Reported prevalence of health conditions that affect drivers

Drivers' health and fitness are essential factors in order to predict performance outcomes and to promote road safety. It is a demonstrated fact that drivers with (physical and mental) health impairments or illnesses have more probabilities of being involved in traffic crashes and suffering (or causing) several injuries. The general objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of adverse health conditions that may affect Spanish drivers and its perceived impact on driving fitness. It was used a sample of 1200 Spanish drivers (666 men and 534 women). The only selection criteria were to be in possession of any type of driving license for vehicles other than motorcycles and to drive frequently. As a first result, 42% of the participants considered that sometimes they were not in good health conditions to drive and 1.8% considered it frequently. Furthermore, fatigue, alcohol, negative emotions, drowsiness, headaches, respiratory disease, and fever the most prevalent health conditions impairing driver's fitness. Statistical analysis revealed gender differences in reported health and fitness between male and female drivers. The main cause reported to avoid driving task was to suffer illnesses related to physical health (77.6% of drivers). Based on this study, it can be stated that the Administration should work together with the primary health care system in order to improve drivers' awareness on the risk of driving while suffering symptoms of any common physical or mental illness

Optimal Control of One-Qubit Gates

We consider the problem of carrying an initial Bloch vector to a final Bloch vector in a specified amount of time under the action of three control fields (a vector control field). We show that this control problem is solvable and therefore it is possible to optimize the control. We choose the physically motivated criteria of minimum energy spent in the control, minimum magnitude of the rate of change of the control and a combination of both. We find exact analytical solutions.Comment: 5 page

Social inequities in the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on the mental health of a large sample of the Colombian population (PSY-COVID study)

The identification of general population groups particularly vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on mental health and the development of healthcare policies are priority challenges in the current and future pandemics. This study aimed to identify the personal and social determinants of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on mental health in a large sample of the Colombian population. In this cross-sectional study, an anonymous online survey was answered by 18,061 participants from the general population residing in Colombia during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak (from 20 May to 20 June 2020). The risk of depression, anxiety, and somatization disorders were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-2), and Somatic Symptom Questionnaire (SSQ-5), respectively. Overall, 35% of participants showed risk of depression, 29% of anxiety, and 31% of somatization. According to the analysis of social determinants of health, the most affected groups were people with low incomes, students, and young adults (18-29 years). Specifically, low-income young females were the most at-risk population group. These findings show how the lockdown measures affected the general population's mental health in Colombia and highlight some social risk factors in health

Characteristics and Evolution of sill-driven off-axis hydrothermalism in Guaymas Basin – the Ringvent site

The Guaymas Basin spreading center, at 2000 m depth in the Gulf of California, is overlain by a thick sedimentary cover. Across the basin, localized temperature anomalies, with active methane venting and seep fauna exist in response to magma emplacement into sediments. These sites evolve over thousands of years as magma freezes into doleritic sills and the system cools. Although several cool sites resembling cold seeps have been characterized, the hydrothermally active stage of an off-axis site was lacking good examples. Here, we present a multidisciplinary characterization of Ringvent, an ~1 km wide circular mound where hydrothermal activity persists ~28 km northwest of the spreading center. Ringvent provides a new type of intermediate-stage hydrothermal system where off-axis hydrothermal activity has attenuated since its formation, but remains evident in thermal anomalies, hydrothermal biota coexisting with seep fauna, and porewater biogeochemical signatures indicative of hydrothermal circulation. Due to their broad potential distribution, small size and limited life span, such sites are hard to find and characterize, but they provide critical missing links to understand the complex evolution of hydrothermal systems

