Search results for: occupational health and safety regulation

Authors: Bara M Yousef, Naresh B Raj, Nadiah W Arfah, Brightlin N Dhas

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Background: Executive function (EF) impairment is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF strategies are considered effective in improving the therapeutic outcomes of children with ASD. Aims: This study primarily aims to explore whether integrating EF strategies combined with regular occupational therapy intervention is more effective in improving daily life skills (DLS) and sensory integration/processing (SI/SP) skills than regular occupational therapy alone in children with ASD and secondarily aims to assess treatment outcomes on improving visual motor integration (VMI) skills. Procedures: A total of 92 children with ASD will be recruited and, following baseline assessments, randomly assigned to the treatment group (45-min once weekly individual occupational therapy plus EF strategies) and control group (45-min once weekly individual therapy sessions alone). Results and Outcomes: All children will be evaluated systematically by assessing SI/SP, DLS, and VMI, skills at baseline, 7 weeks, and 14 weeks of treatment. Data will be analyzed using ANCOVA and T-test. Conclusions and Implications: This single-blind, randomized controlled trial will provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of EF strategies when combined with regular occupational therapy programs. Based on trial results, EF strategies could be recommended in multidisciplinary programs for children with ASD. Trial Registration: The trial has been registered in the clinicaltrail.gov for a registry, protocol ID: MRC-01-22-509 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05829577, registered 25th April 2023

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, executive function strategies, daily life skills, sensory integration/processing, visual motor integration, occupational therapy, effectiveness

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Authors: Aodai Abdul-Illah Ismail

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Even though the dramatic progress that has been made in traffic safety, but still millions of peoples get killed or injured as a result of traffic crashes, besides the huge amount of economic losses due to these crashes. So traffic safety continues to be one of the most important serious issues worldwide, and it affects everyone who uses the road network system, whether you drive, walk, cycle, or push a pram. One of the most important sides that offers promise for further progress in relation to traffic safety is related to risky groups (special population groups) who may have higher potential to be involved in accidents. Traffic safety needs of risky groups are different from each other and also from the average population. Due to the various limitations between these special groups from each other and from the average population, it is not possible to address all the issues –at the same time- raising the importance ranking among the other safety issues. This paper explains a procedure used to identify the most critical traffic safety issues of five risky groups, which include younger, older and female drivers, people with disabilities and school aged children. Multi criteria used in selecting the critical issues because the single criteria is not sufficient. Highway safety professionals were surveyed to obtain the ranking of importance among the risky groups and then to develop the final ranking among issues by applying weight for each of the criteria.

Keywords: traffic safety, risky groups, old drivers, young drivers

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Authors: Gabrielle Veloso, Welison Ty

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Trait anxiety is a pervasive tendency to attend to and experience fears and worries to a disproportionate degree, across various situations. This study sought to determine if participants who undergo emotional working memory training will have significantly lower scores on the trait anxiety scales post-intervention. The study also sought to determine if emotional regulation mediated the relationship between working memory training and trait anxiety. Forty-nine participants underwent 20 days of computerized emotional working memory training called Emotional Dual n-back, which involves viewing a continuous stream of emotional content on a grid, and then remembering the location and color of items presented on the grid. Participants of the treatment group had significantly lower trait anxiety compared to controls post-intervention. Mediation analysis determined that working memory training had no significant relationship to anxiety as measured by the Beck’s Anxiety Inventory-Trait (BAIT), but was significantly related to anxiety as measured by form Y2 of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y2). Emotion regulation, as measured by the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), was found not to mediate between working memory training and trait anxiety reduction. Results suggest that working memory training may be useful in reducing psychoemotional symptoms rather than somatic symptoms of trait anxiety. Moreover, it proposes for future research to further look into the mediating role of emotion regulation via neuroimaging and the development of more comprehensive measures of emotion regulation.

Keywords: anxiety, emotion regulation, working-memory, working-memory training

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Authors: James Beauchemin

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Introduction: The incarceration of people with mental illness and substance use disorders is a major public health issue, with social, clinical, and economic implications. Yoga participation has been associated with numerous psychological benefits; however, there is a paucity of research examining impacts of yoga with incarcerated populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of a six-week yoga intervention on several mental health-related variables, including emotion regulation, body awareness, and warnings of substance relapse among incarcerated females. Methods: This study utilized a pre-post, three-arm design, with participants assigned to intervention, therapeutic community, or general population groups. A between-groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted across groups to assess intervention effectiveness using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Scale of Body Connection (SBC), and Warnings of Relapse (AWARE) Questionnaire. Results: ANCOVA results for warnings of relapse (AWARE) revealed significant between-group differences F(2, 80) = 7.15, p = .001; np2 = .152), with significant pairwise comparisons between the intervention group and both the therapeutic community (p = .001) and the general population (p = .005) groups. Similarly, significant differences were found for emotional regulation (DERS) F(2, 83) = 10.521, p = .000; np2 = .278). Pairwise comparisons indicated a significant difference between the intervention and general population (p = .01). Finally, significant differences between the intervention and control groups were found for body awareness (SBC) F(2, 84) = 3.69, p = .029; np2 = .081). Between-group differences were clarified via pairwise comparisons, indicating significant differences between the intervention group and both the therapeutic community (p = .028) and general population groups (p = .020). Implications: Study results suggest that yoga may be an effective addition to integrative mental health and substance use treatment for incarcerated women, and contributes to increasing evidence that holistic interventions may be an important component for treatment with this population. Specifically, given the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders, findings revealed that changes in body awareness and emotion regulation may be particularly beneficial for incarcerated populations with substance use challenges as a result of yoga participation. From a systemic perspective, this proactive approach may have long-term implications for both physical and psychological well-being for the incarcerated population as a whole, thereby decreasing the need for traditional treatment. By integrating a more holistic, salutogenic model that emphasizes prevention, interventions like yoga may work to improve the wellness of this population, while providing an alternative or complementary treatment option for those with current symptoms.

Keywords: yoga, mental health, incarceration, wellness

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Authors: Mehmet Yahsi, Ozkan Ugurlu

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Cabin department among the stewards and cooks on ships, has an important place in terms of a sufficient and qualified nutrition of seafarers. From this perspective, ships must be employed with a sufficient number of cabin department. In this study, in order to research on the Turkish-flagged ships cook and stewards employment; Our national manning regulation compared with international regulations. The data used in this study were collected via visiting of the ships. 3000 gross tonnage and above engaged in international voyages 181 Turkish-flagged ship’s crew lists were compared with Minimum Safety Manning Certificates. According to the findings; employment rates, %95,6 cook, and %50,8 steward. According to the results of the study; Turkish-flagged ships, although it is not obliged to cook and steward, were employed on ships.

Keywords: manning, cabin department, minimum safety manning certificate, Turkish flag

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Authors: Mi-Hye Hwang, Young Min Son, Kichan Lee, Bang-Hun Hyun, Byeong Yeal Jung

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Botulism is a paralytic disease of human beings and animals caused by neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum. The neurotoxins are genetically distinguished into 8 types, A to H. Ingestion of performed toxin, usually types B, C, and D, have been shown to produce diseases in most cases of cattle botulism. Vaccination is the best measure to prevent cattle botulism. However, the commercially available toxoid-based vaccines are difficult and hazardous to produce. We produced recombinant protein using gene of heavy chain domain of botulinum toxin B of which binds to cellular receptor of neuron cells and used as immunogen. In this study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of botulism vaccine composed of recombinant types B. Safety test was done by National Regulation for Veterinary Biologicals. For efficacy test, female ICR mice (5 weeks old) were subcutaneously injected, intraperitoneally challenged, and examined the survival rates compared with vaccination and non-vaccination group. Mouse survival rate of recombinant types B vaccine was above 80%, while one of non-vaccination group was 0%. A vaccine composed of recombinant types B was safe and efficacious in mouse. Our results suggest that recombinant heavy chain receptor binding domain can be used as an effective vaccine candidate for type B botulism.

Keywords: botulism, livestock, vaccine, recombinant protein, toxin

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Authors: Qiang Zhang, Xiaojian Hu

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Aiming at the problem of the existing real-time evaluation methods for traffic safety status, a video information-based urban road section traffic safety status evaluation method was established, and the rapid detection method of traffic flow parameters based on video information is analyzed. The concept of the speed dispersion of the road section that affects the traffic safety state of the urban road section is proposed, and the method of evaluating the traffic safety state of the urban road section based on the speed dispersion of the road section is established. Experiments show that the proposed method can reasonably evaluate the safety status of urban roads in real-time, and the evaluation results can provide a corresponding basis for the traffic management department to formulate an effective urban road section traffic safety improvement plan.

Keywords: intelligent transportation system, road traffic safety, video information, vehicle speed dispersion

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Authors: Carmen J. Savelli, Romy Conzade

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Background: Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is a basic human necessity, required to sustain life and promote good health. Food safety and food security are therefore inextricably linked, yet the importance of food safety in this relationship is often overlooked. Methodologies: A literature review and desk study were conducted to examine existing frameworks for discussing food security, especially from an international perspective, to determine the entry points for enhancing considerations for food safety in national and international policies. Major Findings: Food security is commonly understood as the state when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Conceptually, food security is built upon four pillars including food availability, access, utilization and stability. Within this framework, the safety of food is often wrongly assumed as a given. However, in places where food supplies are insufficient, coping mechanisms for food insecurity are primarily focused on access to food without considerations for ensuring safety. Under such conditions, hygiene and nutrition are often ignored as people shift to less nutritious diets and consume more potentially unsafe foods, in which chemical, microbiological, zoonotic and other hazards can pose serious, acute and chronic health risks. While food supplies might be safe and nutritious, if consumed in quantities insufficient to support normal growth, health and activity, the result is hunger and famine. Recent estimates indicate that at least 842 million people, or roughly one in eight, still suffer from chronic hunger. Even if people eat enough food that is safe, they will become malnourished if the food does not provide the proper amounts of micronutrients and/or macronutrients to meet daily nutritional requirements, resulting in under- or over-nutrition. Two billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies and over half a billion adults are obese. Access to sufficient amounts of nutritious food is not enough. If food is unsafe, whether arising from poor quality supplies or inadequate treatment and preparation, it increases the risk of foodborne infections such as diarrhoea. 70% of diarrhoea episodes occurring annually in children under five are due to biologically contaminated food. Conclusions: An integrated approach is needed where food safety and nutrition are systematically introduced into mainstream food system policies and interventions worldwide in order to achieve health and development goals. A new framework, “Food for Health” is proposed to guide policy development and requires all three aspects of food security to be addressed in balance: sufficiency, nutrition and safety.

Keywords: food safety, food security, nutrition, policy

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Authors: Marielle Hanley, Brandon Takahashi, Gerry Hanley, Gabriella Hancock

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Safety harnesses and their protocols are very common within the construction industry, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has provided extensive guidelines with protocols being constantly updated to ensure the highest level of safety within construction sites. There is also extensive research on harnesses that are meant to keep people in place in moving vehicles, such as seatbelts. Though this research is comprehensive in these areas, the findings and recommendations are not generally applicable to other industry sectors where harnesses are used, such as the entertainment industry. The focus of this case study is on the design and use of harnesses used by theme park employees wearing elaborate costumes in parades and performances. The key factors of posture, kinesthetic factors, and harness engineering interact in significantly different ways when the user is performing repetitive choreography with 20 to 40 lbs. of apparatus connected to harnesses that need to be hidden from the audience’s view. Human factors and ergonomic analysis take into account the required performers’ behaviors, the physical and mental preparation and posture of the performer, the design of the harness-embedded costume, and the environmental conditions during the performance (e.g., wind) that can determine the physical stresses placed on the harness and performer. The uniqueness and expense of elaborate costumes frequently result in one or two costumes created for production, and a variety of different performers need to fit into the same costume. Consequently, the harnesses should be adjustable if they are to minimize the physical and cognitive loads on the performer, but they are frequently more a “one-size fits all”. The complexity of human and technology interactions produces a range of detrimental outcomes, from muscle strains to nerve damage, mental and physical fatigue, and reduced motivation to perform at peak levels. Based on observations conducted over four years for this case study, a number of recommendations to institutionalize the human factors and ergonomic analyses can significantly improve the safety, reliability, and quality of performances with harness-embedded costumes in the entertainment industry. Human factors and ergonomic analyses can be integrated into the engineering design of the performance costumes with embedded harnesses, the conditioning and training of the performers using the costumes, the choreography of the performances within the staged setting and the maintenance of the harness-embedded costumes. By applying human factors and ergonomic methodologies in the entertainment industry, the industry management and support staff can significantly reduce the risks of injury, improve the longevity of unique performers, increase the longevity of the harness-embedded costumes, and produce the desired entertainment value for audiences.

Keywords: ergonomics in entertainment industry, harness-embedded costumes, performer safety, injury prevention

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Authors: C. Lalitha, R. Sayee, D. Apoorva

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Reproductive failure or infertility may be due to several factors that are not limited to one sex. It remains a common problem causing significant psychological distress to those affected individuals and who are increasingly seeking medical advice. Male infertility means inability to induce conception in normal woman within a year. The etiological factors associated with male infertility are anatomical, developmental, seminal, hormonal, immunological and environmental factors. The paper was aimed to highlight the environmental factors and its association to male infertility and seasonality of birth and its influence. The data was collected from the 75 male patients referred with infertility for karyotyping and counseling. Their age ranged from 21 to 45 years. It is opined that certain occupations are preferentially associated with male infertility.

Keywords: environmental, occupational, seasonal, male infertility

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Authors: Daniel Y. Abebe, Jaehyouk Choi

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The safety of door has not given much attention. The main problem of doors during and after earthquake is that they are unable to be opened because deviation from its original position by the lateral load. The aim of this research is to develop and evaluate a safety door that keeps the door frame in its original position or keeps its edge angles perpendicular during and post-earthquake. Nonlinear finite element analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the structural performance and behavior of the proposed door under both monotonic and cyclic loading.

