Econ 335 4th assignment lee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Econ 335 4th assignment lee - Essay Example In the contemporary times, the situation has somewhat changed in the favour of emerging new economies like Japan, Korea, China etc. who manage their currencies relative to US Dollar and have consistently diverted their surplus to the US through export. The developing economies, at the same time, have considerably increased their forex reserves to keep an edge in the new transformed global business environment. Since the role of emerging new economies is seemingly like that of Europe, when Bretton Woods I system was initiated, the current system is called Bretton Woods II system. Triffin Dilemma seems to have reappeared in the current global economy of recessive trend only to some extent. Triffin Dilemma primarily refers to Robert Triffin’s contentions that Bretton Woods I would not offer long term economic stability because its inner ‘workings contained contradictions†¦ The Triffin Dilemma posited that the world therefore confronted a choice between running short of liquidity and undermining confidence in the dollar, which was destined sooner or later to produce a crisis (Triffin, 1960). Indeed, his prophecy had come true and Bretton Woods I system crashed eventually. In the recent years, the American Economy has undergone a rapid downfall and the increasing US Account deficit has devalued the dollar to the extent that it has generated new concern in the international trade arena. Though it seems quite probable that Triffin’s Dilemma can reappear in the current global economic situation in the near future but the recovery in the American economy have forestalled the speculations. The emerging new dynamics of oil and globalization give further credence to the stability of Bretton Woods II system The main similarity between the two systems is that both have pegged their exchange rates of their currencies against the US dollar which had greatly facilitated export for the countries in Europe, when BW I was adopted and now the

Controversial novels Essay Example for Free

Controversial novels Essay Argued to be one of Hardys most controversial novels, published in 1891 during an era when the underprivileged classes of society, were submissive to superstitious beliefs in particular those such as luck spiritual beings and ultimately fate which were the foundations of lower class civilisation, Tess of the DUrbervilles presents a story of Fate toying with the life of the Heroine Tess. Fate is an influential part of the plot because it is what dictates her life. Events in the beginning of the novel begin a domino effect that cannot be reverse, thus Her fate is already chosen and all she can do is live through the events that happen to her. Whilst Walkers Colour purple is written during an era of gender social and racial inequalities narrated through Celie whose life consisting of an abundance of obstacles refuses to give into the Fate which determined the lives of poor uneducated black females during the 1930s. What exactly is Fate, is it in our personalities, actions and character or are our lives controlled by a supposed force or power which predetermines events in our lifes, meaning regardless of what we do we are unable to change our destiny. This theme is explored thoroughly by Thomas Hardy through his heroine Tess who is portrayed as a victim of fate throughout the novel, chance and coincidence bring about disasters in the novel that we can claim occur due to fate, it appears the main characters are subject to forces beyond their control. The author employs a very fatalistic plot throughout the novel making Tess endure whatever is thrown at her . In the first chapter of the book the horse Prince dies, this is seen as Tess fault as she falls as sleep due to being exhausted, this happens at night when the weather is very depressed. Hardy uses pathetic fallacy by claiming the atmosphere was pale, this makes the reader feel tension and also an expectation of tragedy . This scene is similar to that of the one at the chase when Alec finds Tess unconscious and may have raped her which is ultimately up to speculation. It is clear that Hardy uses the death of prince to create a sense of foreboding as this episode and the one at the chase are extremely similar, on both occasions Tess has fallen asleep due to tiredness and also the weather is used as an indication for what is to follow. From this we can question whether these events are down to fate and also ask if Hardy pre-determines Tess fate and future through her early actions thus her future is unalterable so there is nothing she can do to change. This has lead to the critic The Irvine Howe has writing: May we see her purely as a victim, like the white horse, the pheasants, the animals who are killed at harvest time? Hers is a poor wounded name This supports The interpretation that Tess life was controlled by Fate the just like the events in the novel such as the horses death and the death of the pheasants which all acted as a sense of foreboding and events which pre determine Tess death. Towards the latter stages of the novel during chapter 46, Hardy again emphasises the significant role Fate has played in Tess life and misfortunes. Firstly at the bottom of page 320 Tess states How can I pray for you? When I am forbidden to believe that the great power who moves the world would alter his plans on my account? Tess is telling Alec that she has lost her belief in God as her prayers do not move him. Therefore she is indicating this is happening because God already has his plans made and what she wants makes no difference because she is not important enough for him to change them, thus empowering the element of Fate and its restrictions on her ability to change. Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple approaches the theme of Fate and destiny in a similar way to Hardy to a certain extent, in The Colour Purple the character Celie goes through a series of events at the beginning of the novel, she is raped by her father on several occasions is forced to give away the children that she conceived through him then her sister Nettie is forced to leave the home in which Celie lives due to her Husband Mr , but later on in the novel we learn that Nettie is now living with the family that adopted her sisters children. This shows that Alice Walker purposely portrayed Celies life as a victim of Fate, but gives her character an opportunity to resist this fate which results in a positive outcome for Celie. Its possible to say that Walker highlights the fact that although we may be victims of Fate we are able to control this Fate and our, she does this by showing that Celie is in fact not a victim of fate and unlike Tess her own actions are what allow her to change her destiny. We can say this because Celie confides in God through her letters, giving her hope and belief and she restrains herself from killing the man who has brought her pain and suffering, Mr , unlike Tess . Celies ability to change and prevent Fate from controlling her life is ultimately down to the letters she writes to God, she tells her sister Nettie Long as I can spell G-o-d I got somebody along She believes she is never alone or hopeless as long as she has God in her life, writing to God gives her hope, this hope is what helps her overcome the negative aspects of her Fatalistic path that seemed as though her life would be controlled by abusive males that would drive her to murder her husband just like Tess did. On the other hand Tess Fate is once again predetermined by Hardy in chapter 41 when she stumbles upon dying pheasents and puts them out of their misery by bringing their inevitable deaths to an end prematurely Poor darlings-to suppose myself the most miserable being on earth in the sight o such misery as yours! she exclaimed, her tears running down as she killed the birds tenderly. This Fatalistic event represents Tess destiny as she to will die due to her neck breaking as she will later be hung, Hardy uses this sense of foreboding once again signifying the belief that her character is her Fate, she is unable to change this, nothing she does will alter it. Similarly but with a contrasting outcome, in Colour Purple Fate re-emerges as killin Mr begins to dawn on Celies mind. How Im gon keep from killing him Naw I think I feel better if I kill him, I say I feels sickish. Numb, now. Mr has abused Celie to the extent that she contemplates killing him, at this stage of the book readers are likely to speculate whether Fate has chosen this path for Tess, is this her destiny? Will she have to emulate Tess action to end her misfortunes? Or will she be able to alter her Fate through her hope in God and rational actions? Although she doesnt go on to murder Mr , through God and her companion Celie she finds the courage to speak up against Mr and leave him, ultimately changing her Fate which is something Tess was unable to do You a low down dog is whats wrong. Its time to leave you and enter into the creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need. Here Walker shows her strength and courage obtained through her hope in God. The authors use of foreboding throughout the novel can be seen as a representative of fate, Hardy believed that what happened to us was a product of our personality, class, status and the way in which we view life therefore Tess pride and her concern for Angels reputation after he leaves her prevents her from seeking help at an early stage of her troubles can be seen as her own actions but in Hardys view our own actions were down to fate , she ends up confiding in Alec which leads to disaster. From this we can question whether Tess actions lead to her downfall or was it Fate? This is demonstrated at the beginning of the final paragraph, hardy writes Justice was done, the president of immortals had ended his sport with Tess. Hardy is telling us Fate has finished playing with its victim, Tess. He may have done this to further draw attention to his beliefs that we are subject to a immoral force beyond our control that we are forced to endure and that religion does not have bearing on any events in our life. This is a viewpoint that was developed by critic Irving Howe who too believed Tess fate had already been predetermined, Proposing this is why Hardy named the final phase of the novel fulfilment. Furthermore, another way Hardy depicts Tess as a victim of Fate is through the language he uses, particularly in the last phase of the novel as he named it fulfilment thus this is a play on words as we are left to question what has been fulfilled. It is possible to say Hardy believed Fate had been fulfilled it had played its role in bringing Tess to her tragic downfall. Walker presents Celie as a victim of Fate like Hardy does Tess, however Walker stresses the point that we are able to change our Fate and destiny, this is significant as the colour purple which is the colour of the purple flowers represent spirituality hope. She is almost trying to convey the message that, Fate can be overcome as long as hope is present, where as Hardy purposely doesnt give Tess any chance of overcoming her Fate, he deliberately does this to assert his negative view on religion, Walker gives her character hope through God, this is what enables Celie to overcome her so called Fate or Destiny whilst Hardys pessimistic belief of religion deters him from doing this. Through his novels Hardy repeatedly articulated that chance and coincidence that bring about disaster are ultimately Fate, thus he empowers his belief through Tess that characters are subject to forces beyond their control. This is similar to another of his novels, The Return of the Native. Throughout The Return of the Native bad things happen to good people, this is a depiction of his atheist perception that God does not exist and if there is a God it is lacking in morals, because good people, such as Tess are the victims of bad events and tragedy in life due to Fate. Like Hardy himself said Once a victim, always a victim of fate.

herody Free Essays on Homers Odyssey - Odysseus Is Not A Hero :: Homer Odyssey Essays

Odysseus Is Not A Hero A hero is "a man noted for his special achievements" according to the dictionary, but if you ask most people what a hero is, you will get the same general response. They will probably say "someone who does something for other people out of the goodness of his heart." Odysseus, who is the main character of the book "The Odyssey" written by Homer, would fit the dictionary's definition of a hero; but if you go deeper, looking at what people feel a hero is, he doesn't even come close. In the book, Odysseus does nothing out of the goodness of his heart. Even if Odysseus fought in the Trojan War, he is not a hero because he is self-centered and ignorant to other people's values and needs. There are multiple examples of Odysseus being self-centered, such as not taking people's advice. Odysseus was given advice from Circe that said not to try to fight Scylla even when she takes six of your men, but Odysseus tried to fight her and he lost three more men than the six he already lost. He also neglected to take the advice from his crew member, Eurylochus. Eurylochus told Odysseus not to send men to see what was on Circe's island and because he sent them anyway, they ended up being turned into pigs. Odysseus also neglects other people's lives when he takes action; such as when he tried to fight Scylla after strictly being told not to. Because of this ignorant action, he lost three more men on top of the other six. He also sacrificed men when he waited at the Cyclops' home for "gifts." Odysseus was very self-centered where real heroes are not. Odysseus also lacks the part of the hero profile which includes having a good heart. Odysseus definitely does not have this because he kills people without giving them a chance. Odysseus killed every one of the suitors in cold blood when most of them didn't commit a crime suitable for the death penalty. He also killed all of the maids who were raped by the suitors as if the had a choice in the matter. Odysseus also doesn't care about his crew members.

Intrapsychic Omnipresence in Bodily Symptoms :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Intrapsychic Omnipresence in Bodily Symptoms Sometimes disease and illness just show up. For these medical conditions, a doctor usually tells us what is "wrong" physically. These scientific observations determining diseases or symptoms leave people wondering if there is something behind the cell that created the malfunction. Perhaps one's psyche; which is the mind functioning as the center of thought, conscious or unconscious, and interconnected with the physical environment, can effect the body positively and negatively. An indirect way of dealing with psychological conflict is to intuitively or unconsciously convert it into symptomatic illness. However, this does not get rid of the emotions or the symptoms, for this is not the root of the problem. It is only through recognition of the their intuition or repressed emotions that people may come to heal themselves. It is difficult although possible for some to assign every illness or symptom to some underlying psychic cause; but that is usually whimsically referred to as "new ag e" and "mystical". It is a person's own personal belief whether she created her diabetes, or whether he created his cancer as a result of psychological and emotional conflict and trauma. Therefore, we can only look at the facts to postulate the argument that a lack of psychological well being manifests itself somatically. The best way to examine the notion that psychological factors affect medical conditions is with the neurosis Hysteria. Hysteria is also known now as Conversion Disorder or Dissociation, in which unconscious or emotional psychological conflict converts into a bodily disturbance (2). An example of this is anxiety. Hysteria is diagnosed as psychological stress accompanied with physical symptoms. Interestingly, despite the multiple physical symptoms there is no anatomical or organic basis for any of them. Although conversion disorder is a physical manifestation, there is no physical cause. In the case of hysteria, the mind or the psyche is neglected by the person who represses emotional trauma, and these then divert themselves into the body as a means of expression or escape. These patients often times do not know what is wrong with themselves because the repression was unconscious and out of their control. Accordingly, the physical symptoms in hysteria are a result of the person's lack of psychological control, which is unconscious not voluntary. During the 19th century, French Neurologist J.M. Charcot and Psychologist P. Janet emphasized that "morbid ideas could produce physical manifestations" and that hysteria was caused by the psyche not the body (1).

Network Management System Essay

A Network Management System is a combination of software and hardware which is used for monitoring and effective administration of a network. For any network which requires management of number of network tasks to be integrated in a single software solution, there is a need of effective and efficient planning. It is the task of the network management system to locate network support, keep a check on the activities and health of the network devices attached and provides exceptional handling mechanism in order to alert the administrator in cases of conditions which can hinder the performance of the network(Laudon & Laudon,2007). NMS systems use many different kinds of protocols in accordance their usage for example one of the commonly used is SNMP protocol which allows the gathering of information to be simplified for the administrator and users over the network from the devices attached in accordance to the network hierarchy. The NMS software are responsible for problem identification along with the exact source of the problem and provide effective solutions in order to prevent the problem from effecting the performance of the network. The NMS are also responsible for collecting the device data and numbers in terms of statistics to keep a log of the performance of the network. This usually includes a library of protocols which help the administrator in the management of the network through the Network Management System software. For to make sure there is a streamlined management of the network, every network is assigned a network manager. The network manager is responsible for monitoring the activities, methods which help the network running which includes the procedures which are usually defined for every specific network and lastly, the use of tools which the network administrator/manager is well equipped with in order to control monitor and use in terms of exceptional handling over the network. The operation of the network manager is to deal with keeping the network up and running smoothly. This includes the task of finding out any problem and rectifying it in time to make sure all systems over the particular network are not affected by the downtime of the network. Maintenance of the network involves proper measures and preventive procedures and measures for the network to be running smoothly such as the task of adjusting device configuration parameters for systems on the network(Laudon & Laudon,2007). A management information base (MIB) is defined as a virtual database which is used for management of the network activities over a communication network. They are often related with the SNMP protocol commonly known as Simple Network Management Protocol. it is commonly used to pass on to a meticulous subset, more appropriately referred to as MIB-module. Items in the MIB are distinct by means of a subset of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN. 1) also known as â€Å"Structure of Management Information Version 2 (SMIv2)† RFC 2578 which performs the parsing for the MIB compiler on the network. The Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) for MIB was developed to sustain supervision and protocol scrutiny of the local area network. The unique versions centers on OSI Layer 1 and Layer 2 in sequence in Ethernet and Token Ring system. It is unmitigated by RMON2 which appends maintenance for the Network Layer and Application Layer monitoring and by SMON which has added support for switched networks. Probing helps the system to examine and evaluate the network consistently and thus, helps the network manager to keep the network agents in check and up and running. â€Å"The following diagram shows a reference architecture that Cisco Systems believes should be the minimal solution for managing a data network. This architecture includes a Cisco CallManager server for those who plan to manage Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): The diagram shows how you would integrate the CallManager server into the NMS topology. † (CISCO, 2010). References: CISCO. (2010). NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: BEST PRACTICES WHITE PAPER . Retrieved July 13,2010 from http://www. cisco. com/en/US/tech/tk869/tk769/technologies_white_paper09186a00800aea9c. shtml Laudon & Laudon, K C. , (2007), Management Information Systems. Pearson Education India

Negative Slope and Negative Correlation

Negative Slope and Negative Correlation In mathematics, the slope of a line (m) describes how rapidly or slowly change is occurring and in which direction, whether positive or negative. Linear functions- those whose graph is a straight line- have four possible types of slope: positive, negative, zero, and undefined.  A function with a positive slope is represented by a line that goes up from left to right, while a function with a negative slope is represented by a line that goes down from left to right. A function with zero slope is represented by a horizontal line, and a function with an undefined slope is represented by a vertical line. Slope is usually expressed as an absolute value. A positive value indicates a positive slope, while a negative value indicates a negative slope. In the function y 3x, for example, the slope is positive 3, the coefficient of x. In statistics, a graph with a negative slope represents a negative correlation between two variables. This means that as one variable increases, the other decreases- and vice versa. Negative correlation represents a significant relationship between the variables x and y, which, depending on what they are modeling, can be understood as input and output, or cause and effect. How to Find Slope Negative slope is calculated just like any other type of slope. You can find it by dividing the rise of two points (the difference along the vertical or y-axis) by the run (the difference along the x-axis). Just remember that the rise is really a fall, so the resulting number will be negative. m (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1) Once the line is graphed, youll see that the slope is negative because the line will go down from left to right. Even without drawing a graph, you will be able to see that the slope is negative simply by calculating m using the values given for the two points. For example, the slope of a line that contains the two points (2,-1) and (1,1) is: m [1 - (-1)] / (1 - 2)m (1 1) / -1m 2 / -1m -2 A slope of -2 means that for every positive change in x, there will be twice as much negative change in y. Negative Slope = Negative Correlation A negative slope demonstrates a negative correlation between the following: variables x and yinput and outputindependent variable and dependent variablecause and effect Negative correlation occurs when the two variables of a function move in opposite directions. As the value of x increases, the value of y decreases. Likewise, as the value of x decreases, the value of y increases. Negative correlation, then, indicates a clear relationship between the variables, meaning one affects the other in a meaningful way. In a scientific experiment, a negative correlation would show that an increase in the independent variable (the one manipulated by the researcher) would cause a decrease in the dependent variable (the one measured by the researcher). For example, a scientist might find that as predators are introduced into an environment, the number of prey gets smaller. In other words, there is a negative correlation between number of predators and number of prey. Reals A simple example of negative slope in the real world is going down a hill. The further you travel, the further down you drop. This can be represented as a mathematical function where x equals distance traveled and y equals elevation. Other examples of negative slope demonstrate the relationship between two variables: Mr. Nguyen drinks caffeinated coffee two hours before his bedtime. The more cups of coffee he drinks (input), the fewer hours he will sleep (output).Aisha is purchasing a plane ticket. The fewer days between the purchase date and the departure date (input), the more money Aisha will have to spend on airfare (output).John is spending some of the money from his last paycheck on presents for his children. The more money John spends (input), the less money John will have in his bank account (output).Mike has an exam at the end of the week. Unfortunately, he would rather spend his time watching sports on TV than studying for the test. The more time Mike spends watching TV (input), the lower Mikes score will be on the exam (output). (In contrast, the relationship between time spent studying and exam score would be represented by a positive correlation, since an increase in studying would lead to a higher score.)

Rappaccinis Daughter Quotes

'Rappaccini's Daughter' Quotes Rappaccinis Daughter is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The work centers around a young man, and a beautiful young woman (with her brilliant and inventive father entering the scenes periodically). The work (and author) are famous for being representation of American Romantic literature (Hawthorne is also famous for The Scarlet Letter). The story is also sometimes the subject of study and discussion in American literature classes, as it explores the definition of beauty, emotion/love versus intellect/science, and an exploration of Creator/creation. Here are a few quotes from Rappaccinis Daughter. Which quote is your favorite? Quotes From the Story Nothing could exceed the intentness with which this scientific gardener examined every shrub which grew in his path; it seemed as if he was looking into their innermost nature, making observations in regard to their creative essence, and discovering why one leaf grew in this shape, and another in that, and wherefore such and such flowers differed among themselves in hue and perfume.Every portion of the soil was peopled with plants and herbs, which, if less beautiful, still bore tokens of assiduous care; as if all had their individual virtues, known to the scientific mind that fostered them.He was beyond the middle term of life, with grey hair, a thin grey beard, and a face singularly marked with intellect and cultivation, but which could never, even in his more youthful days, have expressed much warmth of heart.But now, unless Giovannis draughts of wine had bewildered his senses, a singuolar incident occurred†¦a drop or two of moisture from the broken stem of the flower descende d upon the lizards head. For an instant, the reptile contorted itself violently, then lay motionless in the sunshine. Beatrice observed this remarkable phenomenon, and crossed herself, sadly, but without surprise; nor did she therefore hesitate to arrange the fatal flower in her bosom. And must I believe all that I have seen with my own eyes? asked Giovanni pointedly, while the recollection of former scenes made him shrink.They stood, as it were, in an utter solitude, which would be made none the less solitary by the densest throng of human life. Ought not, then, the desrt of humanity around them to press this insulated pair together? If they should be cruel to one another, who was there to be kind to them?Created it! created it! repeated Giovanni. What mean you, Beatrice?Miserable! ... What mean you, foolish girl? Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy? Misery, to be able to quell the mightiest with a breath? Misery, to be as terrible as thou art beautiful? Woudst thou, then, have preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil and capable of none?To Beatrice-so radically had her earthly part been wrought upon by Rappaccinis skill-as poison had been life, so the powerful an tidote was death. And thus the poor victim of mans ingenuity and of thwarted nature, and of the fatality that attends all such efforts of perverted wisdom, perished there, at the feet of her father and Giovanni.

Descartes Essays - Ren Descartes, Epistemology, Thought, Free Essays

Descartes Essays - Ren Descartes, Epistemology, Thought, Free Essays Descartes Descartes Meditations Descartes Cogito Ergo Sum (I am, I exist) argument is a complex one. In many ways, he constructs a convincing argument for the existence of the self, and for the process of the thinking being, the essence of that self. In this meditation on his philosophy, Descartes on numerous attempts tries to convince both the readers, as well as himself, of his theory that we must reject all of our present ideas and beliefs and start from nothing. He believes that the only thing that has any certainty at this point is his own existence as a thinking being. Everything else, which he has learned throughout his entire life and believed in, is to be thrown out because it is not known clearly and distinctly. Descartes method and theory on knowledge was well planned and carefully thought out. It is evident that he spent a great deal of time determining the principles that he would use as determinants for judging whether a specific idea was justified and true. In my opinion, there are some flaws contained in Descartes argument. Among these flaws are Descartes apparent determination to prove his theory on his individual existence in the world and the existence of G-d to backup and prove himself and his theories. At the beginning of meditation two, Descartes is stuck in the middle of nothingness. He has nothing, nothing to believe in and everything around him he regards as false. This is because he cannot believe what he has learned and he is also unable to trust his senses due to the fact that they deceive him. He feels like he is drowning in a whirlpool and cannot reach the top and get out nor can he put his feet on the bottom and stand. Everything in the world at this point he has called into doubt, including himself. Everything that he has ever seen, learned or thought is now external from what he deems to be true and he is beginning his knowledge from non-existence. Descartes although is certain of one thing, nothing (but to be certain of nothing is still to be certain of something?). Descartes is a rational thinker and he rationalizes through his studies that nothing in the world is known. He decided to re-start his belief process and call everything he has ever believed in, into doubt. He is debating complex ideas in his head, changing his mind and objectively making decisions, so his existence in a world has to be a certainty. The fact that he is having these thoughts, whether right or wrong proves mental capacity. Descartes then states with certainty Cogito ergo sum (I am, I exist). This is the first accurate idea that Descartes knows with any conviction, he knows that he is a thinking being. Descartes still does not know what he is, he says but what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses. He is aware of his mental capacity and knows he thinks, deliberates and makes decisions, but he still rejects his body and his senses. O ne major flaw found in Descartes argument is that while critically examining, and then rejecting, mostly everything in the world around him, he maintained that he could prove the existence of G-d, beyond a shadow of a doubt. For thousands of years, people have been trying to prove G-ds existence but he has yet to be successful. It seems to me that Descartes showed a display of arrogance in supposing that he could devise a method of proving the existence of G-d, doing so without a great deal of difficulty. At one point in his discourse on method, Descartes sets out a code of morals, which he plans to abide by. Descartes states that he plans to obey the laws and the customs of my country, constantly holding on to the religion in which, by G-ds grace, I had been instructed from my childhood . It is quite apparent from this passage, that Descartes had accepted and embraced the idea of G-d long before he even began to question it. With this pre-judgement of

The Most Important Factors Of Transforming Gateshead Holdings Essay

The Most Important Factors Of Transforming Gateshead Holdings - Essay Example The workers were sorted into teams and assigned responsibilities accordingly. Workers were also offered rewards for putting in best efforts towards fulfilling their responsibilities. This helped in motivating the staff, a critical component in today's business context. Motives help in providing a reason for the staff to act in a more efficient manner. On the other hand lack of motivation can actually result in distorting the working environment. The five elements of 5S included Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. Once the workforce realizes that the management is indeed quite serious about sustaining the business the long term, they too start connecting their future with the efficient functioning of the company. During the years prior to 1999, no positive motivation was in sight for the workers. The lack of any positive motivation by the managers often results in automatic provisioning of negative motivation. But the 5S adopted by management helped in changing this attitude. From the year 1995 to 1998 the staff turnover ratio is consistently on an increase. Workers appear to have given up and considering it a sinking  ship the workers getting opportunities elsewhere thought it fit to leave at the first available opportunity. This is reflected in the incremental percentage of staff turnover. This leads to an increase in costs as once a set of trained staff leaves, a new process for recruiting is required to be taken up. The new incumbents take some time to familiarise themselves with the work and working environment. This affects the production levels and efficiency of the respective departments. In 1999, it appears in the initial months, the percentage of staff turnover had been on the rise, but after the motivation thoughts and positive signals sent in by Geoff, this trend stopped.

Health care marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health care marketing - Essay Example As the pioneers who â€Å"bridged the gap between the initial R&D and the market-ready innovation by defining a baby-care niche† (Blatchford, 2010), Johnson & Johnson successfully used the branding strategy to turn the undifferentiated product ‘Mineral Oil’ ( used primarily for health and medical uses) into one of their most successful consumer products. The Johnson’s Baby product range was later extended to include more related products like the ‘No more tears shampoo’. The brand has become well-known for its comfort, care and safety message which has been communicated very effectively through the above-the-line advertising and their signature pink packaging. The marketing strategies of the Brand have been so successful because of the effective use of basic principles of marketing especially with regards to identifying the target market and developing suitable communications. Target Market   The target market can be formally defined as "A se t of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve" (Kotler et al, 2010). Defining the target market is the foundation step towards developing the value in a product or service, that will be communicated according to the consumers needs. The development of distribution, advertising, and production plans all depend on the target market as selected by an organization. ... The communication and value proposition offered is same for all segments. Differentiated: targeting several segments and offering them varied value propositions for a given product, in accordance with their specific needs Niche: Focusing on just one segment, provides them with specialized products with unique value proposition. (Kotler et al, 2010). An organization with a highly innovative product may want to go with niche marketing as they can concentrate their resources on developing a highly involved market for their product. This strategy may also be preferred for companies that are starting out small and do not have the financial and human resources required for a larger marketing plan targeting several different groups of consumers. Organizations have to be clear about their own strengths (and weaknesses), their long and short term goals and the external environment before deciding to utilize a particular targeting strategy. Consumer insight research is an important component o f this process, as it highlights what exactly are the consumer needs and their perceived reception to any new product and Johnson & Johnson. The market segments to be selected for targeting purposes are divided into groups with similar demographic and psychographic traits. The marketers group the consumers through evaluation of questions such as; will they feel the need for a certain product? If so what value will the ascribe to it? Can they afford it? Are they doers or achievers? Is brand status important to them? How important is family to them? And so on and so forth. Questions such as these are designed to provide consumer insight and feelings, which can help a company to design and communicate better solutions for them.

