A model of workplace safety incorporating worker interactions and simple interventions

Although there was substantial research into the occupational health and safety sector over the past forty years, this generally focused on statistical analyses of data related to costs and/or fatalities and injuries. There is a lack of mathematical modelling of the interactions between workers and the resulting safety dynamics of the workplace. There is also little work investigating the potential impact of different safety intervention programs prior to their implementation. In this article, we present a fundamental, differential equation-based model of workplace safety that treats worker safety habits similarly to an infectious disease in an epidemic model. Analytical results for the model, derived via phase plane and stability analysis, are discussed. The model is coupled with a model of a generic safety strategy aimed at minimising unsafe work habits, to produce an optimal control problem. The optimal control model is solved using the forward-backward sweep numerical scheme implemented in Matlab. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. Forms of employment. Commonwealth of Australia, 2010. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/DetailsPage/6359.0November%202010?OpenDocument Bahn, S. Power and Influence: Examining the Communication Pathways that Impact on Safety in the Workplace. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 25(3):213–222, 2009. Bird, P. Reducing Manual Handling Workers Compensation Claims in a Public Health Facility. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 25(6):451–459, 2009. Breslin, P. Improving ohs Standards in the Building and Construction Industry through safe design. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 23(4):89–99, 2007. Breslin, P. National Harmonisation: Designers' Duties of Care in the Australian Building and Construction Industry. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 25(6):495–504, 2009 . Driscoll, T., Mitchell, T., Mandryk, J., Healey, S., Hendrie, L. and Hull, B. Trends in Work-Related Fatalities in Australia, 1982 to 1992. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 18(1):21–33, 2002. Driscoll, T. Fatal Injury of young workers in Australia. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 22(2):151–161, 2006. Foley, G., Gale, J. and Gavenlock, L. The Cost of Work-Related Injury and Disease. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 11(2):171–194, 1995. Glendon, I. and Waring, A. Risk management as a framework for occupational health and safety. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 13(6):525–532, 1997. Gunningham, N. and Healy, P. Agricultural ohs Policy: Towards Systemic Reform. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 20(4):311–318, 2004. Hawkins, A., Eather, J. and Fragar, L. Improving Health and Safety in the Farm Workshop. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 24(2):155–160, 2008. Heads of Workers' Compensation Authorities. 2008/09 Australia and New Zealand Return to Work Monitor. http://www.hwca.org.au/documents/Australia%20and%20New%20Zealand%20Return%20to%20Work%20Monitor%202008-2009.pdf Kermack, W. O. and McKendrick, A. G. A Contribution to the Mathematical Theory of Epidemics. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A., 115(772):700–721, 1927. doi:10.1098/rspa.1927.0118 Lenhart, S. and Workman, J. T. Optimal control applied to biological models. Chapman and Hall CRC Mathematical and Computational Biology Series, 2007. Mallet, D. G., Bagher-Oskouei, M., Farr, A. C., Simpson, D. P. and Sutton, K-J. A mathematical model of Chlamydial infection incorporating movement of Chlamydial particles. B. Math. Biol., 75(11):2257–2270, 2013. doi:10.1007/s11538-013-9891-9 Murray, J. D. Mathematical Biology, I: An Introduction. Springer, 2002. Raggett, G. F. Modelling the Eyam plague. B. I. Math. Appl., 18:221–226, 1982. Safe Work Australia. The cost of work-related injury and illness for australian employers, workers and the community:2008-2009. Commonwealth of Australia, 2012. http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/660/Cost%20of%20Work-related%20injury%20and%20disease.pdf Shulgin, B., Stone, L. and Agur, Z. Pulse vaccination strategy in the sir Epidemic Model. B. Math. Biol., 60(6):1123–1148, 1998. doi:10.1006/S0092-8240(98)90005-2 Vanderkruk, R. Workplace health and safety officers: a Queensland success story. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 15(6):557–563, 1999. Winder, C. The development of ohs legislation in Australia. J. Occup. Health Safety–-Aust. N.Z., 25(4):277–287, 2009

Garotas de loja, história social e teoria social [Shop Girls, Social History and Social Theory]

Shop workers, most of them women, have made up a significant proportion of Britain’s labour force since the 1850s but we still know relatively little about their history. This article argues that there has been a systematic neglect of one of the largest sectors of female employment by historians and investigates why this might be. It suggests that this neglect is connected to framings of work that have overlooked the service sector as a whole as well as to a continuing unease with the consumer society’s transformation of social life. One element of that transformation was the rise of new forms of aesthetic, emotional and sexualised labour. Certain kinds of ‘shop girls’ embodied these in spectacular fashion. As a result, they became enduring icons of mass consumption, simultaneously dismissed as passive cultural dupes or punished as powerful agents of cultural destruction. This article interweaves the social history of everyday shop workers with shifting representations of the ‘shop girl’, from Victorian music hall parodies, through modernist social theory, to the bizarre bombing of the Biba boutique in London by the Angry Brigade on May Day 1971. It concludes that progressive historians have much to gain by reclaiming these workers and the service economy that they helped create

The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

This paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (. RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100-8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.RESET was funded through Consortium Grants awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to a collaborating team drawn from four institutions: Royal Holloway University of London (grant reference NE/E015905/1), the Natural History Museum, London (NE/E015913/1), Oxford University (NE/E015670/1) and the University of Southampton, including the National Oceanography Centre (NE/01531X/1). The authors also wish to record their deep gratitude to four members of the scientific community who formed a consultative advisory panel during the lifetime of the RESET project: Professor Barbara Wohlfarth (Stockholm University), Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen), Dr. Martin Street (Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Neuwied) and Professor Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge University). They provided excellent advice at key stages of the work, which we greatly valued. We also thank Jenny Kynaston (Geography Department, Royal Holloway) for construction of several of the figures in this paper, and Debbie Barrett (Elsevier) and Colin Murray Wallace (Editor-in-Chief, QSR) for their considerable assistance in the production of this special volume.Peer Reviewe

Evaluating user experiences of SHaRON: an online CBT-based peer support platform

Online peer support platforms have been shown to provide a supportive space that can enhance social connectedness and personal empowerment. Some studies have analysed forum messages, showing that users describe a range of advantages, and some disadvantages to their use. However, the direct examination of users’ experiences of such platforms is rare and may be particularly informative for enhancing their helpfulness. This study aimed to understand users' experiences of the Support, Hope and Recovery Online Network (SHaRON), an online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based peer support platform for adults with mild-to-moderate anxiety or depression. Platform users (n=88) completed a survey on their use of different platform features, feelings about using the platform, and overall experience. Responses were analysed descriptively and using thematic analysis. Results indicated that most features were generally well used, with the exception of private messaging. Many participants described feeling well supported and finding the information and resources helpful; the majority of recent users (81%) rated it as helpful overall. However, some participants described feeling uncomfortable about posting messages, and others did not find the platform helpful and gave suggestions for improvements. Around half had not used the platform in the past three months, for different reasons including feeling better or forgetting about it. Some described that simply knowing it was there was helpful, even without regular use. The findings highlight what is arguably a broader range of user experiences than observed in previous studies, which may have important implications for the enhancement of SHaRON and other platforms

ADVISES Project: Scenario-based Requirements Analysis for e-Science Applications

We describe the requirements analysis method for e-Science which is being developed in the ADVISES project. The procedure and techniques of the method are illustrated by application to two cases studies in epidemiological bio-health informatics. Lessons learned in applying the scenario based analysis method which also embeds Human Computer Interaction principles for design and sub language analysis are discussed, in the context of data intensive e-Science research where exploratory data analysis complements more traditional hypotheses driven experimental research. 1

Requirements Engineering for E-science: Experiences in Epidemiology

The Advises (Adaptive Visualization of E-science) project is developing tools to support geographic visualization in epidemiology and public-health decision making. In this project, a user-centered requirements process focuses on the research questions epidemiologists ask, the language they use, and the tacit knowledge employed in reasoning about epidemiological data. Combining a range of requirements-gathering techniques provides considerable advantages