National roadside survey of child restraint system use in Belgium

In September 2011 the Belgian Road Safety Institute (BRSI) conducted its first roadside survey of child restraint system (CRS) use and misuse. The aim of this study was to obtain population-bases estimates of the prevalence of use and misuse of CRS and to identify predictors of misuse on the basis of observations in real traffic conditions. The survey was conducted on randomly selected sites across the country, stratified across various types of journeys. The principal parameters analysed were: the characteristics of the children and the car drivers, type of journey, types of CRS and types of misuse. The sample consisted of 1461 children (under 135 cm) for whom the conditions of restraint were observed in detail and the driver was interviewed.     

Child restraint system use and misuse in six states

This project addressed use and misuse of child restraint systems (CRS) in the nation. CRS use and critical misuse observations were collected in the Fall of 2002 for 5527 children less than 36 kg (80 pounds) in 4126 vehicles in six states: Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Results showed that 62.3% of these children were restrained in a CRS; 25.9% were restrained in a safety belt (SB); and 11.8% were unrestrained. By weight class, CRS use was 97.1% for children less than 9 kg (20 pounds); 86.4% for children between 9 and 18 kg (20 and 40 pounds); 41.7% for children between 18 and 27 kg (40 and 60 pounds); and 10.9% for children between 27 and 36 kg (60 and 80 pounds). Overall critical CRS misuse was 72.6%. Most common critical misuses were loose harness straps and loose vehicle SB attachment to the CRS. Other types of CRS misuses were also observed and recorded in the study. Recommendations are provided for field observation techniques, periodic monitoring, and research for education and enforcement strategies.     

Parents’ attitudes,knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel

This study investigated parents’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel following new Australian legislation regarding child restraint system (CRS) and motor vehicle restraint use for children aged 7 years and under. A questionnaire exploring attitudes, knowledge and behaviours regarding general road safety, as well as safe child occupant travel, was completed by 272 participants with at least one child aged between 3 and 10 years residing in the Australian state of Victoria. Responses to the questionnaire revealed that participants’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours towards road safety in general were fairly positive, with most participants reporting that they restrict their alcohol consumption or do not drink at all while driving (87%), drive at or below the speed limit (85%) and ‘always’ wear their seatbelts (98%). However, more than half of the participants reported engaging in distracting behaviours ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ (54%) and a small proportion of participants indicated that they ‘sometimes’ engaged in aggressive driving (14%). Regarding their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel, most participants reported that they ‘always’ restrain their children (99%). However, there was a surprisingly high proportion of participants who did not know the appropriate age thresholds’ to transition their child from a booster seat to an adult seatbelt (53%) or the age for which it is appropriate for their child to sit in the front passenger seat of the vehicle (20%). Logistic regression analyses revealed that parents’ knowledge regarding safe child occupant travel was significantly related to their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours towards road safety in general, such as drinking habits while driving and CRS safety knowledge. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations are made for strategies to enhance parents’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel, as well as for future research.     

A prospective study of children aged <16 years in motor vehicle collisions in Norway: Severe injuries are observed predominantly in older children and are associated with restraint misuse

Objective

The implementation of the compulsory wearing of seat belts (SBs) for children and improvements in child restraint systems have reduced the number of deaths and severe injuries among children involved in motor vehicle (MV) collisions (MVCs). Establishing the characteristics predictive of such injuries may provide the basis for targeted safety campaigns and lead to a further reduction in mortality and morbidity among children involved in MVCs. This study performed a multidisciplinary investigation among child occupants involved in MVCs to elucidate injury mechanisms, evaluate the safety measures used and determine the characteristics that are predictive of injury.

Methods

A prospective study was conducted of all child occupants aged <16 years involved in severe MVCs in south-eastern Norway during 2009–2013. The exterior and interior of the MVs were investigated and the injured children were medically examined. Supplementary information was obtained from witnesses, the crash victims, police reports, medical records and reconstructions. Each case was reviewed by a multidisciplinary team to assess the mechanism of injury.

