Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Safety Influences'

Patient safety has progressed in 15 years from being a relatively insignificant issue to a position high on the agenda for health care providers, managers and policymakers as well as the general public. Sweden has seen increased national, regional and local patient safety efforts since 2011 when a new patient safety law was introduced and a four-year financial incentive plan was launched to encourage county councils to carry out specified measures and meet certain patient safety related criteria. However, little is known about what structures and processes contribute to improved patient safety outcomes and how the context influences the results. The overall aim of this thesis was to generate knowledge for improved understanding and explanation of influences on patient safety in the county councils in Sweden. To address this issue, five studies were con-ducted: interviews with nurses and infection control practitioners, surveys to patient safety officers and a document analysis of patient safety reports. Patient safety officers are healthcare professionals who hold key positions in their county council’s patient safety work. The findings from the studies were structured through a framework based on Donabedian’s triad (with a contextual element added) and applying a learning perspective, highlight areas that are potentially important to improve the patient safety in Swe-dish county councils. Study I showed that the conditions for the county councils’ patient safety work could be improved. Conducting root-cause analysis and attaining an organizational culture that encourages reporting and avoids blame were perceived to be of importance for improving patient safety. Study II showed that nurses perceived facilitators and barriers for improved pa-tient safety at several system levels. Study III revealed many different types of obstacles to effective surveillance of health care-associated infec-tions (HAIs), the majority belonging to the early stages of the surveillance process. Many of the obstacles described by the infection control practi-tioners restricted the use of results in efforts to reduce HAIs. Study IV of the Patient Safety Reports identified 14 different structure elements of patient safety work, 31 process elements and 23 outcome elements. These reports were perceived by patient safety officers to be useful for providing a structure for patient safety work in the county councils, for enhancing the focus on patient safety issues and for learning from the patient safety work that is undertaken. In Study V the patient safety officers rated efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics and improved communication be-tween health care practitioners and patients as most important for attaining current and future levels of patient safety in their county council. The patient safety officers also perceived that the most successful county councils regarding patient safety have good leadership support, a long-term commitment and a functional work organisation for patient safety work. Taken together, the five studies of this thesis demonstrate that patient safety is a multifaceted problem that requires multifaceted solutions. The findings point to an insufficient transition of assembled data and information into action and learning for improved patient safety.

This thesis sought to better understand how financial pressures influence the safety of heavy truck operations in Australia. Truck driver employment (direct and outsourced) and payment methods influenced the risk of crashes and unsafe driving behaviours, and were in turn associated with companies’ perceptions of their financial performance. Improved training in financial management and monitoring of financial performance could be effective approaches to improving safety of both freight transport and those who share the roads with heavy trucks.

The licentiate dissertation “Safety and Sustainability in the Community Planning Process – Actors’ Interests, Roles and Influence” has in three case studies over detailed development planning processes examined how issues related to safety and sustainability are handled in Swedish municipal planning. The research project has focused on three municipal actors; the Planning Office, the Environmental Agency and the Fire and Rescue Services. The complete planning process has been assessed, starting with comprehensive planning, to detailed development planning and on to building permit assessment. The project’s aim has been to investigate how actors’ roles, interests, responsibilities and position influence the planning process.

A handling procedure of preventing accidents instead of treating damages caused by accidents is increasingly stressed in society, with the effect that emphasis of handling these matters is given to community planning. This shift in turn has the effect that safety and sustainability become central in community planning, at the same time as new actors’ active participation is requested. One outcome is that municipal authorities such as the Environmental Agency and the Fire and Rescue Services are increasingly invited to actively participate in the plan work. Both actors have important roles in guarding safety and sustainability issues. Their approaches to these issues however differ, which influences how the matters are handled. The Planning Office has the role of balancing and transforming other planning participants’ contribution to the planning process. They also have responsibility of directing the process ahead. Actors participate in planning based on their knowledge, competence, interests and perspectives, but have to relate to conditions in-built in the planning context.

The study has provided a view of actors work with safety and sustainability in community planning. Especially regarding collaboration between actors, actors’ access to planning as well as their possibilities for influence. A number of key issues have been extracted, which adjusted to the local planning context can favour the development of a safe and sustainable urban environment.

Built environment factors influence pedestrian route choice behaviour, but their impact is not well known. This thesis investigates the influences of the built environment factors on walking route preference and safety. By using the ‘Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches’ framework, this research studied the perceptions and preferences of pedestrian route choice in a typical suburban environment in Australia through a stated preference survey. This thesis has established the interrelationship between safety, security, and built environment factors across men and women pedestrians. The findings highlight increasing land-use diversity and providing adequate trees may improve perceived safety and security among pedestrians.

It is common for mine workers in Australia to drive an average of 250 kilometres immediately after finishing consecutive rostered days on site. Despite these distances, there is evidence to suggest that these workers are not taking a break prior to driving home, creating a high risk driving scenario. Little is known about the factors that influence these workers to drive home immediately following their shift. This thesis reports the results of four studies which together contribute to an understanding of key influences affecting the immediacy of workers' commuting decisions. In the final study, the key influences identified are examined using the theory of planned behaviour to identify the most salient relationships which affect workers' decision-making in respect of driving, and the opportunities for company interventions to complement fatigue management policies and education.

Master of Pharmacy
Medicines are a fundamental healthcare intervention, but the benefits they provide depend entirely on the way in which they are used. This begins with prescribing, a complex task with substantial risks. Systematic evaluation of biomedical factors may be viewed as an essential component of this task, but prescribers also integrate an array of individual, social, cultural, environmental and commercial factors into their prescribing decisions. Furthermore, social and cultural characteristics of the prescriber’s workplace may influence how well prescribing decisions are carried out. Whilst numerous research efforts have helped to construct an in-depth understanding of non-biomedical influences on GP’s prescribing patterns, the characteristics of corresponding sorts of influences in teaching hospitals have not been well determined. In hospitals, supervised medical trainees, registrars and consultants prescribe within the framework of medicines management systems involving nurses, pharmacists and patients. Currently, little is known about whether each of these groups has distinct beliefs, attitudes and values that may affect either prescribing behaviour or how prescribing skills of medical trainees are acquired. The aim of this study was to explore the social and cultural dynamics of prescribing and prescriber training in teaching hospitals. To do this, established qualitative methods were employed. Junior doctors, registrars, consultants, nurses, and pharmacists from two metropolitan teaching hospitals were sampled purposively and invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. A brief questionnaire was used to collect demographic and contextual information. In the interviews, participants were asked about their attitudes towards prescribing, their perceptions of roles and responsibilities, how they communicated prescribing decisions, their perceptions of influences on prescribing, and their perceptions of factors contributing to prescribing errors. Participants were also asked for their opinions on various aspects of new prescriber training. Sampling proceeded until redundancy of themes was established. A pilot study was conducted with one participant from each professional group to optimise the interview schedule, and then using this tool, a further 38 participants were interviewed. In total, eight consultants, eight registrars, nine junior doctors, eleven pharmacists, and seven nurses participated. Using reiterative content analysis of a third of all transcripts, a coding scheme was developed, which was used to label and categorise the remaining transcripts. Categories were further developed and refined. The resultant core themes were cross indexed against the five different health professional types using thematic charts to explore patterns. The main lines of enquiry for this research were mapped, the properties of these categories and interrelationships explored in detail, and a model of the prescribing process was developed. Prescribing at the teaching hospitals was a complex process consisting of multiple steps undertaken by several different health professionals of varying levels of experience from three different health care disciplines. Because of the intricate separation of responsibilities, the operation of the process was highly reliant on the behaviours of each player and their relationships with each other. Key prescribing decisions associated with patient admissions were made, almost exclusively, by medical teams. Prescribing was therefore chiefly characterised by factors influencing the behaviours of the doctors. Their behaviours were influenced by factors relating to their individual characteristics (eg, knowledge, skills, experience); but also by a web of socio-cultural determinants inherent to the environment in which they worked. These factors were related to: the organisational structure of the prescribing process; the knowledge characteristics of the doctors; the communication patterns they used; the underlying assumptions they made about prescribing; and the work environment.

Speeding remains a significant contributing factor to road trauma internationally, despite increasingly sophisticated speed management strategies being adopted around the world. Increases in travel speed are associated with increases in crash risk and crash severity. As speed choice is a voluntary behaviour, driver perceptions are important to our understanding of speeding and, importantly, to designing effective behavioural countermeasures. The four studies conducted in this program of research represent a comprehensive approach to examining psychosocial influences on driving speeds in two countries that are at very different levels of road safety development: Australia and China. Akers’ social learning theory (SLT) was selected as the theoretical framework underpinning this research and guided the development of key research hypotheses. This theory was chosen because of its ability to encompass psychological, sociological, and criminological perspectives in understanding behaviour, each of which has relevance to speeding. A mixed-method design was used to explore the personal, social, and legal influences on speeding among car drivers in Queensland (Australia) and Beijing (China). Study 1 was a qualitative exploration, via focus group interviews, of speeding among 67 car drivers recruited from south east Queensland. Participants were assigned to groups based on their age and gender, and additionally, according to whether they self-identified as speeding excessively or rarely. This study aimed to elicit information about how drivers conceptualise speeding as well as the social and legal influences on driving speeds. The findings revealed a wide variety of reasons and circumstances that appear to be used as personal justifications for exceeding speed limits. Driver perceptions of speeding as personally and socially acceptable, as well as safe and necessary were common. Perceptions of an absence of danger associated with faster driving speeds were evident, particularly with respect to driving alone. An important distinction between the speed-based groups related to the attention given to the driving task. Rare speeders expressed strong beliefs about the need to be mindful of safety (self and others) while excessive speeders referred to the driving task as automatic, an absent-minded endeavour, and to speeding as a necessity in order to remain alert and reduce boredom. For many drivers in this study, compliance with speed limits was expressed as discretionary rather than mandatory. Social factors, such as peer and parental influence were widely discussed in Study 1 and perceptions of widespread community acceptance of speeding were noted. In some instances, the perception that ‘everybody speeds’ appeared to act as one rationale for the need to raise speed limits. Self-presentation, or wanting to project a positive image of self was noted, particularly with respect to concealing speeding infringements from others to protect one’s image as a trustworthy and safe driver. The influence of legal factors was also evident. Legal sanctions do not appear to influence all drivers to the same extent. For instance, fear of apprehension appeared to play a role in reducing speeding for many, although previous experiences of detection and legal sanctions seemed to have had limited influence on reducing speeding among some drivers. Disregard for sanctions (e.g., driving while suspended), fraudulent demerit point use, and other strategies to avoid detection and punishment were widely and openly discussed. In Study 2, 833 drivers were recruited from roadside service stations in metropolitan and regional locations in Queensland. A quantitative research strategy assessed the relative contribution of personal, social, and legal factors to recent and future self-reported speeding (i.e., frequency of speeding and intentions to speed in the future). Multivariate analyses examining a range of factors drawn from SLT revealed that factors including self-identity (i.e., identifying as someone who speeds), favourable definitions (attitudes) towards speeding, personal experiences of avoiding detection and punishment for speeding, and perceptions of family and friends as accepting of speeding were all significantly associated with greater self-reported speeding. Study 3 was an exploratory, qualitative investigation of psychosocial factors associated with speeding among 35 Chinese drivers who were recruited from the membership of a motoring organisation and a university in Beijing. Six focus groups were conducted to explore similar issues to those examined in Study 1. The findings of Study 3 revealed many similarities with respect to the themes that arose in Australia. For example, there were similarities regarding personal justifications for speeding, such as the perception that posted limits are unreasonably low, the belief that individual drivers are able to determine safe travel speeds according to personal comfort with driving fast, and the belief that drivers possess adequate skills to control a vehicle at high speed. Strategies to avoid detection and punishment were also noted, though they appeared more widespread in China and also appeared, in some cases, to involve the use of a third party, a topic that was not reported by Australian drivers. Additionally, higher perceived enforcement tolerance thresholds were discussed by Chinese participants. Overall, the findings indicated perceptions of a high degree of community acceptance of speeding and a perceived lack of risk associated with speeds that were well above posted speed limits. Study 4 extended the exploratory research phase in China with a quantitative investigation involving 299 car drivers recruited from car washes in Beijing. Results revealed a relatively inexperienced sample with less than 5 years driving experience, on average. One third of participants perceived that the certainty of penalties when apprehended was low and a similar proportion of Chinese participants reported having previously avoided legal penalties when apprehended for speeding. Approximately half of the sample reported that legal penalties for speeding were ‘minimally to not at all’ severe. Multivariate analyses revealed that past experiences of avoiding detection and punishment for speeding, as well as favourable attitudes towards speeding, and perceptions of strong community acceptance of speeding were most strongly associated with greater self-reported speeding in the Chinese sample. Overall, the results of this research make several important theoretical contributions to the road safety literature. Akers’ social learning theory was found to be robust across cultural contexts with respect to speeding; similar amounts of variance were explained in self-reported speeding in the quantitative studies conducted in Australia and China. Historically, SLT was devised as a theory of deviance and posits that deviance and conformity are learned in the same way, with the balance of influence stemming from the ways in which behaviour is rewarded and punished (Akers, 1998). This perspective suggests that those who speed and those who do not are influenced by the same mechanisms. The inclusion of drivers from both ends of the ‘speeding spectrum’ in Study 1 provided an opportunity to examine the wider utility of SLT across the full range of the behaviour. One may question the use of a theory of deviance to investigate speeding, a behaviour that could, arguably, be described as socially acceptable and prevalent. However, SLT seemed particularly relevant to investigating speeding because of its inclusion of association, imitation, and reinforcement variables which reflect the breadth of factors already found to be potentially influential on driving speeds. In addition, driving is a learned behaviour requiring observation, guidance, and practice. Thus, the reinforcement and imitation concepts are particularly relevant to this behaviour. Finally, current speed management practices are largely enforcement-based and rely on the principles of behavioural reinforcement captured within the reinforcement component of SLT. Thus, the application of SLT to a behaviour such as speeding offers promise in advancing our understanding of the factors that influence speeding, as well as extending our knowledge of the application of SLT. Moreover, SLT could act as a valuable theoretical framework with which to examine other illegal driving behaviours that may not necessarily be seen as deviant by the community (e.g., mobile phone use while driving). This research also made unique contributions to advancing our understanding of the key components and the overall structure of Akers’ social learning theory. The broader SLT literature is lacking in terms of a thorough structural understanding of the component parts of the theory. For instance, debate exists regarding the relevance of, and necessity for including broader social influences in the model as captured by differential association. In the current research, two alternative SLT models were specified and tested in order to better understand the nature and extent of the influence of differential association on behaviour. Importantly, the results indicated that differential association was able to make a unique contribution to explaining self-reported speeding, thereby negating the call to exclude it from the model. The results also demonstrated that imitation was a discrete theoretical concept that should also be retained in the model. The results suggest a need to further explore and specify mechanisms of social influence in the SLT model. In addition, a novel approach was used to operationalise SLT variables by including concepts drawn from contemporary social psychological and deterrence-based research to enhance and extend the way that SLT variables have traditionally been examined. Differential reinforcement was conceptualised according to behavioural reinforcement principles (i.e., positive and negative reinforcement and punishment) and incorporated concepts of affective beliefs, anticipated regret, and deterrence-related concepts. Although implicit in descriptions of SLT, little research has, to date, made use of the broad range of reinforcement principles to understand the factors that encourage or inhibit behaviour. This approach has particular significance to road user behaviours in general because of the deterrence-based nature of many road safety countermeasures. The concept of self-identity was also included in the model and was found to be consistent with the definitions component of SLT. A final theoretical contribution was the specification and testing of a full measurement model prior to model testing using structural equation modelling. This process is recommended in order to reduce measurement error by providing an examination of the psychometric properties of the data prior to full model testing. Despite calls for such work for a number of decades, the current work appears to be the only example of a full measurement model of SLT. There were also a number of important practical implications that emerged from this program of research. Firstly, perceptions regarding speed enforcement tolerance thresholds were highlighted as a salient influence on driving speeds in both countries. The issue of enforcement tolerance levels generated considerable discussion among drivers in both countries, with Australian drivers reporting lower perceived tolerance levels than Chinese drivers. It was clear that many drivers used the concept of an enforcement tolerance in determining their driving speed, primarily with the desire to drive faster than the posted speed limit, yet remaining within a speed range that would preclude apprehension by police. The quantitative results from Studies 2 and 4 added support to these qualitative findings. Together, the findings supported previous research and suggested that a travel speed may not be seen as illegal until that speed reaches a level over the prescribed enforcement tolerance threshold. In other words, the enforcement tolerance appears to act as a ‘de facto’ speed limit, replacing the posted limit in the minds of some drivers. The findings from the two studies conducted in China (Studies 2 and 4) further highlighted the link between perceived enforcement tolerances and a ‘de facto’ speed limit. Drivers openly discussed driving at speeds that were well above posted speed limits and some participants noted their preference for driving at speeds close to ‘50% above’ the posted limit. This preference appeared to be shaped by the perception that the same penalty would be imposed if apprehended, irrespective of what speed they travelling (at least up to 50% above the limit). Further research is required to determine whether the perceptions of Chinese drivers are mainly influenced by the Law of the People’s Republic of China or by operational practices. Together, the findings from both studies in China indicate that there may be scope to refine enforcement tolerance levels, as has happened in other jurisdictions internationally over time, in order to reduce speeding. Any attempts to do so would likely be assisted by the provision of information about the legitimacy and purpose of speed limits as well as risk factors associated with speeding because these issues were raised by Chinese participants in the qualitative research phase. Another important practical implication of this research for speed management in China is the way in which penalties are determined. Chinese drivers described perceptions of unfairness and a lack of transparency in the enforcement system because they were unsure of the penalty that they would receive if apprehended. Steps to enhance the perceived certainty and consistency of the system to promote a more equitable approach to detection and punishment would appear to be welcomed by the general driving public and would be more consistent with the intended theoretical (deterrence) basis that underpins the current speed enforcement approach. The use of mandatory, fixed penalties may assist in this regard. In many countries, speeding attracts penalties that are dependent on the severity of the offence. In China, there may be safety benefits gained from the introduction of a similar graduated scale of speeding penalties and fixed penalties might also help to address the issue of uncertainty about penalties and related perceptions of unfairness. Such advancements would be in keeping with the principles of best practice for speed management as identified by the World Health Organisation. Another practical implication relating to legal penalties, and applicable to both cultural contexts, relates to the issues of detection and punishment avoidance. These two concepts appeared to strongly influence speeding in the current samples. In Australia, detection avoidance strategies reported by participants generally involved activities that are not illegal (e.g., site learning and remaining watchful for police vehicles). The results from China were similar, although a greater range of strategies were reported. The most common strategy reported in both countries for avoiding detection when speeding was site learning, or familiarisation with speed camera locations. However, a range of illegal practices were also described by Chinese drivers (e.g., tampering with or removing vehicle registration plates so as to render the vehicle unidentifiable on camera and use of in-vehicle radar detectors). With regard to avoiding punishment when apprehended, a range of strategies were reported by drivers from both countries, although a greater range of strategies were reported by Chinese drivers. As the results of the current research indicated that detection avoidance was strongly associated with greater self-reported speeding in both samples, efforts to reduce avoidance opportunities are strongly recommended. The practice of randomly scheduling speed camera locations, as is current practice in Queensland, offers one way to minimise site learning. The findings of this research indicated that this practice should continue. However, they also indicated that additional strategies are needed to reduce opportunities to evade detection. The use of point-to-point speed detection (also known as sectio

