bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Komunikasi Partisipatif dalam Proses Pembagunan Bendungan Matenggeng Kabupaten Cilacap Jawa Tengah
Authors: Handoko Waluyo , Sulaiman Adhi Iman , Akbar Andi Ali Said
Published: March 2016

The construction process of Matenggeng Dams is still have problem such as no dialogue or renegotiation to create a mutual agreement between the government and Dayeuhluhur society. This research aims to identify, analyze and design the model of participatory development communication in the construction process of Matenggeng Dams at Dayeuhluhur subdistrict Cilacap District, Central Java Province. This research used qualitative method with case study. Data Collection through interviews, observation, analysis of documentation and focus group discussions (FGD). The results showed: (1) People have known for a long time about the discourse of Matenggeng Dams construction through interpersonal communication from the parents. (2) There is still no agreement about compensation between the community and the government. (3) The community agree and have learned the benefits of dams and willing to dialogue again to achieve an agreement of compensation for the land and productive trees. The implication, the public will continue to feel anxious for certainty the future of people's lives, if there is no certainty continuation the development of the Matenggeng dams.
Dialektika Masyarakat Baduy dalam Memaknai Realitas Pemilihan Umum 2014
Authors: Karman Karman
Published: March 2016

Baduy Community is very obedient to local rules/custom, e.g. lunang (sundanesse to express obedience to whoever the winner), and ngasuh rati, ngayak menak. Surprisingly, the voter number in Baduy have increased from 2013 to 2014. They have their own mechanism in determining leader, that is by deliberation among customary figures. The social-political changes make-up the result of their construction change toward reality. The issue in this study is how Baduy community (re-)construct general election. This one aims to understand Baduy’s  construction to electoral activities, their understanding to the obligation to participate in election, and the adaptation process of different realities (reality in Baduy and Reality in external). By harnessing the Social Construction of Reality introduced by Berger, and Social Adaptation System introduced by Giddens, this research show Baduy objectifies and participates in general elections as an obedience to the customary rules. Understanding about obligations to participate in election is legitimized by customary institution, regarding dualism of different structure, they must adapt theirselves to different realities.
Tata Kelola Perencanaan Sistem Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi (TIK)
Authors: Bahrawi Bahrawi
Published: March 2016

The intensity of ICT usage continues to increase. This should be accompanied  by the increase of the government's performance, and one of the important components is governance of the ICT system planning. The ICT system planning with a good management will provide significant benefits to the organization. One cause of insignificant benefits ICT to the organizational goals is there is no ICT governance applied.  It can be caused by many things, one of them is the lack of knowledge and awareness about the ICT governance, so there are still many government agencies which have not yet implemented properly the ICT governance. By using quantitative approaches, questionnaire instrument was adapted from the General Guide of the National ICT Governance. Framework COBIT and data analysis techniques adopted from the COBIT Maturity level. This study aims to explore the guidelines as an evaluation tool for the governance of the ICT system planning in Department of Communications and Information Technology in Bitung City. The results of this study found that the institution is still at low level, level 1 with 0,63 maturity level in governance planning of ICT system.
Penggunaan Blog Sebagai Media Penunjang Kompetensi Dosen
Authors: Ratnasari Anne , Hamdan Yusuf
Published: March 2016

Competence is one of the important parts of brand study, while brand it is a part of the marketing that has an important position by selling product and services. So brand itself not only for the company, it can also manage individual brands, public figures, and lecturer. This research aimed for determining the use of blogs as a medium to support the competence of lecturers from the aspect trustworthiness, commitment, ability to develop themselves practicing a profession, and a limiting factor in building the competence of lecturers. This research uses a qualitative approach with a single case study through observation, interviews, focus group discussions, and literature. The study found that lecturer use blogs to share lectures, ideas about contemporary events, and upload Islamic articles. Lecturer assessed reliably, because the lecturer writing on a blog is the result of his work, and a lot of consultation requests from various circles. The lecturer is committed to making a change for the better in every way when communicating via blog to maintain conformity with the words of his behavior, and lecturer has the ability to develop themselves in their profession as a lecturer, that gives him the strength to continue working.
Opini Nelayan Tentang Akses Informasi Publik
Authors: Takariani C. Suprapti Dwi
Published: March 2016

Fishermen are one of the communities who cling their life on fishing. Currently there are many poor fishermen in Indonesia. One of the causes of their poverty is a lack of access to information and education for the fishermen. Thereby, this study was focused on describing to what extent does the fishermen opinion regarding their access to public information? The purpose of this study is to analyze the fishermen opinion on public information access. In collecting the data, fishermen from Karawang regency were selected as the population and the location sampling at the district level was conducted by simple random sampling. Then, a proportional sampling were conducted to select the respondents in each district. Furthermore, the overall sample size is determined based on the Tarro Yamane formula. The results of the study show that the respondent access to public information was depended on interpersonal media.The respondents had a positive opinion towards the access to public information in sense of confidence indicators, assessment indicators, and the indicators of behavioral tendencies.
Perilaku Politik Pemilih Perempuan Kota Mojokerto Pada Pemilu Legislatif 2014
Authors: Irtanto Irtanto
Published: March 2016

