Drink driving after the first offence: Characteristics of offenders who continue to drink and drive

Drink driving remains a significant problem on Australian roads, with about a quarter to a third of fatal crashes involving drivers or riders who have a BAC of 0.05 or greater. Last available data in the state of Queensland (2003) of the major factors involved in road fatalities and injuries indicated that alcohol and drugs were noted as one of the contributing factors in 38% of fatalities and 11% of all crashes, making it the highest single contributing factor to road fatalities. Until this point, there has been little information about first time offenders as a group, but it is known that offenders typically are not first time drink drivers but rather ‘first time apprehended’, in that most have engaged in drink driving in the years leading to the first offence. This paper follows 89 first time drink driving offenders who were interviewed at the time of court mention and followed up around 6 months following the court hearing. Of the offenders, 27% reported to have driven over the limit in the time between initial contact and follow up. The paper demonstrates the characteristics and offending patterns of first offenders who engaged in drink driving following conviction and those who didn’t, providing suggestions on how to target those at high risk for the behaviour and subsequent offending.

Characteristics of new Queensland cyclists

Various state and local government initiatives have been implemented to encourage Australians to ride bicycles. Decreasing the number of trips taken by motor vehicle has benefits for the both the individual and the community, including health, congestion and environmental benefits. This research examined who the new cyclists are, how much and where they ride.

The subjective experience of negative symptoms : characteristics of emotional withdrawal

According to the diagnosis of schizophrenia in the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), negative symptoms are those personal characteristics that are thought to be reduced from normal functioning, while positive symptoms are aspects of functioning that exist as an excess or distortion of normal functioning. Negative symptoms are generally considered to be a core feature of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, negative symptoms are not always present in those diagnosed, and a diagnosis can be made with only negative or only positive symptoms, or with a combination of both. Negative symptoms include an observed loss of emotional expression (affective flattening), loss of motivation or self directedness (avolition), loss of speech (alogia), and also a loss of interests and pleasures (anhedonia). Positive symptoms include the perception of things that others do not perceive (hallucinations), and extraordinary explanations for ordinary events (delusions) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Both negative and positive symptoms are derived from watching the patient and thus do not consider the patient’s subjective experience. However, aspects of negative symptoms, such as observed affective flattening are highly contended. Within conventional psychiatry, the absence of emotional expression is assumed to coincide with an absence of emotional experience. Contrasting research findings suggests that patients who were observed to score low on displayed emotional expression, scored high on self ratings of emotional experience. Patients were also observed to be significantly lower on emotional expression when compared with others (Aghevli, Blanchard, & Horan, 2003; Selton, van der Bosch, & Sijben, 1998). It appears that there is little correlation between emotional experience and emotional expression in patients, and that observer ratings cannot help us to understand the subjective experience of the negative symptoms. This chapter will focus on research into the subjective experiences of negative symptoms. A framework for these experiences will be used from the qualitative research findings of the primary author (Le Lievre, 2010). In this study, the primary author found that subjective experiences of the negative symptoms belonged to one of the two phases of the illness experience; “transitioning into emotional shutdown” or “recovering from emotional shutdown”. This chapter will use the six themes from the phase of “transitioning into emotional shutdown”. This phase described the experience of turning the focus of attention away from the world and onto the self and the past, thus losing contact with the world and others (emotional shutdown). Transitioning into emotional shutdown involved; “not being acknowledged”, “relational confusion”, “not being expressive”, “reliving the past”, “detachment”, and “no sense of direction” (Le Lievre, 2010). Detail will be added to this framework of experience from other qualitative research in this area. We will now review the six themes that constitute a “transition into emotional shutdown” and corresponding previous research findings.

