bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Triumph of Death: National Security and Imperial Erasures in Don DeLillo's Underworld
Authors: Noon David
Published: January 2008

Abstract:

Writing against the dominant tendencies of popular historical memory in the 1990s, Don DeLillo's Underworld depicts the civic and ecological catastrophes left in the wake of the cold war. In particular, DeLillo surveys the wreckage of the American public sphere in ways that are both comic and distressing. Yet Underworld's critique remains partial. Although Underworld highlights the complicity of the national security state in the erosion of national community, he is nevertheless unable to fully imagine the consequences of the cold war for other communities, especially Native American communities in the nuclear West, who were most severely trampled by it.
The Addressed and the Redressed: Helen Hunt Jackson's Protest Essay and the US Protest Novel Tradition
Authors: Norman Brian
Published: January 2008

Abstract:

If the American protest essay is available to writers who engage in political advocacy, what is its relationship to the much more famous protest novel tradition? Writings in the protest mode, even those by established novelists, are often considered non-literary on the grounds that they are too polemical, ephemeral, or earnestly partisan. This article examines the case of Helen Hunt Jackson, whose protest novel Ramona (1884) was a wild commercial success and spawned a myth of New California that persists to the present day. But the novel has its origins in A Century of Dishonor (1881), a dense protest essay published three years prior, in which Jackson seeks justice in a direct appeal to the US Congress on behalf of American Indians. Jackson's overlooked essay version of Ramona provides an instructive case study of how protest essays may better perform the political work often attempted—but not always achieved—in the protest novel. Whereas literary studies often dismisses protest essays as non-literary, merely political, or journalistic, or in some way positions them as subsidiary, my project places such work at the centre of a literary tradition deeply concerned with the fulfilment of the nation's promises to be inclusive.
Development of New Moisture-Conditioning Procedure for Hot-Mix Asphalt
Authors: Birgisson Bjorn , Roque Reynaldo , Page Gale C. , Wang Jianlin
Published: January 2008

The presence of pore water in mixtures can cause premature failure of hot-mix asphalt pavements. The processes typically associated with moisture damage are complex and occur over a long period of time in the field. Short of being able to simulate each of the possible mechanisms of moisture damage directly, the ideal laboratory-based conditioning system should accelerate the penetration of moisture through the asphalt film and at the same time minimize complicating effects. This paper presents the results of an experiment conducted to determine whether it was possible to use cyclic pore pressures to induce enough damage to distinguish between mixtures known to be highly resistant from mixtures known to be susceptible to moisture damage. Experimental constraints included requirements that conditioning be accomplished within a reasonable length of time and that typical laboratory equipment be used. Evaluation of the resulting effects of moisture damage included the use of the Superpave® indirect tension test and the energy ratio parameter. Findings show that cyclic pore pressures can be used to accelerate moisture damage enough to distinguish between mixtures known to be strippers and those known to be highly resistant to moisture damage. The use of cyclic pore pressures to accelerate moisture damage in mixtures may minimize the introduction of other confounding damage effects on the mixtures.
Sample Size Requirements for Field Permeability Measurements of Hot-Mix Asphalt Pavements
Authors: Williams Stacy G.
Published: January 2008

The permeability of coarse-graded asphalt mixtures has been of great concern in recent years. Asphalt mixes that are permeable are susceptible to a number of distresses, such as moisture damage, raveling, cracking, and binder oxidation. In this study, seven sites were mapped according to the vacuum permeameter method to determine the location and distribution of permeable voids. The variability of the sites was evaluated to determine an appropriate sample size for permeability testing. Relatively impermeable pavements were consistent; pavements with moderate or high permeability were more variable. Relationships between sample size, reliability, and testing discrimination are presented. Based on the range of standard deviations measured in this project, a minimum sample size of 10 is recommended for pavements with marginal densities or variable consistency. On the basis of the results of this study, permeability test results are highly dependent on the placement of the permeameter during testing, the effective testing area of the permeameter, and the variability of the pavement. Field permeability testing may have value as a forensic tool, but the large sample size required is not conducive to standard quality control procedures.
Evaluating Georgia's Compaction Requirements for Stone Matrix Asphalt Mixtures
Authors: West Randy C. , Moore Jason R. , Jared David M. , Wu Peter Y.
Published: January 2008

