Bus rapid transit identity meets universal design

As bus rapid transit (BRT) systems continue to become more popular and as capital expenditure for such projects continues to grow, careful consideration of BRT identity design becomes ever more necessary. Properly considered identity systems can ensure accessibility to and usability of physical features and can also ensure that BRT systems are accessible and practical to use. Based on the seven principles of universal design, this article proposes a basic means to evaluate existing and planned BRT identity systems. The article concludes with recommendations for evaluators and guidelines for designers of BRT identity systems that will help to ensure the practical usability of BRT identity systems by a broad audience of diverse users, regardless of physical, cognitive or situational ability.     

Diversity of vocabulary and homogeneity of literary style

To help settle the debate around the authorship of Tirant lo Blanc, we analyse the evolution of the diversity of the vocabulary used in that book, as measured through eight different diversity indices. The exploratory analysis reveals a clear single shift in diversity, that is estimated through change-point techniques to be in chapter 382, and might indicate the existence of one main author writing about four fifths of the book, and of a second author finishing the last one fifth of the book. Before chapter 382, the language is richer and more diverse than after it.     

Health and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain theimpact of peoples self-reported health on theirlevels of satisfaction with their health, and theimpact of these things plus satisfaction with otherspecific domains of their lives on the perceivedquality of their lives. The latter was operationalized as general happiness, satisfactionwith life as a whole and overall satisfaction with thequality of life. Seven hundred and twenty-three (723)usable questionnaires returned from a mailout randomsample of 2500 households of Prince George, BritishColumbia in November 1998 formed the working data-setfor our analyses. Among other things, mean respondentscores on the SF-36 health profile were found to belower than published norms from the UK, USA,Netherlands and Sweden, but higher than scores fromAberdeen, Scotland. Mean scores on the CES-Ddepression scale also indicated that our respondentstended to have more depressive symptoms thancomparison groups in Winnipeg and the USA. A review oftrends in mean scores on 17 quality of life items(e.g., satisfaction with family life, financialsecurity, recreation, etc.) from 1994, 1997 and 1998revealed that there were only 7 statisticallysignificant changes across the four year period andthey were all negative. Multivariate regressionanalysis showed that health status measured with avariety of indicators could explain 56% of thevariation in respondents reported satisfaction withtheir health. A combination of health status plusdomain satisfaction indicators could explain 53% ofthe variation in respondents reported happiness, 68%of reported life satisfaction and 63% of reportedsatisfaction with the overall quality of life. Sixtypercent of the explained variation in happiness scoreswas attributable to self-reported health scores, whileonly 18% of the explained variation in satisfactionwith life and with the overall quality of life scoreswas attributable self-reported health scores.     

Men's influence on the onset and progress of fertility decline in Ghana, 1988-98

While lower fertility is commonly associated with women's reproductive autonomy, we demonstrate that the influence of men's education on reproductive decision-making increased during the first decade of rapid fertility decline in Ghana. Husband's education exerts a stronger influence on wife's fertility intentions than does her own education, and the magnitude of the effect of his education increased significantly from 1988 to 1998. Lower fertility in Ghana seems to be associated more with men's declining fertility desires than with women's increasing reproductive autonomy. Nevertheless, there is some indication that women's education may play a relatively greater role in reproductive decision-making as fertility decline progresses still further.     

Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Treatment Outcome Research

Few studies have evaluated the comparative efficacy, effectiveness and mode of action of specific treatment interventions, or developed evidence-based best-practice management guidelines for the treatment of problem gambling. While individual and multi-modal programmes demonstrate positive results, systematic well-designed randomised controlled studies incorporating follow-up blind assessments and standardised diagnostic and outcome measures are needed to establish long-term outcomes.     

Healthy Days,Health Satisfaction and Satisfaction with the Overall Quality of Life

In this note we report results of 6 surveysusing the United States Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention indicators of healthstatus, taken from the Behavioral Risk FactorSurveillance System. Generally speaking, wefound that the CDC healthy days variables couldplay a useful role in survey research aimed atassessing the impact of measured health statuson people's satisfaction with their own healthand with the overall quality of their lives.More precisely, using stepwise regressions wefound: (1) The three healthy days variablesexplained from 16 to 27 percent of the variancein General Health scores. The limited activitydays variable remained as a significantpredictor in only one of the six regressionsand the not good physical health days variablewas most influential in every sample. (2) Thethree healthy days variables explained from 19to 32 percent of the variance in healthsatisfaction scores, and the not good physicalhealth days variable was again most influentialin every sample. (3) The three healthy daysvariables explained from 12 to 39 percent ofthe variance in quality-of-life satisfactionscores, with the not good mental healthvariable most influential in every sample. (4)The four CDC variables together explained from40 to 55 percent of the variance in healthsatisfaction scores, with the General Healthvariable always dominating the set ofpredictors by a fairly wide margin. (5) Thefour CDC variables together explained from 17to 28 percent of the variance inquality-of-life satisfaction scores, with theGeneral Health variable most influential inthree samples and the not good mental healthvariable most influential in the other three.(6) When the four CDC variables plus the healthsatisfaction variable were used as potentialpredictors, we were able to explain from 29 to40 percent of the variance in quality-of-lifesatisfaction scores. In every sample, theGeneral Health and limited activity daysvariables had no significant impact. (7) Usingstructural equation modeling, we found GeneralHealth does not have a direct effect onsatisfaction with the overall quality of lifebut rather only an indirect effect throughhealth satisfaction. The General Health, notgood physical health, and not good mentalhealth days variables account for 51% of thevariation in health satisfaction, and healthsatisfaction, not good physical health and notgood mental health days variables account for30% of the variation in satisfaction with theoverall quality of life.     

Positive events and quality of life

Research evidence that might either support or deny the substantive contribution of positive life experiences on health and well-being would be of great value. Regrettably clinical research has been concerned primarily with the disruption in well-being and adjustment associated with stressful or otherwise aversive events. While positive events and their effects have not been ignored altogether, investigators traditionally have given them short shrift in developing and testing models of mental health and psychopathology. This paper evaluates some of these beginning efforts at testing the positive events on psychological functioning, and suggests some new directions for future work in this area.     

Cost-benefit versus expected utility acceptance rules

A rule for the acceptance of scientific hypotheses called the principle of cost-benefit dominance is shown to be more effective and efficient than the well-known principle of the maximization of expected (epistemic) utility. Harvey's defense of his theory of the circulation of blood in animals is examined as a historical paradigm case of a successful defense of a scientific hypothesis and as an implicit application of the cost-benefit dominance rule advocated here. Finally, various concepts of dominance are considered by means of which the effectiveness of our rule may be increased.The number of friends who have kindly given me suggestions and encouragement is almost embarrassingly large, but I would like to express my gratitude to Myles Brand, Cliff Hooker, David Hull, Scott Kleiner, Hugh Lehman, Werner Leinfellner, Andrew McLaughlin and Tom W. Settle.