Kerbcraft Training Manual: A Handbook for Road Safety Professionals

This manual provides a blueprint for delivering successful Kerbcraft training to children aged 5-7 years old. The contents cover setting up your scheme; recruiting volunteers; liaison with schools and local organisations and practical guidelines for delivering high quality Kerbcraft training to children at the roadside

Do we really drive as we feel?

Learning to drive has been conceptualised as a series of stages which take the learner from mastery of the basic mechanics of driving, through anticipation of other road user's behaviour, to the development of a driving style consistent with the skill achieved in the first two stages (Parker & Stradling, 2002). Deery (1999) suggests that hazard perception is one of the main skills to be acquired in the second stage and that this skill is poorly developed in the inexperienced (and usually young) driver

Mice haploinsufficient for Map2k7, a gene involved in neurodevelopment and risk for schizophrenia, show impaired attention, a vigilance decrement deficit and unstable cognitive processing in an attentional task: impact of minocycline

Rationale: Members of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) family of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, and the upstream kinase MKK7, have all been strongly linked with synaptic plasticity and with the development of the neocortex. However, the impact of disruption of this pathway on cognitive function is unclear. Objective: In the current study, we test the hypothesis that reduced MKK7 expression is sufficient to cause cognitive impairment. Methods: Attentional function in mice haploinsufficient for Map2k7 (Map2k7+/− mice) was investigated using the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT). Results: Once stable performance had been achieved, Map2k7+/− mice showed a distinctive attentional deficit, in the form of an increased number of missed responses, accompanied by a more pronounced decrement in performance over time and elevated intra-individual reaction time variability. When performance was reassessed after administration of minocycline—a tetracycline antibiotic currently showing promise for the improvement of attentional deficits in patients with schizophrenia—signs of improvement in attentional performance were detected. Conclusions: Overall, Map2k7 haploinsufficiency causes a distinctive pattern of cognitive impairment strongly suggestive of an inability to sustain attention, in accordance with those seen in psychiatric patients carrying out similar tasks. This may be important for understanding the mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in clinical populations and highlights the possibility of treating some of these deficits with minocycline

Influence of virtual reality training on the roadside crossing judgements of child pedestrians

The roadside crossing judgments of children aged 7, 9, and 11 years were assessed relative to controls before and after training with a computer-simulated traffic environment. Trained children crossed more quickly, and their estimated crossing times became better aligned with actual crossing times. They crossed more promptly, missed fewer safe opportunities to cross, accepted smaller traffic gaps without increasing the number of risky crossings, and showed better conceptual understanding of the factors to be considered when making crossing judgments. All age groups improved to the same extent, and there was no deterioration when children were retested 8 months later. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical arguments concerning the extent to which children's pedestrian judgments are amenable to training

Present day challenges in understanding the geomagnetic hazard to national power grids

Power grids and pipeline networks at all latitudes are known to be at risk from the natural hazard of geomagnetically induced currents. At a recent workshop in South Africa, UK and South African scientists and engineers discussed the current understanding of this hazard, as it affects major power systems in Europe and Africa. They also summarised, to better inform the public and industry, what can be said with some certainty about the hazard and what research is yet required to develop useful tools for geomagnetic hazard mitigation

A developmental and training study of children's ability to find safe routes to cross the road

The sites and routes that children of different ages considered to be safe to cross the road were investigated. In Expt 1, children aged 5, 7, 9 and 11 years were instructed to choose 'the safest' crossing sites and routes to specified destinations. The results showed a gradual developmental shift with safer, more adult-like choices appearing with increasing age. Five and 7 year olds exhibited only a rudimentary selection procedure, choosing the most direct route as safest and showing a marked lack of awareness of the dangers posed by nearby roadside obstacles or other visual restrictions. In a further experiment, 5-year-olds were individually trained in finding safe places to cross. Training took place either in the real road environment or using a tabletop model of a traffic environment. A series of pre-and post-tests enabled the effectiveness of the training to be assessed. Substantial improvements following training were obtained in both groups. No differences were found between the two training methods. Though performance fell somewhat over the two months following training, trained children still outperformed their untrained peers eight months after the programme ended. The implications for road safety education are discussed

