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Time headway is an important microscopic traffic flow parameter, which affects safety, level-of-service, capacity and traffic simulation. It is, therefore, important to know the specific distribution for a particular roadway and traffic condition. Further, headway between two vehicles depends on the type of lead vehicle and is influenced by its size and dynamics. Such impact is considerably high on two-lane roads with mixed traffic composed of a wide variety of vehicle types. This paper identified sixteen combinations of vehicle pairs and analysed vehicle-type-specific headways using field data. Appropriate distribution functions were fitted to field data and predictive models were used in understanding carfollowing behaviour. Observations indicate that quite often bike riders become reluctant in obeying lane discipline. However, car drivers show conservative attitude and usually, keep safe distance from the lead vehicle except the case when they follow another car. In addition, while following Non-Motorized Vehicles (NMV), most of the drivers keep reasonably safe distances. In this paper, a comparison of computed headway probabilities was also made with those obtained from more or less homogeneous traffic. It was found that values obtained in current study are high in most of the instances. This indicates risk-taking behaviour of driver population, which eventually affects safety of such roads. The present study, thus, demonstrates the need of investigating vehicle-type-specific headways under mixed traffic based on comprehensive field data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an investigation on the adequacy of one of the major performance indicators for two-lane highways, the percent-time-spent-following (PTSF) under changing driver's behavior in choosing headways. Field study was conducted on a two-lane highway in India that exhibits heterogeneity in its traffic composition and a wide range of flow levels was covered while collecting data. The appropriate headway distributions were selected based on goodness-of-fit test. Exponential or Erlang distributions exhibit their aptness in describing headways up to a volume to capacity ratio of 0.3 and gamma and exponential distributions were compatible for headway data corresponding to a volume to capacity ratio of 0.4 and above. Around 40% drivers were observed to adopt headways 2 s or less at heavy flow when a car-following situation prevails; these headways are considered unsafe in several instances. Further, speed-headway relationships were established to assess a headway threshold beyond which vehicles could be considered free. Empirical investigation indicates a value of about 6 s under such traffic unlike 3 s as considered in PTSF estimation. Another major implication on PTSF is a few drivers move in a platoon by choice even if they have a gap of more than 6 s and passing opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The time headway of vehicles is of fundamental importance in traffic engineering applications like capacity, level-of-service and safety studies. Further , the performance of traffic simulation depends on inputs into the simulation process and 'accurate vehicle generation' is critical in this context. Thus, it is important to define headway distribution pattern for the purpose of analyzing traffic and subsequently, taking infrastructure related decisions. In so far, majority of the researches on this subject are based on homogeneous traffic and effects of mixed traffic especially on two-lane roads are yet to be culminated. The present study, thus, aimed at investigating headway distributions on such roads under mixed traffic situation. Methods: Field study was conducted on two-lane highways in India that exhibits heterogeneity in its traffic composition. Contestant headway distribution models were evaluated and four distribution functions namely, log-logistic, lognormal, Pearson 5 and Pearson 6 were considered while modeling the headway data. The appropriate models were selected using a methodology based on K-S test and subsequent field validation. Results: Log-logistic distribution was found appropriate at moderate flow whereas, at congested state of flow it was Pearson 5. However, at unstable flow nearing capacity, both, following and non-following components of headways were observed to follow different distributional characteristics. Nomographs are developed for calculating the headway probabilities at different flow levels considering the appropriate distribution models. 'Probability of headway less than't's' increases with the flow rate and rate of such increase is considerably high for headways 7.5 s or more. This attributes to the fact that at heavy flow more vehicles are entrapped inside platoons and they move in following with shorter headways. Further, a comparison was made between the headway probabilities obtained in the current study and road segments that exhibit more or less homogeneous traffic. It was found that at moderate flow level proportion of shorter headways are considerably high under mixed traffic. Conclusions: The present paper demonstrates the effect of mixed traffic on distribution of time headways of two-lane roads. Presence of slower vehicles in such traffic leads to frequent formation of platoons, thereby, increases the risk taking behavior of drivers' while overtaking. As a result, proportion of shorter headways increases resulting in highly skewed observations. Thus, the study proposed Log-logistic distribution under medium flow since it can model events which have 'increased initial rate' and Pearson 5 under heavy flow to model 'highly skewed data'. The model outputs were accordingly compared with other studies and were found to explain the mixed traffic characteristics satisfactorily. The present study, thus, creates a starting point of further initiatives aimed at establishing a robust method of modeling headways on two-lane roads with mixed traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the prevalence of ABO and Rh blood groups based on the antigenic presence on the surface of red blood cells with respect to gender and calculate allele frequency of the blood groups. Globally, approximately 700 type red cell antigens have been identified till now. ABO and Rh blood groups play an important role in the process of blood transfusion, resolving certain medicolegal issues, parental testing, and various genetic studies. Methods: This study was conducted in H.N.B. Base Hospital, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, from January 2012 to December 2016. Relevant data of blood donors were collected from blood bank department of the hospital. Blood grouping was conducted using commercially available standard monoclonal antisera applying test tube and column agglutination techniques. Results: Out of 9883 individuals, 9333 (92.4%) were males and 750 (7.6%) were female individuals. The most common blood group found was B (31.68%) and least common being AB (11.70%). The prevalence of Rhesus positive and negative distribution in the present studied population was found as 93.51% and 6.49%, respectively. Overall, male ABO group pattern found was shown by formula B > A > O > AB which was similar among Rh-positive male individuals while Rh-negative males' pattern