AREA WIDE TRAFFIC DEMAND MANAGEMENT BY ROAD PRICING

Cities and governments spent a tremendous amount of money to ease traffic congestion, but the problems are yet unsolved. The difficulties are well-known: increase of costs and time spent on travelling in cities; noise nuisance, air pollution, vibration; increase of urban accident rates; deforming land use patterns. Recent research suggests to apply some form of Road Pricing as an important tool among many others to manage demand on motorized traffic. Road Pricing may be effective as it reduces costs of traffic; regulates and reduces car use in peak hours and pricing contributes to maintaining better environmental and living conditions in city centres. Road Pricing system should be included within a comprehensive Land Use and Transport Policy. Car ownership in Budapest will double to about 400 cars/l000 inhabitants within 30 years. It seems clear that some regulation and restriction on car use cannot be avoided. Simultaneous, coordinated elements of traffic demand management in Budapest may be the following: land use policy: development of public transport; area wide traffic control and route guidance systems: parking policy; other instruments and Road Pricing as a major tool to manage demand for car traffic. There are several reasonable solutions how to locate charging stations in Budapest. In the far future it seems necessary to charge drivers entering the city area within the M0 circular motorway. In the first phase outer cordon may be established in line of 'Hungarian Ringroad' after its southern end with 'Lágymányosi Bridge' across the River Danube will have been completed. On the 'Buda' side cordon can be put on the ring road (that cannot be so complete as on the 'Pest' side), and additional charging stations can be located on the Danube Bridges. This preliminary suggestion must be controlled and changed by results of precise and detailed application of traffic models, and interdisciplinary preparation

Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide Measurements from the Scanning High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in Southern Africa During SAFARI 2000

[1] Retrieved tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) column densities are presented for more than 9000 spectra obtained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWis) Scanning High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (SHIS) during a flight on the NASA ER-2 on 7 September 2000 as part of the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) dry season field campaign. Enhancements in tropospheric column CO were detected in the vicinity of a controlled biomass burn in the Timbavati Game Reserve in northeastern South Africa and over the edge of the river of smoke in south central Mozambique. Relatively clean air was observed over the far southern coast of Mozambique. Quantitative comparisons are presented with in situ measurements from five different instruments flying on two other aircraft: the University of Washington Convair-580 (CV) and the South African Aerocommander JRB in the vicinity of the Timbavati fire. Measured tropospheric CO columns (extrapolated from 337 to 100 mb) of 2.1 × 1018 cm−2 in background air and up to 1.5 × 1019 cm−2 in the smoke plume agree well with SHIS retrieved tropospheric CO columns of (2.3 ± 0.25) × 1018 cm−2 over background air near the fire and (1.5 ± 0.35) × 1019 cm−2 over the smoke plume. Qualitative comparisons are presented with three other in situ CO profiles obtained by the South African JRA aircraft over Mozambique and northern South Africa showing the influence of the river of smoke

The 2017 reversal of the Beaufort Gyre: Can dynamic thickening of a seasonal ice cover during a reversal limit summer ice melt in the Beaufort Sea?

During winter 2017 the semi‐permanent Beaufort High collapsed and the anticyclonic Beaufort Gyre reversed. The reversal drove eastward ice motion through the Western Arctic, causing sea ice to converge against Banks Island, and halted the circulation of multiyear sea ice via the gyre, preventing its replenishment in the Beaufort Sea. Prior to the reversal, an anomalously thin seasonal ice cover had formed in the Beaufort following ice‐free conditions during September 2016. With the onset of the reversal in January 2017, convergence drove uncharacteristic dynamic thickening during winter. By the end of March, despite seasonal ice comprising 97% of the ice cover, the reversal created the thickest, roughest and most voluminous regional ice cover of the CryoSat‐2 record. Within the Beaufort Sea, previous work has shown that winter ice export can precondition the region for increased summer ice melt, but that a short reversal during April 2013 contributed to a reduction in summer ice loss. Hence the deformed ice cover at the end of winter 2017 could be expected to limit summer melt. In spite of this, the Beaufort ice cover fell to its fourth lowest September area as the gyre re‐established during April and divergent ice drift broke up the pack, negating the reversal's earlier preconditioning. Our work highlights that dynamic winter thickening of a regional sea ice cover, for instance during a gyre reversal, offers the potential to limit summer ice loss, but that dynamic forcing during spring dictates whether this conditioning carries through to the melt season

Rezidensek és szakorvosok laparoscopos technikájának felmérése MENTOR(R) tréningboksz segitségével.

Introduction: Operating room is not the ideal place to acquire laparoscopic skills since patients can be put at risk and it is also relatively expensive. Using training boxes seems to be a more appropriate way of teaching and learning the technique, but there is little data about measuring the technique of experienced specialists and comparing their results with residents. Methods: At the 1st Department of Surgery, Semmelweis University we tested 30 residents and 25 specialists in general surgery and urology on MENTOR(R) training box. Before training, all participants completed a questionnaire on professional experience, previous usage of training boxes, virtual simulators, and videogames, and whether they played a musical instrument earlier. Subjects were asked to complete in a defined time limit 3 of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery tasks (which is required for American surgical residents for surgical board examination), and 3 tasks decided by us. Linear regression analysis (ANOVA table) was used to evaluate the data. Results: 16% of the specialists and 6.66% of the residents completed all tasks within time limit. Statistically significant correlation (p < 0.05) was demonstrated between the number of previous laparoscopic surgeries and task completion time, while there were no significant correlations between other factors, which may influence laparoscopic technique and task completion time. Conclusions: Training boxes are suitable for developing eye-hand coordination and bimanuality, as well as for learning instrument handling. Nonetheless, residents acquire most of their laparoscopic surgical skills on patients in Hungary, yet. For this reason there is a need for organized training opportunities

Three-dimensional versus two-dimensional imaging during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the comparative outcomes of three-dimensional (3D) versus two-dimensional (2D) imaging during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS We conducted a systematic search of electronic information sources and bibliographic reference lists and applied a combination of free text and controlled vocabulary search adapted to thesaurus headings, search operators and limits. Procedure time, Calot's triangle dissection time, gallbladder removal time, gallbladder perforation, intraoperative bleeding, postoperative complications, conversion to open and intraoperative errors were the evaluated outcome parameters. RESULTS We identified 6 randomised controlled trials (RCT) reporting a total of 577 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy using 3D (n = 282) or 2D (n = 295) imaging. The 3D imaging was associated with significantly shorter procedure time (MD - 4.23, 95% CI - 8.14 to - 0.32, p = 0.03), Calot's triangle dissection time (MD - 4.19, 95% CI - 6.52 to - 1.86, p = 0.0004) and significantly lower risk of gallbladder perforation (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.28-0.88, p = 0.02) compared to the 2D approach. No significant difference was found in gallbladder removal time (MD - 0.79, 95% CI - 2.24 to 0.66, p = 0.28), intraoperative bleeding (RR 1.14, 95% CI 0.68-1.90, p = 0.61), postoperative complications (RD - 0.01, 95% CI - 0.06 to 0.05, p = 0.85), conversion to open (RD 0.00, 95% CI - 0.02 to 0.03, p = 0.70) or intraoperative errors (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.79-1.17, p = 0.70) between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Although our findings suggest that the use of 3D imaging during laparoscopic cholecystectomy may be associated with significantly shorter procedure time, Calot's triangle dissection time and gallbladder injury compared to the 2D imaging, the differences seem to be clinically insignificant. Moreover, both approaches carry s similar risk of postoperative morbidities. The impact of the surgeon's level of experience and difficulty of the procedure on the outcomes of each imaging modality remains unknown