Measures of Effect: Near Miss Reporting on Construction Site Injuries

A large petrochemical construction project implemented a near miss management program during a phase of heavy construction. The consequent 966% increase in near misses being reported resulted in marginal decreases in reported first aid cases, but also resulted in a significant decrease in OSHA recordable injuries. The correlation statistics between near miss rates and first aid cases were r(30)= -­‐ 0.212, p = 0.05 (exact) and between near miss rate and OSHA recordable injuries r (30)= -­‐ 0.342, p < .05, revealing a significant but moderate inverse effect between the rate at which near misses are reported and OSHA recordable injuries. While construction remains one of the world’s most demanding and dangerous occupations, this practicum research has identified an effective counter measure toward decreasing occupational injuries on construction sites. This report includes details about the project, the near miss program and reports the use of a modified version of the Eindhoven Error Classification scheme operationalized for use on construction specific error types.Abstract / List of Figures / List of Tables / Chapter 1: Introduction / Chapter 2 : Background& Literature Review / Chapter 3 Methods and Analysis / Chapter 4: Results / Chapter 5: Discussion / Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendatio

Understanding the ontological requirements for collaborative web-based experiential learning

The challenge of human-computer interaction forces educationalists to think of new ways to understand the social, historical and contextual nature of learning. Discussion and exchange of ideas enable learners to learn together. However, the granularity of the Webbased learning context is extensive; consequently, e- Courseware design faces new dilemmas. Only through targeted research will it be known with any certainty whether Web-based learning gives rise to a new type of learning dissonance [1]. It has been proposed that converged theoretical paradigms that underpin particular digitised or context-mediated learning systems are forcing learners into new ways of thinking [2]. This paper presents an overview of the plans for an experimental project designed to understand the ontological requirements for experiential instructional environments. This project is a joint research initiative involving three Universities in the Asia/Pacific region. Results will be used to inform educationalists interested in developing instructional strategies for a global community.<br /

Preparedness Exercises 2.0: Alternative Approaches to Exercise Design That Could Make Them More Useful for Evaluating and Strengthening Preparedness

This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (May 2011), v.7Preparedness exercises play central roles in both the building and assessment of organizational readiness for future incidents. Though processes for designing and evaluating exercises are well established, there are opportunities to improve the value of exercises for strengthening preparedness and as tools for gathering assessment data. This article describe the application of systems analytical approach adapted from engineering that examines response operations as systems with potential failure modes that could hurt performance at future incidents. This methodology, which has been applied previously to preparedness measurement, is explored here as a tool for exercise design to focus it more tightly on key potential problem areas and to make it easier to use exercise data to explore preparedness for incidents that could differ considerably from the specific exercised scenario.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Spatiotemporal Calibration of Atmospheric Nitrogen Dioxide Concentration Estimates From an Air Quality Model for Connecticut

A spatiotemporal calibration and resolution refinement model was fitted to calibrate nitrogen dioxide (NO$_2$) concentration estimates from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, using two sources of observed data on NO$_2$ that differed in their spatial and temporal resolutions. To refine the spatial resolution of the CMAQ model estimates, we leveraged information using additional local covariates including total traffic volume within 2 km, population density, elevation, and land use characteristics. Predictions from this model greatly improved the bias in the CMAQ estimates, as observed by the much lower mean squared error (MSE) at the NO$_2$ monitor sites. The final model was used to predict the daily concentration of ambient NO$_2$ over the entire state of Connecticut on a grid with pixels of size 300 x 300 m. A comparison of the prediction map with a similar map for the CMAQ estimates showed marked improvement in the spatial resolution. The effect of local covariates was evident in the finer spatial resolution map, where the contribution of traffic on major highways to ambient NO$_2$ concentration stands out. An animation was also provided to show the change in the concentration of ambient NO$_2$ over space and time for 1994 and 1995.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, supplementary materia

Development Of Lower Extremity Injury Criteria And Biomechanical Surrogate To Evaluate Military Vehicle Occupant Injury During An Explosive Blast Event

Anti-vehicular (AV) landmines and improvised explosive devices (IED) have accounted for more than half of the United States military hostile casualties and wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The lower extremity is the predominantly injured body region following an AV mine or IED blast accounting for 26 percent of all combat injuries in OIF (Owens et al., 2007). Detonations occurring under the vehicle transmit high amplitude and short duration axial loads onto the foot-ankle-tibia region of the occupant causing injuries to the lower leg. The current effort was initiated to develop lower extremity injury criteria and biofidelic biomechanical surrogate to evaluate military occupant injury during an AV (axial) blast event. Eighteen lower extremity post mortem human specimens (PMHS) were instrumented with an implantable load cell and strain gages and impacted at one of three incrementally severe AV axial impact conditions. Twelve of the 18 PMHS specimens sustained fractures of the calcaneus, talus, fibula and/or tibia. A tibia axial force of 2,650 N and impactor velocity of 8.2 m/s corresponds with a ten percent risk of an incapacitating injury. Currently available lower extremity biomechanical surrogates were shown to lack biofidelity when impacted at simulated AV blast severities. A THOR-Lx underwent a series of modifications intended to reduce the overall stiffness of the surrogate. Its tibia compliant element was doubled in length to enable additional clearance for compression. The modified surrogate, MiL-Lx (military lower extremity), was loaded axially at three simulated AV axial loading rates using a piston driven linear impactor. The diameter and compressive modulus of the tibia compliant element was varied until the axial force measured by the surrogate was equivalent to the PMHS non-injury response in magnitude and duration. The MiL-Lx surrogate was capable of distinguishing between incrementally severe loading rates using tibia axial force. The MiL-Lx improves the accuracy and sensitivity needed to evaluate blast mitigation technologies designed to reduce injury to occupants of vehicles encountering AV landmines. The use of the MiL-Lx shall result in the development of new standards for the testing of blast mitigation technologies including underbelly protection, floor board materials, and vehicle structure