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sábado, 14 de fevereiro de 2015
Ground-breaking lung cancer breath test in clinical trial
Apollo’s Historic Lunar Landing
Nan WuMonday marks the 40th anniversary of the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 moon landing by American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. (See related article.)
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke before a joint session of Congress in Washington. During the address, Kennedy issued the challenge, “. . .I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” (Associated Press)
The three Apollo 11 astronauts next to their spacecraft in 1969, from left to right: Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, lunar module pilot; Neil Armstrong, flight commander; and Lt. Michael Collins, command module pilot. (Associated Press)
Rocco Petrone, director of launch operations at the space complex in Cape Kennedy, Fla., pointed out the spot on the moon the Apollo 11 astronauts were aiming for on July 12, 1969. Eight days later, Lunar Module “Eagle” touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the moon. (Associated Press)
The S-1C booster for the Apollo 11 Saturn V was erected atop its mobile launcher at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA)
Technicians made the final adjustments to Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit as he prepared to take part in a test. (NASA)
The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle at twilight before launch, July 16, 1969. (Getty Images)
The Apollo 11 flight crew were given instructions by technicians and management while undergoing training in preparation for the first manned landing on the Moon. (NASA)
Two members of the Apollo 11 crew, along with a technician, crossed the access walkway on their way to board the mission’s command module, Cape Canaveral (then known as Cape Kennedy), Florida, July 16, 1969. (Getty Images)
Personnel within the Launch Control Center watched the Apollo 11 lift off from Launch Complex 39A. The LCC is located 3.5 miles from the launch pad. (NASA)
Swing arms moved away and a plume of flame signaled the liftoff of the Apollo 11. (NASA)
Mr. Aldrin on the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, during which he became the second man to set foot on the moon. (Getty Images)
A television screen grab showed the members of mission control waving flags and celebrating the splashdown and return of the Apollo 11 crew in Texas in July 1969.
The Apollo Command/Service Module stationed over the moon’s surface during the Apollo 11 mission, 20th July 1969. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
TV news anchor Walter Cronkite kept his eyes on his monitor as NASA’s Apollo 11 mission touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969. (CBS/Getty Images)
A photograph of a television screen showed the astronauts on the moon. (CBS/Getty Images)
A footprint left by one of the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission showed in the soft, powder surface of the moon. (Associated Press)
Astronaut Aldrin stood near a leg of the lunar module on the surface of the moon. (NASA)
An unidentified Japanese family watched their TV screen as President Richard Nixon’s image was superimposed on a live TV broadcast of the Apollo 11 astronauts salute from the Moon. (Associated Press)
Mr. Aldrin faced the camera as he walked on the moon. (Reuters)
With a half-earth in the background, the lunar module “Eagle,” carrying Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, approached the Apollo command module manned by Michael Collins after Messrs. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. (NASA)
After splashdown of the capsule, a Navy para-rescue man and one of the three astronauts closed the spacecraft hatch as the other astronauts watched from the life raft at the completion of their successful mission. The space pilots donned biological isolation garments in their spacecraft. (NASA)
Then-U.S. President Richard Nixon applauded the Apollo 11 astronauts, who were confined in a quarantine trailer. (Getty Images)
A commemorative button for the Apollo 11 moon landing showed the mission’s crew; from left, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. (Getty Images)
New York City welcomed the Apollo 11 crew members in a showering of ticker tape down Broadway and Park Avenue on Aug. 13, 1969. The parade was termed the largest in the city’s history. Pictured in the lead car, from the left, are astronauts Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong. (Getty Images)
An image of the earth rise was taken during a lunar orbit by the Apollo 11 mission crew in July 1969. (Getty Images) |
Finding winners and losers in global land use
The United States added about 7.6 million acres of forests between 1990 and 2010, which may seem like a great environmental gain.But the real question is how the United States achieved that milestone, said Darla Munroe, associate professor of geography at The Ohio State University. "Reforestation in the United States may have come at the expense of some other country's forest," Munroe said. "There isn't any environmental gain for the world if we are saving trees here by simply getting trees for our paper products from some other place." This is just one example of how an increasingly complex, interconnected world makes it difficult to study sustainability and figure out who the winners and losers are, she said. Munroe studies how land is used in a global context, using concepts such as "telecoupling," which involves how humans and natural systems interact over long distances. She discussed some of her research on land use and sustainability and the challenges facing her field Feb. 13 in San Jose at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. While the world has changed significantly in recent decades, the tools and concepts that geographers use to study the world have not, she said. "The way we work and our conceptual framework aren't up to the 21st century world. We need to use ideas about how networks operate to understand connections across the globe," she said. Many of the issues that land-use researchers face have changed substantially in recent decades. One