The presence of democratization and the role of the mass media have an impact on the behavior of women voters. This research used a descriptive quantitative approach with the aim to identifying the role of institutions of socialization and media information on the legislative elections 2014, and to know the preferences of women’s voter in determining their political choice and to know the exposure of mass media and the appeal of political advertising from political parties. The results indicate that the institution of socialization and information media on the legislative elections 2014 was instrumental in disseminating information and introduce the candidates to the voters. The preferences of women’s voter in determining their political choices from the sociological side is more considering the religious background, professional organizations, origin of place, family information, and intellectuality of the candidates. From the psychological side, most women tend to consider the emotional closeness, similarity of political parties, the integrity, the same interest. The political preferences of rational considerations tend to the issue of the candidate experience and success in leading the organization, whether it locally or nationally, intellectuality and the quality of candidates, campaign issues, vision and mission, programs, credibility, commitment, personality, modest, good performance, good capability, clean image and performance, and closeness with ordinary people.
Ahok Dalam Berita Maya
Authors: Putra Novian Anata
Published: March 2016

Every society is flooded by Information in the Internet era. News sites as one of the sources of information are now numerous. However, do these bits of information worth to be trusted fully? Through quantitative content analysis, the researcher tried to examine one of the news sites based on religion (Islamic hardliners), VOA-Islam, in reporting Basuki Tjahaja Purnama a.k.a Ahok, which incidentally is a non-Muslim Chinese descent. Using Jurgen Westerstahl’s objectivity approach (1983), found the fact that the news presented by VOA-Islam does not contain elements of balance, even most of it shows a negative tendency, cornered Ahok as a central figure in DKI Jakarta. In fact, from the dimensions of relevance, the percentage of news from VOA-Islam, which has a significant effect to the activity of community life and proximity to the topic of the public, are quite high. In addition to the large amount of news that contains racial issues, it becomes worrisome because it could lead to the disintegration of the nation.
Adopting Environment Management Practices for Environment Sustainabilty: A Proposed Model for Logistics Companies
Authors: Ibrahim Irwan , Jaafar Harlina Suzana
Published: March 2016

This study pursues to investigate the awareness and attitudes influences towards environmental management practices in the Malaysia logistics industry. This factor is being introduced in the logistic industries because of the complexity of the attributes. It also explores the logistics companies’ willingness to adopt these practices. Based on an ongoing study, this paper insinuates a research model that defines the inter-relationships between the factors.
Influence of temperature on the activity of anammox granular biomass
Authors: Sobotka D. , Czerwionka K. , Makinia J.
Published: March 2016

The aim of this study was to determine a short-term and long-term effect of temperature on the anammox rate and determination of temperature coefficients in the Arrhenius and Ratkowsky equations. The short-term effects of temperature on the anammox granular biomass were investigated in batch tests at ten different temperatures in the range of 10–55 °C. The maximum overall nitrogen removal rate of 1.3 gN gVSS−1·d−1 was observed at 40 °C (VSS: volatile suspended solids). The minimum rate, close to 0 gN gVSS−1·d−1, was observed for the limits of the analyzed temperature range (10 and 55 °C). The activity tests carried out at 55 °C showed an irreversible loss of the activity due to the observed biomass lysis. Subsequently to the batch tests, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated at different temperatures (from 30 to 11 °C) to determine the long-term effects of temperature. The system was successfully operated at 15 °C, but when temperature was decreased to 11 °C, nitrite started to accumulate and the system lost its stability. The temperature coefficient (θ) was 1.07 for the batch tests carried out in the temperature range of 10–40 °C. In contrast, during the long-term SBR operation, substantially different θ had to be estimated for two temperature ranges, 1.07 (T = 15–30 °C) and 1.65 (T = 11–15 °C).
D-cycloserine in Schizophrenia: New Strategies for Improving Clinical Outcomes by Enhancing Plasticity
Authors: Goff Donald C.
Published: March 2016

Background: Dysregulation of N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor
signaling is strongly implicated in schizophrenia. Based on the ketamine model of
NMDA receptor hypoactivity, therapeutic approaches designed to maintain a
sustained increase in agonist activity at the glycine site of the NMDA receptor have
produced promising, although inconsistent, efficacy for negative symptoms.

Methods: A review of the published literature on D-cycloserine (DCS) pharmacology
in animal models and in clinical studies was performed. Findings relevant to DCS
effects on memory and plasticity and their potential clinical application to schizophrenia
were summarized.

