The "Actively Caring for KIDS Process," a multi-component program that taught retail store sales associates to act as behavior-change agents for child passenger safety, was implemented at a nationwide-chain discount store and evaluated with an interrupted time series design and a similar control site for comparison. Key components of the KIDS Process included a) training of sales associates to act as behavior-change agents at the point-of-purchase, b) the use of in-store awareness and supportive materials such as posters and sales associate buttons, and c) incentives for participation in checkpoints. Safety-seat checks (n = 31) were held in store parking lots, where caregivers' safety-seat installations (n = 241) were recorded as safe or at-risk for a variety of criteria and then the seats were reinstalled correctly. Research assistants posing as child caregivers visited the retail stores (n = 156) with the purported objective of obtaining information about selecting and installing a safety seat. Information given by sales associates was systematically recorded as safe or at-risk on a checklist. A 2 (Store) x 2 (Phase) ANOVA on sales associates' percent safe information scores revealed a significant interaction and no main effects. The Control store did not differ across the two phases, but scores at the intervention store were significantly higher after the intervention than during pre-intervention and when compared to the Control store during post-intervention. The training of sales associates resulted in an average 65% increase in percent safe scores. At the parking lot checks, 93 percent of seats checked were misused in one or more ways, with an average of four errors per seat. ANOVA and Chi-square analyses indicated that the intervention failed to have an impact on child safety-seat misuse observed or on the number of participants attending the checkpoints. This is likely a result of few parents attending the checkpoints who had talked to our trained associates. To target more parents, this intervention might be better placed at well-baby checkups. / Ph. D.

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children. Many injuries to school-aged children occur during unsupervised peer activities, but peer influences on risky behavior in preadolescence remain under-investigated. We examined peer context effects on reported risk-taking, identified predictors of peer influence, and compared peer influence in high- and low-social-functioning groups. Forty-one boys aged 8-10 years listened to scenarios in which they encountered opportunities for risk-taking (e.g., swimming unsupervised, playing with matches) with their best friends, with "cool guys" (desired peers), with disliked peers, and alone. They rated the likelihood that they would engage in risky behavior in each condition for each scenario. Children also completed measures of friendship satisfaction, peer orientation, and socially desirable responding. Parents completed the CBCL and an injury history form. Children reported more risk-taking with positive peers than alone, and less with negative peers than alone. Four variables (peer orientation, friendship satisfaction, social problems, mother unmarried) accounted for 77% of the observed variance in peer influence on risk-taking. Children in the high social competence group showed larger peer influence, and indicated a preference for risk-taking with best friends over cool guys. Results are discussed in terms of improving injury prevention efforts by reconceptualizing "peer pressure" as a developmentally adaptive aspect of child functioning. / Master of Science

The Institute of Medicine's report in 2000, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, highlighted the seriousness of medical errors in the U.S. health care system. The unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients is one of those errors. At the time of this study, there was no standardized counting policy and process across operating rooms in the United States. The purpose of this project was to develop a best practice educational counting program to help prevent the unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients. The Logic Model was used to guide the design of the educational program and expected learning outcomes. A draft of the educational program was distributed to 10 perioperative stakeholders for an initial formative review. Changes were incorporated into the program and it was distributed to 6 perioperative experts for an additional summative assessment and content validation utilizing the AGREE II Instrument. The overall quality evaluation of the educational program was 85%, indicating that it was of high quality. Four of the respondents recommended the educational program for implementation without any changes and 2 recommended it for implementation with some minor modifications related to rewording of one question in the pretest-posttest. There were no recommended modifications in the content of the educational program. As a result, the project was recommended for adoption as a best practices-based educational program to prevent the unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients. The study promotes positive social change by providing suggestions to improve the provision of safe care to surgical patients and decrease health care costs.

The purpose of this research study was to describe course content on unintentional injuries in undergraduate personal health and wellness courses at four year public and private colleges and universities identified by the Eta Sigma Gamma directory in the United States. An instrument was created, validated and tested for reliability, and used to assess course content areas related to unintentional injuries in undergraduate personal health and wellness courses. The sample for the study included 106 participants (N=106) from public and private colleges and universities in 36 states. Chi-square analysis, ANOVA, factor analysis, and MANOVA tests were used to determine if significant differences existed in course content areas based on selected demographic characteristics. Results indicated that college and university faculty members report teaching about unintentional injuries. Findings indicated that significant differences do exist in unintentional injury course content areas. The top five content areas identified by faculty members include water-related injuries, firearm safety, motorcycle injuries, motor vehicle passenger safety, and motor vehicle impaired driving. Factor analysis results revealed that unintentional injury course content areas can be categorized into three groups: personal content, motor vehicle content, and injury content. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.

The introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens transferred through ships' ballast water and sediments from one coastal region to another has ecological, economic, environmental, and human impacts. The international community, through numerous binding and non-binding instruments, also sought to combat this problem. Ultimately, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 was adopted by the International Maritime Organization as the dedicated legal regime intended to prevent, control and ultimately eradicate the introduction and spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through ships' ballast water and sediments. By its Regulations, the Convention sets out coastal/port and flag State obligations along with subsequently adopted technical Guidelines by which to implement it. Despite the importance of this problem, the Convention has not entered into force. This study assesses the potential of the Convention to promote achievement of the goal to prevent and eliminate this source of marine and biodiversity degradation and destruction. The study finds that the Convention constitutes a useful global legal regime within which steps can be taken to establish uniform ground rules, standards and practices to combat the introduction, transfer and spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens across the world's coastal and marine areas. Nevertheless, its potential is undermined, among others, by the exemption of some categories of ships from its application, financial costs, especially to developing States, of implementing its requirements, and by the fact that its provisions do not account for other salient sources by which harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens are spread. Suggestions are made to encourage more ratification to bring the Convention into force and on remedying some of the weaknesses in the formulation of its rules. It is concluded that if it is ratified by sufficient and wide number of States as well as conscientiously implemented by States, adopting additional national laws and policies to regulate areas which are not addressed by the Convention, it would facilitate progress in the global effort to improve the protection of marine environments, ecosystems, and biodiversity, specifically, as regards the contribution towards combating the introduction and transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens via ships' ballast water and sediments. / The threat posed by harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to the society at large is devastating. The Ballast Water Management Convention 2004 was adopted to remedy this problem. Though the Convention has potential to combat the threat, it has some ambiguities. This study concludes that if the provisions of the Convention, coupled with the recommendations made in this study are implemented at State level, we will have an international community that is free from the menace posed by harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens introduced through ships' ballast water and sediments, and a safer marine ecosystems will be ensued for us in due time.

Un ilot non-intentionnel peut se former lorsque d’une petite partie du réseau est déconnectée du reste du système électrique, et continue pourtant de fonctionner à l’insu du gestionnaire de réseau en raison de la présence de générateurs locaux. Cet événement n’est pas voulu : le comportement des ilots n’est pas maitrisé, ce qui entraîne des risques potentiels pour les personnes et équipements électriques. L’ilotage non-intentionnel est un phénomène complexe et mal connu, aujourd’hui considéré comme rare, mais dont la probabilité d’apparition tend actuellement, a priori, à s’accroître progressivement. Cet accroissement est dû à l’effet conjugué de plusieurs phénomènes : premièrement, le développement des installations de production de petite et moyenne puissance, raccordées directement au réseau de distribution ; deuxièmement, l’élargissement des seuils de détection qui sont utilisés dans leurs protections de découplage ; et troisièmement, l’implémentation dans ces installations d’automatismes de régulation de puissance active et réactive. Dans ce contexte, la chaire industrielle Smartgrid d’Enedis a financé ces travaux de thèse afin de mieux caractériser ces phénomènes d’ilotage et d’améliorer leur détection.Afin d’atteindre ces objectifs, une première priorité de la thèse a été d’améliorer la compréhension des ilots non-intentionnels au travers d’une approche analytique. Celle-ci a notamment permis la résolution formelle d’un modèle simple capable d’expliquer le comportement en fréquence d’un îlot. Ces résolutions ont été enrichies par de nombreuses expérimentations en laboratoire et par des simulations numériques. Les modèles ont fait l’objet d’une étude bibliographique approfondie, notamment pour le choix des modèles de charge.Une seconde priorité de la thèse a été d’estimer l’efficacité des méthodes passives de détection d’ilotage au travers du calcul de la zone de non-détection (ZND). L'influence de plusieurs charges sur la ZND a été analysé, ce qui a permis d’améliorer la compréhension du phénomène complexe que sont les ilots non-intentionnels. L’efficacité des nouvelles protections anti-ilotage utilisant des seuils sur la dérivée en fréquence (ROCOF) a aussi fait l’objet d’évaluations approfondies. Enfin, les méthodes de calcul de ZND ont été améliorés par rapport aux méthodes préexistantes, ce qui a permis de radicalement améliorer l’estimation faite de l'impact des nouvelles régulations de puissance P(f) et