Arterial Performance Evaluation on an Adaptive Traffic Signal Control System

AbstractThis paper documents the evaluation of Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) at a major signalized arterial in Las Vegas. The evaluation was based on various performance measures, including primarily travel times and stops at selected routes along the arterial. Extensive travel time runs were conducted during the weekday and weekend peak periods. Arterial performance was compared between SCATS and conventional time-of-day (TOD) coordination plans. Based on the data and analysis results, a general conclusion was reached that no significant improvement on arterial progression was achieved with SCATS under normal traffic conditions. However, this conclusion was made based on a major limitation of using video detection in the field, which may have significantly limited SCATS from achieving its best performance

Migration and Depressive Symptoms in Migrant-sending Areas: Findings from the Survey of Internal Migration and Health in China

Objectives - China has experienced large-scale internal migration and growing mental health disorders. Limited research has examined the relationship between the two processes. We examined the association between labor out-migration and depressive symptoms of family members left behind in migrant-sending areas. Methods - We conducted a multistage probability sample survey of Chinese adults in 2008 (“Internal Migration and Health in China”), including 787 people in rural migrant-sending areas. To study whether adults in out-migrant households were more likely to experience depressive symptoms (CES-D) than were adults in non-migrant households, we used multivariate regressions and adjusted for a wide range of confounding factors and for the complex sampling design. Results - Adults in households with labor out-migrants were more likely to report depressive symptoms than those in households without out-migrants, presumably a result of the absence of family members. However, monetary remittances from labor migrants buffered the mental health costs of out-migration. Conclusions - Labor out-migration has important consequences for the mental health in migrant-sending communities. There is an urgent need to address the psychological costs of migration and to promote regular remittances

Bandwidth Optimization of Coordinated Arterials Based on Group Partition Method

AbstractAn approach to the application of bandwidth-oriented signal timing has been proposed based on a group partition method for coordinated arterials. Firstly, the approach is an improved and detailed bandwidth optimization method, including detail steps to calculate upper/lower influences and relative offset for intersections, with different conditions. A window program BOTSD (Bandwidth Optimization and Time-Space Diagram) was developed to obtain optimal progression bandwidth and draw time-space diagram for an arterial. Secondly, a group partition method of coordinated arterials to get optimal bandwidth has been developed. In the case study, after calculating valid and optimal bandwidth for every possible subgroup, arterial progression bandwidth for every combination of possible subgroups can be obtained using the improved bandwidth optimization and group partition method. The results of intersection control delay and progression bandwidth for every combination of possible subgroups show that bandwidth-based solutions generally outperform delay-based solutions. Meanwhile, the signal timing plan from improved bandwidth optimization and group partition method is much better than the result from Synchro 6.0 optimization function and Messer's method

An Investigation into the Connection between Language Proficiency and Text Analysis Abilities in English Learners

This study’s objective is to evaluate whether or not there is a correlation between students’ command of the English language and their analytical prowess with regard to written material. Through quantitative and qualitative study on students with varied degrees of linguistic proficiency, it has been found that an increase in one’s level of linguistic competence is strongly and favorably associated with an increase in one’s ability for textual analysis. This discovery was made on students with varying levels of linguistic proficiency. Learners who have a higher degree of language competency are able to more effectively absorb vocabulary, grammatical structure, and logical links in the discourse when reading and interpreting English texts. This is because they have a better understanding of the English language. As a consequence of this, they are capable of performing text analysis in a manner that is both more effective and more accurate than before. This article’s goal is to give instructional strategies for learners of all language levels in order to optimize the process of strengthening those learners’ ability to evaluate texts. The target audience for this article is learners of all language levels. When these strategies are utilized, educators will be provided with practical recommendations that will assist them in more effectively directing students toward mastery of the basic text analysis skills. The outcomes of this study may, in some way, have an impact on the educational practice of teaching English as a second language

Compressive properties and micro-structural characteristics of Ti–6Al–4V fabricated by electron beam melting and selective laser melting

Bulk Ti–6Al–4V material and its lattice structures with rhombic dodecahedron unit cells are fabricated by electron beam melting (EBM) and selective laser melting (SLM) method respectively. The effect of part size on the compressive properties and failure modes of the material is taken into consideration. Electronic universal testing machine and Split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system are adopted for experiments, and the compressive behavior of the additively manufactured materials is investigated accordingly. Meanwhile, multiscale observations are conducted to reveal the macro- and microscopic deformation mechanism. The results showed that the mechanical response of the dense struts as well as micro-lattice structures manufactured by the two processes are quite different. The geometric imperfections are considered to reduce the strength of the undersized struts prepared by EBM. The specimens fabricated by both of the two approaches exhibit elastic-plastic deformation. Besides, the SLM made material is found to be more sensitive to strain rate especially for that below 1000/s than the EBM parts

Cognitive Function and Cardiometabolic‐Inflammatory Risk Factors Among Older Indians and Americans

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156424/2/jgs16734_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156424/1/jgs16734.pd

Roles of long noncoding RNAs and small extracellular vesicle-long noncoding RNAs in type 2 diabetes

Wenguang Chang, Man Wang, Yuan Zhang and Fei Yu collected all of the data, and Wenguang Chang, Bin Hu, Katarzyna Goljanek-Whysall and Peifeng Li wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81700704).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Superconductivity in the high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx with possible nontrivial band topology

Topological superconductors have drawn significant interest from the scientific community due to the accompanying Majorana fermions. Here, we report the discovery of electronic structure and superconductivity in high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx (x = 1 and 0.8) combined with experiments and first-principles calculations. The Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx high-entropy ceramics show bulk type-II superconductivity with Tc about 4.00 K (x = 1) and 2.65 K (x = 0.8), respectively. The specific heat jump is equal to 1.45 (x = 1) and 1.52 (x = 0.8), close to the expected value of 1.43 for the BCS superconductor in the weak coupling limit. The high-pressure resistance measurements show that a robust superconductivity against high physical pressure in Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, with a slight Tc variation of 0.3 K within 82.5 GPa. Furthermore, the first-principles calculations indicate that the Dirac-like point exists in the electronic band structures of Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, which is potentially a topological superconductor. The Dirac-like point is mainly contributed by the d orbitals of transition metals M and the p orbitals of C. The high-entropy ceramics provide an excellent platform for the fabrication of novel quantum devices, and our study may spark significant future physics investigations in this intriguing material.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures,The manuscript with the same title will be published by Advanced Scienc

Metamorphic testing: a review of challenges and opportunities

Metamorphic testing is an approach to both test case generation and test result verification. A central element is a set of metamorphic relations, which are necessary properties of the target function or algorithm in relation to multiple inputs and their expected outputs. Since its first publication, we have witnessed a rapidly increasing body of work examining metamorphic testing from various perspectives, including metamorphic relation identification, test case generation, integration with other software engineering techniques, and the validation and evaluation of software systems. In this paper, we review the current research of metamorphic testing and discuss the challenges yet to be addressed. We also present visions for further improvement of metamorphic testing and highlight opportunities for new research