Barriers to Using Fixed-Route Public Transit for Older Adults, MTI Report 09-16

For older adults, unmet transportation needs are linked to reduced well-being (Cvitkovich and Wister 2001). Current research indicates that, as a society, we are ill-prepared to provide adequate transit for the growing increasing population of older adults (Millar, 2005). Although public transit is available for many older adults, actual and perceived barriers prohibit its use. Thus, the research presented here examines what do older persons perceive as barriers to using fixed-route public transit? Four focus groups were conducted with older adults in order to gain insights into what they perceive as barriers to use of fixed route transit. Findings from these focus groups informed the development of a mail-out survey sent to 1800 older adults—half each in Erie County, New York and the City of San José, California. A total of 775 (43.1%) surveys were returned. Despite concerns of response bias, data analyses reveal that older adults perceive fixed-route public transit as a viable option to their preferred mode of transit, the automobile. However, older adults note significant barriers to the use of fixed-route transit. This report summarizes findings and presents a behavior change model that may be used as an intervention and even a guide to market the strengths of fixed-route public transit while encouraging older adults to use transit

Optical errors in a liquid chromatography absorbance cell

The shadowgraph method is used to visualize mobile phase flow through a liquid chromatography absorbance cell with "Z" flow geometry. It is shown thatmixing is incomplete in the cell. Composition gradients persist throughout the elution of any sample. The gradients systematically change as the sample flows through the cell. Additionally, window wedge angles are measured in several cells. The implications for low noise absorbance detectors are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27501/1/0000545.pd

Observation of Muon Neutrino Disappearance with the MINOS Detectors in the NuMI Neutrino Beam

This Letter reports results from the MINOS experiment based on its initial exposure to neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. The rates and energy spectra of charged current ν_μ interactions are compared in two detectors located along the beam axis at distances of 1 and 735 km. With 1.27×10^(20) 120 GeV protons incident on the NuMI target, 215 events with energies below 30 GeV are observed at the Far Detector, compared to an expectation of 336±14 events. The data are consistent with ν_μ disappearance via oscillations with Δm_(32)^2|=2.74_(-0.26)^(+0.44)×10^(-3)  eV^2 and sin^2(2θ_(23))>0.87 (68% C.L.)

First observations of separated atmospheric ν_μ and ν̅ _μ events in the MINOS detector

The complete 5.4 kton MINOS far detector has been taking data since the beginning of August 2003 at a depth of 2070 meters water-equivalent in the Soudan mine, Minnesota. This paper presents the first MINOS observations of ν_μ and ν̅ _μ charged-current atmospheric neutrino interactions based on an exposure of 418 days. The ratio of upward- to downward-going events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation in the absence of neutrino oscillations, giving R^(data)_(up/down/R^(MC)_(up/down) = 0:62^(+0.19)_(0:14)(stat.) ± 0.02(sys.). An extended maximum likelihood analysis of the observed L/E distributions excludes the null hypothesis of no neutrino oscillations at the 98% confidence level. Using the curvature of the observed muons in the 1.3 T MINOS magnetic field ν_μ and ν̅ _μ interactions are separated. The ratio of ν̅ _μ to ν_μ events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation assuming neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate in the same manner, giving R^(data)_(ν_μ/ν̅ _μ) / R^(MC)_(ν_μ/ν̅ _μ) = 0.96^(+0:38)_(0.27)(stat.) ± 0.15(sys.), where the errors are the statistical and systematic uncertainties. Although the statistics are limited, this is the first direct observation of atmospheric neutrino interactions separately for ν_μ and ν̅ _μ

Distribution of DDS-cerberus Authenticated Facial Recognition Streams

Successful missions in the field often rely upon communication technologies for tactics and coordination. One middleware used in securing these communication channels is Data Distribution Service (DDS) which employs a publish-subscribe model. However, researchers have found several security vulnerabilities in DDS implementations. DDS-Cerberus (DDS-C) is a security layer implemented into DDS to mitigate impersonation attacks using Kerberos authentication and ticketing. Even with the addition of DDS-C, the real-time message sending of DDS also needs to be upheld. This paper extends our previous work to analyze DDS-C’s impact on performance in a use case implementation. The use case covers an artificial intelligence (AI) scenario that connects edge sensors across a commercial network. Specifically, it characterizes how DDS-C performs between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the cloud, and video streams for facial recognition. The experiments send a set number of video frames over the network using DDS to be processed by AI and displayed on a screen. An evaluation of network traffic using DDS-C revealed that it was not statistically significant compared to DDS for the majority of the configuration runs. The results demonstrate that DDS-C provides security benefits without significantly hindering the overall performance

