Driver Frequency Research Articles

The mini-mental state examination, clinical factors, and motor vehicle crash risk.

To examine the association between Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and motor vehicle crash (MVC) risk in a large cohort of community-dwelling participants with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or diabetes mellitus. Prospective observational study. Participants enrolled in the Ongoing Telmisartan Alone and in Combination With Ramipril Global End Point Trial and Telmisartan Randomized Assessment Study in ACE Intolerant Subjects with Cardiovascular Disease clinical trial, which included individuals aged 55 and older with CVD or diabetes mellitus. Totally 17,538 frequent drivers (defined as driving at least once per week) who had completed a baseline MMSE. Involvement in a MVC as the driver. Baseline MMSE score was divided into four categories: 30, 27-29, 24-26, and <24. The median MMSE score was 29 (interquartile range 27-30), and 726 (4.1%) has a MMSE score of less than 24 at baseline. After a mean follow-up of 4.5 years, 1,068 (6.1%) participants were drivers in a MVC. Lower scores were not associated with future MVCs (MMSE score 29-27, hazard ratio (HR)=1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.93-1.22); MMSE score 26-24, HR=0.96, 95% CI=0.78-1.19; MMSE score<24, HR=0.72, 95% CI=0.50-1.05) on multivariable analysis. A MVC within the previous 2 years (HR=2.68, 95% CI=2.29-3.13) was the strongest predictor of future MVCs. Other clinical factors associated with greater MVC risk were depression, falls within the previous year, sleep apnea, and lower baseline systolic blood pressure. In a population of frequent drivers, the MMSE does not predict MVCs. Other clinical factors have a stronger association with MVC risk.

DRIVER’S REACTION TIME IN A SIMULATED, COMPLEX ROAD INCIDENT

This paper presents an overview of research on the behaviour of drivers in simulated accident situations. The research was carried out by the authors of this work as a part of a research N N509 549 040 funded by the National Science Centre including new accident situations. The paper presents a description of the methodology and implementation of research on a track. During the tests, the simulation concerns about an accident risk situation involving pedestrians and passenger cars intruding the road area. In contrast to earlier research carried out by the authors, the scenario included the possibility of a pedestrian ‘entering’ from behind a curtain, both from the left and from the right sides of the road. This was possible thanks to a specially developed test stand. The paper analyses the values of driver’s reaction times characteristic to driver’s impact on: acceleration control pedals, service brake and steering wheel. In addition to the determination of average reaction time values and the regression line for the test group of 30 drivers, the assessment of the frequency of drivers taking individual defensive reactions was carried out. Keywords: traffic safety; collision; road accidents; regression equation; simulation.

Response to commentaries on 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit.

Response to commentaries on 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit.

Survey of After-Hours Coverage of Emergency Department Imaging Studies by US Academic Radiology Departments

The aim of this study was to document how academic radiology departments cover emergency department radiologic services after hours. Program directors of neuroradiology fellowship programs were invited to participate in a web-based survey addressing how their radiology departments covered after-hours emergency department studies. A total of 67 separate institutional responses were obtained from 96 institutions, for a 70% response rate. Seventy-three percent of programs (49 of 67) reported providing exclusively preliminary interpretations on emergency department reports for some overnight hours. Only 27% of respondents (18 of 67) said that they provided 24-hour real-time staff coverage. Among those who provided around-the-clock staff coverage, 72% (13 of 18) did so with dedicated emergency department sections. Only 2 respondents offered 24-hour subspecialty staff coverage. Emergency departments and hospital administrators were noted as the most frequent drivers of these changes. Academic radiology departments vary widely in how they cover after-hours emergency department examinations. A number have recently expanded their hours of coverage under institutional pressures.

Very Low Head Turbine Deployment in Canada

The Very Low Head (VLH) turbine is a recent turbine technology developed in Europe for low head sites in the 1.4 - 4.2 m range. The VLH turbine is primarily targeted for installation at existing hydraulic structures to provide a low impact, low cost, yet highly efficient solution. Over 35 VLH turbines have been successfully installed in Europe and the first VLH deployment for North America is underway at Wasdell Falls in Ontario, Canada. Deployment opportunities abound in Canada with an estimated 80,000 existing structures within North America for possible low-head hydro development. There are several new considerations and challenges for the deployment of the VLH turbine technology in Canada in adapting to the hydraulic, environmental, electrical and social requirements. Several studies were completed to determine suitable approaches and design modifications to mitigate risk and confirm turbine performance. Diverse types of existing weirs and spillways pose certain hydraulic design challenges. Physical and numerical modelling of the VLH deployment alternatives provided for performance optimization. For this application, studies characterizing the influence of upstream obstacles using water tunnel model testing as well as full-scale prototype flow dynamics testing were completed. A Cold Climate Adaptation Package (CCA) was developed to allow year-round turbine operation in ice covered rivers. The CCA package facilitates turbine extraction and accommodates ice forces, frazil ice, ad-freezing and cold temperatures that are not present at the European sites. The Permanent Magnet Generator (PMG) presents some unique challenges in meeting Canadian utility interconnection requirements. Specific attention to the frequency driver control and protection requirements resulted in a driver design with greater over-voltage capability for the PMG as well as other key attributes. Environmental studies in Europe included fish friendliness testing comprised of multiple in-river live passage tests for a wide variety of fish species. Latest test results indicate fish passage survivability close to 100%. Further fish studies are planned in Canada later this year. Successful deployment must meet societal requirements to gain community acceptance and public approval. Aesthetics considerations include low noise, disguised control buildings and vigilant turbine integration into the low profile existing structures. The resulting design was selected for deployment at existing historic National Park waterway structures. The integration of all of these design elements permits the successful deployment of the VLH turbine in Canada.

Increasing seat belt use: Two field experiments to test engineering-based behavioral interventions

This paper presents separate field experiments. The studies assessed engineering-based behavioral interventions to increase the frequency of drivers’ seat belt use. In Experiment 1, we instrumented a large portion of a commercial fleet with a seat belt gearshift interlock system. This system prevented drivers from engaging their transmissions unless they were buckled. The goals of Experiment 1 were to measure the change in belt use from a baseline period averaging about three months to an intervention period ranging one to three months and to assess the drivers’ acceptance of the system at the beginning, middle, and end of the intervention. The results indicated a significant increase in seat belt use from 81% to 96%, but ratings of driver acceptance were low, indicating poor acceptance. In Experiment 2, we evaluated a system that applied a counterforce that pushed against the accelerator pedal of unbelted drivers when vehicle speed exceeded 20 mile per hour (mph). Unbelted drivers could continue to drive and exceed 20mph by pressing harder than the counterforce but doing so required focused attention and physical effort. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that belt use increased from 56.2% during baseline to 99.74% during the intervention. Driver acceptance ratings were favorable. Taken together, the experiments indicate that such engineering-based behavioral interventions have considerable promise in terms of increasing seat belt use, but each faces challenges to becoming viable countermeasures. The challenges associated with the interlock appear to be attitudinal in nature on the part of the drivers, whereas those associated with the counterforce system are technical matters involving fitment of the hardware across different makes and models.

Significant clinical response to JAK1/2 inhibition in a patient with CSF3R-T618I-positive atypical chronic myeloid leukemia

Mutations in CSF3R (colony-stimulating factor 3 receptor) are frequent oncogenic drivers in chronic neutrophilic leukemia (CNL) and atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML). Here we describe a 75 year old man who was diagnosed with CSF3R-T618I-positive atypical CML. He presented with leukocytosis, anemia, and thrombocytopenia and developed massive splenomegaly and severe constitutional symptoms. Hydroxyurea was given over a 6 month period but failed to provide any measureable clinical benefit. Eventually, he was treated with ruxolitinib, an FDA-approved JAK1/2 inhibitor, which resulted in dramatic improvement of his blood counts. He also had significant reduction of spleen volume and constitutional symptoms. This case highlights the need for a clinical trial to interrogate JAK1/2 as a potential molecular target in CNL and aCML in patients with or without CSF3R mutation. A clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of ruxolitinib for this patient population is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02092324).

