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This study examined the effects of age and industry expertise on trainees’ state of mind before, learning experiences during, and outcomes following virtual reality (VR) mines rescue training. The trainees were 284 mine rescue brigadesmen attending group VR training sessions run by Coal Services NSW. They were aged between 24 and 64 years and had up to 40 years of mines rescue experience. Questionnaire data and learning outcome measures showed that these miners were able to effectively engage with, and learn from, this VR training regardless of their age or mining experience. While the older trainees initially reported higher levels of stress and had less gaming experience, their experiences during VR training were very similar (although reports that the VR technology sometimes did not meet the task requirements did increase with age). Crucially, the perceived learning outcomes of this VR training were unaffected by age or field experience.

The relationship between cannabis legalization and traffic safety remains unclear. Physiological measures of cannabis impairment remain imperfect. This analysis used self-report data to examine the relationship between cannabis legalization and driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC)11 DUIC: Driving under the influence of cannabis..Using a cross-sectional national sample (2016–2017) of 1,249 past–30-day cannabis users, we regressed self-reported DUIC (driving within three hours of “getting high”) on cannabis legalization (recreational and medical (recreational), medical only (medical), or no legal cannabis), adjusting for demographics, days of use (past 30 days), days of use*legal status, calibration weights, and geographic clustering.The risk of DUIC in recreational (risk ratio [RR] = 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI):0.23–0.72) and medical (RR = 0.39, 95% CI:0.20–0.79) states was lower than in states without legal cannabis, with one exception. Among frequent cannabis users (≥20 days per month), there was a significantly lower risk of DUIC for those living in recreational states (RR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.49–0.99), but not for those living in medical states (RR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.60–1.24), compared to users living in states without legal cannabis.The risk of self-reported DUIC was lower in recreational and medical cannabis states compared to states without legal cannabis. The only exception was for frequent users in medical states, for whom there was no difference in risk compared to frequent users living in states without legal cannabis.

This paper discusses results from two successive rounds of virtual mines rescue training. The first round was conducted in a surround projection environment (360-VR), and the second round was conducted in desktop virtual reality (Desktop-VR). In the 360-VR condition, trainees participated as groups, making collective decisions. In the Desktop-VR condition, trainees could control their avatars individually. Overall, 372 participants took part in this study, including 284 mines rescuers who took part in 360-VR, and 243 in Desktop-VR. (155 rescuers experienced both.) Each rescuer who trained in 360-VR completed a battery of pre- and post-training questionnaires. Those who attended the Desktop-VR session only completed the post-training questionnaire. We performed principal components analysis on the questionnaire data, followed by a multiple regression analysis, the results of which suggest that the chief factor contributing to positive learning outcome was Learning Context, which extracted information about the quality of the learning content, the trainers, and their feedback. Subjective feedback from the Desktop-VR participants indicated that they preferred Desktop-VR to 360-VR for this training activity, which highlights the importance of choosing an appropriate platform for training applications, and links back to the importance of Learning Context. Overall, we conclude the following: 1) it is possible to train effectively using a variety of technologies but technology that is well-suited to the training task is more useful than technology that is “more advanced,” and 2) factors that have always been important in training, such as the quality of human trainers, remain critical for virtual reality training.

Recent youth trends in the prevalence of e-cigarette and traditional cigarette use in Florida were examined in a cross-sectional, representative state sample from 2011 to 2014. Traditional cigarette use among youth declined during the study period. Experimentation with and past 30-day use of e-cigarettes among Florida youth tripled over 4 years. Past 30-day e-cigarette use exceeded traditional cigarette use in 2014; 10.8% of high school and 4.0% of middle school students reported recent e-cigarette use, compared with 8.7% of high school and 2.9% of middle school students for traditional cigarettes (P