969 research outputs found
The effectiveness of licence restriction for drink drivers: The Australian experience
In many jurisdictions, licence restriction is used as an alternative to full suspension for certain drink driving offenders. However, this may undermine both the specific and general deterrent effect of licence loss, by reducing the perceived certainty and severity of the sanction. To explore this proposition, an analysis was undertaken of the records of almost 22,000 male drivers initially convicted of drink driving during 1988 in Queensland, Australia. At a process level, it was found that licence restriction was relatively common, with 12% of offenders being granted a restricted licence for employment purposes. Contrary to legislative guidelines, these licences were sometimes granted to offenders with a recent history of drink driving. At an outcome level, it was found that the restricted drivers were involved in a similar proportion of alcohol-related crashes, but more non alcohol-related crashes, during the term of the sanction than drivers who had been fully suspended. This is consistent with previous research by the authors indicating that restricted drivers do not commit any more drink driving offences than suspended drivers. Therefore, while full suspension produces greater overall road safety benefits, restricted licences appear no less effective as a specific deterrent to drink driving
Sunburn and malignant melanoma.
We investigated the relationship between cutaneous malignant melanoma and multiple sunburns in the Queensland population. Interview data were gathered from 236 case-control pairs concerning their lifetime experience of severe sunburns, their occupational and recreational sun exposure, and their skin type. Excluding the lentigo maligna melanoma subtype, an association between multiple sunburns and melanoma was evident. After controlling for other major risk factors there was a significant dose-response relationship (P less than 0.05): the estimated relative risk associated with 2-5 sunburns in life was 1.5, and with 6 or more was 2.4. This observation extends the hitherto circumstantial evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation and melanoma, and suggests that precautionary measures could prevent the development of this disease in a proportion of cases in fair-skinned populations
Allografts Surviving for 26 to 29 Years Following Living-Related Kidney Transplantation: Analysis by Light Microscopy, In Situ Hybridization for the Y Chromosome, and Anti-HLA Antibodies
We studied seven patients aged 14 to 40 years who received living-related kidney transplants and had allograft survivals of 26 to 29 years. The blood urea and creatinine were either within normal limits or marginally elevated. Histopathologic examination showed only mild mesangial expansion, interstitial fibrosis, and arteriosclerosis. Immunoperoxidase staining with anti-HLA antibodies or in situ hybridization with a Y chromosome probe showed persistence of donor tubular epithelium and vascular endothelium within the graft. Recipient-derived glomerular cells were seen in one case, and interstitial lymphocytic infiltrates were seen in all cases. A review of the clinicopathologic data available for these cases indicated that both central and peripheral immunologic mechanisms contributed to the maintenance of prolonged graft survival. This extended survival was independent of six antigen matching, downregulation of donor HLA antigen expression, and ingrowth of host epithelium/endothelium into the allograft. © 1994, National Kidney Foundation. All rights reserved. All rights reserved
Recommended from our members
Persistence of upper stratospheric wintertime tracer variability into the Arctic spring and summer
Using data from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) and Aura
satellites, we have categorized the interannual variability of winter- and
springtime upper stratospheric methane (CH4). We further show the effects
of this variability on the chemistry of the upper stratosphere throughout the
following summer. Years with strong wintertime mesospheric descent followed
by dynamically quiet springs, such as 2009, lead to the lowest summertime
CH4. Years with relatively weak wintertime descent, but strong springtime
planetary wave activity, such as 2011, have the highest summertime CH4. By
sampling the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) according to the occultation
pattern of the AIM Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE), we show that
summertime upper stratospheric chlorine monoxide (ClO) almost perfectly
anticorrelates with the CH4. This is consistent with the reaction of
atomic chlorine with CH4 to form the reservoir species, hydrochloric acid
(HCl). The summertime ClO for years with strong, uninterrupted mesospheric
descent is about 50âŻ% greater than in years with strong horizontal
transport and mixing of high CH4 air from lower latitudes. Small, but
persistent effects on ozone are also seen such that between 1 and 2âŻhPa, ozone
is about 4â5âŻ% higher in summer for the years with the highest CH4
relative to the lowest. This is consistent with the role of the chlorine
catalytic cycle on ozone. These dependencies may offer a means to monitor
dynamical effects on the high-latitude upper stratosphere using summertime
ClO measurements as a proxy. Additionally, these chlorine-controlled ozone decreases,
which are seen to maximize after years with strong uninterrupted wintertime
descent, represent a new mechanism by which mesospheric descent can affect
