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.     

On the adaptive use of the Taylor assumption in computational homogenization of thin metal sheets

A strategy for macroscale modeling adaptivity in fully nested two-scale computational (first order) homog- enization based on assumed scale separation is proposed. The Representative Volume Element (RVE) for a quite complex substructure pertinent to Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS) is considered, whereby crystal plasticity is adopted for the subscale material modeling. The choice of the pertinent prolongation condition defining the deformation mapping from the macro- to the subscale is the sole source of model error discussed here. Two common choices are (in hierarchical order): (1) ”simplified” model based on homogeneous (macroscale) deformation within the RVE, i.e., the Taylor assumption, (2) ”reference” model employing Dirichlet boundary conditions on the RVE.     

On the stability of delamination growth at scratching of thin film structures

Scratching of thin film/substrate structures is studied theoretically and numerically. The results are discussed in connection to delamination initiation and in particular subsequent growth at scratching. The material behavior of the film is described by classical elastoplasticity accounting for large deformations. The deformation of the substrate is neglected indicating that the results are pertinent to soft thin films. The numerical investigation is performed using the finite element method (FEM) and the numerical strategy is discussed in some detail. The results from this study show that delamination growth at thin film scratching is a stable feature with crack arrest occurring at a decreasing load.     

High-resolution capillary zone and gel electrophoresis of structurally similar amphipathic glutathione conjugates based on interaction with beta-cyclodextrins

The tripeptide glutathione is a prominent intracellular constituent that provides protection against genotoxic and carcinogenic electrophiles and is also a component of several biological signal substances. Glutathione conjugates, free glutathione, and glutathione disulfide contain charged amino acid residues, which contribute to solubility in aqueous media. However, the amphipathic nature of glutathione conjugates and the small differences that may distinguish the S substituents, pose analytical problems in their resolution. The present study demonstrates how homologous S-alkyl and S-benzyl conjugates of high structural similarity can be efficiently resolved by capillary electrophoresis. Inclusion of beta-cyclodextrins in the buffer or in a polyacrylamide gel affords baseline separation of the analytes. The separation methods described are applicable to enzyme assays in vitro and to the identification and quantification of glutathione conjugates of importance in toxicology and physiology. The contribution of beta-cyclodextrin to the separation is primarily based on interactions between its hydrophobic cavity and the S-alkyl and S-benzyl groups of the analytes.     

A multilevel relaxation algorithm for simultaneous localization and mapping

This paper addresses the problem of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) by a mobile robot. An incremental SLAM algorithm is introduced that is derived from multigrid methods used for solving partial differential equations. The approach improves on the performance of previous relaxation methods for robot mapping, because it optimizes the map at multiple levels of resolution. The resulting algorithm has an update time that is linear in the number of estimated features for typical indoor environments, even when closing very large loops, and offers advantages in handling nonlinearities compared with other SLAM algorithms. Experimental comparisons with alternative algorithms using two well-known data sets and mapping results on a real robot are also presented.     

A genetic factor explains most of the variation in the psychopathic personality.

The psychopathic personality can be conceptualized as three interrelated dimensions, (a) an interpersonal style of glibness, grandiosity, and manipulation; (b) an affective disposition of callousness, lack of empathy, and unemotionality; and (c) a behavioral/lifestyle dimension of impulsivity, need for stimulation, and irresponsibility, underpinning a higher order construct, psychopathic personality. The authors used a self-report questionnaire (The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory) to study the importance of genetic and environmental influences on psychopathic personality traits in a sample of 1,090 monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs, aged 16-17 years. Results showed a strong genetic influence behind the higher order "psychopathic personality" factor, underpinned by the three psychopathic personality dimensions. Over and above the effects to the higher order factor, significant unique genetic influences were also found in the callous/unemotional and in the impulsive/irresponsible dimension, but not in the grandiose/manipulative dimension. The authors propose that this latent psychopathic personality factor is a meaningful target for future etiological research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Model for Technology Transfer in Practice

Technology transfer, and thus industry-relevant research, involves more than merely producing research results and delivering them in publications and technical reports. It demands close cooperation and collaboration between industry and academia throughout the entire research process. During research conducted in a partnership between Blekinge Institute of Technology and two companies, Danaher Motion Saro AB (DHR) and ABB, we devised a technology transfer model that embodies this philosophy. We initiated this partnership to conduct industry-relevant research in requirements engineering and product management. Technology transfer in this context is a prerequisite: it validates academic research results in a real setting, and it provides a way to improve industry development and business processes     

Off-plane computer-generated waveguide hologram

We present the theory, design, fabrication and evaluation of off-plane computer-generated waveguide holograms (OP-CGWHs). The hologram structure is composed of an array of rectangular elements each containing a waveguide grating coupler. The function of the rectangular elements is twofold: outcoupling the guided optical wave, and introducing phase shift. The phase shift of each rectangular element can be determined by controlling the dislocation of the grating grooves along the guided wave propagation direction. In addition, the phase pattern of the OP-CGWH can be designed using many existing algorithms for computer-generated holograms (CGH), such as the iterative Fourier transform algorithm (IFTA). A design example is presented for a waveguide array generator, which outcouples a Gaussian-like incident guided wave and simultaneously produces an array of spots in free space. Such an OP-CGWH device, based on an AlGaAs-GaAs waveguide, was fabricated using electron-beam lithography and reactive ion beam etching. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed idea. The uniformity error and the power efficiency of the fabricated OP-CGWH array generator were measured to be approximately 8% and 30%, respectively     

Incoupling waveguide holograms for simultaneous focusing into multiple arbitrary positions

A design method is presented that enables the realization of a novel type of incoupling waveguide hologram (IWGH) that simultaneously focuses the incoupled light to any desired positions in the waveguide. IWGH's, or grating couplers, are gratinglike structures etched into the waveguide surface. They couple the light incident from free space into the waveguide. The grating lines can be dislocated with respect to each other to provide phase modulation of the incoupled light. By use of this phase modulation, novel beam splitting and focusing functions can be built into the IWGH's. The new design algorithm is based on a model that assumes a simple relation between the incident light wave and the locally excited guided wave. This model is used to obtain an efficient formulation of the optimization problem. Four different IWGH's were designed and fabricated in InP for light at 1550-nm wavelength. Experiments confirm that these IWGH's are capable of incoupling the incident wave and simultaneously splitting and focusing the guided wave into multiple positions in the waveguide at different distances from the IWGH.     

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.