What happens next? Predicting other road users' behaviour as a function of driving experience and processing time

Hazard perception is one of the most important facets of driving and if the appropriate diagnostic tool is used it can discriminate between novice and experienced drivers. In this study video clips of actual driving scenarios were shown to novice and experienced drivers. The clips were stopped just prior to hazard onset and either the screen went black or the final still image stayed on the screen. Participants were then asked five questions about what happened next. This variant of the hazard perception test allowed the influence of processing time to be included and the level of situation awareness to be measured. Experienced drivers significantly anticipated more correct hazardous outcomes than novice drivers when the screen went black. Novice drivers benefited from the extra processing time afforded by the image remaining on the screen and significantly anticipated more hazards when the image remained on the screen than when it went black. The findings indicate that when processing time is manipulated, hazard perception accuracy reveals experiential differences. These differences are discussed with reference to hazard perception and situation awareness. This research informs the current controversy over whether hazard perception is a good diagnostic tool for driving performance. It identifies potential confounds in previous work and demonstrates that experiential differences can be found if the appropriate tests are used. Further, it suggests improvements for new hazard perception tests.     

Real-time visualization in the offshore industry

Real-time underwater visualization has been extremely slow to develop within the offshore industry and has generally been limited to 2D representations of vessel positions on digital charts. Only recently have marine industries realized the potential of 3D real-time virtual environments and visualization systems for effective management planning and real-time situation awareness. We describe a real-time visualization of the clean-up of a former US Naval Submarine Base, located in Holy Loch, Scotland. Our Whole-Field Modeling System has provided an accurate real-time visualization of numerous varying parameters such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), cranes, barges, grabs, magnets, and detailed seabed topography. The system improved the field staffs' spatial and temporal awareness and facilitated decision making within the complex offshore working environment. A side bar discusses another application, offshore diamond mining     

Collection and transfusion of blood and blood components in the United States, 1989

A poor response to L-DOPA in addition to parkinsonian, cerebellar, and autonomic signs is commonly regarded as indicative of clinical multiple system atrophy (MSA). We compared the motor response to a single oral administration of 250 mg L-DOPA/25 mg carbidopa in eight MSA patients and eight Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with the "on-off" phenomenon, evaluating L-DOPA peripheral pharmacokinetics. Motor response was consistently good in all PD patients, but only four MSA patients had a (moderate) response. Pharmacokinetic parameters did not differ between the groups. The varying extent of putaminal damage could be responsible for the differing motor response to L-DOPA in MSA patients.     

Unravelling gossamer with boxing gloves: problems in explaining the decline in smoking

For about three decades countries such as Australia, Great Britain, and the United States have been turning up the heat on tobacco advertising. Encouraging, sometimes dramatic falls in consumption have followed. On any given day in 1993 smokers in such countries are exposed to a welter of news, information, persuasion, and policies designed to turn them off smoking. For a long time explanations and evaluations of the effects of these policies and interventions have been tied to oversimplified causal models when the reality is rather more messy and complicated. Four factors largely explain the reluctance of researchers to move beyond these models: the reductionist tradition of science; the explanatory privileging of recent events and factors; pragmatic concern for policy "tractable" factors; and the relation of funding to the evaluative process. Broader research approaches to understanding changes in complex behaviours such as smoking are required--for example, qualitative methods.     

Comparison of autochthonous and allogeneic breast-tumour cells in tests for lymphocyte immunity to human tumours

Lymphocytes from 10 patients with breast carcinoma were seeded in autologous serum, on autochthonous tumour cells and allogeneic tissue-cultured breast tumour cell lines. In 4 patients, the anti-tumour cell cytotoxicity against at least one of 3 breast tumour cell lines differed significantly from that against autochthonous tumour cells. Further study of these 4 individuals (using their previously frozen lymphoid cells and sera) showed that these differences occurred because serum which decreased ("blocked") lymphocyte anti-tumour cytotoxicity when applied to one tumour cell line, could either have no effect or potentiate it when applied to another, without any consistent pattern vis-à-vis target-cell susceptibility to these different humoral effects.     

First evidence of grass carp recruitment in the Great Lakes Basin

We use aging techniques, ploidy analysis, and otolith microchemistry to assess whether four grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella captured from the Sandusky River, Ohio were the result of natural reproduction within the Lake Erie Basin. All four fish were of age 1 +. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that these fish were not aquaculture-reared and that they were most likely the result of successful reproduction in the Sandusky River. First, at least two of the fish were diploid; diploid grass carp cannot legally be released in the Great Lakes Basin. Second, strontium:calcium (Sr:Ca) ratios were elevated in all four grass carp from the Sandusky River, with elevated Sr:Ca ratios throughout the otolith transect, compared to grass carp from Missouri and Arkansas ponds. This reflects the high Sr:Ca ratio of the Sandusky River, and indicates that these fish lived in a high-strontium environment throughout their entire lives. Third, Sandusky River fish were higher in Sr:Ca ratio variability than fish from ponds, reflecting the high but spatially and temporally variable strontium concentrations of southwestern Lake Erie tributaries, and not the stable environment of pond aquaculture. Fourth, Sr:Ca ratios in the grass carp from the Sandusky River were lower in their 2011 growth increment (a high water year) than the 2012 growth increment (a low water year), reflecting the observed inverse relationship between discharge and strontium concentration in these rivers. We conclude that these four grass carp captured from the Sandusky River are most likely the result of natural reproduction within the Lake Erie Basin.     

Multipurpose modular experimental station for the DiProI beamline of Fermi@Elettra free electron laser

We present a compact modular apparatus with a flexible design that will be operated at the DiProI beamline of the Fermi@Elettra free electron laser (FEL) for performing static and time-resolved coherent diffraction imaging experiments, taking advantage of the full coherence and variable polarization of the short seeded FEL pulses. The apparatus has been assembled and the potential of the experimental setup is demonstrated by commissioning tests with coherent synchrotron radiation. This multipurpose experimental station will be open to general users after installation at the Fermi@Elettra free electron laser in 2011.