Ocular characteristics of anisometropia

Animal models of refractive error development have demonstrated that visual experience influences ocular growth. In a variety of species, axial anisometropia (i.e. a difference in the length of the two eyes) can be induced through unilateral occlusion, image degradation or optical manipulation. In humans, anisometropia may occur in isolation or in association with amblyopia, strabismus or unilateral pathology. Non-amblyopic myopic anisometropia represents an interesting anomaly of ocular growth, since the two eyes within one visual system have grown to different endpoints. These experiments have investigated a range of biometric, optical and mechanical properties of anisometropic eyes (with and without amblyopia) with the aim of improving our current understanding of asymmetric refractive error development. In the first experiment, the interocular symmetry in 34 non-amblyopic myopic anisometropes (31 Asian, 3 Caucasian) was examined during relaxed accommodation. A high degree of symmetry was observed between the fellow eyes for a range of optical, biometric and biomechanical measurements. When the magnitude of anisometropia exceeded 1.75 D, the more myopic eye was almost always the sighting dominant eye. Further analysis of the optical and biometric properties of the dominant and non-dominant eyes was conducted to determine any related factors but no significant interocular differences were observed with respect to best-corrected visual acuity, corneal or total ocular aberrations during relaxed accommodation. Given the high degree of symmetry observed between the fellow eyes during distance viewing in the first experiment and the strong association previously reported between near work and myopia development, the aim of the second experiment was to investigate the symmetry between the fellow eyes of the same 34 myopic anisometropes following a period of near work. Symmetrical changes in corneal and total ocular aberrations were observed following a short reading task (10 minutes, 2.5 D accommodation demand) which was attributed to the high degree of interocular symmetry for measures of anterior eye morphology, and corneal biomechanics. These changes were related to eyelid shape and position during downward gaze, but gave no clear indication of factors associated with near work that might cause asymmetric eye growth within an individual. Since the influence of near work on eye growth is likely to be most obvious during, rather than following near tasks, in the third experiment the interocular symmetry of the optical and biometric changes was examined during accommodation for 11 myopic anisometropes. The changes in anterior eye biometrics associated with accommodation were again similar between the eyes, resulting in symmetrical changes in the optical characteristics. However, the more myopic eyes exhibited slightly greater amounts of axial elongation during accommodation which may be related to the force exerted by the ciliary muscle. This small asymmetry in axial elongation we observed between the eyes may be due to interocular differences in posterior eye structure, given that the accommodative response was equal between eyes. Using ocular coherence tomography a reduced average choroidal thickness was observed in the more myopic eyes compared to the less myopic eyes of these subjects. The interocular difference in choroidal thickness was correlated with the magnitude of spherical equivalent and axial anisometropia. The symmetry in optics and biometrics between fellow eyes which have undergone significantly different visual development (i.e. anisometropic subjects with amblyopia) is also of interest with respect to refractive error development. In the final experiment the influence of altered visual experience upon corneal and ocular higher-order aberrations was investigated in 21 amblyopic subjects (8 refractive, 11 strabismic and 2 form deprivation). Significant differences in aberrations were observed between the fellow eyes, which varied according to the type of amblyopia. Refractive amblyopes displayed significantly higher levels of 4th order corneal aberrations (spherical aberration and secondary astigmatism) in the amblyopic eye compared to the fellow non-amblyopic eye. Strabismic amblyopes exhibited significantly higher levels of trefoil, a third order aberration, in the amblyopic eye for both corneal and total ocular aberrations. The results of this experiment suggest that asymmetric visual experience during development is associated with asymmetries in higher-order aberrations, proportional to the magnitude of anisometropia and dependent upon the amblyogenic factor. This suggests a direct link between the development of higher-order optical characteristics of the human eye and visual feedback. The results from these experiments have shown that a high degree of symmetry exists between the fellow eyes of non-amblyopic myopic anisometropes for a range of biomechanical, biometric and optical parameters for different levels of accommodation and following near work. While a single specific optical or biomechanical factor that is consistently associated with asymmetric refractive error development has not been identified, the findings from these studies suggest that further research into the association between ocular dominance, choroidal thickness and higher-order aberrations with anisometropia may improve our understanding of refractive error development.

Management characteristics and the decision to internationalize : Exploration of exporters vs. non-exporters within the Chilean wine industry

The objective of this exploratory study was to identify the key factors that enhance and inhibit the export activities of wineries and identify differences between exporters and non-exporters. Based on data collected from Chilean wineries, the findings of this study suggest that the major constraints for non-exporters are the lack of financial resources, limited quantities of stocks for market expansion, management’s lack of knowledge and experience, and the high cost of travelling and participating in trade shows. In addition, the main international markets for Chilean wineries were not psychically close markets as has been found for Australian or other wine industries. For domestic market oriented wineries cellar door sales were an important source of revenue. Finally, the results show that managers have educational levels and international experience exceeding those of other comparable New World wineries.

Determination of stress-strain characteristics of railhead steel using image analysis

True stress-strain curve of railhead steel is required to investigate the behaviour of railhead under wheel loading through elasto-plastic Finite Element (FE) analysis. To reduce the rate of wear, the railhead material is hardened through annealing and quenching. The Australian standard rail sections are not fully hardened and hence suffer from non-uniform distribution of the material property; usage of average properties in the FE modelling can potentially induce error in the predicted plastic strains. Coupons obtained at varying depths of the railhead were, therefore, tested under axial tension and the strains were measured using strain gauges as well as an image analysis technique, known as the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The head hardened steel exhibit existence of three distinct zones of yield strength; the yield strength as the ratio of the average yield strength provided in the standard (σyr=780MPa) and the corresponding depth as the ratio of the head hardened zone along the axis of symmetry are as follows: (1.17 σyr, 20%), (1.06 σyr, 20%- 80%) and (0.71 σyr, > 80%). The stress-strain curves exhibit limited plastic zone with fracture occurring at strain less than 0.1.

