High Casualty Rate Research Articles

Virtual reality surgical simulation for lower urinary tract endourologic surgery.

Computer-based simulations for clinical training have been utilized for medical education for over 25 years, with progression of technological advances from mainframe computers to the multimedia-based systems in current use.5 Simulation becomes attractive whenever actual physical experience is associated with unacceptable risk or expense or the experience is not practical because of distance or temporal constraints. The classic example of the value of simulation in such circumstances is flight simulation aviation training, which was first introduced during the Second World War to reduce the high casualty rate among the relatively inexperienced pilots recruited for aerial warfare. Though its development has occurred over 40 years, flight simulation in a virtual environment has only recently evolved sufficiently to be considered indispensable for training, due to the savings and benefits in time, expense, equipment, and safety it offers.

Casualties in dry bulk shipping (1963–1996)

In recent years, bulk carriers have been identified with high risks of catastrophic structural failure and foundering, and with heavy loss of human life. This study, based upon Lloyd's of London casualty records, identified four risk factors that had significant, independent effect upon the likelihood of a bulk carrier foundering. The risk of foundering increased with the age of the ship, and was related to the ship's flag of registration. Most importantly, however, increased risks were found for heavy cargoes of iron ore and scrap steel or iron, and for trading routes to the Far East and from Europe to North America. Additional safety measures, in particular regarding ship design and high-risk trades, may well be necessary to reduce the high casualty rates.

The regulation of China’s township and village coal mines: a study of complexity and ineffectiveness

An appropriate system of laws and regulations and a suitable institutional structure for administration are important requirements for the effective management of small-scale mines. Over the last twenty years, township and village coal mines in China have made a large contribution to the country’s supply of energy. Yet at the same time they have had substantial negative impacts, such as wastage of coal resources, a high casualty rate amongst miners, and a wide range of environmental damage. Two reasons for the magnitude of these externalities are the highly complex nature of the institutional structure for regulating small-scale coal mines, and the excessive and incoherent burden of applicable laws and regulations.

Korea: the Post-war War

Americans like wars with nicknames. The Spanish-American War (recently re-named Spanish-American-Cuban War, and by the more meticulous, Spanish-American-Cuban-Philippine War) was the 'splendid little' war; World War One, here in the U.S. and abroad, was 'great', World War Two was 'good', the Vietnam war was 'bad' and the Korean War 'forgotten'. Falling between the good war and the bad, ending neither in the total victory of the former nor the total defeat of the latter, the Korean War was an anomaly which historians, politicians and the public seem to have long thought best left out altogether, as the cartoonist Danzinger, perhaps unconsciously, did in his 1990 Thanksgiving Day cartoon in the Christian Science Monitor. Soldiers of past wars, from the Revolution through to the Gulf, sit down to share a turkey dinner, each dressed in the combat outfit of his particular era. But no veteran of the Korean War seems to have been invited to the feast.1 One would think that for a war to be forgotten it has to have taken place in the far past. What is odd about Korea is that even as it was being fought, it was deemed forgotten. How is it that the most unpopular war in UnitedStates history seems to have had so little impact on the country at the time and thereafter?2 The vivid presence of the Vietnam war even now, almost three decades after its conclusion, is usually attributed to that war's exceptional character: the brutality with which it was fought, the high rate of casualties, the impossibility of distinguishing friend from foe among the Vietnamese, indeed, the uncertainty about what would constitute victory. 'Vietnam', Lance Morrow intoned in Time magazine in 1980, 'was different from other wars ... There were no front lines. Reality tended to melt into layers of unknowability'.3 These factors, along with a glancing nod at the alleged power of television, are offered in explanation of national division,

Hinterland Warriors and Military Dress: European Empires and Exotic Uniforms

Much of the exotic dress of the armies of Europe and elsewhere has its origins in the conditions of frontier wars fought by imperial armies. As states have expanded to control hinterlands occupied by culturally diverse peoples, the ensuing conflicts have had an impact on imperial armies and the way they have dressed. 'Hinterland warriors' have been employed by imperial governments for a multitude of reasons: they understand the tactics of enemies at the border and are skilled tacticians themselves; they possess local knowledge; they do not disrupt the labor supply; politicians do not have to answer for high casualty rates if these are suffered by hinterland rather than metropolitan troops; finally, they are often classed as 'martial races' and therefore do not require the training needed by fresh recruits. Throughout time, imperial officers and auxiliaries adopted the dress of these hinterland troops under their command, and even metropolitan units in the imperial armies appropriated items of local dress while engaged in wars on the borders of the empire. These innovations frequently became institutionalized, and in many cases were distorted and stylized, resulting in a caricature of the dress of the hinterland troops that originally provided the model. This engrossing book charts how the perceptions of these marginalized peoples influenced and ultimately transformed the history of military dress.

