Interpersonal violations,speeding violations and their relation to accident involvement in Finland

The aim of the present study was to replicate the distinction between errors, lapses and violations, and to identify aggressive violations from normal or highway code violations. Furthermore, the relationship of these behaviours with road traffic accidents was examined. A total number of 1126 Finnish drivers completed a questionnaire containing the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) with extended violations scale, and questions regarding background information, such as age, gender and mileage. Also, questions about previous accidents and fines were asked. Factor analysis showed that a four-factor structure seemed more appropriate than the earlier established three-factor structure. The four factors were errors, lapses, speeding violations and interpersonal violations. The two types of violations result from different motives, and seem to be associated with different kinds of affect. Both interpersonal and speeding violations were reported most by young males, which was consistent with earlier findings. Logistic regression analyses indicated that errors predicted active accident involvement after partialling out the effects of demographic variables, whereas interpersonal violations were positively related to involvement in passive accidents. This was presumably due to different reporting tendencies of respondents. Speeding tickets were predicted by speeding and interpersonal violations and lapses and penalties for speeding by both kinds of violations and errors. Penalties for speeding, parking and other offences were predicted by interpersonal violations. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Driving errors,driving violations and accident involvement

Abstract

A survey of over 1600 drivers is reported, the results of which are consistent with those reported in an earlier study (Reason et al. 1990), which identified a three-fold typology of aberrant driving behaviours. The first type, lapses, are absent-minded behaviours with consequences mainly for the perpetrator, posing no threat to other road users. The second type, errors, are typically misjudgements and failures of observation that may be hazardous to others. The third type, violations, involve deliberate contraventions of safe driving practice. In the present study the survey instrument used, the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire, was also shown to be reliable over time. Each type of behaviour was found to have different demographic correlates. Most importantly, accident liability was predicted by self-reported tendency to commit violations, but not by tendency to make errors or to have lapses. The implications for road safety are discussed.     

Attitudes towards traffic safety,driving behaviour and accident involvement among the Norwegian public

The present study aims at identifying determinants of risk behaviour and accident involvement in traffic. The results are based on a self-completion questionnaire survey carried out among a representative sample of Norwegian drivers drawn from the driver's licence register. The data was collected in year 2000 and 2001 (n?=?2614). The questionnaire included measures of attitudes, risk behaviour and involvement in accidents and near accidents. The results showed that attitudes towards traffic safety issues influenced involvement in risk behaviour in traffic, especially attitudes towards rule violations and speeding. Risk behaviour had an effect on involvement in near accidents and accidents. Variations in attitudes and risk behaviour were related to age and gender.     

Types and tokens in road accident causation

Accidents are preceded by long histories containing multitudes of events that constitute promising targets for preventive action. These antecedent events can be classified into at least four groups that occur in this order: failure types; psychological precursors; unsafe acts; and breakdown of defences. It is argued that events directly preceding an accident, such as breakdown of defences and unsafe acts, are only haphazard tokens of the more permanent weaknesses within a system, called failure types. Elimination of a type will therefore have much more impact than the elimination of one or a few tokens. It is also argued that there exist only a limited number of failure types, which are responsible for all accidents. However, in the specific area of road accidents, it is not known which types cause most of the problems. Therefore, their relative importance can only be guessed. We guessed that hardware problems and maintenance are unimportant types; that education and regulations are of moderate importance; and that incompatible goals, conditions promoting unsafe behaviour, and organizational inadequacy are the types that cause most of the accidents. The latter therefore constitute the most promising targets for accident prevention.     

Speeding in relation to perceptions of risk,utility and driving style by British company car drivers

Results are presented of a questionnaire survey of speed-related risk-taking performed on 572 British company car drivers. Reported risk-taking was examined in relation to risk and utility perceptions as well as perceived control and driver self-perceptions. The data revealed that over half the sample reported often exceeding the motorway speed limit by at least l0mph (16km/h). It was found that drivers who more frequently exceeded the speed limit on motorways were less likely to view speeding as an important risk factor and were much more likely to view being on time for appointments as desirable. They were also likely to view themselves as less aware, less sociable and more confident. The importance of the perceived utility of arriving at appointments on time, in relation to speeding over the legal limit, suggests that some organizational measures to reduce perceived time pressure within company vehicle drivers could be beneficial     

Coherence measures and their relation to fuzzy similarity and inconsistency in knowledge bases

Intuitively it seems that the coherence of information received from heterogeneous sources should be one factor in determining the reliability or truthfulness of the information, yet the concept of coherence is extremely difficult to define. This paper draws on recent work on probabilistic measures of coherence by investigating two measures with contrasting properties and then explores how this work relates to similarity of fuzzy sets and comparison of knowledge bases in cases where inconsistency is present. In each area contrasting measures are proposed analogous to the probabilistic case. In particular, concepts of fuzzy and logical independence are proposed and in each area it is found that sensitivity to the relevant concept of independence is a distinguishing feature between the contrasting measures. In the case of inconsistent knowledge bases, it is argued that it is important to take agreeing information and not just conflicting and total information into account when comparing two knowledge bases. One of the measures proposed achieves this and is shown to have a number of properties which enable it to overcome some problems encountered by other approaches.     

