Perceptions of accident risk among on-track machine workers : an interview study

Although non-fatal injuries remain a frequent occurrence in safety-critical work, very few studies have examined the ways in which organisational systems and processes influence individual safety behaviour. Even fewer have explored the perceived factors contributing to accident risk using qualitative research methods. This short paper presents the initial results from a thematic analysis of ten interviews with On Track Machine (OTM) operatives. Issues arising from two key themes (fatigue, and safety communication and training) are briefly described. Implications, planned organisational response, and opportunities for further research are discussed

Survey and Geoarcheological assessment of a Megafauna Locality along the Loop 88 Project, Lubbock County, Texas

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) proposes to construct a new loop along a portion of the existing Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 1585 from 0.5 miles northwest of US 62/82 to 0.5 miles east of US 67 in Lubbock, Texas. The overall Loop 88 Project has a length of approximately 12.38 miles with a width that varies from approximately 150 feet to 300 feet and an area of potential effects (APE) consisting of 736.6 acres. Based on the recommendations of a prior survey conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit 8023, the current investigation examined a 0.2 acre portion of the overall 736.6 acre APE. The survey area is approximately 0.23 miles east of the intersection of FM 1585 and FM 179 immediately north of the FM 1584 roadway. TxDOT conducted the Intensive Archeological Survey and Georcheological Assessment of the 0.2 acre area within existing and proposed new ROW of the Loop 88 Project in Lubbock County, Texas. No previously recorded archeological sites are recorded within the project area although the discovery of fossil mammal remains near a playa 0.23 miles east of the intersection of FM 1585 and FM 179 (under Permit 8023) necessitated the current survey and geoarcheological evaluation. Gradall scraping was proposed to relocate the prior trenches, reach the depth of the purported finds, and carefully scrape to assess presence or absence of additional elements. During the archeological survey and georcheological assessment of the location presently identified as the Megafauna Locality, the investigations yielded additional disarticulated megafauna remains thought to be mammoth and possibly bison. Pleistocene megafauna remains have been found in archeological sites in the region such as Lubbock Lake, Plainview, and Miami Texas. As such, TxDOT is proceeding cautiously given the potential for a site of considerable antiquity. Given the unusual nature of the find, TxDOT is recommending the Megafauna Locality be treated as eligible for listing to the National Register of Historic Places (36 CFR 800.16(l)) and designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (13 TAC 26.12)

Technology or Incentives? Bycatch Avoidance in the BSAI Groundfish Fishery

Technology or Incentives? Bycatch Avoidance in the BSAI Groundfish Fishery. Forum of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists, St. Petersburg, FL, May 23, 2013

What Graduate School Didn\u27t Teach You About Instructional Design Consulting

Instructional design consultants provide learning and performance solutions for their clients. However, it can be difficult for instructional design students and newly graduated instructional designers to adapt to the realities of consulting in a real-world context. This difficulty is magnified by significant technological, social, and other disruptions that often occur in work and learning environments. In our observation, newly graduated instructional design consultants enter the workforce equipped with powerful tools, theories, and models for increasing learning but are less equipped to consult with their clients and other stakeholders. This article is based on our experiences as instructional design consultants, and we share key practice-based, expert-informed skills, principles, and strategies for success as an instructional design consultant. We then share strategies that can be used to overcome consulting constraints and obstacles. We share ways to maintain fidelity to principles amidst disruptions and outline strategies for ensuring that learning and performance solutions have long-term resilience and impact. We conclude with reflections on the education and practice of instructional design consulting

Modelling the removal of an earth bund to maximise seawater ingress into a coastal wetland

Weed infestation is a critical management issue for maintaining the natural values of coastal wetlands across the world. Widespread use of herbicides to control weeds has resulted in environmental issues in the past and has led to the search for more natural control methods such as using saline water. This study investigates management options to restore the natural flow regimes between freshwater wetlands and seawater by removing a bund which was built to grow ponded pasture. The study was carried out in the Mungalla wetland in Queensland, which is an important Nywaigi aboriginal community asset for recreation, cultural and economic activities. The study used modelling and monitoring methods to (a) assess how effective the earth bund was in excluding seawater and (b) the extent to which seawater could enter the wetland without the bund. Eleven scenarios were investigated to estimate seawater ingress under different tide, onshore wind, low atmospheric pressure and sea level rise (SLR) conditions. Results show that removal of the bund reinstated periodic tidal ingress into the wetland. Seawater intrusion was also shown to increase when there were onshore winds and/or low atmospheric pressure associated with cyclones. The greatest impact was under future SLR, where large increases in the inundation frequency and extent are likely to cause a shift in the wetland vegetation towards native salt tolerant species. Findings of this study are useful for examining the potential impact of various management interventions that are being considered for wetland system repair. For example, the removal or height adjustment of tidal barriers, dredging of silted streams, removal of weeds from choked streams and reintroduction of tidal flows to control weed infestation, improve water quality and restore natural values to the wetlands

