How much do road accidents cost the national economy?

This paper presents estimates of how much road accidents cost the national economy, stated as a percentage of the gross national product (GNP). Official estimates of road accident costs from 1990 or later were compiled from easily accessible sources for twelve countries. Estimates of the gross national product were taken from OECD publications. On the average, the total costs of road accidents, including an economic valuation of lost quality of life, were estimated to about 2.5% of the gross national product. Excluding the valuation of lost quality of life, road accident costs on the average amounted to 1.3% of the gross national product. When valuation of lost quality of life is included, costs ranged from 0.5 to 5.7% of GNP. When valuation of lost quality of life is disregarded, costs ranged from 0.3 to 2.8% of GNP.     

How good is the equipartition assumption for the transport properties of a granular mixture?

Kinetic-theory, with the assumption of equipartition of granular energy, suggests that the pressure and viscosity of a granular mixture vary monotonically with the mass-ratio. Our simulation results show a non-monotonic behaviour that can be explained qualitatively by a simple model allowing for non-equipartition of granular energy between the species with different mass.     

How much is research in the top journals of industrial/organizational psychology dominated by authors from the U.S.?

Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, the subfield of psychology applied to the context of work, has been criticized for being dominated by U.S. authors because this dominance could prevent the generalizability of results and the enrichment of theories, paradigms, and approaches by researchers from other parts of the world. Previous estimates on the extent of the U.S. dominance are, however, likely restricted in scope, outdated, and likely biased by non-U.S. researchers who were socialized in the U.S. or received help by U.S. co-authors. As such, we measured the level of U.S. dominance by analyzing 5626 papers published from the top ten journals of the field of I/O psychology in the last eleven years and their authors. The results show that the U.S. dominance continues, although the internationalization of I/O psychology has steadily increased. An additional analysis of the gender distribution across our sample revealed that female first authorship is slightly more common among authors with no U.S. affiliation. We suggest several steps to further increase the level of internationalization.

     

How much information can be obtained from tracking the position of the leading edge in a scratch assay?

Moving cell fronts are an essential feature of wound healing, development and disease. The rate at which a cell front moves is driven, in part, by the cell motility, quantified in terms of the cell diffusivity D, and the cell proliferation rate λ. Scratch assays are a commonly reported procedure used to investigate the motion of cell fronts where an initial cell monolayer is scratched, and the motion of the front is monitored over a short period of time, often less than 24 h. The simplest way of quantifying a scratch assay is to monitor the progression of the leading edge. Use of leading edge data is very convenient because, unlike other methods, it is non-destructive and does not require labelling, tracking or counting individual cells among the population. In this work, we study short-time leading edge data in a scratch assay using a discrete mathematical model and automated image analysis with the aim of investigating whether such data allow us to reliably identify D and λ. Using a naive calibration approach where we simply scan the relevant region of the (D, λ) parameter space, we show that there are many choices of D and λ for which our model produces indistinguishable short-time leading edge data. Therefore, without due care, it is impossible to estimate D and λ from this kind of data. To address this, we present a modified approach accounting for the fact that cell motility occurs over a much shorter time scale than proliferation. Using this information, we divide the duration of the experiment into two periods, and we estimate D using data from the first period, whereas we estimate λ using data from the second period. We confirm the accuracy of our approach using in silico data and a new set of in vitro data, which shows that our method recovers estimates of D and λ that are consistent with previously reported values except that that our approach is fast, inexpensive, non-destructive and avoids the need for cell labelling and cell counting.     

How much of protein sequence space has been explored by life on Earth?

We suggest that the vastness of protein sequence space is actually completely explorable during the populating of the Earth by life by considering upper and lower limits for the number of organisms, genome size, mutation rate and the number of functionally distinct classes of amino acids. We conclude that rather than life having explored only an infinitesimally small part of sequence space in the last 4 Gyr, it is instead quite plausible for all of functional protein sequence space to have been explored and that furthermore, at the molecular level, there is no role for contingency.     

How big is the linear region of irreversible thermodynamics?

