Professional ethics in occupational health & safety practice

This thesis provides a critical evaluation of a real world project involving the researcher as leader of a review and subsequent development of a new Code of Conduct for the world’s largest health and safety body, the Institution of Occupational Safety Health (IOSH, 2011). The health and safety profession in the UK has seen many changes over the last 10-years, in particular a stronger focus on degree education, continual professional development (CPD) and Chartered Practitioner status. In addition to these progressive changes the profession has also seen a rise in the negative media coverage regarding reported risk aversion in decision-making processes. In response to the negative media and at the request of the conservative party, then in opposition, Lord Young led a complete review of health and safety in Great Britain(Young, 2010). More recently, the Government requested a further independent review into health and safety legislation (Löfstedt, 2011). Since the publication of these reports there have been calls for more rigorous competence standards for consultants and a move towards more industry led self-regulation. This has seen IOSH placed in a strong influencing position, albeit with added scrutiny of its own regulation of members. The researcher led a critical review of the existing Code as part of an IOSH standing Committee, the Profession Committee (PC) that has the responsibility among other things for examining allegations of misconduct. The project was conducted as action research and was divided into 4 cycles or stages. Stage 1 involved the critical review and benchmarking of the existing Code against other Codes using an adaptation of the PARN criteria. Stage 2 involved the consultation process for the development of a new Code. This included the researcher’s role as leader of the project and an evaluation of misconduct cases reviewed by the PC. Stage 3 involved semi-structured interviews of practitioners to explore experiential accounts of ethical issues from practice to inform the guidance on the Code. Finally, Stage 4 involved the concluding consultation and consolidation of all the stages for presentation of the revised Code to IOSH Council for approval. The project reinforced the benefits of applying a systematic approach for the development of professional body documentation. It also revealed the value of applying a flexible iterative methodology in the real world environment to prevent the project from diverging from its real world objectives. The outcome of the project has been positively received by IOSH. A new Code was produced with guidance and a revised disciplinary procedure that is fit for purpose and adaptable to change through the use of robust development and broad consultation processes. It is anticipated that these changes will make a significant contribution to the wider profession and practice. An ethical decision making model was developed from the findings and includes a dissemination strategy for the profession

Memory Profiles in Schizophrenia: A Neuropsychological Comparison with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Previous research has demonstrated various neuroanatomical and neuropsychological abnormalities in schizophrenia. Although results vary depending on population characteristics, medication status, imaging methodology, and choice of cognitive assessment measures, overall results suggest decreased cerebral volume within frontal and temporal lobes and in individual structures, particularly hippocampus, within these regions; abnormal connectivity within fronto-temporal networks; and deficits in executive function, working memory, processing speed, and memory, with verbal memory deficits more reliably demonstrated than non-verbal impairment. In particular, left-hemisphere hippocampal-dependent verbal memory impairments have been proposed to be a core feature of schizophrenia, as these deficits are reliably demonstrated in first-episode, medication-na\xefve patients, chronic in- and outpatients, and at-risk populations such as individuals with prodromal schizophrenia symptoms and first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia. Verbal memory deficits have also been reliably demonstrated in patients with left-hemisphere temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and those who have undergone temporal lobe resection (TLR). Given the known localization of structural abnormalities in TLR groups and their relation to deficits in memory, it seemed reasonable to compare memory and other neuropsychological functions in schizophrenia and TLR groups to determine whether similar profiles emerged which might provide additional evidence of significant left-hemisphere involvement in the development and maintenance of schizophrenia. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered to a total of 43 schizophrenia, left and right TLR, and control participants. Consistent with hypotheses, the schizophrenia and left TLR groups performed worse than controls on verbal memory, and the right TLR group performed worse than controls on non-verbal memory tasks, with a trend in the predicted direction for the schizophrenia group. Patients with schizophrenia also performed worse than controls on working memory, motor skills, and processing speed, as predicted. Hypotheses were not supported regarding overall memory profiles: the left and right TLR groups showed the expected interactive performance on verbal versus non-verbal memory, but the schizophrenia group was not found to have a memory profile similar to that of the left TLR group. Overall, results suggested that the cognitive profile of schizophrenia may best be represented as a complex interaction pattern rather than a hemisphere-specific model as seen in TLE

Researching creatively with pupils in Assessment for Learning (AfL) classrooms on experiences of participation and consultation

This paper reports on an ESRC TLRP project, Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning (CPAL). The CPAL project provides an additional theoretical perspective to the ‘educational benefits’ perspective of engaging pupil voice in learning and teaching (Rudduck et al., 2003) through its exploration of pupil rights specifically in relation to assessment issues presently on the policy agenda in the Northern Ireland context – notably Assessment for Learning (AfL). An emergent framework for assessing pupil rights, based on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Lundy, 2007), is being used to explore the ways in which AfL classroom practice creates the conditions for increased pupil participation and consultation. Pupil views on their AfL classroom experiences and participation are explored by means of a variety of pupil-centred, creative research methods that engage and stimulate pupils to observe, communicate and analyse their learning and assessment experiences and give meaning to them. This presentation highlights preliminary data based on a sample of 11-14 years pupils' experiences of participation and consultation in classrooms adopting AfL pedagogical principles, and identifies characteristics that support or inhibit pupil participation in their learning and the expression of their views about such matters

