Comparing the characteristics of snowboarders injured in a terrain park who present to the ski patrol, the emergency department or both

Ski patrol report forms are a common data source in ski/snowboard research, but it is unclear if those who only present to the emergency department (ED) are systematically different from those who see the ski patrol. To determine the proportion and characteristics of injured snowboarders who bypass the ski patrol before presenting to the ED, three groups of injured snowboarders were compared: presented to the ED only, ski patrol only and ski patrol and ED. Data were collected from ski patrol Accident Report Forms (ARFs), ED medical records and telephone interviews. There were 333 injured snowboarders (ED only: 34, ski patrol only: 107, both: 192). Ability, time of day, snow conditions or drugs/alcohol predicted ED only presentation. Concussions (RRR: 4.66; 95% CI: 1.83, 11.90), sprains/strains (RRR: 4.22; 95% CI: 1.87, 9.49), head/neck (RRR: 2.90; 95% CI: 1.48, 5.78), trunk (RRR: 4.17; 95% CI: 1.92, 9.09) or lower extremity (RRR: 3.65; 95% CI: 1.32, 10.07) injuries were significantly more likely to present to ski patrol only versus ski patrol and ED. In conclusion, snowboarders who presented to the ED only had similar injuries as those who presented to both

Feature-specific terrain park-injury rates and risk factors in snowboarders : a case–control study

Background : Snowboarding is a popular albeit risky sport and terrain park (TP) injuries are more severe than regular slope injuries. TPs contain man-made features that facilitate aerial manoeuvres. The objectives of this study were to determine overall and feature-specific injury rates and the potential risk factors for TP injuries. Methods : Case–control study with exposure estimation, conducted in an Alberta TP during two ski seasons. Cases were snowboarders injured in the TP who presented to ski patrol and/or local emergency departments. Controls were uninjured snowboarders in the same TP. κ Statistics were used to measure the reliability of reported risk factor information. Injury rates were calculated and adjusted logistic regression was used to calculate the feature-specific odds of injury. Results : Overall, 333 cases and 1261 controls were enrolled. Reliability of risk factor information was κ>0.60 for 21/24 variables. The overall injury rate was 0.75/1000 runs. Rates were highest for jumps and half-pipe (both 2.56/1000 runs) and lowest for rails (0.43/1000 runs) and quarter-pipes (0.24/1000 runs). Compared with rails, there were increased odds of injury for half-pipe (OR 9.63; 95% CI 4.80 to 19.32), jumps (OR 4.29; 95% CI 2.72 to 6.76), mushroom (OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.20 to 4.41) and kickers (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.27 to 3.12). Conclusions : Higher feature-specific injury rates and increased odds of injury were associated with features that promote aerial manoeuvres or a large drop to the ground. Further research is required to determine ways to increase snowboarder safety in the TP

Characteristics of injuries sustained by snowboarders in a terrain park

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To determine injured body regions and injury type resulting from snowboarding on aerial and nonaerial terrain park features and the accuracy of ski patrol assessments compared with physician diagnoses. DESIGN: Case series study. SETTING: An Alberta terrain park during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons. PATIENTS: There were 333 snowboarders injured on features (379 injuries). ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS: Aerial or nonaerial terrain park feature used at injury, injured body region, injury type, and additional risk factors were recorded from ski patrol Accident Report Forms, emergency department medical records, and telephone interviews. MEASURES: Odds of injury to body regions and injury types on aerial versus nonaerial features were calculated using multinomial logistic regression. Accuracy of ski patrol injury assessments was examined through sensitivity, specificity, and kappa (κ) statistics. RESULTS: The wrist was the most commonly injured body region (20%), and fracture was the most common injury type (36%). Compared with the upper extremity, the odds of head/neck [odds ratio (OR), 2.58; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.37-4.85] and trunk (OR, 3.65; 95% CI, 1.68-7.95) injuries were significantly greater on aerial features. There was no significant association between aerial versus nonaerial feature and injury type. The accuracy of ski patrol injury assessment was higher for injured body region (κ = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.54-0.75) than for injury type (κ = 0.29; 95% CI, 0.22-0.37). CONCLUSIONS: Snowboarders were significantly more likely to sustain head/neck or trunk injuries than upper extremity injuries on aerial features. Investigators should acknowledge potential misclassification when using ski patrol injury assessments

The reactions of the molecular nitrogen doubly charged ion with neutral molecules of relevance to planetary ionospheres

