Academic literature on the topic 'Ordered protection motivation model'

(1) Background: More coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are gradually being developed and marketed. Improving the vaccination intention will be the key to increasing the vaccination rate in the future; (2) Methods: A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data on COVID-19 vaccination intentions, protection motivation and control variables. Pearson Chi-square test and multivariate ordered logistic regression models were specified to analyze the determinants of intention to receive COVID-19 vaccine; (3) Results: Although the vaccine was free, 17.75% of the 2377 respondents did not want, or were hesitant, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Respondents’ cognition of vaccine safety, external reward and response efficacy were positively related to COVID-19 vaccination intention, while age, income and response cost were negatively related to the intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Professionals and people without medical insurance had the lowest intention to vaccinate; (4) Conclusions: The older aged, people without health insurance, those with higher incomes and professionals should be treated as the key intervention targets. Strengthening publicity and education about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, training vaccinated people and community leaders as propagandists for the vaccine, and improving the accessibility to the COVID-19 vaccine are recommended to improve COVID-19 vaccination intention.

This paper matches the large-scale survey data and the corresponding historical weather data to explore how air pollution impacts on low-carbon travel choices. The K-means algorithm is employed to cluster the personal characteristics of residents into five groups according to their travel behavior. The authors take ordered Logit models to identify the group differences in the impact of haze on the five types of low-carbon travel choices, combining with the theory of responsibility attribution and protection motivation theory. The results show that haze has a significant impact on the two groups, namely young office workers and students. The other three groups will not consider the influence of haze when choosing travel vehicles, travel distance, and travel time. The quantity of personally owned automobiles also has a significant impact on the group differences in low carbon travel choices. It is indicated that low carbon travel policies should be considered in the group differences in the future, and efforts should be made from supply and demand sides to guide residents to choose low-carbon travel.

Ordered society and nation states are dependent on interconnected systems, the defence of which is largely in private hands whose actions are driven by need for oligopolistic market dominance, protection of assets, and their monetisation models. This paper queries the responsibility of the nation state for the protection of itself and its citizenry. By some definitions, corporations are conducting cyberwarfare and, in cyberspace, are virtual nation states with ownership and rights over the data they hold and the intelligence it yields. The financial challenge for market dominance could drive an internecine war among the major technology corporations, and an assertion that the rights over the data they control are superior to those of the nation state. As functional monopolists, data they have acquired is not available from any other source. The intelligence from analytics exercised over that data, and the data itself is proprietary. These corporations exercise monopolist characteristics in the areas of data, information and intelligence. The aggregate value of the top 5 technology corporations, colloquially known as Big Tech is equivalent to third in projected global GDP rankings for 2021. This represents an equivalent expression of power in/over cyberspace. Cloud service providers (CSP) are often offshoots of Big Tech and have a high compound annual growth rate, thereby revealing the motivation for protection of market dominance and potential threat to user/customers. By concentrating on traditional cyber warfare and defence, there is limited consideration on policing or guarding against the rise of these virtual supranational powers driven by strict market agenda. What consideration there is regarding potential threats is driven by an economic perspective and anti-trust initiatives. Whether judged by the nation state as benign or malign, Big Tech has an impact on the nature and direction of society as currently understood and the question must be raised whether both citizens, organisations, and states need protection from it.

Purpose Health tourism is recognised as a recent new pattern of taking a break while accessing health-care services overseas. Past studies have explored this research area, but few have focussed on the theoretical perspective. Applying an appropriate theoretical model to guide interventions in planning and programme development is crucial, particularly when the focus of the study is on the cognitive mediation processes of change in individual behaviour. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the protection motivation theory with the influence of threat appraisal and coping appraisal. The purpose is to trigger the behavioural intention to engage in international health tourism. Design/methodology/approach A total of 299 international tourists participated in the survey. The partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was used to test the research framework. Both the measurement model and the structural model were assessed as adequate. Findings The empirical results demonstrate that tourists’ high risk perception must be complemented by coping ability to produce a motivational response. Further, the adaptive behaviours of international tourists are focussed more on perceived efficacy than on the perception of threats related to behavioural intentions towards health tourism. Originality/value The study presents an effective theoretical model intervention applicable to health tourism. Future studies should conduct a more comprehensive assessment to generate strong decision-making effectiveness from the theoretical model.

