Search results for " Vehicle"
showing 10 items of 389 documents
Driving habits and risk factors for traffic accidents among sleep apnea patients - a European multi-centre cohort study
2014
Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with increased motor vehicle accident risk, and improved detection of patients at risk is of importance. The present study addresses potential risk factors in the European Sleep Apnea Database and includes patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea [n = 8476, age 51.5 (12.5) years, body mass index 31.0 (6.6) kg m(-2) , 82.4% driver's licence holders]. Driving distance (km year(-1) ), driver's licence type, sleep apnea severity, sleepiness and comorbidities were assessed. Previously validated risk factors for accident history: Epworth Sleepiness Scale ≥16; habitual sleep time ≤5 h; use of hypnotics; and driving ≥15 000 km year(-1) were analysed acro…
Stress-related psychosocial factors at work, fatigue, and risky driving behavior in bus rapid transport (BRT) drivers
2016
Abstract Introduction There is consistent scientific evidence that professional drivers constitute an occupational group that is highly exposed to work related stressors. Furthermore, several recent studies associate work stress and fatigue with unsafe and counterproductive work behaviors. This study examines the association between stress-related work conditions of Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) drivers and risky driving behaviors; and examines whether fatigue is a mechanism that mediates the association between the two. Method A sample of 524 male Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operators were drawn from four transport companies in Bogota, Colombia. The participants answered a survey which included an…
Entrapment of adult fingers between window glass and seal entry of a motor vehicle side door: an experimental study for investigation of the force at…
2011
In modern motor vehicles with automatic power windows, a potential hazard exists for jam events of fingers between the window glass and seal entry. This study determined entrapment forces acting on adult fingers at the subjective maximum pain threshold during entrapment in such windows. The length and the girth of the proximal and distal interphalangeal joints of the triphalangeal fingers of the right hands of 109 participants (60 men, 49 women) were measured; the diameter was calculated from girth, which was assumed to be circular. The automatic power window system of a motor vehicle side door was changed to a mechanical system. During entrapment the force distributed across the four proxi…
Relationships of working conditions, health problems and vehicle accidents in bus rapid transit (BRT) drivers
2018
Background The aim of this study was to estimate accident risk rates and mental health of bus rapid transit (BRT) drivers based on psychosocial risk factors at work leading to increased stress and health problems. Methods A cross-sectional research design utilized a self-report questionnaire completed by 524 BRT drivers. Results Some working conditions of BRT drivers (lack of social support from supervisors and perceived potential for risk) may partially explain Bogota's BRT drivers' involvement in road accidents. Drivers' mental health problems were associated with higher job strain, less support from co-workers, fewer rewards and greater signal conflict while driving. Conclusions To preve…
Effects of alertness management training on sleepiness among long-haul truck drivers : a randomized controlled trial
2018
Education is a frequently recommended remedy for driver sleepiness in occupational settings, although not many studies have examined its usefulness. To date, there are no previous on-road randomized controlled trials investigating the benefits of training on sleepiness among employees working in road transport. To examine the effects of an educational intervention on long-haul truck drivers' sleepiness at the wheel, amount of sleep between work shifts, and use of efficient sleepiness countermeasures (SCM) in association with night and non-night shift, a total of 53 truck drivers operating from southern Finland were allocated into an intervention and a control group using a stratified random…
Comparison of three methods for evaluation of work postures in a truck assembly plant
2017
International audience; This study compared the results of three risk assessment tools (self-reported questionnaire, observational tool, direct measurement method) for the upper limbs and back in a truck assembly plant at two cycle times (11 and 8 min). The weighted Kappa factor showed fair agreement between the observational and direct measurement method for the arm (0.39) and back (0.47). The weighted Kappa factor for these methods was poor for the neck (0) and wrist (0) but the observed proportional agreement (P-o) was 0.78 for the neck and 0.83 for the wrist. The weighted Kappa factor between questionnaire and direct measurement showed poor or slight agreement (0) for different body seg…
Sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures in shift-working long-haul truck drivers
2015
Driver sleepiness is a prevalent phenomenon among professional drivers working unconventional and irregular hours. For compromising occupational and traffic safety, sleepiness has become one of the major conundrums of road transportation. To further elucidate the phenomenon, an on-road study canvassing the under-explored relationship between working hours and sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures during and outside statutory rest breaks was conducted. Testing the association between the outcomes and working hours, generalized estimating equations models were fitted on a data collected from 54 long-haul truck drivers (mean 38.1 ± 10.5 years, one female) volunteering in the…
Enhancement of nortriptyline penetration through human epidermis: influence of chemical enhancers and iontophoresis.
2008
Abstract Different known percutaneous chemical enhancers and iontophoresis have been tested in-vitro to study their ability to increase transdermal absorption of nortriptyline hydrochloride (20 mg mL−1). The chemicals 1-dodecanol, Span 20, Azone, (R)-(+)-limonene or isopropyl myristate were used as an overnight pretreatment at 5% (w/w) in ethanol. Furthermore, isopropyl myristate (20%, w/w) and propylene glycol (15%, w/w) were tested in the same vehicle. Iontophoresis was applied directly to the nortriptyline hydrochloride donor solution for three different concentrations (20, 2 and 0.5 mgmL−1). The chemical enhancers slightly increased the nortriptyline transdermal flux but iontophoresis w…
TAKEOFF AND LANDING ROBUST CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A TANDEM CANARD UAV
2005
In spite of modern wide improvements in UAV’s technologies, a few number of such a vehicles is fully autonomous from takeoff to landing . So, either autonomous operation or operation with minimal human intervention is, actually, the primary design goal for the UAV’s researchers. The core of the problem is the design of the landing and takeoff control system. The objective of this paper is to design a control system in which the same state variables are controlled during both the descending/ascending path and the flare, tacking into account the actual ground effect. Robust control techniques are employed with the aim to cope with atmospheric turbulence, measurement noise, parameter variation…
A Bio-Inspired Cognitive Agent for Autonomous Urban Vehicles Routing Optimization
2017
Autonomous urban vehicle prototypes are expected to be efficient even in not explicitly planned circumstances and dynamic environments. The development of autonomous vehicles for urban driving needs real-time information from vehicles and road network to optimize traffic flows. In traffic agent-based models, each vehicle is an agent, while the road network is the environment. Cognitive agents are able to reason on the perceived data, to evaluate the information obtained by reasoning, and to learn and respond, preserving their self-sufficiency, independency, self-determination, and self-reliance. In this paper, a bio-inspired cognitive agent for autonomous urban vehicles routing optimization…