Interventions to reduce pedestrian road traffic injuries: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials, cluster randomized controlled trials, interrupted time-series, and controlled before-after studies

BACKGROUND: Road traffic injuries are among the top ten causes of death globally, with the highest burden in low and middle-income countries, where over a third of deaths occur among pedestrians and cyclists. Several interventions to mitigate the burden among pedestrians have been widely implemented, however, the effectiveness has not been systematically examined. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of interventions to reduce road traffic crashes, injuries, hospitalizations and deaths among pedestrians. METHODS: We considered studies that evaluated interventions to reduce road traffic crashes, injuries, hospitalizations and/or deaths among pedestrians. We considered randomized controlled trials, interrupted time-series studies, and controlled before-after studies. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, WHO Global Health Index, Health Evidence, Transport Research International Documentation and ClinicalTrials.gov through 31 August 2020, and the reference lists of all included studies. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts and full texts, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. We summarized findings narratively with text and tables. RESULTS: A total of 69123 unique records were identified through the searches, with 26 of these meeting our eligibility criteria. All except two of these were conducted in high-income countries and most were from urban settings. The majority of studies observed either a clear effect favoring the intervention or an unclear effect potentially favoring the intervention and these included: changes to the road environment (19/27); changes to legislation and enforcement (12/12); and road user behavior/education combined with either changes to the road environment (3/3) or with legislation and enforcement (1/1). A small number of studies observed either a null effect or an effect favoring the control. CONCLUSIONS: Although the highest burden of road traffic injuries exists in LMICs, very few studies have examined the effectiveness of available interventions in these settings. Studies indicate that road environment, legislation and enforcement interventions alone produce positive effects on pedestrian safety. In combination with or with road user behavior/education interventions they are particularly effective in improving pedestrian safety

Lessons from the Regulation of E-scooters through the MDS Standard: Policy Lessons for Connected Vehicles

Connected vehicles generate new data streams that present promising opportunities for policymakers to monitor and learn from events and behavior. To explore what we can learn from how public entities leverage ubiquitous data streams for policy development and enforcement, we draw on a case study of the standard Mobility Data Specification (MDS) and its use by cities to regulate E-scooter operators. Our findings suggest that (1) the richness of real-time data changes the speed of policy revision, (2) data access enables moving some micro-decisions to the edge, and (3) policy will be formulated as fixed or flexible with different amendment rules

Live imaging of the immune response to heart injury in larval zebrafish reveals a multi-stage model of neutrophil and macrophage migration

Neutrophils and macrophages are crucial effectors and modulators of repair and regeneration following myocardial infarction, but they cannot be easily observed in vivo in mammalian models. Hence many studies have utilized larval zebrafish injury models to examine neutrophils and macrophages in their tissue of interest. However, to date the migratory patterns and ontogeny of these recruited cells is unknown. In this study, we address this need by comparing our larval zebrafish model of cardiac injury to the archetypal tail fin injury model. Our in vivo imaging allowed comprehensive mapping of neutrophil and macrophage migration from primary hematopoietic sites, to the wound. Early following injury there is an acute phase of neutrophil recruitment that is followed by sustained macrophage recruitment. Both cell types are initially recruited locally and subsequently from distal sites, primarily the caudal hematopoietic tissue (CHT). Once liberated from the CHT, some neutrophils and macrophages enter circulation, but most use abluminal vascular endothelium to crawl through the larva. In both injury models the innate immune response resolves by reverse migration, with very little apoptosis or efferocytosis of neutrophils. Furthermore, our in vivo imaging led to the finding of a novel wound responsive mpeg1+ neutrophil subset, highlighting previously unrecognized heterogeneity in neutrophils. Our study provides a detailed analysis of the modes of immune cell migration in larval zebrafish, paving the way for future studies examining tissue injury and inflammation

Integrating Traffic Signal Performance Measures into Agency Business Processes

This report discusses uses of and requirements for performance measures in traffic signal systems facilitated by high-resolution controller event data. Uses of external travel time measurements are also discussed. The discussion is led by a high-level synthesis of the systems engineering concepts for traffic signal control, considering technical and non-technical aspects of the problem. This is followed by a presentation of the requirements for implementing data collection and processing of the data into signal performance measures. The remaining portion of the report uses an example-oriented approach to showing a variety of uses of performance measures for communication and detector system health, quality of local control (including capacity allocation, safety, pedestrian performance, preemption, and advanced control analysis), and quality of progression (including evaluation and optimization)

