The identification of the domestic waste collection system associated with the least operative musculoskeletal disorders using human resource absence data

With increasing pressures around public sector costs, UK Local Authorities (LAs) and waste collection companies, are under pressure to reduce absence rates due to ill health. The identification of the ‘safest’ method of waste collection in the UK has been largely unresolved with many different types of waste and recycling receptacles used and deemed acceptable. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between domestic waste collection methods and absence due to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) through the comparison of absence rates for different activity. Studies based upon ergonomic theory had suggested the use of wheeled bins is better than the use of boxes, but this has not been tested empirically. Absence data was obtained from 15 LAs who allocated a more detailed activity role to their records, allowing for activity absence rates to be calculated. The outputs were collated and analysed using SPSS to identify statistically significant relationships between types of waste collection services. The results confirm that wheeled bins are associated with less proxy measures of MSD than boxes, baskets and sacks with even lower absence rates associated with 1100 litre capacity bins, when handled by two workers. Findings also indicates that there is a level where MSD absence interventions are unlikely to be sustainable. In conclusion these findings should help LAs better understand some critical factors regarding waste collection strategies and MSD absence and inform HSE enforcement strategies. Employers should interrogate their own ill health data and seek to move to systems that create less MSDs

Flesh on the Bones: Animal Bodies in Atlantic Roundhouses

This volume presents the state of research across Europe to illustrate how comparable interpretative frameworks are used by archaeologists working with both prehistoric and historical societies

Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos

The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved problematic due to poor faunal preservation and the lack of specificity achievable for commonly applied proxies. Here, we present new multi-proxy evidence, which qualitatively and quantitatively maps subsistence change in the northeast Atlantic archipelagos from the Late Mesolithic into the Neolithic and beyond. A model involving significant retention of hunter–gatherer–fisher influences was tested against one of the dominant adoptions of farming using a novel suite of lipid biomarkers, including dihydroxy fatty acids, ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and stable carbon isotope signatures of individual fatty acids preserved in cooking vessels. These new findings, together with archaeozoological and human skeletal collagen bulk stable carbon isotope proxies, unequivocally confirm rejection of marine resources by early farmers coinciding with the adoption of intensive dairy farming. This pattern of Neolithization contrasts markedly to that occurring contemporaneously in the Baltic, suggesting that geographically distinct ecological and cultural influences dictated the evolution of subsistence practices at this critical phase of European prehistory

Isotopic analysis of faunal material from South Uist, Western Isles, Scotland

This paper reports on the results from stable isotope analysis of faunal bone collagen from a number of Iron Age and later sites on the island of South Uist, in the Western Isles, Scotland. This preliminary investigation into the isotopic signatures of the fauna is part of a larger project to model the interaction between humans, animals, and the broader environment in the Western Isles. The results demonstrate that the island fauna data fall within the range of expected results for the UK, with the terrestrial herbivorous diets of cattle and sheep confi rmed. The isotopic composition for pigs suggests that some of these animals had an omnivorous diet, whilst a single red deer value might be suggestive of the consumption of marine foods, such as by grazing on seaweed. However, further analysis is needed in order to verify this anomalous isotopic ratio

The impact of regulations on overheating risk in dwellings

Many new and emerging regulations and standards for buildings focus on climate change mitigation through energy and carbon reduction. In cool climates, such reductions are achieved by optimising the building for heat retention. It is increasingly recognised however that some degree of climate change is now inevitable and new and existing buildings need to consider this to ensure resilience and an ability to adapt over time. In this context the current approach to regulation which largely remains focused on the ‘point of handover’ may not be fit for purpose. This paper focuses on a ‘typical’ dwelling designed to a range of standards, representing current or emerging approaches to minimising energy use, using a range of construction methods, where a number of adaptations are available to occupants. It considers, through the use of building performance simulation, how each configuration is likely to perform thermally over time given current climate change predictions. The paper demonstrates that the current approach to assessing overheating risk in dwellings, coupled with the regulatory focus on reducing energy consumption, could result in significant levels of overheating. This overheating could, in the near future, present a risk to health and result in the need for significant interventions

Corrigendum to “Species identification of archaeological marine mammals using collagen fingerprinting” [YJASC 41 (2014) 631–641]

Throughout human history, coastal and marine resources have been a vital part of human subsistence. As a result archaeological faunal assemblages from coastal sites often contain large quantities of skeletal remains indicative of human interaction with marine mammals. However, these are often hard to identify due to a unique combination of factors regarding the procurement, utilisation, morphological and physical characteristics of marine mammal bones. These factors often result in a large number of archaeological cetacean and pinniped specimens fragmented beyond visual recognition, being labelled ‘whale’ or ‘marine mammal’. In this paper we report the development of a Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) method of collagen fingerprinting, for efficient and low cost discrimination of a wide range of marine mammal species including cetaceans and pinnipeds. We apply the technique to more than fifty archaeological specimens from seven different North Atlantic sites ranging from the Mesolithic until the Early Modern period

Human Factor and Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Motivating End-Users Behavioural Change

Energy efficiency in buildings does not only rely on efficient technical solutions and design of the building features, but is also highly dependent on how occupants decide to set their comfort criteria, as well as on their energy-related and environmental lifestyles. In this perspective, raising user awareness among occupants by training them to adopt a more “green” and energy-friendly behaviour has become a crucial aspect for reaching energy efficiency goals in buildings. Motivating occupants to change their behaviour can become a challenging task, especially if they are expected to internalize and adopt the new behaviour on a long term. This means that information and feedback provided to the occupants must be stimulating, easy to understand, and easy to adopt in the daily routine. In this context, first methodological progresses are here presented within an European project, designed to raise user awareness, reduce energy consumptions and improve health and IEQ conditions in different typologies of demonstration case studies by providing combined feedback on energy, indoor environmental quality, and health. In particular, this paper presents one out of five MOBISTYLE demonstration testbeds – a residence hotel - located in central Turin (IT). In detail, this paper describes the setup of a tailored engagement campaign for hotel apartments and the reception area. Based on selected monitored variables, user-friendly feedback was defined to provide the users with real-time information on energy use and environmental quality, as well as guidance on how to save energy and optimize consumption profiles while creating an acceptably comfortable and healthy indoor environment

Nonlinear landscape and cultural response to sea-level rise

Rising sea levels have been associated with human migration and behavioral shifts throughout prehistory, often with an emphasis on landscape submergence and consequent societal collapse. However, the assumption that future sea-level rise will drive similar adaptive responses is overly simplistic. While the change from land to sea represents a dramatic and permanent shift for preexisting human populations, the process of change is driven by a complex set of physical and cultural processes with long transitional phases of landscape and socioeconomic change. Here, we use reconstructions of prehistoric sea-level rise, paleogeographies, terrestrial landscape change, and human population dynamics to show how the gradual inundation of an island archipelago resulted in decidedly nonlinear landscape and cultural responses to rising sea levels. Interpretation of past and future responses to sea-level change requires a better understanding of local physical and societal contexts to assess plausible human response patterns in the future