Impact of a Non-Dedicated U-Turn on Traffic

Non-dedicated U turn has a direct effect on road safety, capacity and congestion during the traffic flow. U turn can have significant supremacy on traffic flow and headway. Therefore to study the impact of non-dedicated u turns on traffic is the ultimate requirement of the current time. This is a microscopic traffic study in which the data from a U turn (33°59’48.2"N 71°27’30.2"E) on road leading to Hayatabad and Karkhano in Peshawar is evaluated in terms of headway, speed and flow rate of traffic. Factual data is presented which shows that the average time headway surges when the traffic is interfered by the U turning vehicles. The probability density functions and cumulative density functions fit to the datasets of headway are then evaluated by the techniques of anova analysis to determine which distribution is the most suitable one for the data. Distribution data specific with the interfering U turn was taken in a separate set and evaluated. The result obtained show that the Burr Distribution and Generalized Extreme Value Distribution are the optimum to illustrate the headway data of traffic being interfered by U turning vehicles. This ligitimize the utilization of various time headway distributions of vehicles being interfered by U turning for traffic modeling.

Relationship Between Causal Attribution Beliefs of Students About Success and Failure and Their Self Esteem

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between causal attribution beliefs of students and their self-esteem. The sample of the study comprised of 3614 students including 1868 male and 1746 female students studying in the 10th grade from 72 public sector schools across 6 districts (selected on the geographical basis) of Punjab. The data were collected by using two research instruments. A 5-point rating scale, Causal Attribution Beliefs Scale (CABS) was used to measure causal attributions beliefs of students. Eight attributes were included in the instrument i.e. ability, effort, strategy, interest, luck, task difficulty, parent‟s influence and teacher‟s influence. Another instrument, a 5-point rating scale, Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (RSES) was used to measure self-esteem of the students. According to the nature of the data and to address the research questions, different statistical techniques i.e. inferential statistics like Independent Sample t- Tests, MANOVA, Pearson Product-Moment Correlations were applied. The results of the study revealed that students endorsed all given causes (ability, effort, strategy, interest, luck, task difficulty, parent‟s influence and teacher‟s influence) as a potential cause of both success and failure. Identical patterns of success were observed in mathematics and English. Both girls and boys ranked teacher‟s influence, effort and parent‟s influence as their prime causes of success in mathematics. Both male students and female students believe teacher‟s influence, effort, parent influence and ability as the primary causes of their success in English. However, there were significant differences in failure attribution patterns. Male students consider lack of effort, lack of interest and wrong use of strategy as the main causes of their failure in mathematics. Whereas, female students considered lack of effort, wrong use of strategy and task difficulty as major causes of their failure in mathematics. In the same way, male students‟ main causes of failure in English were ranked as lack of interest, lack of effort and wrong use of strategy. While female students ranked failure causes in English as lack of effort, task difficulty and wrong use of strategy. Majority of the students showed high self-esteem levels. Only 14 % of the male students and 10 % of the female students exhibited low self-esteem level. Gender difference was found in self-esteem. Girls showed higher self-esteem level than boys. Similarly, urban students showed higher self-esteem level than rural students and science students showed higher self-esteem level than arts students. Relationship between causal attribution beliefs of students and self-esteem was found at secondary level. A small, negative but significant correlation was found in failure attributions and self-esteem level of the students. The relationship between failure attributions in mathematics and self-esteem was found in three attributions i.e. ability, luck and parent‟s influence: whereas the relationship between failure attributions in English and self-esteem was found in five attributions i.e. ability, strategy, luck, parent‟s influence and teacher‟s influence. A small but positive correlation was found between success attributions and self-esteem level of the students. As far as success attributions in mathematics and self-esteem were concerned, four attributions i.e. ability, effort, interest and parent‟s influence were positively correlated. Similarly, relationship between success attributions in English and self-esteem was found in six attributions i.e. ability, effort, strategy, interest, parent‟s influence and teacher‟s influence. Attributional patterns are changeable and can be taught to the students. The teachers should encourage their students to the attributions of controllable causes, so that changed self-perception brings academic improvement. The teacher‟s feedback is very important in changing students‟ attributional beliefs. They must be trained in approaching their students, motivating them intrinsically and provision of suitable oral / written feedback to them so that in result students‟ desire to learn, to discover, to comprehend, to develop etc, can be flourished.