Primary stroke prevention worldwide : translating evidence into action

Funding Information: The stroke services survey reported in this publication was partly supported by World Stroke Organization and Auckland University of Technology. VLF was partly supported by the grants received from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. MOO was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (SIREN U54 HG007479) under the H3Africa initiative and SIBS Genomics (R01NS107900, R01NS107900-02S1, R01NS115944-01, 3U24HG009780-03S5, and 1R01NS114045-01), Sub-Saharan Africa Conference on Stroke Conference (1R13NS115395-01A1), and Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials & Studies (D43TW012030). AGT was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. SLG was supported by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellowship and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council synergy grant. We thank Anita Arsovska (University Clinic of Neurology, Skopje, North Macedonia), Manoj Bohara (HAMS Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal), Denis ?erimagi? (Poliklinika Glavi?, Dubrovnik, Croatia), Manuel Correia (Hospital de Santo Ant?nio, Porto, Portugal), Daissy Liliana Mora Cuervo (Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, Brazil), Anna Cz?onkowska (Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland), Gloria Ekeng (Stroke Care International, Dartford, UK), Jo?o Sargento-Freitas (Centro Hospitalar e Universit?rio de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal), Yuriy Flomin (MC Universal Clinic Oberig, Kyiv, Ukraine), Mehari Gebreyohanns (UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, TX, USA), Ivete Pillo Gon?alves (Hospital S?o Jos? do Avai, Itaperuna, Brazil), Claiborne Johnston (Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA), Kristaps Jurj?ns (P Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia), Rizwan Kalani (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA), Grzegorz Kozera (Medical University of Gda?sk, Gda?sk, Poland), Kursad Kutluk (Dokuz Eylul University, ?zmir, Turkey), Branko Malojcic (University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia), Micha? Maluchnik (Ministry of Health, Warsaw, Poland), Evija Migl?ne (P Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia), Cassandra Ocampo (University of Botswana, Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana), Louise Shaw (Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Bath, UK), Lekhjung Thapa (Upendra Devkota Memorial-National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal), Bogdan Wojtyniak (National Institute of Public Health, Warsaw, Poland), Jie Yang (First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China), and Tomasz Zdrojewski (Medical University of Gda?sk, Gda?sk, Poland) for their comments on early draft of the manuscript. The views expressed in this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views, decisions, or policies of the institution with which they are affiliated. We thank WSO for funding. The funder had no role in the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the study results, writing of the report, or the decision to submit the study results for publication. Funding Information: The stroke services survey reported in this publication was partly supported by World Stroke Organization and Auckland University of Technology. VLF was partly supported by the grants received from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. MOO was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (SIREN U54 HG007479) under the H3Africa initiative and SIBS Genomics (R01NS107900, R01NS107900-02S1, R01NS115944-01, 3U24HG009780-03S5, and 1R01NS114045-01), Sub-Saharan Africa Conference on Stroke Conference (1R13NS115395-01A1), and Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials & Studies (D43TW012030). AGT was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. SLG was supported by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellowship and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council synergy grant. We thank Anita Arsovska (University Clinic of Neurology, Skopje, North Macedonia), Manoj Bohara (HAMS Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal), Denis Čerimagić (Poliklinika Glavić, Dubrovnik, Croatia), Manuel Correia (Hospital de Santo António, Porto, Portugal), Daissy Liliana Mora Cuervo (Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, Brazil), Anna Członkowska (Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland), Gloria Ekeng (Stroke Care International, Dartford, UK), João Sargento-Freitas (Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal), Yuriy Flomin (MC Universal Clinic Oberig, Kyiv, Ukraine), Mehari Gebreyohanns (UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, TX, USA), Ivete Pillo Gonçalves (Hospital São José do Avai, Itaperuna, Brazil), Claiborne Johnston (Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA), Kristaps Jurjāns (P Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia), Rizwan Kalani (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA), Grzegorz Kozera (Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland), Kursad Kutluk (Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey), Branko Malojcic (University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia), Michał Maluchnik (Ministry of Health, Warsaw, Poland), Evija Miglāne (P Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia), Cassandra Ocampo (University of Botswana, Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana), Louise Shaw (Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Bath, UK), Lekhjung Thapa (Upendra Devkota Memorial-National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal), Bogdan Wojtyniak (National Institute of Public Health, Warsaw, Poland), Jie Yang (First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China), and Tomasz Zdrojewski (Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland) for their comments on early draft of the manuscript. The views expressed in this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views, decisions, or policies of the institution with which they are affiliated. We thank WSO for funding. The funder had no role in the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the study results, writing of the report, or the decision to submit the study results for publication. Funding Information: VLF declares that the PreventS web app and Stroke Riskometer app are owned and copyrighted by Auckland University of Technology; has received grants from the Brain Research New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence (16/STH/36), Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; APP1182071), and World Stroke Organization (WSO); is an executive committee member of WSO, honorary medical director of Stroke Central New Zealand, and CEO of New Zealand Stroke Education charitable Trust. AGT declares funding from NHMRC (GNT1042600, GNT1122455, GNT1171966, GNT1143155, and GNT1182017), Stroke Foundation Australia (SG1807), and Heart Foundation Australia (VG102282); and board membership of the Stroke Foundation (Australia). SLG is funded by the National Health Foundation of Australia (Future Leader Fellowship 102061) and NHMRC (GNT1182071, GNT1143155, and GNT1128373). RM is supported by the Implementation Research Network in Stroke Care Quality of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (project CA18118) and by the IRIS-TEPUS project from the inter-excellence inter-cost programme of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (project LTC20051). BN declares receiving fees for data management committee work for SOCRATES and THALES trials for AstraZeneca and fees for data management committee work for NAVIGATE-ESUS trial from Bayer. All other authors declare no competing interests. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseStroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of disability worldwide and its burden is increasing rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries, many of which are unable to face the challenges it imposes. In this Health Policy paper on primary stroke prevention, we provide an overview of the current situation regarding primary prevention services, estimate the cost of stroke and stroke prevention, and identify deficiencies in existing guidelines and gaps in primary prevention. We also offer a set of pragmatic solutions for implementation of primary stroke prevention, with an emphasis on the role of governments and population-wide strategies, including task-shifting and sharing and health system re-engineering. Implementation of primary stroke prevention involves patients, health professionals, funders, policy makers, implementation partners, and the entire population along the life course.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Yes, size does matter (for cycling safety)! Comparing behavioral and safety outcomes in S, M, L, and XL cities from 18 countries

