Field Cycle Length Sweep to Evaluate Resonant Cycle Sensitivity

Cycle length selection in corridor timing is often dictated by critical intersections with the highest level of saturation. Along corridors with balanced volumes and favorable link distances, a resonant cycle length is often sought to provide good progression in both directions of travel. This paper discusses the search for a resonant cycle length at a 5-intersection corridor in Fishers, Indiana over a three month period. The software traffic model suggests a reasonable range of cycle lengths from 104 seconds to 124 seconds for the corridor. This cycle length range is consistent with analytical highway capacity manual delay minimization approaches. A set of eleven cycle lengths from the 104 to 124-second range are tested over 12 weeks, with each iteration using optimized offset values generated by the Link Pivot progression optimization algorithm to maximize the percentage of vehicles arriving on green, and holding all phase splits constant. There was no obvious resonant cycle identified in the cycle length sweep, however the experiment findings indicate vehicles arriving on green decrease and travel times increase as cycle length increases.As a tradeoff, the number of force off phase terminations on the side-street phases decrease as a result of longer cycles indicating a better accommodation of sidestreet demand. Finally, a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SURE) model was used to analyze the correlation between cycle lengths, percent of vehicles arriving on green, and travel time indicating a negative correlation between higher cycle length and progression performance

Graphical Performance Measures for Practitioners to Triage Split Failure Trouble Calls

Detector occupancy is commonly used to measure traffic signal performance. Despite improvements in controller computational power, there have been relatively few innovations in occupancy-based performance measures or integration with other data. This paper introduces and demonstrates the use of graphical performance measures based on detector occupancy ratios to verify potential split failures and other signal timing shortcomings reported to practitioners by the public. The proposed performance measures combine detector occupancy during the green phase, detector occupancy during the first five seconds of the red phase, and phase termination cause (gap out or force off). These are summarized by time of day to indicate whether the phase is undersaturated, nearly saturated, or oversaturated. These graphical performance measures and related quantitative summaries provide a first-level screening and triaging tool for practitioners to assess user concerns regarding whether sufficient green times are being provided to avoid split failures. They can also provide outcome-based feedback to staff after making split adjustments to determine whether operation improved or worsened. The paper concludes by demonstrating how the information was used to make an operational decision to re-allocate green time that reduced the number of oversaturated cycles on minor movements from 304 to 222 during a Thursday 0900-1500 timing plan and from 240 to 180 during a Friday 0900-1500 timing plan

Improving Intersection Behavior through Delay-Based Left Turn Phase Initiation

Serving protected left-turn phases for one or two vehicles can often be an inefficient use of cycle green time when the opposing through movements are over capacity. This paper assesses the performance of an intersection at which controller logic is applied to delay the call for a protected left-turn phase on the basis of vehicle wait times. During four weeks of evaluation, the delay on left-turn phase calls was varied in 25-s increments from 0 to 75 s. The results indicate that delaying left-turn phase initiation substantially increases the amount of green time for saturated through movements while minimally increasing the travel delay for left-turning drivers. The recommendation is made for agencies to consider using a delay in the range of 25 to 50 s for calling protected phases at intersections at which the opposing through movement is oversaturated and could benefit from additional green time. This paper presents one of the first quantitative studies evaluating potential intersection capacity and performance improvements with respect to left-turn detector delay. </jats:p

Executable network of SARS-CoV-2-host interaction predicts drug combination treatments

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed healthcare systems globally to a breaking point. The urgent need for effective and affordable COVID-19 treatments calls for repurposing combinations of approved drugs. The challenge is to identify which combinations are likely to be most effective and at what stages of the disease. Here, we present the first disease-stage executable signalling network model of SARS-CoV-2-host interactions used to predict effective repurposed drug combinations for treating early- and late stage severe disease. Using our executable model, we performed in silico screening of 9870 pairs of 140 potential targets and have identified nine new drug combinations. Camostat and Apilimod were predicted to be the most promising combination in effectively supressing viral replication in the early stages of severe disease and were validated experimentally in human Caco-2 cells. Our study further demonstrates the power of executable mechanistic modelling to enable rapid pre-clinical evaluation of combination therapies tailored to disease progression. It also presents a novel resource and expandable model system that can respond to further needs in the pandemic

Discovery and Follow-up Observations of the Young Type Ia Supernova 2016coj

The Type~Ia supernova (SN~Ia) 2016coj in NGC 4125 (redshift $z=0.004523$) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search 4.9 days after the fitted first-light time (FFLT; 11.1 days before $B$-band maximum). Our first detection (pre-discovery) is merely $0.6\pm0.5$ day after the FFLT, making SN 2016coj one of the earliest known detections of a SN Ia. A spectrum was taken only 3.7 hr after discovery (5.0 days after the FFLT) and classified as a normal SN Ia. We performed high-quality photometry, low- and high-resolution spectroscopy, and spectropolarimetry, finding that SN 2016coj is a spectroscopically normal SN Ia, but with a high velocity of \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 ($\sim 12,600$\,\kms\ around peak brightness). The \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 velocity evolution can be well fit by a broken-power-law function for up to a month after the FFLT. SN 2016coj has a normal peak luminosity ($M_B \approx -18.9 \pm 0.2$ mag), and it reaches a $B$-band maximum \about16.0~d after the FFLT. We estimate there to be low host-galaxy extinction based on the absence of Na~I~D absorption lines in our low- and high-resolution spectra. The spectropolarimetric data exhibit weak polarization in the continuum, but the \ion{Si}{2} line polarization is quite strong ($\sim 0.9\% \pm 0.1\%$) at peak brightness.Comment: Submitte

Encouraging Medicare Advantage Enrollees to Switch to Higher Quality Plans: Assessing the Effectiveness of a ‘‘Nudge’’ Letter

There are considerable quality differences across private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, so it is important that beneficiaries make informed choices. During open enrollment for the 2013 coverage year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters to beneficiaries enrolled in low-quality Medicare Advantage plans (i.e., plans rated less than 3 stars for at least 3 consecutive years by Medicare) explaining the stars and encouraging them to reexamine their choices. To understand the effectiveness of these low-cost, behavioral ‘‘nudge’’ letters, we used a beneficiary-level national retrospective cohort and performed multivariate regression analysis of plan selection during the 2013 open enrollment period among those enrolled in plans rated less than 3 stars. Our analysis controls for beneficiary demographic characteristics, health and health care spending risks, the availability of alternative higher rated plan options in their local market, and historical disenrollment rates from the plans. We compared the behaviors of those beneficiaries who received the nudge letters with those who enrolled in similar poorly rated plans but did not receive such letters. We found that beneficiaries who received the nudge letter were almost twice as likely (28.0% [95% confidence interval = 27.7%, 28.2%] vs. 15.3% [95% confidence interval = 15.1%, 15.5%]) to switch to a higher rated plan compared with those who did not receive the letter. White beneficiaries, healthier beneficiaries, and those residing in areas with more high-performing plan choices were more likely to switch plans in response to the nudge. Our findings highlight both the importance and efficacy of providing timely and actionable information to beneficiaries about quality in the insurance marketplace to facilitate informed and value-based coverage decisions

Confirmation of Hot Jupiter Kepler-41b via Phase Curve Analysis

We present high precision photometry of Kepler-41, a giant planet in a 1.86 day orbit around a G6V star that was recently confirmed through radial velocity measurements. We have developed a new method to confirm giant planets solely from the photometric light curve, and we apply this method herein to Kepler-41 to establish the validity of this technique. We generate a full phase photometric model by including the primary and secondary transits, ellipsoidal variations, Doppler beaming, and reflected/emitted light from the planet. Third light contamination scenarios that can mimic a planetary transit signal are simulated by injecting a full range of dilution values into the model, and we re-fit each diluted light curve model to the light curve. The resulting constraints on the maximum occultation depth and stellar density combined with stellar evolution models rules out stellar blends and provides a measurement of the planet's mass, size, and temperature. We expect about two dozen Kepler giant planets can be confirmed via this method

Datgan, a reusable software system for facile interrogation and visualization of complex transcription profiling data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We introduce Glaucoma Discovery Platform (GDP), an online environment for facile visualization and interrogation of complex transcription profiling datasets for glaucoma. We also report the availability of Datgan, the suite of scripts that was developed to construct GDP. This reusable software system complements existing repositories such as NCBI GEO or EBI ArrayExpress as it allows the construction of searchable databases to maximize understanding of user-selected transcription profiling datasets.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>Datgan scripts were used to construct both the underlying data tables and the web interface that form GDP. GDP is populated using data from a mouse model of glaucoma. The data was generated using the DBA/2J strain, a widely used mouse model of glaucoma. The DBA/2J-<it>Gpnmb⁺</it>strain provided a genetically matched control strain that does not develop glaucoma. We separately assessed both the retina and the optic nerve head, important tissues in glaucoma. We used hierarchical clustering to identify early molecular stages of glaucoma that could not be identified using morphological assessment of disease. GDP has two components. First, an interactive search and retrieve component provides the ability to assess gene(s) of interest in all identified stages of disease in both the retina and optic nerve head. The output is returned in graphical and tabular format with statistically significant differences highlighted for easy visual analysis. Second, a bulk download component allows lists of differentially expressed genes to be retrieved as a series of files compatible with Excel. To facilitate access to additional information available for genes of interest, GDP is linked to selected external resources including Mouse Genome Informatics and Online Medelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Datgan-constructed databases allow user-friendly access to datasets that involve temporally ordered stages of disease or developmental stages. Datgan and GDP are available from <url>http://glaucomadb.jax.org/glaucoma</url>.</p