INJURY EVENTS AMONG BUS AND COACH OCCUPANTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulf BJÖRNSTIG

2005-01-01

Conclusions: The aerodynamic cross-wind factor merits more studies. Injury reducing measures against alighting injuries, addressing especially step height and slippery conditions, may have a great potential to reduce these injuries. Rear-end collisions by other heavy vehicles in urban areas, causing a high number of “whip-lash” injuries, also need to be further addressed. The newly introduced law on compulsory seat belt use in long distance coaches may have a potential to reduce single vehicle crash and some collision injuries.

International Environmental Law and Naval War Newport paper no. 15

Science.gov (United States)

2000-12-01

the Licensing State (X.3). Writing in the beginning of the 1970s, Professor Szasz noted that the hesita- tion of the United States to ratify the...see too UNCC, Well Blowout Control Claim (1996), 36 ILM (1997), 1289 at para 85. 37. Szasz , in 85 ASIL Proceedings (1991), 219; Momtaz, 37 AFDI (1991...1991), 401–2; Szasz , in 85 ASIL Proceedings (1991), 216; Witteler, op. cit., 239. 140. If the opening of valves and the setting alight of oil wells is

Strohmulch gegen Blattläuse im Gemüsebau

OpenAIRE

Siekmann, Gitta; Hommes, Martin

2005-01-01

One way to prevent the colonisation of crops by insect pests is to disrupt their host finding behaviour. As immigrating aphids alight on potential host plants using optical stimuli, this process can be manipulated by altering the contrast between plant and background. This study aims to test the aphid repelling properties of straw mulch in vegetables. We applied straw to broccoli, head lettuce, bush bean, vegetable broad bean and carrot. The trials were conducted in 2002 and 2003 at several ...

Virus diseases in lettuce in the Mediterranean basin.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno, Aranzazu; Fereres, Alberto

2012-01-01

Lettuce is frequently attacked by several viruses causing disease epidemics and considerable yield losses along the Mediterranean basin. Aphids are key pests and the major vectors of plant viruses in lettuce fields. Lettuce mosaic virus (LMV) is probably the most important because it is seed-transmitted in addition to be transmissible by many aphid species that alight on the crop. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is another virus that causes severe damage since the introduction of its major vector, the thrips Frankliniella occidentalis. In regions with heavy and humid soils, Lettuce Mirafiori big-vein virus (LMBVV) can also produce major yield losses. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How to seal a supertanker

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cross, M.; Hamer, M.

1992-01-01

Twenty-five years ago, a ship called the Torrey Canyon, ran aground on a notorious reef off the southwest corner of England. The wreck was unusually dramatic because the Torrey Canyon was an unusually large ship and its cargo was crude oil. Despite the efforts of salvage teams and attempts to set it alight by dropping bombs, around 120 000 tonnes of oil leaked out, creating havoc on holiday beaches and killing thousands of sea birds. The age of the supertanker spill had arrived. Most oil tankers are as unsafe today as those in service 25 years ago when the Torrey Canyon accident created the world's worst oil slick. Now the shipping industry wants to make amends. (author)

Superstars

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clark, D

1979-01-01

The subject is covered in chapters as follows: star in catastrophe (formation of supernovae); ancient superstars (historical references); the nebula mystery (nebulae and galaxies); modern superstars (supernovae, supernova remnants, pulsars, cosmic x-ray sources); stars and portents; the world alight (discussion of some historically -observed supernovae); a superstar is born (supernova of AD 1054 and Crab Nebula; other recorded supernovae and possible remnants); renaissance superstars; the superstar solution (questions relating to figuring and spatial distribution of superstar observations, and the evolution of supernovae and remnants); stars of reaction (nucleosynthesis); solar genesis (origin of solar system); terrestrial catastrophe (possible astronomical influences on the Earth's climatic and biological history; epilogue -superstars and the destiny of the Universe.

Estimating passenger numbers in trains using existing weighing capabilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Bo Friis; Frølich, Laura; Nielsen, Otto Anker

2013-01-01

trains to control braking. This technique makes passenger counting cheaper and ensures a complete sample. The paper compares numbers estimated by this technique with manual counts and counts from an infrared system in trains in urban Copenhagen. It shows that the weighing system provides more accurate......Knowing passenger numbers is important for the planning and operation of the urban rail systems. Manual and electronic counting systems (typically infrared or video) are expensive and therefore entail small sample sizes. They usually count boarding and alighting passengers, which means that errors...... in estimates of total numbers of passengers propagate along train runs. Counting errors in manual and electronic counting systems are typically flow-dependent, making uncertainty a function of volume. This paper presents a new counting technique that exploits the weighing systems installed in most modern...

Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit in Copenhagen: A Mesoscopic Model Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ingvardson, Jesper Bláfoss; Kornerup Jensen, Jonas

2012-01-01

Bus Rapid Transit(BRT) has shown to be an efficient and cost-effective mode of public transport, and has gained popularity in many cities around the world.To optimise the operations and infrastructure it is advantageous to deploy transportmodels. However, microscopic models are very inefficient...... upgrades (busways and enhanced stations) ensure a reduction to traveltime whereas no improvements to reliability occur. Upgrades to technology and serviceplanning (pre-paid fare collection, boarding and alighting from all doors, special BRT vehicles, ITS, and active bus control) ensure an increase...... in service reliability whereas only small reductions to travel time are observed. By combining all BRT elements it is possible to obtain synergies where the improved reliability due to planning and technology elements makes it possible to utilise the infrastructure optimally. Hence, it is possible...

Biological and clinical meaning of myeloid antigen expression in the acute lymphocytic leukemia in children

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marsan Suarez, Vianed; Sanchez Segura, Miriam; Socarras Ferrer, Bertha B; Valle Perez, Lazaro O del

2009-01-01

In 238 children presenting with acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) authors studied the possible association between the myeloid antigens expression with determined biologic and clinic features at disease onset. The cellular immunophenotyping was performed by ultraimmunocytochemical method. From the total of diagnosed ALLs, the 21,8% were LLA-Mi+. There was a lymphadenopathies predominance (71,2%), splenomegaly (65,4%) and hepatomegaly (57,7%) in patients with LLA-Mi+ and very significant differences (p =0,003, p = 0,0068, and p = 0,000, respectively. There was also alight predominance of mediastinum adenopathies, CNS infiltration and hemorrahagic manifestations in patients with LLA-Mi+, no statistically significant. Results showed that in our patients the myeloid antigen expression on the lymphoid blasts influenced on appearance of determined presentation of morphologic and clinical features in children

Development of maternal and child health services in the minority communities of Israel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Adams

1981-09-01

Full Text Available TO get to the maternal and child health station in Mahamadia, a Moslem Arab village, you alight from the bus at the foot of Mount Tabor, slide down a hill, and find yourself in a courtyard with children and sheep. Bahija, the practical nurse, greets you and laughs as she tells of the Jewish paediatrician who, because of religious tenets forbidding touching a strange woman, refused to take her helping hand and proceeded to fall all the way. From the entrance shed you are led to two rooms with light coming from the open doors. The rooms are clean with stone floors that are easily washed and with the standard blue and white furniture seen in every Ministry of Health or Kupat Holim (General Sick Fund of the Federation of Labor station in Israel.

Fighting fires... with science

CERN Document Server

Anaïs Schaeffer

2016-01-01

CERN firefighters are working with a research centre in the United States to develop more effective firefighting techniques.   One of the UL FSRI’s model houses is set alight... in the interest of science. (Photo: ©UL FSRI) For around ten years, the Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute (UL FSRI) has been carrying out scientific research on the various techniques used by firefighters in the United States and around the world. This research has focused on evaluating the effectiveness and safety of current practices worldwide with the aim of developing even better techniques. In many cases the research has shown that a combination of techniques gives the best results. The interiors of the model houses are fully furnished. (Photo: ©UL FSRI) Art Arnalich, who has worked with fire brigades in the United States and Europe and is now a member of CERN’s Fire Brigade, has actively participated in this research since 2013. His knowledge of ...

Smart Card Data Mining of Public Transport Destination: A Literature Review

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Tian Li

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Smart card data is increasingly used to investigate passenger behavior and the demand characteristics of public transport. The destination estimation of public transport is one of the major concerns for the implementation of smart card data. In recent years, numerous studies concerning destination estimation have been carried out—most automatic fare collection (AFC systems only record boarding information but not passenger alighting information. This study provides a comprehensive review of the practice of using smart card data for destination estimation. The results show that the land use factor is not discussed in more than three quarters of papers and sensitivity analysis is not applied in two thirds of papers. In addition, the results are not validated in half the relevant studies. In the future, more research should be done to improve the current model, such as considering additional factors or making sensitivity analysis of parameters as well as validating the results with multi-source data and new methods.

Determinants of spikes in ultrafine particle concentration whilst commuting by bus

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Shanon; Dirks, Kim N.; Salmond, Jennifer A.; Xie, Shanju

2015-07-01

This paper examines concentration of ultrafine particles (UFPs) based on data collected using high-resolution UFP monitors whilst travelling by bus during rush hour along three different urban routes in Auckland, New Zealand. The factors influencing in-bus UFP concentration were assessed using a combination of spatial, statistical and GIS analysis techniques to determine both spatial and temporal variability. Results from 68 bus trips showed that concentrations varied more within a route than between on a given day, despite differences in urban morphology, land use and traffic densities between routes. A number of trips were characterised by periods of very rapid increases in UFPs (concentration 'spikes'), followed by slow declines. Trips which recorded at least one spike (an increase of greater than 10,000 pt/cm3) resulted in significantly higher mean concentrations. Spikes in UFPs were significantly more likely to occur when travelling at low speeds and when passengers were alighting and boarding at bus stops close to traffic light intersections.

A non-persistently transmitted-virus induces a pull-push strategy in its aphid vector to optimize transmission and spread.

Science.gov (United States)

Carmo-Sousa, Michele; Moreno, Aranzazu; Garzo, Elisa; Fereres, Alberto

2014-06-24

Plant viruses are known to modify the behaviour of their insect vectors, both directly and indirectly, generally adapting to each type of virus-vector relationship in a way that enhances transmission efficiency. Here, we report results of three different studies showing how a virus transmitted in a non-persistent (NP) manner (Cucumber mosaic virus; CMV, Cucumovirus) can induce changes in its host plant, cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv. Marumba) that modifies the behaviour of its aphid vector (Aphis gossypii Glover; Hemiptera: Aphididae) in a way that enhances virus transmission and spread non-viruliferous aphids changed their alighting, settling and probing behaviour activities over time when exposed to CMV-infected and mock-inoculated cucumber plants. Aphids exhibited no preference to migrate from CMV-infected to mock-inoculated plants at short time intervals (1, 10 and 30 min after release), but showed a clear shift in preference to migrate from CMV-infected to mock-inoculated plants 60 min after release. Our free-choice preference assays showed that A. gossypii alates preferred CMV-infected over mock-inoculated plants at an early stage (30 min), but this behaviour was reverted at a later stage and aphids preferred to settle and reproduce on mock-inoculated plants. The electrical penetration graph (EPG) technique revealed a sharp change in aphid probing behaviour over time when exposed to CMV-infected plants. At the beginning (first 15 min) aphid vectors dramatically increased the number of short superficial probes and intracellular punctures when exposed to CMV-infected plants. At a later stage (second hour of recording) aphids diminished their feeding on CMV-infected plants as indicated by much less time spent in phloem salivation and ingestion (E1 and E2). This particular probing behaviour including an early increase in the number of short superficial probes and intracellular punctures followed by a phloem feeding deterrence is known to enhance the transmission

PREPARATION OF FUTURE WEB DEVELOPERS TO KNOWLEDGE CERTIFICATION AND EMPLOYMENT IN UNIVERSITIES OF UKRAINE

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V. Osadchyi

2015-05-01

Full Text Available One of the main factors of successful employment is a choosing a profession, which would be demanded enough at the modern labour market. According to the opinion of many experts, development of modern technologies is the main factor that stimulates growth of productivity and economy in general. This trend is characterized by the state of a labour market, when a significant amount of perspective professions is connected to IT field, which is a worldwide trend. Actually, a job of a programmer has become one of the most demanded specialties on a labour market. As for today, web development is a mainstream in software development. This article describes the requirements for web developers, requirements to the frontend and backend developers. We consider skill levels and requirements. Considered programming languages to learn. These are HTML5, XML, ccs3, javascript+, PHP, sql. Considered particular certification level programmers. The content of the discipline "Web development" is alighted to obtain the necessary skills and knowledge in this area. It also considers the structure of a basic study guide of the discipline.

Orientation Assistance for Visually Impaired Passengers within a Bus Rapid Transit System (Transmilenio, using Satellite Geolocation

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Julián Camargo

2017-05-01

Results: 100% of the users were able to reach their destination successfully in the pilot test. In regards to the usability perception, users highlighted features such as sound indications for setting the device and orientation guidance throughout the journey. On the other hand, one of the main difficulties found was to correctly identify the bus approaching the stop and similarly locating the corresponding boarding door, as multiple bus routes may alight in the same door. Conclusions: The device was built incorporating low-cost technologies intended to make it affordable in an eventual mass—scale production. Likewise, a discreet design was chosen so as to lessen the risk of robbery, which unfortunately is a frequent issue in the Transmilenio system due to overcrowding of buses and stations. Additionally, we remark that the prototype can be made smaller by using special—purpose circuit boards. Policy-makers may take into account these considerations for an eventual wide implementation as part of governments’ plans for mobility inclusion in mass-transport systems for disabled people, in comparison with other alternatives such as smart cell phones Language: Spanish.

An observational comparison of the older and younger bus passenger experience in a developing world city.

Science.gov (United States)

Aceves-González, Carlos; May, Andrew; Cook, Sharon

2016-06-01

This study was an unobtrusive observational analysis of 333 older and younger bus passengers in Guadalajara, Mexico. A set of data were collected for each observed passenger, as well as more general observations related to driver behaviour, bus design and bus service characteristics. There were significant differences between older and younger passengers in terms of boarding and alighting times, use of handrails, seat location preferences, passenger stability and coping strategies in order to maintain postural stability. The conditions of travel are conducive to a poor passenger experience for the older passengers in particular. Although the problems may be attributed to bus design and driver behaviour typical of that in developing countries, they are also influenced by the wider transport infrastructure, and a lack of a regulatory regime which places drivers under time pressure and in direct competition with each other. Practitioner Summary: Bus services must cater for all ages of passengers, including the elderly. This unobtrusive observational study investigated the passenger experience in a developing world city. Bus and wider service design were found to compromise the journey experience, with the older users being particularly negatively impacted. Design recommendations are provided.

Evaluation of Effective Factors on Travel Time in Optimization of Bus Stops Placement Using Genetic Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Bargegol, Iraj; Ghorbanzadeh, Mahyar; Ghasedi, Meisam; Rastbod, Mohammad

2017-10-01

In congested cities, locating and proper designing of bus stops according to the unequal distribution of passengers is crucial issue economically and functionally, since this subject plays an important role in the use of bus system by passengers. Location of bus stops is a complicated subject; by reducing distances between stops, walking time decreases, but the total travel time may increase. In this paper, a specified corridor in the city of Rasht in north of Iran is studied. Firstly, a new formula is presented to calculate the travel time, by which the number of stops and consequently, the travel time can be optimized. An intended corridor with specified number of stops and distances between them is addressed, the related formulas to travel time are created, and its travel time is calculated. Then the corridor is modelled using a meta-heuristic method in order that the placement and the optimal distances of bus stops for that are determined. It was found that alighting and boarding time along with bus capacity are the most effective factors affecting travel time. Consequently, it is better to have more concentration on indicated factors for improving the efficiency of bus system.

Wheeled mobility device transportation safety in fixed route and demand-responsive public transit vehicles within the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Karen L; van Roosmalen, Linda; Bertocci, Gina; Cross, Douglas J

2012-01-01

An overview of the current status of wheelchair transportation safety in fixed route and demand-responsive, non-rail, public transportation vehicles within the US is presented. A description of each mode of transportation is provided, followed by a discussion of the primary issues affecting safety, accessibility, and usability. Technologies such as lifts, ramps, securement systems, and occupant restraint systems, along with regulations and voluntary industry standards have been implemented with the intent of improving safety and accessibility for individuals who travel while seated in their wheeled mobility device (e.g., wheelchair or scooter). However, across both fixed route and demand-responsive transit systems a myriad of factors such as nonuse and misuse of safety systems, oversized wheeled mobility devices, vehicle space constraints, and inadequate vehicle operator training may place wheeled mobility device (WhMD) users at risk of injury even under non-impact driving conditions. Since WhMD-related incidents also often occur during the boarding and alighting process, the frequency of these events, along with factors associated with these events are described for each transit mode. Recommendations for improving WhMD transportation are discussed given the current state of

[Injuries sustained by bus passengers in the municipality of Odense 1996-1999].

Science.gov (United States)

Barsi, T; Faergemann, C; Larsen, L B

2001-10-22

Owing to several recent bus-related accidents in Denmark, we wished to investigate injuries sustained by passengers. From our ongoing registration of patients treated in the casualty department at Odense University Hospital, we identified all residents of Odense Municipality who had sustained injuries as bus passengers from 1996 to 1999. Market analysis and demographic information were used to calculate the incidence and risk. Over this four-year period, 327 consecutive injuries had been sustained by 246 bus passengers, 72 men and 174 women, mean ages 44 and 53 years. The incidence rate was 3.3 injured per 10,000 inhabitants per year, with no increasing tendency during the study period. The risk was 2.2 injured per 1,000,000 bus passengers per year, highest in women and increasing with age. Injuries most frequently occurred when the bus stopped (31%), as passengers were boarding or alighting (23%), or during collision with another vehicle (20%). Most commonly injured areas were the lower (30%) and upper (28%) extremities and the head or neck (27%). Contusions and sprains were the most common injuries (59%). The most common fractures were those of the humerus and hip region. Bus passenger injuries are not a growing problem. The incidence increases with age.

Modeling and Optimization of Collaborative Passenger Control in Urban Rail Stations under Mass Passenger Flow

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lili Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of urban rail transit, the phenomenon of outburst passenger flows flocking to stations is occurring much more frequently. Passenger flow control is one of the main methods used to ensure passengers’ safety. While most previous studies have only focused on control measures inside the target station, ignoring the collaboration between stops, this paper puts emphasis on joint passenger control methods during the occurrence of large passenger flows. To provide a theoretic description for the problem under consideration, an integer programming model is built, based on the analysis of passenger delay and the processes by which passengers alight and board. Taking average passenger delay as the objective, the proposed model aims to disperse the pressure of oversaturated stations into others, achieving the optimal state for the entire line. The model is verified using a case study and the results show that restricted access measures taken collaboratively by stations produce less delay and faster evacuation. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted, from which we find that the departure interval and maximum conveying capacity of the train affect passenger delay markedly in the process of passenger control and infer that control measures should be taken at stations near to the one experiencing an emergency.

Impact of Train Schedule on Pedestrian Movement on Stairway at Suburban Rail Transit Station in Mumbai, India

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Shah Jiten

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Pedestrian flow takes place in confined environment on stairways under the influence of composition, direction of movement, and schedule of trains. During peak-period, alighting and boarding rate is quite high resulting in very high pedestrian movement from one platform to the other to catch the next train at interchange stations. The transfer of passengers from railway platforms through common undivided stairways becomes difficult, uncomfortable, and unsafe at times when pedestrian flow reaches the capacity level. Understanding of criteria defining quality of flow that affect the effectiveness of facilities like stairways in handling the pedestrian traffic is vital for planning and designing of such facilities to ensure the desired level of service as well as safety in case of emergency. The present paper is based on the study of pedestrian movement on stairways at busy suburban rail transit interchange station at Dadar in Mumbai, India. Pedestrian movements are captured through videography at two stairways and the effect of bidirectional movement on average walking speed is analyzed. The ascending flow in small proportion is found to be more influential in causing speed reduction on undivided stairways. The outcome of the study is useful for capacity and level of service analysis while planning and designing the transit station stairways.

Spatial-Temporal Similarity Correlation between Public Transit Passengers Using Smart Card Data

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Hamed Faroqi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The increasing availability of public transit smart card data has enabled several studies to focus on identifying passengers with similar spatial and/or temporal trip characteristics. However, this paper goes one step further by investigating the relationship between passengers’ spatial and temporal characteristics. For the first time, this paper investigates the correlation of the spatial similarity with the temporal similarity between public transit passengers by developing spatial similarity and temporal similarity measures for the public transit network with a novel passenger-based perspective. The perspective considers the passengers as agents who can make multiple trips in the network. The spatial similarity measure takes into account direction as well as the distance between the trips of the passengers. The temporal similarity measure considers both the boarding and alighting time in a continuous linear space. The spatial-temporal similarity correlation between passengers is analysed using histograms, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hexagonal binning. Also, relations between the spatial and temporal similarity values with the trip time and length are examined. The proposed methodology is implemented for four-day smart card data including 80,000 passengers in Brisbane, Australia. The results show a nonlinear spatial-temporal similarity correlation among the passengers.

Evaluation of hazards from industrial activity near nuclear power plants. Study of typical accidents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lannoy, A.; Gobert, T.; Granier, J.P.

1981-08-01

The design and dimensioning of nuclear power plant structures necessitate the evaluation of risks due to industrial activity. Among these risks, those due to the storage or transport of dangerous products merit special attention. They result, inter alia, in the explosion of flammable gas clouds. Such clouds can drift before igniting and, once alight, the resulting pressure wave can cause serious damage, even at a distance. A methodology both deterministic and probabilistic enabling this risk to be quantified has therefore been developed. It is based in part on an analysis of the statistics of actual accidents that have occurred. After briefly recalling the probabilistic model, the typical accidents selected are described and for three usual cases (storage under pressure, rail tank cars and road units) the main characteristics of the rupture are explicited. The deterministic models that have been worked out to calculate the consequences of such an accident: flow rate at the bursting point, evaporation, drift and atmospheric dispersion of the cloud formed, explosion of this cloud, are then described. At the present time the overpressure wave is quantified against a TNT equivalent of the explosive mixture. Some data are given as examples for three commonly employed hydrocarbons (butane, propane, propylene) [fr

Achievement report for fiscal 1998 on Welfare Technosystem Ube research and development; 1998 nendo Walfare technosystem kenkyu kaihatsu (Chiba) seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

Research is conducted into burdens to be imposed on the nurse and the attended person during nursing activities and into measures to lighten such burdens, and basic data are collected about physical strains to be produced when raising a patient on the bed, pushing a wheelchair, and about stool shapes appropriate for the aged. In a study about escape from a disaster, many shortcomings are discovered requiring remedy, such as difference in height and doors failing to open in case of power outage. For communication in case of emergency, it is concluded that the most promising method will be a combination of a mobile computer and handyphone system. A photoelectric pulse wave monitoring system and an acceleration sensor-equipped water bed, on which the patient lies unrestrained for the measurement of heartbeats and respiration waveforms, are developed. A concept wheelchair is under development which will be a 2-motor 4-wheel design, to be equipped with a steering wheel and a vertically movable seat which will facilitate boarding and alighting. Many projects are in store for fiscal 2001, which include the development of a system to ensure sitting position stability and an automatic pressure belt for the prevention of orthostatic hypotension. A multiple function bed is under development for domestic use, which will be provided with a discharge system (automatic toilet) whose mechanism is quite sophisticated. (NEDO)

The Effect of Transport Accessibility on the Social Inclusion of Wheelchair Users: A Mixed Method Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Velho

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In recent years the accessibility of London buses has improved with the introduction of ramps and wheelchair priority areas. These advances are meant to remove physical barriers to entering the bus, but new conflicts have arisen particularly over the physical space aboard. We aimed to research the barriers faced by wheelchair users in public transport using a mixed methods approach to establish the breadth of issues faced by wheelchair users. To this end we quantified the push-force used alight a bus and a study to understand the coping mechanisms used by people to propel up a ramp. This quantitative approach found push forces which resulted in a load of 2 to 3 times body weight being transferred through people’s shoulders, forces which can be directly linked to shoulder injury. This could disable the user further, preventing them from being able to push their wheelchair. Alongside the quantitative study, we conducted qualitative research comprising of a number of in-depth interviews with wheelchair users about the barriers they face in public transport. Our main claim, highlighted through this interdisciplinary collaboration, is that proposed ‘solutions’ to accessibility, such as ramps, often generate problems of their own. These barriers can affect the life of wheelchair users, impacting on their confidence and causing social isolation. These can be long-term in nature or immediate.

Non-destructive investigations of Swiss museums objects with neutron and x-ray imaging methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lehmann, E.H.; Deschler, E.; Pernet, L.; Vontobel, P.

2004-01-01

Many objects of archaeological relevance found in Switzerland are from the Celtic and Roman era. Because of their uniqueness in most cases it is demanded to perform any investigation with such samples non-destructively. Depending on the structure and size of the objects a transmission experiment performed either with X-ray or neutron can alight inner structures, composition, defects or the principles of the manufacturing procedures. Furthermore, the treatment by conservators and restaurateurs becomes visible in many cases. This report describes some examples of such investigations. In the case of neutron investigations, beside the transmission imaging as a radiograph the three-dimensional structure was observed with a tomography technique. For X-ray radiography, the images were obtained in the same digital format because the similar experimental method (imaging plates) was applied. It becomes evident in the described examples that the combination and complementary use of both methods (neutrons and X-ray) brings insights in different aspects of the samples properties and treatment. This approach to study museums objects stored and exhibit in Switzerland can be extrapolated to other countries where these techniques are also simultaneously available in order to investigate other objects of relevance. The European network COST-G8 entitled 'Non-destructive analysis and testing of museum objects' can help to support initiatives in this direction. (author)

Arboreal Ants Use the “Velcro® Principle” to Capture Very Large Prey

Science.gov (United States)

Dejean, Alain; Leroy, Céline; Corbara, Bruno; Roux, Olivier; Céréghino, Régis; Orivel, Jérôme; Boulay, Raphaël

2010-01-01

Plant-ants live in a mutualistic association with host plants known as “myrmecophytes” that provide them with a nesting place and sometimes with extra-floral nectar (EFN) and/or food bodies (FBs); the ants can also attend sap-sucking Hemiptera for their honeydew. In return, plant-ants, like most other arboreal ants, protect their host plants from defoliators. To satisfy their nitrogen requirements, however, some have optimized their ability to capture prey in the restricted environment represented by the crowns of trees by using elaborate hunting techniques. In this study, we investigated the predatory behavior of the ant Azteca andreae which is associated with the myrmecophyte Cecropia obtusa. We noted that up to 8350 ant workers per tree hide side-by-side beneath the leaf margins of their host plant with their mandibles open, waiting for insects to alight. The latter are immediately seized by their extremities, and then spread-eagled; nestmates are recruited to help stretch, carve up and transport prey. This group ambush hunting technique is particularly effective when the underside of the leaves is downy, as is the case for C. obtusa. In this case, the hook-shaped claws of the A. andreae workers and the velvet-like structure of the underside of the leaves combine to act like natural Velcro® that is reinforced by the group ambush strategy of the workers, allowing them to capture prey of up to 13,350 times the mean weight of a single worker. PMID:20593032

Predicting Short-Term Subway Ridership and Prioritizing Its Influential Factors Using Gradient Boosting Decision Trees

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Chuan Ding

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Understanding the relationship between short-term subway ridership and its influential factors is crucial to improving the accuracy of short-term subway ridership prediction. Although there has been a growing body of studies on short-term ridership prediction approaches, limited effort is made to investigate the short-term subway ridership prediction considering bus transfer activities and temporal features. To fill this gap, a relatively recent data mining approach called gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT is applied to short-term subway ridership prediction and used to capture the associations with the independent variables. Taking three subway stations in Beijing as the cases, the short-term subway ridership and alighting passengers from its adjacent bus stops are obtained based on transit smart card data. To optimize the model performance with different combinations of regularization parameters, a series of GBDT models are built with various learning rates and tree complexities by fitting a maximum of trees. The optimal model performance confirms that the gradient boosting approach can incorporate different types of predictors, fit complex nonlinear relationships, and automatically handle the multicollinearity effect with high accuracy. In contrast to other machine learning methods—or “black-box” procedures—the GBDT model can identify and rank the relative influences of bus transfer activities and temporal features on short-term subway ridership. These findings suggest that the GBDT model has considerable advantages in improving short-term subway ridership prediction in a multimodal public transportation system.

