Modeling the Probability of Hazardous Materials Release in Crashes at Highway–Rail Grade Crossings

Author(s):  
Amirfarrokh Iranitalab ◽  
Yashu Kang ◽  
Aemal Khattak

Crashes at Highway–Rail Grade Crossings (HRGCs) that involve a truck or a train carrying hazardous materials (hazmat) expose people and the environment to potentially severe consequences of hazmat release. This research involved statistical modeling of the probability of hazmat release from trucks and/or trains in crashes at HRGCs to identify factors associated with hazmat release. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) HRGC crash dataset (2007–2016) yielded two subsets of crashes: 1) those involving hazmat-carrying trucks, and 2) those involving hazmat-carrying trains. Results from a logistic regression model using data subset 1 (crashes involving hazmat-carrying trucks) with hazmat release/no release as the response variable showed that standard flashing signal lights, railroad crossbucks, and railroad classes II and III (relative to railroad class I) were associated with lower hazmat release probability from hazmat-carrying trucks. Hazmat release probability from trucks was higher with freight train involvement. Results from a logistic regression model using data subset 2 (crashes involving hazmat-carrying trains) revealed that hazmat release probability from trains was lower with warmer temperature. However, the probability of release from trains was greater with railroad class II (relative to railroad class I), type of highway user (different types of trucks and motorcycle relative to automobiles), and weather conditions (fog, sleet or snow, relative to clear). A comparison of the results from this study with HRGC crash severity studies highlighted the importance and usefulness of this study.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niema Ghanad Poor ◽  
Nicholas C West ◽  
Rama Syamala Sreepada ◽  
Srinivas Murthy ◽  
Matthias Görges

BACKGROUND In the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), quantifying illness severity can be guided by risk models to enable timely identification and appropriate intervention. Logistic regression models, including the pediatric index of mortality 2 (PIM-2) and pediatric risk of mortality III (PRISM-III), produce a mortality risk score using data that are routinely available at PICU admission. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) outperform regression models in some medical fields. OBJECTIVE In light of this potential, we aim to examine ANN performance, compared to that of logistic regression, for mortality risk estimation in the PICU. METHODS The analyzed data set included patients from North American PICUs whose discharge diagnostic codes indicated evidence of infection and included the data used for the PIM-2 and PRISM-III calculations and their corresponding scores. We stratified the data set into training and test sets, with approximately equal mortality rates, in an effort to replicate real-world data. Data preprocessing included imputing missing data through simple substitution and normalizing data into binary variables using PRISM-III thresholds. A 2-layer ANN model was built to predict pediatric mortality, along with a simple logistic regression model for comparison. Both models used the same features required by PIM-2 and PRISM-III. Alternative ANN models using single-layer or unnormalized data were also evaluated. Model performance was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the area under the precision recall curve (AUPRC) and their empirical 95% CIs. RESULTS Data from 102,945 patients (including 4068 deaths) were included in the analysis. The highest performing ANN (AUROC 0.871, 95% CI 0.862-0.880; AUPRC 0.372, 95% CI 0.345-0.396) that used normalized data performed better than PIM-2 (AUROC 0.805, 95% CI 0.801-0.816; AUPRC 0.234, 95% CI 0.213-0.255) and PRISM-III (AUROC 0.844, 95% CI 0.841-0.855; AUPRC 0.348, 95% CI 0.322-0.367). The performance of this ANN was also significantly better than that of the logistic regression model (AUROC 0.862, 95% CI 0.852-0.872; AUPRC 0.329, 95% CI 0.304-0.351). The performance of the ANN that used unnormalized data (AUROC 0.865, 95% CI 0.856-0.874) was slightly inferior to our highest performing ANN; the single-layer ANN architecture performed poorly and was not investigated further. CONCLUSIONS A simple ANN model performed slightly better than the benchmark PIM-2 and PRISM-III scores and a traditional logistic regression model trained on the same data set. The small performance gains achieved by this two-layer ANN model may not offer clinically significant improvement; however, further research with other or more sophisticated model designs and better imputation of missing data may be warranted. CLINICALTRIAL


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4124
Author(s):  
Danuta Zawadzka ◽  
Agnieszka Strzelecka ◽  
Ewa Szafraniec-Siluta