Lightning Casualties and Property Damage in Colorado from 1950 to 1991 Based onStorm Data

Abstract Forty-two years of lightning casualty and damage reports in Colorado are summarized. The data are from NOAA's Storm Data, which is compiled monthly by the National Weather Service. The dataset contains 103 deaths, 299 injuries, and 191 damage reports from 1950 through 1991. Time fluctuations of these lightning events are shown by classifying the data by year, month, and hour of the day. Additional information is provided on age and gender of lightning victims. Houses were the most common objects reported as damaged by lightning. Fire was the most common source of lightning damage to structures or objects. Comparisons are made of these and other results, when possible, with previous studies of lightning in other locations around the world. Geographical patterns of lightning incidents for the state are shown in maps of total number of casualties, and number of casualties normalized by population density for each county. Much higher casualty rates per population and area occur over the mountains and...

Individual and situational determinants of the use of deadly force: A simulation

The study of police use of deadly force is a complicated issue because of the scarcity of observed high-risk encounters in the field. The present research explores police shooting behavior in both life-threatening and non-life-threatening situations in a simulated environment. The results suggest that officers’ characteristics, such as race and gender, are not associated with officer shooting behavior. The one exception is that officers with less police experience show more restraint than veteran officers in responding to non-life threatening situations. Suspect demographics, such as race, gender, and age, show inconsistent relationships with officer shooting behavior. One consistent finding is that officers who show poor judgment, slow response, or poor marksmanship suffer a high casualty rate in reacting to life-threatening situations involving multiple suspects.

Poor-Visibility Road Accidents: Theories Entailing “Target” Risk Level and Relative Visual Motion

Theories about ``target'' risk level are thought to explain why road casualty rates remain steady despite interventions to reduce them. Unfortunately, such theories appear inconsistent with the higher casualty rates associated with poor visibility because they imply that input to the road user is accurately and veridically processed. Motion perception for a driver, however, is highly dependent on relative motion in the retinal image: In poor visibility, the associated processing may be inaccurate and nonveridical. In this article, practical implications regarding conspicuity and lighting are outlined, and the difficulty of developing global theories to explain ``real-world'' activities is shown. Theories to explain the restricted aspects of such activities may be necessary, and the definition of risk may require considerable elaboration or change.

The Romance of War, or the Highlanders in Spain: la Guerra Peninsular y la novela británica

Wellington's Peninsular campaigns aroused considerable interest among British historians and reading public throughout the nineteenth century and even into the present decade of the twentieth century. The most recent historian of the war, David Gates, in The Spanish Ulcer (1986), counts some three hundred published personal memoirs and diaries, mainly British, in his bibliography. The war in the Iberian Peninsula was savagely fought by British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French troops, as well as by Spanish and Portuguese irregular forces (the guerrilleros). When not fighting, British and French troops at times fraternized and observed a chivalrous respect for each other. The sufferings caused by the war were immense, including the looting and devastation of French-occupied Spain, the starvation of many Spaniards and Portuguese, and a very high casualty rate among the troops involved. Indeed, British soldiers frequently collapsed and died under the excessive loads they were compelled to carry'.For the British, the campaign represented the success of a small and previously despised army, under the remarkable leadership of Wellington, over Napoleon's veterans. Spanish historians, on the other hand, stress the Spanish contribution to the successful outcome of the war.

Child pedestrian casualties with special reference to casualties on the journey to or from school in Manchester and Salford, England

There are two separate facets of the casualty rates for child pedestrians in Great Britain that require explanation. (1) The casualty rate for child pedestrians aged 11–14 years is higher than the rate for those aged 5–10 years. In Manchester and Salford the casualty rate for the older age group is higher for children on the journey to or from school but at nonschool times the casualty rate is lower for those aged 11–14 years than for those aged 5–10 years. It is suggested that the high casualty rate for older children is connected with the school journey, which is longer to secondary than to primary schools. (2) The casualty rate for the older age group has increased in recent years. Comparing the casualty rates at school and nonschool times in Manchester and Salford in 1969 and 1987 suggests that this increase is due to an increase in accidents on the school journey.

Correlates of alcohol-related casualty in Kuwait.

This paper reports the extent to which alcohol consumption is associated with casualties in a country in which alcohol is prohibited religiously and culturally. Selective screening of particular casualty groups by blood test established qualitative evidence of alcohol use in 107 out of 1058 patients (10%) examined at a general hospital and a traumatology hospital in Kuwait. The rate of alcohol-associated casualty was significantly higher in traumatology hospital patients (15%) than in general hospital (7%), stressing the association between alcohol and trauma. Absence of differences by place of casualty disproves lay beliefs that motor vehicle casualty is the major alcohol-associated risk in Kuwait. Other casualties, particularly work and domestic injuries, should be regarded as being affected by alcohol consumption. Statistically significant high alcohol-associated casualty rates characterized Kuwaitis (14%), the unemployed/retired (20%) and coma cases (22%) suggesting that these categories may suffer from serious alcohol problems.

Statistics of fires in dwellings involving textiles in the United Kingdom

AbstractThere is widespread concern at present about the fire risk form the use of modern materials in upholstery and other domestic articles. One of the main characteristics of fires in dwellings which start with the ignition of textiles or furniture is that they have a high casualty rate compared with other kinds of domestic fires. Most of the casualties form such fires occur in fires which start in upholstery or bedding, often accidentally ignited by smokers' materials. Asphyxiations by smoke is the commonest cause of death in ‘textile’ and ‘upholstery’ fires. This paper presents relevant statistical information on fires in dwellings attended by local authority fire brigades which result from the ignition of upholstery, bedding, other textiles or furniture and the casualties which these fires cause.

MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF WORLDWIDE TANKER CASUALTIES1

ABSTRACT Previous research on the relationships between oil tanker characteristics and casualty events suggests that vessel flag, size, and age may be important determinants of casualty rates. These studies have been bivariate primarily, examining one factor at a time, providing uncertain results given the interdependent nature of the factors affecting tanker casualties, such as age and size. This paper describes a multivariate analysis of the relative effects of vessel flag, size and age on the casualty rates of oil tankers for the period 1969 to 1978. Among the findings discussed are: (1) vessels operating under certain flags of registry have much higher casualty rates than others in the world fleet; 2) smaller vessels exhibit higher casualty rates than larger ones; and 3) older vessels appear to be no more accident prone than newer vessels. With few exceptions, these basic findings are invariant with respect to accident cause and accident location.

Post-Vietnam syndrome: Recognition and management

Post-Vietnam syndrome, a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, has gained clinical attention as the high psychiatric casualty rate (20% to 60%) among Vietnam veterans has become increasingly apparent. Post-Vietnam syndrome is characterized by intrusive, combat-related thoughts and nightmares, numbed responsiveness, and several specific symptoms such as drug dependence, depression, anxiety, and rage. A multifaceted treatment approach may include pharmacotherapy, group or individual therapy, and behavioral techniques.

Immigration, social change and cohort fertility in Israel

14000 Israeli women were interviewed between 1973-1975 in a series of surveys designed to identify cohort fertility trends of specific immigrant subpopulations in Israel and their socioeconomic correlates. The complexity of fertility changes was found to be masked when fertility of the total Jewish population was examined; thus ethnic breakdowns were utilized. Initial completed fertility of European immigrants regardless of period of migration was 2-2.5 children/married woman but showed a general increase and convergence among more recent marriage cohorts. Initial fertility for migrants from Asia and North Africa was 6.5-7 and 7.5 respectively but in both cases this initially high rate was cut in half between marriage cohorts 25-30 years apart as fertility began to respond to the more modernized conditions in Israeli society. Israeli-born of Afro-Asian origin have lower fertility levels than immigrants from these countries; conversely Israeli-born of European descent show higher levels than European immigrants. Overall an intergenerational fertility convergence between ethnic groups is complemented by a convergence within immigrant subpopulations indicative of a rapid fertility response appropriate to societal changes. In addition all ethnic groups show recent fertility increases among younger cohorts. This is interpreted as an insurance effect due to the high rate of war casualties.

Variations in State Casualty Rates in World War II and the Vietnam War

State casualty rates from the Vietnam War and World War II were related to a number of social and economic indicators from the 1970 and 1940 census. Also included in the analysis were variables dealing with rates of entry into the military of men from different states. In World War II affluent states had higher casualty rates. In the Vietnam War the situation reversed, less affluent states had higher casualty rates. By making certain statistical assumptions, these relationships based on state data can be used to make inferences about individuals. The patterns of state casualty rates between World War II arid the Vietnam War are discussed as well as implications for the social class and racial composition of the all-volunteer military.

Is Support of Abortion Political Suicide?

A systematic review of national and local press coverage of congressional races makes possible a general appraisal of the significance of the abortion issue in the 1974 general election; analysis of polls conducted by congresspersons offers further clues to voter sentiment regarding this issue. Congressional initiatives in regard to abortion following the 1973 Supreme Court decision fell into 3 major categories: 1) introduction of proposals for constitutional amendments to reverse the Supreme Court decision; 2) efforts to exempt both individuals and institutions from having to perform or to allow the performance of abortion; 3) attempts to prohibit or restrict the use of federal funds for abortion in domestic or foreign programs. Many districts are so "safe" that the incumbent is virtually assured of election without campaigning, so a more reliable test of the importance of the abortion issue is to examine what happened to those incumbents whose hold over their districts was generally acknowledged to be insecure or who faced especially strong challengers. The voting records and election outcomes of 119 incumbents were scrutinized. Incumbents from unsafe districts fared considerably more poorly than those from safe areas in the 1974 elections. 1% of the safe incumbents lost compared to 31% of those whose races were considered close. Antiabortion candidates from unsafe districts had a much higher casualty rate (39%) than proabortion candidates (8%); while those with mixed records fared about the same as congresspersons from unsafe districts generally. Among Republicans running in close races, 42% of the antiabortion incumbents were defeated, about the same porportion of casualties as among Republicans in unsafe districts generally. Among Democrats, all of the 12 proabortion incumbents from unsafe districts were reelected, while 2 of the 8 who voted consistently in opposition were defeated. When party affiliation is controlled and attention is on those districts where a single issue might conceivably have made the difference between victory and defeat, the losses among antiabortion incumbents were heavier than those losses among those who voted in favor of legal abortion. The data show conclusively that support of legal abortion does not constitute political suicide.

Treatment of aviation phobias by behaviour therapy.

Introduction Since the 1914–1918 war, when high psychiatric casualty rates were recorded amongst military aircrews, a considerable amount of research has been focussed on the psychiatric problems associated with aviation. Reported symptoms have included morbid anxiety, lethargy; anorexia, weight loss; restlessness, tremors, palpitations; depression, insomnia, nightmares; personality changes, loss of flying skills and avoidance of risks. Diverse opinions have been expressed on the genesis and therapeutic management of the syndromes. Some authors have drawn attention to the so-called neurasthenic features and concluded that the symptoms were predominantly physiogenic, reflecting a state of exhaustion arising from neural, biochemical or other mechanisms (e.g. Ferry, 1919; Josué, 1919; Head, 1919; Flack, 1920; Porton, 1936; Miller, 1936; Lottig, 1937; Walshe, 1941; Cobb, 1942). Some have distinguished between ‘neurasthenic’ symptoms and overt anxiety, ascribing the former to physical exhaustion and the latter to neurotic disturbance in predisposed individuals (e.g. Gotch, 1919; Armstrong, 1936; Hastingset al.1944; Murray, 1944).

Civil defense responsibilities of physicians.

At present there may be some doubt as to where the initial responsibility lies for recruiting physicians and allied professional personnel for the vital work of civil defense. There is no question, however, as to where the ultimate responsibility lies, namely, deep down in the conscience of the individual physician. The inescapable civil defense responsibilities of physicians may be classified briefly as follows: (1) to know the special medical problems in connection with special weapons defense; (2) to be thoroughly familiar with the state and local civil defense health services plans and their integration with other civil defense services and to volunteer for the civil defense health services corps or its equivalent; to learn not only one particular civil defense job well but as many other jobs as possible in preparation for the high casualty rate expected among physicians; (3) to engage intensively in the training of allied professional personnel,