Perceptions of Water Competencies, Drowning Risk and Aquatic Participation among Older Adults

New Zealand has an aging population and, despite falling drowning tolls in all other age groups (WSNZ, 2019c), older adults have continued to drown in both increasing numbers and proportion. The reasons for this are not well understood since very little drowning research has focused on older people. A water safety survey (N = 389) seeking information on older adults’ aquatic recreational practices and perceptions of safety was conducted at the end of the summer season, 2019. Most adults (86%, n = 335) reported some aquatic activity in the previous year, but those aged 65+ years (66%) were significantly less likely than younger age groups to engage in aquatic recreation. Respondents aged 65+ years were less likely (74%) to perceive they could swim more than five minutes non-stop. We discuss the implications of lower perceived swimming and floating competence and less frequent participation in aquatic activities on risk of drowning

Readiness to Rescue: Bystander Perceptions of Their Capacity to Respond in a Drowning Emergency

From 1980-2012, 81 persons drowned in New Zealand while attempting to rescue others. Of these, most (80%) were male, and all rescue fatalities occurred in open waters. Festivalgoers (N = 415) attending a cultural event in Auckland, New Zealand took part in a water safety survey that included information on their readiness to respond in a drowning emergency. Many indicated they would jump in and rescue a victim (47%), less than one third (30%) would get flotation to the victim. Significantly more males responded that they would jump in and rescue (males 55%, females 40%). Most (62%) estimated that they could only swim less than 100 m; 85% reported having swum that distance a swimming pool rather than in open water where most rescues take place; and one half (50%) had last swum the distance more than one year ago. Ways of promoting safe rescue knowledge are discussed and further research directions are identified

Teresa Grinage and Charles Stanley in a Joint Senior Voice Recital

This is the program for the joint senior recital of mezzo-soprano Teresa Grinage and baritone Charles Stanley. Ms. Grinage was accompanied on the piano by Camille Brown, and Mr. Stanley was accompanied by Cindy Fuller. This recital took place on April 5, 2002, in the McBeth Recital Hall in the Mabee Fine Arts Center

Parental Perceptions of Water Competence and Drowning Risk for Themselves and Their Children in an Open Water Environment

Little is known about people’s perceptions of how much swimming competency is required to provide protection from drowning, especially in open water environments where most drowning incidents occurs. This study reports on parental perceptions (n = 309) of swimming competency of themselves and their children, and parents beliefs on their safety when swimming in open water. Most parents (58%) considered themselves good/very good swimmers, although more than half (55%) considered that they could swim 25 m or less. Most parents (87%) reported that their children could swim, with more than one half (52%) believing that their child’s swimming competency was good/very good, yet most (74%) considered their child could swim only 25 m or less. Most parents (59%) and almost all children (81%) had never actually swum their reported distance in open water. In spite of these low levels of competency, one half (51%) of parents thought their children were safe/very safe in open water. The implications of an overly optimistic belief in the protective value of minimal levels of swimming competency for open water safety are discussed. Further exploration of the difference between real and perceived swimming competency, especially with at-risk groups such as males, are recommended

Toddler Drowning Prevention: Teaching Parents About Child CPR in Conjunction With Their Child’s In-Water Lessons

The purpose of the study was to develop a program that addressed parental misconceptions of child CPR. Parents (n = 109) of toddlers enrolled in swim school lessons were randomly assigned to control, pool-based instruction, and home-based groups. Initially, one third (30%) of parents were confident of their ability to perform child CPR and only one fifth (22%) correctly reported the recommended compression-to-rescue breath ratio of 30:2 for child CPR. Postintervention, confidence and knowledge of CPR protocols improved significantly for both instruction groups compared with the control group. Correct compression-to-breath ratios significantly improved for the pool-based group (86%) and home-based group (87%) compared with the control group (33%). Child CPR instruction at swim schools provided a valuable opportunity to reduce parental anxiety about performing child CPR and improved knowledge of child CPR. Further research is required to determine how other toddler parents might similarly benefit from such a program

Gamma-ray variability from stellar wind porosity in microquasar systems

In the subclass of high-mass X-ray binaries known as “microquasars,” relativistic hadrons in the jets launched by the compact object can interact with cold protons from the star's radiatively driven wind, producing pions that then quickly decay into gamma rays. Since the resulting gamma-ray emissivity depends on the target density, the detection of rapid variability in microquasars with GLAST and the new generation of Cherenkov imaging arrays could be used to probe the clumped structure of the stellar wind. This paper summarizes recent analyses of how the “porosity length” of the stellar wind structure can set the level of fluctuation in gamma rays. A key result is that, for a porosity length defined by h ≡ L/f, i.e. as the ratio of the characteristic size L of clumps to their volume filling factor f, the relative fluctuation in gamma-ray emission in a binary with orbital separation a scales as (h/πa)1/2 in the “thin-jet” limit, and is reduced by a factor ( 1 + φ a/2L )-1/2 for a jet with a finite opening angle φ. For a thin jet and quite moderate porosity length h ≍ 0.03a, this implies a ca. 10% variation in the gamma-ray emission.Fil: Owocki, Stanley P.. University of Delaware. Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics & Astronomy; Estados UnidosFil: Romero, Gustavo Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Townsend, Richard H. D.. University of Delaware. Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics & Astronomy; Estados Unidos. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Araudo, Anabella Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentin

Swim Instructor Beliefs About Toddler and Pre-School Swimming and Water Safety Education

To study the teacher component of the parent-teacher-learner triad in preschool aquatics and explore compatibility of instructor messages with current drowning prevention beliefs, 133 preschool aquatics instructors were surveyed. Instructors with basic swim teacher accreditation and those with a preschool/infant instructor extension (“Extension”) were compared. More Extension instructors selected “safety” as an important outcome (χ2 = 7.907, df = 3, p = 0.048). Both instructor groups considered parental education important but Extension instructors held this view more strongly. Disturbingly, more Extension instructors disagreed that increased toddler confidence following lessons necessitates greater supervision around water (χ2 = 4.141, df = 1, p = 0.042). To avoid such messages, instructor education should place even greater emphasis on close and constant adult supervision and counter the misconception that early age lessons protect children from drowning

Gamma-ray variability from stellar wind porosity in microquasar systems

In the subclass of high-mass X-ray binaries known as “microquasars,” relativistic hadrons in the jets launched by the compact object can interact with cold protons from the star's radiatively driven wind, producing pions that then quickly decay into gamma rays. Since the resulting gamma-ray emissivity depends on the target density, the detection of rapid variability in microquasars with GLAST and the new generation of Cherenkov imaging arrays could be used to probe the clumped structure of the stellar wind. This paper summarizes recent analyses of how the “porosity length” of the stellar wind structure can set the level of fluctuation in gamma rays.Instituto Argentino de RadioastronomíaFacultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica