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Rail level crossings (RLXs) are a public safety concern internationally. The design of the RLX environment has been implicated in many recent crashes. In this study we evaluated three novel RLX design concepts using a driving simulator. Participants completed four drives, each incorporating one of the RLX designs (one baseline and three novel designs) in both train coming and train not coming mode. Measures of speed and braking on approach were analyzed, along with subjective measures of workload and usability. Superior driving behavior and subjective ratings were achieved for a design that incorporated an in-vehicle device while the lowest subjective ratings were given in relation to a shared space design that incorporated a simplified crossing environment and sharing of the road environment between motorized and non-motorized users. The implications for RLX safety are discussed.

An expression for the pressure is proposed which leads to a symmetric equation of state for liquid and gas near the critical point. Our “bubble-droplet” formula is similar to Fisher's cluster expansion but contains an additional term due to the density dependence of the surface tension. Also, it assumes the density difference between a droplet (or bubble) and the surrounding medium to be proportional tol- 1/d and not to be independent of the droplet sizel. Then, the scaling homogeneity assumption and some scaling laws, includingd?=2-a, can be derived (d is dimensionality). The additional assumption of spherical droplets and bubbles leads to a new scaling law 1+ß=(d-1)?, which is only slightly violated in the lattice gas ford=2, 3, 4.

14C02 output from carboxy-14C-labelled aliphatic carboxylic acids is measured in the micro-scale Kolbe reaction. Irrespective of whether rats were dosed with 1,1-dichloro[1-14C]ethylene or with chloro[1-14C]acetic acid, 1 mol.equiv. of the resulting thio[14C]diglycollic acid yields by electrolysis approx. 0.7 equiv. of 14CO2, which is interpreted in terms of the labelling of one of the carboxylic acid groups of thiodiglycollic acid. This observation provides important evidence concerning thiodiglycollic acid biosynthesis from 1.1-dichloroethylene.