Q(U). / Unintentional islands might appear when a subpart of the grid is disconnected from the power system and keeps working because of local generation. These events are unwanted: their behavior is not controlled and leads to potential risks for people and for electric equipment. Unintentional islanding is a complex phenomenon and badly understood. Nowadays it is considered to be rare, but a priori its occurrence probability is currently steadily increasing. This rising is the consequence of several phenomena: firstly, the development of distributed generation of small and average size directly connected to the distribution grid; secondly, the enlargement of frequency thresholds used by isolating protections; and thirdly, the implementation of power regulations of active and reactive power in the generation unit. Within this context, the Smart Grid chair of Enedis financed this PhD thesis in order to better characterize these islanding phenomena and to improve their detection.To achieve these targets, a first priority of the PhD was to improve the comprehension of unintentional islanding through symbolic calculation. This approach makes it possible to solve a simple model and to explain the evolution of the frequency during an island. These results are completed with several laboratory experiments and by numeric simulations. Models are designed based on a thorough bibliography, in particular for load modeling.A second priority of the PhD was to estimate the efficiency of anti-islanding protections through the computation of non-detection zone (NDZ). The impact of several loads on the NDZ is analyzed to improve the understanding of unintentional islanding, which is a complex phenomenon. The efficiency of new anti-islanding protections using thresholds on the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) is also thoroughly evaluated. It is shown that the computation method used by the protection plays a key role. At last, the calculation methods of the NDZ is improved regarding previous methods. Among other things, it allows to radically change the estimations of the impact of new power regulations P(f) and Q(U).

Cette thèse répond au défi lancé par Benoît XVI (2009), qui avait appelé toutes les personnes de bonne volonté à réfléchir sur le rôle de la gratuité dans l’économie et la société. Nous avons tâché de relever ce défi sur le plan scientifique, avec les outils et les démarches de l’analyse économique. Sur la base d’une revue systématique de la littérature économique portant sur la gratuité, nous avons essayé de rassembler des éléments pour donner un contenu à une « théorie des biens économiques gratuits ». Cette démarche nous a permis de définir ces biens gratuits, leurs formes et manifestations, et de comprendre leurs principales causes et conséquences. Une attention particulière a été accordée à l’étude de la « gratuité non intentionnelle », omniprésente dans la vie économique. Cette forme de gratuité émane, d’un côté, spontanément du processus de production et, d’un autre côté, des activités des entrepreneurs et des génies créatifs. Une implication forte de ce résultat est que la recherche de profit, stimulus de l’entrepreneur, n’est pas en soi opposée à la production de biens économiques gratuits ; bien au contraire, elle en est une cause. Peu d’économistes apprécient la gratuité non intentionnelle à sa juste valeur. En exagérant la portée réelle de conceptions théoriques telle la maximisation du profit et la concurrence atomistique, la plupart des économistes en appellent à l’État pour limiter les activités marchandes et pour assurer la production de biens économiques gratuits. Il est donc vrai, mais dans un sens assez paradoxal, que l’économie de marché pourrait s’ouvrir davantage à la gratuité si les économistes eux-mêmes travaillaient moins à la réduire dans ce champ. / Benedict XVI (2009) has called upon all persons of goodwill to reflect upon the role of gratuitousness in economy and society. The present thesis responds to that challenge on the level of scientific inquiry, with the tools and the methods of economic analysis. Starting from a systematic review of the economic literature dealing with gratuitousness, we have tried to assemble conceptual elements to build a “theory of gratuitous economic goods”. Thus we have defined the nature of such gratuitous goods, their forms and manifestations, and analysed their principal causes and consequences. We have bestowed particular attention to the study of “unintentional gratuitousness” – an omnipresent phenomenon in economic life. This form of gratuitousness emanates, on the one hand, spontaneously from the market process and, on the other hand, from the activities of entrepreneurs and creative geniuses. A strong implication of this finding is that the profit motive, the stimulus of entrepreneurial action, is not per se in opposition to the production of gratuitous economic goods; quite to the contrary, it is one of their causes. Few economists have understood the nature and role of unintentional gratuitousness. Most of them, by exaggerating the scope of theoretical concepts such as the maximization of profits and atomistic competition, call for the government to limit the scope of for-profit activities and to promote the production of gratuitous economic goods. Thus it is true, though in a quite paradoxical sense, that the market economy could allow for much more gratuitousness if only the economists themselves did less to prevent this from happening.