Familiarization with a Forward Collision Warning on driving simulator: cost and benefit on driversystem interactions and trust

International audienceIntroducing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) into the vehicle could improve drivers’ comfort and reduce road crashes. However, suitable methods are required to study driver/system interactions. In fact, ADAS generate critical use cases, i.e. situations where alarms, or absence of alarms, can be negative for safety. The present study aimed at evaluating the impact of getting familiar, by means of a driving simulator, with critical situations when using the Forward Collision Warning system (FCW). We hypothesized that experiencing the system’s function in critical situations would improve drivers’ performance and their trust in the FCW. We compared judgments and driving performance of three independent groups: a “control group” where drivers did not use the FCW, an “unfamiliarized group” where drivers used the FCW without having been familiarized with the system, and a “familiarized group” where drivers used the FCW after having been familiarized. Results showed that familiarization made driver/system interactions more effective and safer. Moreover, familiarized drivers rated the system more positively than unfamiliarized drivers. However, familiarization decreased drivers’ self-confidence and did not prevent from haste when overtaking slow vehicles. We discussed the relevance of using a driving simulator in FCW’s studies and the possibility to transfer skills and knowledge to field operational tests. Finally, we proposed possible improvements to make the familiarization with the system still more effective.Introduire des systèmes avancés d’aide au conducteur dans le véhicule pourrait augmenter le confort des conducteurs et réduire le nombre d’accidents. Toutefois, des méthodes d’évaluations adaptées sont nécessaires à l’étude des interactions conducteur/système. Les systèmes d’aide génèrent effectivement des cas d’usage critiques, i.e. des situations ou les alertes, ou l’absence d’alertes, peuvent être négatives pour la sécurité. L’objectif de la recherche était d’évaluer l’impact de la familiarisation avec les cas critiques d’usage du Forward Collision Warning (FCW) sur simulateur de conduite. Nous avons testé l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’expérience du fonctionnement du FCW dans des situations critiques d’usage augmente la performance de conduite et la confiance des conducteurs dans le système. Nous avons comparé les jugements et la performance de conduite de trois groupes expérimentaux : un groupe contrôle où les conducteurs n’utilisaient pas le FCW, un groupe « non familiarisé » où les conducteurs utilisaient le système sans avoir été familiarisés et un groupe « familiarisé » où les conducteurs utilisaient le système après avoir été familiarisés. Les résultats montrent que la familiarisation rend les interactions conducteur/système plus efficaces et plus sûres. Par ailleurs, les conducteurs familiarisés ont des opinions plus positives sur le FCW comparé aux non familiarisés. Néanmoins, la familiarisation diminue la confiance des participants dans leur capacité de conduite. De plus, elle ne permet pas d’éviter que les conducteurs dépassent de façon trop précipitée les véhicules lents. Nous discutons la pertinence du simulateur pour l’étude du FCW et la possibilité de transfert des connaissances à la conduite sur route réelle. Finalement, nous proposons des améliorations pour rendre la familiarisation avec le système plus efficace

Familiarization with a Forward Collision Warning on driving simulator: cost and benefit on driversystem interactions and trust

Introducing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) into the vehicle could improve drivers’ comfort and reduce road crashes. However, suitable methods are required to study driver/system interactions. In fact, ADAS generate critical use cases, i.e. situations where alarms, or absence of alarms, can be negative for safety. The present study aimed at evaluating the impact of getting familiar, by means of a driving simulator, with critical situations when using the Forward Collision Warning system (FCW). We hypothesized that experiencing the system’s function in critical situations would improve drivers’ performance and their trust in the FCW. We compared judgments and driving performance of three independent groups: a “control group” where drivers did not use the FCW, an “unfamiliarized group” where drivers used the FCW without having been familiarized with the system, and a “familiarized group” where drivers used the FCW after having been familiarized. Results showed that familiarization made driver/system interactions more effective and safer. Moreover, familiarized drivers rated the system more positively than unfamiliarized drivers. However, familiarization decreased drivers’ self-confidence and did not prevent from haste when overtaking slow vehicles. We discussed the relevance of using a driving simulator in FCW’s studies and the possibility to transfer skills and knowledge to field operational tests. Finally, we proposed possible improvements to make the familiarization with the system still more effective.Introduire des systèmes avancés d’aide au conducteur dans le véhicule pourrait augmenter le confort des conducteurs et réduire le nombre d’accidents. Toutefois, des méthodes d’évaluations adaptées sont nécessaires à l’étude des interactions conducteur/système. Les systèmes d’aide génèrent effectivement des cas d’usage critiques, i.e. des situations ou les alertes, ou l’absence d’alertes, peuvent être négatives pour la sécurité. L’objectif de la recherche était d’évaluer l’impact de la familiarisation avec les cas critiques d’usage du Forward Collision Warning (FCW) sur simulateur de conduite. Nous avons testé l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’expérience du fonctionnement du FCW dans des situations critiques d’usage augmente la performance de conduite et la confiance des conducteurs dans le système. Nous avons comparé les jugements et la performance de conduite de trois groupes expérimentaux : un groupe contrôle où les conducteurs n’utilisaient pas le FCW, un groupe « non familiarisé » où les conducteurs utilisaient le système sans avoir été familiarisés et un groupe « familiarisé » où les conducteurs utilisaient le système après avoir été familiarisés. Les résultats montrent que la familiarisation rend les interactions conducteur/système plus efficaces et plus sûres. Par ailleurs, les conducteurs familiarisés ont des opinions plus positives sur le FCW comparé aux non familiarisés. Néanmoins, la familiarisation diminue la confiance des participants dans leur capacité de conduite. De plus, elle ne permet pas d’éviter que les conducteurs dépassent de façon trop précipitée les véhicules lents. Nous discutons la pertinence du simulateur pour l’étude du FCW et la possibilité de transfert des connaissances à la conduite sur route réelle. Finalement, nous proposons des améliorations pour rendre la familiarisation avec le système plus efficace

