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Trauma affecting youth and families takes a variety of forms, from random one‐time events such as accidents and natural disasters to chronic and highly personal trauma from child abuse or intimate partner violence. Though trauma has received increasing attention in theory and intervention research over the last several decades, the prevailing theories and treatments have limitations due to a linear perspective focused on the trauma problems of the individual. This is particularly concerning given the high dropout rates for trauma‐focused treatments and the complexities of intergenerational trauma that cannot be adequately conceptualised at the level of the individual. To inform and improve family‐based treatment of youth and family trauma, this paper proposes a theoretical framework informed by social constructivism and systems theory. Social constructivism upholds that reality is constructed through communication as an adaptive process for survival, with multiple potential realities possible. Systems theory promotes a non‐linear view of causality within a system, such that the structure and properties of a system determine outcomes more than the inputs that go into the system. Together, the principles of these meta‐theories contradict the orthodox focus on traumatic events causing trauma symptoms, and instead imply that family‐based treatment should focus on helping families shift assumptions and dynamics that sustain the problem in the present. The joint application of a social constructivism–systems theory framework for trauma introduces several new principles to inform family‐based treatment: (a) post‐trauma realities; (b) mutual survival; (c) power–justice balance; and (d) adaptive reorganisation. The implications of these principles for youth and family trauma treatment will be discussed. Future intervention development and research should consider these principles in the ongoing effort to improve family therapy for youth and family trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linings of structures suffer severe damage when subjected to internal explosions, which cause numerous casualties and incalculable economic losses. In this paper, a violent gas explosion that occurred inside a highway tunnel in the city of Chengdu, China, is studied through numerical simulations. The evaluated energy of the gas explosion was equivalent to 2428.9 kg of TNT. A fully coupled numerical model consisting of five parts is established with dimensions consistent with the real prototype dimensions and by considering fluid-structure interaction (FSI) effects. Then, a detailed modelling process is presented and validated through a comparison with empirical formulas. This paper investigates the strength and propagation characteristics of a blast shock wave inside the tunnel, and both the effective stresses and dynamic responses of the lining are analysed under the blast impact loading. The damage mechanism is studied, and the evolution of the lining damage is reproduced, the results of which show good agreement with the actual conditions. Moreover, in terms of the responses and damage of the lining, the fully coupled blast loading model has obvious advantages in comparison with the simplified blast loading model. Furthermore, the damage assessment of the lining conducted using the single degree of freedom (SDOF) method agrees well with the results of the numerical simulation and site investigations. The comprehensive numerical simulation technique used in the present paper and its results could represent valuable references for future research on violent explosions within tunnels or very large underground structures and provide relevant information for the blast-resistant design of such structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work-zones, due to their nature, are predisposed to hazardous situations. This is a consequence of conducting construction work within the vicinity of, or near, vehicular traffic. The exposure to danger underscores the need for proper understanding of the occurrence of work-zone crashes, as well as the risk factors associated with them. This paper aims mainly to develop a hybrid approach that combines a factor analysis method and an ordered probit model to carry out a comprehensive analysis of work-zone crashes. The paper presents an analysis of work-zone data crashes from 2010 to 2015 that occurred in Egyptian long-term highway maintenance and rehabilitation projects. Factor analysis is used to identify the main and common factors that influence work-zone crashes and to calculate the weight of every factor. The ordered probit model is developed, based on the results of factor analysis scores, to examine the contribution of common factors in the severity of work-zones. The most influential factors that have contributed to work-zone crashes are weather condition, number of lane closures, type of surface construction, road character, day of week, and so forth. In addition, the results indicated that four common factors are significantly affecting the severity of work-zone crashes in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands on air travel accident research by examining the relationship between air travel accidents and airline traffic or volume in the period from 1927–2006. The theoretical model is based on a representative airline company that aims to maximise its profits, and it utilises a fractional integration approach in order to determine whether there is a persistent pattern over time with respect to air accidents and air traffic. Furthermore, the paper analyses how airline accidents are related to traffic using a fractional cointegration approach. It finds that airline accidents are persistent and that a (non-stationary) fractional cointegration relationship exists between total airline accidents and airline passengers, airline miles and airline revenues, with shocks that affect the long-run equilibrium disappearing in the very long term. Moreover, this relation is negative, which might be due to the fact that air travel is becoming safer and there is greater competition in the airline industry. Policy implications are derived for countering accident events, based on competition and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of the behaviour of individuals and groups during evacuation is key to the development of evacuation scenarios as part of an engineering design solution. Furthermore, it is important that engineers have reliable and accurate data on pre-evacuation times and movement for use in time-based evacuation analysis. This paper presents, for the first time in the published literature, a detailed analysis of an unannounced evacuation of licensed premises and provides important data and understanding regarding behaviour for use in fire safety engineering design and evacuation modelling. Findings on recognition times, response behaviours, pre-evacuation times and final exit flows for a function room and lounge bar in the licensed property are provided. The results suggest that the evacuation time in the lounge bar was characterised by generally longer pre-evacuation times and relatively shorter movement times, whereas the evacuation time in the more densely populated function room was characterised by shorter pre-evacuation times but extended flow times. The paper highlights important design and management issues with respect to the evacuation of persons under the influence of alcohol and considers the impact of staff intervention through directed voice communications. The variation in response behaviours between the two separate areas of the premises are highlighted and discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of ‘natural’ disasters in cities can be worse than in other environments, with poor and marginalised urban communities in the developing world being most at risk. To avoid post-disaster destruction and the forced eviction of these communities, proactive and preventive urban planning, including housing, is required. This paper examines current perceptions and practices within international aid organisations regarding the existing and potential roles of urban planning as a tool for reducing disaster risk. It reveals that urban planning confronts many of the generic challenges to mainstreaming risk reduction in development planning. However, it faces additional barriers. The main reasons for the identified lack of integration of urban planning and risk reduction are, first, the marginal position of both fields within international aid organisations, and second, an incompatibility between the respective professional disciplines. To achieve better integration, a conceptual shift from conventional to non-traditional urban planning is proposed. This paper suggests related operative measures and initiatives to achieve this change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been a number of important critiques of the idea of prevention from a theoretical viewpoint, but in practice the value of preventive activities has been less subject to critical appraisal, and less well substantiated by research, than the enthusiasm for them might indicate. The government White Paper The Health of the Nation published in July 1992 focusses on five health issues where preventive work is advocated. This is likely to lead to an increase in health promotion activities. One of the areas prioritised in the White Paper is accidents. This paper explores a number of current preventive efforts in this field, and illustrates prevention in action by drawing on a study of safety as a social value. Fundamental differences in approach to prevention by professionals and citizens identified in this study indicate that if the flow of work stemming from the White Paper is to be effective, citizen conceptions of need in this area will have to be more seriously addressed than has been the case in the past. One means of doing this is through the establishment of hazard or risk surveillance systems at a local level, complementing the injury surveillance systems which inevitably focus on the sequelae rather than the antecedents, of accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of the seriousness of crime have attempted to elicit information from public surveys. This paper reports on an alternative method of ranking the severity of crime. Actual victim injury rates are combined with jury awards in personal injury accident cases to estimate pain, suffering, and fear. Crime-related death rates are combined with estimates of the value of life to arrive at monetary values for the risk of death. These estimates are combined with out-of-pocket costs (such as medical costs and lost wages) to arrive at total dollar estimates of the cost of individual crimes to victims. These dollar estimates are then used to rank the seriousness of crimes. Although these two approaches yield surprisingly similar rankings, the monetary estimates indicate that violent crimes are relatively more costly to victims than survey results might imply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Although worker representation in OHS has been widely recognized as contributing to health and safety improvements at work, few studies have examined the role that worker representatives play in this process. Using a large quantitative sample, this paper seeks to confirm findings from an earlier exploratory qualitative study that worker representatives can be differentiated by the knowledge intensive tactics and strategies that they use to achieve changes in their workplace. Methods Just under 900 worker health and safety representatives in Ontario completed surveys which asked them to report on the amount of time they devoted to different types of representation activities (i.e., technical activities such as inspections and report writing vs. political activities such as mobilizing workers to build support), the kinds of conditions or hazards they tried to address through their representation (e.g., housekeeping vs. modifications in ventilation systems), and their reported success in making positive improvements. A cluster analysiswas used to determine whether the worker representatives could be distinguished in terms of the relative time devoted to different activities and the clusters were then compared with reference to types of intervention efforts and outcomes. Results The cluster analysis identified three distinct groupings of representatives with significant differences in reported types of interventions and in their level of reported impact. Two of the clusters were consistent with the findings in the exploratory study, identified as knowledge activism for greater emphasis on knowledge based political activity and technicallegal representation for greater emphasis on formalized technical oriented procedures and legal regulations. Knowledge activists were more likely to take on challenging interventions and they reported more impact across the full range of interventions. Conclusions This paper provides further support for the concepts of knowledge activism and technical-legal representation when differentiating the strategic orientations and impact of worker health and safety representatives, with important implications for education, political support and recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bicycling is one of the popular modes of transportation, but bicyclists are easily involved in injuries or fatalities in vehicle-bicycle (V-B) accidents. The AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking) systems have been developed to avoid collisions, but their adaptiveness needs to be further improved under different motion patterns of V-B conflicts. This paper analyzes drivers' braking behaviors in different motion patterns of V-B conflicts to improve the performance of Bicyclist-AEB systems. For safety and data reliability, a driving simulator was used to reconstruct two typical conflict types, i.e., SCR (a bicycle crossing the road from right in front of a straight going car) and SSR (a bicycle cut-in from right in front of a straight going car). Either conflict contained various parameterized motion patterns, which were characterized by a combination of parameters: Vc (car velocity), TTC (time-to-collision), Vb (bicycle velocity), and Dlat (lateral distance between the car and the bicycle) or Vlat (maximum lateral velocity of the bicycle). Some 26 licensed drivers participated in an orthogonal experiment for braking behavior analysis. Results revealed that drivers brake immediately when V-B conflicts occur; hence the BRT (brake reaction time) is independent of any motion pattern parameters. This was further verified by another orthogonal experiment with 10 participants using the eye tracking device. BRT in SSR is longer than that in SCR due to the less perceptible risk and drivers' lower expectation of a collision. The braking intensity and brake Pedal Speed are higher in short-TTC patterns in both conflict types. Therefore, TTC is not a proper activation threshold but a reasonable indicator of braking intensity and Pedal Speed for driver-adaptive AEB systems. By applying the findings in the Bicyclist-AEB, the adaptiveness and acceptability of Bicyclist-AEB systems can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern construction industry is increasingly utilizing postinstalled adhesive anchors as an alternative to traditional mechanical anchors. Although the application of adhesive anchors under sustained load offers many advantages, the associated approval guidelines based on a power law extrapolation technique have a number of ambiguities and limitations, which are shortly reviewed in this paper and subjected to uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analyses. Some of the observations presented may be considered as specific to the available experimental database of sustained load test, while some recommendations are universal, as they relate to the underlying creep phenomena and robust measures in regression. It is further shown, how a regression based safety factor could be derived from an experimental database and a possibilistic set of plausible choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY In the design and assessment of structures, the aspects regarding the future performance are gaining increased attention. A wide range of performance measures is covered by 'sustainability' to reflect these aspects. There is the need for well established methods for quantifying the metrics of sustainability. In this paper, a framework for assessing the time-variant sustainability of bridges associated with multiple hazards considering the effects of structural deterioration is presented. The approach accounts for the effects of flood-induced scour on seismic fragility. Sustainability is quantified in terms of its social, environmental, and economic metrics. These include the expected downtime and number of fatalities, expected energy waste and carbon dioxide emissions, and the expected loss. The proposed approach is illustrated on a reinforced concrete bridge. The effects of corrosion on reinforcement bars and concrete cover spalling are accounted. The seismic fragility curves at different points in time are obtained through nonlinear finite element analyses. The variation of the metrics of sustainability in time is presented. The effects of flood-induced scour on both seismic fragility and metrics are also investigated. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new method for improving an existing abnormality detection system for a person who soaks in a bathtub. As the number of aged people increases year by year in Japan, bathing accidents among the aged are growing at a rapid rate, especially in-bathtub drowning accidents. Therefore, prompt detection of a bather's abnormality, such as dizziness and fainting, is important to prevent in-bathtub drowning. In order to detect a bather's abnormality promptly, an abnormality detection system using seven ultrasonic sensors has been proposed. The system uses two methods-posture detection and motion detection-to detect a difference in a bather's state compared to normal before an accident occurs, and improves the delay in detection considered heretofore to be a serious problem. There was, however, plenty of room for improvement. In order to improve the detection rate of the system, we propose a new detection method in this paper. The method uses two ultrasonic sensors to scan a bather's head and neck, and detects the head height and swing speed of the head. Experimental results are superior to the accuracy of the existing system, which enables us to detect an abnormality in a bather more precisely. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 179(3): 57-67, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (). DOI 10.1002/eej.21133 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its point of departure Roland Barthes's proposition in La Chambre claire that the nineteenth century “invented History and Photography,” that the era of photography is one of revolutions, and that the photograph's “testimony” has diminished our capacity to think in terms of “duration.” Barthes also asserts that the French photographer Nadar is “the greatest photographer in the world,” but takes no account of Nadar's acute receptivity to the history of the nineteenth century. The paper argues that, though he fully recognized (and indeed documented) the unique properties of the new medium, Nadar himself was overridingly preoccupied with assessing photography's role in a period when war and revolution were compromising the onward march of social and economic progress. Throughout his life, he was committed to the progressive ideas that he assimilated while growing up in Paris and Lyon in the 1830s. He wrote of the emergence of a Bohemian culture in the Latin Quarter of Paris, and remained keenly aware of the visual impressions that he had received in his youth from the popular lithographs of the pre-photographic era. He became a supporter of the artistic avant-garde, which led him to purchase important work by the landscape painter Daubigny. In his art criticism, he excoriated the later portraits of Ingres, which might have competed with his own reputation as a photographic portraitist. Yet, in his admiration for Delacroix, he emphasized the lengthy initiation necessary for the appreciation of the master's paintings, implying a direct contrast with the “instantaneity” of the photographic process. By common consent, the period of Nadar's great success as a portraitist, which secured his posthumous fame, occupied a short phase in his career as a whole. But his writings show that it was his lively intuition of the wider ramifications of photography that impelled him to move on—experimenting successfully with the first aerial photographs and documenting the catacombs of Paris with the aid of magnesium lighting. Though he could never experience television, he left a narrative in which the feasibility of transmitting images over a distance was presented as being startlingly realistic. In short, Nadar's published work can be viewed as a sustained meditation on the interaction of historical experience and the media, which not only records but anticipates photography's impact within the wider framework of visual culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 25 April 1998, the mineral waste retaining wall at the Swedish-owned pyrite mine at Aznalcóllar (Seville, Spain) burst,2 causing the most harmful environmental and socio-economic disaster in the history of the River Guadiamar basin. The damage was so great that the regional government decided in May 1998 to finance a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research initiative with the objective of eradicating or at least minimising all of the negative social, economic and environmental impacts. This paper utilises a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify eight strategic measures aimed at providing policymakers with key guidelines on implementing a sustainable development model, in a broad sense. Empirical evidence, though, reveals that, to date, major efforts to tackle the negative impacts have centred on environmental concerns and that the socio-economic consequences have not been completely mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature of the violence that characterises complex humanitarian emergencies and the related implications for modelling livelihoods systems. While noting the importance of livelihoods approaches in complex humanitarian emergencies, it deliberates the limitations of sustainable livelihoods frameworks when applied in environments marked by protracted instability. Adaptations to the model are discussed, with a particular focus on the relationships among violence, assets and liabilities within livelihoods systems. Political economy of violence theories intimate that the assets on which livelihoods systems are constructed in peaceful times may instead become life-and livelihood-threatening liabilities in periods of conflict. Adaptations to livelihood systems in violent settings require that analysts consider violence from policy, institutional and process perspectives. It is suggested that vulnerability should be re-conceptualised as endogenous to livelihoods systems in violent settings. Building on the work of others, a livelihoods model adapted for complex humanitarian emergencies is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intimate connections between disaster recovery by and the resilience of affected communities have become common features of disaster risk reduction programmes since the adoption of The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015. Increasing attention is now paid to the capacity of disaster-affected communities to ‘bounce back’ or to recover with little or no external assistance following a disaster. This highlights the need for a change in the disaster risk reduction work culture, with stronger emphasis being put on resilience rather than just need or vulnerability. However, varied conceptualisations of resilience pose new philosophical challenges. Yet achieving a consensus on the concept remains a test for disaster research and scholarship. This paper reviews the concept in terms of definitional issues, the role of vulnerability in resilience discourse and its meaning, and the differences between vulnerability and resilience. It concludes with some of the more immediately apparent implications of resilience thinking for the way we view and prepare for disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most technological accidents studied in the literature consist of a single event occurring in a single location (Challenger, Chernobyl, Ariane 5, Bhopal, etc.). However, a significant number of accidents comprise a series of incidents taking place in multiple and unconnected locations. This may happen whenever a given technology is used by multiple decentralized users – as is the case for medical devices or diving equipment, for instance. In this paper, we argue that such a structural characteristic raises specific problems and issues in terms of learning from accidents. We focus on a specific issue and problem: information asymmetries between the users and the manufacturer in favor of the manufacturer and the risk of “moral hazard” that they can induce. Using second hand information on a well known case (Therac-25), we show how the manufacturer behaved opportunistically when it came to learn from a series of decentralized incidents and we argue that this opportunism was made possible by information asymmetries. Following predictions from the principal-agent theory, we then argue that for users to monitor manufacturers' behavior in a sense favorable to the taking place of learning from accident, it is necessary to ensure communication among users of risky technologies. Besides reducing information asymmetries conducive to moral hazard this would moreover improve risk prevention. Yet, as communication among decentralized users is unlikely to arise spontaneously in most cases, we argue that this makes the case for public intervention in the form of publicly sponsored user groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, there is a growing enthusiasm for outdoor sports and recreation. In the meantime, the risk of both severe and frequent injury associated with active pursuits in mountain areas is acknowledged. This paper tackles accidents related to mountain sports, with a focus on three critical activities: hiking, mountaineering and ski touring. The aim consists of estimating the actual number of accidents (whether they entailed deaths or injuries) in the three above-mentioned activities. In order to align the information collected, then provide estimations based on the reasoned crossing of these secondary data, we consulted and summarised all the databases available on the French territory. Results address the trauma-related mortality in absolute values, and a comparison with the death rate of other sports. The calculation of a mortality index, including secondary mortality, is then provided. Elements of mountain sports accidentality are also presented, intending to clarify how many casualities occur each year in the French mountains. Last, a focus on the particularities of each mountain sport is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to a series of articles featured in the issue is presented on topics including missed dental appointments for children as an alerting feature of possible dental neglect, parenting programme developed by hospital staff for adolescent mothers, and a randomised trial of the Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) programme for young people in Australia.

Children form a significant proportion of accident services' clientele but have received relatively little attention in the growing ethnographic literature on such organizations. This paper uses data from observation and interviews in four English accident departments to review Jeffery's influential analysis of medical staff's categorization of patients. After pointing to certain logical difficulties with this account, it is argued that an analysis of the way children are treated allows for these to be remedied by the development of a more sophisticated model of professional decision-making. The paper concludes with a discussion of the way in which the categorization rests on the practical contingencies of accident work and the social organization of emergency work. Attention is drawn to the variation between high-prestige units in teaching hospitals and lower-status units in general hospitals and the way this limits the ability of the former to identify conditions like child abuse or neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the major ethical end research issues associated with the measurement and recording of alcohol-related problems. Because self-reports of the history of the amount of alcohol ingested are sometimes unreliable, the assessment of the role of alcohol in casualties often relies on a variety of methods which are both diverse and interrelated. The unique measurement problems posed by the diversity of alcohol measures are reviewed and issues in selection and recording bias of alcohol's involvement in injury are discussed. A number of fundamental ethical and moral issues related to measurement are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses issues related to the cognitive and communicational activity of ascribing a causal role to alcohol use in accidents. It is argued that in addition to the empirical relationships to be explained causal attribution is limited by two other types of empirical contingencies: the cognitive processing of information available for causal attribution, and the representation of this information in language (encoding and decoding as part of communication). Only the latter two types of restrictions in causal attribution are discussed, since its logical requirements are covered by well known methodological principles. On the linguistic and communicative side, limitations and biases in causal ascription are introduced by (1) the three central concepts ('alcohol', 'cause', 'accidents') due to properties inherent in language; (2) the (often implicit) selection of boundary conditions; (3) heuristic inference rules; and (4) the tendency towards thematic closure in describing and explaining phenomena. It is suggested that social, psychological and interactional causal processes have been overlooked in attributing causal links between alcohol use, hazardous behaviour and accidents. This paper discusses issues related to the cognitive and communicational activity of ascribing a causal role to alcohol use in accidents. It is argued that in addition to the empirical relationships to be explained causal attribution is limited by two other types of empirical contingencies: the cognitive processing of information available for causal attribution, and the representation of this information in language (encoding and decoding as part of communication). Only the latter two types of restrictions in causal attribution are discussed, since its logical requirements are covered by well known methodological principles. On the linguistic and communicative side, limitations and biases in causal ascription are introduced by (1) the three central concepts ('alcohol', 'cause',... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the efficacy of some established theories of decision-making in relation to commonplace interactions that involve children. In particular, it is concerned with children's perceptions of danger in traffic. The authors analyze concepts such as ‘risk,’ ‘danger,’ and ‘hazard’ and discriminate between ‘danger perception’ and ‘risk-taking.’ Relationships among probability, blame and intention also are discussed. Various studies are reviewed, particularly those that bear on children's perceptions of danger, and some new empirical data on evaluations of children and adults as pedestrians and witnesses are reported. It is argued that when children are involved in accidents with adults, they are socially and legally disadvantaged because differences between adults and children are taken to reflect fault on the part of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the primacy issue relating to automobile no-fault personal injury protection coverage where collateral sources of health insurance benefits are available. It reviews the sources of duplication of coverage and benefits and discusses the approaches to the duplication problem taken by various states in their auto no-fault laws, and in their regulations applicable to other sources of benefits. A survey of the extent of the duplication of coverage and benefits for victims of automobile accidents in Champaign, Illinois, is reported. The results show significant duplication of benefits, especially in medical payments. Although the population from which the sample was drawn is atypical, with consequently atypical results, it can be hypothesized that the aberration results in an understatement of the extent of duplication (and multiplication) of payments. The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues involved in approaches to the solution of the primacy issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insufficient progress in the development of national highways and state highways, coupled with a lack of public awareness regarding road safety, has resulted in prevalent traffic congestion and a high rate of accidents. Understanding the dominant and contributing factors that may influence road traffic accident severity is essential. This study identified the primary causes and the most significant target‐specific causative factors for road accident severity. A modified partitioning around medoids model determined the dominant road accident features. These clustering algorithms will extract hidden information from the road accident data and generate new features for our implementation. Then, the proposed method is compared with the other state‐of‐the‐art clustering techniques with three performance metrics: the silhouette coefficient, the Davies–Bouldin index, and the Calinski–Harabasz index. This article's main contribution is analyzing six different scenarios (different angles of the problem) concerning grievous and non‐injury accidents. This analysis provides deeper insights into the problem and can assist transport authorities in Tamil Nadu, India, in deriving new rules for road traffic. The output of different scenarios is compared with hierarchical clustering, and the overall clustering of the proposed method is compared with other clustering algorithms. Finally, it is proven that the proposed method outperforms other recently developed techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing amount of attention is being focused on the problem of the drinking driver in the United States. In 1967, Great Britain made substantial changes in its laws and enforcement procedure relative to drinking drivers. This paper attempts to examine the British experience with the thought that there may be lessons to be learned from it. Prior to 1967, there were few arrests for drunken driving and even fewer convictions in Britain, but since passage of the 1967 Act, arrests and convictions have increased dramatically while automobile accidents have decreased substantially. The most notable decrease in auto accidents has occurred during the "drinking hours," 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., and particularly on weekends. Traffic density has increased about four percent annually, and while the absolute number of serious and fatal automobile accidents in Britain has risen again since the initial decrease, it is still below the pre-1967 level. Measures that may work well in one country may not be successful in another, due to differences in the habits and nature of the populace as well as differences in such factors as climate, roads, types of vehicles, etc., but a careful analysis of the British experience should pro, e helpful in seeking ways to reduce the magnitude of the drinking-driving problem in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crew scheduling for bus drivers in large bus agencies is known to be a time-consuming and cumbersome problem in transit operations planning. This paper investigates a new meta-heuristics approach for solving real-world bus-driver scheduling problems. The drivers' work is represented as a series of successive pieces of work with time windows, and a variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm is employed to solve the problem of driver scheduling. Examination of the modeling procedure developed is performed by a case study of two depots of the Beijing Public Transport Group, one of the largest transit companies in the world. The results show that a VNS-based algorithm can reduce total driver costs by up to 18.1%, implying that the VNS algorithm may be regarded as a good optimization technique to solve the bus-driver scheduling problem. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A design procedure based on a simplified FE model for underground tunnels subjected to internal explosion and possibly preceded by fire accidents is proposed in this article. The procedure can provide a valuable tool for designers who have to check the structural safety of a tunnel for the case of an internal blast event. The tunnel geometry considered is the same adopted for the metro line in Brescia, Italy. It has an internal diameter of about 8.15 m, is about 13.7 km long and is located about 23.1 m below the surface. Six segments and a smaller key segment (6+1) make up the tunnel. The ring has an average width of about 1.5 m. The FE model is first tested under static serviceability loads. Dynamic analyses are carried out in order to reproduce the blast scenario. The aim of this work is to generate pressure-impulse (p-i) diagrams for underground tunnels for the case of internal explosion and pre-explosion fire actions. An ultimate limit state criterion based on the eccentric ultimate flexural capacity and capable of including fire-blast interaction is introduced. An innovative layered precast tunnel segment solution made of different fibre-reinforced cementitious composites is compared with a traditional solution with the lining section made of reinforced concrete. The potential applications of this new solution are also discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Given that unsafe human actions are the main cause of accidents, it is essential to comprehend the attitudes of medical students toward the risks of road accidents, particularly given their potential influence as future healthcare professionals. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the attitudes of medical students towards road accidents. Methods: This cross‐sectional study was conducted on 300 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences students in 2021 as available sampling. The required information was collected using a researcher‐made questionnaire with a content validity ratio of 0.9, a content validity index of 0.9–0.8, and a reliability (α) of 0.79, which was presented online in the university systems. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 23 software, data description was done as frequency and percentage, and analytical analysis was done with the χ2 test. Results: The average age of the participants was 21.7 (4.2) years; 45.7% of the participants were male and 11.3% were married; 79.7% had less than 300 km of driving experience; 76% had less than 3 years since receiving their license; 14% stated that they drive faster than others; 18.3% reported a history of fines; and 28.3% reported an accident history. The most incorrect attitudes of students regarding low‐risk using mobile phones (86%), text sending (84.3%), eating and drinking while driving (74.6%), driving after consuming alcohol or drugs (73%), and driving when tired and sleepy (85.4%) were reported. Conclusion: Based on the results, it is suggested to plan to correct wrong attitudes, especially among young and educated drivers, through education and culture, so that we can move in the direction of reducing accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning from incidents, accidents and disasters contributes to improvement of safety and the prevention of unwanted events. In this review, literature on learning from safety incidents within organizations is studied and compared with the organizational learning theory of Argyris and Schön. Sub-processes, such as learning lessons, sharing, storing and applying lessons, are described, and factors that influence these processes are listed, such as trust, the severity of the consequences of an incident and the people involved in learning. In comparison with the theory of Argyris and Schön, aspects about the information to learn from, i.e., the incident and analysis, are much more specified in the safety literature. However, the organizational learning theory gives more details about the earlier mentioned sub-processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer product safety closely relates to consumer health. In this paper, a knowledge engineering framework is proposed for data mining to identify key safety factors from a large number of consumer product safety cases. Data mining in the framework is performed in three steps. The first step is to collect consumer product safety cases, a case can be semistructured or unstructured, and cases can be collected either manually or automatically by a web spider crawling certain websites. The second step is to extract all safety factors from a number of consumer product safety cases. A new method based on linear chain conditional random field is developed to extract safety factors. The effectiveness of the method has been validated on product cases. The third step is to identify a set of key factors from all safety factors by knowledge reasoning. To illustrate the process of knowledge reasoning, a set of 3192 safety cases of electric products with electric shock accidents is chosen as the case study; a Bayesian network based model is developed to retrieve key safety factors relating to electric shock accidents. The performance of the reasoning model has been verified by a combination of experts' evaluation and experiments, and it has shown the proposed reasoning model can help identify key safety factors of electric shock accidents successfully. Overall, the proposed framework is capable of identifying key safety factors from a large number of consumer product safety cases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident shows that an extreme natural disaster can prevent the proper restoration of electric power for several days, so-called extended SBO. In Korea, the government and industry performed comprehensive special safety inspections on all domestic nuclear power plants against beyond design bases external events. One of the safety improvement action items related to the extended SBO is installation of external water injection provision and equipment to RCS and SG. In this paper, the extended SBO coping capability of APR1400 is examined using MAAP4 to assess the effectiveness of the external water injection strategy. Results show that an external injection into SG is applicable to mitigate an extended SBO scenario. However, an external injection into RCS is only effective when RCS depressurization capacity is sufficiently provided in case of high pressure scenarios. Based on the above results, the technical basis of external injection strategy will be reflected on development of revised severe accident management guideline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages in an interdisciplinary survey of the current state of knowledge related to the theory, determinants and consequences of occupational safety and health (OSH). It first describes the fundamental theoretical construct of compensating wage differentials, which is used by economists to understand the optimal provision of OSH in a perfectly competitive labour market. The plethora of incentives faced by workers and firms in job and insurance markets that determine the ultimate level of OSH are discussed in detail. The extensive empirical evidence from the hedonic wage and stated choice approaches used to assess the value of OSH is reviewed. The causes of inefficiency and inequity in the market for OSH, such as externalities, moral hazard in compensation insurance, systematic biases in individual risk perception/well-being and labour market segregation are subsequently examined. The implications of government intervention and regulation for tackling the aforementioned inefficiencies in OSH are then considered. Finally, the survey identifies areas of future research interests and suggests indicators and priorities for policy initiatives that can improve the health and safety of workers in modern job markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Please cite this paper as: Vivian-Taylor J, Roberts C, Chen J, Ford J. Motor vehicle accidents during pregnancy: a population-based study. BJOG 2012;119:499-503. This population-based cohort study of more than 600 000 Australian women describes the incidence of motor vehicle accidents (MVA) during pregnancy and the immediate and subsequent pregnancy outcomes. In this study, 3.5 women per 1000 maternities were admitted to hospital following an MVA. Immediate delivery was uncommon: 0.4% at <20 weeks of gestation and 3.5% at ≥20 weeks of gestation. Outcomes for those giving birth immediately were poor, with increased risk of antepartum haemorrhage, preterm birth, caesarean section and perinatal death. In contrast, women who remained undelivered following an MVA (96%) had similar pregnancy outcomes to women not involved in MVAs, and can be reassured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aims To re-examine various aspects of the benzodiazepines (BZDs), widely prescribed for 50 years, mainly to treat anxiety and insomnia. It is a descriptive review based on the Okey Lecture delivered at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, in November 2010. Methods A search of the literature was carried out in the Medline, Embase and Cochrane Collaboration databases, using the codeword 'benzodiazepine(s)', alone and in conjunction with various terms such as 'dependence', 'abuse', etc. Further hand-searches were made based on the reference lists of key papers. As 60 000 references were found, this review is not exhaustive. It concentrates on the adverse effects, dependence and abuse. Results Almost from their introduction the BZDs have been controversial, with polarized opinions, advocates pointing out their efficacy, tolerability and patient acceptability, opponents deprecating their adverse effects, dependence and abuse liability. More recently, the advent of alternative and usually safer medications has opened up the debate. The review noted a series of adverse effects that continued to cause concern, such as cognitive and psychomotor impairment. In addition, dependence and abuse remain as serious problems. Despite warnings and guidelines, usage of these drugs remains at a high level. The limitations in their use both as choice of therapy and with respect to conservative dosage and duration of use are highlighted. The distinction between low-dose 'iatrogenic' dependence and high-dose abuse/misuse is emphasized. Conclusions The practical problems with the benzodiazepines have persisted for 50 years, but have been ignored by many practitioners and almost all official bodies. The risk-benefit ratio of the benzodiazepines remains positive in most patients in the short term (2-4 weeks) but is unestablished beyond that time, due mainly to the difficulty in preventing short-term use from extending indefinitely with the risk of dependence. Other research issues include the possibility of long-term brain changes and evaluating the role of the benzodiazepine antagonist, flumazenil, in aiding withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues. Road crashes contribute significantly to the total burden of injury in Australia, with the risk of injury being associated with the presence of drugs and/or alcohol in the driver's blood. Increasingly, some of the most commonly detected drugs include prescription medicines, the most notable of these being benzodiazepines and opioids. However, there is a paucity of experimental research into the effects of prescribed psychoactive drugs on driving behaviours. Approach. This paper provides an overview of experimental studies investigating the effects of prescribed doses of benzodiazepines and