Keywords: safety-door, earthquake disaster, low yield point steel, passive energy dissipating device, FE analysis

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Authors: Ming-Juei Chang, Hui-Ing Ma, Tsung-Hsueh Lu

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Introduction: Because of the advance of medical care (e.g., ventilation techniques and gastrostomy feeding), more and more children with CP can live to adulthood. However, little is known about the use of health care services from children to adults who have CP. The patterns of utilization of ambulatory care are heavily influenced by insurance coverage and primary care gatekeeper regulation. The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of ambulatory care utilization among individuals with CP in Taiwan, a country with universal coverage and no gatekeeper regulation. Methods: A representative sample of one million patients (about 1/23 of total population) covered by Taiwan’s National Health Insurance was used to analyze the ambulatory care utilization in individuals with CP. Data were analyzed by 3 different age groups (children, youth and adults) during 2000 to 2003. Participants were identified by the presence of CP diagnosis made by pediatricians or physicians of physical and rehabilitation medicine and stated at least three times in claims data. Results: Annual rates of outpatient physician visits were 31680 for children, 16492 for youth, and 28617 for adults with CP (per 1000 persons). Individuals with CP received over 50% of their outpatient care from hospital outpatient department. Higher use of specialist physician services was found in children (54.7%) than in the other two age groups (28.4% in youth and 18.8% in adults). Diseases of respiratory system were the most frequent diagnoses for visits in both children and youth with CP. Diseases of the circulatory system were the main reasons (24.3%) that adults with CP visited hospital outpatient care department or clinics. Conclusion: This study showed different patterns of ambulatory care utilization among different age groups. It appears that youth and adults with CP continue to have complex health issues and rely heavily on the health care system. Additional studies are needed to determine the factors which influence ambulatory care utilization among individuals with CP.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, health services, lifespan, universal coverage

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Authors: Yu-Chen Hu

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Gene editing by CRISPR and gene regulation by microRNA or CRISPR activation have dramatically changed the way to manipulate cellular gene expression and cell fate. In recent years, various gene editing and gene manipulation technologies have been applied to control stem cell differentiation to enhance tissue regeneration. This research will focus on how to develop CRISPR, CRISPR activation (CRISPRa), CRISPR inhibition (CRISPRi), as well as bi-directional CRISPR-AI gene regulation technologies to control cell differentiation and bone regeneration. Moreover, in this study, CRISPR/Cas13d-mediated RNA editng for miRNA editing and bone regeneration will be discussed.

Keywords: gene therapy, bone regeneration, stem cell, CRISPR, gene regulation

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Authors: Nick Woodier, Iain Moppett

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Background: It is estimated that one in ten patients admitted to hospital will suffer an adverse event in their care. While the majority of these will result in low harm, patients are being significantly harmed by the processes meant to help them. Healthcare, therefore, seeks to make improvements in patient safety by taking learning from other industries that are perceived to be more mature in their management of safety events. Of particular interest to healthcare are ‘near misses,’ those events that almost happened but for an intervention. Healthcare does not have any guidance as to how best to manage and learn from near misses to reduce the chances of harm to patients. The authors, as part of a larger study of near-miss management in healthcare, sought to learn from the UK nuclear sector to develop principles for how healthcare can identify, report, and learn from near misses to improve patient safety. The nuclear sector was chosen as an exemplar due to its status as an ultra-safe industry. Methods: A Grounded Theory (GT) methodology, augmented by a scoping review, was used. Data collection included interviews, scenario discussion, field notes, and the literature. The review protocol is accessible online. The GT aimed to develop theories about how nuclear manages near misses with a focus on defining them and clarifying how best to support reporting and analysis to extract learning. Near misses related to radiation release or exposure were focused on. Results: Eightnuclear interviews contributed to the GT across nuclear power, decommissioning, weapons, and propulsion. The scoping review identified 83 articles across a range of safety-critical industries, with only six focused on nuclear. The GT identified that nuclear has a particular focus on precursors and low-level events, with regulation supporting their management. Exploration of definitions led to the recognition of the importance of several interventions in a sequence of events, but that do not solely rely on humans as these cannot be assumed to be robust barriers. Regarding reporting and analysis, no consistent methods were identified, but for learning, the role of operating experience learning groups was identified as an exemplar. The safety culture across nuclear, however, was heard to vary, which undermined reporting of near misses and other safety events. Some parts of the industry described that their focus on near misses is new and that despite potential risks existing, progress to mitigate hazards is slow. Conclusions: Healthcare often sees ‘nuclear,’ as well as other ultra-safe industries such as ‘aviation,’ as homogenous. However, the findings here suggest significant differences in safety culture and maturity across various parts of the nuclear sector. Healthcare can take learning from some aspects of management of near misses in nuclear, such as how they are defined and how learning is shared through operating experience networks. However, healthcare also needs to recognise that variability exists across industries, and comparably, it may be more mature in some areas of safety.

