A Novel Safety Assessment Framework for Pavement Friction Evolution Due to Traffic on Horizontal Curves

The friction coefficient is one of the dominant parameters affecting vehicle driving stability on horizontal curves. However, there is no comprehensive framework to assess the traffic safety on the horizontal curve with the evolution of the friction coefficient caused by the traffic flow. In light of this, this paper developed an integrated risk-assessment framework to evaluate the safety on the horizontal curve with the friction coefficient evolving under different traffic characteristics. The speed distribution on the horizontal curve of the freeway is obtained through field experiments that serve as the basic parameters of the model. A new multi-vehicle risk index (MRI) is introduced to assess the traffic safety risk for the horizontal curve by coupling the reliability theory and negative binomial. Three traffic characteristics are considered in the analysis: cumulative traffic volume (CTV), annual average daily traffic (AADT), and average daily traffic of heavy goods vehicles (AADTHGV). The results show that the AADT and AADTHGV have a considerable impact on the road risk level. When the truck traffic volume is less than 1000 veh/d, the risk of horizontal curves changes less as road operational time goes. The research results can provide a reference for the road maintenance department to determine the timing of road maintenance

Constancy and Change / Korean design from 16 traditional craftsmen

A hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) in the C9orf72 gene has been identified as the most common mutation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among Caucasian populations. We sought to comprehensively evaluate genetic and epigenetic variants of C9orf72 and the contribution of the HRE in Chinese ALS cases. We performed fragment-length and repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction to determine GGGGCC copy number and expansion within the C9orf72 gene in 1092 sporadic ALS (sALS) and 1062 controls from China. We performed haplotype analysis of 23 single-nucleotide polymorphisms within and surrounding C9orf72. The C9orf72 HRE was found in 3 sALS patients (0.3%) but not in control subjects (p = 0.25). For 2 of the cases with the HRE, genotypes of 8 single-nucleotide polymorphisms flanking the HRE were inconsistent with the haplotype reported to be strongly associated with ALS in Caucasian populations. For these 2 individuals, we found hypermethylation of the CpG island upstream of the repeat, an observation not detected in other sALS patients (p 8 repeats implying that both haplotypes may confer instability of repeat length