1,059 research outputs found
Children’s travel as pedestrians: an international survey of policy and practice
A survey of OECD member countries was carried out to provide high level data on a consistent basis to identify and account for current patterns of child road safety . This paper reports the findings relating to children, aged 0-14 years, as pedestrians. Key survey elements included analyses of fatality data, relationships between socio-economic, demographic factors and fatality rates, and a questionnaire based survey.
League tables based on average child pedestrian fatality rates were constructed for each OECD member country participating in our questionnaire enabling identification of the top five countries with the lowest pedestrian fatality rate as Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Denmark.
Few countries had quantitative information about children’s travel and its absence means that assessments are difficult about children’s safety and the relative risks they face, especially as pedestrians. There are large variations in the amount of walking between countries and growing car use is becoming an issue in one third of OECD countries.
The main findings from the questionnaire survey were that the majority of countries did not have information on high risk groups but of those that did, the cross cutting themes of socio-economic and ethnic minority groups, young children and urban areas were identified.
Three characteristics distinguish top countries in the League table from those doing less well: a strong approach to the introduction of infrastructure measures for pedestrian safety, including low speed limits in residential areas; conducting road safety campaigns at least once a year; and having legislation which assumes driver responsibility in an accident involving a child pedestrian.
Having compulsory road safety education for children aged 6-9 years was a characteristic shared by most countries, as was the promotion of child pedestrian education and training initiatives and the commissioning of research. However there is lower research activity in less well performing countries
High temperature /800 to 1600 F/ magnetic materials
Tests of magnetic materials from 800 to 1600
Calculated corrections to superallowed Fermi beta decay: New evaluation of the nuclear-structure-dependent terms
The measured -values for superallowed nuclear
-decay can be used to obtain the value of the vector coupling constant
and thus to test the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. An
essential requirement for this test is accurate calculations for the radiative
and isospin symmetry-breaking corrections that must be applied to the
experimental data. We present a new and consistent set of calculations for the
nuclear-structure-dependent components of these corrections. These new results
do not alter the current status of the unitarity test -- it still fails by more
than two standard deviations -- but they provide calculated corrections for
eleven new superallowed transitions that are likely to become accessible to
precise measurements in the future. The reliability of all calculated
corrections is explored and an experimental method indicated by which the
structure-dependent corrections can be tested and, if necessary, improved.Comment: Revtex4, one figur
The Evaluation of V_{ud}, Experiment and Theory
The value of the V_{ud} matrix element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM)
matrix can be derived from nuclear superallowed beta decays, neutron decay, and
pion beta decay. We survey current world data for all three. Today, the most
precise value of V_{ud} comes from the nuclear decays; however, the precision
is limited not by experimental error but by the estimated uncertainty in
theoretical corrections. Experimental uncertainty does limit the neutron-decay
result, which, though statistically consistent with the nuclear result, is
approximately a factor of three poorer in precision. The value obtained for
leads to a result that differs at the 98% confidence level from the
unitarity condition for the CKM matrix. We examine the reliability of the small
calculated corrections that have been applied to the data, and assess the
likelihood of even higher quality nuclear data becoming available to confirm or
deny the discrepancy. Some of the required experiments depend upon the
availability of intense radioactive beams. Others are possible today.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, LaTe
Isospin-mixing corrections for fp-shell Fermi transitions
Isospin-mixing corrections for superallowed Fermi transitions in {\it
fp}-shell nuclei are computed within the framework of the shell model. The
study includes three nuclei that are part of the set of nine accurately
measured transitions as well as five cases that are expected to be measured in
the future at radioactive-beam facilities. We also include some new
calculations for C. With the isospin-mixing corrections applied to the
nine accurately measured values, the conserved-vector-current hypothesis
and the unitarity condition of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix are
tested.Comment: 13 pages plus five tables. revtex macro
Inclusive neutrino scattering off deuteron from threshold to GeV energies
Background: Neutrino-nucleus quasi-elastic scattering is crucial to interpret
the neutrino oscillation results in long baseline neutrino experiments. There
are rather large uncertainties in the cross section, due to insufficient
knowledge on the role of two-body weak currents. Purpose: Determine the role of
two-body weak currents in neutrino-deuteron quasi-elastic scattering up to GeV
energies. Methods: Calculate cross sections for inclusive neutrino scattering
off deuteron induced by neutral and charge-changing weak currents, from
threshold up to GeV energies, using the Argonne potential and
consistent nuclear electroweak currents with one- and two-body terms. Results:
Two-body contributions are found to be small, and increase the cross sections
obtained with one-body currents by less than 10% over the whole range of
energies. Total cross sections obtained by describing the final two-nucleon
states with plane waves differ negligibly, for neutrino energies
MeV, from those in which interaction effects in these states are fully
accounted for. The sensitivity of the calculated cross sections to different
models for the two-nucleon potential and/or two-body terms in the weak current
is found to be weak. Comparing cross sections to those obtained in a naive
model in which the deuteron is taken to consist of a free proton and neutron at
rest, nuclear structure effects are illustrated to be non-negligible.
Conclusion: Contributions of two-body currents in neutrino-deuteron
quasi-elastic scattering up to GeV are found to be smaller than 10%. Finally,
it should be stressed that the results reported in this work do not include
pion production channels.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures; publishe
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