Development of Degree-of-Priority Based Control Strategy for Emergency Vehicle Preemption Operation

This paper proposes a degree-of-priority based control strategy for emergency vehicle preemption operation to decrease the impacts of emergency vehicles on normal traffic. The proposed model features its effectiveness to the following three aspects: (1) a multilayer fuzzy model was established to determine the degree-of-priority based on emergency vehicle preemption demand intensity and preemption influence intensity; (2) for emergency vehicles with proper classification, a travel time estimation model for emergency traffic was formulated, an optimal emergency route determines model based on the level of priority of emergency events, and the emergency vehicle travel time was developed to minimize evacuation time as well as minimize the adverse impacts of preemption on normal traffic; and (3) a conditional traffic signals priority control method at each intersection of the evacuation route was built, so that traffic queue at each intersection can be cleared before the arrival of emergency vehicles. A simulation model based on field data was developed, and the performance of the proposed strategy was compared with the conventional local detection based method under the microscopic simulation model. The results validated the efficiency of the proposed strategy in terms of minimizing the delay of emergency vehicles and reducing adverse impacts on normal traffic

Generating and Evaluating Tests for K-12 Students with Language Model Simulations: A Case Study on Sentence Reading Efficiency

Developing an educational test can be expensive and time-consuming, as each item must be written by experts and then evaluated by collecting hundreds of student responses. Moreover, many tests require multiple distinct sets of questions administered throughout the school year to closely monitor students' progress, known as parallel tests. In this study, we focus on tests of silent sentence reading efficiency, used to assess students' reading ability over time. To generate high-quality parallel tests, we propose to fine-tune large language models (LLMs) to simulate how previous students would have responded to unseen items. With these simulated responses, we can estimate each item's difficulty and ambiguity. We first use GPT-4 to generate new test items following a list of expert-developed rules and then apply a fine-tuned LLM to filter the items based on criteria from psychological measurements. We also propose an optimal-transport-inspired technique for generating parallel tests and show the generated tests closely correspond to the original test's difficulty and reliability based on crowdworker responses. Our evaluation of a generated test with 234 students from grades 2 to 8 produces test scores highly correlated (r=0.93) to those of a standard test form written by human experts and evaluated across thousands of K-12 students.Comment: Accepted to EMNLP 2023 (Main

HMGA2 promotes adipogenesis by activating C/EBPβ-mediated expression of PPARγ

AbstractAdipogenesis is orchestrated by a highly ordered network of transcription factors including peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) and CCAAT-enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) family proteins. High mobility group protein AT-hook 2 (HMGA2), an architectural transcription factor, has been reported to play an essential role in preadipocyte proliferation, and its overexpression has been implicated in obesity in mice and humans. However, the direct role of HMGA2 in regulating the gene expression program during adipogenesis is not known. Here, we demonstrate that HMGA2 is required for C/EBPβ-mediated expression of PPARγ, and thus promotes adipogenic differentiation. We observed a transient but marked increase of Hmga2 transcript at an early phase of differentiation of mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Importantly, Hmga2 knockdown greatly impaired adipocyte formation, while its overexpression promoted the formation of mature adipocytes. We found that HMGA2 colocalized with C/EBPβ in the nucleus and was required for the recruitment of C/EBPβ to its binding element at the Pparγ2 promoter. Accordingly, HMGA2 and C/EBPβ cooperatively enhanced the Pparγ2 promoter activity. Our results indicate that HMGA2 is an essential constituent of the adipogenic transcription factor network, and thus its function may be affected during the course of obesity

Hydroxy double salts intercalated with Mn(II) complexes as potential contrast agents

A series of Mn(II) aminophosphonate complexes were successfully synthesized and intercalated into the hydroxy double salt [Zn5(OH)8]Cl2·yH2O. Complex incorporation led to an increase in the interlayer spacing from 7.8 to 10–12 Å. Infrared spectroscopy showed the presence of the characteristic vibration peaks of the Mn(II) complexes in the intercalates' spectra, indicating successful incorporation. The complex-loaded composites had somewhat lower proton relaxivities than the pure complexes. Nevertheless, these intercalates may have use as MRI contrast agents for patients with poor kidney function, where traditional Gd(III)-based contrast agents cause severe renal failure

Development and evaluation of a coordinated and conditional bus priority approach

One problem in existing bus priority strategies is that while a decision is being made to grant priority at an intersection, the bus arrival time at the downstream intersections is not considered. Moreover, only strategies for late buses are discussed; the strategies for early buses are seldom studied. This research tests a different bus priority approach, coordinated and conditional bus priority (CCBP). Coordinated, signalized intersection groups are adopted as control objects. Buses are detected one or more cycles before their arrival at the first intersection of the control object. A CCBP, with two kinds of priority strategies (increasing and decreasing bus delay strategies), is proposed. A model was built to generate the optimal combination of priority strategies for intersection groups so that the real delay of buses would be close to the permitted delay defined by the bus operation system. In the field application, the CCBP approach is compared with other two options: no priority and unconditional priority. Significant reductions on bus delay deviation and bus headway deviation were achieved with the use of the CCBP approach. Application of the CCBP approach resulted in only minor increases in total average delay of motor vehicles. The results of the field application studies performed as part of this study suggested that the CCBP approach could be used to decrease bus delay deviation and enhance the reliability of bus service without significantly affecting the delay of other motor vehicles

Methylthio-Aspochalasins from a Marine-Derived Fungus Aspergillus sp.

Two novel aspochalasins, 20-β-methylthio-aspochalsin Q (named as aspochalasin V), (1) and aspochalasin W (2), were isolated from culture broth of Aspergillus sp., which was found in the gut of a marine isopod Ligia oceanica. The structures were determined on the basis of NMR and mass spectral data analysis. This is the first report about methylthio-substituted aspochalasin derivatives. Cytotoxicity against the prostate cancer PC3 cell line and HCT116 cell line was assayed using the MTT method. Apochalasin V showed moderate activity at IC50 values of 30.4 and 39.2 μM, respectively

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Cletus rubidiventris (Heteroptera: Coreidae)

Cletus rubidiventris is a crop pest, especially for rice. This study first reported the complete mitochondrial genome of this species. The total length of mitochondrial genome is 15,590 bp and including 13 PCGs, 22 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes, with 31.8% T, 15.8% C, 41.6% A, and 10.8% G. The overall GC content of the genome is 27%. The mitochondrial genome order, nucleotide composition, and codon usage pattern is similar to C. punctiger. The phylogenetic tree shows that C. rubidiventris belong to the Coreidae

Cluster-Based Hierarchical Model for Urban Transit Hub Location Planning: Formulation, Solution, and Case Study

A cluster-based hierarchical location model for the selection of the proper locations and scales of urban transit hubs was developed with the objective of minimizing the demand-weighted total travel time. As an improvement to previous work, the proposed model has the following unique features: (a) it incorporates a hierarchical hub network topology that uses the concept of hub hierarchy establishment, route categorization, and service zone clustering to capture the critical operational issues for the transit network in an efficient manner and (b) it extends the previous nonhierarchical model to account for the impacts of hubs with various hierarchies as well as their interactions with lane use restrictions. An enhanced set of formulations along with the linearization approach was used to reduce significantly the number of variables and the computing time required to achieve the global optimum. The results of a case study in Suzhou Industrial Park in China revealed that the proposed model and solution method are quite promising for use in the planning of hub locations for the transit network. Sensitivity analysis of the performance of the system was also done to assist planners with the selection of the hierarchical structure and the design of transit routes