Assessing the impact of risk-taking behavior on road crash involvement among University students residing in two Mediterranean countries

Surveillance systems are indispensable for injury prevention; yet, detailed electronic records are rarely available. The “Student’s Health Card” is a self-reporting electronic tool addressing health issues of University students, while aiming to actively involve them in preventive practices and health promotion. Utilizing data from the injury prevention related section, this study sought to investigate the impact of risk-taking behavior on road crash involvement among University students residing in two Mediterranean countries. A total of 978 University students, 451 Greek and 527 Italian, provided information on prior road crash involvement, as well as on eight behavioral variables, comprising a risky behavior score. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. The already known tendency for clustering of risky behaviors was evident. One degree increment in the risky behavior score was found to increase the risk of road crash involvement by 35%. Driving after drinking (OR = 2.55, CI = 1.53–4.26), riding with a drunk driver (OR = 2.19, CI = 1.08–4.45) and tobacco smoking (OR = 1.95, CI = 1.18–3.22) significantly multiplied the risk. Despite their better compliance with safety measures, Italian students, compared with Greek, reported worse alcohol-related driving habits and engaged more frequently in mobile phone use while driving. Clustering of risky behaviors was found to be an important predictor of road crash involvement. Screening and awareness of risk-taking propensity of University students could guide early intervention. The “Student’s Health Card” could provide, at minimal cost, reliable risk-taking and road crash involvement information, which is needed for both personal risk assessment and surveillance purposes.     

The Role of Pressure Drop and Flow Redistribution on Modeling Mercury Control Using Sorbent Injection in Baghouse Filters

Abstract

A mathematical model based on simple cake filtration theory was coupled to a reviously developed two-stage mathematical model for mercury (Hg) removal using powdered activated carbon injection upstream of a bag-house filter. Values of the average permeability of the filter cake and the filter resistance extracted from the model were 4.4× 10^?13 m² and 2.5 ×10^?4 m^?1, respectively. The flow is redistributed during partial cleaning of the filter, with flows higher across the newly cleaned filter section. The calculated average Hg removal efficiency from the baghouse is lower because of the high mass flux of Hg exiting the filter in the newly cleaned section. The model shows that calculated average Hg removal is affected by permeability, filter resistance, fraction of the baghouse cleaned, and cleaning interval.     

Modification of a soil–vegetation nonlinear interaction model with acid deposition for simplified experimental applicability

In this work we modified a theoretical model of acid deposition in the soil–vegetation interaction to be experimentally applicable. We simplified the expression of the mathematical model of dynamical complex systems by setting parameters into more simple groups, giving an easy-of-validate expression. By the theoretical model it was proposed the nonlinear response of vegetation to acid deposition, which can explain the occurrence of serious and unexpected damages to plantations and forests focused on the catastrophic nature of the effects of aluminum mobility on the vegetation.     

Correlating seabird movements with ocean winds: linking satellite telemetry with ocean scatterometry

Satellite telemetry studies of the movements of seabirds are now common and have revealed impressive flight capabilities and extensive distributions among individuals and species at sea. Linking seabird movements with environmental conditions over vast expanses of the world’s open ocean, however, remains difficult. Seabirds of the order Procellariiformes (e.g., petrels, albatrosses, and shearwaters) depend largely on wind and wave energy for efficient flight. We present a new method for quantifying the movements of far-ranging seabirds in relation to ocean winds measured by the SeaWinds scatterometer onboard the QuikSCAT satellite. We apply vector correlation (as defined by Crosby et al. in J Atm Ocean Tech 10:355–367, 1993) to evaluate how the trajectories (ground speed and direction) for five procellariiform seabirds outfitted with satellite transmitters are related to ocean winds. Individual seabirds (Sooty Shearwater, Pink-footed Shearwater, Hawaiian Petrel, Grey-faced Petrel, and Black-footed Albatross) all traveled predominantly with oblique, isotropic crossing to quartering tail-winds (i.e., 105–165° in relation to birds’ trajectory). For all five seabirds, entire track line trajectories were significantly correlated with co-located winds. Greatest correlations along 8-day path segments were related to wind patterns during birds’ directed, long-range migration (Sooty Shearwater) as well as movements associated with mega-scale meteorological phenomena, including Pacific Basin anticyclones (Hawaiian Petrel, Grey-faced Petrel) and eastward-propagating north Pacific cyclones (Black-footed Albatross). Wind strength and direction are important factors related to the overall movements that delineate the distribution of petrels at sea. We suggest that vector correlation can be used to quantify movements for any marine vertebrate when tracking and environmental data (winds or currents) are of sufficient quality and sample size. Vector correlation coefficients can then be used to assess population—or species-specific variability and used to test specific hypotheses related to how animal movements are associated with fluid environments.     

