First-Year Effects of the Energy Crisis on Traffic in Kentucky (Rural Highways)

The Arab oil embargo in mid-October 1973 curtailed availability of gasoline. Fuel conservation measures resulted in reduced travel and decreased traffic speeds. On March 1, 1974, posted speed was set at 55 mph (88 km/h) on rural highways in Kentucky. Traffic volumes, speeds, and accidents for the rural highway during the period known as the energy crisis and its after effects were compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. Traffic volumes began to decline in December 1973 and continued through September 1974. Total travel in the 12 months through November 1974 decreased by 2.3 percent; traffic increased by five percent in 1973. Accident rates during this period decreased by 13.5 percent; and the largest decreases were associated with the highways experiencing the greatest reductions in travel speed. The relationship between traffic speed and accident rate showed a great decrease in accident rate as traffic speeds decreased. Differences between wet-surface and dry-surface accident rates were especially significant and were more so for interstate than for two-lane highways. Improved wet-pavement skid resistance at the lower speeds obviously contributed to a reduction in accident rates. Continuation of the 55-mph (88 km/h) speed limit on all rural highways would seem advisable

Traffic Accidents: Day Versus Night

A comparison of accidents during daylight and darkness was made for both rural and urban roads. Accident rates on all types of rural roads were higher during darkness than during daylight. Critical accident rates during darkness for various types of roads were calculated. In urban areas, a larger percentage of accidents occurred on wet pavements during darkness than during daylight, but there were no significant differences for rural roads. No significant difference was found between average speeds during conditions of daylight and darkness. On rural roads, imposition of the 24.6-m/s (55-mph) speed limit resulted in a reduction in accident rates for both daylight and darkness. However, there were changes in the percentages of wet-pavement accidents on rural roads. For the entire rural system, there was a decrease in the percentages of wet-pavement accidents during daylight and an increase during darkness

Traffic Accidents: Day vs. Night

A comparison of accidents during daylight and darkness was made for both rural and urban roads. Accident rates on all types of rural roads were higher during darkness than during daylight. Critical accident rates during darkness for various types of roads were calculated. In urban areas, a larger percentage of accidents occurred on wet pavements during darkness than during daylight, but there were no significant differences for rural roads. No significant difference was found between average speeds during conditions of daylight and darkness. On rural roads, imposition of the 55-mph (24.6-m/s) speed limit resulted in a reduction in accident rates for both daylight and darkness. However, there were changes in the percentages of wet-pavement accidents on rural roads. For the entire rural system, there was a decrease in the percentages of wet-pavement accidents during daylight and an increase during darkness

First-Year Effects of the Energy Crisis on Traffic in Kentucky (Rural Highways) [May 1975]

The Arab oil embargo in mid-October 1973 curtailed availability of gasoline. Fuel conservation measures resulted in reduced travel and decreased traffic speeds. On March 1, 1974, posted speed was set at 55 mph (24.6 m/s) on rural highways in Kentucky. Traffic volumes, speeds, and accidents for the rural highway during the period known as the energy crisis and its after effects were compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. Traffic volumes began to decline in December 1973 and continued through September 1974. Total travel in the 12 months through November 1974 decreased by 2.3 percent; traffic increased by five percent in 1973. Accident rates during this period decreased by 13.5 percent; and the largest decreases were associated with the highways experiencing the greatest reductions in travel speed. The relationship between traffic speed and accident rate showed a great decrease in accident rate as traffic speeds decreased. Differences between wet-surface and dry-surface accident rates were especially significant and were more so for interstate than for two-lane highways. Improved wet-pavement skid resistance at the lower speeds obviously contributed to a reduction in accident rates. Continuation of the 55-mph (24.6 m/s) speed limit on all rural highways would seem advisable

Effects of the Energy Crisis on Traffic in Kentucky

The Arab oil embargo in mid-October 1973 curtailed availability of gasoline. Fuel conservation measures resulted in reduced travel and decreased traffic speeds. On March 1, 1974, posted speed was set at 55 mph on rural highways in Kentucky. Traffic volumes, speeds, and accidents for the rural highway during the period known as the energy crisis and its after effects were compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. Traffic volumes began to decline in December 1973 but began to rise again in March 1974. Total travel in the seven months through June 1974 decreased by 3.5 percent; traffic increased by 5 percent in 1973. Accident rates during this period decreased by 13.6 percent; and the largest decreases were associated with the highways experiencing the greatest reductions in travel speed. The relationship between traffic speed and accident rate showed a great decrease in accident rate as traffic speeds decreased. Differences between wet-surface and dry-surface accident rates were especially significant and were more so for interstate than for two-lane highways. Improved wet-pavement skid resistance at the lower speeds obviously contributed to a reduction in accident rates. Continuation of the 55-mph speed limit on all rural highways would seem advisable

Development and fabrication of a Bi-2223 racetrack coil for generator applications

The development and fabrication of a layer-wound, epoxy-impregnated Bi-2223 high-temperature superconducting (HTS) racetrack coil which generates 40,000 ampere-turns of magnetomotive force (MMF) at 25 K is described. The coil was wound using Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 tape conductor laminated with copper foils for strength enhancement and insulated using a paper-wrap method. After epoxy impregnation, the coil was tested over a range of 16--25 K in a vacuum dewar using a closed-cycle helium refrigeration system. Descriptions of the tape lamination and insulation processing, the coil winding and impregnation, and the experimental test setup are given

Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences

This is the Table of Contents and Introduction of a Report published as Hornberger, G. M., E. Bernhardt, W. E. Dietrich, D. Entekhabi, G. E. Fogg, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, W. J. Gutowski, W. B. Lyons, K. W. Potter, S. W. Tyler, H. J. Vaux, C. J. Vorosmarty, C. Welty, C. A. Woodhouse, C. Zheng, Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences. 2012: Water Science and Technology Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. 173 pp. Posted with permission.</p

Genetic diversity fuels gene discovery for tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are heritable behaviours associated with 15% and 5.3% of worldwide deaths, respectively, due largely to broad increased risk for disease and injury(1-4). These substances are used across the globe, yet genome-wide association studies have focused largely on individuals of European ancestries(5). Here we leveraged global genetic diversity across 3.4 million individuals from four major clines of global ancestry (approximately 21% non-European) to power the discovery and fine-mapping of genomic loci associated with tobacco and alcohol use, to inform function of these loci via ancestry-aware transcriptome-wide association studies, and to evaluate the genetic architecture and predictive power of polygenic risk within and across populations. We found that increases in sample size and genetic diversity improved locus identification and fine-mapping resolution, and that a large majority of the 3,823 associated variants (from 2,143 loci) showed consistent effect sizes across ancestry dimensions. However, polygenic risk scores developed in one ancestry performed poorly in others, highlighting the continued need to increase sample sizes of diverse ancestries to realize any potential benefit of polygenic prediction.Peer reviewe

Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

The decay $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. In the $\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-}$ system, the $\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0}$ state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, $\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}$ and $\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}$, whose masses and widths are measured to be $$m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},$$ where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt $\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ sample. Evidence of a new $\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0}$ state is found with a local significance of $3.8\,\sigma$, whose mass and width are measured to be $2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV}$ and $12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode $\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ is found with a significance of $3.7\,\sigma$. The relative branching fraction of $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ with respect to the $B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-}$ decay is measured to be $2.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages