Automatic Behavior Analysis and Understanding of Collision Processes Using Video Sensors

RÉSUMÉ La sécurité routière est un des problèmes de société les plus importants à cause des multiples impacts et coûts des accidents de la route. Traditionnellement, le diagnostic de sécurité repose principalement sur les données historiques de collision. Cette approche réactive mène à remédier au problème de sécurité après que ses impacts sur la société soit déjà réalisés. Les analystes de la sécurité et les décideurs doivent attendre jusqu'à ce qu'un nombre suffisant de collisions (ce qui demande d’attendre habituellement au moins trois ans) soit collecté pour analyser ou mettre en place des mesures d’amélioration de la sécurité routière. Les méthodes substituts (« surrogate ») d'analyse de la sécurité constituent une approche alternative proactive qui s'appuie sur l'observation d’événements « dangereux » sans collision, souvent appelé accidents « évités de justesse » (« near misses ») ou « conflits ». Parmi ces approches, les techniques de conflits de trafic (TCT) reposent sur la collecte des données de conflit par des observateurs sur le terrain qui interprètent leur sévérité. Par conséquent, les TCT souffrent des variations de jugement des observateurs, de la difficulté de mesurer les indicateurs de sécurité en temps réel par les observateurs, et du coût de la collecte des données.----------ABSTRACTTraffic safety is one of the most important social issues due to the multiple costs of collisions. Traditionally, safety diagnosis depends mainly on historical collision data. This reactive approach leads to remedy the existing safety problem after the materialization of the induced social cost. Safety analysts and decision makers must wait till a sufficient number of collisions (typically at least 3 years of collision data) is collected to analyze and to devise countermeasures. Surrogate safety analysis is an alternative and proactive approach that relies on the observation of traffic events without a collision, in particular “unsafe” events often called “near misses” or “conflicts”. Among these approaches, traffic conflict techniques (TCT) rely mainly on field observers to identify conflicts and interpret their severity. Consequently, TCTs suffer from the variations of observer judgement, the cost of collecting conflict data, and the difficulty of measuring safety indicators in real time by the observers

In Vitro Screening for Antimicrobial Activity of Some Medicinal Plant Seed Extracts

Phytochemical screening (saponins, tannins, steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols and glycosides) of four medicinal plant seeds (Jatropha curcas, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba), Moringa oleifera and Datura metel) extracted by aqueous, ethanol and Folch solvents, were examined for their antimicrobial activity against three types of plant pathogenic fungi namely; Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, in addition to four types of bacteria, namely; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Ralstonia solanacearum and Pesudomonas aeruginosa using disc diffusion paper. Results revealed that different concentrations of aqueous extracts were more effective against bacterial activity compared to fungal activity, except for D. metel aqueous extract which showed no antifungal effect and very weak effect on only two of the tested bacteria. B. cereus was more sensitive to J. curcas aqueous extract, while P. aeruginosa was more sensitive to S. chinensis and M. oleifera aqueous extracts. On the other hand, results showed that J. curcas and M. oleifera ethanol extracts were more effective on Staph. aureus growth, while S. chinensis and D. metel did not have any effect on any of the fungi or bacteria under study. The evaluation of the antifungal and antibacterial effect did not confirm the broad spectrum of S. chinensis Folch extract, while M. oleifera and D. metel were more effective on reducing R. solani growth. Also F. oxysporum was affected by J. curcas Folch extract only at high concentrations. These findings support that the traditional use of the plant extracts in the treatment of different infections caused by pathogenic microbes is valuable and should be taken in consideration

The Balance of Payment of the KSA and Its Main Determinants Financial Economic Time Series Analysis from 1981 to 2007

This paper addresses the impact of different factors that are theoretically believed to have significant impact on the status of the balance of payment. The paper applies those theoretical concepts on the status of the balance of payment of Saudi Arabia from 1981 to 2007. The paper gives interesting implications in that regard for decision makers so they can address different implications on the status of the balance of payment of the country by incorporating endogenously different macro-variables addressed by the current paper while they take decisions regarding the improvement of the status of the balance of payment economically

Network Analysis of the Brief ICF Core Set for Schizophrenia

Background: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Core Sets (ICF-CSs) for schizophrenia are a set of categories for assessing functioning in persons with this health condition. This study aimed to: a) estimate the network structure of the Brief ICF-CS for schizophrenia, b) examine the community structure (categories strongly clustered together) underlying this network, and c) identify the most central categories within this network. Methods: A total of 638 health professionals from different backgrounds and with a significant role in the treatment of individuals with schizophrenia participated in a series of Delphi studies. Based on their responses we used the Ising model to estimate the network structure of the 25-category Brief ICF-CS, and then estimated the degree of centrality for all categories. Finally, the community structure was detected using the walktrap algorithm. Results: The resulting network revealed strong associations between individual categories within components of the ICF (i.e., Body functions, Activities and participation, and Environmental factors). The results also showed three distinct clusters of categories corresponding to the same three components. The categories e410 Individual attitudes of immediate family members, e450 Individual attitudes of health professionals, d910 Community life, and d175 Solving problems were among the most central categories in the Brief ICF-CS network. Conclusion: These results demonstrate the utility of a network approach for estimating the structure of the ICF-CSs. Implications of these results for clinical interventions and development of new instruments are discussed

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel cYY analogues targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis CYP121A1

The rise in multidrug resistant (MDR) cases of tuberculosis (TB) has led to the need for the development of TB drugs with different mechanisms of action. The genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) revealed twenty different genes coding for cytochrome P450s. CYP121A1 catalyzes a C-C crosslinking reaction of dicyclotyrosine (cYY) producing mycocyclosin and current research suggests that either mycocyclosin is essential or the overproduction of cYY is toxic to Mtb. A series of 1,4-dibenzyl-2-imidazol-1-yl-methylpiperazine derivatives were designed and synthesised as cYY mimics. The derivatives substituted in the 4-position of the phenyl rings with halides or alkyl group showed promising antimycobacterial activity (MIC 6.25 μg/mL), with the more lipophilic branched alkyl derivatives displaying optimal binding affinity with CYP121A1 (iPr KD = 1.6 μM; tBu KD = 1.2 μM). Computational studies revealed two possible binding modes within the CYP121A1 active site both of which would effectively block cYY from binding

Design, synthesis, docking and mechanistic studies of new thiazolyl/thiazolidinylpyrimidine-2,4-dione antiproliferative agents

In this article, we display on the synthesis and biological evaluation of a new series of thiazolylpyrimidine 3a-l and thiazolidinylpyrimidine derivatives 5a-e. The structures of the new compounds were confirmed by using different spectral techniques including NMR, IR, mass spectroscopy in addition to elemental analyses. The cell viability of the new compounds was assessed against normal human mammary gland epithelial (MCF-10A) cell line. Data revealed that none of the compounds examined exhibited cytotoxic effects, and the cell viability for the compounds examined at 50 µM was greater than 87%. The antiproliferative activity of 3a-l and 5a-e was evaluated against four human cancer cell lines where the compounds showed promising activity. The most potent derivatives were compounds 3a, 3c, 3f, 3i, and 5b with GI$_{50}$ values ranging from 0.90 µM to 1.70 µM against the four cancer cell lines in comparison to doxorubicin (GI$_{50}$ = 1.10 µM). Compounds 3a, 3c and 3i showed potent antiproliferative activity with dual inhibitory action against EGFR and BRAF$^{V600E}$. Compounds 3a, 3c, and 3i demonstrated promising AutoDock scores towards EGFR and BRAF$^{V600E}$ with values of − 9.1 and − 8.6, −9.0 and − 8.5, and − 8.4 and − 8.0 kcal/mol, respectively. The physicochemical and pharmacokinetic characteristics of 3a, 3c, and 3i were anticipated, demonstrating their oral bioavailability

Mitigation of acetaminophen-induced liver toxicity by the novel phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor alpelisib

The sterile inflammatory response mediated by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 4 and 9 is implicated in the massive hepatic damage caused by acetaminophen (APAP)-overdose. There is a crosstalk between TLR-dependent signaling with other intracellular kinases like phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks). Nevertheless, the detailed role of PI3Kα is still unknown in hepatic sterile inflammation. Accordingly, the effect of the novel PI3Kα inhibitor alpelisib was investigated in the setting of APAP-driven sterile inflammation in the liver. This was examined by pretreating mice with alpelisib (5 and 10 mg/kg, oral) 2 h before APAP (500 mg/kg, i.p.)-intoxication. The results indicated that alpelisib dose-dependently lowered APAP-induced escalation in serum liver function biomarkers and hepatic necroinflammation score. Alpelisib also attenuated APAP-induced rise in cleaved caspase 3 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the liver hepatocytes, as indices for apoptosis and proliferation. Mechanistically, inhibition of PI3Kα by alpelisib limited APAP-induced overproduction of the pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 in the blood circulation via switching off the activation of several signal transduction proteins, including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (Stat-3), glycogen Synthase Kinase (GSK)-3β and nuclear factor (NF)-κB. Alpelisib also impaired APAP-instigated immune cell infiltration in the liver via reducing systemic granulocyte/macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) release and reversed APAP-induced abnormalities in the systemic and hepatic levels of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 and IL-22. In conclusion, selective modulation of the PI3Kα activity by alpelisib can hinder the inflammatory response and infiltration of immune cells occurring by APAP-hepatotoxicity

Using biocontrol agents and sodium nitrophenolate to control powdery mildew and improve the growth and productivity of marigold (Calendula officinalis L.)

In vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to investigate the potential of four biocontrol agents (BCAs), namely Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Trichoderma viride, and T. harzianum, individually and in combination with sodium nitrophenolate (SN) to control marigold powdery mildew. The results showed that all treatments led to a significant inhibition in the conidial germination of Golovinomyces cichoracearum in vitro. Maximum inhibition was recorded by T. harzianum (1×109 CFU mL-1) + SN (1.5%), followed by T. viride + SN, and B. megaterium + SN at the same concentrations as follows: 83.6, 79.1, and 70.6%, respectively. While the lowest inhibition (20.4%) was recorded by P. fluorescens (1×105 CFU mL-1). In the greenhouse, all treatments applied significantly reduced the disease severity and the area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC). The combination treatments had a better disease control response than individual treatments. Similar results were achieved in the field, where disease severity reduced to 9.2 and 10.3% in plants treated with T. harzianum + SN in the first and second seasons, respectively, compared to 40.2 and 44.1% in control in both seasons. Likewise, AUDPC reduced to 274 and 315 in plants treated with T. harzianum + SN in the first and second seasons, respectively, compared to 1207 and 1340 in control in both seasons. The treatments improved growth and productivity characteristics, as well as photosynthetic pigments, total phenolic compounds (TPC), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, while significantly reducing free proline (FP). In conclusion, BCAs applied individually or in combination with SN can be used effectively to suppress powdery mildew of marigold