Behavioural group training of children to find safe routes to cross the road

Young children show poor judgement when asked to select safe places to cross the road and frequently consider dangerous sites to be safe ones. Thus, a sharp bend, the brow of a hill or positions close to parked cars are considered safe places to cross by most children under 9 years of age. This study examined the effectiveness of two practical training programmes in improving the judgements of 5-year-olds. Children were trained in small groups either in the real road environment or using simulations set up on a table-top model. A series of pre-and post-tests allowed the effectiveness of training to be assessed. Significant improvements relative to controls were found in both groups following training. There were no differences between the two training methods. Improvements were robust and no deterioration was observed two months after the programme ended. However, the benefits of group training were less marked than in an earlier study in which children were trained individually. The implications for road safety education are discussed

Altered functional brain network connectivity and glutamate system function in transgenic mice expressing truncated Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1

Considerable evidence implicates DISC1 as a susceptibility gene for multiple psychiatric diseases. DISC1 has been intensively studied at the molecular, cellular and behavioral level, but its role in regulating brain connectivity and brain network function remains unknown. Here, we utilize a set of complementary approaches to assess the functional brain network abnormalities present in mice expressing a truncated Disc1 gene (Disc1tr Hemi mice). Disc1tr Hemi mice exhibited hypometabolism in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and reticular thalamus along with a reorganization of functional brain network connectivity that included compromised hippocampal–PFC connectivity. Altered hippocampal–PFC connectivity in Disc1tr Hemi mice was confirmed by electrophysiological analysis, with Disc1tr Hemi mice showing a reduced probability of presynaptic neurotransmitter release in the monosynaptic glutamatergic hippocampal CA1–PFC projection. Glutamate system dysfunction in Disc1tr Hemi mice was further supported by the attenuated cerebral metabolic response to the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine and decreased hippocampal expression of NMDAR subunits 2A and 2B in these animals. These data show that the Disc1 truncation in Disc1tr Hemi mice induces a range of translationally relevant endophenotypes underpinned by glutamate system dysfunction and altered brain connectivity

Errors in young children's decisions about traffic gaps : experiments with roadside simulations

Young children's vulnerability as pedestrians has often been attributed to deficiencies in their decision making about vehicle approach times. Some studies have found a preponderance o f risky decisions below the age of eight years. In contrast, studies using a closer simulation of road crossing, known as the pretend road, have found a preponderance of overcautious decisions in young children: traffic gaps of adequate size were frequently rejected (missed opportunities). However, the pretend road has potentially distorting characteristics which may account for this divergent pattern of findings. The experiments reported below show that new simulations that eradicate distortions nevertheless validate the pattern of results produced with the pretend road. Differences between adults and young children were pronounced for missed opportunities, but not for risky decisions. Subsidiary analyses suggest that the risky decisions of the youngest children may have arisen through lapses in attention, rather than deficits in timing. These findings run contrary to the view that attributes young children's pedestrian vulnerability to perceptuo-motor deficiency

Increasing microbiological confirmation and changing epidemiology of meningococcal disease on Merseyside, England

ObjectivesTo determine, for the last 5 years in children on Merseyside with clinical meningococcal disease (MCD), the impact on diagnostic yield of newer bacteriologic methods; bacterial antigen detection (AD) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).MethodsProspective data collection at Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital over two epochs: 1 September 1992 to 30 April 1994 (epoch A, n = 126) and 17 November 1997 to 15 September 1998 (epoch B, n = 85).ResultsEpoch Awas compared with epoch B. Diagnosis was confirmed by detection of meningococci in 78 of 126 (61.9%) versus 64 of 85 (75.3%, P = 0.04), but with a significantly lower rate of positive blood and cerebrospinal fluid culture in the later epoch. The proportion of cases receiving penicillin pretreatment was unchanged at 32%, but the proportion undergoing lumbar puncture decreased significantly. Median ages were higher in epoch B: 1.7 years versus 2.49 years (P = 0.013, Mann-Whitney). There was a significant increase in the proportion of cases due to serogroup C (14/78 (18%) versus 30/64 (46.9%), P = 0.001).ConclusionsCulture detection of meningococci from children with MCD has reduced, as less lumbar punctures are done. However, improved diagnosis by PCR and AD has increased microbiological confirmation overall. Serogroup C disease and the median age of cases continue to rise