Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement

Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2017-10-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0309462010

Every year roughly 100,000 fatal and injury crashes occur in the United States involving large trucks and buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the U.S. Department of Transportation works to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. FMCSA uses information that is collected on the frequency of approximately 900 different violations of safety regulations discovered during (mainly) roadside inspections to assess motor carriers' compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, as well as to evaluate their compliance in comparison with their peers. Through use of this information, FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS) identifies carriers to receive its available interventions in order to reduce the risk of crashes across all carriers. Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement examines the effectiveness of the use of the percentile ranks produced by SMS for identifying high-risk carriers, and if not, what alternatives might be preferred. In addition, this report evaluates the accuracy and sufficiency of the data used by SMS, to assess whether other approaches to identifying unsafe carriers would identify high-risk carriers more effectively, and to reflect on how members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Author: J.W.G. Jacobs
Publisher: IOS Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1614998787

Generalized hypermobility has been known since ancient times, and a clinical description of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is said to have first been recorded by Hippocrates in 400 BC. Hypermobility syndromes occur frequently, but the wide spectrum of possible symptoms, coupled with a relative lack of awareness and recognition, are the reason that they are frequently not recognized, or remain undiagnosed. This book is an international, multidisciplinary guide to hypermobility syndromes, and EDS in particular. It aims to create better awareness of hypermobility syndromes among health professionals, including medical specialists, and to be a guide to the management of such syndromes for patients and practitioners. It is intended for use in daily clinical practice rather than as a reference book for research or the latest developments, and has been written to be understandable for any healthcare worker or educated patient without compromise to the scientific content. The book is organized as follows: chapters on classifications and genetics are followed by chapters on individual types, organ (system) manifestations and complications, and finally ethics and therapeutic strategies, with an appendix on surgery and the precautions which should attend it. A special effort has been made to take account of the perspective of the patient; two of the editors have EDS. The book will be of interest to patients with hypermobility syndromes and their families, as well as to all those healthcare practitioners who may encounter such syndromes in the course of their work.

This Is No Ordinary Joy

This Is No Ordinary Joy
Author: Sarah Symons
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-05-17
Genre: Human trafficking
ISBN: 9780615820989

Many people are looking for deeper meaning in their lives. This book is for anyone who has ever wondered "Is this all there is? Is this really the best I could be doing with my life?" When Sarah Symons discovered that human trafficking and slavery were destroying the lives of millions of young girls worldwide, she was compelled to take action. In this deeply persaonl and brutally honest memoir, she shares how she took on this enormous cause, personally and professionally, and how it changed her and her family's lives forever. Told in a warm, story-telling fashion, Symons shares why and how she decided to make a dramatic change to re-purpose her comfortable and successful life as a musician/composer and mother of two young children with a husband who aided in their financial stability as an investment banker. The death of Symons' beloved mother threw her into a life-altering state where she, for the first time in her life, was faced with overwhelming sadness. A series of a fateful events beginning on her mother's birthday took Symons to Tribeca Film Festival where she saw a documentary about global human trafficking and slavery.Ten years later, having come through tremendous challenges, pitfalls, frustrations and miraculous events, Symons has founded and grown the organization Made By Survivors - an international nonprofit organization employing and educating survivors of slavery and other human rights abuses "I hit some real crisis points over the past eight years ," Symons admits. "At times, I was tempted to give up. It seemed every time I was at a low point, something miraculous would happen to help us over a hurdle." She adds, "The biggest miracle is the one we see every day: survivors who once seemed irreparably damaged restored to wellness and radiating joy."In 54 short evolving chapters, Symons shares her inspiring journey and exposes readers to:* Human rights issues - slavery does not occur randomly and is related to other social ills* Heartwarming survivor stories and the difference people all over the world are making * Solidarity in the modern day Underground Railroad movement* The limitless opportunities to affect change in seemingly unstoppable atrocities

Clear and Present Thinking

Clear and Present Thinking
Author: Brendan Myers
Publisher:
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2013-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9780992005900

The product of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, "Clear and Present Thinking" is a college-level textbook in logic and critical thinking. Chapters: 1. Questions, Problems, and World Views 2. Good and Bad Thinking Habits 3. Basics of Argumentation 4. Fallacies 5. Reasonable Doubt 6. Moral Reasoning In an effort to reduce the cost of education for students, this textbook was funded by over 700 people through the Kickstarter online crowd-funding platform. This softcover edition is available here for the lowest reasonable price. All profits from the sale of this print edition will go towards funding future free or nearly-free college textbook projects.

The H.264 Advanced Video Compression Standard

The H.264 Advanced Video Compression Standard
Author: Iain E. Richardson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2011-08-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1119965306

H.264 Advanced Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 10 is fundamental to a growing range of markets such as high definition broadcasting, internet video sharing, mobile video and digital surveillance. This book reflects the growing importance and implementation of H.264 video technology. Offering a detailed overview of the system, it explains the syntax, tools and features of H.264 and equips readers with practical advice on how to get the most out of the standard. Packed with clear examples and illustrations to explain H.264 technology in an accessible and practical way. Covers basic video coding concepts, video formats and visual quality. Explains how to measure and optimise the performance of H.264 and how to balance bitrate, computation and video quality. Analyses recent work on scalable and multi-view versions of H.264, case studies of H.264 codecs and new technological developments such as the popular High Profile extensions. An invaluable companion for developers, broadcasters, system integrators, academics and students who want to master this burgeoning state-of-the-art technology. "[This book] unravels the mysteries behind the latest H.264 standard and delves deeper into each of the operations in the codec. The reader can implement (simulate, design, evaluate, optimize) the codec with all profiles and levels. The book ends with extensions and directions (such as SVC and MVC) for further research." Professor K. R. Rao, The University of Texas at Arlington, co-inventor of the Discrete Cosine Transform

Closing the Gap in a Generation

Closing the Gap in a Generation
Author: WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Publisher: World Health Organization
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2008
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9241563702

Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death. We watch in wonder as life expectancy and good health continue to increase in parts of the world and in alarm as they fail to improve in others.

The Doolittle Family in America

The Doolittle Family in America
Author: William Frederick Doolittle
Publisher: Legare Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-10-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781016855594

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Permutation City

Permutation City
Author: Greg Egan
Publisher: Greg Egan
Total Pages: 275
Release: 1994-04-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 192224001X

Paul Durham keeps making Copies of himself: software simulations of his own brain and body which can be run in virtual reality, albeit seventeen times more slowly than real time. He wants them to be his guinea pigs for a set of experiments about the nature of artificial intelligence, time, and causality, but they keep changing their mind and baling out on him, shutting themselves down. Maria Deluca is an Autoverse addict; she’s unemployed and running out of money, but she can’t stop wasting her time playing around with the cellular automaton known as the Autoverse, a virtual world that follows a simple set of mathematical rules as its “laws of physics”. Paul makes Maria a very strange offer: he asks her to design a seed for an entire virtual biosphere able to exist inside the Autoverse, modelled right down to the molecular level. The job will pay well, and will allow her to indulge her obsession. There has to be a catch, though, because such a seed would be useless without a simulation of the Autoverse large enough to allow the resulting biosphere to grow and flourish — a feat far beyond the capacity of all the computers in the world.

The Globalization of Crime

The Globalization of Crime
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Publisher: UN
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789211302950

In The globalization of crime: a transnational organized crime threat assessment, UNODC analyses a range of key transnational crime threats, including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, the illicit heroin and cocaine trades, cybercrime, maritime piracy and trafficking in environmental resources, firearms and counterfeit goods. The report also examines a number of cases where transnational organized crime and instability amplify each other to create vicious circles in which countries or even subregions may become locked. Thus, the report offers a striking view of the global dimensions of organized crime today.