Rail passenger perceptions of risk and safety and priorities for improvement

Recommendation 60 of the Ladbroke Grove rail inquiry stated that “comprehensive market research in regard to safety related measures should be carried out in order to take account of the views of informed passengers” (Cullen 2001, p. 235). In response, the Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited (RSSB) commissioned a survey of railway passengers nationwide, to investigate passenger perceptions of risk and safety at stations, on platforms and on trains, and to research passenger preferences for implementing safety interventions. Following qualitative interviews conducted with rail travellers, two separate questionnaires were designed and piloted. Each survey was administered face-to-face at 15 hub railway stations nationwide, according to a quota sample, and respondents were asked to return completed questionnaires by post. The overall response rate was approximately one-third. The results of the safety and risk survey provide a valuable indicator of passenger perceptions of risk, especially when compared to quantitative assessments of actual risk. The findings suggest that the relationship between perceived and actual risk is not particularly strong. The data from the passenger preferences questionnaire were analysed using conjoint techniques, and the results provide information on passenger preferences and priorities for improvement. The results are likely to be of value to the railway industry in allowing passenger preferences to be taken into account when implementing safety interventions.     

Estimation of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure with the difference in pulmonary venous and mitral A durations is limited when mitral E and A waves are overlapped

Previous studies showed that difference in pulmonary venous and mitral A-wave durations can be used for the estimation of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, which is based on the assumption that the pulmonary venous A wave and mitral A wave start with the beginning of left atrial contraction. It is also assumed that the mitral A wave ends with the end of left atrial contraction. These assumptions may not be correct if left atrial contraction occurs before the early left ventricular filling is completed. Adequate Doppler mitral inflow and pulmonary venous flow signals were obtained simultaneously with left ventricular pressures at the cardiac catheterization laboratory in 50 patients who showed separated E and A waves in mitral inflow. After heart rate was increased by right atrial pacing to make the mitral E and A waves overlap, Doppler and hemodynamic measurements were repeated. When E and A waves are separated, pulmonary A-wave duration exceeding mitral A-wave duration has a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 85% in the prediction of elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (>/=20 mm Hg), whereas the pulmonary A wave ending later than mitral A wave has a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 45%. When the mitral E and A waves are overlapped, the pulmonary A wave ending later than mitral A wave is better for the prediction of elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (sensitivity 55%, specificity 75%) than pulmonary A-wave duration exceeding mitral A-wave duration (sensitivity 9%, specificity 96%). However, overall, both methods are limited for clinical use.     

Neuroticism's importance in understanding the daily life correlates of heart rate variability.

Individual differences in high-frequency heart rate variability (HRV) have been conceptualized in terms of a greater capacity to self-regulate problematic outcomes, but have also been conceptualized in terms of greater moment-to-moment flexibility. From a self-regulation perspective, higher HRV should be inversely correlated with trait neuroticism and problematic daily outcomes. From a flexibility perspective, high HRV should result in more state-like functioning—that is, functioning that is more contextual and less trait-like in nature. In the latter case, HRV and trait neuroticism may interact to predict problematic outcomes such that neuroticism should be a less consequential predictor at higher levels of HRV. The flexibility perspective was systematically supported in a daily experience-sampling protocol. Implications focus on theories of neuroticism and HRV. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)