prime example is the rise of global agribusiness, which has major impact because of these companies' size, influence and speed in making decisions. For example, a Chinese food company may need to buy large quantities of soybeans and evaluate three or four sources from around the globe before making a quick decision based on fluctuations in soybean prices. The decision may lead to thousands of acres of forest being cut down in one country to make room for more fields and economically devastate farmers in another country that didn't get the contract. "These corporate decisions can have huge environmental impacts and they are made very quickly. It is hard for research to keep up," Munroe said. The rise of large multinational corporations may make it harder for land-use researchers to make sense of what is happening to the world. Corporations are much less transparent than governments in making their data and decisions publicly available, meaning that researchers may struggle to get all the information they need. But it is not just multinational corporations that have made the work of geographers more complex. Everything, in a sense, is multinational now, from trade and trade agreements to the work of international environmental groups. "We used to think about local land-use decisions filtering up to global markets. But now the global is in the local. They are all related and the challenge for land-use scientists is to keep up with the change," Munroe said. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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New mechanism that controls immune responses discovered
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a common signaling mechanism to produce interferon -- one of the main proteins used to signal the immune system when the body needs to defend itself against a virus, tumor, or other diseases.The findings are important for understanding the body's immune defense system, searching for compounds to turn the immune system on or off, and they may help combat autoimmune diseases, in which overactive immune cells attack healthy tissues. "Our work reveals a common mechanism by which three distinct pathways lead to the production of type-I interferons," said Dr. Zhijian "James" Chen, Professor of Molecular Biology and in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. "Ultimately, we believe that understanding this mechanism will facilitate the design and development of medications to treat human diseases such as lupus." The findings appear online in the journal Science. The results show how a protein called interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), which controls the production of type-I interferons, is activated and how this pathway is tightly controlled. The failure of this control system can lead to autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus, which causes joint pain and swelling, and can damage the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, and digestive track. Lupus affects more than 1.5 million Americans, and is more common in young and middle-aged women than in men. A normal function of interferons is to defend the body against infections from viruses, bacteria and parasites. Previous research has identified specific pathways that induce interferons in response to distinct infectious agents, but how these different pathways converge on IRF3 to induce interferons was not understood. Dr. Chen and his team studied a protein called MAVS, which they discovered in 2005 and showed that it is an adaptor protein essential for interferon induction by RNA viruses such as influenza virus. In the new study, they found that MAVS is modified by the addition of a phosphate group (phosphorylated) by an enzyme called TBK1 when cells are infected by a virus and that this modification is important for IRF3 activation. Upon closer examination, they found the amino acid sequence that is phosphorylated in MAVS is very similar to those of two other adaptor proteins, STING and TRIF, which mediate interferon induction in response to DNA viruses and bacteria, respectively. Further research confirmed that all three adaptor proteins are phosphorylated at the common sequence motif and that this phosphorylation allows each of the adaptor proteins to bind IRF3, thereby facilitating IRF3 phosphorylation by TBK1. The phosphorylated IRF3 becomes activated to induce type-I interferons. "Although TBK1 is required for IRF3 activation, TBK1 alone is not sufficient. Phosphorylation of the adaptor proteins provides a 'license' for TBK1 to phosphorylate IRF3," said Dr. Chen, who holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. "This hitherto unrecognized mechanism ensures that type-I interferons are produced only when a proper adaptor protein is engaged in cells that are infected by pathogens." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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Mapping the gut microbiome to better understand its role in obesity
Several recent science studies have claimed that the gut microbiome--the diverse array of bacteria that live in the stomach and intestines--may be to blame for obesity. But Katherine Pollard, PhD, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, says it is not that simple.Dr. Pollard will be presenting at the Obesity and Microbiome symposium at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Jose, CA on Friday, February 13, 2015 at 3:00 PM PT. Using powerful computational tools, Dr. Pollard and her team have reanalyzed several previous studies and revealed that there is no significant relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the types of microbes in one's gut. In fact, her lab found that there was greater variability in gut bacteria between the different studies than between the lean and obese individuals within each study. Instead, Dr. Pollard thinks that it is the genetic make-up of the different strains of bacteria that is most important. This is because the DNA in bacteria can vary wildly. For example, while the genomes of two humans may only differ by 0.1%, two strains of the same bacteria can vary by to 30%--similar to the variation between human and mice genomes! What's more, the differences in the bacterial genomes are often important pieces that are involved in metabolism or the processing of sugar and fat. Besides reflecting important functional changes in bacterial genomes, losses and gains of genes also affect genome size. When microbiomes are studied using metagenomics--sequencing their total DNA--differences in bacterial genome size can bias the estimation of the proportion of each gene in the sample. By developing a computational shortcut to rapidly estimate genome size using statistical modeling, Dr. Pollard's team has been able to improve the accuracy of microbiome studies. "It's not enough to say what type of bacterial species are present, because that doesn't tell you what they're doing," explains Dr. Pollard. "Since two strains of the same species can have such different genomes, you really need to know what genes are there and what role they play in order to link someone's gut microbiota to BMI or disease." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Gladstone Institutes. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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Global rainfall satellites require massive overhaul
Circling hundreds of miles above Earth, weather satellites are working round-the-clock to provide rainfall data that are key to a complex system of global flood prediction.A new Cornell University study warns that the existing system of space-based rainfall observation satellites requires a serious overhaul. Particularly in many developing countries, satellite-based flood prediction has weak spots, which could lead to major flooding that catches people by surprise. What's more, four of the 10 dedicated rainfall satellites are past their warranty, further increasing risk of disaster. The study, published online Feb. 11 in Environmental Research Letters, is led by Patrick Reed, professor of civil and environmental engineering, in collaboration with researchers at Princeton University and the Aerospace Corporation. "It's important for us to start thinking as a globe about a serious discussion on flood adaptation, and aiding affected populations to reduce their risks," Reed said. "We want to give people time to evacuate, to make better choices, and to understand their conditions." In their study, Reed and colleagues showed that even assuming all 10 satellites are working well and perfectly coordinated, rainfall data still has many deficits across the globe, including in areas vulnerable to flood risk. Removing the four satellites that have surpassed their design life dramatically increases these deficits, possibly leading to high-intensity flood events to go unobserved. The study was not all bad news. Reed and colleagues also demonstrated that replacing as few as two of the four satellites past their design life could help close these gaps considerably. In the paper, the researchers call for increased international coordination of satellite replacement. The system now is not very well coordinated; satellite administration varies among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Defense, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency, and others, and all have their own specific mission requirements, Reed said. Broader collaboration is needed to fix the data deficits that are only expected to get worse. Concerns about a dramatic loss of satellite capabilities critical to many areas of Earth sciences have been widely reported since the National Research Council sounded the alarm in 2007, and again in 2012. Reed's paper is an attempt to quantify the specific consequences of this alarm with respect to rainfall and global flooding. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Cornell University. The original article was written by Melissa Osgood. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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Remoras don't suck: Their iconic clinch is far more complex
How does the hitchhiking, flat-headed remora fish attach to surfaces so securely yet release so easily? Suction was thought to be the easy answer, but Brooke Flammang, a biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has proved this long-held conclusion to be only partly true.Researchers have long studied animals like tree frogs, geckos, and spiders for their adhesive abilities, but what makes remoras unique in this group is they combine three key elements: the ability to securely fasten themselves for long periods of time; attach to different types of surfaces; release quickly without harming the surface. Understanding the mechanics of this process could help researchers and engineers create or improve designs for any number of devices that need to stick well but then release quickly without harming the host, such as tags for tracking endangered species or bandages that really don't hurt when you pull them off. Using footage captured by GoPro cameras at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove in Orlando, Flammang and NJIT researchers found that the adhesive disc on the remora's head used to attach to sharks, rays and other pelagic hosts is actually a complex mechanism that includes a modified fin structure with teeny spikes (called lamellar spinules) that generate friction to adhere to the host. Remora head anatomy also differs from other fish in having unusually-structured blood vessels that may be the secret to how they maintain adhesion for hours at a time. What intrigued Flammang, who studies the locomotion of fishes, integrating sensory biology, physiology, fluid dynamics, and bio-inspired robotics, is how remoras can alter the position and shape of the plates within the disc to change their position or quickly let go. She was able to observe the minute movements of remora disc components through the underwater footage provided by marine videographers. "Remoras attach to other organisms for a variety of reasons: To find food, get protection, and find mates. Because the animals they attach to are powerful swimmers, they need a durable attachment that won't be compromised by the host organism's swimming, bending body. The adhesive disc the remora evolved from dorsal fin elements acts as a specialized suction cup that can bend and won't slip," Flammang said. "We are applying the biomechanics of this mechanism to a robotic prototype that will be able to adhere to both rough and smooth surfaces through a variety of challenging conditions, both in water and air," she said. Flammang presented her research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology's annual conference in January. "We have a lot to learn from the natural world. Being able to examine these animals up close can be very valuable to bioengineering. We are proud to support this important work," added SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment's Vice President of Research and Science, Dr. Judy St. Leger. "In my lab at NJIT, we study the morphology of remoras, how they use muscular and vascular control to manipulate the disc for attachment on different surfaces, and the hydrodynamics of their approach, attachment, and release from a surface," Flammang said. "Live remoras swim in our flow tank -- a treadmill for fish -- and we capture muscle activity recordings and high speed video of the fish swimming and attaching, as well as and the fluid moving around the fish and the attachment location." More broadly, she examines the way organisms interact with marine and aquatic environments and drive the evolutionary selection of morphology and function. She seeks to understand, for example, how different fish fins may give an advantage to certain species in a given habitat. The two remoras (Echeneis naucrates) at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove were valuable candidates for this study because they often attach themselves to a large acrylic panel that divides their dock-themed habitat from the park's Grand Reef, a nearly 1million gallon tropical environment. Aquarists at Discovery Cove donned scuba gear to capture the underwater footage using a GoPro camera steadied with a suction cup arm to get the shots needed by the research team. Flammang and her colleagues then used mathematical algorithms to visualize motion that is not detected by the human eye. "The mission of SeaWorld's Discovery Cove is to educate and entertain our guests so they are inspired to conserve our oceans and the animals that reside there by giving them an opportunity to interact with our animals in naturalistic, immersive environments," said Denise Swider, Assistant Curator at SeaWorld. "An added benefit to housing our animals in these unique environments is that our aquarists are able to have closer access to the fish for research purposes. Our team is very excited about the opportunity to be part of this groundbreaking research on such an intriguing fish." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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Rivers can be a source of antibiotic resistance
Fri, 02/13/2015 - 2:43pmUniv. or Warwick
Rivers and streams could be a major source of antibiotic resistance in the environment. The discovery comes following a study on the Thames river by scientists at the Univ. of Warwick's School of Life Sciences and the Univ. of Exeter Medical School. The study found that greater numbers of resistant bacteria exist close to some waste water treatment works, and that these plants are likely to be responsible for at least half of the increase observed. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the largest threats to human health for a century, the researchers argue. Increasingly large amounts of antibiotics are released into the environment through both human and agricultural use, with surface run off from farming activities (including fertilizer and animal slurry) washed straight into rivers after heavy rainfall. Co-lead on the research, Professor Elizabeth Wellington of the Univ. of Warwick, said: "Antibiotic resistance naturally occurs in the environment, but we don't yet know how human and agricultural waste is affecting its development. We've found that waste water discharges effect resistance levels and that improvements in our treatment processes could hold the key to reducing the prevalence of resistant bacteria in the environment. "We found antibiotic resistance in the group Enterobacteriaceae which includes gut bacteria and pathogens." Published in The ISME Journal, the study has also shown that different types of waste water treatment plant release varying amounts of resistant bacteria. Professor Wellington explains: “We produced a model based on our data which showed that there was a big difference between secondary and tertiary activated sludge plant where the latter resulted in a predicted 100-fold decrease in resistance levels.” Study co-lead author, Dr William Gaze of the Univ. of Exeter Medical School said: "Our research has shed further light on links between environmental pollutants and antibiotic resistance. It has allowed us to uncover an association between a number of compounds—such as zinc, phosphorous and silicon—and antibiotic resistance. We think those bacteria that have developed to survive in environments rich in metals may also possess antibiotic resistance mechanisms—highlighting the complexity of this global issue." The researchers analysed water and sediment samples from 13 sites across the Thames river catchment and developed detailed models to predict the distribution of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The team also found that several other factors affected the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, such as changes in rainfall and land cover. For example, heavy rainfall at a point surrounded by grassland raised resistance levels; whereas a heavy rainfall at a point surrounded by woodland reduced the levels seen. The findings have allowed the research team to develop a robust model that will predict the level of antibiotic resistance in other catchments, without the need for detailed water sampling. Increased levels of antibiotic resistance in the aquatic environment could lead to increased risk of human exposure. More research is required to fully understand the risk posed via this route and the possible implications for public health. The study is published in the International Society for Microbial Ecology. Source: Univ. of Warwick |
Carbon release from ocean helped end the ice age
Fri, 02/13/2015 - 9:20amJim Shelton, Yale Univ.
New techniques are allowing scientists to understand how carbon dioxide, released from the deep ocean, helped to end the last ice age and create our current climate. An international team, including Yale paleoclimatologist Michael Henehan, studied the shells of ancient marine organisms that lived in surface waters of the southern Atlantic and eastern equatorial Pacific oceans thousands of years ago. The researchers determined that high concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide in those waters coincided with rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures at the end of the last ice age. The findings give scientists valuable insights into how the ocean can affect the carbon cycle and climate change, say the researchers. A study describing the research appears in Nature. Joint lead authors of the study are Miguel Martínez-Botí of the Univ. of Southampton and Gianluca Marino of the Australian National Univ. The Univ. of Southampton led the effort. “This is an exciting time for research into past climates,” said Henehan, who is a postdoctoral associate in the Dept. of Geology and Geophysics. “Advances in technologies and improvements in our methods have allowed us in this study to show just how critical carbon dioxide release from the oceans was in kicking the Earth out of the last ice age and into the climate state we have today.” Henehan said Yale scientists are using the same technique to look even further back in time, investigating whether changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide played a role in the mass extinction of species at the end of the Cretaceous period. Source: Yale Univ.
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Electric 4WD vehicle allows users to "Zoom" off-road
| The Zoom allows people with limited mobility to venture off the pavement Just because you have difficulty walking doesn't mean that you should be limited to the smooth sidewalks and asphalt paths of the world ... at least, not according to folks at Sweden's Zoomability. Their Zoom 4-wheel drive electric vehicle can be operated entirely by hand, allowing people with limited mobility – or anyone else – to get in some off-road action. The vehicle has a unique steel frame design, that keeps all four aluminum wheels in contact with the ground at all times. Those wheels are clad in 16 x 2.5-inch pneumatic all-terrain tires and feature hydraulic disc brakes. Two 48-volt lithium-iron-phosphate batteries provide power to four 1,000-watt hub motors, one in each wheel. This results in a combined torque of approximately 120 Nm (88.5 ft lb) and a top speed of 12 mph (19 km/h), which can be reached in under two seconds. Charging takes from two to four hours, with a full charge providing a range of 25 to 35 miles (40 to 56 km) depending on use. The Zoom in its element (Photo: Peter Venema) The vehicle tips the scales at 150 lb (68 kg), and can accommodate riders weighing up to 220 lb (100 kg). It has a tire-center-to-tire-center track width of 26 inches (66 cm) and a ground clearance of 7 inches (178 mm). The Zoom has actually been sold in Sweden, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Finland and Germany for about three years now. It has also been available to wounded US Army veterans via the The Independence Fund, although Zoomability is now in the process of launching a network of independent US sales reps, selling vehicles directly to the general public. The company also plans on expanding into other markets in the next couple of years. Other powered off-road "wheelchairs" include the HexHog, UNiMO, Tomahawk and Ziesel, although they're all considerably more tank-like than the Zoom. Prospective buyers can locate the closest agent by contacting the company via the first link below. The Zoom is priced at US$12,000, and can be seen in action in the following video. Source: Zoomability via Veicoli Elettrici News
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Stopping at red lights exposes drivers to high levels of air pollution
February 12, 2015University of Surrey UK commuters spend an average of about 1.5 hours a day at the wheel. Road vehicles in particular are known to emit polluting nanoparticles which contribute to respiratory and heart diseases. Now, researchers at the University of Surrey have found that where drivers spend just 2% of their journey time passing through traffic intersections managed by lights, this short duration contributes to about 25% of total exposure to these harmful particles. The team monitored drivers' exposure to air pollutants at various points of a journey. Signalised traffic intersections were found to be high pollution hot-spots due to the frequent changes in driving conditions. With drivers decelerating and stopping at lights, then revving up to move quickly when lights go green, peak particle concentration was found to be 29 times higher than that during free flowing traffic conditions. As well as concentration, researchers found that as cars tend to be close together at lights, the likelihood of exposure to vehicle emissions is also significantly increased. "Air pollution was recently placed in the top ten health risks faced by human beings globally, with the World Health Organization linking air pollution to seven million premature deaths every year," said lead author, Dr Prashant Kumar, from the University of Surrey. "Our time spent travelling in cars has remain fairly constant during the past decade despite the efforts to reduce it and with more cars than ever joining the roads, we are being exposed to increasing levels of air pollution as we undertake our daily commutes." "It's not always possible to change your route to avoid these intersections, but drivers should be aware of the increased risks at busy lights. The best ways to limit your exposure is to keep vehicle windows shut, fans off and try to increase the distance between you and the car in front where possible. Pedestrians regularly crossing such routes should consider whether there might be other paths less dependent on traffic light crossings. Local transport agencies could also help by synchronising traffic signals to reduce waiting time and consider alternative traffic management systems such as flyovers." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Surrey. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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