Keywords: culture, definitions, near miss, nuclear safety, patient safety

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Authors: Jeonghyun Chang, Taegeun Lee, Heungsup Sung, Yoon-Seon Lee, Youn-Jung Kim, Mi-Na Kim

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Background: Safety device has been applied to improve safety and performance of blood culture practice. BD vacutainer® Safety-Lokᵀᴹ blood collection sets with pre-attached holder (Safety-Lok) (BD, USA) was evaluated in the emergency room (ER) of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: From April to June 2017, interns and nurses in ER were surveyed for blood culture practices with a questionnaire before and after 2 or 3 weeks of experience of Safety-Lok. All of them participated in exercise workshop for 1 hour combined with video education prior to the initial survey. The blood volume, positive and contamination rates of Safety-Lok-drawn (SD) blood cultures were compared to those of overall blood cultures. Results: Eighteen interns and 30 nurses were enrolled. As a result of the initial survey, interns had higher rates of needlestick incidence (27.8%), carriage of the blood-filled syringe with needle (88.9%) and lower rates of vacutainer use (38.9%) than nurses (13.3%, 53.3%, and 60.0%). Interns preferred to use safety devices (88.9%) rather than nurses (40.0%). The number of overall blood cultures and SD blood cultures was 9,053 and 555, respectively. While the overall blood volume of aerobic bottles was 2.6±2.1 mL, those of SD blood cultures were 5.0±3.0 mL in aerobic bottles and 6.0±3.0 mL in anaerobic bottles. Positive and contamination rates were 6.5% and 0.72% with SD blood cultures and 6.2% and 0.3% with overall blood cultures. Conclusions: The introduction of the safety device would encourage healthcare workers to collect adequate blood volume as well as lead to safer practices in the ER.

Keywords: blood culture, needlestick, safety device, volume

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Authors: Tero Huhtala, Minna Pikkarainen, Saila Saraniemi

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Information technology has long been used as an enabler of exchange for goods and services. Services are evolving from generic to personalized, and the reverse use of customer data has been discussed in both academia and industry for the past few years. This article presents the results of an empirical case study in the area of preventive health care services. The primary data were gathered in workshops, in which future personal data-based services were conceptualized by analyzing future scenarios from a business perspective. The aim of this study is to understand business model transformation in emerging personal data ecosystems. The work was done as a case study in the context of occupational healthcare. The results have implications to theory and practice, indicating that adopting personal data management principles requires transformation of the business model, which, if successfully managed, may provide access to more resources, potential to offer better value, and additional customer channels. These advantages correlate with the broadening of the business ecosystem. Expanding the scope of this study to include more actors would improve the validity of the research. The results draw from existing literature and are based on findings from a case study and the economic properties of the healthcare industry in Finland.

Keywords: ecosystem, business model, personal data, preventive healthcare

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Authors: Vergeena Varghese, G. Gajalakshmi, Jayarajini Vasanth

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The present study deals with the indication of prevalence of dry eye and evaluates environmental risk factors attributed to dry eye in different occupational sectors. 240 subjects above 20 years and below 45 years of age were screened for dry eye. Mcmonnies dry eye questionnaire based history and Schirmer’s test were used to diagnose dry eye. For Schirmer’s test Whatman strip and paracaine drop used as an anesthetic. Subject’s demographics include age, sex, smoking, alcoholism, occupation history and working environment. Out of a total of 240 subjects, 52 subjects were positive for dry eye syndrome (21.7%). The highest prevalence of dry eye syndrome in software sector was 14subjects (26.9%) out of a total of 40 subjects. In the construction sector, the prevalence of dry eye syndrome had 12 subjects (23.1%) out of 40 subjects and 9 subjects (17.3%) out of 40 subjects in agriculture sector. 7 subjects (13.5%) who had dry eye out of 40 subjects in the transport sector and in industrial 6 subjects (11.5%). In a normal sector, this was taken as control group had dry eye in 4 subjects (7.7%) out of 40 subjects. We also found the prevalence of dry eye in OS was higher than OD. Dry eye is a most common ocular condition. The highest prevalence of dry eye syndrome in software sector was 14 members than other sector. There was a significant correlation between environmental and occupational factors to cause dry eye. Excessive exposure to sunlight, wind, high temperature, and air pollution, electromagnetic radiation are the factors affect the tear film and ocular surface causing the dry eye syndrome.

Keywords: DES – dry eye syndrome, Mcmonnies dry eye questionnaire, schirmer’s test, whatman vstrip

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Authors: Maithem Al-Saadi, Min An

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During airport planning and design stages, the major issues of capacity and safety in construction and operation of an airport need to be taken into consideration. The airside of an airport is a major and critical infrastructure that usually consists of runway(s), taxiway system, and apron(s) etc., which have to be designed according to the international standards and recommendations, and local limitations to accommodate the forecasted demands. However, in many cases, airport airsides are suffering from unexpected risks that occurred during airport operations. Therefore, safety risk assessment should be applied in the planning and design of airsides to cope with the probability of risks and their consequences, and to make decisions to reduce the risks to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) based on safety risk assessment. This paper presents a combination approach of Failure Modes, Effect, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Fuzzy Reasoning Approach (FRA), and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to develop a risk analysis model for safety risk assessment. An illustrated example is used to the demonstrate risk assessment process on how the design of an airside in an airport can be analysed by using the proposed safety design risk assessment model.

Keywords: airport airside planning and design, design for safety, fuzzy reasoning approach, fuzzy AHP, risk assessment

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Authors: Patrice Conner

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Nanotechnologies have enormous potential to contribute to human flourishing in responsible and sustainable ways. They are rapidly developing field of science, technology and innovation. As enabling technologies, their full scope of applications is potentially very wide. Major implications are expected in many areas, e.g. healthcare, information and communication technologies, energy production and storage, materials science/chemical engineering, manufacturing, environmental protection, consumer products, etc. However, nanotechnologies are unlikely to realize their full potential unless their associated societal and ethical issues are adequately attended. Namely nanotechnologies and nanoparticles may expose humans and the environment to new health risks, possibly involving quite different mechanisms of interference with the physiology of human and environmental species. One of the building blocks of the ‘safe, integrated and responsible’ approach is standardization. Both the Economic and Social Committee and the European Parliament have highlighted the importance to be attached to standardization as a means to accompany the introduction on the market of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, and a means to facilitate the implementation of regulation. ISO and CEN have respectively started in 2005 and 2006 to deal with selected topics related to this emerging and enabling technology. In the beginning of 2010, EC DG ‘Enterprise and Industry’ addressed the mandate M/461 to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI for standardization activities regarding nanotechnologies and nanomaterials. Thus CEN/TC 352 ‘Nanotechnologies’ has been asked to take the leadership for the coordination in the execution of M/461 (46 topics to be standardized) and to contact relevant European and International Technical committees and interested stakeholders as appropriate (56 structures have been identified). Prior requests from M/461 deal with characterization and exposure of nanomaterials and any matters related to Health, Safety and Environment. Answers will be given to: - What are the structures and how they work? - Where are we right now and how work is going from now onwards? - How CEN’s work and targets deal with and interact with global matters in this field?

Keywords: characterization, environmental protection, exposure, health risks, nanotechnologies, responsible and sustainable ways, safety

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Authors: Armana Sabiha Huq, Tahmina Rahman Chowdhury

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In this paper, based on the stated preference experiment, the service quality of Bangladesh Railway has been assessed, and particular importance has been given to investigate if there exists a relationship between service quality and safety. For investigation purposes, environmental and organizational factors were assumed to determine the safety performance of the railway. Data collected from the survey has been analyzed by importance-performance analysis (IPA). In this paper, a modification of the well-known importance-performance analysis (IPA) has been done by adopting the importance of the weights determined through a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and by plotting the gap between importance and performance on a visual graph. It has been found that there exists a relationship between safety and serviceability to some extent. Limited resources are an important factor to improve the safety and serviceability condition of the BD railway. Moreover, it is observed that the limited resources available to monitor and improve the safety performance of railway.

Keywords: importance-performance analysis, GAP-IPA, SEM, serviceability, safety, factor analysis

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Authors: Paschal Ohalehi

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper, which is part of a PhD thesis is to examine the role of risk based approach in minimising financial crime in the charity sector as well as offer recommendations to improving the quality of charity regulation whilst still retaining risk based approach as a regulatory framework and also making a case for a new regulatory model. Increase in financial crimes in the charity sector has put the role of regulation in minimising financial crime up for debates amongst researchers and practitioners. Although previous research has addressed the regulation of charities, research on the role of risk based approach to minimising financial crime in the charity sector is limited. Financial crime is a concern for all organisation including charities. Design/methodology/approach - This research adopts a social constructionist’s epistemological position. This research is carried out using semi structured in-depth interviews amongst randomly selected 24 charity trustees divided into three classes: 10 small charities, 10 medium charities and 4 large charities. The researcher also interviewed 4 stakeholders (NFA, Charity Commission and two different police forces in terms of size and area of coverage) in the charity sector. Findings - The results of this research show that reliance on risk based approach to financial crime in the sector is weak and fragmented with the research pointing to a clear evidence of disconnect between the regulator and the regulated leading to little or lack of regulation of trustees’ activities, limited monitoring of charities and lack of training and awareness on financial crime in the sector. Originality – This paper shows how regulation of charities in general and risk based approach in particular can be improved in order to meet the expectations of the stakeholders, the public, the regulator and the regulated.

Keywords: risk, risk based approach, financial crime, fraud, self-regulation

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Authors: Elyria Kemp, Kelly Cowart, My Bui

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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 31.9% of adolescents have had an anxiety disorder. Several environmental factors may help to contribute to high levels of anxiety and depression in young people (i.e., Generation Z, Millennials). However, as young people negotiate life on social media, they may begin to evaluate themselves using excessively high standards and adopt self-perfectionism tendencies. Broadly defined, self-perfectionism involves very critical evaluations of the self. Perfectionism may also come from others and may manifest as socially prescribed perfectionism, and young adults are reporting higher levels of socially prescribed perfectionism than previous generations. This rising perfectionism is also associated with anxiety, greater physiological reactivity, and a sense of social disconnection. However, theories from psychology suggest that improvement in emotion regulation can contribute to enhanced psychological and emotional well-being. Emotion regulation refers to the ways people manage how and when they experience and express their emotions. Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression are common emotion regulation strategies. Cognitive reappraisal involves changing the meaning of a stimulus that involves construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact. By contrast, expressive suppression involves inhibiting the behavioral expression of emotion. The purpose of this research is to examine the efficacy of social marketing initiatives which promote emotion regulation strategies to help young adults regulate their emotions. In Study 1 a single factor (emotional regulation strategy: a cognitive reappraisal, expressive, control) between-subjects design was conducted using an online, non-student consumer panel (n=96). Sixty-eight percent of participants were male, and 32% were female. Study participants belonged to the Millennial and Gen Z cohort, ranging in age from 22 to 35 (M=27). Participants were first told to spend at least three minutes writing about a public speaking appearance which made them anxious. The purpose of this exercise was to induce anxiety. Next, participants viewed one of three advertisements (randomly assigned) which promoted an emotion regulation strategy—cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, or an advertisement non-emotional in nature. After being exposed to one of the ads, participants responded to a measure composed of two items to access their emotional state and the efficacy of the messages in fostering emotion management. Findings indicated that individuals in the cognitive reappraisal condition (M=3.91) exhibited the most positive feelings and more effective emotion regulation than the expressive suppression (M=3.39) and control conditions (M=3.72, F(1,92) = 3.3, p<.05). Results from this research can be used by institutions (e.g., schools) in taking a leadership role in attacking anxiety and other mental health issues. Social stigmas regarding mental health can be removed and a more proactive stance can be taken in promoting healthy coping behaviors and strategies to manage negative emotions.

Keywords: emotion regulation, anxiety, social marketing, generation z

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Mehmet Yahsi, Ozkan Ugurlu, Ercan Yuksekyildiz

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Assistant department among the electric and electronic officers on ships, has an important place for the maintenance of electric and electronic devices. From this perspective, ships must be employed with a sufficient number of assistant department. In this study, in order to research on the Turkish-flagged ships electric and electronic officers employment; Our national manning regulation compared with international regulations. The data used in this study were collected via visiting of the ships. 3000 gross tonnage and above engaged in international voyages 181 Turkish-flagged ship’s crew lists were compared with Minimum Safety Manning Certificates. According to the findings; employment rate, %54 electric and electronic officers. According to the results of the study; Turkish-flagged ships, although it is not obliged to electric and electronic officers, were employed on ships.

Keywords: manning, electric officer, electronic officer, minimum safety manning certificate

Procedia PDF Downloads 415

Authors: Antoine Vikkey Hinson, Menonli Adjobimey, Gemayel Ahmed Biokou, Rose Mikponhoue

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Introduction: Construction industry is a critical concern with regard to Health and Safety Service worldwide. World health Organization revealed that work-related disease and trauma were held responsible for the death of one million nine hundred thousand people in 2016. The aim of this study it was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with the occurrence of work accidents in a construction industry in Benin. Method: It was a descriptive cross-sectional and analytical study. Data analysis was performed with R software 4.1.1. In multivariate analysis, we performed a binary logistic regression. OR adjusted (ORa) association measures and their 95% confidence interval [CI95%] were presented for the explanatory variables used in the final model. The significance threshold for all tests selected was 5% (p < 0.05) Result: In this study, 472 workers were included, and, of these, 452 (95.7%) were men corresponding to a sex ratio of 22.6. The average age of the workers was 33 years ± 8.8 years. Workers were mostly laborers (84.7%), and had declared having inadequate personal protective equipment (50.6%, n=239). The prevalence of work accidents is 50.8%. Collision with a rolling stock (25.8%), cut (16.2%), and stumbling (16.2%) were the main types of work accidents on the construction site. Four factors were associated with contributing to work accidents. Fatigue or exhaustion (ORa : 1.53[1.03 ; 2.28]); The use of dangerous tools (ORa : 1.81 [1.22 ; 2.71]); The various laborers’ jobs (ORa : 4.78 [2.62 ; 9.21]); and seniority in the company ≥ 4 years (ORa : 2.00 [1.35 ; 2.96]). Conclusion: This study allowed us to identify the associated factors. It is imperative to implement a rigorous policy of occupational health and security mostly the continuing training for workers safe, the supply of appropriate work tools and protective

Keywords: prevalence, work accident, associated factors, construction, benin

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: Luisa Perez-Mujica

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Traditionally, non-compliance in water regulation has been understood to be attributable to lack of information or knowledge of regulations. In other words, it is confusing behavioural change and education with communication or regulations. However, compliance is a complex response to water regulation factors including 1) knowledge and understanding of regulations; 2) perception that resources are overregulated; 3) presence of regulatory officers in the field; 4) accurate communication of what is being protected; 5) time lag between behavioral change projects and observation of outcomes and 6) how success of behavioral change is measured and evaluated. This paper presents a framework for designing education and behavioral change projects by understanding non-compliance in terms of the interaction of its factors, including a process for prioritizing projects, actions, evaluation and monitoring of outcomes. By taking a systemic approach to compliance, a more directed type of actions can be efficiently identified and prioritized, preventing the reactive nature of education and behavioral change projects.

