Response to automatic speed control in urban areas: A simulator study.

Speed affects both the likelihood and severity of an accident. Attempts to reduce speed have centred around road design and traffic calming, enforcement and feedback techniques and public awareness campaigns. However, although these techniques have met with some success, they can be both costly and context specific. No single measure has proved to be a generic countermeasure effective in reducing speed, leading to the suggestion that speed needs to be controlled at the source, i.e. within the vehicle. An experiment carried out on the University of Leeds Advanced Driving Simulator evaluated the effects of speed limiters on driver behavionr. Safety was measured using following behaviour, gap acceptance and traffic violations, whilst subjective mental workload was recorded using the NASA RTLX. It was found that although safety benefits were observed in terms of lower speeds, longer headways and fewer traffic light violations, drivers compensated for loss of time by exhibiting riskier gap acceptance behaviour and delayed braking behaviour. When speed limited, drivers' self-reports indicated that their driving performance improved and less physical effort was required, but that they also experienced increases in feelings of frustration and time pressure. It is discussed that there is a need for a total integrated assessment of the long term effects of speed limiters on safety, costs, energy, pollution, noise, in addition to investigation of issues of acceptability by users and car manufacturers

Blood parasites in endangered wildlife - Trypanosomes discovered during a survey of haemoprotozoa from the Tasmanian devil

The impact of emerging infectious diseases is increasingly recognised as a major threat to wildlife. Wild populations of the endangered Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, are experiencing devastating losses from a novel transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD); however, despite the rapid decline of this species, there is currently no information on the presence of haemoprotozoan parasites. In the present study, 95 Tasmanian devil blood samples were collected from four populations in Tasmania, Australia, which underwent molecular screening to detect four major groups of haemoprotozoa: (i) trypanosomes, (ii) piroplasms, (iii) Hepatozoon, and (iv) haemosporidia. Sequence results revealed Trypanosoma infections in 32/95 individuals. Trypanosoma copemani was identified in 10 Tasmanian devils from three sites and a second Trypanosoma sp. was identified in 22 individuals that were grouped within the poorly described T. cyclops clade. A single blood sample was positive for Babesia sp., which most closely matched Babesia lohae. No other blood protozoan parasite DNA was detected. This study provides the first insight into haemoprotozoa from the Tasmanian devil and the first identification of Trypanosoma and Babesia in this carnivorous marsupial

Variability of megathrust earthquakes in the world revealed by the 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake

The seismicity of the Pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan has been investigated in detail and characterized into regional seismic segments. The 2011 megathrust earthquake of Mw9.0 on 11 March ruptured almost all of the segments in that area, causing devastating tsunami. The prime factor that had not been recognized before is the double segmentation along the Japan trench: The apparent absence of earthquakes in the trench-ward segments as opposed to the Japan Island-ward segments that have repeated smaller earthquakes. We term this pattern of seismic activity along-dip double segmentation (ADDS). The 2011 Tohoku megathrust is typical of a class of great earthquakes different from that of the 1960 Chile, in which a young and buoyant plate is subducting rapidly under the continental plate. In the 1960 Chile case, the seismic activity is characterized by along-strike single segmentation (ASSS), where there is weak seismic activity before the main event all over the plate interface of the subduction zone. We study the greatest earthquakes around the world and find that there is a variety of megathrust earthquakes characterized by ASSS to ADDS, where the 2004 Sumatra- Andaman, the 1960 Chile, the 1964 Alaska and the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquakes are typical end-members

On the short-time behavior of the implied volatility for jump-diffusion models with stochastic volatility

Black-Scholes formula, Derivative operator, Itô’s formula for the Skorohod integral, Jump-diffusion stochastic volatility model, G12, G13, 91B28, 91B70, 60H07,

Pricing volatility of stock returns with volatile and persistent components

Risk return, In-mean effect, Volatility, Long memory, Innovations, C14, G12, G15,