1,720,992 research outputs found
Electoral geography and political transformations: the rise of populist parties and its determinants
Full text linkThe last decade has witnessed a political shift in voters’ preferences. The upsurge of populist parties has involved countries in the whole world. The thesis focuses the attention on the European context, in a moment in history when all regions are experiencing an increase in unemployment and a decrease in per-capita income. At this very moment, a collapse of citizens’ support towards social and democratic parties occurs and a number of populist parties emerge, re-addressing the politics’ concerns on people’s needs and demands. Going beyond the merely descriptive voting patterns, the ambition is to design different empirical scenarios where multiple forces and factors move together and shed light on the mechanisms at play. In pursuing this objective, the thesis fully dives into the geography of discontent literature, investigating the mechanisms behind the populist outbreak and its geographic heterogeneity. Chapter 1 draws the academic frame in which we embed the empirical works. Chapter 2 explores the role of regional institutional quality in shaping people’s political preferences in European regions. Chapter 3 extends the previous chapter’s contribution, by enriching the OLS-IV analysis via the adoption of a recent methodological tool, i.e. the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). Chapter 4 shapes the last part of the work, turning the attention to the Italian context. Implementing a municipal-level analysis, it investigates the role of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, in shifting political preferences
Safety assessment of pedestrian-vehicle interaction at signalized intersections: An observational study
Full text linkRoad safety is a crucial aspect of global policies and management. Surrogate Safety Measures (SSMs) have gained attention in the study of pedestrian safety. This study aims to establish an effective SSM methodology to analyze driver-pedestrian interactions. The analysis relies on SSM indicators, without the need for an initial classification of driver-pedestrian interactions into specific interaction patterns. The proposed methodology offers several advantages, including the accurate identification of conflicts through an affordable approach making it easily accessible for public administrations and authorities to assess pedestrian safety at road intersections. A dataset comprising 270 driver-pedestrian interactions, observed at three road intersections in Rome, Italy, was examined. The severity level of each event was assessed through a preliminary classification of each interaction into three patterns: high, low, and none. Subsequently, the severity levels were evaluated using three methods, employing Time-to-Collision (TTC), Post-Encroachment Time (PET), and a combination of TTC and PET. A comparison between the severity levels identified by the two approaches was conducted. The findings reveal that Method 2, utilizing PET, consistently identifies conflicts. Additionally, a binomial logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the variables that influence the likelihood of an interaction escalating into a conflict. The results demonstrate that the probability of conflict increases with the duration of a red signal, particularly for younger pedestrians
Drivers’ Yielding Behavior in Different Pedestrian Crossing Configurations: A Field Survey
No full textAlthough in recent years road victims have been reported to decrease, the growing number of pedestrians involved in road accidents still remains a social concern. This work analyzes the drivers’ behavior in approach to two different configurations of pedestrian zebra crossing: marked by (1) white stripes over the pavement (named “white zebra crossing”) and (2) white stripes on a red-colored pavement (named “red and white zebra crossing”). Even though the latter configuration is nowadays quite widespread on urban environment, there is no scientific evidence of its actual effectiveness in conditioning drivers’ yielding behavior. This study was aimed at verifying the effectiveness of the red and white zebra crossing on improving road safety at pedestrian crossings. A set of synchronized cameras were used to record drivers’ behavior while approaching the pedestrian crossings. By reconstructing the speed profile of each surveyed driver (309 in total), it was possible to analyze the driver-pedestrian interaction. Data were used to study the driver yielding behavior, to analyze how it is affected by vehicle dynamic constraints, and to identify the significant explanatory variables of a logistic regression model for predicting the drivers’ likelihood of yielding the pedestrian on the different crossing configurations. As a result, significant differences in terms of yielding behavior on the two pedestrian crossing configurations were observed: a higher yielding rate (about 20% higher) and a higher tendency to yield to the pedestrian were reported for the red and white zebra crossing, especially for the most critical conditions of driver-pedestrian interaction. Moreover, the analysis of yielding behavior with respect to vehicle dynamics constraints highlighted that drivers approaching the red and white zebra crossing experienced more opportunities to yield. As a confirmation, logistic regression model showed that the yielding likelihood is significantly and positively affected by the presence of the red and white zebra crossing configuration
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
To stop, or not to stop, that it the dilemma: evaluating the effects of safety countermeasures at signalized intersections during the yellow phase
No full textAt the onset of the yellow phase of signalized intersections, the approaching drivers may hesitate to decide to go or stop due to the dilemma zone (DZ). The drivers who decide to pass through the intersection might occur in red light violations and right-angle crashes, while some others might stop suddenly and prematurely with the subsequent risk of rear-end collisions. This study is aimed at analyzing the driver's behavior at the onset of the yellow signal, and identifying the most effective safety countermeasure for the resolution of the dilemma zone in order to help drivers in their stop/go decisions and reduce the risk of crashes. To achieve this objective, a driving simulator study was carried out and the effects of the following countermeasures were tested on a signalized intersection of an urban scenario: i) Green Signal Countdown Timers GSCT (C1); ii) newly developed horizontal marking and vertical warning sign (C2); iii) an in-vehicle advanced driving assistance system based on augmented reality and connected vehicle technologies (C3). The results revealed that the most effective countermeasure was C3 which provided the drivers with prompt and personalized suggestions based on their actual speed; in fact, a major reduction of Red Light Running (RLR) and length of the dilemma zone were recorded. C2 resulted in a significant reduction of the dilemma zone with the greatest consistency in driver decision-making behaviors. Finally, using C1 it was observed an unnecessary increase in early stopping rates with a reduction of the intersection efficiency
A Driving Simulator Study on the Effects of Autonomous Vehicles on Drivers Behaviour Under Car-Following Conditions
No full textResearch on autonomous vehicles has shown their high potential for reducing traffic congestion and emissions, as well as improving road accessibility and driving safety. Despite several contributions in the field, few studies have examined the impact that the presence of autonomous vehicles might have on conventional vehicle drivers in the mixed traffic flows that will characterize the transition from conventional vehicles to autonomous vehicles. The overall goal of this study is to provide new insights into the impact of autonomous vehicles on the behavior of following human drivers under car-following conditions. To achieve this goal, a driving simulator study was conducted, and the behavioral changes of forty drivers were examined by comparing their driving performance under three different car-following configurations, where the lead vehicle was: i) a recognizable (Marked) Autonomous Vehicle (AVM); ii) an unrecognizable Autonomous Vehicle (AV); iii) a Conventional Vehicle (CV). Finally, for each car-following configuration, different conditions were examined: ordinary conditions (constant speeds of the leading vehicle) and braking conditions. The results indicated that, under ordinary conditions, poorer safety performance was observed in the CV configuration. Conversely, under braking conditions, the safest performances were demonstrated in the CV configuration, while shorter response times were recorded in the AVM configuration. The study's findings contribute significantly to our understanding of human driving behavior in the car-following state in a mixed traffic flow
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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