Estimating the safety benefit of separated cycling infrastructure adjusted for behavioral adaptation among drivers; an application of agent-based modelling

Separated cycling infrastructure is a key strategy employed by urban and transport planners to reduce car vs cyclist crashes.We constructed an agent-based model (ABM) to explore the potential effects of introducing progressively greater levels of saturation (e.g., more kms) of separated cycling infrastructure into a transport network in which drivers also demonstrated behavioral adaptation in response to increased exposure to cyclists as suggested by the safety in numbers (SiN) theory.The findings highlight that if behavioral adaptation among drivers is assumed to be a strong mechanism underpinning cyclist safety, the introduction of low levels of separated cycling infrastructure across a network (e.g., few kms) may provide little or no reduction in car vs cyclist crashes. This is due to the countervailing effects that separated infrastructure may have on drivers’ exposure to cyclists; a fundamental contributor to the concept of behavioral adaptation.This study demonstrates the utility of ABMs to explicitly define and model candidate behavioral mechanisms associated with cyclist and vehicle interaction when estimating the interaction of infrastructure and behavioral mechanisms proposed to underlie cyclist safety. Practically, it suggests that greater saturation of separated cycling infrastructure across transport networks may be required to reduce overall car vs cyclist crashes in circumstances where behavioral adaptation is also a strong mechanism contributing to cyclist safety.     

三维适形放疗治疗晚期腹部恶性肿瘤的临床受益和毒副反应

为观察三维适形放疗治疗晚期腹部恶性肿瘤的临床受益情况和毒副反应。对38例晚期腹部恶性肿瘤患者进行三维适形放疗,疗中和疗后进行临床受益情况和毒副反应的观察和评价。结果临床受益情况：有效为28．9％,稳定为42．1％,疼痛缓解率为28．9％;毒副反应主要为骨髓抑制、胃肠道反应、生化指标改变,除少数病例出现Ⅳ度生化指标改变外,其余均在Ⅲ度以下。结论三维适形放疗可以提高晚期腹部恶性肿瘤患者的生存质量,毒副反应轻微,是一种有效的姑息治疗手段。     

Threat of pain influences social context effects on verbal pain report and facial expression

Current theoretical models of pain catastrophizing have diverging predictions regarding the role of social context and perceived threat on pain expression. The communal coping model of catastrophizing predicts that high pain catastrophizers display more pain expression in the presence of another, regardless of the threat value of the pain, while a cognitive appraisal model predicts high pain catastrophizers to express more pain when pain has increased threat value, regardless of social context. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test the validity of both predictions. Healthy participants with varying levels of pain catastrophizing were exposed to a cold pressor task, consisting of a 60 s immersion and 60 s recovery period. Interestingly, the immersion results revealed that beyond and independent from the effects of pain catastrophizing, the effect of threat on verbal pain report and facial expression was dependent on social context and vice versa. In a threatening context, perceived threat of pain mediated the inhibitory effect of social presence on pain expression, suggesting that the observer acted as a safety signal. In the recovery period, social presence enhanced facial expression, but only when no threat was induced. The results are discussed in terms of the dynamic interaction between social context and threat appraisals.     

Ethics and Nanotechnology: Views of Nanotechnology Researchers

A study was conducted of nanotechnology (NT) researchers’ views about ethics in relation to their work. By means of a purpose-built questionnaire, made available on the Internet, the study probed NT researchers’ general attitudes toward and beliefs about ethics in relation to NT, as well as their views about specific NT-related ethical issues. The questionnaire attracted 1,037 respondents from 13 U.S. university-based NT research facilities. Responses to key questionnaire items are summarized and noteworthy findings presented. For most respondents, the ethical responsibilities of NT researchers are not limited to those related to safety and integrity in the laboratory. Most believe that NT researchers also have specific ethical responsibilities to the society in which their research is done and likely to be applied. NT appears to be one of the first areas of contemporary technoscientific activity in which a long-standing belief is being seriously challenged: the belief that society is solely responsible for what happens when a researcher’s work, viewed as neutral and merely enabling, is applied in a particular social context. Survey data reveal that most respondents strongly disagree with that paradigmatic belief. Finally, an index gauging NT researcher sensitivity to ethics and ethical issues related to NT was constructed. A substantial majority of respondents exhibited medium or high levels of sensitivity to ethics in relation to NT. Although most respondents view themselves as not particularly well informed about ethics in relation to NT, a substantial majority are aware of and receptive to ethical issues related to their work, and believe that these issues merit consideration by society and study by current and future NT practitioners.

Can organisational safety climate and occupational stress predict work-related driver fatigue?

Road crashes are a significant cause of work-related injury and death. Driver fatigue is thought to cause 20–30% of fatal crashes. The current study utilised a survey to examine the relationship between safety climate, occupational stress and work-related driver fatigue. Drivers (n = 219) from two government organisations responded to items from the job-related tension scale [Kahn, R. L., Wolfe, D. M., Quinn, R. P., & Snoek, J. D. (1964). Organisational stress: Studies in role conflict and ambiguity. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing], safety climate questionnaire [Glendon, A., & Litherland, D. (2001). Safety climate factors, group differences and safety behaviour in road construction. Safety Science, 39, 157–188] and purpose-designed items on fatigue-related behaviour. Outcome measures were current self-reported, fatigue-related behaviour and self-reported ‘near (crash) misses’ during the previous 6 months. Together, occupational stress and safety climate predicted fatigue-related behaviour, accounting for 29% of the variance over and above that explained by control variables. Further, logistic regression revealed occupational stress and safety climate to be significant predictors of fatigue-related near misses. Safety climate emerged as a stronger predictor of both fatigue-related behaviour and near misses than occupational stress. Results suggest that organisations can play a part in improving the safety-related behaviours of their workforce through attention to safety climate and occupational stress.     

视觉标记：一种优先选择机制

视觉标记是与任务目标相关的自上而下的优先选择解释机制。视觉标记理论对preview效益——对后出现项目的视觉优先选择现象——提供了合理的解释：对先出现的项目自上而下的抑制提高了对后出现项目的优先选择等级。首先介绍视觉标记经典实验范式和preview效益,然后阐述研究者对视觉标记抑制机制的两种主要观点,进而介绍其他优先选择理论对preview效益的解释及其局限性,最后指出视觉标记研究中亟待解决的问题     

经济学评价在临床决策中的应用探讨

医生在临床工作中做出明确诊断,并据此给予有效的处理均属于决策过程。制定决策的整个过程,同时也是进行决策思维的过程。近年来,高新技术的迅猛发展以及医疗费用急剧增加,使制定决策更加复杂。如何进行正确的决策思维,做出最切实可行的和最佳的决策,对避免决策的盲目性具有重要的现实意义。     

Safety and epistemic luck

There is some consensus that for S to know that p, it cannot be merely a matter of luck that S’s belief that p is true. This consideration has led Duncan Pritchard and others to propose a safety condition on knowledge. In this paper, we argue that the safety condition is not a proper formulation of the intuition that knowledge excludes luck. We suggest an alternative proposal in the same spirit as safety, and find it lacking as well.     

Nanotoxicology and Ethical Conditions for Informed Consent

While their strength, electrical, optical, or magnetic properties are expected to contribute a trillion dollars in global commerce before 2015, nanomaterials also appear to pose threats to human health and safety. Nanotoxicology is the study of these threats. Do nanomaterial benefits exceed their risks? Should all nanomaterials be regulated? Currently nanotoxicologists cannot help answer these questions because too little is known about nanomaterials, because their properties differ from those of bulk materials having the same chemical composition, and because they differ so widely in their applications. Instead, this paper answers a preliminary ethical question: What nanotech policies are likely to contribute to society’s ability to give or withhold free informed consent to the potential risks associated with production and use of nanomaterials? This paper argues that at least four current policies appear to jeopardize the risk-disclosure condition that is required for informed consent. These are the funding problem, the conflict-of-interest problem, the labeling problem, and the extrapolation problem. Apart from future decisions on how to ethically make, use, and regulate nanomaterials, this paper argues that, at a minimum, these four policies must be modified. Government must spend greater monies on nanotoxicology; ensure independent nanotoxicology research; label consumer products containing nanomaterials; and avoid assuming that nanotoxicological properties are based merely on mass and chemical composition. Otherwise free informed consent to these new technologies and materials may be jeopardized.     

飞行员风险知觉：概念、测量及研究理论取向

风险知觉是飞行员进行正确风险管理的核心,对保证航空安全具有重要作用。本文首先对不同研究者对飞行员风险知觉的概念进行综述,又与传统的知觉和危险知觉进行了区分。其次,文章简明地介绍了飞行员风险知觉的测量方法,包括外显的主观评价法、飞行模拟器测验、内隐联想测验等方法,分析各种方法的内容与其优缺点。最后,本文分别从认知理论取向和组织文化理论取向两个方面来探讨飞行员风险知觉的研究,并针对两种理论取向,提出相应的未来研究方向。