Diatomic dications (e.g. C02+) have been known to exist for several decades and are believed to be important components of energised media. Molecular dications possess significant internal energy due to the Coulombic repulsion of their two positive charges, meaning that many possible reaction channels are available to dications in a collision with a neutral molecule. Modellers have recently predicted that N22+ is present in the ionosphere of Earth and Titan as well as the dications C>22+ and 02+ in the ionosphere of Earth and CC>22+ in the ionosphere of Mars. These recent predictions, of dications in planetary ionospheres, imply that dications, and processes involving dication-neutral collisions, may have more significance than previously thought in the upper atmospheres of planets. Therefore this thesis describes a study of the reactions between N2 dications and neutrals, potentially of relevance to the ionosphere of Earth and Titan. A position sensitive coincidence (PSCO) time-of flight (TOF) mass spectrometer is used to probe the reactivity, energetics and dynamics of the bimolecular reactions of N22 . Dication-neutrals reactions often result in a pair of singly charged ions. The PSCO experiment is used to collect these pairs of singly-charged ions in coincidence. From the position-sensitive data we extract the velocity vectors of the product ions, and if the reaction of interest involves the formation of a third, undetected, neutral species, its velocity can be determined via conservation of momentum. The electron transfer reactions between dications and neutrals have been well rationalized 2+ previously, so only the electron transfer reactions of N2 with Ne and NO are discussed in this thesis. This thesis concentrates on probing the less well rationalized, bond- forming reactions between dications and neutrals. The bond-forming reactions of N22+ with O2, CO2, H2O, C2H2, CH4, H2 and Ar have been investigated and discussed. Several new bond-forming reactions mechanisms are derived for example, the bond-forming reactions of N22+ with O2 proceed via a 'long' lived complex which dissociates via loss of a neutral and then charge separation, a mechanism which is also operating for one of the bond-forming reactions of N2 with CO2 and N2 with H2O. Additional bond-forming reactions are detected for N22+ with CO2 and H2O, which proceed via shorter lived collision complexes. The reactions of N22+ with C2H2, CH4, H2 and Ar all proceed via a variety of mechanisms involving short-lived collision complexes or H and electron stripping

Listening to a personal music player is associated with fewer but more serious injuries among snowboarders in a terrain park : a case-control study

Background Some snowboarders listen to music on a personal music player and the objective was to determine if listening to music was associated with injury in a terrain park. Methods A case–control study was conducted at a terrain park in Alberta, Canada during the 2008–2009 and 2009–2010 winter seasons. Cases were snowboarders who were injured in the terrain park and presented to either the ski patrol and/or a nearby emergency department (ED). Demographic, environmental and injury characteristics were collected from standardised ski patrol Accident Report Forms, ED medical records and telephone interviews. Controls were uninjured snowboarders using the same terrain park and were interviewed as they approached the lift-line on randomly selected days and times. Multivariable logistic regression determined if listening to music was associated with the odds of snowboard injury. Results Overall, 333 injured cases and 1261 non-injured controls were enrolled; 69 (21%) cases and 425 (34%) controls were listening to music. Snowboarders listening to music had significantly lower odds of injury compared with those not listening to music (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.68; 95% CI 0.48 to 0.98). Snowboarders listening to music had significantly higher odds of presenting to the ED versus ski patrol only compared with those not listening to music (adjusted OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.07 to 4.05). Conclusions While listening to music decreased the odds of any injury in the terrain park, it increased the odds of an injury resulting in ED presentation

Modelling the role of tissue heterogeneity in epileptic rhythms

Epileptic seizure activity manifests as complex spatio-temporal dynamics on the clinically relevant macroscopic scale. These dynamics are known to arise from spatially heterogeneous tissue, but the relationship between specific spatial abnormalities and epileptic rhythm generation is not well understood. We formulate a simplified macroscopic modelling framework with which to study the role of spatial heterogeneity in the generation of epileptiform spatio-temporal rhythms. We characterize the overall model dynamics in terms of spontaneous activity and excitability and demonstrate normal and abnormal spreading of activity. We introduce a means to systematically investigate the topology of abnormal sub-networks and explore its impact on spontaneous and stimulus-evoked rhythmic dynamics. This computationally efficient framework complements results from detailed biophysical models, and allows the testing of specific hypotheses about epileptic dynamics on the macroscopic scale

Additional file 13: of Metabolome analysis of 20 taxonomically related benzylisoquinoline alkaloid-producing plants

Triple quadrupole LC-MS/MS chromatographs representing 20 BIA-accumulating plant species. Peak annotation was performed manually based on comparison with retention times (Rt) and collision-induced dissociation (CID) spectra (Additional file 14) of authentic standards. Identified peaks are numbered in correspondence with those listed in Additional file 14. Species abbreviations are defined in Table 1. (PDF 1561 kb

Additional file 5: of Metabolome analysis of 20 taxonomically related benzylisoquinoline alkaloid-producing plants

Two-dimensional principal component analysis (PCA) of metabolite quantities obtained using LC/DFI-MS/MS-based profiling. Results are presented as scores (A) and loadings (B) plots. The percent variance accounted for by each principal component (PC) is indicated. For the scores plot, each dot represents a one of four replicates analyzed per plant species. Areas enclosed by 95 % confidence ellipses, containing dots of the same color, define statistically significant class separations [34]. Species abbreviations are defined in Table 1. Loadings representing individual metabolites are shown as black dots (B). Metabolites are indicated for select loadings. A complete listing of loadings data is found in Additional file 16. Abbreviations: C, acylcarnitine; SM, sphingomyelin; PC, phosphatidylcholine; aa, diacyl; ae, acyl-ester. A complete listing of full compound names and abbreviations is available online: http://www.biocrates.com/products/research-products/absoluteidq-p150-kit . (PDF 1591 kb