A vehicle path planning method based on a dynamic traffic network that considers fuel consumption and emissions

The rapidly increasing and widespread use of vehicles has intensified fuel consumption and environmental pollution. Big data on urban dynamic traffic flow can be used to improve the economics and environmental impact of vehicle travel by effectively reducing fuel usage and pollution. In this study, a fuel consumption and emissions measurement model of vehicles coupled with a dynamic traffic network were established based on a large dataset of real-world vehicle experiments. This study improved upon the traditional Dijkstra algorithm used for path planning and then, the improved algorithm was combined with a vehicle fuel consumption and emissions measurement model. An optimal path simulation analysis was performed in MATLAB based on road networks generated by ArcGIS and different optimization targets were assessed including the shortest time, shortest distance, least fuel consumption, and lowest emissions. The results show that factors such as the road type and traffic environment at intersections can greatly affect fuel consumption and emissions. Large differences in path planning results were observed depending on the optimization target. The proposed economic and environmental protection model for vehicle path planning based on a dynamic traffic network can effectively reduce fuel consumption and emissions during travel, thus, providing a new method to improve urban environmental pollution in China.

Capable and credible? Challenging nutrition science

Nutrition science has enriched our understanding of how to stay healthy by producing valuable knowledge about the interaction of nutrients, food, and the human body. Nutrition science also has raised societal awareness about the links between food consumption and well-being, and provided the basis for food regulations and dietary guidelines. Its collaborative and interdisciplinary research has accomplished much, scientifically and socially. Despite this, nutrition science appears to be in crisis and is currently confronted with a public reluctance to trust nutritional insights. Though deflating trust is a general phenomenon surrounding the scientific community, its impact on nutrition science is particularly strong because of the crucial role of nutrition in everyone’s daily life. We, a Dutch collective of nutritionists, medical doctors, philosophers and sociologists of science (http://www.nutritionintransition.nl), have diagnosed that nutrition science is meeting inherent boundaries. This hampers conceptual and methodological progress and the translation of novel insights into societal benefit and trust. In other words, nutrition science is facing limitations to its capability and credibility, impeding its societal value. We take up the challenge to halt the threatening erosion of nutrition science’s capability and credibility, and explore a way forward. We analyse limitations to capability and credibility, then argue that nutrition science is caught in a vicious circle, and end by offering some suggestions to transcend the limitations and escape the current deadlock. We invite nutritional experts as well as scholars from adjacent disciplines to engage in the discussion.