Results: Studies in animals and clinical trials in patients with anxiety disorders have demonstrated that
single or intermittent dosing with DCS enhances memory consolidation. Preliminary trials in patients
with schizophrenia suggest that intermittent dosing with DCS may produce persistent improvement of
negative symptoms and enhance learning when combined with cognitive behavioral therapy for delusions
or with cognitive remediation. The pharmacology of DCS is complex, since it acts as a “super agonist” at
NMDA receptors containing GluN2C subunits and, under certain conditions, it may act as an antagonist
at NMDA receptors containing GluN2B subunits.

Conclusions: There are preliminary findings that support a role for D-cycloserine in schizophrenia as a
strategy to enhance neuroplasticity and memory. However, additional studies with DCS are needed to
confirm these findings. In addition, clinical trials with positive and negative allosteric modulators with
greater specificity for NMDA receptor subtypes are needed to identify the optimal strategy for enhancing
neuroplasticity in schizophrenia.
Association of Plasminuria with Overhydration in Patients with CKD
Authors: Schork Anja , Woern Matthias , Kalbacher Hubert , Voelter Wolfgang , Nacken Regina , Bertog Marko , Haerteis Silke , Korbmacher Christoph , Heyne Nils , Peter Andreas , Häring Hans-Ulrich , Artunc Ferruh
Published: March 2016

Background and objectives

Hypervolemia is a common feature of patients with CKD and associated with hypertension. Recent work has shown stimulation of sodium retention by urinary plasmin during nephrotic syndrome. However, it is unclear whether plasminuria plays a role in patients with stable CKD and non-nephrotic proteinuria.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the fluid status of 171 patients with CKD consecutively presenting to our outpatient clinic from 2012 to 2013 using bioimpedance spectroscopy (Body Composition Monitor [BCM]; Fresenius Medical Care, Germany) and its associations to the urinary excretion of plasminogen and plasmin from a spot urine sample. Two–electrode voltage clamp measurements were performed in Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing human epithelial sodium channel to investigate whether plasmin in concentrations found in urine can activate the channel.

Results

Overhydration >5% and overhydration >10% of the extracellular volume were found in 29% and 17% of the patients, respectively, and overhydration was associated with edema, hypertension, higher stages of CKD, and proteinuria. Proteinuria was the strongest independent predictor for overhydration (+0.58 L/1.73 m2 per 10-fold increase; P<0.001). Urinary excretion of plasmin(ogen) quantified by ELISA correlated strongly with proteinuria (r=0.87) and overhydration (r=0.47). Using a chromogenic substrate, active plasmin was found in 44% of patients and correlated with proteinuria and overhydration. Estimated urinary plasmin concentrations were in a range sufficient to activate epithelial sodium channel currents in vitro. In multivariable analysis, urinary excretion of plasmin(ogen) was associated with overhydration similar to proteinuria.

Conclusions

Hypervolemia in patients with CKD is strongly associated with proteinuria, even in the non-nephrotic range. Protein-rich urine contains high amounts of plasminogen and active plasmin, rendering plasminuria as a possible link between proteinuria and hypervolemia.
Beyond Machine Dreams: Zen, Cyber-, and Transnational Feminisms in Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being
Authors: Starr Marlo
Published: March 2016

In Ruth Ozeki's 2013 novel A Tale for the Time Being, sixteen-year-old Nao faces severe bullying and sexual violence at her new school in Japan. Seeking escape, she experiments with different identities, turning first to the Internet and then later to Zen Buddhist practices. These approaches appeal to her because they allow her to transcend the bounds of her physical body, but she soon finds these experiences limiting in other ways.

Intervening in discourses about the liberating potentials of cyber- and Buddhist feminisms, Ozeki's novel explores how experiences of disembodiment are empowering in some ways and inhibiting in others. This article argues that A Tale for the Time Being critiques philosophies that strive for social liberation by denying physicality and introduces a model of feminism that balances material and bodily experiences with ideas of equality that emerge from cyber-, Buddhist, and transnational feminist projects.
Mental health of Canadian Armed Forces Veterans: review of population studies
Authors: Thompson James M. , VanTil Linda D. , Zamorski Mark A. , Garber Bryan , Dursun Sanela , Fikretoglu Deniz , Ross David , Richardson J. Donald , Sareen Jitender , Sudom Kerry , Courchesne Cyd , Pedlar David J.
Published: March 2016