An analysis of the qualitative characteristics of management commentary reporting by New Zealand companies

The narrative section of annual reports has considerable value to its user groups, such as financial analysts and investors (Tiexiera, 2004; Barlett and Chandler, 1997, IASB, 2006). This narrative section including chairpersons’/presidents’ statement contains twice the quantity of information than the financial statements section (Smith and Taffler, 2000). However, the abundance of information does not necessarily enhance the quality of such information (IASB, 2006). This issue of qualitative characteristics has been long foregone by researchers. This issue has attracted the attention of IASB (2006). Following the dearth in research in regard to qualitative characteristics of reporting this paper explores whether investors’ required qualitative characteristics as outlined by the IASB (2006) have been satisfied in management commentary section of New Zealand companies’ annual reports. Our result suggests that the principal stakeholders’, that is, investors’ qualitative characteristics requirements have been partially met in this section of annual reports. The qualitative characteristic of ‘relevance’ and ‘supportability’ have been satisfied in more annual reports compared to that of ‘balance’ and ‘comparability.’

Influence of rainfall and catchment characteristics on urban stormwater quality

This thesis presents the outcomes of a comprehensive research study undertaken to investigate the influence of rainfall and catchment characteristics on urban stormwater quality. The knowledge created is expected to contribute to a greater understanding of urban stormwater quality and thereby enhance the design of stormwater quality treatment systems. The research study was undertaken based on selected urban catchments in Gold Coast, Australia. The research methodology included field investigations, laboratory testing, computer modelling and data analysis. Both univariate and multivariate data analysis techniques were used to investigate the influence of rainfall and catchment characteristics on urban stormwater quality. The rainfall characteristics investigated included average rainfall intensity and rainfall duration whilst catchment characteristics included land use, impervious area percentage, urban form and pervious area location. The catchment scale data for the analysis was obtained from four residential catchments, including rainfall-runoff records, drainage network data, stormwater quality data and land use and land cover data. Pollutants build-up samples were collected from twelve road surfaces in residential, commercial and industrial land use areas. The relationships between rainfall characteristics, catchment characteristics and urban stormwater quality were investigated based on residential catchments and then extended to other land uses. Based on the influence rainfall characteristics exert on urban stormwater quality, rainfall events can be classified into three different types, namely, high average intensity-short duration (Type 1), high average intensity-long duration (Type 2) and low average intensity-long duration (Type 3). This provides an innovative approach to conventional modelling which does not commonly relate stormwater quality to rainfall characteristics. Additionally, it was found that the threshold intensity for pollutant wash-off from urban catchments is much less than for rural catchments. High average intensity-short duration rainfall events are cumulatively responsible for the generation of a major fraction of the annual pollutants load compared to the other rainfall event types. Additionally, rainfall events less than 1 year ARI such as 6- month ARI should be considered for treatment design as they generate a significant fraction of the annual runoff volume and by implication a significant fraction of the pollutants load. This implies that stormwater treatment designs based on larger rainfall events would not be feasible in the context of cost-effectiveness, efficiency in treatment performance and possible savings in land area needed. This also suggests that the simulation of long-term continuous rainfall events for stormwater treatment design may not be needed and that event based simulations would be adequate. The investigations into the relationship between catchment characteristics and urban stormwater quality found that other than conventional catchment characteristics such as land use and impervious area percentage, other catchment characteristics such as urban form and pervious area location also play important roles in influencing urban stormwater quality. These outcomes point to the fact that the conventional modelling approach in the design of stormwater quality treatment systems which is commonly based on land use and impervious area percentage would be inadequate. It was also noted that the small uniformly urbanised areas within a larger mixed catchment produce relatively lower variations in stormwater quality and as expected lower runoff volume with the opposite being the case for large mixed use urbanised catchments. Therefore, a decentralised approach to water quality treatment would be more effective rather than an "end-of-pipe" approach. The investigation of pollutants build-up on different land uses showed that pollutant build-up characteristics vary even within the same land use. Therefore, the conventional approach in stormwater quality modelling, which is based solely on land use, may prove to be inappropriate. Industrial land use has relatively higher variability in maximum pollutant build-up, build-up rate and particle size distribution than the other two land uses. However, commercial and residential land uses had relatively higher variations of nutrients and organic carbon build-up. Additionally, it was found that particle size distribution had a relatively higher variability for all three land uses compared to the other build-up parameters. The high variability in particle size distribution for all land uses illustrate the dissimilarities associated with the fine and coarse particle size fractions even within the same land use and hence the variations in stormwater quality in relation to pollutants adsorbing to different sizes of particles.

