Evaluating the impact of criminalizing drunk driving on years of life lost due to road traffic deaths in one megacity,China

Objective: Road safety is an important public health issue worldwide. However, few studies have analyzed the association between criminalizing drunk driving and years of life lost (YLL) due to road traffic deaths (RTDs). Our study can provide useful information about this policy.

Methods: We used interrupted time-series analysis to find the changes in monthly YLL and RTD before and after law enforcement began using RTD data from 2008 to 2014 in Tianjin.

Results: After adjustment for seasonality, months, holidays, and the number of people in each district, criminalizing drunk driving was followed by a 11.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–21.1%) reduction in risk of RTDs and a corresponding 778.1-year (95% CI, 200–1,355.1) reduction in monthly YLL. The reduction in YLL was especially significant among males, those aged 16–64 years old, and suburban residents.

Conclusions: This study highlights that the law can lead to a reduction in YLL due to RTDs in Tianjin, China. Large immediate public health benefits resulted from the new road traffic law in China. YLL provides a complementary measure for examining the effect of criminalization on drunk driving RTDs.     

Fatally injured drivers in Norway 2005–2015—Trends in substance use and crash characteristics

Objective: Norway introduced a “Vision Zero” strategy in 2001, using multiple approaches, aiming toward a future in which no one will be killed or seriously injured in road traffic crashes (RTCs). Official statistics show that the number of fatally injured road users has declined substantially from 341 deaths in 2000 to 117 in 2015. In-depth crash investigations of all fatal RTCs started in Norway in 2005. The aim of this study was to investigate whether fatal crash characteristics, vehicle safety features, and prevalence of drugs and/or alcohol among fatally injured drivers and riders has changed during 2005–2015, accompanying the reduction in road fatalities.

Methods: Data on all car/van drivers and motorcycle/moped riders fatally injured in RTCs during 2005–2015 were extracted from Norwegian road traffic crash registries and combined with forensic toxicology data.

Results: The proportion of cars and motorcycles with antilock braking systems and cars with electronic stability control, increased significantly during the study period. The prevalence of nonuse of seat belts/helmets and speeding declined among both fatally injured drivers and riders. In addition, the prevalence of alcohol declined, though no significant change in the total prevalence of other substances was noted.

Conclusion: The observed changes toward more safety installations in cars and motorcycles and lower prevalence of driver-related risk factors like alcohol use, speeding, and nonuse of seat belts/helmets among fatally injured drivers/riders may have contributed to the decrease in road traffic deaths.     

黄淮海地区干热风灾害致灾因子时空特征分析

黄淮海地区是我国冬小麦主产区,也是干热风灾害危害最重、影响最广的地区,本研究利用黄淮海冬麦主产区81个站点1961-2017年的逐日气象数据和冬小麦生育期资料,分析了该地区小麦成熟期和干热风致灾因子的时空变化特征。在81个测站中,有23个成熟期提前趋势显著或极显著,但大部地区成熟期变化趋势不显著,有63%的站点未通过显著性检验。对干热风致灾因子达标日数和相似系数的分析表明,达到干热风灾害阈值的概率依次为14:00风速>14:00相对湿度>日最高气温,最高气温是形成干热风的主要限制因素,轻干热风的发生最高气温和相对湿度起主要作用,重干热风则是高温胁迫起决定作用,低湿条件使胁迫加重,风速只起辅助作用。揭示了该地区干热风危害总体减轻的气象条件基础,即干热风3要素表现为最高气温略降、14:00相对湿度略增、14:00风速明显减小的特征,3要素均向有利于减轻干热风发生的方向变化,对于冬小麦籽粒灌浆和产量形成是有利的。但灌浆成熟期内最低气温的显著升高,意味着气温日较差减小、小麦夜间呼吸消耗增大,对其干物质积累和产量形成带来潜在不利影响。     

A framework for definition of logical scenarios for safety assurance of automated driving

Abstract

Objective: In order to introduce automated vehicles on public roads, it is necessary to ensure that these vehicles are safe to operate in traffic. One challenge is to prove that all physically possible variations of situations can be handled safely within the operational design domain of the vehicle. A promising approach to handling the set of possible situations is to identify a manageable number of logical scenarios, which provide an abstraction for object properties and behavior within the situations. These can then be transferred into concrete scenarios defining all parameters necessary to reproduce the situation in different test environments.

Methods: This article proposes a framework for defining safety-relevant scenarios based on the potential collision between the subject vehicle and a challenging object, which forces the subject vehicle to depart from its planned course of action to avoid a collision. This allows defining only safety-relevant scenarios, which can directly be related to accident classification. The first criterion for defining a scenario is the area of the subject vehicle with which the object would collide. As a second criterion, 8 different positions around the subject vehicle are considered. To account for other relevant objects in the scenario, factors that influence the challenge for the subject vehicle can be added to the scenario. These are grouped as action constraints, dynamic occlusions, and causal chains.

Results: By applying the proposed systematics, a catalog of base scenarios for a vehicle traveling on controlled-access highways has been generated, which can directly be linked to parameters in accident classification. The catalog serves as a basis for scenario classification within the PEGASUS project.

Conclusions: Defining a limited number of safety-relevant scenarios helps to realize a systematic safety assurance process for automated vehicles. Scenarios are defined based on the point of the potential collision of a challenging object with the subject vehicle and its initial position. This approach allows defining scenarios for different environments and different driving states of the subject vehicle using the same mechanisms. A next step is the generation of logical scenarios for other driving states of the subject vehicle and for other traffic environments.     

基于STIRPAT模型的天津市水环境污染影响因素分析

基于拓展的STIRPAT模型,利用岭回归分析方法,以天津市2006—2016年COD值及其相关社会、经济、人口数据为例,分析人口、城市化水平、经济发展、技术水平、产业结构、用水结构对水环境污染的影响。研究表明:工业GDP占比的提高是导致水环境污染的最主要原因,人口、城市化率、人均GDP、排放强度和生活用水占总用水比例的提升都是引起水环境污染加重的因素,通过技术创新可以控制水污染。     

海底悬跨管道表面双裂纹数值分析

为了研究海底油气管道多个裂纹间相互作用对管道产生的影响，针对海底悬跨管道表面双裂纹的相互作用，采用有限元方法建立双环向表面裂纹模型，采用围道积分法求解双裂纹下的应力强度因子，研究了不同边界条件下，不同尺寸裂纹间的相互影响规律，并对比了单裂纹下应力强度因子的变化情况。研究结果表明:不同尺寸的裂纹对双裂纹的相互影响规律有一定影响，且双裂纹应力强度因子最大值均出现在裂纹最深点处；弹簧边界下双裂纹相互影响规律与简单边界下相互影响规律明显不同；不同边界条件对悬跨管道双裂纹应力强度因子的影响较大。研究结果可为海底悬跨管道的失效分析提供参考依据。     

Assessing washing methods for reduction of pesticide residues in Capia pepper with LC-MS/MS

Abstract

The effects of washing treatments on removal rates of some pesticides residues (acetamiprid, chlorpyrifos and formetanate hydrochloride) on pepper were investigated. Method verification was conducted through spiking pepper samples at 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 × MRL. QuEChERS method produced average recovery of 104.91% with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 13.41%. LOQ values of acetamiprid, chlorpyrifos and formetanate hydrochloride were estimated as 2, 10 and 5?µg/kg, respectively. Capia peppers grown in open fields were sprayed three times with pesticides. Peppers were harvested after 1st, 2nd and 3rd day of the treatments. Then the peppers were subjected to tap water, acetic acid and citric acid washing and ultrasonic cleaning treatments (for 2 and 5?min). Based on three different harvest times and two different washing durations, processing factors (PFs) and reduction rates were calculated for each washing treatment. The residues gradually decreased during washing treatments with increasing process duration. Similarly, a gradual reduction was noted with the progress of harvest times. This in turn corresponded to an increase in PF. Ultrasonic cleaning and citric acid (9%) washing were more effective than the others. Non-systemic pesticides (chlorpyrifos) were more readily removed than the systemic ones (acetamiprid). Similarly, highly soluble pesticides exhibited higher reduction.     

