Ford Motor Company

About: Ford Motor Company is a company organization based out in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Internal combustion engine & Clutch. The organization has 36123 authors who have published 51450 publications receiving 855200 citations. The organization is also known as: Ford Motor & Ford Motor Corporation.

Nocturnal Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Latency for Identifying Patients With Narcolepsy/Hypocretin Deficiency

Abstract: Importance Narcolepsy, a disorder associated with HLA-DQB1*06:02 and caused by hypocretin (orexin) deficiency, is diagnosed using the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) following nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG). In many patients, a short rapid eye movement sleep latency (REML) during the NPSG is also observed but not used diagnostically. Objective To determine diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of nocturnal REML measures in narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency. Design, Setting, and Participants Observational study using receiver operating characteristic curves for NPSG REML and MSLT findings (sleep studies performed between May 1976 and September 2011 at university medical centers in the United States, China, Korea, and Europe) to determine optimal diagnostic cutoffs for narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency compared with different samples: controls, patients with other sleep disorders, patients with other hypersomnias, and patients with narcolepsy with normal hypocretin levels. Increasingly stringent comparisons were made. In a first comparison, 516 age- and sex-matched patients with narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency were selected from 1749 patients and compared with 516 controls. In a second comparison, 749 successive patients undergoing sleep evaluation for any sleep disorders (low pretest probability for narcolepsy) were compared within groups by final diagnosis of narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency. In the third comparison, 254 patients with a high pretest probability of having narcolepsy were compared within group by their final diagnosis. Finally, 118 patients with narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency were compared with 118 age- and sex-matched patients with a diagnosis of narcolepsy but with normal hypocretin levels. Main Outcome and Measures Sensitivity and specificity of NPSG REML and MSLT as diagnostic tests for narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency. This diagnosis was defined as narcolepsy associated with cataplexy plus HLA-DQB1*06:02 positivity (no cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1 results available) or narcolepsy with documented low (≤ 110 pg/mL) cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1 level. Results Short REML (≤15 minutes) during NPSG was highly specific (99.2% [95% CI, 98.5%-100.0%] of 516 and 99.6% [95% CI, 99.1%-100.0%] of 735) but not sensitive (50.6% [95% CI, 46.3%-54.9%] of 516 and 35.7% [95% CI, 10.6%-60.8%] of 14) for patients with narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency vs population-based controls or all patients with sleep disorders undergoing a nocturnal sleep study (area under the curve, 0.799 [95% CI, 0.771-0.826] and 0.704 [95% CI, 0.524-0.907], respectively). In patients with central hypersomnia and thus a high pretest probability for narcolepsy, short REML remained highly specific (95.4% [95% CI, 90.4%-98.3%] of 132) and similarly sensitive (57.4% [95% CI, 48.1%-66.3%] of 122) for narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency (area under the curve, 0.765 [95% CI, 0.707-0.831]). Positive predictive value in this high pretest probability sample was 92.1% (95% CI, 83.6%-97.0%). Conclusions and Relevance Among patients being evaluated for possible narcolepsy, short REML (≤15 minutes) at NPSG had high specificity and positive predictive value and may be considered diagnostic without the use of an MSLT; absence of short REML, however, requires a subsequent MSLT.

The atmospheric chemistry of Oxygenated fuel additives: t‐Butyl alcohol, dimethyl ether, and methylt‐butyl ether