Over the past decades, there has been a realisation that safety, within the Saudi construction industry, has been facing challenges. Even though there are good safety practices in many organisations, the industry lacks well publicised legal provisions and standards for employers to use as a means with which they can incrementally develop a safety culture in the workplace, and eventually, improve the safety performance of the industry. This research, therefore, explores and evaluates the influence of current safety culture on safety performance in the Saudi Arabian construction industry. It aims to develop a framework that could be used as a stepwise process for improving safety culture, and positively impact the safety performance in Saudi Arabian construction. The research adopted interpretivism philosophy as the epistemological position and subjectivism as the ontological assumption, which depends on people’s interpretations and their actions. In line with the philosophical stance, the research adopted a deductive reasoning by developing a theory of the issues of safety culture through research questions; and then adopted a research strategy of case study and survey to execute the research. It also adopted a mixed methodology where both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were envisaged to be relevant to the research. The survey approach included semi-structured interviews and questionnaire as techniques. For the questionnaire survey, 135 responses were received from the ranks of managers, engineers, foremen, and labourers in Saudi Arabian construction companies. Using SPSS software, and with the help of the ANOVA test for correlations, the research was able to isolate 29 factors that were associated with commitment to safety procedure, including training and practices. The highest ranked factor was on helping workers secure necessary training in order to avoid accidents and ensure safety. The results from the survey were corroborated by interview results from the three case studies. Using thematic analysis, interview data identified six main factors as components of safety culture in construction organisation in Saudi Arabia. Based on the empirical evidence from the data, the research concludes that the industry, as a whole, has a positive appetite to improve safety culture; and that there is a good realisation that safety performance can only be achieved if there is a good safety culture in the industry. The research also found that even though there is a positive outlook for safety culture, the industry struggles to operationalise it and make it pervasive industry wide. The major reason for weak operationalisation of the safety culture has been the lack of strong framework for consistent implementation of safety practices, which can integrate regulations, standards and best practices from local and international organisations that operate in the Saudi Arabian industry. The value of this research lies in the potential is has to helping stakeholders realise the highly correlation between the safety and organisational culture, and to make a connection with the overall improvements in the productivity of the industry while reducing number of accidents in their work places; hence developing a sound safety culture. The research has a two tiered recommendation, short term and long term recommendations that need to be instituted on a continuous basis. The first tier recommendations relate with the short term improvement in improving commitment to safety practice in order for employees to feel that the safety culture is relevant such as the habit of using PPEs in the workplace is recommended. The second tier recommendation relates to improving the commitment to safety procedures, proper training for construction activities and applying reward management system in the workplace. The two tier recommendations require a regulatory and standards based framework from the industry in order to localise safety culture for improved safety performance in Saudi Arabia.

"Raising the bar" in safety performance is a critical challenge for many organizations. Contributing factor taxonomies organize information on why accidents occur. Therefore, they are essential elements of accident investigations and safety reporting systems. Organizations must balance efforts to identify causes of specific accidents with efforts to evaluate systemic safety issues in order to become more proactive about improving safety. This research successfully addressed two problems: (1) limited methods and metrics exist to support the design of effective taxonomies, and (2) influence relationships between contributing factors are not explicitly modeled within a taxonomy. The primary result of the taxonomic relationship modeling efforts was an innovative "dual role" contributing factor taxonomy with significant improvements in comprehensiveness and diagnosticity over existing taxonomies. The influence map methodology was the result of a unique graphical and analytical combination of the dual role taxonomy and influence relationship models. Influence maps were developed for several safety incidents at Kennedy Space Center. An independent assessment was conducted by a team of experts using the new dual role taxonomy and influence chain methodology to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of contributing factors identified during the formal incident investigations. One hundred and sixteen contributing factors were identified using the influence map methodology. Only 16% of these contributing factors were accurately identified with traditional tools, and over half of the 116 contributing factors were completely unaddressed by the findings and recommendations of the formal incident reports. The new methodology is being applied to improve spaceport operations and enhance designs of future NASA launch systems.
Ph.D.
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
Engineering and Computer Science
Industrial Engineering and Management Systems

The purpose of the study was to describe factors that make teachers feel safe in their classrooms and school buildings. An in-depth exploration of contributing factors to feelings of safety for teachers will assist the field of education when planning facilities and preparing current and future school administrators in leading schools with a healthy and safe climate for teachers. For this study, the researcher surveyed all teaching personnel in a school division which was a total of 133 full-time, fully licensed teachers employed by a rural school division in Southside Virginia. A survey instrument with both quantitative and open ended questions was developed to investigate perceptions of safety in participants' responses regarding the physical characteristics of school buildings and classrooms, the influence of colleague relationships, and administrative practices and school division policies that influence teachers' feelings of safety. The quantitative survey questions utilized a Likert-scale format for participants to indicate degrees of agreement with statements with responses that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The opened ended questions provided for qualitative investigation by allowing participants to provide answers in their own words regarding the four research sub-questions. Findings from the study indicated that teachers in the study generally felt safe in their schools. Teachers indicated perceiving that the greatest violence risk was posed by outside intruders and concern for safety was not generally caused by student behavior. Teachers' perceptions of safety were influenced by the presence of a resource officer in their school building, locked exterior doors, the use of surveillance cameras, the presence of a supportive and visible school principal, and the support of their teacher colleagues.
Ed. D.

The current study investigated the impact of a training program on a peer-to-peer intervention designed to increase the use of bicycle helmets on a large college campus. The training program was evaluated by the number of interactions a peer change agent--an individual who attempts to make a positive change in another person's behavior, had with bicyclists. The results suggest the training program may be effective in increasing change agent interactions for change agents who are already commitment to the intervention leading to more interactions per capita between committed trained change agents and bicyclists than untrained change agent and bicyclists. However, these results must be interpreted with caution due to small and unequal sample sizes.
Master of Science

Research has demonstrated that safety outcomes are impacted by workplace risk factors, but also supervisory practices and employee actions. An area that has not been explored is the impact of employee cognitions on safety outcomes defined as work-related injuries. Based on the conceptual framework of psychological empowerment (PE), the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of employee cognitions as measured by PE as related to leadership and safety climate and the occurrence of work-related injury. The research examined the mediating effect of (PE) on the factors of leadership and safety climate and their relationship to work-related injury. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather data from a convenience sample of 125 front-line food manufacturing employees from 3 different organizations. Multiple regression was used to analyze data from the Organization-Level Safety Climate Scale, the Psychological Empowerment Instrument, the Leader Behavior Scale, and number of self-reported injuries. The results of the analysis were non-significant. Although the results were non-significant, this study promotes positive social change in bringing awareness to the issue of employee cognitions and their role in workplace injury. Exploring the implications of cognitive variables including PE using a different methodology such as incorporating a qualitative follow-up questionnaire could lead to clarity of the value of PE in reducing workplace injury thereby positively impacting employees, organizations, family members, and tax payers.

