Macroergonomics and Total Quality Management: How to Improve Quality of Working Life?

Abstract

In this paper, we present a macroergonomic model of work design that is applied and tested to examine Total Quality Management (TQM) in the public sector. According to the model, TQM can influence different aspects of work design and quality of working life (QWL), Questionnaire data collected in 2 public sector organizations in the USA show that TQM can have both positive and negative impact on work design and QWL. The main positive impact of TQM was found on job content, job control and participation, and social relationships. The main negative impact of TQM was on workload, uncertainty, and clarity of job duties. The impact of TQM on QWL was mixed. Our results show that the impact of TQM on work design and QWL varied very much across the 6 participating departments, as well as within the departments. Further research is warranted to assess the human impact of TQM, in particular research on the linkage between various aspects of TQM, on one hand, and work design and QWL, on the other hand.     

Percutaneous Exposure Incidents Among Australian Hospital Staff

We investigated all reported percutaneous exposure incidents (PEI) among staff from a large Australian hospital in the 3-year period, 2001-2003. There were a total of 373 PEI, of which 38.9% were needlestick injuries, 32.7% were cutaneous exposures and 28.4% sharps-related injuries. Nurses were the most commonly affected staff members, accounting for 63.5% of the total, followed by doctors (18.8%) and other staff ( 17.7%). Needlestick injuries were responsible for the majority of nurses’ PEI (44.7%). Sharps injuries constituted the major category for doctors (44.3%). Most needlestick injuries (67.6%) were caused by hollow-bore needles, while the majority of cutaneous exposures involved blood or serum (55.8%). Most sharps injures were caused by unknown devices (35.9%) or suture needles (34.9%). Overall, our investigation suggests that PEI is a considerable burden for health care workers in Australia. Further research is now required to determine the relationships, if any, between workers who suffer PEI and those who do not.     

Environmental Indicators of Biofuel Sustainability: What About Context?

Indicators of the environmental sustainability of biofuel production, distribution, and use should be selected, measured, and interpreted with respect to the context in which they are used. The context of a sustainability assessment includes the purpose, the particular biofuel production and distribution system, policy conditions, stakeholder values, location, temporal influences, spatial scale, baselines, and reference scenarios. We recommend that biofuel sustainability questions be formulated with respect to the context, that appropriate indicators of environmental sustainability be developed or selected from more generic suites, and that decision makers consider context in ascribing meaning to indicators. In addition, considerations such as technical objectives, varying values and perspectives of stakeholder groups, indicator cost, and availability and reliability of data need to be understood and considered. Sustainability indicators for biofuels are most useful if adequate historical data are available, information can be collected at appropriate spatial and temporal scales, organizations are committed to use indicator information in the decision-making process, and indicators can effectively guide behavior toward more sustainable practices.     

Experimental study on CO and CO2 emissions from spontaneous heating of coals at varying temperatures and O2 concentrations

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from spontaneous heating of three U.S. coal samples in an isothermal oven at temperatures between 50 and 110 °C. The oxygen (O₂) concentration of an oxygen/nitrogen (N₂) mixture flowing through the coal sample was 3, 5, 10, 15, and 21%, respectively. The temperature at the center of the coal sample was continuously monitored, while the CO, CO₂, and O₂ concentrations of the exit gas were continuously measured. The results indicate that the CO and CO₂ concentrations and the CO/CO₂ ratio increased when the initial temperature was increased. As the inlet O₂ concentration increased, the CO and CO₂ concentrations increased, while the CO/CO₂ ratios tended to converge to the same value. The ratio of CO/CO₂ was found to be independent of coal properties, approaching a constant value of 0.2. The maximum CO production rate correlated well with the maximum coal temperature rise. The apparent order of reaction for coal oxidation was estimated to be between 0.52 and 0.72. The experimental results in this study could be used for early detection and evaluation of a spontaneous heating in underground coal mines.     

