Requirements for a Computerised Rail Passenger Service Information System – Results of Surveys at Doncaster, Woking, Euston, Halifax and Gatwick

The backround, survey methodology of this research project, and the results of surveys at Leeds City station have been discussed in Working paper 206. In this Paper we put forward the result of surveys at Doncaster, Woking, Euston, Halifax and Gatwick. For the most part, the results are similar to those given for Leeds in the earlier paper. Notable differences, however, are the much greater proportion of 'other station to other station' enquiries at Woking (37%), Euston (22%) and Gatwick (33%). Enquiries at Woking and Gatwick took longer to answer than elsewhere. Conversely, Halifax, with a higher proportion of enquiries relating to local journeys, produced the fastest answers. A summary of results from all the surveys, together with discussion of a survey on the use of the Prestel terminals provided for passengers at Kings Cross and overall conclusions from the study will be reported in a separate paper (Working Paper 208)

Requirements for a Computerised Rail Passenger Service Information System – Introduction and Results of the Leeds Data.

This paper discusses a research project designed to contribute to the development of a computerised rail travel information system by providing information on the range and mix of inquiries made at railway stations, and on the effectiveness with which these inquiries are currently handled. Results are given from a series of surveys undertaken at various times of the week and year at the inquiry office and telephone inquiry bureaux at Leeds station. A total of 576 inquiries from the former and 579 from the latter were analysed. Of these, the biggest single category related to train times, but nearly half wanted fares information as well or instead of this. Most passengers were inquiring about a relatively simple journey - two thirds of the answers involved no change of train and only 1.5% more than two changes. The mean time taken to answer an inquiry was less than a minute. Further papers will analyse surveys undertaken at Euston, Woking, Doncaster, Gatwick Airport and Halifax, as well as a survey of users of the Prestel terminals at Kings Cross, and present overall conclusions from the project

Requirements for a Computerised Rail Passenger Service Information System – Summary of Results and Conclusions from the Project.

This paper consists of three main sections. In the first, we summarise the results of surveys of enquiries made at railway stations and telephone enquiry bureaux. These have been presented in detail in Working Papers 206 and 207. Then we consider the accuracy of the replies given to enquiries in a sample of 252 cases. There appear to be 9 clear errors, with a number of possible futher ones. By contrast, the pilot computerised system developed on behalf of 8R made 4 mistakes, of which 3 appear to be explicable as database errors or lack of walk links. The following section gives details of a survey of users of the Prestel terminals provided for direct use by the public at Kings Cross. Most users were able to find the information they required, although there was some criticism on grounds of slow response and complexity. Users tended to be male and on average younger than enquirers at the information desk; some if the latter were resistant to the idea of obtaining information from a computer rather than from a person. Finally, we present our overall conclusions from the project. It appears to us that the benefits of a computerised system are limited because of the simplicity of a large proportion of enquiries, and the speed and accuracy with which they are answered. Neverthe- less, computerised systems do afford the possibility of providing faster, more accurate and more complete information at reduced cost in terms of manpower. These advantages would be greatest for a system which was sufficiently user friendly to be accessed directly by passengers, although for the forseeable future the proportion of people undertaking transactions that are not readily computerised or who prefer to ask someone means that this could only be a way of reducing demand on the information desk rather than of replacing it entirely

iGlarLixi effectively reduces residual hyperglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes on basal insulin: A post hoc analysis from the LixiLan-L study

Globally, nearly half of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) do not successfully achieve target HbA1c with basal insulin, despite meeting fasting plasma glucose (FPG) targets. In this post hoc analysis of the LixiLan-L study, we determined whether iGlarLixi, a fixed-ratio combination of insulin glargine Gla-100 (iGlar) and the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist lixisenatide (Lixi), addresses the challenge of reducing residual hyperglycaemia in patients with T2D. In LixiLan-L, a randomized, open-label study, 1018 patients with T2D on basal insulin for ≥6 months ± oral antidiabetes drugs entered a 6-week run-in period, during which they were switched to and/or optimized for a daily dose of iGlar while continuing only metformin. Following the run-in period, 736 patients were then randomized to receive iGlarLixi or were continued on iGlar for 30 weeks ± metformin. Residual hyperglycaemia was defined as HbA1c ≥ 7.0% despite FPG of <140 mg/dL. The proportion of patients with residual hyperglycaemia was similar in both treatment arms at screening (~~42%), and increased after the run-in period (~~62%). After 30 weeks, the proportion of patients with residual hyperglycaemia declined to 23.8% in the iGlarLixi versus 47.1% in the iGlar arm (P <.0001). The proportion of patients achieving both HbA1c (<7.0%) and FPG (<140 mg/dL) targets was higher in the iGlarLixi compared with the iGlar arm (50.3% vs. 27.4%, respectively; P <.0001). iGlarLixi effectively reduces residual hyperglycaemia in patients with T2D on basal insulin therapy

Do hands-free cell phone conversation while driving increase the risk of cognitive distraction among drivers? A cross-over quasi-experimental study

Background: Background: Conversation over the cell phone while driving is a known risk factor for road traffic crash. Using handsfree to talk on the cell phone may remove visual and manual distraction yet not the cognitive distraction. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to better understand the mechanisms of cognitive distraction due to hands-free cell phone conversation (HFPC) while driving. Methods: Twelve male and 12 female University students in Tehran, Iran, were selected via the consecutive convenient sampling method, and randomly assigned to one of the following administrations of cross-over quasi-experimental study design, during year 2016: Administration 1, participants performed the tests while involved in HFPC, took rest for 60 minute, and then performed the tests another time without HFPC; Administration 2, participants performed the tests without HFPC, took rest, and then performed the tests another time with HFPC. Each participant moved to the other administration after 7 to 10 days. The Vienna test system (VTS) was used to measure simple and choice reaction time, selective attention, visual orientation, and visual memory. Linear regression analysis was used to study the change in test scores due to HFPC. Results: The mean age of participants was 27.1±5.3 years. A history of road traffic crash (regardless of severity) was reported among 9 (37.5) participants in the previous year. Hands-free cell phone conversation while driving was directly associated with mean time correct rejection score (P < 0.01) (selective attention), omitted response (P < 0.01) and median reaction time (P < 0.01) (choice reaction time), and mean reaction time (P < 0.01) (Simple reaction time). Moreover, HPFC was inversely associated with sum hits (P = 0.05) (selective attention), incorrect (P < 0.02) and correct response (P < 0.01) (choice reaction time), score based on viewing and working time (P < 0. 01) (visual orientation), and visual memory performance (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Using hands-free devices to converse during driving, impaired reaction time, selective attention, visual orientation and visual memory, which are essential for safe driving. Thus, the use of these devices does not preclude cognitive distraction and should be restricted. © 2018, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Optimized Si/SiO2 high contrast grating mirror design for mid-infrared wavelength range: robustness enhancement

A high reflectivity and polarization selective high contrast grating mirror has been designed with the use of an automated optimization algorithm. Through a precise study of the tolerance of the different lengths of the structure, the robustness with respect to the fabrication errors has been enhanced to high tolerance values between 5 % and 210 %. This adjustment of the dimensions of the structure leads to a 250 nm large bandwidth mirror well adapted for a VCSEL application at \lambda = 2.65 $\mu$m and can easily be scaled for other wavelengths.Comment: The final publication is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030399211002672\#FCANot

Significance of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its potential as a target for anti-metastasis therapy

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Properties of some conformal field theories with M-theory duals

By studying classes of supersymmetric solutions of D=11 supergravity with AdS_5 factors, we determine some properties of the dual four-dimensional N=1 superconformal field theories. For some explicit solutions we calculate the central charges and also the conformal dimensions of certain chiral primary operators arising from wrapped membranes. For the most general class of solutions we show that there is a consistent Kaluza-Klein truncation to minimal D=5 gauged supergravity. This latter result allows us to study some aspects of the dual strongly coupled thermal plasma with a non-zero R-charge chemical potential and, in particular, we show that the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density has the universal value of 1/4 pi.Comment: Consistent truncation extended to include fermions. Reference added. 28 page