Survey of prevention and information campaigns on psychoactive drugs and driving

Objectives: One of the objectives of the DRUID project is to develop guidelines for spreading information regarding driving under the influence of drugs and medicines, and this aiming at different target groups, including young drivers, patients, physicians, pharmacists,… We reviewed the state-of-the-art of existing information campaigns regarding psychoactive drugs and driving, as well as the documented effectiveness of those campaigns. Methods: In total 55 institutes were contacted, of which 17 (31%) responded and 12 (22%) were able to give information. Information was also gathered through the Internet by means of websites of relevant organizations, Google and YouTube. Results: A total of 75 campaigns were found, from 13 different countries. Twenty-four were launched to inform the general public on the risks associated with driving under the influence of drugs, medicines and/or alcohol. Twenty-nine campaigns were launched to inform young people and 16 campaigns to inform physicians and/or pharmacists. Nine campaigns were designed for teachers, seven campaigns for patients and five campaigns for other target populations. Some campaigns were designed for more than one target group. Information on impact evaluation was available only for seven campaigns. All evaluations showed a positive impact of the campaigns. Conclusions: The majority of the retrieved campaigns concerning driving under the influence of drugs were aiming at young people. The type of medium that is used the most is brochures. Most campaigns are organized by governmental organizations and road safety organizations. As only a few evaluations were found, and these campaigns and their evaluations were performed in many different ways, it is not possible to draw conclusions concerning the association between the design of the campaigns and their effectiveness

Medicines and driving: evaluation of training and software support for patient counselling by pharmacists

Background : The consumption of some psychotropic medicines has a negative effect on the fitness to drive. Pharmacists are expected to give useful advice to patients on their participation in traffic. However, almost no information is available on this topic. Objective : To assess the effect of training and implementation of new dispensing guidelines with regard to driving-impairing medicines, in two types of dispensing support tools. User acceptance was measured as well as the effect on pharmacists' attitudes & awareness, self-reported behaviour and knowledge. Setting Pharmacists from East Flanders in Belgium. Methods : Two intervention groups and a control group participated. The intervention groups followed a training and were provided with a dispensing support tool containing information on the effect of medicines on driving ability, which was either stand-alone (USB stick) or integrated into the daily used software (ViaNova). The three groups filled out a questionnaire prior to and after the intervention period. Main outcome measure : Answers to a pre/post-questionnaire on attitudes and awareness, self-reported behaviour, knowledge and user acceptance. Results : Many pharmacists were already strongly interested in the topic at the beginning of the study. Positive changes in attitude, self-reported behaviour and knowledge were measured mostly in the group of pharmacists for which the information was integrated in their daily used software. These pharmacists asked significantly more about the patients' driving experience, informed them more about driving-related risk and gave more detailed information on impairing effects of medicines. The knowledge of the participating pharmacists on the topic 'medicines and driving' remained generally low. The participants acknowledge the importance of being aware of the topic medicines and driving but they report a lack of information or education. They strongly prefer a tool that integrates the information in their daily used software. Conclusion : Dispensing support tools with information on the potential impairing effect of a medicine on the fitness to drive increases awareness, reported risk communication behaviour as well as knowledge of pharmacists on this topic. Computerised dispensing support tools are most effective when the information is integrated into the daily used dispensing software

Comparison of a checklist for clinical signs of impairment and detection of drugs in saliva

Objectives: In Belgium and some other countries, the police performs on-site drug screening when a driver is suspected of being drug impaired, since the test procedure is time consuming and the screening devices are relatively expensive. The objective of the study is to compare the results of a checklist with drug concentrations in saliva. Method: The checklist used in the DRUID study in the Netherlands was used. Two fifth-year medical students performed the tests on 250 subjects, 50 drivers and 200 subjects attending a methadone clinic. Saliva analysis was performed by UPLC-MS/MS. As several signs were rarely observed, the parameters were reduced to those that were positive in at least 3 out of 250 test subjects. This selection led to a reduction to 13 (out of 28) parameters. A statistical test (Fisher’s exact test) was used to test for correlations between the checklist parameters and the presence of substances in oral fluid. Results: Most parameters did not correlate significantly with drug intake. The pupil tests seemed to be the best predicting parameters, especially for amphetamine and THC. Remarkably, some correlations were found between parameters and drugs where no correlation was expected, e.g. sleepiness and amphetamines. This can possibly be caused by the presence of combination use of drugs in a lot of subjects. The signs were often observed when high drug concentrations were seen in saliva, but in many cases with high saliva drug concentrations, no signs were observed. Conclusions: In general, the checklist correlated badly with drug presence in this population of chronic drug users, but our results also confirm other studies that found that checklists are not very sensitive