Evaluation of measured dissolved and bio-met predicted bioavailable Cu, Ni and Zn concentrations in runoff from three urban catchments

Urban runoff is a diffuse source of pollution contributing to the poor ecological and chemical status of surface waters. Whilst the EU Priority Hazardous Substances Directive now identifies environmental quality standards for selected metals in relation to the bioavailable metal fraction the relationship between analytically determined metal size fractions transported by urban runoff and the often variably defined concept of bioavailability has not been thoroughly evaluated. This paper provides a review of the terminology used within urban runoff studies to characterise metal fractions and behaviour. Measured dissolved and truly dissolved (determined by ultrafiltration; <3000 molecular weight cutoff) Cu, Ni, and Zn concentrations are also compared to the bioavailable metal fraction (as predicted using Bio-met, a simplified biotic ligand model) in snowmelt and rainfall derived runoff samples from three urban catchments. The study shows that predicted bioavailable concentrations were significantly lower than truly dissolved concentrations for all metals and discusses current bioavailability modelling parameters in relation to rainfall and snowmelt runoff data sets. Statistical analysis of relationships between field and predicted bioavailable data sets indicate that the bioavailable fractions originate from both colloidal and truly dissolved fractions

Metal size distribution in rainfall and snowmelt-induced runoff from three urban catchments

The size distribution of metals transported by urban runoff has implications for treatment type and design, predicting their mobility and evaluating their potential impact on receiving waters. There is an urgent need to better understand the distribution of metals between fractions, particularly those in the sub-dissolved fractions. As a contribution to addressing this need, this study characterises the size distribution of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, V and Zn using conventional and novel techniques. Data is presented as event mean concentrations (EMC) of a total of 18 rainfall and snowmelt events at three urban sites. For all studied metals in all events and at all sites, the contribution of the truly dissolved fraction made a greater contribution to the total concentrations than the colloidal fraction. Truly dissolved Cd and Zn concentrations contributed (on average) 26% and 28% respectively, of the total EMCs with truly dissolved Cu and Ni contributing (on average) 18%. In contrast, only 1% (V) and 3% (Cr) were identified in the truly dissolved fraction. The greatest contribution of truly dissolved Cd, Cu and Zn concentrations (relative to total oncentrations) were reported during rainfall events. However, no seasonal differences were identified and differences between the sites regarding the EMCs distribution by fractions were not at a statistically significant level (p N 0.05) for any metal or event. The loads of truly dissolved and colloidal metals did not follow the patterns of particulate metal loads indicating particulates are not the main source of subdissolved metals. The data suggests that ultrafiltration as a treatment technique would not efficiently mitigate the risks posed by metals to receiving water cologie

Towards low-latency real-time detection of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences in the era of advanced detectors

Electromagnetic (EM) follow-up observations of gravitational wave (GW) events will help shed light on the nature of the sources, and more can be learned if the EM follow-ups can start as soon as the GW event becomes observable. In this paper, we propose a computationally efficient time-domain algorithm capable of detecting gravitational waves (GWs) from coalescing binaries of compact objects with nearly zero time delay. In case when the signal is strong enough, our algorithm also has the flexibility to trigger EM observation before the merger. The key to the efficiency of our algorithm arises from the use of chains of so-called Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filters, which filter time-series data recursively. Computational cost is further reduced by a template interpolation technique that requires filtering to be done only for a much coarser template bank than otherwise required to sufficiently recover optimal signal-to-noise ratio. Towards future detectors with sensitivity extending to lower frequencies, our algorithm's computational cost is shown to increase rather insignificantly compared to the conventional time-domain correlation method. Moreover, at latencies of less than hundreds to thousands of seconds, this method is expected to be computationally more efficient than the straightforward frequency-domain method.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, for PR

Evaluating the complexity of service-learning practices: lessons from and for complex systems theory

This article examines the intersection of service-learning with complex systems theory. It is based on a research project we undertook to explore whether complex systems theory might be useful for better understanding the dynamics of service-learning practice and thus for assisting in the design, running, and evaluation of service-learning projects. Additionally, we were interested to find out whether the specifics of our service-learning experience and knowledge, what we refer to as "critical service-learning," might have something of value to contribute to the interdisciplinary and ever-broadening paradigm of complexity studies. Our findings respond to these two tasks in the affirmative: We conclude complex systems theory can be of benefit to service-learning practice in a conceptual, operational, and strategic capacity. In instances where critical service-learning practice initially appears to be incongruent with complex systems theory, conversely these instances instead highlight precisely how service-learning could advance the analysis of systems in complexity studies

Nuclear export controls and the CTBT: Where we`ve been and challenges ahead -- Views of an engineer

The paper discusses the following topics: the importance of export controls; the uniqueness of nuclear weapons and their export control requirements; ``dual-use`` controls; and recent developments in nonproliferation beyond export control. Also discussed are some non-obvious challenges which include computer modeling and visualization, and fissile material availability and instant nukes. The author concludes by asking the Nuclear Suppliers Group to consider whether there are ways to make its controls more effective