More than smart pavements: connected infrastructure paves the way for enhanced winter safety and mobility on highways

Currently, there is an urgent demand for more cost-effective, resource-efficient and reliable solutions to address safety and mobility challenges on highways enduring snowy winter weather. To address this pressing issue, this commentary proposes that the physical and digital infrastructures should be upgraded to take advantage of emerging technologies and facilitate the vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII), to better inform decision-makers at various levels. Driven by the paradigm shift towards more automation and more intelligent transportation, it is time to reimagine the vehicle-infrastructure ecosystem with the cold-climate issues in mind, and to enhance communications and coordination among various highway users and stakeholders. This commentary envisages the deployment of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies to bring about transformative changes and substantial benefits in terms of enhanced winter safety and mobility on highways. At the center of the commentary is a conceptualized design of next-generation highways in cold climates, including the existing infrastructure entities that are appropriate for possible upgrade to connected infrastructure (CI) applications, to leverage the immensely expanded data availability fueled by better spatial and temporal coverage. The commentary also advances the idea that CI solutions can augment the sensing capabilities and confidence level of connected or autonomous vehicles. The application scenarios of VII system is then briefly explored, followed by some discussion of the paradigm shift towards V2X applications and a look to the future including some identified research needs in the arena of CI. This work aims to inspire dialogues and synergistic collaborations among various stakeholders of the VII revolution, because the specific challenges call for systematic, holistic, and multidisciplinary approaches accompanied by concerted efforts in the research, development, pilot testing, and deployment of CI technologies.

More Than Smart Pavements: Connected Infrastructure Paves the Way for Enhanced Winter Safety and Mobility on Highways

Currently, there is an urgent demand for more cost-effective, resource-efficient and reliable solutions to address safety and mobility challenges on highways enduring snowy winter weather. To address this pressing issue, this commentary proposes that the physical and digital infrastructures should be upgraded to take advantage of emerging technologies and facilitate the vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII), to better inform decision-makers at various levels. Driven by the paradigm shift towards more automation and more intelligent transportation, it is time to reimagine the vehicle-infrastructure ecosystem with the cold-climate issues in mind, and to enhance communications and coordination among various highway users and stakeholders. This commentary envisages the deployment of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies to bring about transformative changes and substantial benefits in terms of enhanced winter safety and mobility on highways. At the center of the commentary is a conceptualized design of next-generation highways in cold climates, including the existing infrastructure entities that are appropriate for possible upgrade to connected infrastructure (CI) applications, to leverage the immensely expanded data availability fueled by better spatial and temporal coverage. The commentary also advances the idea that CI solutions can augment the sensing capabilities and confidence level of connected or autonomous vehicles. The application scenarios of VII system is then briefly explored, followed by some discussion of the paradigm shift towards V2X applications and a look to the future including some identified research needs in the arena of CI. This work aims to inspire dialogues and synergistic collaborations among various stakeholders of the VII revolution, because the specific challenges call for systematic, holistic, and multidisciplinary approaches accompanied by concerted efforts in the research, development, pilot testing, and deployment of CI technologies.

The Snowy Winter

This chapter describes the author's experience while staying on Cape Cod to finish a novel. The best moment came when the author was standing alone out on Coast Guard Beach — on almost the exact spot where the naturalist-writer Henry Beston lived for a year in his outermost cabin on Cape Cod's ocean shore — when the young snowy owl rose off the tundra-like marsh with a black duck in its talons. The duck hung down limp below the owl, and below that the duck's lifeless feet hung down even lower, like damaged landing gear. The author saw a couple who attempted to follow the owl. The couple were not birders, but they were considerate, giving the owl plenty of space. “Radiant” is a word the author had been using a lot during their last few days of owl-watching, though mostly to describe the white unworldly shine of the snowy owl's feathers.

Association between Physical Activity Levels and Body Composition among Healthy Older Japanese Adults during a Snowy Winter: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Despite a long average lifespan, increased life expectancy does not guarantee higher quality of life. Methods: To contribute in understanding some determinants of healthy life expectancies in older Japanese individuals in a snowy winter region, we investigated the indicators of health. Local residents (n = 124) in the city of Iwamizawa volunteered for health examinations from January 2016 to March 2016. We recorded activity via daily steps for 2-week periods. In addition, we measured body composition, grip strength, and assessed nutritional status. Results: Analysis of body composition and daily activity indicated that women who walked more than 4000 steps had lower fat mass and increased muscle mass. Men with >3.0 metabolic equivalents (METs) when walking had lower body fat. Conclusion: For healthy older Japanese individuals in this snowy winter region, walking >4000 steps daily for women and exercise of >3.0 METs for men may indicate health-promoting activities.