Abstract: The mechanisms for the Cl-initiated and OH-initiated atmospheric oxidation of t-butyl alcohol (TBA), methyl t-butyl ether (MTBE), and dimethyl ether (DME) have been determined. For TBA the only products observed are equimolar amounts of H 2 CO and acetone, and its atmospheric oxidation can be represented by (7), (CH 3 ) 3 COH+NP+OH→H 2 CO+((CH 3 ) 2 CO+HO 2 +NO 2 (7). The mechanism for the atmospheric oxidation of DME is also straight forward, with the only observable product being methyl formate, (CH 3 )OCH 3 +NO+OH→HCOOCH 3 +NO 2 +HO 2 (8). The mechanism for the atmospheric oxidation of MTBE is more complex, with observable products being t-butyl formate (TBF) and H 2 CO. Evidence is presented also for the formation of 2-methoxy-2-methyl propanal (MMP), which is highly reactive and presumably oxidized to products. The atmospheric oxidation of MTBE can be represented by (9) and (10), CH 3 OC(CH 3 ) 3 +NO+OH→0.6HCOOC((CH 3 ) 3 +0.4CH 3 OC(CH 3 ) 2 CHO+HO 2 +NO 2 (9); CH 3 OC(CH 3 ) 2 CHO+OH+2NO→CO 2 +H 2 CO+(CH 3 ) 2 HO 2 +2NO 2 (10). In terms of atmospheric reactivity, DME, TBA and MTBE all compare favorably with methanol. In terms of rate of reaction in the atmosphere, DME, MTBE, and TBA are 1.4, 0.40 and 0.28 times as reactive as CH 3 OH towards OH on a per carbon basis. With regard to chemistry, atmospheric oxidation of CH 3 OH yields highly reactive H 2 CO as the sole carbon-containing products. In contrast, only 25% of the carbon in TBA is converted to H 2 CO, with the balance yielding unreactive acetone. For DME, all the carbon is converted to methyl formate which is unreactive. Finally, for MTBE, 60% is converted to unreactive TBF while the remaining 40% produces highly reactive MMP. Final assessment of the impact of these materials on the atmopheric reactivity of vehicle emissions requires the determination of their emissions rates under realistic operating conditions

Life Cycle Assessment of Connected and Automated Vehicles: Sensing and Computing Subsystem and Vehicle Level Effects

Abstract: Although recent studies of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) have begun to explore the potential energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts from an operational perspective, little is known about how the full life cycle of the vehicle will be impacted We report the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of Level 4 CAV sensing and computing subsystems integrated into internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV) platforms The results indicate that CAV subsystems could increase vehicle primary energy use and GHG emissions by 3–20% due to increases in power consumption, weight, drag, and data transmission However, when potential operational effects of CAVs are included (eg, eco-driving, platooning, and intersection connectivity), the net result is up to a 9% reduction in energy and GHG emissions in the base case Overall, this study highlights opportunities where CAVs can improve net energy and environmental performance

A Host-Based RT-PCR Gene Expression Signature to Identify Acute Respiratory Viral Infection

Abstract: Improved ways to diagnose acute respiratory viral infections could decrease inappropriate antibacterial use and serve as a vital triage mechanism in the event of a potential viral pandemic. Measurement of the host response to infection is an alternative to pathogen-based diagnostic testing and may improve diagnostic accuracy. We have developed a host-based assay with a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) TaqMan low-density array (TLDA) platform for classifying respiratory viral infection. We developed the assay using two cohorts experimentally infected with influenza A H3N2/Wisconsin or influenza A H1N1/Brisbane, and validated the assay in a sample of adults presenting to the emergency department with fever (n = 102) and in healthy volunteers (n = 41). Peripheral blood RNA samples were obtained from individuals who underwent experimental viral challenge or who presented to the emergency department and had microbiologically proven viral respiratory infection or systemic bacterial infection. The selected gene set on the RT-PCR TLDA assay classified participants with experimentally induced influenza H3N2 and H1N1 infection with 100 and 87% accuracy, respectively. We validated this host gene expression signature in a cohort of 102 individuals arriving at the emergency department. The sensitivity of the RT-PCR test was 89% [95% confidence interval (CI), 72 to 98%], and the specificity was 94% (95% CI, 86 to 99%). These results show that RT-PCR–based detection of a host gene expression signature can classify individuals with respiratory viral infection and sets the stage for prospective evaluation of this diagnostic approach in a clinical setting.