opioids on driving ability, and points to future directions for research. Key Findings. There is growing epidemiological evidence linking the therapeutic use of benzodiazepines and opioids to an increased crash risk. However, the current experimental literature remains unclear. Limitations to study methodologies have resulted in inconsistent findings. Implications. Limited experimental evidence exists to inform policy and guidelines regarding fitness-to-drive for patients taking prescribed benzodiazepines and opioids. Conclusion. Further experimental research is required to elucidate the effects of these medications on driving, under varying conditions and in different medical contexts. This will ensure that doctors prescribing benzodiazepines and opioids are well informed, and can appropriately advise patients of the risks associated with driving whilst taking these medications. [Leung SY. Benzodiazepines, opioids and driving: An overview of the experimental research. Drug Alcohol Rev 2011;30:281-286] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing alcohol-related harm in young people is a major priority across Europe. Much alcohol use and associated harm in young people occurs in public drinking environments. This review aims to identity environmental factors in drinking establishements that are associated with increased alcohol consumption and associated harm and to understand the extent of study in this area across Europe. A systematic literature search identified studies that had explored associations between physical, staffing and social factors in drinking environments and increased alcohol use or alcohol-related harm. Fifty-three papers were identified, covering 34 studies implemented in nine countries. Most studies had been implemented in non-European countries and many had collected data more than a decade prior to the review. The majority had used observational research techniques. Throughout the studies, a wide range of physical, staffing and social factors had been associated with higher levels of alcohol use and related harm in drinking environments. Factors that appeared particularly important in contributing to alcohol-related problems included a permissive environment, cheap alcohol availability, poor cleanliness, crowding, loud music, a focus on dancing and poor staff practice. However, findings were not always consistent across studies. Drinking establishments, their management and the behaviours of the young people who use them vary widely across Europe. While international research shows that environmental factors in drinking settings can have an important influence on alcohol-related harm, there is currently a scarcity of knowledge on the relevance and impacts of such factors in modern European settings. Developing this knowledge will support the implementation of strategies to create drinking environments in Europe that are less conducive to risky drinking and alcohol-related harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: This paper argues that associations between rates of 3 specific problems related to alcohol (i.e., accidents, traffic crashes, and assaults) should be differentially related to densities of alcohol outlets among underage youth and young adults based upon age-related patterns of alcohol outlet use. Methods: Zip code-level population models assessed local and distal effects of alcohol outlets upon rates of hospital discharges for these outcomes. Results: Densities of off-premise alcohol outlets were significantly related to injuries from accidents, assaults, and traffic crashes for both underage youth and young adults. Densities of bars were associated with more assaults and densities of restaurants were associated with more traffic crash injuries for young adults. Conclusions: The distribution of alcohol-related injuries relative to alcohol outlets reflect patterns of alcohol outlet use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the analysis results of three PACTEL experiments, carried out with the advanced thermal-hydraulic system computer CATHARE 2 code as a part of the second work package WP2 (analytical work) of the EC project "Improved Accident Management of VVER nuclear power plants" (IMPAM-VVER). The three LOCA experiments, conducted on the Finnish test facility PACTEL (VVER-440 model), represent 7.4% cold leg breaks with combination of secondary bleed and primary bleed and feed and different actuation modes of the passive safety injection. The code was used for both defining and analyzing the experiments, and to assess its capabilities in predicting the associated complex VVER-related phenomena. The code results are in reasonable agreement with the measurements, and the important physical phenomena are well predicted, although still further improvement and validation might be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the earnings losses following a workplace injury, accounting for injured workers who did not apply for workers’ compensation and a comparison group of uninjured workers. Selection of the injured group and the comparison group is important. Excluding those who do not apply for benefits overstates the earnings losses, while using less severely injured workers as a comparison group underestimates the earnings losses. Additionally, differentiating whether the injury resulted in a work-limiting disability highlights that it is not the injury event, but rather the subsequent disabilities that drive the earnings losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine oil spills can cause major social, economic, and ecological disruptions. Spill response managers must weigh different options and objectives when deciding what to do. We investigated the ways in which preferences for spill response objectives vary among those who are responsible for oil spill contingency planning and response in Buzzards Bay, Delaware Bay, San Francisco Bay, and Washington State regions. We begin this paper with a discussion of the research method used in the study: the Q method. In Buzzards Bay, Delaware Bay, and San Francisco Bay three perspectives were identified in each case. In Washington State, two perspectives were identified. An analysis of the 11 case-specific perspectives reveals that they can be described by four ‘composite’ perspectives that describe how different stakeholders prioritize spill response objectives. These four perspectives are compared on several themes, including the emphasis they placed on mitigating economic impacts, protecting health and safety, mitigating ecological impacts, implementing a coordinated and timely response, addressing the needs and concerns of the affected public/communities, gaining public support for the response, mitigating cultural impacts, and mitigating social nuisance impacts. The implications for spill response planning and spill response evaluation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: An average of 6000 children (0-14-y-old) died every year from injuries in the European Union during the last decade. Although the trends are overall favorable, injuries continue to represent the leading cause of death in this age group. The aim of this paper is to present childhood-injury-related public health issues and consider possible remedies of contemporary epidemiologic methods as applied to injury epidemiology and prevention. It has been estimated that half of the lives lost to childhood injuries could have been saved if all European Union countries matched the accomplishments of the country with the lowest mortality rate in each injury category. There is no specific pattern of association between Gross Domestic Product and incidence of motor-vehicle accidents by category of road user, whereas fatality from motor-vehicle accidents seems to be inversely, strongly and significantly related to Gross Domestic Product., Conclusion: The ongoing development of large injury databases in the European Union is a prerequisite for understanding the complex interactions that lead to a childhood injury. Moreover, possible remedies for overcoming the genuine problems associated with the application of traditional epidemiologic methods to the investigation of the frequently transient in nature causes of injuries should be considered.

The paper assumes that damages in the form of deaths and traumatic injuries caused by alcohol-related road accidents constitute a significant part of the negative externalities associated with alcohol consumption. It then compares the conventional Pigouvian solution with the impact that a sufficiently high penalty on drunken driving and better law enforcement may have. It is hypothesised that these measures may cause heavy drinkers either to cut back on their consumption of alcohol on occasions when they have to drive a vehicle or to maintain their consumption levels but refrain from driving. The welfare losses are much lower for each of these scenarios and are also carried specifically by those responsible for the negative externality. An attempt is also made to consider how individuals may respond to higher penalties and/or a more effective law enforcement system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges faced in governing accidental industrial emissions. Accidental emissions are unexpected situations where harmful runaway emissions are released into the environment, causing damage to people, ecosystems, human property and company images. We claim that in Finland the practices of environmental authorities do not encourage companies to prevent accidental emissions in the most effective way. According to our study, based on action research and case study augmented with document analysis and interviews, authorities operate under three different kinds of frame: an environmental permit frame, a risk prevention frame and a major accident prevention frame. Accidental industrial emissions are, in our view, best governed under the risk prevention frame, where practices and management systems are addressed covering the entire complex socio-technical nature of an industrial process. However, environmental authorities, in Finland, focus on environmental permit frames, stressing limit values, hence concentrating on managing the industrial process component by component. This approach may be suitable for the governing of continuous emissions, but not that of accidental emissions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devastation caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka is represented as a ‘natural disaster’. Yet, the tsunami did not occur in a sociopolitical and historical vacuum. How people responded to the tsunami, the challenges of and attitudes to relocation and post-tsunami livelihoods, were/are shaped by uneven development, social exclusion and ethnonationalist war. All these responses are embedded in structures of gender, caste, class, and ethnicity. The tsunami, thus, brought to the forefront preexisting inequalities, showing up complexities in the temporality of disasters. Drawn from fieldwork in two coastal areas in the Southern and Eastern provinces, this paper shows how gendered structures within the local political economy influenced the ways that institutional actors as well as the displaced communities and women initially devised livelihood strategies. These reactions show how place matters as much as preexisting gendered political economy conditions and reveal the complex ways in which women continue to mediate and negotiate everyday responses in the aftermath of a ‘natural’ disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Title. Older people’s experience of falls: understanding, interpretation and autonomy Aim. This paper is a report of a study to explore the experiences of older people who suffered a recent fall and identify possible factors that could contribute to service development. Background. Falls in older people are prevalent and are associated with morbidity, hospitalization and mortality, personal costs to individuals and financial costs to health services. Method. A convenience sample of 27 older people (mean age 84 years; range 65–98) participated in semi-structured taped interviews. Follow-up interviews during 2003–2004 were undertaken to detect changes over time. Data were collected about experience of the fall, use of services, health and well-being, activities of daily living, informal care, support networks and prevention. Thematic content analysis was undertaken. Findings. Twenty-seven initial interviews and 18 follow-up interviews were conducted. The majority of people fell indoors ( n = 23) and were alone ( n = 15). The majority of falls were repeat falls ( n = 22) and five were a first-ever fall. People who reflected on their fall and sought to understand why and how it occurred developed strategies to prevent future falls, face their fear, maintain control and choice and continue with activities of daily living. Those who did not reflect on their fall and did not know why it occurred restricted their activities and environments and remained in fear of falling. Conclusion. Assisting people to reflect on their falls and to understand why they happened could help with preventing future falls, allay fear, boost confidence and aid rehabilitation relating to their activities of daily living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse events such as disasters are interpreted through a system of meaning provided by culture. Historically, research into society's response to disasters provides numerous examples of community resilience in face of adversity. However, since the 1980s, numerous researchers have challenged the previous optimistic accounts and argue that such incidents result in long-term damage to the community. It is claimed that community response to a disaster episode is far more likely to be defined by its vulnerability than its resilience. This new vulnerability paradigm of disaster response is underpinned by the belief that contemporary technologically driven disasters have a peculiarly destructive outcome. This paper explores the changing conceptualisation of adversity. It suggests that the shift from the expectation of resilience to that of vulnerability is best understood as an outcome of a changing cultural conceptualisation of adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Austroads Guidelines for fitness to drive were promulgated in 2003. Epilepsy was one of the conditions included and this paper reports results of a survey of Australian neurologists regarding opinions and practices relevant to the guidelines. Methods: The survey was developed, piloted and Human Research Ethics Committee approved. Members of the Australian Association of Neurologists received three mailings and results were analysed. Results: Almost 70% of 236 surveyed indicated assessment of epilepsy and driving with <9% not doing so – establishing ∼77% response for eligible neurologists. Most questions achieved 90% response. Almost 90% respondents assessed epilepsy and 70% found the guidelines helpful. Seventy-seven per cent endorsed doctor assessors although half discounted General Practitioners as insufficiently knowledgeable and half advocated that only neurologists evaluate potential drivers with epilepsy. Most respondents supported reporting recalcitrant patients; yet only <30% did so. Three-quarters favoured licences carrying a warning to self-report and two-thirds felt that product information should identify driving implications. Although many questions attracted expected responses, the surprise was the large undecided numbers, which were greater than expected. Neurologists were more lenient than prescribed by the guidelines with neither consensus for controlled epilepsy nor mandatory driving restrictions. Conclusion: Respondents supplied predictable answers regarding ideal circumstances; yet most did not report recalcitrant patients. Most claimed to adhere to the guidelines and yet advocated more lenient driving restrictions that may allow preventable accidents. There was agreement between neurologists and guidelines for more rigourous restrictions for commercial drivers although again neurologists were more lenient. There is need for prospective research on epilepsy and driving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]