Safety Danger Research Articles

Forest fire danger, life satisfaction and feelings of safety: evidence from Australia

Employing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey and the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index, this study tests: (1) the association between forest fire danger and an individual’s life satisfaction; (2) the association between forest fire danger and an individual’s feeling of safety; and (3) whether the association between forest fire danger and an individual’s life satisfaction is explained by feelings of safety. Further, this study employs the experienced preference method to estimate, in monetary terms, the psychological costs associated with forest fire danger. We find negative and significant associations between life satisfaction and forest fire danger, as well as between forest fire danger and feelings of safety. When feelings of safety are included in the life satisfaction regression, however, the forest fire danger variable is no longer statistically significant – suggesting that the link between forest fire danger and life satisfaction can be largely explained by an individual’s feelings of safety. The experienced preference method yields an implicit willingness-to-pay of $10 per year to avoid a one unit increase in the spatially weighted average of the average daily value of the Fire Danger Index over the previous 12 months.

Intelligent monitoring-based safety system of massage robot

As an important attribute of robots, safety is involved in each link of the full life cycle of robots, including the design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance. The present study on robot safety is a systematic project. Traditionally, robot safety is defined as follows: robots should not collide with humans, or robots should not harm humans when they collide. Based on this definition of robot safety, researchers have proposed ex ante and ex post safety standards and safety strategies and used the risk index and risk level as the evaluation indexes for safety methods. A massage robot realizes its massage therapy function through applying a rhythmic force on the massage object. Therefore, the traditional definition of safety, safety strategies, and safety realization methods cannot satisfy the function and safety requirements of massage robots. Based on the descriptions of the environment of massage robots and the tasks of massage robots, the present study analyzes the safety requirements of massage robots; analyzes the potential safety dangers of massage robots using the fault tree tool; proposes an error monitoring-based intelligent safety system for massage robots through monitoring and evaluating potential safety danger states, as well as decision making based on potential safety danger states; and verifies the feasibility of the intelligent safety system through an experiment.

Practice and Problems of Scientific Support for Nuclear Legacy Work

The main results of a scientific analysis of stopped nuclear and radiation dangerous objects performed within the framework of government programs are examined. Solved problems and tasks requiring further analysis are analyzed in the context of the following directions: the objectives and boundary conditions for safety analysis, development of a normative-legal base, inventorying and ranking of nuclear and radiation dangerous objects according to the level of potential danger, computational and experimental validation of safety, including the final state of the objects at mothballing, comprehensive engineering-radiation examination of nuclear and radiation dangerous objects, and development of new methods and technologies for decontamination and disassembly. Three groups of situations associated with the readiness of the solutions for adoption in practice are singled out on the basis of the analysis.

Mapping of Health Communication and Education Strategies Addressing the Public Health Dangers of Illicit Online Pharmacies

Illicit online pharmacies are a growing global public health concern. Stakeholders have started to engage in health promotion activities to educate the public, yet their scope and impact has not been examined. We wished to identify health promotion activities focused on consumer awareness regarding the risks of illicit online pharmacies. Organizations engaged on the issue were first identified using a set of engagement criteria. We then reviewed these organizations for health promotion programs, educational components, public service announcements, and social media engagement. Our review identified 13 organizations across a wide spectrum of stakeholders. Of these organizations, 69.2% (n = 9) had at least one type of health promotion activity targeting consumers. Although the vast majority of these organizations were active on Facebook or Twitter, many did not have dedicated content regarding online pharmacies (Facebook: 45.5%, Twitter: 58.3%). An online survey administered to 6 respondents employed by organizations identified in this study found that all organizations had dedicated programs on the issue, but only half had media planning strategies in place to measure the effectiveness of their programs. Overall, our results indicate that though some organizations are actively engaged on the issue, communication and education initiatives have had questionable effectiveness in reaching the public. We note that only a few organizations offered comprehensive and dedicated content to raise awareness on the issue and were effective in social media communications. In response, more robust collaborative efforts between stakeholders are needed to educate and protect the consumer about this public health and patient safety danger.

Impact Effect of Food Safety Incidents on Price

Hidden danger of food safety is always one of the important factors causing food price fluctuation. Once some kind of food occurs large scale of safety incident, its price is bound to be impacted. To analyze the view above by example, this study analyzed impact effect of clenbuterol event on the market price of pork using method of relative price with a substitute. The results demonstrated that, relative price of pork and beef was in a co-integration relationship before clenbuterol event occurred; the first structural breakpoint appeared half year after CCTV reported clenbuterol event and the second one occurred in April, 2012, indicating the impact effect of clenbuterol event to market price lasted for half year. Evaluation of price impact effect by error correction model indicated that, the price of pork lowered 30.3% averagely in that period, while the price of its substitute beef tended to be higher, with an amplification of 8.2%.