Relationship between Spatio-Temporal Travel Patterns Derived from Smart-Card Data and Local Environmental Characteristics of Seoul, Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mi-Kyeong Kim

2018-03-01

Full Text Available With the incorporation of an automated fare-collection system into the management of public transportation, not only can the quality of transportation services be improved but also that of the data collected from users when coupled with smart-card technology. The data collected from smart cards provide opportunities for researchers to analyze big data sets and draw meaningful information out of them. This study aims to identify the relationship between travel patterns derived from smart-card data and urban characteristics. Using seven-day transit smart-card data from the public-transportation system in Seoul, the capital city of the Republic of Korea, we investigated the temporal and spatial boarding and alighting patterns of the users. The major travel patterns, classified into five clusters, were identified by utilizing the K-Spectral Centroid clustering method. We found that the temporal pattern of urban mobility reflects daily activities in the urban area and that the spatial pattern of the five clusters classified by travel patterns was closely related to urban structure and urban function; that is, local environmental characteristics extracted from land-use and census data. This study confirmed that the travel patterns at the citywide level can be used to understand the dynamics of the urban population and the urban spatial structure. We believe that this study will provide valuable information about general patterns, which represent the possibility of finding travel patterns from individuals and urban spatial traits.

Inferring Social Functions Available in the Metro Station Area from Passengers’ Staying Activities in Smart Card Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Zhou

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The function of a metro station area is vital for city planners to consider when establishing a context-aware Transit-Oriented Development policy around the station area. However, the functions of metro station areas are hard to infer using the static land use distribution and other traditional survey datasets. In this paper, we propose a method to infer the functions occurring around the metro station catchment areas according to the patterns of staying activities derived from smart card data. We first define the staying activities by the spatial and temporal constraints of the two consecutive alighting and boarding records from the individual travel profile. Then we cluster and label the whole staying activities by considering the features of duration, frequency, and start time. By analyzing the percentage of different types of aggregated activities happening around each metro station, we cluster and explore the functions of the metro station area. Taking Wuhan as a case study, we analyze the results of Wuhan metro systems and discuss the similarities and differences between the functions and the land use distribution around the station area. The results show that although there exist some agreements, there is also a gap between the human activities and the land uses around the station area. These findings could give us deeper insight into how people act around the stations by metro systems, which will ultimately benefit the urban planning and policy development.

Demand estimation of bus as a public transport based on gravity model

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Asmael Noor

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Bus as a public transport is a suitable service to meet the travel demand between any two zones. Baghdad faced with severe traffic problems along with the development in city size and economy. Passengers have to wait lots of time during commutation to work because of the serious traffic jams. In the last years, rate of car ownership has increased as income levels have gone up and cars have become a preferable mode of transport. Bus, as the only public mode of transport available, is suffering from inconvenience, slowness, and inflexibility. A big emphasis must be given to the public transport system because it introduces an active utilization of limited resources, energy and land. This study determines the demand of public routes for buses using boarding / alighting values to generate a model and assign these demand values to the bus network. Five public routes were selected to collect the required data. Ride check and Point check survey was conducted for each selected route. The results of this study were public demand assigned to the selected bus routes, dwell time, load factor and headway. It is observed that R1 and R3 have the heaviest travel demand; they need special study to improve bus performance and make better transit. The model developed with only limited data available to predict travel demand will assist transportation planners and related agencies in decision making.

Arboreal ants use the "Velcro(R principle" to capture very large prey.

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Alain Dejean

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Plant-ants live in a mutualistic association with host plants known as "myrmecophytes" that provide them with a nesting place and sometimes with extra-floral nectar (EFN and/or food bodies (FBs; the ants can also attend sap-sucking Hemiptera for their honeydew. In return, plant-ants, like most other arboreal ants, protect their host plants from defoliators. To satisfy their nitrogen requirements, however, some have optimized their ability to capture prey in the restricted environment represented by the crowns of trees by using elaborate hunting techniques. In this study, we investigated the predatory behavior of the ant Azteca andreae which is associated with the myrmecophyte Cecropia obtusa. We noted that up to 8350 ant workers per tree hide side-by-side beneath the leaf margins of their host plant with their mandibles open, waiting for insects to alight. The latter are immediately seized by their extremities, and then spread-eagled; nestmates are recruited to help stretch, carve up and transport prey. This group ambush hunting technique is particularly effective when the underside of the leaves is downy, as is the case for C. obtusa. In this case, the hook-shaped claws of the A. andreae workers and the velvet-like structure of the underside of the leaves combine to act like natural Velcro that is reinforced by the group ambush strategy of the workers, allowing them to capture prey of up to 13,350 times the mean weight of a single worker.

Evaluation of Urban Bus Transport Failure in Gujranwala City of Pakistan

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MUHAMMAD WAQAR ASLAM

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This research work has evaluated the performance of urban public bus transport service operating in Gujranwala city of Pakistan. The assessment has been made in terms of financial viability, bus condition, operational performance and user perception. Based on the data requirements, various traffic/transport surveys were conducted including Passenger Boarding and Alighting Survey, Bus Count Survey, Bus Inspection Survey, Illegal Operations Survey and Public Transport User Interview Survey in consultation with concerned department/agencies. Field surveys were also conducted to get input from passengers and local people. Initial investigation informed that out of four operational bus routes, only two routes are profitable. The overall bus operation is running in loss (only 0.3% net profit. It has barely any profit for the bus operator against its investment thereby making the urban bus operation financially non-viable. The whole revenue flow is dependent on passenger ticketing revenue only. Around 35% of the buses are in poor condition with major issues of quality of tyres, no speedometer, worse condition of seats, floor and ceiling, and display of route. Illegal operation of Qingqis/Rickshaws (as para-transit mode along the bus routes is also decreasing the revenue by capturing the passenger volume. According to passenger opinion analysis, around 55% of the passenger are not satisfied with the service quality and prefer other modes of transport. Their major concerns are absence of facilities for disables and bus stops, bus seating and standing capacity, poor bus condition and pick pocketing. Collectively, these factors are contributing

The potential of e-ticketing for public transport planning: the Piedmont region case study

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Arnone, M.

2016-07-01

In the Piedmont region (Italy) the electronic ticketing system called BIP, is currently active across much of its territory, and thedata collected in the Province of Cuneo since the full activation of the system (2014) provide today a sound source ofinformation. Two different travel documents are available, travel passes and pay-per-use, with different validation rules: check-inonly for travel passes and check-in and check-out for pay-per-use. Data produced by this electronic ticketing system employingsmart cards allow to perform a detailed analysis of each user’s behaviour, and calculate time and space distributions of eachpassenger trip. In detail, data originating from smart card transactions allow to trace back the trip chains, establish journey originsand destinations, and produce a “travel diary” for each passenger. Based on this data, performance indicators (i.e. load factor) aswell as user mobility patterns and origin-destination matrices can be calculated in an automated and reliable way. This articlepresents a methodology for assessing the quality of the data collected when information about boarding and alighting stops isavailable from the (on board) validation system. It also presents an algorithm to assign a destination for each trip where only theboarding information is available. In the case study of the Province of Cuneo, it was found that 91% of the pay-per-use journeydata are reliable and can be used for further analysis, whereas with the use of the proposed algorithm it was possible to estimatethe destinations for 82% of the travel pass trips. (Author)

Compound Extremes and Bunched Black (or Grouped Grey) Swans

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Watkins, N. W.