Effective risk communication is essential in the field of health to ensure patients understand the information being presented to them by medical professionals and appreciate the level of risk involved in treatments. Cardiovascular disease, being the leading cause of death worldwide, is relevant to consider when examining risk communication in a health setting. Those afflicted with cardiovascular ailments are both high in number and exposed to information communicating risk. This research aims to identify presentation formats that are more effective communicating risk information to recovering cardiovascular patients at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. The formats’ effectiveness is measured by gauging the population’s understanding of the material and perception of the information as it relates to risk and motivation. The research draws on Max Weber’s concept of rationality and subsequent scholars who developed social judgment theory, the heuristic-systematic model, expected utility theory, protection motivation theory, and the extended parallel process model. Utilizing an experimental research design, risk information handouts and questionnaires are distributed to, and completed by, a stratified sample of cardiovascular disease patients. Effective presentation formats are examined, and the results identify comparatively effective presentation formats for minimizing and maximizing risk perception. The results also identify presentation formats’ impact on a patient’s level of motivation to avoid / indulge in behaviours that may maximize or minimize risk. The results, synthesized herein, suggest a model (communicative cardiovascular physician-patient model of message preparation-perception), which may contribute to the effectiveness of risk communication between physicians and cardiovascular disease patients.

碩士
大同工學院
事業經營研究所
86
Marketing communications are designed to influence attitude and behavior. The fear appeal, a message that attempts to influence behavior through the threat of some danger, is one such type of marketing communication. The power of such appeals seems obvious; all that should be required to influence an individual''s behavior is to make that person aware of the danger or dangerous behavior. Marketers have attempted to take advantage of this relationship by using the threat of danger to evoke the emotional response of fear and thus influence behavior.To date, research has not given marketers much help in understanding the effect of fear on behavior. Research to provide communication guidelineshas produced conflicting results. Past research efforts have been unable to provide sound theory for the process of influencing behavior through fear.Then, Tanner et al. (1991) suggested that fear arousal in response to a threat message would be necessary for changes in attitude and behavior.Besides, Bandura (1977) in related work on self-efficacy, theorized that effective coping defenses prohibit fear arousal. Self-efficacy is the perception of one''s ability to perform a specific behavior. In addition, Rogers (1983) supported the effects of self-efficacy information in influencing behaviors. Therefore, in this study, using the two variables to provide effective suggestions that can be used by health care practitioners to promote responsible sexual practices.The study involved the topic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).The experimental treatments were administered in a 2X2X2X2 between-subjects factorial experimental design as follows: 1. Severity of threat (low/high). 2. Self-efficacy (low/high). 3. Perceived social costs (low/high). 4. Gender (male/female) The different degrees of threat and self-efficacy were selected by pretest.Subjects were 240 students of Tatung Institute of Technology, approximately equal in number by gender. According to the experiment results, we obtained the following conclusions: 1. Faced with high threat ad, subjects have higher fear emotional response, better attitude toward the ad, and higher behavior intentions than low threat ad. 2. Fear emotional response can affect behavioral intentions positively. 3. Subjects with high self-efficacy, have better attitude toward the ad and higher behavioral intentions than those with self-efficacy. 4. When subjects'' perceived social costs are high, they may be reluctant to use the recommended behavior. Consequently, lower attitude toward the ad and behavioral intentions will be occur. 5. In the topic of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), since females are physically unable to be solely responsible for adopting the recommended behavior (i.e., using condoms), they have less control over implementation.Therefore, females have worse attitude toward the ad and lower behavioral intentions than males.

