Improving situational awareness through the design of offshore installations

Maintaining the situational awareness of control room operators on offshore installations contributes to the timely diagnosis of conditions and making appropriate decisions. This is particularly important when dealing with events and incidents. Recent initiatives aimed at reducing operators’ exposure to the hazards of working on offshore installations may have a negative impact upon situational awareness within the control room environment.This paper discusses mitigation of the negative impact through the design and operation of the installation and control system; either by improving the general level of situational awareness or by specifically targeting the areas affected by these initiatives.     

空中交通管制员的情境意识与航空安全

大部分空管不安全事件与空中交通管制员情境意识下降有关，研究管制员情境意识，预防管制员工作中情境意识下降对于预防空管不安全事件具有十分重要的意义。笔者讨论了空中交通管制员情境意识的意义、常见的管制员情境意识问题、管制员情境意识下降的原因以及提高和维持管制员情境意识的方法四个重要的管制员情境意识问题。笔者特别提出，采取积极的措施预防注意力分散、提高专业技术水平、主动管理工作负荷、管理班组资源是空中交通管制员在工作中获得和维持良好情境意识的途径。     

The effect of aviation safety education on passenger cabin safety awareness

This paper examines the effect of aviation safety education on passenger cabin safety awareness in knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB). The educational value of KAB has been addressed in various fields such as AIDS prevention and campus safety. KAB has been applied in aviation safety related areas, especially in training, such as crew resource management training, pilot training, and mechanic training. However, KAB has not been implemented in aviation passenger education in cabin safety. This paper uses the construct of “aviation safety education”, which is intended to influence airline passenger knowledge of, attitude toward, and behavior about cabin safety awareness. Passenger surveys were done at two Taiwan airports. The results show that aviation safety education positively affects airline passenger cabin safety knowledge, attitude, and behavior. We recommend safety education that involves accurate instruction about emergency equipment procedures, situational awareness, emergency responses, and relevant cabin-safety regulations.Our findings indicated that an increase in cabin safety knowledge positively affected airline passenger behavior, which supported knowledge–behavior consistency. We also found that a positive attitude toward cabin safety positively affected airline passenger behavior, which supported attitude–behavior consistency. The hypothesis that cabin safety knowledge positively affected passenger attitude – knowledge–attitude consistency was not supported.     

加强环境保护宣传教育提高公众环境意识

社会与科技的快速发展虽然为人们创造了更加良好的生存环境,但同时,也对实际的环境保护宣传教育提出了更多要求。在此情况之下,相关人员必须要对公众的环境意识进行全面的了解,结合当下的发展趋势和环境保护现状,有针对性的对环境保护宣传教育进行创新与改革。另外,还必须要考虑公众的生活习惯和工作习惯的变化,构建全新的环境保护宣传教育平台,科学利用现代化科技和多样化方式来引导公众进行环境保护知识学习。这样不仅能够全面提升公众的环境意识,同时也能够有效地实现环境友好型和资源节约型社会的全面构建。     

Impact of training programs on decision-making and situation awareness of trainee watch officers

This paper examines the impact of training programs on the ability of trainee watch officers to make decisions in collision avoidance situations.It draws on previous studies which have shown that experts are able to manage complex situations in an acceptable way. However, observations of students on simulators have revealed that many of them are unable to manage such situations or even to recall their main features. It is therefore necessary to identify new training tools that will give trainees the capacity to assess a situation quickly and accurately, and to perform satisfactory actions. These would be in addition to formal regulations.Exercises were designed to evaluate the impact of such tools on the decision-making process of trainees. The impact of the type of navigation experienced by trainees during their on-the-job training was also evaluated.Results showed that decision-making exercises did tend to improve the trainees’ capacity to analyse a complex situation; however, they did not have a clear impact on the manoeuvre performed. On the contrary, there was an obvious difference between the trainees who experienced complex avoidance situations during their on-the-job training period and those who did not.At a time where ship-owners are looking to reduce the length of the “on-the-job” training period, these results point to its vital importance.     

基于事故树的空中交通管制员情景意识分析

为更系统地研究管制员的情景意识,找出导致管制员情景意识丧失的主要因素,运用事故树分析法、采用自上而下的方式对管制员情景意识丧失的原因进行逐层分析,建立管制员情景意识丧失事故树模型。通过进一步计算事故树的最小割集和各基本事件的结构重要度,计算各基本事件的结构重要度系数,对比得出情景意识丧失的各个基本事件的重要程度及各事件之间的关系。结果表明,造成情景意识丧失事故的主要原因是轮班制度不合理、睡眠效率低及对特情不熟悉、飞行冲突预判能力弱。     

