Factors associated with severity of road traffic injuries, Thika, Kenya

Background: Road traffic injuries continue to exert a huge burden on the health care system in Kenya. Few studies on the severity of road traffic injuries have been conducted in Kenya. We carried out a cross-sectional study to determine factors associated with severity of road traffic injuries in a public hospital in Thika district, Kenya. Methods: Road crash victims attending the Thika district hospital, a 265-bed public hospital, emergency room were recruited consecutively between 10th August 2009 and 15th November 2009. Epidemiologic and clinical information was collected from medical charts and through interview with the victims or surrogates using a semi-structured questionnaire. Injuries were graded as severe or non-severe based on the Injury Severity Score (ISS). Independent factors associated with injury severity were assessed using multivariate logistic regression. Results: The mean age of participants was 32.4 years, three quarters were between 20-49 years-old and 73% (219) were male. Nineteen percent (56/300) of the victims had severe injury. Five percent (15) had head injury while 38% (115) had fractures. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians and two-wheel users) comprised 33% (99/300) of the victims. Vulnerable road users (OR=2.0, 95%CI=1.0-3.9), road crashes in rainy weather (OR=2.9, 95%CI=1.3-6.5) and night time crashes (OR=2.0, 95%CI=1.1-3.9) were independent risk factors for sustaining severe injury. Conclusion: Severe injury was associated with vulnerable road users, rainy weather and night time crashes. Interventions and measures such as use of reflective jackets and helmets by two wheel users and enhanced road visibility could help reduce the severity of road traffic injuries.Key words: Road traffic accidents, injury, Injury severity Score, Keny

Locating the ‘radical’ in 'Shoot the Messenger'

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below, copyright 2013 @ Edinburgh University Press.The 2006 BBC drama Shoot the Messenger is based on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale, accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. The allegation triggers Joe's mental breakdown which is articulated, through Joe's first-person narration, as a vindictive loathing of Black people. In turn, a range of common stereotypical characterisations and discourses based on a Black culture of hypocrisy, blame and entitlement is presented. The text is therefore laid wide open to a critique of its neo-conservatism and hegemonic narratives of Black Britishness. However, the drama's presentation of Black mental illness suggests that Shoot the Messenger may also be interpreted as a critique of social inequality and the destabilising effects of living with ethnicised social categories. Through an analysis of issues of representation, the article reclaims this controversial text as a radical drama and examines its implications for and within a critical cultural politics of ‘race’ and representation

Changing Patient and Public Beliefs About Antimicrobials and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Using a Brief Digital Intervention.

BBackground: A key driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is patient demand for unnecessary antibiotics, which is driven by patients’ beliefs about antibiotics and AMR. Few interventions have targeted beliefs to reduce inappropriate demand. Objective: To examine whether a brief, online algorithm-based intervention can change beliefs that may lead to inappropriate antibiotic demand (i.e. perceptions of antibiotic necessity and lack of concern about antibiotic harm). Design: Pre- and post-intervention study. Participants: Participants were 18 years or older, and residing in the United Kingdom, who self-selected to participate via Amazon mTurk, an online survey plaform, and via research networks. Intervention: Participants were presented with a hypothetical situation of cold and flu symptoms, then exposed to the intervention. The online intervention comprised: 1) a profiling tool identifying individual beliefs (antibiotic necessity, concerns, and knowledge) driving inappropriate antibiotic demand; 2) messages designed to change beliefs and knowledge (i.e. reduce antibiotic necessity, and increase antibiotic concerns and knowledge), and 3) an algorithm linking specific messages to specific beliefs and knowledge. Main measures: The profiling tool was repeated immediately after the intervention and compared with baseline scores to assess change in beliefs. A paired samples t-test was used to determine intervention effect. Key Results: A total of 100 respondents completed the study. A significant change in beliefs relating to inappropriate demand was observed after the intervention, with a reduction in beliefs about antibiotic necessity (t = 7.254; p < 0.0001), an increase in antibiotic concerns (t = −7.214; p < 0.0001), and increases in antibiotic and AMR knowledge (t = −4.651; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: This study is the first to demonstrate that patient beliefs about antibiotics and AMR associated with inappropriate demand can be changed by a brief, tailored online intervention. This has implications for the design of future interventions to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial use

Combined Effect of Latex and Crumb Rubber on Mechanical Properties of Concrete for Railway Application

Crumb rubber incorporation is widely deemed to deteriorate the compressive strength of concrete. One of the dominant reasons for this strength reduction is known as the inferior bonding or weak interfacial transition zones (ITZ) between the crumb rubber and hardened cement paste. While Styrene-butadiene (SBR) latex is being used as a bonding agent in concrete manufacturing, the SBR latex usage holds the potential to compensate for the strength reduction from crumb rubber incorporation. This study focuses on evaluating the sole and combined effect of crumb rubber and SBR latex on the compressive strength, one optimum combination of latex modified rubberised mix (LMCRC) that had achieved 55.5 MPa of 28 days characteristic strength was chosen to compare its impact resistance and stress-strain response to a plain concrete (PC) with similar characteristic strength. Experimental results showed both crumb rubber and SBR latex incorporation induced a compressive strength reduction in the concrete. The optimum latex modified rubberised mix with w/c of 0.32, crumb rubber replacement of 20kg/m3, and 3% latex additives had outperformed the control mix with w/c ratio of 0.38 by 66.7% and 293% in the 400mm span impact test and 200mm span impact test, respectively. Besides, the latex modified rubberised mix showed higher Poisson’s ratio, and higher compressive strain which indicates more ductile behaviour as compared to the plain concrete

Combined Effect of Latex and Crumb Rubber on Mechanical Properties of Concrete for Railway Application

Crumb rubber incorporation is widely deemed to deteriorate the compressive strength of concrete. One of the dominant reasons for this strength reduction is known as the inferior bonding or weak interfacial transition zones (ITZ) between the crumb rubber and hardened cement paste. While Styrene-butadiene (SBR) latex is being used as a bonding agent in concrete manufacturing, the SBR latex usage holds the potential to compensate for the strength reduction from crumb rubber incorporation. This study focuses on evaluating the sole and combined effect of crumb rubber and SBR latex on the compressive strength, one optimum combination of latex modified rubberised mix (LMCRC) that had achieved 55.5 MPa of 28 days characteristic strength was chosen to compare its impact resistance and stress-strain response to a plain concrete (PC) with similar characteristic strength. Experimental results showed both crumb rubber and SBR latex incorporation induced a compressive strength reduction in the concrete. The optimum latex modified rubberised mix with w/c of 0.32, crumb rubber replacement of 20kg/m3, and 3% latex additives had outperformed the control mix with w/c ratio of 0.38 by 66.7% and 293% in the 400mm span impact test and 200mm span impact test, respectively. Besides, the latex modified rubberised mix showed higher Poisson’s ratio, and higher compressive strain which indicates more ductile behaviour as compared to the plain concrete

Moment inversion problem for piecewise D-finite functions

We consider the problem of exact reconstruction of univariate functions with jump discontinuities at unknown positions from their moments. These functions are assumed to satisfy an a priori unknown linear homogeneous differential equation with polynomial coefficients on each continuity interval. Therefore, they may be specified by a finite amount of information. This reconstruction problem has practical importance in Signal Processing and other applications. It is somewhat of a ``folklore'' that the sequence of the moments of such ``piecewise D-finite''functions satisfies a linear recurrence relation of bounded order and degree. We derive this recurrence relation explicitly. It turns out that the coefficients of the differential operator which annihilates every piece of the function, as well as the locations of the discontinuities, appear in this recurrence in a precisely controlled manner. This leads to the formulation of a generic algorithm for reconstructing a piecewise D-finite function from its moments. We investigate the conditions for solvability of the resulting linear systems in the general case, as well as analyze a few particular examples. We provide results of numerical simulations for several types of signals, which test the sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to noise

Comparison of engagement and emotional responses of older and younger adults interacting with 3D cultural heritage artefacts on personal devices

The availability of advanced software and less expensive hardware allows museums to preserve and share artefacts digitally. As a result, museums are frequently making their collections accessible online as interactive, 3D models. This could lead to the unique situation of viewing the digital artefact before the physical artefact. Experiencing artefacts digitally outside of the museum on personal devices may affect the user's ability to emotionally connect to the artefacts. This study examines how two target populations of young adults (18–21 years) and the elderly (65 years and older) responded to seeing cultural heritage artefacts in three different modalities: augmented reality on a tablet, 3D models on a laptop, and then physical artefacts. Specifically, the time spent, enjoyment, and emotional responses were analysed. Results revealed that regardless of age, the digital modalities were enjoyable and encouraged emotional responses. Seeing the physical artefacts after the digital ones did not lessen their enjoyment or emotions felt. These findings aim to provide an insight into the effectiveness of 3D artefacts viewed on personal devices and artefacts shown outside of the museum for encouraging emotional responses from older and younger people

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community online: discussions of bullying and self-disclosure in YouTube videos

Computer-mediated communication has become a popular platform for identity construction and experimentation as well as social interaction for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). The creation of user-generated videos has allowed content creators to share experiences on LGBT topics. With bullying becoming more common amongst LGBT youth, it is important to obtain a greater understanding of this phenomenon. In our study, we report on the analysis of 151 YouTube videos which were identified as having LGBT- and bullying-related content. The analysis reveals how content creators openly disclose personal information about themselves and their experiences in a non-anonymous rhetoric with an unknown public. These disclosures could indicate a desire to seek friendship, support and provide empathy

Health-seeking beliefs of cardiovascular patients: A qualitative study

Objectives: The study aims were to (a) describe the experiences of Chinese Australians with heart disease following discharge from hospital for an acute cardiac event; (b) identify patterns and cultural differences of Chinese Australians following discharge from hospital; and (c) illustrate the illness/health seeking behaviors and health beliefs of Chinese Australians. Design: Qualitative study. Methods: Interview data were obtained from the following sources: (a) focus groups of Chinese community participants without heart disease; (b) interviews with patients recently discharged from hospital following an admission for an acute cardiac event; and (c) interviews with Chinese-born health professionals working in Australia. Qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken. Results: Study themes generated from the data were: (1) linking traditional values and beliefs with Western medicine; (2) reverence for health professionals and family; and (3) juxtaposing traditional beliefs and self-management. Conclusions: Considering the influence of cultural values in developing health care plans and clinical decision making is important. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd

The Technology Information Environment with Industry (TIE-In): A mechanism for accessing laboratory solutions

The Technology Information Environment with Industry (TIE-In) is a system that helps users obtain laboratory-developed technical solutions without requiring that they duplicate the technical resources (in people, hardware and software) at the national laboratories. TIE-In is based on providing users with controlled access to distributed laboratory resources that are packaged in intelligent user interfaces. These interfaces help users obtain technical solutions without requiring that the user have specialized technical and computer expertise. As a designated DOE Technology Deployment Center/User Facility, industry users can access a broad range of laboratory-developed technologies on a cost-recovery basis. TIE-In will also be used to share laboratory resources with partners in US industry that help the DOE meet future manufacturing needs for the stewardship of our nation`s nuclear weapons stockpile