How do elderly pedestrians perceive hazards in the street? - An initial investigation towards development of a pedestrian simulation that incorporates reaction of various pedestrians to environments

In order to evaluate the accessibility of street and transport environments, such as railway stations, we are now developing a pedestrian simulation that incorporates elderly and disable pedestrians and their interaction with various environments including hazards on the street. For this development, it is necessary to understand how elderly and disabled pedestrians perceive hazards in the street and transport environments. Many elderly people suffer from some visual impairment. A study in the UK suggested 12% of people aged 65 or over have binocular acuity of 6/18 or less (Van der Pols et al, 2000). It should be noted that a quarter of the UK population will be aged 65 or over by 2031 (The Government Actuary's Department, 2004). Because of age-related changes of visual perception organs, elderly people suffer not only visual acuity problems but also other forms of visual disabilities, such as visual field loss and less contrast sensitivity. Lighting is considered to be an effective solution to let elderly and disable pedestrians perceive possible hazards in the street. Interestingly, British Standards for residential street lighting have not considered lighting needs of elderly pedestrians or pedestrians with visual disabilities (e.g. Fujiyama et al, 2005). In order to design street lighting that incorporates elderly and visually disabled pedestrians, it would be useful to understand how lighting improves the perception of hazards by elderly and disable pedestrians. The aim of this paper is to understand how elderly pedestrians perceive different hazards and to address issues to be investigated in future research. This paper focuses on fixation patterns of elderly pedestrians on different hazards in the street under different lighting conditions. Analysing fixation patterns helps us understand how pedestrians perceive environments or hazards (Fujiyama, 2006). This paper presents the initial results of our analysis of the eye tracker data of an ordinary elderly participant

Mapping social vulnerability to flood hazard in Norfolk, England

In this paper, we present a method to assess social vulnerability through the creation of an Open Source Vulnerability Index (OS-VI). The OS-VI provides context to environmental hazards and allows NGOs and local agencies to better tailor services and provide targeted pre-emptive vulnerability reduction and resilience-building programmes. A deductive indicator-based approach is utilised to incorporate a wide range of vulnerability indicators known to influence vulnerability. Unlike many vulnerability indices, the OS-VI incorporates flood risk as well as the loss of capabilities and the importance of key services (health facilities and food stores) through the measurement of accessibility when determining an area's level of social vulnerability. The index was developed using open-source mapping and analysis software and is composed completely of open-source data from national data sets. The OS-VI was designed at the national level, with data for all proxy indicators available across the entirety of England and Wales. For this paper, a case study is presented concerned with one English county, Norfolk

Pedestrian level of interaction on platform conflict areas by real-scale laboratory experiments

The objective of this work was to develop a new method to measure the interaction of passengers boarding and alighting at metro stations. This method included the Level of Interaction (LOI) as more precise indicator compared to the Level of Service (LOS). The method consisted of building a mock-up of a metro car and a series of simulation experiments in University College London’s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environmental Laboratory (PAMELA) based on observation at two London Underground station. This mock-up included Platform Edge Doors (PEDs) and a new space defined as Platform Conflict Area in front of the train doors in which the density of passengers was high. Results of the laboratory experiments were expressed according to the types of queues, formation of lanes, density by layer, and distance between passengers, in which the interaction followed a Logarithmic Distribution and no statistical differences were found with PEDs. These results are helpful for traffic engineers and policy makers to measure the interaction and use the LOI as a new indicator for the design of spaces in metro systems

Estimation of the passenger space in the boarding and alighting at metro stations

Platform edge doors (PEDs) have been used in various metro stations to improve safety and ventilation conditions, however limited research has been done to estimate the passenger space (PS) in the boarding and alighting process when PEDs are installed. The aim of this study was to estimate the space needed for boarding and alighting at metro stations. The method was based on a mock-up carriage and the relevant portion of the platform at University College London´s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environmental Laboratory (PAMELA), in which different load scenarios of boarding and alighting were conducted. The scenarios were based in a preliminary analysis observed at Westminster Station, in which PEDs are installed. To obtain the position of each passenger on the platform a tracking tool was used. The hypothesis of this research was that PS for alighting passengers can be represented as an asymmetrical ellipse, in which the longitudinal and lateral radii changed according to the negotiation with other passengers alighting or waiting on the platform to board the train. Therefore, there is a relationship between PS and the level of interaction, which suggests that passengers adjust their PS to avoid collision. This research can be used by traffic engineers to estimate PS of passengers boarding and alighting when PEDs are used. This in turn can help in designing the platform train interface (PTI) and platforms at transport infrastructures

Age-related differences in corticomotor excitability and inhibitory processes during a visuomotor RT task

This study tested the postulation that change in the ability to modulate corticospinal excitability and inhibitory processes underlie age-related differences in response preparation and generation during tasks requiring either rapid execution of a motor action or actively withholding that same action. Younger (n = 13, mean age = 26.0 years) and older adults (n = 13, mean age = 65.5 years) performed an RT task in which a warning signal (WS) was followed by an imperative signal (IS) to which participants were required to respond with a rapid flexion of the right thumb (go condition) or withhold their response (no-go condition). We explored the neural correlates of response preparation, generation, and inhibition using single- and paired-pulse TMS, which was administered at various times between WS and IS (response preparation phase) and between IS and onset of response-related muscle activity in the right thumb (response generation phase). Both groups exhibited increases in motor-evoked potential amplitudes (relative to WS onset) during response generation; however, this increase began earlier and was more pronounced for the younger adults in the go condition. Moreover, younger adults showed a general decrease in short-interval intracortical inhibition during response preparation in both the go and no-go conditions, which was not observed in older adults. Importantly, correlation analysis suggested that for older adults the task-related increases of corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition were associated with faster RT. We propose that the declined ability to functionally modulate corticospinal activity with advancing age may underlie response slowing in older adults

