PACHO, VIVIEN L.

BSN-4

Fatal Assaults 30 Times Higher Among Poor Scots Than Among

Most Affluent, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010) — Fatal assaults among the most

disadvantaged in Scotland are more than 30 times as high as they are
among the most affluent sectors of society, reveals research published
in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Estimates suggest that violence costs the Scottish economy around £3 billion a
year in terms of healthcare, law enforcement, and lost productivity.
The authors base their findings on an analysis of all 1,109 certified deaths due to
assault in Scotland between 1980 and 2005.
The murder rate in Scotland has been steadily increasing since 1980,
accompanied by rising death rates from suicide, chronic liver disease and mental
health problems related to drug and alcohol misuse.
The findings showed that the rate of fatal assaults was significantly higher in
Scotland than in other high income countries in Europe, with rates among
Scottish men more than double those of their European peers.
The most noticeable increase in fatal assaults was among men aged between 15
and 44, whose death rates doubled between 1981 and 2004.
Fatal stab wounds from knives and other sharp weapons accounted for most of
this increase.
Despite the fact that fatal assaults made up just over 3% of deaths among men
aged 15 to 44, these deaths accounted for almost 6.5% of the difference in death
rates among the most and least deprived sectors of the population.
The death rate among men aged 20 to 59 with manual/labouring jobs was 12
times higher than it was among men of the same age with higher
managerial/professional jobs.
Men under the age of 65 living in the most deprived areas were almost 32 times
as likely to die following an assault as those living in the most affluent areas.
This rate of 127 per 100,000 of the population is the same as the death rate from
stroke, and higher than the death rate from bowel cancer, say the authors.
Among women, the difference was even more striking. Those living in the most
deprived areas were 35 times as likely to die following an assault as those living
in the most affluent areas.
"Not only do these inequalities for assault exceed those for other causes of death
in Scotland, but also they far exceed the ratio reported for homicide in Great
Britain," say the authors.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505210536.htm
PACHO, VIVIEN L.
BSN-4

Traffic at 30 Mph Is Too Fast for Children’s Visual Abilities

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2010) — New research reveals that primary school
children cannot accurately judge the speed of vehicles travelling faster
than 20mph.
A study by researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London reveals that
primary school children cannot accurately judge the speed of vehicles travelling
faster than 20 mph.
The researchers measured the perceptual acuity of more than 100 children in
primary schools, and calculated the speed of approach that they could reliably
detect. The results suggest that while adult pedestrians can make accurate
judgments for vehicles travelling up to 50mph, children of primary school age
become unreliable once the approach speed goes above 20mph, if the car is five
seconds away. Professor John Wann, from the Department of Psychology at
Royal Holloway, who led the research, says: "This is not a matter of children not
paying attention, but a problem related to low-level visual detection mechanisms,
so even when children are paying very close attention they may fail to detect a
fast approaching vehicle."
The researchers are now looking at the potential for using virtual reality systems
to make children more aware of the errors that may occur, but Professor Wann
stresses that the simplest solution lies in traffic regulation: "These findings
provide strong evidence that children may make risky crossing judgements when
vehicles are travelling at 30 or 40mph and in addition the vehicles that they are
more likely to step in front of are the faster vehicles that are more likely to result
in a fatality. Travelling one mile through a residential area at 20mph versus
30mph will only add 60 seconds to your journey time -- we encourage drivers to
take a minute and save a child's life."
The study, which is published in the international journalPsychological Science,
is part of a larger project sponsored by the 'Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC), in order to understand the perceptual factors than can lead to
pedestrian accidents. The research group has recently published brain imaging
research in the Proceedings of the Royal Society to show that some of the key
components for detecting collision events lie at the brain-stem level, which is a
low-level early detection system, similar to that found in other animals, such as
pigeons.
Royal Holloway's research group ran demonstrations of their research studies in
the London Science Museum over the summer where 500 visitors tried their
tests. Related ongoing projects include a study sponsored by The Royal Society
for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) looking at the judgments of older drivers
at road junctions, as well as a study looking at why motorcycles have a higher
risk of being involved in accidents classified as 'looked but failed to see.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101123101539.htm