Marketing A.B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing A.B - Essay Example The information presented in the article simplified the challenges faced by different support functions in the organization when faced with the need to develop functional strategies. The credibility of the authors forming the Berkeley Partnership is verified and closer review of their credentials revealed that they are â€Å"experienced consultants who combine strong strategy and delivery skills with positive and engaging personalities. They provide the support the client needs, whether project management consultancy on the ground for an extended period, help through a critical phase of work or simply advice† (The Berkeley Partnership: About Berkeley 1). Therefore, their advice regarding developing functional strategies are supported by years of experience in the field of consultancy and management. However, one is strongly convinced that the article lacks appropriate credible support from academic sources and real life organizational experiences. Although the focus was primarily on determining the rationale for difficulties in developing functional strategies, readers are actually wanting on information or even on a general overview of how functional departments could be assisted and advised on the techniques and appropriate guidelines of the development of strategies, per se. Overall, this article could be used in terms of determining how to overcome challenges in the development of functional strategies but more effective substantiation needs to be sourced from other credible and authoritative sources. The article proffered issues pertinent to the design of a framework for the evaluation of strategies developed in the organizational setting. As disclosed, the need for evaluation and implementation of corrective action are always crucial and needed except when: â€Å"(1) external and internal factors have not significantly changed and (2) the firm is progressing satisfactorily toward

PGCE Unit 1 professional practice ( A reflective journal ) Essay

PGCE Unit 1 professional practice ( A reflective journal ) - Essay Example In further elaboration of the motivation phenomenon, Atherton (2004) defines it as "either intrinsic/expressive (doing something for its own sake) or extrinsic/instrumental (doing something for some other reason)." Contrary to Petty’s (1993) presentation, Atherton (2004) emphasises that motivation is not an indivisible whole but is comprised of two distinct forms. While Pettys (1993) assertion is largely true, he oversimplifies the complex phenomenon of motivation, in which instance one need turn to Atherton (2004) for a more accurate understanding of the mentioned. In further elaboration of the stated, while Petty has correctly identified the centrality of motivation to effective learning, he incorrectly identifies teachers as the primary instigators of motivation. In essence, Petty (1993:32) lays much, if not all, of the responsibility for the generation of motivation upon teachers whereby he defines this particular task as the "greatest challenge that many teachers face." This is an oversimplification of the phenomenon of motivation, implying that motivation is essentially extrinsic whereby, as noted by Atherton (2004) it is both intrinsic and extrinsic. A teacher, through the enthusiasm with which he/she approaches the information communication responsibility, can similarly enthuse learners and, through the creation of a positive learning environment, characterized by encouragement and trust, can enhance the confidence levels of individual learners, thereby injecting them with the motivation to learn. However, as may be observed, a teachers motivation-elevation capacities are limited to the extrinsic, while effective learning is predicated on the presence of requisite minimal levels of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Petty does not admit to the explicated differentiation, rendering his observation only partially accurate. As language, literacy and numeracy skills vary

Data Mining Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Data Mining - Lab Report Example In addition, data on the number of science related course that a student had taken and data on years of professional experience that a student had prior to the course were missing for some of the participants. In addition, data on expected salary for first job had unrealistically low values and required cleaning. Means were used to clean data on previous number of science course and professional experience and expected salary while mode was used to clean ordinal data. A majority of the students, therefore, had undertaken about three science related courses and had about 3.65 years of professional experience in data areas. The students expected first salary of about $ 29795.78. A majority of the students (60.9 percent) were fair in data mining efficiency while only 8.7 were good. Only 21.7 percent had much confidence in becoming data analysts after graduation while 56.5 percent were not sure of their positions. Most of the students lived away from campus with 34.8 percent being within a driving distance while 52.2 percent lived far away, though within the United States. Most of the students preferred a one-by-one virtual meeting. The following histograms illustrate the distributions. Majority of the students have sufficient background knowledge in data mining, having done many related course. They however lack experience in data mining and report average efficiency. Their level of motivation into data analysis profession is low, their locations are far from the campus, and they prefer one-by-one virtual meetings. A one on one approach to learning that focuses on technology for online study is therefore

PGCE Unit 1 professional practice ( A reflective journal ) Essay

PGCE Unit 1 professional practice ( A reflective journal ) - Essay Example In further elaboration of the motivation phenomenon, Atherton (2004) defines it as "either intrinsic/expressive (doing something for its own sake) or extrinsic/instrumental (doing something for some other reason)." Contrary to Petty’s (1993) presentation, Atherton (2004) emphasises that motivation is not an indivisible whole but is comprised of two distinct forms. While Pettys (1993) assertion is largely true, he oversimplifies the complex phenomenon of motivation, in which instance one need turn to Atherton (2004) for a more accurate understanding of the mentioned. In further elaboration of the stated, while Petty has correctly identified the centrality of motivation to effective learning, he incorrectly identifies teachers as the primary instigators of motivation. In essence, Petty (1993:32) lays much, if not all, of the responsibility for the generation of motivation upon teachers whereby he defines this particular task as the "greatest challenge that many teachers face." This is an oversimplification of the phenomenon of motivation, implying that motivation is essentially extrinsic whereby, as noted by Atherton (2004) it is both intrinsic and extrinsic. A teacher, through the enthusiasm with which he/she approaches the information communication responsibility, can similarly enthuse learners and, through the creation of a positive learning environment, characterized by encouragement and trust, can enhance the confidence levels of individual learners, thereby injecting them with the motivation to learn. However, as may be observed, a teachers motivation-elevation capacities are limited to the extrinsic, while effective learning is predicated on the presence of requisite minimal levels of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Petty does not admit to the explicated differentiation, rendering his observation only partially accurate. As language, literacy and numeracy skills vary

Immigration Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Immigration - Term Paper Example Immigration law is a complicated process and there are exceptions when enforcing these laws, especially when acts of a criminal nature are committed. Most immigrants are not aware of the potential risks involved, (especially those with a temporary or non-secure status) when they commit a criminal offense. Additionally, the terrorists’ acts of 911 have directly impacted immigration laws. When the United States national security is violated at point of entry by criminals who enter unnoticed it becomes a spiraling effect on its citizens. The numbers of immigrants that enter the United States borders (land, sea and air) every year are in the millions. It is virtually impossible to have a profile on every single individual. Some of these immigrants have criminal backgrounds and are on the run from their own country or they may possess no criminal record but have a high potential to become first time offenders in the United States. The citizens of the United States expect that immig ration law will protect them on a national level from potential criminals at the point of entry. However, many criminals have become very adept at disguising themselves in order to enter the United States. Sadly, they are not found until something disastrous occurs. These individuals put a strain on the infrastructure and services within our local communities. The costs for retaining immigrant criminals and processing them through our system are exorbitant spiraling into the millions. While local governments and law enforcement agencies face the direct burdens of immigrant criminals the costs spills over at the state and federal levels as well. Based on the severity of the crime most individuals will be deported after serving their time. An example of how a criminal act can affect immigration law is the case of â€Å"Padilla versus Kentucky†, (October 13, 2009 – March 31, 2010) whereby Mr. Padilla who lived in the United States for over 40 years and was a lawful perman ent resident, faced mandatory deportation after pleading guilty to drug distribution in the state of Kentucky. At his post conviction hearing he stated that his lawyer not only did not advise him that he could be deported but also told him that since he lived in America for such a long time there was no chance of him being deported. Well, there is no excuse for ignorance or misinformation in the court of law. There was a time when judges were very lax in deporting immigrants for criminal offenses but this was more than 90 years ago. Federal law now imposes strict guidelines for deportation of criminal offenses whether or not the individual has a status of lawful permanent resident. This case showed how immigration law and criminal law became intertwined. Mr. Padilla committed a criminal offense which was punishable under federal immigration laws. After the devastating attack of September 11, the immigration problem in the United States took a major turn. Terrorism was the new crime on the horizon. This was a downward turn in America’s economy. Military personnel had to be increased; diplomatic relations and initiatives with other countries had to be look at with scrutiny. The security at airports and several public places had to be increased. As a result changes in immigration and border patrol were directly affected. Nineteen of the terrorists apprehended from that major event were foreign citizens who entered the United States legally. The terrorists

Second Vatican and the Roman Council Essay Example for Free

Second Vatican and the Roman Council Essay What changes did the Second Vatican Council made to the Roman Catholic? The Second Vatican Council that is also referred to as the Vatican II took place in 1962-1965. It is also called the 21st Roman Catholic’s ecumenical. The council was initiated by John XXIII the pope of the Roman Catholic Church and continued up to the times of Paul IV. It was specifically concerned with renewing spiritually the Roman Catholic and to address the position of the church in the whole world. This council made a number of significant changes to the Roman church especially on liturgy, church constitution, on ecumenism etc. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss in details the reforms that were made in the Roman Catholic Church. The first announced purpose of this council was to make some reforms on liturgy. This was a change that was proposed such that if implemented the laymen would be encouraged to come closer to the church and increase their participation in the church matters. This was also intended to bring as many laymen as possible to the church so that there would be diversity in terms of the languages as well as in practice. This was based on understanding that various groups in the world have different cultures thus incorporating different groups in the church was the most viable means of bringing diversity. Much emphasis was also directed on the bishops’ pastoral duties so as to differentiate their role from other administrative duties. By the time this council adjourned, the council had discussed these issues and came up with four terms and definitions of these proposed changes that were based on mutual agreement. (Flannery, A 1996) When the council convened again in September to December 1963 the sacred liturgy constitution was passed. This constitution allowed the use of local languages and increased participation of the laymen in the church rituals. (Greeley A. 2004) The second Vatican unlike the past councils was particularly concerned with the renewal of the church and to make citizens to be committed to the church matters. The past council mainly addressed the punishment issues so as to combat heresies. The council came up with what was referred as the constitutions on divine revelations, on the church on 11th November 1964 and the pastoral constitution. The liturgy constitution was after mass participation in the church matters. In this constitution, Latin language, which was being used in the past, was replaced with other vernacular dialects. This constitution also provided the common ground of dealing with Protestants, orthodox and those that were considered as non-Christians. Here the Roman Catholic departed from making harsh policies against the above mentioned groups and instead condemned all acts that were viewed as anti Semitic. The council also deployed the persecution and hatred ness against the Protestants. Generally the council reformed the past constitution something that led to increase church freedom. (Daniel-Rops H. 1962) The church constitution was concerned with the biblical understanding of the juridical model, which was in use for many years. The Roman Catholics came to be regarded as the people of God thereby asking the servant nature of follower the prime concern His touched offices like the bishop and for the priests. The constitution made a provision that would allow bishops to have collegial responsibility in church affairs. The ordinary church members were also not left out as the constitution came upon these members to be sanctified so that they would help the church in spreading the gospel to the Christians in every part of the world. The tone of the constitution on pastoral matters was clearly expressed in the opening words in the council, â€Å"Joy and hope the grief and anguish of contemporary humanity particularly of poor and afflicted. † The debate stated with theological matters affecting humanity and then shifted to other areas that affected humanity such as cultural family, economic and well as family and marriage. (McGrory, B. 2004) This church constitution had eight chapters that were referred as the Lumen Gentium and this particularly completed the work of the first Vatican. This constitution in chapter three addressed the pope’s infallibility but no big change was made except the fact that pope’s infallibility was also extended to the Roman Catholic bishops especially when they are pursuing the church doctrines. The roman primacy was also reemphasized on this constitution but of paramount concern was the bishop’s centrality, which was strongly affirmed. This was in line with the collegiality principle or sharing responsibilities. (Flannery, A 1996) This is in other words affirmed that bishops were just like the body of apostle that Peter headed. By incorporating the Episcopal collegiality, papal primacy and infallibility solved the long continued tension between the council and the. The chapter 4 of this church constitution changed the tenaciously held believe that the clergy only formed church and nobody else mattered. This belief changed so that the church came to be seen as the ‘people of God. ’ With these changes, the church phased out the old traditions and switched to the modern world church. The transition was marked by use of people from all walks of life to promulgate the gospel of Christ. They were the church’s representatives just as it was the case in the times of the Christ. This changed the long-standing belief that only nuns, monks and clergies that possessed the Christian calling. This was changed so that the Roman Catholic would spread its gospel to all areas that in the past were inaccessible. The second Vatican council while forming the second dogmatic constitution touched on the sacred traditions and the church’s functions. They were aware that though the appropriate approach in spreading the gospel was to be used, the content and the harmonization of the scripture was of prime importance. The scripture was to be interpreted depending on the sacred tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. The emphasy was placed on the biblical decree and specifically on its centrality. This council resolved that it was to be ensured that everybody had an access to the sacred scripture. (Bokenkotter T. 1979) This sacred was quickly implemented and the results were evident within a very short time and there was particularly because of the legislation of using vernacular languages in spreading the gospel unlike in the past where Latin was the only recognized language. Another reason why it spread very fast is because unlike in the past where the Roman Catholic only relied on the clergies, monks and nuns to spread the gospel, this time through the constitutional reform, laymen were also entrusted with the work of spreading the same. About the mass sacrifice there were notable changes that were made for example the celebrant was not supposed to say privately those verses that were sung by the choir or by the deacon however they were allowed to sing along with the members in reciting the ordinary of the mass such as the Gloria and the Credo. Also there was supposed to a ‘secret’ prayer to be sung either loudly or secretly prior to preface. (Ker 2002) On ecumenism, the traditional method of teaching was maintained but was dramatically adapted. It was emphasized that only through the Roman Catholic Church of the Christians that salvation would be achieved. There were notable changes especially in the way Protestants and Anglicans were viewed. In the past they were viewed as enemies and were strongly condemned but this time they started seen as Christians while the eastern orthodox was deemed as the descendants of the apostles. The Roman church stopped believed that the solution to the church division was the return of all these churches to Rome but the believed that the solution was to let all participate and fulfill what their God wanted. (Gilbert A 1968) In conclusion, we can say that the second Vatican council made some significant reforms in the Roman Catholic. This is what could be referred to as the turning point between its dark past and the modern Roman Catholic Church. The changes that were brought by this council of the 1962 up to 1965 had some positive results for example viewing Christians as people of God, primacy and infallibility of the papal and the extension of this to the bishops, the inclusion of laymen in the spread of gospel and the condemnation of the persecution against the Protestants and the Jews. Work Cited. Bokenkotter T. A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Garden City, New York: Image. 1979: 36 Daniel-Rops H. The Second Vatican Council. D. C. Pawley.1962: 78-87. Flannery, A. , ed. Vatican Council II: Constitutions, Decrees, and Declarations. Costello Pub Co. 1996: 98 Gilbert A. : The Vatican Council and the Jews. Cleveland, World Publishing Co. , 1968: 112 Greeley A. The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2004: 122-125. Ker I. What did the Second Vatican Council do for us? 2002. Accessed at http://www. christendom-awake. org/pages/ianker/vatican2. html on March 29 2008 McGrory, B. The Parish Council Empowers People: Church, Second Vatican. Catholic New Times. 20th June, 2004: 23-27

