Land Consumption of Delivery Robots and Bicycle Couriers for On-Demand Meal Delivery Using GPS Data and Simulations Based on the Time-Area Concept

Regulating the curbside usage of delivery vehicles and ride-hailing services as well as micromobility has been a challenge in the last years, a challenge which might worsen with the increase of autonomous vehicles. The contribution of the research outlined in this paper is an evaluation method of the land use of on-demand meal delivery services such as Deliveroo and UberEats. It evaluates the effect parking policies, operating strategy changes, and scheduling options have on the land consumption of bicycle couriers and sidewalk automated delivery robots (SADRs). Various operating strategies (i.e., shared fleets and fleets operated by restaurants), parking policies (i.e., parking at the restaurant, parking at the customer or no parking) and scheduling options (i.e., one meal per vehicle, multiple meals per vehicle) are simulated and applied to New York City (NYC). Additionally, the time-area requirements of on-demand meal delivery services are calculated based on GPS traces of Deliveroo and UberEats riders in two UK cities. The simulation in the paper shows that SADRs can reduce the time-area requirements by half compared with bicycle couriers. The effect of operating strategy changes and forbidding vehicles to park at the customer’s home is small. Delivering multiple meals in one tour halves the time-area requirements. The time-area requirements based on GPS traces is around 300 m2·min per order. The study allows policymakers to learn more about the land use of on-demand meal delivery services and how these can be influenced. Hence, they can adjust their policy strategies to ensure that on-demand meal delivery services are provided in a way that they use land effectively, reduce external costs, improve sustainability and benefit everyone.

How to foster successful implementation of a patient reported experience measurement in the disability sector: an example of developing strategies in co-creation

Background The integrated uptake of patient-reported experience measures, using outcomes for the micro, meso and macro level, calls for a successful implementation process which depends on how stakeholders are involved in this process. Currently, the impact of stakeholders on strategies to improve the integrated use is rarely reported, and information about how stakeholders can be engaged, including care-users who are communication vulnerable, is limited. This study illustrates the impact of all stakeholders on developing tailored implementation strategies and provides insights into supportive conditions to involve care-users who are communication vulnerable. Methods With the use of participatory action research, implementation strategies were co-created by care-users who are communication vulnerable (n = 8), professionals (n = 12), management (n = 6) and researchers (n = 5) over 9 months. Data collection consisted of audiotapes, reports, and researchers’ notes. Conventional content analysis was performed. Results The impact of care-users concerned the strategies’ look and feel, understandability and relevance. Professionals influenced impact on how to use strategies and terminology. The impact of management was on showing the gap between policy and practice, and learning from previous improvement failures. Researchers showed impact on analysis, direction of strategy changes and translating academic and development experience into practice. The engagement of care-users who are communication vulnerable was supported, taking into account organisational issues and the presentation of information. Conclusions The impact of all engaged stakeholders was identified over the different levels strategies focused on. Care-users who are communication vulnerable were valuable engaged in co-creation implementation strategies by equipping them to their needs and routines, which requires adaptation in communication, delimited meetings and a safe group environment. Trial registration Reviewed by the Medical Ethics Committee of Zuyderland-Zuyd (METCZ20190006). NL7594 registred at https://www.trialregister.nl/.

Sino-Africa relations: Gradual changes in Chinese foreign strategy towards African countries

China is one of the world's foremost economic powers, affecting many countries' economies and political issues. China standing by the five principles of peaceful coexistence, is ready to cultivate friendly cooperation and ties with all countries that contribute to international peace, security, and mutual prosperity. Africa is an important factor for global stability and prosperity with the highest number of developing countries. Africa is still of considerable significance to the Chinese Government. Therefore, the Chinese government wishes to present China's African strategy and its action to implement them and its plans for cooperation in different areas to facilitate the steady development of China-Africa ties in the long period. However, China's foreign policies are changing and developing recently. This study utilized qualitative analysis to identify the collaboration and relations between African countries and China to know how Chinese foreign strategy changes Africa's strategic ramifications and repercussions. The findings showed that the partnership between China and Africa by win-win strategy, from moral emphasis throughout the colonial phase to tactical considerations and non-intervention to constructive involvement on the continent, are three strands of foreign strategy shifts.

