Smarter choices ?changing the way we travel. Case study reports

This report accompanies the following volume:Cairns S, Sloman L, Newson C, Anable J, Kirkbride A and Goodwin P (2004)Smarter Choices ? Changing the Way We Travel. Report published by theDepartment for Transport, London, available via the ?Sustainable Travel? section ofwww.dft.gov.uk, and from http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001224/

Smarter choices - changing the way we travel

Summary: In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of initiatives, which are now widelydescribed as 'soft' transport policy measures. These seek to give better information and opportunities,aimed at helping people to choose to reduce their car use while enhancing the attractiveness ofalternatives. They are fairly new as part of mainstream transport policy, mostly relativelyuncontroversial, and often popular. They include:. Workplace and school travel plans;. Personalised travel planning, travel awareness campaigns, and public transport information andmarketing;. Car clubs and car sharing schemes;. Teleworking, teleconferencing and home shopping.This report draws on earlier studies of the impact of soft measures, new evidence from the UK andabroad, case study interviews relating to 24 specific initiatives, and the experience of commercial,public and voluntary stakeholders involved in organising such schemes. Each of the soft factors isanalysed separately, followed by an assessment of their combined potential impact.The assessment focuses on two different policy scenarios for the next ten years. The 'high intensity'scenario identifies the potential provided by a significant expansion of activity to a much morewidespread implementation of present good practice, albeit to a realistic level which still recognisesthe constraints of money and other resources, and variation in the suitability and effectiveness of softfactors according to local circumstances. The 'low intensity' scenario is broadly defined as aprojection of the present (2003-4) levels of local and national activity on soft measures.The main features of the high intensity scenario would be. A reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 21% (off-peak 13%);. A reduction of peak period non-urban traffic of about 14% (off-peak 7%);. A nationwide reduction in all traffic of about 11%.These projected changes in traffic levels are quite large (though consistent with other evidence onbehavioural change at the individual level), and would produce substantial reductions in congestion.However, this would tend to attract more car use, by other people, which could offset the impact ofthose who reduce their car use unless there are measures in place to prevent this. Therefore, thoseexperienced in the implementation of soft factors locally usually emphasise that success depends onsome or all of such supportive policies as re-allocation of road capacity and other measures toimprove public transport service levels, parking control, traffic calming, pedestrianisation, cyclenetworks, congestion charging or other traffic restraint, other use of transport prices and fares, speedregulation, or stronger legal enforcement levels. The report also records a number of suggestionsabout local and national policy measures that could facilitate the expansion of soft measures.The effects of the low intensity scenario, in which soft factors are not given increased policy prioritycompared with present practice, are estimated to be considerably less than those of the high intensityscenario, including a reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 5%, and a nationwide reductionin all traffic of 2%-3%. These smaller figures also assume that sufficient other supporting policies areused to prevent induced traffic from eroding the effects, notably at peak periods and in congestedconditions. Without these supportive measures, the effects could be lower, temporary, and perhapsinvisible.Previous advice given by the Department for Transport in relation to multi-modal studies was that softfactors might achieve a nationwide traffic reduction of about 5%. The policy assumptionsunderpinning this advice were similar to those used in our low intensity scenario: our estimate isslightly less, but the difference is probably within the range of error of such projections.The public expenditure cost of achieving reduced car use by soft measures, on average, is estimated atabout 1.5 pence per car kilometre, i.e. £15 for removing each 1000 vehicle kilometres of traffic.Current official practice calculates the benefit of reduced traffic congestion, on average, to be about15p per car kilometre removed, and more than three times this level in congested urban conditions.Thus every £1 spent on well-designed soft measures could bring about £10 of benefit in reducedcongestion alone, more in the most congested conditions, and with further potential gains fromenvironmental improvements and other effects, provided that the tendency of induced traffic to erodesuch benefits is controlled. There are also opportunities for private business expenditure on some softmeasures, which can result in offsetting cost savings.Much of the experience of implementing soft factors is recent, and the evidence is of variable quality.Therefore, there are inevitably uncertainties in the results. With this caveat, the main conclusion isthat, provided they are implemented within a supportive policy context, soft measures can besufficiently effective in facilitating choices to reduce car use, and offer sufficiently good value formoney, that they merit serious consideration for an expanded role in local and national transportstrategy.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the many contributions made by organisations and individuals consultedas part of the research, and by the authors of previous studies and literature reviews which we havecited. Specific acknowledgements are given at the end of each chapter.We have made extensive use of our own previous work including research by Lynn Sloman funded bythe Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 on the traffic impact of soft factors and localtransport schemes (in part previously published as 'Less Traffic Where People Live'); and by SallyCairns and Phil Goodwin as part of the research programme of TSU supported by the Economic andSocial Research Council, and particularly research on school and workplace travel plans funded bythe DfT (and managed by Transport 2000 Trust), on car dependence funded by the RAC Foundation,on travel demand analysis funded by DfT and its predecessors, and on home shopping funded byEUCAR. Case studies to accompany this report are available at: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001233

