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Purpose – Intersections are hazardous locations and to improve their safety we need to understand the factors contributing to crashes at these locations and provide evidence-based recommendations to reduce them. This chapter provides a summary of the findings on infrastructure-related factors contributing to crashes at urban and rural intersections and some discussions on the implications and potential countermeasures.

Approach – A review of the literature on intersection crashes was performed to identify the infrastructure-related crash-contributing factors. Some discussions on the implications and potential countermeasures are then provided.

Findings – The factors contributing to road crashes are diverse and complex. While the safety effects of a few factors (e.g., exposure and speed) are relatively consistent, many factors have different impacts on crash frequency and severity (e.g., types of intersection) and different impacts on urban and rural intersections (e.g., bus stops).

Research Implications – More studies are needed on developing a stronger theoretical or conceptual foundation on the effects of roadway designs and traffic controls on different dimensions of safety (e.g., exposure, frequency, severity, etc.), types of crashes (e.g., head-on, rear-end, etc.) or road users involved (e.g., drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.).

Practical Implications – Transport engineers need to be aware that some treatments may have different effects on different crash types and road users involved. Even though the overall safety may be improved by the treatments designed, they need to consider and mitigate any unintended consequences to satisfy the Pareto improvement principle and the social equity criterion.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb043004. When citing the article, please cite: S.M. El-Sawy, F.A. Abdel Mohdy, M.A. Abd El-Ghaffar, (1993), “Highly efficient anticorrosive water-borne paints”, Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 22 Iss: 1, pp. 4 - 11.

Magnesium ferrite pigments were evaluated as active pigments in anticorrosive water‐borne paints. The study includes the use of two different anticorrosive pigment volume concentration (APVC), 15 and 25 per cent and fixed the Q value (the pigment volume concentration/critical pigment volume concentration ratio) in both paint formulations. Epoxy and acrylated alkyd resins were used as binders. The paints were evaluated by accelerated salt spray tests, corrosion tests in condensed water and sulphur dioxide chambers and electrochemical evaluations. The results obtained were compared with reference paints containing zinc ferrite and zinc phosphate pigments. Ferrite pigments passivate the carbon steel directly in the case of neutral epoxy resin binder or indirectly due to the soaps produced as a result of reaction with the acidic acrylated alkyd resin binder. A lower per cent, i.e. 15 per cent of APVC was found to be sufficient to provide satisfactory anticorrosion protection.

Fire retardant alkyd resins modified with dehydrated caster oil were prepared directly without going though the alcoholysis step. The method is based upon dehydrating castor oil with trimellitic anhydride. The oil thus produced contains sufficient combined carboxyl groups capable of polyesterifications with triols and glycerol or chlorinated monocyclic acetal and glycerol, and the macro‐structure is completed by further reaction with PA or chlorendic anhydride to obtain flame retardant resins. Melamine formaldhyde resin have been used in combination with the previous alkyd resins to improve hardness and also fire retardancy.

To improve the efficiency of flame retardant paints for wood by using different fillers and thermoplastic and thermosetting binders.

For effective flame retardancy, various paint compositions were made by incorporating different binders and fillers. The physical and mechanical properties, of the paint films, storage stability, limited oxygen index (LOI) and differential thermal analysis were investigated.

Diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate has all the characteristics required to be used as flame retardant filler for paint, in contrary to magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)₂, which has undesired effect on the storage stability of paints based on alkyd resin. The values of LOI depend on the type and composition of the binder.

The flame retardancy of the prepared paints could also be evaluated using more conventional methods such as oxygen index test.

Special fillers and binders that could be used in highly efficient flame retardant paint for wood have been identified.

The fillers are non‐toxic. Different fillers obtained could be used in various thermosetting binders beside thermoplastic ones.

To address the safety concerns generated by truck crashes occurred in big cities, this paper analyzes the zip code tabulation area (ZCTA)-based truck crash frequency across four temporal intervals – morning (6:00–10:00), mid-day (10:00–15:00), afternoon (15:00–19:00), and night (19:00–6:00) in New York City in 2010. A multivariate conditional autoregressive count model is used to recognize both spatial and temporal dependences. The results prove the presence of spatial and temporal dependencies for truck crashes that occurred in neighboring areas. Built environment attributes such as various types of business establishment density and traffic volume for different types of vehicles, which are important factors to consider for crashes occurred in an urban setting, are also examined in the study.

This study aims to measure the level of public awareness about the threat of the emerging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic among the Omani population. It also aims to investigate the mediating effect of the Omanis’ attitudes and behaviors with underlying conditions of COVID-19.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect data via an online survey of Omani citizens and residents from various geographic areas in Oman, 305 responses were received. SPSS and partial least square-structural equation modeling were used for data analysis.

The study revealed that public awareness regarding the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly influenced by people’s perceived risk, information source and health-related knowledge. Further, preventive behavior during the disease spread has a significant direct and indirect impact on their awareness. However, an insignificant mediation effect of public attitude was found between the source of information and public awareness.

This study is limited by the scarcity of related literature in the Omani context. It is recommended that future research complete an in-depth study of public awareness regarding COVID-19, using other constructs and/or other data collection techniques.

This research will provide governmental health authorities and policymakers with a guideline to establish more efficient pandemic containment strategies to control public behavior toward the COVID-19 pandemic and curb viral prevalence.

This research will help in improving prevention measures against COVID-19 are recommended to be more educated through a more effective mechanism to raise public attitude regarding pandemic prevalence positively.

The originality of this research can be drawn from key findings that indicate that people overall gained knowledge about how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the accuracy of information significantly impacts public awareness.

Perfluoroheptyl methacrylate was copolymerized with acrylamide using different ratios of these monomers. The copolymers so obtained were methylolated with formaldehyde. The methylolated copolymers were used as multi‐purpose finishing agents for cotton. They impart oil and water repellence. Attachment of the methylolated copolymer to cotton is presumed to involve chemical bonds via reaction of the methylol groups of the copolymer and the hydroxy groups of cotton cellulose. This was evidenced by the wash‐fastness properties; no significant differences were noted in the oil/water repellence of cotton fabric treated with the copolymers in question.

The removal of nickel and mercury from drinking water, using powdered activated carbon (PAC) and granular activated carbon (GAC) was studied intensively. The water studied was artificially contaminated by Ni and Hg to yield 2mg/l each. Both batch and continuous systems were tested. The time needed to maintain equilibrium and the adsorption isotherm were determined by the batch system. The results obtained were found to be confirmed with Freundlich’s equation, rather than Langmuir or BET. When the PAC was used, the values 1/n and K were 1.59 and 1.02 for Ni and 1.21 and 1.91 for Hg. Relatively similar results were obtained when the GAC was examined. This indicated the stronger adsorbability of mercury compared to nickel. When investigating the continuous system at different contact times the results indicated that increasing the contact time increased the metal : carbon removal efficiency. The overall results showed that the breakthrough points for either Ni or Hg reflected their adsorption isotherms as indicated by k values. Concludes that the addition of an activated carbon filter is recommended for the treatment of drinking water contaminated by heavy metals.