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:30:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodney Charles Muller Martins.pdf: 1309392 bytes, checksum: e37d46085e71914063dba40b1ac75196 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-08 / This paper examines the unintentional traffic crimes and their punishments and checks whether these legal features are efficient in fighting the high rate of accidents involving motor vehicles, a consequence of the needed speedy transportation demanded by the global societies members. Along the first lines, intentional and unintentional crimes are explained and differentiated along with a detailed approach of their historic evolution. Another type of crime, actually this paper s main theme, demanded a special chapter, where its historic origins are fully discussed before the world s main cultures and also the most relevant theories which explain why they are in fact punished and all the needed elements to appropriately characterize them. Along the traffic crimes' analysis and comments were presented their specific criminal types and the focus has been upon the unintentional kind and all the related enforcement measures, legal and non-legal. Regarding the presented chapters, this study intends to offer solutions which can help to diminish it or, at least, prevent its increase between the limits of the present legislation / Este trabalho examina os crimes culposos de trânsito e respectivas punibilidades, verificando se são eficientes no combate aos índices crescentes de acidentes com veículos automotores, reflexo da necessidade da rapidez de locomoção da sociedade moderna. No início, são conceituados e distinguidos os crimes dolosos dos culposos, fazendo-se, para ambos, a sua evolução histórica. Para a segunda modalidade de crime, objeto da pesquisa, foi dedicado um capítulo perquirindo suas origens históricas perante as principais civilizações e as teorias mais relevantes que explicam a razão de sua punibilidade, bem como os elementos necessários para compor a sua tipicidade. Na análise e comentários sobre os crimes de trânsito também foram especificadas suas modalidades criminais e, no destaque da espécie culposa, seus meios preventivos e punitivos: penais e administrativos. Diante destes capítulos apresentados, este estudo pretende demonstrar soluções que possam contribuir para a diminuição do alto índice de sua prática criminal, ou pelo menos impedir o seu aumento diante do contexto legislativo atual

L’attention est un prérequis à l’exécution de la majorité des tâches que nous réalisons au quotidien. Si notre niveau d’attention fluctue naturellement au cours de la journée, de nombreux facteurs peuvent également altérer notre niveau de vigilance (p. ex. alcool, médicaments) ou détourner notre attention (p. ex. téléphone, pensées) et, dès lors, nous exposer à un risque d’accident. En accidentologie routière, les défauts d’attention sont devenus un enjeu de préoccupation majeur, mais des questions demeurent en suspens. Et qu’en est-il des autres traumatismes non intentionnels ? L’objectif de ce travail de thèse était d’étudier le rôle des défauts d’attention dans la survenue de traumatismes non intentionnels. Il s’agissait d’explorer des questions épidémiologiques restées en suspens en accidentologie routière tout en élargissant la problématique à ces accidents moins connus que sont les accidents de la vie courante (AcVC). Pour ce faire, trois axes ont été explorés. Le premier a consisté à étudier le lien entre consommation de médicaments et risque d’accident de la route chez les piétons en s’appuyant sur l’appariement des données sur les remboursements de médicaments de l’Assurance Maladie avec celles sur les accidents de la circulation recueillies par les forces de l’ordre. Dans un second temps, nous nous sommes intéressés à la problématique des différents types de distraction au volant. Cette seconde partie a reposé sur les données d’une étude menée au CHU de Bordeaux. Enfin, un dernier axe a consisté à étudier le rôle des défauts d’attention dans la survenue des AcVC en s’appuyant sur les données d’une cohorte prospective et en ligne sur les AcVC. Dans cette dernière étude, les défauts d’attention ont été étudiés sous l’angle du mind-wandering en tant que trait mesuré par le biais d’un questionnaire ainsi que par l’implémentation de trois tests neuropsychologiques en ligne. Plusieurs classes de médicaments, dont les benzodiazépines, étaient associées à une augmentation du risque d’accident chez les piétons. Dans l’étude sur la distraction au volant, la distraction visuelle a été identifiée comme étant celle qui présentait le plus de risque. Enfin, si aucun lien n’a été trouvé entre les mesures aux tests neuropsychologiques et le risque d’accident de la vie courante, le mind-wandering trait a été associé à une augmentation du risque d’accident de type sports, loisirs et déplacements. Ce travail fournit un éclairage essentiel sur des questions restées jusqu’ici inexplorées. Au-delà des conducteurs et du risque routier, nos résultats indiquent que les défauts d’attention pourraient également présenter un risque pour les piétons ainsi que pour la survenue d’autres accidents du quotidien. Dans les années à venir, la part des défauts d’attention dans la survenue de traumatismes devrait encore croître du fait notamment de l’utilisation croissante des nouvelles technologies dans notre quotidien. Par conséquent, mieux comprendre le rôle de ces défauts d’attention dans la survenue de traumatismes non intentionnels est plus que jamais essentiel. / Attention is a complex process that is required in almost all our daily activities. Beyond its natural fluctuation during the day, our