Predicting cognitive fitness to drive with touchscreen DriveSafe DriveAware

Driving is a highly valued daily living activity easily disrupted by illness, injury, or age-related changes. General practitioners (GPs) are ultimately responsible for determining medical fitness to drive but lack valid and reliable tools. The desktop (original) version of DriveSafe DriveAware (DSDA) is a promising, valid and reliable test but it is not practical for medical practice. The concern of this thesis was the conversion of original DSDA into a touchscreen test of cognitive fitness to drive for GPs and occupational therapists to use in predicting patient driving performance without on-road testing. Because we were transitioning from a test administered and scored by a trained assessor to one where patient touch responses were scored in-app, we needed to develop an automatic data collection and scoring system that reflected the decision that would otherwise have been made by an expert-rater. We tested usability of the system with older adults then examined set scoring parameters to determine if these discriminated at-risk from comparison drivers. Results indicated the system we designed reflected the decisions that would have been made by a trained assessor. Next, we conducted a study to examine the internal validity, reliability, and predictive validity of data gathered with touchscreen DSDA. The criterion measure was outcome of a standardised occupational therapy on-road assessment. Rasch analysis provided evidence that touchscreen DSDA had retained the strong psychometric properties of original DSDA. However, results of a discontinued feasibility study indicated potential barriers to uptake of the test by physicians. Touchscreen DSDA may rather be a tool for occupational therapists to use in driver screening and addressing the community mobility need of their clients. Research indicates no there is no one best tool for screening fitness to drive. However, the thesis findings indicate touchscreen DSDA is one useful tool

Regeneration of fungiform taste buds: Temporal and spatial characteristics

The gross morphology of the tongue of the Mongolian gerbil ( Meriones unguicultatus ), the location of papillae and taste buds, and the normal innervation pattern of the tongue asnd taste buds were determined. The chorda tympani nerve was interrupted to produce degeneration of fungiform taste buds. Regenerating chorda tympani axons followed the original nerve pathways in the tongue en route to the furniform papillae in the epithelium where they initiated the regeneration of taste buds. The spastial distribution of reinnervated fungiform papillae and reformed taste buds was examined 7 to 19 days following surgery. Beginning at eight days following chorda tympani interruption there was a progressive increase, first, in the proportion of fungiform papillae that were reinnervated, and later in the number of reformed taste buds. On the basis of these measures it was concluded that a taste bud is reformed one to two days after reinnervation of its papilla. From the time course of reinnervation of the fungiform papillae it was calculated thast some fibers regenerated at rates in excess of 2mm/day. Regeneration was precise and systematic. The regenerating chorda tympani fibers accurately returned to the fungiform papillae; they did not follow the pasthways of lingual nerve axons. In the initial stages of recovery both reinnervated papillae and reformed taste buds weere preferentially located toward the front of the tongue; the reinnervation of posterior fungiform papillae was delayed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49997/1/901720405_ftp.pd

Supplementary report to the final report of the coral reef expert group: S3. Synopsis of current coral reef monitoring on the Great Barrier Reef

[Extract] The intent of the future Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program (RIMReP) is not to duplicate existing arrangements but to coordinate and integrate existing monitoring, modelling and reporting programs. This report presents the results of a desktop review of 15 current coral reef monitoring programs on the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) to guide the recommendations for the design of the RIMReP coral reef monitoring. The review had three main objectives: • Collate detailed information about the spatio-temporal design, methods, data quality and reporting processes of existing programs; • Identify which of the candidate indicators, as identified by the RIMReP Coral Reef Expert Group, are covered in existing programs; • Discuss potential limitations of the current programs.An accessible copy of this report is not yet available from this repository, please contact [email protected] for more information

Morphometric and immunocytochemical assessment of fungiform taste buds after interruption of the chorda-lingual nerve

