scholarly journals Investigating the Effect of School Bus Stopping Process on Driver Behavior of Surrounding Vehicles Based on a Driving Simulator Experiment

Author(s):  
Yanyan Chen ◽  
Yinjia Guo ◽  
Xin Gu ◽  
Yuntong Zhou ◽  
Yao Tong ◽  
...  

School bus safety has attracted widespread attention with economic development and the improvement of overall quality of the population. However, violations of school bus regulations and school bus-related crashes often occur. Limited research has been conducted on the impact of the school bus stopping process on surrounding drivers’ behavior. This study provides a driving simulator experiment to explore drivers’ behaviors during the school bus stopping process under different traffic law awareness status, traffic volume status, and initial location status. Eight variables about behavior decision and kinetic parameters were assessed for analysis by a logistic regression model and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results show that the mean speed decreases and the number of people complying with the regulations increases after publicizing the regulations. The proportion of surrounding vehicles in the acceleration state increases, especially under the scenario that the traffic volume is large and the initial distance is far. This indicates that the enforcement of the regulations may stimulate unsafe driving behavior. The findings of this study could help policy makers to better understand the prevalence and compliance of current school bus stopping regulations among drivers and support improvements in the practical application of the regulations.

Author(s):  
Jo Blanden ◽  
Emilia Del Bono ◽  
Kirstine Hansen ◽  
Birgitta Rabe

AbstractPolicy-makers wanting to support child development can choose to adjust the quantity or quality of publicly funded universal pre-school. To assess the impact of such changes, we estimate the effects of an increase in free pre-school education in England of about 3.5 months at age 3 on children’s school achievement at age 5. We exploit date-of-birth discontinuities that create variation in the length and starting age of free pre-school using administrative school records linked to nursery characteristics. Estimated effects are small overall, but the impact of the additional term is substantially larger in settings with the highest inspection quality rating but not in settings with highly qualified staff. Estimated effects fade out by age 7.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Pakkhesal ◽  
Elham Riyahi ◽  
AliAkbar Naghavi Alhosseini ◽  
Parisa Amdjadi ◽  
Nasser Behnampour

Abstract Background Childhood dental caries can affect the children’s and their parents’ oral health-related quality of life. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of oral and dental health conditions on the oral health-related quality of life in preschool children and their parents. Methods In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, samples were selected from children 3 to 6 years old enrolled in licensed kindergartens using "proportional allocation" sampling. Then, the parents of the children were asked to complete the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS). Results In this study, 350 children aged 3 to 6 years were evaluated with a mean age of 4.73 years. The mean dmft index (decayed, missed, and filled teeth) was 3.94 ± 4.17. The mean score of oral health-related quality of life was 11.88 ± 6.9, which 9.36 ± 5.02 belongs to the impact on children and 2.52 ± 3.20 to parents' impact. Conclusions The mean score of ECOHIS increased with the dmft index increase in children, indicating a significant relationship between the dmft and ECOHIS score. These outcomes can be used as proper resources to develop preventive policies and promote oral health in young children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 767.2-768
Author(s):  
S. Lahrichi ◽  
K. Nassar ◽  
S. Janani