Bund removal to re-establish tidal flow, remove aquatic weeds and restore coastal wetland services—North Queensland, Australia

The shallow tidal and freshwater coastal wetlands adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon provide a vital nursery and feeding complex that supports the life cycles of marine and freshwater fish, important native vegetation and vital bird habitat. Urban and agricultural development threaten these wetlands, with many of the coastal wetlands becoming lost or changed due to the construction of artificial barriers (e.g. bunds, roads, culverts and floodgates). Infestation by weeds has become a major issue within many of the wetlands modified (bunded) for ponded pasture growth last century. A range of expensive chemical and mechanical control methods have been used in an attempt to restore some of these coastal wetlands, with limited success. This study describes an alternative approach to those methods, investigating the impact of tidal reinstatement after bund removal on weed infestation, associated changes in water quality, and fish biodiversity, in the Boolgooroo lagoon region of the Mungalla wetlands, East of Ingham in North Queensland. High resolution remote sensing, electrofishing and in-water logging was used to track changes over time– 1 year before and 4 years after removal of an earth bund. With tides only penetrating the wetland a few times yearly, gross changes towards a more natural system occurred within a relatively short timeframe, leading to a major reduction in infestation of olive hymenachne, water hyacinth and salvina, reappearance of native vegetation, improvements in water quality, and a tripling of fish diversity. Weed abundance and water quality does appear to oscillate however, dependent on summer rainfall, as changes in hydraulic pressure stops or allows tidal ingress (fresh/saline cycling). With an estimated 30% of coastal wetlands bunded in the Great Barrier Reef region, a passive remediation method such as reintroduction of tidal flow by removal of an earth bund or levee could provide a more cost effective and sustainable means of controlling freshwater weeds and improving coastal water quality into the future

Hybrid Planning: Task-Space Control and Sampling-Based Planning

Haschke R. Hybrid Planning: Task-Space Control and Sampling-Based Planning. In: Workshop on Robot Motion Planning: Online, Reactive, and in Real-time. 2012.We propose a hybrid approach to motion planning for redundant robots, which combines a powerful control framework with a sampling-based planner. We argue that a suitably chosen task controller already manages a huge amount of trajectory planning work. However, due to its local approach to obstacle avoidance, it may get stuck in local minima. Therefore we augment it with a globally acting planner, which operates in a lower-dimensional search space, thus circumventing the curse of dimensionality afflicting modern, many-DoF robots

Station report on the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) 1.2 meter telescope facility

The 1.2 meter telescope system was built for the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in 1973-74 by the Kollmorgen Corporation as a highly accurate tracking telescope. The telescope is an azimuth-elevation mounted six mirror Coude system. The facility has been used for a wide range of experimentation including helioseismology, two color refractometry, lunar laser ranging, satellite laser ranging, visual tracking of rocket launches, and most recently satellite and aircraft streak camera work. The telescope is a multi-user facility housed in a two story dome with the telescope located on the second floor above the experimenter's area. Up to six experiments can be accommodated at a given time, with actual use of the telescope being determined by the location of the final Coude mirror. The telescope facility is currently one of the primary test sites for the Crustal Dynamics Network's new UNIX based telescope controller software, and is also the site of the joint Crustal Dynamics Project / Photonics Branch two color research into atmospheric refraction

Buried Concrete Barrier Ends in Washington State

There are over 400 buried concrete barrier ends on Washington state routes. While buried concretebarrier ends are no longer included in standard plans, it is not well understood how vehicles are interacting with these structures. An inventory of buried concrete barrier ends was matched with crash data sourced from the WSDOT Engineering Crash Datamart and the Crash Location & Analysis System (CLAS) database for the years 2011 through 2020 to determine the distribution of crashes in location and severity. During this ten-year period, 36 crashes with these ends were reported and they included only one fatal crash and no serious injury crashes. Most crashes occurred in an urban environment with almost an even split between mainline and exit ramps

Pilot In-service Performance Evaluation of Guardrail Terminals in Washington State

A pilot routine in-service performance evaluation (ISPE) was undertaken for guardrail terminals following the process outlined in NCHRP 22-33. Controlled stop, rollover, vehicle mix, and secondary impacts on the roadside and roadway were evaluated as performance measures using data sourced from the Crash Location & Analysis System (CLAS) database and the WSDOT Engineering Crash Data Mart for years 2016 through 2020. Four Performance Assessment Levels, ranging from no exclusions of crash data to exclusions of crash data limited to vehicle type and speed limit were assessed. For all five performance measures, the study found no measurable differences between the performance of the major types of guardrail terminal in use on state highways within WSDOT jurisdiction