The driving forces of diffusion reach their largest values in thin films. Temperature and voltage gradients may be steep simply because the film is thin.The matter and energy fluxes of diffusion contain, in principle, a whole series of cross terms. Commonly, we take only first order terms and ignore those of second and higher order; we restrict ourselves to “small” temperature and voltage gradients, to “the linear region of irreversible thermodynamics”.But how big is “small”? The present paper proposes that the linear region of irreversible thermodynamics extends from complete equilibrium to limits in which the energy change in the carrier system (e.g. phonons or plasmons), over a distance of one mean free path along the energy gradient, is comparable with the total energy in the carrier system. If the energy is E and the mean free path is λ, the limit occurs when

$\text{λ▽E}\text{E→1}$

Within this limit, experiments in thermomigration and electromigration measure equilibrium properties. The “reduced heat of transport” of a crystal defect is rigorously identified as the thermal energy of the defect structure.     

How close is close enough?

This is a non-trivial question when it comes to radiation dosimetry.The determination of absorbed dose or dose equivalent is oftenmore than an academic exercise or a research project. In themedical application of ionising radiation, the difference betweena dose delivered to a tumour being too low or too high can resultin either a recurrence or complications due to late effects.In this case, the dose has to be just right. And, the degreeof just-rightedness may require the combined standard uncertainty(with no coverage factor) to be just a few percent. If the radiationis being used to sterilise disposable medical products, a similarsituation can occur, although the required uncertainty may besomewhat larger. Too     

How is a fully penetrated state formed in an anisotropic superconductor?

The fully penetrated state of anisotropic superconductors which are extended in thec-axis direction is analyzed using a model to describe the current distributions. Based on magnetooptical investigations on a rectangular single crystal and on a cubic melt-processed YBa₂Cu₃O_7– sample, the current distributions found in (a, b)-planes and (a, c)-planes with the external magnetic field perpendicular to the plane are discussed. The easy flux penetration along the CuO₂ layers is shown to have important consequences for the analysis of angledependent magnetization or torque measurements inc-axis direction extended samples.     

How effective is drug testing as a workplace safety strategy? A systematic review of the evidence

The growing prevalence of workplace drug testing and the narrow scope of previous reviews of the evidence base necessitate a comprehensive review of research concerning the efficacy of drug testing as a workplace strategy. A systematic qualitative review of relevant research published between January 1990 and January 2013 was undertaken. Inclusion criteria were studies that evaluated the effectiveness of drug testing in deterring employee drug use or reducing workplace accident or injury rates. Methodological adequacy was assessed using a published assessment tool specifically designed to assess the quality of intervention studies. A total of 23 studies were reviewed and assessed, six of which reported on the effectiveness of testing in reducing employee drug use and 17 which reported on occupational accident or injury rates. No studies involved randomised control trials. Only one study was assessed as demonstrating strong methodological rigour. That study found random alcohol testing reduced fatal accidents in the transport industry. The majority of studies reviewed contained methodological weaknesses including; inappropriate study design, limited sample representativeness, the use of ecological data to evaluate individual behaviour change and failure to adequately control for potentially confounding variables. This latter finding is consistent with previous reviews and indicates the evidence base for the effectiveness of testing in improving workplace safety is at best tenuous. Better dissemination of the current evidence in relation to workplace drug testing is required to support evidence-informed policy and practice. There is also a pressing need for more methodologically rigorous research to evaluate the efficacy and utility of drug testing.     

How necessary is a fast testkit for mitigation of pandemic flu?