Background:Spondyloarthropathies (SpA) are a group of chronic and progressive diseases, characterized in particular by a progressive stiffening of the spine, spreading to neighboring joints or to certain tissues, which could lead in the long term to progressive stiffening and functional impairment. This conditioncancauseinsomnia problems and impaired sleep quality.Objectives:To assess the impact of SpA on the quality of sleep.Methods:This is a retrospective study over a period of 4 years from January 2015 to December 2019, including all the medical records of patients with SpA followed in the Department of Rheumatology of the University Hospital of Ibn Rochd, Casablanca. We evaluated for each patient two validated scores: the Epworth somnolence scale rated from 0 to 24, and the Pittsburgh sleep score rated from 0 to 21 with 7 components. Patients with a psychiatric history or who were followed up for neurological pathologies were excluded.Results:178 patients were included. 60.67% were men with an average age of 36.32 years (14-68 years). 45.01% had axial SpA, 29.77% had psoriatic arthritis, and 25.22% were followed for SpA associated with inflammatory bowel disease. 45% had associated comorbidities: there were 18 diabetics and 34 hypertensive, 16.58% were smokers. Clinically, 85.42% presented a back pain initially on examination, 55% presented a polyarthralgia, and 39.88% an oligoarthritis. 63% had radiological sacroiliitis, and 35.14% had bilateral coxitis. 13.48% had a positive HLA B27 and 58.89% had a positive inflammatory assessment with very high activity indices,with a mean of 4.6. 64.66% of the patients received NSAIDs,of which 11% responded well. 57% were treated with csDMARDs, and 17.86% were treated with biologics. At the time of our study, the mean visual analog scale was 5.84 ± 1.7 out of 10 (2-9). The mean Epworth score was 8.38 ± 5.2 (0-21). 56.1% of patients had no sleep debt, 33.3% had a sleep deficit, and only 10.6% had signs of drowsiness. For the overall Pittsburgh score, the mean was 7.02 ± 3.6 (1-18). The mean of “subjective quality of sleep” was 1.12, “sleep latency” was 1.22, “duration of sleep” was 1.06, “usual sleep efficiency” was 0.74, “Sleep disturbance” of 1.28, “use of a sleep medication” of 0.54, and the average of the component concerning “poor shape during the day” was 1.03 out of 3. The LEQUESNE index went from an average of 6 to 8, which corresponds to an average handicap (P = 0.2) over a period of 3 years. 68% of the patients had an alteration in the quality of sleep, starting on average three years after the onset of symptoms. 11% reported having experiencedanxiety and depressive symptoms, and reported having used antidepressants or anxiolytics in the past 5 years.Conclusion:Our study showed the negative impact of SpA on the duration and overall quality of sleep. The degree of pain as well as functional impairment can cause and worsen sleep disturbances in SpA. We have shown that the Pittsburg score increases significantly with the increase of pain.The Lequesne score and that the Epworth score increase with disease activity[1].References:[1]StolwijkC,vanTubergenA,Castillo-OrtizJD,BoonenA.Prevalenceofextra-articularmanifestationsinpatientswithankylosingspondylitis:asystematicreviewandmeta-analysis.AnnRheumDis2015;74:65—73.Disclosure of Interests:None declared.


2021 ◽  
pp. 25-27
Author(s):  
Umesh kr. Mishra ◽  
Sunita Tiwari ◽  
Sumit Rungta ◽  
Pooja Mishra ◽  
Gulam Akhtar

Background: Night time reux has been shown to be associated with fragmented sleep. However, few studies have assessed the quality of sleep on gastroesophageal reux and the impact of gastroesophageal reux on reported quality of sleep and quality of sleep on gastroesophageal reux. The aims of this study were to evaluate the quality of sleep and other parameters in patients with gastroesophageal reux disease.50 Subjects with typical GERD symptoms ≥3 times a week and All subjects were administered 3 questionnaires: PSQI , ESS, GERD-HRQL . All the subjects underwent nocturnal polysomnography and completed a all 3 questionnaire before NPSG. Results: Overall ,the mean percentage of N1 was 9.10±9.74 ,N2 was 83.97±13.81 , N3 was 3.44±4.16 , N4 was 0.60±2.04 , REM was 2.14±3.79 , PSQI was 12.48±1.23 , ESS was 11.80±0.76 , TST (hr) was 5.19±0.74 , SPT(hr) was 6.58±0.77 , sleep efciency(%) was 52.50±27.16 , Latency (mint) was 22.79±30.85 , REM Latency (mints) was 96.99±151.86 ,and Microarousal index was 36.05±25.93 . To assess the potential impact of sleep quality via nocturnal polysomnography on severity of gastroesophageal reux , we performed correlations between the GERD questionnaire and nocturnal polysomnography reports . We observed that PSQI(r= -0.285, p<0.045) , ESS(r=0.206, p=0.05) , N1(r=0.202 , p>0.160) , N2(r=- 0.045 ,p>0.758) , N3(r=-0.079, p>0.583) , N4(r-0.209 ,p>0.145),REM(r=0.045 ,p>0.756) , TST(r=0.036 ,p>0.803), SPT(r=0.015,p>0.917) , Sleep Efciency (r=-0.113,p>0.435) , Sleep Latency (r=-0.045 ,p>0.756), REM Latency (r=0.165, p >0.253), Microarousal index (r=0.058 , p>0.683). Conclusions: Gastroesophageal reux disease and sleep disorders are extremely prevalent conditions, and it seems intuitive that there must be some overlap between the two. Sleep disorders may in fact be one of the most prevalent of the extraesophageal complications of GERD and often goes unrecognized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-463
Author(s):  
Kaoutar Sof ◽  
Soraya Aouali ◽  
Sara Bensalem

