Young driver distraction by text messaging: A comparison of the effects of reading and typing text messages in Chinese versus English

Background: Reading and typing text messages while driving seriously impairs driving performance and are prohibited activities in many jurisdictions. Hong Kong is a bilingual society and many people write in both Chinese and English. As the input methods for text messaging in Chinese and English are considerably different, this study used a driving simulator approach to compare the effects of reading and typing Chinese and English text messages on driving performance. Method: The driving performances of 26 participants were monitored under the following conditions: (1) no distraction, (2) reading and typing Chinese text messages, and (3) reading and typing English text messages. The following measures of driving performance were collected under all of the conditions: reaction time (RT), driving lane undulation (DLU), driving speed fluctuation (DSF), and car-following distance (CFD) between test and leading cars. Results: RT, DLU, and DSF were significantly impaired by reading and typing both Chinese and English text messages. Moreover, typing text messages distracted drivers more than reading them. Although the Chinese text messaging input system is more complicated than the English system, the use of Chinese did not cause a significantly different degree of distraction. Conclusion: Both reading and typing text messages while driving should be prohibited regardless of whether Chinese or English is used.postprin

Electric Springs for Reducing Power Imbalance in Three-Phase Power Systems

published_or_final_versio

Use of Smart Loads for Power Quality Improvement

Electric spring (ES) was originally proposed as a distributed demand-side management technology for making noncritical loads adaptive to the availability of intermittent renewable power generation. The second generation of ES, fed with batteries (ES-2) and associated with a noncritical load, can form a new kind of combined smart load and distributed energy storage technology for smart grids. With its four-quadrant operation, ES-2 is able to offer ancillary grid services in addition to its major functions of voltage and frequency regulation. This paper presents the operating principles and the input current control of ES-2 for power quality improvement such as power factor correction and harmonics reduction. The operating principles and the proposed input current control have been verified with the experimental results obtained from a small-scale power grid. Another weak single-phase power system fed by intermittent wind power is set up to prove the combined operation of ES-2 for power quality improvement and ES-1 (ES with capacitor storage) for voltage stabilization. The experimental results show that ES-2 with input current control can carry out power quality improvement as its ancillary function

Extending the Operating Range of Electric Spring using Back-To-Back Converter: Hardware Implementation and Control

This paper presents the first hardware implementation and control of an electric spring based on a back-to-back converter configuration. Because of its ability to provide both active and reactive power compensation, this back-to-back electric spring (ES-B2B) can substantially extend the operating range of the original version of the electric spring (ES-1) and provide enhanced voltage support and suppression functions. The hardware system and control of the ES-B2B have been successfully developed and tested. The experimental results have confirmed the effectiveness of the ES-B2B in supporting and suppressing the mains voltage. Particularly, the voltage suppression ability of the ES-B2B is superior over that of ES-1. The use of ES-B2B in a simulation study of a weak power grid has also been conducted. The ES-B2B has been found to be highly effective in mitigating voltage fluctuation caused by intermittent renewable power generation

Hybrid-DC Electric Springs for DC Voltage Regulation and Harmonic Cancellation in DC Microgrids

DC electric springs (DCES) are emerging technologies for the (i) regulation of mains voltage against the intermittent renewable generations and (ii) harmonic cancellation in dc microgrids. When conventional converter topologies (e.g., half-bridge or full-bridge converter) are adopted as DCES, the battery storage of the DCES has to process both the dc power and the ac harmonic power. The pulsating ac power can severely reduce the lifetime of the battery. To address this issue, a hybrid-DCES (H-DCES) is proposed in this paper to perform (i) and (ii) in a decoupled manner. With a modified topology and control method, the H-DCES can divert the ac current to the ground and retains the function of manipulating noncritical load for dc voltage regulation. The immediate benefits of this H-DCES are the reduction of storage capacity and a prolonged lifetime of the battery. Both the operating principle and the mathematical model of the proposed H-DCES are analyzed in this paper. A prototype of the H-DCES is practically tested in a 48-V dc grid. The experimental results show that the H-DCES can realize the decoupled operation of dc voltage regulation and harmonic cancellation. Simulation studies further demonstrate that the H-DCES requires less storage capacity than its counterparts

Numerical investigation of wave forces on two side-by-side non-identical boxes in close proximity under wave actions

Wave forces on two side-by-side non-identical boxes in close proximity under wave actions are investigated by employing a numerical wave flume based on the OpenFOAM® package. The similarity and discrepancy of hydrodynamic behavior between the wave response in the narrow gap and the wave forces on the boxes are the focus of the present study. Around resonant frequencies, the large-amplitude piston-type free surface oscillation in the narrow gap can lead to the peak values in the horizontal and vertical wave forces on the downstream box, and the horizontal wave forces on the upstream box. However, only a rapid decrease with the incident wave frequencies can be observed for the vertical wave forces on the upstream box. The resonant frequencies of the wave forces on two boxes are also different with those of wave response in the narrow gap. With the increase of incident wave amplitude, the resonant frequencies and normalized amplitudes of wave forces on downstream box tend to be smaller, which is similar with that of wave response in the narrow gap. However, the normalized wave forces on the upstream box around resonant frequencies do not always decrease with the increase of incident wave amplitude. On the whole, the hydrodynamic behavior of wave forces has some similar characteristics with that of wave response in the narrow gap. However, evident discrepancy between them can also be observed because the other factors, such as the wave response upstream and downstream the two-box systems, also has the non-negligible contribution to wave forces

ESTUDO SOBRE CARACTERÍSTICAS GENÉTICAS DE Mycobacterium tuberculosis ISOLADO DE PACIENTES COM E SEM LESÕES CAVITÁRIAS.

Introdução: Baseado na hipótese de que a variabilidade genética de Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) pode influenciar a virulência e a gravidade da doença os perfis genéticos de isolados clínicos de MTB foram avaliados para detectar associação entre diversidade genética e gravidade da doença. Objetivos: Analisar características genéticas de isolados de MTB e verificar sua possível associação com a gravidade da TB pulmonar. Métodos: Estudo retrospectivo, caso controle, conduzido em Vitória-ES, utilizando isolados de MTB (2003 a 2006, n=214) de pacientes com TB pulmonar, cavitária (127) e não cavitária (87). Realizou-se genotipagem por meio de RFLP-IS6110, Spoligotyping, MIRU-VNTR 24 loci, e a análise de deleções e inserções, como RDRio, RD174 utilizando PCR multiplex, bem como a detecção do Ag85C103. Realizou-se análise estatística, para verificação dos padrões de distribuição das variáveis, seguida de análises bivariadas para verificação de associações entre elas, empregando-se os teste exato de Fisher ou Chi-quadrado, ambos com 95% de intervalo de confiança e nível de significância (&#61554;) < 0,05. Resultados: Após a regressão logística, as variáveis que contribuíram no modelo explicativo da doença foram baciloscopia (ORajust = 5,96; IC= 2,58-13,73) e produção de escarro (ORajust = 4,55; IC= 1,28-16,12). Não houve associação estatisticamente significativa com o restante das variáveis.A família LAM foi a mais frequente entre os dois grupos analisados, representando 65 (62%) dos isolados no grupo cavitário e 40 isolados (38%) do grupo não cavitário. Não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os grupos em relação à deleção RDRio (p=0,65) e com relação à deleção RD174 (p=0,65). Dentre os 205 isolados analisados, 25 (12%) isolados do grupo não cavitário e 43 (21%) do grupo cavitário, estavam em cluster. não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre a quantidade de clusters e os grupos analisados (p= 0,4). Conclusões: Foi determinado o perfil genotípico dos isolados de pacientes com doença pulmonar, cavitária e não cavitária. Não houve associação entre a presença de cavidade e os genótipos encontrados. Não houve associação do genótipo com nenhum dos marcadores moleculares avaliados. Palavras Chaves: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, genotipagem molecular, RFLP- IS6110, MIRU-VNTR 24 loci , Spoligotyping

Avaliação de Metais Traço no Sedimento do Sistema Estuarino dos Rios Piraquê-açu e Piraquê-mirim (Aracruz-ES)

Aguardand

The influence of test experience and NK1 receptor antagonists on the performance of NK1R-/- and wildtype mice in the 5 Choice Serial Reaction Time Task

Genetically-altered mice, lacking functional NK1 receptors (NK1R-/-), express abnormal behaviours that are prominent in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: namely, inattentiveness and impulsivity (indicated by their greater %omissions and premature responses in the 5 Choice Serial Reaction Time Task: ‘5 CSRTT’) and locomotor hyperactivity. Here, we investigated how behaviour in the 5 CSRTT is affected by repeated testing and whether the abnormalities expressed by NK1R-/- mice are mimicked by treating wildtypes with an NK1R antagonist (L 733060 or RP 67580; 5 or 10 mg/kg). Repeated testing with a variable (VITI) or fixed, prolonged (LITI) intertrial interval reduced %omissions. Premature responses also declined, but only in NK1R /- mice in the VITI test. By contrast, perseveration increased in both genotypes. RP 67580 (10 mg/kg) increased the %omissions in both genotypes in the VITI, an action which cannot be attributed to NK1R antagonism. Neither drug affected perseveration. However, for premature responses, the profile of the response suggests that the low and high doses of RP 67580 (VITI) and L 733060 (LITI) have opposing effects on this behaviour. We infer that the effect of NK1R antagonists in the 5 CSRTT is confounded by animals’ test experience and non-specific drug effects at sites other than NK1R, possibly L type Ca2+v channels