This study determined a compaction level for stone matrix asphalt (SMA) mixes with the Superpave® gyratory compactor (SGC) that would match a 50-blow Marshall compaction using aggregates and mix designs common in Georgia. SMA mix designs were prepared with five aggregate sources using a 50-blow Marshall compaction and using 50, 75, and 100 gyrations with an SGC. Optimum asphalt contents from the mix designs were compared. Aggregate breakdown from each of the compactions was analyzed. Laboratory rutting tests were conducted on each mix design by using the asphalt pavement analyzer (APA). Results of the laboratory mix designs indicated that generally 35 gyrations in the SGC provided the same density as Marshall compaction. At 50 gyrations, the optimum asphalt contents for the SMA mixtures were 0.1% to 0.5% less than when the Marshall hammer was used; however, four of the five mix designs with 50 gyrations met Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications. Aggregate breakdown was slightly less with the SGC than with the Marshall hammer. APA tests showed that the mix designs were not sensitive to asphalt content, and all passed Georgia DOT requirements. Testing with plant-produced SMA mixtures confirmed that 34 gyrations in the SGC yielded specimen densities equivalent to the Marshall compaction. For the plant-produced mixtures, compaction in the SGC caused less aggregate breakdown than with the Marshall hammer. The field mixtures also performed well in APA testing. On the basis of results from the laboratory and field mixes, 50 gyrations are recommended with the SGC to replace 50-blow Marshall compaction for SMA mix design in Georgia.
Long-Term Performance of Superpave in Specific Pavement Study 9A
Authors: Middleton Brent , Falls Lynne Cowe
Published: January 2008

As part of the Long-Term Pavement Performance Program, an experiment identified as Specific Pavement Study 9A (SPS-9A) was established to evaluate the long-term performance of the Superpave® mix design methodology. At each project location, three main test sections were constructed, incorporating the conventional agency mix design, the Superpave Level I mix design with a 98% reliability performance-grade (PG) asphalt binder, and Superpave with an alternative PG binder to evaluate rutting or thermal cracking performance. Further supplementary test sections were constructed at most projects to evaluate the use of other PG asphalt binders with the Superpave mix design. This paper provides a performance comparison and paired T-test analysis of the Superpave Level I mix methodology with conventional agency mix methodology based on the SPS-9A experiment test sections. In addition, the performance impact of PG asphalt binder grades and the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement in Superpave was assessed by statistical analysis of field distresses. Field distresses evaluated in the study include fatigue cracking, thermal cracking, and rutting. Although some trends were identified, overall there was no statistically significant difference in performance between the considered PG asphalt binder grades and mix design types. These results would indicate that asphalt binder and mixture properties probably play a larger role in performance than binder and mix design classification. However, because of the level of asphalt binder and mixture property data in DataPave Release 20.0, a more detailed evaluation of binder and mixture properties on performance was not possible.
Predicting the Resilient Modulus of Asphalt Concrete from the Dynamic Modulus
Authors: Lacroix Andrew , Khandan A. Ardalan Mosavi , Kim Y. Richard
Published: January 2008

The NCHRP 1-37A Guide for Mechanistic-Empirical Design of New and Rehabilitated Design Structures introduces the dynamic modulus as the material property to characterize asphalt concrete. This is a significant change from the resilient modulus used in the previous AASHTO pavement design guide. This paper presents an analytical method of calculating the resilient modulus from the dynamic modulus. It involves the application of multiaxial linear viscoelastic theory to linear elastic solutions for the indirect tension test developed by Hondros. The prediction method is verified by using three 12.5-mm surface course mixtures with different aggregate shapes and binder types and one 25.0-mm base mixture. Results show that the predicted and measured resilient modulus values are in close agreement. The results provide a forward model for the potential back-calculation of the dynamic modulus from resilient modulus databases already available in highway agencies, such as the Long-Term Pavement Performance Materials Database.
Crosswalk Confusion
Authors: Mitman Meghan Fehlig , Ragland David R.
Published: January 2008

Traffic safety researchers have long argued that driver behavior outweighs physical elements (such as road design) as a causal factor in motor vehicle collisions. A fundamental causal component of pedestrian-vehicle collisions is also behavior: that of the driver and that of the pedestrian. One determinant of this behavior may be whether the driver, the pedestrian, or both understand the motor vehicle code, which demarcates the right-of-way in pedestrian-vehicle interactions. That is, inappropriate or unlawful behavior may occur because the law is not understood or is misunderstood. Previous studies have shown that drivers and pedestrians have a limited knowledge of pedestrian right-of-way laws. This research expands on these studies by specifically considering knowledge of right-of-way laws related to marked and unmarked crosswalks. Driver and pedestrian knowledge was assessed by the use of intercept surveys and focus groups conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The results confirm that a substantial level of confusion about pedestrian right-of-way laws exists. This confusion was exacerbated by intersections that had unstriped, or unmarked, crosswalks. The implications for engineering, education, and enforcement countermeasures in light of these findings are discussed; and areas for further research are proposed.
Development of New Pile-Driving Formula and Its Calibration for Load and Resistance Factor Design
Authors: Allen Tony M.
Published: January 2008