Effect of quality management activities on transferring security of critical patients

Objective To explore the effect of quality management activities on transferring security of emergency patients, in order to make sure the safety of patients′ transfer. Methods We founded the group carrying out the quality management activities from March to October 2013. Checking the scheme for emergency patients transferring, tracking of emergency patients transferring, summarized the problems during emergency patients transferring and implemented seven reforming measures, we improved 7 aspects. Results In the study group, 78 patients (91.76%) were qualified before transfer, and 77 patients (90.59%) were qualified during transfer; 75 patients (88.23%) were qualified at the hand-over section and 84 patients (98.82%) were qualified in the nursing documents; 84 patients in the study group (98.82%) were qualified in the total score. There were significant differences between the study group and the control group (χ2=4.85, 5.80, 6.12, 4.49, 4.84, respectively; P<0.05). Conclusions After the quality management activities, the purpose of safe transferring was achieved, which make sure the patients′ transferring security, improve the working efficiency, reduce the chance of medical misunderstanding, decrease the danger of transferring and assure patients life safety. Key words: Critical patients; Security management; Quality management; Transferring

Effect of the training and supervision over the normalization of safety culture in improving the patient safety

Objective To explore the effect of the infusion safety training programs and the safety supervision over the targeted nursing quality on enhancing nurses ’ safety awareness and preventing the incidence of nursing errors through the preventive assessment .Methods From Octobor 2010 to Octobor 2011 the nurses received the training of the infusion safety knowledge and management under the model of the “problem based learning” （PBL） combined with “case based study” （CBS）, and the meeting about patients’ safety was held. The preventive measures were taken according to the hidden danger for nursing safety , and the weak links of nursing safety were supervised by the quality control of nursing .The safety attitude , the score of safety knowledge theory and the incidence of nursing errors were compared before and after the intervention .Results Compared with that before the intervention , the score of safety management after the intervention was increased from （3.45 ±0.61） to （4.20 ±0.79）, and the score of safety knowledge theory was increased from （81.71 ±2.94） to （86.88 ±3.90）, and the cases of the incidence of nursing errors was decreased from （8.50 ±1.15） to （6.08 ±2.19）, and the differences were statistically significant （ t =-14.161, -17.570, 2.850, respectively;P〈0.05）.Conclusions The training of safety culture, the analysis of hidden danger for nursing safety and the seamless safety supervision can effectively improve the safety awareness in the nurses , and enhance patients’ safety. Key words: Patient safety; Nursing management; Training of safety culture; Supervision

A Study on HT32F1765 MCU-Based in Smart Home Gas Monitoring

With the rapid development of today's society, air pollution is becoming one of the hottest topics of humans’ concern. Looking at the daily life, some peoples’ awareness in the dangers of indoor air pollution and household gas safety is not enough, so it may lead to a number of respiratory diseases, or "sub-health" conditions. (Such as influenza, pharyngitis and other diseases) On the other hand, some families, because of a gas leak, has not been timely warning of fires and caused the tragedy. To solve these problems, this work is designed based on low-power microcontroller as the master chip HT32F1765 100LQFP between the various smart sensors and did data exchange with the home environment monitoring system. The HT chip use as the master chip and combined with using Sharp PM2.5 gas sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, gas concentration sensor as gas sensing devices. We use all these sensors as information collection module, to collect the data information of air quality, temperature, humidity and combustible gas concentration in different rooms and different locations. The real-time data acquisition and sensor would be displayed on the touch screen. In addition, the creation of data monitoring hardware devices, as well as match the mobile phone in APP. Our users can log on the APP remotely to view home monitoring information, or to receive alarm information.. Thus, adults can safely work outside, avoiding unnecessary worry.

Research on the Effect of Alignments of Mountainous Highways on Driver Characteristics

Fatigue driving becomes a main hidden danger for traffic safety and endangers peoples life and property seriously.This paper is to obtain the effect of alignments of mountainous highways on driver characteristics. this paper combines with all kinds of theoretical methods and research means on physiology, medical psychology and engineering psychology, then this paper models regression equation on driver's growth rate of Heart Rate and alignments index of mountainous highways, and analyses driver's heart rate variability (HRV). The results show that: when the slope of long downhill is about 3.5%, drivers growth rate of HR exceeds 40%, which is the most nervous state. And during the downhill, the value of LF / HF appears to be rising, which indicates that the more active of the drivers sympathetic nerve, the more likely to be tired. The study has a certain realistic guiding significance on mountain highways slop design and fatigue driving alarm. This acquisition system is easy to operate with high accuracy which can meet the all-weather, dynamic monitoring and real-time processing requirements. Aim at the national highway 321 that from Guilin to Longsheng, the research on the design and revise of the highway slope has a certain realistic guiding significance.

