Factors affecting conviction rates of intoxicated driver patients in two large trauma centers

Objective: Outcomes from previous studies report the driving under the influence (DUI) conviction rates for trauma patients in several cities within Canada and the United States over the last 2 decades. This study reports charge, conviction, and prosecution rates for trauma patients at 2 level I trauma centers servicing a large metropolitan city.

Methods: A retrospective review of the trauma databases was completed to identify patients meeting inclusion criteria. Four hundred sixty patients were identified and their records were compared with the district attorney's records for DUI charges and convictions.

Results: The conviction rate for this study was 8.7%, demonstrating continued low rates of conviction despite growing interest and public awareness of drinking and driving.

Conclusions: We discuss legal considerations that providers should consider when treating patients who have been drinking and driving.     

A novel driver hazard perception sensitivity model based on drivers’ characteristics: A simulator study

Objective: Considering the high annual number of fatal driving accidents in Iran, any approach for reducing the number or severity of driving accidents is a positive step toward decreasing accident-related losses. Accidents can often be avoided by a timely reaction of the driver. One of the steps before reacting to a hazard is perception. Some driver characteristics may affect road hazard perception. In this research, it was assumed that various driver characteristics, including demographic characteristics and cognitive characteristics, have an impact on driver perception.

Methods: The driving simulator used in this research provides various scenarios; for example, passing a pedestrian or animal across the road or placing fixed objects in a 2-lane separated rural road for 2 groups of experienced and inexperienced drivers under day and night lighting conditions. The go/no-go test was carried out in order to assess drivers’ attention to driving tasks and inhibitory control. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to estimate the relation between driver characteristics and sensitivity to road hazard perception. A new hazard perception index was proposed based on the time intervals in the hazard vulnerability.

Results: The results show that the most effective variables in the analysis of sensitivity to hazard perception are driving experience (in kilometers) during the last 3 years and road lighting conditions. Moreover, hazard perception sensitivity was improved by better inhibitory control, selective attention, and decision making, more carefulness, the average amount of daily sleep, and marital status.

Conclusion: The results of this research may be useful in educating and advertising programs. It also could enhance sensitivity to perception of hazards such as pedestrians, animals, and fixed obstacles among young and novice drivers.     

An Exploratory Study of Meanings of Risk Control for Long Term and Acute Effect Occupational Health and Safety Risks in Small Business Construction Firms

A qualitative study of employers' and employees' meanings of occupational health and safety (OHS) risk control was conducted among a sample of small businesses engaged in the Australian construction industry. Two OHS risks relevant to the construction industry were selected for study. One risk (falls from height) represented an immediate consequence, whereas the other (occupational skin disease) represented a long-term health effect. Meanings of the sources and control for these risks were explored during in-depth interviews. Participants perceived the immediate effect, falls from height OHS risk, as being more important in their workplaces than the delayed effect, skin disease OHS risk. The risk of falls from height was perceived to be controllable but requiring a great deal of effort to prevent, whereas there was a fatalistic resignation to the risk of occupational skin disease. Meanings of risk control for both occupational skin disease and falls from height focused on individual rather than technological risk controls. Organizational barriers to the adoption of technological OHS risk controls in the construction industry were identified.     

The victims of unsustainability: a challenge to sustainable development goals

Environmental unsustainability is due to both structural features and historically specific characteristics of industrial capitalism resulting in specific patterns of production and consumption, as well as population growth. Sustainability literature criticises the established corporate and political power hegemonies, interested in maintaining economic growth, as well as inability or unwillingness of citizen-consumers to counteract these hegemonic tendencies. Yet, official policies are still targeted at social and economic ‘development’ as a panacea for unsustainability challenges. Instead, renewed accent on social and economic objectives are outlined by a set of sustainable development goals (SDG) that include objectives of fighting poverty, promoting better health, reducing mortality, and stimulating equitable economic growth. What is less commonly critiqued is the underlying morality of unsustainability and ethical questions concerned with the ‘victims of unsustainability’ outside of socioeconomic discourse. The achievement of SDG goals, as will be further elaborated on in this article, is unlikely to lead to greater social equality and economic prosperity, but to a greater spread of unsustainable production and consumption, continuous economic as well as population growth that has caused environmental problems in the first place and further objectification of environment and its elements. This article argues that an invocation of ethical duty toward environment and its elements is required in order to move beyond the current status quo. Such ethical approach to unsustainability can effectively address the shortcomings of the mainstream sustainability discourse that is mainly anthropocentric and therefore fails to identify the correct locus of unsustainability.     

Health and population-dependent effects of ocean acidification on the marine isopod Idotea balthica

Three populations of the grazing isopod Idotea balthica were exposed to high CO₂ treatment for a period of 20 days to investigate the effect of ocean acidification (OA) on animal health and immunocompetence. The results of the populations from more saline habitats were comparable and showed a 60–80 % decrease in immune response as a result of the high CO₂ treatment. Analysis of protein carbonyls showed no treatment effect, indicating that short-term OA does not increase oxidative protein damage. Meanwhile, the third tested population from the lower saline Baltic Sea had higher background protein carbonyl levels. Ocean acidification in addition to this resulted in 100 % mortality. The results of this study show that OA reduced immunocompetence of this marine isopod. In addition, populations and individuals in poor health are potentially at greater risk to succumb under OA.     

