The decline of user experience in transition from automated driving to manual driving

Automated driving technologies are rapidly being developed. However, until vehicles are fully automated, the control of the dynamic driving task will be shifted between the driver and automated driving system. This paper aims to explore how transitions from automated driving to manual driving affect user experience and how that experience correlates to take-over performance. In the study 20 participants experienced using an automated driving system during rush-hour traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA. The automated driving system was available in congested traffic situations and when active, the participants could engage in non-driving related activities. The participants were interviewed afterwards regarding their experience of the transitions. The findings show that most of the participants experienced the transition from automated driving to manual driving as negative. Their user experience seems to be shaped by several reasons that differ in temporality and are derived from different phases during the transition process. The results regarding correlation between participants’ experience and take-over performance are inconclusive, but some trends were identified. The study highlights the need for new design solutions that do not only improve drivers’ take-over performance, but also enhance user experience during take-over requests from automated to manual driving

The 80-kb DNA duplication on BTA1 is the only remaining candidate mutation for the polled phenotype of Friesian origin

Background: The absence of horns, called polled phenotype, is the favored trait in modern cattle husbandry. To date, polled cattle are obtained primarily by dehorning calves. Dehorning is a practice that raises animal welfare issues, which can be addressed by selecting for genetically hornless cattle. In the past 20 years, there have been many studies worldwide to identify unique genetic markers in complete association with the polled trait in cattle and recently, two different alleles at the POLLED locus, both resulting in the absence of horns, were reported: (1) the Celtic allele, which is responsible for the polled phenotype in most breeds and for which a single candidate mutation was detected and (2) the Friesian allele, which is responsible for the polled phenotype predominantly in the Holstein-Friesian breed and in a few other breeds, but for which five candidate mutations were identified in a 260-kb haplotype. Further studies based on genome-wide sequencing and high-density SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genotyping confirmed the existence of the Celtic and Friesian variants and narrowed down the causal Friesian haplotype to an interval of 145 kb. Results: Almost 6000 animals were genetically tested for the polled trait and we detected a recombinant animal which enabled us to reduce the Friesian POLLED haplotype to a single causal mutation, namely a 80 kb duplication. Moreover, our results clearly disagree with the recently reported perfect co-segregation of the POLLED mutation and a SNP at position 1 390 292 bp on bovine chromosome 1 in the Holstein-Friesian population. Conclusion: We conclude that the 80-kb duplication, as the only remaining variant within the shortened Friesian haplotype, represents the most likely causal mutation for the polled phenotype of Friesian origin

Functional and population genetic features of copy number variations in two dairy cattle populations

Background: Copy Number Variations (CNVs) are gain or loss of DNA segments that are known to play a role in shaping a wide range of phenotypes. In this study, we used two dairy cattle populations, Holstein Friesian and Jersey, to discover CNVs using the Illumina BovineHD Genotyping BeadChip aligned to the ARS-UCD1.2 assembly. The discovered CNVs were investigated for their functional impact and their population genetics features. Results: We discovered 14,272 autosomal CNVs, which were aggregated into 1755 CNV regions (CNVR) from 451 animals. These CNVRs together cover 2.8% of the bovine autosomes. The assessment of the functional impact of CNVRs showed that rare CNVRs (MAF 2 = ~ 0.1 at 10 kb distance) than the rest. Nevertheless, this LD is still lower than SNP-SNP LD (r 2 = ~ 0.5 at 10 kb distance). Conclusions: Our analyses showed that CNVRs detected using BovineHD BeadChip arrays are likely to be functional. This finding indicates that CNVs can potentially disrupt the function of genes and thus might alter phenotypes. Also, the population differentiation index revealed two candidate genes, MGAM and ADAMTS17, which hint at adaptive evolution between the two populations. Lastly, low CNVR-SNP LD implies that genetic variation from CNVs might not be fully captured in routine animal genetic evaluation, which relies solely on SNP markers.</p

Essential features of Chiari II malformation in MR imaging: an interobserver reliability study—part 1

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: Brain MR imaging is essential in the assessment of Chiari II malformation in clinical and research settings concerning spina bifida. However, the interpretation of morphological features of the malformation on MR images may not always be straightforward. In an attempt to select those features that unambiguously characterize the Chiari II malformation, we investigated the interobserver reliability of all its well-known MR features. METHODS: Brain MR images of 79 children [26 presumed to have Chiari II malformation, 36 presumed to have no cerebral abnormalities, and 17 children in whom some Chiari II malformation features might be present; mean age 10.6 (SD 3.2; range, 6-16) years] were blindly and independently reviewed by three observers. They rated 33 morphological features of the Chiari II malformation as present, absent, or indefinable in three planes (sagittal, axial, and coronal). The interobserver reliability was assessed using kappa statistics. RESULTS: Twenty-three of the features studied turned out to be unreliable, whereas the interobserver agreement was almost perfect (kappa value > 0.8) for nine features (eight in the sagittal plane and one in the axial plane, but none in the coronal plane). CONCLUSIONS: This study presents essential features of the Chiari II malformation on MR images by ruling out the unreliable features. Using these features may improve the assessment of Chiari II malformation in clinical and research settings.1 juli 201

A review on equipment protection and system protection relay in power system

Power system equipment is configured and connected together with multiple voltage levels in existing electrical power system. There are varieties of electrical equipment obtainable in the power system predominantly from generation side up to the distribution side. Consequently, appropriate protections must be apt to prevent inessential disturbances that lead to voltage instability, voltage collapse and sooner a total blackout took place in the power system. The understanding of each component on the system protection is critical. This is due to any abnormal condition and failure can be analyzed and solved effectively due to the rapid changing and development on the power system network. Therefore, the enhancement of power quality can be achieved by sheltering the equipment with protection relay in power system. Moreover, the design of a systematic network is crucial for the system protection itself. Several types of protective equipment and protection techniques are taken into consideration in this paper. Hence, the existing accessible types and methods of system protection in the power system network are reviewed

Genome scanning of breast cancers by two-dimensional DNA typing.

We have recently used two-dimensional DNA typing to detect genetic alterations in breast tumours. This method, which is based on size separation in neutral gels and sequence separation in denaturing gradient gels followed by hybridisation analysis with mini- and microsatellite core probes, allows the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of allelic fragments in a very short time. Here we demonstrate the potency of this method for total genome scanning of the tumour genome by analysing a small series of breast cancers. Comparison of tumour and normal DNA from ten breast cancer patients, using two-dimensional DNA typing with four core probes, revealed a considerable number of genomic alterations. In contrast, with Southern blot analysis only a few alterations were observed using the same probes. Most of the changes observed (74%) were deletions (absence of spots in the tumour) while 20% corresponded to amplifications (spots of higher intensity in the tumour) and 5% were new spots (gains). About 10% of the genomic changes detected appeared to occur in the tumours of more than one patient

In vitro production of bovine embryos derived from individual donors in the Corral® dish

Background: Since the identity of the embryo is of outmost importance during commercial in vitro embryo production, bovine oocytes and embryos have to be cultured strictly per donor. Due to the rather low yield of oocytes collected after ovum pick-up (OPU) per individual cow, oocyte maturation and embryo culture take place in small groups, which is often associated with inferior embryo development. The objective of this study was to improve embryonic development in small donor groups by using the Corral (R) dish. This commercial dish is designed for human embryo production. It contains two central wells that are divided into quadrants by a semi-permeable wall. In human embryo culture, one embryo is placed per quadrant, allowing individual follow-up while embryos are exposed to a common medium. In our study, small groups of oocytes and subsequently embryos of different bovine donors were placed in the Corral (R) dish, each donor group in a separate quadrant. Results: In two experiments, the Corral (R) dish was evaluated during in vitro maturation (IVM) and/or in vitro culture (IVC) by grouping oocytes and embryos of individual bovine donors per quadrant. At day 7, a significantly higher blastocyst rate was noted in the Corral (R) dish used during IVM and IVC than when only used during IVM (12.9% +/- 2.10 versus 22.8% +/- 2.67) (P < 0.05). However, no significant differences in blastocyst yield were observed anymore between treatment groups at day 8 post insemination. Conclusions: In the present study, the Corral (R) dish was used for in vitro embryo production (IVP) in cattle; allowing to allocate oocytes and/or embryos per donor. As fresh embryo transfers on day 7 have higher pregnancy outcomes, the Corral (R) dish offers an added value for commercial OPU/IVP, since a higher blastocyst development at day 7 is obtained when the Corral (R) dish is used during IVM and IVC