Risk of non-affective psychotic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder by refugee status in Sweden

BACKGROUND: Refugees have different experiences of obtaining a refugee status, however it remains unclear if this affects their risk of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether risk for non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) differs between quota refugees (resettled from refugee camps) and non-quota refugees (former asylum seekers). METHOD: A register-based cohort with a sample size of 52 561 refugees in Sweden starting 1 January 1997 ending 31 December 2011. EXPOSURE: refugee status (quota or non-quota refugees). Cox regression models estimated adjusted HRs with 95% CIs for NAPD (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), F20-29) and PTSD (ICD-10, F43.1) by refugee status. RESULTS: There were more non-quota refugees (77.0%) than quota refugees (23.0%). In total we identified 401 cases of NAPD, 1.0% among quota refugees and 0.7% among non-quota refugees, and 1070 cases of PTSD, 1.9% among quota refugees and 2.1% among non-quota refugees. Male quota refugees were at increased risk for NAPD compared with male non-quota refugees (HRmale=1.41, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.82 and HRfemale=0.65, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.00). All quota refugees were at a reduced risk of PTSD compared with non-quota refugees (HR=0.74, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.87). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that risk of NAPD and PTSD varies for quota and non-quota refugees, highlighting the possibility that different experiences of the migration process differentiate the risk of psychiatric disorders among refugees

Association of neighbourhood migrant density and risk of non-affective psychosis: a national, longitudinal cohort study

BACKGROUND: Elevated risk of psychotic disorders in migrant groups is a public mental health priority. We investigated whether living in areas of high own-region migrant density was associated with reduced risk of psychotic disorders among migrants and their children, and whether generation status, probable visible minority status, or region-of-origin affected this relationship. METHODS: We used the Swedish registers to identify migrants and their children born between Jan 1, 1982, and Dec 31, 1996, and living in Sweden on or after their 15th birthday. We tracked all included participants from age 15 years or date of migration until emigration, death, or study end (Dec 31, 2016). The outcome was an ICD-10 diagnosis of non-affective psychosis (F20-29). We calculated own-region and generation-specific own-region density within the 9208 small areas for market statistics neighbourhoods in Sweden, and estimated the relationship between density and diagnosis of non-affective psychotic disorders using multilevel Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for individual confounders (generation status, age, sex, calendar year, lone dwelling, and time since migration [migrants only]), family confounders (family income, family unemployment, and social welfare), and neighbourhood confounders (deprivation index, population density, and proportion of lone dwellings), and using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) to compare model fit. FINDINGS: Of 468 223 individuals included in the final cohort, 4582 (1·0%) had non-affective psychotic disorder. Lower own-region migrant density was associated with increased risk of psychotic disorders among migrants (hazard ratio [HR] 1·05, 95% CI 1·02-1·07 per 5% decrease) and children of migrants (1·03, 1·01-1·06), after adjustment. These effects were stronger for probable visible minority migrants (1·07, 1·04-1·11), including migrants from Asia (1·42, 1·15-1·76) and sub-Saharan Africa (1·28, 1·15-1·44), but not migrants from probable non-visible minority backgrounds (0·99, 0·94-1·04). Among migrants, adding generation status to the measure of own-region density provided a better fit to the data than overall own-region migrant density (AIC 36 103 vs 36 106, respectively), with a 5% decrease in generation-specific migrant density corresponding to a HR of 1·07 (1·04-1·11). INTERPRETATION: Migrant density was associated with non-affective psychosis risk in migrants and their children. Stronger protective effects of migrant density were found for probable visible minority migrants and migrants from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. For migrants, this risk intersected with generation status. Together, these results suggest that this health inequality is socially constructed. FUNDING: Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, Mental Health Research UK, University College London, National Institute for Health Research, Swedish Research Council, and FORTE