No Coward Soul Is Mine Analysis

No Coward Soul Is Mine Analysis Emily Brontes No Coward Soul Is Mine was written in order to reach out and touch faith so to speak. Death, faith, and passion were things that did not run scarce in Emily Brontes life and with that No Coward Soul Is Mine was inspired and written. Writing to cope with the pain of growing up, neglected and uneducated Bronte reaches out to God to fill her wounds and give her a life after life. Within No Coward Soul Is Mine, Bronte whole heartedly reveals her views on God through the poems theme, provides descriptions of her interpretation of God himself as a character, allows the reader to illustrate what she sees through nature, and also pulls the readers attention with her use of passionate and powerful words while setting the tone of the poem. In No Coward Soul Is Mine, the main purpose for Brontes use of first person is to express her thoughts, beliefs, and views on God and how other things relate back to him like faith and death (Fernà ¡ndez). Emilys beliefs are that God is everywhere and is the source of everything. She wants to show the world that God is her life and reason to live and does so in her own way. Her thoughts are brilliantly used in the form of nature, providing unique descriptions of nature to depict what God is like. Brontes beliefs are shared and expressed through her metaphoric use of faith throughout the poem, whether it is the breath she breathes, or her never ending love and adoration for God. Her view on God is moving and full of enthusiasm keeping the reader listening and wanting more of Brontes thoughts. In her very first line of the poem, where she states, No coward soul is mine (Bronte, p. 948), she wants to prove to everyone that she isnt a coward through God and never will be, and by making this quote the title enforces its importance to represent her as a strong and independent woman with the partnership of God. No Coward Soul Is Mine is also a very affectionate and emotional poem that Bronte allows the reader to feel and react to. Bronte allows the reader to effectively view her morals and values. The poem permits the reader to interact with and relate to where the author is coming from in an easy perspective. In addition, the poem represents a sense of reflection of Bronte herself and opens up her opinions and beliefs to the reader while also depicting her relationship with God. Her thoughts are obvious since the portrayed image of her character of God is very descriptive and personal, which is why it was written in the first-person. Brontes character of God is not a character at all but actually her faith and principles. In the first stanza she writes Heavens glories shine and Faith shines equal arming me from Fear (Bronte). In this line, she is saying that through God and faith she is fearless. Faith is the belief in something that cannot be seen, but in which one has complete trust (Fernà ¡ndez, 2000). In the second stanza, her character is strong and she states that anyone can possess him. Bronte is preaching about God and telling the audience what he can offer them and continues in the third and fourth stanza encouraging the audience to look away from evil and vain and to trust and give your faith to God. She continues on and compares her character to rocks and other objects in nature that symbolize someone that is strong not only physically, and emotionally, but also spiritually. She also makes references to the breath that we breathe and that gives us life although we cannot see it. Much like in The Pulle y by George Herbert, the character of God is so powerful and giving just at Bronte states. Herbert states that God gave us all of our blessings all of which are strength, wisdom, pleasure, beauty and honor. This poem also portrays a close relationship with the character of God (just as No Coward Soul Is Mine does), and also explains how man provides his respect for God through only Gods knowledge of eternal rest. Both poems give their character use of Gods recognition to the highest power and with nothing less than respect. Even though they cannot see him physically, they spiritually both reach out to him. His spirit is not dead, he is made one with nature, he is a presence (Pinion, 1975). Bronte is sure of two things: her faith and the certainty of Gods existence. Through nature, Bronte provides the reader with brilliant images of whom and what she sees as signs of a presence of God. No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere: I see Heavens glories shine, and faith shines equal, arming me from fear (Bronte, p. 948). Bronte Speaks clearly and gives the reader a chance to understand exactly what message she is portraying and providing clarity in her visual images. In this excerpt, she carefully paints the image of everlasting love and faith, also the afterlife. Her images are colorful and exciting and she uses large amounts of enthusiasm to express her feelings and expresses those by using powerful images of nature. By using physically powerful images throughout the poem to praise and worship God, she gives the audience a very clear and precise understanding on how God is portrayed through her eyes. As upbeat as most of the poem is, she also uses some degrading imagery, mostly towards those who live their lives in vain and continue to do so. Her strict intolerance is quickly expressed through her one simile in the poem which contains st rong use of vain. In moments of vision, religion can pierce the veil and become one with the universal and external spirit (Winnifrith Chitham, p. 59). Bronte also expresses how death is not to be feared and that even after you stop breathing your spirit and faith will live on somewhere. There is not room for Death, Nor atom that his might could render void: Thou -Thou art Being and Breath, And what Thou art may never be destroyed (Bronte, p. 948). She uses numerous things to associate God with and does so effectively and efficiently without confusing the reader. Even when speaking of death she does not disappoint the reader with a drop in tone; however, somewhere throughout the vivid images she does lose the rhyme of the poem although the tone seems to flow fine and smooth without it. The tone in No Coward Soul Is Mine is passionate, while the language is uplifting, emotional and even accusatory. Faith, death, and passion keep an even and overall happy tone throughout the poem. Using faith and passion to keep the reader content and open-minded, but also by using death to pull the reader back to reality, she balances the tone perfectly and does so without confusing the reader. The poem contains mostly metaphors with the exception of one simile which is referring to men. Worthless and withered weeds. Or idlest froth amid the boundless main (Bronte, p. 948). The use of the word as and the particular simile used here gives this phrase a nice tone, and also expresses Brontes contempt for the vain men (Elite Skills Classics). However, Brontes metaphors are not to be looked at individually but as a whole. Together they are characteristics of God and what he is through her eyes. Her religion is everything and without her faith she is nothing. Her commitment to her faith i s astounding and it is all based on her trust in God which she conveys in the overall tone by appearing to be so clam and care free throughout No Coward Soul Is Mine. Bronte uses these metaphors to exult God through the poem (Pinion, p. 201). She is not afraid of death because she knows that God will give her some kind of life after she is gone. She is not tolerant of those who take her God in vain or act in vain. She wishes to become a slave inseparable from her religious thoughts (Davies, p. 173). Overall the tone is conservative which is completely appropriate for Brontes religious and touching poem. Emily Brontes No Coward Soul Is Mine is a clear display of a strong faith and belief. Death, faith, and passion are what drive Bronte to continue to keep her faith in God and what he stands for. She is spiritual and expresses so within No Coward Soul Is Mine. Bronte whole heartedly reveals her views on God through the poems theme, provides descriptions of her interpretation of God himself as a character, allows the reader to illustrate what she sees, and also pulls the readers attention with her use of passionate and powerful words, while setting the tone of the poem.

Language, Identity and Acceptance in Wright’s Autobiography, Black Boy :: Wright Black Boy Essays

Language, Identity and Acceptance in Wright’s Autobiography, Black Boy African American writer James Baldwin said that, â€Å" Language is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private, and connects, or divorces one from the larger public or communal identity.† The stories in Black Boy are original and captivating. It identifies Richard Wright as a writer and a person of incredible substance. The language identifies the books time frame and era. And most importantly shows Richard’s journey through social and personal acceptance. Writing this book the language used was important to Wright. It gave him the power to convey his life story to the reader. Without it his stories could have never been published and his popularity amongst readers would be nonexistent. This book is based on a factual claim. It might be biased because we read only his side of the story. It might also include a bit of fiction but his command of the words and the imagery speaks otherwise. Richard Wright infuses the book with personal stories from his experiences in life. We as the reader might find some of the stories in the book hard to believe but his use of evidence and historical facts lead the reader to deem that this book is in fact the life of Richard Wright. His use of words and his grasp of the English language allows the reader to identify with his victories and his defeats. Using the pathos appeal Wright enables the reader to be part of the story of his life. â€Å" I would hurl words into the darkness for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger of life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human. Language also identifies the books era. Reading the book one can tell that it was a time of hostility between races. The term â€Å" white man† comes up many times. It is as if Wright is reluctant to use he names of particular people even when he does know them. â€Å" White man† obtain a singular feeling from the reader. Even though most of the time there is usually more than one man he refers to them as the white man. The blacks on the other hand are â€Å"us† or â€Å"ours† .

Kass and Genetic Technology :: essays research papers

Unregulated Genetic Technology Threatens to Dehumanize Society When James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1959, they could not have known that their discovery would one day lead to the possibility of a human factory that is equipped with the capabilities to mass produce perfectly designed, immortal human beings on a laboratory assembly line. Of course, this human factory is not yet possible; genetic technology is still in its infancy, and scientists are forced to spend their days unlocking the secret of human genetics in hopes of uncovering cures for diseases, alleviating suffering, and prolonging life. In the midst of their noble work, scientists still dream of a world—a utopia—inhabited by flawless individuals who have forgotten death and never known suffering. What would become of society if such a utopia existed? How will human life be altered? Leon Kass, in Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics, acknowledges genetics technology’s greatness, and applauds it for its invaluable, benevolent contributions to mankind. However, Kass argues that if left to their devises and ambitions, geneticists—with the power of their technology—will steal away society’s most precious asset; genetic technology will rob society of its humanity. Genetic technology can, and will, achieve great things, but unless it is regulated and controlled, the losses will be catastrophic and the costs will far exceed the benefits. The age of genetic technology has arrived. Thanks to genetic technological advancements, medical practitioners, with the help of genetic profiling, will be able to better diagnose patients and design individual tailored treatments; doctors will be able to discern which medications and treatments will be most beneficial and produce the fewest adverse side effects. Rationally designed vaccines have been created to provide optimal protection against infections. Food scientists have hopes of genetically altering crops to increase food production, and therefore mitigate global hunger. Law enforcement officers find that their job is made easier through the advancement of forensics; forensics is yet another contribution of genetic technology. Doctors have the ability to identify â€Å"high-risk† babies before they are born, which enables them to be better prepared in the delivery room. Additionally, oncologists are able to improve survival rates of cancer patients by administering ge netically engineered changes in malignant tumors; these changes result in an increased immune response by the individual. With more than fifty years of research, and billions of dollars, scientists have uncovered methods to improve and prolong human life and the possibilities offered by gene therapy and genetic technology are increasing daily.

