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Adaptive Cruise Control systems have been developed and introduced into the consumer market for over a decade. Among these systems, fully-adaptive ones are required to adapt their behaviour not only to traffic conditions but also to drivers’ preferences and attitudes, as well as to the way such preferences change for the same driver in different driving sessions. This would ideally lead towards a system where an on-board electronic control unit can be asked by the driver to calibrate its own parameters while he/she manually drives for a few minutes (learning mode). After calibration, the control unit switches to the running mode where the learned driving style is applied. The learning mode can be activated by any driver of the car, for any driving session and each time he/she wishes to change the current driving behaviour of the cruise control system. The modelling framework which we propose to implement comprises four layers (sampler, profiler, tutor, performer). The sampler is responsible for human likeness and can be calibrated while in learning mode. Then, while in running mode, it works together with the other modelling layers to implement the logic. This paper presents the overall framework, with particular emphasis on the sampler and the profiler that are explained in full mathematical detail. Specification and calibration of the proposed framework are supported by the observed data, collected by means of an instrumented vehicle. The data are also used to assess the proposed framework, confirming human-like and fully-adaptive characteristics.

PurposeBreast cancer follow-up procedures after primary treatment are still a controversial issue. Aim of this study was to investigate, through a web-based survey, surveillance methodologies selected by Italian oncologists in everyday clinical practice.MethodsReferents of Italian medical oncology units were invited to participate to the study via e-mail through the SurveyMonkey website. Participants were asked how, in their institution, exams of disease staging and follow-up are planned in asymptomatic women and if surveillance continues beyond the 5th year.ResultsBetween February and May 2013, 125 out of 233 (53.6%) invited referents of Italian medical oncology units agreed to participate in the survey. Ninety-seven (77.6%) referents state that modalities of breast cancer follow-up are planned according to the risk of disease progression at diagnosis and only 12 (9.6%) oncology units apply the minimal follow-up procedures according to international guidelines. Minimal follow-up is never applied in high risk asymptomatic women. Ninety-eight (78.4%) oncology units continue follow-up in all patients beyond 5 years.ConclusionsOur survey shows that 90.4% of participating Italian oncology units declare they do not apply the minimal breast cancer follow-up procedures after primary treatment in asymptomatic women, as suggested by national and international guidelines. Interestingly, about 80.0% of interviewed referents performs the so called "tailored follow-up", high intensity for high risk, low intensity for low risk patients. There is an urgent need of randomized clinical trials able to determine the effectiveness of risk-based follow-up modalities, their ideal frequency and persistence in time.

The use of detachable balloon occlusion in closure of bronchopleural fistulae was investigated in eight dogs. Fistula occlusion could not be achieved in one dog, and the balloon was not large enough to occlude a fistula in a second dog. Satisfactory fistula occlusion was achieved in the remaining six dogs. All fistulae occluded were shown to be satisfactorily healed at ten days. There were no significant sequelae to bronchial occlusion during this period. Detachable balloon occlusion of bronchopleural fistulae has the potential for satisfactory fistula control prior to more definitive surgery.

We report a simple method for measuring the extent of the visual field in patients from whom this measurement is difficult. One Maddox rod is used before the eye under test. Through the Maddox rod lens, this eye sees a white streak produced by a penlight. While fixating this white streak another penlight is brought into the field of view from the periphery. The patient is required to report only whether he sees one or two light streaks. The results correlate well with field measurements made on the tangent screen in patients with simulated field losses.

The paper focuses on the evaluation of the combined effect of Traffic Signal Control Strategy (TSC) and Variable Message Sign (VMS). With reference to the TSC a dynamic selection strategy based on macroscopic flow variables was considered for off-line traffic signal plans design. The combination of two ITS solutions, TSC and VMS, was tested through microscopic approach by SUMO traffic simulator which allows to directly reproduce the pollutant emissions and fuel consumptions.

Advanced Travel Information Systems (ATISs) are designed to assist travellers in making better travel choices by providing pre-trip and en-route information such as travel times on the relevant alternatives. Travellers’ choices are likely to be sensitive to the accuracy of the provided information in addition to travel time uncertainty. A route-choice experiment with 36 participants, involving 20 repetitions under three different levels of information accuracy was conducted to investigate the impact of information accuracy. In each experiment respondents had to choose one of three routes (risky, useless and reliable). Provided information included descriptive information about the average estimated travel times for each route, prescriptive information regarding the suggested route and experiential feedback information about the actual travel times on all routes. Aggregate analysis using non-parametric statistics and disaggregate analysis using a mixed logit choice model were applied. The results suggest decreasing accuracy shifts choices mainly from the riskier to the reliable route but also to the useless alternative. Prescriptive information has the largest behavioural impact followed by descriptive and experiential feedback information. Risk attitudes also seem to play a role. The implications for ATIS design and future research are further discussed.

In this paper travellers' reactions to Advanced Traveller Information Systems (ATIS) are analysed. In particular two kinds of information (descriptive and prescriptive) and four levels of reliability have been tested. A web-based tool has been adopted in order to carry out a stated preference experiment for data collection. The presented research continues previous studies of the authors in the field of travellers' compliance with information and travellers' route choices under ATIS. In previous studies both a discrete choice theory approach and a Mamdani-type Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) were tested. Here several FIS approaches are analysed more in detail. Some preliminary analyses, are recalled from previous research work, furthermore collected data have been deeply analysed through the Sugeno FIS-type approach and by Adaptive-Network-Based FIS. The methods are applied to reproduce travellers' behaviour and are compared with each other to find the best approach. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Program Committee

In this work some experiments are made in order to assess the feasibility of a human-like ACC (adaptive cruise control) system. The proposed system is able to understand driverpsilas attitudes and driving-styles by means of a self-calibration process that can be (re)initialized on request. Three different speed-control logics have been tested: one tries to learn from actual driverspsila behaviors by using an artificial neural network (ANN) approach, the second is based on the calibration of a linear function aimed to be mimic of the driver response to stimuli, the third is based on the calibration of a polynomial function instead of a linear one. A microscopic traffic model, accurately calibrated and validated for different aims and in a previous work, has been adapted and used in order to generate a long car-following trajectory on which the speed control logics have been calibrated and compared. This has allowed for a sufficient amount of accurate laboratory data at a relatively low cost. Comparison of the tested speed-control logics show that a fully adaptive human-like ACC system is feasible and worth further more costly developments.