Development of a community severance index for urban areas in the United States: A case study in New York City.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Traffic-related exposures, such as air pollution and noise, have a detrimental impact on human health, especially in urban areas. However, there remains a critical research and knowledge gap in understanding the impact of community severance, a measure of the physical separation imposed by road infrastructure and motorized road traffic, limiting access to goods, services, or social connections, breaking down the social fabric and potentially also adversely impacting health. We aimed to robustly quantify a community severance metric in urban settings exemplified by its characterization in New York City (NYC). METHODS: We used geospatial location data and dimensionality reduction techniques to capture NYC community severance variation. We employed principal component pursuit, a pattern recognition algorithm, combined with factor analysis as a novel method to estimate the Community Severance Index. We used public data for the year 2019 at census block group (CBG) level on road infrastructure, road traffic activity, and pedestrian infrastructure. As a demonstrative application of the Community Severance Index, we investigated the association between community severance and traffic collisions, as a proxy for road safety, in 2019 in NYC at CBG level. RESULTS: Our data revealed one multidimensional factor related to community severance explaining 74% of the data variation. In adjusted analyses, traffic collisions in general, and specifically those involving pedestrians or cyclists, were nonlinearly associated with an increasing level of Community Severance Index in NYC. CONCLUSION: We developed a high spatial-resolution Community Severance Index for NYC using data available nationwide, making it feasible for replication in other cities across the United States. Our findings suggest that increases in the Community Severance Index across CBG may be linked to increases in traffic collisions in NYC. The Community Severance Index, which provides a novel traffic-related exposure, may be used to inform equitable urban policies that mitigate health risks and enhance well-being.

The medical demographic characteristic of group of citizen injured in road accidents on the Federal Highway.

The role of citizen of elderly age in road accidents on the Federal Highway was principally passive since passengers of vehicles predominated (p<0,0001). The most of victims of elderly age (66,7%) suffered of combined lesions. Considering gender of victim, presence of ethanol in blood at the moment of hospitalization, the role of victim of road accident and degree of severity of lesions in citizen of elderly age was in overall higher than in citizen of able-bodied age up to 2.3-2.9 points according ISS scale. The established medical demographic characteristics of victims of elderly age condition necessity of development of differentiated approaches to their medical care support, planning of measures of population prevention of medical sanitary aftermaths of road traumatism.

[The regional characteristics of road traumatism in the Arkhangelsk oblast].

The article considers the results of continuous retrospective documentary study of regional characteristics of road traffic injuries with medical consequences on the Federal highway M-8 "Kholmogory" in the Arkhangelsk oblast in 2012 - 2018. The analysis was applied to 906 medical records of patients older than 18years hospitalized with urgent indications after road traffic accident and received in-patient treatment in medical organizations of the Arkhangelsk Oblast located in area of the Federal highway M-8 "Kholmogory". The significant decreasing of number of accidents with medical consequences recorded in the covered area as well as significant decreasing number of victims and perished with minimal rate ​​in 2018 was established. It is revealed that the largest number of victims of road traffic accidents was recorded in summer - 300 (31.1%) and autumn - 270 (29.8%) of this year. The Saturday and Sunday occurred to be the most dangerous days of the week in this respect. In day periodicity, maximal number of victims was recorded in the evening time (18-24 PM, 35.1%) and the smallest number in the night time (1-6 AM, 14.6%). Among injured individuals, significantly dominated males (p<0,001) and in total sampling young people under the age of 40.

Realizing modeling and mapping tools to study the upsurge of noise pollution as a result of open-cast mining and transportation activities.

INTRODUCTION: In open-cast mines, noise pollution has become a serious concern due to the extreme use of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is focused to measure and assess the effects of the existing noise levels of major operational mines in the Keonjhar, Sundergadh, and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha, India. The transportation noise levels were also considered in this study, which was predicted using the modified Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) model. RESULT AND DISCUSSION: It was observed that noise induced by HEMM such as rock breakers, jackhammers, dumpers, and excavators, blasting noise in the mining terrain, as well as associated transportation noise became a major source of annoyance to the habitants living in proximity to the mines. The noise produced by mechanized mining operations was observed between 74.3 and 115.2 dB(A), and its impact on residential areas was observed between 49.4 and 58.9 dB(A). In addition, the noise contour maps of sound level dispersion were demonstrated with the utilization of advanced noise prediction software tools for better understanding. CONCLUSION: Finally, the predicted values at residential zone and traffic noise are correlated with observed values, and the coefficient of determination, R2, was calculated to be 0.6891 and 0.5967, respectively.

Humanitarian benefits of cadaver research on injury prevention.

This paper discusses the value of human cadaveric subjects in injury biomechanics research. Published data were used to estimate the number of cadavers used in the past 30 years and to show that, as a benefit to society, over 60 lives were saved and countless injuries prevented for each cadaver used in the development and validation of safety improvements. Ethical and religious concerns regarding the use of cadavers are also addressed. Because of the substantial humanitarian value of cadaver research and the lack of suitable specimens, it is proposed that cadaver resources be pooled and that institutions with surplus specimens supply the few cadaver testing laboratories with specimens each year. This approach will enable further development of safety systems and facilitate achieving the national goals for injury control.