Offline reconstruction of missing vehicle trajectory data from 3D LIDAR

LIDAR has become an important part of many autonomous vehicles with its advantages on distance measurement and obstacle detection. LIDAR produces point clouds which have important information about surrounding environment. In this paper, we collected trajectory data on a two lane urban road using a Velodyne VLP-16 Lidar. Due to dynamic nature of data collection and limited range of the sensor, some of these trajectories have missing points or gaps. In this paper, we propose a novel method for recovery of missing vehicle trajectory data points using microscopic traffic flow models. While short gaps (less than 5 seconds) can be recovered with simple linear regression, and longer gaps are recovered with the proposed method that makes use of car following models calibrated by assigning weights to known points based on proximity to the gaps. Newell's, Pipes, IDM and Gipps' car following models are calibrated and tested with the ground truth trajectory data from LIDAR and NGSIM I-80 dataset. Gipps' calibrated model yielded the best result

Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Lagrangian Control: Improving Freeway Bottleneck Throughput Via Variable Speed Limit

Connected vehicles (CVs) will enable new applications to improve traffic flow. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate how reinforcement learning (RL) control for the variable speed limit (VSL) through CVs can be generalized to improve traffic flow at different freeway bottlenecks. Three different bottlenecks are investigated: A sag curve, where the gradient changes from negative to positive values causes a reduction in the roadway capacity and congestion; a lane reduction, where three lanes merge to two lanes and cause congestion, and finally, an on-ramp, where increase in demand on a multilane freeway causes capacity drop. An RL algorithm is developed and implemented in a simulation environment for controlling a VSL in the upstream to manipulate the inflow of vehicles to the bottleneck on a freeway to minimize delays and increase the throughput. CVs are assumed to receive VSL messages through Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (I2V) communications technologies. Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C) algorithms are developed for each bottleneck to determine optimal VSL policies. Through these RL control algorithms, the speed of CVs are manipulated in the upstream of the bottleneck to avoid or minimize congestion. Various market penetration rates for CVs are considered in the simulations. It is demonstrated that the RL algorithm is able to adapt to stochastic arrivals of CVs and achieve significant improvements even at low market penetration rates of CVs, and the RL algorithm is able to find solution for all three bottlenecks. The results also show that the RL-based solutions outperform feedback-control-based solutions

Variable Speed Limit Control at SAG Curves Through Connected Vehicles: Implications of Alternative Communications and Sensing Technologies

Connected vehicles (CVs) will enable new applications to improve traffic flow. This study’s focus is to investigate how potential implementation of variable speed limit (VSL) through different types of communication and sensing technologies on CVs may improve traffic flow at a sag curve. At sag curves, the gradient changes from negative to positive values which causes a reduction in the roadway capacity and congestion. A VSL algorithm is developed and implemented in a simulation environment for controlling the inflow of vehicles to a sag curve on a freeway to minimize delays and increase throughput. Both vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) options for CVs are investigated while implementing the VSL control strategy in a simulation environment. Through a feedback control algorithm, the speed of CVs are manipulated in the upstream of the sag curve to avoid the formation of bottlenecks caused by the change in longitudinal driver behavior. A modified version of the intelligent driver model (IDM) is used to simulate driving behavior on the sag curve. Depending on the traffic density at a sag curve, the feedback control algorithm adjusts the approach speeds of CVs so that the throughput of the sag curve is maximized. A meta-heuristic algorithm is employed to determine the critical control parameters. Various market penetration rates for CVs are considered in the simulations for three alternative communications and sensing technologies. It is demonstrated that for higher Market Penetration Rates (MPR) the performance is the same for all three scenarios which means there is no need for infrastructure-based sensing when the MPR is high enough. The results demonstrate that not only the MPR of CVs but also how CVs are distributed in the traffic stream is critical for system performance. While MPR could be high, uneven distribution of CVs and lack of CVs at the critical time periods as congestion is building up may cause a deterioration in system performance

Cutaneous kaposi sarcoma during treatment with steroids and rituximab for pemphigus foliaceus

Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is an autoimmune disease with bullous manifestations on the surface of the skin that requires long-term administration of immunosuppressive medications. Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is one of the diseases that manifest in people with innate or acquired immune systems deficiency with the direct involvement of HHV-8 and causes polypoid skin lesions. This study was conducted on a 78-year-old man with a history of PF treated with immunosuppressive drugs. In this patient, a secondary polypoid lesion had been created around the anus and the results of pathological tests had confirmed the KS

Advanced glycation end products’ response to resistance training in postmenopausal women with type ii diabetes

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of resistance training (RT) on advanced glycation end products (AGEs) concentrations in postmenopausal women with type II diabetes. Postmenopausal female patients from the Sanandaj Diabetes Association, aged 48-58 years, were randomly assigned to either experimental (n=7) or control (n=8) group. The experimental group has performed a routine program of resistance training for eight weeks, three sessions per week with 70% of one repetition maximum. The control group did not have any type of exercise program during the study. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures showed that advanced glycation end products’ values in the experimental group (compared with the pre-test) was significantly reduced (p=.014). Similarly, AGEs concentrations were significantly lower in the post-test in the experimental group compared with the control group (p=.000). In addition, fasting blood glucose (FBS) levels in the experimental group after 8-week resistance training was associated with a significant reduction (p=.005). The findings suggest that eight weeks of RT reduced blood glucose concentrations, which lead to decreased levels of advanced glycation end products in postmenopausal women with type II diabetes

The Effect of Three-Dimensional Earthquake P-Wave Propagational Speed on Buried Continues Straight Steel Pipelines

The analysis and design of gas and oil pipelines is of importance given the fact that they are long and go through lands. They are laid besides the faults and sometimes cross the faults. Various studies have already investigated the design process and the damages imposed on the pipelines crossing the faults. The aim of this research is studying the effect of longitudinal wave propagation method on the amount of nonlinear strains of pipeline. In addition, it investigates the effect of wave propagation speed as well as the simplified hypothesis of the same effect of the wave on the pipeline. Many researchers study on modal analyses or two-dimensional analyses. In this paper used three-dimensional modeling with propagational P-wave. It should be mentioned that analyses carried out on both clayey and sandy soil with different propagational speed in each of them. The accuracy of the proposed analyses is validated by the comparison of the proposed solution results with some existing solutions.  According to the analyses, it became obvious that in dense soil the amounts of strain are less than soft soil. This amounts to 71 per cent in a sinusoidal wave. The average of the values of the reduced strain in different type of soil could reduce the amount of strain to be considered equal to 0.592 for clayey soils, and equal to 0.61 for sandy soil

The Role of Language Barriers in Cancer Screening & Diagnosis

This systematic review looks at studies assessing the role limited English proficiency may play in the receipt of screening and how that may affect the stage at which an LEP patient is diagnosed. By conducting two individual searches, the first examining the relationship between language barriers and cancer screening and the second between screening and stage of diagnosis, this review serves to show the correlation between language barriers and stage of diagnosis, which is a critical but understudied topic. Made by searching through multiple databases, sifting through the results, and reading dozens of abstracts, this review is compiled of studies that both met the inclusion criteria and weren’t greatly influenced by other factors besides language. It was made to show the patterns that exist in health care and reveal the disparities that people with language barriers may face in receipt of cancer screening and time of cancer diagnosis.Biology and Biochemistry, Department ofHonors Colleg

The Effect of P-Wave Propagation on the Seismic Behavior of Steel Pipelines

Underground structures perceived as one the most vital infrastructures,which include a variety of tunnels, subway lines,gas, oil and water pipe. Plenty of studies devoted to the investigationof the effect of wave propagation method on the seismicbehavior of steel pipelines. It should be mentioned thatanalyses have been carried out on both clayey and sandy soilwith different propagation speed in each of them. The aim ofthis research is the investigation of the effect of longitudinalp-wave propagation method on the amount of nonlinear strainsof pipeline with different way such as Pipe and Psi element or2D modelling of soil. It became evident that the amounts ofMaximum tension strain produced in the pipe have the maximumdifference, equaling 3.4 per cent. In addition, it investigatesthe effect of frequency of input motion on nonlinearstrains and the effect of frequency content in the results. &nbsp