Children's and Adults’ Comfort Experience of Extra Seat Belts When Riding in the Rear Seat of a Passenger Car

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore passengers’ comfort experience of extra seat belts during on-road driving in the rear seat of a passenger car and to investigate how the use of extra belts affects children's and adults’ attitudes to the product.

Methods: Two different seat belt systems were tested, criss-cross (CC) and backpack (BP), consisting of the standard 3-point belt together with an additional 2-point belt. In total, 32 participants (15 children aged 6–10, 6 youths aged 11–15, and 11 adults aged 20–79, who differed considerably in size, shape, and proportions) traveled for one hour with each system, including city traffic and highway driving. Four video cameras monitored the test subject during the drive. Subjective data regarding emotions and perceived discomfort were collected in questionnaires every 20 min. A semistructured interview was held afterwards.

Results: All participant groups accepted the new products and especially the increased feeling of safety (P <.01); 56% preferred CC and 44% preferred BP but the difference was not significant. In total, 81% wanted to have extra seat belts in their family car. CC was appreciated for its symmetry, comfort, and the perceived feeling of safety. Some participants found CC unpleasant because the belts tended to slip close to the neck, described as a strangling feeling. BP was simpler to use and did not cause annoyance to the neck in the way CC did. Instead, it felt asymmetric and to some extent less safe than CC. Body size and shape affected seat belt fit to a great extent, which in turn affected the experience of comfort, both initially and over time. Perceived safety benefit and experienced comfort were the most determinant factors for the attitude toward the extra seat belts. The extra seat belts were perceived as being better than the participants had expected before the test, and they became more used to them over time.

Conclusion: This exploratory study provided valuable knowledge from a user perspective for further development of new seat belt systems in cars. In addition to an increased feeling of safety, seat belt fit and comfort are supplementary influencing factors when it comes to gaining acceptance of new seat belt systems.     

Numerical modeling of water spray suppression of conveyor belt fires in a large-scale tunnel

Conveyor belt fires in an underground mine pose a serious life threat to miners. Water sprinkler systems are usually used to extinguish underground conveyor belt fires, but because of the complex interaction between conveyor belt fires and mine ventilation airflow, more effective engineering designs are needed for the installation of water sprinkler systems. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to simulate the interaction between the ventilation airflow, the belt flame spread, and the water spray system in a mine entry. The CFD model was calibrated using test results from a large-scale conveyor belt fire suppression experiment. Simulations were conducted using the calibrated CFD model to investigate the effects of sprinkler location, water flow rate, and sprinkler activation temperature on the suppression of conveyor belt fires. The sprinkler location and the activation temperature were found to have a major effect on the suppression of the belt fire, while the water flow rate had a minor effect.     

钦杭结合带加里东期榴闪岩超高压变质作用研究

对钦杭结合带首次发现的加里东期榴闪岩进行了详细的年代学、矿物学和变质作用研究。结果表明,榴闪岩的变质时代为454±4Ma,经历了早期角闪岩相进变质、中期榴辉岩相峰期变质和晚期角闪岩相退变质三个阶段,具顺时针P-T-t轨迹。早期角闪岩相进变质作用阶段的矿物共生组合为角闪石+斜长石+石英,温压条件分别为719℃~795℃和7.56Kpa~8.30Kpa;中期榴辉岩相峰期变质作用阶段的矿物共生组合为石榴子石+绿辉石(后期退变为透辉石+钠长石)±石英,温压条件分别为668℃~821℃和26.42Kpa~33.46Kpa;晚期角闪岩相退变质作用阶段的矿物共生组合为石榴子石+角闪岩+斜长石±石英(即榴闪岩),相应的温压条件分别为611℃~854℃和4.76Kpa~9.30Kpa。结合前人资料推断,区域内加里东期可能经历了榴辉岩相超高压变质→高温麻粒岩相退变质→角闪岩相退变质的演化过程。钦杭结合带首次厘定出加里东期超高压变质作用,表明华夏和扬子两大陆块碰撞拼合发生在加里东期。     

Encouraging compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions

PROBLEM: Although graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs have reduced the high crash rates for 16-and 17-year-old drivers, research suggests that some teenagers fail to comply with restrictions on nighttime driving and carrying passengers. METHOD: A program to encourage compliance with GDL restrictions and seat belt requirements was implemented in Guilford County, North Carolina. The program combined increased enforcement with a multi-faceted publicity campaign drawing attention to the enforcement activity. A comparison community was studied to assess whether changes over time could be reasonably attributed to the program. RESULTS: Several measures indicate that greater enforcement did occur in the intervention community and that teenagers perceived the increase. However, self-reported data and direct observations of young drivers in the intervention and comparison communities showed the program resulted in only modest changes in compliance with GDL restrictions. DISCUSSION: The program put in place the mechanisms known to produce changes in driver behavior, but these may have been insufficient to alter the behavior of the minority of teenagers (and parents) who were not already complying with restrictions. However, the modest changes in young driver behavior plus the clear changes in both actual and perceived enforcement suggest that high visibility enforcement programs merit further use and evaluation in other communities, particularly those where compliance with GDL provisions is lower than in Guilford County.     

