Spatiotemporal Clustering of Parking Lots at the City Level for Efficiently Sharing Occupancy Forecasting Models.

This study aims to address the challenge of developing accurate and efficient parking occupancy forecasting models at the city level for autonomous vehicles. Although deep learning techniques have been successfully employed to develop such models for individual parking lots, it is a resource-intensive process that requires significant amounts of time and data for each parking lot. To overcome this challenge, we propose a novel two-step clustering technique that groups parking lots based on their spatiotemporal patterns. By identifying the relevant spatial and temporal characteristics of each parking lot (parking profile) and grouping them accordingly, our approach allows for the development of accurate occupancy forecasting models for a set of parking lots, thereby reducing computational costs and improving model transferability. Our models were built and evaluated using real-time parking data. The obtained correlation rates of 86% for the spatial dimension, 96% for the temporal one, and 92% for both demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in reducing model deployment costs while improving model applicability and transfer learning across parking lots.

Assessment of physical work demands of long-distance industrial gas delivery truck drivers.

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the work-related physical demands of long-distance truck drivers employed by a large gas delivery company in Canada. METHODS: A total of 15 truck drivers participated in a data collection that included self-reporting assessments, field observations, and direct measurements to describe daily tasks organization, postural demands, physical workload, and force exertions. RESULTS: Truck drivers' work was characterized by long working days ranging from 9.9 to 15.1 h (mean = 11.4 h), with half (49%) of the total working time spent behind the wheel. The overall workload as measured by relative cardiac strain (18.7% RHR) was found excessive for the long term given the shift duration. Peaks of heart rate in excess of 30 beats per minute above the daily average occurred mainly while operating valves and handling heavy hoses during gas deliveries. The task of delivering gas at a client's site required a moderate work rate on average (8.3 mlO2/kg/min) requiring 24.4% or maximum work capacity on average. CONCLUSION: Based on multiple data sources, this study highlights the risks of over-exertion and of excessive physical fatigue in the truck drivers' work that are coherent with the high prevalence of self-reported musculoskeletal pain in this group of workers.

Assessment of physical work demand of short distance industrial gas delivery truck drivers.

AIM: This study assessed the work-related physical demands of short-distance truck drivers employed by a large gas delivery company in Canada. METHODS: A total of 19 truck drivers participated in the data collection, which included a combination of self-reports, field observations and direct measurements to report on the work shift task composition, postures, physical workload, and force exertions. RESULTS: Driving (mean of 43% of daily work shift) and delivering gas cylinders to customers (28%) were the main tasks of the truck drivers. Delivering gas cylinders measured as moderate level work and daily work duration was not excessive with respect to mean cardiac strain for most drivers. However, manual handling and force exertion activities were frequent and deemed unsafe most of the time with respect to existing guidelines on manual materials handling. CONCLUSION: This study documents physical risk factors that are consistent with musculoskeletal pain prevalence reported for short-distance truck drivers.

Risk factors associated with self-reported musculoskeletal pain among short and long distance industrial gas delivery truck drivers.

AIM: This study investigated and compared the associations between self-reported exposures to individual as well as work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors for musculoskeletal (MS) disorders and the prevalence of MS symptoms in different body areas among short- (P&D) and long-distance (Bulk delivery) truck drivers working for the same large gas delivery company in Canada. METHODS: 123 truck drivers nationwide participated in this questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: 43.1% of drivers reported MS pain in at least one body area over the past 12 months and 26.8% over the past 7 days. Bulk drivers had a significantly higher prevalence of MS pain than P&D drivers for both periods. When P&D and Bulk drivers were pooled together, belonging to the Bulk subgroup emerged as the strongest factor for low back pain (OR = 8.45, p = 0.002), for shoulder pain (OR = 3.70, p = 0.027) and for MS pain in any body area (OR = 4.05, p = 0.006). In Bulk drivers "High effort-reward imbalance" was strongly associated with MS pain in any body area (OR = 6.47, p = 0.01), with shoulder pain (OR = 4.95, p = 0.016), and with low back pain (OR = 4.51, p = 0.02). In P&D drivers MS pain in any body area was strongly associated with "Working with hands above shoulders" (OR = 6.58, p = 0.009) and "Whole-body vibration" (OR = 5.48, p = 0.018), while shoulder pain was strongly associated with "Hand-arm vibration" (OR = 7.27, p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of MS pain was higher among industrial gas delivery truck drivers than in the general Quebec male worker population, and higher for Bulk drivers compared to P&D drivers. MS pain in Bulk drivers was mainly associated with psychosocial risk factors and lifestyle; MS pain in P&D drivers was mainly associated with physical risk factors.

