Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has vowed not to bow down, saying any perception of his surrender is a ‘misconception’.
Talking to media outside Adiala Jail following a court hearing in the Toshakhana 2.0 case on Wednesday, the PTI founder’s sister Aleema Khan conveyed his message. She quoted Imran as saying, “Those who think I will break are delusional. I will not accept slavery, no matter what is done to me.”
Imran has called upon the entire nation to take to the streets on September 27, urging widespread participation in what he said will be a defining moment in Pakistan’s political resistance, she added.
Aleema further said Imran remains defiant and critical of the current political order and quoted the PTI founder as saying that an attempt was made to crush PTI by bringing the 26th Amendment to control the judiciary, muzzling the media, and strangling democracy.
According to her, Imran also warned that Pakistan has seen a drastic drop in foreign investment, and its debt has nearly doubled. Imran believes the country is headed down a perilous path similar to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or Nepal, she added.
Aleema noted Imran has instructed PTI’s leadership to play the role of a real opposition, warning of political irrelevance. “If you don’t act now, you’ll be digging your own political graves,” she quoted the PTI founder.
No to video link trials
Touching on the video link proceedings in the General Headquarters (GHQ) attack case, Aleema said, “The Punjab government and Home Department want to isolate Imran Khan by forcing a video link trial. We completely reject it.”
She argued that Imran had refused such arrangements even after surviving an assassination attempt, saying, “He insisted on being physically present in court. Now that he’s in jail, they want to isolate him further under the pretext of a video link.”
The isolation, she claimed, prevents legal consultation and disconnects him from family. “The objective is to silence him,” she added, warning that after the Toshakhana trial, Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi may be subjected to prolonged solitary confinement.
Aleema further urged the legal community to unite against the 26th Amendment, saying, “Imran Khan may be the focus today, but tomorrow it could be anyone else who faces these undemocratic tools.”
She also spoke about a recent incident where two women allegedly threw eggs at her outside court. She said both women were apprehended by PTI workers and handed over to police, but later released “under orders from above.”
ATC orders Imran Khan to appear via video link in next hearing
PTI founder Imran Khan has been directed to appear via video link from Adiala Jail for the next hearing, as the anti-terrorism court (ATC) adjourned the GHQ attack case to October 1. The development came after the Punjab government formally withdrew its notification for holding a jail trial in the case.
Presided over by ATC Judge Amjad Ali Shah, the court issued summons for three witnesses to appear at the next hearing and instructed that challan copies be distributed in 11 other May 9 cases the same day.
Another ATC has framed charges against 11 arrested individuals in the November 26 protest case. ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Supra conducted the hearing, during which the accused pleaded not guilty. The court adjourned proceedings until September 24.
In the same case, PTI leaders remain on interim bail until November 13. Police have submitted the challan of those arrested out of 195 workers nominated in the Secretariat police station case, while 184 absentees have already been declared proclaimed offenders by the court.
Google DeepMind claims it has made a “historic” artificial intelligence breakthrough akin to the Deep Blue computer defeating Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997 and an AI beating a human Go champion in 2016.
A version of the company’s Gemini 2.5 AI model solved a complex real-world problem that stumped human computer programmers to become the first AI model to win a gold medal at an international programming competition held earlier this month in Azerbaijan.
In a performance that the tech company called a “profound leap in abstract problem-solving” it took less than half an hour to work out how to weigh up an infinite number of possibilities in order to send a liquid through a network of ducts to a set of interconnected reservoirs. The goal was to distribute it as quickly as possible.
None of the human teams, including the top performers from universities in Russia, China and Japan, got it right.
It failed on two out of the 12 tasks it was set, but its overall performance ranked it in second place out of 139 of the world’s strongest college level computer programmers. Google said it was a “historic moment, towards AGI [artificial general intelligence],” which is widely considered human-level intelligence at a wide range of tasks.
“For me it’s a moment that is equivalent to Deep Blue for Chess and AlphaGo for Go,” said Quoc Le, Google DeepMind’s vice-president. “Even bigger it is reasoning more towards the real world, not just a constrained environment [like Chess and Go] … Because of that I think this advance has the potential to transform many scientific and engineering disciplines.” He cited drug and chip design.