Endothelial-Smooth Muscle Cell Interactions in a Shear-Exposed Intimal Hyperplasia on-a-Dish Model to Evaluate Therapeutic Strategies

Intimal hyperplasia (IH) represents a major challenge following cardiovascular interventions. While mechanisms are poorly understood, the inefficient preventive methods incentivize the search for novel therapies. A vessel-on-a-dish platform is presented, consisting of direct-contact cocultures with human primary endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) exposed to both laminar pulsatile and disturbed flow on an orbital shaker. With contractile SMCs sitting below a confluent EC layer, a model that successfully replicates the architecture of a quiescent vessel wall is created. In the novel IH model, ECs are seeded on synthetic SMCs at low density, mimicking reendothelization after vascular injury. Over 3 days of coculture, ECs transition from a network conformation to confluent 2D islands, as promoted by pulsatile flow, resulting in a "defected" EC monolayer. In defected regions, SMCs incorporated plasma fibronectin into fibers, increased proliferation, and formed multilayers, similarly to IH in vivo. These phenomena are inhibited under confluent EC layers, supporting therapeutic approaches that focus on endothelial regeneration rather than inhibiting proliferation, as illustrated in a proof-of-concept experiment with Paclitaxel. Thus, this in vitro system offers a new tool to study EC-SMC communication in IH pathophysiology, while providing an easy-to-use translational disease model platform for low-cost and high-content therapeutic development. Keywords: drug screening; endothelial cell networks; flow; in vitro coculture model; vascular injury

Cross-correlating Planck tSZ with RCSLenS weak lensing: implications for cosmology and AGN feedback

We present measurements of the spatial mapping between (hot) baryons and the total matter in the Universe, via the cross-correlation between the thermal Sunyaev–Zeldovich (tSZ)map from Planck and the weak gravitational lensing maps from theRed Cluster Sequence Lensing Survey (RCSLenS). The cross-correlations are performed on the map level where all the sources (including diffuse intergalactic gas) contribute to the signal. We consider two configurationspace correlation function estimators, ξ y–κ and ξ y–γt , and a Fourier-space estimator, Cy–κ , in our analysis. We detect a significant correlation out to 3◦ of angular separation on the sky. Based on statistical noise only, we can report 13σ and 17σ detections of the cross-correlation using the configuration-space y–κ and y–γ t estimators, respectively. Including a heuristic estimate of the sampling variance yields a detection significance of 7σ and 8σ, respectively. A similar level of detection is obtained from the Fourier-space estimator, Cy–κ . As each estimator probes different dynamical ranges, their combination improves the significance of the detection. We compare our measurements with predictions from the cosmo-OverWhelmingly Large Simulations suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, where different galactic feedback models are implemented. We find that a model with considerable active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback that removes large quantities of hot gas from galaxy groups and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7-yr best-fitting cosmological parameters provides the bestmatch to the measurements. All baryonic models in the context of a Planck cosmology overpredict the observed signal. Similar cosmological conclusions are drawn when we employ a halo model with the observed ‘universal’ pressure profile

Influence of Age, Circadian and Homeostatic Processes on Inhibitory Motor Control: A Go/Nogo Task Study

INTRODUCTION: The contribution of circadian system and sleep pressure influences on executive performance as a function of age has never been studied. The aim of our study was to determine the age-related evolution of inhibitory motor control (i.e., ability to suppress a prepotent motor response) and sustained attention under controlled high or low sleep pressure conditions. METHODS: 14 healthy young males (mean age = 23 ± 2.7; 20-29 years) and 11 healthy older males (mean age = 68 ± 1.4; 66-70 years) were recruited. The volunteers were placed for 40 hours in "constant routine". In the "Sleep Deprivation SD" condition, the volunteer was kept awake for 40 hours to obtain a high sleep pressure condition interacting with the circadian process. In the "NAP" condition, the volunteer adopted a short wake/sleep cycle (150/75 min) resulting in a low sleep pressure condition to counteract the homeostatic pressure and investigate the circadian process. Performances were evaluated by a simple reaction time task and a Go/Nogo task repeated every 3H45. RESULTS: In the SD condition, inhibitory motor control (i.e., ability to inhibit an inappropriate response) was impaired by extended wakefulness equally in both age groups (P<.01). Sustained attention (i.e. ability to respond accurately to appropriate stimuli) on the executive task decreased under sleep deprivation in both groups, and even more in young participants (P<.05). In the NAP condition, age did not influence the time course of inhibitory motor control or sustained attention. In the SD and NAP conditions, older participants had a less fluctuating reaction time performance across time of day than young participants (P<.001). CONCLUSION: Aging could be a protective factor against the effects of extended wakefulness especially on sustained attention failures due to an attenuation of sleep pressure with duration of time awake

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR&nbsp;=&nbsp;2.05, 95%CI&nbsp;=&nbsp;1.39–3.02, p&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.42, 95%CI&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.18–0.99, p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe