Trends in state and federal OSH enforcement

Background: OSHA evaluates State Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) enforcement annually through the Federal Annual Monitoring Evaluation (FAME) process. This process is used to determine whether Kentucky OSH (KY OSH) is meeting or exceeding OSHA performance. The FAME report for KY OSH based its evaluations on only 14.5% of the total number of cases in 2015 and did not test for statistical significance. Objective: Determine the statistical significance of the 2015 FAME report deficiencies in the KY OSH program. Method: The OSHA dataset consists of case detail for all inspections conducted from 1970 to present (updated daily). ANOVA (analysis of variance) regressions were performed to test the FAME trends for significance. The SAS 9.4 computer program was used for all statistical analysis. Results: The models are either quadratic or linear regression trends from 1970 to 2016. Total, health, and safety inspections decreased in federal OSHA and KY OSH. Federal and KY number of violations for all safety or construction inspections decreased. Federal and KY number of violations per health inspection decreased. Federal and KY lapse time for all health inspections decreased per year. There was a decrease in willful violations cited by KY, not federal. The adjusted R-squared values explained from 0.3% to 59% of the variance, model power estimates varied from 50% to \u3e99.9%, and the p-values ranged from \u3c0.014 to \u3c0.0001. Conclusion: Overall, this study did not concur with the FAME Report. Since the OSH Act, effective enforcement may have led to decreased un-programmed activity through increased compliance

North American Engineering, Procurement, Fabrication and Construction Worker Safety Climate Perception Affected by Job Position

Understanding and implementing the results of Safety Climate surveys can assist in decreasing occupational injuries and illnesses. The following article presents findings of a cross-sectional study that assessed the relationship between safety climate perceptions and job position among engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction (EPFC) employees using a 15-item survey. Descriptive statistics (means and frequencies) and an ANACOVA (analysis of covariance) were performed on a saturated model. The study had a 62% response rate. Results indicate a statistically significant in mean safety climate scores between job position among EPFC employees when controlling for years in industry and location type (i.e., construction versus fabrication) [F (9, 603) = 5.28, p < 0.0001, adjusted R-square = 0.07]. Employee perception of safety climate differed based on the employee’s job position (i.e., laborer, foreman, etc.). Project management reported the highest safety climate scores (0.91), followed by supervisors (0.86), technical support employees and foremen (0.84) and laborers (0.81)

Identification of maternally regulated fetal gene networks in the placenta with a novel embryo transfer system in mice

The mechanisms for provisioning maternal resources to offspring in placental mammals involve complex interactions between maternally regulated and fetally regulated gene networks in the placenta, a tissue that is derived from the zygote and therefore of fetal origin. Here we describe a novel use of an embryo transfer system in mice to identify gene networks in the placenta that are regulated by the mother. Mouse embryos from the same strain of inbred mice were transferred into a surrogate mother either of the same strain or from a different strain, allowing maternal and fetal effects on the placenta to be separated. After correction for sex and litter size, maternal strain overrode fetal strain as the key determinant of fetal weight (P < 0.0001). Computational filtering of the placental transcriptome revealed a group of 81 genes whose expression was solely dependent on the maternal strain [P < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.10]. Network analysis of this group of genes yielded highest statistical significance for pathways involved in the regulation of cell growth (such as insulin-like growth factors) as well as those involved in regulating lipid metabolism [such as the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), LDL, and HDL], both of which are known to play a role in fetal development. This novel technique may be generally applied to identify regulatory networks involved in maternal-fetal interaction and eventually help identify molecular targets in disorders of fetal growth

Race, Nation, and Nature: The Cultural Politics of ‘‘Celtic’’ Identification in the American West

Claims regarding a unitary, coherent ‘‘Celtic’’ culture and its westward spread over centuries have proliferatedrapidly over the past 10 to 15 years. We examine both this general phenomenon, and one specific instance of it indetail: the claims of Celtic identity by Wise Use activists in New Mexico in the 1990s. Our primary concern isto examine their significance and utility in contemporary cultural politics. We argue that they have provided apowerful way for many white people in Western Europe and the United States to claim for themselves an ethnicidentity strongly associated with oppression and resistance to the state, a position that affords them symbolicresources in negotiating the challenges of both multiculturalism and neoliberalism