polar ozone. Finally, given that the effects on ozone appear to persist much
of the rest of the year, the consideration of winter/spring dynamical
variability may also be relevant in studies of ozone trends
Geomagnetic activity and polar surface air temperature variability
Here we use the ERA-40 and ECMWF operational surface level air temperature data sets from 1957 to 2006 to examine polar temperature variations during years with different levels of geomagnetic activity, as defined by the A(p) index. Previous modeling work has suggested that NOx produced at high latitudes by energetic particle precipitation can eventually lead to detectable changes in surface air temperatures (SATs). We find that during winter months, polar SATs in years with high A(p) index are different than in years with low A(p) index; the differences are statistically significant at the 2-sigma level and range up to about +/- 4.5 K, depending on location. The temperature differences are larger when years with wintertime Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) are excluded. We take into account solar irradiance variations, unlike previous analyses of geomagnetic effects in ERA-40 and operational data. Although we cannot conclusively show that the polar SAT patterns are physically linked by geomagnetic activity, we conclude that geomagnetic activity likely plays a role in modulating wintertime surface air temperatures. We tested our SAT results against variation in the Quasi Biennial Oscillation, the El Nino Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode. The results suggested that these were not driving the observed polar SAT variability. However, significant uncertainty is introduced by the Northern Annular Mode, and we cannot robustly exclude a chance linkage between sea surface temperature variability and geomagnetic activity
Hypothesis: hair cover can protect against invasive melanoma on the head and neck (Australia)
The anatomic distribution of cutaneous melanoma reflects peopleâs levels and patterns of sun exposure. While examining trends of incident invasive melanomas by site in recent decades in Australia we noted significant increases in incidence on the ears but not the face or any other site in women younger than 40 years, by 6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 2â10%) per year, and 40â59 years by 7% (95% CI 4â10%) per year. Men of the same age showed no corresponding changes in ear melanoma. However incidence rates of ear melanoma in general were fourfold higher in males than females in Australia. Further, using data from the National Cancer Instituteâs Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, rates of invasive melanoma on the ear were found to be sevenfold higher in males than females in the US population in the same period. Higher rates of scalp and neck melanomas were also seen in men and women in both populations. We therefore speculated that the isolated rises of ear melanoma in younger women in Australia, and the higher overall rates of ear, scalp and neck melanoma in men compared with women, reflect differences in hair coverage. We tested the specific hypothesis that hair cover reduces sun exposure of the ears using experimental manikins and found that hair cover of the ear reduced solar ultraviolet-B exposure by 81% [SE ±8] compared with uncovered ears. We conclude that hair cover can protect against invasive melanoma on the ear and may similarly protect on the scalp and neck. When discretionary, hair may be an important additional factor to be considered for melanoma prevention
The Effect of Attractiveness on Food Sharing Preferences in Human Mating Markets
The current study explored how physical attractiveness affects food sharing by studying payment preferences for hypothetical romantic dinner dates (a hypothetical mating market). We analyzed payment preferences, self-rated attractiveness, and rated attractiveness for hypothetical dates in 416 participants. We hypothesized that (1) men would be more likely to prefer to pay than would women, (2) attractive individuals of both sexes would be less willing to pay, and (3) preferences to enter an exchange would be influenced by the attractiveness of prospective partners such that (3a) men would prefer to pay for attractive women, and (3b) women would prefer to be paid for by attractive men. All hypotheses were supported by our results. Individuals with higher self-rated attractiveness were more likely to prefer that their date would pay for the meal, and we found clear sex differences in how the attractiveness of potential dates affected payment preferences. Male participants preferred to pay for dates that had higher facial attractiveness, while female participants preferred that attractive men would pay. Individuals show condition dependent financial preferences consistent with the provisioning hypothesis in this mating market that are adaptive to evaluations of their own quality and that of prospective partners
Inductive learning spatial attention
This paper investigates the automatic induction of spatial attention
from the visual observation of objects manipulated
on a table top. In this work, space is represented in terms of
a novel observer-object relative reference system, named Local
Cardinal System, defined upon the local neighbourhood
of objects on the table. We present results of applying the
proposed methodology on five distinct scenarios involving
the construction of spatial patterns of coloured blocks
Binding of antigen by immunocytes. II. Effect of specific Ig on antigen binding by MOPC 315 cells.
- âŠ