Introduction. The mental health of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) populations emerged as an important concern in the wake of difficult CAF deployments in the 1990s. This article is the first comprehensive summary of findings from subsequent surveys of mental health and well-being in CAF Veterans, undertaken to inform mental health service renewals by CAF Health Services and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). Methods. Epidemiological findings in journal publications and government reports were summarized from four cross-sectional national surveys: a survey of Veterans participating in VAC programs in 1999 and three surveys of health and well-being representative of whole populations of Veterans in 2003, 2010, and 2013. Results. Although most Veterans had good mental health, many had mental health problems that affected functioning, well-being, and service utilization. Recent Veterans had a higher prevalence of mental health problems than the general Canadian population, earlier-era Veterans, and possibly the serving population. There were associations between mental health conditions and difficult adjustment to civilian life, physical health, and multiple socio-demographic factors. Mental health problems were key drivers of disability. Comparisons with other studies were complicated by methodological, era, and cultural differences. Discussion. The survey findings support ongoing multifactorial approaches to optimizing mental health and well-being in CAF Veterans, including strong military-to-civilian transition support and access to effective mental and physical health services. Studies underway of transitioning members and families in the peri-release period of the military-to-civilian transition and longitudinal studies of mental health in Veterans will address important knowledge gaps.
Countdown Pedestrian Signals
Authors: Van Houten Ron , DeLaere Gregory , Morgan Justin F. , Shurbutt Jim
Published: March 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in comprehension between the inclusion and elimination of the flashing “Don't Walk” (FDW) on the pedestrian signal during the countdown phase. In Experiment 1, 300 people were shown, on a tablet, a digital video display of the walk symbol, the “Don't Walk” symbol, the countdown pedestrian signal (CPS) plus the FDW, and the CPS alone. Results indicated that pedestrians were more likely to consider crossing if they judged they had enough time to cross with the CPS alone than with the CPS plus the FDW and that this effect held for males and females and across all age categories. Experiment 2 examined how well pedestrians could determine how much time they required to cross streets of various widths. Participants viewed a CPS and were told to start crossing when they felt they had just enough time to cross. Participants had little dif-ficulty judging the time required for 40-ft, 60-ft, and 80-ft crossings. Most pedestrians could discriminate the time required without making significant changes in their walking speed. Another interesting finding was that pedestrians walked faster than typically reported in most studies in which they were timed starting at the onset of the walk. This is likely because pedestrians may walk more slowly when they know they have more than enough time to cross.
Automated Pedestrian Safety Analysis at a Signalized Intersection in New York City: Automated Data Extraction for Safety Diagnosis and Behavioral Study
Authors: Hussein Mohamed , Sayed Tarek , Reyad Passant , Kim Lee
Published: March 2016

Automated computer vision techniques were used to analyze 2 h of video data collected at a major signalized intersection in New York City. The main objectives of this study were to diagnose pedestrian safety issues and identify contributing factors at the intersection and to demonstrate the feasibility of the automatic extraction of pedestrian data required for pedestrian behavior analysis—mainly pedestrian speed and gait parameters. The safety study was conducted with traffic conflict techniques. The main factor that contributed to the high number of pedestrian and vehicle conflicts was found to be pedestrian violations, mainly temporal violations in which pedestrians crossed the street during the “Don't Walk” or flashing “Don't Walk” phase. During the 2 h analyzed, about one-third of pedestrians were noncompliant with the signal timing or crosswalk boundary (17.9% spatial violations and 15.3% temporal violations). Pedestrian speed, step frequency, and step length were automatically extracted for 333 pedestrians and were found to follow the normal distribution with 95% confidence (mean and standard deviation of 1.47 ± 0.27 m/s, 1.96 ± 0.17 Hz, and 0.75 ± 0.14 m, respectively). Gait analysis showed that the walking speed for single pedestrians was 9% higher than for those who walked in groups. Males tended to be slightly faster than females, with higher step length but lower step frequency. Violators tended to have higher walking speeds compared with non-violators, and the difference in speed was dependent on step length but not on step frequency.
Pedestrian Safety Practitioners' Perspectives of Driver Yielding Behavior across North America
Authors: Schneider Robert J. , Sanders Rebecca L.
Published: March 2016

This paper presents results from a recent Internet survey of practitioners in the pedestrian safety field about their perceptions of driver yielding behavior in cities throughout North America. As one of the first studies to attempt to understand driver and pedestrian interactions from a macro perspective, this research combined perceptions of local driver yielding rates in three crosswalk scenarios with open-ended comments to understand factors that may influence driver yielding behavior. Responses from 387 practitioners in 171 cities suggested that rates of driver yielding to pedestrians in marked crosswalks were related to characteristics such as social norms, roadway design, law enforcement, and pedestrian volumes. Respondents generally indicated that drivers were more likely to yield to pedestrians on roadways with fewer lanes and slower travel speeds. However, the results also suggested notable geographic differences in yielding culture. Practitioners indicated that crosswalk laws were rarely enforced in most communities. A theoretical framework for future empirical research on driver yielding as it relates to driving and walking culture, roadway design, crosswalk laws, and enforcement is provided.
Association between Built Environment and Pedestrian Fatal Crash Risk in Delhi, India
Authors: Rankavat Shalini , Tiwari Geetam
Published: March 2016

An analysis of fatal crashes involving pedestrians in Delhi, India, from 2006 to 2009 that used a geographic information system showed clusters of crashes at certain locations. An evaluation of the characteristics of the built environment around the high crash location clusters was necessary. This paper presents an analysis of the built environment factors that influenced the safety of pedestrians. Locations surveyed included roads around the fatal crash clusters of pedestrians. Factors that influenced the number of fatal crashes of pedestrians were analyzed with negative binomial regression. Types of locations were categorized into locations with a flyover and without a flyover. Results showed that an increase in traffic volume by 1% would increase pedestrian fatal crashes by 1.6% at locations with a flyover and by 0.9% at locations without a flyover. Arterial roads with more traffic volume, more road lanes, and higher speed tended to have more fatal crashes. Locations where medians were fenced or raised in height to prevent pedestrians from crossing were also found to be associated with a greater number of crashes. These findings are useful for improving the safety of pedestrians around specific road infrastructure.
New Model for Total Crossing Time of Pedestrian Platoon at a Signalized Crosswalk
Authors: Song Xianmin , Yang Qiujie , Qu Zhaowei , Tao Pengfei , Li Zhihui
Published: March 2016

To calculate a pedestrian platoon's total crossing time accurately, this study considered the condition of bidirectional pedestrian interference and analyzed the following key factors: number of pedestrians, pedestrian directional split ratio, and crosswalk width and length. The study divided the total crossing time into three parts: the discharging time of a pedestrian platoon, the objective pedestrian's basic crossing time, and the frictional delay caused by pedestrians moving in the opposite direction. The latter two factors were called the crossing time. Then a model that reflected bidirectional pedestrian characteristics was established for the pedestrian platoon's total crossing time. In particular, the ratio of the number of objective pedestrians per cycle to the actual crosswalk capacity was analyzed in the model of the frictional delay. Moreover, according to traffic data from three signalized crosswalks in Changchun City, China, the congested lateral distance and comfortable lateral distance were calibrated to 1.03 m and 1.29 m, respectively. Finally, compared with the pedestrians' total crossing time in the Highway Capacity Manual (2000), the results showed that the maximum relative error was 8.33% less than that in the Highway Capacity Manual method. The model can provide a new method and a new way of thinking for traffic researchers, and it can provide a potential reference for design of pedestrian signal timing and crosswalks.
Leading Pedestrian Interval: Assessment and Implementation Guidelines
Authors: Saneinejad Sheyda , Lo Janet
Published: March 2016

The purpose of a leading pedestrian interval (LPI) is to provide pedestrians with the opportunity to begin crossing the street before adjacent through-movement vehicles are permitted to proceed. This procedure allows pedestrians to establish a presence in the crosswalk; this presence increases the visibility of pedestrians to drivers and therefore reduces conflicts with turning vehicles. The City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, implemented and formally evaluated an LPI in 2005. LPIs have been added to a few more intersections since then; however, the process has not been streamlined. For LPIs to be implemented at additional locations, an implementation guide and operating standard was needed. In answer to this need, transportation services of the City of Toronto developed an implementation and assessment guideline. The purpose of the guideline is to help traffic engineers identify suitable locations for LPIs by means of a checklist, determine the appropriate length of time for the LPI with a formula, and consider operation features that would maximize the positive safety effects and minimize any negative impact on vehicular capacity. The guideline also suggests a method for measuring improvements in intersection safety as a result of LPIs. Besides introducing various components of the newly developed guide, this paper provides a review of past studies on the effectiveness of LPIs in improving pedestrian safety and a review of the state of practice in other jurisdictions in regard to implementation and operation of LPIs.
Factor Association with Multiple Correspondence Analysis in Vehicle–Pedestrian Crashes
Authors: Das Subasish , Sun Xiaoduan
Published: March 2016

In the United States, about 14% of total crash fatalities are pedestrian related. In 2012, 4,743 pedestrians were killed, and 76,000 pedestrians were injured in vehicle–pedestrian crashes in the United States. Vehicle– pedestrian crashes have become a key concern in Louisiana as a result of the high percentage of fatalities there in recent years. In 2012, pedestrians accounted for 17% of total crash fatalities in the state. This study used multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), an exploratory data analysis method used to detect and represent underlying structures in a categorical data set, to analyze 8 years (2004 to 2011) of vehicle–pedestrian crashes in Louisiana. Pedestrian crash data are best represented as transactions of multiple categorical variables, so the use of MCA was a unique choice to determine the relationship of the variables and their significance. The findings indicated several nontrivial focus groups (e.g., drivers with high-occupancy vehicles, female drivers in bad weather conditions, and drivers distracted by mobile phone use). The associated geometric factors were hillcrest roadways, dip or hump aligned roadways, roadways with multiple lanes, and roadways with no lighting at night. Male drivers were seen to be relatively susceptible to severe and moderate injury crashes. Fatal pedestrian crashes were correlated to two-lane roadways with no lighting at night. The MCA method helped measure significant contributing factors and degrees of association between the factors through the analysis of the systematic patterns of variation with categorical data sets of pedestrian crashes. The findings from this study will help transportation professionals improve countermeasure selection strategies.
Achieving Vision Zero: Data-Driven Investment Strategy to Eliminate Pedestrian Fatalities on a Citywide Level
Authors: Kronenberg Chava , Woodward Lucas , DuBose Brooke , Weissman Dana
Published: March 2016

