Annual performance indicators of enforced driver behaviours in South Australia, 2007

This report was produced to quantify performance indicators for selected enforced driver behaviours (drink driving, drug driving, speeding and restraint use) in South Australia for the calendar year 2007. The level of random breath testing (RBT) in South Australia in 2007 decreased slightly but remained at a relatively high level. The proportion of tests conducted using mobile RBT continued to increase. The detection rate based on evidentiary testing increased in 2007 to the highest level on record, while the detection rate for screening tests decreased. Detection rates in South Australia were comparable with those in other states. Just over 12,000 drug tests were conducted during 2007, the first full year of random drug testing. Relative to other Australian jurisdictions supplying comparative data, South Australia had the highest testing rate per head of population. Around 24 drivers per 1,000 tested were confirmed positive for at least one of the three prescribed drugs with methylamphetamine the most commonly detected drug. Of the fatally injured drivers who were drug tested in 2007, 25 per cent tested positive for illicit drugs. There was a slight decrease in the number of hours spent on speed detection in 2007. Nevertheless, the total number of speed detections increased, with increases observed for speed camera and red light/speed cameras, the latter most likely due to the expansion of the program. The detection rate (per hour of enforcement and per 1,000 vehicles passing speed cameras) increased by around 30 per cent. Data from systematic speed surveys, introduced in 2007, indicated that travelling speeds on South Australian roads were increasing. The number of restraint offences in 2007 decreased by 14 per cent. Males were charged with more restraint offences and were more likely to be unrestrained in fatal and serious injury crashes than females, indicating that males remain an important target for restraint enforcement. The 2007 publicity campaign focused on the consequences of not using restraints rather than increasing the perceived risk of detection.LN Wundersitz, K Hiranandani, MRJ Baldoc

Disability, Poverty and Food Sovereignty: Advancing the Human Security Agenda

This essay furthers the human security discourse using the lenses of disability and food studies. The human security agenda must embrace the principle of food sovereignty that counteracts neo-liberal notions on food security. Since poverty, food insecurity, and disability are manifestations of similar development processes, horizontal alliances are imperative for systemic change

To Be or Not To Be Humorous? Cross Cultural Perspectives on Humor

open access articleHumor seems to manifest differently in Western and Eastern cultures, although little is known about how culture shapes humor perceptions. The authors suggest that Westerners regard humor as a common and positive disposition; the Chinese regard humor as a special disposition particular to humorists, with controversial aspects. In Study 1, Hong Kong participants primed with Western culture evaluate humor more positively than they do when primed with Chinese culture. In Study 2a, Canadians evaluate humor as being more important in comparison with Chinese participants. In Study 2b, Canadians expect ordinary people to possess humor, while Chinese expect specialized comedians to be humorous. The implications and limitations are discussed

A scheme for supporting distributed data structures on multicomputers

A data migration mechanism is proposed that allows an explicit and controlled mapping of data to memory. While read or write copies of each data element can be assigned to any processor's memory, longer term storage of each data element is assigned to a specific location in the memory of a particular processor. The proposed integration of a data migration scheme with a compiler is able to eliminate the migration of unneeded data that can occur in multiprocessor paging or caching. The overhead of adjudicating multiple concurrent writes to the same page or cache line is also eliminated. Data is presented that suggests that the scheme may be a pratical method for efficiently supporting data migration

Distributed memory compiler design for sparse problems

A compiler and runtime support mechanism is described and demonstrated. The methods presented are capable of solving a wide range of sparse and unstructured problems in scientific computing. The compiler takes as input a FORTRAN 77 program enhanced with specifications for distributing data, and the compiler outputs a message passing program that runs on a distributed memory computer. The runtime support for this compiler is a library of primitives designed to efficiently support irregular patterns of distributed array accesses and irregular distributed array partitions. A variety of Intel iPSC/860 performance results obtained through the use of this compiler are presented

Ice Cream Rounds: The implementation of peer support debriefing sessions at a Canadian medical school

Wellness programs exist for medical students but the opportunity to debrief challenging experiences is lacking. We piloted Ice Cream Rounds (ICRs) for University of Ottawa clerkship students during the 2018-2019 academic year to provide students a safe environment to discuss challenges. Students reported a decrease in stress, anxiety and burnout, and an improvement in collegiality as a result of ICRs. ICRs could benefit medical students at other universities. To successfully implement ICRs at your institution, we recommend obtaining funding for ice cream, having peer facilitators, and creating a safe and confidential environment where students feel comfortable to debrief challenging experiences