The role of paramilitary punishment attacks and intimidation in death by suicide in post agreement Northern Ireland

The signing of the Good Friday agreement effectively brought an end to the widespread violence associated with the ‘Troubles’. However, communities within Northern Ireland continue to be blighted by an insidious form of violence in the form of punishment beatings and intimidation. Anecdotal evidence published in news media have linked cases of such intimidation and violence to individual cases of suicide. However, to date, there has been a lack of empirical research examining this relationship. The aim of this seminar is to address this gap in our knowledge by examining these forms of violence among a cohort of individuals who died by suicide in Northern Ireland. Using data collected from Coroners and GP files and during interviews with family members, we use a modified version of the psychological autopsy method to explore how intimidation and/or beatings, at or around the time of the death, may have contributed to the suicides of individuals who died over a two-year period. We explore some of the specific features of these deaths and examine associated help seeking with primary care and other mental health professionals. We conclude by exploring ways in which this challenging issue might be tackled at a policy level

An exploration of the dynamics of suicide among women

There has been a great deal of concern about the rising rates of suicide in Northern Ireland. To date, the discussion has tended to focus on suicide among men, with little consideration given to suicide among women. This lack of attention is concerning as studies suggest there are important gender differences in suicidal behaviour. The aim of this presentation is to address this gap in our understanding by placing the female gender as a central factor in our analysis. The presentation delivers findings in three parts: (i) those from a literature review to provide a broad overview of what is currently known about the issue of women and suicide; (ii) those from an analysis of data relating to a cohort of 78 female suicides that took place in Northern Ireland over a two year period, to provide an overview of the help seeking undertaken by these women prior to their death and the type of issues implicated in their suicides. The data were drawn from GP and Coroner records; and, (iii) those from a qualitative analysis of 16 interviews with relatives of women who died, using their views to suggest how services might develop supportive interventions that are best suited to the local setting

Towards an understanding of bereavement in the pathway to suicide

Abstract Key Points 1. Suicide bereavement is associated with increased depression and risk of suicide. The increasing rate of suicide in Northern Ireland presents a major challenge to health and social care policy. 2. To date policy development on the topic has been hampered by a lack of local evidence. Contextually specific research reports are now emerging to strengthen the evidence-base. 3. The findings from our own study suggest that people bereaved by suicide include extended family members and members of the wider community, who can experience lengthy periods of depression and anxiety. 4. Bereaved family members and significant others, may require more nuanced, multi-dimensional interventions, provided over extended periods of time, in order to facilitate varied and complex grief processes. 5. A focus on empowerment, education and information may provide results that are as effective as increasing access to psychological services – these approaches should exist in tande

Use of ERTS-1 data for regional planning in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments: A short brief

Land use and land use activity changes over discrete intervals of time represent basic data requirements in regional planning studies. Two examples of land use analysis required by the Council of Governments' transportation planning staff are described. Both were undertaken utilizing remote sensing imagery analysis. One study using large scale aircraft imagery developed a high degree of analytical detail and functional identification. The other, to support further detailed data base evaluation, utilizing ERTS-1 and small scale aircraft imagery, developed data identifying in more general detail major activity changes within the metropolitan region

Projective rectification from the fundamental matrix

This paper describes a direct, self-contained method for planar image rectification of stereo pairs. The method is based solely on an examination of the Fundamental matrix, where an improved method is given for the derivation of two projective transformations that horizontally align all the epipolar projections. A novel approach is proposed to uniquely optimise each transform in order to minimise perspective distortions. This ensures the rectified images resemble the original images as closely as possible. Detailed results show that the rectification precision exactly matches the estimation error of the Fundamental matrix. In tests the remaining perspective distortion offers on average less than one percent viewpoint distortion. Both these factors offer superior robustness and performance compared with existing techniques

An analysis of household transportation spending during the 2007-2009 US economic recession

The recent economic recession in the United States led to widespread destruction of jobs, home foreclosures, credit freeze and to creditor repossessions of key assets such as personal cars. Our objective is to empirically assess transportation conditions of US households with a focus on transportation spending. The latter is examined in the context of changes in multiple metrics such as total number of household cars, zero-vehicle status, expenditures on local public transportation and gasoline, down payment and net purchase price of cars, decline in household vehicle stock, and interest rates on auto loans. Using an econometric model of repeated cross-sections of data on households from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for the period 2005 through 2009, we examine factors which affect recession-period spending. In an effort to demonstrate the effects of the recession on specific groups, as well as to examine equity implications for vulnerable populations, our overall results are disaggregated by variations in transportation spending of minority, single mother and young households. Transportation spending declined significantly between 2005 and the recession years. A large part of this was due to lower car-ownership levels and an overall increase in zero-car households. Those households that did acquire a car needed to make higher levels of down payment. They also paid higher interest rates compared to the pre-recession period. Minorities spent significantly less than non-minorities before the recession but the difference from non-minorities was not significant during the recession. Single mothers did not spend significantly less than other households overall; however, their spending level became significantly less during the recession and they were much more likely to become zero-car households during the recession. The cost of car-ownership increased drastically for young adult households and the share of carless young households greatly increased during the recession

Calibration and removal of lateral chromatic aberration in images

This paper addresses the problem of compensating for lateral chromatic aberration in digital images through colour plane realignment. Two main contributions are made: the derivation of a model for lateral chromatic aberration in images, and the subsequent calibration of this model from a single view of a chess pattern. These advances lead to a practical and accurate alternative for the compensation of lateral chromatic aberrations. Experimental results validate the proposed models and calibration algorithm. The effects of colour channel correlations resulting from the camera colour filter array interpolation is examined and found to have a negligible magnitude relative to the chromatic aberration. Results with real data show how the removal of lateral chromatic aberration significantly improves the colour quality of the image

Factors Determining Transit Access by Car Owners: Implications for Intermodal Passenger Transportation Planning

Although walking is the dominant mode of transportation to transit facilities, there are strong variations by socio-demographics, geography, mode of public transit used and other factors. There is particularly a need to understand ways in which car owners who choose to use public transportation can be encouraged to carpool, walk or bicycle in the “first mile” and “last mile” of the transit trip, instead of driving. These considerations have implications for addressing cold start trips resulting from short drives to transit facilities, active transportation strategies that may benefit transit users who currently drive, and in deriving solutions for shared transportation such as bicycle-sharing and car-sharing programs. Using data collected in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, we investigate how the mode choice for the access trip to transit stations is related to costs, personal and household variables, trip characteristics, and neighborhood factors including crash frequencies, crime prevalence, neighborhood racial characteristics, population density, roadway density etc. for persons in car owning households. The results suggest that while much of the choice depends on personal and trip related variables, some neighborhood level factors as well as the provision of parking at transit stations have important relationships to mode choice that can influence built environment factors such as density and policy areas such as the provision and operation of transit parking facilities

China's Post Accession WTO Stance

We discuss China's stance in the WTO post-accession, noting the many issues with implementation of China's accession terms by 2007. We evaluate how much benefit China can realistically receive from WTO membership given current problems with dumping actions against China and trade restrictions against textile and apparel exports. We discuss emerging WTO and non-WTO trade disputes involving China, and China's now extensive regional trade initiatives which raise issues of multilateral regional balance on China's trade policy strategy.

The Financial Feasibility of Anaerobic Digestion for Ontario's Livestock Industries

This report is an investigation of the financial feasibility of farm based anaerobic digestion investments under Ontario's Standard Offer Contract electricity prices. Using Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) Agricultural Anaerobic Digestion Calculation Spreadsheet (AADCS) anaerobic digestion inputs, outputs, cost and revenues were estimated and used to conduct a financial analysis on the feasibility of four sized farm base anaerobic digestion investments. The results suggest investment in an anaerobic digestion system smaller than 300 kilo-watts is not financially feasible under the chosen base model assumptions and Ontario's Standard Offer Contract. The efficiency of the anaerobic digestion systems,discussed in the report as electricity yield, was found to have the largest impact on the investments financial feasibility. Incorporating off-farm organic material improved financial feasibility by increasing biogas production and offering the potential for tipping fee revenue.Livestock Production/Industries,