The Culture of Distracted Driving: Evidence from a Public Opinion Survey in Iowa

Traffic safety culture does not merely focus on risky behaviors and their consequences, but also on creating better social norms, values, and beliefs. Past research has recommended establishing a comprehensive program to shape the culture from different aspects of society as the most effective method to create a comprehensive traffic safety culture in the United States (U.S.). In 2011, a cell phone and landline questionnaire survey regarding Iowa traffic safety culture was conducted across the State. The survey gauged opinions from 1088 participants on traffic safety and driving experience in Iowa, which covered a wide range of traffic safety topics including traffic enforcement, driver education program, various driving behaviors, and attitudes toward traffic safety policies, activities and enforcement techniques. A descriptive analysis of the responses revealed a need for in-depth study of the current culture related to distracted driving in Iowa. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was estimated to define the relationship among individual characteristics (participants\u27 socioeconomic and demographic status), experience and attitudes towards distracted driving. The preliminary model results indicated that the socioeconomic and demographic statuses were explained significantly by age, gender, education, and household income. Four other latent variables: distractibility (DB), self-reported distracted driving behavior (SDDB), personal acceptability for distracted driving (PADD) and prediction of possible accidents (PPA) caused by distraction were formed based on the participant\u27s responses on selected distracted driving-related questions. The SEM estimation results suggested that participants\u27 distracted driving attitudes, experiences and behaviors were highly correlated, and also that participants\u27 characteristics were strongly influenced their attitudes, experiences and behaviors on distracted driving. The results of this study can be useful for developing interventions designed for target groups of drivers (with different individual characteristics) in a bid to transform distracted driving safety culture

Precalculus (Albany State University)

This Grants Collection for Precalculus was created under a Round Two ALG Textbook Transformation Grant. Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process. Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials: Linked Syllabus Initial Proposal Final Reporthttps://oer.galileo.usg.edu/mathematics-collections/1002/thumbnail.jp

Negotiating TESOL Discourses and EFL Teaching Contexts in China: Identities and Practices of International Graduates of a TESOL Program

This article reports on a study of the material effects of the discourses circulating in a TESOL program housed in a Canadian university on the professional identities and practices that international graduates of the program negotiate and develop in their local professional contexts in China. The principal researcher and two of the study participants discuss pedagogical values salient among program graduates and explore complexities accompanying professional identity negotiation. The article offers recommendations for TESOL programs in affording EFL teachers the possibility to construct hybrid professional identities and dwell comfortably in a “third space” as educational practitioners in a globalized world

Effects of Ce concentrations on ignition temperature and surface tension of Mg-9wt.%Al alloy

Magnesium alloys are well known for their excellent properties, but the potential issues with oxidation and burning during melting and casting largely limit its industrial applications. The addition of Ce in magnesium alloys can significantly raise ignition-proof performance and change the structure of the oxide film on the surface of the molten metal as well as the surface tension values. Surface tension is an important physical parameter of the metal melts, and it plays an important role in the formation of surface oxide film. In this present work, the ignition temperature and the surface tension of Mg-9wt.%Al alloy with different Ce concentrations were studied. Surface tensions was measured using the maximum bubble pressure method (MBPM). Ignition temperature was measured using NiCr-NiSi type thermocouples and was monitored and recorded via a WXT-604 desk recording device. The results show that the ignition point of Mg-9wt.%Al alloy can be effectively elevated by adding Ce. The ignition temperature reaches its highest point of 720 ℃ when the addition of Ce is 1wt.%. The surface tension of the molten Mg-9wt.%Al alloy decreases exponentially with the increase of Ce addition at the same temperature. Similarly, the experiment also shows that the surface tension of Mg-9wt.%Al alloy decreases exponentially with the increase of temperature

