Perceived stress,mental health,organizational factors,and self-reported risky driving behaviors among truck drivers circulating in France

Introduction: The growth of the European market for road-freight transport has recently led to important changes. The growing number of foreign pavilion drivers transiting in France, which plays a bridging role among European countries, has influenced the lives of truck drivers by increasing competition, pressure on day-to-day activities, and constraints related to delivery deadlines. Adding this new pressure to those inherent in the road-freight transport sector has raised concerns, especially ones linked to levels of perceived stress by truck drivers. Method: With safety concerns in mind, we devised a questionnaire aimed at understanding how French truck drivers and non-French truck drivers, passing through four highway rest areas in France perceive stress, organizational factors, mental health, and risky driving behaviors. A sample of 515 truck drivers took part in the survey (260 French nationals), 97.9% of whom were male. Results: The results of a structural equation model indicated that perceived stress can increase self-reported risky driving behaviors among truck drivers. Furthermore, organizational factors and mental health were closely linked to perceived stress. Finally, some differences were found between French and non-French truck drivers with respect to mind-wandering and mental health, and to perceive driving difficulties to overcome and driving skills. Practical Applications: Several recommendations based on the findings are provided to policymakers and organizations.     

Leadership,followers' mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta‐analysis from an occupational health perspective

The present meta‐analysis investigates the associations between leadership, followers' mental health, and job performance by taking into account different groups of leadership constructs including transformational leadership, relations‐oriented leadership, task‐oriented leadership, destructive leadership, and leader–member exchange. Six categories of mental health‐related outcomes are considered representing both negative and positive mental health states of followers, namely, affective symptoms, burnout, stress, well‐being, psychological functioning, and health complaints. Meta‐analytic models are used to estimate the association between these categories of leadership and mental health. Our results reveal that transformational leadership, a high quality of relations‐oriented and task‐oriented leadership behavior, as well as a high quality of leader–follower interaction are positively associated with mental health. In contrast, destructive leadership is strongly negatively associated with mental health. In addition, the mediation effects of leadership on job performance via mental health are estimated. Results partially support the mediating role of mental health concerning the relationship between leadership and job performance. Our results emphasize the importance of leadership as an occupational health factor, and they may serve as basis for the planning and designing of occupational health policies and interventions despite existing research limitations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental health outcomes of job stress among Chinese teachers: role of stress resource factors and burnout

This study examined the mental health outcomes of job stress among Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. A total of 269 Chinese teachers participated in Study 1 which provided cross‐sectional data regarding the associations among stress resource factors, burnout, and negative mental health. Study 2 was a six‐month longitudinal study which aimed to establish the direction of the associations among the hypothesized variables across two time points with a separate sample of 61 Chinese secondary school teachers. Results of the structural equation modelling analyses on the cross‐sectional data at T1 showed that stress resource factors of self‐efficacy and proactive attitude were negatively related to burnout, which in turn had a direct effect on negative mental health. Stress resource factors were also directly linked to mental health status of teachers. Results of similar analyses on the longitudinal data at T2 further indicated that burnout at T1 had a direct impact on burnout at T2, which in turn had a direct effect on negative mental health at T2. Findings and limitations of the study were discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大气压力对细水雾灭火系统泵组流量特性及效率的影响

柱塞泵是泵组式细水雾灭火系统的关键部件,它是细水雾喷头实施喷雾的供水源和压力驱动源.为研究大气压力,特别是高海拔低气压环境对柱塞泵流量特性及效率的影响,通过在合肥及拉萨两地的对比试验,给出了环境压力与柱塞泵流量特性及效率的关系.结果表明,大气压力减小使柱塞泵的流量减小,因此,在高原低气压环境下使用柱塞泵,应采用增加柱塞泵进口压力的措施,以保证泵组式细水雾灭火系统的设计性能;不同大气压力下泵组的效率无明显变化,即大气压力对泵组的效率无明显影响.     

The effect of turnover on work satisfaction and mental health: Support for a situational perspective

This study finds support for the situational approach to affect determination in a prospective, two-year longitudinal field study. Specifically, turnover was shown to predict changes in subsequent job measures of work satisfaction and mental health. Employees who changed jobs and occupations showed greater increases in both work satisfaction and mental health than employees who only changed jobs or employees who remained in their initial positions. Further research directions are introduced.     

The changing significance of different stressors after the announcement of bankruptcy: a longitudinal investigation with special emphasis on job insecurity

The author investigates the effect of job insecurity and other job stressors on the mental health of steel workers. Levels of job stress and mental health were measured seven years before and seven months after the company at which they worked had gone into receivership, a method that can be described as a quasi‐experimental field study with a sample of blue‐collar non‐supervisory male workers. Two out of four job stressors were found to be at a lower level when the second wave of research took place. Regression analyses showed that the correlation between these job stressors and psychosomatic complaints is now lower than during the first wave but that they reach the former level when job insecurity is added. Job insecurity was mainly connected to an increase in psychosomatic complaints and in anxiety. Self‐esteem, depression, and irascibility showed no important relationship to job insecurity when the variables were controlled for mental health status before the onset of job insecurity. Social support, opportunities in the labor market, and duration of contract in the company are identified as moderating the relation between mental health and job insecurity. One conclusion is that positive health effects due to reduction in the stress level may be offset by acute job insecurity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于CiteSpace的高校教师职业心理健康文献计量分析

为系统把握高校教师职业心理健康领域近10年的主要研究内容和研究方向,以中国知网(CNKI)作为数据源,经过2次检索得到2011—2020年10年间的文献,统计分析发文量,使用CiteSpace软件可视化处理,得到关键词共现图谱。结果表明:高校教师职业心理健康的相关研究主要集中于职业倦怠和职业压力,研究热点是成因和对策,重点研究对象为体育教师、青年教师、英语教师和女教师;通过内容分析发现,职业压力和职业倦怠均对高校教师职业心理健康存在消极影响;从社会、学校、个人3个层面有效干预可改善教师职业压力和职业倦怠,进而提升其心理健康。     

矿工心理因素、工作压力反应和不安全行为关系研究

为研究在巨大工作压力下,矿工的心理因素与工作压力反应和不安全行为的关系,以问卷的形式调查陕西省2家具代表性煤矿的工人,分别以矿工的心理因素、工作压力反应和作业过程中的不安全行为作为外生变量、中介变量和内生变量,构建心理因素、压力反应和不安全行为的结构方程模型。通过对调研数据处理与分析,得出如下结论:本研究中的4项心理因素,性格因素、心理素质、注意力和工作态度显著影响不安全行为的发生;性格因素、心理素质和注意力对压力反应有显著影响;工作态度与煤矿工人的压力反应的关系不显著;性格因素、心理素质、注意力和工作态度通过影响矿工的压力反应,间接影响矿工的不安全行为。     

铁路一线职工心理健康评估及风险预警模型研究

对某铁路机务段420名一线职工进行心理健康状况的现况研究并探索其影响因素,初步建立心理健康风险评估模型。整群抽取420例样本,采用症状自评量表(SCL-90)进行心理健康水平测评,与全国常模比较,采用二分类Logistic心理健康风险预警模型进行回归分析。结果表明,铁路一线职工在躯体化、饮食睡眠情况、敌对、强迫症状方面的得分均高于全国常模。年龄、文化程度、现职工种、劳动班制、工龄等因素影响职工心理健康状况。进而提出应做好职工心理疏导工作,探索一线职工心理健康预警指标,实现风险识别关口前移,保障铁路运输安全。     

Protection of workers’ mental health in Québec: Do general duty clauses allow labour inspectors to do their job?

Given that no specific provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act explicitly deal with psychosocial risk factors, in Québec, occupational health and safety inspectors employed by the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) address psychosocial hazards under the Act’s general duty clause. This general duty clause and related provisions require that all employers eliminate hazards at source and protect the health of workers. More specifically, they are required to ensure that the organisation of work does not adversely affect the safety or health of the worker. Since 2004, Québec minimum standards legislation has also provided for the right of workers to an environment that is free from psychological harassment.Written from both a legal and public health perspective, this paper has two primary objectives: first, to better understand the potential and limits of the current legislative framework for the protection of the mental health of workers and second, to describe how scientific knowledge related to high risk situations for the mental health of workers might inform interventions by inspectors for the protection of workers’ mental health.     

Working and Health Conditions of Italian Air Traffic Controllers

The paper summarises some studies carried out in recent years on Italian air traffic controllers. Work stress appeared related mainly to mental charge, aggravated by time pressure and high responsibility. Shiftwork was not considered highly stressful, thanks to the good shift schedules adopted. The disorders most frequently complained of had a prevalent psychosomatic component, concerning the digestive, neuropsychic, and cardiovascular systems. However, their prevalence was lower than, or similar to, that recorded in general population. The controllers engaged in regional centres showed slightly worse health conditions than those engaged in airport towers; the same was found in the radar controllers compared to those working in non-radar positions.     

Increasing coping resources at work: A field experiment to increase social support,improve work team functioning,and enhance employee mental health

Correlational studies have identified worksite coping resources such as social support and perceived control, and have suggested a positive role for such resources in employee stress processes. However, little experimental evidence has demonstrated the causal role of worksite coping resources in improving mental health, nor how worksite coping resources can be enhanced. This paper reports the results of a field experiment intended to provide such evidence. Human service workers participated in a theory-driven training program designed to increase individual and group psychosocial coping resources and individuals' abilities to use those resources when coping with job demands. The inclusion of selection variables in models used to estimate the impact of the intervention controlled for selection biases and also allowed for the assessment of the impact of the training on those workers identified as most prone to turnover and on those most likely to participate in such an intervention. Results indicated that the program enhanced the work team climate and reduced depresssive symptoms and somatization in those most at risk for leaving their jobs. The program was also effective in increasing the amount of supervisor support received on the job and strengthening perceptions of coping abilities in those workers most likely to participate in the program.     

Prediction of gas explosion pressures: A machine learning algorithm based on KPCA and an optimized LSSVM

A gas explosion, as a common accident in public life and industry, poses a great threat to the safety of life and property. The determination and prediction of gas explosion pressures are greatly important for safety issues and emergency rescue after an accident occurs. Compared with traditional empirical and numerical models, machine learning models are definitely a superior approach. However, the application of machine learning in gas explosion pressure prediction has not reached its full potential. In this study, a hybrid gas explosion pressure prediction model based on kernel principal component analysis (KPCA), a least square support vector machine (LSSVM), and a gray wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm is proposed. A dataset consisting of 12 influencing factors of gas explosion pressures and 317 groups of data is constructed for developing and evaluating the KPCA-GWO-LSSVM model. The results show that the correlations among the 12 influencing factors are eliminated and dimensioned down by the KPCA method, and 5 composite indicators are obtained. The proposed KPCA-GWO-LSSVM hybrid model performs well in predicting gas explosion pressures, with coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) values of 0.928, 26.234, and 12.494, respectively, for the training set; and 0.826, 25.951, and 13.964, respectively, for the test set. The proposed model outperforms the LSSVM, GWO-LSSVM, KPCA-LSSVM, beetle antennae search improved BP neural network (BAS-BPNN) models and reported empirical models. In addition, the sensitivity of influencing factors to the model is evaluated based on the constructed database, and the geometric parameters X1 and X2 of the confined structure are the most critical variables for gas explosion pressure prediction. The findings of this study can help expand the application of machine learning in gas explosion prediction and can truly benefit the treatment of gas explosion accidents.     

Characterization of a medium velocity deluge nozzle for offshore installations

It is important to study the characteristics of the nozzle of the deluge spray to comply with the standards developed by the petroleum industry for offshore installations in Norway. Due to the stochastic nature of the decomposition processes and geometrical features within the nozzle, the deluge spray has a complex flow field. Since the flow field determines the performance of the spray, the present study performs an experimental characterization of a medium velocity deluge nozzle for validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The experiment was conducted for a maximum supply water pressure of 8.0 bar (g), which is identical to the operating pressures of offshore installations. Formerly, characterization studies of deluge or sprinkler spray were mostly targeted on residential usage with lower supply water pressures. I utilized a laser-based shadow imaging system to capture high-speed images, which were later processed in MATLAB. A linear patternator was used to validate the results of the shadow imaging technique. The geometrical features of the deluge nozzle played an important role in determining the characteristics of the spray. In addition, the supply water pressure significantly affected the size and velocity distributions of the droplets, applied density (volume flux), and area coverage. However, the Sauter mean diameter did not vary significantly with the azimuthal or radial position of the droplet within the inner region of the spray. The measurements obtained in this study can be used to estimate the extinguishing efficiency of a deluge system for offshore installations with elevated supply water pressures. Deviations between measurements with shadow imaging and patternator technique are discussed and discrepancies are discussed.     

Corrosion failure probability analysis of buried gas pipelines based on subset simulation

Corrosion is the main reason for the failure of buried gas pipelines. For effective corrosion failure probability analysis, the structural reliability theory was adopted in this study to establish two calculation models for pipeline corrosion failure: the pressure failure model and von Mises stress failure model. Then, two calculation models for the corrosion failure probability were established based on a corrosion depth growth model obtained from actual survey data of soil corrosion characteristics. In an example, Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and subset simulation (SS) were used to analyze the corrosion failure probability of pipelines, and the results were compared. SS can compensate for the shortcomings of MCS as it has higher computational efficiency and accuracy. Therefore, SS was adopted to simulate variations in the corrosion failure probability of buried pipelines with the service time for the two failure probability calculation models, which were applied to a natural gas pipeline located in a chemical industry park in Zhuhai, China. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on the relevant parameters that affect the failure probability. The results showed that multiple loads caused by the covering soil, residual stress, temperature differential, and bending stress have a non-negligible effect on the pipeline reliability. The corrosion coefficients gradually become the most important factors that affect the failure probability with increased service time. The proposed methodology considers the actual operating conditions of pipelines to provide a reliable theoretical basis for integrity management.     

