Association between perception of fault for the crash and function, return to work and health status 1 year after road traffic injury: a registry-based cohort study

Objectives To establish the association between the patient's perception of fault for the crash and 12-month outcomes after non-fatal road traffic injury.Setting Two adult major trauma centres, one regional trauma centre and one metropolitan trauma centre in Victoria, Australia.Participants 2605 adult, orthopaedic trauma patients covered by the state's no-fault third party insurer for road traffic injury, injured between September 2010 and February 2014.Outcome measures EQ-5D-3L, return to work and functional recovery (Glasgow Outcome Scale—Extended score of upper good recovery) at 12 months postinjury.Results After adjusting for key confounders, the adjusted relative risk (ARR) of a functional recovery (0.57, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.69) and return to work (0.92, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.99) were lower for the not at fault compared to the at fault group. The ARR of reporting problems on EQ-5D items was 1.20–1.35 times higher in the not at fault group. Conclusions Patients who were not at fault, or denied being at fault despite a police report of fault, experienced poorer outcomes than the at fault group. Attributing fault to others was associated with poorer outcomes. Interventions to improve coping, or to resolve negative feelings from the crash, could facilitate better outcomes in the future.

At home on the road? Can drivers' relationships with their cars be associated with territoriality?

The current research explores the relationship between people and their cars within the framework of Altman's theory of human territoriality. It further develops the research of Sandqvist by examining the descriptions given by people with differing ownership and uses of their cars and exploring the congruence between these and the characteristics used to describe human territories. Thirteen focus groups were held with young drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 years, drivers over the age of 25 who are parents of pre-license age children, drivers over the age of 25 who do not regularly transport children, and drivers of work vehicles. Analyses of discussions revealed that drivers’ descriptions of the relationship with their car could be matched with Brown and Altman's descriptions of territory types. However, variations existed both between and within individuals as to the application of the labels ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘public’ territory to the car. Implications for the understanding of road user behaviour and the further development of theory on the car as a place or an object in terms of territoriality are discussed.

Leveraging leverage : how strategies can really work for you

The theme of the new Strategic Plan 2008-12 for Deakin University is the delivery of effective partnerships with a key focus on enhancing student experience. The Library has a key role in seeking new and improved ways to support the university’s teaching, learning, scholarship and research activities. Investigations of Web 2.0 technologies have pinpointed suitable applications to enhance student engagement with the Library and with information resources. Along with digital initiatives, the Library is creating intelligent collaborative and contemporary spaces to support and enhance students’ informal learning. Spaces will accommodate student-centred problem-based pedagogy and offer options for interactive group learning, quiet study and reflective zones.

This paper outlines a holistic approach adopted by Deakin University Library and reports on successes and challenges in meeting strategic outcomes to enhance student experience and learning discovery.

The use of public transport in coastal Australia : modes of travel to work and greenhouse emissions

Commuting to work is one of the most important and regular routines of transportation in towns and cities. From a geographic perspective, the length of people’s commute is influenced, to some degree, by the spatial separation of their home and workplace and the transport infrastructure. The rise of car ownership in Australia from the 1950s to the present was accompanied by a considerable decrease of public transport use. Currently there is an average of 1.4 persons per car in Australia, and private cars are involved in approximately 90% of the trips, and public transportation in only 10%. Increased personal mobility has fuelled the trend of decentralised housing development, mostly without a clear planning for local employment, or alternative means of transportation. Transport sector accounts for 14% of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions. Without further policy action, Australia’s emissions are projected to continue to increase. The Australian Federal Government and the new Department of Climate Change have recently published a set of maps showing that rising seas would submerge large parts of Victoria coastal region. Such event would lead to major disruption in planned urban growth areas in the next 50 years with broad scale inundation of dwellings, facilities and road networks. The Greater Geelong Region has well established infrastructure as a major urban centre and tourist destination and hence attracted the attention of federal and state governments in their quest for further development and population growth. As a result of its natural beauty and ecological sensitivity, scenarios for growth in the region are currently under scrutiny from local government as well as development agencies, scientists, and planners. This paper is part of a broad research in the relationship between transportation system, urban form, trip demand, and emissions, as a paramount in addressing the challenges presented by urban growth. Progressing from previous work focused on private cars, this present paper investigates the use of public transport as a mode for commuting in the Greater Geelong Region. Using a GIS based interaction model, it characterises the current use of the existing public transportation system, and also builds a scenario of increased use of the existing public transportation system, estimating potencial reductions in CO2 emissions. This study provides an improved understanding of the extent to which choices of transport mode and travel activity patterns, affect emissions in the context of regional networks. The results indicate that emissions from commuting by public transportation are significantly lower than those from commuting by private car, and emphasise that there are opportunities for large abatment in the greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector related to efforts in increasing the use of existing public transportation system.

Zones of practice : embodiment and creative arts research

This article presents the trans-disciplinary encounters with and perspectives on embodiment of three creative-arts practitioners within the Deakin University research project Flows & Catchments. The project explores how creative arts participate in community and the possibility of well-being. We discuss our preparations for creative work exhibited at the 2012 Lake Bolac Festival un regional Western Victoria, Australia

24 tweets per second: a dialogue on Jorge Lorenzo’s On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Jorge Lorenzo Flores Garza’s On the Road by Jack Kerouac had its Australian premiere in July this year at the Walker Street Gallery in Melbourne. It screened as part of the ‘Outside the Outside’ series curated by Dirk de Bruyn and Glenn D’Cruz, and was introduced by Steven McIntyre.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac is the most recent work by Mexican filmmaker Jorge Lorenzo, whose previous 1/48” (2008) was listed in Cahiers du Cinéma’s top 10 most subversive films of all time. Somewhere between a book on a film, and a film of a book, Lorenzo’s work is an exact re-typing of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, made by threading a continuous roll of 35mm negative (like Kerouac’s original scroll) through a Olivetti typewriter.