Fish Oil Microcapsules as Omega-3 Enrichment Strategy: Changes in Volatile Compounds of Meat Products during Storage and Cooking

This work aims to analyze the effects of processing and storage on the volatile compound profile of different meat products enriched in ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Monolayered (Mo) and multilayered (Mu) microcapsules of fish oil were tested. The profiles of volatile compounds were analyzed by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The enrichment with Mo significantly increases the abundance of volatile compounds from lipid oxidation and markers of ω-3 PUFA oxidation, which may be related to the multilayer structure of chitosan–maltodextrin in Mu that achieves greater fish oil protection than the simple coating of maltodextrin in Mo. Besides, the changes in volatile compounds during storage depends on the type of fish oil microcapsules and the meat products, having an increased abundance of ω-3 PUFA oxidation markers in dry-cured sausages added with Mo. However, the enrichment of these meat products with Mo and Mu does not modify the usual variations in the volatile compound profile during culinary cooking. Thus, the addition of multilayer fish oil microcapsules may be a suitable option for enrichment of meat products in ω-3 PUFA without modifying the abundance of volatile compounds, including oxidation markers.

Multi-GNSS real-time orbit and clock quality changes over time

<p>Navigation systems have substantially evolved in the last decade. The multi-GNSS constellation including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou consists of more than a hundred active satellites. To fully exploit their potential, users should be able to take advantage of those systems not only in postprocessing mode employing final solutions but also in real-time. It is also important to make satellite signals highly useful in a real-time regime not only in standard positioning mode but also with the precise positioning technique. That is why real-time products are highly desirable. One of the IGS Analysis Centers that support multi-GNSS real-time solution is CNES which provides not only orbits and clocks but also code and phase biases and VTEC global maps. Over the last few years, real-time products have been changing similarly to navigation systems, which come along with observation availability and calculation strategy changes.</p><p>We utilize the signal-in-space ranging error (SISRE) as the main orbit and clock quality indicator. Additionally, SLR observations are used as an independent source of information about orbit quality. Three years of data, between 2017 and 2020, are used to check the progress in the quality of the delivered products to the users through the internet streams provided by CNES.</p><p>The progress in the product quality in the test period is obvious and it depends on the satellite system, block or satellite type, time, and the height of the Sun above the orbital plane. The most accurate orbits are available for GPS, however, the very stable atomic clocks of Galileo compensate for systematic errors in Galileo orbits. Consequently, the SISRE for Galileo is lower than that for GPS, equaling 1.6 and 2.3 cm for Galileo and GPS, respectively. The SISRE value for GLONASS, despite the good quality of the orbits, is disturbed by the lower quality of the onboard clocks and is equal to 4-6 cm. The same quality level is for BeiDou-2 MEO and IGSO satellites. Products for BeiDou-2 GEO satellites are less accurate and with poor availability due to a large number of satellite maneuvers, thus they are not very useful for real-time positioning.</p><p>For positioning purposes, the presented results may be interesting especially in the context of the proper observation weighting in the multi-GNSS combinations. It is worth mentioning that the quality of the real-time products is not constant and neglecting this fact may bring undesirable positioning errors, especially for long processing campaigns.</p>

Intraoperative surgical strategy changes in patients with chronic and end-stage renal disease undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting

OBJECTIVES Factors such as more diffuse atherosclerosis, plaque instability and accelerated vascular calcification in patients with chronic and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) can potentially present intraoperative challenges in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. We evaluated whether patients with chronic and ESRD experienced more surgical strategy changes and/or graft revisions than patients with normal renal function when undergoing CABG procedures according to a protocol for intraoperative high-frequency ultrasound and transit-time flow measurement (TTFM). METHODS Outcomes of CABG for patients with chronic and ESRD and patients with normal renal function enrolled in the multicentre prospective REQUEST (REgistry for QUality assESsmenT with Ultrasound Imaging and TTFM in Cardiac Bypass Surgery) study were compared retrospectively. The primary end point was frequency of intraoperative surgical strategy changes. The secondary end point was post-protamine TTFM parameters. RESULTS There were 95 patients with chronic and ESRD and 921 patients with normal renal function. Patients with chronic and ESRD undergoing CABG according to a protocol for intraoperative high-frequency ultrasound and TTFM had a higher rate of strategy changes overall [33.7% vs 24.3%; odds ratio (OR) = 1.58; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01–2.48; P = 0.047] and greater revisions per graft (7.0% vs 3.4%; odds ratio = 2.14; 95% CI = 1.17–3.71; P = 0.008) compared to patients with normal renal function. Final post-protamine graft TTFM parameters were comparable between cohorts. CONCLUSIONS Patients with chronic and ESRD undergoing CABG procedures with high-frequency ultrasound and TTFM experience more surgical strategy changes than patients with normal renal function while achieving comparable graft flow. Clinical trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02385344