ANALYSIS OF DESIGN FEATURES OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS ON FEDERAL HIGHWAYS IN RUSSIA

Abstract. Nowadays the pavements of highways in Russia work under difficult conditions of constantly growing traffic volume. The current method for flexible pavements design has a number of serious disadvantages. It does not take into complete account the best practices in design and the actual operating conditions for highways. In a number of cases, this leads to the design of inefficient structures of pavements with a short service life.On a number of federal roads, there are observed rutting and premature wear out of road surface in the first years of the operation. Drainage sand layers and shallow drainage drains are quickly working out. Geosynthetic materials are sometimes used unreasonably. The design life of pavements does not comply with the current standards. In Russia the effective road construction materials are not yet completely used up, as well as local materials reinforced with astringents. The actual experience in operating various road structures with the identification of the most optimal solutions is still poorly considered, except for certain regions.Thus, an urgent need has arisen to develop standard designs of pavements for various natural and climatic conditions in Russia ensuring pavements' efficient operation. It is necessary to analyze the existing pavement designs on the federal highways under various road building climatic zones to develop the standard pavement designs.Keywords: flexible pavements, typical constructions of pavements

Development of typical flexible road pavement catalog for regional and intermunicipal highways in Russian Federation (using the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan)

Road pavements in Russia are now working in difficult conditions of ever-growing vehicular traffic intensity. Current methodology for designing flexible road pavements has a number of serious shortcomings, where the best design experience and actual operating conditions of highways are not fully taken into account. In some cases, this leads to ineffective pavement structures design with a short service life. On many roads, rutting and premature wear of road surfaces appear already in the first years of their operation. Drainage systems are silted up in the first years of working. At the same time, geosynthetic materials are sometimes used unreasonably. The service life of roadway surfaces does not comply with the current regulations. In Russia, effective road-building materials are not yet fully used, local road-building materials and industrial waste reinforced with binders are little used. With exception of certain regions of the country, actual experience of operating various road structures with identification of the most optimal solutions is still poorly subject to consideration. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop designs of typical road pavements for various regions of Russia, which will ensure their efficient operation. To develop typical pavement designs, it is necessary to analyze existing ones in real conditions of their operation

Making Primarily Professional Terms More Comprehensible to the Lay Audience

Certain texts, such as clinical reports and clinical trial records, are written by professionals for professionals while being increasingly accessed by lay people. To improve the comprehensibility of such documents to the lay audience, we conducted a pilot study to analyze terms used primarily by health professionals, and explore ways to make them more comprehensible to lay people

Methods to Develop an Electronic Medical Record Phenotype Algorithm to Compare the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease across 3 Chronic Disease Cohorts

Background Typically, algorithms to classify phenotypes using electronic medical record (EMR) data were developed to perform well in a specific patient population. There is increasing interest in analyses which can allow study of a specific outcome across different diseases. Such a study in the EMR would require an algorithm that can be applied across different patient populations. Our objectives were: (1) to develop an algorithm that would enable the study of coronary artery disease (CAD) across diverse patient populations; (2) to study the impact of adding narrative data extracted using natural language processing (NLP) in the algorithm. Additionally, we demonstrate how to implement CAD algorithm to compare risk across 3 chronic diseases in a preliminary study. Methods and Results We studied 3 established EMR based patient cohorts: diabetes mellitus (DM, n = 65,099), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD, n = 10,974), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n = 4,453) from two large academic centers. We developed a CAD algorithm using NLP in addition to structured data (e.g. ICD9 codes) in the RA cohort and validated it in the DM and IBD cohorts. The CAD algorithm using NLP in addition to structured data achieved specificity >95% with a positive predictive value (PPV) 90% in the training (RA) and validation sets (IBD and DM). The addition of NLP data improved the sensitivity for all cohorts, classifying an additional 17% of CAD subjects in IBD and 10% in DM while maintaining PPV of 90%. The algorithm classified 16,488 DM (26.1%), 457 IBD (4.2%), and 245 RA (5.0%) with CAD. In a cross-sectional analysis, CAD risk was 63% lower in RA and 68% lower in IBD compared to DM (p<0.0001) after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusions We developed and validated a CAD algorithm that performed well across diverse patient populations. The addition of NLP into the CAD algorithm improved the sensitivity of the algorithm, particularly in cohorts where the prevalence of CAD was low. Preliminary data suggest that CAD risk was significantly lower in RA and IBD compared to DM.National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside Project (U54LM008748

Genetic Differences in the Immediate Transcriptome Response to Stress Predict Risk-Related Brain Function and Psychiatric Disorders

Depression risk is exacerbated by genetic factors and stress exposure; however, the biological mechanisms through which these factors interact to confer depression risk are poorly understood. One putative biological mechanism implicates variability in the ability of cortisol, released in response to stress, to trigger a cascade of adaptive genomic and non-genomic processes through glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation. Here, we demonstrate that common genetic variants in long-range enhancer elements modulate the immediate transcriptional response to GR activation in human blood cells. These functional genetic variants increase risk for depression and co-heritable psychiatric disorders. Moreover, these risk variants are associated with inappropriate amygdala reactivity, a transdiagnostic psychiatric endophenotype and an important stress hormone response trigger. Network modeling and animal experiments suggest that these genetic differences in GR-induced transcriptional activation may mediate the risk for depression and other psychiatric disorders by altering a network of functionally related stress-sensitive genes in blood and brain

The research of layered dispersion media absorption

The urgency of the discussed issue is caused by the need to develop the model for interaction between the sun radiation and atmosphere for the exact and long-term forecast of weather and climate phenomena in the atmosphere. The main aim of the study is to solve the problem on radiation transfer in the layered dispersed media analytically and to identify the general laws on radiation transfer depending on the radiation parameters and media. The methods used in the study: solution of the radiation transfer equation for space-limited layered dispersed media; the equation solution is based on the exact solution of the radiation transfer equation in one-dimensional media. The results: the authors have studied the radiation transfer in multilayer dispersed media. The analytical formulae for calculating the transmission coefficient, reflectance and absorption of dispersion media consisting of three plane layers were obtained. It was shown that absorption of dispersed media depends strongly on absorption layer position in dispersed media. The highest absorption value is registered at upper position of the absorbing layer; the lowest value is marked at the layer lower position when the light falls from above. In this case the absorption slightly depends on the absorbing layer position. Similar characteristics were obtained for different values of optical thickness of dispersion media