Search

Spatial orientation defines our natural ability to maintain our body orientation and/or posture in relation to the surrounding environment (physical space) at rest and during motion. Humans are genetically designed to maintain spatial orientation on ground but it is difficult to achieve in flight. Because of this, normal flight may be impacted by vehicle movement and external forces (hazard or disturbance), causing poor situational awareness (distraction), spatial disorientation (SD), and mode confusion, resulting in abnormal attitudes, abnormal trajectory, and loss of aircraft control, for example, a stall. Sense of balance or equilibrioception is one of the physiological senses related to balance and for spatial orientation. Navigating by sensory input alone during flight can be misleading: sensory input does not always accurately reflect the movement of the aircraft, causing sensory illusions. These sensory illusions include: the leans, the graveyard spin and spiral, and the Coriolis illusion. Recent studies in the issue of SD in terms of its prevalence and contribution to accidents show that SD accounts for some six percent to 32% of major accidents, and some 15% to 69% of fatal accidents. To detect spatial disorientation, we use a non-invasive brainwave monitoring helmet to create a hybrid map of data points of EEG and deep brain/3D brain mapping which will be used as a trigger to detect a possible disorientation in the pilot. The input from the pilot will be analyzed with predictive algorithms to predict when the pilot may experience disorientation. We have utilized a similar approach to develop a pilot in loop system to detect, identify, and mitigate spatial disorientation in pilots. Additional sensors and microprocessors can be used to not only detect spatial disorientation but also to monitor pilot health and fitness, improve performance and operational readiness, and develop fail-safes.

African American men’s health has at times been regarded as irrelevant to the health and well-being of the communities where they are born, grow, live, work, and age. The uniqueness of being male and of African descent calls for a critical examination and deeper understanding of the psycho-socio-historical context in which African American men have lived. There is a critical need for scholarship that better contextualizes African American Male Theory and cultural humility in terms of public health. Furthermore, the focus of much of the social determinants of health and health equity policy literature has been on advocacy, but few researchers have examined why health-related public policies have not been adopted and implemented from a political and theoretical policy analysis perspective. The purpose of this article will be to examine African American men’s health within the context of social determinants of health status, health behavior, and health inequalities—elucidating policy implications for system change and providing recommendations from the vantage point of health equity.

Background Nearly half of all children in foster care in the state of Illinois are removed from parents with serious substance abuse problems (Ryan and Huang, 2012). Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), provides health and human services to underserved populations who need treatment for alcohol, drug, and mental health problems and advocates through use of Recovery Coaches for this population in courts, jails, prisons, and child welfare systems. Methods We have developed an eight week training program on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction practices, adapted for Recovery Coaches, who work with substance involved parents seeking to regain custody of their children. The training program will develop stress reduction techniques designed to reduce compassion fatigue, burnout, and also techniques designed to enhance interpersonal awareness among Recovery Coaches to enhance the working alliance and improve client outcomes. Results Presently, the Recovery Coach program have serviced over 4,000 substance abusing parents with trying to regain custody with over 5,000 children. The study includes surveys with 21 Recovery Coaches (11 cases and 10 controls); and 300 clients (10 clients per coach). Analyses have determined the change in baseline and three month post intervention measures of mindfulness, compassion fatigue, burnout and secondary trauma among Recovery Coaches trained in MBSR compared to Recovery Coaches who did not receive the intervention. Thirty-eight percent of the clients completed treatment during this reporting period, 26% are in treatment, 22% are currently not in treatment, and 14% failed treatment or were non-compliant. Conclusions This study contributes to the development of the Recovery Coach Model by examining intricacies of the client-worker engagement process that facilitates positive coach/client outcomes with the goal of preventing self harm activities and domestic violence among families dealing with substance use.

With more than a million youth living on agricultural operations, it is important for parents to understand the consequences of bystander injuries that children experience in these environments. We identified the childhood injuries for bystander status and compared the severity of these injuries to the working children in the Regional Rural Injury Study-II (RRIS-II).RRIS-II followed 16,546 children ( approximately 85% of eligible) from rural communities in the Midwest for two six-month recall periods in 1999 and 2001. Demographic, injury, and exposure data were collected through comprehensive computer-assisted telephone interviews. Child injuries were cataloged using narrative scenarios into four categories: (a) directly work-related; (b) indirectly work-related; (c) non-working accomplice; and (d) non-working attendant; the latter three all being bystander categories. Poisson regression modeling was used to calculate rates of bystander injuries. Frequencies were used for comparison of severity measures.Among the 463 child injuries (aged20yrs), 102 were bystander injuries. Of the bystander-related injuries, 14 were identified as indirectly work-related (working bystanders), 27 as non-working accomplice (passengers/tag-alongs), and 60 as non-working attendant (playing on the operation). The overall rate of bystander injuries was 6.4 per 1,000 people, 95% CI (5.0, 8.1). Males, compared with females, had more than twice the injury rate (8.7; 95% CI 6.4-11.8, and 3.9; 95% CI 2.7-5.7, per 1,000 people, respectively). Bystanders in this population had more severe injuries with 4% having life-threatening circumstances; of these, 4% of the accomplices and 2% of the attendants subsequently died.Children who live or work on agricultural operations are vulnerable to many hazards. Therefore, this study examined child injuries and found a clear difference in the consequences of these injuries between working-related and bystanding-related injuries.Unlike occupations such as construction and mining, where laws and organizations have been created for the protection of bystanders, agricultural bystanders have remained unprotected and have had to face the consequent injury and death outcomes. As public health professionals considering these risks, it is necessary that we work to develop more intervention studies and continue to propose suggestive guidelines for child safety in these environments so as to challenge family traditions and possibly spark public policies that will give further protection to this population.

Agriculture is considered among the most dangerous occupations and has consistently ranked among the top three. Production processes, associated with this occupation, place at risk not only workers but also others who live on the operations. We evaluated the incidence and determinants of associated bystander injuries in the Regional Rural Injury Study-II (RRIS-II).The RRIS-II followed 32,601 people ( approximately 85% of eligible) from rural communities in the Midwest for 1999 and 2001, using six-month recall periods, and identified their injury events. Demographic, injury, and exposure data were collected through comprehensive and case-control computer-assisted telephone interviews. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the risk of child bystanding and agricultural injury, while controlling for potentially confounding variables.Nearly 60% of all 425-child injury cases (20 years) responded to sometimes/frequently bystanding in six out of seven different agricultural environments (e.g., workshops, animal areas, etc.) Multivariate regression analyses, with odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals, showed increased odds of injury for bystanding near used (1.5; 1.1, 1.9) or stored (1.4; 1.1, 1.8) machinery, and near fields and barnyards (1.4; 1.0, 1.9). Further, multivariate analyses revealed increased odds of bystanding for parental beliefs, such as: child age (1.4; 1.0, 2.0) near stored equipment. Parental levels of strictness were also evaluated and showed decreased odds of bystanding when the parents were not strict about the child's wearing a seatbelt near used equipment (0.5; 0.3, 1.0). Households with only one child had decreased odds of bystanding for five of the exposures while there was an increased odds of bystanding near animals for households with five or more children.Although parents cannot child-proof their operations, it is important for them to understand the apparent odds of and risks associated with bystanding. Children can have injury odds similar to adults in this environment; therefore, it is necessary to examine parental factors that may be associated with children's likelihood of bystanding in high-risk work environments.