Swedish hunters’ safety behaviour and experience of firearm incidents

Since any firearm injury is potentially lethal, it is of great interest to prevent firearm incidents. This study investigated such incidents during hunting and Swedish hunters’ safety behaviour. A 48-item questionnaire was posted to a random sample of 1000 members of the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management. The questions considered demographics, hunting experience/hunting habits/safety behaviour/attitudes and experience of careless weapon handling, hunters’ weapons and safety behaviour relating to weapons, health status, firearm incidents and their preventability, and personal comments on the questionnaire. The response rate was almost 50%. The mean age of the responders was 54 years; 5% were females. Almost none (1%) reported hunting under the influence of alcohol. Young age and male sex were positively associated with risk behaviour, although the presence of multiple risk behaviours in the same responder was not common. A very high degree of compliance with Swedish laws regarding weapon storage was reported. One-quarter of the responders had witnessed a firearm incident caused by another hunter, which in most situations did not result in human injury or death. An unsafetied weapon was the most common reported “cause” of these incidents. Experience of a firearm incident was not uncommon and the majority of the responders considered the incident in question to be preventable. This study provides a picture of the possible risk behaviour among hunters and the results suggest that future prevention work should target safer weapon handling.     

Debiasing overoptimistic beliefs about braking capacity

We investigated, using questionnaires, different strategies for removing drivers’ overoptimism (Svenson et al., 2012a) about how fast their speed could be decreased when they were speeding compared with braking at the speed limit speed. Three different learning groups and a control group made collision speed judgments. The first learning group had the distance a car travels during a driver's reaction time for each problem. The second group had this information and also feedback after each judgment (correct speed). The third group judged collision speed but also braking distance and received correct facts after each problem. The control group had no information at all about reaction time and the distance traveled during that time. The results suggested the following rank order from poor to improved performance: control, group 1, group 3 and group 2 indicating that information about distance driven during a driver's reaction time improved collision speed judgments and that adding stopping distance information did not add to this improvement.     

Nanocrystallinity in RuO2 coatings—Influence of precursor and preparation temperature

The effects of precursor and calcination temperature on the nano morphology of ruthenium dioxide on titanium, prepared from thermal decomposition of aqueous salt solutions were investigated. Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, gas porosimetry and cyclic voltammetry showed that lower calcination temperature yielded smaller crystallites. The crystallites were between 6 and 22 nm in diameter. When using ruthenium nitrosyl nitrate the firing temperature had a large impact on the grain size, but for chloride there was only a minor effect in the temperature range 350-550 °C.     

Data mining and accelerated electronic structure theory as a tool in the search for new functional materials

A highly accelerated electronic structure implementation and data mining algorithms have been combined with structural data from the inorganic crystal structure database to generate materials properties for about 22,000 inorganic compounds. It is shown how data mining algorithms employed on the database can identify new functional materials with desired materials properties, resulting in a prediction of 136 novel materials with potential for use as detector materials for ionizing radiation. The methodology behind the automatized ab initio approach is presented, results are tabulated and a version of the complete database is made available at the internet web site <http://gurka.fysik.uu.se/ESP/> (Ref. [1]).     

Injection à très haute pression

Un jet à très haute pression d'eau et d'air en même temps qu'une injection de pâte de ciment est en train de ?révolutionner? la pratique des injections dans le sol et consolidation des fondations. Cette technique développée en Suède est brièvement exposée ici. L'article s'appuie sur une note résumée publiée par le Conseil suédois pour la recherche sur la construction.     

Snowmobile fatalities aspects on preventive measures from a 25-year review

During October 1973 through May 1998, 157 snowmobile fatalities were autopsied in Northern Sweden, including 131 riders, 15 passengers, six occupants with unknown position and five victims pulled by a snowmobile. Most fatalities occurred during March and April (41%), on weekends/holidays (75%), between 18:00 and 02:00 h (59%), during darkness (63%), in clear weather (84%) and at leisure time (94%). The median age was 39 years and 92% were men. The most common causes of death were blunt trauma (53%) and drowning (38%). A total of 64% were inebriated by alcohol, with a mean blood alcohol concentration of 1.7 g/l. More inebriated victims were found during weekends/holidays than on weekdays (75 vs. 51%) and during nighttime than during daytime (92 vs. 52). Driving into water was the most common event (38%) followed by collisions with immobile objects (20%). Alcohol and speeding were the most common contributors to the crashes, while flotation snowmobile suit and helmet use were considered to be the most important injury prevention factors.     

Impact of understory vegetation on forest canopy reflectance and remotely sensed LAI estimates

Forest leaf area index (LAI), is an important variable in carbon balance models. However, understory vegetation is a recognized problem that limits the accuracy of satellite-estimated forest LAI. A canopy reflectance model was used to investigate the impact of the understory vegetation on LAI estimated from reflectance values estimated from satellite sensor data. Reflectance spectra were produced by the model using detailed field data as input, i.e. forest LAI, tree structural parameters, and the composition, distribution and reflectance of the forest floor. Common deciduous and coniferous forest types in southern Sweden were investigated. A negative linear relationship (r² = 0.6) was observed between field estimated LAI and the degree of understory vegetation, and the results indicated better agreement when coniferous and deciduous stands were analysed separately. The simulated spectra verified that the impact of the understory on the reflected signal from the top of the canopy is important; the reflectance values varying by up to ± 18% in the red and up to ± 10% in the near infra-red region of the spectra due to the understory. In order to predict the variation in LAI due to the understory vegetation, model inversions were performed where the input spectra were changed between the minimum, average and maximum reflectance values obtained from the forward runs. The resulting variation in LAI was found to be 1.6 units on average. The LAI of the understory could be predicted indirectly from simple stand data on forest characteristics, i.e. from allometric estimates, as an initial step in the process of estimating LAI. It is suggested here that compensation for the effect of the understory would improve the accuracy in the estimates of canopy LAI considerably.     

Selecting fuses for power semiconductor devices

State-of-the-art thyristors at the high power end utilizing 77 mm-100 mm diameter silicon and associated fuses should require more precise coordination, particularly because of safety, reliability, and the high cost of these upscale components. For these reasons, any enhancement in the subcycle surge ratings of thyristors is very desirable but should be well verified through supporting tests. It becomes necessary to combine testing with computer modeling that can be used to explore higher ratings potential for specific thyristor and rectifier diode designs while limiting the number of destroyed devices. The testing will be paramount for the purpose of exploring potential secondary failures that may limit reaching the fundamental thermal limitation of devices under test that are not included in the computer model. The authors discuss subcycle surge rating, fuse coordination, semiconductor device evolution, package rupture, and surge testing     

Melagatran, a low molecular weight thrombin inhibitor, counteracts endotoxin-induced haemodynamic and renal dysfunctions in the pig

Coagulation and fibrinolysis are crucial in septic shock and inhibition of thrombin may be beneficial in this circumstance. Since porcine endotoxaemia has been found to replicate severe septic shock, a low molecular weight thrombin inhibitor, melagatran, was infused during the first 3 out of 6 h of endotoxaemia in pigs. Plasma creatinine (p <0.01) and urinary output (p <0.05) were less affected in the melagtran + endotoxin group (n=6) as compared to endotoxaemic controls (n=9). The left ventricular stroke work index, systemic vascular resistance index and oxygen extraction were all less affected (p <0.05) by endotoxin during the infusion of melagatran. The plasma concentration of melagatran declined with an apparent plasma half-life of 5 h as soon as the infusion was stopped. APTT, however, continued to increase after the infusion of melagatran had stopped and reached a maximum of 113 s at 5 h (baseline 17 s). APTT in endotoxaemic control pigs reached a maximum of 22 s. Thus, melagatran may counteract some consequences of endotoxaemia.