The aims of the present study were to (a) evaluate and to compare the adequacy of a social psychological model and a cognitive appraisal model in predicting intention and action with respect to the adoption of protective health behaviours, (b) investigate the direction and strength of the path coefficients linking the predictor and criterion variables in each model in order to determine which predictor variables played a significant role in the (non)adoption of protective health behaviours, and (c) investigate the direct and indirect roles that gender role and SES play in determining the decision to adopt or not to adopt protective health behaviours. Existing knowledge about disease and illness makes it imperative for health researchers to understand the factors involved in reducing exposure to these endemic threats. Whilst extensive research has been carried out to investigate health beliefs and health threats, most of the results that have been obtained have been descriptive in nature. They say very little about how males and females internalise and conceptualise the identified social psychological and cognitive appraisal variables or how these variables influence the health decision-making process. Two theoretical models were developed to represent the decision-making process regarding the adoption of good health behaviours. A total of 550 males and 759 females (total n = 1,309) from Rockhampton and Gladstone in the State of Queensland, Australia, participated in the study by responding to one of three questionnaires designed to measure the study's critical variables. Whilst the overall findings generally supported the decision-making process represented by both models, the results indicated that the social psychological model represented a better predictor of the health decision-making process than the cognitive appraisal model. The findings also indicated that high masculinity combined with low femininity and a low SES directly decreased the motivation of males and females to adopt protective health behaviours when confronted by a health threat. Finally, for both models, the results indicated that the exogenous variables of gender role and SES had both direct and indirect influences on behavioural intention and action for males and females across the three disease dimensions. The implications of the findings with regards to differences in male and female health status are discussed.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The health behaviour literature is currently littered with theoretical models offering competing accounts of the determinants of health behaviour. However, despite the large amount of research there is still no consensus regarding which model/s are the most useful and accurate. A reason for this is that there are few studies comparing these models for their effectiveness in explaining health behaviour. One method of determining which health behaviour models are superior is directly comparing models for accuracy. Another method of improving the prediction of health behaviour may be theoretical integration – that is combining predictions of multiple models within the rich health behaviour literature in order to develop an integrated model with greater explanatory power than its constituent models. The four research studies presented herein represent examples of how model comparison and theoretical integration may be applied to identify the existing health behaviour models with greatest explanatory power and to increase the explanatory power of such models respectively. Study 1 investigates how fear-based messages impact on individuals’ health knowledge. It also investigates whether health knowledge contributes to the prediction of intentions to exercise or adopt a healthy diet after controlling for Protection Motivation Theory constructs. Results suggest that fear-based messages do not affect information retention and that health knowledge does not explain unique variance in behavioural intentions. Studies 2 and 3 compared the predictions of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Protection Motivation Theory. Study 2 was conducted in the context of smoking and Study 3 was conducted in the context of diet and exercise. An integrated model which combined the predictions of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Protection Motivation Theory was also devised and tested. Results of both studies suggested that the Theory of Planned Behaviour was the superior model – performing equivalently or better than Protection Motivation Theory in terms of accuracy for all health behaviours investigated. Investigating the integrated model highlighted relationships between constructs of both theories – most notably a consistent relationship between response-efficacy and attitudes. Finally, in Study 4 an integrated model combining the predictions of the Extended Parallel Process Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Stage Model and Risk Perception Attitude Framework is devised and tested. This model attempted to explain individuals’ responses to a fear-provoking health message based on their existing psychological characteristics and the message components. It was found that fear-provoking messages elicited little change in individuals’ perceptions of threat and efficacy and their attitudes and intentions. However, fear-provoking messages were associated with greater fear and maladaptive defensive responses – especially in those who were not already engaging in health protective behaviour. Numerous heretofore undiscovered associations between constructs of these models (e.g., individuals’ thoughts concerning the fear-provoking health message [Stage Model] being associated with reactance, defensive avoidance, self- and response-efficacy [Extended Parallel Process Model]) were also highlighted as a result of investigating the predictions of the integrated model. Taken together these findings suggest that model comparison can be utilised to identify the superior model from a candidate set of models. Further, theoretical integration can be utilised to increase the explanatory power of existing health behaviour models. Implications for theory and practice are discussed at length.

The practice of adoption of children, and the terminology, existed in Scotland long before it was created as a legislative process. This chapter looks at the roots of adoption of children, in the benign informal adoption arrangements families and communities made, and in the malign money-driven practice of “baby-farming”. Demands for regulation grew after the First World War, and the Parliamentary debates on what became the Adoption of Children Act 1926 is covered in some detail. Thereafter the chapter explores all the legislative changes, bringing in forbidden degrees, damages for wrongful death and succession, this presented to show how adoption only gradually embraced the “full-transference of parenthood” model that it has today. The change throughout the 20^th century from an essentially private arrangement to the end-game of public law child protection processes is analysed in some detail, especially in relation to the court’s ability to dispense with parental consent. Finally, the motivations behind the sub-adoption order, known as the Permanence Order, created in 2007, is examined.

The growing impact of cyber activities across political, social, economic, and military domains makes cyberspace an essential dimension of human security. The role of states in cybersecurity requires a different approach from conventional security models because the classic concept of statehood comprising territory, population, and nationality is absent in cyberspace. Additionally, security issues in cyberspace are not always between or among states and they frequently lack clear attribution and motivation. This new paradigm of individual and knowledge-centered cyberpower means state actors no longer fully monopolize violence, per Max Weber's definition of a state. Furthermore, unlike the interstate dynamic between nuclear powers, cyber warfare is offense-dominant due to the absence of efficient deterrence. The immediate security concern should be addressing the protection of cybercitizens across borders. Therefore, state actors must cooperate to establish a multilateral uninterrupted network in order to safeguard the cyber commons via mutually assured collective cybersecurity.

The growing impact of cyber activities across political, social, economic, and military domains makes cyberspace an essential dimension of human security. The role of states in cybersecurity requires a different approach from conventional security models because the classic concept of statehood comprising territory, population, and nationality is absent in cyberspace. Additionally, security issues in cyberspace are not always between or among states and they frequently lack clear attribution and motivation. This new paradigm of individual and knowledge-centered cyberpower means state actors no longer fully monopolize violence, per Max Weber's definition of a state. Furthermore, unlike the interstate dynamic between nuclear powers, cyber warfare is offense-dominant due to the absence of efficient deterrence. The immediate security concern should be addressing the protection of cybercitizens across borders. Therefore, state actors must cooperate to establish a multilateral uninterrupted network in order to safeguard the cyber commons via mutually assured collective cybersecurity.

Greenwashing behaviors refer to the performance that enterprises claim environmental protection, but their words and actions are inconsistent. The greenwashing strategy has both short-term benefits and negative effects for corporations. In this paper, a model of competition between two companies with different product quality is constructed. This paper explores how the greenwashing strategy of brown enterprises with inferior quality affects the pricing and profits of traditional enterprises without greenwashing motivation. The results show that: (1) the price of greenwashing enterprises is unimodal. Greenwashing companies will improve product quality while reducing prices to ensure a growing market demand. (2) Traditional enterprises fail to regain the market by relying on price competition, and it is more important to reduce the success rate of greenwashing. (3) Only by reducing the success rate of greenwashing, will greenwashing companies lose their greenwashing benefits, and traditional enterprises can regain market shares.

This chapter attempts to integrate two different strands of research on political violence, developing a theoretical model to analyze the common roots of repression and civil war. Under specific assumptions about the conflict technology, it shows that peace, repression (one-sided violence), and civil war (two-sided violence) become ordered states depending on a common underlying latent variable, which is shifted by shocks to the value of public goods, wages, aid, and resource rents. But these effects only emerge when political institutions do not provide sufficient checks and balances on the ruling group or adequate protection for those excluded from power. The chapter also shows how to start bridging the gap between theoretical modeling and econometric testing. Under specific assumptions on what can be observed, the predictions from the model can be taken to the data by estimating either an ordered logit or the conditional probability of transition from peace to violence or from non-civil war to civil war. The empirical strategy here is much sharper than in earlier chapters and shows that the kind of theory we are building can help us approach the data in a specific way.

Ecological models on decision-making in child protection determine how many different factors influence that process, starting with case-specific characteristics, organizational factors, and external factors, as well as decision-maker factors. However, how that psychosocial process occurs, how the decision-maker integrates those multiple factors from the decision-making ecology, is still empirically unclear. This chapter, first, reviews the state of the art in the study of caseworkers’ psychosocial process underlying the out-of-home placement decision. It summarizes cues from empirical studies sustaining the role played by caseworkers’ attitudes, social values, social norms, experience, emotions in out-of-home placement decisions. The authors, then, describe social psychology decision-making models and present the principal results of an empirically tested model of residential-care placement decision-making that, based on a dual version of the theory of planned behavior model, integrates those multiple psychosocial factors into the decision process. A structural equation modeling analysis revealed that the caseworker’s motivation (intention) to propose a residential care placement decision of a neglected child is highly explained by a positive evaluation of that behavior (Attitude), but also by significant others’ approval of that behavior (Subjective Norm) and by how much relevance the worker attributes to child’s interests and protection (Value of Child). Both theoretical and social policy implications are discussed.

Pieces of personal information (e.g. contact details, photos, thoughts and opinions on issues and things) on online social network sites are susceptible to third-party surveillance. While users are provided with the possibility to prevent unwarranted access using available privacy settings, such settings may not often be adequately used. This research investigated the factors influencing the use of Facebook's privacy settings among young Dutch users based on the premises of Protection Motivation Theory and Technology Acceptance Model. A paper-based survey was implemented with 295 students in a vocational school in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicate that privacy valuation, self-efficacy, and respondents' age positively influenced the use of Facebook's privacy settings. Furthermore, the size of Facebook users' network negatively influences the use of those settings. Important results and points for future research are discussed in the paper.