The model is a general purpose AI but was specially trained to solve very hard coding, maths and reasoning problems. It performed “as well as a top 20 coder in the world”, Google said.
“Solving complex tasks at these competitions requires deep abstract reasoning, creativity, the ability to synthesise novel solutions to problems never seen before and a genuine spark of ingenuity,” the company said.
Speaking before the details were made public, Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, cautioned the “claims of epochal significance seem overblown”. He said AI systems have been doing well on programming tasks for a while and the Deep Blue chess breakthrough had “essentially no impact on the real world of applied AI”.
However, he said “to get an ICPC question right, the code actually has to work correctly (at least on a finite number of test cases), so this performance may show progress towards making AI-based coding systems sufficiently accurate for producing high-quality code”.
He added: “The pressure on AI companies to keep claiming breakthroughs is enormous”.
Michael Wooldridge, Ashall professor of the foundations of artificial intelligence at the University of Oxford, said it sounded like an impressive achievement and “being able to solve problems at this level is exciting”. But he questioned how much computing power was needed. Google declined to say, apart from confirming it was more than available to an average subscriber to its $250-a-month Google AI Ultra service using the lightweight version of Gemini 2.5 Deep Think in the Gemini App.
Dr Bill Poucher, executive director of the ICPC, said: “Gemini successfully joining this arena, and achieving gold-level results, marks a key moment in defining the AI tools and academic standards needed for the next generation.”
Four machine intelligence breakthroughs
1957 The Perceptron
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An academic at Cornell University, Frank Rosenblatt, worked out that it should be possible to create a “perceiving and recognising automaton”. He dubbed it the Perceptron and said an electronic system would be able to learn to recognised patterns in optical, electrical or tonal information “in a manner which may be closely analogous to the perceptual process of a biological brain”. The following year he built the device, which was the size of a small room. It was considered one of the early breakthroughs in artificial intelligence based on neural networks.
1997 Big Blue
In May 1997, IBM’s Big Blue became the first computer system to defeat a reigning world chess champion in a match under standard tournament controls. It beat Garry Kasparov in what became an inflection point in computing power, but the contest was close. Kasparov won the first game, Deep Blue the second followed by three draws. Deep Blue won game 6 to secure the win. It showed how brute force computing power could create a system to defeat a human, albeit at a narrow task. “The computer is far stronger than anybody expected,” said Kasparov, conceding defeat.
2016 AlphaGo
Go is one of the most complex games ever devised, and one of the world’s master players was Lee Sedol, a South Korean professional. In 2016, DeepMind, the UK AI company set up by Demis Hassabis, took him on with its computer AlphaGo. It won 4-1 and some of its moves seemed to display truly original thinking. Move 37 in particular went down in lore. Hassibis said it “might be the first glimpse of a bright and bold future where humanity harnesses AI as a powerful new tool, helping us discover new knowledge that can solve some of our most pressing scientific problems”.
2020 AlphaFold
Another breakthrough by Hassibis and DeepMind was an AI program that can predict how proteins fold into 3D shapes, a highly complex process fundamental to understanding life’s biological machinery. It was called “a stunning advance” by the Royal Society, the 360-year old London scientific institution.
When researchers know how a protein folds up, they can start to uncover mysteries such as how insulin controls sugar levels in the blood or how antibodies fight viruses. After further iterations, the system helped Hassibis and his colleague John Jumper share a Nobel prize for chemistry in 2024.
Road construction safety has traditionally focused on drivers as they travel by the work zone. But a new effort by researchers at the University of Dayton is working to improve safety inside the orange barrels.
WYSO’s Mike Frazier spoke with Hui “Jack” Wang, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Dayton. His team is working on a system of advanced sensors to detect hazards before they hurt workers on a job site.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hui “Jack” Wang: We call it Integrated Acoustic and Vision Sensing System for Worker Safety Early Warning. So our aim is to enhance the job site situational awareness of our workers and also the site project managers. The system can identify the location of potential hazards, like slow-moving heavy equipment during the noisy and maybe the low visibility conditions so that workers who may be close to that heavy equipment can be reminded and alarmed so that they can pay attention to the surrounding environment and avoid potential injury.