三峡库区生态经济复合产业带的构建研究

由于自然尤其是人为因素的影响 ,三峡库区生态环境遭受严重破坏 ,农民增收缺少支撑 ,加上三峡工程的修建 ,淹没了大批肥田沃土 ,更加激化了人地矛盾 ,导致该地区生态环境恶化、生态承载容量减少、经济贫困化恶性循环 ,最终致使生态环境保护和经济发展严重对立。要从根本上解决库区生态环境与经济的协调发展问题 ,关键在于发展生态经济。从三峡库区以山地、丘陵为主的地形特征及其分布特点和气候、土壤条件以及资源特色出发 ,根据生态学、生态经济学的基本原理要求 ,提出了建立由水域生态经济产业带、沿江经济支撑产业带、腹地生态农业带、高山垂直绿色产业带构成的生态经济复合产业带的构想 ,其中每个产业带又由若干关联性强的产业有机复合而成。还提出了发展三峡库区生态经济的具体政策建议和措施。     

林带遮荫地种植苜蓿带的棉蚜生态防治

从进一步提高土地利用率、农田生态环境保护、优化农业结构、农区畜牧业发展前景以及国家西部大开发战略等方面,阐述了种植苜蓿带的意义。同时,简要介绍了苜蓿对棉花害虫的控制作用、操作方法以及苜蓿的栽培管理技术等。     

沿空窄煤柱锚网带支护的巷道稳定性研究

锚杆支护是煤矿采准巷道的重要支护方式 ,沿空留巷技术是回采巷道支护技术改革的主要方面。笔者将两种技术相结合 ,用于保证回采巷道的稳定。在现场矿压观测的基础上 ,讨论了支承压力分布规律和窄煤柱护巷机理 ,运用极限平衡理论计算出护巷煤柱宽度 ,同时结合数值分析和现场巷道变形以观测结果 ,实践证明 ,只要设计参数合理 ,施工质量满足要求 ,沿空窄煤柱锚网带支护技术就可以保证回采巷道的稳定     

长江经济带建设的可持续发展研究

９０年代以来长江沿江地区经济发展速度明显加快,为实现其快速协调发展,须大力发展外向型经济。中快中上游开发开放促进区域经济合作,借鉴国外大河开发经验进行统一规划和建设。构筑上中下注重协调发展的农业支持系统,挖掘土地生产潜力,建设农业生产基地。     

Rural poverty driven soil degradation under climate change: the sensitivity of the disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome with respect to climate

Starting from the basic assumption of the syndrome concept that essentially all of the present problematic civilization–nature interactions on the global scale can be subdivided into a limited number of typical patterns, the analysis of the response of these patterns (syndromes) to climate change can make a major contribution to climate impact research, surmounting the difficulties of more common sectoral ceteris paribus impact studies with respect to their systemic integration. In this paper we investigate in particular the influence of climate on the regional proneness or disposition towards one of the most important syndromes with respect to famines and malnutrition, the Sahel Syndrome. It describes the closely interlinked natural and socioeconomic aspects of rural poverty driven degradation of soil and vegetation on marginal sites. Two strategies of global climate impact assessment on a spatial 0.5°×0.5° grid were pursued: (a) As a measure for the climate sensitivity of the regional proneness, the absolute value of the gradient of the disposition with respect to the global field of 3} 12 monthy normals of temperature, irradiation and precipitation is calculated. (b) The disposition was evaluated for two different climate forecasts under doubled atmospheric CO₂ concentration. For both strategies two new quantitative global models were incorporated in a fuzzy-logic-based algorithm for determining the disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome: a neural-net-based model for plant productivity and a waterbalance model which calculates surface runoff considering vertical and lateral fluxes, both driven by the set of 36 monthly climatological normals and designed to allow very fast global numerical evaluation.Calculation (b) shows that the change in disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome crucially depends on the chosen climate forecast, indicating that the disagreement of climate forecasts is propagated to the impact assessment of the investigated socio-economic pattern. On the other hand the regions with a significant increase in disposition in at least one of the climate scenario-based model runs form a subset of the regions which are indicated by the local climate sensitivity study (a) as highly sensitive – illustrating that the gradient measure applied here provides a resonable way to calculate an upper limit or worst case of negative climate impact. This method is particularly valuable in the case of uncertain climate predictions as, e.g., for the change in precipitation patterns.     

沿海铁路东通道建设对淮安经济发展的影响

以淮安市现实产业布局为基础,分析了新长铁路建设可能对该市产业布局产生的影响,并充分利用新长铁路贯通的良好契机,调整产业布局,建设沿线交通经济带,推动淮安经济跨越式发展,进而实现苏南、苏北经济联动,对江苏实施区域共同发展战略具有现实意义.