The Biomechanics of Gender Difference and Whiplash Injury: Designing Safer Car Seats for Women

Female car users are reported to have a higher incidence of soft tissue neck injuries in low speed rear-end collisions than males, and they apparently take longer to recover. This paper addresses the whiplash problem by developing a biomechanical FEM (Finite Element Method) model of the 50th and the 5th percentile female cervical spines, based on the earlier published male model created at the Nottingham Trent University. This model relies on grafting a detailed biomechanical model of the neck and head onto a standard HYBRID III dummy model. The overall philosophy of the investigation was to see if females responded essentially as scaled down males from the perspective of rear end collisions. It was found that detailed responses varied significantly with gender and it became clear that females cannot be modelled as scaled-down males, thus confirming the need for separate male and female biomechanical models and a revision of car test programmes and regulations which are currently based on the average male. Further investigation is needed to quantify the gender differences and then recommendations can be made for changes to the design of car seats and head restraints in order to reduce the risk of soft tissue injury to women

Exploring individual perceptions of school competence

poster abstractThe project explores school competence and endeavors to define and assess ways of measuring persons’ abilities to successfully complete school-related tasks. The current study also examines factors in the realm of the school-to-prison pipeline. Current research is necessary to further explore individual perceptions of school competence. A school competency instrument was developed and is being pilot tested. The instrument assesses the influence of teachers, parents, peers, and students’ perceptions on their level school competence

Apparent horizons in simplicial Brill wave initial data

We construct initial data for a particular class of Brill wave metrics using Regge calculus, and compare the results to a corresponding continuum solution, finding excellent agreement. We then search for trapped surfaces in both sets of initial data, and provide an independent verification of the existence of an apparent horizon once a critical gravitational wave amplitude is passed. Our estimate of this critical value, using both the Regge and continuum solutions, supports other recent findings.Comment: 7 pages, 6 EPS figures, LaTeX 2e. Submitted to Class. Quant. Gra

Pain in farm animals

This review will address how we can measure pain in farm animals and discuss the major causes of acute pain and also chronically painful conditions, and finally make suggestions for future improvements. Pain is a relatively difficult concept to define since it comprises both a physiological sensory and a psychological or emotional component. Pain is the subjective interpretation of nerve impulses induced by a stimulus that is actually or potentially damaging to tissues. The sensation of pain is a response to a noxious stimulus and should elicit protective motor (e.g. withdrawal reflex, escape) and vegetative responses (e.g. cardiovascular responses, inflammation). Zimmerman (1986) also suggested that in animals a painful experience should result in learned avoidance and affect the animal’s behaviour including social behaviour. Therefore we can use behavioural and physiological criteria to determine whether an experience is painful to an animal. It is easier to assess pain in humans since we can tell each other how we are feeling. Many people are unwilling to accept that animals can feel pain since they believe that animals are not capable of having emotions that are similar to humans. The purpose of this review is not to debate this point but animal pain is possibly different to human pain, and can be defined as an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience” (Bateson 1991). Pain is associated with suffering and distress and the treatment of animals in farm situations has been subject to increasing public concern. During production, farm animals are exposed to procedures which can lead to injury, disease and other noxious events and this will have negative consequences for the animal and on production (Table 1; Fraser and Duncan 1988; Bath 1998). Therefore it is vital for the animal’s wellbeing and for economic reasons that we measure and evaluate potentially painful situations in order to reduce suffering and financial losses. Esslemont (1990) estimated the impact of lameness caused by a sole ulcer to be between £227 and £297 per animal

Pain in farm animals

This review will address how we can measure pain in farm animals and discuss the major causes of acute pain and also chronically painful conditions, and finally make suggestions for future improvements. Pain is a relatively difficult concept to define since it comprises both a physiological sensory and a psychological or emotional component. Pain is the subjective interpretation of nerve impulses induced by a stimulus that is actually or potentially damaging to tissues. The sensation of pain is a response to a noxious stimulus and should elicit protective motor (e.g. withdrawal reflex, escape) and vegetative responses (e.g. cardiovascular responses, inflammation). Zimmerman (1986) also suggested that in animals a painful experience should result in learned avoidance and affect the animal’s behaviour including social behaviour. Therefore we can use behavioural and physiological criteria to determine whether an experience is painful to an animal. It is easier to assess pain in humans since we can tell each other how we are feeling. Many people are unwilling to accept that animals can feel pain since they believe that animals are not capable of having emotions that are similar to humans. The purpose of this review is not to debate this point but animal pain is possibly different to human pain, and can be defined as an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience” (Bateson 1991). Pain is associated with suffering and distress and the treatment of animals in farm situations has been subject to increasing public concern. During production, farm animals are exposed to procedures which can lead to injury, disease and other noxious events and this will have negative consequences for the animal and on production (Table 1; Fraser and Duncan 1988; Bath 1998). Therefore it is vital for the animal’s wellbeing and for economic reasons that we measure and evaluate potentially painful situations in order to reduce suffering and financial losses. Esslemont (1990) estimated the impact of lameness caused by a sole ulcer to be between £227 and £297 per animal

Connected component identification and cluster update on GPU

Cluster identification tasks occur in a multitude of contexts in physics and engineering such as, for instance, cluster algorithms for simulating spin models, percolation simulations, segmentation problems in image processing, or network analysis. While it has been shown that graphics processing units (GPUs) can result in speedups of two to three orders of magnitude as compared to serial codes on CPUs for the case of local and thus naturally parallelized problems such as single-spin flip update simulations of spin models, the situation is considerably more complicated for the non-local problem of cluster or connected component identification. I discuss the suitability of different approaches of parallelization of cluster labeling and cluster update algorithms for calculations on GPU and compare to the performance of serial implementations.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, one table, submitted to PR

THE USE OF PRIVATE LANDS IN THE U.S. FOR OUTDOOR RECREATION: RESULTS OF A NATIONWIDE SURVEY

Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Evaluating the effectiveness of the Emergency Neurological Life Support educational framework in low-income countries.

BackgroundThe Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) is an educational initiative designed to improve the acute management of neurological injuries. However, the applicability of the course in low-income countries in unknown. We evaluated the impact of the course on knowledge, decision-making skills and preparedness to manage neurological emergencies in a resource-limited country.MethodsA prospective cohort study design was implemented for the first ENLS course held in Asia. Knowledge and decision-making skills for neurological emergencies were assessed at baseline, post-course and at 6 months following course completion. To determine perceived knowledge and preparedness, data were collected using surveys administered immediately post-course and 6 months later.ResultsA total of 34 acute care physicians from across Nepal attended the course. Knowledge and decision-making skills significantly improved following the course (p=0.0008). Knowledge and decision-making skills remained significantly improved after 6 months, compared with before the course (p=0.02), with no significant loss of skills immediately following the course to the 6-month follow-up (p=0.16). At 6 months, the willingness to participate in continuing medical education activities remained evident, with 77% (10/13) of participants reporting a change in their clinical practice and decision-making, with the repeated use of ENLS protocols as the main driver of change.ConclusionsUsing the ENLS framework, neurocritical care education can be delivered in low-income countries to improve knowledge uptake, with evidence of knowledge retention up to 6 months

Fast algorithms for computing defects and their derivatives in the Regge calculus

Any practical attempt to solve the Regge equations, these being a large system of non-linear algebraic equations, will almost certainly employ a Newton-Raphson like scheme. In such cases it is essential that efficient algorithms be used when computing the defect angles and their derivatives with respect to the leg-lengths. The purpose of this paper is to present details of such an algorithm.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure