The prophylactic effect of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruit extract on testicular toxicity induced by formaldehyde: An experimental study

Background: Formaldehyde (FA) is one of the most widely used materials in industries and in sciences. Prolonged contact with FA might have harmful effects on fertility due to the increase in the reactive oxygen species level. On the other hand, date palm (Phoenix Dactilifera L.) fruit extract (DPFE) contains a high concentration of natural antioxidants that could scavenge free radicals. Objective: The aim was to investigate the prophylactic effects of DPFE, with strong antioxidant properties, on FA-induced testicular toxicity in male mice. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two adult NMRI male mice with a weight range of 25- 35 gr (9-10 wk old) were randomly divided into four groups: control group (distilled water, orally for 35 days), FA group (FA; 0.25 mg/kg intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 20 days), treatment group (Date (DT) + FA; DPFE, 4 mg/kg for 35 days followed by FA administration, 0.25 mg/kg, i.p., for 20 days), date fruit extract group (DT; DPFE, 4 mg/kg, orally for 35 days). After this, blood was collected and left epididymis and testis tissues were isolated to evaluate the sperm parameters and histological examination, respectively. Results: The FA administration increased the sperm morphological anomalies and reduced the sperm count, viability and motility, and also testosterone compared to the control group (p ≤ 0.001). In addition, histological studies of the testes showed that FA causes changes in the testis seminiferous tubules such as destruction of germinal epithelium and vacuolization of the tubules. The DPFE consumption before FA administration could partially ameliorate the reduced testosterone, sperm, and testicular parameters due to FA. Conclusion: The DPFE use might have discount effects on FA-induced testicular toxicity. Key words: Formaldehyde, Date fruit, Testis, Toxicity, Sperm, Testosterone

Applying Machine Learning to Explore Feelings about Sharing the Road with Autonomous Vehicles as a Bicyclist or as a Pedestrian

peer reviewedThe current literature on public perceptions of autonomous vehicles focuses on potential users and the target market. However, autonomous vehicles need to operate in a mixed traffic condition, and it is essential to consider the perceptions of road users, especially vulnerable road users. This paper builds explicitly on the limitations of previous studies that did not include a wide range of road users, especially vulnerable road users who often receive less priority. Therefore, this paper considers the perceptions of vulnerable road users towards sharing roads with autonomous vehicles. The data were collected from 795 people. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and random forests are used to select the most influential independent variables. Then, a decision tree-based model is used to explore the effects of the selected most effective variables on the respondents who approve the use of public streets as a proving ground for autonomous vehicles. The results show that the effect of autonomous vehicles on traffic injuries and fatalities, being safe to share the road with autonomous vehicles, the Elaine Herzberg accident and its outcome, and maximum speed when operating in autonomous are the most influential variables. The results can be used by authorities, companies, policymakers, planners, and other stakeholders

Understanding the neighbourhood choice decisions of movers: an analysis of focus group discussions

Using a qualitative methods approach, this study explores the key factors that influence household neighbourhood choice. Three newly developed residential neighbourhoods have been studied to examine resident decision making around their neighbourhood preferences. Four focus group (n = 4) discussions with 29 individuals who were recent movers to the study areas were conducted to examine the reasons behind neighbourhood choice and the needs of the household. The results revealed that household neighbourhood choice decisions were multi-faceted and complex. The key findings can be classified into six categories: safety, residential environment, neighbourhood facilities, accessibility, economic and demographic factors. Residents emphasised that the combination of land-use and transportation planning may be one important part of multi-layered solutions to improve quality of life in residential neighbourhoods

Non-motorised level of service: addressing challenges in pedestrian and bicycle level of service

Motorised vehicle conditions have been evaluated by many researchers. In contrast, there are very limited studies on vulnerable and non-motorised users, such as cyclists and pedestrians, specifically children, the elderly and the disabled. Thus, this paper reviews prominent studies on street evaluations to identify effective indicators for non-motorised trips. The street condition for these trips is measured by the bicycle level of service (BLOS) and the pedestrian level of service (PLOS). In previous studies, different methods have been introduced for PLOS and BLOS. However, these methods have several major shortcomings. First, pedestrians and cyclists are assumed to be users who can share street facilities with motorised vehicles and thus are considered equivalent to cars. Second, the majority of these methods are complicated and time-consuming, and it is difficult to connect them to a design process. Furthermore, these methods support only a limited number of walking and cycling facilities; therefore, they may not be valid for a wide range of pedestrians and cyclists with a diverse variety of abilities and ages. This study discusses the challenges in the BLOS and PLOS research and attempts to introduce new objectives for further studies in this field to eliminate the aforementioned shortcomings