Mike Frazier: So it’s like an extra set of eyes and ears for the workers to keep them safe.
Wang: That’s true, yes. This is a sensor array, so Vision means we have thermal cameras and also the visible-light cameras. During good visibility conditions, probably both cameras can be effective. But under the very low visibility conditions like during the night shift and also maybe foggy and rainy conditions, probably a thermal camera is more effective. If there’s an obstacle or some kind of object blocking a site, probably the microphone array can triangulate the location of the potential hazards without seeing it. That would be kind of secondary. Or sometimes it even can be the primary equipment for identifying hazards.
Frazier: Now, how will workers actually be protected with this array of sensors? How will they know if there’s a problem?
Wang: We know the location of each worker using Bluetooth devices and the GPS-referenced beacon, so we know where the workers are and we know where the hazards are, so we can compute a kind of high-risk map of the job site in real time. So if any worker is in the high-risk zone, we just send a signal to them like some kind of vibration like a cell phone vibration. So let’s say we can attach it to the variable sensors like a smartwatch. We can give the worker some haptic signal or even some sound signal like earbuds so they are told to basically watch out and be careful.
Frazier: So they’re wearing earbuds and they have vibration items on them to tell them that there is a hazard and that they need to do something to fix it.
Wang: I think for earbuds probably the sound is good enough like some alarm sound, but there could be some secondary alert like your smart watch or let’s say some variable equipment like a cell phone so it can vibrate and tell the worker. Yes, two different ways.
Frazier: Will this system help mitigate any issues regarding accidents caused by traffic?
Wang: You mean the outside intrusion, right? If a car runs into the work zone?
Frazier: Yes.
Wang: Okay, yes. We do take this into consideration. Right now, our solution is to integrate some kind of a smart traffic cone or smart barrel. We can add some calibrated cameras to measure the speed of the incoming vehicles and also the direction of the incoming vehicles, far away and in front of the work zone. We know the incoming vehicles’ speed and distance. If any vehicle’s direction is problematic or the speed is too fast, then we will have some early warning.
Frazier: Why is such a system important?
Wang: Safety is a major concern of the workforce. Each year those kinds of injuries can cost a huge amount of money but also give a negative impact on a lot of families. It’s an economical problem, also a societal problem. If we can contribute to this field and improve workforce safety, especially work zone safety, I think this is a very, very impactful thing for the good of society. Research for the common good, which is also the value of the University of Dayton. Research for the common good.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 65,000 on Wednesday (September 17, 2025), according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza City and residents fled the devastated area.
Israel’s military said that air force and artillery units had struck the city over 150 times in the last few days, ahead of ground troops moving in. The strikes have toppled high-rise towers in areas densely populated by tent camps where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. Israel claims the towers are being used by Hamas to surveil troops.
Overnight strikes killed at least 16 people, including women and children, hospital officials reported. The death count in Gaza reached 65,062, with another 165,697 wounded, since Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack, said the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts announcing famine in Gaza City.
The Ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or militants. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the UN and many independent experts.
Meanwhile, Palestinians streamed out of the city — some by car, others on foot. Israel opened another corridor south of Gaza City for two days beginning Wednesday (September 17, 2025) to allow more people to evacuate.
Children and parents among the latest fatalities
More than half of the Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes were in famine-stricken Gaza City, including a child and his mother who died in their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The Gaza Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that multiple Israeli strikes hit the Rantisi Hospital for children in Gaza City on Tuesday night. It posted pictures on Facebook showing the damaged roof, water tanks and rubble in a hospital hallway.
The ministry said the strikes forced half of some 80 patients to flee the facility. About 40 patients, including four children in intensive care and eight premature babies, remained in the hospital with 30 medical workers, the Ministry said.