加强“三工”安全教育刻不容缓

“三工”的使用给林业安全生产管理带来一定的难度,文中分析了、三工”人员的,特点论述了作好“三工”人员安全教育、提高其安全素质的对策 。     

The role of situation awareness in accidents of large-scale technological systems

In the last two decades, several serious accidents at large-scale technological systems that have had grave consequences, such as that at Bhopal, have primarily been attributed to human error. However, further investigations have revealed that humans are not the primary cause of these accidents, but have inherited the problems and difficulties of working with complex systems created by engineers. The operators have to comprehend malfunctions in real time, respond quickly, and make rapid decisions to return operational units to normal conditions, but under these circumstances, the mental workload of operators rises sharply, and a mental workload that is too high increases the rate of error. Therefore, cognivitive human features such as situation awareness (SA)—one of the most important prerequisite for decision-making—should be considered and analyzed appropriately. This paper applys the SA Error Taxonomy methodology to analyze the role of SA in three different accidents: (1) A runaway chemical reaction at Institute, West Virginia killing two employees, injuring eight people, and requiring the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents adjacent to the facility, (2) The ignition of a vapor cloud at Bellwood, Illinois that killed one person, injured two employees, and caused significant business interruption, and (3) An explosion at Ontario, California injuring four workers and caused extensive damage to the facility. In addition, the paper presents certain requirements for cognitive operator support system development and operator training under abnormal situations to promote operators’ SA in the process industry.     

Measuring direct and indirect treatment effects using safety performance intervention functions

Recent traffic safety research has advocated the use of the Full Bayes (FB) approach to conduct controlled before-after safety evaluations. The FB approach was shown to offer both methodological and data advantages. However, there is still a lack of complete understanding of the role that the model parameters play in the formulation of treatment effectiveness. This paper offers a novel approach to compute components related to direct and indirect treatment effects under a linear intervention model for the Safety Performance Function (SPF). The isolation of a component corresponding to the direct treatment effects enables the analyst to assess the effectiveness of the countermeasures apart from local (site-related) environmental factors. Two case studies are used to demonstrate the approach. The first case study is based on the results published from a previous safety evaluation in Iowa and the second uses a new data set from British Columbia based on the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia Road Improvement Program. The various direct and indirect components have yielded valuable insight into the effects of the model parameters on treatment impacts. Moreover, the calculation of the treatment effectiveness indices have been simplified by providing straightforward equations in terms of model parameters for the computation of their components without resorting to additional algorithms. More importantly, the results can have a significant impact on the economic evaluation of safety programs and countermeasures by allowing the calculation of collision modification factors (CMFs) that vary with time.     

Factors influencing the implementation of a safety management system for construction sites

The objective of the study was to determine the influential safety factors that governed the success of a safety management system for construction sites. The number of incidences among construction workers and the level of awareness on matters concerning safety were also determined. The study involved a self-administered three-part questionnaire among the workers and interviews with industry experts involved in brick-laying, concreting and in related assorted trades. Part A of the questionnaire concerned personal particulars, Part B involved training and experience and Part C was based on 28 industry-accepted safety factor elements. The construction sites ranged from high rise buildings, landed houses and infrastructure renovation. The sample size was 275. From the survey it was found that the most influential safety factor was personal awareness followed closely by communication. Suggestions and recommendations on equipment design and improved work practices and procedures to improve the efficiency and productivity of construction workers were proposed. Management was urged to get their workers better informed about safety matters.     

Mitigating construction safety risks using prevention through design

Introduction

Research and practice have demonstrated that decisions made prior to work at construction sites can influence construction worker safety. However, it has also been argued that most architects and design engineers possess neither the knowledge of construction safety nor the knowledge of construction processes necessary to effectively perform Construction Hazards Prevention through Design (CHPtD).

Method

This paper introduces a quantitative methodology that supports designers by providing a way to evaluate the safety-related performance of residential construction designs using a risk analysis-based approach. The methodology compares the overall safety risk level of various construction designs and ranks the significance of the various safety risks of each of these designs. The methodology also compares the absolute importance of a particular safety risk in various construction designs.

Results

Because the methodology identifies the relevance of each safety risk at a particular site prior to the construction stage, significant risks are highlighted in advance. Thus, a range of measures for mitigating safety risks can then be implemented during on-site construction.

Impact on industry

The methodology is specially worthwhile for designers, who can compare construction techniques and systems during the design phase and determine the corresponding level of safety risk without their creative talents being restricted. By using this methodology, construction companies can improve their on-site safety performance.     

The role of production and teamwork practices in construction safety: A cognitive model and an empirical case study

Problem

In construction, the challenge for researchers and practitioners is to develop work systems (production processes and teams) that can achieve high productivity and high safety at the same time. However, construction accident causation models ignore the role of work practices and teamwork. This study investigates the mechanisms by which production and teamwork practices affect the likelihood of accidents.

Method

The paper synthesizes a new model for construction safety based on the cognitive perspective (Fuller's Task-Demand-Capability Interface model, 2005) and then presents an exploratory case study. The case study investigates and compares the work practices of two residential framing crews: a 'High Reliability Crew' (HRC)—that is, a crew with exceptional productivity and safety over several years, and an average performing crew from the same company.

Results

The model explains how the production and teamwork practices generate the work situations that workers face (the task demands) and affect the workers ability to cope (capabilities). The case study indicates that the work practices of the HRC directly influence the task demands and match them with the applied capabilities. These practices were guided by the 'principle' of avoiding errors and rework and included work planning and preparation, work distribution, managing the production pressures, and quality and behavior monitoring.

Summary

The Task Demand-Capability model links construction research to a cognitive model of accident causation and provides a new way to conceptualize safety as an emergent property of the production practices and teamwork processes. The empirical evidence indicates that the crews' work practices and team processes strongly affect the task demands, the applied capabilities, and the match between demands and capabilities.

Impact on Industry

The proposed model and the exploratory case study will guide further discovery of work practices and teamwork processes that can increase both productivity and safety in construction operations. Such understanding will enable training of construction foremen and crews in these practices to systematically develop high reliability crews.     

A theoretical and methodological framework for studying and modelling drivers’ mental representations

This article provides a synthetic overview of the research programme carried out at INRETS-LESCOT over the last 10 years, in view to studying and modelling the mental representations of car drivers. Theoretically, this research is in line with two complementary scientific traditions: Human Information Processing theories on the one hand, and theories of Operative Activity on the other. As discussed in Section 1 of the article, attention is given to the functional representations of drivers, constructed “by” and “for” the action, such as they are implemented in a driving situation, and taking into account both implicit and explicit dimensions. This aim directly impacts on the methodological approach implemented, in so far as it entails defining an “experimental continuum” ranging from naturalistic observations of the driving activity (on the open road), to setting up more controlled experimental protocols in order to permit in-depth, systematic and reproducible scientific investigations of drivers’ cognition. Section 2 of the article presents a synthetic view of these methods, while Section 3 presents several significant results obtained with them. Lastly, the final part of the article focuses on the computational formalism defined at INRETS-LESCOT (i.e. the driving schemas) designed to model driver knowledge and mental representations, and developed in a COgnitive Simulation MOdel of the DRIVEr called COSMODRIVE.     

Assessment of older drivers: relationships among on-road errors, medical conditions and test outcome

PROBLEM: It is essential that driver licensing authorities have a valid and reliable system for evaluating older drivers' continuing competency; road tests are usually required as part of such a system. This study sought to find information about the nature of driving errors made during license review tests, and about relationships between error type and test outcome for older drivers. METHOD: Data from licensing authority files from 533 road tests during a 12-month period were analyzed; medical and other referral information was included. Average driver age was 76 years. Performance scores were generated for intersection negotiation, lane changing, low speed manoeuvres, positioning and speed control, safety margin, and car control. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis showed that test outcome was well predicted by a subset of driving performance scores; adding driver age to the model explained very little variance. Age alone was strongly associated with outcome. Relationships between referral information and test outcome are also reported. IMPACT: Results highlight several factors relevant to the development of more valid and reliable road tests for older drivers.     

The effect of work hours on adverse events and errors in health care

Introduction

We studied the relationship between registered nurses' extended work duration with adverse events and errors, including needlestick injuries, work-related injuries, patient falls with injury, nosocomial infections, and medication errors.

Method

Using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression, this secondary analysis of 11,516 registered nurses examined nurse characteristics, work hours, and adverse events and errors.

Results

All of the adverse event and error variables were significantly related to working more than 40 hours in the average week. Medication errors and needlestick injuries had the strongest and most consistent relationships with the work hour and voluntary overtime variables.

Discussion

This study confirms prior findings that increased work hours raise the likelihood of adverse events and errors in healthcare, and further found the same relationship with voluntary overtime.

Impact on Industry

Legislation has focused on mandatory overtime; however, this study demonstrated that voluntary overtime could also negatively impact nurse and patient safety.     

安全发展的实践探讨

安全发展理念的提出,为安全生产工作提出了新课题。本文站在安全生产监督管理部门的角度,从经济社会发展大局出发,阐述了跳出安全抓安全,通过积极主动的献计献策,争取支持,在实施产业结构调整过程中,解决安全生产深层次问题,减轻压力,从而更好地落实安全发展观、抓好安全生产工作的实践和思考。     

强化安全目标管理确保安全生产

1998年底之前 ,公司工伤事故频繁 ,为了扭转安全生产工作的不利局面 ,自 1999年起 ,采用科学的、现代化的管理方法 ,严格安全目标管理 ,确保了年度安全目标的实现