Evaluation of Safety and Mobility Benefits of Connected and Automated Vehicles by Considering V2X Technologies

The recent development in communication technologies facilitates the deployment of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) which are expected to change the future transportation system. CAV technologies enable vehicles to communicate with other vehicles through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and the infrastructure through Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. Since the real-world CAV data is not currently available as of today, simulation is the most commonly used platform to evaluate the future V2X system. Although several studies evaluated the effectiveness of CAVs in a small roadway network, there is a lack of studies analyzing the impact of CAVs at the network level by considering both freeways and arterials. Also, none of the previous studies have attempted to differentiate the benefits of CAVs over only automated vehicles (AVs) by incorporating multiple preceding vehicles\u27 information (i.e., acceleration, position, etc.). On the other hand, most of the simulation-based studies assumed the uninterrupted communication between vehicles in the CAV environment which might not be feasible in reality. Hence, there is still a research gap that exists for which this study tried to fill this gap. Therefore, this study developed a calibrated and validated large-scale network for the deployment of CAV technologies by utilizing Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) model in Orlando metropolitan area, Florida, using Multi-Resolution Modeling (MRM) technique. Also, the study proposed a signal control algorithm through V2I technology in order to elevate the performance of CAVs at intersections. Different car-following models were utilized to approximate different CAV technologies (CAV, AV, and CV (connected vehicle)) in the simulation environment. Hence, the study analyzed the benefits of CAV over AV with different market penetration rates (MPRs). Furthermore, the study considered the performance of different communication system along with the traffic condition by utilizing Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC or IEEE 802.11p) and wireless access (IEEE 1609 protocol) for the application of vehicle ad-hoc network (VANET). To this end, the study evaluated the safety effectiveness of different communication protocols under the CAV environment. Aimsun Next and SUMO & OMNET++ based Veins simulator were used as the simulation platform. Different car-following models, signal control algorithm, and communication systems were coded by using the application programming interface (API) and C++ language. For the traffic efficiency, the study utilized travel time and travel time rate (TTR) while for the safety evaluation, different surrogate safety measures; speed, and crash-risk models were used. Also, several statistical tests (e.g., t-test, ANOVA) and modeling techniques (e.g., generalized estimating equation, logistic regression, etc.) were developed to analyze both safety and mobility. The results of this study implied that CAV could improve both safety and efficiency at the network level with different MPRs. Also, CAV is more efficient compared to the only AV in terms of both traffic safety and mobility. Different communication protocols have a significant effect on traffic safety under the CAV environment. Finally, the results of this study provide insight to transportation planners and the decision makers about the benefits of CAV at the network level, different CAV technologies, and the performance of different communication systems under the CAV environment

Improving Traffic Safety at School Zones by Engineering and Operational Countermeasures

Safety issues at school zone areas have been one of the most important topics in the traffic safety field. Although many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of various traffic control devices (e.g., sign, flashing beacon, speed monitoring display), there is a lack of studies exploring different roadway countermeasures and the relationship between school-related factors and crashes. In this study, the most crash-prone school zone was identified in Orange and Seminole Counties, Florida, based on crash rate. Afterward, a microsimulation network was built in VISSIM environment to test different roadway countermeasures in the school zones. Three different countermeasures: two-step speed reduction (TSR), decreasing the number of driveways (DD), and replacing the two-way left-turn lane (TWLTL) to the raised median (RM) were implemented in the microsimulation. Three surrogate safety measures-: (1) time exposed time to collision (TET), (2) time integrated time to collision (TIT) and (3) time exposed rear-end crash risk index (TERCRI) were utilized in this study as indicators for safety evaluation. The higher value of surrogate safety measures indicates higher crash risk. The results showed that both TSR and DD reduced TET, TIT and TERCRI values significantly compare to the base condition. Moreover, the combination of TSR and DD countermeasures outperformed their individual effectiveness. The One-way ANOVA analysis showed that all the sub-scenarios were significantly different from each other. Sensitivity analysis result has proved that all the sub-scenarios in TSR and DD reduced TET, TIT and TERCRI values significantly for different value of TTC threshold. On the other hand, for converting the TWLTL to RM, the crash risk was higher than the base condition because of the turning movements of vehicle. The results of this study could help transportation planners and decision makers to understand the effect of these countermeasures to improve safety at school zones

BSpell: A CNN-Blended BERT Based Bangla Spell Checker

Bangla typing is mostly performed using English keyboard and can be highly erroneous due to the presence of compound and similarly pronounced letters. Spelling correction of a misspelled word requires understanding of word typing pattern as well as the context of the word usage. A specialized BERT model named BSpell has been proposed in this paper targeted towards word for word correction in sentence level. BSpell contains an end-to-end trainable CNN sub-model named SemanticNet along with specialized auxiliary loss. This allows BSpell to specialize in highly inflected Bangla vocabulary in the presence of spelling errors. Furthermore, a hybrid pretraining scheme has been proposed for BSpell that combines word level and character level masking. Comparison on two Bangla and one Hindi spelling correction dataset shows the superiority of our proposed approach. BSpell is available as a Bangla spell checking tool via GitHub: https://github.com/Hasiburshanto/Bangla-Spell-Checke

Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid from Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata) Mitigates 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-Acetate-Induced Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Responses of Tumor Promotion Cascade in Mouse Skin

Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) is a phenolic antioxidant found in the leaves and twigs of the evergreen desert shrub, Larrea tridentata (Sesse and Moc. ex DC) Coville (creosote bush). It has a long history of traditional medicinal use by the Native Americans and Mexicans. The modulatory effects of topically applied NDGA was studied on acute inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in mouse skin induced by stage I tumor promoting agent, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Double TPA treatment adversely altered many of the marker responses of stage I skin tumor promotion cascade. Pretreatment of NDGA in TPA-treated mice mitigated cutaneous lipid peroxidation and inhibited production of hydrogen peroxide. NDGA treatment also restored reduced glutathione level and activities of antioxidant enzymes. Elevated activities of myeloperoxidase, xanthine oxidase and skin edema formation in TPA-treated mice were also lowered by NDGA indicating a restrained inflammatory response. Furthermore, results of histological study demonstrated inhibitory effect of NDGA on cellular inflammatory responses. This study provides a direct evidence of antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of NDGA against TPA-induced cutaneous inflammation and oxidative stress corroborating its chemopreventive potential against skin cancer

Weed management and crop performance of rice as influenced by different crop residues

To investigate the effect of different plant residues on weed inhibition and yield of transplant aman rice, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during June 2017 to December, 2017. The experiment comprised of three rice cultivars i.e. BR11, BRRI dhan34 and BRRI dhan49 and five different plant residues treatment viz., no crop residues (control), soybean, wheat, bishkatali and sorghum crop residues @ 2.0 t ha-1 of each. The experiment was laid out following randomized complete block design with three replications. Weed population and weed dry weight were significantly affected by cultivars and crop residues treatment. The highest percent inhibition of 58.31%, 46.84%, 66.85%, 66.94% and 57.6% was in Panikachu (Monochoria vaginalis), Shama (Echinochloa crusgalli), Chesra (Scirpus juncoides), Sabujnakful (Cyperus difformis) and Amrul (Oxalis corniculata), respectively caused by sorghum crop residues. The grain yield, as well as the yield contributing characters produced by BR11,was the highest among the studied varieties. The highest number of effective tillers hill-1 (8.41), number of grains panicle-1(118.08) and 1000-grain weight (20.54 g) were observed in sorghum crop residues. BR11 under sorghum crop residues @ 2.0 t ha-1 produced the highest grain (5.76 t ha-1) and straw yield (6.39 t ha-1). So, to reduce herbicide use in the present situation of Bangladesh, natural herbicide or crop residues like sorghum might be used as an alternative way for weed management for effective and sustainable rice production

Frequency of nodal metastasis in differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Moreover, within thyroid cancer, differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) is the most common variety, with the incidence rising over the past decade. Often, most of the cases present with multicentric disease and presenting with lymph node metastases at the time of diagnosis. Nodal metastasis has prognostic importance, and it may guide surgeons regarding further management. Considering this scientific fact, the study was performed to see the frequency of lymph node metastasis in DTC among the patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the department of otolaryngology and head-neck surgery, Sher-E-Bangla Medical College Hospital, for 9 months after the acceptance of the protocol. A total of 50 patients (in all age groups) who attended the relevant department due to thyroid malignancies were approached and interviewed. Thorough history taking, physical examination, and relevant investigation were done and recorded into separate case record forms. Informed written consent was taken from each subject. Following collection, data were coded and inputted into statistical software. Data analysis was done with SPSS 21 according to the objective of the study. Data were presented in the form of tables, and charts. Results: Among the 50 patients, the mean age of the patients was 47.86±15.69 SD (years) with minimum and maximum ages of 14 and 78 years respectively. The male-female ratio was 1:4 (20% male vs 80% female). Papillary carcinoma was the most frequent (88%) followed by follicular (10%). Nodal metastasis was most common in the papillary variety, about 54.55% of cases, whereas 20% were present in the follicular variety. The majority of the patients underwent total thyroidectomy with neck dissection (90%) and the remaining cases were managed by lobectomy (10%). Conclusions: This study concluded that nodal metastasis was present in 54.55% of cases of papillary carcinoma.

Combating Acid Violence in Bangladesh, India and Cambodia

This Report is the first comprehensive, comparative study of acid violence that examines the underlying causes, its consequences, and the multiple barriers to justice for its victims. Acid attacks, like other forms of violence against women, are not random or natural phenomena. Rather, they are social phenomena deeply embedded in a gender order that has historically privileged patriarchal control over women and justified the use of violence to “keep women in their places.” Through an in-depth study of three countries, the authors of the Report argue that the due diligence standard can be a powerful tool for state and non-state actors to prevent and adequately respond to acid violence with the aim of combating it. In this respect, they identify key ways in which acid violence can be addressed by governments and corporations