Evaluation of military helmets and roof padding on head injury potential from vertical impacts

Objective: Soldiers in military vehicles subjected to underbelly blasts can sustain traumatic head and neck injuries due to a head impact with the roof. The severity of head and neck trauma can be influenced by the amount of head clearance available to the occupant as well as factors such as wearing a military helmet or the presence of padding on the interior roof. The aim of the current study was to examine the interaction between a Hybrid III headform, the helmet system, and the interior roof of the vehicle under vertical loading.

Methods: Using a head impact machine and a Hybrid III headform, tests were conducted on a rigid steel plate in a number of different configurations and velocities to assess helmet shell and padding performance, to evaluate different vehicle roof padding materials, and to determine the relative injury mitigating contributions of both the helmet and the roof padding. The resultant translational head acceleration was measured and the head injury criterion (HIC) was calculated for each impact.

Results: For impacts with a helmeted headform hitting the steel plate only, which represented a common scenario in an underbelly blast event, velocities of ≤6 m/s resulted in HIC values below the FMVSS 201U threshold of 1,000, and a velocity of 7 m/s resulted in HIC values well over the threshold. Roof padding was found to reduce the peak translational head acceleration and the HIC, with rigid IMPAXX foams performing better than semirigid ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) foam. However, the head injury potential was reduced considerably more by wearing a helmet than by the addition of roof padding.

Conclusions: The results of this study provide initial quantitative findings that provide a better understanding of helmet–roof interactions in vertical impacts and the contributions of the military helmet and roof padding to mitigating head injury potential. Findings from this study will be used to inform further testing with the future aim of developing a new minimum head clearance standard for occupants of light armored vehicles.     

快速城市化对农村环境整治的影响和挑战研究

近年来中国农村环境整治力度不断加大,也面临着诸多挑战.其中影响最大的是中国当前的快速城市化进程.人口和其他资源要素在城乡的大规模快速迁移,对农村的社会经济造成了巨大的冲击,导致农村环境整治面临综合成本高、人力资本匮乏和社会资本涣散等诸多难题.为此,简单将城市环境治理的思路延续到农村地区,即以重工程技术轻治理机制、多部门投入缺乏有机整合以及政府包揽过多等为主要特征,很难真正发挥作用.需要站在城乡统筹发展的高度,农村环境整治与经济发展、社区振兴三位一体、系统推进.     

环境空气质量评价体系研究

近年来,中国快速的城镇化进程和巨大的工业化发展衍生了严重的环境问题,大气污染问题越来越受到政府和社会各界的广泛关注,以某地环境空气自动监测数据为依据,分别采用中国大陆的环境空气质量标准与美国、香港的环境空气质量标准从污染物控制项目及限值、标准分区分级污染物浓度达标的统计要求等方面进行了综合对比的计算和分析,提出了完善评价体系的补充方案,实现补充和完善中国的环境空气质量评价体系的目的,评价结果更切合公众的自身感受,为大气污染防治提供更有力的技术支撑。     

高速铁路建设的环境影响分析及环保策略建议——以沪宁城际铁路为例

近年来高速铁路发展迅猛,与此同时高铁对沿线环境的影响及生态破坏已成为社会关注的热点问题,并引起国家及地方政府的高度重视.以沪宁城际高速铁路为研究案例,首先分析了高速铁路建设对沿线自然及生态环境影响的调查内容、方法和过程,然后论述了铁路噪声、振动电磁辐射、污水及固体废弃物对沿线环境的影响,并论述各类污染的生态防护措施.在此基础上,对沪宁城际铁路环保经验进行了总结归纳,最后提炼形成中国高速铁路建设发展的环保策略建议.     

氮足迹模型应用进展研究

氮足迹是一个评估人类活动活性氮排放量的指标,能够定量人类生产、生活各个环节的活性氮排放,进而指导个人消费和食品生产方式的转变,最终达到降低活性氮排放和提高环境质量的目的.氮足迹模型是定量不同实体氮足迹关键,也是当前氮足迹研究的热点所在.本文综述了应用于个人、食品、机构、事件的氮足迹模型;探讨了氮足迹的不确定性以及优化措施;流域氮足迹,产品氮足迹以及建立生态足迹数据库等将成为未来的研究热点.     

Perceived social impact,social worth,and job performance: Mediation by motivation

This study was designed to test the relationship between perceived social impact, social worth, supervisor‐rated job performance (1 month later), and mediating effects by commitment to customers and work engagement. The hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling analysis in a field study with 370 customer‐service employees from bank, retail, and sales positions. Results confirm that perceived social impact is associated with better job performance and that this relationship is mediated by work engagement. Furthermore, results support a second mediating mechanism in which perceived social impact and social worth are associated with engagement through affective commitment to customers. Finally, it was found that engaged employees are rated as better performers by supervisors 1 month later. This study supports the motivational approach to performance and highlights the role that interactions with customers may play in motivating service employees. Practical implications are discussed by highlighting the need to consider the social dynamics in service contexts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation of the effect of occupant characteristics on contemporary seat belt payout behavior in frontal impacts

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of the occupant characteristics on seat belt force vs. payout behavior based on experiment data from different configurations in frontal impacts.

Methods: The data set reviewed consists of 58 frontal sled tests using several anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) and postmortem human subjects (PMHS), restrained by different belt systems (standard belt, SB; force-limiting belt, FLB) at 2 impact severities (48 and 29 km/h). The seat belt behavior was characterized in terms of the shoulder belt force vs. belt payout behavior. A univariate linear regression was used to assess the factor significance of the occupant body mass or stature on the peak tension force and gross belt payout.

Results: With the SB, the seat belt behavior obtained by the ATDs exhibited similar force slopes regardless of the occupant size and impact severities, whereas those obtained by the PMHS were varied. Under the 48 km/h impact, the peak tension force and gross belt payout obtained by ATDs was highly correlated to the occupant stature (P =.03, P =.02) and body mass (P =.05, P =.04), though no statistical difference with the stature or body mass were noticed for the PMHS (peak force: P =.09, P =.42; gross payout: P =.40, P =.48). With the FLB under the 48 km/h impact, highly linear relationships were noticed between the occupant body mass and the peak tension force (R² = 0.9782) and between the gross payout and stature (R² = 0.9232) regardless of the occupant types.

Conclusions: The analysis indicated that the PMHS characteristics showed a significant influence on the belt response, whereas the belt response obtained with the ATDs was more reproducible. The potential cause included the occupant anthropometry, body mass distribution, and relative motion among body segments specific to the population variance. This study provided a primary data source to understand the biomechanical interaction of the occupant with the restraint system. Further research is necessary to consider these effects in the computational studies and optimized design of the restraint system in a more realistic manner.     

Man in the Light of Current Ecological Problems

The interaction of man and nature is considered in terms of classical ecology, which is becoming a synthetic systemic science based on a set of other sciences. The divisions of modern human ecology that deal with different organizational levels of ecological systems have been developed to different degrees. Attention is given to the necessity of discrediting the mechanistic concept of opposition between man and nature and taking into account the specific ecological functions of man related to group adaptation (culture), as well as the global role of all living organisms in the maintenance of environmental conditions on Earth.     

浅述职业紧张对员工健康的影响及干预策略

随着医学模式从生物医学模式向生物—心理—社会医学模式的转变,心理社会因素对健康的影响日益加重。文章探讨职业紧张与健康的关系及其可能会给作业员工健康造成的损害和相关干预措施。得出:职业紧张对健康的影响是较长时间内过大的压力所表现出来的累积性反应,其发展过程是缓慢和渐进的,可能会出现高血压、冠心病、中风、睡眠障碍等症状,在日常工作中,有必要采取有针对性的干预措施,其最基本的办法是干预生产活动中的紧张因素,提高作业员工的控制和适应能力,最终达到良性循环。     

Generation of Priority Research Questions to Inform Conservation Policy and Management at a National Level

Abstract: Integrating knowledge from across the natural and social sciences is necessary to effectively address societal tradeoffs between human use of biological diversity and its preservation. Collaborative processes can change the ways decision makers think about scientific evidence, enhance levels of mutual trust and credibility, and advance the conservation policy discourse. Canada has responsibility for a large fraction of some major ecosystems, such as boreal forests, Arctic tundra, wetlands, and temperate and Arctic oceans. Stressors to biological diversity within these ecosystems arise from activities of the country's resource‐based economy, as well as external drivers of environmental change. Effective management is complicated by incongruence between ecological and political boundaries and conflicting perspectives on social and economic goals. Many knowledge gaps about stressors and their management might be reduced through targeted, timely research. We identify 40 questions that, if addressed or answered, would advance research that has a high probability of supporting development of effective policies and management strategies for species, ecosystems, and ecological processes in Canada. A total of 396 candidate questions drawn from natural and social science disciplines were contributed by individuals with diverse organizational affiliations. These were collaboratively winnowed to 40 by our team of collaborators. The questions emphasize understanding ecosystems, the effects and mitigation of climate change, coordinating governance and management efforts across multiple jurisdictions, and examining relations between conservation policy and the social and economic well‐being of Aboriginal peoples. The questions we identified provide potential links between evidence from the conservation sciences and formulation of policies for conservation and resource management. Our collaborative process of communication and engagement between scientists and decision makers for generating and prioritizing research questions at a national level could be a model for similar efforts beyond Canada.