Ankle fracture patterns in drivers are associated with femoral fracture,higher BMI,and advanced age

Objective: Despite advances in vehicle safety systems, motor vehicle crashes continue to cause ankle fractures. This study attempts to provide insight into the mechanisms of injury and to identify the at-risk population groups.

Methods: A study was made of ankle fractures patients treated at an urban level 1 trauma center following motor vehicle crashes, with a concurrent analysis of a nationally representative crash data set. The national data set focused on ankle fractures in drivers involved in frontal crashes. Statistical analysis was applied to the national data set to identify factors associated with fracture risk.

Results: Malleolar fractures occurred most frequently in the driver's right foot due to pedal interaction. The majority of complex/open fractures occurred in the left foot due to interaction with the vehicle floor. These fractures occurred in association with a femoral fracture, but their broad injury pattern suggests a range of fracture causation mechanisms. The statistical analysis indicated that the risk of fracture increased with increasing driver body mass index (BMI) and age.

Conclusions: Efforts to reduce the risk of driver ankle injury should focus on right foot and pedal interaction. The range of injury patterns identified here suggest that efforts to minimize driver ankle fracture risk will likely need to consider injury tolerances for flexion, pronation/supination, and axial loading in order to capture the full range of injury mechanisms. In the clinical environment, physicians examining drivers after a frontal crash should consider those who are older or obese or who have severe femoral injury without concurrent head injury as highly suspicious for an ankle injury.     

Sources of organisational resiliency during the Thailand floods of 2011: a test of the bonding and bridging hypotheses

Based on the Institutional Collective Action framework, this research tests the impact of two competing hypotheses—bonding and bridging—on enhancing organisational resiliency. The bonding hypothesis posits that organisational resiliency can be achieved if an organisation works closely with others, whereas the bridging hypothesis argues that such a structure places considerable stress on an organisation and advocates for an organisation to position itself as a central actor to gain access to novel resources from a diverse set of entities to achieve resiliency. The paper analyses data gathered from semi‐structured interviews with 44 public, private, and non‐profit organisations serving communities affected by the Great Floods of 2011 in the Thai capital, Bangkok (urban), and in Pathum Thani (suburban) and Ayutthaya (rural) provinces. The findings suggest that: organisational resiliency was associated with the bridging effect; organisations in the rural province were more resilient than those in the suburban and urban centres; and private and non‐governmental organisations generally were more resilient than public sector organisations. The findings highlight the importance of fostering multi‐sector partnerships to enhance organisational resiliency for disaster response.     

Learning lessons from the 2011 Van Earthquake to enhance healthcare surge capacity in Turkey

Historically, Turkey has adopted a reactive approach to natural hazards which resulted in significant losses. However, following the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake, a more proactive approach has been adopted. This study aims to explore the way this new approach operates on the ground. A multinational and multidisciplinary team conducted a field investigation following the 2011 Van Earthquake to identify lessons to inform healthcare emergency planning in Turkey and elsewhere. The team interviewed selected stakeholders including, healthcare emergency responders, search and rescue services, ambulance services, and health authority representatives, in addition to conducting a focus group. Data were analysed according to an open coding process and SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis. The findings suggest that the approach succeeded in developing a single vision by consolidating official efforts in a more structured way, mobilising many governmental and non-governmental organisations, securing significant amounts of resources including physical and human, and increasing the resilience and flexibility of infrastructure to expand its capacity. However, more attention is required to the development of stronger management procedures and acquisition of further resources.     

The effectiveness of forecast-based humanitarian assistance in anticipation of extreme winters: a case study of vulnerable herders in Mongolia

This paper presents evidence relating to a forecast-based cash and non-food item distribution among vulnerable herder households during the 2017–18 dzud (extreme winter) season in Mongolia, and analyses the results of a quasi-experimental study evaluating its impacts. An innovative approach in disaster risk reduction, forecast-based financing (FbF) can have short- and long-term benefits to vulnerable households but remains understudied. The paper contributes information on a multimodal FbF programme offering one-off cash grants and in-kind veterinary kits. The data found significant effects of reduced mortality and increased offspring survival in some types of livestock, and that the timing of FbF assistance is crucial, as reported early assistance correlated to positive outcomes in terms of reduced animal mortality. These findings can be used to design more effective FbF interventions, to understand better the appropriateness of FbF designs, and to use early warnings and early actions to help people prepare and withstand disasters such as dzuds.     

A constrained least-squares approach to combine bottom-up and top-down CO2 flux estimates

Terrestrial CO₂ flux estimates are obtained from two fundamentally different methods generally termed bottom-up and top-down approaches. Inventory methods are one type of bottom-up approach which uses various sources of information such as crop production surveys and forest monitoring data to estimate the annual CO₂ flux at locations covering a study region. Top-down approaches are various types of atmospheric inversion methods which use CO₂ concentration measurements from monitoring towers and atmospheric transport models to estimate CO₂ flux over a study region. Both methods can also quantify the uncertainty associated with their estimates. Historically, these two approaches have produced estimates that differ considerably. The goal of this work is to construct a statistical model which sensibly combines estimates from the two approaches to produce a new estimate of CO₂ flux for our study region. The two approaches have complementary strengths and weaknesses, and our results show that certain aspects of the uncertainty associated with each of the approaches are greatly reduced by combining the methods. Our model is purposefully simple and designed to take the two approaches’ estimates and measures of uncertainty at ‘face value’. Specifically, we use a constrained least-squares approach to appropriately weigh the estimates by the inverse of their variance, and the constraint imposes agreement between the two sources. Our application involves nearly 18,000 flux estimates for the upper midwest United States. The constrained dependencies result in a non-sparse covariance matrix, but computation requires only minutes due to the structure of the model.     

Spectral reflectance and communication in the wolf spider, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Schizocosa ocreata</Emphasis> (Hentz): simultaneous crypsis and background contrast in visual signals

Animal color patterns often reflect a compromise between natural selection for crypsis or inconspicuousness to predators and sexual selection for conspicuousness to potential mates. In leaf litter-dwelling wolf spider species like Schizocosa ocreata, body coloration often closely matches the background coloration of a generally brown environment. However, body parts used in communication should exhibit high contrast against background coloration. We used spectral analysis to examine male and female S. ocreata for matching and contrasting coloration against leaf litter. Values were plotted in multivariate color space, based on reflectivity in different frequency ranges. When viewed from above, colors of both males and females overlap with values for dead brown leaf litter and soil, suggesting cryptic coloration when viewed by potential predators. However, when viewed from a lateral perspective, both males and females show color values that are polar opposites of litter backgrounds, suggesting higher contrast when viewed by other spiders. Moreover, male secondary characters used in visual signaling by S. ocreata (tibia brushes) show the highest level of background contrast. These findings suggest that S. ocreata wolf spiders have color patterns that provide both crypsis and background contrast at the same time, depending on receiver viewing perspective.     

A simple semi-empirical model for predicting missing carbon monoxide concentrations

Carbon monoxide monitoring using continuous samplers is carried out in most major urban centres in the world and generally forms the basis for air quality assessments. Such assessments become less reliable as the proportion of data missing due to equipment failure and periods of calibration increases. This paper presents a semi-empirical model for the prediction of atmospheric carbon monoxide concentrations near roads for the purpose of interpolating missing data without the need for any traffic or emissions information. The model produces reliable predictions while remaining computationally simple by being site-specifically optimized. The model was developed for, and evaluated at, both a suburban site and an inner city site in Hamilton, New Zealand. Model performance statistics were found to be significantly better than other simple methods of interpolation with little additional computational complexity.     

Effect of thallium on phototactic behaviour in Daphnia magna

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Thallium (Tl) is a trace metal enriched in wastewaters associated with mining and smelting of base metals. The toxicity of Tl to aquatic biota is...     

Net primary production, growth, and standing crop of Macrocystis pyrifera in Southern California

Marine macroalgae are believed to be among the most productive autotrophs in the world. However, relatively little information exists about spatial and temporal variation in net primary production (NPP) by these organisms. The data presented here are being collected to investigate patterns and causes of variation in NPP by the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, which is believed to be one of the fastest growing autotrophs on earth. The standing crop and loss rates of M. pyrifera have been measured monthly in permanent plots at three sites in the Santa Barbara Channel, USA. Collection of these data began in June 2002 and is ongoing. Seasonal estimates of NPP and growth rate are made by combining the field data with a model of kelp dynamics. The purpose of this Data Paper is to make available a time series of M. pyrifera NPP, growth, and standing crop that is appropriate for examining seasonal and interannual patterns across multiple sites. Data on plant density in each plot and censuses of fronds on tagged plants at each site are also made available here. NPP, mass-specific growth rate, and standing crop are presented in four different metrics (wet mass, dry mass, carbon mass, and nitrogen mass) to facilitate comparisons with previous studies of M. pyrifera and with NPP measured in other ecosystems. Analyses of these data reveal seasonal cycles in growth and standing crop as well as substantial differences in M. pyrifera NPP among sites and years.