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West Australian
a day ago
- Automotive
- West Australian
CBH's train illumination pledge hits a stumbling block
CBH Group's plan to install LED beacon lights on all of its locomotives is 'taking longer than expected', with only 11 of 25 now upgraded despite initial plans to have the works completed by early this year. The farmer-owned co-operative pledged 18 months ago to install LED beacon lights on the front of its locomotives by 'early 2025' in response to a national campaign pushing for improved lighting on trains. Once complete, the upgrades will make CBH an industry leader in train illumination, with trains only required to have headlights and 'ditch lights', which illuminate the side of the track for train driver visibility. CBH's upgrades involve installing 12 new lights on each locomotive — including four on each side, two on the front eyebrow, and two at the rear eyebrow. The company started installing lighting panels on 'current and future locomotives' in October 2023. When probed for an update, CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw told Countryman the works were 'taking longer than expected' but the co-operative remained committed to 'continuing the lighting installation program on our locomotives'. 'The program is progressing well but taking longer than expected,' he said. 'After an extensive design and review process, installation has been aligned to the component change out program. '(This means) when a loco receives a new engine or alternator (it receives the lighting installation), to ensure there is sufficient time to complete each loco with a full upgrade. 'Eleven out of 25 CBH locos have now had the full, three component initiatives installed: that is, LED headlight upgrades, ditch lighting upgrades, and side and brow beacon lighting installed.' Mr Daw revealed CBH was working on a trial of photoluminescent strips on grain wagons to enhance visibility. He said initial trials showed the strips 'did not work as well' as the co-operative had hoped. 'However, our next trial is under way where we have installed alternate yellow and green strips,' he said. 'Independent of the trials, currently every wagon has reflectors on them that reflect vehicle lights when shone on.' The new LED beacon lights will be positioned on narrow and standard-gauge locomotives, which CBH Group believes will enhance train visibility, without compromising the safety of road users or train drivers. The eyebrow lights will flash when the horn is operated, in-sync with the existing bottom ditch light, in the direction of travel. The remaining eight side lights will also illuminate when the horn is sounded, however will remain extinguished all other times. The current lighting configuration on CBH locomotives meets Australian Standards, which feature two headlights, two marker lights, locomotive number lights on the top headboard of the locomotive, and two ditch lights on the bottom. The ditch lights flash when the horn is sounded. The move comes after years of campaigning by a group of 12 families who have lost family in rail-crossing accidents, including four from regional WA — the Jensen, Broad, Smith and Dempster families. The campaign — by the Improve Train Lighting and Level Crossing Safety Group — also called for CBH to bolster lighting and visibility for wagons, which can stretch hundreds of metres behind locomotives with limited lighting and operate on more than 2000km of track in mainly regional WA. Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation's most recent freight train visibility report revealed there were 98 collisions occurring between trains and vehicles at passive crossings between 2015 and 2021. In all, 32 collisions occurred at night with rolling stock (33 per cent) and 55 collisions occurred at passive crossings with rolling stock (56 per cent) day and night combined.
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Study finds a steep decline in mothers' mental health
Advertisement The surgeon general's report led the researchers behind the new study to begin analyzing data from nearly 200,000 mothers who participated in the National Survey of Children's Health, an annual survey of households with children up to age 17. Researchers found that 1 in 20 mothers reported her mental health was poor or fair in 2016; by 2023 the ratio was about 1 in 12. In contrast, 1 in 22 fathers surveyed reported fair or poor mental health in 2023. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up There are limitations to the study, which was cross-sectional, meaning it looked at snapshots in time but did not follow the same women year over year. It also relied on self-reporting. Still, the findings were not surprising to experts in the field of maternal mental health, who have been observing the decline in emotional well-being for years. Advertisement Dr. Tamar Gur, endowed director of the Soter Women's Health Research Program at Ohio State University, said that if nothing else, the new findings would help reassure the mothers she treats that they are not the only ones struggling. 'Now I have something I can point to when I'm seeing a patient and say, 'You're not alone in this,'' Gur, who was not involved in the study, said. 'This is happening nationally, and it's a real problem.' The new study was not designed to address the question of why maternal mental health seems to be on the decline, but one of its authors, Jamie Daw, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, has some theories. Daw and others pointed to several factors that may have hurt maternal mental health over the past decade or so, including the high costs of housing, increasing child care costs, and soaring food prices, which can each put financial and emotional pressure on families. Those stressors exist on top of longstanding concerns, including that women continue to carry a heavier burden at home and the continued lack of national paid parental leave. Other experts pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a cause of the decline in mental health, but Daw said the drop predated the pandemic. 'This is about broader trends that extend beyond the pandemic,' Daw said, while acknowledging the pandemic had given declines in mental health a 'boost.' Some mental health experts say the women they see in their practices continue to reel from the effects of the pandemic. Advertisement 'We all got much more isolated during COVID,' said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, founder of the Motherhood Center of New York, who was not involved in the new study. 'I think coming out of it, people are still trying to figure out, 'Where are my supports?'' Crystal Schiller, director of the Center for Women's Mood Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that the past few years had been a 'perfect storm for women's mental health.' 'The stress of the pandemic kicked off a mental health crisis for many people that has never fully recovered, in large part because most Americans can't access high-quality mental health care,' she said. The United States has long faced a shortage of therapists, and many of those who would benefit from therapy cannot afford it. Schiller and other experts also noted that mothers may face particular challenges in carving out time for therapy when they are balancing work and raising children. While the new findings build on years of escalating warnings about the state of American mothers' mental well-being, experts said one potential bright spot from the new study was that it may reflect the fact that mothers had become more vocal about their mental health struggles and more comfortable disclosing them with friends, family members, and health care providers and on social media. 'I do think people are becoming more outspoken about what's happening to them,' Birndorf said. This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Weight Gain Might Be Linked to 'Lifestyle Instability', Not Just Calories
Life's many disruptions, from injury to festive events, may account for most people's yearly weight gain. In a new peer-reviewed perspective article, researchers argue this may be a key missing factor behind the persistent rise in global obesity. "'Lifestyle instability' may be an underappreciated risk factor for excessive body fat gain which has fundamental implications for obesity prevention strategies and public health," write Loughborough University exercise scientist Arthur Daw and colleagues. The team describes accumulating evidence that weight increase happens in bursts related to life events, rather than in a steady increase over time. Calculations based on annual weighings led to the idea that our weight accumulates gradually from eating a few grapes worth more energy than we use daily. This notion has fueled often problematic dietary fads. But while what we eat certainly plays a massive role in our health, more detailed data collected by recent new technologies like the Fitbit is revealing our weight accumulation may be more sporadic than previously thought. Anything with the potential to change eating and movement patterns can contribute to excess weight gain, the researchers argue, including study stress, relationship challenges, illness, parenthood, and use of different medications. As these disruptions stack up, so can our weight. A recent study suggests even just five days of junk food can trigger obesogenic processes in your body. Changing the climate you're exposed to can also influence your metabolism. While such destabilizing events include enjoyable activities too, like stuffing ourselves silly during Christmas celebrations, this theory also tracks with an already established link between stress and weight gain. Stress-induced increases in cortisol can suppress biological functions not needed for immediate survival, like your metabolism. This frees up your blood and energy for immediate action. In turn, spikes in cortisol can have an impact on insulin levels, making your blood sugar drop, triggering sugary food cravings. This may have been useful when we needed to flee from bears, but not for the types of ongoing stress we're more likely to experience today, like financial stress from the rising cost of living. Daw and colleagues suggest new technologies, including artificial intelligence, may be able to help us mitigate the risks during life's many disruptions. But it's also important to remember that many factors contribute to our weight, including some that are out of our control. Because of this, focusing on eating and moving as healthily as possible, rather than on the weight itself, may increase your chances of a healthier outcome. "If lifestyle disruptors are the main driver of annual fat gain, prevention strategies should focus on these events," Daw and team conclude. "If fat gain occurs in short episodes, effective interventions may only require infrequent temporary behavioral changes." The perspective article was published in the International Journal of Obesity. Up to 13% of Dementia Cases May Actually Be a Misdiagnosed Treatable Condition Study on Mice Suggests Surprising Link Between Nose-Picking And Alzheimer's There Are Good Health Reasons For Leaving Your Shoes at The Door
