Attitudinal segmentaion of drivers in Pakistan: The potential for effective road safety campaigns

Deviant driving behaviors are considered as the main cause of Road Traffic Accidents in Pakistan. This research is founded on the premise that driving behaviors are mediated by attitudinal and motivational factors. It advocates that rather than simply aggregating drivers’ responses or a-priori classification of them based on their personal characteristics, adoption of segmentation technique is more useful to look at multiple factors provoking aberrant driving behavior in combination and not just in isolation. For this, the study generated an Attitudinal Questionnaire, inspired by the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB: Ajzen, 1991), and extended violation-scale of modified Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ: Lawton et al., 1997). Attitudinal and behavioral items are first factor analyzed. Then, cluster analysis is performed on extracted attitudinal factors which classified sample driving population into four relatively homogenous and distinct groups of drivers. The results demonstrated the explanatory utility of the market segmentation approach to systematically relate the interaction between attitudes, behaviors and socio-demographic characteristics of drivers. It is concluded that the approach is successful in distinguishing safe drivers from unsafe driver and therefore, can legitimately form the basis of road safety interventions. Finally, the findings are used to recommend targeted information-based road safety solutions with a focus on the diverse characteristics of each of the identified segments

VITALISE - Visualising actIve TrAveL wIth pakiStani familiEs in Bradford

Millions more journeys need to be walked or cycled (active travel) to meet the UK's Net Zero emissions target by 2050. However, across the UK, we do not yet walk and cycle enough short trips to make a difference. There are several reasons including many people find it difficult to get out of the habit of using a car for every journey, there are not enough safe routes for people to use for walking or cycling and lower participation within some communities. This document reports on a Photovoice (PV) based Participatory Action Research study designed to investigate barriers to active travel in Bradford’s Pakistani heritage community. It also aimed to investigate the use of PV to encourage critical consciousness of active travel (AT)

Transition from localized to mean field behaviour of cascading failures in the fiber bundle model on complex networks

We study the failure process of fiber bundles on complex networks focusing on the effect of the degree of disorder of fibers' strength on the transition from localized to mean field behaviour. Starting from a regular square lattice we apply the Watts-Strogatz rewiring technique to introduce long range random connections in the load transmission network and analyze how the ultimate strength of the bundle and the statistics of the size of failure cascades change when the rewiring probability is gradually increased. Our calculations revealed that the degree of strength disorder of nodes of the network has a substantial effect on the localized to mean field transition. In particular, we show that the transition sets on at a finite value of the rewiring probability, which shifts to higher values as the degree of disorder is reduced. The transition is limited to a well defined range of disorder, so that there exists a threshold disorder of nodes' strength below which the randomization of the network structure does not provide any improvement neither of the overall load bearing capacity nor of the cascade tolerance of the system. At low strength disorder the fully random network is the most stable one, while at high disorder best cascade tolerance is obtained at a lower structural randomness. Based on the interplay of the network structure and strength disorder we construct an analytical argument which provides a reasonable description of the numerical findings.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure

Auger recombination suppression and band alignment in GaAsBi/GaAs heterostructures

Using a combination of experimental and theoretical techniques we present the dependence of the bandgap Eg and the spin orbit splitting energy so, with Bi concentration in GaAsBi/GaAs samples. We find that the concentration at which so,> Eg occurs at 9%. Both spectroscopic as well as first device results indicate a type I alignment

Motorcycle three-wheelers in Pakistan: Low-cost rural transport services, crucial for women’s mobility

Rural women and men without their own means of transport depend on transport services. In low- and middle-income countries these are mainly provided by informal sector entrepreneurs. In Pakistan, motorcycle three-wheelers (designed as six-seater, route-based vehicles) provide most rural transport services. Research was undertaken in three districts of Punjab Province, with traffic counts and surveys of transport users. Motorcycles are increasing rapidly, and men’s use of transport services is declining. The traffic counts showed motorcycles for personal and family use carry almost half of the people travelling. Women are increasingly passengers on motorcycles driven by male relatives, but these are seldom available for women’s multipurpose trips during the daytime. On village-to-town roads, motorcycle three-wheelers are the only low-cost (two cents USD per passenger-km) public transport throughout the day. Point-to-point taxis are more costly. Most (55%) of women’s public transport journeys are in three-wheelers. Women and men rate motorcycle three-wheelers highly, particularly their fares and frequency. Women have a greater willingness to pay more for less crowded, safer vehicles than men. It is concluded that the informal sector motorcycle three-wheeler services are optimising village-to-town transport connections, providing the only low-cost travel option for many rural women. Policies should avoid disrupting their vital services. With motorcycle growth undermining transport services, gender-aware strategies should be developed to facilitate frequent, uncrowded three-wheeler operations