Results

In total, 158 child occupants involved in 100 MVCs were investigated, of which 27 (17%) exhibited Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores of 2+ injuries and 15 (9%) exhibited AIS 3+ injuries. None of the children died. Of those with AIS 2+ injuries (n = 27), 89% (n = 24) were involved in frontal impact collisions and 11% (3/27) were involved in side impacts. Multivariate analysis revealed that restraint misuse, age, the prevailing lighting conditions and ΔV were all independently correlated with AIS 2+ injuries. Safety errors were found in 74% (20/27) of those with AIS 2+ injuries and 93% (14/15) of those with AIS 3+ injuries. The most common safety error was misuse of restraints, and in particular loose and/or improperly positioned SBs.

Conclusion

The risk of injury among child occupants is significantly higher when the child occupants are exposed to safety errors within the interior of the vehicle. Future campaigns should focus on the prevention of restraint misuse and unsecured objects in the passenger compartment or boot.     

Factors associated with rear seating of children in motor vehicles: a study in two low-income, predominantly Hispanic communities

This study examined child seating patterns in two predominantly low-income, Hispanic communities in Massachusetts. The purpose was to determine the factors associated with child rear seating in the community as a whole and for a subset of Hispanic motorists. Five hundred and five vehicles carrying child passengers and no adult other than the driver were observed in parking lots of fast food restaurants and grocery stores. Four hundred and thirty-two vehicle drivers agreed to be interviewed. A child was defined as a passenger younger than age 12 as determined by appearance and height (head below the vehicle headrest when seated). Variables under study included driver gender, age, ethnicity, and educational attainment; driver shoulder belt use; driver perception of passenger-side airbag presence; and the number and ages of children in the car. Overall, 51% of vehicles were observed with all children seated in the rear. In a bivariate analysis, child rear seating was strongly associated with female drivers ( P = 0.01), younger drivers ( P = 0.02) driver shoulder belt use ( P < 0.00), perceived presence of a passenger-side airbag ( P < 0.00), all children in the vehicle 相似文献   

Sustainability of the effects of the demerit points system on seat belt use: a region-wide before-and-after observational study in Italy

To assess the short and long term effects of the demerit points system on seat belt use, we set a region-wide cross-sectional observational study 3 months before, and 3 and 15 months after the introduction of the scheme (July 2003) in the Veneto Region, Italy. We analysed differences in seat belt use by year of observation, gender and position in the vehicle, and obtained adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) through Poisson regression. A total of 29,303 drivers, 28,778 front and 12,186 rear passengers were observed. Prevalence levels of 54% for drivers and 53% for front passengers in 2003 switched to 83 and 76%, respectively, 3 months after the new legislation, with further slight increases 15 months thereafter. Seventy-four percent rear passengers were still not compliant with the legislation in 2005. The probability of being belted was 25% lower in males than females (APR=0.75, 95% CI 0.73-0.77) at the beginning of the study period. However, the effect of the new legislation was 19% greater among males (APR=1.19, 95% CI 1.16-1.23). A substantial increase in seat belt use was reached and sustained with the demerit points system. Specific efforts should target rear passengers whose seat belt use still remains worryingly low.     

A study of the elongated replenishment frequency of TOC supply chain replenishment systems in plants

The TOC (theory of constraint) supply chain replenishment system (TOC-SCRS), a replenishment method of the TOC supply chain solution, is now being implemented by a growing number of companies. In the application of the TOC-SCRS in a node of a supply chain, the replenishment frequency (RF) and replenishment lead time are the required parameters. Generally, the RF of a node depends on the public transportation schedule such as ship schedules or its private conveyor schedule. If this node is a plant, however, the RF depends on the setup frequency in this plant. Basically, the RF in a plant is determined by its sales or production quantity; when sales significantly increase, the RF in a plant needs to be elongated from a higher frequency (i.e. once a day) to a lower frequency (i.e. once every two or more days) due to the limited capacity. However, during the RF conversion periods, some products will be confronted with an inventory shortage problem. An evaluation and enhancement model is then proposed to release the inventory shortage occurrence during the RF conversion periods. A numeric case is also utilised to evaluate the application of the proposed model. Employing this proposed methodology will facilitate a plant to successfully implement an effective TOC-SCRS.     

The development of a decision support framework for a quantitative risk assessment in multimodal green logistics: an empirical study

The objective of this research was to develop a decision support framework (DSF) to assess quantitative risk in multimodal green logistics. This risk assessment is the combination of a number of models, the failure mode and effects analysis, the risk contour plot, the quantitative risk assessment, the analytic hierarchy process and the data envelopment analysis which can support a user to perform risk assessment in various decisions. The contribution of this research is that the risk assessment model can generate an optimal green logistics route in accordance with weight from the user. The highlight of this DSF is that the quantitative assessment model can reduce bias on risk assessment of logistics route. An in-depth case study, recommendations, limitations and further research are also provided.     

