Strategic planning for urban air mobility: Perceptions of citizens and potential users on autonomous flying vehicles

World’s current mobility systems are often inefficient and unsustainable, therefore the need for new schemes to satisfy mobility needs appears. This quest has given the impetus to the industry to invest in new technologies such as autonomous systems enabling self-driving vehicles. In this context, the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), a term used for short-distance, on-demand, highly automated, passenger or cargo-carrying air mobility services, has arisen. This paper presents the introduction phase of strategic planning for the era of urban air mobility focusing on user and citizen acceptance of the system required for its operation. A survey is designed to capture the perception of citizens and potential users on aspects such as safety, security, well-being of the society (including issues of aesthetics, quality of life, social impacts), driving behaviour, mobility behaviour, expected benefits and their impact on the acceptance and the intention to use these systems. The acceptance of citizens and potential users (considered as two different groups) is analysed in terms of its potential uses (e.g. health emergencies, leisure, connectivity to remote regions). The survey is applied to the Metropolitan area of Lisbon and 207 responses were gathered. The collected data was analysed through correlation analysis and non-parametric tests. Conclusions are made on perceptions of citizens over different adoption and embracement levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Model for the Hysteresis Observed in Gating of Lysenin Channels

The pore-forming toxin lysenin self-inserts to form conductance channels in natural and artificial lipid membranes containing sphingomyelin. The inserted channels exhibit voltage regulation and hysteresis of the macroscopic current during the application of positive periodic voltage stimuli. We explored the bi-stable behavior of lysenin channels and present a theoretical approach for the mechanism of the hysteresis to explain its static and dynamic components. This investigation develops a model to incorporate the role of charge accumulation on the bilayer lipid membrane in influencing the channel conduction state. Our model is supported by experimental results and also provides insight into the temperature dependence of lysenin channel hysteresis. Through this work we gain perspective into the mechanism of how the response of a channel protein is determined by previous stimuli

A population-based study of reduced sleep duration and hypertension : the strongest association may be in premenopausal women

Objectives: Recent evidence indicates that reduced sleep duration may be associated with an increased risk of hypertension with possibly stronger effects among women than men. We therefore examined cross-sectional sex-specific associations of sleep duration with hypertension in a large population-based sample from the Western New York Health Study (1996<2001). Methods: Participants were 3027 white men (43.5%) and women (56.5%) without prevalent cardiovascular disease (median age 56 years). Hypertension was defined as blood pressure at least 140 or at least 90&mmHg or regular use of antihypertensive medication. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate odds ratios (ORs) of hypertension comparing less than 6&h of sleep per night versus the reference category (&6&h) while accounting for a number of potential confounders. Results: In multivariate analyses, less than 6&h of sleep was associated with a significant increased risk of hypertension compared to sleeping at least 6&h per night, only among women [OR&=&1.66 (1.09 to 2.53)]. No significant association was found among men [OR&=&0.93 (0.62 to 1.41)]. In subgroup analyses by menopausal status, the effect was stronger among premenopausal women [OR&=&3.25 (1.37 to 7.76)] than among postmenopausal women [OR&=&1.49 (0.92 to 2.41)]. Conclusion: Reduced sleep duration, by increasing the risk of hypertension, may produce detrimental cardiovascular effects among women. The association is independent of socioeconomic status, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and psychiatric comorbidities, and is stronger among premenopausal women. Prospective and mechanistic evidence is necessary to support causality

Patients’ quest for recognition and continuity in health care: time for a new research agenda?

User involvement is important in democratization of health care and is assumed to contribute to better and more relevant research. Despite increased requirements for user involvement in research, more studies are still needed. This study aimed at exploring what research agenda people with varied health problems consider as important, based on their own experience. The study had a phenomenological approach with a qualitative design. The sample consisted of 23 informants; nine had been critically ill and 14 were suffering from chronic muscle pain. Data were collected in five focus group interviews and one individual interview. A phenomenological approach was used in analyzing the data. Written consent was obtained from all the participants, and ethical considerations were taken throughout the entire research process. Despite various experiences among the participants, a quest to be taken seriously over time by healthcare professionals emerged as a strong meaning structure in both groups. Based on these experiences, continuity across lifetime changes turned out to be an important research topic for future research. User involvement should be appreciated in all parts of the research process. A crucial prerequisite is that the users get the opportunity to bring their own experiences into the process.acceptedVersio