滆湖藻密度的时空分布及驱动因子分析

在2年内分季度调查滆湖浮游植物种群和水环境因子,分析藻密度的空间分布状况以及按时间序列的藻密度变化和浮游植物优势种群变化,分别采用"多元线性逐步回归法"和"偏相关系数法"进行藻密度驱动因子识别。结果表明,滆湖藻密度空间分布趋势为由北向南逐渐升高,年际间季节差异极显著。浮游植物的演替规律为冬、春季节以绿藻和硅藻为主,夏、秋季节蓝藻占绝对优势。通过比较2种统计方法的计算结果,确定全湖及中、南部湖区藻密度的驱动因子是温度和高锰酸盐指数,北部湖区藻密度的驱动因子是温度和硝酸盐氮,所有驱动因子对滆湖藻密度的影响均为正效应。在富营养化严重的滆湖,N,P营养盐已经不再是浮游植物生长的主要驱动因子,从统计方法的角度解释了部分环境因子没有入选为驱动因子的原因,并推断了其他可能的驱动因子。     

Marijuana trajectories and associations with driving risk behaviors in Canadian youth

Objective: Research on risky driving practices involving marijuana use among youth and young adults often relies on cross-sectional data, which fail to account for longitudinal changes in substance use patterns. A better understanding of the longitudinal patterns of marijuana use and its effect on risky driving practices during young adulthood is needed in order to better inform prevention efforts. The current study examined whether different longitudinal patterns of marijuana use across the transition from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with impaired driving risks in young adulthood.

Methods: Data were from the longitudinal Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, which interviewed youth biennially on 6 occasions across 10 years (2003 to 2013).

Results: Youth who reported consistently high levels of marijuana use from adolescence to young adulthood (chronic users) and youth who reported increasing levels of use across this period (increasers) were more likely to engage in risky impaired driving behaviors compared to the other 3 user groups (occasional users, decreasers, and abstainers). Frequency of marijuana use was also predictive of impaired driving risks in young adulthood after controlling for individual characteristics (age, sex, socioeconomic status, age of onset of marijuana use), frequency of other substance use (heavy episodic drinking and illicit drug use), and simultaneous use of marijuana and other substances (alcohol and illicit drugs). By young adulthood, youth who use marijuana more than once a week are more likely to simultaneously use alcohol and engage in heavy episodic drinking. They are also more likely take driving risks.

Conclusions: Harm reduction strategies and legislative approaches targeting impaired driving risks associated with marijuana use should include approaches to target these high-risk groups and to reduce simultaneous use of alcohol.     

Variation of crack intensity factor in three compacted clay liners exposed to annual cycle of atmospheric conditions with and without geotextile cover

Performance of compacted clay liners commonly used as landfill barrier systems can be subject to decline in terms of hydraulic conductivity if left exposed to atmospheric conditions for an extended period of time prior to placement of overlaying layers. The resulting desiccation cracking can lead to increased hydraulic conductivity. Desiccation crack intensity was studied for three clayey soils commonly used for construction of landfill barrier system in a relatively large scale test setup exposed to real time atmospheric conditions over a complete annual cycle. A white separator geotextile cover was presumed to be capable of reducing the intensity of desiccation cracking through absorbing and maintaining higher amounts of moisture and reducing the temperature of the soil surface in comparison to a directly exposed soil surface. Desiccation cracking was monitored using a digital imaging technique for three compacted clay liners in two sets, one open to air and the second covered with the white geotextile. Crack intensity factor approached a relatively stable phase after certain cycles corresponding to atmospheric dry wet cycles. The results indicated that the white separator geotextile was capable of reducing the crack intensity factor by 37.4–45.9% throughout the experiment including the cyclic phase of desiccation cracking. During the stable phase, the maximum reduction in crack intensity factor of 90.4% as a result of applying geotextile cover was observed for the soil with the lowest plastic index and clay content and therefore the lowest magnitude of crack intensity factor. The other two soils with similar clay content but different plastic index showed 23.6% and 52.2% reductions in crack intensity factor after cyclic phase when covered with geotextile.