Epidemiological Features of HFRS (Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome) Outbreak in the Saratov Region in 2019

Objective of the study was to identify epidemiological peculiarities of HFRS outbreak in the territory of the Saratov Region in 2019 and to determine the key factors contributing to the intensity of epidemic process.Materials and methods. Analyzed are the data on 2702 cases of HFRS registered in the territory of the Saratov Region in 2019, obtained from the Rospotrebnadzor Administration in the Saratov Region and Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Saratov Region. The basic method of investigation was epidemiological one with application of advanced information technologies.Results and discussion. Retrospective analysis of epidemic HFRS manifestations in the Saratov Region showed that HFRS outbreak of 2019 was the largest over the period of disease reporting, both by the number of cases (2702) and by the duration. Early onset of increase in the incidence (may) and allocation of the majority of cases to the territory of the natural park “Kumysnaya Polyana”(75 %) should be considered as characteristic features of the outbreak. We have conducted epidemiological zoning of the Saratov Region allowing for dividing the Region into four types of territories which differ by the level of risk of HFRS exposure (very high, high, medium, and low), as well as distinguishing the most hazardous in terms of HFRS infection territories of Saratov. The key factors affecting the surge in HFRS cases were high numbers of infected rodents during spring months of 2019 due to mild and extremely snowy winter of 2018–2019; reduction in forest engineering works aimed at turning the focal territory into aesthetic forestry. The change in the character of exploitation of 9 % of the natural park “Kumysnaya Polyana” resulted in the increase of population contacts with natural-focal complexes. Mass visits to natural focus during early spring period against the background of low alertness to risks of HFRS infection led to explosive growth of HFRS incidence.

More Than Smart Pavements: Connected Infrastructure for Enhanced Winter Safety and Resilience on Highways

Currently, there is an urgent demand for more cost-effective, resource-efficient and reliable solutions to address safety, mobility, and resilience challenges on highways enduring snowy winter weather. To address this pressing issue, this commentary proposes that the physical and digital infrastructures should be upgraded to take advantage of emerging technologies and facilitate the vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII), to better inform decision-makers at various levels. Driven by the paradigm shift towards more automation and more intelligent transportation, it is time to reimagine the vehicle-infrastructure ecosystem with the cold-climate issues in mind, and to enhance communications and coordination among various highway users and stakeholders. This commentary envisages the deployment of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies to bring about transformative changes and substantial benefits in terms of enhanced winter safety and resilience on highways. At the center of the commentary is a conceptualized design of next-generation highways in cold climates, including the existing infrastructure entities that are appropriate for possible upgrade to connected infrastructure (CI) applications, to leverage the immensely expanded data availability fueled by better spatial and temporal coverage. The commentary also advances the idea that CI solutions can augment the sensing capabilities and confidence level of connected or autonomous vehicles. We then briefly explore the application scenarios of VII system, and conclude with some discussion of the paradigm shift towards V2X applications and a look to the future in terms of identified research needs in the arena of CI. We hope to inspire dialogues and synergistic collaborations among various stakeholders of the VII revolution, because the specific challenges call for systematic, holistic, and multidisciplinary approaches accompanied by concerted efforts in the research, development, pilot testing, and deployment of CI technologies.

Vanessa

When it was performed in 1958, Barber’s opera Vanessa was the first new American work produced by the Metropolitan Opera since 1947 and only the twentieth since the opening of the opera house in 1883. It took Barber two decades to find a libretto, and his search finally culminated in his own backyard, as it were, when his partner Gian Carlo Menotti offered to write the libretto. This chapter narrates how Vanessa evolved, from the creation of the plot to the actors and sets. Set in an unnamed “northern country about 1905,” the story unfolds about two women: Vanessa, a lady of great beauty, who for twenty years of winter after snowy winter has awaited the return of her only love, Anatol; and her beautiful young niece, Erika. The concluding quintet is considered one of the most brilliant climaxes in the twentieth-century repertoire. The opera’s critical success led to the production of Vanessa at the Salzburg Festival, the first American opera performed there. There have been numerous productions in the United States and abroad since then, including a brilliant one at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2018.

