3,549 research outputs found
How much is too much? Lowering the legal drink-drive limit
The current legal limit on driversâ blood alcohol content was set at 80mg/100ml nearly 40 years ago and
there are now only 3 other Member States of the European Union, all of them small countries, with limits
higher than 50mg/100ml. Deaths from drink driving in Great Britain stopped falling 10 years ago, and
show signs of rising. The reasons for the setting of the current limit in 1967 and changes since then are
discussed, and a fresh look is taken at the likely annual reduction in deaths on the road in Great Britain if
the limit here were lowered to 50mg/100ml. Lowering the limit is seen not as a measure to be taken in
isolation, but as part of a substantial initiative to resume and sustain a clear downward trend in death and
injury resulting from the avoidable excess risk of driving after drinking
Some reasons for lowering the legal drink-drive limit in Britain
The current legal limit on drivers? blood alcohol content was set at 80mg/100ml nearly 40years ago and there are now only two other Member States of the European Union, both ofthem small countries, with limits higher than 50mg/100ml. Deaths from drink driving inGreat Britain stopped falling 10 years ago, and show signs of rising. The reasons for thesetting of the current limit in 1967 and changes since then are discussed, and a fresh look istaken at the likely annual reduction in deaths on the road in Great Britain if the limit herewere lowered to 50mg/100ml. Lowering the limit is seen not as a measure to be taken inisolation, but as part of a substantial initiative to resume and sustain a clear downwardtrend in death and injury resulting from the avoidable excess risk of driving after drinking
Travel survey data required to inform transport safety policy and practice
The risk of accidental death per hour spent using the roads in Hong Kong is about I I times the average risk per hour in the rest of everyday life. Other kinds of travel also have risks. Changes in travel patterns affect the numbers of people killed and injured in transport accidents. This means that all policies that affect travel patterns also affect the numbers killed and injured in transport accidents, and conversely, changing travel patterns may itself be a way of reducing these numbers. Investigation of these interactions between travel patterns and amount of death and injury in transport accidents can benefit greatly from various kinds of data that are already commonly collected in travel surveys. But the range of such investigations could be extended in useful ways if some additional items of data could be collected in travel surveys. There is also scope for the methods used in travel surveys to be extended in new ways to improve understanding of the occurrence of transport accidents and people's involvement in them by supplementing with surveys akin to travel surveys the data that are recorded when accidents occur
Professional self-regulation in a changing architecture of governance: comparing health policy in the UK and Germany
This chapter compares transformations in professional self-regulation in the UK and Germany through the lens of governance. We introduce an expanded concept of governance
that includes national configurations of stateâprofession relationships and places selfregulation in the context of other forms of governance. The analysis shows that a general
trend towards network governance plays out differently. In the UK, a plural structure of network governance and stakeholder arrangements is emerging in the context of stateled change. In Germany, partnership governance between sickness funds and medical associations shape the transformations and act as a barrier towards the entry of new players
Hypothesis:soluble Aβ oligomers in association with redox-active metal ions are the optimal generators of reactive oxygen species in Alzheimer's disease
Considerable evidence points to oxidative stress in the brain as an important event in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The transition metal ions of Cu, Fe, and Zn are all enriched in the amyloid cores of senile plaques in AD. Those of Cu and Fe are redox active and bind to Aβ in vitro. When bound, they can facilitate the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, and of the latter to the hydroxyl radical. This radical is very aggressive and can cause considerable oxidative damage. Recent research favours the involvement of small, soluble oligomers as the aggregating species responsible for Aβ neurotoxicity. We propose that the generation of reactive oxygen species (i.e., hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals) by these oligomers, in association with redox-active metal ions, is a key molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of AD and some other neurodegenerative disorders
Scoping study of the feasibility of developing a software tool to assist designers of pedestrian crossing places
This report is the outcome of a scoping study of how guidance can be provided for practising highway engineers in designing informal pedestrian crossing facilities. The main component of this report is an analysis by an IT consultant of a range of mechanisms for delivery of this. The study was informed by the opinions of a group of practitioners who have a direct interest in the provision of pedestrian facilities.
These results are placed in context and their consequences are explored in the first part of the report
Video vehicle detection at signalised junctions: a simulation-based study
Many existing advanced methods of traffic signal control depend on information about
approaching traffic provided by inductive loop detectors at particular points in the road. But
analysis of images from CCTV cameras can in principle provide more comprehensive
information about traffic approaching and passing through junctions, and cameras may be
easier to install and maintain than loop detectors, and some systems based on video detection
have already been in use for some time.
Against this background, computer simulation has been used to explore the potential of
existing and immediately foreseeable capability in automatic on-line image analysis to extract
information relevant to signal control from images provided by cameras mounted in
acceptable positions at signal-controlled junctions. Some consequences of extracting relevant
information in different ways were investigated in the context of an existing detailed
simulation model of vehicular traffic moving through junctions under traffic-responsive signal
control, and the development of one basic and one advanced algorithm for traffic-responsive
control. The work was confined as a first step to operation of one very simple signalcontrolled
junction.
Two techniques for extraction of information from images were modelled - a more ambitious
technique based on distinguishing most of the individual vehicles visible to the camera, and a
more modest technique requiring only that the presence of vehicles in any part of the image
be distinguished from the background scene. In the latter case, statistical modelling was used
to estimate the number of vehicles corresponding to any single area of the image that
represents vehicles rather than background.
At the simple modelled junction, each technique of extraction enabled each of the algorithms
for traffic-responsive control of the signals to achieve average delays per vehicle appreciably
lower than those given by System D control, and possibly competitive with those that MOVA
would give, but comparison with MOVA was beyond the scope of the initial study.
These results of simulation indicate that image analysis of CCTV pictures should be able to
provide sufficient information in practice for traffic-responsive control that is competitive
with existing techniques. Ways in which the work could be taken further were discussed with
practitioners, but have not yet been progressed
Withering the citizen, managing the consumer: complaints in healthcare settings
This paper considers concepts of citizenship and consumerism in light of complaints about healthcare, which have risen since the early1990s, due to a greater willingness by the healthcare user to complain, and also the reforms in complaint systems. The narrow legal model for dealing with complaints has been replaced by a managerial model based on corporate sector practice that views complaint handling as a way of retaining customers and organisational learning. The managerial model has proved difficult to embed into the English NHS and has been superposed with a centralised regulatory system that aims to manage performance while also being responsible for reviewing, complaints and being responsive to complainants. It is argued that this may have positive consequences in terms of improving healthcare quality but more negatively, the promotion of consumerism within complaints processes has led to a loss of the right to due process and public accountability
- âŚ