level of attention is also influenced by a large range of factors that can diminish our level of alertness (e.g. medicines, alcohol use) or divert our attention (e.g. mobile phone, thoughts) thus exposing us to the occurrence of unintentional injuries. In road traffic safety, attention failures have been identified as a major cause of concern but questions remain unsolved. What about attentional failures in the occurrence of daily-life injuries ? The aim of this thesis was to explore the role of attention failures on the risk of unintentional injuries. The idea was to explore epidemiological issues that remained unresolved in road traffic injuries while extending the problematic to those lesser-known injuries that are Home and Leisure Injuries (HLIs). To that end, this thesis was divided in three parts. First, we investigated the association between medicine use and the risk of road traffic injuries among pedestrians. To do that, we used data on road traffic crashes collected by the French police forces matching with data on reimbursed medicine from the French Health insurance. In a second part, we were interested in several types of driving distractions on the risk of road traffic crashes using data from a sample of road users interviewed at the Bordeaux University Hospital. The third and final part was to study the role of attentional failures on the occurrence of HLIs and was based on data from a prospective and online cohort on HLIs. Attentional failures were studied from the perspective of mind-wandering as a trait measured through a questionnaire and also the implementation of three online neuropsychological tests. Several medicine classes, including benzodiazepines, were associated with an increased risk of being involved in a road traffic crash as a pedestrian. In the study on distracted driving, the higher risk was found for visual distraction. Finally, whereas neuropsychological test scores were not associated with a higher risk of HLI, mind-wandering trait was associated with a higher risk of sport, leisure and moving-related injuries. This work provides essential insights into issues that have remained unexplored to date. Beyond the drivers and road risk, our results indicate that attentional failures could also present a risk for pedestrians as well as for the occurrence of other everyday injuries. In years, to come, the share of attentional failures in the occurrence of injuries is expected to further increase, particularly due to the increasing use of new technologies in our daily live. Therefore, a better understanding of the role of these attentional failures in the occurrence of unintentional injuries is more than ever essential.

Two conceptual approaches which offer promise for improved understanding of biological invasions are conceptualizing the invasion process as a series of distinct stages and explicitly incorporating human actions into analyses. This study explores the utility of these approaches for understanding the invasion of Trifolium (true clover) species in New Zealand. From the published literature, I collected a range of Trifolium species attributes, including aspects of global transport and use by humans, opportunistic association with humans in New Zealand, native range attributes, habitat characteristics, and biological traits. I also searched historical records to estimate the extent to which each species had been planted in New Zealand, a search facilitated by the enormous importance of Trifolium in New Zealand’s pastoral agriculture system. Regression analysis and structural equation modelling were then used to relate these variables to success at each invasion stage. Fifty-four of the 228 species in the genus Trifolium were intentionally introduced to New Zealand. Species introduced for commercial agriculture were characterised by a large number of economic uses and presence in Britain, while species introduced for horticulture or experimental agriculture were characterised by a large native range area. Nine of these 54 intentionally introduced species subsequently naturalised in New Zealand. The species that successfully naturalised were those that had been planted extensively by humans and that were well-matched to the New Zealand climate. A further 16 species (from the pool of 174 species that were never intentionally introduced) arrived and naturalised in New Zealand without any recorded intentional aid of humans. Several attributes appeared to assist species in unintentional introduction-naturalisation, including a good match to the New Zealand climate, a large native range area, presence in human-influenced habitats, a widespread distribution in Britain, and self-pollination capability. The 25 total naturalised species varied greatly in their current distributions and in the rates at which they had spread to achieve those distributions. Species that had spread quickly and are currently more widespread had been frequent contaminants in the pasture seed supply and have a long flowering period in New Zealand. Other biological traits and native range attributes played supporting roles in the spread process. Attributes facilitating success clearly varied among invasion stages. Humans played a dominant role at all stages of this invasion, although biological traits had increasing importance as a species moved through the invasion sequence. My findings suggest that incorporation of human actions and the stage-based framework provide valuable insight into the invasion process. I discuss potential avenues by which these approaches might be integrated into predictive invasion models.