The Arkansas Valley “Super Ditch”— An Analysis of Potential Economic Impacts1

McMahon, Tyler G. and Mark Griffin Smith, 2012. The Arkansas Valley “Super Ditch”— An Analysis of Potential Economic Impacts. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 00(0):000‐000. 1‐12. DOI: 10.1111/jawr.12005 Abstract: In Colorado’s Arkansas River basin, urban growth and harsh farming conditions have resulted in water transfers from agricultural to urban uses. Several studies have shown that these transfers have significant secondary economic impacts associated with the removal of irrigated land from production. In response, new methods of sharing water are being developed to allow water transfers that benefit both farm and urban economies, compared with previous permanent transfers that negatively impacted surrounding farm communities. One such project currently under development is the Arkansas Valley “Super Ditch,” which is a rotational crop fallowing plan based on long‐term water leasing designed to provide an annual supply of 25,000 acre‐feet of water (31.6 Mm³). This article analyzes the net benefits of implementing the “Super Ditch” for both the farmers and the surrounding community.     

Social learning and sustainable communities: An interim assessment of research into sustainable communities projects in the UK

Abstract

The delivery of many of the most pressing environmental issues will rely on changes in environmental attitudes and behaviour at community level. At a UN Special Session in 1997, the British Government highlighted its initiatives on Local Agenda 21 (LA21) and Going for Green (GFG) as significant advances. This paper adds a new perspective, drawing on the range of experiences of some of the research teams that have been working with local authorities on pilot Sustainable Community Projects (SCPs) in England and Scotland. It sheds light on three substantive themes: the tensions inherent in the implementation of internationally and nationally agreed goals through local action; the ambiguity of local agencies acting as facilitators of community ownership of processes, and the requirements for successful partnership between local authorities and higher education.     

A fast and accurate method for specific detection and quantification of the bloom-forming microalgae Karlodinium veneficum in the marine environment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Karlodinium veneficum is a toxic benthic globally distributed dinoflagellate which has direct impacts on human health and the environment. Early and...     

Asian gliriform origin for arctostylopid mammals

Arctostylopids are common in Late Palaeocene and Early Eocene mammal faunas of Asia, but they are rare in North America. From the time of their first discovery, arctostylopids were grouped with the strictly endemic South American Notoungulata based on their strikingly similar dental morphology. This relationship was challenged based on dental morphology of more recently discovered arctostylopids and on supposed tarsal morphology (based on unassociated material) of the Asian arctostylopid Palaeostylops. Therefore, Arctostylopidae were placed in a separate order, Arctostylopida, of enigmatic affinities. Many authors, however, continue to unite Arctostylopidae and Notoungulata based on dental similarities. In the Late Palaeocene Subeng site in Inner Mongolia, we identified the Palaeostylops tarsals based on their size and abundance. This identification is supported by comparison to unpublished Arctostylops tarsals from the North American Clarkforkian, derived from a semi-articulated skeleton also including dental material. Tarsal morphology shows moderate similarity to the gliriform Pseudictops, and strong resemblance to the tarsally conservative gliroid Rhombomylus. Hence, Arctostylopidae may best be grouped with Asian non-gliroid Gliriformes, which we interpret as having dispersed into North America in the Late Palaeocene.Pieter Missiaen is an aspirant of the Research Foundation-Flanders (RF-Flanders)     

Food and predators affect egg production in song sparrows

Although the possibility that food and predators may interact in limiting avian populations has long been recognized, there have been few attempts to test this experimentally in the field. We conducted a manipulative food addition experiment on the demography of Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) across sites that varied in predator abundance, near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, over three consecutive breeding seasons. We previously showed that food and predators had interactive effects on annual reproductive success (young fledged per female). Here, we report the effects on egg production. Our results show that food limits the total number of eggs laid over the breeding season ("total egg production") and that interactive food and predator effects, including food effects on nest predation, determine how those eggs are "parceled out" into different nests. Food addition alone significantly affected total egg production, and there was no significant interannual variability in this result. At the same time, both food and predators affected the two determinants of total egg production: "clutch number" (total number of clutches laid) and average clutch size. Both clutch number and size were affected by a food x predator x year interaction. Clutch number was lower at low-predator locations because there was less nest predation and thus less renesting. Food addition also significantly reduced nest predation, but there was significant interannual variation in this effect. This interannual variation was responsible for the food x predator x year interactions because the larger the effect of food on nest predation in a given year, the smaller was the effect of food on clutch number; and the smaller the effect of food on clutch number, the larger was the effect of food on clutch size. Potential predator and year effects on total egg production were thus cancelled out by an inverse relationship between clutch number and clutch size. We suggest that combined food and predator effects on demography could be the norm in both birds and mammals.