Endogenous TGF-β activation by reactive oxygen species is key to Foxp3 induction in TCR-stimulated and HIV-1-infected human CD4+CD25- T cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CD4⁺CD25⁺T regulatory cells (Tregs) play an important role in regulating immune responses, and in influencing human immune diseases such as HIV infection. It has been shown that human CD4⁺CD25⁺Tregs can be induced in vitro by TCR stimulation of CD4⁺CD25^-T cells. However, the mechanism remains elusive, and intriguingly, similar treatment of murine CD4⁺CD25^-cells did not induce CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Tregs unless exogenous TGF-β was added during stimulation. Thus, we investigated the possible role of TGF-β in the induction of human Tregs by TCR engagement. We also explored the effects of TGF-β on HIV-1 infection mediated induction of human Tregs since recent evidence has suggested that HIV-1 infection may also impact the generation of Tregs in infected patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show here that endogenous TGF-β is key to TCR induction of Foxp3 in human CD4⁺CD25^-T cells. These events involve, first, the production of TGF-β by TCR and CD28 stimulation and the activation of latent TGF-β by reactive oxygen species generated from the activated T cells. Biologically active TGF-β then engages in the induction of Foxp3. Neutralization of active TGF-β with anti-TGF-β antibody or elimination of ROS with MnTBAP abrogated Foxp3 expression. HIV-1 infection enhanced Foxp3 expression in activated CD4⁺CD25^-T cells; which was also abrogated by blockade of endogenous TGF-β.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Several conclusions can be drawn from this work: (1) TCR and CD28-induced Foxp3 expression is a late event following TCR stimulation; (2) TGF-β serves as a link in Foxp3 induction in human CD4⁺CD25^-T cells following TCR stimulation, which induces not only latent, but also active TGF-β; (3) the activation of TGF-β requires reactive oxygen species; (4) HIV infection results in an increase in Foxp3 expression in TCR-activated CD25^-T cells, which is also associated with TGF-β. Taken together, our findings reinforce a definitive role of TGF-β not only in the generation of Tregs with respect to normal immune responses, but also is critical in immune diseases such as HIV-1 infection.</p

Pain in Parkinson's Disease Associated with COMT

Background. PD patients present high incidence of pain with unknown pathogenesis. Objective. We investigated the relation of COMT polymorphisms rs4633 and rs6267 with PD pain. Subjects and Methods. One hundred PD patients and 105 controls were evaluated with simplified Mc GILL pain scale and VAS scale. PD patients were assessed with H&Y grade, UPDRS score, and HAMD scale. Polymorphisms rs4633 and rs6267 were detected by PCR and direct sequencing. Results. Fifty-seven percent of PD patients experienced pain, consisting of PD-related pain (64.91%) (the majority was dystonia pain) and non-PD-related pain (35.09%) (psychogenic pain was most frequent). The frequency of rs6267 genotype “GT/TT” and allele “T” was higher in PD pain. No difference was observed in frequencies of rs4633 between PD pain and without pain. UPDRS and depression score were higher in PD pain. The onset age was earlier in PD-related pain (57.43 ± 19.71) than non-PD-related pain (63.36 ± 6.88). Conclusion. PD patients possess a high prevalence of pain. Dystonia pain was the most frequent type of PD-related pain. COMT gene rs6267 allele “T” associated with PD pain. PD pain was influenced by disease severity and depression. PD onsets earlier in patients with PD-related pain than non-PD-related pain

CLongEval: A Chinese Benchmark for Evaluating Long-Context Large Language Models

Developing Large Language Models (LLMs) with robust long-context capabilities has been the recent research focus, resulting in the emergence of long-context LLMs proficient in Chinese. However, the evaluation of these models remains underdeveloped due to a lack of benchmarks. To address this gap, we present CLongEval, a comprehensive Chinese benchmark for evaluating long-context LLMs. CLongEval is characterized by three key features: (1) Sufficient data volume, comprising 7 distinct tasks and 7,267 examples; (2) Broad applicability, accommodating to models with context windows size from 1K to 100K; (3) High quality, with over 2,000 manually annotated question-answer pairs in addition to the automatically constructed labels. With CLongEval, we undertake a comprehensive assessment of 6 open-source long-context LLMs and 2 leading commercial counterparts that feature both long-context abilities and proficiency in Chinese. We also provide in-depth analysis based on the empirical results, trying to shed light on the critical capabilities that present challenges in long-context settings. The dataset, evaluation scripts, and model outputs will be released.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure