Workplace Safety: A Review And Research Synthesis

Unsafe work environments have clear consequences for both individuals and organizations. As such, an ever-expanding research base is providing a greater understanding of the factors that affect workplace safety across organizational levels. However, despite scientific advances, the workplace safety literature suffers from a lack of theoretical and empirical integration that makes it difficult for organizational scientists to gain a comprehensive sense of (a) what we currently know about workplace safety and (b) what we have yet to learn. This review addresses these shortcomings. First, the authors provide a formal definition of workplace safety and then create an integrated safety model (ISM) based on existing theory to summarize current theoretical expectations with regard to workplace safety. Second, the authors conduct a targeted review of the safety literature and compare extant empirical findings with the ISM. Finally, the authors use the results of this review to articulate gaps between theory and research and then make recommendations for both theoretical and empirical improvements to guide and integrate future workplace safety research

A Meta-Analysis Of Personality And Workplace Safety: Addressing Unanswered Questions

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to address unanswered questions regarding the associations between personality and workplace safety by (a) clarifying the magnitude and meaning of these associations with both broad and facet-level personality traits, (b) delineating how personality is associated with workplace safety, and (c) testing the relative importance of personality in comparison to perceptions of the social context of safety (i.e., safety climate) in predicting safety-related behavior. Our results revealed that whereas agreeableness and conscientiousness were negatively associated with unsafe behaviors, extraversion and neuroticism were positively associated with them. Of these traits, agreeableness accounted for the largest proportion of explained variance in safety-related behavior and openness to experience was unrelated. At the facet level, sensation seeking, altruism, anger, and impulsiveness were all meaningfully associated with safety-related behavior, though sensation seeking was the only facet that demonstrated a stronger relationship than its parent trait (i.e., extraversion). In addition, meta-analytic path modeling supported the theoretical expectation that personality\u27s associations with accidents are mediated by safety-related behavior. Finally, although safety climate perceptions accounted for the majority of explained variance in safety-related behavior, personality traits (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism) still accounted for a unique and substantive proportion of the explained variance. Taken together, these results substantiate the value of considering personality traits as key correlates of workplace safety

A Meta-Analysis Of Sex And Race Differences In Perceived Workplace Mistreatment

Despite the growing number of meta-analyses published on the subject of workplace mistreatment and the expectation that women and racial minorities are mistreated more frequently than men and Whites, the degree of subgroup differences in perceived workplace mistreatment is unknown. To address this gap in the literature, we meta-analyzed the magnitude of sex and race differences in perceptions of workplace mistreatment (e.g., harassment, discrimination, bullying, incivility). Results indicate that women perceive more sex-based mistreatment (i.e., mistreatment that explicitly targets a person\u27s sex) in the workplace than men (δ =.46; k = 43), whereas women and men report comparable perceptions of all other forms of mistreatment (δ =.02; k = 300). Similarly, although racial minorities perceive more race-based mistreatment (i.e., mistreatment that explicitly targets a person\u27s race) in the workplace than Whites (δ =.71; k = 18), results indicate smaller race differences in all other forms of workplace mistreatment (δ =.10; k = 61). Results also indicate that sex and race differences have mostly decreased over time, although for some forms of mistreatment, subgroup differences have increased over time. We conclude by offering explanations for the observed subgroup differences in workplace mistreatment and outline directions for future research

Measurement of through-focus EUV pattern shifts using the SHARP actinic microscope

This paper provides experimental measurements of through-focus pattern shifts between contact holes in a dense array and a surrounding pattern of lines and spaces using the SHARP actinic microscope in Berkeley. Experimental values for pattern shift in EUV lithography due to 3D mask effects are extracted from SHARP microscope images and benchmarked with pattern shift values determined by rigorous simulations

Effect of copper on nitric oxide synthase and guanylyl cyclase activity in the rat isolated aorta

1. The potential role of copper (Cu(2+)) in modulating the activity of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and guanylyl cyclase (GC) was investigated by use of diethyldithiocarbamic acid (DEDCA), a high affinity Cu(2+) chelator. 2. DEDCA 100 μM inhibited sodium nitroprusside (SNP; 0.005–10 μM)-evoked relaxation of rat isolated aortic rings precontracted with 3 μM phenylephrine (PE). A lower concentration of DEDCA (10 μM) did not significantly attenuate SNP-evoked responses but did inhibit relaxation to the endothelium-dependent dilator, A23187 (0.01–10 μM). 3. The presence of 100 μM Cu(2+), but not 100 μM Fe(2+), alone enhanced A23187- and SNP-evoked relaxation of aortae precontracted with PE. 4. The inhibitory effect of DEDCA on SNP- and A23187-induced relaxation was reversed by equimolar concentrations of Cu(2+) but not Fe(2+), indicating that DEDCA does not act via removal of haem-iron from the NOS and GC complexes. 5. Superoxide dismutase (30 μ ml(−1)) was without effect on the inhibition of DEDCA relaxation induced by either SNP or A23187 in aortae precontracted with PE. 6. When assessed by radioimmunoassay, DEDCA inhibited SNP- and A23187-stimulated cyclic GMP formation with IC(50) values of 0.5 μM and 50 μM, respectively. 7. These data demonstrate that Cu(2+) plays a role in controlling NOS and GC activity in the rat aorta

The Archimedes Drum: Innovative Mining for NASA Lunabotics

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining in a simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (simulated with gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface. USR’s competition arena can be seen in Figure 2