Can experienced riders benefit from an autonomous emergency braking system?

Powered two wheelers (PTWs) are becoming increasingly popular in Europe but the risk of rider injury in a traffic crash far exceeds that for car occupants. The European Powered Two wheeler Integrated Safety project (PISa), identified autonomous emergency braking (MAEB) as a priority area for reducing the injury consequences of PTW crashes. This study assessed the potential effectiveness of the PISa MAEB system, specifically in relation to its potential benefit for experienced riders . A sample of fifty-eight in-depth PTW crashes representing typical European crash scenarios were examined, of which half involved a rider with MAIS 2+ injury. An expert team analysed the data to determine the extent to which the MAEB would have affected the crash. In 39 cases (67% of the sample) the MAEB showed high potential to mitigate the crash outcome. Results indicated that, not only does the MAEB have potential to help novice riders but could also considerably improve safety for more experienced riders. The results shown here could encourage further development and acceptance of such systems

Effectiveness of low speed autonomous emergency braking in real-world rear-end crashes

This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of low speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) technology in current model passenger vehicles, based on real-world crash experience. The Validating Vehicle Safety through Meta-Analysis (VVSMA) group comprising a collaboration of government, industry consumer organisations and researchers, pooled data from a number of countries using a standard analysis format and the established MUND approach. Induced exposure methods were adopted to control for any extraneous effects. The findings showed a 38 percent overall reduction in rear-end crashes for vehicles fitted with AEB compared to a comparison sample of similar vehicles. There was no statistical evidence of any difference in effect between urban (≤60km/h) and rural (>60km/h) speed zones. Areas requiring further research were identified and widespread fitment through the vehicle fleet is recommended

The combined benefits of motorcycle antilock braking systems (ABS) in preventing crashes and reducing crash severity

<p><b>Objective</b>: Several studies have reported the benefits of motorcycle antilock braking systems (ABS) in reducing injury crashes, due to improved stability and braking performance. Both aspects may prevent crashes but may also reduce the crash severity when a collision occurs. However, it is still unknown to what extent the reductions in injury crashes with ABS may be due to a combination of these mechanisms.</p> <p><b>Methods</b>: Swedish hospital and police reports (2003–2012) were used. The risk for permanent medical impairment (RPMI) was calculated, showing the risk of at least 1 or 10% permanent medical impairment. In total, 165 crashes involving ABS-equipped motorcycles were compared with 500 crashes with similar motorcycles without ABS.</p> <p>The analysis was performed in 3 steps. First, the reduction in emergency care visits with ABS was calculated using an induced exposure approach. Secondly, the injury mitigating effects of ABS were investigated. The mean RPMI 1+ and RPMI 10+ were analyzed for different crash types. The distributions of impairing injuries (PMI 1+) and severely impairing injuries (PMI 10+) were also analyzed. In the third step, the total reduction of PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ injured motorcyclists was calculated by combining the reductions found in the previous steps. An additional analysis of combined braking systems (CBS) together with ABS was also performed.</p> <p><b>Results</b>: The results showed that emergency care visits were reduced by 47% with ABS. In the second step, it was found that the mean RPMI 1+ and RPMI 10+ with ABS were 15 and 37% lower, respectively. Finally, the third step showed that the total reductions in terms of crash avoidance and mitigation of PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ injured motorcyclists with ABS were 67 and 55%, respectively. However, PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ leg injuries were not reduced by ABS to the same extent. Indications were found suggesting that the benefits of ABS together with CBS may be greater than ABS alone.</p> <p><b>Conclusions</b>: This article indicated that motorcycle ABS reduced impairing injuries, mostly due to fewer emergency care visits but also due to a reduction in crash severity. This may seem reasonable as the improved stability and braking performance provided by ABS could prevent some crashes but would also decrease crash severity if a collision still occurs. As suggested by previous studies, however, the lower extremities would be more exposed in a crash with ABS. It is recommended that future research should follow up these results with additional data.</p

Evaluation of an autonomous braking system in real-world PTW crashes

Objectives: Powered 2-wheelers (PTWs) are becoming increasingly popular in Europe. They have the ability to get around traffic queues, thus lowering fuel consumption and increasing mobility. The risk of rider injury in a traffic crash is however much higher than that associated with car users. The European project, Powered Two Wheeler Integrated Safety (PISa), identified an autonomous braking system (AB) as a priority to reduce the injury consequences of a PTW crash. The aim of this study was to assess the potential effectiveness of the AB system developed in PISa, taking into account the specific system characteristics that emerged during the design, development and testing phases. Methods: Fifty-eight PTW cases representing European crash configurations were examined, in which 43 percent of riders sustained a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 2+ injury. Two of the most common crash types were a PTW impacting a stationary object (car following scenario) 16% and an object pulling across the PTW path (crossing scenario) 54%. An expert team analysed the in-depth material of the sample crashes and determined a posteriori to what extent the AB would have affected the crash. For those cases where the AB was evaluated as applicable, a further quantitative evaluation of the benefits was conducted by considering a set of different possible rider reactions in addition to that exhibited in the actual crash. Results: In 67 percent of cases, the application of AB could have mitigated the crash outcome. Analysis of those real crash cases showed the potential for an expert rider to avoid the collision. An early reaction of the rider, associated with a correct application of the brakes would have avoided 18 of the 37 car following/crossing scenarios. Conversely, according to the analysis, an expert rider would not have been able to avoid 19 of the 37 cases. In 14 of those 19 cases, the AB would have contributed to mitigating the crash outcome. Conclusions: This study demonstrated significant potential for application of the autonomous braking system in car following and crossing scenarios. In addition, the theoretical benefit curves for the AB globally, were able to provide good quantitative indications of its benefits in real cases where the AB was considered applicable. Further analysis with larger databases is suggested in order to confirm the magnitude of benefits in the PTW crash population. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher’s online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file

Fatal Bicyclist Accidents on Rural Roads

This article is part of the Proceedings of the 6th Annual International Cycling Safety Conference held in Davis, California, USA on September 20th through 23rd in the year 2017.<br><br>Paper ID: 3

The effectiveness of lane departure warning systems—A reduction in real-world passenger car injury crashes

<p><b>Objective:</b> The objective of this study was to estimate the safety benefits of in vehicle lane departure warning (LDW) and lane keeping aid (LKA) systems in reducing relevant real-world passenger car injury crashes.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The study used an induced exposure method, where LDW/LKA-sensitive and nonsensitive crashes were compared for Volvo passenger cars equipped with and without LDW/LKA systems. These crashes were matched by car make, model, model year, and technical equipment; that is, low-speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) called City Safety (CS). The data were extracted from the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition database (STRADA) and consisted of 1,853 driver injury crashes that involved 146 LDW-equipped cars, 11 LKA-equipped cars, and 1,696 cars without LDW/LKA systems.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> The analysis showed a positive effect of the LDW/LKA systems in reducing lane departure crashes. The LDW/LKA systems were estimated to reduce head-on and single-vehicle injury crashes on Swedish roads with speed limits between 70 and 120 km/h and with dry or wet road surfaces (i.e., not covered by ice or snow) by 53% with a lower limit of 11% (95% confidence interval [CI]). This reduction corresponded to a reduction of 30% with a lower limit of 6% (95% CI) for all head-on and single-vehicle driver injury crashes (including all speed limits and all road surface conditions).</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> LDW/LKA systems were estimated to lower the driver injury risk in crash types that the systems are designed to prevent; that is, head-on and single-vehicle crashes. Though these are important findings, they were based on a small data set. Therefore, further research is desirable to evaluate the effectiveness of LDW/LKA systems under real-world conditions and to differentiate the effectiveness between technical solutions (i.e., LDW and LKA) proposed by different manufacturers.</p

Arousal modulates retinal output

At various stages of the visual system, visual responses are modulated by arousal. Here, we find that in mice this modulation operates as early as in the first synapse from the retina and even in retinal axons. To measure retinal activity in the awake, intact brain, we imaged the synaptic boutons of retinal axons in the superior colliculus. Their activity depended not only on vision but also on running speed and pupil size, regardless of retinal illumination. Arousal typically reduced their visual responses and selectivity for direction and orientation. Recordings from retinal axons in the optic tract revealed that arousal modulates the firing of some retinal ganglion cells. Arousal had similar effects postsynaptically in colliculus neurons, independent of activity in the other main source of visual inputs to the colliculus, the primary visual cortex. These results indicate that arousal modulates activity at every stage of the mouse visual system.</p

Additional file 1: of Use of bioreactors for culturing human retinal organoids improves photoreceptor yields

Figure S1. Flow cytometric analysis and quantification of proportion of RECOVERIN/CD73 and CD133/CD73 double-positive cells within RECOVERIN and CD133 photoreceptor-positive populations. Representative FC plots of control vs bioreactor retinal organoids. A FC quantification of CD133/CD73 double-positive developing rods within CD133-positive population. B Quantification of RECOVERIN/CD73 double-positive mature photoreceptor cells by gating only in RECOVERIN-positive live cell population. Error bars, mean ± SEM; n = 50 retinal organoids, N = 3–4 independent differentiation experiments carried out per control or bioreactor condition; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, two-tail unpaired t test with Welch’s correction. Figure S2. Flow cytometry gating strategy employed for all flow cytometric analysis for each individual sample. A Dead cells excluded by using DRAQ7 vs FSC-A (or SYTOX Blue vs FSC-A; data not shown). Cellular aggregates gated out (FSC-A vs FSC-H) to ensure only single live cells (SSC-A vs FSC-A) used for subsequent analysis. B Representative plots of control vs bioreactor for RECOVERIN staining. Gates drawn using only secondary control samples for both control and bioreactor samples. C Representative plots of gating strategy used for CD73 staining in combination with CD133 antibody staining for both control and bioreactor samples. Unstained and fluorescence minus one (FMO) controls for CD73 and CD133 used to define positive fraction of cells for both control and bioreactor samples. D Representative plots for RECOVERIN and CD73 staining. Unstained and FMO gating controls used to determine RECOVERIN and CD73-positive cells for both control and bioreactor samples. Figure S3. Immunofluorescence analysis showing Müller glia (CRALBP-positive) and photoreceptor (RECOVERIN-positive) cells of week 15 retinal organoids in control (A) and bioreactor (B) conditions. Scale Bars: 200 μM. Figure S4. SEM and TEM images of hPSC-derived retinal organoid OLM regions. A, B SEM image showing photoreceptors of bioreactor-generated retinal organoid. C, D TEM illustrating photoreceptor outer limiting membrane (OLM), inner segments, CC and developing outer segments of control (C) and bioreactor (D) retinal organoids. Scale bars: 2 μm (B–D). Figure S5. SEM images of whole retinal organoid. Topographic features of neuroepithelia showing photoreceptor cell density and morphology from control (A–C) vs bioreactor (E–G) at ascending magnifications. Scale bars: 10 μM. Table S1. Antibody catalogue numbers and dilutions (DOCX 8526 kb