“This attack has once again shattered the illusion that hospitals or any place in Gaza are safe from Israel’s genocide,” said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director for the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the strikes, but in the past it has accused Hamas of building military infrastructure inside civilian areas.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col Avichay Adraee, wrote on social media that a new route opened for those heading south for two days starting at noon Wednesday (September 17, 2025).
But many Palestinians in the north were cut off from the outside world. The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, said Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza had collapsed internet and telephone services on Wednesday (September 17, 2025) morning. The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to reach many people in Gaza City.
An estimated 1 million Palestinians were living in the Gaza City region before warnings to evacuate began ahead of the offensive, and the Israeli military estimates 350,000 people have left the city.
The UN estimates that more than 238,000 Palestinians of some 1 million believed living in the city have fled northern Gaza over the past month. Hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.
Aid groups and Qatar condemn offensive
A coalition of leading aid groups on Wednesday (September 17, 2025) urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City. It came a day after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave. Israel denies the allegation.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid groups. “States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.” The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organisations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.
Also on Wednesday (September 17, 2025), Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying they condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza. The ministry wrote on X that the operation marked a “extension of the war of genocide” against the Palestinians.
Qatar is incensed over an Israeli strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
Israel’s return to Gaza City
An Israeli military graphic suggested its troops hope to control all of the Gaza Strip except for a large swath along the coast by the end of the current operation.
Israeli forces have carried out multiple large-scale raids into Gaza City over the course of the war, causing mass displacement and heavy destruction, only to see militants regroup later. This time, Israel has pledged to take control of the entire city, which experts say is experiencing famine.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines, said Tuesday they believe there are 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants left in Gaza City, as well as tunnels used by the group. Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly diminished. It now mainly carries out guerrilla-style attacks, with small groups of fighters planting explosives or attacking military outposts before melting away.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. Forty-eight hostages, fewer than half believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.
Get ready for fast frenetic fun in Legion Remix as you meet up with the infinite dragonflight once more, level new characters, and earn a variety of items to add to your collection. We’re turning things up a notch during The War Within Season 3 with increased rewards and improvements to help you gear up your Warband with Turbo-Boost. Explore the updated Cooldown Manager.
What is Legion Remix?
Legion Remix is a time-limited seasonal event where players can create a Timerunner as one of the original 12 Legion classes and replay the entire Legion expansion at an accelerated pace from level 10-80 with some major gameplay twists. Players will collect power, face epic challenges, and earn a mountain of cosmetics such as pets, mounts, and transmog gear.
It’s All Inside
Druid Class Order Hall
Players can take part in all twelve dungeons, one mega-dungeon, five raids, all the Legion Campaign quests, local stories, World Quests, Class Order Hall campaigns and Artifact questlines, Legion Assaults, Invasion Points, Withered Training, and more!
The infinite dragonflight is accelerating all weekly lockouts, reputation gains, and Class Order Hall missions, so get in and have fun!
Our Remix Story So Far
Eternus of the infinite dragonflight
In Remix: Mists of Pandaria, Eternus from the infinite dragonflight was trying to learn more about the past. Now with the Worldsoul Saga™ heating up, she’s looking into some of the events that have led up to what’s happening now to try to understand more of what really saved Azeroth from the Legion.
What’s New in Legion Remix?
We’ve added some new gameplay systems with an eye toward capturing the spirit of the original Legion experience. Our goal is to create opportunities for challenge and strategy that players will eventually dominate with epic power.
Remixed Artifact Weapons
Artifact trait tree on Ebonchill, Greatstaff of Alodi
Instead of the cloak and gem systems from Remix: Mists of Pandaria, we’re going all-in on Artifacts. Every Artifact weapon shares a powerful trait tree, and you’ll choose a path to go along—Nature, Fel, Arcane, Storm, or Holy.
You won’t be locked in and can respec anytime, now made easier with our new Quick Assign feature—you can Ctrl-click to spend up to your remaining Infinite Power purchasing toward your selected point, or Ctrl-right click to refund back to the selected point.
You’ll also find jewelry along the way that lets you add Ranks to traits from any path, taking Ranks from other paths or boosting your chosen path beyond its natural limits! Mix and match to customize your Artifact weapon.
Heroic World Tier
Inspired by Diablo, Heroic World Tier is a new way to play outdoor content. Eternus is experimenting to prepare the champions of Azeroth for what could happen if things get worse. She’s empowering creatures to have more health, more damage, and sometimes Affix-like buffs, empowering their difficulty and rewards. While you’ll encounter tougher foes, if you can overcome them, you will reap the rewards in the end.
Timewarped Obelisks
Power up with Timewarped Obelisks found throughout Legion Remix. These grant temporary but powerful buffs to players as they explore the world.
Timeworn Keystone Dungeons
For players who love Mythic+, we’ve remixed things a bit more to create Timeworn Keystone Dungeons. We’re bringing back most of the Affixes from the original launch of Legion and adding four new Affixes specific to Legion Remix called Eternus’s Trials.
Infinite Research
Each day, players can choose new research assignments to undertake, such as killing demons, running a dungeon, collecting bronze orbs while Skyriding, and more. With over 100 quests available and the ability to unlock access to take on multiple at once, you’ll have plenty of options.
You won’t need to check in every day and can bank up to six days of quests that you can do when you’re ready to take them on. So whether you are taking part in Legion Remix daily, or only have time on the weekends, you’ll be ready to go.
More and More (and More) Loot!
The Violet Spellwing mount
It wouldn’t be a Remix event without lots and lots of loot to collect.
New rewards include:
Fel-infused class mounts
Elegant, elven, Azshara-inspired robe transmogs
Mannoroth’s shield transmog
Varian’s Fel-corrupted swords
We’ll also have plenty of never-before-released mounts, transmog sets, and more.
Scythe of the Unmaker
Legacy rewards include rare raid transmogs such as Xavius’s shoulders and Scythe of the Unmaker (in original, red, and a new Fel green). Other legacy rewards include rare mounts like Llothien Prowler, Shackled Ur’zul, and the Violet Spellwing. Players can also gain new titles such as “Chronoscholar,” “the Infernal,” and “of the Infinite Chaos.”
The Cost of Loot
Bronze is making its return as a currency players can use to purchase cosmetic items only. Instead of upgrading your gear with Bronze, upgrades will drop from all content. Harder content will provide a higher drop chance for upgrades.
More Character Slots and Early Character Conversion
We’re also adding five new character slots to all World of Warcraft accounts so you can make even more characters. You also don’t have to wait for the end of Legion Remix to move your characters over to play with them in The War Within.
Transferring your character will remove all Remix-specific items and abilities, clear your quest log, and grant you level-appropriate gear and gold. Any legacy items you collected, including any unopened cosmetics, will be mailed to you.
This is a one-way trip, so make sure you choose wisely before transferring timelines. To convert your Timerunner character, you’ll need to select it in the character selection screen and click on the icon next to it to convert. Please note that characters must be 24 hours old before they can be converted to a standard character in World of Warcraft. Converting a Timerunner above level 70 to a standard character requires The War Within expansion.
Legion Remix: Content Rollout
We’re rolling out new Legion content to Legion Remix every two weeks. We’ll start things off with the original launch content from Legion and end with Argus and Antorus. Each release will bring new content and new rewards to earn.
Here’s a schedule and overview of the content you can expect to experience:
October 7- Skies of Fire: Take to the skies of the Broken Isles with the original Legion content and the Emerald Nightmare and Trial of Valor raids.
October 21 – Rise of the Nightfallen: Continue the Nightfallen’s story with the Insurrection campaign and new World Quests across the Broken Isles. Re-experience the Legion mega-dungeon with the Return to Karazhan, and take on the Nighthold raid.
November 4 – Legionfall: Establish a foothold on the Broken Shore, take on Legion Assaults, and fight your way into the Cathedral of Eternal Night and the Tomb of Sargeras.
November 18 – Argus Eternal: Replay the Argus campaign across three deadly zones. Take on the Seat of the Triumvirate and Antorus, the Burning Throne.
