Kwazulu-Natal minibus taxi drivers' perceptions on HIV and AIDS: Transmission,prevention, support and effects on the industry

In South Africa, the minibus taxi drivers are largely becoming another high-risk category in the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Although previous studies have shown that knowledge of HIV and AIDS is relatively high among the taxi drivers it is still not clear how this sub-population perceive the support rendered to them with regard to HIV and AIDS prevention strategies. This study aimed to focus on this atypical workplace and explore the KwaZulu-Natal, minibus taxi drivers' perceptions on HIV and AIDS. In this study, qualitative methods were utilized to determine the minibus taxi drivers' understanding of HIV and AIDS infection, HIV prevention strategies, existing support strategies and effects of HIV and AIDS on the taxi industry. Focus-group discussions were conducted, to collect data. The results showed that even though the taxi drivers had some understanding on HIV and AIDS there was still a dire need for interventions that were geared towards addressing HIV-related needs of the drivers in this industry.     

采用USB技术的速率冷冻仪的研制

该仪器可以根据样品的相变点，人工设置降温曲线，以达到克服样品相品相变热，提高生物制品在低温冷冻预处理过程中的存活率的目的，使用USB技术，免去了机内插卡，实现了即插即用和热插拔，具有推广价值。     

重庆市道路交通事故伤中驾驶员及相关情况分析

目的：探讨作为道路交通事故主体的驾驶员在交通事故发生时的特点及规律。方法：随机对1988-1997年十年间重庆市市区、近郊、郊县及高速公路6个交通警察大队的交通事故资料进行回顾性抽样调查研究。结果：（1）调查登记肇事驾驶员8329人，男：女=28.9：1，平均事故年龄31.3岁；（2）驾龄在2年以内的肇事驾驶员占49.89％；（3）与驾驶员有关的责任事故6858起，占82.34％，98.12％的事故原因系人为因素造成；（4）肇事机动车以小型客车和大型货车为主，占57.17％；非机动车事故中自行车占75.29％；（5）驾驶员主要受伤部位为头面部，占57.70％，下肢占31.22％。结论：重视驾龄在2年以内驾驶员的驾驶技术培训和安全意识教育，加强小型客车和大型货车的交通管制，严格遵守交通规则，是减少交通事故的有效措施，安全带的使用是减少驾驶员伤亡的有效方法。     

Review of bus drivers' occupational stress and stress prevention

Although heterogeneous in methodology and content, 32 studies from 13 countries on bus drivers' work and health are similar in their conclusions. Bus-driving–characterized by high demands, low control and low support – can be regarded as a classic example of high-strain occupation, with high risks of physical and mental occupational ill-health, leading to absenteeism and to decreased productivity of employees and enterprises. Several recommendations – some of them already being implemented by bus companies – are presented in order to reduce work stress in bus drivers. They relate to: (a) ergonomics of the bus cabin, (b) job rotation and ‘combination jobs’, (c) timetables, shift schedules and quality of break periods, and (d) the social work environment and management style. Stress monitoring and stress reduction is not merely a technical process based on a technical analysis and on the simple ‘straightforward’ realization of recommendations and findings. It relates to changing and improving organizations and organizational processes. Such organization changes can best be obtained through a stepwise and participative approach. There are indications that those companies that invest in preventive measures receive their rewards.     

Roads, railways, and childhood cancers

Study OBJECTIVES: To locate geographical sources of engine exhaust emissions in Great Britain and to link them with the birth addresses of children dying from cancer. To estimate the cancer initiating roles of nearby roads and railways and to measure effective ranges. DESIGN: Birth and death addresses of all children born between 1955 and 1980 in Great Britain, and dying from leukaemia or other cancer during those years, were linked to locations of railway stations, bus stations, ferry terminals, railways, roads, canals, and rivers. Nearest distances to births and deaths were measured, and migration data relating to children who had moved house were analysed. Excesses of close to hazard birth addresses, compared with close to hazard death addresses, indicate a high prenatal or early postnatal risk of cancer initiation. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Child cancer birth and death addresses and their map references were extracted from an earlier inquiry. Map references of putative hazards were downloaded from the Ordnance Survey national digital map of Great Britain. These data are recorded to a precision of one metre and have ground accuracies around 20 metres. MAIN RESULTS: Significant birth excesses were found within short distances of bus stations, railway stations, ferries, railways, and A,B class roads, with a relative risk of 2.1 within 100 m, tapering to neutral after 3.0 km. About 24% of child cancers were attributable to these joint birth proximities. Roads exerted the major effect. CONCLUSIONS: Child cancer initiations are strongly determined by prenatal or early postnatal exposures to engine exhaust gases, probably through maternal inhalation and accumulation of carcinogens over many months. The main active substance is probably 1,3-butadiene.     

Less than 24 hour pseudo-periodicity in work schedules of train drivers,in relation to their sleep

Summary Relating back to research on sleep of French train drivers carried out by Foret and Lantin (1972), work schedules from a random sample of 180 successive on- and off-duty days of 4 train drivers were analysed. Work blocks cover 4 to 8 consecutive days, with off-duty times spent at home or away from home. Within these work blocks it appears that in 84 per cent of the cases, individual starting and finishing times of service fall earlier from one service to the following. On the whole they tend to sweep continuously the nycthemere counterclockwise, which results into less than 24 hours almost-periodicity of the work rest cycles. In 95 per cent of the work blocks, estimated periods are less than 24 hours, ranging in these cases from 19 hours to 23.60 hours (sample mean: 20.68 hours). Mean service duration observed in the sample is 7 hours. Mean effective driving task corresponds to 60 per cent of that time.The general hypothesis is made that such an artificial application of a work rest cycle which is less than 24 hours provides the least propitious conditions for development of so-called adaptive responses, at least as far as duration of sleep and intrasleep patterns are concerned, if subjects are at the same time submitted to circadian influences of environmental and socialZeitgeber.     