Energy Saving for OpenFlow Switch on the NetFPGA platform Using Multi-Frequency

Improving energy efficiency in switch is becoming an increasingly important research topic. In this paper, we present the lesson gained by experimenting with a power management mechanism aimed at reducing the power consumption. One solution for this problem is to control intelligently the power consumption of switches used in data centers. This paper proposes an extension to OpenFlow switches to support different power saving modes. The extension includes defining new messages in Openflow standard and designing a Clock Controller (CC) on the hardware of switch based on NetFPGA platform to implement a frequency driver of the switch under various ranges of traffic loads. Experimental results demonstrate an excellent energy saving according to different working modes. Our results show that all the functions of the Clock Controller of the designed system are valid, and the designed system is feasible for the switch to save energy.

Findet die molekulare Diagnostik Einzug in die Pankreaspathologie?

Genetic alterations of solid and cystic tumors of the pancreas have been increasingly more characterized over the last few years. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) carries numerous point mutations and, to a lesser extent, deletions and amplifications of genes that are associated with at least 13 tumor relevant signalling pathways and processes. Besides the four common driver mutations in the KRAS, p53, CDKN2a and SMAD4 genes there are a number of low frequency driver mutations. The classification of PDAC subtypes has benefited from recent analyses of transcriptional profiles that revealed a classical KRAS driven and a KRAS independent quasi-mesenchymal subtype. The analyses of mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of fine needle aspirates serve as a basis for reliable preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic masses.The four most common cystic pancreatic tumors bear tumor-specific genetic alterations, such as GNAS mutations in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, β-catenin mutations in solid pseudopapillary neoplasms and VHL mutations or loss of heterozygosity in serous cystadenoma. Recovery of DNA from aspirates of cyst fluids enables an improved preoperative management of cystic pancreatic tumors by mutational analysis. In addition to the analysis of DNA there are promising approaches in distinguishing benign and premalignant/malignant cystic tumors by evaluating miRNA profiles.In recent years much progress has been made in molecular genetic characterization and preoperative evaluation of pancreatic tumors. Hopefully these results will contribute to prognostic and therapeutic stratification of PDAC and to a reliable preoperative diagnostics of benign cystic pancreatic tumors in the future.

Prototyping and low-level testing of a 13-MHz digital radio-frequency control system for the PEFP 120-keV heavy ion implanter

The Proton Engineering Frontier Project (PEFP) finished a radio-frequency (RF) implanter. Due to mechanical vibration and temperature slow change in environment, the resonance frequency of the implanter’s cavity always drift. For obtaining an optimized beam output performance, a digital frequency control system was designed to regulate the driver frequency for tracking the frequency variation of the cavity. This paper presents the frequency control scheme and digital algorithm implementations. Traditional analog parts, such as phase comparators, analog proportional-integral (PI) controllers, and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), in lieu of the above components, a software code was created. The control logic code was written in VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) language and was implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) board, which was hosted in a versa module europa (VME) mainframe. The main digital control units, including IQ sampling digital phase comparator, digital PI controller, and numerical controlled oscillator (NCO) units were introduced. The algorithm implementation of the control logic, the loop behavior simulation, and the low-level RF experimental test results will be presented.

