Modern Water Treatment Technology Based on Industry 4.0.

Access to clean water remains a critical global challenge, particularly in under-resourced regions. This study introduces an autonomous water treatment system leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies, including advanced smart sensors, real-time monitoring, and automation.

An Intersection Database Facilitates Access to Complex Signalized Intersections for Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities.

A growing number of intersections and crosswalks pose barriers to pedestrians with vision disabilities. This project investigated the effects of providing verbal descriptions of intersections and crosswalks on the performance of street-crossing subtasks by individuals who are totally blind. The authors designed an intersection database containing information relevant to crossing subtasks such as finding and aligning with the crosswalk, deciding when to cross, remaining in the crosswalk, and recognizing the end of a crossing.

Still wary of the Web? The evolution of state emergency management agency Web sites 2008-2017.

A 2008 content analysis of state emergency management agency Web sites showed that they tended to be internally focused and needed to be more citizen-focused and journalist friendly. The study was replicated in 2017. Because of changes in technology and agency missions, the content richness indicators were expanded.

Beaconing Signalization Substantially Reduces Blind Pedestrians' Veer on Snow-Covered Pavement.

Veering outside of crosswalks is a common problem experienced by individuals who are blind. One technology found to be effective for reducing this veer when other guidance cues are absent is audible beaconing. However, veering in general and veering from crosswalks in particular have been studied primarily on smooth, flat walking surfaces such as clear pavement.

After Virginia Tech: an analysis of Internet and social media use in campus emergency preparedness.

This study gauges the degree to which the nation's colleges and universities learned a key lesson of the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy: the need to rapidly disseminate emergency information to the campus community. A content analysis of 162 school Web sites found that three of four contained emergency preparedness information. It appears that most are now prepared to use the Internet and social media to alert stakeholders in the event of campus crises.

Blind and sighted pedestrians' road-crossing judgments at a single-lane roundabout.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative risk and efficiency of road crossing experienced by blind and sighted pedestrians at a single-lane roundabout with two levels of traffic volume and at two distances from the roundabout.

Background: With the rapid spread of modern roundabouts across the United States,their accessibility to blind pedestrians has become an important concern. To date, accessibility research relevant to blind pedestrians has focused on multilane roundabouts, and single-lane roundabouts have been virtually ignored.

Nonvisual Cues for Aligning to Cross Streets.

Accurately aligning to the crosswalk is an important component of safe street crossing for pedestrians who are blind. Six alignment cues were evaluated in a simulated crosswalk environment in which crosswalk angle was not always in line with ramp slope. The effectiveness of each cue is reported and implications are discussed.

Blind and sighted pedestrians' judgments of gaps in traffic at roundabouts.

This paper reports two experiments about street crossing under conditions of free flowing traffic, with a focus on modem roundabout intersections. Experiment 1 was conducted at three roundabouts varying in size and traffic volume. Six totally blind and six sighted adults judged whether gaps in traffic were long enough to permit crossing to the median (splitter) island before the next vehicle arrived.