Association between attributions of responsibility for motor vehicle crashes, depressive symptoms, and return to work.

Perceptions surrounding the underlying causes of accidents and injuries may be a key mechanism influencing postaccident health and functional outcomes among people injured in road crashes. In particular, attributions of responsibility may influence rates of postcrash depressive symptomatology and return-to-work.

Efficient road detection and tracking for unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract - An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has many applications in a variety of fields. Detection and tracking of a specific road in UAV videos play an important role in automatic UAV navigation, traffic monitoring, and ground–vehicle tracking, and also is very helpful for constructing road networks for modeling and simulation. In this paper, an efficient road detection and tracking framework in UAV videos is proposed. In particular, a graph-cut–based detection approach is given to accurately extract a specified road region during the initialization stage and in the middle of tracking process, and a fast homography-based road-tracking scheme is developed to automatically track road areas. The high efficiency of our framework is attributed to two aspects: the road detection is performed only when it is necessary and most work in locating the road is rapidly done via very fast homography-based tracking. Experiments are conducted on UAV videos of real road scenes we captured and downloaded from the Internet. The promising results indicate the effectiveness of our proposed framework, with the precision of 98.4% and processing 34 frames per second for 1046 x 595 videos on average.

Fluid intake, hydration, work physiology of wildfire fighters working in the heat over consecutive days

PURPOSE: (i) To evaluate firefighters' pre- and post-shift hydration status across two shifts of wildfire suppression work in hot weather conditions. (ii) To document firefighters' fluid intake during and between two shifts of wildfire suppression work. (iii) To compare firefighters' heart rate, activity, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and core temperature across the two consecutive shifts of wildfire suppression work. METHOD: Across two consecutive days, 12 salaried firefighters' hydration status was measured immediately pre- and post-shift. Hydration status was also measured 2h post-shift. RPE was also measured immediately post-shift on each day. Work activity, heart rate, and core temperature were logged continuously during each shift. Ten firefighters also manually recorded their food and fluid intake before, during, and after both fireground shifts. RESULTS: Firefighters were not euhydrated at all measurement points on Day one (292±1 mOsm l(-1)) and euhydrated across these same time points on Day two (289±0.5 mOsm l(-1)). Fluid consumption following firefighters' shift on Day one (1792±1134ml) trended (P = 0.08) higher than Day two (1108±1142ml). Daily total fluid intake was not different (P = 0.27), averaging 6443±1941ml across both days. Core temperature and the time spent ≥ 70%HRmax were both elevated on Day one (when firefighters were not euhydrated). Firefighters' work activity profile was not different between both days of work. CONCLUSION: There was no difference in firefighters' pre- to post-shift hydration within each shift, suggesting ad libitum drinking was at least sufficient to maintain pre-shift hydration status, even in hot conditions. Firefighters' relative hypohydration on Day one (despite a slightly lower ambient temperature) may have been associated with elevations in core temperature, more time in the higher heart rate zones, and 'post-shift' RPE.

Impact abrasion resistance quantification of protective motorcycle gloves

The hands are often the first contact point with the road surface in a motorcycle crash. Wearing well designed protective gloves has been proven to significantly reduce the occurrence and severity of injuries to the hand. The European Standard for motorcycle protective gloves requires testing of component materials separately and does not consider the impact of abrasive surfaces on seems. This work aimed to develop a new method of testing of fully constructed gloves as worn by a rider in impact abrasion situations. It used previously published fall mechanics to understand the areas that may undergo impact abrasion. It defines the important zones for abrasion resistance and details ideal impact/measurement geometry for measurement on a Cambridge type abrasion tester. It proposes a method for the impact abrasion resistance of the palm, knuckles, wrist, outer side of the little finger and the tops of fingers. This information may be used for the quantification of fully manufactured gloves for standard certification or use in a rating system.

Suicide among male road and rail drivers in Australia: A retrospective mortality study

Objectives: This paper aims to describe the epidemiology of suicide among males employed in driving occupations (road and rail) compared to other male occupations in Australia. Methods: Suicide cases among road and rail drivers were extracted from a national dataset of occupationally coded suicide cases for the period 2001 to 2010. Suicide rates per 100 000 were calculated and standardised using the Australian standard population (2001). Incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using Mantell Haenszel rates and compared to all employed suicide cases. Results: The majority of suicides in this occupational category occurred in truck drivers, followed by road and rail drivers. 98% of these suicides were among males; hence only males were included in further analyses. The age-standardised rate of male suicide among Road and Rail drivers over the period 2001 to 2010 was 22.6 per 100 000 (95% CI 19.2 to 25.9). The IRR of suicide in this occupational group compared to other male occupations was 1.42 (95% CI 1.26 to1.60). Conclusions: Suicide among Road and Rail drivers is higher than in the other male occupations. Suicide prevention initiatives addressing these risk factors, while also providing access to treatment for those at risk, are clearly needed.