Marketing in the material construction of artifacts: A case study of a Portuguese navigation systems company

This article examines the social construction of technological innovations, focusing on how marketers of an information and communication technology (ICT) product interact with engineers in the creation of that product. The main purpose is to develop in empirical terms the concept of “material semiotics' rhetoric”. To this end it takes an in-depth look at a medium-sized Portuguese firm, in which we have over a period of five years observed how a GPS navigation device is generated and developed. We use the notions of “rhetoric” and “frames of reference” in adopting “material semiotics” as the theoretical background for observing the behaviors and interactions of the different actors involved in the construction of this technological artifact. The results show how the rhetorical framework shapes the technology, and also reveals the roles of different professionals when negotiating technical possibilities within the communicational strategies of a firm. The paper highlights the specific role of symbolic aspects in the material development of technology, stressing a relation between rhetoric and material semiotics.     

Effect of particle size of calcium phosphate based bioceramic drug delivery carrier on the release kinetics of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride: an invitro study

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is the constituent of calcium phosphate based bone cement and it is extensively used as a bone substitute and drug delivery vehicle in various biomedical applications. In the present study we investigated the release kinetics of ciprofloxacin loaded HAP and analyzed its ability to function as a targeted and sustained release drug carrier. Synthesis of HAP was carried out by combustion method using tartaric acid as a fuel and nitric acid as an oxidizer. Powder XRD and FTIR techniques were employed to characterize the phase purity of the drug carrier and to verify the chemical interaction between the drug and carrier. The synthesized powders were sieve separated to make two different drug carriers with different particle sizes and the surface topography of the pellets of the drug carrier was imaged by AFM. Surface area and porosity of the drug carrier was carried out using surface area analyzer. The in-vitro drug release kinetics was performed in simulated body fluid, at 37.3°C. The amount of ciprofloxacin released is measured using UV-visible spectroscopy following the characteristic λ_max of 278 nm. The release saturates around 450 h which indicates that it can be used as a targeted and sustained release carrier for bone infections.     

Multi-objective multi-unit process plan generation in a reconfigurable manufacturing environment: a comparative study of three hybrid metaheuristics

Low costs, high reactivity and high quality products are necessary criteria for industries to achieve competitiveness in nowadays market. In this context, reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) have emerged to fulfil these requirements. RMS is one of the latest manufacturing paradigms, where machines components, software or material handling units can be added, removed, modified or interchanged as needed and when imposed by the necessity to react and respond rapidly and cost-effectively to changing. This research work addresses the multi-objective single-product multi-unit process plan generation problem in a reconfigurable manufacturing environment where three hybrid heuristics are proposed and compared namely: repetitive single-unit process plan heuristic (RSUPP), iterated local search on single-unit process plans heuristic (LSSUPP) and archive-based iterated local search heuristic (ABILS). Single-unit process plans are generated using the adapted non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). Moreover, in addition to the minimisation of the classical total production cost and the total completion time, the minimisation of the maximum machines exploitation time is considered as a novel optimisation criterion, in order to have high quality products. To illustrate the applicability of the three approaches, examples are presented and the obtained numerical results are analysed.     

Phase Transitions in Confinements: Controlling Solid to Fluid Transitions of Xenon Atoms in an On‐Surface Network

This study reports on “phase” transitions of Xe condensates in on‐surface confinements induced by temperature changes and local probe excitation. The pores of a metal‐organic network occupied with 1 up to 9 Xe atoms are investigated in their propensity to undergo “condensed solid” to “confined fluid” transitions. Different transition temperatures are identified, which depend on the number of Xe atoms in the condensate and relate to the stability of the Xe clustering in the condensed “phase.” This work reveals the feature‐rich behavior of transitions of confined planar condensates, which provide a showcase toward future “phase‐transition” storage media patterned by self‐assembly. This work is also of fundamental interest as it paves the way to real space investigations of reversible solid to fluid transitions of magic cluster condensates in an array of extremely well‐defined quantum confinements.