Post-larval development of two intertidal barnacles at elevated CO2 and temperature

Ocean acidification and global warming are occurring concomitantly, yet few studies have investigated how organisms will respond to increases in both temperature and CO₂. Intertidal microcosms were used to examine growth, shell mineralogy and survival of two intertidal barnacle post-larvae, Semibalanus balanoides and Elminius modestus, at two temperatures (14 and 19°C) and two CO₂ concentrations (380 and 1,000 ppm), fed with a mixed diatom-flagellate diet at 15,000 cells ml⁻¹ with flow rate of 10 ml⁻¹ min⁻¹. Control growth rates, using operculum diameter, were 14 ± 8 μm day⁻¹ and 6 ± 2 μm day⁻¹ for S. balanoides and E. modestus, respectively. Subtle, but significant decreases in E. modestus growth rate were observed in high CO₂ but there were no impacts on shell calcium content and survival by either elevated temperature or CO₂. S. balanoides exhibited no clear alterations in growth rate but did show a large reduction in shell calcium content and survival under elevated temperature and CO₂. These results suggest that a decrease by 0.4 pH_(NBS) units alone would not be sufficient to directly impact the survival of barnacles during the first month post-settlement. However, in conjunction with a 4–5°C increase in temperature, it appears that significant changes to the biology of these organisms will ensue.     

An ecosystem model for estimating potential shellfish culture production in sheltered coastal waters

A generic ecosystem model has been developed for estimating the potential production of shellfish culture and the effect of that cultivation on the pelagic ecosystem in sheltered coastal waters. The model describes the dynamics of a simple food web, nutrient cycling and growth of shellfish. The design of the model is closely tied to the temporal and spatial scales that are important in determining the sustainable production level for a particular embayment. The pelagic ecosystem, mussel energetics, population dynamics and hydrodynamics are coupled to allow fully dynamic predictions of the effect of the shellfish density. When applied to Beatrix Bay, an intensive culture embayment in the Pelorus Sound of New Zealand, the model successfully captured main features of the observed system behaviour. The hydrodynamic regime of the bay controls mussel growth and production. Although high fluxes of water into the bay suppress nutrient and carbon cycling signals in the system, the model simulations demonstrated that the mussel cultivation can have considerable effects on the ecosystem of the bay including food depletion and nutrient cycling. One of the most obvious effects is nutrient enhancement through mussel excretion at low cultivation densities, which promotes primary production particularly during the N-limitation period in summer. The sensitivity analysis identified uncertainty in some parameters and indicated areas for which experimental studies could lead to model improvement. The modelling exercise has established a primary predictive tool for managing mussel aquaculture of a coastal embayment to estimate relationships between the stock level and the growth rate of mussels, and the potentially achievable harvest and stocking density.     

Local knowledge and climate change adaptation on Erub Island,Torres Strait

Local knowledge is a valuable asset in observing and managing environmental change, and importantly, is an unheralded source of adaptive capacity. Torres Strait Islanders are no exception, having used such knowledge to adapt to biophysical changes in their environment for centuries. This article explores the ways in which Islanders have coped in the past with environmental changes to plan for their future. This article focuses on Erub Island in the eastern group of islands in the Torres Strait and charts the adaptation actions or activities employed by respected locals (Elders and Aunties). Drawing on their local knowledge, these actions or activities have included the building of rock walls and wind breaks, using native species to re-vegetate sand cays and the coastal foreshore, applying self-sufficient practices such as fish traps and gardening, reading and respecting country, and transferring this knowledge to the younger generation. In this way, it is the Islanders themselves who detail, based on their local knowledge, what is most appropriate for their community.     

Release,Dispersion, and Resuspension of Escherichia coli From Direct Fecal Deposits Under Controlled Flows1

Abstract: Water‐quality standards have been placed on fecal indicator organisms such as Escherichia coli in an attempt to limit the concentrations in water bodies. Cattle can be a significant source of bacteria to water systems, particularly when they are allowed direct access to streams. A flume study was conducted to quantify the effect and understand the transport of E. coli from directly deposited cattle manure. Five steady‐state flows, ranging from 0.00683 to 0.0176 m³/s, were studied and loads from a single cowpie exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended water‐quality standards (235 CFU/100 ml) at each flow over the hour study period. Average E. coli concentrations ranged from 10² to 10⁵ CFU/100 ml over the hour sampling period for all flows. High spatial variations in E. coli concentrations were often seen at each sampling time, with higher concentrations typically at the bottom of the flume. E. coli resuspension was initially greater at 0.5 min after deposition, for the lowest flow (10⁵ CFU/m²/s); however, resuspension rates became similar over time, on the order of 10³ CFU/m²/s. This study demonstrates that the concentrations of E. coli can vary over the water column, and therefore grab samples may inaccurately measure bacteria concentrations and loads in streams. In addition, resuspension rates were often high, so the incorporation of this process into water‐quality models is important for bacteria prediction.