An Analysis of Occupational Burn Injuries in Rhode Island: Workers' Compensation Claims 1998-2002

Background - upational burns have been determined to be a serious public health concern. The analysis of workplace risks and risk factors associated with burns are critical to developing effective interventions in the future. Methods - This study examined accepted Rhode Island workers' compensation claims (n = 5,619) from 1998 to 2002 to assess the rates and risks of occupational burns. Employment data from the Department of Labor's Current Population Survey (CPS) was used for the estimation of claim rates and shift analyses. Results - The overall burn rate was estimated to be 24.3 per 10,000 workers. The claim rate for workers under 25 years of age was almost double that for all other age groups. The average per-claim disability duration for claims requiring indemnity was 167.9 days and average annual total cost of claims was $1,010,166. The highest claim rate identified was for workers in food service occupations and an increased risk was found for chemical burns among evening and night shift workers. Conclusions - Increased interventions are needed to reduce occupational burns in work settings. Particular diligence should be should address occupational burn hazards in restaurant establishments, and preventative measures aimed at young employees and late shift workers.

An Assessment of the Effects of Increased Regulatory Enforcement on Occupational Hearing Loss Workers' Compensation gon 1984-1998

Hearing loss from occupational exposures has been found to be a common and serious problem affecting workers. This paper examines the effect that increasing legislative enforcement of existing regulations has on improving worker safety.

Disabling and Fatal Occupational Claim Rates, Risks, and Costs in the Oregon Construction Industry 1990-1997

Occupational research has demonstrated construction to be among the most dangerous of all occupational industries. This study examines 20,680 accepted workers' compensation claims filed by Oregon construction workers over the period of 1990-1997. Injury rate estimates for occupations were calculated using Oregon employment data from the Current Population Survey. The estimated annual rate of lost-time claims was 3.5 per 100 workers annually (95% CI=2.8-4.2) with insulators having the highest rate and supervisors the lowest. The majority of claims, 3,940, were filed by laborers. Over 52% of all claims were filed by workers under 35 years of age, and over half the claimants had less than 1 year of tenure at the time of injury. There were 52 fatalities reported, representing a rate of 8.5 per 100,000 workers (95% CI = 8.1-8.9), of which 32.7% resulted from falls. The most frequently recorded nature of non-fatal injury was listed as a "sprain," and the most common body part injured was the back. The total costs of all claims was $208,537,120, averaging$10,084 per claim, and the average indemnity time per injury was 57.3 days, with female claimants having longer indemnity periods than males. The highest percentage of claims by weekday occurred on Mondays (21.5%), and subsequent analysis showed the highest odds ratio for time of accident, relative to the first hour on the job, occurred on the third hour of work (OR = 2.456, 95% CI = 2.452-2.460.Construction; Workers' Compensation; Occupational Safety; Fatalities; Injuries; Musculoskeletal Disorders; Surveillance

A Quantification and Risk Analysis of Occupational Burns: Oregon Workers' Compensation Claims 1990-1997

This study examined all accepted Oregon workers' compensation claims for occupational burn injuries over 1990-1997 (n = 3,158). The Current Population Survey (CPS) was used to derive employee population baselines for establishing rate estimates. It was estimated that the average occupational burn claim rate was 2.89 per 10,000 workers (95% C.I. = 2.76-3.02). The majority of claimants (71.7%) were males, the largest proportion (32.6%) were aged 25 years or under, and almost half (48.7%) had less than 1 year of job tenure. Costs averaged over $1.6 million annually. The average indemnity period was 16 days. Higher relative risks were found for evening workers (2.97, 95% C.I. = 2.96-2.98) and night workers (2.13, C.I. = 2.12-2.13) compared to day shift workers. Kitchen workers had the highest burn rate of all occupations with 62.5 per 10,000.burns, occupational burns, employee safety, Oregon, workers' compensation

Occupational Vehicular Accidents: A Workers' Compensation Analysis of Oregon Truck Drivers 1990-1997

This study used workers' compensation data from Oregon from 1990-1997 to examine injuries due to vehicular accidents by truck drivers, and calculate rate estimates using baseline data derived from the U.S. Bureau of Census' Current Population Survey. During this period, 1,168 valid injury claims due to vehicular accidents were filed representing an accident rate of 50.3% (95% C.I. = 45.1-55.5) per 10,000 truck drivers annually. There were 19 work-related vehicular accident fatalities recorded in the data over the 8-year period. Of all claimants, males constituted the majority (80.7%), most were 35 years of age or younger (51.4%) and had less than 1 year of job tenure (51.0%). Truck driver injury rates due to vehicular accidents were lowest during the 6:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. period. The average amount of compensable lost workdays per injury claim was 57.8 days, of which male claimants lost an average of 60.5 days of work and females lost an average of 46.9 days of work. The amount of lost work days due to vehicular accident increased with the claimant's age. A total of $11,642,635 was paid in claims for vehicular accidents of truck drivers in Oregon over the period examined, averaging$9,966.01 per claim. Sprains were the most frequently cited injury experienced from vehicular accidents.vehicular accidents, driving, truck drivers, workers' compensation, public health, workplace safety

THE VALUE OF CLEAN DAIRY AIR: ACCOUNTING FOR ENDOGENEITY AND SPATIALLY CORRELATED ERRORS IN A HEDONIC ANALYSES OF THE IMPACT OF ANIMAL OPERATIONS ON LOCAL PROPERTY VALUES

