Hands-on assistance improves already successful pollution prevention services of the toxics use reduction institute’s laboratory

In an attempt to improve the adoption rate of the work conducted at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute Lab, a more comprehensive on-site follow-up assistance program was implemented in 2006. The effort was piloted for trichloroethylene replacement in Rhode Island in conjunction with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1.Through hands-on workshops and on-site assistance efforts, the TURI Lab project was able to achieve an 82% reduction in TCE in a two year period. This new methodology for on-site assistance follow-up to the preexisting TURI Lab testing program has been incorporated into the work the Lab conducts for companies in Massachusetts. The Lab had an implementation rate of around 30% without on-site assistance. During the first year of the new process, the adoption rate has jumped to 80% of all companies working with the lab.     

Multivariate Analysis of Motorcycle Accidents and the Effects of Exclusive Motorcycle Lanes in Malaysia

This paper presents a multivariate analysis on the impact of the exclusive motorcycle lane on motorcycle accidents along the Federal Highway Route 2, Malaysia. A number of statistical models have been developed to explain the relationship of motorcycle accidents and explanatory variables relevant to motorcycle safety. The best model showed that motorcycle accidents are directly proportional to the cubic power of traffic flow and reduced by approximately 39% with the motorcycle lane. A clear benefit of this lane is observed when the traffic flow exceeds 15,000 vehicles per day per lane for motorcycle proportion of between 20% and 30%. Besides supporting the notion for motorcycle segregation, this finding provides an initial guideline on the warrants for an exclusive motorcycle lane for highly motorcycled countries in Asia.     

Anatomy of an ambush: security risks facing international humanitarian assistance

The 2003 war with Iraq has generated security concerns that present unique challenges to the practice of providing international humanitarian assistance during war and conflict. Objective research studies on security management are lacking. However, case studies have proven to be an important education and training tool to advance situational awareness of security risks. These challenges are illustrated by an analysis of the events surrounding the first ambush of, and assassination attempt on, a senior US aid official in Baghdad. Before deployment to conflict areas, especially those characterised by insurgent activity, humanitarian providers must realistically assess the threats to life and to the mission. They must obtain pre-deployment situational awareness education, security training and optimal protective equipment and vehicles.     

Humanitarianism,Pluralism and Ombudsmen: Do the Pieces Fit?

A variety of codes and standards for humanitarian assistance have been put forth in recent years. Many NGOs have agreed to abide by these codes. There is uncertainty, however, about if and how these codes are actually being put into practice. Have we moved from words to action? One response to this concern has been a proposal to establish a humanitarian ombudsman. This paper analyses two choices facing an eventual ombudsman: whether to attempt to take punitive actions to enforce the codes and standards, or whether instead to facilitate agencies' own internal efforts to improve accountability to their beneficiaries. It proposes a pluralistic approach, wherein a variety of methods, structures and local perceptions are accepted as potentially appropriate, but where a clear moral stance is still maintained. Some suggestions are outlined for how flexible forms of policy analysis may be used to combine an acceptance of the validity of a vast range of humanitarian actions while still retaining a strong stance against practices that may harm beneficiaries or feed the causes of conflict. Realism about each agency's room for manoeuvre is essential, especially local institutions. A modest but principled stance will involve helping actors to consider the impact of their work on conflict and to find ways to improve the quality of their interventions as perceived by beneficiaries.     

Capturing change in European food assistance practices: a transformative social innovation perspective

The food system’s decreasing ability to deliver food security has led to the emergence of food assistance initiatives. Food assistance is highly contested; as some argue, it is a “failure of the state”, while others regard food assistance to be an “extension of the welfare state”. Either way, research suggests that actors within food assistance are rethinking their role in the food system. In this paper, we study three food assistance initiatives, in the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland, that perform new food assistance practices while embedded in specific institutional contexts, and analyse their potential to transform the food system, drawing on Transformative Social Innovation theory. Building on transition and social innovation theory, this recently developed theory distinguishes different levels within systems, named “shades of change”, that are associated with societal transformation. By exploring these “shades” of change in the analysis, we describe aspects of the initiatives’ novel practices, and in relation to the initiative and institutional relations their motivations and expectations. We compare the three cases and discuss how food assistance practices relate to and change (or do not change) the food system. In particular, we elaborate on how these three food assistance initiatives contribute in various ways to local food and welfare system innovation. In doing so, we offer a novel perspective on food assistance initiatives. We argue that they show dynamics that have the potential for more substantial transformation towards food security over time, by building momentum through “small wins”.     