It is widely feared that a novel, highly pathogenic, human transmissible influenza virus may evolve that could cause the next global pandemic. Mitigating the spread of such an influenza pandemic would require not only the timely administration of antiviral drugs to those infected, but also the implementation of suitable intervention policies for stunting the spread of the virus. Towards this end, mathematical modelling and simulation studies are crucial as they allow us to evaluate the predicted effectiveness of the various intervention policies before enforcing them. Diagnosis plays a vital role in the overall pandemic management framework by detecting and distinguishing the pathogenic strain from the less threatening seasonal strains and other influenza-like illnesses. This allows treatment and intervention to be deployed effectively, given limited antiviral supplies and other resources. However, the time required to design a fast and accurate testkit for novel strains may limit the role of diagnosis. Herein, we aim to investigate the cost and effectiveness of different diagnostic methods using a stochastic agent-based city-scale model, and then address the issue of whether conventional testing approaches, when used with appropriate intervention policies, can be as effective as fast testkits in containing a pandemic outbreak. We found that for mitigation purposes, fast and accurate testkits are not necessary as long as sufficient medication is given, and are generally recommended only when used with extensive contact tracing and prophylaxis. Additionally, in the event of insufficient medication and fast testkits, the use of slower, conventional testkits together with proper isolation policies while waiting for the diagnostic results can be an equally effective substitute.     

Exotic quantum effects in the laboratory?

This article provides a brief (non-exhaustive) review of some recent developments regarding the theoretical and possibly experimental study of 'exotic' quantum effects in the laboratory with special emphasis on cosmological particle creation, Hawking radiation and the Unruh effect.     

How old is the Web? Characterizing the age and the currency of the European scientific Web

The aim of this paper is to model and study the age of the Web using a sample of about four million of web pages from the 16 European Research Area countries obtained during 2004 and 2005. Web page time-stamp (date when the web pages were created or last changed for last time), format and size in bytes data have been analysed. Several indicators are introduced to measure longitudinal aspects of the Web. Half-age is proposed as a measure of the age distribution because this is found to be exponential. “Web Update Index” and “Lifespan Index” are introduced to measure the changing rate of a small sample over time. Results show that the British Web space has the youngest Web pages while the Greek and Belgian ones have the oldest. The study also compared Web pages topics and found that Biology pages are more stable than Physics pages.     

How much distance do we need? Revisiting the “National cultural distance paradox”

Abstract and Key Results

How important is vehicle safety in the new vehicle purchase process?

Whilst there has been a significant increase in the amount of consumer interest in the safety performance of privately owned vehicles, the role that it plays in consumers’ purchase decisions is poorly understood. The aims of the current study were to determine: how important vehicle safety is in the new vehicle purchase process; what importance consumers place on safety options/features relative to other convenience and comfort features, and how consumers conceptualise vehicle safety. In addition, the study aimed to investigate the key parameters associated with ranking ‘vehicle safety’ as the most important consideration in the new vehicle purchase. Participants recruited in Sweden and Spain completed a questionnaire about their new vehicle purchase. The findings from the questionnaire indicated that participants ranked safety-related factors (e.g., EuroNCAP (or other) safety ratings) as more important in the new vehicle purchase process than other vehicle factors (e.g., price, reliability etc.). Similarly, participants ranked safety-related features (e.g., advanced braking systems, front passenger airbags etc.) as more important than non-safety-related features (e.g., route navigation systems, air-conditioning etc.). Consistent with previous research, most participants equated vehicle safety with the presence of specific vehicle safety features or technologies rather than vehicle crash safety/test results or crashworthiness. The key parameters associated with ranking ‘vehicle safety’ as the most important consideration in the new vehicle purchase were: use of EuroNCAP, gender and education level, age, drivers’ concern about crash involvement, first vehicle purchase, annual driving distance, person for whom the vehicle was purchased, and traffic infringement history. The findings from this study are important for policy makers, manufacturers and other stakeholders to assist in setting priorities with regard to the promotion and publicity of vehicle safety features for particular consumer groups (such as younger consumers) in order to increase their knowledge regarding vehicle safety and to encourage them to place highest priority on safety in the new vehicle purchase process.     

Stabilizing the Rössler system by external pulses on a runaway trajectory

The action of external pulses on the Rössler system prior to the onset of a saddle-node type bifurcation on a runaway trajectory is considered. It is shown that a pulsed drive can lead to the appearance of stable periodic and quasi-periodic regimes in the nonautonomous system.