Road Safety in Latin America and the Caribbean: Recent Performance and Future Challenges

This issue of the FAL Bulletin examines road safety performance in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2000 and 2010. It also sets out the need for road safety measures to be incorporated into an integrated and sustainable mobility policy.

Road safety and public health: the cost of treating and rehabilitating the injured in Chile, Colombia and Peru

This issue of the FAL Bulletin examines the implications of road safety for the health-care system. It focuses on the economic cost of treating and rehabilitating road traffic injury victims and, for the sake of better public policy, proposes policy changes aimed at improving data collection as well as coordination among government agencies.

New approaches by highway agencies in dealing with road users

The context in which society develops has changed. The principles of democracy and human rights, in addition to the explosive development of communications, have encouraged citizens' desire for involvement in many areas which formerly had been the preserve of the State. This is also reflected in the attitudes of public utility customers, who are no longer prepared to accept mediocre service from the bodies responsible; on the contrary, they are increasingly putting pressure on those bodies, demanding better service in return for the charges they pay. Road agencies are no exception. They can no longer maintain their traditional isolation from the public and from users in areas such as decision-making or accountability for results achieved. Furthermore, it is no longer enough to provide road networks; these must be managed in such a way as to ensure improved levels of service, acceptable to users who are more and more demanding. This is why conventional styles of highway management have become unsatisfactory and new approaches are developing. There is a gradual increase in openness to the interests and views of users, who are increasingly considered as partners and participants in management. There are numerous examples in various countries, including those of Latin America, of this significant change; it is likely to cause a major transformation in the way in which public highways are managed. The innovations are recent, many of them still at the embryonic stage. A wide variety of concrete measures have been proposed or tried out. It is not yet possible to predict the size or scope of these changes, or which of them will ultimately become normal practice, but the changes have begun. The purpose of this article is to outline the principal changes which are being observed and the new outlook for road users.

International experiences with comprehensive and effective road safety campaigns

This issue of the FAL bulletin analyses the main characteristics of public policy and of the design of road safety campaigns, using six international (Latin American and European) experiences.

Road maintenance, funds and fund management

This edition of the Bulletin deals with road maintenance, funds and fund management. Among other things, it emphasizes, the need to manage road funds in accordance with clear performance rules which seek to minimize maintenance costs and ensure that the road network is maintained in an appropriate condition.

Road maintenance and international competitiveness

The present and subsequent editions of the Bulletin will deal with the issue of road maintenance, its close connection with transport costs and its impact upon the international competitiveness of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. When roads are in poor condition, vehicle operating costs increase by 30 to 50% or even more. Autonomous, adequate and regular funding contributes to effective road maintenance and, consequently, to reducing vehicle operating costs.

Rail, urban transport and road maintenance: current trends and prospects

This edition of the FAL Bulletin provides an account of recent developments and trends in rail and urban transport and road maintenance in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Performance of Latin America and the Caribbean during the first years of the Decade of Action for Road Safety

This issue of the FAL Bulletin examines the performance of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean during the first years of the decade of action for road safety. This document is part of the activities being undertaken by ECLAC as a United Nations regional commission in preparation for the Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety, which is to take place in Brasilia on 18 and 19 November 2015.

Rest stops during road transport: Impacts on performance and acute-phase protein responses of feeder cattle

Angus x Hereford steers (n = 42) and heifers (n = 21) were ranked by gender and BW on d 0 of the experiment and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: 1) no transport and full access to feed and water (CON); 2) continuous road transport for 1,290 km (TRANS), or 3) road transport for 1,290 km, with rest stops every 430 km (STOP; total of 2 rest stops). Treatments were applied from d 0 to 1 of the experiment. Cattle from TRANS and STOP treatments were transported in separate commercial livestock trailers, within a single 2.1 x 7.2 m compartment, but through the exact same route. During each rest stop, STOP cattle were unloaded and offered mixed alfalfa-grass hay and water for ad libitum consumption for 2 h. Upon arrival of STOP and TRANS on d 1, cattle were ranked by sex and BW within each treatment and assigned to 21 feedlot pens (7 pens/treatment; 2 steers and 1 heifer/pen). Full BW was recorded before (d -1 and 0) treatment application and at the end of experiment (d 28 and 29). Total DMI was evaluated daily from d 1 to 28. Blood samples were collected on d 0 (before loading of TRANS and STOP cattle), 1 (immediately after unloading of TRANS and STOP cattle), 4, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28. Body weight shrink from d 0 to d 1 was reduced (P < 0.01) in CON compared to TRANS and STOP, and reduced in STOP compared to TRANS. Mean ADG was greater (P < 0.05) in CON compared to TRANS and STOP, but similar (P = 0.68) between TRANS and STOP. No treatment effects were detected (P >= 0.18) on hay, concentrate, and total DMI. Mean G: F was greater (P = 0.05) in CON compared to STOP, tended to be greater (P = 0.08) in CON compared to TRANS, and similar (P = 0.85) between TRANS and STOP. Plasma cortisol concentrations were greater (P <= 0.04) in TRANS compared to CON and STOP on d 1, and greater (P = 0.04) in TRANS compared to CON on d 4. Serum NEFA concentrations were greater (P < 0.01) in TRANS compared to CON and STOP on d 1, and greater (P <= 0.05) in TRANS compared to CON on d 4 and 7. Mean plasma ceruloplasmin concentrations were similar (P = 0.19) among treatments. Plasma haptoglobin concentrations were greater (P <= 0.04) in TRANS compared to CON and STOP on d 1, and in STOP compared to CON on d 1. In conclusion, inclusion of rest stops during a 1,290-km transport prevented the increase in circulating cortisol and alleviated the NEFA and haptoglobin response elicited by transport, but did not improve feedlot receiving performance of transported cattle.

eIF5A and EF-P: two unique translation factors are now traveling the same road

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Light emitting diode (LED) use in artificial lighting for broiler chicken production

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Investigations on PVP/Y3BO6:Eu3+, a red Luminescent composite for lighting devices based on near UV-LEDs

This work deals with a red phosphor. Y3BO6:Eu3+, and its corresponding poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)/Y3BO6:Eu3+ luminescent composite film suitable for applications in the next generation of Hg-free lamps based on near ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs). Well crystallized samples of Y3BO6 powders with the Eu3+ content up to 20 mol% were prepared by the Pechini method. After structural, morphological and optical characterization, the best doping rate of Eu3+ in the matrix was determined to be 15 mol%. This optimal powder, which is highly friable, was easily ground into fine particles and homogeneously dispersed into a PVP polymer solution to give rise to a polymer phosphor composite. Structural and optical features of the composite film have been studied and compared to those of a pristine PVP film and Y3BO6:Eu3+ powder. All the characterization (XRD, SAXS, luminescence...) proved that the red phosphor particles are well incorporated into the polymer composite film which exhibited the characteristic red emission of Eu3+ under UV light excitation. Furthermore, photostability of the polymer/phosphor composite film under UV-LED irradiation was evaluated from exposure to accelerated artificial photoageing at wavelengths above 300 nm.

Road wanderers in Brazil: a study on modern psychosocial human mobility

Human mobility patterns are quite diverse nowadays and a very singular, extreme pattern is seen in the Brazilian scene: road wandering. Road wanderers are individuals who leave their home, family, work and other territories of a settled life and throw themselves into a life of solitary wandering along Brazilian highways. This study aimed to describe the lifestyle of road wanderers, investigate the reasons that led them choose this way of living and understand it against a background of modern human mobility patterns. A total of 63 interviews were conducted with individuals wandering on road shoulders. We found road wandering is associated with the following determinants: poverty; unemployment; marital conflicts; emotional suffering following the loss of loved ones; desires for adventure and freedom; and cultural symbols related to journey, migration, exodus and other modes of displacement. Despite its particularities, road wandering can be understood as a way of human mobility in the modern world.