Low frequency KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer patients and the presence of multiple mutations in oncogenic drivers in non-small cell lung cancer patients

Intratumor heterogeneity can confound the results of mutation analyses in oncodriver genes using traditional methods thereby challenging the application of targeted cancer therapy strategies for patients Ultradeep sequencing can detect low frequency and expanded clonal mutations in primary tumors to better inform treatment decisions. KRAS coding exons in 61 treatment-naive colorectal cancer (CRC) tumors and KRAS, EGFR, ALK, and MET in lung tumors from three Chinese non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients were sequenced using ultradeep sequencing methods. Forty-one percent of CRC patients (25/61) harbored mutations in the KRAS active domain, eight of which (13%) were not detected by Sanger sequencing. Three (of eight) had frequencies less than 10% and one patient harbored more than one mutation. Low frequency KRAS active (G12R) and EGFR kinase domain mutations (G719A) were identified in one NSCLC patient. A second NSCLC patient showed an EML4-ALK fusion with ALK, EGFR, and MET mutations. A third NSCLC patient harbored multiple low frequency mutations in KRAS, EGFR, and MET as well as ALK gene copy number increases. Within the same patient, multiple low frequency mutations occurred within a gene. A complex pattern of intrinsic low frequency driver mutations in well-known tumor oncogenes may exist prior to treatment, resulting in resistance to targeted therapies. Ultradeep sequencing can characterize intratumor heterogeneity and identify such mutations to ultimately affect treatment decisions.

Nonlinear localized modes in two-dimensional electrical lattices

We report the observation of spontaneous localization of energy in two spatial dimensions in the context of nonlinear electrical lattices. Both stationary and moving self-localized modes were generated experimentally and theoretically in a family of two-dimensional square as well as honeycomb lattices composed of 6 × 6 elements. Specifically, we find regions in driver voltage and frequency where stationary discrete breathers, also known as intrinsic localized modes (ILMs), exist and are stable due to the interplay of damping and spatially homogeneous driving. By introducing additional capacitors into the unit cell, these lattices can controllably induce mobile discrete breathers. When more than one such ILMs are experimentally generated in the lattice, the interplay of nonlinearity, discreteness, and wave interactions generates a complex dynamics wherein the ILMs attempt to maintain a minimum distance between one another. Numerical simulations show good agreement with experimental results and confirm that these phenomena qualitatively carry over to larger lattice sizes.

The effect of facial makeup on the frequency of drivers stopping for hitchhikers.

Judgments of photographs have shown that makeup enhances ratings of women's facial attractiveness. The present study assessed whether makeup affects the stopping behavior of drivers in response to a hitchhiker's signal. Four 20- to 22-year-old female confederates wore facial makeup, or not, while pretending to be hitchhiking. Frequency of stopping was compared in 1,600 male and female drivers. Facial makeup was associated with an increase in the number of male drivers who stopped to offer a ride. Makeup did not affect frequency of stopping by female drivers.

Intrinsic localized modes in a nonlinear electrical lattice with saturable nonlinearity

This experimental study of driven intrinsic localized modes (ILMs) in an electronic circuit lattice with saturable nonlinearity follows the theoretical work of Hadžievski and coworkers. They proposed that a saturable nonlinearity could introduce transition points where localized excitations in nonintegrable lattices would move freely. In our experiments MOS capacitors provide the saturable nonlinearity in an electric lattice. Because of the soft nonlinearity driver locked, auto-resonance stationary ILMs are observed below the bottom of a linear frequency band of the lattice. With decreasing driver frequency the width of the ILM changes in a stepwise manner as does the softening of the barrier between site-centered and bond-centered ILM locations in agreement with theoretical expectations. However, the steps show hysteresis between up and down frequency scans and such hysteresis inhibits the free motion of ILMs.