Willingness to pay for COVID-19 mitigation measures in public transport and paratransit in low-income countries

In order to combat the spread of COVID-19, various measures were taken in most countries to make public transit and paratransit safer. These additional measures, which include restrictions on number of passengers, provision of hand sanitisers and face coverings, and more frequent cleaning, add to the costs of operations or reduce profitability. The resulting financial pressure on the transport operators raises an important question on who pays for these additional measures. In most countries, this has been covered by one-time government bailouts to operators or strategies to increase fare, the latter of which directly affects the users. However, even without these interventions, there could be a demand and as such willingness to pay (WTP) for some of these intervention measures from the consumers concerned about safety. Knowing such WTP will not only help operators set their fare, but also help the governments decide the appropriate bailout needed. This paper addresses the issue by estimating the user's willingness to pay for selected COVID-19 mitigation measures in public transport and paratransit (motorcycle taxis) using survey data collected from two cities in low-income countries as case studies – Kampala, Uganda and Dhaka, Bangladesh. For public transport, these measures are - (1) social distancing (passenger loading at half capacity), and (2) mandatory hand sanitisation and increased cleaning of surfaces, while for paratransit, they are - (1) provision of a transparent shield between the rider and the passenger, and (2) provision of cleaned helmets at the start of each trip. The study analyses stated preference data using the utility maximisation framework and finds that the implementation or provision of COVID-19 mitigation measures improves the attractiveness of the associated public transport or paratransit alternatives, and transport users make trade-offs between safety and cost when making travel decisions. We find positive willingness to pay for all four mitigation measures, suggesting potential existence of a market for these measures. We also find that the typical mode choice factors such as costs, travel time and convenience became less important during the pandemic and the safety measures became more important considerations

Effect of Laser on Phagocytic Activity of Polymorphoneutrophils

Background: It is well known that the low level laser irradiation has act on immune system cells in a number of ways, one of them includes increasing phagocytic activity of irradiated cells. This study was established to shed light on the possible effect of laser irradiation on phagocytic activity of polymorphoneutrophils. Subjects and methods: Fresh blood samples were obtained from twenty healthy volunteers for phagocytosis assay. The polymorphoneutrophils were isolated from blood and examined their phagocytic capacity befor and after exposure to laser irradiation. Results: The present study revealed a significant increase in the mean percentage of phagocytosis after exposure to diode laser of wave length (632) nm (red), which was further increased by increasing the time of exposure. Conclusion: The current study suggests that low level of laser can increase the phagocytic activity of polymorphoneutrophils, and this increase propotional to increaseing the time of exposure

Status and diversity of coastal avian fauna in Gwadar peninsula, Balochistan

The 1050 km long coastline of Pakistan, extends from Sir Creek in the southeast of Indus delta to Gwadar Bay in the west. This article is based on diversity, habitat, status and distribution of different species of coastal birds present in the Gwadar coast. Observation of birds was done during winter season at four different sites. The habitat is important for different coastal birds like terns, gulls, pelicans and waders including resident and migratory species. A total of 55 species were recorded from the entire area. The species richness was higher at two sites. The birds were seen in higher numbers at uninhabited points compared to those near the populated area or the port. Shannon diversity index for bird community was calculated for four sites namely Shabi Estuary, Gwadar East Bay, Gwadar West Bay and Gurab, where the diversity was found to be 2.82, 2.27, 2.33 and 2.40 respectively. Birds of Common Sandpiper (Actitishy poleucos), Common Teal (Anas crecca), Wigeon (Anas Penelope), Shoveller (Anas clypeata), Pochard (Aythya ferina), Common Coot (Fulica atra), Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandriunus), Dusk Red Shank (Tringa erythropus) and Great White Pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus) have been recorded in large numbers during the study period. Some vulnerable species for e.g. Pochard (Aythya ferina) and endangered species for e.g. Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris), Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), and two near threatened species Oyster catcher (Haematus ostralegus) and Dalmation Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) were also recorded. The major threats to the ecosystem are habitat degradation due to port construction, urbanization, hunting, poaching and other anthropogenic activities