| 1. |
- Bertilsson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Towards systematic and objective evaluation of police officer performance in stressful situations
- 2020
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Ingår i: Police Practice and Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1561-4263 .- 1477-271X. ; 21:6, s. 655-669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To ensure a continuous high standard of police units, it is critical to recruit people who perform well in stressful situations. Today, this selection process includes performing a large series of tests, which still may not objectively reveal a person’s capacity to handle a life-threatening situation when subjected to high levels of stress. To obtain more systematic and objective data, 12 police officers were exposed to six scenarios with varying levels of threat while their heart rate and pupil size were monitored. The scenarios were filmed and six expert evaluators assessed the performance of the police officers according to seven predefined criteria. Four of the scenarios included addressing a moderate threat level task and the scenarios were executed in a rapid sequence. Two further scenarios included a familiar firearm drill performed during high and low threat situations. The results showed that there was a large agreement between the experts in how they judged the performance of the police officers (p < 0.001). Performance increased significantly over tasks in four of the seven evaluation criteria (p ≤ 0.037). There was also a significant effect of pupil size (p = 0.004), but not heart rate, when comparing the different sequential scenarios. Moreover, a high level of threat considerably impaired the motor performance of the police officers during the firearms drill (p = 0.002). Finally, the pupil seemed to systematically dilate more when a threat appeared immediately than with a delay in the scenarios (p = 0.007). We conclude that systematic and quantitative judgments from experts provide valuable and reliable information about the performance of participants in realistic and stressful policing scenarios. Furthermore, objective physiological measures of heart rate and pupil size may help to explain and understand why performance sometimes deteriorates.
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| 2. |
- Muscarella, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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The global abundance of tree palms
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 29:9, s. 1495-1514
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimPalms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change.LocationTropical and subtropical moist forests.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedPalms (Arecaceae).MethodsWe assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure.ResultsOn average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work.ConclusionsTree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.
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| 3. |
- Amin, Khabat, et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of road safety trends 2020 : Management by objectives for road safety work towards the 2020 interim targets
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish road safety management is based on the Vision Zero and designated interim targets to track progress towards its achievement. 2020 was the final year for achieving the interim target of halving the number of fatalities between 2007 and 2020, i.e., a maximum of 220 fatalities in 2020. The interim target also specifies that the number of seriously injured in road traffic must be reduced by a quarter. This report describes and analyses the current road safety trends in terms of road safety performance indicators and the numbers of fatalities and seriously injured. As this report is the last for the 2007-2020 interim target period, it can be seen as a final summary of how well the targets were achieved for fatalities and seriously injured and for the safety performance indicators. However, it is also important to remember that the year 2020 coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a profound impact on virtually the entire society. This affected travel in a number of different ways, and consequently it is impossible to estimate the impact this has had on the outcome in 2020, although it probably has led to a slightly lower outcome. The table below shows starting and final values together with an overview of whether the safety performance indicators have met the 2020 targets.
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| 4. |
- Askar, Raad, et al.
(författare)
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Bioavailability of subcutaneous and intramuscular administrated buprenorphine in New Zealand White rabbits
- 2020
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Ingår i: BMC Veterinary Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1746-6148. ; 16:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundBuprenorphine is one of the most used analgesics for postoperative pain in rabbits. The recommended dose in rabbits (0.01–0.05 mg/kg) is the same for intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), and subcutaneous (SC) administration, despite lack of pharmacokinetic data. Five male and five female New Zealand White rabbits (mean ± SD body weight 3.1 ± 0.3 kg) were administered 0.05 mg/kg buprenorphine by the IV, IM and SC routes and 0.1 mg/kg by the SC route, in a cross-over design with two-week wash-out periods between treatments. Blood was collected before, and up to 8 h post buprenorphine injection, for determination of serum levels by UPHLC-MS/MS.ResultsThe area under the time concentration curve (AUC0-t) was lower after SC (398 ± 155 ng/mL/min) than IM (696 ± 168 ng/mL/min, p < 0.001) and IV (789 ± 189 ng/mL/min, p < 0.001) administration. The maximum serum concentration was lower after SC (2.2 ± 1.4 ng/mL) than after IM (11 ± 3.2 ng/mL) administration (p < 0.001). The bioavailability was lower after SC (50 ± 19%) than after IM (95 ± 21%) administration (p = 0.006). The elimination half-life was longer after SC (260 ± 120 min) than after IM (148 ± 26 min, p = 0.002) as well as IV (139 ± 33 min) injection (p < 0.001). An increase in the SC dose from 0.05 to 0.1 mg/kg resulted in an increase in the area under the time concentration curve of 50% in female (p = 0.022) and 165% in male rabbits (p < 0.001). The bioavailability did not change in the females (36 ± 14%, p = 0.6), whereas it increased in the males (71 ± 23%, p = 0.008).ConclusionsThe lower bioavailability of 0.05 mg/kg buprenorphine after SC administration could explain the lack of efficacy seen in clinical pain studies in rabbits, using this route. For immediate pain relief, IV or IM administration is therefore be recommended, whereas SC administration may be useful to sustain analgesic serum levels, once efficient pain relief has been achieved. The current data do not support an increase in dose to compensate for the lower SC bioavailability.
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| 5. |
- Lewis, Matt, et al.
(författare)
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A standardised tidal-stream power curve, optimised for the global resource
- 2021
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Ingår i: Renewable Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-1481 .- 1879-0682. ; 170, s. 1308-1323
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tidal-stream energy resource can be predicted deterministically, provided tidal harmonics and turbine-device characteristics are known. Many turbine designs exist, all having different characteristics (e.g. rated speed), which creates uncertainty in resource assessment or renewable energy system-design decision-making. A standardised normalised tidal-stream power-density curve was parameterised with data from 14 operational horizontal-axis turbines (e.g. mean cut-in speed was ∼30% of rated speed). Applying FES2014 global tidal data (1/16° gridded resolution) up to 25 km from the coast, allowed optimal turbine rated speed assessment. Maximum yield was found for turbine rated speed ∼97% of maximum current speed (maxU) using the 4 largest tidal constituents (M2, S2, K1 and O1) and ∼87% maxU for a “high yield” scenario (highest Capacity Factor in top 5% of yield cases); with little spatial variability found for either. Optimisation for firm power (highest Capacity Factor with power gaps less than 2 h), which is important for problematic or expensive energy-storage cases (e.g. off-grid), turbine rated speed of ∼56% maxU was found – but with spatial variability due to tidal form and maximum current speed. We find optimisation and convergent design is possible, and our standardised power curve should help future research in resource and environmental impact assessment.
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