December 9- Infinite Echoes: As the Legion Remix timeline begins collapsing, say your goodbyes and embrace the chaos.
Get a Boost in the 11.2.5 Content Update
We’re turning things up a notch during The War Within Season 3 with increased rewards and improvements to help you gear up your Warband with Turbo-Boost.
With the initial release:
Hero and Myth upgrade tracks will extend 2 upgrades (from 6 to 8) and crafted items will be recraftable with an Augmentation Matrix for additional power.
Soon after the release:
Mythic+ drop rates from Mythic+ dungeons and Manaforge Omega are greatly increased for Warband until Equipped gear. Valorstones may now be transferred across Warbands.
Fixer So’kir and Fixer So’tho will visit Dornogal to offer powerful weapons, trinkets, and cantrip items from Season 3 dungeons and Manaforge Omega in exchange for Puzzling Cartel Chips after adventurers have proved themselves worthy. Once again, up to three Puzzling Cartel Chips may be earned as the season progresses.
Ethereal Voidsplinters may be earned in Mythic+ dungeons, Manaforge Omega, Delves, and rated PvP to fuel the Catalyst.
Cooldown Manager Improvements
This content patch also has some additional improvements to the Cooldown Manager including a new frame which will allow ordering, hiding, and unhiding of spells and buffs.
Watch the Legion Remix WoWCast
If you missed the original Legion Remix announcement, don’t worry, we have you covered. Watch the WoWCast on the official YouTube channel.
We can’t wait to see you on the Broken Isles in Legion Remix!
NREL, Freight Industry, Academia, and Technology Partners Develop Promising Solution To Cost-Effectively Increase Trucking Efficiency
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NREL-developed fleet-energy-use data platforms and route simulation models informed digital tools to optimize the energy efficiency of trucking fleets. Photo from PACCAR
Picture a truck delivering goods on the highway. Although you are seeing only a single vehicle, it represents just one component in a highly intricate system. That truck is specialized machinery, operated by a trained and specially licensed driver, part of a larger fleet delivering shipments across a particular region—with these logistics managed by other people directing where the trucks go and when.
The complexity of the trucking network makes it possible for us to get our goods quickly, but it also makes reducing costs challenging. Answering urgent questions such as “What aspects can we make more efficient?” or “How will one choice impact other aspects of the trucking system?” have become paramount to making progress.
Researchers at NREL looked for answers to these complex questions through the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Co-Optimization of Vehicles and Routes (CoVaR) project, alongside project lead PACCAR and its subsidiary Kenworth, and partners Esri, Kopius, and Ohio State University. CoVaR brings optimization tools to truck drivers’ dashboards and fleet operators’ computers, helping trucking companies save money and streamline logistics.
“In addition to leading the program, PACCAR facilitated a unique collaboration that combined NREL’s advanced modeling capabilities with PACCAR’s real-world, high-resolution data collection,” said Maarten Meijer, a senior advanced technologies engineering manager at PACCAR. “This approach enabled baseline assessment and improvement validation on existing truck fleets across the United States, as well as on near-production battery electric vehicles operated near the PACCAR Technical Center in Mount Vernon, Washington.”
Through the CoVaR project, the researchers explored a multipronged technology package that could allow fleet managers to optimize different aspects of fleet design and operation to reduce fuel usage and cost—all using ready-to-deploy tools and software that could be on vehicles now. Fleet managers and truck operators could interface with the CoVaR package via a web interface and a dashboard-mounted tablet.
“CoVaR has the opportunity and ability to impact trucking costs and energy use substantially, today,” said Andrew Kotz, a commercial vehicles researcher who worked on the project. “That could be a near-term win.”
“CoVaR was an opportunity to combine both technical expertise in commercial vehicle modeling and other capabilities, and experience understanding the needs of operators and fleet owners, to build solutions that are within reach and can effectively meet users’ needs,” said NREL’s Jason Lustbader, the NREL CoVaR project lead and manager of NREL’s commercial vehicle technologies group. “Our team was proud to bring our cutting-edge skills to both aspects of the work.”
A Deployable, Cohesive Package of Technologies
Vehicle manufacturers are making significant strides toward developing the next generation of heavy-duty vehicles. Further progress will rely on advances being made on advanced hybrid and range-extended platforms as well as electric charging equipment and batteries that can handle the power and reliability demands of trucks. While advanced trucks can save businesses money over their lifetimes, the CoVaR tool package can address other aspects of trucking that could increase efficiencies today.
“Optimizing the use of existing fleet vehicles through the CoVaR tool package is appealing as an immediate solution for energy savings,” said NREL’s Jake Holden, a senior vehicle systems researcher.
“CoVaR can identify the right applications for advanced vehicles today, while also helping to optimize traditional diesel powertrain applications,” added Setayesh Fakhimi, another NREL commercial vehicle technologies researcher on the project.
Here is how it works.
Vehicle Configuration Optimizer
As part of the CoVaR tool package, Ohio State University developed a vehicle configuration optimizer that would calculate the most efficient vehicles, as a combination of powertrain and vehicle specifications, for the routes and associated duty cycles the fleet would be subject to.
Real-world duty cycle data, including elements like how long each delivery trip is, road elevation along the route, vehicle cargo weight, and more, are used to train machine-learning models that can predict the energy consumption of various vehicle configurations. The optimizer then recommends an optimal selection of powertrains across the fleet. Fleet managers could use this tool to understand their options for adjusting their fleets using powertrain technologies that make the most operational sense for them.
Fuel-Efficient Routing
The CoVaR routing tools shows drivers the best route to take to achieve the greatest energy efficiency. Photo from PACCAR
The CoVaR tool package can provide fleet managers with speedy recommendations for which vehicles to route to what locations to achieve the highest energy efficiency. NREL researchers combined their advanced tool capabilities with project partner Esri’s mapping software to develop a routing framework that fleet managers and truck operators could use to identify the most efficient routes for their operations based on the vehicles being driven. Through this project, Esri, which builds ArcGIS and other mapping and analytics software, incorporated energy-efficient use into its routing planning, considering various factors such as time, distance, grade, and traffic.
NREL researchers contributed existing, real-world fleet vehicle energy use data from the laboratory’s FleetREDI analysis platform and the Fleet DNA database. In addition, NREL’s FASTSim and Route Energy Prediction Model (RouteE) tools can estimate the energy required by specific vehicles traveling on entered routes. CoVaR has the potential to integrate these tools into an application to present data in a user-friendly format and timeframe, perfect for fleet managers working on tight timelines.
“If you want to calculate energy requirements on the go, you don’t want to wait for a very complex model to run. You want it to happen right away,” Kotz said. “That’s the power of these tools.”
Through developing the CoVaR tool package, the NREL team boosted the capabilities of RouteE. Previously, the tool only calculated vehicle energy consumption over given routes for light-duty vehicles like cars and pickup trucks. Now, with a new integration feeding cleaned and validated FleetREDI data to RouteE, RouteE can model energy requirements for heavy-duty vehicles, too.
Driver Coaching
When installed, drivers encounter the CoVaR system through a display on their truck’s dashboard. This in-vehicle interface was deployed with fleets as part of the CoVaR project.
The software on the truck’s display would not only provide route information but also provide a coaching platform that could help drivers most efficiently operate their vehicles. Using second-by-second data collected by the in-house-developed telematics on PACCAR’s model fleet, NREL researchers analyzed route and energy (diesel or electricity) consumption data. They used FASTSim to simulate energy use impacts of different driver behaviors to alter driving speed, acceleration, idling, and more. These analyses could inform recommendations to drivers. A coaching system could prompt operators to change their driving style based on the vehicle they are operating—while considering that with every shift, the driver could be moving different amounts of weight, impacting the handling of the vehicle.
Fleet Performance Dashboard
In a real-world setting, fleet managers would visualize the vehicles in their fleet using a digital dashboard to identify the most energy-efficient combination of vehicles to send out on a given day. Kopius developed the user interface. It leverages the fuel-efficient routing technology so fleet managers can plan their vehicles’ routes on a fleet level to enhance energy efficiency across the fleet and then send those route directions to drivers.
