Safety attitudes in New Zealand forestry : a thesis presented to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology

This study examines the attitudes towards safety, held by workers, contractors, supervisors, and managers employed in the New Zealand forest industry. The study follows the framework offered by Purdham (1984, cited in Cox & Cox, 1991), which divides safety attitudes into safety hardware, safety software, people, and risk. After a review of the literature relating to these object areas, attitudes, and safety, a safety attitude questionnaire that was developed specifically for the study is described. The questionnaire was administered to 465 people working in the forest industry. The results suggested that the structure provided by Purdham, as well as Cox and Cox (1991) is not entirely apparent, however it can be used to evaluate safety attitudes. Attitudes towards safety hardware were very positive although a number of workers were unaware of the benefits of more recently developed personal protective equipment. Attitudes towards safety software were slightly negative. Many workers were unaware of safety policies and the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, and were of the opinion that there was conflict between safety and other job demands. With regards to people, all groups surveyed had very good attitudes towards responsibility, and realised the importance of safety. Attitudes towards risk were reasonable, but knowledge of objective risk was poor. Results also suggested that the safety climate is rather negative, with many workers not believing that management or their work-mates were committed to safety. Management were also of the opinion that workers would not believe they were committed to safety. The survey found no relationship between individual attitudes and accident involvement. Training, education, and experience were also unrelated to accident involvement. Finally, management appear to be making attribution errors with regards to the cause of accidents. The implications of these findings for the forest industry, and safety research are discussed

Corporate real estate management in the retail sector: a study of the relationship between the management of the corporate real estate and corporate performance

Retail organisations have often been cited as being at the forefront of corporate real estate management. This research found that the retail sector can be characterised by diversity both in terms of the degree to which organisations are vertically integrated and in terms of the range of modes of retailing they engage in. This in turn led to highly diverse real estate portfolios. Given this diversity it may be surprising that the over riding strategy which the vast majority of sample firms adopted was focused on supporting the core retail activity. However the way in which they implement this strategy, again reflected the diversity in the sector. In terms of the future, the senior real estate managers were focusing on the medium term particularly looking at the way change would impact their functional strategy. This study provides a snap-shot of current practice and contributes to the debate however it also recognised that there is a need to answer the more fundamental questions

An Architecture For Creating Hosting Plug- Ins For Use In Digital Audio Workstations

Although modern software-based DA Ws (Digital Audio Workstations) offer the ability to interconnect with plug-in effects, they can be restrictive due to their architecture being largely based on hardware mixing desks. This is especially true when complex multi-effect sound design is required. This paper aims to demonstrate how a plug-in that can host other effects plug-ins can help improve the sound design possibilities in a DAW. This hosting plug-in allows other effects to be “inserted” at specific points in its internal signal flow. Details are given of a “proof of concept” plug-in that was created to demonstrate that it was possible to create plug-ins that can host other plug-ins, using Apple’s AU (Audio Unit) format. The proof of concept is a delay effect that allows other effects plug-ins to be inserted in either the “delay path”, “feedback path” or both. This Audio Unit has been extensively tested using different DAWs and has been found to work successfully in a variety of situations. Finally, details are given of how improvements can be made to the plug-in hosting delay

Corporate Real Estate Management in the Retail Sector: Investigation of Current Strategy and Structure

Retail organizations are often cited as being at the forefront of corporate real estate management. This research found that the retail sector is characterized by diversity both in terms of the degree to which organizations are vertically integrated and in terms of the range of modes of retailing they engage in. This in turn led to diverse real estate portfolios. However, regardless of this diversity, the over riding strategy was focused on supporting the core activity. This study provides a snapshot of current practice however it also uncovers the need for a greater understanding of the diversity in practice.

Supernovae Types Ia/II and Intracluster Medium Enrichment

We re-examine the respective roles played by supernovae (SNe) Types Ia and II in enriching the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters, in light of the recent downward shift of the ASCA abundance ratios of alpha-elements to iron favoured by Ishimaru & Arimoto (1997, PASJ, 49, 1). Because of this shift, Ishimaru & Arimoto conclude that >50% of the ICM iron must have originated from within Type Ia SNe progenitors. A point not appreciated in their study, nor in most previous analyses, is the crucial dependence of such a conclusion upon the adopted massive star physics. Employing several alternative Type II SN yield compilations, we demonstrate how uncertainties in the treatment of convection and mass-loss can radically alter our perception of the relative importance of Type Ia and II SNe as ICM polluters. If mass-loss of the form favoured by Maeder (1992, A&A, 264, 105) or convection of the form favoured by Arnett (1996, Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis) is assumed, the effect upon the oxygen yields would lead us to conclude that Type Ia SNe play no part in polluting the ICM, in contradiction with Ishimaru & Arimoto. Apparent dichotomies still exist (e.g. the mean ICM neon-to-iron ratio implies a 100% Type II Fe origin, while the mean sulphur ratio indicates a 100% Type Ia origin) that cannot be reconciled with the currently available yield tables.Comment: 6 pages (incl 1 PostScript figure), LaTeX, also available at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~gibson/publications.html, MNRAS, in pres

Software Process Asset Representation Schemes,

Achievement of Maturity Level 3 of the software CMM® requires development and maintenance of a usable set of software process assets. These assets consist of the following: the organization\u27s standard software process, guidelines for the project\u27s tailoring of the organization\u27s process, descriptions of approved software life cycles, software process database, and a library of software process-related documentation