Laboratory Analysis of Risky Driving at 0.05% and 0.08% Blood Alcohol Concentration

Background—The public health costs associated with alcohol-related traffic crashes are a continuing problem for society. One harm reduction strategy has been to employ per se limits for blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) at which drivers can legally operate motor vehicles. This limit is currently 0.08% in all 50 US states. Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board proposed lowering the legal limit to 0.05 % (NTSB, 2013). While research has well-validated the ability of alcohol to impair driving performance and heighten crash-risk at these BACs, relatively little is known about the degree to which alcohol might increase drivers’ risk-taking. Methods—Risk-taking was examined in 20 healthy adults who were each tested in a driving simulator following placebo and two doses of alcohol calculated to yield peak BACs of 0.08% and 0.05%, the respective current and proposed BAC limits. The drive test emphasized risk-taking by placing participants in a multiple-lane, high-traffic environment. The primary measure was how close drivers maneuvered relative to other vehicles on the road (i.e., time-to-collision, TTC). Results—Alcohol increased risk-taking by decreasing drivers’ TTC at the 0.08% target BAC relative to placebo. Moreover, risk-taking at the 0.05% target was less than risk-taking at 0.08% target BAC. Conclusions—These findings provide evidence that reducing the legal BAC limit in the USA to 0.05% would decrease risk-taking among drivers. A clearer understanding of the dose-response relationship between various aspects of driving behaviors, such as drivers’ accepted level of risk while driving, is an important step to improving traffic safety

The Use of Rodent Models to Investigate Host-Bacteria Interactions Related to Periodontal Diseases

Even though animal models have limitations they are often superior to in vitro or clinical studies in addressing mechanistic questions and serve as an essential link between hypotheses and human patients. Periodontal disease can be viewed as a process that involves four major stages: bacterial colonization, invasion, induction of a destructive host response in connective tissue and a repair process that reduces the extent of tissue breakdown. Animal studies should be evaluated in terms of their capacity to test specific hypotheses rather than their fidelity to all aspects of periodontal disease initiation and progression. Thus, each of the models described below can be adapted to test discrete components of these four major steps, but not all of them. This review describes five different animal models that are appropriate for examining components of host-bacteria interactions that can lead to breakdown of hard and soft connective tissue or conditions that limit its repair as follows: the mouse calvarial model, murine oral gavage models with or without adoptive transfer of human lymphocytes, rat ligature model and rat Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans feeding model

A self-interacting partially directed walk subject to a force

We consider a directed walk model of a homopolymer (in two dimensions) which is self-interacting and can undergo a collapse transition, subject to an applied tensile force. We review and interpret all the results already in the literature concerning the case where this force is in the preferred direction of the walk. We consider the force extension curves at different temperatures as well as the critical-force temperature curve. We demonstrate that this model can be analysed rigorously for all key quantities of interest even when there may not be explicit expressions for these quantities available. We show which of the techniques available can be extended to the full model, where the force has components in the preferred direction and the direction perpendicular to this. Whilst the solution of the generating function is available, its analysis is far more complicated and not all the rigorous techniques are available. However, many results can be extracted including the location of the critical point which gives the general critical-force temperature curve. Lastly, we generalise the model to a three-dimensional analogue and show that several key properties can be analysed if the force is restricted to the plane of preferred directions.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure

Adjustable Prone Trolley Design for People Suffering from Spinal Cord Injuries in Nepal

For people suffering from spinal cord injuries, it is important to stay active. However, with spinal cord injuries, the use of a wheelchair isn’t feasible. These patients require a prone trolley. A prone trolley is a horizontal pad with four wheels that a patient can maneuver and control while lying in a prone position. Our partner, International Nepal Fellowship (INF), deals directly with patients who suffer from spinal cord injuries on a daily basis. INF, a Christian, medical organization, manages a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal which specializes in treating patients with spinal cord injuries. The Nepal Prone Trolley Team’s goal is to provide our partner with a sustainable prone trolley design and create the required manufacturing documentation to enable them to produce the prone trolleys in country at their Green Pastures hospital. The team began our work by researching what a prone trolley is, how it functions and what is currently available. During the research, the team discovered that there weren’t many examples of a manually powered prone trolley or critical dimensions for ergonomics for manually powered trolleys. This drove the team to develop testing methods and preliminary designs specifically for INF. Various basic designs were considered, but, through communication with INF, a single design was chosen. Computer modeling of this design was used to decrease the overall weight of the trolley and simplify the frame. With most of the design finalized, the team is ready to begin prototyping next semester.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2021/1012/thumbnail.jp

Renewing Criminalized and Hegemonic Cultural Landscapes

The Mafia's long historical pedigree in Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy, has empowered the Mafioso as a notorious, uncontested, and hegemonic figure. The counter-cultural resistance against the mafiosi culture began to be institutionalized in the early 1990s. Today, Libera Terra is the largest civil society organization in the country that uses the lands confiscated from the Mafia as a space of cultural repertoire to realize its ideals. Deploying labor force through volunteer participation, producing biological fruits and vegetables, and providing information to the students on the fields are the principal cultural practices of this struggle. The confiscated lands make the Italian experience of anti-Mafia resistance a unique example by connecting the land with the ideals of cultural change. The sociocultural resistance of Libera Terra conveys a political message through these practices and utters that the Mafia is not invincible. This study draws the complex panorama of the Mafia and anti-Mafia movement that uses the ‘confiscated lands’ as cultural and public spaces for resistance and socio-cultural change. In doing so, this article sheds new light on the relationship between rural criminology and crime prevention policies in Southern Italy by demonstrating how community development practice of Libera Terra changes the meaning of landscape through iconographic symbolism and ethnographic performance

Control of hypersonic aerodynamic forces with surface blowing

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76211/1/AIAA-10846-311.pd

Evidence of the Generation of Isosaccharinic Acids and Their Subsequent Degradation by Local Microbial Consortia within Hyper-Alkaline Contaminated Soils, with Relevance to Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal

The contamination of surface environments with hydroxide rich wastes leads to the formation of high pH (>11.0) soil profiles. One such site is a legacy lime works at Harpur Hill, Derbyshire where soil profile indicated in-situ pH values up to pH 12. Soil and porewater profiles around the site indicated clear evidence of the presence of the α and β stereoisomers of isosaccharinic acid (ISA) resulting from the anoxic, alkaline degradation of cellulosic material. ISAs are of particular interest with regards to the disposal of cellulosic materials contained within the intermediate level waste (ILW) inventory of the United Kingdom, where they may influence radionuclide mobility via complexation events occurring within a geological disposal facility (GDF) concept. The mixing of uncontaminated soils with the alkaline leachate of the site resulted in ISA generation, where the rate of generation in-situ is likely to be dependent upon the prevailing temperature of the soil. Microbial consortia present in the uncontaminated soil were capable of surviving conditions imposed by the alkaline leachate and demonstrated the ability to utilise ISAs as a carbon source. Leachate-contaminated soil was sub-cultured in a cellulose degradation product driven microcosm operating at pH 11, the consortia present were capable of the degradation of ISAs and the generation of methane from the resultant H2/CO2 produced from fermentation processes. Following microbial community analysis, fermentation processes appear to be predominated by Clostridia from the genus Alkaliphilus sp, with methanogenesis being attributed to Methanobacterium and Methanomassiliicoccus sp. The study is the first to identify the generation of ISA within an anthropogenic environment and advocates the notion that microbial activity within an ILW-GDF is likely to influence the impact of ISAs upon radionuclide migration

Structural changes to the uterus of the dwarf ornate wobbegong shark (Orectolobus ornatus) during pregnancy

Embryos of the viviparous dwarf ornate wobbegong shark (Orectolobus ornatus) develop without a placenta, unattached to the uterine wall of their mother. Here, we present the first light microscopy study of the uterus of O. ornatus throughout pregnancy. At the beginning of pregnancy, the uterine luminal epithelium and underlying connective tissue become folded to form uterine ridges. By mid to late pregnancy, the luminal surface is extensively folded and long luminal uterine villi are abundant. Compared to the nonpregnant uterus, uterine vasculature is increased during pregnancy. Additionally, as pregnancy progresses the uterine epithelium is attenuated so that there is minimal uterine tissue separating large maternal blood vessels from the fluid that surrounds developing embryos. We conclude that the uterus of O. ornatus undergoes an extensive morphological transformation during pregnancy. These uterine modifications likely support developing embryos via embryonic respiratory gas exchange, waste removal, water balance, and mineral transfer

Private trade and monopoly structures : the East India Companies and the commodity trade to Europe in the eighteenth century

Our research is about the trade in material goods from Asia to Europe over this period, and its impact on Europe’s consumer and industrial cultures. It entails a comparative study of Europe’s East India Companies and the private trade from Asia over the period. The commodities trade was heavily dependent on private trade. The historiography to date has left a blind spot in this area, concentrating instead on corruption and malfeasance. Taking a global history approach we investigate the trade in specific consumer goods in many qualities and varieties that linked merchant communities and stimulated information flows. We set out how private trade functioned alongside and in connection with the various European East India companies; we investigate how this changed over time, how it drew on the Company infrastructure, and how it took the risks and developed new and niche markets for specific Asian commodities that the Companies could not sustain