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This study evaluated a program to increase driver yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks on a city-wide basis in two cities located within large metropolitan areas. A multifaceted treatment was used to increase yielding in both cities that consisted of highly visible enforcement, public posting of the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians each week along with the record on highway signs, and a low-cost engineering treatment. Enforcement and the low-cost engineering component were only introduced at half the sites termed treatment sites while these treatments were not introduced at the remaining sites that were termed generalization sites. Feedback on the number of drivers yielding to pedestrians in each city was presented at signs on busy roadways within the city and a limited amount of educational outreach to the community was implemented on a city-wide basis through parent outreach. Data were collected using staged crossings made by research assistants. Data were also collected on natural crossing made by members of the community. Data for staged crossings at the sites that received enforcement and the engineering treatment increased from a baseline level of 28% to 67% in the first city and from 29% to 74% in the second city. A more modest change occurred at the generalization sites. Data for natural crossings increased from 24% to 80% in the first city and from 48% to 78% in the second city at treatment sites. Similar changes occur for natural crossings at the generalization sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher temperatures have been associated with aggression in humans, but the heat–aggression relationship has not been clearly established for terrorist attacks. We found significant and positive relationships when regressing the number of terrorist attacks and associated deaths on temperature in 159 countries from 1970 to 2015. When temperature increases, the number of terrorist attacks and deaths due to terrorist attacks tend to increase. Our results are consistent with a large body of research on the effect of climate on conflict and are of practical concern given increasing average global temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alerts presented through the auditory modality improve drivers' crash avoidance performance in driving simulations, but drivers' ability to accurately localise the source of the auditory alerts is understudied. Because the results of driving simulation studies may hinge on assumptions that sound locations are accurately perceived by drivers, this study used a sound localisation task in a full-chassis driving simulator. Twenty-nine participants engaged in a sound localisation task while seated in the driving simulator. Performance was assessed by sound localisation accuracy, relative directional error, and participant confidence across seven sound sources surrounding the simulator. Performance was best when sounds were presented in left and right cardinal regions, and poorest when presented from the front and rear. Participants were less confident in their localisation judgments when sounds were presented from the rear. Practitioner summary: Drivers' ability to accurately localise auditory alerts is understudied. Participants performed an auditory localisation task with external sounds while seated in a full-chassis driving simulator. Participants were better detecting sounds from the sides instead of the front and rear. This has implications for external auditory alarms during driving. Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; dB: decibel; f: frequency; Hz: hertz; LHD: left hand drive; ms: milliseconds; RTI: realtime technologies; s: seconds; SPL: sound pressure level [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statement of purpose: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate deficient attentional ability, but the specific nature of the deficit is unclear. The Attention Networks model provides a useful approach to deconstruct this attentional deficit into its component parts. Method: Fifty-two neurotypical (NT) children and 14 children with ASD performed the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT). The latter requires participants to indicate the direction of a centre target stimulus, which is presented above/below fixation and sometimes flanked by either congruent or incongruent distractor stimuli. Results: Relative to NT children, those with ASD were: (1) slower to react to spatially cued trials and (2) more error prone on executive (conflict) attention trials. Conclusions: Young children with ASD have intact alerting attention, but less-efficient orienting and executive attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]