We study the effect of livestock operations on property values using a hedonic analysis in five Ohio townships. Unlike previous studies, we account for endogenous livestock location variables and spatially correlated errors. Results suggest failure to correct for these problems results in biased estimates of livestock impacts on property values.Land Economics/Use,

Using e‐learning for student sustainability literacy : framework and review

Purpose– The paper aims to explore staff practices in using e‐learning to embed sustainability literacy, highlight best practice and determine areas for improvement. Design/methodology/approach– A framework of four areas for developing student sustainability literacy (SSL) was proposed as a basis for analysing practice. A literature review then explored the extent to which e‐learning is used to support embedding SSL in the curriculum, and the types of e‐learning currently in use for this. Findings– E‐learning tools were most frequently used to provide flexible access to information, followed by support for communication and collaboration, and were less frequently used for the development of specific skills, personal identity and confidence. Research limitations/implications– The sample of case studies provided only limited evidence. A survey of practitioners could be undertaken to explore and validate the issues raised by the literature review. Practical implications– The review highlighted scope for a pedagogical shift away from using e‐learning for information delivery and practical communication, and towards supporting rich, student‐centred forms of learning in both blended and distance learning modes. Social implications– This shift would create more powerful learning experiences for students, more effectively develop students' personal identities and skills, and yield graduates who are more confident in their ability to create more sustainable futures. Originality/value– This paper will be of value to academic staff and educational developers looking to develop practice in embedding SSL in teaching and learning, and to harness the potential of e‐learning. Keywords: Skill development, Pedagogy, E‐learning, Learner identity, Student‐centred, Sustainability literacy</p

THE EFFECTS OF FARMLAND, FARMLAND PRESERVATION AND OTHER NEIGHBORHOOD AMENITIES ON PROXIMATE HOUSING VALUES: RESULTS OF A CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF HOUSING CHOICE

Using stated-preference data from a choice-based conjoint analysis instrument, we estimate willingness to pay for the presence of neighboring land that is dedicated to agricultural use (versus a developed land use) and for the preservation of surrounding farmland as permanent cropland. The data also elucidate how individuals balance the values associated with nearby agricultural land patterns with other key neighborhood characteristics such as neighborhood parks, housing density, commute times, school quality and neighborhood safety. The median respondent from a randomly chosen sample of Columbus, Ohio homeowners was willing to pay $843 annually to avoid immediate conversion of 10 percent of agricultural land within one mile of the house valued in the conjoint experiment while the same respondent was willing to pay$277 annually to preserve the same amount of farmland as permanent cropland. We find provision of neighborhood parks within housing developments to be a strong substitute for farmland preservation.Land Economics/Use,

Secant Penalized BFGS: A Noise Robust Quasi-Newton Method Via Penalizing The Secant Condition

In this paper, we introduce a new variant of the BFGS method designed to perform well when gradient measurements are corrupted by noise. We show that by treating the secant condition with a penalty method approach motivated by regularized least squares estimation, one can smoothly interpolate between updating the inverse Hessian approximation with the original BFGS update formula and not updating the inverse Hessian approximation. Furthermore, we find the curvature condition is smoothly relaxed as the interpolation moves towards not updating the inverse Hessian approximation, disappearing entirely when the inverse Hessian approximation is not updated. These developments allow us to develop a method we refer to as secant penalized BFGS (SP-BFGS) that allows one to relax the secant condition based on the amount of noise in the gradient measurements. SP-BFGS provides a means of incrementally updating the new inverse Hessian approximation with a controlled amount of bias towards the previous inverse Hessian approximation, which allows one to replace the overwriting nature of the original BFGS update with an averaging nature that resists the destructive effects of noise and can cope with negative curvature measurements. We discuss the theoretical properties of SP-BFGS, including convergence when minimizing strongly convex functions in the presence of uniformly bounded noise. Finally, we present extensive numerical experiments using over 30 problems from the CUTEst test problem set that demonstrate the superior performance of SP-BFGS compared to BFGS in the presence of both noisy function and gradient evaluations.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures; corrected errors, added numerical experiment

EnKSGD: A Class Of Preconditioned Black Box Optimization And Inversion Algorithms

In this paper, we introduce the Ensemble Kalman-Stein Gradient Descent (EnKSGD) class of algorithms. The EnKSGD class of algorithms builds on the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) line of work, applying techniques from sequential data assimilation to unconstrained optimization and parameter estimation problems. The essential idea is to exploit the EnKF as a black box (i.e. derivative-free, zeroth order) optimization tool if iterated to convergence. In this paper, we return to the foundations of the EnKF as a sequential data assimilation technique, including its continuous-time and mean-field limits, with the goal of developing faster optimization algorithms suited to noisy black box optimization and inverse problems. The resulting EnKSGD class of algorithms can be designed to both maintain the desirable property of affine-invariance, and employ the well-known backtracking line search. Furthermore, EnKSGD algorithms are designed to not necessitate the subspace restriction property and variance collapse property of previous iterated EnKF approaches to optimization, as both these properties can be undesirable in an optimization context. EnKSGD also generalizes beyond the $L^{2}$ loss, and is thus applicable to a wider class of problems than the standard EnKF. Numerical experiments with both linear and nonlinear least squares problems, as well as maximum likelihood estimation, demonstrate the faster convergence of EnKSGD relative to alternative EnKF approaches to optimization.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure