Convicted of fatigued driving: Who, why and how?

Fatigue is a major cause of road traffic accidents. However, due to the blurred concept of fatigue and the lack of reliable testing devices (cf. the breath analyzer for alcohol levels), it is extremely difficult to incorporate fatigue in operationalized terms into either traffic or criminal law. Even though the Finnish Road Traffic Act explicitly forbids driving while tired, it is done only on a general level among other factors (sickness, etc.) that impair a driver's fitness to drive (Article 63). The present study was done to investigate the circumstances of fatigue driving offenses. From the Finnish Vehicle Administration driver record database we extracted all drivers (N = 768) punished under Article 63 from 2004-2005. Of these drivers, 90.4% committed a fatigue-related traffic offense. Accidents, predominantly single vehicle, were the most common (92.5%) consequence of fatigued driving. Although fatigue-related accidents are thought to be serious, our data shows that most of the accidents (81.6%) did not involve personal injuries. Almost every twentieth driver was punished because his vehicle was drifting on the road. The presence of alcohol or drugs was noted in 13% of the cases. Only 3.1% of the punished drivers officially denied being tired or falling asleep. Young men (≤35 yrs) represented 50% of all punished drivers. Time of day and seasonal effects were clear in this data. This study shows that even without a reliable fatigue detector and unambiguous criteria for recognizing the contribution of fatigue to accident causation, Finnish police and the courts punish a significant number of drivers every year on the basis of fatigue.     

Enabling Remote Testing: Embedded Test Controller and Mixed-signal Test Architecture

Remote testing requires embedded test infrastructure, consisting of communication, test control and test access. This article presents an embedded test solution for a low-frequency audio board. Supporting analog testing, the solution consists of a measurement and calculation method for passive component characterization, analog test bus solution and an embedded test controller for controlling embedded tests and providing test stimuli. Moreover, the solution, which supports the presented test plan, was compared to a test plan supporting traditional testing. It was found that the embedded test solution provided a 29% test coverage of the audio board components and substituted flying probe testing included in the traditional test plan. Besides such benefits as improved fault diagnostics and lower manufacturing costs, the paper also discusses the drawbacks of the presented solution, including reduced measurement accuracy. This paper also presents a correction to a previously presented passive component measurement and calculation method.     

Advances in computer–human interaction for detecting facial expression using dual tree multi band wavelet transform and Gaussian mixture model

Neural Computing and Applications - In human communication, facial expressions play an important role, which carries enough information about human emotions. Last two decades, it becomes a very...     

Encapsulation of caesium-loaded Ionsiv in cement

The microporous material Ionsiv is used for ¹³⁷Cs removal from aqueous nuclear waste streams. In the UK, Cs-loaded Ionsiv is classed as an intermediate-level waste; no sentencing and disposal route is yet defined for this material and it is currently held in safe interim storage on several nuclear sites. In this study, the suitability of fly ash and blast furnace slag blended cements for encapsulation of Cs-Ionsiv in a monolithic wasteform was investigated. No evidence of reaction or dissolution of the Cs-Ionsiv in the cementitious environment was found by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. However, a small fraction (≤ 1.6 wt.%) of the Cs inventory was released from the encapsulated Ionsiv during leaching experiments carried out on hydrated samples. Furthermore, it was evident that K and Na present in the cementitious pore water exchanged with Cs and H in the Ionsiv. Therefore, cement systems lower in K and Na, such as slag based cements, showed lower Cs release than the fly ash based cements.     

Influence of Particle Size Reduction on Structural and Mechanical Properties of Extruded Rye Bran

Rye bran is a high-fibre ingredient also containing starch and protein. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of extrusion processing and bran particle size on the structural and mechanical properties of extruded rye bran. Native rye bran particle size of 750–1,250 μm was milled to produce feed material with three different average particle sizes (coarse, 440 μm; medium, 143 μm; fine, 28 μm). A co-rotating twin screw extruder was used for extrusion with various processing parameters. Extrusion processing did not have a significant (P?<?0.05) effect on soluble dietary fibre (SDF) content but the amount of insoluble dietary fibre (IDF) increased by 7.1–9.5 % in medium- and 11.3–12.3 % in fine-particle-sized rye bran extrudates as compared to the raw material prior to extrusion. Decreasing the particle size of rye bran to 28 μm resulted in lower amounts of IDF and total dietary fibre, but a higher amount of SDF after extrusion compared to coarse-particle-sized rye bran. Decreasing the particle size of rye bran to 28 μm gave more expanded (179–223 %), less hard (145–336 N), more crispy (2.7–7.2?×?10^?4) and porous (79.2–83.9 %) extrudates compared to the coarse-particle-sized rye bran extrudates, which were less expanded (151–176 %), harder (210–433 N), less crispy (0.5–2.8?×?10^?4) and less porous (64.4–65.1 %). Reduction of the particle size of rye bran significantly (P?<?0.05) increased the crispiness compared to the extrudates made of coarse-particle-sized rye bran. The results demonstrated that the structural and mechanical properties of rye bran extrudates can be improved without starch addition by reducing the particle size of bran.     

Antibiotic survey of Lactococcus lactis strains to six antibiotics by Etest, and establishment of new susceptibility-resistance cut-off values

In order to establish cut-off values for Lactococcus lactis to six antibiotics to distinguish susceptible and intrinsically resistant strains from those having acquired resistances, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol and vancomycin was determined in 93 different Lc. lactis strains using the Etest. These bacterial strains were originally isolated from dairy and animal sources in widely separated geographical locations. Cut-offs were defined on the basis of the distribution of the MICs frequency of the studied antibiotics, which in the absence of acquired determinants should approach to a normal statistical distribution. In general, the new cut-off values proposed in this study are higher than previously defined (European Commission, 2005. The EFSA Journal 223, 1-12). Based on these new values, all the strains tested were susceptible to erythromycin, chloramphenicol and vancomycin, and 79 susceptible to all six antibiotics. However, 11 strains (around 12%) were considered resistant to tetracycline (six of which had been identified after screening of a large collection of lactococci strains for tetracycline resistance) and five (5.4%) resistant to streptomycin. Of these, two fish isolates proved to be resistance to both tetracycline and streptomycin. From the tetracycline resistant strains, tet(M) and mosaic tet(L/S) genes were amplified by PCR, demonstrating they harboured acquired antibiotic resistance determinants.     

Targeting Oxidative Stress with Antioxidant Duotherapy after Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury

We assessed the effect of antioxidant therapy using the Food and Drug Administration-approved respiratory drug N-acetylcysteine (NAC) or sulforaphane (SFN) as monotherapies or duotherapy in vitro in neuron-BV2 microglial co-cultures and validated the results in a lateral fluid-percussion model of TBI in rats. As in vitro measures, we assessed neuronal viability by microtubule-associated-protein 2 immunostaining, neuroinflammation by monitoring tumor necrosis factor (TNF) levels, and neurotoxicity by measuring nitrite levels. In vitro, duotherapy with NAC and SFN reduced nitrite levels to 40% (p < 0.001) and neuroinflammation to –29% (p < 0.001) compared with untreated culture. The treatment also improved neuronal viability up to 72% of that in a positive control (p < 0.001). The effect of NAC was negligible, however, compared with SFN. In vivo, antioxidant duotherapy slightly improved performance in the beam walking test. Interestingly, duotherapy treatment decreased the plasma interleukin-6 and TNF levels in sham-operated controls (p < 0.05). After TBI, no treatment effect on HMGB1 or plasma cytokine levels was detected. Also, no treatment effects on the composite neuroscore or cortical lesion area were detected. The robust favorable effect of duotherapy on neuroprotection, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress in neuron-BV2 microglial co-cultures translated to modest favorable in vivo effects in a severe TBI model.     

Evaluation of an organizational stress management program in a municipal public works organization.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of employee participation in an organizational stress management program consisting of several interventions aiming to improve psychosocial work environment and well-being. Pre- and postintervention questionnaires were used to measure the outcomes with a 2-year interval. This article describes the background of the program, results of previously published effect studies, and a qualitative evaluation of the program. The authors also tested the effects of level of participation in all interventions among the employees of the service production units by 2 (time) × 3 (group) repeated measures ANOVAs (n = 625). "Active participation" (more than 5.5 days) had a positive effect on feedback from supervisor and flow of information. Work climate remained on a permanent level while it decreased in the categories of moderate and nonparticipation. The level of participation did not improve individual well-being or other aspects of psychosocial work environment as postulated by the work stress models. The qualitative evaluation and practical conclusions drawn by the management of the Organization provided a positive impression of the impact of the program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)