Quantifying the effect of pedestrian control devices on pedestrian safety

There are many interventions that can reduce pedestrian crashes, including clarifying the indications transmitted to the travelers in the traffic network via the built environment. By design, the built environment aims to make who has the right-of-way very clear by presenting expected, easy-to-interpret indications. Some environments are much clearer than others, for example a marked crosswalk versus an unmarked crosswalk and can influence yielding behavior and fatal crash probability. This thesis presents the findings on driver yielding toward pedestrians at various crossing treatments and on fatal pedestrian crash incidents in the city of Austin, Texas. Considering both types of data, this thesis aims to achieve a well-rounded quantification of the effect pedestrian control devices have on overall pedestrian safety. From the result of the first component of the investigation, the effect of a flexpost island is not significantly different from the effect of a marked crosswalk on driver yielding propensity. Significant differences were observed between yielding at concrete refuge islands and every other pairwise comparison to flexpost islands, marked crosswalks, and unmarked crosswalks. From the second component, interaction seems to exist between treatment and both sidewalk presence and bus stop presence. The difference in fatality crashes at locations with and without pedestrian crossing treatments is less when there is no sidewalk present. Additionally, the difference between treatment presence on pedestrian fatality percentage is less when there is a bus stop more than 358 ft away.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Synthesewege und photoelektrochemische Eigenschaften von Hämatit-Nanomaterialien

[no abstract

Criminal Threats to Administrative Order in Latvia Updated by the COVID-19 Pandemic: Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia has activated several types of criminal threats. Their range also included criminal threats to the administration existing in Latvia, which have been explored in detail in this article. The author has highlighted three topical groups of criminal threat in the field of administrative order: 1) threats, expressed as counter-activities against the person, who participates in elimination or termination of illegal commitment driven towards COVID-19 restrictions; 2) threats expressed as violations of the procedure determined for processing of documents in the field of COVID-19 restrictions; 3) threats expressed as violation of special regulations in the field of COVID-19 restrictions. Having paid attention to each separate group, the author has studied not only the case law, but also amendments to the Criminal Law planned and implemented by the legislator, analysing the positive and negative aspects of the amendments. The study revealed that the repressive approach of the state, implemented within the framework of control of the restrictions for spread of the COVID-19, lead to the situation, where not only the need was discussed to recognise the offences not yet deemed as criminally punishable, but where the legislator still considered it necessary to supplement the special part of the Criminal Law with new norms, thus expanding the types of expression of criminal offences

Im Gottesländchen [Kurland] : Aufzeichnungen eines wanderfrohen Studenten aus dem Jahre 1893

https://www.ester.ee/record=b3786867*es

Surgical repair of spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks: A systematic review

Objectives To review the safety and efficacy of surgical management for spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks of the anterior and lateral skull base. Data Sources A systematic review of English articles using MEDLINE. Review Methods Search terms included spontaneous, CSF, cerebrospinal fluid, endoscopic, middle fossa, transmastoid, leak, rhinorrhea. Independent extraction of articles by 3 authors. Results Patients with spontaneous CSF leaks are often obese (average BMI of 38 kg/m2) and female (72%). Many patients also have obstructive sleep apnea (∼45%) and many have elevated intracranial pressure when measured by lumbar puncture. In addition to thinning of the skull base, radiographic studies also demonstrate cortical bone thinning. Endoscopic surgical repair of anterior skull base leaks and middle cranial fossa (MCF) approach for repair of lateral skull base leaks are safe and effective with an average short‐term failure rate of 9% and 6.5%, respectively. Long‐term failure rates are low. One randomized trial failed to show improved success of anterior leak repairs with the use of a lumbar drain (LD) (95% with vs. 92% without; P = 0.2). In a large retrospective cohort of MCF lateral skull base repairs, perioperative LD use was not necessary in >94% of patients. Conclusions Spontaneous CSF leaks are associated with female gender, obesity, increased intracranial hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea. Endoscopic repair of anterior skull base leaks and MCF or transmastoid approaches for lateral skull base leaks have a high success rate of repair. In most cases, intraoperative placement of lumbar drain did not appear to result in improved success rates for either anterior or lateral skull base leaks. Level of Evidence 2a, Systematic Review

Spectrum of pncA mutations in multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates obtained in latvia [2]

Peer reviewe

Extra-ocular movement restriction and diplopia following orbital fracture repair

Purpose To report a series of patients with extra-ocular movement restriction and diplopia after orbital fracture repair, and determine the effect of timing of repair and the type of implant used. Methods A chart review was conducted identifying all patients > 18 years of age at our institution between June 2005 and June 2008 who underwent orbital fracture repair, and presented with clinically significant diplopia and extra-ocular movement restriction persisting longer than one month after repair. Data collected included timing of repair, implant used within the orbit, and need for revision. Results Ten patients were identified with a mean time to primary orbital fracture repair at 9 days (range 1–48). Seven patients underwent revision of their orbital fracture repair with removal of the previously placed implant and replacement with non-porous 0.4 mm Supramid Foil, whereas one patient underwent lateral and inferior rectus recessions without revision of primary fracture repair. Titanium mesh was the intra-orbital implant found in all patients requiring revision of orbital fracture repair. All revisions resulted in resolution of clinically significant diplopia. Conclusions Clinically significant diplopia and extra-ocular movement restriction is not an uncommon complication after orbital fracture repair. In our series, there was a strong association between these complications and the use of porous titanium mesh implants. Revision of fractures significantly improved diplopia in all but one patient. This suggests that meticulous fracture repair and the use of non-porous implants primarily or secondarily may preclude the need for strabismus surgery after orbital trauma

Fibronectin-binding nanoparticles for intracellular targeting addressed by B. burgdorferi BBK32 protein fragments

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are created by the self-assembly of multiple copies of envelope and/or capsid proteins from many viruses, mimicking the conformation of a native virus. Such noninfectious nanostructures are mainly used as antigen-presenting platforms, especially in vaccine research; however, some of them recently were used as scaffolds in biotechnology to produce targeted nanoparticles for intracellular delivery. This study demonstrates the creation of fusion VLPs using hepatitis B core protein-based system maintaining a fibronectin-binding property from B. burgdorferi BBK32 protein, including the evidence of particles’ transmission to BHK-21 target cells via caveolae/rafts endocythosis. These results make this construct to be an attractive model in development of HBc-based nanoparticles for cellular targeting applications and highlights the fragment of B. burgdorferi BBK32 as a novel cellular uptake-promoting peptide.This work was supported by grant of Latvian Council of Science, Nr. 10.0029.3 and by ESF Projec

Bipartite guidance, navigation and control architecture for autonomous aerial inspections under safety constraints

In this work the autonomous flight of a drone for inspection of sensitive environments is considered. Continuous monitoring, the possibility of override and the minimisation of the on-board computational load are prioritized. The drone is programmed with a Lyapunov vector guidance and nonlinear control to fly a trajectory passed, leg after leg, by a remote ground station. GPS is the main navigation tool used. Computational duties are split between the ground station and the drone’s on board computer, with the latter dealing with the most time critical tasks. This bipartite autonomous system marries recent advancements in autonomous flight with the need for safe and reliable robotic systems to be used for tasks such as inspection or structural health monitoring in industrial environments. A test case and inspection data from a test over flat lead roof structure are presented