Key aspects of successful rehabilitation after repeated or serious driving offenses

Objective: In Germany, license restoration after serious or repeated offenses requires a positive medical psychological assessment (MPA), a test to determine the driver's aptitude. Fulfilling the conditions necessary for a positive MPA often takes longer than the period of license revocation, which is perhaps due to the involvement of different personal, organizational, and environmental factors. To optimize the rehabilitation process, the present study analyzed the key aspects of successful rehabilitation after repeated or serious driving offenses.

Methods: After participating in the MPA, 1,631 subjects completed a questionnaire about rehabilitation efforts. The selection of items for this questionnaire was made according to our own prior research, interviews with problem drivers, and the diagnostic criteria for the MPA. Participants were asked when and from whom they obtained certain information and how relevant this information was for their success. In contrast to other studies, which used reoffense rates as a criterion for successful rehabilitation, we used a positive MPA result (positive, negative, or training) as the criterion for success.

Results: Just over half (52%) of the participants considered themselves optimally informed about the rehabilitation process. The others (47.4% of participants) judged the adequacy of information received as less than satisfactory. Offenders who did not partake in counseling before the MPA achieved a successful result only about half as often (37.1%) as those who did (70%) and were around 3 times as likely to have additional courses imposed upon them (21 vs. 7.6%). Of the offenders who received crucial and helpful information at an early stage, 62.4% attained a positive MPA at the first attempt (regardless of having attended any training courses). The success rate for the first attempt rose to 81% for offenders who were well informed at an early stage and participated in counseling before their first MPA.

Conclusion: The results clearly indicate that the provision of relevant information at an early stage combined with counseling has a beneficial influence on success rates for the rehabilitation process (an increase from 37.1 to 81%). As such, we recommend the introduction of obligatory license consultations, offered by MPA experts, involving a status assessment to customize offenders' rehabilitation and thereby provide more or less intensive guidance or coaching depending on offenders' characteristics throughout their progression through the MPA system.     

Estimating young novice drivers' compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions: A novel approach

Objectives: Current methods of estimating compliance with graduated driver licensing (GDL) restrictions among young drivers with intermediate driver's licenses—which include surveys, direct observations, and naturalistic studies—cannot sufficiently answer many critical foundational questions: What is the extent of noncompliance among the population of young intermediate drivers? How does compliance change over the course of licensure? How does compliance differ by driver subgroup and in certain driving environments? This article proposes an alternative and complementary approach to estimating population-level compliance with GDL nighttime and passenger restrictions via application of the quasi-induced exposure (QIE) method.

Methods: The article summarizes the main limitations of previous methods employed to estimate compliance. It then introduces the proposed method of borrowing the fundamental assumption of the QIE method—that young intermediate drivers who are nonresponsible in clean (i.e., one and only one responsible driver) multivehicle crashes are reasonably representative of young intermediate drivers on the road—to estimate population-based compliance. I describe formative work that has been done to ensure this method can be validly applied among young intermediate drivers and provide a practical application of this method: an estimate of compliance with New Jersey's passenger restrictions among 8,006 nonresponsible 17- to 20-year-old intermediate drivers involved in clean 2-vehicle crashes from July 2010 through June 2012.

Results: Over the study period, an estimated 8.4% (95% confidence interval, 7.8%, 9.0%) of intermediate drivers' trips were not in compliance with New Jersey's GDL passenger restriction. These findings were remarkably similar to previous estimates from more resource-intensive naturalistic studies (Goodwin et al. 2006 Goodwin AH, Wells JK, Foss RD, Williams AF. Encouraging compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions. J Safety Res. 2006;37(4):343–351.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Klauer et al. 2011 Klauer SG, Simons-Morton B, Lee SE, Ouimet MC, Howard EH, Dingus TA. Novice drivers' exposure to known risk factors during the first 18 months of licensure: The effect of vehicle ownership. Traffic Inj Prev. 2011;12(2):159–168.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).