San Francisco, California, completed a robust, data-driven process to define and prioritize pedestrian safety improvement projects. The goal of this process was to identify the lowest cost and most effective strategy to meet a citywide goal to eliminate traffic fatalities. A team of planners, engineers, and epidemiologists examined longitudinal pedestrian collision data to identify the major factors that corresponded with pedestrian– vehicle crashes in San Francisco and focused on locations with the highest frequency and severity of pedestrian injuries. Collision profiles were developed to classify the most frequent types of vehicle–pedestrian collisions at each intersection. Corresponding pedestrian safety countermeasures, selected for their relatively high effectiveness and low cost, were matched with applicable collision profiles. A scenario planning process was used to formulate a final investment strategy: a prioritized pedestrian safety project list that targeted the specific needs at priority locations. The data-driven capital planning process helped to secure funding commitments to implement pedestrian safety projects at 195 intersections over the course of 5 years, which moved San Francisco closer to its policy objective to eliminate pedestrian fatalities. All cities face a challenge in the employment of rigorous analysis to select and prioritize improvement projects with limited funding. This study created a new, streamlined approach to capital-constrained project development and prioritization that is applicable to all types of safety improvements across any jurisdiction.
Pedestrian Injury Severity Levels in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada
Authors: Forbes Justin Jamael , Habib Muhammad Ahsanul
Published: March 2016

Pedestrians are particularly vulnerable road users within the urban environment. Many studies have examined the factors that contribute to the frequency and severity of collisions, but limited research has examined the influence of the built environment on pedestrian injury severity. This study used the Halifax regional municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada, as a case study to examine the effect of the built environment on the injury severity of pedestrians. Two ordered response models were used: a conventionally ordered probit model and a hierarchical ordered probit (HOPIT) model, which accommodated unobserved heterogeneity because the thresholds could vary across observations. In the HOPIT model fit in this study, the threshold covariates varied with whether the collision occurred at an intersection and with the number of walking commuters in the neighborhood. Built environment contributing factors, including a variety of street pattern classifications, land use types, transit supply, and demographic characteristics, were examined with other variables (e.g., pedestrian and driver characteristics, collision characteristics, environmental conditions). Nova Scotia Collision Record Database data were used for the years 2007 to 2011 to develop the ordered response models of the injury severity of pedestrians. The study found personal and collision characteristics to be significant to explain the injury severity outcomes of pedestrians. In addition, environmental characteristics (e.g., land use type, presence of activity centers, demographic attributes) were found to influence injury severity outcomes. The study results may help inform policy development to improve pedestrian safety in Nova Scotia.
Level-Based Approach to Public Transport Network Planning
Authors: Orth Hermann , Nash Andrew , Weidmann Ulrich
Published: March 2016

The public transport network level is defined and is used to describe the performance and future improvement of the public transport system in Zurich, Switzerland. A public transport level is a specific type of service designed to serve a particular market. “Service” is defined as a combination of vehicles, infrastructure, and operating characteristics. A pure level occurs when the service is targeted specifically at one particular market. A hybrid level occurs when a service is targeted to serve several markets. Urban travel is generally described as three markets: short, inter mediate, and long-distance trips. Consequently many cities have developed three-level public transport networks: surface buses and trams to serve short trips, rapid rail to serve intermediate trips, and regional rail to serve longer-distance trips. Often, by design or for historic reasons, cities have additional levels, fewer levels, levels that are not precisely matched to their markets, or all three. For example, two-level networks are often found in medium-sized cities. Their advantage is lower costs, and their main disadvantage is a mismatch between transport mode and market that manifests itself in capacity limitations. The level concept to help analyze and plan public transport service is useful because it focuses attention on matching service qualities to markets. This approach, used here to analyze the success of the public transport system of Zurich, Switzerland, and to provide a structure for planning improvements that will be needed to meet rapidly increasing public transport demand, could help other cities design or redesign their public transport systems to be more attractive and efficient. More specifically, the approach could show how two-level public transport networks would be a viable option for medium-sized cities and large cities with dispersed settlement patterns.
Who, What, When, and Where
Authors: Legrain Alexander , Buliung Ron , El-Geneidy Ahmed M.
Published: March 2016