Book review

Jan L. Flora is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Sociology at Viriginia Tech, specializing in the areas of community, agricultural, and rural change in the United States and in developing countries. Current research projects include assessing the role of agrarian reform in Latin American development; a study of adequacy of services to small, minority, and female North Carolina farmers; and directing a nationwide study of rural community grassroots development efforts funded by the US Department of Agriculture. He founded and directed the Kansas Center for Rural Initiatives at Kansas State University from 1987 to 1989. He was a member of the Latin Amercian Studies Association Commission on compliance with the Central American Peace Accords in 1988. Jointly with Cornelia Flora, he has studied dominant approaches to international development in the post-World War II ear. They served as Program Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development for the Ford Foundation in Bogota, Colombia, from 1978 through 1980. At Virginia Tech, he recently served as campus coordinator for the SARSA project, a cooperative agreement with USAID for conducting research in Third World countries in the areas of natural resource management, rural-urban linkages, and women’s roles in these processes.     

Modeling sorbent injection for mercury control in baghouse filters: II--pilot-scale studies and model evaluation

Activated carbon injection for Hg control in a 500-lb/hr pilot-scale coal-fired furnace equipped with a fabric filter for particulate control was evaluated at different operating conditions. The pilot-scale tests showed that Hg removal was improved at lower temperatures and higher C/Hg ratios. The two-stage mathematical model developed to describe Hg removal using powdered activated carbon injection upstream of a baghouse filter was used to obtain Langmuir isotherm parameters as a function of temperature by fitting the model to a subset of experimental data. The predictive capability of the model was then tested by comparing model calculations with additional experimental data from this system obtained using different operating temperatures and sorbent to Hg ratios. Model predictions were in good agreement with experimentally measured Hg removal efficiency. Based on the model predictions, Hg removal in the duct appears to be limited and higher C/Hg ratio, lower operating temperature, and longer cleaning cycle of the baghouse filter should be utilized to achieve higher Hg removal in this system.     

The effects of alkalinity and acidity of process water and hydrochar washing on the adsorption of atrazine on hydrothermally produced hydrochar

Hydrothermal carbonization of simulated food waste was performed at 250 °C for 20 h using deionized water (DI) and 0.01 N solutions of HCl, NaCl, and NaOH. The hydrochars produced were washed with acetone and the adsorptive capacity of the washed and unwashed hydrochars for atrazine were characterized. Using a generalized linear model, it was shown that the adsorptive capacity of the washed hydrochar was significantly higher than that of the unwashed hydrochars. The HCl processed unwashed hydrochar has a slightly higher adsorptive capacity compared to the DI processed hydrochar while both the NaOH processed washed and unwashed hydrochars were slightly lower than the corresponding DI processed hydrochars. ¹³C solid-state NMR results showed no discernible differences in surface functional groups among the washed hydrochars and among the unwashed hydrochars. A clear decrease in alkyl groups and an increase in aromatic/olefinic-C groups were observed after acetone washing. ¹H liquid-phase NMR showed carbon alkyl chains were present in the acetone wash. Interaction energies calculated using dispersion corrected density functional theory show that atrazine is more strongly adsorbed to surfaces without weakly associated alkyl groups.     

Present and past dynamics of Inughuit resource spaces

Information from a collaborative GPS tracking project, Piniariarneq, involving 17 occupational hunters from Qaanaaq and Savissivik, Northwest Greenland, is used to explore the resource spaces of hunters in Avanersuaq today. By comparison with historical records from the time of the Thule Trading Station and the decades following its closure, we reveal a marked variability in resource spaces over time. It is argued that the dynamics of resources and resource spaces in Thule are not underlain by animal distribution and migration patterns, or changes in weather and sea ice conditions alone; but also by economic opportunities, human mobility, settlement patterns, particular historical events and trajectories, and not least by economic and political interests developed outside the region.     

ANTIDEGRADATION WATER QUALITY CRITERIA FOR THE DELAWARE RIVER: A DISTRIBUTION-FREE STATISTICAL APPROACH1

ABSTRACT: Existing water quality for the Middle Delaware Scenic and Recreational River is significantly better than is required by current standards, leaving a potential for degradation. A method is presented for deriving candidate antidegradation water quality criteria for this segment of the Delaware River using statistical analysis of historic (ambient) water quality data. Data for 34 water quality parameters are first evaluated for data density, serial correlation, trend, seasonality, and other factors. These preliminary analyses are based on observation of data plots and application of distribution-free statistical techniques that are insensitive to outliers and are robust to relatively mild violations of basic assumptions. Data for 12 of the parameters have sufficient density for further analysis and can reasonably be modeled as independent and identically distributed over time (either seasonally or for the entire data sets). For these 12 parameters, distribution-free statistical methods are developed and used to derive intervals within which there is high confidence (usually greater than 95 percent) that the quantiles with potential use as anti-degradation criteria (the 0.85^th, 0.90^th, and 0.95^th quantiles in this study) for a particular parameter lie.