Visual assessment of pedestrian crashes

Of the numerous factors that play a role in fatal pedestrian collisions, the time of day, day of the week, and time of year can be significant determinants. More than 60% of all pedestrian collisions in 2007 occurred at night, despite the presumed decrease in both pedestrian and automobile exposure during the night. Although this trend is partially explained by factors such as fatigue and alcohol consumption, prior analysis of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System database suggests that pedestrian fatalities increase as light decreases after controlling for other factors.This study applies graphical cross-tabulation, a novel visual assessment approach, to explore the relationships among collision variables. The results reveal that twilight and the first hour of darkness typically observe the greatest frequency of pedestrian fatal collisions. These hours are not necessarily the most risky on a per mile travelled basis, however, because pedestrian volumes are often still high. Additional analysis is needed to quantify the extent to which pedestrian exposure (walking/crossing activity) in these time periods plays a role in pedestrian crash involvement. Weekly patterns of pedestrian fatal collisions vary by time of year due to the seasonal changes in sunset time. In December, collisions are concentrated around twilight and the first hour of darkness throughout the week while, in June, collisions are most heavily concentrated around twilight and the first hours of darkness on Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday nights in June may be the most dangerous times for pedestrians. Knowing when pedestrian risk is highest is critically important for formulating effective mitigation strategies and for efficiently investing safety funds. This applied visual approach is a helpful tool for researchers intending to communicate with policy-makers and to identify relationships that can then be tested with more sophisticated statistical tools.     

Biochemical and Functional Properties of Wheat Gliadins: A Review

Gliadins account for 40–50% of the total storage proteins of wheat and are classified into four subcategories, α-, β-, γ-, and ω-gliadins. They have also been classified as ω5-, ω1, 2-, α/β-, and γ-gliadins on the basis of their primary structure and molecular weight. Cysteine residues of gliadins mainly form intramolecular disulfide bonds, although α-gliadins with odd numbers of cysteine residues have also been reported. Gliadins are generally regarded to possess globular protein structure, though recent studies report that the α/β-gliadins have compact globular structures and γ- and ω-gliadins have extended rod-like structures. Newer techniques such as Mass Spectrometry with the development of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) in combination with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) have been employed to determine the molecular weight of purified ω- gliadins and to carry out the direct analysis of bread and durum wheat gliadins. Few gliadin alleles and components, such as Gli-B1b, Gli-B2c and Gli-A2b in bread wheat cultivars, γ-45 in pasta, γ-gliadins in cookies, lower gliadin content for chapatti and alteration in Gli 2 loci in tortillas have been reported to improve the product quality, respectively. Further studies are needed in order to elucidate the precise role of gliadin subgroups in dough strength and product quality.     

Orally active, antimetastatic, nontoxic diphenyl ether-derived carbamoylphosphonate matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors

Seven 4‐phenoxybenzenesulfonamidopolymethylene carbamoylphosphonates (CPOs) bearing two to eight methylene units in the polymethylene chain were synthesized and evaluated as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors. The five lowest homologues [(CH₂)_2?6] are selective MMP‐2 inhibitors, whereas the two with the longest linkers [(CH₂)_{7, 8}] lack inhibitory activity. The most potent homologues are those with (CH₂)_{5, 6}; these two were evaluated for antimetastatic activity in a murine melanoma model and showed good potency both by oral and intraperitoneal administration without any toxic—including musculoskeletal—side effects. In contrast to the previously reported cis‐ACCP, which was shown to inhibit MMP‐2 for ～30 min, the new compounds inhibit MMP activity for the duration of measurement, lasting several hours. Pharmacokinetic evaluation revealed, on the one hand, low oral bioavailability; on the other hand, a relatively large calculated volume of distribution, consistent with the observed reversible absorption of CPO 5 to hydroxyapatite, as a model for bone.     

