Will privacy barriers limit the uptake of intelligent transport systems?

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have the potential to increase road-network capacities, reduce congestion and pollution, create shorter and more predictable journey times and significantly improve road-user safety. However, these technologies will also have the ability to track a citizen’s every move, extracting information about their daily lives. This data could range from information about the user’s driving style, to exactly where their vehicle was at any given time in its lifetime, right down to the radio station the driver listens to. It has been argued that privacy invasions caused by ITS will have a damaging effect on society, creating a ‘Big Brother’ or panopticon state.For these fears to be fulfilled, it needs to be the case that future users are not only concerned about the privacy impacts of ITS, but that the ITS will actually cause users to change their travel behaviour. This research examines the results of both a survey of 993 people across four culturally diverse European countries (the UK, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands). The survey primarily seeks to interrogate the factors influencing a future ITS user’s privacy concerns, their stated behavioural intention and their actual privacy behaviour.The results of this research show that privacy concerns could play a significant role in limiting the voluntary uptake rate of the technology. While this may not be critical to the success of all future ITS, future ITS which require high penetration rates to be successful will definitely need to consider the privacy aspects of their system. This research also indicates that when a future ITS user is required to decide whether to disclose their personal information, they will be influenced significantlymore by their demographics and the potential risks associated with disclosing the information than the rewards that are on offer. This means that ITS developers should attempt to use less sensitive data where possible, consider using a more trusted organisation to collect and store the required information and also consider the user’s perception on how secure a transfer method is

The Misplaced Burden: Art Education as Social Healer

Social transformation is one of the potential benefits of art education, but not its sole responsibility. Why, then, in an effort to ensure adequate funding, are many art educators forced to emphasize this aspect of art education above its intrinsic power to help shape individuals? An art educator examines the historical roots of the imbalance between current educational policy and the practice of public art education

Pompeii Live: Performing Objects

On 18 June 2013, Pompeii Live brought the Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition from the British Museum into over 300 cinemas around the UK and Ireland. This paper draws on empirical research of Pompeii Live and audience experiences of the event, in order to consider: How were the objects featured in Pompeii Live encountered by the audience? What were the factors that shaped meaning and value attributed to them? What role was played by the ‘live’ in Pompeii Live? As access to museum collections is of growing concern, along with accountability to audiences, museums are likely to continue to trial innovative ways of distributing collections. These new ways of sharing collections and knowledge, through ever changing digital media, further speak to wider questions of what a museum is and what a museum does, challenging traditional notions of access, curation, and interpretation

Health and safety of the older worker

This is the author's pre-copyedited accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 The Authors.Background - In the UK, increasing numbers of paid employees are over 60 years with further increases expected as the state pension age rises. Some concern surrounds possible increased work-related illness and accidents for people working beyond the age of 60. Aims - To identify the available evidence for health and safety risks of workers over age 60 years with respect to factors associated with injuries and accidents. Methods - Databases searched included PUBMED, OSHUpdate, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSHTIC-2), SafetyLit, the UK The Health and Safety Executive (HSELINE) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety until December 2009. Inclusion criteria were workers aged over 60 years. Findings were grouped into occupational accidents and injuries and individual and workplace factors that may have influenced risk of injury to the over-60s. Results - Very little direct evidence was found concerning safety practices and health risks of workers over age 60. Some safety risks were associated with specific physical declines such as age-related hearing loss. Overall, these workers had fewer accidents and injuries but these were more likely to be serious or fatal when they occurred. There was no strong evidence that work patterns, including shift work or overtime, affected safety. Protective, compensatory strategies or experience may maintain safe working practices. Conclusions - Implications for health and safety risks cannot be assessed without longitudinal research on workforces with substantial numbers of workers over age 60 in order to address the healthy worker effect.Institution of Occupational Health and Safet

From lidar to LSCM: micro-topographies of archaeological finds

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS), or lidar, is an enormously important innovation for data collection and interpretation in archaeology. The application of archaeological 3D data deriving from sources including ALS, close-range photogrammetry and terrestrial and photogrammetric scanners has grown exponentially over the last decade. Such data present numerous possibilities and challenges, from ensuring that applications remain archaeologically relevant, to developing practices that integrate the manipulation and interrogation of complex digital datasets with the skills of archaeological observation and interpretation. This volume addresses the implications of multi-scaled topographic data for contemporary archaeological practice in a rapidly developing field, drawing on examples of ongoing projects and reflections on best practice.Twenty papers from across Europe explore the implications of these digital 3D datasets for the recording and interpretation of archaeological topography, whether at the landscape, site or artefact scale. The papers illustrate the variety of ways in which we engage with archaeological topography through 3D data, from discussions of its role in landscape archaeology, to issues of context and integration, and to the methodological challenges of processing, visualisation and manipulation. Critical reflection on developing practice and implications for cultural resource management and research contextualize the case studies and applications, illustrating the diverse and evolving roles played by multi-scalar topographic data in contemporary archaeology

American Geriatrics Society and National Institute on Aging Bench-to-Bedside conference: sensory impairment and cognitive decline in older adults

This article summarizes the presentations and recommendations of the tenth annual American Geriatrics Society and National Institute on Aging Bench‐to‐Bedside research conference, “Sensory Impairment and Cognitive Decline,” on October 2–3, 2017, in Bethesda, Maryland. The risk of impairment in hearing, vision, and other senses increases with age, and almost 15% of individuals aged 70 and older have dementia. As the number of older adults increases, sensory and cognitive impairments will affect a growing proportion of the population. To limit its scope, this conference focused on sensory impairments affecting vision and hearing. Comorbid vision, hearing, and cognitive impairments in older adults are more common than would be expected by chance alone, suggesting that some common mechanisms might affect these neurological systems. This workshop explored the mechanisms and consequences of comorbid vision, hearing, and cognitive impairment in older adults; effects of sensory loss on the aging brain; and bench‐to‐bedside innovations and research opportunities. Presenters and participants identified many research gaps and questions; the top priorities fell into 3 themes: mechanisms, measurement, and interventions. The workshop delineated specific research questions that provide opportunities to improve outcomes in this growing population.Funding was provided by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant U13 AG054139-01. Dr. Whitson's efforts and contributions were supported by R01AG043438, R24AG045050, UH2AG056925, and 5P30AG028716. Dr. Lin's effort and contributions were also supported by R01AG055426, R01HL096812, and R33DC015062. (U13 AG054139-01 - National Institutes of Health (NIH); R01AG043438; R24AG045050; UH2AG056925; 5P30AG028716; R01AG055426; R01HL096812; R33DC015062)Accepted manuscrip

School leaders reflections on their school's engagement in a program to foster health literacy development

Many health attitudes and behaviors formed during childhood are sustained through to adulthood, thereforechildhood is a critical time to develop health literacy. Primary schools provide an ideal environment to equipchildren with lifelong health skills, understanding and knowledge. Through semi-structured interviews, this studygathered primary school leaders’ reflections on the implementation of a program (HealthLit4Kids) designed tofoster health literacy development in their schools. The aim of this study was to determine how school leadersexperienced the HealthLit4Kids intervention. The results showed that leaders perceived the program had a positive effect on health literacy knowledge and understanding within the school community, as well as improvedhealth behaviors. School leaders’ statements indicated that key barriers such as parental engagement and anovercrowded curriculum would need to be navigated to ensure successful program sustainability

How does the pitch and pattern of a signal affect auditory arousal thresholds?

How arousal thresholds vary with different sounds is a critical issue for emergency awakenings, especially as sleepers are dying in fires despite having a working smoke alarm. Previous research shows that the current high pitched (3000+ Hz) smoke alarm signal is significantly less effective than an alternative signal, the 520 Hz square wave, in all populations tested. However, as the number of sounds tested has been small further research is needed. Here we measured auditory arousal thresholds (AATs) across signals with a range of characteristics to determine the most effective waking signal. Thirty nine young adults participated over three nights. In Part A, nine signals were presented in stage 4 sleep with ascending decibel levels. Signals were short beeps in the low to mid frequency range with different spectral complexities: square waves, pure tones, whoops and white noise. Part B manipulated temporal patterns, inserting silences of 0, 10 and 21 seconds after each 12 seconds of beeps. It was found that the low frequency (400 and 520 Hz) square waves yielded significantly lower AATs than the alternatives. A trend was found across the three temporal manipulations, with a 10 second intervening silence showing some advantage. These findings support earlier research indicating that the best sound for awakening from deep sleep is a low frequency square wave. It is argued that the signal with the lowest response threshold when awake may be the same as the most arousing signal when asleep, especially where the sleeper processes the signal as meaningful

Comparison of trends in butterfly populations between monitoring schemes

Butterflies are an important indicator of the impacts of environmental change. Butterfly monitoring schemes (BMS) have provided national and Europe-wide trends in their abundance and been widely used for research. Most schemes sample sites that are self-selected by contributors and therefore tend to cover locations that are rich in butterflies. To provide a more representative assessment of butterfly populations, the wider countryside butterfly survey (WCBS) was developed with a stratified-random sample of survey sites across the UK. We compare butterfly trends from the WCBS locations against those measured from traditional butterfly transects which are typically located in areas of good quality semi-natural habitats. Across the 26 species analysed, there was a significant positive relationship between trends measured from the two schemes between 2009 and 2013, the period when both schemes were operating fully. There was a tendency (17 out of 26 species analysed) for these changes to be greater within WCBS compared to traditional BMS transects, although this effect was not consistent across comparisons between pairs of consecutive years. When assessing these individual year-to-year changes, there was however a significant correlation between the two schemes in all cases. Over relatively short time periods, weather patterns are likely to dominate butterfly population fluctuations and lead to comparable trends across monitoring schemes. Over longer time periods, differences in land management may affect habitat condition differently for protected areas versus the wider countryside and it is therefore important to maintain comprehensive butterfly monitoring programmes to detect and interpret such effects