The use of amenities in high density neighbourhoods by older urban Australians residents

Like other major cities, Brisbane (Australia) has adopted policies to increase residential densities to meet the liveability goal of decreasing car dependence. This objective hinges on urban neighbourhoods being amenity-rich spaces, reducing the need for residents to leave their neighbourhood for everyday living. While older people are attracted to urban settings, there has been little empirical evidence linking liveability satisfaction with older people's use of urban neighbourhoods. Using a case study approach employing qualitative (diaries, in-depth interviews) and quantitative (Global Positioning Systems and Geographical Information Systems mapping) methods,this paper explores the effect of the neighbourhood environment and its influence on liveability for older urban people. Reliance on motor vehicles and issues with availability and access to local amenities inhibit local participation for older people. Highlighting these issues furthers our understanding of the landscape planning and design factors that make urban neighbourhoods more liveable for older residents.

Perceptions of clinical safety climate of the multicultural nursing workforce in Saudi Arabia : a cross-sectional survey

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the safety climate perceptions of the multicultural nursing workforce, and to investigate the influence of diversity of the multicultural nursing workforce on clinical safety in a large tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. Background Working in a multicultural environment is challenging. Each culture has its own unique characteristics and dimensions that shape the language, lifestyle, beliefs, values, customs, traditions, and patterns of behaviour, which expatriate nurses must come to terms with. However, cultural diversity in the health care environment can potentially affect the quality of care and patient safety. Method A mixed-method case study (survey, interview and document analysis) was employed. A primary study phase entailed the administration of the Safety Climate Survey (SCS). A population sampling strategy was used and 319 nurses participated, yielding a 76.8% response rate. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Kruskal–Wallis test) were used to analyse survey data. Results The data revealed the nurses’ perceptions of the clinical safety climate in this multicultural environment was unsafe, with a mean score of 3.9 out of 5. No significant difference was found between the age groups, years of nursing experience and their perceptions of the safety climate in this context. A significant difference was observed between the national background categories of nurses and perceptions of safety climate. Conclusion Cultural diversity within the nursing workforce could have a significant influence on perceptions of clinical safety. These findings have the potential to inform policy and practice related to cultural diversity in Saudi Arabia.

Traffic-related fine and ultrafine particle exposures of professional drivers and illness : An opportunity to better link exposure science and epidemiology to address an occupational hazard?

Exposures to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) can be particularly high in transport microenvironments (i.e. in and around vehicles) despite the short durations typically spent there. There is a mounting body of evidence that suggests that this is especially true for fine (b2.5 μm) and ultrafine (b100 nm, UF) particles. Professional drivers, who spend extended periods of time in transport microenvironments due to their job, may incur exposures markedly higher than already elevated non-occupational exposures. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown a raised incidence of adverse health outcomes among professional drivers, and exposure to TRAP has been suggested as one of the possible causal factors. Despite this, data describing the range and determinants of occupational exposures to fine and UF particles are largely conspicuous in their absence. Such information could strengthen attempts to define the aetiology of professional drivers' illnesses as it relates to traffic combustion-derived particles. In this article, we suggest that the drivers' occupational fine and UF particle exposures are an exemplar case where opportunities exist to better link exposure science and epidemiology in addressing questions of causality. The nature of the hazard is first introduced, followed by an overview of the health effects attributable to exposures typical of transport microenvironments. Basic determinants of exposure and reduction strategies are also described, and finally the state of knowledge is briefly summarised along with an outline of the main unanswered questions in the topic area.

Revised reinforcement sensitivity theory : the impact of FFFS and stress on driving

This study investigated the effect of a fear-based personality trait, as conceptualised in Gray’s revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) by the strength of the fight/flight/freeze system (FFFS), on young people’s driving simulator performance under induced psychosocial stress. Seventy-one young drivers completed the Jackson-5 questionnaire of RST traits, followed by a psychosocial stress or relaxation induction procedure (random allocation to groups) and then a city driving simulator task. Some support was found for the hypothesis that higher FFFS sensitivity would result in poorer driving performance under stress, in terms of significantly poorer hazard responses, possibly due to an increased attentional focus on the aversive cues inherent in the stress induction leaving reduced attentional capacity for the driving task. These results suggest that stress may lead to riskier driving behaviour in individuals with fearful RST personality styles.

Associations between infant temperament and early feeding practices. A cross-sectional study of Australian mother-infant dyads from the NOURISH randomised controlled trial

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between temperament in Australian infants aged 2–7 months and feeding practices of their first-time mothers (n=698). Associations between feeding practices and beliefs (Infant Feeding Questionnaire) and infant temperament (easy-difficult continuous scale from the Short Temperament Scale for Infants) were tested using linear and binary logistic regression models adjusted for a comprehensive range of covariates. Mothers of infants with a more difficult temperament reported a lower awareness of infant cues, were more likely to use food to calm and reported high concern about overweight and underweight. The covariate maternal depression score largely mirrored these associations. Infant temperament may be an important variable to consider in future research on the prevention of childhood obesity. In practice, mothers of temperamentally difficult infants may need targeted feeding advice to minimise the adoption of undesirable feeding practices.

Examination of socio-demographics and job satisfaction in Australian registered nurses

Aims and Objectives To examine relationships between socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction and to identify if these factors predict job satisfaction levels in an Australian registered nurses. Background Reports indicate that in Australia there are 30,000 qualified nurses no longer working in the healthcare and that current nursing shortages vary as a result of certain socio-demographic variables including type of nurse, geographic, location, sector, service and organisation. Furthermore it has been revealed that there is not only a real shortage but also a pseudo-shortage (i.e. either there are not enough nurses are available, or not enough are willing to work under existing workplace conditions). International studies have found significant relationships exist between some socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction in registered nurses however there is limited information available on relationships between socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction in nurses in the Australian context. Design A cross sectional survey was undertaken of Australian registered nurses. Methods Two thousand Australian registered nurses who were members of an industrial and professional organisation were sent the questionnaire in 2008. They were stratified and randomised according to gender. Six hundred and thirty-nine registered nurses responded. Descriptive analyses, correlation analyses, one- way ANOVA tests, simple linear regression and multivariable analyses were conducted to examine further if any relationships existed between the variables. Results The majority of respondents showed positive job satisfaction scores. An ANOVA found significant positive relationships existed between job satisfaction, specialty area, health sector and Australian states. Multivariable analyses found relationships existed between specialty area, health sector, and job satisfaction. Conclusions The variables specialty area and health sector were found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. The different specialty areas and health sectors in relation to job satisfaction should be investigated further. Clinical Relevance The study results have provided new knowledge for policy makers, organisational and nursing leaders of the socio-demographic variables that may affect job satisfaction in registered nurses in the Australian context.

Microscopic traffic hysteresis in traffic oscillations : a behavioral perspective

This paper studies traffic hysteresis arising in traffic oscillations from a behavioral perspective. It is found that the occurrence and type of traffic hysteresis is closely correlated with driver behavior when experiencing traffic oscillations and with the time driver reaction begins relative to the starting deceleration wave. Statistical results suggest that driver behavior is different depending on its position along the oscillation. This suggests that different car-following models should be used inside the different stages of an oscillation in order to replicate realistic congestion features.

Return distribution predictability and its implications for portfolio selection

The inquiries to return predictability are traditionally limited to conditional mean, while literature on portfolio selection is replete with moment-based analysis with up to the fourth moment being considered. This paper develops a distribution-based framework for both return prediction and portfolio selection. More specifically, a time-varying return distribution is modeled through quantile regressions and copulas, using quantile regressions to extract information in marginal distributions and copulas to capture dependence structure. A preference function which captures higher moments is proposed for portfolio selection. An empirical application highlights the additional information provided by the distributional approach which cannot be captured by the traditional moment-based methods.

Exeter short stems compared with standard length Exeter stems : experience from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry

The standard Exeter stem has a length of 150mm with offsets 37.5mm to 56mm. Shorter stems of lengths 95mm, 115mm and 125mm with offsets 35.5mm or less are available for patients with smaller femurs. Concern has been raised regarding the behaviour of the smaller implants. This paper analysed data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry comparing survivorship of stems of offset 35.5mm or less with the standard stems of 37.5mm offset or greater. At seven years there was no significant difference in the Cumulative Percent Revision Rate in the short stems (3.4%, 95% CI 2.4-4.8%) compared with the standard length stems (3.5%, 95% CI 3.3-3.8%) despite its use in a greater proportion of potentially more difficult developmental dysplasia of the hip cases.

Vaccination of healthy and diseased koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) with a Chlamydia pecorum multi-subunit vaccine : evaluation of immunity and pathology

Chlamydial infections represent a major threat to the long-term survival of the koala and a successful vaccine would provide a valuable management tool. Vaccination however has the potential to enhance inflammatory disease in animals exposed to a natural infection prior to vaccination, a finding in early human and primate trials of whole cell vaccines to prevent trachoma. In the present study, we vaccinated both healthy koalas as well as clinically diseased koalas with a multi-subunit vaccine consisting of Chlamydia pecorum MOMP and NrdB mixed with immune stimulating complex as adjuvant. Following vaccination, there was no increase in inflammatory pathological changes in animals previously infected with Chlamydia. Strong antibody (including neutralizing antibodies) and lymphocyte proliferation responses were recorded in all vaccinated koalas, both healthy and clinically diseased. Vaccine induced antibodies specific for both vaccine antigens were observed not only in plasma but also in ocular secretions. Our data shows that an experimental chlamydial vaccine is safe to use in previously infected koalas, in that it does not worsen infection-associated lesions. Furthermore, the prototype vaccine is effective, as demonstrated by strong levels of neutralizing antibody and lymphocyte proliferation responses in both healthy and clinically diseased koalas. Collectively, this work illustrates the feasibility of developing a safe and effective Chlamydia vaccine as a tool for management of disease in wild koalas.

Individual dose and exposure of Italian children to ultrafine particles

Time-activity patterns and the airborne pollutant concentrations encountered by children each day are an important determinant of individual exposure to airborne particles. This is demonstrated in this work by using hand-held devices to measure the real-time individual exposure of more than 100 children aged 8-11 years to particle number concentrations and average particle diameter, as well as alveolar and tracheobronchial deposited surface area concentration. A GPS-logger and activity diaries were also used to give explanation to the measurement results. Children were divided in three sample groups: two groups comprised of urban schools (school time from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm) with lunch and dinner at home, and the third group of a rural school with only dinner at home. The mean individual exposure to particle number concentration was found to differ between the three groups, ranging from 6.2×104 part. cm-3 for children attending one urban school to 1.6×104 part. cm-3 for the rural school. The corresponding daily alveolar deposited surface area dose varied from about 1.7×103 mm2 for urban schools to 6.0×102 mm2 for the rural school. For all of the children monitored, the lowest particle number concentrations are found during sleeping time and the highest were found during eating time. With regard to alveolar deposited surface area dose, a child's home was the major contributor (about 70%), with school contributing about 17% for urban schools and 27% for the rural school. An important contribution arises from the cooking/eating time spent at home, which accounted for approximately 20% of overall exposure, corresponding to more than 200 mm2. These activities represent the highest dose received per time unit, with very high values also encountered by children with a fireplace at home, as well as those that spend considerable time stuck in traffic jams.

