Keeping the driver in the loop through semi-automated or manual lane changes in conditionally automated driving

In the current study we investigated if drivers of conditionally automated vehicles can be kept in the loop through lane change maneuvers. More specifically, we examined whether involving drivers in lane-changes during a conditionally automated ride can influence critical take-over behavior and keep drivers' gaze on the road. In a repeated measures driving simulator study (n = 85), drivers drove the same route three times, each trial containing four lane changes that were all either (1) automated, (2) semi-automated or (3) manual. Each ride ended with a critical take-over situation that could be solved by braking and/or steering. Critical take-over reactions were analyzed with a linear mixed model and parametric accelerated failure time survival analysis. As expected, semi-automated and manual lane changes throughout the ride led to 13.5% and 17.0% faster maximum deceleration compared to automated lane changes. Additionally, semi-automated and manual lane changes improved the quality of the take-over by significantly decreasing standard deviation of the steering wheel angle. Unexpectedly, drivers in the semi-automated condition were slowest to start the braking maneuver. This may have been caused by the drivers' confusion as to how the semi-automated system would react. Additionally, the percentage gaze off-the-road was significantly decreased by the semi-automated (6.0%) and manual (6.6%) lane changes. Taken together, the results suggest that semi-automated and manual transitions may be an alarm-free instrument which developers could use to help maintain drivers' perception-action loop and improve automated driving safety

Colorectal liver metastases: Surgery versus thermal ablation (COLLISION) - a phase III single-blind prospective randomized controlled trial

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) are widely accepted techniques to eliminate small unresectable colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). Although previous studies labelled thermal ablation inferior to surgical resection, the apparent selection bias when comparing patients with unresectable disease to surgical candidates, the superior safety profile, and the competitive overall survival results for the more recent reports mandate the setup of a randomized controlled trial. The objective of the COLLISION trial is to prove non-inferiority of thermal ablation compared to hepatic resection in patients with at least one resectable and ablatable CRLM and no extrahepatic disease. Methods: In this two-arm, single-blind multi-center phase-III clinical trial, six hundred and eighteen patients with at least one CRLM (≤3cm) will be included to undergo either surgical resection or thermal ablation of appointed target lesion(s) (≤3cm). Primary endpoint is OS (overall survival, intention-to-treat analysis). Main secondary endpoints are overall disease-free survival (DFS), time to progression (TTP), time to local progression (TTLP), primary and assisted technique efficacy (PTE, ATE), procedural morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay, assessment of pain and quality of life (QoL), cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and quality-adjusted life years (QALY). Discussion: If thermal ablation proves to be non-inferior in treating lesions ≤3cm, a switch in treatment-method may lead to a reduction of the post-procedural morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay and incremental costs without compromising oncological outcome for patients with CRLM. Trial registration:NCT03088150 , January 11th 2017

Repeated conditionally automated driving on the road: How do drivers leave the loop over time?

The goal of this on the road driving study was to investigate how drivers adapt their behavior when driving with conditional vehicle automation (SAE L3) on different occasions. Specifically, we focused on changes in how fast drivers took over control from automation and how their gaze off the road changed over time. On each of three consecutive days, 21 participants drove for 50 min, in a conditionally automated vehicle (Wizard of Oz methodology), on a typical German commuting highway. Over these rides the take-over behavior and gaze behavior were analyzed. The data show that drivers’ reactions to non-critical, system initiated, take-overs took about 5.62 s and did not change within individual rides, but on average became 0.72 s faster over the three rides. After these self-paced take-over requests a final urgent take-over request was issued at the end of the third ride. In this scenario participants took over rapidly with an average of 5.28 s. This urgent take-over time was not found to be different from the self-paced take-over requests in the same ride. Regarding gaze behavior, participants’ overall longest glance off the road and the percentage of time looked off the road increased within each ride, but stayed stable over the three rides. Taken together, our results suggest that drivers regularly leave the loop by gazing off the road, but multiple exposures to take-over situations in automated driving allow drivers to come back into loop faster

Diaphragm fiber strength is reduced in critically ill patients and restored by a troponin activator

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Regulated Disruption of Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans Reveals New Functions in Feeding and Embryogenesis

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP(3)) is an important second messenger in animal cells and is central to a wide range of cellular responses. The major intracellular activity of IP(3) is to regulate release of Ca(2+) from intracellular stores through IP(3) receptors (IP(3)Rs). We describe a system for the transient disruption of IP(3) signaling in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. The IP(3) binding domain of the C. elegans IP(3)R, ITR-1, was expressed from heat shock-induced promoters in live animals. This results in a dominant-negative effect caused by the overexpressed IP(3) binding domain acting as an IP(3) “sponge.” Disruption of IP(3) signaling resulted in disrupted defecation, a phenotype predicted by previous genetic studies. This approach also identified two new IP(3)-mediated processes. First, the up-regulation of pharyngeal pumping in response to food is dependent on IP(3) signaling. RNA-mediated interference studies and analysis of itr-1 mutants show that this process is also IP(3)R dependent. Second, the tissue-specific expression of the dominant-negative construct enabled us to circumvent the sterility associated with loss of IP(3) signaling through the IP(3)R and thus determine that IP(3)-mediated signaling is required for multiple steps in embryogenesis, including cytokinesis and gastrulation