高温环境对煤矿井下作业人员影响的调查研究

本文就高温高湿环境对煤矿工人的生理心理危害程度进行调查研究。结果显示,在非高温矿井中,粉尘和噪声的影响居于首位,而在高温矿井中,高温成为影响煤矿井下工人生理和心理的首要因素。疲劳主观症状问询结果显示,高温矿井工人在身体症状、精神症状和感觉症状方面的反应都明显高于非高温矿井工人,尤以采煤工种更为突出。调查结果提示,煤矿井下高温高湿对工人的生理心理影响是相当严重的,企业应采取有效措施防治高温危害,保护广大煤矿工人的身心健康。     

基于AMESim的带压作业防喷器关闭性能仿真

针对带压作业防喷器关闭时易发生井涌、管柱失稳和闸板胶芯磨损等问题,基于AMESim软件分析了防喷器闸板关闭过程中的位移和速度特性,揭示了防喷器操作压力和井筒压力2个因素对于闸板动作响应的影响规律;利用Abaqus软件分析了防喷器关闭时闸板胶芯与管柱的接触应力及其分布;结合防喷器闸板关闭过程中的位移、速度特性,得到了不同井筒压力时防喷器闸板操作压力的推荐值。研究结果表明:根据不同的井筒压力精确控制防喷器闸板的操作压力,既能迅速关闭闸板有效密封井筒,又能防止防喷器闸板关闭后胶芯与管柱间的接触力过大,从而减小胶芯的磨损和起下管柱阻力。以此方法确定的防喷器闸板操作压力推荐值,可为PLC引入带压作业装置控制系统,实现防喷器操作的精确控制提供依据。     

Occupational and public health and safety in a changing work environment: An integrated approach for risk assessment and prevention

During recent years the work environment has undergone significant changes regarding working time, years of employment, work organization, type of employment contracts and working conditions. In this paper, consequences of these changes on occupational and public health and safety are examined. These include the disruption of human biological rhythms, the increase of workers fatigue due to changes in patterns of working hours and years of employment, job insecurity and occupational stress, which have a serious impact on workers’ health and may result in an increase in occupational accidents. Unsafe work practices related to workload and time pressure, the impact of work changes on public safety and the deterioration of workers’ living conditions with respect to income, social-family life, health and insurance benefits, are also described. In this context, difficulties that occur due to the changing work environment in conducting effective occupational risk assessments and implementing OSH measures are discussed (for example, frequent changes between tasks and workplaces, underreporting of occupational accidents and diseases, lack of methodological tools, etc.). A fundamental criterion used while studying consequences on health and safety and the relative preventive measures is that health and safety must be approached as ‘the promotion and maintenance at the highest degree of the physical, mental and social well-being of workers’ and not only as retention of their work ability. Limits in combining “flexibility” at work and overall protection of occupational and public safety and health in a competitive market are put forward for discussion.     

Low-temperature oxidation of coal at elevated pressures

A mathematical model is presented to describe steady-state mass transfer and oxidation processes in coal at low temperatures in a fixed-bed flow reactor. The model incorporates the effects of partial pressure of oxygen, temperature and coal particle size, and accounts for the rate of coal oxidation and the composition of oxygenated products at high pressures. This is an important development since previous models did not include the effect of pressure in their formulation. It is found that, when the partial pressure of oxygen increases the rate of oxygen consumption increases accordingly. However, the influence of partial pressure of oxygen on the rate of oxidation is less pronounced when the pressure surpasses 1 MPa. In addition the model predicts that, for a constant partial pressure of oxygen, higher rates of oxygen consumption occur at lower total pressures. The same trends are also found for the concentration of oxygenated products at the reactor outlet. It is suggested that, the variation of partial pressure of oxygen leads to different concentration levels of oxygen at the surface and within the pores of coal particles, substantially affecting the rate of oxidation.     

分段变速加载对含瓦斯突出煤力学特性影响试验研究

为探究采动应力变化对含瓦斯突出煤力学特性的影响,利用RLW-500G煤岩三轴蠕变-渗流试验系统,对新景矿含瓦斯突出煤进行了不同围压和瓦斯压力下的常规三轴和分段变速加载力学试验。结果表明:煤样在2种应力路径下的全应力应变曲线均可分为压密、线弹性、塑性变形、应力跌落和残余应力5个阶段;随着围压的升高或者瓦斯压力的降低,煤体在2种应力路径下的强度和弹性模量均增大;相较于常规三轴,煤体在分段变速加载路径下的强度普遍增大,峰值轴向应变、峰值环向应变绝对值和峰值体积应变绝对值也普遍增大,失稳破坏瞬间应力跌落和能量释放更加剧烈。Mohr-Coulomb强度准则仍然适用于分段变速加载条件下的含瓦斯突出煤,该研究对于认识煤与瓦斯突出的发生机制具有一定的指导意义。