Airborne particle concentrations at schools measured at different spatial scales

Potential adverse effects on children health may result from school exposure to airborne particles. To address this issue, measurements in terms of particle number concentration, particle size distribution and black carbon (BC) concentrations were performed in three school buildings in Cassino (Italy) and its suburbs, outside and inside of the classrooms during normal occupancy and use. Additional time resolved information was gathered on ventilation condition, classroom activity, and traffic count data around the schools were obtained using a video camera. Across the three investigated school buildings, the outdoor and indoor particle number concentration monitored down to 4 nm and up to 3 m ranged from 2.8×104 part cm-3 to 4.7×104 part cm-3 and from 2.0×104 part cm-3 to 3.5×104 part cm-3, respectively. The total particle concentrations were usually higher outdoors than indoors, because no indoor sources were detected. I/O measured was less than 1 (varying in a relatively narrow range from 0.63 to 0.74), however one school exhibited indoor concentrations higher than outdoor during the morning rush hours. Particle size distribution at the outdoor site showed high particle concentrations in different size ranges, varying during the day; in relation to the starting and finishing of school time two modes were found. BC concentrations were 5 times higher at the urban school compared with the suburban and suburban-to-urban differences were larger than the relative differences of ultrafine particle concentrations.

A variable-stepsize Jacobian-free exponential integrator for simulating transport in heterogeneous porous media : application to wood drying

A Jacobian-free variable-stepsize method is developed for the numerical integration of the large, stiff systems of differential equations encountered when simulating transport in heterogeneous porous media. Our method utilises the exponential Rosenbrock-Euler method, which is explicit in nature and requires a matrix-vector product involving the exponential of the Jacobian matrix at each step of the integration process. These products can be approximated using Krylov subspace methods, which permit a large integration stepsize to be utilised without having to precondition the iterations. This means that our method is truly "Jacobian-free" - the Jacobian need never be formed or factored during the simulation. We assess the performance of the new algorithm for simulating the drying of softwood. Numerical experiments conducted for both low and high temperature drying demonstrates that the new approach outperforms (in terms of accuracy and efficiency) existing simulation codes that utilise the backward Euler method via a preconditioned Newton-Krylov strategy.

Tourist use of mopeds in Queensland

Tourist use of mopeds in Queensland is encouraged by licensing regulations permitting moped riding for car licence holders, who may lack prior knowledge or experience of moped or motorcycle use. Using official crash and registration data, this research examines moped use by tourists, identified as crash-involved riders holding an interstate or overseas licence. Tourists were more likely to be younger, female, in single vehicle crashes, and deemed at fault than Queensland licence holders. Potential safety issues include poor riding skills, inexperience, inattention and lack of protective clothing. Moped rental companies play an important role in managing client crash and injury risks. These risks could also be reduced through introduction of more stringent licensing requirements, though this may be detrimental to moped rental companies as well as to tourist mobility and enjoyment. The discussion considers the relevance of adventure tourism perspectives and theory to the use of mopeds by tourists.

Suicide rates in Shandong, China, 1991–2010 : rapid decrease in rural rates and steady increase in male–female ratio

Background China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world; however, the recent trends in suicide have not been adequately studied. This study aimed to examine the potential changes in the rates and characteristics in a Chinese population. Methods Data on suicide deaths in 1991–2010 were extracted from the Shandong Disease Surveillance Point (DSP) mortality dataset based on ICD-10 codes. The temporal trend in age-adjusted suicide rates for each subpopulation was tested using log-linear Poisson regression analysis. Results From 1991 to 2010, there was a marked decrease in the overall suicide rate in Shandong, with an average reduction of 8% per year. The decrease trend was stronger in rural than in urban areas and more evident in females than in males. Similar decreases were observed for all age groups. Pesticide ingestion and hanging remained the top two methods for suicide. Limitations There are likely quality concerns in the morality data, such as underreporting and misclassification, as well as low accuracy in determining the underlying causes of deaths. The representativeness of the DSP system may also be problematic due to the rapid changes in economy and demography. Conclusions Completed suicides in Shandong have sharply declined over the past 20 years. Higher rates in females versus males and in rural versus urban areas, which were previously considered to be distinguishing features of suicide in China, are becoming less pronounced.