Conclusion: Studies can practically apply proposed methods to estimate population-level compliance with GDL passenger and night restrictions; examine how compliance varies by relevant driver, vehicle, and environmental factors; and evaluate the implementation of a GDL provision or other intervention aimed at increasing compliance with these restrictions. Important considerations and potential limitations and challenges are discussed.     

燃煤电厂烟气脱硫有关问题的思考

就燃煤电厂烟气脱硫相关问题，如排污费的使用，工艺技术的选择，脱硫公司的资质，电价的核定，脱硫设备的国产化，管理的规范化等进行了讨论。     

美国空气质量许可证制度及其启示

美国空气质量许可证制度是美国控制污染的一项重要的环保措施,经过几十年的实践已经形成了完善的框架和丰富的内涵,可为我国在建构和完善排污许可证制度的过程中作一借鉴。美国的空气质量许可证制度有周密细致的法律法规和先进成熟的科学技术作为支持,在理论上其性质定位为一种事先的全面的许可,在实践上许可证的执行强调企业的责任和技术的更新,并引入排污削减指标的交易政策把环保事业推向市场,这些都是我国的排污许可证制度所值得研究和学习的。     

我国油锯产品生产许可证评审结果现状分析

本文总结了全国油锯产品生产许可证评审中企业存在的主要问题，并对其产生的原因进行了分析，指出对油锯产品实行许可证管理的重要性。     

工伤保险第一讲工伤保险的意义与作用

目前 ,我国工伤保险加快了改革的步伐 ,工伤保险必将对安全生产起到很大的促进作用。讲座从工伤保险的意义与作用、现状与发展、基本原则和特点、工伤保险补偿待遇、工伤保险费率水平与调节作用及工伤保险基金管理等方面讲述了工伤保险及其相关知识     

生态环境补偿费征收的若干问题及实施效果预测研究

征收生态环境补偿费是解决我国资源保护和生态环境破坏问题的有效手段之一，目前在我国尚未全面展开。根据国外的经验，一项征费工作的展开需要解决理论和实践上的一系列问题，如费率确定、实施管理方法、社会经济和环境效果分析等。本文就生态环境补偿费征收的原则、征收对象、收费标准以及收费效果预测等几个方面进行了探讨，提出了若干措施和意见，可为实践工作所参考。     

环境管理的经济手段分析

环境管理中占主导地位的是直接管制手段，直接管制手段就是政府行政管理机构以指令控制的方式向污染排放者下达法令或提出具体的标准。直接管制在环境管理中取得了很好的成绩。但在环境和经济的协调效率上还不够灵活有效，显示出相当的局限性。阐述了排污收费,使用费，产品费,排污权交易、环境税收等常用的经济手段，并进行了比较分析。     

工业燃煤排放二氧化硫征收排污费初探

江苏省大气污染及酸雨危害日益严重，迫切需要加强对二氧化硫排放的管理，征收工业燃煤排放二氧化硫排污费是解决问题的有效途径。从期望征收额占各主要燃煤行业工业产值的比重看将会产生较大的影响，建议二氧化硫排污费收费标准应低于０．２元／千克（二氧化硫）。     

流域水质资源有偿使用机制的思考

阐述了水质资源的基本概念和水质资源计价原则及定价方法，介绍了恢复成本法作为水质资本定价方法和确定水质资本核算函数和曲线的步骤。〖JP2〗然后从有偿使用与生态补偿的概念、使用权和所有权以及支付方式3个方面对二者进行比较，指出有偿使用体制可实现水质资源使用权与国家所有权分离，从而可构成市场主体的财产权。基于以上概念和方法，从分析东江水源区的优质水保护与东江供水的关系入手，指出实行水质资源有偿使用的迫切性和重要性，从实现社会公平和完善市场机制两方面分析有偿使用的必要性，并提出了有偿使用机制的若干建议。