Building a 21st Century Organization

The power and versatility of the human visual system derive in large part from its remarkable ability to find structure and organization in the images encoded by the retinas. To discover and describe structure, the visual system uses a wide array of perceptual organization mechanisms ranging from the relatively low-level mechanisms that underlie the simplest principles of grouping and segregation, to relatively high-level mechanisms in which complex learned associations guide the discovery of structure.The Gestalt psychologists were the first to fully appreciate the fundamental importance of perceptual organization (e. g. , see Kohler, 1947; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986). Objects often appear in different contexts and are almost never imaged from the same viewpoint; thus, the retinal images associated with physical objects are generally complex and varied. To have any hope of obtaining a useful interpretation of the retinal images, such as recognizing objects that have been encountered p reviously, there must be initial processes that organize the image data into those groups most likely to form meaningful objects.Perceptual organization is also important because it generally results in highly compact representations of the images, facilitating later processing, storage, and retrieval. (See Witkin & Tenenbaum, 1983, for a discussion of the importance of perceptual organization from the viewpoint of computational vision. ) Although much has been learned about the mechanisms of perceptual organization (see, e. g. , Beck, 1982; Bergen, 1991; Palmer & Rock, 1994; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986), progress in developing testable quantitative theories has been slow.One area where substantial progress has been made is in models of texture grouping and segregation. These models have begun to put the study of perceptual organization on a firm theoretical footing that is consistent with the psychophysics and physiology of low-level vision. Two general types of model for texture segr egation have been proposed. In the feature-based models, retinal images are initially processed by mechanisms that find specific features, such as edge segments, line segments, blobs, and terminators.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding the image regions that contain the same feature or cluster of features (see, e. g. , Julesz, 1984, 1986; Marr, 1982; Treisman, 1985). These models are relatively simple, are consistent with some aspects of low-level vision, and have been able to account for a range of experimental results. In the filter-based models, retinal images are initially processed by tuned channels, for example, â€Å"contrast-energy† channels selective for size and orientation.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding those image regions with approximately constant output from one or more channels (Beck, Sutter, & Ivry, 1987; Bergen & Landy, 1991; Bovik, Clark, & Geisler, 1990; Caelli, 1988; Chubb & Sperling, 1988; Clark, Bovik, & Geisler, 1987; Fogel & Sagi, 1989; Graham, Sutter, & Venkatesan, 1993; Victor, 1988; Victor & Conte, 1991; Wilson & Richards, 1992).These models have some advantages over the existing feature-based models: They can be applied to arbitrary images, they are generally more consistent with known low-level mechanisms in the visual system, and they have proven capable of accounting for a wider range of experimental results. However, the current models do not make accurate predictions for certain important classes of stimuli. One class of stimuli are those that contain regions of texture that can be segregated only on the basis of local structure (i. e. , shape).Another broad class of stimuli for which most current perceptual organization models do not make adequate predictions are those containing nonstationary structures; specifically, structures that change smoothly and systematically across space. Nonstationary structures are the general rule in natural images because of perspective pr ojection, and because many natural objects are the result of some irregular growth or erosion process. A simple example of a nonstationary structure would be a contour formed by a sequence of line segments (a dashed contour) embedded in a background of randomly oriented line segments.Such contours are usually easily picked out by human observers. However, the elements of the contours cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in current filter-based or feature-based models, because no single orientation channel or feature is activated across the whole contour. Grouping the elements of such contours requires some kind of contour integration process that binds the successive contour elements together on the basis of local similarity. A more complex example of a nonstationary structure would be an image of wood grain.Such a texture contains many contours whose spacing, orientation, and curvature vary smoothly across the image. Again, such textures are easily grouped by human observe rs but cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in the current models. Grouping the contour elements of such textures requires some form of texture integration (the two-dimensional analogue of contour integration). The heart of the problem for existing quantitative models of grouping and segregation is that they do not represent the structure of the image data with the richness achieved by the human visual system.The human visual system apparently represents image information in an elaborate hierarchical fashion that captures many of the spatial, temporal, and chromatic relationships among the entities grouped at each level of the hierarchy. Grouping and segregation based on simple feature distinctions or channel responses may well be an important initial component of perceptual organization, but the final organization that emerges must depend on more sophisticated processes.The major theoretical aim of this study was to develop a framework for constructing and testing models o f perceptual organization that capture some of the richness and complexity of the representations extracted by the human visual system, and yet are computationally well defined and biologically possible. Within this framework, we have developed a model of perceptual organization for two-dimensional (2D) line images and evaluated it on a number of â€Å"textbook† perceptual organization demonstrations.In this article we refer to this model as the extended model when it is necessary to distinguish it from a simplified version, the restricted model, described later. Perceptual organization must depend in some way on detected similarities and differences between image elements. Furthermore, it is obvious that similarities and differences along many different stimulus dimensions can contribute to the organization that is perceived. Although there have been many studies of individual stimulus dimensions, there have been few systematic attempts to study how multiple dimensions inter act (Beck et al., 1987; Fahle & Abele, 1996; Li & Lennie, 1996). The major experimental aim of this study was to measure how multiple stimulus dimensions are combined to determine grouping strength between image elements. To this end, we conducted a series of three-pattern grouping experiments to directly measure the tradeoffs among two, three, or four stimulus dimensions at a time. Predictions for these experiments were generated by a restricted version of the model appropriate for the experimental task. The experimental results provided both a test for the restricted model and a means of estimating the model's parameters.The estimated parameter values were used to generate the predictions of the extended model for complex patterns. The next four sections describe, respectively, the theoretical framework, the restricted model, the experiments and results, and the extended model and demonstrations. Theoretical Framework for Perceptual Organization In this section we discuss four imp ortant components of perceptual organization: hierarchical representation, detection of primitives, detection of similarities and differences among image parts, and mechanisms for grouping image parts.These components taken together form the theoretical framework on which the restricted and extended quantitative models are based. Hierarchical Representation It is evident that the mechanisms of perceptual organization yield a rich hierarchical representation that describes the relationship of â€Å"parts† to â€Å"wholes† at a number of levels; that is, the wholes at one level often become the parts at the next level. However, there is evidence that the process by which the hierarchical representation is constructed does not proceed strictly either from local to global or from global to local.The global structure of a large letter composed of small letters can be discovered before the structure of the individual small letters is discovered (Navon, 1977), and there exist ambiguous figures, such as R. C. James's classic Dalmatian dog, that can be solved locally only after at least some of the global structure is discovered. On the other hand, the discovery of structure must sometimes proceed from local to global; for example, it would be hard to extract the symmetry of a complex object without first extracting some of the structure of its subobjects.Any well-specified theory of perceptual organization must define what is meant by parts, wholes, and relationships between parts and wholes. Given the current state of knowledge, all definitions, including the ones we have adopted, must be tentative. Nonetheless, some basic definitions must be made in order to form working models. In our framework, the most primitive objects are defined on the basis of the current understanding of image encoding in the primary visual cortex of the primate visual system.Higher order objects are defined to be collections of lower order objects (which may include primitive objects), together with information about the relationships between the lower order objects. The range of relationships that the visual system can discover, the order and speed with which they are discovered, and the mechanisms used to find them are unsettled issues. As a starting point the relationships we consider are quantitative similarities and differences in size, position, orientation, color, and shape.These dimensions were picked for historical and intuitive reasons: They are major categories in human language and therefore are likely to correspond to perceptually important categories. The precise definitions of these dimensions of similarity between objects are given later. Detection of Primitives: Receptive-Field Matching One of the simplest mechanisms for detecting structure within an image is receptive-field matching, in which relatively hard-wired circuits are used to detect the different spatial patterns of interest.For example, simple cells in the primary visual corte x of monkeys behave approximately like hard-wired templates: A strong response from a simple cell indicates the presence of a local image pattern with a position, orientation, size (spatial frequency), and phase (e. g. , even or odd symmetry) similar to that of the receptive-field profile (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; for a review, see DeValois & DeValois, 1988). The complex cells in the primary visual cortex are another example.A strong response from a typical complex cell indicates a particular position, orientation, and spatial frequency independent of the spatial phase (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; DeValois & DeValois, 1988). Receptive field matching may occur in areas other than the primary visual cortex, and may involve detection of image structures other than local luminance or chromatic contours, for example, structures such as phase discontinuities (von der Heydt & Peterhans, 1989) and simple radially symmetric patterns (Gallant, Braun, & Van Essen, 1993).An important aspect of receptive -field matching in the visual cortex is that the information at each spatial location is encoded by a large number of neurons, each selective to a particular size or scale. The population as a whole spans a wide range of scales and hence provides a â€Å"multiresolution† or â€Å"multiscale† representation of the retinal images (see, e. g. , DeValois & DeValois, 1988). This multiresolution representation may play an important role in perceptual organization.For example, grouping of low-resolution information may be used to constrain grouping of high-resolution information, and vice versa. The quantitative models described here assume that receptive-field matching provides the primitives for the subsequent perceptual organization mechanisms. However, to hold down the complexity of the models, the receptive-field matching stage is restricted to include only units similar to those of cortical simple cells with small receptive fields. These units proved sufficient for the line pattern stimuli used in the experiments and demonstrations.Receptive-field matching is practical only for a few classes of simple image structure, such as contour segments; it is unreasonable to suppose that there are hard-wired receptive fields for every image structure that the visual system is able to detect, because of the combinatorial explosion in the number of receptive-field shapes that would be required. Thus, there must be additional, more flexible, mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences among image regions. These are discussed next. Similarity/Difference Detection MechanismsStructure exists within an image if and only if some systematic similarities and differences exist between regions in the image. Thus, at the heart of any perceptual organization system there must be mechanisms that match or compare image regions to detect similarities and differences. (For this discussion, the reader may think of image regions as either parts of an image or as grou ps of detected primitives. ) Transformational matching A well-known general method of comparing image regions is to find out how well the regions can be mapped onto each other, given certain allowable transformations (see, e.g. , Neisser, 1967; Pitts & McCulloch, 1947; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Shepard & Cooper, 1982; Ullman, 1996). The idea is, in effect, to use one image region as a transformable template for comparison with another image region. If the regions closely match, following application of one of the allowable transformations, then a certain similarity between the image regions has been detected. Furthermore, the specific transformation that produces the closest match provides information about the differences between the image regions.For example, consider an image that contains two groups of small line segment primitives detected by receptive-field matching, such that each group of primitives forms a triangle. If some particular translation, rotation, and scaling of one of the groups brings it into perfect alignment with the other group then we would know that the two groups are identical in shape, and from the aligning transformation itself we would know how much the two groups differ in position, orientation, and size. There are many possible versions of transformational matching, and thus it represents a broad class of similarity-detection mechanisms.Transformational matching is also very powerful—there is no relationship between two image regions that cannot be described given an appropriately general set of allowable transformations. Thus, although there are other plausible mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences between image regions (see section on attribute matching), transformational matching is general enough to serve as a useful starting point for developing and evaluating quantitative models of perceptual organization. Use of both spatial position and colorThe most obvious form of transformational matching is based on standard template matching; that is, maximizing the correlation between the two image regions under the family of allowable transformations. However, template matching has a well-known limitation that often produces undesirable results. To understand the problem, note that each point in the two image regions is described by a position and a color. The most general form of matching would consist of comparing both the positions and colors of the points. However, standard template matching compares only the colors (e. g. , gray levels 2 ) at like positions.If the points cannot be lined up in space then large match errors may occur even though the positional errors may be small. A more useful and plausible form of matching mechanism would treat spatial and color information more equivalently by comparing both the spatial positions and the colors of the points or parts making up the objects. For such mechanisms, if the colors of the objects are identical then similarity is determined solely by how well the spatial coordinates of the points or parts making up the objects can be aligned and on the values of the spatial transformations that bring them into the best possible alignment.In other words, when the colors are the same, then the matching error is described by differences in spatial position. For such mechanisms, B matches A better than B matches C, in agreement with intuition. Later we describe a simple matching mechanism that simultaneously compares both the spatial positions and the colors of object points. We show that this mechanism produces matching results that are generally more perceptually sensible than those of template matching. Attribute matchingAnother well-known method of comparing groups is to measure various attributes or properties of the groups, and then represent the differences in the groups by differences in the measured attributes (see, e. g. , Neisser, 1967; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Selfridge, 1956; Sutherland, 1957). These attributes might be simple measures, such as the mean and variance of the color, position, orientation, or size of the primitives in a group, or they might be more complex measures, such as the invariant shape moments. It is likely that perceptual organization in the human visual system involves both transformational matching and attribute matching.However, the specific models considered here involve transformational matching exclusively. The primary reason is that perceptual organization models based on transformational matching have relatively few free parameters, yet they are sensitive to differences in image structure—an essential requirement for moving beyond existing filter- and feature-based models. For example, a simple transformational matching mechanism (described later) can detect small differences in arbitrary 2D shapes without requiring an explicit description of the shapes.On the other hand, specifying an attribute-matching model that can detect small differences in arbitr ary shapes requires specifying a set of attributes that can describe all the relevant details of arbitrary shapes. This type of model would require many assumptions and/or free parameters. Our current view is that transformational matching (or something like it) may be the central mechanism for similarity/difference detection and that it is supplemented by certain forms of attribute matching. Matching groups to categoriesThe discussion so far has assumed implicitly that transformational and attribute matching occur between different groups extracted from the image. However, it is obvious that the brain is also able to compare groups with stored information because this is essential for memory. Thus, the visual system may also measure similarities and differences between groups and stored categories, and perform subsequent grouping using these similarities and differences. These stored categories might be represented by prototypes or sets of attributes.Rather than use stored categori es, the visual system could also measure similarities and differences to categories that emerge during the perceptual processing of the image. For example, the visual system could extract categories corresponding to prevalent colors within the image, and then perform subsequent grouping on the basis of similarities between the colors of image primitives and these emergent color categories. Grouping Mechanisms Once similarities and differences among image parts are discovered, then the parts may be grouped into wholes.These wholes may then be grouped to form larger wholes, resegregated into a different collection of parts, or both. However, it is important to keep in mind that some grouping can occur before all of the relevant relationships between the parts have been discovered. For example, it is possible to group together all image regions that have a similar color, before discovering the geometrical relationships among the regions. As further relationships are discovered, the rep resentations of wholes may be enriched, new wholes may be formed, or wholes may be broken into new parts and reformed.Thus, the discovery of structure is likely to be an asynchronous process that operates simultaneously at multiple levels, often involving an elaborate interleaving of similarity/difference detection and grouping. Within the theoretical framework proposed here we consider one grouping constraint—the generalized uniqueness principle—and three grouping mechanisms: transitive grouping, nontransitive grouping, and multilevel grouping. The uniqueness principle and the grouping mechanisms can be applied at multiple levels and can be interleaved with similarity/difference detection.Generalized uniqueness principle The uniqueness principle proposed here is more general: it enforces the constraint that at any time, and at any level in the hierarchy, a given object (part) can be assigned to only one superordinate object (whole). An object at the lowest level (a pr imitive) in the hierarchy can be assigned to only one object at the next level, which in turn can be assigned to only one object at the next level, and so on. The sequence of nested objects in the hierarchy containing a given object is called the part–whole path of the object.The generalized uniqueness principle, if valid, constrains the possible perceptual organizations that can be found by the visual system. Nontransitive grouping Our working hypothesis is that similarity in spatial position (proximity) contributes weakly to nontransitive grouping. If proximity were making a dominant contribution, then separated objects could not bind together separately from the background objects. Proximity contributes powerfully to a different grouping mechanism, transitive grouping, which is described next.We propose that transitive and nontransitive grouping are in some competition with each other and that the visual system uses both mechanisms in the search for image structure. Refere nces Beck, J. (Ed. ). (1982). Organization and representation in perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Beck, J. , Sutter, A. , & Ivry, R. (1987). Spatial frequency channels and perceptual grouping in texture segregation. Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, 37, 299–325. Bergen, J. R. (1991). Theories of visual texture perception. In D. Regan (Ed. ), Spatial vision (pp. 114–134). New York: Macmillan. Bergen, J. R., & Landy, M. S. (1991). Computational modeling of visual texture segregation. In M. S. Landy & J. A. Movshon (Eds. ), Computational models of visual processing (pp. 253–271). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bovik, A. C. , Clark, M. , & Geisler, W. S. (1990). Multichannel texture analysis using localized spatial filters. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 12, 55–73. Caelli, T. M. (1988). An adaptive computational model for texture segmentation. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 18, 9–17. Chub b, C. , & Sperling, G. (1988). Processing stages in non-Fourier motion perception.Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 29Suppl. 266. Clark, M. , Bovik, A. C. , & Geisler, W. S. (1987). Texture segmentation using a class of narrowband filters. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (pp. 571–574). New York: IEEE. Fahle, M. , & Abele, M. (1996). Sub-threshold summation of orientation, color, and luminance cues in figure–ground discrimination. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37Suppl. S1147. Fogel, I. , & Sagi, D. (1989). Gabor filters as texture discriminator. Biological Cybernetics, 61, 103–113.Gallant, J. L. , Braun, J. , & Van Essen, D. C. (1993, January). Selectivity for polar, hyperbolic, and Cartesian gratings in macaque visual cortex. Science, 259, 100–103. Geisler, W. S. , & Albrecht, D. G. (1995). Bayesian analysis of identification in monkey visual cortex: Nonlinear m echanisms and stimulus certainty. Vision Research, 35, 2723–2730. Geisler, W. S. , & Albrecht, D. G. (1997). Visual cortex neurons in monkeys and cats: Detection, discrimination and identification. Visual Neuroscience, 14, 897–919. Geisler, W. S. , & Chou, K. (1995). Separation of low-level and high-level fac