Progress in achieving quantitative classification of psychopathology

Shortcomings of approaches to classifying psychopathology based on expert consensus have given rise to contemporary efforts to classify psychopathology quantitatively. In this paper, we review progress in achieving a quantitative and empirical classification of psychopathology. A substantial empirical literature indicates that psychopathology is generally more dimensional than categorical. When the discreteness versus continuity of psychopathology is treated as a research question, as opposed to being decided as a matter of tradition, the evidence clearly supports the hypothesis of continuity. In addition, a related body of literature shows how psychopathology dimensions can be arranged in a hierarchy, ranging from very broad "spectrum level" dimensions, to specific and narrow clusters of symptoms. In this way, a quantitative approach solves the "problem of comorbidity" by explicitly modeling patterns of co-occurrence among signs and symptoms within a detailed and variegated hierarchy of dimensional concepts with direct clinical utility. Indeed, extensive evidence pertaining to the dimensional and hierarchical structure of psychopathology has led to the formation of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) Consortium. This is a group of 70 investigators working together to study empirical classification of psychopathology. In this paper, we describe the aims and current foci of the HiTOP Consortium. These aims pertain to continued research on the empirical organization of psychopathology; the connection between personality and psychopathology; the utility of empirically based psychopathology constructs in both research and the clinic; and the development of novel and comprehensive models and corresponding assessment instruments for psychopathology constructs derived from an empirical approach

Human Organ Culture: Updating the Approach to Bridge the Gap from In Vitro to In Vivo in Inflammation, Cancer, and Stem Cell Biology

Human studies, critical for developing new diagnostics and therapeutics, are limited by ethical and logistical issues, and preclinical animal studies are often poor predictors of human responses. Standard human cell cultures can address some of these concerns but the absence of the normal tissue microenvironment can alter cellular responses. Three-dimensional cultures that position cells on synthetic matrices, or organoid or organ-on-a-chip cultures, in which different cell spontaneously organize contacts with other cells and natural matrix only partly overcome this limitation. Here, we review how human organ cultures (HOCs) can more faithfully preserve in vivo tissue architecture and can better represent disease-associated changes. We will specifically describe how HOCs can be combined with both traditional and more modern morphological techniques to reveal how anatomic location can alter cellular responses at a molecular level and permit comparisons among different cells and different cell types within the same tissue. Examples are provided involving use of HOCs to study inflammation, cancer, and stem cell biology.The authors would like to express their gratitude to The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (RA-L, JB)

Therapeutic effect of hyperbaric oxygen in psoriasis vulgaris: two case reports and a review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Psoriasis is an inflammatory and immunological cutaneous disease. The high morbidity in patients with psoriasis results from severe clinical manifestations and/or adverse effects of treatment. The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and Federal Medicare and Medicaid Services have approved the use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO₂) for more than 15 indications, including wound healing, infections and late effects of radiation, which are largely unresponsive to conventional treatments. Accumulated data show that HBO₂ has anti-inflammatory effects and other positive influences on the immune system, making it a rational treatment in the management of psoriasis plaques and arthritis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present the cases of two patients with long histories of psoriasis vulgarus who exhibited marked improvement with use of HBO_2. The first patient was 40 years old and had pustular psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He was treated with six sessions of HBO₂ (at 2.8 atmospheres of pressure for 60 minutes), which successfully controlled his symptoms. At the 18-month post-treatment follow up, the patient exhibited complete remission of psoriasis and marked improvement in psoriatic arthritis without medication. The second patient was 55 years old with extensive psoriatic lesions, and exhibited marked improvement within 15 sessions of HBO₂. No adverse effects of HBO₂ were identified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HBO₂ may possess potential therapeutic efficacy in the management of psoriasis. We outline the pathogenesis of psoriasis and the selective anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects of HBO₂. We hope that this will provide a basis for elucidating the mechanisms of action and consequently pave the way for further controlled studies.</p

Tests of General Relativity with GW150914

The LIGO detection of GW150914 provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large-velocity, highly nonlinear regime, and to witness the final merger of the binary and the excitation of uniquely relativistic modes of the gravitational field. We carry out several investigations to determine whether GW150914 is consistent with a binary black-hole merger in general relativity. We find that the final remnant's mass and spin, as determined from the low-frequency (inspiral) and high-frequency (postinspiral) phases of the signal, are mutually consistent with the binary black-hole solution in general relativity. Furthermore, the data following the peak of GW150914 are consistent with the least-damped quasinormal mode inferred from the mass and spin of the remnant black hole. By using waveform models that allow for parametrized general-relativity violations during the inspiral and merger phases, we perform quantitative tests on the gravitational-wave phase in the dynamical regime and we determine the first empirical bounds on several high-order post-Newtonian coefficients. We constrain the graviton Compton wavelength, assuming that gravitons are dispersed in vacuum in the same way as particles with mass, obtaining a 90%-confidence lower bound of 1013 km. In conclusion, within our statistical uncertainties, we find no evidence for violations of general relativity in the genuinely strong-field regime of gravity. © 2016 The American Physical Societ