Quantifying DDS-cerberus Network Control Overhead

Securing distributed device communication is critical because the private industry and the military depend on these resources. One area that adversaries target is the middleware, which is the medium that connects different systems. This paper evaluates a novel security layer, DDS-Cerberus (DDS-C), that protects in-transit data and improves communication efficiency on data-first distribution systems. This research contributes a distributed robotics operating system testbed and designs a multifactorial performance-based experiment to evaluate DDS-C efficiency and security by assessing total packet traffic generated in a robotics network. The performance experiment follows a 2:1 publisher to subscriber node ratio, varying the number of subscribers and publisher nodes from three to eighteen. By categorizing the network traffic from these nodes into either data message, security, or discovery+ with Quality of Service (QoS) best effort and reliable, the mean security traffic from DDS-C has minimal impact to Data Distribution Service (DDS) operations compared to other network traffic. The results reveal that applying DDS-C to a representative distributed network robotics operating system network does not impact performance

Genomic and physiological variability within Group II (non-proteolytic) Clostridium botulinum

BACKGROUND: Clostridium botulinum is a group of four physiologically and phylogenetically distinct bacteria that produce botulinum neurotoxin. While studies have characterised variability between strains of Group I (proteolytic) C. botulinum, the genetic and physiological variability and relationships between strains within Group II (non-proteolytic) C. botulinum are not well understood. In this study the genome of Group II strain C. botulinum Eklund 17B (NRP) was sequenced and used to construct a whole genome DNA microarray. This was used in a comparative genomic indexing study to compare the relatedness of 43 strains of Group II C. botulinum (14 type B, 24 type E and 5 type F). These results were compared with characteristics determined from physiological tests. RESULTS: Whole genome indexing showed that strains of Group II C. botulinum isolated from a wide variety of environments over more than 75 years clustered together indicating the genetic background of Group II C. botulinum is stable. Further analysis showed that strains forming type B or type F toxin are closely related with only toxin cluster genes targets being unique to either type. Strains producing type E toxin formed a separate subset. Carbohydrate fermentation tests supported the observation that type B and F strains form a separate subset to type E strains. All the type F strains and most of type B strains produced acid from amylopectin, amylose and glycogen whereas type E strains did not. However, these two subsets did not differ strongly in minimum growth temperature or maximum NaCl concentration for growth. No relationship was found between tellurite resistance and toxin type despite all the tested type B and type F strains carrying tehB, while the sequence was absent or diverged in all type E strains. CONCLUSIONS: Although Group II C. botulinum form a tight genetic group, genomic and physiological analysis indicates there are two distinct subsets within this group. All type B strains and type F strains are in one subset and all type E strains in the other

A Comparative Study of the ReCell® Device and Autologous Spit-Thickness Meshed Skin Graft in the Treatment of Acute Burn Injuries.

Early excision and autografting are standard care for deeper burns. However, donor sites are a source of significant morbidity. To address this, the ReCell® Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (ReCell) was designed for use at the point-of-care to prepare a noncultured, autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) capable of epidermal regeneration using minimal donor skin. A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the clinical performance of ReCell vs meshed split-thickness skin grafts (STSG, Control) for the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns. Effectiveness measures were assessed to 1 year for both ASCS and Control treatment sites and donor sites, including the incidence of healing, scarring, and pain. At 4 weeks, 98% of the ASCS-treated sites were healed compared with 100% of the Controls. Pain and assessments of scarring at the treatment sites were reported to be similar between groups. Significant differences were observed between ReCell and Control donor sites. The mean ReCell donor area was approximately 40 times smaller than that of the Control (P < .0001), and after 1 week, significantly more ReCell donor sites were healed than Controls (P = .04). Over the first 16 weeks, patients reported significantly less pain at the ReCell donor sites compared with Controls (P ≤ .05 at each time point). Long-term patients reported higher satisfaction with ReCell donor site outcomes compared with the Controls. This study provides evidence that the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns with ASCS results in comparable healing, with significantly reduced donor site size and pain and improved appearance relative to STSG

Uneven and combined development

Uneven and combined development. Regional Studies. The concept of uneven and combined development (U&CD) interprets dynamic historical change and comparative geographical differentiation in terms of the co-existence of tendencies towards differentiation and equalization of the conditions of production, consumption, distribution and exchange, deriving from capital accumulation and political multiplicity. U&CD entails a conception of the global system as a constellation of interdependent, national institutional configurations and interests that shape international/national/regional trends. To explain geographies of industrialization and urbanization and current trends towards a pluri-centric world, U&CD requires, however, a specification of the underlying causal mechanisms, examined in economic geography, international relations and developmental state theories