Pedestrian crossing decision-making: A situational and behavioral approach

Among road users, pedestrians are those whose continued trajectory is the less constrained by the environment and by the regulation rules. Consequently, the choice of where, when and how to cross roads are more or less conforming with the awaited behavior. Proceeding with an experimental approach, from observations of pedestrian crossings to the modeling of the decision-making process, a categorization of both environments and of pedestrian behavior is proposed.     

Farmers’ Attitude Towards Animal Welfare Aspects and Their Practice in Organic Dairy Calf Rearing: a Case Study in Selected Nordic Farms

In organic philosophy, the concept of “naturalness” is of major importance. According to the organic interpretation of animal welfare, natural living is considered a precondition for accomplishing welfare and the principal aims of organic production include the provision of natural living conditions for animals. However, respective regulations are lacking in organic legislation. In practice, the life of a calf in organic rearing systems can deviate from being natural, since common practices in dairy farms include early weaning, dehorning, or cow-calf separation soon after birth. This case study explores how calf welfare is approached in six different organic dairy farms and how far the concept of naturalness is implemented. The farms included in this study were located in Norway and Sweden. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The interviewed farmers approach the concept of welfare in various ways and state that “naturalness” is an aspect of animal welfare. However, in practice in the calf rearing systems under study, only a few “naturalness” aspects were implemented. Reasons for the observed discrepancy might lie in differing understandings of “naturalness,” in economic restrictions, and in other trade-offs resulting from production system inherent characteristics and in limited regulation concerning provision of natural living aspects.     

PAHs in the bulk atmospheric deposition of the Seine river basin: source identification and apportionment by ratios, multivariate statistical techniques and scanning electron microscopy

The origin of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) contamination in bulk atmospheric deposition at two sites of the Seine estuary, one urban and one industrial, has been investigated. The PAH profiles indicate that PAHs mainly have a pyrolytic origin, both in urban and industrial areas. PAH sources vary during the year with an increase of high molecular weight PAH proportions (especially for carcinogenic PAHs) in winter, that means an increase of combustion processes such as domestic heating. Ratios of indicator PAHs (FTH/FTH+PYR and IcdP/IcdP+BghiP) confirm the pyrolytic origin of PAHs. In summer, ratios show the presence of industrial sources. In addition to these two methods, a factor analysis/multiple linear regression model was applied and gave an approximation of PAH source apportionment. PAH were found to be associated predominantly with emissions from road traffic (gasoline and diesel), that accounts for 17-34%. Domestic heating is a very important PAH source in urban areas and accounts for up to 85% of PAHs in winter. Industrial emissions (refineries...) account for 25% in the industrial area in summer. Each is an identified source category for the region and these results are consistent with fly-ashes identified by scanning electron microscopy. This study demonstrates that a combination of source identification methods is a far more efficient than one method alone.     

All-in-one whole exome sequencing strategy with simultaneous copy number variant,single nucleotide variant and absence-of-heterozygosity analysis in fetuses with structural ultrasound anomalies: A 1-year experience

Objective

We performed a 1-year evaluation of a novel strategy of simultaneously analyzing single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number variants (CNVs) and copy-number-neutral Absence-of-Heterozygosity from Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) data for prenatal diagnosis of fetuses with ultrasound (US) anomalies and a non-causative QF-PCR result.

Methods

After invasive diagnostics, whole exome parent-offspring trio-sequencing with exome-wide CNV analysis was performed in pregnancies with fetal US anomalies and a non-causative QF-PCR result (WES-CNV). On request, additional SNV-analysis, restricted to (the) requested gene panel(s) only (with the option of whole exome SNV-analysis afterward) was performed simultaneously (WES-CNV/SNV) or as rapid SNV-re-analysis, following a normal CNV analysis.

Results

In total, 415 prenatal samples were included. Following a non-causative QF-PCR result, WES-CNV analysis was initially requested for 74.3% of the chorionic villus (CV) samples and 45% of the amniotic fluid (AF) samples. In case WES-CNV analysis did not reveal a causative aberration, SNV-re-analysis was requested in 41.7% of the CV samples and 17.5% of the AF samples. All initial analyses could be finished within 2 weeks after sampling. For SNV-re-analysis during pregnancy, turn-around-times (TATs) varied between one and 8 days.

Conclusion

We show a highly efficient all-in-one WES-based strategy, with short TATs, and the option of rapid SNV-re-analysis after a normal CNV result.     

Occupational Health Care in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises—How Many Doctors Do We Need and How Do We Ensure Good Care?

The translation of the framework directive 89/391/EEC (Council Directive 89/391/EEC) into national law aims at supplying occupational protection and health care to all employees of large, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) likewise, depending on assessed exposure. Prior incomplete protection of the German workforce with bias against the SMEs requires an assessment of quantitative and qualitative adequacy of present occupational health care practice and also of future needs.

Therefore, the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of Germany initiated a study to evaluate the present state of occupational health care in 4 regions with different geographic and economic structure. Based on these data the future demand for adequately trained occupational physicians will be estimated by employing a statistical method that allows for including a large number of modifying variables (economic development, demographic change, etc.).

Expected result of the applied technique are the estimated minimal and maximal number of occupational physicians that have to be trained to meet future demand. In the same study models of best practice will be identified and evaluated for general application. The project started in October 1997 and will be finished by January 2000.     

Patterns of preference and practice: bridging actors in wildfire response networks in the American Northwest

The roles of bridging actors in emergency response networks can be important to disaster response outcomes. This paper is based on an evaluation of wildfire preparedness and response networks in 21 large‐scale wildfire events in the wildland—urban interface near national forests in the American Northwest. The study investigated how key individuals in responder networks anticipated seeking out specific people in perceived bridging roles prior to the occurrence of wildfires, and then captured who in fact assumed these roles during actual large‐scale events. It examines two plausible, but contradictory, bodies of theory—similarity and dissimilarity—that suggest who people might seek out as bridgers and who they would really go to during a disaster. Roughly one‐half of all pre‐fire nominations were consistent with similarity. Yet, while similarity is a reliable indicator of how people expect to organise, it does not hold up for how they organise during the real incident.