Prevalence of psychoactive substances in Dutch and Belgian traffic

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence of psychoactive substances in general traffic in The Netherlands and Belgium. Method: Randomly selected car drivers and drivers of small vans in six police regions in The Netherlands and five police regions in Belgium were included between January 2007 and August 2009. Blood and oral fluid samples were analyzed for 23 substances, including ethanol (alcohol), by means of ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry or gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. Samples were weighted according to the distribution of traffic over eight 6-hour periods. Substance groups were categorized in five mutually exclusive classes: single alcohol use, single illicit drug use, single medicinal drugs use, multiple drug use (including drugs from two or more separate substance groups but excluding alcohol), and drug use (either single or multiple) in combination with alcohol. Results: In total, 7,771 drivers (4,822 in The Netherlands and 2,949 in Belgium) were included in the study. In Belgium, the prevalence of single alcohol (6.4%) and single medicinal drugs (3.0%) was much higher than in The Netherlands (2.2% and 0.6%, respectively), whereas the single illicit drugs were more common in Dutch traffic (2.2%) than in Belgian traffic (0.6%). Compared with the estimated prevalence of psychoactive substances in the general driving public in Europe, the prevalence in Belgium (10.7%) was greater than the European average (7.4%), and the prevalence in The Netherlands was below the European average (5.5%). Conclusions: The observed prevalence of psychoactive substances varies largely between The Netherlands and Belgium. Probable reasons for the differences are the higher level of alcohol enforcement in The Netherlands and nonresponse bias in the Belgian study (for illicit drugs in particular). Furthermore, cultural differences and variances in prescription policy could also be influential

Analytical inverse solution for coupled thermoelastic problem for the evaluation of contact stress during steel strip rolling

International audienceKnowledge of the contact stress between roll and strip is a critical factor in modern, high-speed rolling mills. Previously two inverse analytical methods have been developed to determine the elastic contact stress on the one hand and the heat flux or the temperature in the whole roll (and especially at the surface) on the other hand, by measuring the stress tensor inside the roll body with fibre optics and by measuring the temperature with a thermocouple fully embedded at only one point inside the roll. However measurements done by fibre optics take into account the elastic stress and the thermal stress. However the contact stress was determined under isothermal assumption, which is strongly incorrect for hot rolling conditions. In this paper, the coupled thermoelastic problem is solved analytically using the theorem of superposition and the expression of the temperature field exhibited previously. A significant improvement of the accuracy of the inverse method for reconstructing the contact stress is observed by taking into account thermal stress. Hot rolling simulation is given to demonstrate this result. The computation time is studied to rapidly optimise the industrial parameters during the rolling process, and considering that both inverse methods have been run, the computation of thermal stress does not cost significant additional CPU times

Evaluation of temperature field and heat flux by inverse analysis during steel strip rolling

International audienceKnowledge of the temperature field in the roll is a critical factor of modern, high-speed rolling mills. In this paper, an inverse analytical method is developed to determine the temperature field and especially the temperature (and heat flux) at the surface of the roll by measuring the temperature with a thermocouple (fully embedded) at only one point inside the roll. Iterative methods are not studied because short computation times are desired. Some assumptions are done to resolve analytically the unsteady heat equation, taking into account the restrictions of the measurement system (e.g., measurement according to successive times). The solution is validated by comparing the outputs of the method and prescribed analytical temperature fields. Good agreement is obtained. Noise sensitivity is estimated by adding artificial random numbers to the inputs. Good accuracy is observed. A 10 \% error of the temperature sensor depth is also considered and does not compromise the method. On the other hand, the computation time (around 0.05 second by cycle) is studied to rapidly optimise the industrial parameters during the rolling process

Non-linear simulation of coiling accounting for roughness of contacts and multiplicative elastic-plastic behavior

