Child development and the aims of road safety education

Pedestrian accidents are one of the most prominent causes of premature injury, handicap and death in the modern world. In children, the problem is so severe that pedestrian accidents are widely regarded as the most serious of all health risks facing children in developed countries. Not surprisingly, educational measures have long been advocated as a means of teaching children how to cope with traffic and substantial resources have been devoted to their development and provision. Unfortunately, there seems to be a widespread view at the present time that education has not achieved as much as had been hoped and that there may even be quite strict limits to what can be achieved through education. This would, of course, shift the emphasis away from education altogether towards engineering or urban planning measures aimed at creating an intrinsically safer environment in which the need for education might be reduced or even eliminated. However, whilst engineering measures undoubtedly have a major role to play in the effort to reduce accidents, this outlook is both overly optimistic about the benefits of engineering and overly pessimistic about the limitations of education. At the same time, a fresh analysis is clearly required both of the aims and methods of contemporary road safety education. The present report is designed to provide such an analysis and to establish a framework within which further debate and research can take place

A climate for collaboration. Analysis of US and EU lessons and opportunities in energy and climate policy

A deepening of cooperation between the United States and the European Union requires mutual trust, and understanding of current policies, challenges and successes. Through providing such understanding among policymakers, industry and other stakeholders in both economies, opportunities for transatlantic cooperation on climate change and energy policy emerge. This paper sets out by discussing the environmental, legislative, and economic contexts of the EU and US as related to climate. This context is essential to understanding how cap-and-trade, renewable energy and sustainable transportation policies have taken shape in the EU and the US, as described in Chapter 3.1. For each of these policies, a barrier analysis and discussion is provided. Chapter 4 builds off this improved understanding to listobservations and possible lessons learned. The paper concludes with recommendations on topics where EU and US interests align, and where further cooperation could prove beneficial. Document type: Repor

An assessment of the strength of knots and splices used as eye terminations in a sailing environment

Research into knots, splices and other methods of forming an eye termination has been limited, despite the fact that they are essential and strongly affect the performance of a rope. The aim of this study was to carry out a comprehensive initial assessment of the breaking strength of eye terminations commonly used in a sailing environment, thereby providing direction for further work in the field. Supports for use in a regular tensile testing machine were specially developed to allow individual testing of each sample and a realistic spread of statistical data to be obtained. Over 180 break tests were carried out on four knots (the bowline, double bowline, figure-of-eight loop and perfection loop) and two splices (three-strand eye splice and braid-on-braid splice). The factors affecting their strength were investigated. A statistical approach to the analysis of the results was adopted. The type of knot was found to have a significant effect on the strength. This same effect was seen in both types of rope construction (three-strand and braid-on-braid). Conclusions were also drawn as to the effect of splice length, eye size, manufacturer and rope diameter on the breaking strength of splices. Areas of development and further investigation were identified

Climate for Collaboration: Analysis of US and EU Lessons and Opportunities in Energy and Climate Policy

deepening of cooperation between the United States and the European Union requires mutual trust, and understanding of current policies, challenges and successes. Through providing such understanding among policymakers, industry and other stakeholders in both economies, opportunities for transatlantic cooperation on climate change and energy policy emerge. This paper sets out by discussing the environmental, legislative, and economic contexts of the EU and US as related to climate. This context is essential to understanding how cap-and-trade, renewable energy and sustainable transportation policies have taken shape in the EU and the US, as described in Chapter 3.1. For each of these policies, a barrier analysis and discussion is provided. Chapter 4 builds off this improved understanding to listobservations and possible lessons learned. The paper concludes with recommendations on topics where EU and US interests align, and where further cooperation could prove beneficial

Gamebrics: Integrating Analytical Rubrics into Serious Games to Teach Analytical Skills

Complex skills, such as analytical thinking, are essential in the rapidly changing society of the 21st century. An ongoing question is how to teach these complex skills in higher education. Serious games hold potential to stimulate the acquisition of analytical skills. Rubrics are proven feedback and evaluation instruments, but have never been directly integrated into the gameplay of serious games. This position paper discusses how the novel integration of analytical rubrics into serious games may fill this gap. We discuss our approach for this integration and illustrate it using an implementation of analytical rubrics into an existing scenario- based serious game. The discussed approach involves creating theory-informed rubrics, performing validated mappings of rubric elements to game activities and the formulation of appropriate reflective feedback. In addition, we outline the design and implementation of a player-facing dashboard to allow players to track their progress, in-game performance in terms of analytical skills and to receive reflective feedback. Finally, we provide a brief outlook to an ongoing evaluation study examining the effectiveness of the integration of rubrics into serious games