Motor vehicle and roadway factors in pedestrian and bicyclist injuries: an examination based on emergency department data.

Information on 2558 persons treated for injuries incurred while bicycling or walking was collected from eight hospital emergency departments over approximately a one-year time period. The emergency departments represented a mix of urban and suburban/rural sites in three states--California, New York, and North Carolina. The data were collected on special survey forms and included detailed information about the location of the injury event. Results show that, overall, 70% of the reported bicycle injury events and 64% of the reported pedestrian injury events did not involve a motor vehicle. In addition, 31% of the bicyclists and 53% of the pedestrians were injured in non-roadway locations such as sidewalks, parking lots, or off-road trails. Although pedestrians and bicyclists struck by motor vehicles in the roadway were generally the most seriously injured, they represented less than a third of the reported cases. Increased knowledge of non-roadway and non-motor vehicle pedestrian and bicyclist injury events can contribute to more effective program and countermeasure development to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Nonsanction seat belt law enforcement: a modern day tale of two cities.

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a nonsanction seat belt law enforcement program in two experimental communities of contrasting size in a state with a mandatory belt law. The main ingredients of the program were seat belt "salutes," public information and education, and limited use of inexpensive economic incentives. Driver shoulder belt use data collected before, during, and after the experimental programs, compared to similar data collected in a comparison community, showed the approach to be effective. While standard seat belt enforcement activities without incentives have been shown to be effective, many police departments, especially in smaller communities, are reluctant to make wholesale increases in seat belt citations. Although requiring some additional level of manpower and resources, a nonsanction approach to seat belt law enforcement can provide an alternate way of increasing belt use in these communities.

Observed and self-reported seat belt wearing as related to prior traffic accidents and convictions.

During the summer of 1987, 10,000 color-coded mailback questionnaires that identified belted and unbelted North Carolina drivers were handed out at the 72 sites that constitute the probability sample for determining the statewide belt use rate in North Carolina. By obtaining identifying information to determine the winner of a $500 prize from among the 5,074 respondents, police-reported traffic accident and conviction records from the North Carolina driver history file were linked to the belted and unbelted respondents. Analyses found that drivers who had been observed not wearing seat belts had 35% more accidents and 69% more convictions than did belted drivers in the previous four-year period. Similar findings were obtained from self-reported belt use.

Usage patterns and misuse rates of automatic seat belts by system type.

This study examined seat belt usage in North Carolina by drivers of 4,151 late model cars equipped with a variety of restraint system types. We measured usage by restraint type (automatic belt, air bag, manual belt), by make/model and by driver characteristics (age, sex, and race). Usage ranged from a high of 94.2% for motorized shoulder belts (but with only 28.6% lap belt usage in these cars) to 73.9% usage of manual lap/shoulder belts in cars equipped with air bags. Various types of misuse of the shoulder belt (e.g. excessive slack, detachment from the door, placement under the arm) were observed in nearly 6% of the sample.

Planar Poincaré Chart: a planar graphic representation of the state of light polarization.

The Planar Poincaré Chart which represents the complete planar equivalence of the Poincaré sphere is proposed. The four sets of basic lines are drawn on two separate charts for the generalization and convenience of reading the scale. The chart indicates the rotation of the principal axes of linear birefringent material. The relationships between parameters of the two charts are given as 2xi-2psi (orientation angle of the major axis-ellipticity angle) pair and 2alpha-delta (angle of amplitude ratio-phase difference angle) pair. The results are useful for designing and analyzing polarization properties of optical components with birefringent properties.

Planar Poincaré Chart: a planar graphic representation of the state of light polarization; errata.

This errata Letter enumerates two problems in the original paper.

Multisection fat-water imaging with chemical shift selective presaturation.

Proton chemical shift imaging yielding separate water and lipid images was performed in a multisection mode on a clinical 1.5-T whole-body magnetic resonance imaging unit. Imaging was performed with a minor modification of the standard multisection spin-warp technique: that is, the addition of a sinc pulse or a soft square pulse and a homospoil gradient at the beginning of the pulse sequence. Phantom and human anatomic images are presented.

A community health education approach to occupant protection.

The goal of enhancing motor vehicle occupant protection is vital to the public's health. Controversies about passive versus active protection and voluntary versus mandatory measures continue. A program which employed a combination of positive reinforcements (incentives) and wide-scale community education succeeded in raising the community seat belt usage rate from 24 to 41% in 6 months. This rate was sustained at 36% at six-month follow-up. This article reviews the major features of the "Seat Belts Pay Off" campaign and its evaluation and considers both theoretical and pragmatic issues pertinent to replicating the program in other community settings.

Intraocular penetration of topically applied [14C]fosfonet sodium in rabbits.

The intraocular penetration of [14C]fosfonet was studied following topical application of 25 mg of an ointment containing 5% [14C]fosfonet sodium onto the intact and abraded eyes of New Zealand white rabbits. Radioactivity penetrated rapidly through the abraded cornea and entered the anterior chamber. The concentration of fosfonet in the aqueous humor peaked at 7.2 microgram/ml by 90 min. Assuming an aqueous humor volume of 300 microliter, this level would correspond to approximately 0.2% of the applied dose. The highest concentration of fosfonet found in the abraded cornea was 0.3 microgram/mg, or 0.4% of the applied dose. The half-lives for the elimination of fosfonet from the aqueous humor and cornea were about 2.5 and 2.7 hr, respectively. The fosfonet levels in the iris were extremely low throughout the 6-hr period. The penetration of [14C]fosfonet through the intact cornea was considerably less than that found in the abraded eye. The peak concentrations of fosfonet in the aqueous humor and cornea of the intact eye were 0.26 microgram/ml and 0.02 microgram/mg, respectively, and occurred within 10 min of application of ointment.