The aim of this study was to investigate causes of injury during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Data on patients injured during the Darfield (4 September 2010) and Christchurch (22 February ...2011) earthquakes were sourced from the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation. The total injury burden was analyzed for demography, context of injury, causes of injury, and injury type. Injury context was classified as direct (shaking of the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing unavoidable injuries), action (movement of person during the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing potentially avoidable injuries), and secondary (cause of injury after shaking ceased). Nine categories of injury cause were identified. Three times as many people were injured in the Christchurch earthquake as in the Darfield earthquake (7,171 vs. 2,256). The primary shaking caused approximately two-thirds of the injuries from both quakes. Actions during the primary shaking and aftershocks led to many injuries (51.3 % Darfield and 19.4 % Christchurch). Primary direct caused the highest proportion of injuries during the daytime Christchurch quake (43.6 %). Many people were injured after shaking stopped in both events: 499 (22.1 % Darfield) and 1,881 (26.2 % Christchurch). Most of these people were injured during clean-up (320 (14.2 %) Darfield; 622 (8.7 %) Christchurch). In both earthquakes, more females than males (1,453 vs. 803 Darfield; 4,646 vs. 2,525 Christchurch) were injured (except by masonry, damaged ground, and during clean-up); trip/fall (27.9 % Darfield; 26.1 % Christchurch) was the most common cause of injury; and soft tissue injuries (74.1 % Darfield; 70.4 % Christchurch) was the most common type of injury. This study demonstrated that where people were and their actions during and after earthquakes influenced their risk of injury.
•Lowering the dose to organs at risk is a primary goal in mediastinal lymphoma radiotherapy.•We compared full arc and limited arc plans, with and without the use of breath-hold.•The effect of ...combining limited arc and DIBH is additive or complementary.
Radiotherapy is an effective treatment for mediastinal lymphoma but induces late effects including cardiac toxicity and secondary breast and lung cancer. Therefore reducing the dose to these organs is vital. We compared full arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (F-VMAT) against limited angle ‘Butterfly’ VMAT (B-VMAT) on free breathing (FB) and deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) computed tomography scans. The aim was to assess the benefits of B-VMAT over F-VMAT and to establish if the addition of DIBH results is a cumulative benefit.
F-VMAT and B-VMAT plans were calculated for 20 consecutive patients (15 females) with mediastinal lymphoma on both FB and DIBH scans. The planning target volume V95% was kept comparable between all plans while reducing organ doses as much as possible.
B-VMAT significantly reduced low lung doses (V5–10), while F-VMAT was better for higher lung doses (V20–30). DIBH further improved lung doses for both types of plans. DIBH B-VMAT produced the lowest mean lung dose. With FB, heart doses were slightly higher for B-VMAT but the maximum difference was small (0.8% for V20) and only statistically significant for V10-20. The mean heart dose increased by only 0.1 Gy. The addition of DIBH however significantly reduced heart doses. While DIBH F-VMAT had the lowest heart doses, the difference was small compared with DIBH B-VMAT. B-VMAT significantly reduced breast V4 while DIBH reduced the V10.
B-VMAT and DIBH are both effective in reducing organ doses and the dosimetric benefit is additive for some parameters and complementary for others.
The impact of natural cheese and onion seasoning on the sensory perception and shelf life stability of potato crisps was studied. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of nitrogen (N2) ...gas flushing on the shelf-life stability and sensory attributes of cheese & onion seasoned potato crisps. Markers of lipid oxidation and flavour volatile compounds were evaluated in sliced, unwashed, batch fried potato crisps during accelerated storage at 45 °C for 10 weeks. Volatile flavour compounds were evaluated by headspace gas analysis using solid phase microextraction (SPME) GC-MS and correlated with sensory perception. Gas flushing significantly increases the shelf life of both unsalted and cheese & onion seasoned potato crisps in terms of the stability of volatile compounds and sensory perception. Further to this, the addition of the cheese & onion seasoning increased the shelf life of the base potato crisp; this is proposed to be explained by the antioxidant properties of milk proteins in the seasoning. Sensory evaluation indicated that the key negative sensory attributes reported were rancidity and stale attributes, which were correlated to the progression of lipid oxidation and loss of flavour over storage time irrespective of the packaging environment (with/without gas flushing).
In this editorial we explore how diversity might matter for educational research and educational practice. We highlight that diversity constitutes a value in itself and can be valued for its ...consequences. We suggest that valuing diversity doesn't mean that any diversity is simply acceptable. Diversity, so we argue, requires a criterion, and we suggest that democracy may be a relevant criterion for diversity. We also argue that diversity needs a reference point so that rather than talking about diversity in the , it is important to explore in what particular contexts and settings diversity may matter. Against this background we highlight the importance of methodological, conceptual and theoretical diversity in educational research, also for the sake of the diversity of educational practice.
Emergency medicine and public health are frequently viewed as having little in common. As described in J. Malins’ popular poem, public health is characterised by the placing of signs and fences at ...the top of the cliff to prevent people from falling, whereas emergency medicine is the ambulance waiting in the valley below to treat those who do.1 But the reality is far more nuanced. Those who fall can help identify the gaps in the fence, or where it's not high enough. Those who don't fall demonstrate areas of success, where public health works. A pertinent example of the interplay between public health and emergency medicine has been shown in the response to COVID-19, where cooperative responses have helped keep communities healthy and safe. This commentary outlines reasons why these two specialties, which appear so contrasting on the surface, can work together to strengthen preventative health and promote societal wellbeing.
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