Public transportation agencies are faced with the difficult task of providing adequate service during peak travel periods while maintaining adequate service for those traveling off-peak or outside a city or region's densest areas. The ability or inability of a transit system to meet these needs helps explain transit ridership rates. This research sought to understand how daily fluctuations in transit service were related to ridership in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area, in Canada, for different segments of the labor force. Many variables—including frequency and proximity of transit service, socioeconomic status, the built environment, and accessibility to employment through transit—have been linked to transit use in past research. However, many previous studies focused only on travel during peak hours. This study investigated whether fluctuations in service and demand were related to transit ridership rates. With the use of six time periods, an improved understanding of daily variation in transit mode share for commuting trips was produced. With a further division of the commuting population into two employment wage categories, it was demonstrated that the common understanding of the influences on transit ridership was potentially misleading. Commuting transit mode share and the variables that influence it are intimately related to when travel is needed and to what jobs people are traveling. To encourage transit use, agencies and researchers need to take into account commuters’ need to commute at a variety of time periods.
Fixed-Effects Panel Data Analysis of Gasoline Prices, Fare, Service Supply, and Service Frequency on Transit Ridership in 10 U.S. Urbanized Areas
Authors: Iseki Hiroyuki , Ali Rubaba
Published: March 2016

Gasoline price increases since 1999 have generated substantial discussion about their effect on travel behavior. With panel data for 10 selected U.S. urbanized areas between 2002 and 2011, this study analyzed the effects of gasoline prices and three factors that were internal to transit agencies—fare, service supply, and service frequency—on ridership of bus, light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail, as well as their aggregate ridership. Improving on past studies on the subject, this study accounted for the simultaneous relationship between service supply and ridership and controlled for factors that were external to transit agencies' control but might have influenced ridership. With fixed-effects models that examined temporal changes within each urbanized area, the analysis found that the possibility of simultaneity was low. The results of estimated coefficients showed that the short-term increase in ridership due to gasoline price increases was relatively small for bus and aggregate transit and marginal for rails, certainly smaller than the effects of the three internal factors. The total influence of the three internal factors was found to be more substantial than that of external factors; this finding indicated the potential to increase ridership by transit agencies' efforts when resources were available. In addition, it is recommended that transit agencies prepare for a ridership increase more for bus than for rail because of gasoline prices, considering that even a small increase could require a substantial service increase to accommodate travelers' needs during peak periods.
Exploring Relationships between Physiological and Psychological Condition of Seniors and Their Mobility and Social Activity
Authors: Chen Wan-Hui , Lin Wan-I , Chang Sheng-Hsiung , Mak Long-Ching
Published: March 2016

Taiwan will become a super-aged society by 2025, and promoting active and healthy aging for seniors is desired. This study investigated the relationship between the physiological and psychological condition of seniors and their transportation mobility in relation to their social activities. Mobility was measured by trip frequency and classified into three types: outdoor exercise, chatting with neighbors, and longer-distance activities. The analysis results showed that of the 1,223 subjects, 274 (22.4%) had depressive symptoms, and 252 (20.6%) had poor leg mobility. Analysis results of negative binomial models showed that seniors with depression, leg mobility problems, or both had a lower frequency of the three types of social activity trips. Other factors affecting frequency of social activity by seniors included eye problems, age, education level, motorcycle availability, and types of areas where subjects lived. With consideration of trip patterns for seniors with depression and leg mobility problems, this study offers certain improvement strategies. For example, because seniors prefer active transportation modes, promoting an innovative three-wheeled electric auxiliary bicycle is suggested. Seniors who rode motorcycles and lived in suburban or rural areas had higher frequencies of trips for longer-distance activities. Motorcycles can help seniors maintain their mobility; however, motorcycles are a high-risk mode of travel, especially for seniors. Motorcycle safety for seniors is an issue in Taiwan. In addition, there was an obvious preference by depressed elderly people for religious activities. Religious venues are good places to attract seniors for social activities and to communicate the benefits of an active lifestyle.
Delineating and Justifying Performance Parking Zones
Authors: Pérez Benito O.
Published: March 2016

In the ongoing challenge to balance competing demands for curb space in dense urban areas, pricing has become an increasingly popular tool for better matching supply and demand. Performance parking, which applies variable pricing to parking, relies on performance metrics from responsive data and technology to manage pricing and occupancy or availability of parking. However, as parking managers and policy makers have embraced a more data-driven approach to price setting, they have not applied the same objectivity to the delineation of where performance parking should be implemented. The District of Columbia Department of Transportation is faced with the problem of where to apply performance parking appropriately. Initially, performance parking zones were legislatively designated, but in 2012, the enabling legislation was expanded to allow application citywide. Embracing the fact that performance parking is driven by objective metrics, the department developed a methodology to identify and define the objective efficacy of subareas to possibly implement performance parking. The background of the performance parking program is described and shows how the program goals were used to define several metrics for analyzing potential performance parking subareas. The analysis identified 10 potential subareas prime for implementation of performance-based curbside management pricing. This analysis provides an approach to establish the objective justification for the use of performance pricing within subareas of the District. As a result, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation can articulate why certain areas are selected and can implement performance parking with a higher level of confidence that the program will produce the intended impacts.
Minimizing Parking Search Time on Urban University Campuses through Proactive Class Assignment
Authors: Moradkhany Ali , Yi Ping , Shatnawi Ibrahem , Xu Kun
Published: March 2016

