Investigation of jet quenching and elliptic flow within a pQCD-based partonic transport model

The partonic transport model BAMPS (a Boltzmann approach to multiparton scatterings) is employed to investigate different aspects of heavy ion collisions within a common framework based on perturbative QCD. This report focuses on the joint investigation of the collective behavior of the created medium and the energy loss of high-pT gluons traversing this medium. To this end the elliptic flow and the nuclear modification factor of gluons in heavy ion collisions at 200 AGeV are simulated with BAMPS. The mechanism for the energy loss of high energy gluons within BAMPS is studied in detail. For this, purely elastic interactions are compared to radiative processes, gg -> ggg, that are implemented based on the matrix element by Gunion and Bertsch. The latter are found to be the dominant source of energy loss within the framework employed in this work.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics (2010)

Attitudinal segmentaion of drivers in Pakistan: The potential for effective road safety campaigns

Deviant driving behaviors are considered as the main cause of Road Traffic Accidents in Pakistan. This research is founded on the premise that driving behaviors are mediated by attitudinal and motivational factors. It advocates that rather than simply aggregating drivers’ responses or a-priori classification of them based on their personal characteristics, adoption of segmentation technique is more useful to look at multiple factors provoking aberrant driving behavior in combination and not just in isolation. For this, the study generated an Attitudinal Questionnaire, inspired by the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB: Ajzen, 1991), and extended violation-scale of modified Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ: Lawton et al., 1997). Attitudinal and behavioral items are first factor analyzed. Then, cluster analysis is performed on extracted attitudinal factors which classified sample driving population into four relatively homogenous and distinct groups of drivers. The results demonstrated the explanatory utility of the market segmentation approach to systematically relate the interaction between attitudes, behaviors and socio-demographic characteristics of drivers. It is concluded that the approach is successful in distinguishing safe drivers from unsafe driver and therefore, can legitimately form the basis of road safety interventions. Finally, the findings are used to recommend targeted information-based road safety solutions with a focus on the diverse characteristics of each of the identified segments

The thermodynamics for a hadronic gas of fireballs with internal color structures and chiral fields

The thermodynamical partition function for a gas of color-singlet bags consisting of fundamental and adjoint particles in both $U(N_c)$ and $SU(N_c)$ group representations is reviewed in detail. The constituent particle species are assumed to satisfy various thermodynamical statistics. The gas of bags is probed to study the phase transition for a nuclear matter in the extreme conditions. These bags are interpreted as the Hagedorn states and they are the highly excited hadronic states which are produced below the phase transition point to the quark-gluon plasma. The hadronic density of states has the Gross-Witten critical point and exhibits a third order phase transition from a hadronic phase dominated by the discrete low-lying hadronic mass spectrum particles to another hadronic phase dominated by the continuous Hagedorn states. The Hagedorn threshold production is found just above the highest known experimental discrete low-lying hadronic mass spectrum. The subsequent Hagedorn phase undergoes a first order deconfinement phase transition to an explosive quark-gluon plasma. The role of the chiral phase transition in the phases of the discrete low-lying mass spectrum and the continuous Hagedorn mass spectrum is also considered. It is found crucial in the phase transition diagram. Alternate scenarios are briefly discussed for the Hagedorn gas undergoes a higher order phase transition through multi-processes of internal color-flavor structure modification.Comment: 110 pages and 13 figures. Added references to the introductio

Deliverable No. 2 – Review of Literature and Experience on the Application of Conflict Studies to Rural Roads. Working report within the project Conflict Study – Application in HA (Highway Agency) Road Safety Management

This report reviews the literature and practical experience with assessing the safety performance of rural road locations using the traffic conflicts technique. It provides an overview of the development of conflict studies, which have overwhelmingly been applied at urban locations. It also discusses the current state of the art in the application of automated video analysis for the detection of conflicts. Recommendations are made on the data collection methods and conflict definitions that should be employed for applying conflict studies at rural locations. Project financed by HRC (Highways Research Group

*-DCC: A platform to collect, annotate, and explore a large variety of sequencing experiments.

BackgroundOver the past few years the variety of experimental designs and protocols for sequencing experiments increased greatly. To ensure the wide usability of the produced data beyond an individual project, rich and systematic annotation of the underlying experiments is crucial.FindingsWe first developed an annotation structure that captures the overall experimental design as well as the relevant details of the steps from the biological sample to the library preparation, the sequencing procedure, and the sequencing and processed files. Through various design features, such as controlled vocabularies and different field requirements, we ensured a high annotation quality, comparability, and ease of annotation. The structure can be easily adapted to a large variety of species. We then implemented the annotation strategy in a user-hosted web platform with data import, query, and export functionality.ConclusionsWe present here an annotation structure and user-hosted platform for sequencing experiment data, suitable for lab-internal documentation, collaborations, and large-scale annotation efforts

An empirical approach to determining speed limit credibility

There is now a body of literature on speed limit credibility, particularly in connection with speed management under the overall umbrella of “Safe Systems”. However, there is rather little empirical work on the underlying factors that determine the credibility of speed limits and on how to enhance credibility for a given type of road. The study reported here aimed to investigate how factors such as road layout and the roadside environment together with drivers’ perception of risk affect speed limit credibility. It also aimed to provide a measurement of speed limit credibility and how to set more credible speed limits to improve drivers’ speed compliance. A picture questionnaire and a driving simulator in an automated condition in a simulator were adopted to obtain the measurements. The results suggest that certain road layout and environment features influence speed limit credibility. The research results show that five new indicators can be used as a reference for deciding on a credible speed limit in a given road environment: the most common choice of speed limit by drivers; the highest credible rating score value; indication of comfort with speed in automated driving; risk rating in the range from feeling safe to very safe; arousal indicated by skin conductance. Applying these indicators makes it possible to determine a limit that is credible for most motorists in a given road environment. Improving the credibility of a speed limit will lead to better speed management overall

Transitions Between Highly Automated and Longitudinally Assisted Driving: The Role of the Initiator in the Fight for Authority

Objective A driving simulator study explored how drivers behaved depending on their initial role during transitions between highly automated driving (HAD) and longitudinally assisted driving (via adaptive cruise control). Background During HAD, drivers might issue a take-over request (TOR), initiating a transition of control that was not planned. Understanding how drivers behave in this situation and, ultimately, the implications on road safety is of paramount importance. Method Sixteen participants were recruited for this study and performed transitions of control between HAD and longitudinally assisted driving in a driving simulator. While comparing how drivers behaved depending on whether or not they were the initiators, different handover strategies were presented to analyze how drivers adapted to variations in the authority level they were granted at various stages of the transitions. Results Whenever they initiated the transition, drivers were more engaged with the driving task and less prone to follow the guidance of the proposed strategies. Moreover, initiating a transition and having the highest authority share during the handover made the drivers more engaged with the driving task and attentive toward the road. Conclusion Handover strategies that retained a larger authority share were more effective whenever the automation initiated the transition. Under driver-initiated transitions, reducing drivers’ authority was detrimental for both performance and comfort. Application As the operational design domain of automated vehicles (Society of Automotive Engineers [SAE] Level 3/4) expands, the drivers might very well fight boredom by taking over spontaneously, introducing safety issues so far not considered but nevertheless very important

Natural Killer Cell Inhibitory Receptors Block Actin Cytoskeleton-dependent Recruitment of 2B4 (CD244) to Lipid Rafts

A dynamic balance of positive and negative signals regulates target cell lysis by natural killer (NK) cells upon engagement of a variety of different activation receptors and of inhibitory receptors that recruit the tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1. However, the step at which activation signals are blocked by SHP-1 is not known. We have been using activation receptor 2B4 (CD244) to study the influence of inhibitory receptors on NK cell activation. Engagement of inhibitory receptors by HLA class I on target cells blocks phosphorylation of 2B4, placing the inhibitory step at the level, or upstream of 2B4 phosphorylation. Here we show that phosphorylated 2B4, after engagement with either antibodies or target cells that express the 2B4 ligand, is found exclusively in a detergent-resistant membrane fraction that contains lipid rafts. Integrity of lipid rafts was essential for phosphorylation and activating function of 2B4. Coengagement of inhibitory receptors blocked 2B4 phosphorylation and 2B4 association with detergent-resistant membranes, indicating that inhibitory receptors function upstream of raft-dependent signals. Recruitment of 2B4 into detergent-resistant membrane fractions and 2B4 phosphorylation were dependent on actin polymerization. Blocking actin cytoskeleton-dependent raft recruitment of different receptors may be a general mechanism by which inhibitory receptors control NK cell activation