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Janet Anderson

Publications and source records attributed to Janet Anderson.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Driver distraction: the effects of concurrent in-vehicle tasks, road environment complexity and age on driving performance.

This paper presents the findings of a simulator study that examined the effects of distraction upon driving performance for drivers in three age groups. There were two in-vehicle distracter tasks: operating the vehicle entertainment system and conducting a simulated hands-free mobile phone conversation. The effect of visual clutter was examined by requiring participants to drive in simple and complex road environments. Overall measures of driving performance were collected, together with responses to roadway hazards and subjective measures of driver perceived workload. The two in-vehicle distraction tasks degraded overall driving performance, degraded responses to hazards and increased subjective workload. The performance decrements that occurred as a result of in-vehicle distraction were observed in both the simple and complex highway environments and for drivers in different age groups. One key difference was that older drivers traveled at lower mean speeds in the complex highway environment compared with younger drivers. The conclusions of the research are that both in-vehicle tasks impaired several aspects of driving performance, with the entertainment system distracter having the greatest negative impact on performance, and that these findings were relatively stable across different driver age groups and different environmental complexities.

Accidents, Traffic↗

Detection of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) in saliva of ventilated and non-ventilated preterm neonates.

The very young preterm neonate has multiple immune deficiencies which may increase his or her vulnerability to infection. Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) plays an important role in the protection of epithelial surfaces exposed to the external environment; nevertheless controversy exists with regards to the ontogeny of SIgA in newborns and especially the preterm neonate. The objective was to investigate if SIgA could be detected in the saliva of very/extremely low birthweight neonates (V/ELBW). A total of 707 samples which were collected twice daily (morning and afternoon) for three consecutive days were obtained from sixty-eight preterm neonates (mean gestational age 28 weeks; conceptional age ranged from 25-35 weeks). A repeated measures design was used. Total concentration of SIgA was determined from unstimulated saliva by an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay technique. Results indicated that SIgA was detectable in the early postnatal period in the saliva of both ventilated preterms who were receiving intravenous total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and non-ventilated preterms. A 3-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed no significant effect from 'before' and 'after' samples during a period of spontaneous activity, time and day of sampling. A significant effect of mode of nutrition was found; neonates who were receiving expressed breast milk had significantly higher concentrations of SIgA than those infants receiving TPN (df=3, F=14.27, p<0.0001). These results have implications for the care of the preterm neonate in intensive care.

Journal Article↗