Although most actions aimed at promoting the use of active transport means have been conducted in ‘large’ cities, recent studies suggest that their cycling dynamics could hinder the efforts put into infrastructural, modal share, and cycling culture improvements. Aim The present study aimed to assess the role of city sizes on riding behavioral and crash-related cycling outcomes in an extensive sample of urban bicycle users. Methods For this purpose, a full sample of 5705 cyclists from >300 cities in 18 countries responded to the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), one of the most widely used behavioral questionnaires to assess risky and positive riding behaviors. Following objective criteria, data were grouped according to small cities (S; population of 50,000 or fewer), medium cities (M; population between 50,000 and 200,000), large cities (L; population between 200,000 and one million), and megacities (XL; population larger than one million). Results Descriptive analyses endorsed the associations between city size, cycling behavioral patterns, and mid-term self-reported crash outcomes. Also, it was observed a significant effect of the city size on cyclists' traffic violations and errors (all p < .001). However, no significant effects of the city size on positive behaviors were found. Also, it stands out that cyclists from megacities self-reported significantly more violations and errors than any of the other groups. Further, the outcomes of this study suggest that city sizes account for cycling safety outcomes through statistical associations, differences, and confirmatory predictive relationships through the mediation of risky cycling behavioral patterns. Conclusion The results of the present study highlight the need for authorities to promote road safety education and awareness plans aimed at cyclists in larger cities. Furthermore, path analysis suggests that “size does matter”, and it statistically accounts for cycling crashes, but only through the mediation of riders' risky behaviors

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon¹⁻³. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses⁴⁻⁹. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc

The Making of a Decision: Women's Voice in the Management of Cacao in Coastal Ecuador

Research has shown that men and women place different values on environmental services obtained and agricultural practices that contribute to the restoration and conservation of these services with several studies pointing out that women have a preference for agroforestry and other sustainable production methods. Our research used game theory to develop a model on household decision-making in order to examine how strengthening women’s voice in household production decisions would influence adoption of sustainable farming practices. We applied this model to the case of agroforestry cacao production in Ecuador, based on household surveys conducted with 300 families. Through a logit estimation, which included independent variables for female and male household head’s educational levels, wealth, access to welfare payments and each gender’s valuation of ecological services from cacao agroforests, we discovered that households were more likely to manage agroforestry parcels when women were wealthier, received welfare payments and were willing to pay more for ecological services. Interventions to strengthen women’s economic position by granting them equal property and inheritance rights may enhance women’s voice in production decisions, leading not only to more just decisions, as both men and women’s preferences are taken into account, but possibly more ecologically sound decisions