Driver's Reaction Time towards Red-light Timing at Urban Intersections

AbstractThe study aims to explore the drivers’ reaction time influenced by the red-light timing at urban signalized intersections. The red-light timing ranges from 40seconds, 60s, 80s, 100s, and 120s. E-prime is used to simulate the signalized intersections and measure the drivers’ reaction time to the onset of green-light. 30 undergraduate drivers are involved and the data is analyzed in SPSS 17.0. The results show that 80seconds is the maximum timing for waiting for the red light as compared to other four timings in the way of shortest reaction time to the onset of green light. It is therefore suspected that the span of 80seconds is the cut-off timing for the red-light waiting at the intersections

Evaluating Highway Traffic Safety: An Integrated Approach

This paper presents a novel methodology for determining the overall highway safety level by integrating statistical analysis and analytic network process (ANP) with set pair analysis (SPA) which is applied in the evaluation of the overall highway safety for the first time. The methodology accounts for both quantitative and qualitative factors that contribute to traffic safety. The statistical analysis uses crash, alignment, intersection, and other data to determine the significant indices (variables) that affect safety. These indices are then combined with the planning (qualitative) indices to determine the weights of all indices based on expert opinions using ANP. Finally, the overall safety level of the highway is determined using SPA. The methodology is illustrated using data collected from two highways in China. The results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is sound and reliable. The methodology is applicable to existing or new highways and can help to effectively evaluate the overall safety of a highway and develop long-term strategies for safety improvements

Premixed jet flame characteristics of syngas using OH planar laser induced fluorescence

Lean premixed flame characteristics of several typical low calorific value (LCV) syngases (basis CO/H-2/CH4/CO2/N-2), including bituminous coal, wood residue, corn core, and wheat straw gasification syngas, were investigated using OH planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technology. OH radical distributions within the turbulent flame were measured for different turbulence intensities. Flame structures of syngases were analyzed and characterized with respect to burnt and unburnt regions, flame curvature (sharp cusp), local extinction (holes and penetration), OH reaction layer thickness, wrinkling, and other features, with OH-PLIF instantaneous images and statistical analysis. Results show that H-2 content, LCV, and turbulence intensity are the most effective factors influencing the OH radical intensity and thickness of OH radical layers. The bituminous coal gasification syngas with relatively higher LCV and H-2 content tends to burn out easily. Through changes in thickness of the OH radical layers and signal intensities, the reaction layer can be compressed by intensifying turbulence and thereby the combustion processes of syngas

A Phase-Coded Time-Domain Interleaved OTFS Waveform with Improved Ambiguity Function

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is a significant application scenario in future wireless communication networks, and sensing capability of a waveform is always evaluated by the ambiguity function. To enhance the sensing performance of the orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) waveform, we propose a novel time-domain interleaved cyclic-shifted P4-coded OTFS (TICP4-OTFS) with improved ambiguity function. TICP4-OTFS can achieve superior autocorrelation features in both the time and frequency domains by exploiting the multicarrier-like form of OTFS after interleaved and the favorable autocorrelation attributes of the P4 code. Furthermore, we present the vectorized formulation of TICP4-OTFS modulation as well as its signal structure in each domain. Numerical simulations show that our proposed TICP4-OTFS waveform outperforms OTFS with a narrower mainlobe as well as lower and more distant sidelobes in terms of delay and Doppler-dimensional ambiguity functions, and an instance of range estimation using pulse compression is illustrated to exhibit the proposed waveform\u2019s greater resolution. Besides, TICP4-OTFS achieves better performance of bit error rate for communication in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios.Comment: This paper has been accepted by 2023 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps): Workshop on Integrated Sensing and Communications for Internet of Thing

An update on the functional roles of long non‑coding RNAs in ischemic injury (Review)

Ischemic injuries result from ischemia and hypoxia in cells. Tissues and organs receive an insufficient supply of nutrients and accumulate metabolic waste, which leads to the development of inflammation, fibrosis and a series of other issues. Ischemic injuries in the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and other organs can cause severe adverse effects. Acute renal ischemia induces acute renal failure, heart ischemia induces myocardial infarction and cerebral ischemia induces cerebrovascular accidents, leading to loss of movement, consciousness and possibly, life-threatening disabilities. Existing evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are regulatory sequences involved in transcription, post-transcription, epigenetic regulation and multiple physiological processes. lncRNAs have been shown to be differentially expressed following ischemic injury, with the severity of the ischemic injury being affected by the upregulation or downregulation of certain types of lncRNA. The present review article provides an extensive summary of the functional roles of lncRNAs in ischemic injury, with a focus on the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs. The present review mainly summarizes the functional roles of lncRNA MALAT1, lncRNA MEG3, lncRNA H19, lncRNA TUG1, lncRNA NEAT1, lncRNA AK139328 and lncRNA CAREL, among which lncRNA MALAT1, in particular, plays a crucial role in ischemic injury and is currently a hot research topic

Sound Effects on Physiological State and Behavior of Drivers in a Highway Tunnel

Driving behavior in a highway tunnel could be affected by external environmental factors like light, traffic flow, and acoustic environments, significantly when these factors suddenly change at the moment before and after entering a tunnel. It will cause tremendous physiological pressure on drivers because of the reduction of information and the narrow environment. The risks in driving behavior will increase, making drivers more vulnerable than driving on the regular highways. This research focuses on the usually neglected acoustic environment and its effect on drivers' physiological state and driving behavior. Based on the SIMLAB driving simulation platform of a highway tunnel, 45 drivers participated in the experiment. Five different sound scenarios were tested: original highway tunnel sound and a mix of it with four other sounds (slow music, fast music, voice prompt, and siren, respectively). The subjects' physiological state and driving behavior data were collected through heart rate variability (HRV) and electroencephalography (EEG). Also, vehicle operational data, including vehicle speed, steering wheel angle, brake pedal depth, and accelerator pedal depth, were collected. The results indicated that different sound scenarios in the highway tunnel showed significant differences in vehicle speed (p = 0.000, η2 = 0.167) and steering wheel angle (p = 0.007, η2 = 0.126). At the same time, they had no significant difference in HRV and EEG indicators. According to the results, slow music was the best kind of sound related to driving comfort, while the siren sound produced the strongest driver reaction in terms of mental alertness and stress level. The voice-prompt sound most likely caused driver fatigue and overload, but it was the most effective sound affecting safety. The subjective opinion of the drivers indicated that the best sound scenario for the overall experience was slow music (63%), followed by fast music (21%), original highway tunnel sound environment (13%), and voice-prompt sound (3%). The findings of this study will be valuable in improving acoustic environment quality and driving safety in highway tunnels

Synthesis and Mechanism of Tetracalcium Phosphate from Nanocrystalline Precursor

Tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP, Ca4(PO4)2O) was prepared by the calcination of coprecipitated mixture of nanoscale hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) and calcium carbonate crystal (CaCO3), followed by cooling in the air or furnace. The effect of calcination temperature on crystal structure and phase composition of the coprecipitation mixture was characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermal analysis-thermogravimetry (DTA-TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Raman spectroscopy (RS). The obtained results indicated that the synthesized mixture consisted of nanoscale HA and CaCO3 with uniform distribution throughout the composite. TTCP was observed in the air quenching samples when the calcination temperature was above 1185°C. With the increase of the calcination temperature, the amount of the intermediate products in the air quenching samples decreased and cannot be detected when calcination temperature reached 1450°C. Unexpectedly, the mixture of HA and calcium oxide was observed in the furnace cooling samples. Clearly, the calcination temperature and cooling methods are critical for the synthesis of high-purity TTCP. The results indicate that the nanosize of precursors can decrease the calcination temperature, and TTCP can be calcinated by low temperature

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism WRN Leu1074Phe Is Associated with Prostate Cancer Susceptibility in Chinese Subjects

Deficiencies in the human DNA repair gene WRN are the cause of Werner syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by premature aging and a predisposition to cancer. This study evaluated the association of WRN Leu1074Phe (rs1801195), a common missense single nucleotide polymorphism in WRN, with prostate cancer susceptibility in Chinese subjects. One hundred and forty-seven prostate cancer patients and 111 male cancer-free control subjects from 3 university hospitals in China were included. Blood samples were obtained from each subject, and the single nucleotide polymorphism WRN Leu1074Phe was genotyped by using a Snapshot assay. The results showed that WRN Leu1074Phe was associated with the risk of prostate cancer in Chinese men and that the TG/GG genotype displayed a decreased prevalence of prostate cancer compared with the TT genotype (OR＝0.58, 95%CI:0.35-0.97, p＝0.039). Through stratified analysis, more significant associations were revealed for the TG/GG genotype in the subgroup with diagnosis age <_ 72 yr (OR＝0.27, 95%CI:0.12-0.61, p＝0.002) and in patients with localized diseases (OR＝0.36, 95%CI:0.19-0.70, p＝0.003). However, no statistically significant difference was found in the subgroup with age ＞72 yr or in patients with advanced diseases. We concluded that the genetic variant Leu1074Phe in the DNA repair gene WRN might play a role in the risk of prostate cancer in Chinese subjects