2014-12-01

Observed "wild" natural fluctuations may differ substantially in their character. Some events may be genuinelyunforeseen (and unforeseeable), as with Taleb's "black swans". These may occur singly, or may have their impactfurther magnified by being "bunched" in time. Some of the others may, however, be the rare extreme events from alight-tailed underlying distribution. Studying their occurrence may then be tractable with the methods of extremevalue theory [e.g. Coles, 2001], suitably adapted to allow correlation if that is observed to be present. Yet others may belong to a third broad class, described in today's presentation [ reviewed in Watkins, GRLFrontiers, 2013, doi: 10.1002/grl.50103]. Such "bursty" time series may show comparatively frequent highamplitude events, and/or long range correlations between successive values. The frequent large values due to thefirst of these effects, modelled in economics by Mandelbrot in 1963 using heavy- tailed probability distributions,can give rise to an "IPCC type I" burst composed of successive wild events. Conversely, long range dependence,even in a light-tailed Gaussian model like Mandelbrot and van Ness' fractional Brownian motion, can integrate"mild" events into an extreme "IPCC type III" burst. I will show how a standard statistical time series model, linear fractional stable motion (LFSM), which de-scends from the two special cases advocated by Mandelbrot, allows these two effects to be varied independently,and will present results from a preliminary study of such bursts in LFSM. The consequences for burst scaling whenlow frequency effects due to dissipation (FARIMA models), and multiplicative cascades (such as multifractals)are included will also be discussed, and the physical assumptions and constraints associated with making a givenchoice of model.

Is there a pattern in European bus and coach incidents? A literature analysis with special focus on injury causation and injury mechanisms.

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Albertsson, Pontus; Falkmer, Torbjörn

2005-03-01

In order to identify and describe a pattern in bus and coach incident related injuries and fatalities, and to suggest possible future measures for improvement of bus and coach safety, a literature analysis was performed. The results formed a multi-faceted pattern, which briefly can be described as follows; women travelled more frequently by bus as compared to men. Injuries sustained predominantly affected women 60 years of age and older. Of all traffic fatalities in Europe, bus and coach fatalities represented 0.3-0.5%. In the OECD countries, the risk of being killed or seriously injured was found to be seven to nine times lower for bus and coach occupants as compared to those of car occupants. Despite the fact that fatalities were more frequent on rural roads, a vast majority of all bus and coach casualties occurred on urban roads and in dry weather conditions. Boarding and alighting caused about one-third of all injury cases. Collisions were a major injury-contributing factor. Buses and coaches most frequently collided with cars, but unprotected road users were hit in about one-third of all cases of a collision, the point of impact on the bus or the coach being typically frontal or side. Rollovers occurred in almost all cases of severe coach crashes. In this type of crash projection, total ejection, partial ejection, intrusion and smoke inhalation were the main injury mechanisms and among those, ejection being the most dangerous. A 2-point belt may prevent passenger ejection, but in frontal crashes when the upper abdominal parts and the head hit the seatback in front, it could, however, contribute to head and thoracic injuries. Hence, a 3-point belt provides the best restraint in rollovers and frontal crashes.

A comparative study of roentgenographic appearance of periodontal osseous lesions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jhai Duck

1980-01-01

The purpose of this article is to re-examine the roentgenographic appearance of alveolar osseous in an effort to determine the value of the orthopantomogram in the diagnosis of periodontal disease. A total of 158 osseous lesions from 13 human dry panoramic film are used to obtain radiographs of all defects. The bisecting technic was used, with a target-film distance of 8 inches and exposure factors of 70 kVp, 10 mA and 0.4 sec. at anterior teeth, 0.6 sec at posterior teeth in exposure time. For orthopantomogram, Panoura Eight-C was used with a exposure factors of 90 kVp, 10 mA. and 15 sec. exposure time. All films were developed in alight-tight darkroom at 68 .deg. for 4 1/2 minutes. Comparison of orthopantomogram and intraoral films on the view-box was carefully studied in relation to the types of osseous defect visually evident; Proximal intraosseous defects, Interproximal craters, Interproximal hemisepta, Furcal defects on multirooted teeth, and Facial or Lingual one-walled defects. The results obtained were as follows; 1. Proximal osseous defects throughout the dental arches and furcal defects on facial and lingual surfaces of multirooted teeth can be identified with a high degree of accuracy from their orthopantomographic appearances. 2. Lesions on facial or lingual surface of the alveolar arches are rather difficult to locate or recognize on the dental radiographs. 3. In determining whether the proximal and furcal lesions are located facially or lingually, Orthopantomogram is superior to the conventional film Orthopantomogram obtained with standardization of head in proper position revealed the complete visualization of alveolar bone without showing occlusal surface of molars and proximal superimposition of teeth. Thus, on the standardized orthopantomograms, The roentgenographic characteristics of each defect were determined.

A comparative study of roentgenographic appearance of periodontal osseous lesions

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Kim, Jhai Duck [Department of Dental Radiology College of Dentistry, Cho-Sun University, Kwangju (Korea, Republic of)

1980-11-15

The purpose of this article is to re-examine the roentgenographic appearance of alveolar osseous in an effort to determine the value of the orthopantomogram in the diagnosis of periodontal disease. A total of 158 osseous lesions from 13 human dry panoramic film are used to obtain radiographs of all defects. The bisecting technic was used, with a target-film distance of 8 inches and exposure factors of 70 kVp, 10 mA and 0.4 sec. at anterior teeth, 0.6 sec at posterior teeth in exposure time. For orthopantomogram, Panoura Eight-C was used with a exposure factors of 90 kVp, 10 mA. and 15 sec. exposure time. All films were developed in alight-tight darkroom at 68 .deg. for 4 1/2 minutes. Comparison of orthopantomogram and intraoral films on the view-box was carefully studied in relation to the types of osseous defect visually evident; Proximal intraosseous defects, Interproximal craters, Interproximal hemisepta, Furcal defects on multirooted teeth, and Facial or Lingual one-walled defects. The results obtained were as follows; 1. Proximal osseous defects throughout the dental arches and furcal defects on facial and lingual surfaces of multirooted teeth can be identified with a high degree of accuracy from their orthopantomographic appearances. 2. Lesions on facial or lingual surface of the alveolar arches are rather difficult to locate or recognize on the dental radiographs. 3. In determining whether the proximal and furcal lesions are located facially or lingually, Orthopantomogram is superior to the conventional film Orthopantomogram obtained with standardization of head in proper position revealed the complete visualization of alveolar bone without showing occlusal surface of molars and proximal superimposition of teeth. Thus, on the standardized orthopantomograms, The roentgenographic characteristics of each defect were determined.

Failure of Aedes albopictus to overwinter following introduction and seasonal establishment at a tire recycling plant in the northeastern USA.

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Andreadis, Theodore G

2009-03-01

In July 2006, an introduction of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, was documented for the first time at a commercial tire recycling plant in northeastern Connecticut, USA. The introduction likely occurred via transport of infested tires originating from northern New Jersey or metropolitan New York City. Efforts were made to determine seasonal establishment and overwintering success by assessing adult biting and oviposition activity in the surrounding woodlands. The first adult female was collected in a CO2-baited Mosquito Magnet Liberty trap within the confines of the tire plant during the week of July 28. Additional females were collected intermittently thereafter through October 16. Host-seeking female Ae. albopictus attempting to alight on human subjects and larvae hatching from eggs collected in ovitraps placed in the woodlands surrounding the tire plant were detected weekly from August 21 through October 2, denoting seasonal establishment in the adjoining woodlands. However, no larvae of Ae. albopictus were recovered from eggs collected in ovitraps that were placed in the surrounding woodlands or in traps placed 1.0-1.6 km away, nor were any host-seeking females detected by human subjects the following season (July to October 2007), indicating that the species did not survive winter conditions to enable successful colonization. The failure of Ae. albopictus to overwinter and establish itself in the forested woodlands following several weeks of seasonal breeding and oviposition during the summer and early fall were most likely due to winter egg mortality, interspecific competition from Aedes triseriatus and Aedes japonicus, and/or other ecological barriers. Permanent establishment of Ae. albopictus in New England is unlikely despite the recurring importation of infested used tires into recycling facilities. However, continued monitoring of such facilities for potential reinvasion is warranted especially in urban/suburban environs where global warming

Long term effects of aversive reinforcement on colour discrimination learning in free-flying bumblebees.

