Suchergebnisse

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are involved in 4.5% of police-reported road crashes in Europe and 14.2% of fatal road crashes. Active and passive safety systems can help to prevent crashes or mitigate the consequences but need detailed scenarios based on analysis of region-specific data to be designed effectively; however, a sufficiently detailed overview focusing on long-haul trucks is not available for Europe. The aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of crashes in the European Union that involve HGVs weighing 16 tons or more (16 t+). The identification of the most critical scenarios and their characteristics is based on a three-level analysis, as follows. Crash statistics based on data from the Community Database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe (CARE) provide a general overview of crashes involving HGVs. These results are complemented by a more detailed characterization of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks based on national road crash data from Italy, Spain, and Sweden. This analysis is further refined by a detailed study of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks in the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS), including a crash causation analysis. The results show that most European HGV crashes occur in clear weather, during daylight, on dry roads, outside city limits, and on nonhighway roads. Three main scenarios for 16 t+ trucks are characterized in-depth: rear-end crashes in which the truck is the striking partner, conflicts during right turn maneuvers of the truck with a cyclist riding alongside, and pedestrians crossing the road in front of the truck. Among truck-related crash causes, information admission failures (e.g., distraction) were the main crash causation factor in 72% of cases in the rear-end striking scenario while information access problems (e.g., blind spots) were present for 72% of cases in the cyclist scenario and 75% of cases in the pedestrian scenario. The three levels of data analysis used in this paper give a deeper understanding of European HGV crashes, in terms of the most common crash characteristics on EU level and very detailed descriptions of both kinematic parameters and crash causation factors for the above scenarios. The results thereby provide both a global overview and sufficient depth of analysis of the most relevant cases and aid safety system development.

Ein (weiteres) unrühmliches Jubiläum rückte 2004 ein wenig beachtetes Kapitel deutscher Geschichte zeitweilig in den Focus der Medien: die wilhelminische Kolonialpolitik zwischen 1884 und 1918. Vor 100 Jahren hatten deutsche Truppen den bis 1908 andauernden Krieg gegen Nama und Herreros im heutigen Namibia eröffnet. Der bekannte Publizist, an sich auf Themen zu Nordamerika spezialisiert (zuletzt "Der amerikanische Bürgerkrieg", ID 36/98), hat ein faktenreiches, gut lesbares Buch zur gesamten deutschen Kolonialgeschichte geschrieben, das darüberhinaus mit über 350 teils bis dato unveröffentlichten Fotos hervorragend bebildert ist. Er lässt keine koloniale Romantik aufkommen, belegt, was Politiker, Kaufleute, Missionare unter Kaisers Gnaden antrieb, in Afrika, Asien und Ozeanien Land in Besitz zunehmen: wirtschaftliche und geopolitische Interessen eben. Verniedlicht wird leider ausgerecht der Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwest (vgl. unter diesem Titel ID 5/04). Gleichwohl ein lohnendes Buch schon für mittlere Bibliotheken und eine gute Ergänzung zu H. Gründers "Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien" (ID 30/91).(2) (Roland Schmitt)

AbstractIntroduction: Restriction factors (RFs) suppress HIV‐1 in cell lines and primary cell models. Hence, RFs might be attractive targets for novel antiviral strategies, but their importance for virus control in vivo is controversial.Methods: We profiled the expression of RFs in primary blood‐derived mononuclear cells (PBMC) from therapy‐naïve HIV‐1 patients and quantified infection.Results: Overall, there was no correlation between individual RF expression and HIV‐1 status in total PBMC. However, we identified a T cell population with low levels of intracellular CD2 and reduced expression of SAMHD1, p21 and SerinC5. CD2low T cells with reduced RF expression were markedly positive for HIV‐1 p24. In contrast, CD2+ T cells were less infected and expressed higher levels of RFs. CD2low T cell infection correlated with viral loads and was associated with HIV‐1 disease progression.Conclusions: In untreated therapy naïve chronic HIV‐1 patients, RF expression in T cells is associated with CD2 expression and seems to influence viral loads. Our study suggests that RFs help to control HIV‐1 infection in certain T cells in vivo and supports the potential for RFs as promising targets for therapeutic intervention.