Comparison of Factors Affecting Crash Severities in Hit-and-Run and Non-Hit-and-Run Crashes

A hit-and-run (HR) crash occurs when the driver of the offending vehicle flees the crash scene without reporting it or aiding the victims. The current study aimed at contributing to existing literatures by comparing factors which might affect the crash severity in HR and non-hit-and-run (NHR) crashes. The data was extracted from the police-reported crash data from September 2017 to August 2018 within the City of Chicago. Two multinomial logistic regression models were established for the HR and NHR crash data, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) of each variable was used to quantify the impact of this variable on the crash severity. In both models, the property damage only (PDO) crash was selected as the reference group, and the injury and fatal crash were chosen as the comparison group. When the injury crash was taken as the comparison group, it was found that 12 variables contributed to the crash severities in both HR and NHR model. The average percentage deviation of OR for these 12 variables was 34%, indicating that compared with property damage, HR crashes were 34% more likely to result in injuries than NHR crashes on average. When fatal crashes were chosen as the comparison group, 2 variables were found to be statistically significant in both the HR and the NHR model. The average percentage deviation of OR for these 2 variables was 127%, indicating that compared with property damage, HR crashes were 127% more likely to result in fatalities than NHR crashes on average. Document type: Articl

Purification and Characterization of a CkTLP Protein from Cynanchum komarovii Seeds that Confers Antifungal Activity

BACKGROUND: Cynanchum komarovii Al Iljinski is a desert plant that has been used as analgesic, anthelminthic and antidiarrheal, but also as a herbal medicine to treat cholecystitis in people. We have found that the protein extractions from C. komarovii seeds have strong antifungal activity. There is strong interest to develop protein medication and antifungal pesticides from C. komarovii for pharmacological or other uses. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: An antifungal protein with sequence homology to thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) was isolated from C. komarovii seeds and named CkTLP. The three-dimensional structure prediction of CkTLP indicated the protein has an acid cleft and a hydrophobic patch. The protein showed antifungal activity against fungal growth of Verticillium dahliae, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea and Valsa mali. The full-length cDNA was cloned by RT-PCR and RACE-PCR according to the partial protein sequences obtained by nanoESI-MS/MS. The real-time PCR showed the transcription level of CkTLP had a significant increase under the stress of abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA), methyl jasmonate (MeJA), NaCl and drought, which indicates that CkTLP may play an important role in response to abiotic stresses. Histochemical staining showed GUS activity in almost the whole plant, especially in cotyledons, trichomes and vascular tissues of primary root and inflorescences. The CkTLP protein was located in the extracellular space/cell wall by CkTLP::GFP fusion protein in transgenic Arabidopsis. Furthermore, over-expression of CkTLP significantly enhanced the resistance of Arabidopsis against V. dahliae. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that the CkTLP is a good candidate protein or gene for contributing to the development of disease-resistant crops

Zigbee-Based Positioning System For Coal Miners

AbstractChina's present communication systems in coal mine can not effectively provide the information such as dynamic distribution of coal miners in work and production environment. Hence, rescue efforts are hard to be carried out in case of coal mine accident. To deal with this problem, the paper at first introduces the characteristics, structure and network construction method of ZigBee protocol. Then, by using the ZigBee technology based on IEEE802.15.4 criteria, the wireless communication network and the structure of ZigBee communication module for coal mine are studied and designed. At last, multilateration positioning algorithm is employed to realize the positioning of coal miners. Coal miner positioning system enters into computer management system via network, laying important actual significance to the production safety and emergent resuce of coal mine

Safety Impacts of Push-Button and Countdown Timer on Nonmotorized Traffic at Intersections

This paper applies the random parameters negative binominal model to investigate safety impacts of push-button and countdown timer on pedestrians and cyclists at urban intersections. To account for possible unobserved heterogeneity which could vary from one intersection to another, random parameters model is introduced. A simulation-based maximum likelihood method using Halton draws is applied to estimate the maximum likelihood of random parameters in the model. Dataset containing pedestrians’ and cyclists’ crash data of 1,001 intersections from Chicago is utilized to establish the statistical relationship between crash frequencies and potential impact factors. LIMDEP (Version 9.0) statistical package is utilized for modeling. The parameter estimation results indicate that existence of push-button and countdown timer could significantly reduce crash frequencies of pedestrians and cyclists at intersections. Increasing number of through traffic lanes, left turn lanes, and ratio of major direction AADT to minor direction AADT, tend to increase crash frequencies. Annual average daily left turn traffic has a negative impact on pedestrians’ safety, but its impact on cyclists’ crash frequency is statistically insignificant at 90% confidence level. The results of current study could provide important insights for nonmotorized traffic safety improvement projects in both planning and operational levels

Route Design Model of Feeder Bus Service for Urban Rail Transit Stations

As an important part of urban public transportation systems, the feeder bus fills a service gap left by rail transit, effectively extending the range of rail transit’s service and solving the problem of short-distance travel and interchanges. By defining the potential demand of feeder bus services and considering its relationship with the traffic demands of corresponding staging areas, the distance between road and rail transit, and the repetition factor of road bus lines, this paper established a potential demand model of roads by opening feeder bus services and applying a logit model for passenger flow distribution. Based on a circular route model, a route starting and ending at urban rail transit stations was generated, and a genetic algorithm was then applied to solve it. The Wei-Fang community of Shanghai was selected as the test area. Per the model and algorithm, the feeder route length was conformed to a functional orientation of short-distance travel and the feeder service of a feeder bus; the route mostly covered where conventional bus lines were fewer, which is a finding that is in agreement with the actual situation; the feasibility of the model and algorithm was verified

Response of sediment organic phosphorus composition to lake trophic status in China

Organic phosphorus (Po) constitutes the most important fraction of P in lake sediments, and the compositional properties of Po affect its behavior in lake ecosystems. In this study, 31P NMR, FT-IR spectroscopy, and UV–visible absorbance spectroscopy were combined to identify the dynamic composition of sediment Po across two sets of lakes in China ranging from oligotrophic to eutrophic, and their possible effects on lake eutrophication were evaluated. The results showed that sediment Po content (accounting for 24–75% of TP) was positively correlated with trophic status in both Eastern Plain and Yun-Gui Plateau lakes of China, and the linear relationship was more stable compared to total P (TP), implying that sediment Po may be a superior indicator of trophic status than TP. The Po component, phosphonate accounted for only 0.4% or less of Po, while the monoester P and diester P, accounted for 2–24% and 0.5–5% of Po, respectively, and were the main factors causing Po to increase with the increasing trophic status. The factors were closely related to the enhanced organic sewage load and intensification of contemporary sedimentation of phytoplankton. As trophic status increased, sediment Po might integrate into larger amounts of aromatic substances and functional groups, which could enhance the stability of Po in sediments. Furthermore, sediments from lakes with higher trophic status exhibited a higher degree of humification and molecular weights, which impart resistance to biodegradation, and therefore, reduced the risk of sediment Po release. However, the massive accumulation of bioavailable Po (monoester and diester P) allows possible degradation, supporting algal growth and maintains eutrophic status because there is abundant alkaline phosphatase in eutrophic lakes. Thus, to control lake eutrophication more effectively, targeted actions are urgently required to reduce the accumulation and degradation of Po in lake sediment

A review of relative pollen productivity estimates from temperate china for pollen-based quantitative reconstruction of past plant cover

Model-based quantitative reconstruction of past plant cover in Europe has shown great potential for: (i) testing hypotheses related to Holocene vegetation dynamics, biodiversity, and their relationships with climate and land use; (ii) studying long term interactions between climate and land use. Similar model-based quantitative reconstruction of plant cover in China has been restricted due to the lack of standardized datasets of existing estimates of relative pollen productivity (RPP). This study presents the first synthesis of all RPP values available to date for 39 major plant taxa from temperate China and proposes standardized RPP datasets that can be used for model-based quantitative reconstructions of past plant cover using fossil pollen records for the region. We review 11 RPP studies in temperate China based on modern pollen and related vegetation data around the pollen samples. The study areas include meadow, steppe and desert vegetation, various woodland types, and cultural landscapes. We evaluate the strategies of each study in terms of selection of study areas and distribution of study sites; pollen- and vegetation-data collection in field; vegetation-data collection from satellite images and vegetation maps; and data analysis. We compare all available RPP estimates, select values based on precise rules and calculate mean RPP estimates. We propose two standardized RPP datasets for 31 (Alt1) and 29 (Alt2) plant taxa. The ranking of mean RPPs (Alt-2) relative to Poaceae (= 1) for eight major taxa is: Artemisia (21) > Pinus (18.4) > Betula (12.5) > Castanea (11.5) > Elaeagnaceae (8.8) > Juglans (7.5) > Compositae (4.5) > Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae (4). We conclude that although RPPs are comparable between Europe and China for some genera and families, they can differ very significantly, e.g., Artemisia, Compositae, and Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae. For some taxa, we present the first RPP estimates e.g. Castanea, Elaeagnaceae, and Juglans. The proposed standardized RPP datasets are essential for model-based reconstructions of past plant cover using fossil pollen records from temperate China