Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Greek Implementation. VRU-TOO Deliverable 14

The work of VRU-TOO is targeted specifically at the application of ATT for reducing risk and improving comfort (e.g. minimisation of delay) for Vulnerable Road Users, namely pedestrians. To achieve this, the project operates at three levels. At the European level practical pilot implementations in three countries (U.K., Portugal and Greece) are linked with behavioural studies of the micro-level interaction of pedestrians and vehicles and the development of computer simulation models. At the National level, the appropriate Highway Authorities are consulted, according to their functions, for the pilot implementations and informed of the results. Finally, at the local level, the pilot project work is fitted into specfic local (municipality) policy contexts in all three pilot project sites. The present report focuses on the Elefsina pilot application in Greece and the relevant National and Local policy contexts are the following. At the National level, the ultimate responsibility for road safety and signal installations rests with the Ministry of Environment and Public Works. The Ministry is responsible for the adoption of standards and solutions for problems and also for a large number of actual installations, since local authorities lack the size and expertise to undertake such work on their own One of the project's aims is to provide information to the Ministry as to the suitability of the methods developed for aiding pedestrian movement, ultimately leading to a specification for its wider use. The Ministry is expecting to use the final results of the present study for possible modifications of its present standards for pedestrian controlled traffic signals. At the local level (Elefsina) the municipality has, in the past, pursued environmental improvements through pedestrianisation schemes in the city centre. At the same time it has developed a special traffic management policy, to solve a particularly serious problem of through traffic. A summary of the policy is contained in Appendix A and more details in a previous deliverable (Tillis, 1992). In the particular case of Elefsina pedestrian induced delay to through vehicular traffic, may form a key element in this policy ensuring at the same time, an incentive to divert to the existing bypass and enhancing pedestrian movement. The effectiveness of pedestrian detection techniques tested in the pilot, will provide valuable information on the future implementation of the policy. Thus, the Elefsina Pilot Project operates at the same time on three levels: It provides a basis, in combination with the other two pilot project sites, for comparing the effects of pedestrian detection on pedestrian safety and comfort at a European level. It provides information to the National authorities (Ministry of Environment and Public Works) for their standards setting, scheme design and implementation tasks. It fits into a comprehensive plan at the local level for effecting environmental improvements and enhancing pedestrian amenity and comfort at the same time. In addition, an investigation into the capabilities of pedestrian detectors to function as data collection devices, was performed. The data 'quality gap' betweenvehicular and pedestrian tr&c may be closed with the utilisation of microwave pedestrian detectors, providing a more solid foundation for the planning for total person movement through networks (vehicle occupants, public transport passengers, pedestrians). This the second deliverable issued for Elefsina and comprises of the main section which contains a description of the work undertaken, the results and a number of appendices serving as background material in support of the statements in the main text

The Cowl - v.25 - n.7 - Nov 14, 1962

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 25, Number 7 - November 14, 1962. 10 pages

Voluntary Simplicity and Willingness not to buy

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMThis study aims to understand why people do not buy in the scope of voluntary simplicity. The importance of this study is related to questions raised about consumption and lifestyle. The main objective is to measure whether the trend for voluntary simplicity would be influential and how it acts on consumers' willingness not to buy. To better understand this phenomenon of voluntary simplicity, we will use the hypothesis as a predictive model, to provide a directional response to our main goal. The Millennials, with ages between 18-34, both genders, actively studying and working, and living in Portugal were the target population of the study. The survey was conducted from May 4th, 2020, until January 19th, 2021. During this period, 282 people responded to a questionnaire with 72 questions. This study provided valuable insights into the key factors influencing the Willingness Not to buy. The model explains 51% of the variance of variables presented, which is a good value in market research. The relevance of this research is based on understanding these changes in the economy and how they affect purchasing intentions. By doing so, this study contributes to academic research and companies, to improve customer experience and satisfaction regarding voluntary simplicity

Baseline hospital performance and the impact of medical emergency teams: Modelling vs. conventional subgroup analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To compare two approaches to the statistical analysis of the relationship between the baseline incidence of adverse events and the effect of medical emergency teams (METs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using data from a cluster randomized controlled trial (the MERIT study), we analysed the relationship between the baseline incidence of adverse events and its change from baseline to the MET activation phase using quadratic modelling techniques. We compared the findings with those obtained with conventional subgroup analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using linear and quadratic modelling techniques, we found that each unit increase in the baseline incidence of adverse events in MET hospitals was associated with a 0.59 unit subsequent reduction in adverse events (95%CI: 0.33 to 0.86) after MET implementation and activation. This applied to cardiac arrests (0.74; 95%CI: 0.52 to 0.95), unplanned ICU admissions (0.56; 95%CI: 0.26 to 0.85) and unexpected deaths (0.68; 95%CI: 0.45 to 0.90). Control hospitals showed a similar reduction only for cardiac arrests (0.95; 95%CI: 0.56 to 1.32). Comparison using conventional subgroup analysis, on the other hand, detected no significant difference between MET and control hospitals.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study showed that, in the MERIT study, when there was dependence of treatment effect on baseline performance, an approach based on regression modelling helped illustrate the nature and magnitude of such dependence while sub-group analysis did not. The ability to assess the nature and magnitude of such dependence may have policy implications. Regression technique may thus prove useful in analysing data when there is a conditional treatment effect.</p

“I Can See the Forest for the Trees”: Examining Personality Traits with Trasformers

Our understanding of Personality and its structure is rooted in linguistic studies operating under the assumptions made by the Lexical Hypothesis: personality characteristics that are important to a group of people will at some point be codified in their language, with the number of encoded representations of a personality characteristic indicating their importance. Qualitative and quantitative efforts in the dimension reduction of our lexicon throughout the mid-20th century have played a vital role in the field’s eventual arrival at the widely accepted Five Factor Model (FFM). However, there are a number of presently unresolved conflicts regarding the breadth and structure of this model (c.f., Hough, Oswald, & Ock, 2015). The present study sought to address such issues through previously unavailable language modeling techniques. The Distributional Semantic Hypothesis (DSH) argues that the meaning of words may be formed through some function of their co-occurrence with other words. There is evidence that DSH-based techniques are cognitively valid, serving as a proxy for learned associations between stimuli (Günther et al., 2019). Given that Personality is often measured through self-report surveys, the present study proposed that a Personality measure be created directly from this source data, using large pre-trained Transformers (a type of neural network that is adept at encoding and decoding semantic representations from natural language). An inventory was constructed, administered, and response data was analyzed using partial correlation networks. This exploratory study identifies differences in the internal structure of trait-domains, while simultaneously demonstrating a quantitative approach to item creation and survey development

Adapting the community sector for climate extremes

Abstract&nbsp;People experiencing poverty and inequality will be affected first and worst by the impacts of climate change to infrastructure and human settlements, including those caused by increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events and natural disasters. They have the least capacity to cope, to adapt, to move and to recover. Community service organisations (CSOs) play a critical role in supporting individuals, families and communities experiencing poverty and inequality to build resilience and respond to adverse changes in circumstances. As such, the services they provide comprise a critical component of social infrastructure in human settlements. However, very little is understood about CSOs own vulnerability to – or their role in managing and mitigating risks to their clients and the community from – climate change impacts to physical infrastructure.&nbsp;The Extreme Weather, Climate Change and the Community Sector – Risks and Adaptations project examined the relationship between physical and social infrastructure (in the form of CSO service provision). Specifically, the ways in which the climate-driven failure of CSO service delivery worsens risks to the individuals and communities they serve and, on the other hand, how preparedness may reduce vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather impacts to human settlements and infrastructure.The research comprised a comprehensive and critical scoping, examination and review of existing research findings and an audit, examination and judgment-based evaluation of the current vulnerabilities and capacities of CSOs under projected climate change scenarios. It employed three key methods of consultation and data collection. A literature review examined research conducted to date in Australia and comparative countries internationally on the vulnerability and climate change adaptation needs of CSOs. A program of 10 Community Sector Professional Climate Workshops consulted over 150 CSO representatives to develop a qualitative record of extreme event and climate change risks and corresponding adaptation strategies specific to CSOs. A national survey of CSOs, which resulted in the participation of approximately 500 organisations, produced a quantitative data set about the nature of CSO vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather impacts to infrastructure, whether and how CSOs are approaching the adaptation task and key barriers to adaptation.While the methods employed and the absence of empirical data sets quantifying CSO vulnerability to climate change impacts create limitations to the evidence-base produced, findings from the research suggest that CSOs are highly vulnerable and not well prepared to respond to climate change and extreme weather impacts to physical infrastructure and that this underlying organisational vulnerability worsens the vulnerability of people experiencing poverty and inequality to climate change. However, the project results indicate that if well adapted, CSOs have the willingness, specialist skills, assets and capacity to make a major contribution to the resilience and adaptive capacity of their clients and the community more broadly (sections of which will be plunged into adversity by extreme events). Despite this willingness, the evidence presented shows that few CSOs have undertaken significant action to prepare for climate change and worsening extreme weather events. Key barriers to adaptation identified through the research are inadequate financial resources, lack of institutionalised knowledge and skills for adaptation and the belief that climate change adaptation is beyond the scope of CSOs core business. On the other hand, key indicators of organisational resilience to climate change and extreme weather impacts include: level of knowledge about extreme weather risks, past experience of an extreme weather event and organisational size.Given its size, scope and the critical role the Australian community sector plays in building client and community resilience and in assisting communities to respond to and recover from the devastating impacts of extreme weather events and natural disasters, the research identifies serious gaps in both the policy frameworks and the research base required to ensure the sector’s resilience and adaptive capacity – gaps which appear to have already had serious consequences. To address these gaps, a series of recommendations has been prepared to enable the development and implementation of a comprehensive, sector-specific adaptation and preparedness program, which includes mechanisms to institutionalise knowledge and skills, streamlined tools appropriate to the needs and capacity of a diverse range of organisations and a benchmarking system to allow progress towards resilience and preparedness to be monitored. Future research priorities for adaptation in this sector have also been identified

Women's perspectives : the role of alcohol in violence against women

The primary objective of this research was to understand what role women thought alcohol played in their partners' violence to them, from the perspective of women who experienced violence from men partners.It aimed to: 1) question whether women blamed alcohol for their partners' violence, as anecdotal claims suggest, 2) establish whether the women made allowances for their partners' violence because of their partners' drinking, 3) determine the extent to which the women believed alcohol played a key role in such violence, 4) explore any differences in the women's beliefs about alcohol's role in violence when it was directed at others, and when it was directed at them, 5) develop theory, grounded in the women's views, that offers an explanation for alcohol's role in the violence they experienced.In order to meet these aims, in-depth, semi-structured, interviews were conducted with 20 women who suffered violence or abuse from their partners. Due to the subject of this research and the absence of women's views in research on this subject, a grounded theory approach was used, located within a feminist research framework. In addition, the women completed a supplementary checklist relating to their alcohol use and their violent and abusive experiences.The key findings include the women's beliefs that: 1) alcohol has an impact on behaviour, often seen in extremes of behaviour, 2) alcohol's role in violence depends on many factors, 3) alcohol is not responsible for their partners' violence and, 4) they would not forgive their partners more easily if they were violent after drinking. The quantitative data demonstrated a significant increase in physical violence after their partners had been drinking.The main conclusion of this study is that while the women accept that alcohol has disinhibiting effects, they do not blame alcohol for their partners' violence and abuse. They hold their partners responsible for their behaviour regardless of the alcohol consumed