Adaptability Is Key
The CoVaR tool package serves up a variety of options to fleet managers, allowing them to decide for themselves what energy efficiency goals they want to achieve—while taking other important factors such as time constraints into account—to make the right choices for their fleet operations.
“A one-size-fits-all solution is all but impossible,” Holden said. “CoVaR addresses this challenge by studying fleet priorities and behaviors that might impact energy consumption and presenting the range of efficiency improvements that are possible.”
And improvements are indeed possible. Holden said the research team saw pathways toward energy efficiency improvements in a modeling environment (developed based on real-world-collected fleet data) through the four interventions of vehicle configuration optimization, efficient routing, driver coaching, and a fleet performance dashboard.
“The impact of different interventions on energy savings is dependent on the operations of the fleet,” Fakhimi said. “Reducing idling may have the biggest impact for one fleet, whereas lowering the maximum driving speed may be the most effective behavior change for another.”
While the CoVaR tool package must be validated and commercially launched to become available to fleet managers, the NREL team sees this as a near-term possibility. The researchers and other project partners have demonstrated that the package has the potential to be viable for improving energy efficiency today simply by aligning different elements of fleet operations and improving existing tools.
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This fall, tens of millions of people will be at risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head impacts from contact sports like football, soccer, and ice hockey, or military service. Researchers have long suspected that the brain begins changing years before CTE appears, but proof has been elusive because CTE can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
A new study led by researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, published in Nature, has revealed a cascade of “repetitive head impact (RHI)-related brain injuries” resulting in brain cell loss, inflammation and vascular damage in young former contact sport athletes. Importantly, many of the changes were seen in athletes before the onset of CTE.
These results have the potential to significantly change how we view contact sports. They suggest that exposure to RHI can kill brain cells and cause long-term brain damage, independent of CTE.”
Jonathan Cherry, PhD, corresponding author, assistant professor of pathology & laboratory medicine and director of the digital pathology core at the BU CTE Center
To identify the earliest changes from RHI, researchers performed single nucleus RNA sequencing on the frozen human brain tissue from 28 men between the ages of 25 and 51. They were divided into three groups: a control group of eight men who didn’t play contact sports; an RHI group comprised of eight American football players and a soccer player, none of whom were diagnosed with CTE; and a CTE group of 11 contact-sport athletes with low-stage (defined as Stage 1 or 2) CTE. All results were further validated and confirmed in larger sample sets and through comparison to other published studies.
As previously published, athletes diagnosed with low-stage CTE had significant inflammatory and vascular changes. However, this study showed similar levels of vascular injury and inflammation in athletes without CTE, suggesting that RHI-related brain injury is not solely dependent on CTE.
One of the most striking findings was a 56% loss of neurons, cells vital to normal brain function, in young athletes participating in contact sports. The loss of neurons was precisely at the cortical sulcal depths, the brain regions that undergo the highest mechanical forces during head impact injury, and where CTE first develops. Neuron loss was observed in all athletes, regardless of whether they had CTE.
“You don’t expect to see neuron loss or inflammation in the brains of young athletes because they are generally free of disease. These findings suggest that repetitive head impacts cause brain injury much earlier than we previously thought,” said Cherry. “The risk for CTE is directly related to repetitive head impact exposure in contact sports. These results highlight that even athletes without CTE can have substantial brain injury. Understanding how these changes occur, and how to detect them during life, will help the development of better prevention strategies and treatments to protect young athletes.”
“This groundbreaking study shows that repetitive hits to the head, including concussions and the more frequent non-concussive impacts, cause brain damage in young people even before CTE. These findings should serve as a call to reduce head hits in contact sports at all levels, including youth, high school and college,” adds coauthor Ann McKee, MD, director of the BU CTE Center and William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Pathology at BU.
Source:
Boston University School of Medicine
Journal reference:
Butler, M. L. M. D., et al., (2025). Repeated head trauma causes neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09534-6