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Miguel A Rodríguez-Gironés

Full Text Available The results of behavioural experiments provide important information about the structure and information-processing abilities of the visual system. Nevertheless, if we want to infer from behavioural data how the visual system operates, it is important to know how different learning protocols affect performance and to devise protocols that minimise noise in the response of experimental subjects. The purpose of this work was to investigate how reinforcement schedule and individual variability affect the learning process in a colour discrimination task. Free-flying bumblebees were trained to discriminate between two perceptually similar colours. The target colour was associated with sucrose solution, and the distractor could be associated with water or quinine solution throughout the experiment, or with one substance during the first half of the experiment and the other during the second half. Both acquisition and final performance of the discrimination task (measured as proportion of correct choices were determined by the choice of reinforcer during the first half of the experiment: regardless of whether bees were trained with water or quinine during the second half of the experiment, bees trained with quinine during the first half learned the task faster and performed better during the whole experiment. Our results confirm that the choice of stimuli used during training affects the rate at which colour discrimination tasks are acquired and show that early contact with a strongly aversive stimulus can be sufficient to maintain high levels of attention during several hours. On the other hand, bees which took more time to decide on which flower to alight were more likely to make correct choices than bees which made fast decisions. This result supports the existence of a trade-off between foraging speed and accuracy, and highlights the importance of measuring choice latencies during behavioural experiments focusing on cognitive abilities.

"Wood already touched by fire is not hard to set alight": Comment on "Constraints to applying systems thinking concepts in health systems: A regional perspective from surveying stakeholders in Eastern Mediterranean countries".

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Agyepong, Irene Akua

2015-03-01

A major constraint to the application of any form of knowledge and principles is the awareness, understanding and acceptance of the knowledge and principles. Systems Thinking (ST) is a way of understanding and thinking about the nature of health systems and how to make and implement decisions within health systems to maximize desired and minimize undesired effects. A major constraint to applying ST within health systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) would appear to be an awareness and understanding of ST and how to apply it. This is a fundamental constraint and in the increasing desire to enable the application of ST concepts in health systems in LMIC and understand and evaluate the effects; an essential first step is going to be enabling of a wide spread as well as deeper understanding of ST and how to apply this understanding.

Relative effects of exophytic predation, endophytic predation, and intraspecific competition on a subcortical herbivore: consequences to the reproduction of Ips pini and Thanasimus dubius.

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Aukema, Brian H; Raffa, Kenneth F

2002-12-01

We used a laboratory assay to partition the effects of predation and intraspecific competition on the establishment, mating success, and brood development of an endophytic herbivore. We selected a system in which the same predator feeds both exophytically and endophytically on the same prey, to evaluate the role of herbivore feeding guild on predator numerical and functional responses. The bark beetle, Ips pini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) reproduces within the stems of conifers. Males establish mating chambers under the bark, produce aggregation pheromones, and are subsequently joined by females that construct ovipositional galleries. Thanasimus dubius (Coleoptera: Cleridae) adults prey on adults alighting on the bark surface. T. dubius females then oviposit at the bark beetles' entrance sites, and their larvae prey on developing bark beetle larvae within the tree. We imposed a controlled 3×3 factorial design of prey and predator adult densities on red pine logs. Both predation and competition decreased I. pini reproduction. However, the per capita effect of predation was greater than competition, with one adult T. dubius reducing herbivore reproduction by an equivalent amount as four to five competing males and their harems. Increased densities of adult T. dubius on the plant surface reduced the number of prey captured per predator. Total predation on adults and larvae was similar. However, adult T. dubius on the plant surface ate approximately 18-35 times more I. pini per day than did their endophytic larvae. Within the plant, cannibalism among T. dubius, low herbivore densities, limited feeding times, and presumably the complex gallery architecture of I. pini reduced the number of predator progeny. The progeny of I. pini showed even sex ratios in the absence of predators, but were female biased when predators were present. We quantified a relatively narrow set of predator and prey densities that can generate replacement rates greater than one for this predator

Comparative Ultrastructural Studies on the Impact of Moderate and Hyperthermic Environment on the Corneal Structure of two Species of Wild Rodents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naguib, N.I.; El-Dawi, E.F.

2011-01-01

This study was carried out to investigate the impact of environmental climate (temperature) on the corneal structure of two wild rodents; the nocturnal Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and the diurnal golden spiny mouse (Acomys russatus). Both rodents were collected from two extreme climatic environment and their dissected corneas were prepared for light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The corneas of both rodents are composed of three main layers; an outer epithelium, stroma, Descemet's membrane, and an inner endothelium. The mean thickness of the epithelium, stroma, Descemet's membrane and inner endothelium of both rodents were measured. The scanning electron microscopy revealed that in R. norvegicus and A. russatus; the outermost cells of the corneal epithelium, are mostly polygonal in shape with nearly regular borders and show dense pattern of microplicae with different scatter electron that exhibits three polymorphic appearances (A, B, C) and two (A, B), respectively. Numerous A-light cells with dense microplicae, many B-dark cells with a moderate density of microplicae and few C-dark cells with a less density of microplicae were observed. Using transmission electron microscope, the epithelial cells of both species possess glycocalyx and the cytokeratin filaments are more extensive in the apical epithelial cells in A. russatus. The stroma in R. norvegicus is formed of outer and inner lamellar zones with spaces in between its wavy bundles. In A. russatus, the stroma is formed of one lamellar zone of flattened bundles of highly wavy and branched collagen fibrils. On the other hand, the surface of the endothelial cells in R. norvegicus is slightly bulging with many blebs whereas it showed flattened and nearly smooth surface in A. russatus. In conclusion, the differences in the number of the superficial epithelial cells and the thickness of the stroma and structure of the endothelium of R. norvegicus (nocturnal) and A. russatus (diurnal) are most

Efficacy of Electrocuting Devices to Catch Tsetse Flies (Glossinidae and Other Diptera.

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Glyn A Vale

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The behaviour of insect vectors has an important bearing on the epidemiology of the diseases they transmit, and on the opportunities for vector control. Two sorts of electrocuting device have been particularly useful for studying the behaviour of tsetse flies (Glossina spp, the vectors of the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock. Such devices consist of grids on netting (E-net to catch tsetse in flight, or on cloth (E-cloth to catch alighting flies. Catches are most meaningful when the devices catch as many as possible of the flies potentially available to them, and when the proportion caught is known. There have been conflicting indications for the catching efficiency, depending on whether the assessments were made by the naked eye or assisted by video recordings.Using grids of 0.5m2 in Zimbabwe, we developed catch methods of studying the efficiency of E-nets and E-cloth for tsetse, using improved transformers to supply the grids with electrical pulses of ~40kV. At energies per pulse of 35-215mJ, the efficiency was enhanced by reducing the pulse interval from 3200 to 1ms. Efficiency was low at 35mJ per pulse, but there seemed no benefit of increasing the energy beyond 70mJ. Catches at E-nets declined when the fine netting normally used became either coarser or much finer, and increased when the grid frame was moved from 2.5cm to 27.5cm from the grid. Data for muscoids and tabanids were roughly comparable to those for tsetse.The catch method of studying efficiency is useful for supplementing and extending video methods. Specifications are suggested for E-nets and E-cloth that are ~95% efficient and suitable for estimating the absolute numbers of available flies. Grids that are less efficient, but more economical, are recommended for studies of relative numbers available to various baits.

