Towards Road Safety - A Social Perception

This meta-analytic study analyzes psychological research focusing on road safety as proposed by the Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) approach, paying attention to attributes such as VRUs habits, environment and things. Aiming to consider VRUs as active and proactive actors, with differentiated feelings and behaviours, we were required to integrate in our study the social factors that characterize each VRU. In fact, many studies have shown how social factors may put at risk a human being, with special incidence in socioeconomic groups where lower social positions correlate with an increased exposure to danger. Therefore, diminishing social inequities by addressing the social factors that motivate them developed into an explicit goal to enhance road safety. Undeniably, one way to examine how such factors affect injury is to study them at different degrees. Hence, focusing on such attributes, which may be indicative of inequalities in social status, we are able to quantify their degree of disorder in terms of an entropic metric. The computational framework is to be understood under a mathematical logic approach to computing

Factors of resilience in informal caregivers of people with dementia from integrative international data analysis

Background/Aims: Although caring for a person with dementia can be stressful, some caregivers appear to experience few negative consequences to their well-being. This study aimed to examine what proportion of caregivers demonstrates resilience under different challenging circumstances and to identify factors related to their resilience. Methods: Baseline data from 4 studies from the Netherlands and UK among informal caregivers of people with dementia were harmonized and integrated. Caregiver resilience was defined as high levels of psychological well-being despite different types of high caregiving demands. Multivariate regression analyses identified factors significantly related to caregiver resilience. Results: The integrated data set included 15 harmonized variables with data from 1,048 caregivers facing a high care demand. The prevalence of resilience varied between 35 and 43%, depending on the demand for high care. Being a male caregiver, caring for a female, living apart from your relative, and low caregiver burden were positively related to caregiver resilience. Conclusion: Caregivers have the capacity to demonstrate resilience despite significant challenges. This study demonstrates how harmonization of data from multiple existing studies can be used to increase power and explore the consistency of findings. This contributes to a better understanding of which factors are likely to facilitate caregiver resilience and offers insights for developing services

Do rearing salmonids predictably occupy physical microhabitat?

Microhabitat suitability models are commonly used to estimate salmonid habitat abundance and quality with unknown accuracy or reliability. When tested, the metrics used to evaluate these models are often limited by the methods used to develop them. More generalized bioverification strategies that transcend methodology are therefore needed in ecohydraulics. This study further developed and applied such a generalized bioverification framework to four approximately 1-m-resolution rearing salmonid microhabitat suitability models. Water depth and velocity habitat suitability criteria (HSC) functions were developed for two size classes of rearing Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and O. mykiss using snorkel survey data collected over three years at seven sites along the lower Yuba River in California, USA. An expert-based cover HSC function was modified from previous studies. HSC functions were applied to previously validated, approximately 1-m-resolution two-dimensional hydrodynamic models and cover maps of the river. Mann–Whitney U tests confirmed that suitability values were significantly higher at utilized locations compared to randomly generated, non-utilized locations for all four models. Bootstrapped forage ratios demonstrated that microhabitat suitability models accurately predicted both preferred and avoided habitat beyond the 95% confidence level. This generalized bioverification framework is recommended for evaluating and comparing the accuracy and reliability of ecohydraulic models used in habitat management worldwide

Dementia and Physical Activity (DAPA) - an exercise intervention to improve cognition in people with mild to moderate dementia: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Dementia is more common in older than in younger people, and as a result of the ageing of the population in developed countries, it is becoming more prevalent. Drug treatments for dementia are limited, and the main support offered to people with dementia and their families is generally services to mitigate against loss of function. Physical exercise is a candidate non-pharmacological treatment for dementia. Methods/Design: DAPA is a randomised controlled trial funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme to estimate the effect of a 4-month, moderate- to hard-intensity exercise training programme and subsequent advice to remain active, on cognition (primary outcome) at 12 months in people with mild to moderate dementia. Community-dwelling participants (with their carers where possible), who are able to walk 3 metres without human assistance, able to undertake an exercise programme and do not have any unstable or terminal illness are recruited. Participants are then randomised by an independent statistician using a computerised random number generator to usual care or exercise at a 2:1 ratio in favour of exercise. The exercise intervention comprises 29, 1-hour-long exercise classes, run twice weekly at suitable venues such as leisure centres, which include aerobic exercise (on static bikes) and resistance exercise (using weights). Goals for independent exercise are set while the classes are still running, and supported thereafter with phone calls. The primary outcome is measured using ADAS-cog. Secondary outcome measures include behavioural symptoms, functional ability, quality of life and carer burden. Primary and secondary outcomes will be measured at baseline and at 6 and 12 months after randomisation, by researchers masked to participant randomisation in the participants' own homes. An economic evaluation will be carried out in parallel to the RCT, as will a qualitative study capturing the experiences of participants, carers and staff delivering the intervention. Discussion: The DAPA study will be the first large, randomised trial of the cognitive effects of exercise on people with dementia. The intervention is designed to be capable of being delivered within the constraints of NHS service provision, and the economic evaluation will allow assessment of its cost-effectiveness. Trial registration: DAPA was registered with the ISRCTN database on 29 July 2011, registration number ISRCTN32612072. © 2016 Atherton et al

Plantar povoações no território: (re)construindo a urbanização da capitania do Piauí, 1697-1761

The Piauí province´s urbanization has kept up with since late 17th century a complex process dealt among Portuguese Crown, the regal representatives, the network woven by the Casa da Torre and by the resident population in its countryside. What it was content of Rodelas countryside has begun to build with territorial identity since the foundation of first parish in 1697. Structuring itself discontinuously in time and space, the Piauí had reformed in 1758, year of creation of its autonomous government. And had became urban in 1761 when the king D. José I and marquis of Pombal had framed by the royal letter written in June 19 a territory formed by six towns and one city. Thus, this paper purposes to reconstructing the Piauí province according to agents involved in the urbanization processes. It proposes to deconstructing Crown´s polices by means towns strategically placed in territory aiming at control and "remedy" of routine injustices practiced in Piauí´s hinterlands. The method of presenting this reconstruction draws on interconnection between text (manuscript documents) and image (maps and photography) which in their discourses have represented a Piauí as space of experiences apprehended as much in official dimension as inhabitant´s everyday life.A urbanização da capitania do Piauí acompanhou, desde finais do século XVII, um complexo processo negociado entre a Coroa portuguesa, os representantes régios, a rede clientelar urdida pela Casa da Torre e a população residente em seus sertões. O que antes era conteúdo dos sertões de Rodelas passou a construir-se como identidade territorial a partir da fundação da primeira freguesia, em 1697, dedicada a Nossa Senhora da Vitória. Estruturando-se descontinuamente no tempo e no espaço, o Piauí reforma-se em 1758, ano da autonomização do seu governo. E fez-se urbano em 1761, quando D. José I e o marquês de Pombal equacionaram, por meio da carta régia de 19 de junho, um território formado por seis vilas e uma cidade. Nessa direção, o objetivo deste artigo consiste em reconstruir o processo de formação da capitania do Piauí segundo os agentes envolvidos na urbanização do território. Propõe-se descortinar as políticas da Coroa por meio da oficialização de povoações estrategicamente locadas no território visando o controle e o "remédio" das injustiças rotineiras do Piauí. O método de apresentar essa reconstrução vale-se da interconexão entre texto (documentação manuscrita) e imagem (mapas e fotografias), que em suas entrelinhas representam um Piauí como espaço de experiências sentidas tanto na dimensão oficial quanto no cotidiano dos seus moradores

picoBrew: Automated Home Brew

The picoBrew project determined the marketable requirements of a small-scale automated beer brewing system. Techniques from industrial robotics were applied to the basic home brew cycle, resulting in a prototype design which could be easily controlled as well as manufactured. The prototype design focused on repeatability and ease of cleaning, two of the major requirements as determined from market studies. The prototype was capable of independently performing the heating, ingredient handling, and cooling cycles required to make beer