Before 1997, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) used the Engineering News (EN) formula for driving piling to design capacity. WSDOT-sponsored research published in 1988 had shown that the EN formula was quite inaccurate and that adopting the Gates formula would be a substantial improvement. In 1996, an in-house study was initiated to identify or develop a new driving formula to be used for routine pile-driving acceptance in the WSDOT standard specifications. Recently, compiled databases of pile load test results were used as the basis for developing improvements to the Gates formula to improve the prediction accuracy of pile-bearing resistance. From this empirical analysis, the WSDOT driving formula was derived. Once the WSDOT driving formula had been developed, the empirical data used for its development were also used to establish statistics that could be used in reliability analyses to determine resistance factors for load and resistance factor design. The Monte Carlo method was used to perform the reliability analyses. Other methods of pile resistance prediction were analyzed, and resistance factors were developed for those methods. Of the driving formulas evaluated, calibration of the WSDOT formula produced the most efficient result, and a resistance factor of 0.55 was recommended. Dynamic measurement during pile driving using the pile-driving analyzer, combined with signal matching analysis (e.g., Case Analysis Pile Wave Analysis Program), produced the most efficient result of all the pile resistance prediction methods.
Alternative Water Sources in Earthwork Construction
Authors: Jayawickrama Priyantha W. , Rajagopalan Srinath
Published: January 2008

During periods of drought, good-quality water becomes a precious commodity, especially in those parts of the United States that receive little rainfall. One way to reduce the demand for drinking water is to substitute non-drinking-quality water in earthwork construction. If nonpotable water from local sources can be used in construction, then the need for hauling in good-quality water from distant sources and the potential for construction delays because of water rationing can be avoided. A research study investigated the feasibility of using alternative water sources in earthwork construction. As a part of this study, alternative water supplies in Texas were identified and characterized for quality and volume availability. In addition, each proposed water source was evaluated to determine whether there were any adverse environmental impacts from its use in earthwork construction. Potential impact from the use of low-quality water on constructability, material behavior, and performance also were evaluated. Of special interest were the effects on corrosive potential, sulfate heave, and dispersion potential of the soil. Simple predictive models are presented to help when decisions are made regarding acceptance or rejection of water obtained from a specific source.
Using Geogrids to Minimize Reflective Longitudinal Cracking on Pavements over Shrinking Subgrades
Authors: Prozzi Jorge A. , Luo Rong
Published: January 2008

Texas has the most extensive network of surface-treated pavements in the United States. This network has suffered from the detrimental effects of changing environmental conditions and expansive soils in the subgrade since its deployment. Longitudinal cracking is one the most prevalent pavement distresses caused by volumetric change of the expansive subgrade. Preliminary practice showed that geogrids can be used as reinforcement to reduce the reflection of longitudinal cracking on the pavement over shrinking subgrades effectively. However, little is known about the mechanism leading to propagation of the longitudinal cracks to the surface of the pavement, and accordingly, the benefit of using geogrid treatment has not been properly quantified. The stress field and constitutive models of the subgrade soil subjected to matric suction change were evaluated. Fracture mechanics theory was used to analyze the crack propagation in the pavement and the mechanism of the geogrid reinforcement. A finite element model was developed to simulate the crack in the pavement and to estimate the stress intensity factor at the crack tips. The benefit of using geogrids was quantified by comparing the stress intensity factors of the crack in the pavement with and without a geogrid. Results showed that geogrids can significantly reduce the stress intensity factor at the crack tip in the pavement; this indicates that the desiccation cracks in the subgrade are less likely to propagate through the base layer toward the pavement surface. The geogrid with higher stiffness provided marginal additional reinforcement to the pavement structure.
Numerical Parametric Study of Strip Footing on Reinforced Embankment Soils
Authors: Abu-Farsakh Murad Y. , Gu Jie , Voyiadjis George , Tao Mingjiang
Published: January 2008

Finite element analyses were conducted to assess the benefits of reinforcing embankment soil of low to medium plasticity with geogrids beneath a strip footing from the perspective of the ultimate bearing capacity and footing settlement. The embankment soil was modeled with the Drucker-Prager constitutive model, and the soil-geogrid interaction was modeled by the Coulomb friction model. The finite element model was verified first by laboratory model tests; it was then used to analyze the strip footing sitting on the reinforced soil to seek an optimum reinforcement design. To this end, several geogrid-reinforcement design parameters–including effective reinforcing depth, vertical spacing between reinforcement layers, geogrid stiffness, soil-geogrid interaction coefficient, depth (top spacing) of first geogrid layer, footing embedment, and footing width–were investigated. The results of this study showed that the effective reinforcement depth was approximately 1.5 times the footing width, and an optimum depth of first reinforcement layer existed where the highest bearing capacity could be achieved. The influence of other design parameters on footing's bearing capacity and settlement was also analyzed.
Subsurface Drainage and Premature Distresses in Concrete Pavement
Authors: Elfino Mohamed K. , Hossain M. Shabbir
Published: January 2008

Field and laboratory forensic investigations were used to identify the failure mechanism of a jointed plain concrete pavement with a subsurface drainage system in Virginia. Similar to many states' practice, this subsurface drainage system consists of open-graded drainage layer and edge drains to provide positive drainage for the pavement. The investigation included a review of construction practices and pavement performance records, a visual distress survey, nondestructive testing using a falling weight deflectometer, roughness measurements using a profiler, coring and boring for materials testing, observation wells, subgrade soil classification, mineralogy, determination of concrete compressive strength, edge drain camera inspection, and slab removal. On the basis of the investigation, it was concluded that lack of positive drainage along with heavily loaded truck traffic resulted in premature failure. The water entering the pavement because of poor joint sealing was trapped in the open-graded drainage layer; this led to severe faulting, midslab cracks, pumping, and eventual failure of the pavement.
Finite Element Modeling of Field Performance of Permeable Bases under Asphalt Pavement
Authors: Rabab'ah Samer , Liang Robert Y.
Published: January 2008

The performance of permeable base materials used by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) was evaluated with a calibrated finite element modeling technique. Two bound permeable base materials (asphalt-treated base and cement-treated base) and four unbound base course materials (typical ODOT 304, 307-IA, 307-NJ, and 307-CE) were built on two monitoring sites on I-90 in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Moisture content measurements were made with time domain reflectometry. Movement of water through the six pavement sections at the project site was modeled by the finite element method. The two-dimensional finite element software (Seep/W) capable of simulating unsaturated water flow in layered systems was used. Precipitation recorded from an automated weather station at the monitoring site was used as an input in the model. Numerical simulation results showed that the finite element method can be used to simulate water flow through pavement layers. Accurate modeling of the boundary and initial conditions is important for results in accurate simulation of the measured field moisture regimes. The concept of time to drain outlined by AASHTO was used to evaluate the drainage efficiency of different permeable base materials. In general, both bound and unbound base materials specified in ODOT materials specifications meet drainage efficiency requirements. However, the ODOT 304 fill material, if it contains 13% of fines or more, cannot provide efficient drainage according to the time-to-drain criteria.
Engineering Framework for Self-Consistent Analysis of Falling Weight Deflectometer Data
Authors: Westover Thomas M. , Guzina Bojan B.
Published: January 2008

In pavement engineering practice, the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) is a recognized nondestructive tool to evaluate the mechanical characteristics of layered pavement systems. Unfortunately, elastostatic backcalculation remains the norm in the interpretation of FWD data, even though its underlying (static) analysis is inconsistent with the dynamic nature of the FWD test. Because of wave propagation effects, which are especially pronounced in the presence of a shallow stiff layer, the peak pavement deflections induced by the FWD loading can differ significantly from their static counterparts and thus compromise the conventional backcalculation of pavement moduli. In this study a frequency domain–based preprocessing procedure was developed to extract the static pavement response from the transient FWD records to provide a more consistent input for the elastostatic recovery of pavement profiles. To ensure the fidelity of the educed static deflections, the key drawbacks of typical field FWD data, namely, the baseline offset and the low-frequency noise pollution, were examined and remedied. For pavement engineering applications, the featured preprocessing procedure for extracting the static deflections from dynamic FWD records was implemented in a user-friendly graphical environment, GopherCalc. By comparing the results of the proposed and existing backanalyses applied to both synthetically generated (elastodynamic) data and field records, it was found that the proposed procedure had the potential for mitigating systematic errors associated with the dynamic nature of the FWD test while retaining the computationally effective elastostatic backcalculation scheme.
Prediction of Wet-Pavement Skid Resistance and Hydroplaning Potential
Authors: Ong G. P. , Fwa T. F.
Published: January 2008

The current means of predicting the skid resistance of a wet pavement and the speed at which hydroplaning would occur are based on empirical models or relationships derived from experimental studies. These models and relationships are applicable only for the conditions specified, and extrapolations beyond the applicability range of parameters (e.g., vehicle speed, tire load, tire inflation pressure, water film thickness, and type of tire and pavement surface) are not advisable. Such restrictions could be overcome by developing an analytical model based on theoretical considerations. An analytical model also would provide a more in-depth understanding of the relative influence of different parameters. A three-dimensional finite element model is presented to predict wet-pavement skid resistance and hydroplaning speeds (i.e., wheel speed at which hydroplaning occurs) under different magnitudes of passenger-car wheel load, tire inflation pressure, water film thickness, and vehicle speed. The analysis shows that hydroplaning speed increases (i.e., hydroplaning risk decreases) with wheel load and tire inflation pressure but decreases with the depth of water film thickness. The skid resistance measured in terms of skid number decreases as the sliding-wheel speed or the water film thickness increases but increases with the magnitude of the wheel load and is affected marginally by the tire inflation pressure. Within the normal passenger-car operation range of each of the parameters, the hydroplaning speed is affected most by tire inflation pressure followed by water film thickness and is least influenced by the wheel load; the skid resistance is most influenced by sliding-wheel speed followed by water film thickness and wheel load and is least affected by the tire inflation pressure.
Assessment of Airport Productivity
Authors: Pathomsiri Somchai
Published: January 2008

