Drug and alcohol use among drivers admitted to a Level-1 trauma center

The purpose of this research was to determine the incidence and prevalence of drug use, alcohol use, and the combination of drug and alcohol use among motor vehicle crash (MVC) victims admitted to a Level-1 trauma center. In a 90-day study, nearly two-thirds of trauma center admissions were victims of motor vehicle crashes. Blood and urine was collected from 168 MVC victims of whom 108 were identified as the driver in the crash. Toxicology results indicated that 65.7% of drivers tested positive for either commonly abused drugs or alcohol. More than half of the drivers tested positive for drugs (50.9%) other than alcohol, with one in four drivers testing positive for marijuana use. About one-third of those using drugs had also been drinking, but alcohol was detected in only 30.6% of all injured drivers. Within the total MVC patient pool, passenger drug/alcohol use was equivalent to the driver population; however, injured pedestrians had higher rates of alcohol only than other MVC victims. There were no significant differences in drug and alcohol use between MVCs and trauma admissions of other causes. Of the patients with positive toxicology results, less than half (42%) were referred for evaluation for substance abuse disorders.     

Extended-chain structure for isotactic polystyrene: additional X-ray diffraction and calorimetric results

The recently discovered extended-chain structure in isotatic polystyrene gels opens new horizons on the stereochemistry of the polyolefins and molecular organization in polymeric gels. New X-ray fibre diffraction patterns obtained from stretched gels formed in different solvents support the contention that the structure is produced by intramolecular forces between continguous units probably via adjacent aromatic appendages.     

The laws of similitude and crack propagation

The mechanics of cracking follow the laws of similitude in an odd sense. As a result, crack load-external displacement-crack extension data are not usually non-dimensionalized. It follows that a new “group” should be used (analogous to the Reynolds, Froude or Cauchy numbers) when scaling ship ice-breaking resistance from tests of models in ice-towing-tanks.     

The problems of Australian underground coal mining operations in water catchment areas

This paper outlines the general water problems encountered in Australian underground coal mining activities which are exacerbated by the location of certain large coal producers either adjacent to or within water catchment areas. Mining leases do not always take into consideration seam sterilization and complexities caused by water controls on mine development. The pertinent state legislation on planning and environmental protection of water courses in N.S.W. together with details of the water authority's role in mining in water catchment areas are outlined. Specific case studies are given whereby the proposed mine centroid has been relocated in order to satisfy legislative requirements. The specific problems of coal mining under stored bodies of water and dams are examined with regard to restriction and potential hazards. The paper outlines the procedure adopted for mining in such situations and pertinent case studies are quoted.     

Historical trends in the lead isotopic composition of archival Sphagnum mosses from Scotland (1838-2000)

The analysis of almost 200 Scottish Sphagnum moss samples collected over the past 170 years has revealed trends in the isotopic composition of lead similar to those previously established for dated Scottish lake sediments and peat bogs, lending credibility to these proxy records of atmospheric lead contamination and deposition. The effect of temporal variations in contributions from sources such as smelting of indigenous lead ores (206Pb/207Pb approximately 1.16-1.18), coal combustion (206Pb/207Pb approximately 1.17-1.19), and the use of imported Australian lead (206Pb/207Pb approximately 1.04) was clearly seen in the Scottish moss 206Pb/207Pb record. This showed some differences from the corresponding archival herbage record for the south of England, where the initial influence of Australian lead occurred earlier, at the end of the 19th century. A significant decline from a 206Pb/ 207Pb value of approximately 1.17 in the Scottish moss record began in the 1920s and continued until the 1980s (206Pb/207Pb approximately 1.12). The success of measures to reduce lead emissions to the atmosphere over the past 20 years in the U.K., in particular from petrol-engined vehicles using alkyl lead additives manufactured primarily from Australian lead, is evident in both the increasing 206Pb/207Pb ratio and falling lead concentration data for Scottish moss.     

Stenosing colonic adenocarcinoma in a female rhesus monkey

Laparoscopic surgery was performed on a 16 year-old female rhesus monkey presenting with chronic lethargy and inappetence. The procedure revealed a "napkin-ring" stricture located in the ascending large colon. Histologic evaluation of the colonic lesion exhibited large numbers of irregular acini lined by a single layer of well-differentiated neoplastic epithelial cells. Based on the gross and histopathologic findings a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the proximal colon was made.     

Design and implementation of a parallel solution to the cutting stock problem

The constrained 2D cutting stock problem is an irregular problem with dynamic data structures, highly variable amounts of computation per task, and unpredictable amounts and patterns of communication. This paper describes the design and implementation of a parallel solution to this problem on a cluster of workstations and a distributed memory multicomputer. The key element of our parallel solution is the replication of an important data structure on all processors. By exploiting properties of the cutting stock problem which allow the use of relaxed consistency mechanisms, our approach is able to reduce the overheads for communication and synchronization in comparison to approaches that partition the data structure among processors. A token-based lazy release consistency protocol is used to ensure mutual exclusion and maintain consistency, and a randomized work-stealing protocol is employed to dynamically balance work among processors. Good speedups are reported for three benchmark problems executed on two distributed memory platforms: a cluster of workstations interconnected by a 10 Mbit/s Ethernet and an Intel Paragon. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.