This paper examines the determinants of different public spending components in the OECD and MENA countries from a political economy perspective. The authors primarily concentrate on partisan motivation approach. Yet, they control for macroeconomic and institutional variables besides the political economy variables in the estimations. They use panel data estimation with country and year fixed effects (two-way fixed effects model) covering the period of 1980 and 2008. Regarding the estimation results of the OECD countries sample, compared to a presidential system, in assembly – elected president and parliamentary systems expansions in public agriculture, education, health, defense, and social protection spending are supported more. Among the macroeconomic variables, current account balance and GDP per capita turn out to be statistically significant. Regarding the estimation results of the MENA countries sample, it is found that right – wing ruling parties support higher levels of public spending in various areas.

In this paper, we establish an agent-based model to study the impact of collective behavior of a prey species on the hunting success of predators inspired by insectivorous bats and swarming insects, called “bugs”. In the model, we consider bats preying on bugs in a three-dimensional space with periodic boundaries. The bugs follow one of the two regimes: either they swarm randomly without interacting with peers, or they seek to align their velocity directions, which results in collective behavior. Simultaneously, the bats sense their environment with a sensing space inspired by big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and independently prey on bugs. We define order parameters to measure the alignment and cohesion of the bugs and relate these quantities to the cohesion and the hunting success of the bats. Comparing the results when the bugs swarm randomly or collectively, we find that collectively behaving bugs tend to align, which results in relatively more cohesive groups. In addition, cohesion among bats is induced since bats may be attracted to the same localized bug group. Due to the fact that bats need to hunt more widely for groups of bugs, collectively behaving bugs suffer less predation compared to their randomly swarming counterparts. These findings are supported by the biological literature which cites protection from predation as a primary motivator for social behavior.

In recent years, many cases of child sexual abuse have been exposed by the media. In addition to unscrupulous criminals and imperfect laws, children cannot correctly understand "sex" and lack of self-protection consciousness, which is also one of the sources of a series of tragedies. Therefore, the social attention of child sex education continues to rise. No matter family, school or society begin to advocate sex education, among which the role of family sex education can not be ignored. Based on the relevant research on the design of child sex education services, many literatures have identified the stakeholders of child sex education, put forward the issue of child sex education from the perspective of behavior design, and put forward the importance of parental participation. The key point of sex education for children is to drive parents' educational behavior and improve children's sexual knowledge acquisition degree. Parents' reasonable and perfect sex education can give children a healthier body and mind and avoid harm. But what kind of education form and content can better achieve the purpose has become the focus of social attention. This paper introduces the way of service design to integrate related resources and construct a service system to meet the needs of parents to carry out sex education for children. Information systems or software that strengthen, change or form a person's behavior, purpose or attitude without coercive means are called persuasion systems. It is proposed by Professor BJ Fogg from Stanford University to use persuasion technology to realize the design purpose of persuasion system, which can also be called "persuasive design". At present, theories of behavior table, FBM behavior model, eight steps of persuasive design, and persuasive web design have been formed, all of which are attributed to the unremitting research of scholars such as BJ Fogg and Andrew Chak. FBM model is a new model established by Fogg to study human behavior. It is a behavior model based on persuasive design. According to THE FBM model, there are three basic factors for individuals to produce behaviors. The first is motivation factor, which requires users to have certain motivation support to realize certain behaviors. Ability factor refers to the user's ability to achieve a behavior, or the difficulty of a behavior itself to the user's ability requirements; A trigger is a point of opportunity for the final completion of the action.Based on these theories, this paper will study the sex education model suitable for parents to realize in the family.With the support of persuasion theory, the behavior and needs of parents and children are analyzed to obtain the behavior table, and the three elements of behavior realization are analyzed according to Fogg behavior model. First of all, this paper analyzes the different behaviors that parents and children may have in the process of sex education, analyzes the relationship between them by using the behavior table, and analyzes the causes behind it. Secondly, this paper constructs the Fogg behavior model of children's sex education. Fogg behavior model is a new model established by Fogg to study human behavior. It is a behavior model based on persuasive design. According to Fogg's behavior model, there are three basic factors for individuals to produce behavior: motivation factor, ability factor and trigger factor. This paper analyzes the basic elements of parents' and children's behaviors in the process of sex education from three aspects of motivation, ability and trigger points, and puts forward some strategies to improve the quality of sex education for children, hoping to better improve the quality of sex education and play a positive role in promoting the development of sex education for children in the future.

