Search results for "Vehicle"
showing 10 items of 634 documents
Diesel motor emissions and lung cancer mortality--results of the second follow-up of a cohort study in potash miners.
2009
International health authorities have graded diesel motor emissions (DME) as probably cancerogenic in human beings. There are gaps in epidemiological evidence regarding exact exposure quantification, confounder control and the investigation of highly exposed populations. We investigated the association of DME ana lung cancer mortality in a historical cohort study of 5,862 German potash miners who were followed from 1970 to 2001. Cumulative exposure (CE) was measured by representative concentrations of total carbon multiplied with exposure years from the mines' medical records. Exposure and smoking behavior were validated by interviews of 3,087 participants. We computed standardized mortalit…
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…
Nucleation particles in diesel exhaust: composition inferred from in situ mass spectrometric analysis.
2005
Mass spectrometric measurements of size and composition of diesel exhaust particles have been performed under various conditions: chassis dynamometer tests, field measurements near a German motorway, and individual car chasing. Nucleation particles consisting of volatile sulfate and organic material could be detected both at the chassis dynamometer test facility and during individual car chasing. We found evidence that if nucleation occurs, sulfuric acid/water is the nucleating agent. Low-volatile organics species condense only on the preexisting sulfuric acid/water clusters. Nucleation was found to depend strongly on various parameters such as exhaust dilution conditions, fuel sulfur conte…
Possible markers of traffic-related emissions
2007
Looking for robust indicators of motor vehicle emissions it has been found that brake wear and linings are significant contributors of Cu, Mo and Sb to air particulate matter. These trace elements, whose mutual ratios in airborne particulate matter resulted quite different from those in crustal material, appear to be available fingerprinting tools to identify the contribution of on-road vehicles to traffic-derived particulate matter. In this study, the results of analytical determinations of Cu, Mo and Sb on PM(10), PM(2.5), vegetation and brake dust samples, together with gas (CO, NOx) concentrations, are discussed. Highly significant correlations among Cu, Sb and Mo were observed in parti…