The impact of the graduated driver licence scheme on road traffic accident youth mortality in New Zealand

This paper examines the impact of the introduction of New Zealand’s Graduated Driving Licence System (GDLS) on patterns of road traffic accident mortality amongst the young driving population from 1980 to 2001. Results show that the mortality rate has declined, but that rates in New Zealand are three times greater than in England and Wales and twice those of Scotland. When the data is adjusted to take account of differences in the minimum driving age, rates remain consistently higher in New Zealand and the proportional reduction in road traffic accident youth mortality is not significantly better than that experienced in Great Britain

The relationships of geographical variations in health outcomes and earthquake impact

Is there a spatial relationship between the extent of physical damage from natural disasters and non-injury psycho-social stress related health outcomes ? Are adverse stress-related health outcomes greater among people who have experienced greater physical damage to their communities and homes than other those who have experienced less damage, but who also live in the city

Variation in health and social equity in the spaces where we live: A review of previous literature from the GeoHealth Laboratory

The previous decade has given rise to the importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in explaining inequalities in health outcomes between groups based on their spatial location and social background. The GeoHealth Laboratory, based at the University of Canterbury, is a joint venture with the Health and Disability Intelligence unit within the Ministry of Health (MoH). The aims of this relationship are to add analytical capacity to MoH data collections and increase academic outputs of geospatial health research in New Zealand. GeoHealth research has often been a joint venture between Laboratory staff and students as well as collaboration with local and international researchers. These partnerships along with widely varied research interests have resulted in a large contribution of spatial health research in the field of health geography. This article reports on research undertaken by the GeoHealth Laboratory that has focused on access to neighbourhood determinants of health. An overview of key neighbourhoods and health research areas are outlined within the over-arching themes of indices of access to neighbourhood factors, access to undesireable neighbourhood destinations, health promoting neighbourhood factors, access to and utilisation of health services, and complementary data collection and research groups within New Zealand

Environmental Health Indicators: A review of initiatives worldwide

Purpose – The extent to which research into the design and development of environmental health indicators (EHIs) has translated into operational programmes is unclear. The purpose of this paper is to identify EHI initiatives worldwide, distil the EHIs and draw lessons from the experience. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic internet-based review was undertaken. Programmes were selected for inclusion if they: first, had the ability to monitor both the physical environment and associated health outcomes; and second, the parent agency had the ability to influence policies related to the environment and health. Findings – The small number of eligible programmes indicates EHI initiatives are not yet well established, especially in developing countries. The use of indicators was also limited by uncertainties in the exposure-response relationships that they implied, and the consequent inability to translate the indicators into a common measure of health impact. In addition, there is no information on the extent to which the indicators have been applied in decision making, nor on the policy implications of using indicators. Practical implications – More effort is needed to encourage the development and use of more balanced and informative sets of indicators, and to evaluate their use and outcomes in terms of health benefits. Originality/value – The time is right for a substantial review paper on EHIs as they are now being used by a number of organisations and to the knowledge this is the first review of operational EHI programmes worldwide

Scaling laws for electron kinetic effects in tokamak scrape-off layer plasmas

Tokamak edge (scrape-off layer (SOL)) plasmas can exhibit non-local transport in the direction parallel to the magnetic field due to steep temperature gradients. This effect along with its consequences has been explored at equilibrium for a range of conditions, from sheath-limited to detached, using the 1D kinetic electron code SOL-KiT, where the electrons are treated kinetically and compared to a self-consistent fluid model. Line-averaged suppression of the kinetic heat flux (compared to Spitzer-Härm) of up to 50% is observed, contrasting with up to 98% enhancement of the sheath heat transmission coefficient, γe. Simple scaling laws in terms of basic SOL parameters for both effects are presented. By implementing these scalings as corrections to the fluid model, we find good agreement with the kinetic model for target electron temperatures. It is found that the strongest kinetic effects in γe are observed at low-intermediate collisionalities, and tend to increase (keeping upstream collisionality fixed) at increasing upstream densities and temperatures. On the other hand, the heat flux suppression is found to increase monotonically as upstream collisionality decreases. The conditions simulated encompass collisionalities relevant to current and future tokamaks