Effects of traffic calming measures in different urban areas

XIII Conference on Transpot Engineering, CIT2018Despite of the reduction of deaths and serious injuries in roads in Spain during the last years, this reduction has not been so important in urban areas. Consequently, Traffic calming measures (TCM) have been installed in urban areas to improve mainly safety of pedestrians and cyclists. There is a wide range of existing measures, with varying success. Most of the TCMs are focused in speed reduction, as a way of providing a safer atmosphere to urban zones. Different speed reduction percentages are obtained by each TCM according to their geometric features and emplacements in the road. This paper compares some traffic calming measures in the cities of Bilbao, Burgos, León and Vitoria (located in the north of Spain) in order to evaluate the repeatability of their efficiency in different emplacements. The TCM selected where some of the most used in this cities. These were raised crosswalks, lane narrowing, radar speed camera signs and radar speed cameras. The speed reduction were compared and analyzed to present some conclusions about the efficiency of each traffic calming measure

Joint protection and hand exercises for hand osteoarthritis: an economic evaluation comparing methods for the analysis of factorial data

Objectives: Evidence regarding the cost-effectiveness of joint protection and hand exercises for the management of hand osteoarthritis (OA) is not well established. The primary aim of this study is to assess the cost-effectiveness (cost-utility) of these management options. In addition, given the absence of consensus regarding the conduct of economic evaluation alongside factorial trials, we compare different analytic methodologies. Methods: A trial-based economic evaluation to assess the cost-utility of joint protection only, hand exercises only and joint protection plus hand exercises compared with leaflet and advice was undertaken over a 12-month period, from a UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. Patient-level mean costs and mean quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were calculated for each trial arm. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves (CEACs) constructed. The base case analysis used a ‘within the table’ analysis methodology. Two further methods were explored: the ‘at the margins’ approach, and a regression-based approach with or without an interaction term. Results: Mean costs (QALYs) were £58.46 (0.662) for leaflet and advice, £92.12 (0.659) for joint protection, £64.51 (0.681) for hand exercises and £112.38 (0.658) for joint protection plus hand exercises. In the base case, hand exercises were the cost-effective option with an ICER of £318 per QALY gained. Hand exercises remained the most cost-effective management strategy when adopting alternative methodological approaches. Conclusion: This is the first trial evaluating the cost effectiveness of occupational therapy-supported approaches to self-management for hand OA. Our findings showed that hand exercises were the most cost-effective option

Influence of supramolecular forces on the linear viscoelasticity of gluten

Stress relaxation behavior of hydrated gluten networks was investigated by means of rheometry combined with μ-computed tomography (μ-CT) imaging. Stress relaxation behavior was followed over a wide temperature range (0–70 °C). Modulation of intermolecular bonds was achieved with urea or ascorbic acid in an effort to elucidate the presiding intermolecular interactions over gluten network relaxation. Master curves of viscoelasticity were constructed, and relaxation spectra were computed revealing three relaxation regimes for all samples. Relaxation commences with a well-defined short-time regime where Rouse-like modes dominate, followed by a power law region displaying continuous relaxation concluding in a terminal zone. In the latter zone, poroelastic relaxation due to water migration in the nanoporous structure of the network also contributes to the stress relief in the material. Hydrogen bonding between adjacent protein chains was identified as the determinant force that influences the relaxation of the networks. Changes in intermolecular interactions also resulted in changes in microstructure of the material that was also linked to the relaxation behavior of the networks

Model for fitting longitudinal traits subject to threshold response applied to genetic evaluation for heat tolerance

A semi-parametric non-linear longitudinal hierarchical model is presented. The model assumes that individual variation exists both in the degree of the linear change of performance (slope) beyond a particular threshold of the independent variable scale and in the magnitude of the threshold itself; these individual variations are attributed to genetic and environmental components. During implementation via a Bayesian MCMC approach, threshold levels were sampled using a Metropolis step because their fully conditional posterior distributions do not have a closed form. The model was tested by simulation following designs similar to previous studies on genetics of heat stress. Posterior means of parameters of interest, under all simulation scenarios, were close to their true values with the latter always being included in the uncertain regions, indicating an absence of bias. The proposed models provide flexible tools for studying genotype by environmental interaction as well as for fitting other longitudinal traits subject to abrupt changes in the performance at particular points on the independent variable scale