Human bladder cancer invasion model using rat bladder in vitro and its use to test mechanisms and therapeutic inhibitors of invasion

As well as being a passive support, the extracellular matrix also regulates key biological processes such as invasion, differentiation and angiogenesis. We have therefore developed an in vitro model of bladder cancer invasion using de-epithelialized rat bladder to allow for tumour cell–extracellular matrix interactions. Onto this we have seeded a panel of human bladder cancer cell lines (RT4, RT112, 253J and EJ28 (T24)) representing progression from well to poorly differentiated phenotypes and used as models of superficial to invasive bladder cancer. The better differentiated cell lines RT4 and RT112 reproducibly grew as stratified epithelium, whereas poorly differentiated EJ28 cells invaded across a broad front. Invasion was not simply related to proliferation rate, measured either as doubling time on plastic (non-invasive 253J and invasive EJ28 having the same doubling time) or by Ki-67 proliferation index within the model. We used the model to test the ability of 4 compounds that interfere with tumour cell–extracellular matrix interactions (suramin, N-acetylcysteine and the urokinase plasminogen activator pathway antagonists Å5 compound and monoclonal antibody Mab 3936) to inhibit invasion. At non-toxic concentrations, all significantly inhibited invasion (P< 0.05), although to varying degrees, suramin and Å5 almost completely and N-acetylcysteine the least. In conclusion, this model shows the urokinase system is important for bladder invasion and can be used to investigate other mechanisms of bladder cancer invasion and also for the testing of intravesical drugs. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Modelling passenger distribution and interaction on platform train interfaces

Platform edge doors (PEDs) are now common in metro stations, however it is not clear what their effect is in the distribution and interaction of passengers in the platform train interface (PTI). This study proposed a new area of the platform defined as platform conflict area (PCA), which included the PTI and the relevant space on the platform in front of PEDs. The method consisted on a carriage design to simulate typical boarding and alighting behavior at University College London’s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environmental Laboratory (PAMELA), in which the PCA was divided into semi-circular layers that originated at the PEDs. The interaction time (IT) was adjusted and a multinomial distribution function was used to model passengers based on London Underground stations. When the ratio (R) between passengers boarding and alighting was equal to 4, passengers started to board earlier, reaching 38% less IT than the case or R = 0.25 and half the time of R = 1. The distribution model presented no significant differences between the expect and observed data. Further research needs to be conducted to calibrate the coefficient to more accurately predict the IT and verify the assumed multinomial distribution model to determinate the maximum number of passengers waiting to board in each layer on the PCA considering different types of stations

Evaluation of an online youth ambassador program to promote mental health

To evaluate an online Youth Ambassador (YA) program designed to promote internet resources for mental health in an adolescent population, 56 YAs and 357 of their Year 10 peers from 11 Tasmanian schools completed e-mental health questionnaires before and after the YAs attended a single workshop session. The workshops, which were delivered in the high school setting, were either facilitated or self-directed. Self-reported awareness of e-mental health resources increased among both YAs and their peers. The peer group also showed increased frequency of recommending help-seeking to others. There were no differences in outcomes for facilitated or self-directed workshop formats. The results suggest that an online YA program delivered in school is useful in improving mental health awareness for workshop participants. While their Year 10 peer groups also showed increased awareness, this could not necessarily be attributed to the participation of all 11 schools in the YA program

Nuclear spin-spin coupling in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} studied by stimulated echo decay

We have performed copper NQR experiments in high temperature superconductors YBa_{2}Cu_{4}O_{8}, YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7}, and La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (x=0.12 and 0.15), using the stimulated echo technique. The stimulated echo intensity is analyzed by a model that includes the spin-lattice relaxation process (T_ {1 }-process) and the fluctuating local field due to nuclear spin-spin coupling. The model gives quantitative account of the experimental results in Y-based compounds using the known values of 1/T_{1} and 1/T_{2G}, the gaussian decay rate of the spin echo intensity. The same model applied to LSCO enables us to extract the value of T_{2G}. Our results indicate that T_{1}T/T_{2G} is independent of temperature, implying that the dynamic exponent is one in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}.Comment: 14 pages, 11 fugures, The bibliography field is correcte

Application of GGBFS and Bentonite to Auto-Healing Cracks of Cement Paste

Cracks are caused by many factors. Shrinkage and external loading are the most common reason. It becomes a problem when the ingression of aggressive and harmful substance penetrates to the concrete gap. This problem reduces the durability of the structures. It is well known that self – healing of cracks significantly improves the durability of the concrete structure. This paper presents self-healing cracks of cement paste containing bentonite associated with ground granulated blast furnace slag. The self-healing properties were evaluated with four parameters: crack width on the surface, crack depth, tensile strength recovery, and flexural recovery. In combination with microscopic observation, a healing process over time is also performed. The results show that bentonite improves the healing properties, in terms of surface crack width and crack depth. On the other hand, GGBFS could also improve the healing process, in terms of crack depth, direst tensile recovery, and flexural stiffness recovery. Carbonation reaction is believed as the main mechanism, which contributes the self-healing process as well as the continuous hydration progress