Differential Requirements For Mitochondria During Neuronal Migration

During the development of the cortex neurons must migrate from their sites of birth to their final destinations. There are two main types of migration in the developing cortex, the radial migration of pyramidal neurons and the non-radial migration of cortical interneurons. There are limited studies directly comparing these two migration processes, and thus our understanding for perturbations that are selective to either non-radial versus radial migration is limited. Understanding causes of disruption of interneuron migration specifically is clinically relevant due to several interneuron specific developmental diseases. There is a growing body of literature observing a link between interneuron disorders and mitochondrial dysfunction, and thus regulation of mitochondria and their functions are promising targets for identifying selective effects on interneuron development. Mitochondria are organelles serving multiple functions in cells, including energy production, calcium buffering, redox homeostasis, and regulation of cell death. Although mitochondria are known to play essential roles in maintaining neuronal health and function in the adult brain, the importance of mitochondria during neuronal development is poorly understood. Using in vitro mouse brain explant and slice culture systems, we observed distinct localization patterns of mitochondria between interneurons and pyramidal neurons. Mitochondria in migrating interneurons move cyclically throughout the cell during the migration process while remaining in front of the nucleus in migrating radial neurons. Fluorescence immunohistochemistry confirmed these localization patterns in embryonic mouse brains in vivo. We then applied pharmacologic tools to disrupt mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and discovered that interneuron migration is profoundly sensitive to these disruptions compared to radially migrating pyramidal neurons. This was confirmed by examination of a genetic model of compromised oxidative phosphorylation (Ant1). Interneurons with compromised mitochondrial function exhibit decreased migration, increased changes in direction, increased trailing process length, changes in branching behavior, and shifts in centrosome positioning. We then utilized a dominant negative form of Miro1, a protein involved in mitochondrial trafficking to alter mitochondrial trafficking behavior. We also observed increased direction changes and reduced ability of interneurons to invade the cortex. However, interneuron migration rate was unaffected. The changes in cell migration behavior suggest that mitochondria play a central role in maintaining interneuron cell polarity to allow for progressive interneuron migration during their long journey. These data collectively support a model in which mitochondrial perturbations have a selective effect on interneuron migration. This work suggests that neuronal deficits occurring in mitochondrial disorders are not exclusively due to neuronal metabolic insufficiency in postnatal stages, but can also have developmental origins

Environmental enrichment and the striatum: the influence of environment on inhibitory circuitry within the striatum of environmentally enriched animals and behavioural consequences

The nervous system is integral to the healthy and whole functioning of an organism, mediating interactions with and responses to an organism’s surroundings. Environmental enrichment (EE) provides stimuli above that usually experienced within the laboratory environment, and has been shown to greatly impact the nervous system. The maturation of inhibitory circuitry controls the level of neuroplasticity and functional maturity present within neural systems. This thesis investigates the effect of EE upon the development of inhibitory circuitry within the striatum. The striatum is the entry nucleus to the basal ganglia, and as such mediates various cognitive and sensorimotor behaviours. This thesis investigates the effect of EE upon striatally-mediated behaviours of both juvenile and adult animals. This thesis demonstrates that exposure to an enriched environment accelerates maturation of inhibitory circuitry within the striatum and increases the number of active inhibitory interneurons within the adult striatum; improves problem solving and goal-orientated learning; and influences animal behaviours within automated testing apparatus. This work sheds light on the mechanisms by which EE impacts an important nucleus within the brain, and has implications for potential treatments of neurological disorders. Determining the optimum environment for healthy brain development may also aid in early education and intervention programs targeted at young children

Environmental enrichment and the striatum: the influence of environment on inhibitory circuitry within the striatum of environmentally enriched animals and behavioural consequences

The nervous system is integral to the healthy and whole functioning of an organism, mediating interactions with and responses to an organism’s surroundings. Environmental enrichment (EE) provides stimuli above that usually experienced within the laboratory environment, and has been shown to greatly impact the nervous system. The maturation of inhibitory circuitry controls the level of neuroplasticity and functional maturity present within neural systems. This thesis investigates the effect of EE upon the development of inhibitory circuitry within the striatum. The striatum is the entry nucleus to the basal ganglia, and as such mediates various cognitive and sensorimotor behaviours. This thesis investigates the effect of EE upon striatally-mediated behaviours of both juvenile and adult animals. This thesis demonstrates that exposure to an enriched environment accelerates maturation of inhibitory circuitry within the striatum and increases the number of active inhibitory interneurons within the adult striatum; improves problem solving and goal-orientated learning; and influences animal behaviours within automated testing apparatus. This work sheds light on the mechanisms by which EE impacts an important nucleus within the brain, and has implications for potential treatments of neurological disorders. Determining the optimum environment for healthy brain development may also aid in early education and intervention programs targeted at young children

Neurofly 2008 abstracts : the 12th European Drosophila neurobiology conference 6-10 September 2008 Wuerzburg, Germany

This volume consists of a collection of conference abstracts