Investigation of a surrogate measure-based safety index for predicting injury crashes at signalized intersections.

Objectives: The paper develops a machine learning-based safety index for classifying traffic conflicts that can be used to estimate the frequency of signalized intersection crashes, with a focus on the more severe ones that result in fatal and severe injury. The number of conflicts in different severity levels categorized by the safety index is used as an explanatory variable for developing statistical models for pro-actively estimating crashes.

Methods: Video-derived conflicts in different severity levels between left-turning vehicles and opposing through vehicles, a well-recognized severe injury crash typology at signalized intersections, were identified by jointly integrating the indicators of frequency and severity, using an autoencoder neural network integration method to develop anomaly scores.

A simple high performance liquid chromatography method for analyzing paraquat in soil solution samples.

A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV detection was developed to analyze paraquat (1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-dipyridinium dichloride) herbicide content in soil solution samples. The analytical method was compared with the liquid scintillation counting (LSC) method using 14C-paraquat. Agreement obtained between the two methods was reasonable.

Spatial distribution of DDT in sediments from estuarine rivers of central Florida.

Sediments may act as both a carrier for and a potential source of contaminants such as toxic organics in aquatic environments. This study investigated the spatial distribution of the pesticide DDT [1,1, 1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane] in sediments from the Cedar and Ortega Rivers located in the lower St. Johns River basin, Florida, USA, using field measurements and three-dimensional kriging analysis.

Simulated formation and flow of microemulsions during surfactant flushing of contaminated soil.

Contamination of groundwater resources by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) has become an issue of increasing environmental concern. This study investigated the formation and flow of microemulsions during surfactant flushing of NAPL-contaminated soil using the finite difference model UTCHEM, which was verified with our laboratory experimental data. Simulation results showed that surfactant flushing of NAPLs (i.