The move toward commercialization and privatization has pressured airports to become more productive and competitive. Airport managers around the globe are using several performance measures to monitor their businesses and improve operational efficiency. In recent years, several studies have devised an overall productivity measure. A new study contributes to those publications in two major ways. First, unlike past studies, it explicitly considers the joint production of both desirable and undesirable outputs, that is, delays. Second, it investigates the robustness of the assessment. The results indicate that the selection of inputs and desirable and undesirable output measures can dramatically affect the productivity assessment of airports, the calculated level of inefficiency, the calculation of potential output, and the determination of productivity growth.
Electronic Freight Theft Management System for Florida
Authors: Klodzinski Jack , Kerr Patrick
Published: January 2008

An electronic freight theft management system has recently been developed by the Center for Advanced Transportation Systems Simulation. The system was designed to be a comprehensive online application for the reporting, documentation, and warehousing of information on intermodal freight theft and related occurrences. A hierarchical database structure is the foundation for data capture, storage, and retrieval. System deployment is intended to benefit conglomerate corporations, independent sole proprietor commercial vehicle operators, and law enforcement agencies. The online system can be used to assist law enforcement in prioritizing theft investigations or recovery operations by the significance level of the stolen cargo. If deployed nationally, it would offer criminal investigation officers a universal freight theft data system with interjurisdictional application and versatility to assist in cross-reference of available data through any available Internet connection and web browser. The system has been structured to allow application of data mining techniques to the database. The system has simplicity and scalability without loss of performance and has built-in alerts to identify stolen commodities that pose a possible threat to national homeland security. A system for Florida law enforcement has been designed and deployed. The new web-based system replaced the previous paper-based system that used a fax machine to distribute theft reports. The new system distributes reports and bulletins electronically via automated e-mails. This enhancement is projected to reduce response time significantly, provide greater accessibility to available data for officers, and increase the ability to provide more accurate theft recovery information.
Eye Movement Patterns for Novice Teen Drivers
Authors: Olsen Erik C. B. , Lee Suzanne E. , Simons-Morton Bruce G.
Published: January 2008

Attention to the road is essential to safe driving, but the development of appropriate eye glance scanning behaviors may require substantial driving experience. Novice teen drivers may focus almost exclusively on the road ahead rather than scanning the mirrors, and when performing secondary tasks, they may spend more time with eyes on the task than on the road. This paper examines the extent to which the scanning of novice teens improves with experience. For this study, 18 novice teen (younger than 17.5 years old) and 18 experienced adult drivers performed a set of in-vehicle tasks and a baseline driving segment on a test track, the teens within 4 weeks of licensure and then again 6 months later. This paper addresses the following questions: Did teen eye glance performance improve from initial assessment? Did teens and adults still differ after 6 months? Results for some tasks showed that rearview and left mirror–window (LM-W) glances improved for teens from initial testing to the 6-month follow-up and that some differences between teens and adults at initial testing were no longer significant at the 6-month follow-up, suggesting significant learning effects. The frequency of rearview and LM-W glances during secondary tasks improved among teens at the 6-month follow-up, but teens still had significantly fewer glances to mirrors than did adults when engaged in a secondary task.
Family Matter
Authors: D'Ambrosio Lisa A. , Coughlin Joseph F. , Mohyde Maureen , Gilbert Jennifer , Reimer Bryan
Published: January 2008

Decisions about limiting or stopping driving are among the most difficult that older adults face. There is little research related to this decision making of older drivers, family members, and other trusted individuals who contribute to the decision. To report on the preferences that older drivers have for conversations with others with concerns about their driving, this paper draws on a series of focus groups and a U.S. survey of drivers age 50 and older. A majority of survey respondents indicated that they engaged in some degree of voluntary self-regulation of their driving. People generally preferred to be approached by individual family members as opposed to those outside the family for conversations about their driving. In terms of preferences for who should speak with the older driver, differences emerged on the basis of household status. Most older adults who were married preferred to hear first from a spouse, although the choice was not universal. Doctors and adult children were also preferred choices for conversations. The paper concludes with a discussion of pragmatic implications of the research for conducting conversations with older adults about concerns with their driving.
Safety Effect of Officer Enforcement Programs that Target Red Light Violations
Authors: Bonneson James A. , Zimmerman Karl
Published: January 2008

This paper examines the effectiveness of a citywide targeted enforcement program implemented in eight cities. In this program, enforcement agencies focused on intersection traffic control violations and used a heightened level of enforcement relative to that otherwise employed. The program was sustained for a period that ranged from several months to 2 years and was coupled with a public awareness campaign. The results of the analysis revealed that crashes related to red light running were reduced by 6.4% during program implementation. An analysis of program benefits and costs indicated that it had a benefit–cost ratio of 12:1. The effectiveness of this type of officer enforcement program was found to be similar to that of camera (or automated) enforcement.
Development of Footprint Methodology for Road Safety
Authors: Morsink Peter , Oppe Siem , Reurings Martine , Wegman Fred
Published: January 2008

Progress in traffic safety is the result of many developments, including political decisions, the development of safety plans and actions, and the implementation of these plans and actions. This paper explores ways of presenting road safety information to help decision makers understand how the interaction between many factors leads to improvements in the safety quality components of the traffic system and finally to reductions in road casualties. Simple one-factor bar charts cannot be used to this effect. In the SUNflower+6 project, a methodology has been developed that results in a “road safety footprint” for a country or jurisdiction. This footprint helps to identify strong and weak points in the traffic system, to direct to further and more detailed analyses, and to assist in finding ways to further road safety improvements. The development of this method was one of the goals of the SUNflower+6 project, which aimed to assess the state of the art in road safety of nine European countries and presented recommendations for the improvement of road safety in these countries and the European Commission. A footprint provides a representation of the road safety status and development over time in a country and can be used for benchmarking purposes. At this stage, the proposed methodology is considered to be a first step that may eventually grow into a widespread tool for benchmarking road safety. In the near future, further research will be conducted to learn from practical application of the developed methodology in more countries and jurisdictions in the world.
Social Risk Index to Hurricanes in Coastal Regions of Rhode Island
Authors: Campbell Alolade , Thomas Natacha , Hunter Christopher , Levesque Cynthia
Published: January 2008

A commonly accepted framework of mass disaster evacuation postulates dependency on resilience and on exposure of the risk posed to groups by a threat. Resilience relates to the material and conceptual resources available within reach or through the larger community. Exposure varies with such factors as location relative to the threat agent's pathway, magnitude, and scope over time. Also commonly accepted is the chronic lack of resources and the dependence on public means that afflict disenfranchised segments of a population. Clearly, to mitigate the disparities in evacuation risk across social boundaries, it becomes imperative that the community at large make available tangible and intangible resources to its disenfranchised segments. A risk analysis helps agencies assess who faces the risks, where the risks are faced, which resources are lacking to cause facing of the risks, and what risks are being faced; the analysis thus eases derivation of a future scheme for the allocation of resources. This study ranks and compares the risks posed by hurricanes to the coastal towns of Rhode Island. To this end, it proposes a conceptual framework for assessing risk under hurricane threat. It then assesses a hurricane risk index that uses the social predictors of resilience prevailing within the hurricane evacuation zones in each coastal town. It gleaned the empirical data necessary for this assessment from disaster-related literature, emergency management agencies, and readily available GIS databases. This paper, in essence, exposes the social inequities that result in disparities in resilience among towns within the hurricane evacuation zones of coastal Rhode Island.
Train Wreck and Chlorine Spill in Graniteville, South Carolina
Authors: Dunning A. E. , Oswalt Jennifer L.
Published: January 2008

The 2005 railroad chlorine spill in Graniteville, South Carolina, killed “only” nine people, but it illustrated the difficulties of achieving adequate capacity to handle no-notice evacuation for hazardous materials incidents. This research uses Graniteville as a case study to highlight needs for building capacity in evacuation capabilities and transportation recovery. Rail operational concepts emerged, such as the need for positive train control and automatic warning technology. The local community faced several challenges, including a lack of public understanding of how to react to a chlorine spill (even though chlorine traversed the town daily), public necessity for basic transportation to work after the evacuation, and a need for documentation of transportation infrastructure to facilitate recovery. Finally, evacuation issues arose, such as how to determine whether to shelter in place or evacuate, what routes would protect or harm people given different hazardous materials and how they behave in a spill, and the role of transportation professionals in working with emergency responders to manage evacuation. Experience and lessons learned from Graniteville can help define a national research agenda for the transportation requirements of no-notice and hazardous-materials evacuation.
From Stalin to Putin, An Insider's View
Authors: Power Jonathan
Published: January 2008

Georgi Arbatov, the eminent grise of the Soviet foreign policy apparatus, was waiting for me at the bus stop an hour out of Moscow. A little bowed at 84, he grabbed me by one arm and leaned on his homemade walking stick cut from a nearby birch and led me to a small, shabby block of flats, paint peeling in the entrance, a year's dust and leaves on the staircase. Like his mentor, Yuri Andropov, the former KGB chief and later head of the Soviet Union, Arbatov has always shunned many of the perks of the apparatchiks, content with a modest flat in the city and this dacha in the countryside.

We talked as we did 30 years ago, at great length, over vodka, coffee, cucumber, and beetroot. The advisor to every Soviet president from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev remains as lucid as he was when he told me in November, 1978, that if the West pursued its relationship of growing closer to China on “an anti Soviet basis,” turning China “into some sort of military ally to the West… then there is no place for détente…. What sense would it make for us to agree to reduce armaments in Europe if armaments are simply to be channeled by the West to the Eastern front?”.

