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An encroachment is defined as a vehicle departing the lanes of the traveled way and entering the roadside or median. Encroachments have been previously characterized by Hutchinson and Kennedy and by Cooper, in studies conducted in 1964 and 1978, respectively. Both studies are more than 40 years old, and both roadways and vehicles have changed significantly since data collection ended, presenting the need for an updated encroachment study. This study identified and characterized encroachment events in the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study (SHRP 2 NDS). Then, we compared the statistical distributions of roadway and roadside environmental factors weighted by their occurrence in SHRP 2 NDS normal driving and during these encroachment events. This weighting represented the typical infrastructure SHRP 2 vehicles encountered, as opposed to the infrastructure installed. Segments of roadway encountered more frequently or encroachment areas represented more frequently were weighted more heavily. A total of 863,280 SHRP 2 trips containing normal driving and road-departure events were selected from the SHRP 2 dataset which included 215,993 h of driving. A total of 278,415 departure events were found. Encroachment events were similar to normal driving in roadway grade, shoulder width, and lane width. Encroachment events occurred more frequently on roadway sections with depressed medians, one or two lanes in the travel direction, smaller horizontal curve radii, or rumble strips present. more...

Thallium(I) decahydro-closo-decaborate Tl2[B10H10] and thallium(I) dodecahydro-closo-dodecaborate Tl2[B12H12] are readily available as microcrystalline powders from reactions of thallium(I) carbonate Tl2[CO3] with aqueous solutions of the respective free acid (H3O)2[B10H10] or (H3O)2[B12H12]. Tl2[B12H12] crystallizes with an anti-fluorite related structure (cubic, Fm3‾$Fm\bar{3}$, a= 1074.23(8) pm, Z= 4). Each Tl+cation is coordinated by four icosahedral [B12H12]2–anions (d(B–B) = 180–181 pm) providing a twelvefold coordination sphere of hydrogen atoms (d(Tl–H) = 296 pm). Tl2[B10H10] crystallizes monoclinically in the space group P21/nwith a= 704.03(5), b= 1111.45(8), c= 1281.16(9) pm and β= 94.912(3)° for Z= 4. The bicapped square antiprismatic [B10H10]2–anions (d(B–B) = 147–176 pm to the two apical boron atoms, d(B–B) = 161–199 pm within the corpus) again form distorted tetrahedra around the (Tl1)+, but square pyramids around the (Tl2)+cations. Thus (Tl1)+is coordinated by 12 hydrogen atoms (d(Tl1–H) = 275–315 pm), but (Tl2)+only by 11 of them (d(Tl2–H) = 267–357 pm). Both compounds show a greenish-yellow photoluminescence caused by an interconfigurational 6sp–6s2emission (3Pn→1S0, n= 0–2) at the Tl+cation. more...

•ABIs are options for patients who are not candidates for CI or hearing aid amplification.•Poor hearing results, device failure, and non-use were reported causes for explanation.•Prepare physicians in counseling patients and managing device expectations. more...

The cesium dodecahydro-monocarba-closo-dodecaborate Cs[CB11H12] crystallizes with an unexpected trigonal crystal structure having the lattice parameters a= 2094.73(3) and c= 1324.56(2) pm (c/a= 0.632) for Z= 18. The non-centrosymmetric space group R3 allows an ordering of the unsymmetric [CB11H12]–anions in a way that the least electronegative vertices of the pseudo-icosahedral cages avoid close proximity to the Cs+cations. Hence there are channels at [0 0 z], [1/32/3z] and [2/31/3z], into which the C–H bonds of the [CB11H12]–units are pointing. There are two crystallographically independent Cs+cations and [CB11H12]–anions present with unsurprising interatomic distances (d(C–B) = 166–181 pm, d(B–B) = 170–183 pm, d(B–H) = d(C–H) ≈ 110 pm) for the latter. Both Cs+cations have contact to 18 hydrogen atoms (d(Cs–H) = 296–427 pm) stemming from six unevenly face-grafting [CB11H12]–anions, where only B–H bonds are involved. This fact is nicely reflected by IR and Raman spectroscopy. According to a 6/6 motif of the ions with highly distorted mutual octahedral coordination spheres of their centres of gravity, the crystal structure of Cs[CB11H12] follows roughly a rock salt-like arrangement. This becomes even more evident, when order-disorder transitions starting at T= 60 °C lead to more highly symmetrical structures with orientationally disordered [CB11H12]–anions. more...

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) features almost 40,000 hours of audio and video recordings produced among noncommercial broadcasting stations across the United States from the late 1940s to the 2010s. All 40,000 hours of broadcasts are accessible at WGBH in Boston and at the Library of Congress. A large portion of those hours--about 7,000 programs--is directly available via online streaming at no cost via . Data pertaining to the entire collection is also accessible via the website. AAPB offers a wealth of audio and video programs for teaching, scholarship, and entertainment in a user-friendly interface that makes browsing and searching AAPB relatively easy for novice and expert searchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Thermoanalytic DSC and temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction investigations on the cesium dodecahalogeno-closo-dodecaborates Cs2[B12X12] (X= Cl–I) have revealed solid-solid phase transitions from their trigonal room-temperature α-forms (e.g. α-Cs2[B12Cl12]: a= 959.67(3) pm, c= 4564.2(2) pm, Z= 6, space group R3¯$\overline{3}$) into cubic high-temperature modifications. The isotypic title compounds crystallize in the space group Pm3¯$\overline{3}$n(e.g. β-Cs2[B12Cl12]: a= 1051.98(6) pm, Z= 2) with a W3O-type defect structure. The statistic occupation of six possible positions with only four Cs+cations results in a cation-deficient A2Barrangement for Cs2[B12X12]. Upon cooling the β-phase, a third polymorph was observed, which also crystallizes in the cubic system, but now in the space group Ia3¯$\overline{3}$d(e.g. γ-Cs2[B12Cl12]: a= 2102.2(3) pm, Z= 16), and has to be regarded as a phase with only a partially disordered cation substructure. In this crystal structure the [B12X12]2−anions exhibit a NaTl-type arrangement, in which the Cs+cations occupy suitable interstices. The phase transitions of the differently halogenated cesium salts follow no specific trend as the transition from the trigonal α- to the cubic β-form occurs at 178 °C for the chlorinated, at 270 °C for the iodinated and at 325 °C for the brominated examples. On further heating however, β-Cs2[B12I12] starts to decompose at 945 °C first, followed by β-Cs2[B12Br12] and β-Cs2[B12Cl12] at 959 °C and 983 °C, respectively. more...

The Global Jukebox (GJ) is an ambitious project initiated by the Association for Cultural Equity at New York's Hunter College. Its main mission is to make available the extensive audio field recordings, pictures, and films studied by the legendary ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax and his colleagues accessible to the public for study. In the current beta version, the Global Jukebox has numerous navigation issues that could challenge even the seasoned web user. The methodological basis of data collection and analysis also deservers further explication. However, despite these weaknesses, there is much to be said for what GJ offers users. Whether spending hours moving around regions song by song or exploring familial cultural roots, users will be inspired to learn about the respective cultures and musical forms, thus fulfilling GJ's education mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This essay examines how Kazuo Ishiguro’s narrators – namely, those of his novels An Artist of the Floating World, The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go– are all variations of one central theme: the authoritarian personality. By drawing on the findings of the eponymous study by Theodor W. Adorno et al., it analyses the role of the narrators’ respective upbringings in the formation of their authoritarian predisposition as well as how their authoritarian tendencies later manifest themselves in their conduct. The way these tendencies – or the limitations imposed by them on the narrators’ imagination – also manifest themselves aesthetically in the narrative discourse further allows a comparison to Hannah Arendt’s analysis of Adolf Eichmann in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. more...