The Development of a Comprehensive Database for Accident Analysis.

The Road Safety Code of Good Practice states that highway authorities should consider obtaining supplementary road safety data, to give a better assessment of the level of under-reporting and to improve the safety studies they undertake. This paper examines the extra sources of data that are available and used by highway authorities. It shows an improved system of linking police and hospital injury data and assesses the potential for the use of other such data. A questionnaire survey of all highway authorities in Britain was undertaken which showed that data sources such as traffic flows were used regularly, whereas others such as hospital data were rarely used. It was also found that when attempts were made to combine data much of the work was done manually. One of the most useful supplementary sources of information on accidents is hospital casualty data. A method of linking this with police reported casualty data by using, among other things, the name and address of the casualty has been shown to produce a considerably improved match than that in studies previously undertaken. This has thus been used to evaluate under-reporting and the nature of specific injuries to those involved in accidents. This study looks at the possibilities of including other data sources which could be used to assist authorities in validating accident forms and aiding in the selection of accident sites suitable for remedial treatmen

A Comparison of Local Authority Procedures in Road Safety.

It has been recognised that there are large differences in the working practices of safety teams amongst the highway authorities of Great Britain. This study was undertaken to assist the development of short courses in safety and accident analysis for (amongst others) road safety staff and traffic engineers. The main objective of the study was to discern differences in working practices between three different kinds of highway authority. The study also enabled University and local authority personnel to work together to identify more precisely the teaching objectives in certain proposed courses in safety; and to identify and provide appropriate course material, within the overall aim of making such courses relevant to a wider range of audience

A Linked Police and Hospital Road Accident Database for Humberside.

The current system used to collect road accident statistics provides no detailed information on the injuries sustained, nor does it account for all the road accidents and casualties resulting from them. Other studies have attempted to link hospital casualty data to that contained on the police reports but with limited success. The method outlined here matches 97.3% of casualty records that should be matched with only 1.4% error. This will therefore provide a effective model to test the reporting rates of various groups and the injuries sustained by them

The Use of Road Safety Data in Highway Authorities

The Road Safety Code of Good Practice (1989) suggested that highway authorities should collect supplementary information in addition to STATS 19 records and that there should be moves towards developing coordinated strategies for road safety planning. It finds that traffic flows, letters from the public, population statistics, police reported damage-only accidents and highway and land development sources are used most often. Shire Counties tend to collect more sources of data than other authorities. All have meetings with the Police, but the Shire Counties and the Non-English Authorities have more meetings with the hospitals compared to the Metropolitan Authorities and the London Boroughs. Only twenty-two Authorities had any evidence of under-reporting, of which only six provided any figures. The location of accidents was the STATS 19 variable considered to have the most number of errors

The Identification of Mistakes in Road Accident Records – Part Two.

It has been acknowledged that there are many mistakes in the casualty variables on the police accident report forms. This study shows how a computer based linkage of police and hospital records can be used to routinely identify the mistakes for the variables of casualty age, gender and severity. The level of omissions and mis-identifications were 0.4 per cent for gender, 13.3 per cent for severity and 15.7 per cent for age. The number of records that had age omitted or coded incorrectly were not significantly greater for seriously injured casualties than for those that were slightly injured. The system could be effectively used to code casualty severity using medical information instead of relying on police judgement

Financial Development in Emerging Markets: The Indian Experience

Financial markets that function well are crucial for the long-run economic growth of a country. This paper, in the first instance, looks at how the financial development of an economy can be measured. It then traces the financial development of India through the 1990s to the present, assessing the development of each segment of financial markets. In doing so, it highlights the dualistic development of the financial sector. Finally, the paper makes an attempt to offer an explanation of this dualistic development and proposes a road map for the future development of financial markets in India.financial development; india financial development; india financial sector; india financial markets; emerging market economies; india economic growth

Configurational temperature control for atomic and molecular systems

A new configurational temperature thermostat suitable for molecules with holonomic constraints is derived. This thermostat has a simple set of motion equations, can generate the canonical ensemble in both position and momentum space, acts homogeneously through the spatial coordinates, and does not intrinsically violate the constraints. Our new configurational thermostat is closely related to the kinetic temperature Nosé-Hoover thermostat with feedback coupled to the position variables via a term proportional to the net molecular force. We validate the thermostat by comparing equilibrium static and dynamic quantities for a fluid of n-decane molecules under configurational and kinetic temperature control. Practical aspects concerning the implementation of the new thermostat in a molecular dynamics code and the potential applications are discussed

Developing a Scale to Measure the Indigenous Wisdom Orientation of Rice Farmers

The traditional rice farmers had adopted various indigenous technologies in rice farming which in due course of time was forgotten after the advent of high yielding varieties that warranted excessive use of chemical inputs. Hence a study was designed to develop a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of stakeholders in rice farming. The study was conducted in Palakkad district of Kerala. Fifty statements reflecting the indigenous wisdom orientation were generated. Likert’s method was employed in the scale construction and the final scale comprising 14 statements was standardized

Comparison of the activity of selamectin, imidacloprid and fipronil for the treatment of cats infested experimentally with Ctenocephalides felis felis and Ctenocephalides felis strongylus

Twenty adult, domestic short hair cats were randomly allocated into four groups of five cats and housed in separated cages. Each cat was infested with 25 fleas Ctenocephalides felis felis and 25 Ctenocephalides felis strongylus and 2 days later (day 0) the cats in group 1, 2 and 3 received a spot on application of selamectin, imidacloprid or fipronil, respectively, while the cats in group four were not treated. The cats were combed 48 h later, the fleas were removed, counted and their subspecies were determined. All the cats were reinfested with the same number of the two subspecies of fleas on days 7, 14, 21, 29 and 35. The efficacy of each treatment was calculated 48 h after each infestation. The mean number of fleas on the control cats was 16.4 C. f. felis and 13.4 C. f. strongylus. The three treatments were effective for the first 31 days for C. f. felis and for the full 37 days for C. f. strongylus. Over the first 31 days, the efficacy of selamectin ranged from 89 to 100% and 85 to 100% against C. f. felis and C. f. strongylus, respectively, the efficacy of imidacloprid ranged from 76 to 100% and 92 to 100% and the efficacy of fipronil ranged from 98 to 100% and 97 to 100% against C. f. felis and C. f. strongylus. There were no significant differences between the control of C. f. felis and C. f. strongylus by the three products

A Continuous Review Inventory System with Lost Sales and Emergency Orders

We analyze a continuous review lost sales inventory system with two types of orders—regular and emergency. The regular order has a stochastic lead time and is placed with the cheapest acceptable supplier. The emergency order has a deterministic lead time is placed with a local supplier who has a higher price. The emergency order is not always filled since the supplier may not have the ability to provide the order on an emergency basis at all times. This emergency order has a higher cost per item and has a known probability of being filled. The total costs for this system are compared to a system without emergency placement of orders. This paper provides managers with a tool to assess when dual sourcing is cost optimal by comparing the single sourcing and dual sourcing models