Integrative Genomic Characterization of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Identifies Frequent Somatic Drivers

The survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not changed significantly in several decades, leading clinicians and investigators to search for promising molecular targets. To this end, we conducted comprehensive genomic analysis of gene expression, copy number, methylation, and point mutations in OSCC. Integrated analysis revealed more somatic events than previously reported, identifying four major driver pathways (mitogenic signaling, Notch, cell cycle, and TP53) and two additional key genes (FAT1, CASP8). The Notch pathway was defective in 66% of patients, and in follow-up studies of mechanism, functional NOTCH1 signaling inhibited proliferation of OSCC cell lines. Frequent mutation of caspase-8 (CASP8) defines a new molecular subtype of OSCC with few copy number changes. Although genomic alterations are dominated by loss of tumor suppressor genes, 80% of patients harbored at least one genomic alteration in a targetable gene, suggesting that novel approaches to treatment may be possible for this debilitating subset of head and neck cancers.

Optimización de energía en sistemas de bombeo

Se realizó un estudio de optimización energética en sistemas de bombeo, resaltando el impacto de los variadores de frecuencia, con el objetivo de proponer un modelo para diagnosticar sistemas de bombeo que permitieran valorar la disminución del consumo energético. Se hizo una búsqueda y recopilación de las teorías aplicadas a: sistemas de bombeo, motores de corriente alterna, variadores de frecuencia y su uso en las industrias. Se propuso el modelo de diagnóstico y se desarrollaron mediciones en un banco de pruebas; se analizaron los datos recopilados con una herramienta desarrollada en Excel, que permitió caracterizar el sistema; se realizó una simulación que consistió en asignarle unos porcentajes de uso de la curva de carga; se demostró un ahorro energético, si el sistema logró operar en un punto de mayor eficiencia. Se analizaron las pruebas con el variador de velocidad, las cuales presentaron un ahorro mayor de energía debido al menor consumo de potencia. La herramienta desarrollada en Excel permitió, a través de datos iniciales, calcular la curva de carga de todo el sistema, la eficiencia de la bomba, el motor, el conjunto motor variador (en el caso del uso del variador de frecuencia) y control del motor o arrancador (centro de control de motores).

Evaluation of Differential Pressure Setpoint of Chilled Water Pumps in Clean Room HVAC Systems for Energy Savings in High-Tech Industries

Variable-frequency speed control technologies are widely used in chilled water pumps in clean room heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in high-tech industries to reduce energy consumption. Pumps with variable frequency drivers work based on the reading from the differential pressure sensor placed between the chilled water supply and return lines before the secondary and tertiary pumps. The determination of the differential pressure setpoint must take pipeline topology and material, chilled water flow demand, heat loading, and system equipment aging into account so as to provide operating flexibility for energy conservation while ensuring the secure operation of the clean room. To enhance clean room energy efficiency, a new methodology is proposed in this paper for determining the proper chilled piping pressure setpoint for the pumps. The mathematic model of head loss required for generic secondary and tertiary chilled networks widely used in clean rooms is derived using the Hazen-Williams formula principle. The field testing results confirm the validity of the proposed approach through a practical clean room HVAC system for electronic semiconductor manufacturing, and the energy savings and investment benefits due to the use of the proper differential pressure setpoint are determined.

Physical limitations in ferromagnetic inductively coupled plasma sources

The ferromagnetic inductively coupled plasma (FICP) source, which is a version of the common inductively coupled plasma sources, has a number of well known advantages such as high efficiency, high level of ionization, low minimal gas pressure, very low required driver frequency, and even a possibility to be driven by single current pulses. We present an experimental study of such a FICP source which showed that above a certain value of the driving pulsed power the properties of this device changed rather drastically. Namely, the plasma became non-stationary and non-uniform contrary to the stationary and uniform plasmas typical for this kind of plasma sources. In this case, the plasma appeared as a narrow dense spike which was short compared to the driving pulse. The local plasma density could exceed the neutral atoms density by a few orders of magnitude. When that happened, the afterglow plasma decay time after the end of the pulse was long compared to an ordinary case with no plasma spike. Experiments were performed with various gases and in a wide range of pressures which enabled us to understand the physical mechanism and derive the parameters responsible for such plasma behavior. A qualitative model of this phenomenon is discussed.