The full-page interview—which ran first in the International Herald Tribune and later in many other papers—caused an enormous stir. It was the first time a senior Soviet official had talked at length to a Western journalist on the record, without notes, and answered every question put to him in an easy, conversational manner. Edward Crankshaw, the distinguished Sovietologist, writing in the London Observer, described it as “the most interesting thing to come out of official Moscow since the fall of Khrushchev fourteen years ago.” It was the cover story in The Economist.

This time, if less threatening, he seemed just as preoccupied with the way Western-Russian relations were headed. “We have not yet returned to the Cold War. But we can get into one,” he said quietly. “The danger looms over us. Two years ago it was impossible to think of this. Now it is possible.”

We began our talk with Stalin. Like Arbatov, I am convinced the inbuilt hostility of much of the Western foreign policy elite towards the Soviet Union and later russia has its foundations in a false reading of Moscow's post–World War II territorial ambitions. To understand today's deteriorating relationship we have no choice but to begin there.
Bacterial response to the exposure of 50 Hz electromagnetic fields
Authors: Cellini Luigina , Grande Rossella , Di Campli Emanuela , Di Bartolomeo Soraya , Di Giulio Mara , Robuffo Iole , Trubiani Oriana , Mariggiò Maria A.
Published: January 2008

To investigate the ability of prokaryotic microorganisms to activate strategies in adapting themselves to the environmental stress induced by exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF‐EMF), cultures of Escherichia coli ATCC 700926 exposed at 50 Hz EMF (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 mT), and the respective sham‐exposed controls were studied for: the total and culturable counts, the viability status, the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, the morphological analysis, the genotypical and transcriptional profile. Exposed samples and controls displayed similar total and culturable counts, whereas an increased cell viability was observed in exposed samples re‐incubated for 24 h outside of the solenoid compared to the corresponding controls. An exposure to 50 Hz EMF of 20–120 min produced a significant change of E. coli morphotype with a presence of coccoid cells also aggregated in clusters after re‐incubation of 24 h outside of the solenoid. Atypical lengthened bacterial forms were also observed suggesting a probable alteration during cell division. No changes among DNA fingerprintings and some differences in RNA‐AFLP analysis were observed for each 50 Hz EMF intensities evaluated. Our results indicate that an exposure to 50 Hz EMF acts as a stressing factor on bacteria which can represent a suitable model to investigate acute and chronic effects related to ELF‐EMF exposure. Bioelectromagnetics 29:302–311, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Structurally Characterized Coinage‐Metal–Ethylene Complexes
Authors: Dias H. V. Rasika , Wu Jiang
Published: January 2008

Despite the interest in them, easily isolable and thermally stable CuI, AgI, and AuIcomplexes of ethylene are stilllimited and get increasingly sparse as one descends the group 11 triad towards gold. Recently, there have been some notable developments in this field, including the isolation of gold–ethylene complexes and coinage‐metal adducts with more than one ethylene molecule on a metal center. This article focuses on the chemistry of coinage‐metal–ethylene adducts that have been synthesized and characterized by X‐ray crystallography. Thus far, bidentate and tridentate donors based on nitrogen appear to be the ligands of choice forstabilizing species with an M–C2H4(M = CuI, AgI, and AuI) moiety. Weakly donating ligands and anions are also commonly used, as they do not interfere with and displace the ethylene from the metal center. The ethylene13C NMR chemical shift provides useful information about the nature of the metal–ethylene interaction. In some adducts (especially those with relatively weak M–C2H4interactions), the change in the C=C bond length upon coordination to the metal site is difficult to discern because it falls within the errors associated with the crystallographically determined C=C bond length value. IR and Raman C=C stretching data would be useful but, probably due to the very weak nature of the IR band and the lack of convenient access to the Raman instruments, are often not reported. In this microreview, results from some computational and gas‐phase spectroscopic studies are also provided for comparison.(© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)
Highly Enantioselective Hydrogenation of Ethyl 5,5‐Dimethoxy‐3‐oxopentanoate and its Application for the Synthesis of a Statin Precursor
Authors: Korostylev Andrei , Andrushko Vasyl , Andrushko Natalia , Tararov Vitali I. , König Gerd , Börner Armin
Published: January 2008