Flavonol glycosides in berries of two major subspecies of sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides L.) and influence of growth sites.

Flavonol glycosides of wild sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides ssp. sinensis) berries from China and cultivated berries (H. rhamnoides ssp. mongolica) from Finland and Canada were identified and quantified. Twenty-six flavonol glycosides were found with isorhamnetin and quercetin as the major aglycones. The contents of flavonol glycosides ranged 23-250 mg/100 g fresh berries and were significantly higher in the berries of ssp. sinensis than in those of ssp. mongolica. Among the cultivars of ssp. mongolica, the berries of 'Oranzhevaya' had the lowest (23 mg/100 g) content, and those of 'Prevoshodnaya' the highest content of flavonol glycosides (80 mg/100 g). Within the ssp. mongolica, the samples from Kittilä (Northern Finland) had higher levels of most flavonol glycosides than those from Turku (Southern Finland) and Québec. Among the ssp. sinensis berries of different growth sites, increasing trends were detected in the contents of most of the compounds as the altitude increased and as the latitude decreased. The wild berries (ssp. sinensis) from Sichuan had remarkably high contents and unique profiles of flavonol glycosides.

Effects of genotype, latitude, and weather conditions on the composition of sugars, sugar alcohols, fruit acids, and ascorbic acid in sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides ssp. mongolica) berry juice.

Sea buckthorn berries (Hippophaë rhamnoides ssp. mongolica) of nine varieties were collected from three growth locations in five inconsecutive years (n = 152) to study the compositional differences of sugars, sugar alcohols, fruit acids, and ascorbic acid in berries of different genotypes. Fructose and glucose (major sugars) were highest in Chuiskaya and Vitaminaya among the varieties studied, respectively. Malic acid and quinic acid (major acids) were highest in Pertsik and Vitaminaya, respectively. Ascorbic acid was highest in Oranzhevaya and lowest in Vitaminaya. Berry samples of nine varieties collected from two growth locations in five years (n = 124) were combined to study the effects of latitude and weather conditions on the composition of H. rhamnoides ssp. mongolica. Sea buckthorn berries grown at lower latitude had higher levels of total sugar and sugar/acid ratio and a lower level of total acid and were supposed to have better sensory properties than those grown at higher latitude. Glucose, quinic acid, and ascorbic acid were hardly influenced by weather conditions. The other components showed various correlations with temperature, radiation, precipitation, and humidity variables. In addition, fructose, sucrose, and myo-inositol correlated positively with each other and showed negative correlation with malic acid on the basis of all the samples studied (n = 152).

Cross-analysis of hazmat road accidents using multiple databases.

Road selection for hazardous materials transportation relies heavily on risk analysis. With risk being generally expressed as a product of the probability of occurrence and the expected consequence, one will understand that risk analysis is data intensive. However, various authors have noticed the lack of statistical reliability of hazmat accident databases due to the systematic underreporting of such events. Also, official accident databases alone are not always providing all the information required (economical impact, road conditions, etc.). In this paper, we attempt to integrate many data sources to analyze hazmat accidents in the province of Quebec, Canada. Databases on dangerous goods accidents, road accidents and work accidents were cross-analyzed. Results show that accidents can hardly be matched and that these databases suffer from underreporting. Police records seem to have better coverage than official records maintained by hazmat authorities. Serious accidents are missing from government's official databases (some involving deaths or major spills) even though their declaration is mandatory.

Dependence of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi on their plant host for palmitic acid synthesis.

Lipids are the major form of carbon storage in arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi. We studied fatty acid synthesis by Glomus intraradices and Gigaspora rosea. [(14)C]Acetate and [(14)C]sucrose were incorporated into a synthetic culture medium to test fatty acid synthetic ability in germinating spores (G. intraradices and G. rosea), mycorrhized carrot roots, and extraradical fungal mycelium (G. intraradices). Germinating spores and extraradical hyphae could not synthesize 16-carbon fatty acids but could elongate and desaturate fatty acids already present. The growth stimulation of germinating spores by root exudates did not stimulate fatty acid synthesis. 16-Carbon fatty acids (16:0 and 16:1) were synthesized only by the fungi in the mycorrhized roots. Our data strongly suggest that the fatty acid synthase activity of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi is expressed exclusively in the intraradical mycelium and indicate that fatty acid metabolism may play a major role in the obligate biotrophism of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi.