Road crash risk after whiplash associated disorder

The future on-road safety of drivers affected by Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD), the most common soft-tissue injury suffered in a traffic crash, has not been extensively explored. We obtained an anonymised file of 4280 insurance claimants with WAD and, as controls, 1116 claimants with comparably severe soft-tissue injuries who are considered to be at no increased risk than the general population. Their demographic information, road user type and traffic crash records both prior and subsequent to the traffic incident in which the injury occurred, the index crash, were obtained. Rates of subsequent crash involvement in these two groups were then compared, adjusting for age, sex, road user type and prior crash experience. The risk of a subsequent crash in the WAD group relative to controls was 1.14 (95% confidence interval, 0.87–1.48). To allow for differentially altered driving exposure after index crash we distributed a brief survey asking about changes in driving habits after a traffic crash involving injury via physiotherapy clinics and online through the electronic newsletter of a local motoring organisation. The survey yielded responses from 113 drivers who had experienced WAD in a traffic crash and 53 with other soft tissue injuries. There were no differences on average between the groups in their prior driving levels or their percentage change therein at one, three or six months after injury. There was thus no evidence that drivers with WAD are at any higher safety risk than drivers with other types of relatively minor post-crash soft tissue injury.

Assessment of freestanding membranes prepared from Antheraea pernyi silk fibroin as a potential vehicle for corneal epithelial cell transplantation

Freestanding membranes created from Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) offer a potential vehicle for corneal cell transplantation since they are transparent and support the growth of human corneal epithelial cells (HCE). Fibroin derived from the wild silkworm Antheraea pernyi (APSF) might provide a superior material by virtue of containing putative cell- attachment sites that are absent from BMSF. Thus we have investigated the feasibility of producing transparent, freestanding membranes from APSF and have analysed the behaviour of HCE cells on this material. No significant differences in cell numbers or phenotype were observed in short term HCE cell cultures established on either fibroin. Production of transparent freestanding APSF membranes, however, proved to be problematic as cast solutions of APSF were more prone to becoming opaque, displayed significantly lower permeability and were more brittle than BMSF-membranes. Cultures of HCE cells established on either membrane developed a normal stratified morphology with cytokeratin pair 3/12 being immuno-localized to the superficial layers. We conclude that while it is feasible to produce transparent freestanding membranes from APSF, the technical difficulties associated with this biomaterial, along with an absence of enhanced cell growth, currently favours the continued development of BMSF as a preferred vehicle for corneal cell transplantation. Nevertheless, it remains possible that refinement of techniques for processing APSF might yet lead to improvements in the handling properties and performance of this material.

A Guide to Applying Road Safety within a Workplace : A Bilateral Approach to Organisational Road Safety in Australia and New Zealand

Corporate and organisational fleet and road safety is of strong interest to government and government agencies in Australia and New Zealand. It has been identified that there is great opportunity to engage and assist organisations and corporations in the delivery of road safety and road safety measures to achieve nationally significant road related trauma reductions. This guide has therefore been developed through public sector funding for use by any workplace within Australia and New Zealand. Significant road safety benefits can be achieved by road safety government agencies (Australia and New Zealand) that engage with private and public sectors at their workplaces to address work related road safety issues. It has also been noted that organisational road safety advancement creates effective and sustainable outcomes, safer places of employment, and safer communities. This can be achieved without totally relying upon traditional and often lengthy processes such as further public legislation and/ or community attitudinal and behavioural change programs. Currently, there is little in the way of robust guides or support for those organisations that are wishing to adopt road safety within their places of employment, supply chain and/ or community. Due to this identified gap in available resource and support, it has been recommended that a practical organisational road safety guide be produced; hence the development of this guide. A guide, or supporting documentation, that bridges the gap between government and road safety research knowledge, internationally endorsed road safety methodology, and assists industry as the end user. To achieve this, the guide is designed to be non-specific to any industry sector and usable for small or large organisations, public or private, and engaging for senior executives and the personnel on the ground responsible for its implementation. Therefore, this guide is based on methodology and principles so that it can be applicable in a scalable way to the greatest number of public and private organisations while providing enough detail and ‘how to’ advice to enable organisations to generate their own solutions to road safety issues.

Modelling as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry in the mathematics curriculum

Philosophical inquiry in the teaching and learning of mathematics has received continued, albeit limited, attention over many years (e.g., Daniel, 2000; English, 1994; Lafortune, Daniel, Fallascio, & Schleider, 2000; Kennedy, 2012a). The rich contributions these communities can offer school mathematics, however, have not received the deserved recognition, especially from the mathematics education community. This is a perplexing situation given the close relationship between the two disciplines and their shared values for empowering students to solve a range of challenging problems, often unanticipated, and often requiring broadened reasoning. In this article, I first present my understanding of philosophical inquiry as it pertains to the mathematics classroom, taking into consideration the significant work that has been undertaken on socio-political contexts in mathematics education (e.g., Skovsmose & Greer, 2012). I then consider one approach to advancing philosophical inquiry in the mathematics classroom, namely, through modelling activities that require interpretation, questioning, and multiple approaches to solution. The design of these problem activities, set within life-based contexts, provides an ideal vehicle for stimulating philosophical inquiry.

Analysis of traffic injury severity in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This research identifies roadway, traffic, and environmental factors that influence the injury severity of road traffic crashes in Dhaka. Dhaka provides a rather unusual driving risk environment to study, since virtually anyone can obtain a drivers’ license and very little traffic enforcement and fines are given when drivers violate traffic rules. To examine this city with presumed heightened crash severity risk, police reported crash data from 2007 to 2011 containing about 2714 road traffic crashes were collected. The injury severity of traffic crashes—recorded as either fatal, serious injury, or property damage only—were modeled using an ordered Probit model. Significant factors increasing the probability of fatal injuries include crashes along highways (65%), absence of a road divider (80%), crashes during night time (54%), and vehicle-pedestrian collisions (367%); whereas two-way traffic configuration (21%), and traffic police controlled schemes (41%) decrease the probability of fatalities. Both similarities and differences of the findings between crash risk in Dhaka and developed countries are discussed in policy relevant terms.

Cycling for transport and recreation : associations with socio-economic position, environmental perceptions, and psychological disposition

OBJECTIVE Interest is growing in promoting utility cycling (i.e., for transport) as a means of incorporating daily physical activity (PA) into people’s lives, but little is known about correlates of utility cycling. Our primary aim was to examine cross-sectional relationships between socio-economic characteristics, neighborhood environment perceptions and psychological disposition with utility cycling (with or without additional recreational cycling). A secondary aim was to compare these relationships with those for recreation-only cycling. METHOD Baseline survey data (2007) from 10,233 participants in HABITAT, a multilevel longitudinal study of PA, sedentary behavior, and health in Brisbane adults aged 40-65 years, were analysed using multinomial regression modelling. RESULTS Greater income, habitual PA, and positive beliefs about PA were associated with utility and recreation-only cycling (p<0.05). Always having vehicle access and not in the labor force were associated with recreation-only cycling (p<0.05). Some or no vehicle access, part-time employment, and perceived environmental factors (little crime, few cul-de-sacs, nearby transport and recreational destinations) were associated with utility cycling (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Our findings suggest differences in associations between socio-economic, neighborhood perceptions and psychological factors and utility and recreation-only cycling in Brisbane residents aged 40-65 years. Tailored approaches appear to be required to promote utility and recreational cycling.

A multiscale road map of cancer spheroids : incorporating experimental and mathematical modelling to understand cancer progression

Computational models represent a highly suitable framework, not only for testing biological hypotheses and generating new ones but also for optimising experimental strategies. As one surveys the literature devoted to cancer modelling, it is obvious that immense progress has been made in applying simulation techniques to the study of cancer biology, although the full impact has yet to be realised. For example, there are excellent models to describe cancer incidence rates or factors for early disease detection, but these predictions are unable to explain the functional and molecular changes that are associated with tumour progression. In addition, it is crucial that interactions between mechanical effects, and intracellular and intercellular signalling are incorporated in order to understand cancer growth, its interaction with the extracellular microenvironment and invasion of secondary sites. There is a compelling need to tailor new, physiologically relevant in silico models that are specialised for particular types of cancer, such as ovarian cancer owing to its unique route of metastasis, which are capable of investigating anti-cancer therapies, and generating both qualitative and quantitative predictions. This Commentary will focus on how computational simulation approaches can advance our understanding of ovarian cancer progression and treatment, in particular, with the help of multicellular cancer spheroids, and thus, can inform biological hypothesis and experimental design.

Variability of metal composition and concentrations in road dust in the urban environment

Urban road dust comprises of a range of potentially toxic metal elements and plays a critical role in degrading urban receiving water quality. Hence, assessing the metal composition and concentration in urban road dust is a high priority. This study investigated the variability of metal composition and concentrations in road dust in 4 different urban land uses in Gold Coast, Australia. Samples from 16 road sites were collected and tested for selected 12 metal species. The data set was analyzed using both univariate and multivariate techniques. Outcomes of the data analysis revealed that the metal concentrations in road dust differ considerably within and between different land uses. Iron, aluminum, magnesium and zinc are the most abundant in urban land uses. It was also noted that metal species such as titanium, nickel, copper and zinc have the highest concentrations in industrial land use. The study outcomes revealed that soil and traffic related sources as key sources of metals deposited on road surfaces.