Pollutant concentrations within households in Lao PDR and association with housing characteristics and occupants' activities

The paper presents the results of a study conducted to investigate indoor air quality within residential dwellings in Lao PDR. Results from PM 10, CO, and NO2 measurements inside 167 dwellings in Lao PDR over a five month period (December 2005-April 2006) are discussed as a function of household characteristics and occupant activities. Extremely high PM10 and NO2 concentrations (12 h mean PM10 concentrations 1275 ± 98 μg m-3 and 1183 ± 99 μg m-3 in Vientiane and Bolikhamxay provinces, respectively; 12 h mean NO2 concentrations 1210 ± 94 μg m-3 and 561 ± 45 μg m-3 in Vientiane and Bolikhamxay, respectively) were measured within the dwellings. Correlations, ANOVA analysis (univariate and multivariate), and linear regression results suggest a substantial contribution from cookingandsmoking.The PM10 concentrations were significantly higher in houses without a chimney compared to houses in which cooking occurred on a stove with a chimney. However, no significant differences in pollutantconcentrations were observed as a function of cooking location. Furthermore, PM10 and NO2 concentrations were higher in houses in which smoking occurred, suggestive of a relationship between increased indoor concentrations and smoking (0.05 < p < 0.10). Resuspension of dust from soil floors was another significant source of PM10 inside the house (634 μg m-3, p < 0.05).

Characteristics of a two-layer microstrip patch antenna for Bluetooth applications

A double-layer rectangular patch microstrip antenna suitable for Bluetooth applications is investigated. The patch is etched on a separate substrate which is suspended above the ground plane and supported by an MCX connector. The air gap between the patch and the ground plane increases the impedance bandwidth and can be used to tune the resonant frequency. This paper presents experimental results on the effects of various parameters on the antenna characteristics and provides guidelines for the design of such an antenna.

The effect of housing characteristics and occupant activities on the respiratory health of women and children in Lao PDR

The paper presents the results of a study conducted into the relationship between dwelling characteristics and occupant activities with the respiratory health of resident women and children in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). Lao is one of the least developed countries in south-east Asia with poor life expectancies and mortality rates. The study, commissioned by the World Health Organisation, included questionnaires delivered to residents of 356 dwellings in nine districts in Lao PDR over a five month period (December 2005-April 2006), with the aim of identifying the association between respiratory health and indoor air pollution, in particular exposures related to indoor biomass burning. Adjusted odds ratios were calculated for each health outcome separately using binary logistic regression. After adjusting for age, a wide range of symptoms of respiratory illness in women and children aged 1-4 years were positively associated with a range of indoor exposures related to indoor cooking, including exposure to a fire and location of the cooking place. Among women, “dust always inside the house” and smoking were also identified as strong risk factors for respiratory illness. Other strong risk factors for children, after adjusting for age and gender, included dust and drying clothes inside. This analysis confirms the role of indoor air pollution in the burden of disease among women and children in Lao PDR.

Analysis of conical-cylinder shells fundamental characteristics for structural health diagnostics

This paper describes the formulation for the free vibration of joined conical-cylindrical shells with uniform thickness using the transfer of influence coefficient for identification of structural characteristics. These characteristics are importance for structural health monitoring to develop model. This method was developed based on successive transmission of dynamic influence coefficients, which were defined as the relationships between the displacement and the force vectors at arbitrary nodal circles of the system. The two edges of the shell having arbitrary boundary conditions are supported by several elastic springs with meridional/axial, circumferential, radial and rotational stiffness, respectively. The governing equations of vibration of a conical shell, including a cylindrical shell, are written as a coupled set of first order differential equations by using the transfer matrix of the shell. Once the transfer matrix of a single component has been determined, the entire structure matrix is obtained by the product of each component matrix and the joining matrix. The natural frequencies and the modes of vibration were calculated numerically for joined conical-cylindrical shells. The validity of the present method is demonstrated through simple numerical examples, and through comparison with the results of previous researchers.

Handling incomplete data in survival analysis with multiple covariates

This paper studies the missing covariate problem which is often encountered in survival analysis. Three covariate imputation methods are employed in the study, and the effectiveness of each method is evaluated within the hazard prediction framework. Data from a typical engineering asset is used in the case study. Covariate values in some time steps are deliberately discarded to generate an incomplete covariate set. It is found that although the mean imputation method is simpler than others for solving missing covariate problems, the results calculated by it can differ largely from the real values of the missing covariates. This study also shows that in general, results obtained from the regression method are more accurate than those of the mean imputation method but at the cost of a higher computational expensive. Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) method is found to be the most effective method within these three in terms of both computation efficiency and predication accuracy.