Social environment versus cycling competency predicting risk-taking in 11- to 13-year-old cyclists in The Netherlands

Abstract

Objectives: From age 12 onwards, cycling injuries begin rising in The Netherlands. A known contributing factor is younger children’s underdeveloped competency to deal with complex and hazardous traffic situations, and their exposure to such situations strongly increases after transitioning to secondary school. Little is known about intentional risk-taking as a contributing factor. In this developmental stage, children become increasingly vulnerable because of intentional risk-taking, affecting their safety and health. The incidence, predictors in the child’s social environment, and trends of such risks are systematically monitored; for instance, for alcohol use, smoking, and cyber bullying. Such monitors do not include risky road behavior. This exploratory field study examined the frequency of intentional risky cycling, its relationship with the perceived social environment, and relative to cycling competency measured as the ability to detect emerging hazards quickly.

Methods: Three hundred thirty-five students between 11 and 13 years of age (51% male) completed computerized tests of hazard perception skill and surveys on crashes, risk-taking, peer pressure, perceived risk-taking by parents or friends, and exposure to risky driving as passenger.

Results: Frequent risk-taking was associated with higher crash frequency. Stepwise regression confirmed that children who more often took risks on the road were also more sensitive to peer pressure, had more often been passengers of risky drivers, had parents and friends who exhibited risky behaviors in traffic more often, and perceived hazards as less dangerous but, in contrast to expectations, did not do worse on the detection of hazards. The predictors explained 28% of the variance in total risk-taking but varied from 6 to 20% depending on the specific risk-taking behavior concerned.

Conclusions: At least 20% of children sometimes or more often take risks in traffic. Children who feel peer pressure to behave in a risky manner, observe parents and friends behaving in a risky manner in traffic, and have been exposed as passengers to risky driving more often take risks in traffic themselves. These results provide support for including items on risky road behavior in health monitors and to design interventions that address the risk factors in the child’s perceived social environment.     

Effects of spatial autocorrelation and sampling design on estimates of protected area effectiveness

Estimating the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in reducing deforestation is useful to support decisions on whether to invest in better management of areas already protected or to create new ones. Statistical matching is commonly used to assess this effectiveness, but spatial autocorrelation and regional differences in protection effectiveness are frequently overlooked. Using Colombia as a case study, we employed statistical matching to account for confounding factors in park location and accounted for for spatial autocorrelation to determine statistical significance. We compared the performance of different matching procedures—ways of generating matching pairs at different scales—in estimating PA effectiveness. Differences in matching procedures affected covariate similarity between matched pairs (balance) and estimates of PA effectiveness in reducing deforestation. Independent matching yielded the greatest balance. On average 95% of variables in each region were balanced with independent matching, whereas 33% of variables were balanced when using the method that performed worst. The best estimates suggested that average deforestation inside protected areas in Colombia was 40% lower than in matched sites. Protection significantly reduced deforestation, but PA effectiveness differed among regions. Protected areas in Caribe were the most effective, whereas those in Orinoco and Pacific were least effective. Our results demonstrate that accounting for spatial autocorrelation and using independent matching for each subset of data is needed to infer the effectiveness of protection in reducing deforestation. Not accounting for spatial autocorrelation can distort the assessment of protection effectiveness, increasing type I and II errors and inflating effect size. Our method allowed improved estimates of protection effectiveness across scales and under different conditions and can be applied to other regions to effectively assess PA performance.     

不同冲击速度下硬煤的力学特性试验研究

为了研究硬煤破坏过程中的动态力学特性，采用Φ50 mm变截面分离式霍普金森压杆（SHPB）试验系统，对45#钢制薄壁套筒施加环向约束的硬煤试件进行不同加载速率的冲击压缩试验，得到被动围压下轴向应力-应变曲线、径向应力-应变曲线及最大被动围压和冲击速度的关系。研究结果表明:峰值应力、峰值应变随着冲击速度的增大而增大，最大被动围压值与冲击速度呈幂次增长的关系；被动围压下的硬煤试件变形受到限制，试件延性、抗压能力显著提高；随着冲击速度的增大，薄壁套筒对试件的约束也逐渐增大，达到峰值后，冲击速度对被动围压的影响减小，筒壁厚度影响着被动围压效果。     

An ecological economics approach to the management of a multi-purpose coastal wetland

Three interrelated management problems—eutrophication of multiple use shallow lakes, sea level rise and flood risk mitigation and tourism pressures—are analysed in the context of an internationally important wetland area, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads in the UK. The ecological-economic research findings presented should provide essential information to underpin the regulatory and management process in this internationally important conservation area. The relevant authority somehow has to integrate the maintenance of public navigation rights, nature conservation, and tourism promotion in a highly dynamic ecosystems setting. Because of the stakeholder conflicts, potential and actual, a more inclusionary decision-making procedure is required, and is currently being implemented.     

纸质褶裙式滤清器及其应用

高强芳粉尘滤纸构成的褶裙式滤清器用于工业防尘和空气净化装置。它与常规的静电除尘器、袋式除尘器相比,具有占地面积小、投资省、过滤流量大、使用面广、维护简便等优点,是一种新型的空气滤清设备。     

机械加T振动公害控制

根据多年从事机械、环保科研设计及工厂的实践,仔细分析了机械加工振动污染源对操作者及周围居民的危害.并提出了对其所造成的公害进行适应控制的基本措施.     

加工高硫原油的环保问题及治理对策

分析了高硫原油加工带来的环保问题，介绍了镇海炼油化工股份有限公司采取的一系列治理措施，并针对目前仍然存在的问题提出了     

关于建设高效林业的对策

本文讨论了高效林业的概念、特点及其内容,提出了建设原则与措施。     

传递系数法在滑坡稳定性评价中的几个问题探讨

本文运用LASA软件,分析了采用传递系数法计算滑坡稳定系数时,传递系数计算式、条块划分、渗透压力计算对稳定系数的影响。传递系数计算式的分析得出采用迭代法求解是比较合理的方法;通过实例对条块划分导致的影响分析,可知条块划分应当尽量与滑体的实际情况相符合才可以减小计算误差;渗透压力计算分析指出稳定性计算考虑动水压力时,应当根据不同情况选择不同水力坡降计算式。     

火电厂废水的净化与回收利用

针对火电厂废水悬浮物含量高、粒径小、难分离、废水量大的特点 ,采用高浊度废水净化技术 ,优化工艺流程 ,实现了火电厂所有废水的净化与回收利用 ,且经济效益显著。