Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control: Critical Human Factors Issues and Research Questions

As traffic volume and delay on highways increase each year, new solutions are required to meet travel demand and ease congestion. One possible solution, Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, permits vehicles and infrastructure to communicate, providing the capability to maintain safety while increasing travel lane capacity. The technical capabilities have been demonstrated, but as important to ensuring successful implementation is an understanding of the potential human factors-related issues. Use of automation in the driving environment can have numerous pitfalls, which are heavily influenced by a variety of both deliberate and reflexive human judgments and decisions known to be error-prone. This paper examines these potential issues and identifies research areas and questions that may guide future research to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and acceptance of this new technology

Active Traffic Management Sign Comprehension

Active traffic management (ATM) strategies are being deployed in the United States to deliver additional information to drivers. Per lane variable speed limit and lane control signs are being deployed along with dynamic message signs that display warning and other motorist information. The Manual of Uniformed Traffic Control Devices currently does not provide guidelines or standards for these signs. The present research is the first in a series of studies aimed at providing data that can be used to develop guidelines and standards. This study used laboratory procedures to examine comprehension and preference for various variable speed limit and lane control sign messages. The results indicate that while participants sometimes make errors interpreting some advisory messages, they generally correctly interpreted the lane control and speed limit ATM signs

Traffic Sign Detection and Identification

Previous studies using eye-trackers have suggested that drivers can extract information from traffic signs and markings without fixating them. The first study reported here examined the angle of gaze away from signs that enables sign detection: detection conspicuity angle. A second study examined the angle of gaze away from signs that enables identification of the signs’ messages: identification conspicuity angle. Because conspicuity is viewed as a product of the properties of objects and their surrounding environment, both studies manipulated the background of the signs. Detection conspicuity was sensitive to the background environment, particularly for regulatory signs, for which detection conspicuity was reduced with light-colored or cluttered backgrounds. Background environment had little measureable effect on sign message identification. It is recommended that sign backgrounds be considered when locating signs, and that if the background does not provide adequate contrast, conspicuity enhancement strategies should be considered

Economic evidence for the prevention and treatment of atopic eczema: a protocol for a systematic review

Background: Eczema, synonymous with atopic eczema or atopic dermatitis, is a chronic skin disease that has a similar impact on health-related quality of life as other chronic diseases. The proposed research aims to provide a comprehensive systematic assessment of the economic evidence base available to inform economic modelling and decision making on interventions to prevent and treat eczema at any stage of the life course. Whilst the Global Resource of Eczema Trials (GREAT) database collects together the effectiveness evidence for eczema there is currently no such systematic resource on the economics of eczema. It is important to gain an overview of the current state of the art of economic methods in the field of eczema in order to strengthen the economic evidence base further. Methods/design: The proposed study is a systematic review of the economic evidence surrounding interventions for the prevention and treatment of eczema. Relevant search terms will be used to search MEDLINE, EMBASE, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Health Technology Assessment, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Econ Lit, Scopus, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry and Web of Science in order to identify relevant evidence. To be eligible for inclusion studies will be primary empirical studies evaluating the cost, utility or full economic evaluation of interventions for preventing or treating eczema. Two reviewers will independently assess studies for eligibility and perform data abstraction. Evidence tables will be produced presenting details of study characteristics, costing methods, outcome methods and quality assessment. The methodological quality of studies will be assessed using accepted checklists. Discussion: The systematic review is being undertaken to identify the type of economic evidence available, summarise the results of the available economic evidence and critically appraise the quality of economic evidence currently available to inform future economic modelling and resource allocation decisions about interventions to prevent or treat eczema. We aim to use the review to offer guidance about how to gather economic evidence in studies of eczema and/or what further research is necessary in order to inform this

Spatial Variability in Streambed Microbial Community Structure across Two Watersheds

Both spatial and temporal variability are key attributes of sedimentary microbial communities, and while spatial effects on beta-diversity appear to dominate at larger distances, the character of spatial variability at finer scales remains poorly understood, especially for headwater stream communities. We investigated patterns of microbial community structure (MCS) in biofilms attached to streambed sediments from two watersheds across spatial scales spanning ,1 m within a single stream to several hundred kilometers between watersheds. Analyses of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles indicated that the variations in MCS were driven by increases in the relative abundance of microeukaryotic photoautotrophs and their contribution to total microbial biomass. Furthermore, streams within watersheds had similar MCS, underscoring watershed-level controls of mi- crobial communities. Moreover, bacterial community structure assayed as either PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) fingerprints or PLFA profiles edited to remove microeukaryotes indicated a distinct watershed-level biogeography. No distinct stream order-level distributions were identified, although DGGE analyses clearly indicated that there was greater variability in community structure among 1st-order streams than among 2nd- and 3rd-order streams. Longitudinal gradients in microbial biomass and structure showed that the greatest variations were associated with 1st-order streams within a watershed, and 68% of the variation in total microbial biomass was explained by sediment atomic carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio), percent carbon, sediment surface area, and per- cent water content. This study confirms a distinct microbial biogeography for headwater stream communities driven by environmental heterogeneity across distant watersheds and suggests that eukaryotic photoautotrophs play a key role in structuring bacterial communities on streambed sediments

Foci of Schistosomiasis mekongi, Northern Cambodia: II. Distribution of infection and morbidity.

In the province of Kracheh, in Northern Cambodia, a baseline epidemiological survey on Schistosoma mekongi was conducted along the Mekong River between December 1994 and April 1995. The results of household surveys of highly affected villages of the East and the West bank of the river and of school surveys in 20 primary schools are presented. In household surveys 1396 people were examined. An overall prevalence of infection of 49.3% was detected by a single stool examination with the Kato-Katz technique. The overall intensity of infection was 118.2 eggs per gram of stool (epg). There was no difference between the population of the east and west shore of the Mekong for prevalence (P = 0.3) or intensity (P = 0.9) of infection. Severe morbidity was very frequent. Hepatomegaly of the left lobe was detected in 48.7% of the population. Splenomegaly was seen in 26.8% of the study participants. Visible diverted circulation was found in 7.2% of the population, and ascites in 0.1%. Significantly more hepatomegaly (P = 0.001), splenomegaly (P = 0. 001) and patients with diverted circulation (P = 0.001) were present on the west bank of the Mekong. The age group of 10-14 years was most affected. The prevalence of infection in this group was 71.8% and 71.9% in the population of the West and East of the Mekong, respectively. The intensity of infection was 172.4 and 194.2 epg on the West and the East bank, respectively. In the peak age group hepatomegaly reached a prevalence of 88.1% on the west and 82.8% on the east bank. In the 20 schools 2391 children aged 6-16 years were examined. The overall prevalence of infection was 40.0%, ranging from 7.7% to 72.9% per school. The overalls mean intensity of infection was 110.1 epg (range by school: 26.7-187.5 epg). Both prevalence (P = 0.001) and intensity of infection (P = 0.001) were significantly higher in schools on the east side of the Mekong. Hepatomegaly (55.2%), splenomegaly (23.6%), diverted circulation (4. 1%), ascites (0.5%), reported blood (26.7%) and mucus (24.3%) were very frequent. Hepatomegaly (P = 0.001), splenomegaly (P = 0.001), diverted circulation (P = 0.001) and blood in stool (P = 0.001) were significantly more frequent in schools of the east side of the Mekong. Boys suffered more frequently from splenomegaly (P = 0.05), ascites (P = 0.05) and bloody stools (P = 0.004) than girls. No difference in sex was found for the prevalence and intensity of infection and prevalence of hepatomegaly. On the school level prevalence and intensity of infection were highly associated (r = 0. 93, P = 0.0001). The intensity of infection was significantly associated only with the prevalence of hepatomegaly (r = 0.44, P = 0. 05) and blood in stool (r = 0.40, P = 0.02). This comprehensive epidemiological study documents for the first time the public health importance of schistosomiasis mekongi in the Province of Kracheh, Northern Cambodia and points at key epidemiological features of this schistosome species, in particular the high level of morbidity associated with infection

Usability and performance measure of a consumer-grade brain computer interface system for environmental control by neurological patients

With the increasing incidence and prevalence of chronic brain injury patients and the current financial constraints in healthcare budgets, there is a need for a more intelligent way to realise the current practice of neuro-rehabilitation service provision. Brain-computer Interface (BCI) systems have the potential to address this issue to a certain extent only if carefully designed research can demonstrate that these systems are accurate, safe, cost-effective, are able to increase patient/carer satisfaction and enhance their quality of life. Therefore, one of the objectives of the proposed study was to examine whether participants (patients with brain injury and a sample of reference population) were able to use a low cost BCI system (Emotiv EPOC) to interact with a computer and to communicate via spelling words. Patients participated in the study did not have prior experience in using BCI headsets so as to measure the user experience in the first-exposure to BCI training. To measure emotional arousal of participants we used an ElectroDermal Activity Sensor (Qsensor by Affectiva). For the signal processing and feature extraction of imagery controls the Cognitive Suite of Emotiv's Control Panel was used. Our study reports the key findings based on data obtained from a group of patients and a sample reference population and presents the implications for the design and development of a BCI system for communication and control. The study also evaluates the performance of the system when used practically in context of an acute clinical environment