Inter-rater reliability of data elements from a prototype of the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry (PCNASR) is a U.S. based national registry designed to monitor and improve the quality of acute stroke care delivered by hospitals. The registry monitors care through specific performance measures, the accuracy of which depends in part on the reliability of the individual data elements used to construct them. This study describes the inter-rater reliability of data elements collected in Michigan's state-based prototype of the PCNASR.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Over a 6-month period, 15 hospitals participating in the Michigan PCNASR prototype submitted data on 2566 acute stroke admissions. Trained hospital staff prospectively identified acute stroke admissions, abstracted chart information, and submitted data to the registry. At each hospital 8 randomly selected cases were re-abstracted by an experienced research nurse. Inter-rater reliability was estimated by the kappa statistic for nominal variables, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for ordinal and continuous variables. Factors that can negatively impact the kappa statistic (i.e., trait prevalence and rater bias) were also evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 104 charts were available for re-abstraction. Excellent reliability (kappa or ICC > 0.75) was observed for many registry variables including age, gender, black race, hemorrhagic stroke, discharge medications, and modified Rankin Score. Agreement was at least moderate (i.e., 0.75 > kappa ≥; 0.40) for ischemic stroke, TIA, white race, non-ambulance arrival, hospital transfer and direct admit. However, several variables had poor reliability (kappa < 0.40) including stroke onset time, stroke team consultation, time of initial brain imaging, and discharge destination. There were marked systematic differences between hospital abstractors and the audit abstractor (i.e., rater bias) for many of the data elements recorded in the emergency department.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The excellent reliability of many of the data elements supports the use of the PCNASR to monitor and improve care. However, the poor reliability for several variables, particularly time-related events in the emergency department, indicates the need for concerted efforts to improve the quality of data collection. Specific recommendations include improvements to data definitions, abstractor training, and the development of ED-based real-time data collection systems.</p

Implementation of a population-based epidemiological rare disease registry: study protocol of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - registry Swabia

BACKGROUND: The social and medical impact of rare diseases is increasingly recognized. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most prevalent of the motor neuron diseases. It is characterized by rapidly progressive damage to the motor neurons with a survival of 2–5 years for the majority of patients. The objective of this work is to describe the study protocol and the implementation steps of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) registry Swabia, located in the South of Germany. METHODS/DESIGN: The ALS registry Swabia started in October 2010 with both, the retrospective (01.10.2008-30.09.2010) and prospective (from 01.10.2010) collection of ALS cases, in a target population of 8.6 million persons in Southern Germany. In addition, a population based case–control study was implemented based on the registry that also included the collection of various biological materials. Retrospectively, 420 patients (222 men and 198 women) were identified. Prospectively data of ALS patients were collected, of which about 70% agreed to participate in the population-based case–control study. All participants in the case–control study provided also a blood sample. The prospective part of the study is ongoing. DISCUSSION: The ALS registry Swabia has been implemented successfully. In rare diseases such as ALS, the collaboration of registries, the comparison with external samples and biorepositories will facilitate to identify risk factors and to further explore the potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms

The quest for the solar g modes

Solar gravity modes (or g modes) -- oscillations of the solar interior for which buoyancy acts as the restoring force -- have the potential to provide unprecedented inference on the structure and dynamics of the solar core, inference that is not possible with the well observed acoustic modes (or p modes). The high amplitude of the g-mode eigenfunctions in the core and the evanesence of the modes in the convection zone make the modes particularly sensitive to the physical and dynamical conditions in the core. Owing to the existence of the convection zone, the g modes have very low amplitudes at photospheric levels, which makes the modes extremely hard to detect. In this paper, we review the current state of play regarding attempts to detect g modes. We review the theory of g modes, including theoretical estimation of the g-mode frequencies, amplitudes and damping rates. Then we go on to discuss the techniques that have been used to try to detect g modes. We review results in the literature, and finish by looking to the future, and the potential advances that can be made -- from both data and data-analysis perspectives -- to give unambiguous detections of individual g modes. The review ends by concluding that, at the time of writing, there is indeed a consensus amongst the authors that there is currently no undisputed detection of solar g modes.Comment: 71 pages, 18 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics Revie

IW-Scoring: an Integrative Weighted Scoring framework for annotating and prioritizing genetic variations in the noncoding genome

Cancer Research UK Centre of Excellence Award to Barts Cancer Centre [C16420/A18066]; Barts and The London Charity Grant [MGU0344]; D.U. is funded by Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Tissue Bank Grant. Funding for open access charge: Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) award

Bayesian Classification and Regression Trees for Predicting Incidence of Cryptosporidiosis

Background Classification and regression tree (CART) models are tree-based exploratory data analysis methods which have been shown to be very useful in identifying and estimating complex hierarchical relationships in ecological and medical contexts. In this paper, a Bayesian CART model is described and applied to the problem of modelling the cryptosporidiosis infection in Queensland, Australia. Methodology/Principal Findings We compared the results of a Bayesian CART model with those obtained using a Bayesian spatial conditional autoregressive (CAR) model. Overall, the analyses indicated that the nature and magnitude of the effect estimates were similar for the two methods in this study, but the CART model more easily accommodated higher order interaction effects. Conclusions/Significance A Bayesian CART model for identification and estimation of the spatial distribution of disease risk is useful in monitoring and assessment of infectious diseases prevention and control