 μm-thick Fe-Cr-Al metal (SUS) foil, resulting in an effective NH oxidation catalyst fabrication. This catalyst exhibited a turnover frequency (TOF) exceeding 100 times that of Pt nanoparticles. In this study, Pt overlayer catalysts with varying degrees of surface roughness were fabricated using different metal foil substrates: mirror-polished (Pt/p-SUS), unpolished (Pt/SUS) and roughened by the formation of a surface oxide layer (Pt/AlO/SUS).

Nanometric Iridium Overlayer Catalysts for High-Turnover NH Oxidation with Suppressed NO Formation.

In the present study, we prepared a 12 nm thick Ir overlayer via pulsed cathodic arc plasma deposition on a 50 μm thick Fe-Cr-Al metal (SUS) foil. Using this thin-film catalyst made NH-O reactions more environmentally benign due to a much lower selectivity for undesirable NO (<5%) than that of a Pt overlayer (∼70%) at 225 °C. Despite its small surface area, Ir/SUS exhibited promising activity as an ammonia slip catalyst according to a turnover frequency (TOF) >70-fold greater than that observed with conventional Ir nanoparticle catalysts supported on γ-AlO.

Association of Impact Velocity with Serious-injury and Fatality Risks to Cyclists in Commercial Truck-Cyclist Accidents.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between truck-cyclist collision impact velocity and the serious-injury and fatality risks to cyclists, and to investigate the effects of road type and driving scenario on the frequency of cyclist fatalities due to collisions with vehicles. We used micro and macro truck-cyclist collision data from the Japanese Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) database. We classified vehicle type into five categories: heavy-duty trucks (gross vehicle weight [GVW] ≥11 × 10 kg [11 tons (t)], medium-duty trucks (5 × 10 kg [5 t] ≤ GVW < 11 × 10 kg [11 t]), light-duty trucks (GVW <5 × 10 kg [5 t]), box vans, and sedans.

Organophosphate flame retardants in the indoor air and dust in cars in Japan.

The concentrations of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) in the indoor air and dust were measured in 25 unoccupied cars in Japan. In the indoor air of the cars, most OPFRs were neither detected nor found at a concentration lower than the method quantification limit. The highest concentration (1500 ng m) was obtained for tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP).

Association of Impact Velocity with Risks of Serious Injuries and Fatalities to Pedestrians in Commercial Truck-Pedestrian Accidents.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between truck-pedestrian crash impact velocity and the risks of serious injury and fatality to pedestrians. We used micro and macro truck-pedestrian accident data from the Japanese Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) database. We classified vehicle type into five categories: heavy-duty trucks (gross vehicle weight [GVW] ≥11 × 103 kg [11 tons (t)], medium-duty trucks (5 × 103 kg [5 t] ≤ GVW < 11 × 103 kg [11 t]), light-duty trucks (GVW <5 × 103 kg [5 t]), box vans, and sedans.

Effects of seat-back angle and accelerometer height at the seat-back on seat-back x axis r.m.s. acceleration in filed experiments according to the ISO2631-1 standard.

The effects of seat-back angle and accelerometer height at the seat-back on seat-back x-axis frequency-weighted root-mean-square (r.m.s.