Rational Way of Forming Stubble Coulisses under North Kazakhstan Conditions

The main limiting factor for increasing yields in the arid steppe conditions of Northern Kazakhstan is moisture. Shoots are usually uneven due to the lack of moisture at the initial stage of their growing. The main source of moisture in this period is winter precipitation. Currently, the following methods of winter precipitation moisture accumulation are used in North Kazakhstan: leaving high standing stubble, seeding coulisses on pure fallow fields, herbicide (chemical) fallow field, snow ridging, harvesting of crops with continuous combining; and forming stubble coulisses. The most preferable way of increasing snow moisture accumulation is the formation of stubble coulisses that can be done in two ways.Research purpose Efficiency evaluation of the ways of forming stubble coulisses.Materials and methods Agroengineering and technological evaluation is used as a main research method of different ways of forming stubble coulisses, which is followed by the selection of a more preferable way.Results and discussion It has been found that in snowy winter both ways of forming stubble coulisses – with alternative passes of a direct combining reaper and a stripping reaper and using a direct combining reaper with a stripper adapter – have shown the same results. However, when there is a little snow in winter, the second way provides more intensive snow accumulation.Conclusions It has been experimentally found that using the direct combining reaper with the stripper adapter decreases labour inputs by 17.8% and total costs by 23.8% as compared to the formation of coulisses by using sequential passes of the direct combining and the stripping reapers. It has been found that the formation of stubble coulisses every 5-9 meters along with in-line para-plowing at a depth of up to 35 cm provides the highest yield increase of in snowy winter as compared to the conventional ways of moisture accumulation.

Japonica w archiwaliach po Bronisławie Piłsudskim w Bibliotece PAU i PAN w Krakowie (8). Korespondencja pani Kimiko Torii do Bronisława oraz list pana Mitsugo Yokoyamy z pokładu S/S Dakota

Japonica in the Archives Left After Bronisław Piłsudski in the Cracow Pau-Pan Academic Library 8. Kimiko Torii’s Letter To Bronisław and Mitsugo Yokoyama’s Letter Written on Board S/S Dakota The present material constitutes the eighth installment of the presentation of Japanese documents preserved with Bronisław Piłsudski’s archives in the Academic Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Lettres (PAU) and Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Cracow and includes two letters in facsimile, transliteration, and interpretation in Polish. The first of them has been written in Japanese but in Roman characters (rōmaji) with few insertions in French. Its author, Kimiko Torii was the wife of the renowned Japanese ethnographer and anthropologist Ryūzō Torii who traveled extensively and conducted fieldwork in many places studying numerous cultures, the Ainu, especially the Kuril Ainu, included. Bronisław was personally acquainted with the couple – Ryuzo translated (from German) and published Bronisław’s work “The Aborigines of Sakhalin” (English translation in CWBP 1, 222–235), and Bronisław went to the railway station in Tokyo to see Kimiko off on her way to Mongolia to join her husband there – both conducted research in that country but the primary reason for Kimiko was to go on invitation from a local prince to Harqin (today in Inner Mongolia in China) to replace another Japanese lady in teaching in a school for Mongolian, primarily the prince’s, children – Misako Kawahara. Both ladies left several memoir publications each on their stay and experience accumulated in Mongolia, Kimiko coauthored also some works of academic importance with Ryuzo. Basic data on all the three persons and details concerning some of the publications mentioned have been provided. The letter is personal and, explaining circumstances, constitutes a plea for excuse for failed encounter on a snowy winter evening (beginning of February 1906) at the Toriis’. The other letter has been written by a person from Hiroshima Prefecture named Mitsugo Yokoyama who happened to board S/S Dakota on the way from Japan to the USA as a stowaway. Freezing while in hiding, he was offered a warm blanket from “a Russian” which helped him to survive. The letter does not mention the donor’s name and was probably written as sort of a statement for the captain but also as a letter of the deepest gratitude toward the “Russian”. Finding the moving letter in Cracow allows a supposition that it had been handed over to Piłsudski by its receiver. Kazuhiko Sawada succeeded in tracing the lot of the then lucky beneficiary who survived the journey and his and his family hard times in America (he had six children, five of them allegedly still alive in 2005). Some remarks on the language of the letters and on Bronisław’s nature have also been made. It is the first among all so-far published installments in the Japonica series emerging in co-authorship: Ms. Anna Grądzka prepared the tentative versions of the decipherment of the manuscript originals, and their transliterations and translations within the framework of her MA thesis in Japanese studies at Nicoalus Copernicus University in Toruń.