Sir, Dermatological pathologies may be responsible for the creation of a real handicap, affecting the patient’s self-esteem and their professional and social life. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of diseases on the quality of life of patients hospitalized at the dermatology department. The following was a retrospective study that included patients over eighteen years of age, hospitalized at the dermatology department of Hospital Mohammed VI in Oujda from January 2018 through December 2019. The Arabic version of the validated DLQI was used for all patients [1]. A total of 294 patients were collected, with a mean age of 53.95 years and a male-to-female ratio of 0.85. The most frequent reasons for hospitalization were infectious dermo-hypodermitis (n = 51), autoimmune bullous dermatosis (n = 23), severe drug eruption (n = 20), genodermatosis (n = 17), melanocytic (n = 9) and non-melanocytic skin tumors (n = 17), severe psoriasis (n = 17), cutaneous lymphoma (n = 11), alopecia areata (n = 10), dermatomyositis (n = 8), and Verneuil’s disease (n = 5). The DLQI was impossible to calculate in eleven patients. The mean DLQI in all patients was 10.20, corresponding to a moderate effect on quality of life. The mean DLQI was as follows: Verneuil’s disease at 17.4, severe psoriasis at 16.6, dermatomyositis at 14.42, genodermatosis at 12.37, cutaneous lymphoma at 11.45, severe drug eruption at 11, alopecia areata at 10.5, AIBD at 9.67, skin tumors at 7.76, and infectious dermo-hypodermitis at 7.52. The DLQI was the first index measuring quality of life in dermatology and is still widely used today[2]. The number of publications concerning the impact of dermatological pathologies on quality of life has increased in recent years [3]. Our results showed that the DLQI was higher in patients with Verneuil’s disease, severe psoriasis, and dermatomyositis. These results agree with the data of the literature, many publications have shown that psoriasis seriously impaired the quality of life and was responsible of social anxiety in patients [4]. Verneuil’s disease is also responsible of a significant impairment on quality of life mainly due to the sexual disorders caused by this pathology [5]. Another study on dermatomyositis showed that there is a significant correlation between the severity of skin signs and the quality of life of patients [6]. Dermatological pathologies are distinguished from other pathologies by their displaying character, which is responsible for a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life. The management of dermatology patients requires psychological support in addition to conventional therapy. However, these pathologies are still not recognized as long-term illnesses in Morocco.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Szymon Chmielewski

Visual pollution (VP) is a visual landscape quality issue, and its most consistently recognized symptom is an excess of out of home advertising billboards (OOHb). However, the VP related research concerns landscape aesthetic and advertisement cultural context, leaving the impact of outdoor billboard infrastructure on landscape openness unanswered to date. This research aims to assess the visual impact of outdoor billboard infrastructure on landscape openness, precisely the visual volume—a key geometrical quality of a landscape. The method uses 3D isovists and voxels to calculate the visible and obstructed subsets of visible volume. Using two case studies (Lublin City, Poland) and 26 measurement points, it was found that OOHb decreased landscape openness by at least 4% of visible volume; however, the severe impact may concern up to 35% of visual volume. GIS scientists develop the proposed method for policy-makers, and urban planners end users. It is also the very first example of compiling 3D isovists and voxels in ArcGIS Pro software in an easy-to-replicate framework. The research results, accompanied by statistically significant proofs, explain the visual landscape’s fragility and contribute to understanding the VP phenomenon.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Suhail Almallah ◽  
Shabna Sayed Mohammed ◽  
Qinaat Hussain ◽  
Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen

The illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses has been identified as one of the leading causes of students’ injuries and fatalities. The likelihood of students in getting involved in a school bus-related crash increases during loading/unloading. The main objective of this driving simulator study was to study the effectiveness of different treatments in improving students’ safety by reducing the illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses. Treatments used in this research are LED, Road Narrowing and Red Pavement. All proposed treatments were compared with the control condition (i.e., typical condition in the State of Qatar). Seventy-two subjects with valid Qatari driving license were invited to participate in this study. Each subject was exposed to three situations (i.e., Situation 1: the school bus is stopped in the same traveling direction, Situation 2: the school bus is stopped in the opposite traveling direction, Situation 3: the school bus is not present at the bus stop). Results showed that LED and Road Narrowing treatments were effective in reducing the illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses. Moreover, the stopping behavior for drivers in LED and Road Narrowing was more consistent compared to the Red Pavement and control conditions. Finally, LED and Road Narrowing treatments motivated drivers to reduce their traveling speed by 5.16 km/h and 5.11 km/h, respectively, even with the absence of the school bus. Taking into account the results from this study, we recommend the proposed LED and Road Narrowing as potentially effective treatments to improve students’ safety at school bus stop locations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Shivani Saini ◽  
◽  
Agarwal Shail ◽  
Jain Manish ◽  
Yadav Devendra ◽  
...  