The current article proposes a model of the loss of identity, society and state subjectivity, as a target of information warfare. Subjectivity is considered as a unity of motivational (“I WANT”), competence (“I CAN”) and moral-psychological (“I NEED”) components. The task of stopping or changing the corresponding activity by the opponent is solved through information and psychological impact on his “WANT”, “CAN”, “NEED”. Both effectively counteracting and information-psychological protection requires increased attention to the factors that ensure the subjectivity of the Russian citizen, society and state. Institutions and processes of formation of ethnocentric motivation of citizens, education and upbringing of the Russian citizen should become information and psychological security installations.

Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes are in-core, primary coolant containment of CANDU(1) nuclear reactors. Technical requirements for in-service evaluation of pressure tubes are provided in the Canadian Standards Associate (CSA) N285.8. These requirements include the evaluation of service conditions for protection against fracture of operating pressure tubes and demonstration of leak-before-break. Axial fracture toughness for pressure tubes is a key input in the evaluation of fracture protection and leak-before-break. The 2015 Edition of CSA N285.8 provides a pressure tube axial fracture toughness prediction model that is applicable to pressure tubes late life conditions. The fracture toughness prediction model in CSA N285.8-15 is based on rising pressure burst tests performed on pressure tube sections with axial cracks under simulated pressure tube late life conditions. Due to the associated high cost of testing and high consumption of pressure tube material, it is not practical to perform a large number of fracture toughness burst tests. On the other hand, more fracture toughness data is required to improve the existing pressure tube axial fracture toughness prediction model. There is strong motivation to estimate pressure tube axial fracture toughness using test data from small specimens. The estimated pressure tube fracture toughness using test data from small specimens can fill the gaps in the burst test toughness data, as well as provide information on material variability and data scatter. Against this background, an exploratory analysis of estimating pressure tube axial fracture toughness using test data from small curved compact specimens has been performed and is described in this paper. The estimated values of pressure tube axial fracture toughness using the test data from small curved compact specimens are compared with the measured toughness from burst tests of pressure tube sections with axial cracks to check the feasibility of this approach.

Abstract For the realization of environmental protection and resource conservation, remanufacturing is of great significance. Disassembly is a key step in remanufacturing, the disassembly line system is the main scenario for product disassembly, usually consisting of multiple workstations, and has prolific productivity. The application of the robots in the disassembly line will eliminate various problems caused by manual disassembly. Moreover, the disassembly line balancing problem (DLBP) is of great importance for environmental remanufacturing. In the past, disassembly work was usually done manually with high cost and relatively low efficiency. Therefore, more and more researches are focusing on the automatic DLBP due to its high efficiency. This research solves the sequence-dependent robotic disassembly line balancing problem (SDRDLBP) with multiple objectives. It considers the sequence-dependent time increments and requires the generated feasible disassembly sequence to be assigned to ordered disassembly workstations according to the specific robotic workstation assignment method. In robotic DLBP, due to the special characteristics of robotic disassembly, we need to consider the moving time of the robots’ disassembly path during the disassembly process. This is also the first time to consider sequence-dependent time increments while considering the disassembly path of the robots. Then with the help of crossover and mutation operators, multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are proposed to solve SDRDLBP. Based on the gear pump model, the performance of the used algorithm under different cycle times is analyzed and compared with another two algorithms. The average values of the HV and IGD indicators have been calculated, respectively. The results show the NSGA-II algorithm presents outstanding performance among the three MOEAs, and hence demonstrate the superiority of the NSGA-II algorithm.

Abstract Plasma spraying is used in various industries for additive manufacturing applications to apply materials onto a workpiece. Such applications could be for the purpose of repair, protection against corrosion, wear-resistance, or enhancing surface properties. One plasma spraying method is the twin wire arc spraying (TWAS) process that utilizes two electrically conductive wires, across which an electric arc is generated at their meeting point. The molten droplets that are created are propelled by an atomizing gas towards a substrate on which the coating is deposited. The TWAS process offers low workpiece heating and high deposition rates at a lower cost compared to other plasma spraying techniques. As the spray angle for this technique is relatively large (15 degree half angle), particles are lost in the process, lowering the yield of deposited material. The motivation of this project was to constrict the particle flow and reduce the loss of particles that are ejected by the spraying torch. Torch nozzles were designed to help the particle trajectory match the axial flow direction of the atomizing gas flow. Simulations using ANSYS FLUENT Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software was utilized to model both the atomizing gas flow and particle flow for a TWAS system. Various nozzle configurations with arc jet angles between 30–75 degrees showed only small effects on gas flow velocity and shape, with no significant variations in particle flow. These results indicate that nozzle configurations are only one factor in determining particle trajectory, and that phase changes and heat transfer need to be considered as well.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.