Research on Intelligent Steering Wheel Technology Based on Multi Sensor

At present, the automobile industry is developing rapidly, the private car is widely popularized, and the hidden dangers of traffic safety exist. The phenomenon of drunk driving and fatigue driving becomes more and more serious, and the improvement for steering wheel could effectively prevent traffic accidents. This paper introduces and analyzes the intelligence of steering wheel in three major aspects, they respectively include intelligent grip detection, which tests if a driver is of fatigue driving; hart rate detection, which tests if a driver is in normal driving condition; alcohol detection, which tests if a driver drinks too much, and it predicts the possibility of accident from the drivers state, and timely gives out signal to warn the driver.

Seismic Risk Evaluation of Retrofitted Reinforced Concrete Buildings Utilizing Base Isolation and Considering Mainshock-Aftershock

The insufficient consideration of seismic risk caused hidden danger for structural safety in many areas. A promising retrofit method for these structures is base isolation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, a hypothetical RC frame based on actual situation is designed to be retrofitted using base isolation. Then, seismic fragilities for both un-retrofitted and isolated frames are analyzed, utilizing the results obtained from nonlinear finite-element analysis. The ground motion of the analysis contains 22 earthquake motions, and the results of considering mainshock-aftershock and those of considering only mainshock are compared. The study proves the well designed base isolation can reduce the seismic fragility of the RC frame effectively, and the exclusive consideration of mainshock will underestimate the seismic hazards for structures.

Vibrotactile pedals: provision of haptic feedback to support economical driving

The use of haptic feedback is currently an underused modality in the driving environment, especially with respect to vehicle manufacturers. This exploratory study evaluates the effects of a vibrotactile (or haptic) accelerator pedal on car driving performance and perceived workload using a driving simulator. A stimulus was triggered when the driver exceeded a 50% throttle threshold, past which is deemed excessive for economical driving. Results showed significant decreases in mean acceleration values, and maximum and excess throttle use when the haptic pedal was active as compared to a baseline condition. As well as the positive changes to driver behaviour, subjective workload decreased when driving with the haptic pedal as compared to when drivers were simply asked to drive economically. The literature suggests that the haptic processing channel offers a largely untapped resource in the driving environment, and could provide information without overloading the other attentional resource pools used in driving. Practitioner Summary: Overloaded or distracted drivers present a real safety danger to themselves and others. Providing driving-related feedback can improve performance but risks distracting them further; however, giving such information through the underused haptic processing channel can provide the driver with critical information without overloading the driver's visual channel.

Vaccine shortages and suspect online pharmacy sellers

Vaccines represent half the products on the FDA Biologics Product Shortages list. As a result, providers and patients may purchase them online, a process rife with patient safety risks. We examined vaccine online availability by assessing up to 5 identified online sellers. We determined if sites were accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) VIPPS program, listed as US or international, employed social media linking to suspect online pharmacies, and if they were on the NABP Not Recommended list. All vaccines were advertised by online pharmacies and through data aggregation and social media sites, none were VIPPS-accredited, and most were on the NABP Not Recommended list. We found some online sellers advertising vaccines as over-the-counter. We extended our analysis to WHO Essential Medicines List vaccines and found all are also available online from suspect, non-VIPPS accredited sellers. Stakeholders should be aware of these online patient safety dangers.

Effect of Friction Testing of Metals on Particle Emission

Metallic particles emitted during manufacturing processes can represent a serious danger for occupational safety. The mechanisms responsible for these particle emissions include two- and three-body frictions; Moreover, such particles can also be emitted during several other processes, including mechanical braking. To be in a position to devise ways to reduce these particle emissions at the source, it is important to know their size, quantity, and distribution, as well as the relationships between operating conditions and particle emissions. This article investigates nanoparticle and microparticle emissions during two friction tests: one (setup 1: pin in rotation only) simulates the friction occurring during mechanical braking actions, and another (setup 2: pin in rotation and translation) simulates the friction taking place at the tool-workpiece interface during metal cutting processes. The materials tested were aluminum alloys (6061-T6 and 7075-T6), and the pin used was a carbide cylinder. Particle emission was monitored using the Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) for nanoparticles, and the Aerosol Particle Sizer (APS) for microparticles. It was found that friction produces more nanoparticles than microparticles, and that total particle emission can be reduced by operating at low or at high sliding speeds.

Study and implementation of fire sites planning based on GIS and AHP

Urban fire is a hidden danger for city safety. Therefore, the overall layout of fire fighting facilities is an important part of fire control planning in cities. This study combines the method of GIS and AHP together. The paper, which fully considers the complicated data and their mutual influence, makes full use of spatial analysis, data processing and query. Planning and analysis will be more flexible and universal by utilizing this method, and the complexity of spatial location selection can be decreased considerably, which consequently may overcome the casualness and uncertainty of subjective site selection. And finally, the approach satisfies the planning requests of some related fire fighting department to a certain degree.

Methods of Safety Estimation in Road Traffic with Taking Pedestrian Traffic Problems into Consideration

In this paper basic data are presented which characterise the state of road traffic safety in Poland, and methods of road traffic safety danger estimation are characterised.

Study on the nursing risk management of patients in the informal bed in otorhinolaryngology

Objective To study the hidden danger for nursing safety of patients in the informal bed in otorhinolaryngology, and provide effective preventive measures as to improve nursing safety. Methods The failure mode and effect analysis were used to study the hiden danger for nursing safety of patients in the informal bed. Results The hidden danger for nursing safety of patients in the informal bed included four risk factors: high mobility of patients, heavy workload, missing and non-transferring all kinds of treatment sheets and not noticing the related staffs. Conclusion According to the risk factors of hidden danger for nursing safety of patients in the informal bed, we put forward the corresponding nursing measures:reasonable control of adding beds, applying flexible shifts and ensuring the nursing safety, perfecting the working procedure and clear the duty of nurses, strengthening the risk management consciousness of nurses.As to ensure the safety of patients and reduce the occurrence of medical and nursing disputes. Key words: Failure mode; Effect analysis; Patients in the informal bed; Safety hidden danger; Prevention

CFD simulation and assessment of life safety in a subway train fire

Fire is a major risk in the event of subway train fire due to coincidence with direction of smoke flow and evacuation. As a part of an effort to improve the life safety in a train fire, the platform screen door (PSD) is more and more installed on the ground that PSD provides a lot of benefits to passenger’s safety. Therefore, the investigation of effect of PSD on life safety is needed. In this study, fire simulation and evacuation simulation are performed to estimate the effect of PSD and ventilation on passenger’s life safety in a subway train fire. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS V406) code is used to predict smoke spread and the available safe egress time during the fire. The evacuation of a subway station due to a train fire is simulated to predict the time required for evacuation, obtaining travel speed as a function of density. The passengers in platform with PSD and ventilation system have much more available time of about 350 s than passengers in case without PSD and ventilation system in modeled subway station. The subway turnstiles (ticket gate) dramatically increase the time required for evacuation without moving toward exits and bring passenger’s life safety danger in a subway train fire.

Medical Records for Building Health Management

Medical records provide essential information for evaluating a patient's health. Without them, it would be difficult for doctors to make accurate diagnoses. Similar to diagnoses in medical science, building health management also requires building medical records for making accurate diagnoses. At later stages of a building's life cycle, when the budget is limited, organizations responsible for building repairs and maintenance are unable to digitalize building health diagnoses and keep complete medical records of buildings; as a result, maintenance crews usually cannot fully understand buildings' overall health conditions and their medical histories, which may result in erroneous diagnoses directly or public safety dangers indirectly. Using the problem-oriented medical record adopted for the medical diagnosis of human diseases, this paper designs a building medical record (BMR), which allows simple electronic archiving, and evaluates its practicability with a case study of school buildings. The purpose of a BMR is to enable maintenance engineers (building doctors), building managers, and contractors of school buildings to have low-cost access to required information for making complete evaluations and maintenance suggestions for buildings.

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs

This Article, which is part of a larger project on the competing merits of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the precautionary principle (PP) as competing policymaking paradigms for environmental, health, and safety regulation, examines one specific plank of the case against the PP: the claim that the principle's ignorance of the opportunity costs of precaution leads to indeterminate or impoverishing policy advice. Because PP defenders emphasize the limits of human knowledge and the frequency of unpleasant surprises from technology and industrial development, they prefer an ex ante stance of precaution whenever a proposed activity meets some threshold possibility of causing severe harm to human health or the environment. Importantly, they prefer this stance even in the face of potential benefits that may themselves be ameliorative of environmental, health, and safety dangers. Naturally, this asymmetric aspect of the PP generates strident criticism, particularly from consequentialist-utilitarian thinkers such as those who advocate CBA. Along with substitute risks, lulling effects, and other purportedly overlooked health consequences of precautionary regulation, these critics argue that the PP's failure to treat opportunity costs pari passu with the primary risks targeted by policy measures is simply indefensible. Despite the seemingly unimpeachable logic of this critique, the role of opportunity costs in environmental, health, and safety regulation actually turns out to be much more complicated and interesting than the CBA proponents' account reveals. As this Article demonstrates, the question of opportunity costs in risk regulation turns out to raise profound questions regarding the meaning and significance of uncertainty and rationality, the nature and extent of a society's moral obligation to other nations, other generations, and other life forms, and the very possibility of conceiving of political decisionmaking in the purely agent-neutral manner presupposed by CBA.