Obtaining Time-Varying Pulsatile Gas Flow Rates With the Help of Dynamic Pressure Difference and Other Measurements for an Orifice-Plate Meter

Use of a conventional orifice-plate meter is typically restricted to measurements of steady flow rates. For any gas flowing within a duct in a pulsatile manner (i.e., large amplitude mass flow rate fluctuations relative to its steady-in-the-mean value), this paper proposes a new and effective approach for obtaining its time-varying mass flow rate at a specified cross section of an orifice meter. The approach requires time-varying (dynamic) pressure difference measurements across an orifice-plate meter, time-averaged mass flow rate measurements from a separate device (e.g., Coriolis meter), and a dynamic absolute pressure measurement. Steady-in-the-mean turbulent gas flows (Reynolds number ≫2300) with low mean Mach numbers (&lt;0.2) exhibit effectively constant densities over long time-durations and are often made pulsatile by the presence of rotary or oscillatory devices that drive the flow (compressors, pumps, pulsators, etc.). In these pulsatile flows, both flow rate and pressure-difference fluctuation amplitudes at or near the device driver frequency (or its harmonics) are large relative to their steady mean values. The time-varying flow rate values are often affected by transient compressibility effects associated with acoustic waves. If fast Fourier transforms of the absolute pressure and pressure-difference measurements indicate that the predominant frequency is characterized by fp, then the acoustic effects lead to a nonnegligible rate of change of stored mass (associated with density changes) over short time durations (∼ 1/fP) and modest volumes of interest. As a result, for the same steady mean mass flow rate, the time variations (that resolve these density changes over short durations) of mass flow rates associated with pulsatile (and turbulent) gas flows are often different at different cross sections of the orifice meter (or duct). Together with the experimental measurements concurrently obtained from the three recommended devices, a suitable computational approach (as proposed and presented here) is a requirement for effectively converting the experimental information on time-varying pressure and pressure-difference values into the desired dynamic mass flow rate values. The mean mass flow rate measurement assists in eliminating variations in its predictions that arise from the use of turbulent flow simulation capabilities. Two independent verification approaches establish that the proposed measurement approach works well.

Mutations in SETD2 and genes affecting histone H3K36 methylation target hemispheric high-grade gliomas

Recurrent mutations affecting the histone H3.3 residues Lys27 or indirectly Lys36 are frequent drivers of pediatric high-grade gliomas (over 30 % of HGGs). To identify additional driver mutations in HGGs, we investigated a cohort of 60 pediatric HGGs using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and compared them to 543 exomes from non-cancer control samples. We identified mutations in SETD2, a H3K36 trimethyltransferase, in 15 % of pediatric HGGs, a result that was genome-wide significant (FDR = 0.029). Most SETD2 alterations were truncating mutations. Sequencing the gene in this cohort and another validation cohort (123 gliomas from all ages and grades) showed SETD2 mutations to be specific to high-grade tumors affecting 15 % of pediatric HGGs (11/73) and 8 % of adult HGGs (5/65) while no SETD2 mutations were identified in low-grade diffuse gliomas (0/45). Furthermore, SETD2 mutations were mutually exclusive with H3F3A mutations in HGGs (P = 0.0492) while they partly overlapped with IDH1 mutations (4/14), and SETD2-mutant tumors were found exclusively in the cerebral hemispheres (P = 0.0055). SETD2 is the only H3K36 trimethyltransferase in humans, and SETD2-mutant tumors showed a substantial decrease in H3K36me3 levels (P < 0.001), indicating that the mutations are loss-of-function. These data suggest that loss-of-function SETD2 mutations occur in older children and young adults and are specific to HGG of the cerebral cortex, similar to the H3.3 G34R/V and IDH mutations. Taken together, our results suggest that mutations disrupting the histone code at H3K36, including H3.3 G34R/V, IDH1 and/or SETD2 mutations, are central to the genesis of hemispheric HGGs in older children and young adults.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00401-013-1095-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.