A Crowdsensing Approach for Deriving Surface Quality of Cycling Infrastructure

Cities worldwide are trying to increase the modal share of bicycle traffic to address traffic and carbon emission problems. Aside from safety, a key factor for this is the cycling comfort, including the surface quality of cycle paths. In this paper, we propose a novel edge-based crowdsensing method for analyzing the surface quality of bicycle paths using smartphone sensor data: Cyclists record their rides which after preprocessed on their phones before being uploaded to a private cloud backend. There, additional analysis modules aggregate data from all available rides to derive surface quality information which can then used for surface quality-aware routing and planning of infrastructure maintenance.Comment: Accepted for the 11th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E 2023

A Realistic Cyclist Model for SUMO Based on the SimRa Dataset

Increasing the modal share of bicycle traffic to reduce carbon emissions, reduce urban car traffic, and to improve the health of citizens, requires a shift away from car-centric city planning. For this, traffic planners often rely on simulation tools such as SUMO which allow them to study the effects of construction changes before implementing them. Similarly, studies of vulnerable road users, here cyclists, also use such models to assess the performance of communication-based road traffic safety systems. The cyclist model in SUMO, however, is very imprecise as SUMO cyclists behave either like slow cars or fast pedestrians, thus, casting doubt on simulation results for bicycle traffic. In this paper, we analyze acceleration, velocity, and intersection left-turn behavior of cyclists in a large dataset of real world cycle tracks. We use the results to derive an improved cyclist model and implement it in SUMO.Comment: Accepted for the 20th Mediterranean Communication and Computer Networking Conference (MedComNet 2022

Povezanost OGG1 Ser326Cys polimorfizma i razina 8-OHdG u mokraći sa sklonosti obolijevanju od karcinoma pluća: rezultati ispitivanja na bolesnicima i kontrolnoj populaciji u Turskoj

High incidence and poor prognosis of lung cancer make it a major health problem worldwide. Although smoking is a major cause of lung cancer, only some smokers develop lung cancer, which suggests that there is a genetic predisposition in some individuals. 8-OHG is an important oxidative base lesion and may elevate due to cancer and smoking. It is repaired by 8-hydroxyguanine DNA glycosylase 1 (OGG1), which has several polymorphisms. Although the Ser326Cys polymorphism is consistently associated with a range of cancers, findings about this polymorphism and lung cancer risk are contradictory. To date, no study has examined this association in the Turkish population. We conducted a case-control study to investigate the association between OGG1 Ser326Cys polymorphism and the risk of lung cancer using PCR-RFLP. We also evaluated gene-smoking interaction and excretion of urinary 8-OHdG. Our results suggest that the OGG1 Ser326Cys polymorphism is not a genetic risk factor for lung cancer, and that the heterozygous genotype is associated with a significantly reduced risk for lung cancer. The levels of 8-OHdG did not correlate with the polymorphism and smoking. Larger association studies are needed to validate our findings, and mechanistic studies are needed to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of this association.Karcinom pluća velik je javnozdravstveni problem u čitavom svijetu zbog svoje visoke učestalosti i loše prognoze. Premda je navika pušenja jedan od glavnih uzročnika karcinoma pluća, od ove bolesti oboli samo dio populacije pušača, što govori u prilog postojanju genetske predispozicije za njezin nastanak. 8-OHG je oksidativno oštećenje baze u molekuli DNA čija se učestalost može povećati zbog zloćudnih tumora i pušenja. U popravku tog oštećenja sudjeluje enzim 8-hidroksigvanin DNA-glikozilaza (OGG1) za koji je dokazano postojanje polimorfizma. Iako se polimorfizam Ser326Cys često dovodi u vezu s različitim vrstama zloćudnih bolesti, dosadašnji su rezultati o vezi izme|u polimorfizma tog enzima i rizika od pojave karcinoma pluća kontradiktorni. Do danas na turskoj populaciji nisu provedena istraživanja koja bi dala jasne odgovore o toj povezanosti. Ovo je istraživanje usporedo provedeno u bolesnika i u zdravoj populaciji primjenom metode PCR-RFLP s ciljem utvrđivanja moguće povezanosti polimorfizma OGG1 Ser326Cys i rizika od karcinoma pluća. Nadalje, istražena je interakcija gena i navike pušenja te ekskrecija 8-OHdG u mokraći. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da polimorfizam OGG1 Ser326Cys nije genetski čimbenik rizika od pojave karcinoma pluća, a pokazalo se da je heterozigotni genotip povezan sa značajno nižim rizikom od karcinoma pluća. Razine 8-OHdG izmjerene u mokraći nisu bile u korelaciji ni s polimorfizmom ni s navikom pušenja. Zaključujemo da su za vrednovanje dobivenih rezultata potrebna istra`ivanja na još većem broju ispitanika te mehanistička istraživanja koja bi mogla razjasniti molekularne mehanizme koji su u pozadini ove povezanosti

Reinvestigating the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by a composite model constructed on the Armey curve hypothesis with government spending for the US States

This study reinvestigates the EKC hypothesis for US states with a new methodology that differs from all previous empirical studies using traditional EKC models. To this aim, this methodology, for the first time, unifies two seemingly different but strongly interrelated hypotheses (models), namely the Armey curve (AC) and traditional EKC models, into one single composite model. The rationale for creating this composite model is twofold. First, the functional propositions of these two hypotheses are depicted with inverted U-shaped curves. Second, they also have economically interrelated-causal relationships. This means that rising government spending (through the AC hypothesis) increases real GDP per capita (RGDPPC) and, consequently, increases in RGDPPC (through the EKC hypothesis) increase CO2 emissions. The composite model created may also allow US state policymakers to determine a single maximum spending level that will maximize or minimize CO2 emissions. Empirical findings indicate that the composite model is capable of testing the EKC hypothesis for 7 US states. Additionally, for 7 US states, maximum spending level was calculated to be around 15% of their RGDPPCs. Hence, with this calculated spending level, policymakers of these states may be able to determine-adjust their golden spending levels so as not to cause environmental degradation and declines in GDP. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Crizotinib efficacy and safety in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations: A real-life data of Turkish Oncology Group

Crizotinib is a multikinase inhibitor, effective in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epidermal transition (MET) alterations. Although small prospective studies showed efficacy and safety of crizotinib in NSCLC with MET alterations, there is limited real-life data. Aim of this study is to investigate real-life efficacy and safety of crizotinib in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations. This was a retrospective, multicenter (17 centers) study of Turkish Oncology Group. Patients' demographic, histological data, treatment, response rates, survival outcomes, and toxicity data were collected. Outcomes were presented for the study population and compared between MET alteration types. Total of 62 patients were included with a median age of 58.5 (range, 26-78). Major histological type was adenocarcinoma, and 3 patients (4.8%) had sarcomatoid component. The most common MET analyzing method was next generation sequencing (90.3%). MET amplification and mutation frequencies were 53.2% (n = 33) and 46.8% (n = 29), respectively. Overall response rate and disease control rate were 56.5% and 74.2% in whole study population, respectively. Median progression free survival (PFS) was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.8-10.5), and median overall survival (OS) was 18.7 months (95% CI: 13.7-23.7), regardless of treatment line. Median PFS was 6.1 months (95% CI: 5.6-6.4) for patients with MET amplification, whereas 14.3 months (95% CI: 6.7-21.7) for patients with MET mutation (P = .217). Median PFS was significantly longer in patients who have never smoked (P = .040), have good performance score (P < .001), and responded to the treatment (P < .001). OS was significantly longer in patients with MET mutation (25.6 months, 95% CI: 15.9-35.3) compared to the patients with MET amplification (11.0 months; 95% CI: 5.2-16.8) (P = .049). In never-smokers, median OS was longer than smoker patients (25.6 months [95% CI: 11.8-39.3] vs 16.5 months [95% CI: 9.3-23.6]; P = .049). The most common adverse effects were fatigue (50%), peripheral edema (21%), nausea (29%) and diarrhea (19.4%). Grade 3 or 4 adverse effects were observed in 6.5% of the patients. This real-life data confirms efficacy and safety of crizotinib in the treatment of advanced NSCLC harboring MET alteration

Quantity Flexibility for Multiple Products in a Decentralized Supply Chain

One of the major complicating factors in decentralized supply chains is the long procurement/manufacturing lead times, which forces the upstream members to commit resources to production based on forecasted demand. Downstream members (the retailer for the rest of the manuscript) would like to have a higher production quantity to be able to satisfy the demand whereas upstream members (the manufacturer for the rest of the manuscript) would like to have some sort of assurance about the demand so that they will not be building unnecessary capacity. Traditionally, such a conflict is resolved by an initial estimate provided by the retailer. However, the manufacturer is aware that the retailer is likely to manipulate this initial order; hence, the initial estimate provides little incentive for the manufacturer to build the capacity that the retailer would like to have. One resolution offered in the literature to overcome this issue is the Quantity Flexibility contract, where the retailer guarantees to order no less than a certain percentage of the initial estimate and the manufacturer guarantees to deliver a certain percentage above

Joint quantity flexibility for multiple products in a decentralized supply chain

In this study, we analyze a decentralized supply chain with a single retailer and a single manufacturer where the retailer sells multiple products in a single period. The products differ in terms of a limited number of features only. The retailer places initial orders based on preliminary demand forecasts at the beginning of the period and has an opportunity to modify its initial order after receiving perfect demand information. However, the final orders of the retailer are constrained by its initial orders. The manufacturer has two options for procurement. The first procurement option is regular delivery at the beginning of the period, after the initial orders of the retailer. The next one is expedited delivery, after the updated orders are received. In this setting, our objective is to characterize the optimal policies for the retailer and the manufacturer, and assess the benefits of flexibility

SimRa Rides Berlin 01/21 - 09/21

This is the dataset collected in the research project Simra (Safety in Bicycle Traffic, https://www.digital-future.berlin/en/research/projects/simra/) from January 2021 to September 2021 in the Berlin region. The dataset includes recorded bicycle rides (including GPS trace, accelerometer trace, and annotated near miss incidents) as well as user profiles (including basic demographic information and aggregated ride statistics)

Joint quantity flexibility for multiple products in a decentralized supply chain

In this study, we analyze a decentralized supply chain with a single retailer and a single manufacturer where the retailer sells multiple products in a single period. The products differ in terms of a limited number of features only. The retailer places initial orders based on preliminary demand forecasts at the beginning of the period and has an opportunity to modify its initial order after receiving perfect demand information. However, the final orders of the retailer are constrained by its initial orders. The manufacturer has two options for procurement. The first procurement option is regular delivery at the beginning of the period, after the initial orders of the retailer. The next one is expedited delivery, after the updated orders are received. In this setting, our objective is to characterize the optimal policies for the retailer and the manufacturer, and assess the benefits of flexibility