The Traffic Safety Problem in Urban Areas

THE TRAFFIC SAFETY PROBLEM IN URBAN AREAS J. ARCHER1 and K. VOGEL2 1 CTR, Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Stockholm, Sweden; 2 VTI, Linkoping, Sweden E-mail: jeffery. [email  protected] kth. se; katja. [email  protected] se As the number of people who reside and work in urban areas increases, so, too, do the needs and demands placed on the infrastructure. This has led to severe congestion in many European cities, a situation which affects not only the environment in terms of pollution, but most notably levels of traffic safety.In Europe, tens of thousands of people are killed in road traffic accidents, and more than 1 million are injured each year at a cost, which is estimated to exceed the total European Union budget by a factor of two. The majority of accidents involving injury occur within urban areas often at junctions, while the number of fatalities outside these areas is greater, largely as a result of higher speed. Traffic safety research has shown a biased interest in the pr oblems associated with motorway and rural areas in the past.There are many reasons, which advocate a greater interest in urban areas, in particular, those related to the safety of unprotected road users. In urban areas the traffic system context is more complex, where a mixed road user environment prevails and greater perceptual and cognitive demands are placed on road users. In the past, many of the more successful safety countermeasures have focused on designing the roadway to meet the needs and limitations of road users. These solutions have, however, proved to be very costly.Today, new and relatively cheap technological solutions referred to as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have been developed which have the capacity to reduce exposure, accident risk, and accident severity. While the long term effects of these systems are largely unknown, and problems associated with standardisation and legislation are in need of resolve, systems such as Intelligent Speed Adaptation and ad vanced traffic control systems have shown great potential with regard to the traffic safety problem in urban areas.In order to effectuate this potential, a great deal of integrated multi-disciplinary research is required. 1. INTRODUCTION The last century of the second millennium has seen vast improvements in the living conditions and economic wealth of the industrialised nations of the world, and consequently a large growth in population, particularly in urban areas. The growth of cities and towns has also led to an increase in the need for mobility, and a consequent increase in the numbers and types of vehicles occupying the road infrastructure.The exponential increase in the number of vehicles during the twentieth century has far outweighed the projected capacities and adaptive capabilities of the existing road infrastructure systems, this has resulted in a situation of congestion and frustration among road users of all types and has had significant detrimental effects for traffic safety in terms of the unacceptable numbers of road accidents involving fatality and injury. During 1997, there were approximately 45 000 fatalities, and 1. million injuries reported from road traffic accidents within the European OECD countries according to statistics taken from the International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD). The costs of such accidents within the European Union are estimated to be in the region of 160 billion ECU per year, thereby exceding the total annual budget for the EU in 1997 (89 billion ECU). Statistics indicate that while approximately two-thirds of all fatalities occur outside urban areas, two-thirds of the total number of injuries occur inside urban areas.The outcomes of urban accidents are usually less severe in terms of the numbers of injuries and fatalities as a direct result of the greater limitations imposed on speed. Mainly for this reason, most of the international and national traffic safety research has focused on motorways and ma jor roads that link towns and cities by traversing rural and suburban areas. 2 Why Focus on Traffic Problems in Urban Areas?There are however, a number of very important reasons why the traffic system existing in urban areas should not be disregarded by prevailing research. Most importantly, there are a great number of people living in urban areas, and travel distances are generally shorter than in rural areas, which encourages people to use bicycles or to walk. According to the statistics for the European OECD countries, pedestrians amounted to 15 per cent, and cyclists 6 to per cent, of the total number of roadtraffic fatalities during 1997, respectively.For other types of road users, such as vehicle drivers, there are significant differences in the types of accidents that occur in urban areas with a greater number of rear-end and turning collisions, and a larger percentage of collisions occurring at junctions. Generally, the urban environment can be regarded as more complex with many different types of road users with different needs, the physical and mental demands placed on road users are therefore much higher, and are reflected in the statistics by a comparatively greater number of accidents involving injury.The Development of Traffic Safety in Urban Areas from a Historical Perspective In the past, European traffic safety in urban areas has most typically focused on speed management and traffic calming. Kjemstrup and Herrstedt (1992), identified three specific periods of development. During the first period prior to 1968, the major growth in the number of vehicles was initially countered by expanding the infrastructure where possible.These measures soon proved insufficient, leading to the hazardous overuse of local roads that had previously catered for lighter traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. In the second period from 1969 to 1979, the traffic safety problem was approached by separating light and fast-moving heavy traffic, and by designing the traffic environment with an emphasis on uniformity and simplicity. â€Å"Traffic calming† initiatives became popular together with what became known as â€Å"Woonerf design†, which entailed physical speed-reducing measures (e. . humps and narrowings), and rules to govern speeds and priorities within urban areas. The third period from 1980 to 1990 saw increasing opposition to speed reducing measures by public and private interests. A new and less expensive solution was required, and eventually took the form of â€Å"environmentally adapted through-roads†, which took into consideration: flow-rates, composition of traffic, accident rates, pedestrian needs, and environmental sensitivity (in relation to noise levels air-pollution etc. ).Research has shown considerable success in a number of European countries (e. g. Denmark, France, Germany), while others have neglected the potential offered by this concept. Kjemstrup and Herrstedt (1992) concluded at the time of writing, th at automatic speed regulation devices were â€Å"a long way into the future† and that traffic calming through physical measures and the design of street space was the only currently available approach to achieving lower speeds and increased safety and security and an improved urban environment.Despite safety countermeasures such as traffic calming techniques, various legislative measures, publicity campaigns, active police enforcement, improvements in vehicle safety standards, and local improvements in the infrastructure, the problems related to traffic safety in urban areas still prevail at an unacceptably high level. One area of research that has shown great promise is that concerning Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) which exploit the latest information and communication technologies and integrate them into the traffic system.This approach enables the already congested infrastructure to be utilised with much greater efficiency, and to some extent can resolve problems ass ociated with human limitations. The future appears to have arrived for automatic speed regulation devices such as â€Å"Intelligent Speed Adaptation† (ISA), which are perceived to have great safety potential (see e. g. SNRA, 1996). There is however, an irrefutable need for establishing sound scientific knowledge related to how effective countermeasures, with or without the aid of ITS, can be designed, developed, and implemented to resolve urban area traffic safety problems.The Need for Traffic Safety Strategies The World Health Organisation has referred to the existing traffic safety as a social and public health problem. In order to approach this problem, different European and world-wide traffic safety research programs have been initiated, which call for international co-operation between different institutions and establishments, and a conglomeration of different scientific disciplines in a major offensive to find ways to improve the present situation.At a national level some countries have developed specific traffic safety strategies in order to approach the traffic safety problem. 3 In Sweden, the â€Å"vision zero† has been sanctioned by the government in order that individuals and organisations can develop an operational energy and innovative thinking towards a new and radical future situation where the desired ultimate goal is to have zero road-traffic fatalities (Tingvall, 1995). This is to be achieved by emphasising for individuals that loss of health is completely unacceptable, and that traffic safety is ultimately their responsibility.The focus of attention is placed on active safety (i. e. the prevention of accidents), passive safety (i. e. reducing the severity of accidents upon occurrence), and improving the rescue services, health-care, and rehabilitation. Importantly, it is recognised that there are other interests in society in addition to the provision of safety (e. g. environmental issues and regional planning issues) which m ust be discussed in order to find a balance by authorities other than those in the road-transport sector in a social and political context.Thus, the â€Å"vision zero† concept involves a wide spectrum of interest at many different levels in order to provide an integrated and far reaching approach to the traffic safety problem in Sweden. Delimiting and Defining Urban Areas for Traffic Safety Research In this report it is important to distinguish between those roads that can be regarded as part of an urban area road network, and those which are not. A reasonably straightforward definition of urban areas could be taken to include all types of roads provided that they fall within a town or city boundary.This distinction is, however, too general to be of value for research purposes. The definition that is adopted by the Swedish Institute for Transport and Communications Analysis ( SIKA), and which will be used as a de facto definition in this report is: †¢ roads which most of ten are directly adjacent to large numbers of buildings where people live and work †¢ roads where there are many different types of road users (including cyclist and pedestrians) allowed to use the road †¢ roads where there is a high density of road junctions, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings etc. n order to allow for a reasonable level of accessibility for all road users †¢ roads where the maximum allowed speed is no greater than 50 km/h, or where a higher speed limit is posted, but the density of the surrounding buildings and the traffic conditions resemble those described above Roads that lead through built-up areas, but do not have intersections and are separated from the environment (by a fence) or restricted to motor vehicles are not considered to lie in an urban area (SIKA, 1999).The Swedish National Road Authority makes a distinction between â€Å"central†, â€Å"intermediate†, and â€Å"suburban† roads (SNRA, 1989, p. 55). What are consi dered â€Å"urban† or â€Å"built-up† areas differs to some extent from country to country depending on the responsibilities and prevailing political climate of the local and central authorities with regard to different road categories, and environmental and traffic safety issues. The exact distinction remains therefore somewhat â€Å"fuzzy† at an international level. 2. SWEDISH AND INTERNATIONAL T RAFFIC S AFETY S TATISTICS : THE D IFFERENCES BETWEEN URBAN AND NON-URBAN AREAS The traffic safety situation in Sweden is described annually in an official publication entitled â€Å"Traffic Injuries† produced by the Swedish Institute for Transport and Communication Analysis (SIKA). This publication is based entirely on police reported accident data, and represents only those accidents, which involve personal injury.The problem of under-reporting is acknowledged, and it is believed that the statistics presented might represent only as much as 30 per cent of the lighter injuries and approximately 60 per cent of the more serious injuries. Most injuries in relation to the different road user groups are believed to be represented to a level of approximately 50 per cent (e. g. caroccupants, motorcyclists, pedestrians). The most notable exception is found in the statistics for cyclists which are only believed to be represented to a level of 15 per cent (SIKA, 1999). Basic Swedish statistics and trends for the period 1960-1997 With 8. 5 million inhabitants, Sweden has one of the smallest populations among the European OECD nations. The infrastructure consists of a 210 000 km road network that is populated by around 4. 44 million motor vehicles. During the period between 1960 and 1997, the total number of accidents and the number of urban accidents has declined marginally (see Figure 1). The total number of fatalities and the number of fatalities in urban areas has, however, declined significantly (by more than 50 per cent since the mid-1960†™s) during this time period (see Figure 2).During the period from 1960 to 1997 the proportion of accidents involving fatality in urban areas has remained relatively constant, at an average of 32 per cent of the total number. Similarly, the proportion of accidents involving injury in urban areas has remained fairly constant during this time period at around 58 per cent of the total number. 20000 18000 1200 16000 14000 12000 1000 1400 No of Accid. 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1960 Accidents Urban Areas Accidents in total No of fatalities 800 600 400 Fatalities In total Fatalities urban areas 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 200 0 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 990 1995 1960 1965 Year Year Figure 1: Absolute number of police reported accidents on Swedish roads that resulted in injuries or fatalities during the period 1960 to 1997, and absolute number for the same types of accidents in urban areas during the same period. Figure 2: Absolute number of police reported fatalities on Swedish roads d uring the period 1960 to 1997, and absolute number for the same type of accidents in urban areas during the same period. Comparing Swedish Urban and Non-Urban Statistics In 1997, 9 015 of the 15 752 reported road accidents involving fatality or injury occurred in urban areas.These urban area accidents resulted in 154 fatalities, 1 765 serious injuries, and 11 593 less serious injuries. The remaining 6 737 accidents occurring outside urban areas resulted in 387 fatalities, 2 152 serious injuries, and 7 689 less serious injuries. The majority of the accidents that are reported to the police authorities involve one or more motor vehicles. The main classes of accidents are single vehicle accidents, vehicle-vehicle accidents, and accidents where vehicles and unprotected road users are involved (i. e. oped riders, cyclists, and pedestrians). 5 Single vehicle accidents usually occur in situations where drivers lose control over their vehicle, often as a result of driving too fast for the s ituation and prevailing road conditions. Many of these accidents occur at night-time and involve collisions with parked vehicles. With regard to vehiclevehicle accidents, a more in-depth look at the nature of the accident called for is in order to get a clearer picture of the different accident profiles occurring in Swedish urban and non-urban areas.The main types of vehicle-vehicle accidents described by SIKA are: †¢ Overtaking and Lane-Changing – Accidents where the two primarily involved vehicles are on the same road travelling in the same direction without any planned turn and where one of the vehicle drivers intended to either change lanes or overtake. †¢ Rear-End – Accidents where the two primarily involved vehicles are on the same road travelling in the same direction without any planned turn and the following vehicle collides with the vehicle in front. No intended overtaking should be present in the situation. Meeting – Accidents in which both of the primarily involved vehicles collided while travelling in opposite directions with no planned turn. †¢ Turning – Accidents where the two primarily involved vehicles are originally travelling on the same road in the same or opposite direction, and where one or both of the vehicles has planned to turn. †¢ Crossing – Accidents where the two primarily involved vehicles are originally travelling on different roads, and where neither of the vehicles has planned to turn in a situation where the vehicles’ planned routes cross each other, or where one or both vehicles planned to turn. Others – Accidents that do not fit any of the above descriptions (e. g. reversing accidents and U-turn accidents). The differences in the number of accident occurrences between urban and non-urban areas are depicted in Figure 3. The figure indicates that almost all accident types are more frequent in urban areas, with the exception of single-vehicle accidents, acciden ts involving overtaking or lane changing, and meeting accidents.Single vehicle accidents occur more often outside urban areas often as a result of loss of control at speeds, which are too high for the prevailing road conditions. Overtaking tends to occur less frequently within urban areas where a speed limit of 50 km/h or less is posted, and generally congested conditions restrict the opportunity for a manoeuvre of this type. Lane changing on the other hand occurs quite frequently within urban areas, but does not result in the same number of accidents most probably on account of lower speeds.The number of rear-end accidents is greater within urban areas than in rural areas, there is a considerably larger number of situations per km of roadway which require vehicles to stop or yield. Similarly, there is a greater number of opportunities for turning and crossing accidents within urban areas due to higher levels of congestion and the higher number of traffic junctions. The most noticea ble differences between urban and non-urban area accidents that are depicted in Figure 3, are those concerning motor vehicles and unprotected road users (i. . mopeds, cycles, and pedestrians). There is a comparatively greater number of unprotected road users in urban areas, but the absolute number of these accidents in comparison to single vehicle and vehicle-vehicle accidents suggest that this is one area that should be given great attention in the field of traffic safety research. The â€Å"others† category shown in Figure 3, which is not vehicle-vehicle related refers to accidents involving a vehicle and another type of obstacle than those already mentioned.In rural areas and on motorways (and occasionally with urban areas) accidents occur that involve motor vehicles and wild animals that have strayed onto the road, larger animals such as moose can cause severe injury and sometimes fatality. Other types of motor vehicle accidents resulting in injury can also involve other forms of transportation that occupy or cross the roadway (e. g. trains, trams, tractors and other more unusual vehicles). Accidents that result in injury also occur between forms of transportation that do not involve the more common motor vehicles category, and in some cases pedestrians (e. . between cycles, mopeds, and/or pedestrians). 