The aim of this study was to identify and assess the factors influencing the increase in the financial energy of a farm through the use of external capital, taking into account the farmer’s and farm characteristics. For its implementation, a logistic regression model and a classification-regression tree analysis (CRT) were used. The study was conducted on a group of farms in Central Pomerania (Poland) participating in the system of collecting and using data from farms (Farm Accountancy Data Network—FADN). Data on 348 farms were used for the analyses, obtained through a survey conducted in 2020 with the use of a questionnaire. Based on the analysis of the research results presented in the literature to date, it was established that the use of external capital in a farm as a factor increasing financial energy is determined, on the one hand, by the socio-demographic characteristics of the farmer and the characteristics of the farm, and on the other hand, by the availability of external financing sources. Factors relating to the first of these aspects were taken into account in the study. Using the logistic regression model, it was established that the propensity to indebtedness of farms is promoted by the following factors: gender of the head of the household (male, GEND), younger age of the head of the household (AGE), having a successor who will take over the farm in the future (SUC), higher value of generated production (PROD_VALUE), larger farm area (AREA) and multi-directional production of the farm (production diversification), as opposed to targeting plant or animal production only (farm specialization—SPEC). The results of the analysis carried out with the use of classification and regression trees (CRT) showed that the key factors influencing the use of outside capital as a source of financial energy in the agricultural production process are, first of all, features relating to an agricultural holding: the value of generated production (PROD_VALUE), agricultural area (AREA) and production direction (SPEC). The age of the farm manager (AGE) turned out to be of key importance among the farmer’s features favoring the tendency to take debt in order to finance agricultural activity.


10.2196/24079 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. e24079
Author(s):  
Niema Ghanad Poor ◽  
Nicholas C West ◽  
Rama Syamala Sreepada ◽  
Srinivas Murthy ◽  
Matthias Görges

Background In the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), quantifying illness severity can be guided by risk models to enable timely identification and appropriate intervention. Logistic regression models, including the pediatric index of mortality 2 (PIM-2) and pediatric risk of mortality III (PRISM-III), produce a mortality risk score using data that are routinely available at PICU admission. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) outperform regression models in some medical fields. Objective In light of this potential, we aim to examine ANN performance, compared to that of logistic regression, for mortality risk estimation in the PICU. Methods The analyzed data set included patients from North American PICUs whose discharge diagnostic codes indicated evidence of infection and included the data used for the PIM-2 and PRISM-III calculations and their corresponding scores. We stratified the data set into training and test sets, with approximately equal mortality rates, in an effort to replicate real-world data. Data preprocessing included imputing missing data through simple substitution and normalizing data into binary variables using PRISM-III thresholds. A 2-layer ANN model was built to predict pediatric mortality, along with a simple logistic regression model for comparison. Both models used the same features required by PIM-2 and PRISM-III. Alternative ANN models using single-layer or unnormalized data were also evaluated. Model performance was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the area under the precision recall curve (AUPRC) and their empirical 95% CIs. Results Data from 102,945 patients (including 4068 deaths) were included in the analysis. The highest performing ANN (AUROC 0.871, 95% CI 0.862-0.880; AUPRC 0.372, 95% CI 0.345-0.396) that used normalized data performed better than PIM-2 (AUROC 0.805, 95% CI 0.801-0.816; AUPRC 0.234, 95% CI 0.213-0.255) and PRISM-III (AUROC 0.844, 95% CI 0.841-0.855; AUPRC 0.348, 95% CI 0.322-0.367). The performance of this ANN was also significantly better than that of the logistic regression model (AUROC 0.862, 95% CI 0.852-0.872; AUPRC 0.329, 95% CI 0.304-0.351). The performance of the ANN that used unnormalized data (AUROC 0.865, 95% CI 0.856-0.874) was slightly inferior to our highest performing ANN; the single-layer ANN architecture performed poorly and was not investigated further. Conclusions A simple ANN model performed slightly better than the benchmark PIM-2 and PRISM-III scores and a traditional logistic regression model trained on the same data set. The small performance gains achieved by this two-layer ANN model may not offer clinically significant improvement; however, further research with other or more sophisticated model designs and better imputation of missing data may be warranted.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Matos ◽  
C Matias Dias ◽  
A Félix

Abstract Background Studies on the impact of patients with multimorbidity in the absence of work indicate that the number and type of chronic diseases may increase absenteeism and that the risk of absence from work is higher in people with two or more chronic diseases. This study analyzed the association between multimorbidity and greater frequency and duration of work absence in the portuguese population between the ages of 25 and 65 during 2015. Methods This is an epidemiological, observational, cross-sectional study with an analytical component that has its source of information from the 1st National Health Examination Survey. The study analyzed univariate, bivariate and multivariate variables under study. A multivariate logistic regression model was constructed. Results The prevalence of absenteeism was 55,1%. Education showed an association with absence of work (p = 0,0157), as well as professional activity (p = 0,0086). It wasn't possible to verify association between the presence of chronic diseases (p = 0,9358) or the presence of multimorbidity (p = 0,4309) with absence of work. The prevalence of multimorbidity was 31,8%. There was association between age (p < 0,0001), education (p < 0,001) and yield (p = 0,0009) and multimorbidity. There is no increase in the number of days of absence from work due to the increase in the number of chronic diseases. In the optimized logistic regression model the only variables that demonstrated association with the variable labor absence were age (p = 0,0391) and education (0,0089). Conclusions The scientific evidence generated will contribute to the current discussion on the need for the health and social security system to develop policies to patients with multimorbidity. Key messages The prevalence of absenteeism and multimorbidity in Portugal was respectively 55,1% and 31,8%. In the optimized model age and education demonstrated association with the variable labor absence.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document