Trends in NDVI time series and their relation to rangeland and crop production in Senegal, 1987-1993

Growing archives of NDVI images derived from the NOAA-AVHRR provide opportunities for time-series analysis of changes in land-use and cover. In this study a time series (1987-1993) of 1.1 km spatial resolution NDVI images obtained from the NOAA-AVHRR sensor was used in combination with aboveground rangeland harvest measurements and agricultural yield statistics to assess trends in NDVI in Senegal, West Africa. Correlations between trends in maximum NDVI (TMN) and field measures of rangeland and crop production were positive and statistically significant. Spatial patterns of TMN corresponded well with current understanding of changing land-use and cover of Senegal from 1987-97. The results suggest that trend images derived from NDVI series may provide a useful way to identify land-cover change in Africa.     

Blended learning in higher education: Students’ perceptions and their relation to outcomes

New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide educators and learners with an innovative learning environment to stimulate and enhance the teaching and learning process. In this context, novel educational concepts such as blended learning are being developed. In the present paper, we present the results obtained from a blended learning experience carried out at the University of Granada. A total of 17 groups took part, with 1431 students registered for the 2009–2010 academic year. In this study, we use objective outcomes and the students’ perceptions regarding the blended learning activities performed. The study shows that the use of blended learning has a positive effect in reducing dropout rates and in improving exam marks. Moreover, the students’ perceptions on blended learning are interrelated, with their final marks depending on the blended learning activities, and on the students’ age, background and class attendance rate.     

Prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in relation to gender, age, and occupational/industrial group

Although musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) are common worldwide, little is known about its prevalence amongst the working population in relation to gender, age, and occupational/industrial group. This paper describes the prevalence of MSS in a sample of 3003 men and women aged 20-64 randomly selected from the New Zealand Electoral Roll. MSS experienced during the previous 12 months in 10 body regions was assessed in telephone interviews using a modified version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). MSS prevalence was 92% (for any body region). The highest prevalence was for low back (54%), neck (43%), and shoulders (42%). Females reported a statistically significantly higher prevalence of MSS in the neck, shoulders, wrist/hands, upper back and hips/thighs/buttocks regions compared to males while males reported more symptoms of the elbows, low back and knees. There were no statistically significant differences in prevalence among age groups. In general, participants with heavy physical workloads had significantly higher prevalence of symptoms in most body regions than those with light physical workloads although women with light physical workloads reported more neck symptoms. The study indicates that the New Zealand working population has a high prevalence of MSS and that exposure in the workplace plays a role.

Relevance to industry

The findings of this study imply that efforts to reduce MSS in the workplace should focus on females and employees with high physical workloads.     

Motivations in virtual health communities and their relationship to community,connectedness and stress

This study explores the relationships between motivations for joining virtual health communities, online behaviors, and psycho-social outcomes. A sample of 144 women from two virtual health communities focusing on infertility completed survey measures assessing motivations, posting and receiving support, connectedness, community, and stress. Our results indicate that socio-emotional support motivations for joining the community were associated with posting support within the virtual community, while informational motivations were related to receiving support. Further, receiving support was associated with greater sense of virtual community as well as more general feelings of connectedness, which was related to less stress. Implications for virtual health community research are discussed.     

Gender-differences in Self-efficacy ICT related to various ICT-user profiles in Finland and Norway. How do self-efficacy,gender and ICT-user profiles relate to findings from PISA 2006

In this paper, we explored the relationship between self-efficacy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) user profiles, and gender. Self-efficacy is an important theoretical and empirical concept to identify and describe how students perceive their own ability to solve a task. ICT user profiles were developed as an empirical framework to identify and categorize students based on how frequent they use ICT. In this paper, we have chosen six ICT user profiles in order to distinguish between leisure activities and school activities. Each ICT user-profile was computed by combining two dimensions (frequency of ICT use for leisure purposes and frequency of ICT use for school purposes). We tried to identify how students’ perception of their ability to solve a task is related to both their gender and how frequently they use ICT. The results showed that student’s self-efficacy varied between the ICT user profiles. The findings showed how an increased level of self-efficacy in ICT High-level tasks is related to both an increased level of leisure use and with an increased level of educational use. Further, our findings provided evidence in support of positive relationships (for both males and the females) between Self-efficacy in ICT and the ICT user profiles.     

Effects of differences in office chair controls, seat and backrest angle design in relation to tasks

In this study the influence of chair characteristics on comfort, discomfort, adjustment time and seat interface pressure is investigated during VDU and non-VDU tasks: The two investigated office chairs, both designed according to European and Dutch standards are different regarding: 1) seat cushioning and shape, 2) backrest angle and 3) controls. Thirty subjects in total, both male and female, participated in two experiments: twenty in the first and ten in the second.Significant differences are found for ease of adjustment and adjustment time of controls, independent of the tasks. Related to tasks, a significant difference was found for the backrest range of motion. For non-VDU tasks a larger range of backrest motion was preferred by 70% of the subjects. The chair design differences were most clear for comfort and adjustment time of controls, followed by comfort of backrest angle. No differences are found between seat pan comfort and discomfort, first impressions and peak interface pressure.     

Students’ expectations of,and experiences in e-learning: Their relation to learning achievements and course satisfaction

Within only a few years, the use of e-learning has increased rapidly in Austria. In certain subjects, up to 60% of university students report using e-learning platforms at least ‘sometimes’ or ‘frequently’ (Unger & Wroblewski, 2006). Yet, which aspects of e-learning do students consider important for their learning achievements and course satisfaction? This question was addressed by surveying 2196 students from 29 universities in Austria about their expectations of, and experiences in e-learning. Multiple regression analyses using Mplus 4.21 were carried out to investigate how different facets of students’ expectations and experiences are related to perceived learning achievements and course satisfaction.     

Spatial-temporal dynamics of land surface temperature in relation to fractional vegetation cover and land use/cover in the Tabriz urban area, Iran

Rapid changes of land use and land cover (LULC) in urban areas have become a major environmental concern due to environmental impacts, such as the reduction of green spaces and development of urban heat islands (UHI). Monitoring and management plans are required to solve this problem effectively. The Tabriz metropolitan area in Iran, selected as a case study for this research, is an example of a fast growing city. Multi-temporal images acquired by Landsat 4, 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors on 30 June 1989, 18 August 1998, and 2 August 2001 respectively, were corrected for radiometric and geometric errors, and processed to extract LULC classes and land surface temperature (LST). The relationship between temporal dynamics of LST and LULC was then examined. The temperature vegetation index (TVX) space was constructed in order to study the temporal variability of thermal data and vegetation cover. Temporal trajectory of pixels in the TVX space showed that most changes due to urbanization were observable as the pixels migrated from the low temperature-dense vegetation condition to the high temperature-sparse vegetation condition in the TVX space. The uncertainty analysis revealed that the trajectory analysis in the TVX space involved a class-dependant noise component. This emphasized the need for multiple LULC control points in the TVX space. In addition, this research suggests that the use of multi-temporal satellite data together with the examination of changes in the TVX space is effective and useful in urban LULC change monitoring and analysis of urban surface temperature conditions as long as the uncertainty is addressed.     

Effects of different stress settings on cardiovascular parameters and their relationship to daily life blood pressure in normotensives,borderline hypertensives and hypertensives

The aim of this study was to compare a traditional stress setting, consisting of two mental arithmetic tasks and two Stroop test modifications, and a stress setting of varying task demand and decision latitude according to Karasek's job strain model, with respect to their feasibility to elicit differences in cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in 20 normotensives, 20 borderline hypertensives, and 20 non-medicated hypertensives, carefully selected by means of World Health Organization criteria. In addition, the relationship between laboratory and everyday blood pressure was investigated. All subjects were tested under both stress settings in counterbalanced order. Blood pressure was recorded both intermittently from the brachial artery (Riva-Rocci) and continuously from the finger (Finapres). Heart rate and electrodermal activity were continuously measured as well. Furthermore, daily life blood pressure recorded by means of 24 h ambulatory monitoring during a normal working day served as criterion for the re-classification of the blood pressure groups by means of discriminant analysis using physiological recordings from baseline, test phases and rest phases. The groups did not show significant differences in their reactivity to the various mental stressors including the Karasek-model oriented ones but marked differences in their behaviour occurred during the 10 min of recovery following each stress setting. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensives failed to recover during this period. The results also showed the superiority of the Finapres method with respect to reflecting the dynamics of physiological recovery processes. None of the stress settings showed an advantage in predicting blood pressure in daily life. In general, the results question the validity of mental laboratory stressors for the prediction of cardiovascular changes in daily life but point to a possible role of recovery processes after stress in the development of essential hypertension.     

On Projection Matrices $$\mathcal{P}^k \to \mathcal{P}^2 ,k = 3,...,6, $$ and their Applications in Computer Vision

Projection matrices from projective spaces have long been used in multiple-view geometry to model the perspective projection created by the pin-hole camera. In this work we introduce higher-dimensional mappings for the representation of various applications in which the world we view is no longer rigid. We also describe the multi-view constraints from these new projection matrices (where k > 3) and methods for extracting the (non-rigid) structure and motion for each application.