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Freeway work zones have been traffic bottlenecks that lead to a series of problems, including long travel time, high-speed variation, driver’s dissatisfaction and traffic congestion. This research aims to develop a collaborative component of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to alleviate negative effects caused by work zones.

The proposed cooperative component is incorporated in a cellular automata model to examine how and to what scale CAVs can help in improving traffic operations.

Simulation results show that, with the proposed component and penetration of CAVs, the average performances (travel time, safety and emission) can all be improved and the stochasticity of performances will be minimized too.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that develops a cooperative mechanism of CAVs to improve work zone performance.

There is a recent growing interest to find a lasting intervention to rural poverty (RP) in developing countries based on farmer entrepreneurship and innovation. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the relation between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in two resource-constrained provinces of China. This paper assesses the influence of three capabilities of farm entrepreneurs – educational, economic and socio-cultural – on farmer entrepreneurship growth and how these, in turn, impact alleviation of RP.

Household survey data comprising 363 respondents were taken from four deprived communities in two provinces of China. The paper employed structural equation modeling (SEM), using AMOS 21.0 alongside SPSS 20.0 to test the relations between the constructs.

The results show that a statistically significant and positive relation exists between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in China. The findings of the study further reveal that qualitative growth of entrepreneurship has a stronger positive influence on RP alleviation than on quantitative growth, and socio-cultural capabilities of respondents significantly and positively affect entrepreneurial growth of farmers, rather than education and economic capabilities.

The use of data from four communities in two provinces tends to limit the ability to generalize the findings of the study. Furthermore, the survey did not collect information on non-farm entrepreneurs, making it impossible to compare the findings from farm entrepreneurs with non-farm entrepreneurs.

The findings have practical implications for policy makers in rural China toward addressing targeted RP. This paper, therefore, suggests that entrepreneurship should be pursued vigorously among farmers in rural areas of China to help solve poverty. The paper also presents a useful lesson for various stakeholders in poverty alleviation programs in other developing countries.

This paper contributes to the academic literature on the entrepreneurship–RP alleviation nexus by combining the theory of capability and SEM in the analysis of an emerging economy such as China.

Taurine (2-aminoethane sulfonic acid; C2H7NO3S) is a nonprotein sulfur-containing β-amino acid present in nearly all mammalian tissues and the most ubiquitous free endogenous biomolecule in human cells. Taurine is commonly known as a conditionally essential amino acid because taurine is one of the few amino acids that are not incorporated in protein synthesis. The purpose of this study is to review the existing articles related to taurine and to give an account how useful is taurine to the different body systems. In this thorough overview, taurine is covered in terms of its essentiality, sources, advantages for neonates and the elderly, the effects of taurine deficiency, and the safety and toxicity of taurine supplements.

This is a narrative review into the subject matter. Published articles were searched on different portals like PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubChem etc. The authors also evaluated the availability of taurine in commercially available energy drinks.

This comprehensive review, presents the potential clinical benefits and functional properties of taurine as a conditionally essential amino acid. Energy drinks containing taurine (and their concentration) are also reported in this review.

This is the first data that the authors are aware of that shows taurine content in a variety of energy drinks on the market.