Parking search time is a key factor in evaluation of the efficiency of parking facility operation and management. This study introduced an optimization algorithm to demonstrate the feasibility of minimizing the parking search time of daily commuters on urban university campuses. An activity-based model was developed to assess the variation in parking search time due to different classroom assignment methods. This model was able to investigate the effect of different arrival and departure conditions as well as different parking search methods. The campus of the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, was selected as a case study to show the reduction of parking search time under a variety of conditions by using the proposed optimization approach. According to the results, with this approach parking demand can be efficiently distributed and search time can be effectively reduced by about 20%.
Parking in Mixed-Use U.S. Districts
Authors: Weinberger Rachel R. , Karlin-Resnick Joshua
Published: March 2016

Parking is among the most discussed topics in local politics, with citizens and business owners frequently concerned that supplies are too low. However, numerous research efforts have shown that parking is routinely oversupplied in single-use districts in the United States, and others have documented the same trend in mixed-use districts. This research considers parking supply and usage in 27 mixed-use districts around the country, the largest sample of districts examined in this type of study. Sufficient supply being defined as that which would leave 15% of spaces open, it was found that parking is oversupplied by 65% on average. Differences in oversupply were not systematically explained by commute mode share, region, type of place, or any other dimension that the authors were able to identify. Indeed, oversupply in places that have identified parking shortages averages 45%. That finding suggests that parking is often oversupplied to such an extent that it is nonbinding on travel decisions and has become unmoored from the typical relationship between supply and demand. Given the perception of shortage even where there is a documented oversupply suggests that better parking management rather than an increase in supply could be a more effective tool for mitigating perceived shortages.
Negotiating the Value of Values
Authors: Stephens Piers H.G.
Published: March 2016

‘It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense’ (Leopold 1989: 223).
The Trouble with Environmental Values
Authors: James Simon P.
Published: March 2016

If we are to assess whether our attitudes towards nature are morally, aesthetically or in any other way appropriate or inappropriate, then we will need to know what those attitudes are. Drawing on the works of Katie McShane, Alan Holland and Christine Swanton, I challenge the common assumption that to love, respect, honour, cherish or adopt any other sort of pro-attitude towards any natural X simply is to value X in some way and to some degree. Depending on how one interprets ‘value', that assumption is, I contend, either false or vacuous. I argue that to assess the appropriateness of a person's pro-attitudes towards a natural entity one must in some cases appeal to the concepts of status and/or bond, and not just that of value. To develop my argument, I appeal to the works of two nature writers – Robert Macfarlane and J. A. Baker.
Higher Education Among Bedouin of the Negev: Tel Sheva as a Case Study
Authors: El-Meccawi Shaher , Degen A. Allan
Published: March 2016

A study on higher education was carried out in Tel Sheva during 2012-14. There were 7,223 residents above the age of eighteen of whom 433 residents ((229 males (52.9 per cent) : 204 females (47.1 per cent)) had post-secondary degrees or diplomas (past students) and 277 residents ((91 males (32.9 per cent) : 186 females (67.1 per cent)) were enrolled (present students) in institutes of higher education, giving a total of 710 students ((320 males (45 per cent) : 390 females (55 per cent)), or 9.8 per cent of those eligible. Of the 710 past and present total students, 61.8 per cent enrolled in education. Medicine and medicine-related studies ranked second at 15.8 per cent, engineering third at 13.4 per cent, law fourth at 3.9 per cent and psychology/sociology fifth at 2.1 per cent. A number of trends emerged when we compared past and present students. The percentage of females, of the total student body, rose from 47.1 per cent in the past to 67.1 per cent today, and the gap between genders seems to be widening. The percentage of students in education has remained relatively constant, 61.7 per cent in the past and 62.3 per cent today. However, the percentage of students in medicine and medicine-related studies has been increasing (11.1 per cent to 23.2 per cent), whereas the percentages of engineering (16.6 per cent to 8.3 per cent) and law (4.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent) students have been decreasing substantially. The percentage of females studying education is much higher than that of males while the reverse is true in medicine and engineering. More Bedouin are studying abroad today, in particular medicine and dentistry, and mostly in Romania and Moldova.