Effectiveness of occupational health and safety training. A systematic review with meta-analysis

Purpose This meta-analysis aims to verify the efficacy of occupational health and safety (OHS) training in terms of knowledge, attitude and beliefs, behavior and health. Design/methodology/approach The authors included studies published in English (2007–2014) selected from ten databases. Eligibility criteria were studies concerned with the effectiveness of OHS training for primary prevention of workplace injury; and studies focused on examined outcome related to OHS. Findings The selected studies (n = 28) highlighted a strong support for the effectiveness of training on worker OHS attitudes and beliefs and, to a lesser extent, on worker’s knowledge but only medium for behavior and small evidences for its effectiveness on health. Research limitations/implications Future research should more deeply investigate the efficacy on knowledge increase of trainings delivered by experts and researchers, applying different methods, in a small group; training delivered by peer and by researcher, applying different methods; and trained workers less than 29 years and more than 49 years old, considering that workers in these age groups are particularly vulnerable to fatalities. Practical implications Our study is a contribution for those they intend to grant effective training, in response to specific needs of OHS. The evidences presented could be considered a first step to identify the factors related to the efficacy of OHS training to plan adequate interventions. Social implications The OHS training is effective on the basis of the extent interventions are carried out for each specific learning outcome. Originality/value This meta-analysis suggested that classroom training, although the most used and studied, does not ever revealed itself very effective: it was not significant for outcomes in terms of knowledge and showed a decreasing efficacy for attitudes and beliefs, behaviors and health. It seemed that there was a distinction between interventions on knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, as opposed to behavioral interventions and health

Multidisciplinary Psychosomatic Assessment for UX Design Evaluation

“In the mirror of the Wonder of Luca Giordano” was a multi-sensorial experience created in the gallery frescoed by Luca Giordano in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, in Florence; the project involved different disciplines and researchers. The entire experience was subjected to an impact analysis, combining principally psycho-physiological, qualitative psychological and neuro-physiological aspects. In most of the visitors who participated in the study the experience evoked a sense of pleasure, enjoyment, relaxation, lightness, space-time suspension, involvement and immersiveness. In many of the visitors, the devices detected changes in heartbeat with a stastically significant decrease in blood pressure and heart rate, demontrating that the impact of artwork in a multi-sensorial experience and in an augmented perception environment is a psycho-somatic impact. Our experience suggests that projects such as "In the mirror of the Wonder of Luca Giordano" could be a very useful tool for cultivating emotional intelligence and could be developed in museums alongside the more classical paths of fruition

A Spherical Microphone Array For Synthesizing Virtual Directive Microphones In Live Broadcasting And In Post Production

The paper describes the theory and the first operational results of a new multichannel recording system based on a 32- capsules spherical microphone array. Up to 7 virtual microphones can be synthesized in real-time, choosing dynamically the directivity pattern (from standard cardioid to 6th-order ultradirective) and the aiming. A graphical user’s interface allows for moving the virtual microphones over a 360-degrees video image. The system employs a novel mathematical theory for computing the matrix of massive FIR filters, which are convolved in real time and with small latency thanks to a partitioned convolution processor

Spatial Pcm Sampling: A New Method For Sound Recording And Playback

This paper presents the mathematical and physical framework of a new technology, named SPS (Spatial PCM Sampling): it is the equivalent, in a two-dimensional spherical-coordinate space, of the traditional PCM representation of a waveform (in the one-dimensional time domain). It is nowadays possible to record an SPS multichannel stream (also called P-format) by processing the signals coming from massive microphone arrays, now widely employed in the broadcasting industry and in research labs. Some types of sound processing are easy when operating on P-format signals; some, indeed, require more work. At playback, it is possible to drive loudspeaker arrays of arbitrary shape and complexity, providing in general better spatial accuracy than competing well known methods, such as Ambisonics or WFS

65 nm CMOS SSB mixer for UWB synthesiser

The present work addresses the design of a 65 nm CMOS wide-band singlesideband mixer for UWB synthesiser. The circuit has been designed inductorless and with few capacitors, in order to save silicon area and, at the same time, to get a mixer independent of the adopted frequency plan and synthesiser architecture.Particular attention has been paid to reducing the spurs as much as possible. In order to address a realistic investigation, the design has accounted also for the corner cases and the possible impairments in the input signals. A comparison with the state-of-the-art of the SSB mixers shows the low power consumption of the present work

Assessing unmet needs in patients with cancer: An investigation of differential item functioning of the Needs Evaluation Questionnaire across gender, age and phase of the disease - Fig 2

<p><b>Test Information Function of the <i>Needs Evaluation Questionnaire</i> (NEQ) across gender (a), age (b), and phase of the disease (c).</b> Latent trait (Theta) is shown on the horizontal axis. The amount of information (solid line) and the standard error (dotted line) yielded by the test at any trait level are shown on the vertical axis.</p

Test Information Function of the <i>Needs Evaluation Questionnaire</i> (NEQ).

<p>Latent trait (Theta) is shown on the horizontal axis. The amount of information (solid line) and the standard error (dotted line) yielded by the test at any trait level are shown on the vertical axis.</p

Discrimination and location parameters for each item of the Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ).

<p>Discrimination and location parameters for each item of the Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ).</p