The Relationship between Urban Structure and Travel Behaviour: Challenges and Practices

Since urban structure indicators influence travel behaviour, they have been widely studied. The goal of these studies was identifying effective factors to have sustainable transport patterns. However, investigating these factors has been problematic and the results are not reliable enough to be used universally. There are two main reasons for this: firstly, because socio-economic indicators impact neighbourhoods with comparable design differently; and secondly, factors such as income, and age, as well as self-selection factors are not easy to be evaluated. This paper addresses challenges and practices in this area to propose new objectives for further studies that cover previous shortcomings

Pedestrian safety index for evaluating street facilities in urban areas

The majority of current evaluation methods for assessing pedestrian safety conditions on streets only consider limited facilities that cannot cover all of the safety needs of pedestrians with different ages and abilities. These models are not developed based on sufficient facilities at the micro-level. Several of these studies are limited to evaluating safety at intersections. However, pedestrians also require safety along street segments and in intersections. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to conceptualize the pedestrian safety index (PSI), which evaluates facilities along the streets for pedestrians. To estimate this PSI, a point system method is proposed that compares existing conditions to a standard. This method can be used to identify existing problems and to propose improvements. In addition, the pedestrian safety enhancements described using this method can enhance the safety of older and disabled pedestrians that suffer the most from a lack of facilities. Although this practical model uses international standards to become universally applicable, one collector street in Singapore is chosen to test the model. Because this study tries to cover various street facilities, the designers can use these results to implement safe routes for pedestrians. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

An urban mobility index for evaluating and reducing private motorized trips

Modern cities seek policies to sustain their urban mobility by reducing car externalities. To maintain sustainability, urban designers and planners should consider different social, economic, and environmental indicators. Currently, efforts are being made to evaluate the relationship between urban structure and car usage. However, few studies have been conducted to evaluate private motorized trips at the macro-level. This study attempts to create a foundation for evaluating private motorized trips at the city level by introducing an urban mobility index (UMI). UMI is a measure for evaluating transportation in cities at the macro-level. This research presents urban mobility indicators that are correlated to a percentage of daily trips made through private motorized modes in order to calculate UMI. An analytical point system comparing existing cities to the best existing value is proposed in order to estimate this UMI. This research employs the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) as a database. Although this method can be utilized for cities worldwide, this research uses it to assess Hong Kong and Chicago. This method can identify existing problems and can be used to propose solutions for reducing car usage

The relationship between urban street networks and the number of transport fatalities at the city level

There are factors that impact traffic safety and the number of accident-related fatalities, such as street users, environment, road design and vehicle characteristics, but there have been limited studies that examine the relationship between street network factors and traffic-related crashes and fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this paper focused on this relationship by introducing urban street network variables, such as blocks per area, nodes per selected areas and length of roads and motorways, as independent variables and the number of fatalities as the dependent variable. This study used Open Street Maps(OSM) and International Association of Public Transport (UITP) data from 20 cities around the world. The number of blocks per area and nodes per selected areas resulted from modifying and analyzing OSM maps in ArcGIS software. The strength of the relationship in this study was found using generalized linear modeling (GLM). The findings of this research indicated that increases in fatalities are correlated with an increasing number of blocks per area, number of nodes per selected areas and length of the motorways

The relationship between urban street networks and the number of transport fatalities at the city level

There are factors that impact traffic safety and the number of accident-related fatalities, such as street users, environment, road design and vehicle characteristics, but there have been limited studies that examine the relationship between street network factors and traffic-related crashes and fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this paper focused on this relationship by introducing urban street network variables, such as blocks per area, nodes per selected areas and length of roads and motorways, as independent variables and the number of fatalities as the dependent variable. This study used Open Street Maps (OSM) and International Association of Public Transport (UITP) data from 20 cities around the world. The number of blocks per area and nodes per selected areas resulted from modifying and analyzing OSM maps in ArcGIS software. The strength of the relationship in this study was found using generalized linear modeling (GLM). The findings of this research indicated that increases in fatalities are correlated with an increasing number of blocks per area, number of nodes per selected areas and length of the motorways. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd