Abstract Several studies have suggested there is a critical relationship between piglet birth weight and preweaning mortality. Thus, the objective of the current work was to identify a birth weight threshold value for preweaning mortality. Birth weight and survival data from two studies involving a combined total of 4,068 piglets from 394 litters on four commercial farms (three European, one U.S.) were compiled for a pooled, multistudy analysis. Overall preweaning mortality across the two studies was 12.2%. Key variables used in the analysis were piglet birth weight (measured within 24 h of birth) and corresponding survival outcome (dead or live) by weaning at 3–4 wk of age. A mixed effects logistic regression model was fit to estimate the relationship between preweaning mortality and birth weight. A random effect of study was included to account for overall differences in mortality between the two studies. A piecewise linear predictor was selected to best represent the drastic decrease in preweaning mortality found as birth weight increased in the range of 0.5–1.0 kg and the less extreme change in weight above 1.0 kg. The change point of the birth weight and preweaning mortality model was determined by comparing model fit based on maximizing the likelihood over the interval ranging from 0.5 to 2.3 kg birth weight. Results from the analysis showed a curvilinear relationship between birth weight and preweaning mortality where the birth weight change point value or threshold value was 1.11 kg. In the combined data set, 15.2% of pigs had birth weights ≤1.11 kg. This subpopulation of pigs had a 34.4% preweaning mortality rate and represented 43% of total preweaning mortalities. These findings imply interventions targeted at reducing the incidence of piglets with birth weights ≤1.11 kg have potential to improve piglet survivability. Additional research is needed to validate 1.11 kg as the birth weight threshold for increased risk of preweaning mortality.

This paper presents the results of a study to develop improved design guidance for freeway main-line ramp terminals on the basis of modern driver behavior and vehicle performance capabilities. The primary steps included a crash analysis, an observational field study, and a driver behavioral study. This research reached several key conclusions, as follows. Vehicle merging speeds tend to be closer to freeway speeds at tapered acceleration lanes than at parallel acceleration lanes. The recommended minimum lengths for acceleration lanes presented in the 2004 edition of AASHTO's A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (Green Book) are conservative and, under certain conditions, could be reduced by 15%. In a situation in which a significant volume of trucks uses an entrance ramp, an acceleration lane length that will better accommodate trucks can be derived by using speed–distance curves developed for a range of weight-to-power ratios. The recommended minimum lengths for deceleration lanes presented in the 2004 Green Book are conservative and do not account for deceleration in the freeway. Providing deceleration lanes longer than the minimum values given in the Green Book may promote casual deceleration by exiting drivers. Several potential changes for consideration in the next edition of the Green Book are recommended on the basis of the findings and conclusions of this research.

Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board's recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs.

A coordinated effort is under way to develop a Highway Safety Manual (HSM) for use in making quantitative estimates of the safety performance of specific highway types and quantitative estimates of proposed improvements to specific highway types. The highway types being addressed in the first edition of HSM are rural two-lane highways, rural multilane highways, and urban and suburban arterials. Explicit consideration of pedestrian safety on urban and suburban arterials is considered critical to implementation of the first edition of HSM. The objective of the present research was to develop a methodology for quantifying the effects of existing site characteristics and proposed improvements on urban and suburban arterials on pedestrian safety. The pedestrian safety prediction methodology has been developed to function as a component of the overall safety prediction methodology for urban and suburban arterials proposed for the first edition of HSM. In the present research, a methodology for prediction of vehicle–pedestrian collisions at signalized intersections was developed. This methodology includes base models for three- and four-leg signalized intersections and several accident modification factors.

Many transportation agencies use shoulder rumble strips to address the problem of single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes by alerting inattentive or drowsy motorists that their vehicles have drifted out of the travel lane. The application of rumble strips has expanded to include the installation of centerline rumble strips along the centerlines of undivided highways to reduce head-on and opposite-direction sideswipe crashes. Installing rumble strips along either the shoulder or centerline without considering the effect on other highway users (i.e., bicyclists and motorcyclists) may lead to unintended consequences. This research addresses a number of safety issues: (a) the safety effectiveness of shoulder rumble strips on different roadway types, (b) the safety effectiveness of shoulder rumble strip placement relative to the edgeline, (c) the safety effectiveness of centerline rumble strips on different roadway types, and (d) the safety effectiveness of centerline rumble strips along horizontal curves and tangents. The safety evaluations considered all severity levels (total crashes) and fatal and injury crashes. Statistical models for predicting noise levels in the passenger compartment of a vehicle for use in designing rumble strip patterns were also developed. The results of this research were combined with results from previous research to address important policy issues for transportation agencies to consider in the design and application of shoulder and centerline rumble strips.