Can High‐Risk Older Drivers Be Identified Through Performance‐Based Measures in a Department of Motor Vehicles Setting?

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between performance-based risk factors and subsequent at-fault motor vehicle collision (MVC) involvement in a cohort of older drivers. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) field sites in Maryland. PARTICIPANTS: Of the 4,173 older drivers invited to participate in the study, 2,114 individuals aged 55 to 96 agreed to do so. These analyses focus on 1,910 individuals recruited through MVA field sites. MEASUREMENTS: Gross Impairment Screening Battery, which included Rapid Pace Walk, Head/Neck Rotation, Foot Tap, Arm Reach, Cued Recall, Symbol Scan, Visual Closure subtest of the Motor Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT), Delayed Recall, and Trail Making Test with an Abbreviated Part A and standard Part B; Useful Field of View (UFOV) subtest 2; a Mobility Questionnaire; and MVC occurrence. RESULTS: In drivers aged 55 and older with intact vision (20/70 far visual acuity and 140 degrees visual field), age, sex, history of falls, and poorer cognitive performance, as measured using Trails B, MVPT, and UFOV subtest 2, were predictive of future at-fault MVC involvement. After adjusting for annual mileage, participants aged 78 and older were 2.11 as more likely to be involved in an at-fault MVC, those who made four or more errors on the MVPT were 2.10 times as likely to crash, those who took 147 seconds or longer to complete Trails B were 2.01 times as likely to crash, and those who took 353 ms or longer on subtest 2 of the UFOV were 2.02 times as likely to incur an at-fault MVC. Older adults, men, and individuals with a history of falls were more likely to be involved in subsequent at-fault MVCs. CONCLUSION: Performance-based cognitive measures are predictive of future at-fault MVCs in older adults. Cognitive performance, in particular, is a salient predictor of subsequent crash involvement in older adults. High-risk older drivers can be identified through brief, performance-based measures administered in a MVA setting.     

Oxidative damage to biological macromolecules in Prague bus drivers and garagemen: Impact of air pollution and genetic polymorphisms

DNA integrity was investigated in the lymphocytes of 50 bus drivers, 20 garagemen and 50 controls using the comet assay with excision repair enzymes. In parallel, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine and 15-F_2t-isoprostane levels in the urine and protein carbonyl levels in the plasma were assessed as markers of oxidative damage to DNA, lipids and proteins. Exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs) and volatile compounds was measured by personal samplers for 48 and 24 h, respectively, before the collection of biological specimens. Both exposed groups exhibited a higher levels of DNA instability and oxidative damage to biological macromolecules than the controls. The incidence of oxidized lesions in lymphocyte DNA, but not the urinary levels of 8-oxodG, correlated with exposure to benzene and triglycerides increased this damage. Oxidative damage to lipids and proteins was associated with exposure to cPAHs and the lipid peroxidation levels positively correlated with age and LDL cholesterol, and negatively with vitamin C. The carriers of at least one variant hOGG1 (Cys) allele tended to higher oxidative damage to lymphocyte DNA than those with the wild genotype, while XPD23 (Gln/Gln) homozygotes were more susceptible to the induction of DNA strand breaks. In contrast, GSTM1 null variant seemed to protect DNA integrity.     

Correlation between Depth Perception by Three-Rods Test and Stereoacuity by Distance Randot Stereotest

Background: The examination of depth perception with three-rods test, in addition to visual acuity testing, is required to obtain motor vehicle license to drive taxies and trucks, according to the Road Traffic Act in Japan. The aim of this study was to examine whether the results of the three-rods test would correlate with the results of static stereopsis tests, used in ophthalmic practice.

Methods: This study involved 54 normal subjects, 9 women and 45 men, with ages ranging from 18 to 25 (mean, 20.8) years. All had visual acuity of 0.8 or better with or without glasses or contact lenses correction and had no strabismus at the distant (5?m) or near (0.3?m) fixation. TNO Stereotest and Titmus Stereotest were examined at 40?cm while Distance Randot Stereotest was at 3?m. At three-rods test, a central rod was moved at the speed of 50?mm/sec forward and backward automatically against two laterally located fixed rods, placed inside the illuminated box. An examinee at the distance of 2.5?m observed the rods inside the box from a small viewing window and pushed a button to stop the central rod in alignment with the fixed rods. Erred distance (mm) of the central rod from the fixed rods as a mean of 4 measurements was correlated with stereoacuity in second of arc, measured by three kinds of the stereopsis tests.

Results: The erred distance of three-rods test was positively correlated with static stereoacuity at distance measured with Distance Randot Stereotest (ρ?=?0.418, p?=?0.0023, Spearman rank correlation test) and also with the other stereopsis tests at near fixation. The stereoacuity at near fixation, measured by TNO Stereotest and Titmus Stereotest, was positively correlated with each other (ρ?=?0.431, p?=?0.0017).

Conclusion: Three-rods test, examining depth perception, together with the response by eye-hand coordination, gave consistent results with distant static stereoacuity when measured with Distance Randot Stereotest.