Driver behaviour with adaptive cruise control

This paper reports on the evaluation of adaptive cruise control (ACC) from a psychological perspective. It was anticipated that ACC would have an effect upon the psychology of driving, i.e. make the driver feel like they have less control, reduce the level of trust in the vehicle, make drivers less situationally aware, but workload might be reduced and driving might be less stressful. Drivers were asked to drive in a driving simulator under manual and ACC conditions. Analysis of variance techniques were used to determine the effects of workload (i.e. amount of traffic) and feedback (i.e. degree of information from the ACC system) on the psychological variables measured (i.e. locus of control, trust, workload, stress, mental models and situation awareness). The results showed that: locus of control and trust were unaffected by ACC, whereas situation awareness, workload and stress were reduced by ACC. Ways of improving situation awareness could include cues to help the driver predict vehicle trajectory and identify conflicts

T1 Substaging of Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer is Associated with bacillus Calmette-Guérin Failure and Improves Patient Stratification at Diagnosis

Purpose: Currently, markers are lacking that can identify patients with high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer who will fail bacillus Calmette-Guérin treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the prognostic value of T1 substaging in patients with primary high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer. Materials and Methods: Patients with primary high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer who received ≥5 bacillus Calmette-Guérin induction instillations were included. All tumors were centrally reviewed, which included T1 substaging (microinvasion vs extensive invasion of the lamina propria). T1 patients were stratified into high risk or highest risk subgroups according to major urology guidelines. Primary end point was bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure, defined as development of a high grade recurrence. Secondary end points were high grade recurrence-free survival, defined as time from primary diagnosis to biopsy-proven high grade recurrence and progression-free survival. Time-to-event analyses were used to predict survival. Results: A total of 264 patients with high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer had tumor invasion of the lamina propria, of which 73% were classified as extensive invasion and 27% as microinvasion. Median followup was 68 months (IQR 43–98) and bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure was more common among patients with extensive vs microinvasive tumors (41% vs 21%, p=0.002). The 3-year high grade recurrence-free survival (defined as bacillus Calmette-Guerin failure) for patients with extensive vs microinvasive tumors was 64% vs 83% (p=0.004). In multivariate analysis, T1 substaging was an independent predictor of high grade recurrence-free survival (HR 3.2, p=0.005) and progression-free survival (HR 3.0, p=0.009). Patients with highest risk/microinvasive disease have an improved progression-free survival as compared to highest risk/T1e disease (p.adj=0.038). Conclusions: T1 substaging provides important prognostic information on patients with primary high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer treated with bacillus Calmette-Guérin. The risk of bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure is higher in extensive vs microinvasive tumors. Substaging of T1 high risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer has the potential to guide treatment decisions on bacillus Calmette-Guérin vs alternative strategies at diagnosis.publishedVersio

Identification of claudin-4 as a marker highly overexpressed in both primary and metastatic prostate cancer

In the quest for markers of expression and progression for prostate cancer (PCa), the majority of studies have focussed on molecular data exclusively from primary tumours. Although expression in metastases is inferred, a lack of correlation with secondary tumours potentially limits their applicability diagnostically and therapeutically. Molecular targets were identified by examining expression profiles of prostate cell lines using cDNA microarrays. Those genes identified were verified on PCa cell lines and tumour samples from both primary and secondary tumours using real-time RT–PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Claudin-4, coding for an integral membrane cell-junction protein, was the most significantly (P<0.00001) upregulated marker in both primary and metastatic tumour specimens compared with benign prostatic hyperplasia at both RNA and protein levels. In primary tumours, claudin-4 was more highly expressed in lower grade (Gleason 6) lesions than in higher grade (Gleason ⩾7) cancers. Expression was prominent throughout metastases from a variety of secondary sites in fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed specimens from both androgen-intact and androgen-suppressed patients. As a result of its prominent expression in both primary and secondary PCas, together with its established role as a receptor for Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin, claudin-4 may be useful as a potential marker and therapeutic target for PCa metastases

A high-resolution belemnite geochemical analysis of Early Cretaceous (Valanginian-Hauterivian) environmental and climatic perturbations

International audienceThe Early Cretaceous Weissert event, characterized by a positive carbon isotope excursion and coincident with the Paraná-Etendeka volcanism, saw a biogeochemical chain of events that ultimately led to an increase in carbon burial. A conclusive link between the Paraná-Etendeka volcanism and its impact upon the environment remains, however, elusive. Here we reconstruct temperature through the Weissert event from Mg/Ca ratios of belemnites from the Vocontian Trough (France) and SE Spain and use carbon isotopes to link our temperature reconstruction to marine records of carbon cycling. We provide evidence that the Paraná-Etendeka volcanism, unlike some large igneous provinces, did not cause a climate warming. The case can be made for cooling in the last stages of the Weissert event, which possibly reflects substantial CO 2 drawdown. In the absence of warming and consequent accelerated hydrological cycling and the relatively long duration of the eruptive phase of the Paraná-Etendeka, an alternate trigger for increased fertilization of the oceans is implicated