Target oriented network intelligence collection: effective exploration of social networks

World Wide Web - Target Oriented Network Intelligence Collection (TONIC) is a crawling process whose goal is to find social network profiles that contain information about a given target. Such...     

High-pressure spark plasma sintering of silicon nitride with LiF additive

High-pressure spark plasma sintering of Si₃N₄ with Y₂O₃, Al₂O₃ and LiF additives was employed to fabricate high quality dense ceramics comprising approximately 92% α-Si₃N₄ phase and 8% β-Si₃N₄ phase. The relatively high pressure applied (up to 650 MPa) had a substantial effect on densification by enhancing particle rearrangement, making it possible to obtain dense Si₃N₄ at a significantly lower sintering temperature (1350 °C). Consequently, virtually no α to β phase transformation transpired during the liquid phase sintering process. The LiF additive had an indispensable influence on the densification process by lowering the viscous glass formation temperature, which also contributed to enhanced particle rearrangement. The nearly fully dense samples (theoretical density ≥99%) obtained displayed a good combination of mechanical properties, namely elastic modulus (304–316 GPa), hardness (1720–1780 HV2) and fracture toughness (6.0 MPa m^1/2).     

Polycrystalline transparent magnesium aluminate spinel processed by a combination of spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP)

A two-stage processing approach combining spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was employed for the fabrication of relatively large (30?mm diameter) and thick (up to 8?mm) samples of transparent polycrystalline magnesium aluminate. The effects of sample thickness, heating rate during SPS, and the temperature and duration of HIP treatments were investigated. It was established that the heating rate during SPS had a major influence on discoloration due to carbon contamination, which increased with sample thickness. HIP treatment allowed for the elimination of cloudiness due to samples porosity, although carbon contamination present after the SPS step could not be reduced by HIP treatment, regardless of the temperature and duration applied. Highly transparent specimens with thicknesses of 4 and 8?mm exhibiting an in-line transmittance of 85.2 and 83.2% at 600?nm, respectively, were fabricated.     

Optical and mechanical properties of transparent alumina fabricated by high-pressure spark plasma sintering

Transparent alumina was fabricated from untreated commercial powder by high-pressure spark plasma sintering (HPSPS) at temperatures of 1000, 1050 and 1100 °C under pressures of 250-800 MPa. It was established that transparency strongly depends on the HPSPS parameters. At all temperatures, there was a certain point when increasing the pressure led to decreasing transparency. At 1100 °C, relatively high pressure led to excessive grain growth, as well as the formation of creep-induced porosity at the center of the samples. Hardness values decreased with pressure due to grain growth, correlated with the Hall-Petch relationship. The optimal combination of optical and mechanical properties (68% in-line transmittance at a wavelength of 640 nm and a hardness value of about 2300 HV2) was achieved after sintering at 1050 °C under 600 MPa.     

Reflection and refraction of plane waves at the boundary of an elastic solid and double‑porosity dual‑permeability materials

Phenomena of reflection and refraction of plane harmonic waves at a plane interface between an elastic solid and doubleporosity dual-permeability material are investigated. The elastic solid behaves non-dissipatively, while double-porosity dual-permeability materials behave dissipatively to wave propagation due to the presence of viscosity in pore fluids. All the waves (i.e., incident and reflected) in an elastic medium are considered as homogeneous (i.e., having the same directions of propagation and attenuation), while all the refracted waves in double-porosity dual-permeability materials are inhomogeneous (i.e., having different directions of propagation and attenuation). The coefficients of reflection and refraction for a given incident wave are obtained as a non-singular system of linear equations. The energy shares of reflected and refracted waves are obtained in the form of an energy matrix. A numerical example is considered to calculate the partition of incident energy among various reflected and refracted waves. The effect of incident direction on the partition of the incident energy is analyzed with a change in wave frequency, wave-induced fluid-flow, pore-fluid viscosity and double-porosity structure. It has been confirmed from numerical interpretation that during the reflection/refraction process, conservation of incident energy is obtained at each angle of incidence.