Observações sobre anofelinos em Santa Catarina, Brasil

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Mário B. Aragão

1973-10-01

, showed that a person placed outside the house intercepts a significant number of mosquitoes; 5 It was clear that anophelines in the region rarely alight on sprayed walls; 6 Besides this, DDT greatly reduces the number of specimens which go to feed inside the houses; for A. cruzii this reduction was of the order of 90%.

Um balanço da reforma psiquiátrica brasileira: instituições, atores e políticas An assessment of Brazilian psychiatric reform: institutions, actors and policies

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Ana Maria Fernandes Pitta

2011-12-01

Full Text Available O artigo provoca olhares sobre a Reforma Psiquiátrica Brasileira (RPB na última década, após a homologação da Lei Federal 10.216/2001 e pretende suscitar o debate inadiável sobre os novos desafios que ela precisa enfrentar para alimentar ou reciclar a antiga utopia de "cidadania plena para todos, numa sociedade sem manicômios". Estaria a Reforma dando sinais de exaustão? É inegável a reorientação do modelo assistencial de Saúde Mental no Brasil do hospital para a comunidade nessa última década. Ao tomar o uso de Substâncias Psicoativas como objeto de políticas e intervenção, incorpora demandas complexas que o atual drama do Crack somente imediatiza a necessidade de questionar sua história, seus limites, sua potência. O que manterá acesa a chama de um movimento exitoso que, surpreendentemente, resiste à força do tempo e do estigma nesses dez anos da Lei? Essas e outras questões precisam ser equacionadas. Está na hora de reciclar os focos de avaliação e análise no sentido de identificar o que ameaça sua vitalidade. Esse é o desafio que a articulista e debatedores estarão provocados a contribuir.The article takes a look at Brazilian Psychiatric Reform over the past decade, after the approval of Federal Law 10.216/2001 and seeks to elicit long overdue discussion about the pressing challenges that Brazilian Psychiatric Reform needs to tackle to promote or review the long-desired utopia of "full citizenship for all in a society without asylums." Is the Reform showing signs of exhaustion? The redirection of the care model for Mental Health in Brazil from the hospital to the community over the past decade is an undeniable achievement. Taking the use of psychoactive substances as the scope of policy and intervention, this incorporates complex demands that the current Crack drama makes it more urgent to question its history, its limits, its power. What will keep the flame alight of a successful movement that, surprisingly

Development of an in-situ diagnostic for the measurement of the hydrogen content of amorphous hydrocarbon layers in fusion devices; Entwicklung einer In-situ-Messmethode zur Bestimmung des Wasserstoffgehalts amorpher Kohlenwasserstoffschichten in Fusionsanlagen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Irrek, F.

2008-07-15

A diagnostic method, the laser-induced thermal desorption spectroscopy (LDS), is developed to measure in situ the hydrogen inventory in the surface of plasma-facing components in fusion experiments. Its capabilities will be demonstrated in TEXTOR. In LDS, during the plasma discharge a laser beam is used to heat a spot on a surface close to the plasma to a temperature of 1400 to 2100 K to a depth of 100 {mu}m. Trapped hydrogen will be released into the plasma where it emits line radiation. The emitted H{sub a}-light is quantitatively measured. The amount of released hydrogen is calculated from the intensity of this emission using conversion factors (S/XB){sub eff}. The laser light (Nd:YAG, 1064 nm) is conducted via light fibres. At TEXTOR, a 5 mm{sup 2} sized homogeneous laser spot is created with a pulse duration of 1.5 ms, and an Energy of 5 J, typically. Below the laser spot a volume of at most 1 mm{sup 3} is desorbed. The generated temperature is calculated numerically and indirectly deduced from surface changings. Depending on the conditions during the layer formation the hydrogen content of the hydrocarbon layer will vary and different fractions of the released molecules (H{sub 2}, CH{sub 4}, C{sub 2}H{sub 4}) are created during the laser heating. The release of atomic hydrogen by laser desorption was not found. The emitted light is measured by means of narrow-band interference filters and a CCD-camera. The fraction of the light emission which lies outside the observation volume is estimated using simulations of the emission by the neutral gas transport Monte Carlo code EIRENE for each molecular fraction. Conversion factors (S/XB){sub eff} were measured in various reference plasmas (T{sub e}=22-30 eV, n{sub e}=1-11 x 10{sup 18} m{sup -3} and T{sub e}=50-74 eV, n{sub e}=1-5 x 10{sup 18} m{sup -3}) by desorbing prepared graphite samples which release a known amount of hydrogen with a known molecular distribution. LDS measurements were carried out in TEXTOR at

História e memórias do banco de leite humano do Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (1987-2009 em Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil History and memories of the human milk bank of the Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (1987-2009 in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

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Karenina Elice Guimarães Carvalho

2010-12-01

's HMB, set up in 1987, was the brainchild of Professor Fernando Figueira and Dr. Vilneide Braga and its aim was to meet the needs of the Maternity hospital and its neonatal intensive care unit. The inauguration was attended by politicians, breastfeeding experts, TV celebrities and hospital staff. CONCLUSIONS: the methods of oral history were used to build up a history of the origins and evolution of the IMIP's HMB based on the testimony of the individuals involved. The history of the IMIP's HMB is an ongoing, living process and force that produces change, dreams and hope and keeps alight the ideal of a better world for children, mothers and for society at large.

Le grand assemblage du panoptique planétaire. Un travail d’amateurs...

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Daniel Thierry

2014-04-01

permettront ou non la réutilisation active des fichiers par des amateurs sur des espaces numériques personnels loin du monde des médias. Photographic news is the result of a scenography processed through a typology of conventional structures at the core of which evolve interchangeable actors. The history of photojournalism established a type of canonical framework that defined the expression of several generations of reporters, without real innovation. The massification of purposeful images with the advent of television reinforced these structures with the public. The growing need to produce a flux of dematerialized pictures accelerated technological developments in media and led to important changes in how they are viewed. Expectations lie increasingly in a universality of the panoptic vision, made familiar by the multiplicity of viewing channels. Based on this observation, we highlight an important transformation in the nature of the sources of news images, which demonstrates two main characteristics: first of all, technological advances in the capturing of images make pictures virtually omnipresent at all times and at any point on the planet. As a result, this global web of picture-takers produces images without authors and without intentionality which alight in the established structure. Faced with this loss of meaning on the part of producersof images, the viewers of these billions of dispossessed available images are invited to create new uses for them, in contrast to the news that feeds networked screens. The classic scenes of photojournalism persist, but it is primarily the activity of the viewers of these raw materials that produces news writing according to their unique needs. Questions about the state of the planet, historicity, truth, or bias of the author are replaced by concerns for rapidity, and size and type of file which may or may not allow their reuse by amateurs in personal digital spaces far away from the media. A atualidade fotográfica resulta de