Perception of the Risks Associated with Impaired Driving and Effects on Driving Behavior

This research studies the perception of the risks associated with impaired driving-probability of being apprehended or of having an accident-and the relation between the perception of risks and driving behavior. The most important determinants of perceptual biases are age, an accumulation of violations in the year preceding the survey, being a non-drinker, knowledge of the legal alcohol limit for driving, opinion about zero tolerance for impaired driving, and family income. Perceptual biases are shown to influence driving behavior, as captured by drivers' accumulated violations, demerit points and bodily injury accidents, in the years preceding and in the year following the survey. In conclusion, we analyze the results in terms of public policy for road safety.Risk perception, impaired driving, driving behavior, traffic violation, road accident, regulation, public policy

Structural changes in lipid-free humic acids during composting of sewage sludge

Structural changes in humic acids (HAs), extracted after lipid removal from sewage sludge during composting, were investigated using various chemical methods (elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy). Compared to non-purified HAs, lipid-free HAs (LFHAs) exhibit higher C and N contents and high absorbance around 1652, 1540 and 1230 cm1, which indicates the intensity of the etherified aromatic structures and nitrogencontaining components. Less absorbance around 2920, 1600, 1414 and 1100 cm1 could be assigned to their low level of aliphatic compounds, mainly those with a carboxyl group. According to 13C-NMR spectroscopy, almost 45% of aliphatic structures are removed by lipid extraction and these correspond mainly to long-chain fatty acids. During composting, significant decomposition of non-substituted alkyl structures and N-containing components occurred, increasing the relative intensity of etherified aromatic structures

Density functional theoretical study of Cun, Aln (n = 4–31) and copper doped aluminum clusters: Electronic properties and reactivity with atomic oxygen

A DFT study of the electronic properties of copper doped aluminum clusters and their reactivity with atomic oxygen is reported. Firstly we performed calculations for the pure Cun and Aln (n = 4, 9, 10, 13, 25 and 31) clusters and we determined their atomization energy for some frozen conformations at the B3PW91 level. The calculated work functions and M–M (M = Cu, Al) bond energies of the largest clusters are comparable with experimental data. Secondly, we focused our attention on the change of the electronic properties of the systems upon the substitution of an Al atom by a Cu one. This latter stabilizes the system as the atomization energy of the 31- atoms cluster increases of 0.31 eV when the substitution is done on the surface and of 1.18 eV when it is done inside the cluster. We show that the electronic transfer from the Al cluster to the Cu atom located at the surface is large (equal to 0.7 e) while it is negligible when Cu is inserted in the Aln cluster. Moreover, the DOS of the Al31 and Al30Cu systems are compared. Finally, the chemisorption energies of atomic oxygen in threefold sites of the Al31, Cu31 and Al30Cu clusters are calculated and discussed. We show that the chemisorption energy of O is decreasing on the bimetallic systems compared to the pure aluminum cluster

Pakistan’s twin interrelated challenges : economic development and security

The 2010 devastating floods in Pakistan have starkly reminded the world of the two critical, interrelated challenges confronting Pakistan: economic development and security. And whilst the Pakistan government\u27s capacity to deal with these two issues before the flood was already shaky at best, its position now is even more precarious given the enormity of the task of rebuilding the infrastructure that has been destroyed in this latest natural disaster. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a large and strategically important country, critically located on one of the world\u27s most important geopolitical crossroads. It is a pivotal player in a region—covering the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia—which has much potential, but which also has unresolved conflicts and various degrees of instability. Accordingly, because Pakistan is so important to the stability of the region and the world at large, it is vital that it be able to address successfully these twin challenges

Multi-User Multi-Carrier Differential Chaos Shift Keying Communication System

In this paper, a multi user Multi-Carrier Differential Chaos Shift Keying (MC-DCSK) modulation is presented. The system endeavors to provide a good trade-off between robustness, energy efficiency and high data rate, while still being simple. In this architecture of MC-DCSK system, for each user, chaotic reference sequence is transmitted over a predefined subcarrier frequency. Multiple modulated data streams are transmitted over the remaining subcarriers allocated for each user. This transmitter structure saves energy and increases the spectral efficiency of the conventional DCSK system.Comment: Accepted in the IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC 2013