Does choice of athletic footwear affect musculoskeletal injury risk in US Coast Guard recruits? A retrospective cohort study.

Context: Musculoskeletal injuries (MSKIs) are ubiquitous during initial entry military training, with overuse injuries in the lower extremities the most frequent. A common mechanism for overuse injuries is running, an activity that is an integral part of United States Coast Guard (USCG) training and a requirement for graduation. Objective: Assess the effects of athletic footwear choice on lower quarter MSKI risk in USCG recruits. Design: Descriptive Epidemiological Study Setting: USCG Training Center, Cape May, NJ Participants: A retrospective cohort study was performed in which 1229 recruits (1038 males, 191 females) were allowed to self-select athletic footwear during training. A group of 2876 recruits (2260 males, 616 females) who trained under a policy that required obligatory wear of prescribed athletic shoes served as a control. Main Outcome Measures: Demographic data and physical performance were derived from administrative records. Injury data were abstracted from a medical tracking database. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess group, age, sex, height, body mass, and run times on MSKI outcomes. Results: Ankle-foot, leg, knee and lumbopelvic-hip complex diagnoses were ubiquitous in both groups (experimental: 20.37 to 29.34 per 1000 recruits; control: 18.08 to 25.59 per 1000 recruits). Group was not a significant factor for any of the injuries assessed. Sex was a significant factor in all injury types, with female recruits demonstrating ~2.00 greater odds of experiencing running-related injuries (RRIs), overuse injuries, or any MSKI in general. When considering ankle-foot or bone stress injuries, the risk in female recruits was 3.73 to 4.11 greater odds than their male counterparts. Run time was a significant predictor in RRI, all overuse injuries, and for any MSKI in general. Conclusion: While footwear choice did not influence MSKI risk in USCG recruits, female sex was a primary, nonmodifiable intrinsic risk factor.

A Study on Evaluation System of Risk Assessment at Coastal Activity Areas

Coastal safety accidents are characterized by a high proportion of human negligence and repeated occurrences of accidents caused by the same factors. The Korea Coast Guard prepares and implements various countermeasures to prevent accidents at coastal safety accident sites. However, there is a shortage of safety facilities and safety management personnel according to the limited budget. In addition, the ability to be proactively and proactively respond is low due to the limitations of the coastal safety accident risk forecasting system, which relies on the meteorological warning of the Korea Meteorological Administration. In this study, as part of preparing the foundation for establishing a preemptive and active coastal safety management system that can manage accident-causing factors, predict and evaluate risk, and implement response and mitigation measures after an accident occurs before coastal safety accidents occur. The establishment of a risk assessment system was proposed. The main evaluation factors and indicators for risk assessment were established through the analysis of the status of coastal safety accidents. The risk assessment methodology was applied to 40 major hazardous areas designated and managed by the Korea Coast Guard.

Status of Indonesia's sovereign rights in the north natuna sea conflict area consequences of China's nine-dash line claim

The existence of sovereign rights in the North Natuna Sea has begun to be disturbed since China's claim of traditional fishing rights was strengthened by the nine-dash line claim. This claim includes the North Natuna Sea area into China's territorial sea, which makes this area a conflict area. The problem in this research is the existence of traditional fishing ground rights in UNCLOS III 1982 and the impact of the nine-dash line claim on Indonesia's sovereign rights in the conflict area of ??the North Natuna Sea. This study uses a normative legal research method with a statutory and conceptual approach. The results of the study explained that the 1982 UNCLOS III did not regulate traditional fishing ground, and the impact of the nine-dash line claim is very significant, as can be seen from the activities of Chinese fishers in the North Natuna Sea, which are supported by Chinese coast guard vessels, which have disrupted Indonesia's enjoyment of its sovereign rights. Thus, it can be concluded that the traditional fishing ground rights with the nine-dash line claim are not based on international law but are only based on China's unilateral claims and create conflicts that impact Indonesia.

The Polar Code and Telemedicine

One result of a warmer global climate is increased maritime activity in the Arctic. Areas that used to be covered by ice and snow are now accessible for the scientific community and commercial users. The Norwegian government has chosen tourism as a pillar of the economy of Svalbard and facilitates the development of the tourism industry. Aase and Jabour have shown that tourist vessels sail as far north as 82° N, beyond the range of geostationary satellites. The Polar Code states that appropriate communication equipment to enable telemedical assistance in polar areas shall be provided. This paper describes a series of functional telemedicine tests carried out on board the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel NoCGV Svalbard during her transit between Svalbard and the Norwegian mainland in September 2019. Communication was established between the vessel and Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, using the new Iridium NEXT constellation of communication satellites. Our tests show that medical services that require low bandwidths work.

Testing the organizational trust contents of coast guard organizations in Taiwan

PurposeThe purpose is to verify the OTC of Taiwan coast guard organizations and to explore whether the views of coast guard personnel on the trust of supervisors, colleagues and subordinates are consistent based on vertical or horizontal relationship in the organization.Design/methodology/approachThis is an empirical study conducted with 412 participants from Taiwan coast guard organizations.FindingsThe main finding of this study was that, in Taiwan coast guard organizations, there are differences in the perceptions of organizational trust contents (OTC) in different measuring subjects that are nonexistent in previous studies on other cultures. In particular, the recognition of organizational trust (OT) in subordinates was higher than that in colleagues, while the recognition of OT in colleagues was higher than that in supervisors. Furthermore, measuring the same object with different dimensions, it was found that the OT of colleagues' honest negotiation was significantly higher than those of “not to take excessive advantage (NTEA)” and “keep commitments.” There was no difference in recognition of the three dimensions for subordinates and supervisors.Originality/valueThe result confirms the structure of the Organizational Trust Inventory model of Taiwan coast guard organizations. In addition, Chinese culture evidently influences the weight on each of the contracting behaviors expected of different referents; particularly, trustworthy subordinates are more expected to exhibit good contracting behaviors than supervisors and coworkers. This study contributes to the understanding of how to foster trust in terms of good contracting behaviors in Taiwan coast guard organizations.

Aerial observations of sea ice break-up by ship waves

We provide the first in situ observations of floe size distributions (FSD) resulting from wave-induced sea ice break-up. In order to obtain such data, an unmanned aerial vehicle was deployed from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen as it sailed in the vicinity of large ice floes in Baffin Bay and in the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada. When represented as probability density functions weighted by the surface of ice floes, the FSDs exhibit a strong modal shape which confirms the preferential size hypothesis debated in the scientific community. Both FSDs are compared to a flexural rigidity length scale, which depends on ice properties, and with the wavelength scale. This comparison tends to show that the maximal distance between cracks is preferentially dictated by sea ice thickness and elasticity rather than by the wavelength. Temporal analysis of one fracture event is also done. Results show that the break-up advances almost as fast as the wave energy and that waves responsible for the break-up propagate following the mass loading dispersion relation. Moreover, our experiments show that thicker ice can attenuate wave less than thinner ice. This method thus provides key information on the wave-induced FSD, clarifies theoretical aspects from the construction of the FSD to its implementation in models and brings new knowledge regarding the temporal evolution of sea ice break-up.