International audienceIn this paper numerical simulations of coiling (winding of a steel strip on itself) and uncoiling are developed. Initial residual stress field is taken into account as well as roughness of contacts and elastic-plastic behavior at finite strains, considering the Tresca yield function and isotropic hardening. The main output is the residual stress field due to plastic deformations during the process. This enables to quantify additional flatness defects. The presented coiling simulation relies on a modeling strategy that consists in dividing each time step into two sub-steps. Each sub-step can be solved semi-analytically and numerical optimizations enable to obtain a general solution. Thus reasonable computation times are reached and parametric studies can be performed in order to develop coiling strategies considering the process parameters. Comparisons with previous models from the literature are presented. Moreover the comparison with a Finite Element simulation presents the same order of magnitude, however it shows that direct computations using classical FE codes are difficult to perform in terms of computation times and stability if an explicit integration scheme is chosen. Numerical results are also given in order to determine the effect of some parameters such as roughness, yield stress, applied force, strip crown or mandrel's radius

Temperature and heat flux fast estimation during rolling process

International audienceMonitoring and controlling flatness during the rolling process becomes critical for ensuring the product quality. Flatness defects are due to highly three-dimensional phenomena. Indeed, strips with different widths are rolled during the same campaign and cooling systems are heterogeneous along the axial direction to modify the thermal expansion of the roll. Therefore this paper presents a fully three-dimensional inverse analytical method to determine the temperature field and heat fluxes (especially at the surface of the roll) by interpreting measurements of temperature done with several thermocouples fully embedded in the roll body and aligned along the axial direction. Since the method is dedicated to on-line interpretation and designed as a tool for adapting the rolling parameters during the rolling process, iterative methods are not studied to avoid long computation times, which justifies the development of an analytical solution of the problem. The computation time displayed by Scilab 5.3 with a quadcore 2.8 GHz is around 0.5 second by cycle for accurate computation and 0.07 second by cycle for rough computation. This paper improves a previous work (2D and relying on four assumptions designed for the prediction of wear). In the present contribution the 3D unsteady heat equation of the rotating roll is solved analytically with only one assumption in order to deal with the restriction of the measurement system (i.e., measurement according to successive times). Therefore not only radial and tangential heat fluxes are taken into account but also axial heat flux. The solution is validated by comparing the outputs of the method and some prescribed analytical temperature fields. Good agreement is obtained. Noise sensitivity is estimated by adding artificial random numbers to the inputs, and good accuracy is observed. Moreover sensitivity to sensor depth is estimated and demonstrated to be not compromising

Non-linear numerical simulation of coiling by elastic finite strain model

International audienceThe coiling process under traction is considered, with an incoming residual stress profile (that can be sufficiently compressive to make the strip buckle): a flatness defect. This paper details a 3D non-linear numerical simulation taking into account the contact of the strip on itself, with a perfect contact law. The model relies on elastic behavior at finite strain because of large rotations. Even though the behavior is elastic, the yield Von Mises criterion is computed and gives information about flatness defects (plastic zones are approximated by zones where the yield stress is exceeded). Furthermore, the paper aims at very short computation times. The modeling strategy relies (for each time step) on two analytical sub-steps. Numerical minimization procedure is used in order apply weak boundary conditions. Results are discussed with respect to a comprehensive Finite Element simulation and good agreement is observed

A quasi-Monte Carlo integration method applied to the computation of the Pollaczek integral

Nos remerciements à IEEE pour l'autorisation de mise à disposition du papier complet. © IEEE Copyright Notice : Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.International audienceThis paper presents an effective numeric method to compute Pollaczek integral. This integral is widely used in transmission-line theory when computing the mutual impedance between an overhead conductor and another overhead or underground conductor and the earth-return impedance of an underground cable. At first, we present mutual expressions proposed by Pollaczek and underline the numerical complexities that often lead to the adoption of alternative simplified methods. Then a brief review of the so called "quasi-Monte Carlo" integration method along with its advantages is given. Such an approach is then applied to compute numerically Pollaczek expressions. Comparison between our numerical procedure and an algorithm that has already been published proves both the procedure accuracy, one of its main advantages along with its ease of implementation, and its relatively low time consumption, independent of the input parameters. Finally, as an application example, quasi-Monte Carlo method is used to assess the adequacy, for several study cases, of the simplified formula by Lucca, which is a widely used approximate expression of interest