Speed Characteristics and Safety Risk Level Evaluation for Nighttime Roadway Work Area

AbstractMore and more roadway projects are conducted during nighttime to satisfy heavy travelling demands in the daytime. However, the Nighttime Roadway Work (NRW) produces several safety problems. As a developing region of China, these problems expose later than some developed countries, and there is scarcely any valid crash samples for NRW safety analysis. Therefore, a surrogate safety assessment philosophy is adopted in the paper. Firstly, the field survey and statistical analysis approaches are adopted to acquire percentile speed characteristics of vehicles passing through work-zones during nighttime. Secondly, a kind of safety risk evaluation model is established to assess NRW safety levels. The results reveal that 1) speeding problems severely exist in the NRW zone and safety risk levels are comparatively high; 2) from speed characteristics of NRW in a city expressway by lanes, speeding ratio in the activity area is higher than 90% and in the lane in transition area the ratio is higher than 30%; 3) from speed characteristics of NRW in a city expressway by vehicle types, speeding ratios of all type vehicles in the activity and transition area are higher than 90% and 30% respectively; 4) the speeding ratio in freeway NRW area is close to 100%; 5) the safety risk analysis indicates that risk levels of lanes in transition area are comparatively high, and also the safety risk level of large vehicles is higher compared to other type vehicles. Finally, several useful tips for the prevention of speeding in the NRW area are suggested

Episode 4: Dear Anonymous Donor

Divya Bhatia and Qiuwei Yang sit down with Bridget Yang to discuss her piece, Dear Anonymous Donor,” and the anatomy lab experience. Recorded October 2019. Bridget Yang\u27s poem Dear Anonymous Donor and the transcript for this episode are available for download as additional files

A non-invasive measurement of tongue surface temperature

Oral temperature, tongue specifically, is a key factor affecting oral sensation and perception of food flavour and texture. It is therefore very important to know how the tongue temperature is affected by food consumption. Unfortunately, traditional methods such as clinical thermometers and thermocouples for oral temperature measurement are not most applicable during food oral consumption due to its invasive nature and interference with food. In this study, infrared thermal (IRT) imager was investigated for its feasibility for the measurement of tongue surface temperature. The IRT technique was firstly calibrated using a digital thermometer (DT). The technique was then used to measure tongue surface temperature after tongue was stimulated by (1) water rinsing at different temperatures (0-45℃); and (2) treated with capsaicin solutions (5, 10, and 20 ppm). For both cases, tongue surface temperature showed significant changes as a result of the physical and chemical stimulation. Results confirm that IRT is feasible for tongue temperature measurement and could be a useful supporting tool in future for the study of food oral processing and sensory perception

Factors influencing the choice of shared bicycles and shared electric bikes in Beijing

AbstractChina leads the world in both public bikeshare and private electric bike (e-bike) growth. Current trajectories indicate the viability of deploying large-scale shared e-bike (e-bikeshare) systems in China. We employ a stated preference survey and multinomial logit to model the factors influencing the choice to switch from an existing transportation mode to bikeshare or e-bikeshare in Beijing. Demand is influenced by distinct sets of factors: the bikeshare choice is most sensitive to measures of effort and comfort while the e-bikeshare choice is more sensitive to user heterogeneities. Bikeshare demand is strongly negatively impacted by trip distance, temperature, precipitation, and poor air quality. User demographics however do not factor strongly on the bikeshare choice, indicating the mode will draw users from across the social spectrum. The e-bikeshare choice is much more tolerant of trip distance, high temperatures and poor air quality, though precipitation is also a highly negative factor. User demographics do play a significant role in e-bikeshare demand. Analysis of impact to the existing transportation system finds that both bikeshare and e-bikeshare will tend to draw users away from the “unsheltered modes”, walk, bike, and e-bike. Although it is unclear if shared bikes are an attractive “first-and-last-mile solution”, it is clear that e-bikeshare is attractive as a bus replacement

GPR35 acts a dual role and therapeutic target in inflammation

GPR35 is a G protein-coupled receptor with notable involvement in modulating inflammatory responses. Although the precise role of GPR35 in inflammation is not yet fully understood, studies have suggested that it may have both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects depending on the specific cellular environment. Some studies have shown that GPR35 activation can stimulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and facilitate the movement of immune cells towards inflammatory tissues or infected areas. Conversely, other investigations have suggested that GPR35 may possess anti-inflammatory properties in the gastrointestinal tract, liver and certain other tissues by curbing the generation of inflammatory mediators and endorsing the differentiation of regulatory T cells. The intricate role of GPR35 in inflammation underscores the requirement for more in-depth research to thoroughly comprehend its functional mechanisms and its potential significance as a therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases. The purpose of this review is to concurrently investigate the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory roles of GPR35, thus illuminating both facets of this complex issue

Effect of tongue temperature on oral tactile sensitivity and viscosity discrimination

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd An Individual's oral capability in perceiving food texture influences greatly food appreciation and preference. While there is no doubt that one's ability of texture discrimination depends on various oral physiological characteristics of the individual, it is not yet clear how tongue surface temperature affects the sensitivity of texture discrimination. This study was designed to test the effects of tongue surface temperature on oral tactile sensitivity and viscosity discrimination. A total of twenty healthy subjects (ten females and ten males; mean age: 25 ± 1 yrs, mean body mass index: 20.5 ± 2.9 kg/m2) participated in this study. Water at different temperatures (0, 20, 37, and 45 °C) and capsaicin solutions (5,10, and 20 ppm) were used as physical and chemical stimulations to alter tongue temperature, respectively. Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments, Bio-Thesiometer, and Touch-Test®Two-point discriminator were respectively applied to assess the tongue's sensitivity of light touch, vibratory perception and two-point discrimination before and after treatment with both physical and chemical stimuli. Maltodextrin solutions were used for oral viscosity discrimination. Tongue's vibratory perception thresholds varied significantly (P < 0.01), indicating an increase of 0.6 × 10−6cm in vibratory perception threshold when tongue surface temperature decreased from 33 °C to 20 °C, while light touch and two-point discrimination thresholds remained unchanged. The application of capsaicin (5, 10, and 20 ppm) produced an increase in tongue surface temperature but did not affect oral tactile sensitivity. Viscosity discrimination increased both after rinsing the mouth with warm water and capsaicin application (20 ppm). Capsaicin (20 ppm) increased tongue temperature by 1.3 °C and lead to a decrease in viscosity discrimination threshold from 34.7% to 20.2%. After stimulation with water at 37 °C and 45 °C, the tongue temperature increased by 3 °C (from 34.2 °C to 37.2 °C), while threshold of viscosity discrimination decreased from 28.1% to 23.1%. When water was used to change tongue surface temperature, a positive correlation was found between vibratory perception sensitivity and viscosity discrimination ability, suggesting the capacity of discriminating viscosity might depend on vibratory perception sensitivity

Study on tinnitus-related electroencephalogram microstates in patients with vestibular schwannomas

Tinnitus is closely associated with cognition functioning. In order to clarify the central reorganization of tinnitus in patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS), this study explored the aberrant dynamics of electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates and their correlations with tinnitus features in VS patients. Clinical and EEG data were collected from 98 VS patients, including 76 with tinnitus and 22 without tinnitus. Microstates were clustered into four categories. Our EEG microstate analysis revealed that VS patients with tinnitus exhibited an increased frequency of microstate C compared to those without tinnitus. Furthermore, correlation analysis demonstrated that the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score was negatively associated with the duration of microstate A and positively associated with the frequency of microstate C. These findings suggest that the time series and syntax characteristics of EEG microstates differ significantly between VS patients with and without tinnitus, potentially reflecting abnormal allocation of neural resources and transition of functional brain activity. Our results provide a foundation for developing diverse treatments for tinnitus in VS patients

Diagnosis of architectural distortion on digital breast tomosynthesis using radiomics and deep learning

PurposeTo implement two Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods, radiomics and deep learning, to build diagnostic models for patients presenting with architectural distortion on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) images.Materials and MethodsA total of 298 patients were identified from a retrospective review, and all of them had confirmed pathological diagnoses, 175 malignant and 123 benign. The BI-RADS scores of DBT were obtained from the radiology reports, classified into 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 4C, and 5. The architectural distortion areas on craniocaudal (CC) and mediolateral oblique (MLO) views were manually outlined as the region of interest (ROI) for the radiomics analysis. Features were extracted using PyRadiomics, and then the support vector machine (SVM) was applied to select important features and build the classification model. Deep learning was performed using the ResNet50 algorithm, with the binary output of malignancy and benignity. The Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) method was utilized to localize the suspicious areas. The predicted malignancy probability was used to construct the ROC curves, compared by the DeLong test. The binary diagnosis was made using the threshold of ≥ 0.5 as malignant.ResultsThe majority of malignant lesions had BI-RADS scores of 4B, 4C, and 5 (148/175 = 84.6%). In the benign group, a substantial number of patients also had high BI-RADS ≥ 4B (56/123 = 45.5%), and the majority had BI-RADS ≥ 4A (102/123 = 82.9%). The radiomics model built using the combined CC+MLO features yielded an area under curve (AUC) of 0.82, the sensitivity of 0.78, specificity of 0.68, and accuracy of 0.74. If only features from CC were used, the AUC was 0.77, and if only features from MLO were used, the AUC was 0.72. The deep-learning model yielded an AUC of 0.61, significantly lower than all radiomics models (p&lt;0.01), which was presumably due to the use of the entire image as input. The Grad-CAM could localize the architectural distortion areas.ConclusionThe radiomics model can achieve a satisfactory diagnostic accuracy, and the high specificity in the benign group can be used to avoid unnecessary biopsies. Deep learning can be used to localize the architectural distortion areas, which may provide an automatic method for ROI delineation to facilitate the development of a fully-automatic computer-aided diagnosis system using combined AI strategies

Pan-Genomic Study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Reflecting the Primary/Secondary Genes, Generality/Individuality, and the Interconversion Through Copy Number Variations

Tuberculosis (TB) has surpassed HIV as the leading infectious disease killer worldwide since 2014. The main pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), contains ~4,000 genes that account for ~90% of the genome. However, it is still unclear which of these genes are primary/secondary, which are responsible for generality/individuality, and which interconvert during evolution. Here we utilized a pan-genomic analysis of 36 Mtb genomes to address these questions. We identified 3,679 Mtb core (i.e., primary) genes, determining their phenotypic generality (e.g., virulence, slow growth, dormancy). We also observed 1,122 dispensable and 964 strain-specific secondary genes, reflecting partially shared and lineage-/strain-specific individualities. Among which, five L2 lineage-specific genes might be related to the increased virulence of the L2 lineage. Notably, we discovered 28 Mtb “Super Core Genes” (SCGs: more than a copy in at least 90% strains), which might be of increased importance, and reflected the “super phenotype generality.” Most SCGs encode PE/PPE, virulence factors, antigens, and transposases, and have been verified as playing crucial roles in Mtb pathogenicity. Further investigation of the 28 SCGs demonstrated the interconversion among SCGs, single-copy core, dispensable, and strain-specific genes through copy number variations (CNVs) during evolution; different mutations on different copies highlight the delicate adaptive-evolution regulation amongst Mtb lineages. This reflects that the importance of genes varied through CNVs, which might be driven by selective pressure from environment/host-adaptation. In addition, compared with Mycobacterium bovis (Mbo), Mtb possesses 48 specific single core genes that partially reflect the differences between Mtb and Mbo individuality