Unilateral interruption of the chorda-lingual nerve led to a loss of most epithelial axons and to the deterioration of fungiform taste buds in the anterior portion of the tongue of albino rats, mongolian gerbils, and golden hamsters. By three weeks after surgery the following percentages of fungiform taste buds had completely disappeared: 71% in gerbils, 28% in rats, and 26% in hamsters. Residual taste buds were classified into two groups: atrophic taste buds and taste bud remnants. Atrophic taste buds were smaller than normal and typically had no visible taste pore, although they retained the characteristic oval shape of a taste bud and numerous elongated cells. Taste bud remnants were non-oval fragments of taste buds with few elongated cells. Specific markers for elongated taste cells (monoclonal antibodies to keratin 19) confirmed that atrophic taste buds, as well as some taste bud remnants, had elongated taste cells. By 180 days after chorda-lingual nerve transection, 44% of rat fungiform taste buds had disappeared; morphometric analysis of the 311 residual taste buds established that 241 atrophic taste buds and 69 taste bud remnants were, respectively, 50% and 75% smaller than the average volume of 480 normal taste buds. The aggregate loss of gustatory tissue, calculated from the shrinkage of residual taste buds and the volume lost by the outright disappearance of many taste buds, was 88% for gerbils, 72% for rats, and 65% for hamsters. Evaluation in gerbils of the co-occurrence of taste buds and axons suggests residual taste buds were neurotrophically supported. Every gerbil fungiform papilla that lacked axons lacked a taste bud. Every fungiform papillae that had a residual taste bud had axons; axons were absent from 22% of empty fungiform papillae. Diminished numbers of gustatory neurotrophic axons could account for both the loss of fungiform taste buds and the reduced volume of residual taste buds. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50421/1/1070260302_ftp.pd

Investigating the chromatic contribution to recognition of facial expression

A pedestrian may judge the intentions of another person by their facial expression amongst other cues and aiding such evaluation after dark is one aim of road lighting. Previous studies give mixed conclusions as to whether lamp spectrum affects the ability to make such judgements. An experiment was carried out using conditions better resembling those of pedestrian behaviour, using as targets photographs of actors portraying facial expressions corresponding to the six universally recognised emotions. Responses were sought using a forced-choice procedure, under two types of lamp and with colour and grey scale photographs. Neither lamp type nor image colour was suggested to have a significant effect on the frequency with which the emotion conveyed by facial expression was correctly identified

Something went missing : cessation of traditional owner land management and rapid mammalian population collapses in the semi-arid region of the murray‒darling basin, southeastern Australia

The nineteenth century mass mammal extinctions in the semi-arid zone of the Murray‒Darling basin, southeastern Australia, are examined in the context of prior traditional land management. A model of grassland dynamics reveals a multi-trophic level productive pulse one to five years post-fire, followed by senescence and increasing flammability. Traditional Owner patch burning of grassland optimized human and mammalian food (including tubers, seeds and fungi) and decreased fire risk. Over at least 40 000 years, the persistence and abundance of fauna responded to this energetically closed self-reinforcing management. In 1830, depopulation (disease, massacres and displacement) effectively ended traditional management, an ecologically traumatic event that extinguished these productivity pulses. Associated mammal populations of c. 20 species collapsed, and all eco-engineering and mycophagous species, such as bilbies, bettongs and bandicoots, rapidly disappeared. Traditional land management increased productivity, habitat heterogeneity and reduced wildfire risk, underpinning mammal abundance. This has remained unrecognized by most mammalogists and land managers. Blaming extinctions predominantly on the additions by Europeans (introduction of ungulates, feral grazers and predators etc.), disastrous as they were, fails to acknowledge the initial cause of rarity, i.e. loss of productivity, habitat and niches when traditional management was subtracted from country. As ecosystems continue to degrade, understanding the primary cause is fundamental to improved management. Although too late for extinct species, respect for, and inclusion of, traditional land management knowledge provides a direction for future land management. © 2022 Royal Society of Victoria. All rights reserved