Emergency and institutional crisis in Peru during El Nino 1982-1983

From December 1982 through July 1983, Peru was plagued by disastrous consequences of El Nino/Southern Oscillation phenomenon. While the northern part of the country was devastated by torrential rains and floods, central Andean Peru endured landslides and flash floods, the southern Altiplano suffered a severe drought. Hazard preparedness was nonexistent, and official disaster relief uncoordinated and slow in coming. Administrative inefficiency magnified the stress upon the populations under disaster conditions. Provisions of disaster training from specialized international organizations is recommended as a preventive measure and as a policy to improve catastrophe-coping abilities in developing nations.     

Formal and informal material aid following the 2010 Haiti earthquake as reported by camp dwellers

Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, more than two million people moved to temporary camps, most of which arose spontaneously in the days after the earthquake. This study focuses on the material assistance people in five Port‐au‐Prince camps reported receiving, noting the differences between assistance from formal aid agencies and from ‘informal’ sources such as family. Seven weeks after the earthquake, 32% of camp dwellers reported receiving no assistance whatsoever; 55% had received formal aid, typically a tent or tarpaulins; and 40% had received informal aid, usually in the form of cash transfers from family living abroad. While people were grateful for any material aid, cash was more frequently considered timely and more effective than aid‐in‐kind. Should this study be indicative of the greater displaced population, aid agencies should consider how they might make better use of cash transfers as an aid modality.     

Theorizing distributive justice and the practice of post-disaster housing recovery

This paper examines the implications of contemporary conceptions of distributive justice for post-disaster recovery programmes. The question asked in this paper is essentially theoretical: what does a concern with distributive justice entail when developing and evaluating post-disaster recovery programmes? Housing recovery programmes are employed to provide a contextual grounding for the discussion. We present a review of the disaster recovery literature and recent programmes of post-disaster housing recovery to map the ways in which distributive justice have been theorized, interpreted, debated and put into practice. We reflect on what different principles of distributive justice imply for post-disaster recovery programmes in terms of their impact on opportunities for individuals and communities to recover from disasters, and also on their realizing possibilities of advancing justice in the post-disaster society. The paper concludes by outlining a number of dimensions of a pluralist account of distributive justice. Using these dimensions and taking into account tensions within and between them, we attempt to offer a framework for reflecting on and assessing distributive arrangements of disaster recovery programmes.     

On the amount of counterpart assistance to be provided after natural disasters: from the perspective of indirect economic loss assessment

China’s counterpart assistance policy is of vital importance in providing guidance for emergency management and post-disaster reconstruction. However, the amount of assistance that partner provinces should provide as well as the criteria that partners should abide by in offering counterpart assistance remain a main challenge. The goal of this research is to fill this gap by proposing a new framework consisting of an interregional input–output (IRIO) model and a resilience index. Subsequently, the indirect economic loss is obtained by utilizing the index system of provincial economic resilience assessments, with measures of indirect economic loss developed from the IRIO. Furthermore, to examine the internal validity and systematic error, the reliability of the adopted models, the calculation methods, and the index systems are investigated. To assess the external validity of the proposed measures and resilience index of the framework, data from the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake are applied for estimating parameter values of the framework, and a follow-up investigation was conducted for examining the fairness and enhanced effectiveness of the new counterpart assistance criteria. In summary, this paper attempts to present some new ideas about the analysis of economic motivations of mutual aid and the improvement of the counterpart assistance policy.     

Exploring relationships between observed activation rates and functional attributes of lane departure prevention

Objective: Drivers’ use of lane departure warning and prevention systems is lower than use of other crash avoidance technologies and varies significantly by manufacturer. One factor that may affect use is how well a system prevents unintended departures. The current study evaluated the performance of systems that assist in preventing departures by providing steering or braking input in a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, 2016 Ford Fusion, 2016 Honda Accord, and 2018 Volvo S90. These vehicles were selected because a prior observational study found that the percentage of privately owned vehicles that had lane departure prevention systems turned on varied among these 4 automakers.

Method: In each vehicle, a test driver induced 40 lane drifts on left and right curves by steering the vehicle straight into the curve so that vehicles departed in the opposite direction and 40 lane drifts on straightaways by slight steering input to direct the vehicle to left and right lane markers.

Results: Vehicles from automakers with higher observed lane departure prevention use rates (Volvo, Chevrolet) featured systems that provided steering input earlier and more often avoided crossing lane markers by more than 35?cm compared to vehicles from automakers with lower observed use rates (Ford, Honda).

Conclusion: The study identified functional characteristics (i.e., timing of steering input, prevention of departures more than 35?cm) of lane departure prevention systems that were strongly associated with observed activation of these systems in privately owned vehicles. Although this relationship does not imply causation, the findings support the hypothesis that functional characteristics of lane departure prevention systems affect their use. Designers may be able to use these results to maximize driver acceptance of future implementations of lane departure prevention.