Reflection on a model of accident reporting to help to implement efficient prevention strategies

International audienceIn our modern societies, socio-technological systems and human system interactions are taking on a large part in numerous domains such as health, control of risk, people safety, communication, information technologies, and so on. In order to manage such systems, it is necessary to put in place the most relevant actions and indicators. To facilitate decision making in various fields, such as people safety and risk management, the use of appropriate model and the definition of indicators are needed in order to deliver the relevant action plan especially to control occupational accidents. The aim of the article is to present our approach to analyze the classical Heinrich's model of occupational accidents and the classical safety indicator based on conventional frequency rate of lost time accident. Then we demonstrate their limits in order to define efficient prevention strategies

How to define and use safety indicators to implement an efficient prevention policy

International audienceIn our modern societies, socio-technological systems and human system interactions are taking on a large part in numerous domains such as health, control of risk, people safety, communication, information technologies, and so on. In order to manage such systems, it is necessary to put in place the most relevant indicators. To facilitate decision making in various fields such as people safety and risk management, the definition of indicators generated by such systems is needed in order to deliver the appropriate action plan especially to control occupational accidents. The aim of the article is to present our approach to analyze and define this category of new indicators

Using Indicators for System Complex Safety

International audienceIn our modern societies, technological systems are taking on a large part in numerous domains such as automatic control, calculation, communication, information technologies, etc. They are put in place in more and more fields e.g. production, defense, national security, space, etc. These very important developments are offering new possibilities such as distributed cooperative and concurrent decision making based on complex dynamic systems or on advanced simulation capacities. To facilitate decision making in various fields such as transport, energy or even risk management, it is necessary to define indicators generated by such systems in order to deliver engineers or managers an image of the considered object and it's evolution. This image must be coherent, reliable and sustainable in order to participate at the decision in a complex sociotechnical environment. The aim of the article is to present our approach to define this category of new indicators

The Contribution Of Radio Sciences to Disaster Management

Available: http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/2011/Gi4DM/CDDATA/sessions.htmlInternational audienceWhen a natural disaster occurs, the fast and effective organization of emergency assistance assumes the rapid provision of reliable information concerning the state of the infrastructure; the creation, in almost real-time, of a response chain and the reconfiguration of telecommunications systems. This article proposes a chain which incorporates algorithms from recent research, with particular focus on communication systems and reconfiguration techniques. The problems of image reliability and the effects created by ionospheric propagation and turbulent surfaces are discussed

Dynamic Door Displays

Traditionally, office doors have been used as display surfaces for communicating a variety of information between door owners and visitors. While flexible, doors also burden their owners with the task of maintenance and do not support notions of public and private information. In this paper we introduce the Dynamic Door Display, a tool for enhancing an office door's display capabilities to include automatic updates and tailored displays of private information for particular visitors. This work is based on an initial qualitative study of personalized location-specific information

Socioeconomic Status, Psychosocial Factors, Race and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping in a Hispanic Cohort

BACKGROUND Little information is available about the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to blunted nocturnal ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) dipping among Hispanics and whether this relationship differs by race. We sought to characterize ABP nondipping and its determinants in a sample of Hispanics. METHODS We enrolled 180 Hispanic participants not on antihypertensive medications. SES was defined by years of educational attainment. All participants underwent 24-hour ABP monitoring. A decrease of <10% in the ratio between average awake and average asleep systolic BP was considered nondipping. RESULTS The mean age of the cohort was 67.1 ± 8.7, mean educational level was 9.4 ± 4.4 years, and 58.9% of the cohort was female. The cohort was comprised of 78.3% Caribbean Hispanics with the rest from Mexico and Central/South America; 41.4% self-identified as white Hispanic, 34.4% self-identified as black Hispanic, and 24.4% did not racially self- identify. The percentage of nondippers was 57.8%. Educational attainment (10.5 years vs. 8.6 years; P <0.01) was significantly higher among dippers than nondippers. In multivariable analyses, each 1-year increase in education was associated with a 9% reduction in the likelihood of being a nondipper (odds ratio [OR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84–0.98; P = 0.01). There were significantly greater odds of being a nondipper for black Hispanics than for white Hispanics (OR, 2.83, 95% CI, 1.29–6.23; P = 0.005). Higher SES was significantly protective of nondipping in white Hispanics but not black Hispanics. CONCLUSIONS These results document a substantial prevalence of nondipping in a cohort of predominantly normotensive Hispanics. Dipping status varied significantly by race. Lower SES is significantly associated with nondipping status, and race potentially impacts on this relation

Higher Ambulatory Blood Pressure Is Associated With Aortic Valve Calcification in the Elderly: A Population-Based Study

Aortic valve calcification (AVC) without outflow obstruction (stenosis) is common in the elderly and increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although high blood pressure (BP) measured at the doctor’s office is known to be associated with AVC, little is known about the association between 24-hour ambulatory BP (ABP) and AVC. Our objective was to clarify the association between ABP variables and AVC. The study population consisted of 737 patients (mean age, 71±9 years) participating in the Cardiovascular Abnormalities and Brain Lesions study who underwent 24-hour ABP monitoring. Each aortic valve leaflet was graded on a scale of 0 (normal) to 3 (severe calcification). A total valve score (values 0–9) was calculated as the sum of all leaflet scores. Advanced AVC (score ≥4) was present in 77 subjects (10.4%). All of the systolic ABP variables (except systolic BP nocturnal decline) and mean asleep diastolic BP were positively associated with advanced calcification, whereas normal dipping status and diastolic BP nocturnal decline were negatively associated. Multiple regression analysis indicated that mean awake diastolic BP (odds ratio, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.01–1.71]) and asleep diastolic BP (odds ratio, 1.34 [95% CI, 1.04–1.72]) remained independently associated with advanced calcification after adjustment for age, sex, cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, serum creatinine, and any degree of aortic insufficiency. Diastolic ABP is independently associated with advanced calcification. This finding may have important implications in gaining further insight into the mechanism of AVC

Perceived Discrimination and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping Among Hispanics: The Influence of Social Support and Race

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the relationship of perceived racism to ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) in Hispanics. We explored possible associations between ABP nocturnal dipping and perceived racism in a Hispanic cohort. METHODS: Participants included 180 community-dwelling Hispanics from the Northern Manhattan Study. Measures included perceived racism, socioeconomic status, social support, and ABP monitoring. Nocturnal ABP nondipping was defined as a less than 10% decline in the average asleep systolic blood pressure relative to the awake systolic blood pressure. RESULTS: Overall, 77.8% of participants reported some form of perceived racism (Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire scores >1.0). Greater social support was associated with less perceived discrimination (Spearman r = -0.54, p < .001). Those with higher perceived discrimination scores reported more depressive symptoms (r = 0.25, p < .001). Those with higher Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire scores were less likely to show nocturnal ABP nondipping in multivariate models (odds ratio = 0.40, confidence interval = 0.17-0.98, p = .045). Among those with low perceived racism, black Hispanic participants were more likely to have nocturnal ABP nondipping (82.6%) compared with white Hispanics (53.9%; p = .02). Among those with high perceived racism, no associations between race and the prevalence of ABP nondipping was found (black Hispanic = 61.5% versus white Hispanic = 51.4%, p = .39; p interaction = .89). CONCLUSIONS: Perceived racism is relatively common among US Hispanics and is associated with ABP. Nondipping of ABP, a potential cardiovascular risk factor, was more common in black Hispanic participants with low perceived racism. This finding may reflect different coping mechanisms between black versus white Hispanics and related blood pressure levels during daytime exposures to discrimination