Residential voltage dip and swell mitigation using Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle in smart grid

Solutions to remedy the voltage disturbances have been mostly suggested only for industrial customers. However, not much research has been done on the impact of the voltage problems on residential facilities. This paper proposes a new method to reduce the effect of voltage dip and swell in smart grids equipped by communication systems. To reach this purpose, a voltage source inverter and the corresponding control system are employed. The behavior of a power system during voltage dip and swell are analyzed. The results demonstrate reasonable improvement in terms of voltage dip and swell mitigation. All simulations are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Towards robotic visual and acoustic stealth for outdoor dynamic target tracking

Covertly tracking mobile targets, either animal or human, in previously unmapped outdoor natural environments using off-road robotic platforms requires both visual and acoustic stealth. Whilst the use of robots for stealthy surveillance is not new, the majority only consider navigation for visual covertness. However, most fielded robotic systems have a non-negligible acoustic footprint arising from the onboard sensors, motors, computers and cooling systems, and also from the wheels interacting with the terrain during motion. This time-varying acoustic signature can jeopardise any visual covertness and needs to be addressed in any stealthy navigation strategy. In previous work, we addressed the initial concepts for acoustically masking a tracking robot’s movements as it travels between observation locations selected to minimise its detectability by a dynamic natural target and ensuring con- tinuous visual tracking of the target. This work extends the overall concept by examining the utility of real-time acoustic signature self-assessment and exploiting shadows as hiding locations for use in a combined visual and acoustic stealth framework.

Real-time image classification for adaptive mission planning using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Real-time image analysis and classification onboard robotic marine vehicles, such as AUVs, is a key step in the realisation of adaptive mission planning for large-scale habitat mapping in previously unexplored environments. This paper describes a novel technique to train, process, and classify images collected onboard an AUV used in relatively shallow waters with poor visibility and non-uniform lighting. The approach utilises Förstner feature detectors and Laws texture energy masks for image characterisation, and a bag of words approach for feature recognition. To improve classification performance we propose a usefulness gain to learn the importance of each histogram component for each class. Experimental results illustrate the performance of the system in characterisation of a variety of marine habitats and its ability to operate onboard an AUV's main processor suitable for real-time mission planning.

Experimental evaluation of an autonomous surface vehicle for water quality and greenhouse gas emission monitoring

This paper describes the experimental evaluation of a novel Autonomous Surface Vehicle capable of navigating complex inland water reservoirs and measuring a range of water quality properties and greenhouse gas emissions. The 16 ft long solar powered catamaran is capable of collecting water column profiles whilst in motion. It is also directly integrated with a reservoir scale floating sensor network to allow remote mission uploads, data download and adaptive sampling strategies. This paper describes the onboard vehicle navigation and control algorithms as well as obstacle avoidance strategies. Experimental results are shown demonstrating its ability to maintain track and avoid obstacles on a variety of large-scale missions and under differing weather conditions, as well as its ability to continuously collect various water quality parameters complimenting traditional manual monitoring campaigns.

An autonomous surface vehicle for water quality monitoring

This paper describes a novel Autonomous Surface Vehicle capable of navigating throughout complex inland water storages and measuring a range of water quality properties and greenhouse gas emissions. The 16 ft long solar powered catamaran can collect this information throughout the water column whilst the vehicle is moving. A unique feature of this ASV is its integration into a storage scale floating sensor network to allow remote mission uploads, data download and adaptive sampling strategies. This paper provides an overview of the vehicle design and operation including control, laser-based obstacle avoidance, and vision-based inspection capabilities. Experimental results are shown illustrating its ability to continuously collect key water quality parameters and compliment intensive manual monitoring campaigns.

Vision-based docking using an autonomous surface vehicle

This paper describes the development of a novel vision-based autonomous surface vehicle with the purpose of performing coordinated docking manoeuvres with a target, such as an autonomous underwater vehicle, at the water's surface. The system architecture integrates two small processor units; the first performs vehicle control and implements a virtual force based docking strategy, with the second performing vision-based target segmentation and tracking. Furthermore, the architecture utilises wireless sensor network technology allowing the vehicle to be observed by, and even integrated within an ad-hoc sensor network. Simulated and experimental results are presented demonstrating the autonomous vision- based docking strategy on a proof-of-concept vehicle.

Design of an integrated platform for V2X wireless communications and positioning supporting C-ITS safety applications

In this paper, an integrated inter-vehicles wireless communications and positioning system supporting alternate positioning techniques is proposed to meet the requirements of safety applications of Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS). Recent advances have repeatedly demonstrated that road safety problems can be to a large extent addressed via a range of technologies including wireless communications and positioning in vehicular environments. The novel communication stack utilizing a dedicated frequency spectrum (e.g. at 5.9 GHz band), known as Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC), has been particularly designed for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) to support safety applications in highly dynamic environments. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is another essential enabler to support safety on rail and roads. Although current vehicle navigation systems such as single frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers can provide route guidance with 5-10 meters (road-level) position accuracy, positioning systems utilized in C-ITS must provide position solutions with lane-level and even in-lane-level accuracies based on the requirements of safety applications. This article reviews the issues and technical approaches that are involved in designing a vehicular safety communications and positioning architecture; it also provides technological solutions to further improve vehicular safety by integrating the DSRC and GNSS-based positioning technologies.