The highly enantioselective hydrogenation of ethyl 5,5‐dimethoxy‐3‐oxopentanoate (3) to ethyl 3‐hydroxy‐5,5‐dimethoxypentanoate (4) – a key intermediate in the synthesis of pharmacologically important statin drugs – has been investigated. The stereochemistry of the catalytic hydrogenation of the β‐keto ester in the presence of a number of homogeneous chiral RhI and RuII complexes with phosphane ligands has been studied. The highest enantioselectivity for the homogeneous hydrogenation of 3 (up to 98.7 % ee) was achieved through an optimized version of Genêt's procedure with a Ru[(R)‐BINAP]Cl2 pre‐catalyst (substrate/catalyst ratio up to 20 000:1, 50 bar H2, 50 °C, in MeOH). The transformation of alcohol R‐(4) into ylide R‐(6) as an important precursor of the chiral side chain of rosuvastatin is also illustrated. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)
Role of attentional resources on gait performance in Huntington's disease
Authors: Delval Arnaud , Krystkowiak Pierre , Delliaux Marie , Dujardin Kathy , Blatt Jean‐Louis , Destée Alain , Derambure Philippe , Defebvre Luc
Published: January 2008

Patients with Huntington's disease (HD) suffer from cognitive deficits with impaired executive functions, including limited attentional resources. We sought to use a dual‐task paradigm to evaluate attentional demands and the ability of patients with HD to concentrate on two tasks simultaneously. We analyzed the interference effects of cognitive and motor tasks on walking in HD and the contribution of clinical symptoms to gait disturbances. Patients and controls were asked to perform either a motor task (carrying a tray with four glasses), a cognitive task (counting backwards), or no task at all while walking at their preferred speed. Kinematic spatial parameters, temporal parameters, and angular parameters related to gait were recorded in 15 patients and 15 controls by means of a videomotion analysis system. Gait instability was assessed using the stride‐to‐stride variability of the various gait parameters. For patients with HD, performing a concurrent cognitive task resulted in a lower gait speed (compared with free walking), with decreased cadence and stride length. However, this effect was not observed in controls. Performing a motor task did not change any kinematic gait parameters in either HD or control subjects. We found correlations between gait speed in the dual cognitive/walking task on one hand and the motor UHDRS score, cognitive status and executive function on the other. Patients with HD had greater difficulty walking while performing a concurrent cognitive task; the drain on attentional resources deteriorated walking performance. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society
Genome-wide scanning versus candidate gene approach in the genetic architecture of common diseases.
Authors: Pirola Carlos , Sookoian Silvia
Published: January 2008

In the Nature 7 June issue, researchers from the Welcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) reported the findings of a large genome-wide association (GWA) study of 14,000 cases of common diseases and 3000 controls studies revealing the role of several loci in the genetic risk of common diseases. We wish to emphasize that by making public the access to databases, consortia allow other investigators to search for association between candidate genes and T2D-related phenotypes. As an example we found, in a pilot study enrolling 1100 individuals that SNPs in the CLOCK (i.e. rs1554483 and rs6843722) were associated with hypertension (p value < 0.01, and 0.01, respectively). Interestingly, the same association was found by the WTCCC study (rs1554483, rs4580704, rs6843722 and rs4864548 with p<0.039, 0.014, 0.049 and 0.019). However, these findings were not mentioned by the authors because of the stringent p value criteria logically used by them in the face of a WGA.
On the fluctuation theorem for the dissipation function and its connection with response theory
Authors: Evans Denis J. , Searles Debra J. , Williams Stephen R.
Published: January 2008

Recently, there has been considerable interest in the fluctuation theorem (FT). The Evans-Searles FT shows how time reversible microscopic dynamics leads to irreversible macroscopic behavior as the system size or observation time increases. We show that the argument of this FT, the dissipation function, plays a central role in nonlinear response theory and derive the dissipation theorem, giving exact relations for nonlinear response of classical N-body systems that are more widely applicable than previous expressions. These expressions should be verifiable experimentally. When linearized they reduce to the well-known Green-Kubo expressions for linear response.
Multireference self-consistent-field energies without the many-electron wave function through a variational low-rank two-electron reduced-density-matrix method
Authors: Gidofalvi Gergely , Mazziotti David A.
Published: January 2008

The variational two-electron reduced-density-matrix (2-RDM) method allows for the computation of accurate ground-state energies and 2-RDMs of atoms and molecules without the explicit construction of an N-electron wave function. While previous work on variational 2-RDM theory has focused on calculating full configuration-interaction energies, this work presents the first application toward approximating multiconfiguration self-consistent-field (MCSCF) energies via low-rank restrictions on the 1- and 2-RDMs. The 2-RDM method with two- or three-particle N-representability conditions reduces the exponential active-space scaling of MCSCF methods to a polynomial scaling. Because the first-order algorithm [Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 213001 (2004)] represents each form of the 1- and 2-RDMs by a matrix factorization, the RDMs are readily defined to have a low rank rather than a full rank by setting the matrix factors to be rectangular rather than square. Results for the potential energy surfaces of hydrogen fluoride, water, and the nitrogen molecule show that the low-rank 2-RDM method yields accurate approximations to the MCSCF energies. We also compute the energies along the symmetric stretch of a 20-atom hydrogen chain where traditional MCSCF calculations, requiring more than 17×109 determinants in the active space, could not be performed.