Use of Styryl 11 and STaR 11 for the Luminescence Enhancement of Cyanoacrylate-Developed Fingermarks in the Visible and Near-Infrared Regions

Abstract: In current casework, most post-cyanoacrylate stains rely on luminescence emission in the visible region (400-700nm). While traditional stains such as rhodamine 6G work well under most circumstances, some surfaces may generate background luminescence under the same conditions. Detection in the near-infrared region (NIR>700nm) has shown to be effective in minimizing the interferences from such surfaces. The laser dye styryl 11 generated strongly luminescent fingermarks when applied after cyanoacrylate fuming on all surfaces tested. When compared to rhodamine 6G, the dye was superior only when viewed in the NIR. Styryl 11 was subsequently combined with rhodamine 6G, and the mixed stain formulation (named StaR 11 by the authors) induced stronger luminescence compared with styryl 11 alone with an ability to visualize in both the visible and NIR regions. Reliable and consistent results were obtained when using either styryl 11 alone or the STaR 11 mixture. The enhancement achieved did not otherwise vary depending on the source of the fingermark secretions. With visualization possible in both the visible and NIR regions, the styryl 11/rhodamine 6G mixture showed significant potential as a post-cyanoacrylate stain. © 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences

Refugee migration and risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychoses: cohort study of 1.3 million people in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE:  To determine whether refugees are at elevated risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychotic disorders, relative to non-refugee migrants from similar regions of origin and the Swedish-born population. DESIGN:  Cohort study of people living in Sweden, born after 1 January 1984 and followed from their 14th birthday or arrival in Sweden, if later, until diagnosis of a non-affective psychotic disorder, emigration, death, or 31 December 2011. SETTING:  Linked Swedish national register data. PARTICIPANTS:  1 347 790 people, including people born in Sweden to two Swedish-born parents (1 191 004; 88.4%), refugees (24 123; 1.8%), and non-refugee migrants (132 663; 9.8%) from four major refugee generating regions: the Middle East and north Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe and Russia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:  Cox regression analysis was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios for non-affective psychotic disorders by refugee status and region of origin, controlling for age at risk, sex, disposable income, and population density. RESULTS:  3704 cases of non-affective psychotic disorder were identified during 8.9 million person years of follow-up. The crude incidence rate was 38.5 (95% confidence interval 37.2 to 39.9) per 100 000 person years in the Swedish-born population, 80.4 (72.7 to 88.9) per 100 000 person years in non-refugee migrants, and 126.4 (103.1 to 154.8) per 100 000 person years in refugees. Refugees were at increased risk of psychosis compared with both the Swedish-born population (adjusted hazard ratio 2.9, 95% confidence interval 2.3 to 3.6) and non-refugee migrants (1.7, 1.3 to 2.1) after adjustment for confounders. The increased rate in refugees compared with non-refugee migrants was more pronounced in men (likelihood ratio test for interaction χ(2) (df=2) z=13.5; P=0.001) and was present for refugees from all regions except sub-Saharan Africa. Both refugees and non-refugee migrants from sub-Saharan Africa had similarly high rates relative to the Swedish-born population. CONCLUSIONS:  Refugees face an increased risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychotic disorders compared with non-refugee migrants from similar regions of origin and the native-born Swedish population. Clinicians and health service planners in refugee receiving countries should be aware of a raised risk of psychosis in addition to other mental and physical health inequalities experienced by refugees

Chemosensory genes identified in the antennal transcriptome of the blowfly Calliphora stygia

© 2015 Leitch et al. Background: Blowflies have relevance in areas of forensic science, agriculture, and medicine, primarily due to the ability of their larvae to develop on flesh. While it is widely accepted that blowflies rely heavily on olfaction for identifying and locating hosts, there is limited research regarding the underlying molecular mechanisms. Using next generation sequencing (Illumina), this research examined the antennal transcriptome of Calliphora stygia (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to identify members of the major chemosensory gene families necessary for olfaction. Results: Representative proteins from all chemosensory gene families essential in insect olfaction were identified in the antennae of the blowfly C. stygia, including 50 odorant receptors, 22 ionotropic receptors, 21 gustatory receptors, 28 odorant binding proteins, 4 chemosensory proteins, and 3 sensory neuron membrane proteins. A total of 97 candidate cytochrome P450s and 39 esterases, some of which may act as odorant degrading enzymes, were also identified. Importantly, co-receptors necessary for the proper function of ligand-binding receptors were identified. Putative orthologues for the conserved antennal ionotropic receptors and candidate gustatory receptors for carbon dioxide detection were also amongst the identified proteins. Conclusions: This research provides a comprehensive novel resource that will be fundamental for future studies regarding blowfly olfaction. Such information presents potential benefits to the forensic, pest control, and medical areas, and could assist in the understanding of insecticide resistance and targeted control through cross-species comparisons

Suicide risk in people with post-traumatic stress disorder: a cohort study of 3.1 million people in Sweden

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] is associated with suicide risk in the general population, whether this differs by sex, or what the population impact of PTSD is for suicide. METHODS: We constructed a nationwide cohort of all people living in Sweden, born 1973-1997, followed from their 14th birthday (or immigration, if later) until suicide, other death, emigration or 31 December 2016. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios [HR], and calculated the population impact of PTSD on suicide. We included sensitivity analyses to explore effects of outcome and exposure definitions, and to account for potential competing risks. RESULTS: Of 3,177,706 participants, 22,361 (0•7%) were diagnosed with PTSD, and 6,319 (0•2%) died by suicide over 49•2 million person-years. Compared with women and men without PTSD, suicide rates were 6•74 (95%CI: 5•61-8•09) and 3•96 (95%CI: 3•12-5•03) times higher in those with PTSD, respectively, after sociodemographic adjustment. Suicide rates remained elevated in women (HR: 2•61; 95%CI: 2•16-3•14) and men (HR: 1•67; 95%CI: 1•31-2•12) after adjustment for previous psychiatric conditions; attenuation was driven by previous non-fatal suicide attempts. Findings were insensitive to definitions or competing risks. If causal, 1•6% (95%CI: 1•2-2•1) of general population suicides could be attributed to PTSD, and up to 53.7% (95%CI: 46.1-60.2) in people with PTSD. LIMITATIONS: Residual confounding remains possible due to depressive and anxiety disorders diagnosed in primary care but unrecorded in these registers. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical guidelines for the management of people with PTSD should recognise increased suicide risk

Inequalities in Psychiatric Service Use and Mortality by Migrant Status Following a First Diagnosis of Psychotic Disorder: A Swedish Cohort Study of 1.3M People

It is unclear whether inequalities in mental healthcare and mortality following the onset of psychosis exist by migrant status and region-of-origin. We investigated whether (1) mortality (including by major causes of death); (2) first admission type (inpatient or outpatient); (3) in-patient length of stay (LOS) at first diagnosis for psychotic disorder presentation, and; (4) time-to-readmission for psychotic disorder differed for refugees, non-refugee migrants, and by region-of-origin. We established a cohort of 1 335 192 people born 1984-1997 and living in Sweden from January 1, 1998, followed from their 14th birthday or arrival to Sweden, until death, emigration, or December 31, 2016. People with ICD-10 psychotic disorder (F20-33; N = 9399) were 6.7 (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 5.9-7.6) times more likely to die than the general population, but this did not vary by migrant status (P = .15) or region-of-origin (P = .31). This mortality gap was most pronounced for suicide (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 12.2; 95% CI: 10.4-14.4), but persisted for deaths from other external (aHR: 5.1; 95%CI: 4.0-6.4) and natural causes (aHR: 2.3; 95%CI: 1.6-3.3). Non-refugee (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.4, 95%CI: 1.2-1.6) and refugee migrants (aOR: 1.4, 95%CI: 1.1-1.8) were more likely to receive inpatient care at first diagnosis. No differences in in-patient LOS at first diagnosis were observed by migrant status. Sub-Saharan African migrants with psychotic disorder were readmitted more quickly than their Swedish-born counterparts (adjusted sub-hazard ratio [sHR]: 1.2; 95%CI: 1.1-1.4). Our findings highlight the need to understand the drivers of disparities in psychosis treatment and the mortality gap experienced by all people with disorder, irrespective of migrant status or region-of-origin