was found as A > B = O > AB. In females, ABO group pattern was B > O > A > AB which was similar to Rh-positive female pattern while differs in Rh negative. The estimated allele frequencies were found as 0.2403, 0.2475, and 0.5122 for IA (p), IB (q), and IO (r), respectively. Conclusion: The most common blood group found among the Gharwali donors was B positive while the least common was AB negative, which plays an important contribution for making government policies to develop National Health Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The trend of ocular diseases in urban areas is changing. Eye diseases due to chronic medical problems are being detected more in urban population. Therefore, there is a need to check for ocular diseases in each age group. Objectives: To find the prevalence and causes of ocular morbidity and blindness and their associated factors in urban population. Methods: This study was done in an urban area of Meerut. All the age groups covering 1613 subjects were interviewed and simple torchlight examination of the eyes, followed by testing of vision was done. Results: Prevalence of ocular morbidity was 53.0% and blindness 3.4%. The most common ocular morbidity was refractive error (86.4%), followed by cataract (22.5%) and conjunctivitis (6.0%). The causes of blindness were cataract (72.7%), posterior segment pathologies (20.0%), ocular injury (5.5%) and corneal opacities (1.8%). Both ocular morbidity and blindness were significantly higher in smokers, hypertensives and diabetics. Blindness was more prevalent in alcoholics and in those with history of ocular injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Road accidents are associated with numerous problems each of which needs to be addressed separately [1]. Accidents, therefore, can be studied in terms of agent, host and environmental factors and epidemiologically classified into time, place and person distribution [2]. Objectives: 1.To assess the prevalence of RTAs coming to hospital and 2.To know the epidemiological factors related to RTAs and associated prevalence in hospital based study. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted at SMSR, Gr Noida, in 2012. The study group consisted of all the RTA victims reporting to casualty in the last one year. The victims of the accidents were interviewed on a pretested semi structured performa. Results: In that one year period total number of reported accident cases was 144. The age groups of the study subjects were between 13-65 years. Out of total study subjects, only 16 were female. Again out of the total accident cases 45% were attended by police and of all injured, 45.8% were driver by occupation (7% without driving license). Among these drivers, 11% were not attentive during driving because of various reasons. Ambulance services had reached in 46.5% cases. Fracture was the most common type (60%) of injury among all types of injuries. Among the applicable population only 33% wore helmet or seat belts. Conclusions: Only half of the total accident cases were attended by police and again only half of them received ambulance services. One third injuries were because of not wearing seat belt and helmets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background And Objectives: Adolescent period is characterized by profound psychological, behavioural and hormonal changes. Adolescents with high body mass index are susceptible to a host of metabolic functional abnormalities and clinical problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate association between occurrence of PMS and body mass index (BMI) if any, in adolescent girls. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 407 healthy adolescent girls in 12-18 years age group. Study Tool used is the widely accepted premenstrual syndrome self evaluation questionnaire by Allen Lawrence. The participants were asked to fill in responses for each premenstrual symptom before, during and after menstruation, stating intensity grading from 0-4. Data was analyzed by using SPSS software version 16. Chi-square and student's ttest were used for statistical calculations. Result: In the study, mean observed body mass index was found to be 22.86 +/- 5.22 kg/m2. The study revealed that PMS occurred in 63.2% of the participants and Occurrence of PMS was significantly high (p<0.05) in participants with high BMI. Conclusion: This study revealed that PMS occurs in a high proportion of adolescent age group. Furthermore, this study reveals that high body mass index is positively associated with PMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preclinical studies suggest that bortezomib, through inhibition of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation, may enhance the effects of radioimmunotherapy. This phase I trial was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of weekly bortezomib induction combined with Y-90-ibritumomab tiuxetan followed at the time of count recovery by weekly bortezomib consolidation in patients with relapsed/refractory follicular or transformed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Grade 3 or 4 toxicities were observed in eight of nine treated patients, and all but one of these toxicities were hematologic. One patient had grade 3 cardiotoxicity. A dose limiting toxicity (DLT) of grade 4 thrombocytopenia was observed in two of three patients treated with bortezomib at 1.6 mg/m2, resulting in a MTD of 1.3 mg/m2. The overall response rate was 89% (two complete response [CR], six partial response [PR], one stable disease [SD]), with a median progression-free survival of 6.5 months (range: 3-22.5+ months). A phase II trial at the MTD is under way to better define the toxicity and effectiveness of this regimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HoxA10 is a homeodomain transcription factor that is involved in maintenance of the myeloid progenitor population and implicated in myeloid leukemogenesis. Previously, we found that FGF2 and CDX4 are direct target genes of HoxA10 and that HOXA10 is a Cdx4 target gene. We also found that increased production of fibroblast growth factor 2 (Fgf2) by HoxA10-overexpressing myeloid progenitor cells results in activation of β-catenin in an autocrine manner. In this study, we identify novel cis elements in the CDX4 and HOXA10 genes that are activated by β-catenin in myeloid progenitor cells. We determine that β-catenin interacts with these cis elements, identifying both CDX4 and HOXA10 as β-catenin target genes in this context. We demonstrate that HoxA10-induced CDX4 transcription is influenced by Fgf2-dependentβ-catenin activation. Similarly, Cdx4-induced HOXA10 transcription is influenced by β-catenin in an Fgf2-dependent manner. Increased expression of a set of Hox proteins, including HoxA10, is associated with poor prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia. Cdx4 contributes to leukemogenesis in Hox-overexpressing acute myeloid leukemia, and increased β-catenin activity is also associated with poor prognosis. The current studies identify a molecular mechanisms through which increased expression of HoxA10 increases Cdx4 expression by direct CDX4 activation and by Fgf2-induced β-catenin activity. This results in Cdx4- induced HoxA10-expression, creating a positive feedback mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]