Drowning is fast, silent, and preventable: a Texas example of research in action.

Drowning is a major public health issue internationally. In August 2022, a report was released by members of the Central Texas Drowning Prevention Action Team that provided data on drowning fatalities in Texas between 2006 and 2020 and offered recommendations for drowning prevention actions. The information in the Texas drowning report is an important contribution to the field of injury prevention. The aim of this editorial is to allow the information in the report to be available to a wider audience and potentially used as a model for other states.

Automated Interlayer Wall Height Compensation for Wire Based Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing.

Part quality monitoring and control in wire-based directed energy deposition additive manufacturing (w-DEDAM) processes has been garnering continuous interest from both the academic and industrial sectors. However, maintaining a consistent layer height and ensuring that the wall height aligns closely with the design, as depicted in computer-aided design (CAD) models, pose significant challenges. These challenges arise due to the uncertainties associated with the manufacturing process and the working environment, particularly with extended processing times. To achieve these goals in an industrial scenario, the deposition geometry must be measured with precision and efficiency throughout the part-building process. Moreover, it is essential to comprehend the changes in the interlayer deposition height based on various process parameters. This paper first examines the behaviour of interlayer deposition height when process parameters change within different wall regions, with a particular focus on the transition areas. In addition, this paper explores the potential of geometry monitoring information in implementing interlayer wall height compensation during w-DEDAM part-building. The in-process layer height was monitored using a coherent range-resolved interferometry (RRI) sensor, and the accuracy and efficiency of this measurement were carefully studied. Leveraging this information and understanding of deposition geometry, the control points of the process parameters were identified. Subsequently, appropriate and varied process parameters were applied to each wall region to gradually compensate for wall height. The wall height discrepancies were generally compensated for in two to three layers.

Transforming Industrial Manipulators via Kinesthetic Guidance for Automated Inspection of Complex Geometries.

The increased demand for cost-efficient manufacturing and metrology inspection solutions for complex-shaped components in High-Value Manufacturing (HVM) sectors requires increased production throughput and precision. This drives the integration of automated robotic solutions. However, the current manipulators utilizing traditional programming approaches demand specialized robotic programming knowledge and make it challenging to generate complex paths and adapt easily to unique specifications per component, resulting in an inflexible and cumbersome teaching process. Therefore, this body of work proposes a novel software system to realize kinesthetic guidance for path planning in real-time intervals at 250 Hz, utilizing an external off-the-shelf force-torque (FT) sensor. The proposed work is demonstrated on a 500 mm2 near-net-shaped Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) complex component with embedded defects by teaching the inspection path for defect detection with a standard industrial robotic manipulator in a collaborative fashion and adaptively generating the kinematics resulting in the uniform coupling of ultrasound inspection. The utilized method proves superior in performance and speed, accelerating the programming time using online and offline approaches by an estimate of 88% to 98%. The proposed work is a unique development, retrofitting current industrial manipulators into collaborative entities, securing human job resources, and achieving flexible production.

Collaborative Robotic Wire + Arc Additive Manufacture and Sensor-Enabled In-Process Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Evaluation.

The demand for cost-efficient manufacturing of complex metal components has driven research for metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) such as Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). WAAM enables automated, time- and material-efficient manufacturing of metal parts. To strengthen these benefits, the demand for robotically deployed in-process Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) has risen, aiming to replace current manually deployed inspection techniques after completion of the part. This work presents a synchronized multi-robot WAAM and NDE cell aiming to achieve (1) defect detection in-process, (2) enable possible in-process repair and (3) prevent costly scrappage or rework of completed defective builds. The deployment of the NDE during a deposition process is achieved through real-time position control of robots based on sensor input. A novel high-temperature capable, dry-coupled phased array ultrasound transducer (PAUT) roller-probe device is used for the NDE inspection. The dry-coupled sensor is tailored for coupling with an as-built high-temperature WAAM surface at an applied force and speed. The demonstration of the novel ultrasound in-process defect detection approach, presented in this paper, was performed on a titanium WAAM straight sample containing an intentionally embedded tungsten tube reflectors with an internal diameter of 1.0 mm. The ultrasound data were acquired after a pre-specified layer, in-process, employing the Full Matrix Capture (FMC) technique for subsequent post-processing using the adaptive Total Focusing Method (TFM) imaging algorithm assisted by a surface reconstruction algorithm based on the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT). The presented results show a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, a potential for early defect detection is achieved, directly strengthening the benefits of the AM process by enabling a possible in-process repair.

Consensus-based Standards and Indicators to strengthen trauma center injury and violence prevention programs.

For decades, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACSCOT) has published Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient, which outlines specific criteria necessary to be verified by the college as a trauma center, including having an organized and effective approach to prevention of trauma. However, the document provides little public health-specific guidance to assist trauma centers with developing these approaches. An advisory panel was convened in 2017 with representatives from national trauma and public health organizations with the purpose of identifying strategies to support trauma centers in the development of a public health approach to injury and violence prevention and to better integrate these efforts with those of local and state public health departments. This panel developed the Standards and Indicators for Model Level I and II Trauma Center Injury and Violence Prevention Programs. The document outlines five, consensus-based core components of a model injury and violence prevention program: (1) leadership, (2) resources, (3) data, (4) effective interventions, and (5) partnerships. We think this document provides the missing public health guidance and is an essential resource to trauma centers for effectively addressing injury and violence in our communities. We recommend the Standards and Indicators be referenced in the injury prevention chapter of the upcoming revision of ACSCOT's Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient as guidance for the development, implementation and evaluation of injury prevention programs and be used as a framework for program presentation during ACSCOT verification visits.

Predictors of swimming pool supervision for caregivers of toddlers.

BACKGROUND: In the U.S., drowning is a leading cause of death for toddlers. One important layer of protection against submersion injuries and fatalities is parent or caregiver supervision. The aims of this study are to explore current supervisory behavior of caregivers, determine how caregivers view com-mon supervision distractions, like cell phones and grilling, and identify what factors shape the quality of supervision that is given when swimming with their toddler at a swimming pool. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used the MTurk online platform to survey 650 caregivers of toddlers (1-4 yrs old) about their supervision behavior, their drowning knowledge, their perceptions of arm's reach supervision, the water competency of their toddler, and other background information. Regression analysis was used to identify factors that predicted report-ed supervision behavior. RESULTS: The average supervision behavior score for caregivers indicated an attitude between neutral and disagreement with allowing distractions for themselves while supervising their toddler in a swimming pool. High water safety knowledge and positive perceptions of arm's reach supervision were the biggest predictors of attentive supervision behavior. Having a home pool, higher education level, and believing their toddler had greater water competency were predictive of less attentive supervision behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that supervision behavior while toddlers are in a swimming pool may be inade-quate. Low water safety knowledge and attitudes about what constitutes quality supervision are related to pool supervision behavior and changing these may reduce drowning risk. Caregivers should be encouraged to not reduce supervision as their toddlers gain water competency and if they have a home pool.

Coca cultivation and crop eradication in Colombia: The challenges of integrating rural reality into effective anti-drug policy.

This paper examines the positive and negative (or intended and unintended) impacts of anti-drug policies such as the aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia. It provides spatial analysis of coca cultivation and crop eradication at a fine scale of resolution using the latest UNODC data. The findings suggest that anti-drug policy in Colombia between 2001 and 2012 has had some success with a significant decrease in overall levels of coca cultivation, but that it has also led to the displacement of coca cultivation, notably to areas within the Colombian Pacific region. Negative impacts include continued deforestation and damage to ecosystems, and the further marginalization of Afro-Colombian communities whose collective territories have been subject to increased coca cultivation between 2001 and 2012. Alternative development programs have not been well aligned with such areas where other illegal activities such as mining as well as coca cultivation now occur. Hence the importance of designing anti-drug policy that comprehensively integrates the local nuances of those peoples and places affected by coca cultivation and crop eradication according to their particular contexts.

Process control of laser conduction welding by thermal imaging measurement with a color camera.

Conduction welding offers an alternative to keyhole welding. Compared with keyhole welding, it is an intrinsically stable process because vaporization phenomena are minimal. However, as with keyhole welding, an on-line process-monitoring system is advantageous for quality assurance to maintain the required penetration depth, which in conduction welding is more sensitive to changes in heat sinking. The maximum penetration is obtained when the surface temperature is just below the boiling point, and so we normally wish to maintain the temperature at this level. We describe a two-color optical system that we have developed for real-time temperature profile measurement of the conduction weld pool. The key feature of the system is the use of a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor standard color camera leading to a simplified low-cost optical setup. We present and discuss the real-time temperature measurement and control performance of the system when a defocused beam from a high power Nd:YAG laser is used on 5 mm thick stainless steel workpieces.

A cervical bronchogenic cyst in an adult.

An unusual case of a bronchogenic cyst arising in the retrosternal region and presenting as a midline neck cyst in an elderly patient is reported. These cysts are rare congenital anomalies found more commonly in the thorax in a paediatric population and very rarely present in the adult age and in the neck.