Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of the Brazilian zero-tolerance drinking and driving law on mortality rates due to road traffic accidents according to the type of victim, sex, and age.
Methods: An interrupted time series design was used to compare yearly mortality rates due to road traffic accidents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before and after the zero-tolerance drinking and driving law came into effect on June 19, 2008. Yearly mortality rates were compared according to the type of victim: pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, and vehicle occupant. We used the Prais-Winsten procedure of autoregression in the analysis of time series; the outcome of this analysis was the annual percentage change in the rates. Overall and stratified analyses were conducted to investigate whether the zero-tolerance drinking and driving law may have had a distributional effect on mortality rates due to road traffic accidents depending on sex and age group; a significance level of P < .01 was accepted.
Results: From 1999 to 2016, there were 15,629 deaths due to road traffic accidents in Rio de Janeiro. The effect of the zero-tolerance drinking and driving law on overall mortality rates due to road traffic accidents in Rio de Janeiro was not statistically significant. However, among cyclists and motorcyclists aged ≥60 years and among pedestrians of both sexes and aged ≥20 years, the effect of the zero-tolerance drinking and driving law was to decrease mortality due to road traffic accidents at a yearly rate.
Conclusion: There is evidence of reduced mortality rates due to road traffic accidents among cyclists and motorcyclists aged ≥60 years and among pedestrians of both sexes aged ≥20 years in the second major Brazilian capital 9 years after the zero-tolerance drinking and driving law was adopted. 相似文献
Starch/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended materials for using as a solid carbon source (SCS) were prepared by blending PVA and gelatinized starch in an aqueous solution system, in which PVA served as framework material and starch as carbon source. The optimization of starch content and temperature effects were investigated. It was indicated that higher denitrification efficiency could be achieved with more starch in the materials. The average specific denitrification rates were 0.93, 0.66, 0.37 and 0.36 mg/(g·day) corresponding to starch content of 70%, 60%, 40% and 30% respectively at 37℃. The denitrification rates increased when operating temperature was raised from 23℃ to 30℃ and then 37℃. The mechanism of carbon release was analyzed incorporating the experimental results of abiotic release in deionized water. The organic carbon was mainly hydrolyzed by microbes, and the biological release efficiencies were at the range of 89.2% to 96.0%. A long-term experiment with a continuous flow reactor with SCS material containing 70% starch was conducted to gain some experience for practical application. When the influent nitrate concentration was in the range of 35.2 to 39.1 mg/L, hydraulic retention time of 4 hr, and operating temperature of 30℃, a nitrogen removal efficiency up to 94.6% and denitrification rate of 0.217 kg/(m3.day) was achieved. The starch-based materials developed in this study can be used as a solid carbon source for tertiary nitrogen removal from secondary effluent. 相似文献