Keywords: water regulation, compliance, behaviour change, systems thinking

Procedia PDF Downloads 216

Authors: Lucie Cote, Isabelle Rodier

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The main objective of the research was to identify demonstrated mechanisms promoting psychological well-being and psychological health in the workplace, and to take a critical look at the 'National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace - Prevention, Promotion and Guidance to Staged Implementation (Standard)' as a mechanism to promote the psychological well-being and psychological health in the workplace. A review of the scientific literature was conducted, and a case study was done using data from a Canadian federal department. The following six mechanisms with an efficiency supported by most of the studies reviewed were identified: improving psychological well-being in the workplace literacy; strengthening the resilience of employees; creating an environmentally friendly and healthy workplace; promoting a healthy lifestyle; taking into account psychological characteristics in the drafting of job descriptions and tasks during the hiring process; and offering psychological self-care tools. The Standard offers several mechanisms beyond those previously identified and their implementation can be demanding. Research based on objective data and addressing the magnitude of the effect would be required.

Keywords: critical review, national standard of Canada, psychological health, workplace

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Chantarat Manvichien, Kevin Wongleedee

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The purpose of this research was to study Thai passengers’ level of understanding and awareness of the cabin crew safety briefing in the airplane during the preparation to take off and landing. It is important to know if Thai passengers pay attention to cabin crew safety briefing and to suggest a better way to draw their attention. The independent variables included gender, age, income, levels of education, travelling purpose, and travelling frequency while the dependent variables was level of awareness. A simple random sampling method was utilized to get 400 respondents. The findings revealed the ranking the first three levels of importance by highest mean to lowest mean as follows: (1) It is important to listen to cabin crew safety briefing; (2) Cabin crew briefing is interesting; (3) Information from cabin crew safety briefing is easy to understand. In addition, the overall means was 3.27 with 0.800 SD.

Keywords: cabin crew, safety briefing, Thai passengers, awareness

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Shariful Islam, Sharun Akter Khushbu, S. M. Shaqib, Shahriar Sultan Ramit

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In the construction sector, ensuring worker safety is of the utmost significance. In this study, a deep learning-based technique is presented for identifying safety gear worn by construction workers, such as helmets, goggles, jackets, gloves, and footwear. The suggested method precisely locates these safety items by using the YOLO v7 (You Only Look Once) object detection algorithm. The dataset utilized in this work consists of labeled images split into training, testing and validation sets. Each image has bounding box labels that indicate where the safety equipment is located within the image. The model is trained to identify and categorize the safety equipment based on the labeled dataset through an iterative training approach. We used custom dataset to train this model. Our trained model performed admirably well, with good precision, recall, and F1-score for safety equipment recognition. Also, the model's evaluation produced encouraging results, with a [email protected] score of 87.7%. The model performs effectively, making it possible to quickly identify safety equipment violations on building sites. A thorough evaluation of the outcomes reveals the model's advantages and points up potential areas for development. By offering an automatic and trustworthy method for safety equipment detection, this research contributes to the fields of computer vision and workplace safety. The proposed deep learning-based approach will increase safety compliance and reduce the risk of accidents in the construction industry.

Keywords: deep learning, safety equipment detection, YOLOv7, computer vision, workplace safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Balazs Somodi, Balazs Kovesdi

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In the research praxis of civil engineering the statistical evaluation of experimental and numerical investigations is an essential task in order to compare the experimental and numerical resistances of a specific structural problem with the proposed resistances of the standards. However, in the standards and in the international literature there are several different safety factor evaluation methods that can be used to check the necessary safety level (e.g.: 5% quantile level, 2.3% quantile level, 1‰ quantile level, γM partial safety factor, γM* partial safety factor, β reliability index). Moreover, in the international literature different calculation methods could be found even for the same safety factor as well. In the present study the flexural buckling resistance of high strength steel (HSS) welded closed sections are analyzed. The authors investigated the flexural buckling resistances of the analyzed columns by laboratory experiments. In the present study the safety levels of the obtained experimental resistances are calculated based on several safety approaches and compared with the EN 1990. The results of the different safety approaches are compared and evaluated. Based on the evaluation tendencies are identified and the differences between the statistical evaluation methods are explained.

Keywords: flexural buckling, high strength steel, partial safety factor, statistical evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Malcolm Abbott, Angela Tan-Kantoor

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The purpose of this paper is to look at the varieties of ways in which regulators have undertaken asset valuations in Australia of government business enterprises as part of utility regulation. Regulation of the monopoly elements, through use of a building block approach, led to a need to estimate regulated asset bases. This development has had an influence on the manner in which Australian companies (both government and privately owned ones) have valued assets for the purpose of financial reporting. As the regulators in Australia did not always use a consistent approach it had meant that a variety of ways have been used to value the assets of government owned enterprises, and meant a varied impact on asset valuation more generally.

Keywords: sset valuation, regulation, government business enterprises

Procedia PDF Downloads 286