Background: Dermatophytosis is a common fungal infection affecting 20-25% of the world population. Aims: Our study was aimed to assess its impact on health-related quality of life(QoL), mental health, and various variables. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done from April 2019 to September 2019 on 174 patients of dermatophytosis of aged more than 16 years with their informed consent. The impact of infection on the quality of life was assessed by using the Dermatology life quality index questionnaire and General health questionnaire-12 was used to assess psychological impact. A visual analogue scale was used to assess the severity of pruritus. Appropriate statistical tests were applied. Results: Males to females ratio was 1.4:1. The age group of 21-30 was having the highest number of patients with the mean age of 27.8±9.97. Most patients had BSA under 10%. The mean value of DLQI and GHQ-12 were found 15.989±7.407 and 2.8563±2.8964, respectively. We found that dermatophytosis had a very large effect on the quality of life as the maximum number of patients(39%) were within this category. The “work and school” part in the questionnaire gained maximum importance(52.8%). The mean VAS score was 6±2.733 with most patients(32.7%) had moderate itching. We found a positive correlation between VAS and DLQI, VAS and GHQ-12, DLQI, and GHQ-12 with the statistical significance. Conclusion: In our study dermatophytosis affected the quality of life as well as the psychological health of patients. Therefore proper treatment of superficial dermatophtytosis is essential to prevent it from further complications


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Nadya Puspita Dewi ◽  
Tetti Solehati ◽  
Nur Oktavia Hidayati

Dysmenorrhea is a pain before or during the menstrual period. The impact of dysmenorrhea are the disruption on physical function, emotional, social and school activities and disruption of quality of life. The study purpose is to detect the quality of life of adolescents with dysmenorrhea.The research method was a quantitative descriptive with total sampling technique to 195 students which selected using dysmenorrhea screening. The data were collected using the pediatric quality of life 4.0 generic module (PedsQL) teens report in Indonesian version which the validity and reliability have been tested. Analysis of data has been done to find out the mean value in each dimension and frequency distribution. The results showed that the mean value of the quality of life of adolescents with dysmenorrhea in general was 62,04 ± 8,15 and 51,8% was in the low. The mean value in physical dimension was 49,36 ± 9,19, emotional dimension was 57,62 ± 13,16, social dimension was 86,38 ± 13,28, and in the school dimension was 62,41 ± 14,77. The quality of life in high categories were in the emotional dimension (60,0%), social dimension (64,1%), and school dimension (60,5%). Meanwhile, the quality of life in low category was in the physical dimension (57,4%). It showed that the quality of life of adolescents with dysmenorrhea in SMK Negeri 2 Sumedang were low. It was recommended to the school and the health office in Sumedang district to provide the reproductive health education, specifically about the prevention and the treatment of dysmenorrhea on adolescents.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 644-651
Author(s):  
A.O. Adekiya ◽  
C.M. Aboyeji ◽  
T.M. Agbede ◽  
O. Dunsin ◽  
O.T.V. Adebiyi

Abstract Micro-nutrients especially zinc can not only increase the yield of sweet potato but can also improve the quality of tubers. Hence, experiments were carried out in 2015 and 2016 cropping seasons to determine the impact of various levels of ZnSO4 fertilizer on soil chemical properties, foliage and storage root yields and proximate qualities of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.). The experiments consisted of 5 levels (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg ha-1) of ZnSO4 fertilizer. These were arranged in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. ZnSO4 increased (with the exception of P) soil chemical properties compared with the control. N, K, Ca, Mg and Zn were increased up to the 20 kg ha-1 ZnSO4 level in both years. ZnSO4 reduced P concentrations in soil as the level increased. For sweet potato performance, 5 kg ha-1 ZnSO4 fertilizer had the highest values of foliage yield (vine length and vine weight) and storage root yield. Using the mean of the two years and compared with the control, ZnSO4 fertilizer at 5 kg ha-1 increased storage root yield of sweet potato by 17.4%. On fitting the mean storage root yield data of the two years with a cubic equation, the optimum rate of Zn for sweet potato was found to be 3.9 kg ha-1 to achieve the maximum sweet potato yield. In this study, relative to the control, ZnSO4 fertilizer increased moisture and decreased the fibre contents of sweet potato. There were no consistent patterns of variation between the 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg ha-1 ZnSO4 treatments for proximate qualities except that the highest values of fat, protein, carbohydrate and ash was at 5 kg ha-1 ZnSO4.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document