The safety literature describes senior managers as crucially influencing organisational safety. Yet, it is not fully understood, what contributes to their influence. This thesis investigated senior managers’ characteristics in relation to their impact on safety in air traffic management organisations. A review of the safety literature indicated research in this area would benefit from the introduction of a research model as a theoretical basis. The skills-based leadership model by Mumford and colleagues was proposed as a suitable model for senior managers’ influence on organisational safety. A safety–specific version of the model was devised, consisting of traits (Big Fives, regulatory focus), skills (problem solving, social competence) and safety knowledge as antecedents of safety commitment and organisational safety outcomes. Study 1 explored the relevance of these characteristics for senior managers’ work on safety using semi-structured interviews with senior managers (N = 9). Responses were coded into the characteristics with sufficient reliability using qualitative content analysis. The characteristics were found to be relevant for senior managers’ influence on safety and their content was refined based on the findings. Safety knowledge and social competence were frequently indicated. Interpersonal leadership emerged as additionally relevant. Study 2 investigated the characteristics’ relevance for safety managers’ and CEOs’ influence on safety with questionnaires consisting of open questions (N = 49). Responses were coded using qualitative content analysis with acceptable reliability. The results re-confirmed the relevance of the characteristics. As in the previous study, interpersonal leadership emerged. Furthermore, problem-solving, leadership and safety knowledge were found more frequently for CEOs than for safety managers, whereas personality was more frequently indicated for safety managers than for CEOs. Finally, Study 3 tested the characteristics’ influence on safety commitment, which was conceptualised as indicated through behaviours that reflect a positive attitude towards safety. Interview questions, scenarios and questionnaires were used to measure characteristics and safety commitment in a sample of senior managers (N = 60). Interview and scenario responses were quantified with acceptable reliability. The results indicated that not all characteristics that were previously found to be relevant for senior managers’ influence on organisational safety were also related to safety commitment. Mainly, problem solving was shown to influence safety commitment, with the ability to understand problems, to identify useful information-sources and to generate ideas that relate to changes in the organisation’s culture as most influential. The findings can inform guidance and training for senior managers. Future research in this area could benefit from a focus on the conceptualisation of safety commitment, the role of interpersonal leadership style, as well as safety knowledge and the skills included in the research model.

ABSTRACT Objectives: To develop and validate in an Australian setting, an instrument to effectively measure patient safety culture; to survey health care workers (HCWs) in a large public healthcare system to establish baseline patient safety culture; and, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), to use behavioural modelling to identify the factors that predict and influence Patient Safety Behavioural Intent (PSBI) Eg. Reporting clinical incidents and speaking up when a colleague makes an error. Design: Cross sectional survey analysed with multiple logistic regression (MLR). Setting: Metropolitan, regional and rural public hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Participants: 5294 clinical and managerial staff. Main outcome measures: 1) Behavioural models for high-level Patient Safety Behavioural Intent (PSBI) for senior and junior doctors, senior and junior nurses, and allied health professionals. 2) Odds ratios to compare levels of PSBI between professional groups. Results: 1) The factors that influence high-level PSBI for each professional group give rise to unique predictive models. Two factors stand out as influencing high-level PSBI for all HCWs (R2 0.21). These are: i) Preventive Action Beliefs (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 2.38) (HCWs??? belief that engaging in the target behaviour(s) will lead to improved patient safety) and ii) Professional Peer Behaviour (AOR 1.79) (HCWs??? perceptions of the safety behaviour(s) of one???s professional peers). 2) There was a six-fold difference in the level of target behaviour (PSBI) across the clinical groups with few (29.6%) junior doctors having a high-level of PSBI. When compared with the junior doctors, the senior doctors were nearly 1.5 times more likely (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.46, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.01-2.13), allied health staff 2.7 times more likely (OR 2.71, 95%CI 1.91-3.73), junior nurses 3.9 times more likely (OR 3.86, 95%CI 2.83-5.26), and senior nurses 6.0 times more likely (OR 6.01, 95%CI 4.78-9.16) to have high-level PSBI. Conclusions: This is the first published study to develop behavioural models of factors that influence HCWs??? intention to engage in behaviours known to be associated with improved patient safety. The findings of this study will greatly assist in the future design and implementation of targeted and cost-effective patient safety improvement initiatives.

Suborbital flights will soon take flight as a viable commercial operation. Operators such as Virgin Galactic, along with their designer Scaled Composites, will be responsible for safety of the flight crew, Spaceflight Participants and indeed the uninvolved public beneath their flight trajectories. Within the United States, the Federal Aviation Authority’s Office of Commercial Transportation (FAA-AST) has provided Launch License Regulations and Guidelines for prospective design organisations and operators alike. The aim of this thesis is to analyse suborbital spaceflight approaches to safety management and to determine whether effective safety management is being or could be applied to influence vehicle design and subsequent operation. The thesis provides a review of current safety-related information on suborbital spaceflight, existing space safety information and also existing aviation safety information. The findings of the review concern two main areas; firstly that a gap exists within suborbital safety management criteria, and secondly that a gap exists in existing aviation-based safety guidelines. In the first case, the research concluded that FAA-AST safety management criteria did not present sufficiently explicit and rationalised guidelines for this new industry. Indeed, the thesis argues that the scope of the FAA-AST regulations (covering both orbital and suborbital aspects) is too broad, and that regulations and guidelines should be split into distinct orbital and suborbital sections so as to provide more effective directives. In Europe, no such regulations or guidelines exist as there has until now been no requirement (a ‘customer’) for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to implement such a framework. This thesis sought to address this gap by using a safety tool (Goal Structuring Notation) to construct a goal-based regulatory approach, which was included in a draft EASA suborbital Policy. Secondly, the main significant finding of this research is that a gap (literally) exists between current aviation-based design organisation safety guidelines and operator safety risk management guidelines. This absence of communication means operators are not managing their safety risks as effectively as they could. The thesis argues that the suborbital domain should take heed, as most vehicles are based on aircraft designs and therefore suborbital operators will, no doubt, apply ‘best practice’ either from the aviation or commercial space domains. Neither is appropriate or effective. As a result of the main finding a contiguous safety model has been developed which employs a ‘key (platform) hazard’ to join the design organisation analysis to the operator safety risk management, therefore completing an explicit sequence from the initiating causal event to the accident. The model is demonstrated using case studies from space disasters (Space Shuttle) and also from aviation accidents (Air France flight AF447); the model details the explicit accident sequence and shows missing or failed controls leading up to the accident. The research enabled models to be constructed and also proposed additional and explicit guidelines for the suborbital industry such as medical and training standards and separate safety criteria for vertical launch vehicles; these are included as recommendations and need to be ratified by recognised bodies such as the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety’s Suborbital Space Safety Technical Committee for inclusion in their Space Safety Standards Manual. In the latter case these recommendations are already agenda items for the Technical Committee to address.

The purpose of this study was to identify ideas about how occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals influence decision-makers on matters impacting occupational health and safety management systems. A modified nominal group technique was used that involved 67 participants in ten nominal groups and identified the most important ideas about how OSH professionals can influence workplace safety and health decision making. The research produced themes of communication, scientific, professionalism, leadership, adaptability, and business acumen that resulted in six domains of occupational safety and health professional influence.

Les routes sont normalement pourvues de systèmes de drainage dimensionnés et exécutés conformément aux règles de l’art en vue d’évacuer, le plus rapidement possible de l’emprise de la route, les eaux des précipitations à considérer sur la base des périodes de retour prises en compte. Toutefois, il subsiste souvent des écoulements d’eau indésirables au niveau des talus et parfois dans les accotements et/ou les surfaces de roulement non imperméabilisées. Une succession de pluies entraîne des infiltrations d’eau qui varient notamment en fonction des conditions climatiques et suivant la texture et la structure du sol. De telles infiltrations ont pour conséquence la réduction des coefficients de sécurité des talus.

Bien qu’il existe plusieurs publications scientifiques traitant de pluies qui ont conduit à des glissements de terrain (Lim et al. 1996 ;Cho et al. 2001 ;Kim et al. 2004 ;Xue et al. 2007 ;Gavin et al. 2008), les incidences des infiltrations résultant de pluies successives sur le comportement des couches superficielles des sols non saturés ne sont généralement pas prises en compte. Les modèles permettant le calcul de la stabilité de talus des massifs de sols non saturés exigent beaucoup de paramètres parfois difficiles à évaluer et se rapportent ordinairement aux cas d’instabilité provoqués par une remontée du niveau piézométrique des nappes phréatiques.

Sur la base des essais réalisés en laboratoire, une méthodologie adaptée permettant d’évaluer la variation spatio-temporelle de la teneur en eau du sol en fonction d’une suite de pluies a été développée. Cette méthodologie facilite la prise en compte des effets cumulés des taux d’infiltration associés aux évènements pluvieux et permet d’en déduire le profil de succion ainsi que celui de la cohésion apparente à utiliser en vue de calculer, pour une inclinaison β du talus, l’intervalle de variation du coefficient de sécurité Fs. La méthodologie développée présente un intérêt particulier dans le cas de budgets et infrastructures limités.

ABSTRACT

Roads are normally equipped with drainage systems sized and implemented in accordance with the rules of art to evacuate as quickly as possible to the right of way, water precipitation to be considered on the basis of return periods taken into account. However, there are often water flows at the slope side and sometimes in the shoulders and / or running surfaces that are not waterproof. A succession of rain causes a certain amount of water infiltration, which varies according to climatic conditions and depending on the soil texture and structure. Such infiltrations have resulted in reduced safety factor of slopes.

Although there are several scientific publications on rainfall leading to landslides (Lim et al. 1996; Cho et al. 2001, Kim et al. 2004; Xue et al. 2007; Gavin and al. 2008), impacts resulting from infiltration of successive rains on the behavior of surface layers of unsaturated soils are usually not taken into account. Models for calculating the slope stability of unsaturated soils require many parameters that can be, in certain circumstances, difficult to assess and refer generally to cases of instability caused by a rise in groundwater level.

Based on laboratory tests, a suitable methodology for assessing the spatial and temporal variation of soil water content induced by a set of rains has been developed. This methodology facilitates the inclusion of the cumulative effects of the infiltration rates associated with rain events and infers from them the profile of suction and that of the apparent cohesion to be used to calculate, for a slope angle β, the range of variation of the safety factor Fs. This methodology is particularly relevant in the case of limited budgets and infrastructures.
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Frequent turnover among a hospital's nursing staff can profoundly impact organizational operating costs. With a national turnover rate of 17% in 2015, understanding the impact of management approaches on nurse attrition is vital to business success. Guided by Homan's social exchange theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore leadership strategies used by safety-net hospital leaders to increase nursing personnel retention. Data collection consisted of semistructured interviews from a purposive snowball sampling of 8 senior directors working at a safety-net hospital in southern Maryland. Additional information collected involved documents and artifacts related to human resources management policies and guidelines. Constant comparative method enabled the analysis and identification of latent patterns in words used by respondents. Through methodological triangulation, several themes emerged. These themes included engagement and management support, education and career development, teamwork and work atmosphere, recognition, relationship building and communication, and health reform and innovation. According to the study results, increasing employee engagement, offering training and career development, performing technological upgrades, and developing sustainable relationships are appropriate approaches for gaining nursing personnel commitment. The findings of this study are important to senior leaders and middle managers in healthcare and other industries as they seek to attract talented staff members to sustain their organizations. The conclusions in this study may contribute to positive social change through improved nursing staff retention, leading to better patient experiences, healthier communities, and more satisfied customers.

Operational testing of railroad trainmen on federal government safety rules is a daily occurrence on every railroad in the United States. This constant testing and resulting discipline distracts trainmen from the task at hand, causing a loss of focus which could lead to injury or accidents. Using the social construction framework, this research sought to gain an understanding of trainmen's perception on how operational testing impacts their workplace safety, as well as how they perceive the U.S. federal government influences regulation and discipline. This phenomenological study investigated a segment of railroad employees, the trainmen, because they are operationally tested more than other employees. A representative sample of trainmen (n = 20), managers (n = 7), retirees (n = 4), and U.S. federal government officials (n = 4) who oversee railroad safety, were interviewed using a semistructured interview protocol. The transcribed interviews were analyzed for patterns and trends of safety and testing outcomes. The software analysis provided frequencies of qualitative features in the participants' responses such as stressor words and fear of discipline. Government reports regarding incident rates across U.S. railroads demonstrated that private rail companies are about equal in their incident rates. Considering incidents occur equally, the interviewees indicated that some companies test more frequently than others. This study concluded that excessive operational testing does not positively impact safety nor reduce incidents, but creates a potential for distraction among trainmen. By taking the opinion of employees into consideration, railway managers can create a safer work environment, as well as a more coherent and less stressful workplace for their employees.

Observation of fire damaged structures and recent fire tests at the Cardington LBTF have suggested that even nominally `simple' connections are capable of providing significant restraint at elevated-temperatures. As most frames are designed assuming pinned response at ambient-temperature, with no account being taken of the reduction in mid-span moments, this is an aspect of connectivity which may be utilised in the assessment of the fire resistance of steel framed buildings, without necessitating changes in the approach adopted in ambient-temperature design or construction. To date the assessment of the influence of connection response on frame behaviour has been limited by the quantity of available test data, although initial studies based on postulated moment-rotation- temperature characteristics concluded that the failure temperatures for beams are increased due to the rigidity of `simple' connections. Moment-rotation relationships have been measured for a flush end-plate connection, both as bare-steel and as composite with a concrete slab across a range of temperatures. To define accurately the full moment-rotation-temperature response a series of tests have been conducted for each arrangement, where specimens were subject to varying constant levels of load and increasing temperatures. Observed failure mechanisms have been compared with those for a nominally identical specimen tested at ambient-temperature, and initial recommendations presented for the degradation of ambient-temperature connection characteristics. A mathematical expression is proposed in order to represent the test data at a number of temperatures. It is clearly unrealistic to expect that many such tests can be anticipated in the future, and as such a spring-stiffness model has been presented for both bare-steel and composite flush end-plate connections. The use of a spring-stiffness model compares favourably with other forms of modelling due to the combination of efficient solution and the ability to follow accurately the full non-linear range of connection response, based on an understanding of the response of the component parts. A multi-linear representation of response has been adopted, where the stiffness of the connection is revised as elements enter the plastic range of response. Comparison has been made between the response predicted and that recorded experimentally. Experimentally derived connection characteristics have been incorporated within analysis of typical sub-frames, with parameters including connection stiffness, capacity and temperature being varied. Further studies are presented considering the sensitivity of overall frame behaviour to inaccuracies in the representation of connection response and the use of simplified models to generate elevated-temperature connection characteristics. Based on postulated elevated-temperature moment-rotation characteristics for the connections contained within the Cardington test frame, predictions have been presented for the response of the structure subject to a series of full scale fire tests, with semi-rigid behaviour being compared with the common assumptions of pinned and rigid characteristics.

This study evaluated the effectiveness and impact of the Safe Work Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Representative's (WHSR) Training Course in terms of: • knowledge and skills gained from participation in the course; • student perception of whether the course met their needs as WHSRs; • retention or loss of course knowledge over time; • the state of the workplace consultative structures required by the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1989 existing at the time of the course and twenty weeks later; and • to what extent, if any, the WHSRs applied the knowledge and skills gained from the course in the workplace. The study examined the extent to which the WHSRs training had an impact on the safety performance of their workplaces and the role of the consultative occupational health and safety (OHS) structures in facilitating this impact. In total, 569 students who completed the WHSRs training course between January and July 1993 were surveyed. Ten case study interviews were also completed. The findings are divided into five (5) main areas as follows: Knowledge and skills gained from participation in the course: The study identified a significant improvement in WHSRs' OHS knowledge in key areas including: aspects of the Queensland OHS legislation, workplace accident/incident causation and reduction, the hierarchy of hazard control, hazardous substances and manual handling. Retention or loss of course knowledge over time: The postal questionnaires tested WHSRs' retention of aspects of the key knowledge from the course. Twenty (20) weeks after the completion of the course 29.6% of WHSRs had improved their knowledge in key areas, 31.8% remained the same and 38.6% had a decline in knowledge. Student perception of whether the course met their needs: The course was highly regarded by the participants; 98.1 % of WHSRs regarded the course as a whole as vital or useful to the performance of their duties as WHSRs. The state of the consultative structures in the workplace: The study identified several concerns about the ability of WHSRs to adequately represent their fellow workers. Only 37 .1 % of WHSRs were elected by the workers they represented. The majority (57.5%) were nominated by management. Furthermore, at the time of the postal questionnaire, just over half (53.2%) of WHSRs were involved in routine workplace inspections at least once a month or more. Whilst this was a 15% improvement over the 38.2% of those involved in routine inspections at the time of the course, it was of concern that 41. 7% of WHSRs rarely or never undertook workplace inspections. The study further identified a lack of consultation between management and WHSRs; 37.9% of WHSRs indicated that they were rarely or never asked by management for their opinion on OHS matters, 33.6% were sometimes asked, and only 26.4% were frequently asked for their opinion. Application of the knowledge and skills in the workplace: More than two thirds of the WHSRs (67.5%) indicated that they had identified hazards in their workplace since completing the course. In total, 94.2% of these WHSRs identified the potential harm associated with these hazards and 57.7% reported that all hazards they had identified were controlled to their satisfaction. The study concluded that the involvement of trained WHSRs in the OHS decision-making processes in the workplace produced positive results in terms of a healthier and safer work environment. Responses from study participants suggested that the WHSR course was well regarded and provided participants with additional knowledge that enabled them to participate more effectively in workplace OHS consultation and risk management. As the result of this study significant changes were made to the Safe Work training course and an ongoing quality control system was introduced. The data pertaining to the implementation of self-regulation in the workplace was successfully used by Safe Work to justify changes to the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1989. Recommendations included: • the production of a guide on the implementation of self-regulation in the workplace to help WHSRs and Workplace Health and Safety Officers (WHSOs) fulfil their duties; • that the Division of Workplace Health and Safety Inspectors target the existence of health and safety consultative structures during audits and that trade union officials also target these areas among those who employ their members; and • that a further study be conducted in 1997 to determine whether: a) the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 has had a positive impact on the establishment of workplace OHS structures and consultation; b) the introduction of hazard report forms have had a positive effect on the involvement of WHSRs in the risk management process and on the introduction of appropriate control measures by employers; c) the alterations to the WHSR training course have produced improvements in terms of student learning outcomes; and d) employers or employer representatives perceive the involvement of WHSRs to be of value in gaining a safer work environment.

L™objectiu de la present tesi era contribuir al coneixement de les conseqüències i l™impacte de la qualitat i seguretat operacional en la rendibilitat de les companyies aèries, així com destacar la importància i necessitat de la comptabilitat de gestió i els seus indicadors clau de gestió (KPIs, o Key Performance Indicators) a la industria aèria. Per tal de cobrir aquest objectiu, es va desenvolupar un compendi de sis articles acadèmics per respondre a les preguntes de recerca plantejades i resoldre els gaps existents a la literatura. Les principals conclusions i resultats van revelar una influencia positiva i significativa de la qualitat de servei en la rendibilitat mesurada com rendibilitat econòmica (ROI, o return on investment) de les companyies aèries nord-americanes; i un efecte no significatiu per a la qualitat sobre els ingressos de passatge de les aerolínies. Per un altre banda, l™efecte de la seguretat operacional era el contrari. Per tant, es va confirmar un efecte no significatiu per a la seguretat operacional en la rendibilitat de les aerolínies, mentre que l™efecte de la seguretat operacional sobre els ingressos de passatge de les aerolínies va ser significatiu.
El objetivo de la presente tesis era contribuir al conocimiento de las consecuencias e impacto de la calidad y seguridad operacional en la rentabilidad de las compañías aéreas, así como destacar la importancia y necesidad de la contabilidad de gestión y sus indicadores clave de gestión (KPIs, o Key Performance Indicators) en la industria aérea. Con el fin de lograr este objetivo, se desarrolló un compendio de seis artículos académicos para responder a las preguntas de investigación planteadas y resolver los gaps existentes en la literatura. Las principales conclusiones y resultados revelaron una influencia positiva y significativa de la calidad de servicio en la rentabilidad medida como rentabilidad económica (ROI, o return on investment) de las compañías aéreas estadounidenses; y un efecto no significativo de la calidad sobre los ingresos de pasaje de las aerolíneas. Al mismo tiempo, se comprobó que el efecto de la seguridad operacional era en sentido contrario. Por lo tanto, se confirmó un efecto no significativo para la seguridad operacional en la rentabilidad de las aerolíneas, mientras que el efecto de la seguridad operacional sobre los ingresos de pasaje de las aerolíneas fue significativo.
This Doctoral Thesis aimed to contribute to an understanding of the consequences and impact of quality and safety on profitability of airline companies, as well as to emphasize the importance and need for management accounting and its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the airline industry. In order to cover this goal, a compendium of six academic papers were developed to answers to the research questions introduced and deal with existing gaps in the literature. The main findings and results revealed a positive and significant influence of service quality on the profitability measured as Economic return (ROI, or return on investment) of US airline companies; and a non-significant effect for quality on airline passenger revenues. While the effect of safety was vice versa. Thus, a non-significant effect for safety on profitability of airlines was confirmed, whereas the effect of safety on airline passenger revenues was significant.

Context. Most games make use of graphics to create an environment that fits the mood they wish to convey. To use a game's graphical attributes such as colour, shape and texture to their utmost ability, knowing how these are perceived could help. Objective. This paper tries to determine how graphical attributes such as colour, texture, and shapes affect the perceived safety of a path inside a 3d environment. Method. To reach the objective, an experiment was conducted with 20 participants. The experiment was a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) test of 38 pairs of images, where each pair contained two versions of a tunnel entrance scene rendered using different graphical attributes. Each difference was based around either colour (warm and cold colour schemes), shape (round, wide, angular and thin), or texture (rugged, neutral and sterile). Results. The experiment generated results that varied compared to the expected results. For instance, the wider shapes were seen as safer compared to the thinner shapes, as was the same result with rounder shapes being perceived safer than angular shapes. Although a few preferred the cold colour scheme, the warmer colour scheme was seen as safer by the majority. While expected to be perceived as less safe than neutral textures but more than the rugged ones, the sterile texture was actually most commonly seen as safe. Conclusions. The main conclusion that was made is that colour, texture and shape can be applied to change the perception of safety in a scene. However, when opposing attributes are used in combination, the result might be based on how dominant the attribute is. The dominance of the graphical attributes could be an interesting topic for future work.

Thesis (M. Tech.(Environmental Health)) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2005
As the concentration of dust has been shown to be proportional to seasonal change in the Free State Province of South Africa, one might expect the prevalence of associated microorganisms to follow the same pattern. The presence of dust is also associated with an aerosolised microbial population that gets blown into almost any unsealed environment including food storage facilities at schools. In addition, facility design and storage practices at these schools are under-developed and could subsequently lead to the contamination of stored food by dust, insects and rainwater. The foods in question include fortified biscuits that are intended for malnourished, and in several cases immunocompromised, children who are susceptible to opportunistic pathogens. Therefore this study aimed to determine the impact of facility design on the level and distribution of viable airborne microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) in the storage rooms and the outdoor environment at both rural (higher dust exposure) and urban schools. Besides the pathogenicity of these organisms, their ability to degrade the sugars (major fortifying agent) in the mentioned biscuits was also established. The results showed the presence of Escherichia coli, which signifies faecal contamination and could be attributed to the lack of toilet facilities in the schools, especially in rural areas. Although Staphylococcus sp. is normally related to poor personal hygiene practices, these organisms were also isolated from the air of the storerooms and school premises. The presence of moulds and airborne microorganisms was attributed to unfavourable environmental conditions as well as crowding in the classrooms. The microbial contamination originally present on the fortified biscuits or originating from the air further caused deterioration in the quality of the food. The fungi present in the air (identified species) cause respiratory problems when inhaled by children as they are opportunistic pathogens. It is further evident that a change of season corresponded to a general change in bioaerosol composition, such as the increased presence of dust during the winter months. It was further concluded that schools situated in different environments (urban/rural) should have storerooms that address the various environmental factors influencing bioaerosols. This would impact not only directly on the health of children in terms of their exposure to possible allergens, but also indirectly through the food that they consume as part of the feeding programme.

Glyphosate-resistant weeds in North Dakota and Minnesota sugarbeet growing regions have necessitated research on S-metolachlor. S-metolachlor can be applied early-postemergence in sugarbeet but has not been labeled preemergence as reductions in sugarbeet safety have been observed. Field and growth chamber experiments were conducted to determine crop safety from S-metolachlor applied preemergence. S-metolachlor readily bonds to soil clay and organic matter. High clay and organic matter soils buffer S-metolachlor from soil solution and increase crop safety. Sugarbeet emergence was affected by soil series, temperature, and soil water, but was not affected by S-metolachlor or S-metolachlor rate. S-metolachlor affected sugarbeet growth, but a rate of 0.54 kg ai ha-1 was safe across soils and growing conditions. No differences in varietal tolerance were observed. S-metolachlor applied immediately after planting or at the cotyledon and two-leaf stage injured sugarbeet less than application 3, 5, or 7 d after planting.
Syngenta
Dual Magnum
Betaseed
Crystal
Hilleshog
Maribo
Seedex
SesVanderhave

Glyphosate-resistant weeds in North Dakota and Minnesota sugarbeet growing regions have necessitated research on S-metolachlor. S-metolachlor can be applied early-postemergence in sugarbeet but has not been labeled preemergence as reductions in sugarbeet safety have been observed. Field and growth chamber experiments were conducted to determine crop safety from S-metolachlor applied preemergence. S-metolachlor readily bonds to soil clay and organic matter. High clay and organic matter soils buffer S-metolachlor from soil solution and increase crop safety. Sugarbeet emergence was affected by soil series, temperature, and soil water, but was not affected by S-metolachlor or S-metolachlor rate. S-metolachlor affected sugarbeet growth, but a rate of 0.54 kg ai ha ^-1 was safe across soils and growing conditions. No differences in varietal tolerance were observed. S-metolachlor applied immediately after planting or at the cotyledon and two-leaf stage injured sugarbeet less than application 3, 5, or 7 d after planting.

碩士
國立成功大學
高階管理碩士在職專班(EMBA)
106
SUMMARY Study safety-related literature at home and abroad, review safety-related scales for metal products manufacturing, explore the differences in the background of different organizations, safety climate, safety participation and safety performance, and empirically analyze the results to understand the safety of metal products industry. Correlation between climate, safety participation and safety performance, constructing a structural equation model for the safe climate and safety of metal products industry to participate in safety performance, with the safety participation of practitioners as intermediary variables, using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the results. The results show that the safety climate of the metal products industry has a significant positive correlation with safety performance, and the safety of employees involved in the intermediary security climate and safety performance is positive. Looking forward to the results and recommendations of this research, provide reference for business managers to reduce the risk of organizational operations, and thus enhance organizational competitiveness and safety performance; in particular, the metal products industry urgently needs to refine safety promotion to reduce injuries, so metal products manufacturers Attempts to achieve excellence in safety performance can be achieved by creating a quality climate of safety and active and active employee involvement.

碩士
致遠管理學院
金屬材料工程與管理產業研發碩士專班
99
The safety at work has been gradually emphasized due to the consciousness of the employee rising, as well as the occupational safety promoting by the government. However, the enterprise is chasing more and more capacity, and sometimes it may not be well considered in the occupational safety, not only to threaten the life to the employees but also the happiness of the family. Besides, the enterprise also suffers from the property losing. As we know, steel industry is under the impression that is one of the dirty, hard and dangerous jobs. According to the Occupational Injuries statistics from Council of Labor Affairs from 2001 to 2007, we may see the death people from the steel industry is 13% in all of the manufacturing industry, which is able to see the occupational safety of the steel industry has to be improved. 　　We have learned the most accidents are caused by the unsafe behavior of the human being from references. And the safe behavior is based on the performance of the safe attitude. In addition, safety management and safety leadership have a great effect upon the employees’ safe attitude. Meanwhile, the safety achievement is the overall performance from the safety management system. So the purpose of this research is to study the effects of the organization of safety management and safety leadership from the leaders on the employees’ safe attitude and the organization of safety achievement. 　　The research is conducted the key elements from all the aspect. The elements from the safety management are Safety and Health Policy, Safety and Health Organization, plan and execution, employee involvement, Health care management and safety audit. The elements from the safety leadership are the visibility, relationship, workforce involvement, and proactive management. The personal safety, colleague safety, leadership, organization management, facilities and environment are the elements of the safe attitude. And safety organization, safety management, safety policy, safety training, safety equipments and the accident statistics are the elements of the safety achievement. The questionnaire is based on the elements from the aspects that have mentioned above. And focus on the employees from the A company. 　　The results demonstrated that safety management, safety leadership, and safety attitude have a significant effect on safety performance. Safety management and safety leadership have a significant effect on safety attitude. Safety attitude not have a mediating effect on both the relationship of safety management and safety performance. Safety attitude have a mediating effect on both the relationship of safety leadership and safety performance.

碩士
國立高雄大學
運動健康與休閒學系碩士在職專班
105
Water activities Volunteers has been to participate diving activities for many years found : many water safety measures, management and maintenance not enough, the public’s training on water safety insufficient, the public’s cognition and attitude on water safety inadequate. In addition, the scuba diving is a new and continuous growing activity it should avoid drowning happening. The study aimed to investigating the diving participants of safety cognition and attitude on experience benefits, based on questionnaire survey which filled by scuba diving members of Kenting, Ryuku, Penghu and Green Island. The data collection by sample survey methodology and compiled results were statistical analyzed based on spss23.0. Total 333 surveys valid samples was used for this study. The result showed that diving participants' safety cognition and attitude has a significantly affects effect on experience benefits. Moreover, the diving participants' safety attitude has a significantly affects effect on experience benefits. Managerial implications and recommendations for specific recommendations for the management of diving participants' safety attitude and risk assessment strategies future research discussed.

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
人力資源發展系碩士班
96
Labor consciousness is gaining ground and labor safety is taken seriously in recent years. High- tech industries, for the purpose of productivity improvement, are unable to attend to every aspect of labor safety. Once the injury occurred, it will be a threat to the labor's life safety and their families. In the past, labor safety was mostly been discussed in technical levels, such as improving unsafe environment, preventing unsafe behavior etc. But the effects resulted from leadership, management, or cultural factors on safety cognition were rarely mentioned. This study investigates the influences of high- tech industries employee’s safety cognition from the aspects of safety leadership and safety management. Besides, safety culture is adopted as a mediating variable in order to clarify the relationships. The subjects of this study were sampled from the semiconductor manufacturing companies in Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone by convenience sampling. A total of 460 questionnaires were sent out and returned effective ones were 370. The results demonstrated that safety leadership, safety management, and safety culture have a significant effect on safety cognition. Safety leadership and safe management have a significant effect on safety culture. Safety culture had a complete mediating effect on both the relationship of safety leadership and safety cognition and the relationship of safety management and safety cognition. Furthermore, the special discoveries of this study are: 1. Although it presents affirmative opinion approximately that the promotion of safety performance may reach by way of reward,it actually is the lowest affirmation in the safety management dimension. 2. The leader's action-participation is unable to accounts the cognition for employees that directors put emphasis on safety. 3. The younger and less number of employee's company, the higher sense of safety leadership, safety management, safety culture and safety cognition of its employees also.

Patient safety strategies have traditionally involved the promotion of provider-oriented practices aimed at reducing known risks associated with surgery, infection, and continuity of care. With the knowledge that patient safety incidents can significantly impact patients, providers, and health care organizations, greater emphasis on patient involvement as a means to mitigate risks warrants further research. The primary objective of this research was to determine the relationship between perceptions of patient safety and the likelihood of patient involvement in both factual and challenging patient safety practices. This mixed methods study was conducted at two tertiary hospital sites located in Atlantic Canada between February 2011 and January 2012. The study design was the sequential explanatory model of mixed methods design, integrating both quantitative survey methods and qualitative focus group methods for both patient and provider participants. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Focus group sessions were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The development and analysis of this research was guided by the Health Belief Model. Overall, patients were more willing to engage in factual patient safety practices (e.g., asking questions of their doctors) than challenging patient safety practices (e.g., asking a provider if they have washed their hands). The patient PLS analysis revealed relationships between patient perceptions of threat and self-efficacy and the performance of factual and challenging patient safety practices, explaining 46% and 42% of the variance, respectively. The provider PLS model found that perceptions of safety culture accounted for 34% of the variance in perceptions of threat and 42% of the variance in perceptions of barriers versus benefits. Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of four major themes for both patient and providers related to the phenomenon of patient involvement. Quantitative and qualitative results were complementary in nature. Perceptions of patient safety were shown to influence both patient and provider likelihood in engaging in selected patient safety practices. Greater understanding of the roles that perceptions play in patient involvement in their care may help to improve the safety and quality of care delivered.

碩士
國防大學
資源管理及決策研究所
107
In recent years, safety accidents have been frequently occurred. To reduce disasters, how to effectively improve safety performance has become a topic of concern in the practice and academy. Based on the view of the leadership-behavior-outcomes of the safety leadership model, the perspectives of social exchange theory and expectation theory, this study explores whether the supervisory leadership can influence safety performances by motivating employees' voice behavior. Safety performance includes safety compliance and safety participation. In addition, to explore in further whether group safety climate influences safety performance through voice behavior by using cross-level analysis. 485 valid supervisor-employee dual sample was collected and examines all hypotheses by adopting Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM). The result showed that: (1) transformational leadership has the positive effect on safety compliance and safety participation; (2) employees' voice behavior has positively mediating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and safety compliance; however, it has no significant mediating effect on transformational leadership and safety participation; (3) group safety climate has a positive effect on safety compliance and safety participation; (4) employees' voice behavior has positively mediating effect on the relationship between group safety climate and safety compliance; however, it has no significant mediating effect on group safety climate and safety participation. Finally, this study discusses theoretical and managerial implications.

碩士
弘光科技大學
健康事業管理研究所
105
In recent years, patient safety has gained public attention. It is important for medical workers to have patient safety awareness and to instill patient safety in their services. One’s ability to maintain patient safety and leadership style may affect or shape his or her patient safety behavior. So this study aims to explore the relationship among patient safety self-efficacy, perceived leadership style, patient safety attitude, and patient safety behavior. In this study, questionnaires were distributed to medical workers (physicians, nursing staff, and medical staff) of a general hospital in central Taiwan. About 810 questionnaires were distributed between August and September 2016 and 342 were returned. Statistical methods such as confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression were used in data analysis. This research results show that: (1) Job satisfaction related with patient safety attitude has positive effect on patient safety behavior; (2) When the medical worker perceived his/her direct supervisor as someone with a "transactional" leadership style, it also has an moderating effect on the relationship between working condition related to patient safety attitude and patient safety behavior; (3) Self-efficacy to provide patient safety has an moderating effect on the relationship between working condition related to patient safety attitude and patient safety behavior. The results will not only provide an empirical contribution to the study of patient safety and help medical workers improve their patient safety attitude and behavior but also will provide medical institutions and medical quality departments a reference for promoting and improving the safety in their organizations, systems, and programs.

碩士
開南大學
觀光運輸學院碩士在職專班
107
Since the open skies policy, due to Taiwan’s hub in the Asia-Pacific region, coupled with the opening of cross-strait routes and the opening of the Northeast Asian Airways in recent years, the navigation volume of the Taipei Flight Information Region has grown rapidly; In addition, as the living environment changes and lifestyle changes, the rise of ultra-light vehicle leisure flight activities is not only favored by flight enthusiasts, but also has great appeal to the pursuit of stimulating ethnic groups. In recent years, it has gradually formed a craze for leisure flight activities. However, the airspace of the Taipei Air Navigation Information Zone is small, Airport dense, Intricate routes, Military aircraft and civil aircraft activities are frequent, Ultra-light vehicles have to survive in such a complex and near-saturated airspace, It can be said that there is a certain difficulty. Also due to the growth of the sports flight population, it has added a lot of potential danger factors to the already busy and crowded airspace. In order to maintain the concept of flight safety, this study uses the ultra-light vehicle activity airspace, operation status and related literature to explore, analyze and study, and supplemented by expert interviews to understand ultralight vehicle players, air force pilots and fly. The air controllers will sort out the relevant opinions and opinions on the subject of this research to find out the potential causes of the impact of ultralight vehicle activities on the safety of ROCAF, and seek solutions and solutions.The results of the study show that through the discussion of relevant backgrounds, case analysis of ultra-light vehicle twin flight accidents, in-depth interviews with experts and comprehensive analysis of relevant data, there is still improvement in the current work surface and regulatory system space. Therefore, it is also proposed that the government, ultralight associations and the military should make suggestions for improvement and establish a better flight environment so that air force athletes can ensure the safety of flying while defending the national airspace.

Yes
Background: Understanding the factors that make it more or less likely that healthcare practitioners (HCPs) will perform certain patient safety behaviors is important in developing effective intervention strategies. A questionnaire to identify determinants of HCP patient safety behaviors does not currently exist. This study reports the development and initial validation of the Influences on Patient Safety Behaviors Questionnaire (IPSBQ) based on the Theoretical Domains Framework. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-three HCPs from three acute National Health Service Hospital Trusts in the United Kingdom completed the 34-item measure focusing on one specific patient safety behavior (using pH as the first line method for checking the position of a nasogastric tube). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was undertaken to generate the model of best fit. Results: The final questionnaire consisted of 11 factors and 23 items, and CFA produced a reasonable fit: χ2 (175) = 345.7, p < 0.001; CMIN/DF = 1.98; GFI = 0.90 and RMSEA = 0.06, as well as adequate levels of discriminant validity, and internal consistency (r = 0.21 to 0.64). Conclusions: A reliable and valid theoretically underpinned measure of determinants of HCP patient safety behavior has been developed. The criterion validity of the measure is still unknown and further work is necessary to confirm the reliability and validity of this measure for other patient safety behaviors.

碩士
真理大學
休閒遊憩事業學系碩士班
106
Due to unique natural conditions, small territory, large population, and highly modernized cities, the land utilization rate is relatively high in Taiwan. After implementation of the two-day weekend policy, most people choose to enjoy leisure activities such as travel to tourist areas to relax and relieve stress. In the tourist areas, buildings are available for public use that also have the functions of leisure and recreation to attract tourists. The usage patterns of the interior spaces of most tourist sites have become increasingly complicated, and the probability of disasters occurring has relatively increased. As a result, the hazards of disasters have also increased greatly. In recent years, natural and man-made disasters have often occurred in recreational areas. Although property loss has been small, there have been many casualties. Public fire safety awareness and the monitoring of public safety facilities have increased. This study explored the fire safety awareness of the operators of recreational facilities. The results showed that the gender and marital status of the operators had significant and different influences on three dimensions of fire safety awareness: fire prevention, disaster rescue, and emergency aid, and that age, educational background, business type, and average monthly income had no significant different influence on the dimensions. The three dimensions of fire safety awareness were highly significantly and positively correlated.

碩士
開南大學
觀光運輸學院碩士在職專班
107
This study is aimed at the difference between the maintenance system of domestic military aviation and civil aviation. After the transfer from military aviation to civil aviation or civil aviation to military aviation enters different fields, the impact of the differences on the concept of flight safety is studied and discussed. Since entering the workplace, the employees of civil aviation have gradually developed their own flight safety concepts because of their respective systems and cultures. The transformation of different fields has caused some differences to affect the concept of flight safety. Each has its own culture and history, which causes differences between different levels. Even two different concepts, systems, and operating modes create misunderstandings among staff, but the emphasis on flight safety is on military aviation and civil aviation. It is a matter of great importance and worthy of improvement by manpower and material resources. This study used literature exploration method, expert interview method and comprehensive analysis and comparison method to explore. The results of the study show that the opinions put forward by experts from the aspects discussed in the literature or in the expert interviews from the "executive face", "problem face" and "improvement face" are finally analyzed by the comprehensive comparative method. There are many similarities in the concept of flight safety for military and civil aviation professionals. It is because the characteristics of the aircraft are different, so the attitudes and ways of thinking and methods of dealing with events are different. It can be known that because of the differences in institutional systems, the boundaries of definitions of maintenance professions are different; the objectives of improving flight safety are the same, but the policy directions of the two parties are significantly different ; the professional competence of civil aviation maintenance personnel is generally higher than that of the military. But military aviation has no Minimum Equipment List to follow, must have higher ethical standards for aircraft; civil aviation salary and welfare are generally higher than military aviation, so that civil aviation can stimulate people's loyalty to work, and military aviation can only rely on individuals Professionalism. After exploring the conclusions, this study is expected to enable military and civil aviation transfer personnel to understand the differences and contribute to the improvement of flight safety.

碩士
國立中興大學
行銷學系所
104
The aim of this research is to examine the influences of environmental attitudes, food safety perceptions, health perceptions, trust in certification on willingness to pay for certified fresh food products. The questionnaires were designed using the following certifications in Taiwan: Certified Agricultural Standards Organic, Good Agricultural Practice, Traceable Agricultural Product, Carbon Footprint, and Certified Agricultural Standards. Convenience sampling was utilized for data collection in Kaohsiung and Taichung. Hierarchical regression was utilized to estimate the influence of environmental attitudes and food safety perceptions on consumer willingness to pay for certified fresh food products. Environmental attitude was factorized into four underlying factors, damage of nature, ethics and obligation, priority of human, and sustainable development. Damage of nature, ethics and obligation and priority of human have significant influences on willingness to pay. The result demonstrated that food safety perceptions and trust in certification affect willingness to pay significantly, and trust in certification is key factor. Health perceptions have no significant influences on willingness to pay, however it influences food safety perceptions significantly. The findings provide two managerial implications: First, food safety is fundamental for consumers of fresh food products. Consumers may pay higher prices when products are not only safety guaranteed but also environmentally friendly. Second, consumers’ confidences in certifications of fresh food products can be strengthened to increase willingness to pay.

碩士
朝陽科技大學
休閒事業管理系
103
This study aims to explore the impact of purchasing behavior on the food safety and professional ethics. Participants were chefs in Taichung City as the population. Purposive sampling was used as the measure for the examination in the study. Questionnaire issued a total of 400, 48 invalid questionnaires and 352 valid questionnaires. In this study, the data was analyzed through statistical methods such as descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. The major findings are addressed as following. First, food safety knowledge and professional ethics of chefs in the Taichung City were highly positive correlation to purchasing behavior. However, the impact of the four dimensions, food safety knowledge among chemical hazards, the degree of recognition of professional ethics, the active practice of pay, and the perception level, are influenced the deepest. Second, for the food safety knowledge, chefs presented differently due to the differences of "companies patterns", "ages", "education" and "the number of the relevant license of Dining." Third, for the professional ethics, chefs presented differently due to the differences "gender", "company patterns", "ages", "work seniority" and "the number of the relevant license of Dining." Fourth, for purchasing behavior, chefs presented differently due to "ages" and "the number of the relevant license of Dining." According to the conclusions of the study, some recommendations were presented as following: to enhance food safety knowledge of cook, to strengthen perception of professional ethics of cook, to recommend chef to enrich themselves getting relevant certificates, to recommend the industry to encourage employees to join job training and also to establish the management pay and benefits system. For the follow-up study, researchers can continually do the further researches of the findings of this study and expand the study, so this study is more representative; for variables section, it is suggested that research can be studied from different facets, or discussed follow-up from the lower part of the average. Key Words: Food safety knowledge, Professional ethics, purchasing behavior, chef