6 The fatality statistics reveal some interesting facts (see Figure 4). Most importantly, all types of vehicle-vehicle accidents result in a greater number of fatalities outside urban areas, despite the fact that some types occur more frequently within urban areas. This fact can be attributed largely to the higher speeds allowed on non-urban roads, and is exaggerated further by the number of fatalities in meeting accidents in non-urban areas where the collision speed is the sum of the two vehicles that are approaching in opposite directions.The unprotected road users category is that which is of great concern to traffic researcher with regard to urba n areas. The proportion of accidents involving motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists that result in fatality are considerably greater in non-urban areas as a result of the higher speed of the vehicles, but the absolute number of those accidents is considerably smaller outside urban areas. The traffic safety problems associated with unprotected road users are quite prominent.The fatality risk independent of the type of area where the fatality occurred for pedestrians in relation to vehicle occupants given the relative number of travelled kilometres is 11 to 1, for cyclists 4. 5 to 1, and for moped riders 24 to 1. 3000 No of Accidents 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 Veh-Veh Crossing Veh-Veh Meeting Veh-Veh Turning Veh-Veh Rear-E Veh-Veh Others Veh-Pedestr Veh-Single Veh-Moped Veh-Veh LCh/Ov Veh-Cycle Others Veh-Pedestr Others Urban Accidents Non-urban Accidents 0 Accident CategoryFigure 3: The number of urban and non-urban accidents for different road user accidents categories (LCh/Ov = Lane Changing and Overtaking, Rear-E = Rear-End, Pedestr = Pedestrian). 140 120 No of Fatalities 100 80 60 40 20 Veh-Single Veh-Veh Crossing Veh-Veh Meeting Veh-Veh Turning Veh-Veh Rear-E Veh-Veh Others Veh-Moped Veh-Veh LCh/Ov Veh-Cycle Urban fatalities Non-urban Fatalities 0 Accident Category Figure 4: The number of urban and non-urban fatalities for different road user accidents categories (LCh/Ov = Lane Changing and Overtaking, Rear-E = Rear-End, Pedestr = Pedestrian). During 1997 almost 200 more accidents occurred per month within urban areas rather than outside. In the urban environment, more accidents than average occurred from May to October, with a local minimum in July. July is also the month in which the majority of accidents outside urban areas occur. This can be explained by the fact that a large percentage of the Swedish population take their holidays in July, resulting in a lower number of road users within urban areas and a greater number on rural roads and motorways .A look at the distribution of accidents occurring within urban areas according to the days of the week also shows a different pattern when compared to accidents occurring in nonurban areas. In urban areas, the number of accidents is above average on workdays, rising marginally towards Friday. A sharp decline in the number of accidents can be noticed during weekends. For times of day, the patterns are similar for accidents occurring within and outside urban areas. The main difference lies in the larger quantity of urban accidents. Most accidents occur in the afternoon between 16:00 and 18:00.Few accidents occur during early morning hours before 6:00. Comparing Swedish and International Urban and Non-Urban Statistics In the 1999 summer edition of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) newsletter â€Å"Safety Monitor† it was stated that the fatality rates expressed in 100 million person/kilometres travelled were significantly greater for cyclists (6. 3), pedestrians (7. 5 ), and moped/motorcyclists (16) than all other modes of travel. This situation remained unchanged even when the fatality rates were expressed in terms of 100 million hours of relative exposure.The ETSC also pointed out that there is a considerable difference (by a factor of 7) between the country with the most adverse fatality rate and the country with the least number of fatalities, and recommended that priority should be given to the traffic safety problems associated with unprotected road users. The European fatality statistics suggest that car travel is ten times safer than walking (although car travel is in itself ten times less safe than bus travel). The majority of international statistics in this report are extracted from the OECD IRTAD database.This data is presented with due consideration to the problems of under-reporting and a general lack of exposure data. Currently twenty European nations (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hun gary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom) report data to IRTAD each year. Some of the more standard detailed data is, however, not available for some countries (most notably Greece, Luxembourg, and Portugal).Besides these European countries there are data for Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. Table 1 indicates some of the basic demographic and traffic safety data for Europe (with Sweden shown separately), and other IRTAD countries for 1997. Table 1: Basic demographic and traffic safety data for the OECD countries who report their statistics to IRTAD. The OECD European countries are shown as a grand total (OECD Eur Total), and as an mean average (OECD Eur Average), the data for Sweden is also shown separately. Country/Continent Population (x 1000) Road Network (km) Land Area (sqkm)Motor Vehicles (x 1000) Reported Accidents involving Injury 15 752 72 393 1 303 074 2 455 118 152 7 65 -9 482 780 399 246 452 Reported Accidents involving Injury in Urban Areas 9 015 50 015 850 258 1 564 411 107 019 -5 944 566 169 162 320 Reported Fatalities Reported Fatalities in Urban Areas Sweden OECD Eur Average OECD Eur Total USA Canada Australia New Zealand Japan South Korea 8 844 20 281 405 610 267 636 30 286 18 532 3 743 126 166 45 545 210 000 183 568 3 304 227 6 346 857 895 562 810 000 91 864 1 152 207 82 342 449 760 194 134 3 882 684 9 363 353 9 360 527 7 686 844 269 122 377 837 99 266 428 10 767 215 347 203 568 17 576 11 238 2 393 75 713 11 991 541 2 485 44 728 41 967 3 064 1 767 540 11 254 13 343 154 790 13 427 14 861 1 043 -146 5 512 5 378 The statistics presented in Table 1 show that Sweden is smaller in terms of population than the average OECD European country, yet larger in terms of the land area and the size of the road network. The number of accidents involving injury and the number of fatalities (regardless of whether they occurred within or outside urban areas ) are also considerably smaller than the average. 8An interesting comparison can be made between OECD Europe and the USA. The population of OECD Europe is approximately one-third larger than USA and the number of motor vehicles is only 5. 5 per cent higher. However, the road network in the USA is 48 per cent larger in terms of the number of kilometres, and the total number of reported accidents involving injuries is 47 per cent higher than in OECD Europe. The total number of fatalities for the USA is only 6 per cent smaller than for the OECD European countries despite the smaller population and larger road network.The higher number of vehicles relative to the population could partly explain these differences. Before any more solid conclusions can be drawn important exposure data are required. The problem of under-reporting as previously mentioned, and the actual reporting method may also have confounding effects on the data. The rates for all accidents that resulted in injury per 10 000 population, and fatality rates per 100 000 population, for the different OECD countries and continents mentioned above are shown in Figure 5. The number of accidents that resulted in injury was not available for Australia.The average rates for the OECD European countries were calculated individually on the data that were available (some data was not available for Greece, Luxembourg, and Portugal). The data presented in Figure 5 show that Sweden (and other Scandinavian countries) has a lower fatality rate and accident rate than other OECD European and non-European countries that reported data to the IRTAD database. 100 Fatalities per 100,000 population 90 80 Accidents involving injury per 10,000 population 70 No of Acc/Fat 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Sweden OECD Europe (Av) USA Canada Australia New Zealand Japan Korea Country/ContinentFigure 5: Accident rates for all accidents that resulted in injury per 10 000 population, and fatality rates per 100 000 population, for the different OEC D countries and continents. Looking at the international statistics in relation to urban and non-urban areas it can be noticed that all of the OECD countries, with the exception of Norway, had a higher proportion of accidents involving injury occurring within urban rather than outside. Sweden (57 per cent) came a close second to Norway (47 per cent), with the OECD European average matching very closely that of USA (63 and 64 per cent respectively).Japan had the highest proportion of accidents involving injury occurring within urban areas (73 per cent). This might well be attributable to the high level of urbanisation in Japan and the resulting high proportion of urban roads. In Sweden, 28 per cent of all road-traffic fatalities occur in urban areas. This figure is lower than the OECD European country average (33 per cent) and lower than most of the countries and continents outside Europe with the exception of New Zealand (27 per cent). Japan has the highest urban area fatality rates (49 per cent) perhaps for the same reasons as mentioned above.Within OECD Europe, Spain has the lowest recorded fatality rate in urban areas (20 per cent), closely followed by Norway (21 per cent), Austria (23 per cent), and Germany (24 per cent). Unfortunately, the IRTAD database is not so detailed concerning the exact types and involvement of different categories of road users concerning urban area accidents that involve injury and urban area fatalities. With regard to the fact that many accidents in urban areas involve unprotected road users it is worthwhile to take a look at the available IRTAD data concerning these categories despite the fact that 9 he proportions of accidents involving injury and fatalities in urban and non-urban areas are not available. The data indicates that Sweden has one of the lowest overall pedestrian fatality rates per 1 million population, and also a low cyclist fatality rate per 1 million population within (but not outside) the OECD European countri es (see Figure 6). Obviously the proportional number of cyclists needs to be taken into account for the different countries in order to allow statements about their relative safety. 120 Fatality Rate (per 1 mill. pop. ) Pedestrian Fatality Rate per 1 million population 00 80 60 40 20 0 Cyclist Fatality Rate per 1 million population Sweden OECD Europe (Av) USA Canada Australia New Japan Zealand Korea Country/Continent Figure 6: Fatality rates for pedestrians and cyclists per 1 million inhabitants for the different OECD countries and continents. A Closer Look at Accidents that Occur at Junctions in Sweden Having identified the fact that the majority of accidents in urban areas occur at junctions it is interesting to look more closely at the nature of these accidents and the differences between existing types of junctions.Figure 7 below indicates the main differences between road-links (i. e. the roads stretching between junctions), T-junctions, crossroad junctions, roundabouts, and ot her categories, in relation to the different types of road users involved. Unfortunately, no urban and non-urban breakdown of the statistics is available. 3000 Link 2500 No of Accidents 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Single Veh-Veh Veh-Cycle T-Junction Crossrd-Junc Roundabout Other Veh-Pedestr Accident Types Figure 7: Number of accidents on road-links and different junction types shown in accordance with the different types of road users involved.Figure 7 shows that the majority of all single accidents occur on link roads. The accident statistics also show that accidents occurring on road-links have a higher frequency of fatalities and more serious injuries than those occurring at junctions. Of the 493 accidents involving fatality in Sweden during 1997, 329 occurred on link roads (i. e. 67 per cent), 69 at T-junctions (14 per cent), 68 at crossroadjunctions (14 per cent), and 4 at roundabouts (1 per cent). It is important to note that roundabouts are relatively uncommon in Sweden, between 3. and 10 times less in number than other types of crossing (Englund et. al, 1998). 10 Before discussing the vehicle-vehicle accidents, it is important to note that the majority of vehiclecycle and also the vehicle-moped accidents occur at T-junctions and crossroad-junctions. A far greater number of accidents occur at these types of junctions than on link roads. For pedestrians an almost equal number of accidents occur on road-links (523) and at T-junctions and crossroad-junctions taken together (498).There is little difference between the accident and fatality rates for T-junctions and crossroad-junctions, and the data for roundabouts is not comparable on account of the relatively low number existing in the traffic infrastructure. The statistics show a larger number of vehicle-vehicle accidents occurring at T-junctions and crossroad-junctions taken together (3 436) in comparison with the number of accidents on road-links (2 216). It is interesting to examine the vehicle-vehicle accide nts in relation to the different categories of accidents that occur (see Figure 8). 1000 No of Accidents 800 600 400 200 0Veh-Veh Overt / LCh Veh-Veh Rear-End Veh-Veh Meeting Veh-Veh Turning Veh-Veh Crossing Veh-Veh Other Link T-Junction Crossrd-Junc Roundabou t Other Vehicle-Vehicle Accident Types Figure 8: Number of accidents on road-links and different junction types shown in accordance with the different types of vehicle-vehicle accidents (Overt/L Ch = Overtaking and Lane Changing). Figure 8 shows that very few ‘overtaking and lane changing’ accidents and very few ‘meeting’ accidents occur at junctions (these are more likely to fall into the ‘crossing’ and ‘turning’ categories when they occur at junctions).It can also be noticed that a similar number of ‘rear-end’ accidents occur at T-junctions and crossroad-junctions, but these are far exceeded by the quantity occurring on road-links (this may reflect the way thes e accidents are coded with regard to distance in relation to a junction). Differences can be noticed at T-junctions and crossroad-junctions regarding the number of ‘turning’ and ‘crossing’ accidents. ‘Turning’ accidents occur with much greater frequency at Tjunctions (690) than at crossroad-junctions (381), whereas ‘crossing’ accidents are more likely to occur at crossroad-junctions (1030) than at T-junctions (481).These statistics reflect differences in the frequencies of ‘turning’ and ‘crossing’ manoeuvres and possible conflict situations that occur at these two sites. These findings concur with those of the Swedish researcher Brude (1991) who points out that more than half of the accidents in urban areas occur at junctions. He also states that 4-legged junctions are 1. 5 to 2 times more accident-prone than 3-legged junctions, and consequently that redesigning 4-legged to three-legged junctions can enhan ce safety. 11 3.THE M AIN CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS IN URBAN AREAS In the majority of traffic accidents, urban or otherwise, the cause cannot usually be traced to a single factor but rather to a combination of circumstances in a chain of events that are best described by the interactions between: a) the road user, b) the vehicle, and c) the roadway and prevailing environment. Any attempts to explain and improve traffic safety in urban areas must ideally adopt a â€Å"systems approach† in order to consider the contributions and interactions of all important factors, and to capture the dynamics and complexity of the traffic system (Hyden, 1994; Leveson, 1995).The concept of traffic safety can ultimately be regarded as an emergent property of the actions and interactions of the main elements of the traffic system. This suggests that any systems analysis aimed at examining existing traffic safety problems must be performed at an appropriate contextual level in order to gain appropriate knowledge and insight into the existing complexities and dynamics of the system and it’s constituent elements at a given time. However, even if a systems approach is adopted, the subject of how and why accidents in urban areas actually occur presents a number of problems for researchers.The main difficulties appear to lie in establishing the exact chain of events leading up to the accident. This information is of some relevance to the police authorities and insurance companies for the purposes of determining responsibility, but is often neglected with regard to important details that might provide a more in-depth systematic description of what actually occurred. Often, post crash interviews are susceptible to distortion as a result of trauma or fear of the consequences of being assigned responsibility.Describing the conditions leading up to an accident is also made more difficult as they are often not monitored consciously by the driver who is often performing skills in what is best described as â€Å"automated† mode (Wickens, 1992). In the remainder of this section three important and relevant studies from different countries, which focus specifically on the reasons behind urban accidents, are described and discussed, and related to the traffic safety problem in urban areas in Sweden.The English Study One of the most comprehensive and most interesting studies in relation to the causes of urban area accidents was carried out in the Leeds area in England at the end of the 1980’s ( Carsten, Tight, Southwell & Plows, 1989). During a one year period, Carsten and colleagues investigated 1 254 injury accidents reported to five different police sub-divisions that involved 2 454 participants (1 863 drivers, 463 pedestrians, and 128 cyclists) that occurred in the Leeds area on roads that had a speed limit of 40 mph (approx. 60 km/h) or less.The accident data showed that 2 per cent of the accidents involved fatalities, and as many as 20 per cent in volved serious injury. Nearly 70 per cent of all accidents occurred at junctions, and of these junctions 12 per cent were controlled by traffic-lights or stop signs, and 72 per cent by give-way signs, the remaining 16 per cent were uncontrolled. Besides the official police accident reports, questionnaires were administered by interview or post, and a visit was made to the accident site prior to a case conference that was convened to determine and classify the circumstances surrounding the accident.An innovative method for describing accident causation was adopted in which four different levels could be combined in accordance with a multi-level coding scheme comprised of 150 different items in order to form what was described as a â€Å"chain of factors† approach. According to Carsten and colleagues (1989) a contributory factor behind an accident could be defined as â€Å"a road user or traffic systems failure without which the accident would not have happened†, the imm ediate failure that precipitated the accident.The results of this study indicated that, of the first level factors (i. e. immediate failures that precipitated an accident), ‘unable to anticipate’ accounted for 29 per cent, ‘failure to yield ’ for 16 per cent, and ‘failure to anticipate ’ 10 per cent of the factors coded. ‘Unable to anticipate’ implies that the road user in question had the right of way, and a â€Å"reasonable road user† would also have been unable to anticipate the faulty behaviour of the other person, while ‘failure to yield’ implies that a â€Å"reasonable road user† would have perceived the upcoming danger earlier.Results also show that as many as 44 per cent of drivers were â€Å"innocent victims of others’ mistakes†. Failure to yield was also a factor for adult and child pedestrians (66 and 78 per cent, respectively). 12 At the second level (i. e. failure that increased the likelihood of an accident), findings suggested that 62 per cent of the factors determined were situational problems. For the drivers the most important factors were ‘driving too fast for the situation’ (29 per cent) and ‘following too close’ (8 per cent). On the third level (i. e. oad user behaviour or lack of skill that led to failure) different road user skills are considered. It is found that especially pedestrians, and mostly children, â€Å"fail to look†, while the main problem of motor vehicle drivers usually is the misinterpretation of other road users’ intentions. Both groups also show â€Å"lack of judgement†, which includes a wrong estimation of the speed or the path of other road users. The most common problem on the fourth level (i. e. the explanation for the failure or behaviour) for drivers is their view being obstructed by something, either inside the car or outside. Impairment†, which mainly means the influenc e of alcohol, is much more common among adult pedestrians than among drivers. Some other points of interest to emerge from this study concerned the fact that 75 per cent of all accidents occurred within the first 5 kilometres of travel, and also that 93 per cent of the respondents had knowledge of the road where the accident occurred. Also, it is noteworthy that as many as 16 per cent of all pedestrians involved in accidents admitted consuming alcohol within a three hour period prior to the accident, compared to 4. percent of drivers. Some important differences were also found regarding different age groups, more specifically, the problems of younger drivers (most notably males) such as driving too fast for the situation differ from those of elderly drivers associated with deteriorating perceptual and cognitive abilities with increasing age. Perhaps one of the most important points concerns the fact that almost 50 per cent of the second most common level 1 factor, ‘ failure to yield ’, could be explained by lower level perceptual and cognitive factors (e. . ‘failure to look ’ and ‘failure to see’). On the basis of the important knowledge gained from their study, the authors were able to make a number of recommendations concerning road user issues for drivers (and riders), and pedestrians, and suggests ways in which traffic management and engineering issues might be brought to bear on traffic safety problems along with counter measures that involve improvements in publicity, education, and training.The French Study Another major study which looked at some of the reasons behind accidents in urban areas, and the differences between these accidents and those occurring outside urban areas, was conducted by the French traffic researchers Malaterre and Fontaine (1993). This investigation was primarily aimed at identifying the safety needs of drivers, and the possibility of satisfying these needs by using the different Intelligen t Transport Systems (ITS) functions suggested in the European PROMETHEUS programme.The authors identified 17 different basic needs in relation to the driving task: â€Å"For each user the accident could have been avoided, if the need had been satisfied†. 3179 accidents involving 6049 road users were examined according to these needs. For approximately 20 % of the road users no needs were identified – they are considered the passive victims of the accident. The needs were grouped into the road user skills of :â€Å"control†, â€Å"prediction†, â€Å"estimates†, â€Å"detection†, and â€Å"status†. The results of this study show an overriding need for detection in urban areas (mainly at junctions), followed by the need for prediction (i. . predicting the manoeuvre of a road user who has already been detected). Detection problems were advocated in 61 per cent of the accidents analysed, and within this particular grouping of identified ne eds ‘transversal detection’ problems (i. e. detecting the approach of another road user on an intersecting lane at a junction, or similarly for a pedestrian, detecting the approach of a vehicle on the roadway he/she is preparing to cross) occurred most frequently (19 per cent of all accidents). Outside urban areas detection problems were still predominant over the other types of identified needs (45 per cent of all accidents).However, the second most important need was identified as statusrelated diagnostic needs (i. e. mainly driver-related problems in relation to alcohol or fatigue, and space-time assessment needs) rather than prediction needs which were found to be somewhat less important in non-urban areas. The authors suggest that a large number of junction-related accidents in urban areas (i. e. meeting and turning accidents) could be avoided by the introduction of suitable Intelligent Transportation systems (ITS) which support driver needs such as ‘critical course determination’, ‘obstacle detection’, ‘vision enhancement’, and ‘safety margin determination’. 3 The American Study The North American researchers Retting, Williams, Preusser, and Weinstein (1995) have conducted another major study focusing specifically on traffic safety problems in urban areas. According to the authors, efforts to reduce the number and severity of accidents have been seriously inhibited by a general lack of important information with regard to the specific types of accidents that predominate in urban areas.The primary purpose of their study was to develop a classification system based on pre-accident driver/vehicle behaviour in order that planners and policy makers could develop suitable countermeasures aimed at reducing the most prevalent types of urban accidents. The investigation conducted by Retting and colleagues was based on police reported accident data from three cities and one urban county, each from di fferent states. The data were collected between August 1990 and July 1991 and included records from 4 526 accidents, many of these included property damage only in contrast to European police accident reporting.The results of this study show that 56 per cent of all accidents occurred at intersections, and only 31 per cent of accidents resulted in injury. Pedestrian and cycle accidents were not included in the accident statistics, although it is reported that these would otherwise have accounted for 5 and 3 per cent of the total number of accidents, respectively. Five of the thirteen different types of accidents accounted for 76 per cent of the total number that occurred in the four urban areas, these included: ‘ran traffic control’ (i. . a situation where a vehicle that is required to stop, remain stopped, or yield disregards the requirement and collides with some other vehicle) with 22 per cent, ‘stopped or stopping’ (i. e. a situation where a vehicle that has stopped, or is stopping or just starting up in a travel lane is hit from the rear) with 18 per cent, ‘ran-off road’ (i. e. a situation where a vehicle leaves the travel lane(s) striking an object such as a parked cars) with 14 per cent, ‘lane-change’ (i. e. situation where a vehicle in a travel lane swerves or moves into another in the same direction that is already occupied) with 13 per cent, and ‘left-turn oncoming’ (i. e. a situation where a vehicle in the process of making a left turn in front of oncoming traffic is struck by or strikes a vehicle which is both coming from the opposite direction and which has a superior right of way) with 9 per cent. These five accident types also accounted for 83 per cent of the total number of accidents involving injury.The rank order among these five accident types differed between areas. Also, the ‘ran traffic control’ and ‘left-turn oncoming’ accidents occurred most freque ntly at intersections. A closer look at the ‘ran traffic control’ category showed that 41 per cent of the intersections where the accidents occurred were controlled by stop signs, and that 31 per cent were controlled by traffic lights. It was also noticed that the ‘left-turn oncoming’ accidents generally occurred in the presence of traffic lights and were most often the result of a failure to yield to a right-of-way.The ‘ stopped or stopping’ accidents, involving mostly rear-end collisions, were found to be the result of inattention. It was proposed that the most common types of accidents, described as ’ran traffic control’, could be resolved by better signal timing, the increased visibility of signals and signs, reduced speeds near intersections, red-light cameras, or redesigning the intersection in terms of traffic signals and signs. It is also recognised by the authors that different intersections are likely to have different a ccident type distributions depending on (e. g. oad geometry, population density, traffic density, methods of traffic control, and police enforcement strategies). Similarly, ‘stopped or stopping’ accidents might be reduced by better signal timing and reducing the number of stops. The ‘ ran-off road’ category of accidents might be reduced by better roadway design including the use of one-way systems, better lane delineation, and better lighting. Suggestions are also made regarding other possible solutions including changes in roadway design to reduce the possibility for conflict between different road users.Comparison of the Swedish, American, English and French Data It is problematic to compare the four different countries directly because of the many differences in data collection methods, the grouping and inclusion of different road-users, and the many differences in the traffic systems. The most important differences that are noted include the fact that t he French study does not consistently distinguish between accidents in rural and in urban areas, and the fact that the American data also includes property damage accidents and excludes other important accident types (e. g. accidents with unprotected road users).Also, both the English and the French study give only sparse information as to the accident location. 14 One of the main conclusions that can be drawn concerns the fact that urban area junctions are accident-prone. In the USA 56 per cent of the accidents occurred at junctions, for England this number lies at 70 per cent, and in Sweden at least 46 per cent of the accidents that involve only motor vehicles occurred at junctions. This figure is probably larger, because it is likely that part of the rear-end accidents (21 per cent of all urban motor vehicle accidents in Sweden) also occurred at junctions.In the English study it is stated that the majority of accidents for drivers occur as a result of an inability to anticipate, a failure to yield or a failure to anticipate (29, 16 and 10 per cent of all accidents respectively), the Swedish data suggests that 13 per cent of all urban area accidents are crossing accidents between two vehicles (i. e. suggesting a failure to yield or to anticipate), and also that 8 per cent of all urban area accidents are turning accidents (i. e. suggesting an inability or a failure to anticipate).Also of importance in this comparison is the finding that 50 per cent of the accidents resulting from a failure to yield (which is the second most common form of accident) were attributed to perceptual factors for all road-user categories and a further 14 per cent to cognitive factors. The Swedish traffic researcher Brude (1993) arrives at nearly the same figure – he suggests that 61 per cent of all urban area accidents are attributable to detection related (i. e. perception and cognition) failures. A more detailed comparison can be made for certain types of accidents in Swede n and in the USA.It has to be kept in mind, though, that the Swedish data does not include damage only accidents, and there is no information given if damage only accidents in the US show a different pattern of occurrence than injury accidents. Only accidents in urban areas that involve motor vehicles are considered. The percentages with which different accident types occur are quite similar in Swedish and American urban areas. The most common type in the US is ‘ran traffic control’ with 22 per cent, which might be matched against crossing accidents in the Swedish data (26 per cent).Rear-end accidents make up 18 per cent in the US and 16 per cent in Sweden, single accidents in the US account for 14 per cent, but for 22 per cent in Sweden. The next common category in the US is lane-changing accidents with 13 per cent, which (including overtaking) account for only 3 per cent in Sweden. ‘Left turn oncoming’ accidents in the US make up 9 per cent of the urban a ccidents, while the figure for Sweden lies at 12 per cent, ‘left turn waiting’ accidents make up 3 per cent in both countries.It can be seen that the distribution of accident types is quite similar for both countries, with the exception of single accidents and lane changing accidents. This last difference might be due to the fact that roads with more than one lane in each direction are much more common in American urban areas than in Swedish cities, which makes the occurrence of lane changes more likely in the US. 15 4. SAFETY ENHANCEMENT M EASURES IN THE TRAFFIC S YSTEM Road accidents are the result of a potentially large number of causal factors that exert their influence at approximately the same location and time.In order to be able to propose, evaluate, and compare safety enhancement measures within the context of the traffic system, a suitable model is required. There are a number of models that can be applied for road safety management in order to describe the sa fety situation at a national or communal level. While many models tend to focus on the events surrounding the accident occurrence, or human error mechanisms, one of the more useful and more comprehensive models that is recognised internationally focuses on three dimensions related to: exposure in traffic; the risk of an accident given the exposure; and the consequences (i. . severity) of accidents (see e. g. Thulin & Nilsson, 1994; Rumar, 1996; and OECD, 1997). Other models also aim at predictability or effectiveness evaluation, perhaps using econometric modelling. There are also models that exist at the micro-level in order to describe safety problems at an individual level. These models are usually associated with the evaluation of subjective risk and are predisposed to problems associated with the fact that accidents are random and essentially unpredictable at the micro-level, requiring the use of other less valid proxy measures or safety indicators.Many of these micro-models are not comprehensive enough to be of any great value in assessing risk within a systems context. Researchers in the field usually advocate a multi-disciplinary approach, although presently there are no known models that can bridge the macro-micro gap (see OECD, 1997 for a more complete description of different models). The three dimensions suggested in above model are adopted for a description of the more traditional approaches taken when dealing with the traffic safety problem.Emphasis is given to urban area safety although many countermeasures may also have value in other areas. One of the advantages of this model is that it can be applied to the three primary elements of the traffic system (i. e. road users, vehicles, and the roadway environment), in order to form a 3 by 3 classification matrix for the many different traffic safety countermeasures (see Table 2 below). Table 2: Classification matrix for different types of traffic safety countermeasures related to the three main elem ents of the traffic system. Road-User Exposure E. g. mprovements in attractiveness of alternative (safer) modes of transport to relieve congestion and reduce travel time, etc. E. g. better use of other safer forms of (public) transport, ITS-functions which aid driver perception and decision-making, better driver training, etc. E. g. better use of in-vehicle injury prevention devices such as seat belts, better use of protective clothing by unprotected road users, etc. Vehicle E. g. more effective use of roadsystem through route-guidance, increases in parking costs, annual vehicle/road taxation, fuel taxation, etc. E. g. se of improved technology to provide better handling, ABS brakes, high-mounted brake lights, better man-machine, interface, warning systems, etc. E. g. better vehicle design and use of materials that can absorb energy on impact, provision of injury prevention devices such as air-bags, etc. Roadway E. g. better infrastructure design, differential toll-systems, improved traffic management strategies for better flow and capacity etc. E. g. improvements in roadway design, better visibility and lighting, separation of different types of road users to reduce possibility for conflicts etc.E. g. Greater speed restrictions, Limited access to urban roads, Removal of dangerous roadside objects, etc. Accident Risk Accident Severity Safety Improvements Aimed at Individual Road Users For the different categories of road users, changing levels of exposure is very rarely stated as a primary goal for the purposes of improving the traffic safety situation. This may be related to the fact that accurate exposure data are very difficult to collect and are rarely presented in conjunction with accident statistics, thereby making exposure related improvements difficult to measure.There are also problems associated with making comparisons between different modes of transport owing to the fact that exposure can be measured in terms of travel time or travel distance. In S weden travel habit surveys that focus of establishing reliable exposure data have been performed on several occasions, and related to accident data (e. g. Thulin & Nilsson, 1994). 16 Factors, which tend to reduce road user exposure in general, are usually associated with the attractiveness of alternative modes of transportation.For example, reductions in the use of private vehicles in favour of public transportation (e. g. buses and commuter trains) usually occur as a result of more competitive pricing combined with good levels of service, where the change of one transportation mode to another can also result in lower levels of congestion and a reduced exposure level in the traffic system in general. Careful regional planning is required to find a balance in the system that reflects the demands of the users in relation to the different forms of transportation and their perceived costs and benefits (i. . attractiveness), and the effects that such changes might have for the community at large. Another important factor regarding changes in modes of transportation is that many forms of public transport are safer by comparison than the use of private vehicles, and cycling and walking, thereby reducing not only exposure but also accident risk (ETSC, 1999a). Safety countermeasures that reduce the accident risk for road users are now commonly provided by the many different in-vehicle systems that enhance perceptual abilities and aid cognitive decisionmaking (see e. . Malaterre & Fontaine, 1993; ETSC, 1999b). Many of these types of systems that have to do with the way information from the environment is interpreted, manipulated and acted upon, are discussed in the following chapter concerning Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The quality of driver education training is also an important factor, and has resulted in a number of new approaches such as ‘graduated licensing’, which is built upon the concept that driving tasks become gradually more diffi cult and unrestricted.Generally, the majority of systems include three levels of tests, an initial provisional license, a preliminary licence, and a full licence (Englund et. al. , 1998). This form of graduated licensing has been shown to have a number of beneficial effects including a reduced risk for accident involvement (Smith, 1994). Inverted licensing, which encourages drivers to understand and accept responsibility for their actions has also been suggested (Klyve, 1998). Attempts to reduce accident risk through public safety campaigns and education programmes (e. . for school children) have often had a limited long-term effect on traffic safety (see e. g. OECD, 1986; Jarmark, 1992; Linderoth & Gregersen; 1994; Englund, Nyberg & Thiseus, 1997). Attempts to reduce accident severity for road users, particularly drivers and passengers of motor vehicles, has been the subject of a great deal of research by different vehicle manufacturers, particularly those who use the safety concep t as an argument for marketing campaigns.The actual road user injury protection that has been developed as a result of large investments in in-vehicle design and research is discussed below in relation to vehicle engineering. For the safety of drivers and their passengers, the most important factor often concerns the use of injury protection measures rather than their provision. This is especially important with regard to the fact that many drivers consider themselves better than the average (Svenson, 1981; Williams, Peak & Lund, 1995). In many European countries, seat-belt use is relatively low resulting in an unnecessary number of fatalities and serious injuries.Many also fail to realise that the effectiveness of air bags is dependent on the use of seat belts (ETSC, 1999b). For unprotected road users the risk for (and consequences of) an accident can be reduced by ensuring easy detection by other road users through the use of suitably coloured clothing, reflexes, and cycle lights (OECD, 1998). Safety Improvements Through Vehicle Engineering Vehicle engineering has come a long way during the past century, a fact that is reflected by the relatively small number of accidents that are directly attributable to vehicle failure.Modern vehicles undergo rigorous testing in order to ensure stability and handling, adequate steering charact