Visibility of children behind 2010-2013 model year passenger vehicles using glances, mirrors, and backup cameras and parking sensors.
This study identified the areas behind vehicles where younger and older children are not visible and measured the extent to which vehicle technologies improve visibility. Rear visibility of targets simulating the heights of a 12-15-month-old, a 30-36-month-old, and a 60-72-month-old child was assessed in 21 2010-2013 model year passenger vehicles with a backup camera or a backup camera plus parking sensor system. The average blind zone for a 12-15-month-old was twice as large as it was for a 60-72-month-old. Large SUVs had the worst rear visibility and small cars had the best. Increases in rear visibility provided by backup cameras were larger than the non-visible areas detected by parking sensors, but parking sensors detected objects in areas near the rear of the vehicle that were not visible in the camera or other fields of view. Overall, backup cameras and backup cameras plus parking sensors reduced the blind zone by around 90 percent on average and have the potential to prevent backover crashes if drivers use the technology appropriately.
The Effectiveness of a Rearview Camera and Parking Sensor System Alone and Combined for Preventing a Collision With an Unexpected Stationary or Moving Object
Objective: This study measured the effectiveness of a parking sensor system, a rearview camera, and a sensor system combined with a camera for preventing a collision with a stationary or moving child-size object in the path of a backing vehicle. Background: An estimated 15,000 people are injured and 210 are killed every year in backover crashes involving light vehicles. Cameras and sensor systems may help prevent these crashes. Method: The sample included 111 drivers (55 men, 56 women), including 16 in the no-technology condition, 32 in the sensor condition, 32 in the camera condition, and 31 in the camera-plus-sensor condition. A stationary or moving child-size object was surreptitiously deployed in the path of participants backing out of a parking stall. Results: A significantly smaller proportion of participants in the camera condition hit the stationary object compared with participants in the no-technology condition; however, this benefit was greatly reduced when the stationary object was partially or completely in the shade. Significantly fewer participants hit the moving object than the stationary object. The percentage of participants in the sensor, camera, and camera-plus-sensor conditions who hit the moving object was not different from the no-technology condition. Conclusion: The camera was the only technology that was effective for preventing collisions with the stationary object. The variation in collision outcomes between the stationary- and moving-object conditions illustrates how the effectiveness of these technologies is dependent on the backing situation. Application: This research can help the selection and development of countermeasures to prevent backovers.
Sustainable production of toxin free marine microalgae biomass as fish feed in large scale open system in the Qatari desert.
Mass cultivation of microalgae biomass for feed should be cost effective and toxin free. Evaporation loss in Qatar can be as high as 2 cm/d. Hence, production of marine microalgae biomass in Qatar would also require mitigating water loss as there was only very limited groundwater reserve. To address these issues, a combination of four growth conditions were applied to a 25,000 L raceway pond: locally isolated microalgae strain was selected which could grow in elevated salinity; strain that did not require silica and vitamins; volume of the culture would increase over time keeping denser inoculum in the beginning, and evaporation water loss would be balanced by adding seawater only. A local saline tolerant Nannochloropsis sp. was selected which did not require silica and vitamins. When the above conditions were combined in the pond, average areal biomass productivities reached 20.37 g/m(2)/d, and the culture was not contaminated by any toxic microalgae.