Improving the health and safety of 911 emergency call centre agents: an evaluability assessment of a knowledge transfer strategy

A knowledge transfer (KT) strategy was implemented by the IRSST, an occupational health and safety research institute established in Québec (Canada), to improve the prevention of psychological and musculoskeletal problems among 911 emergency call centre agents. An evaluability assessment was conducted in which each aspect of the KT approach was documented systematically to determine whether the strategy had the potential to be evaluated in terms of its impact on the targeted population. A review of the literature on KT in occupational health and safety and on the evaluation of such KT programmes, along with the development of a logic model based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, indicated that the KT strategy was likely to have had a positive impact in the 911 emergency call centre sector. Implications for future research are discussed.     

New ternary water-soluble support from self-assembly of β-cyclodextrin-ionic liquid and an anionic polymer for a dialysis device

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - We developed a new hybrid material resulting from an innovative supramolecular tripartite association between an ionic liquid covalently immobilized...     

Photocatalytic degradation of methylbutandioic acid (MBA) in aqueous TiO2 suspension: influences of MBA adsorption on the solid semi-conductor

In the present work we describe the photocatalytic degradation of methylbutandioic acid (MBA), focusing particularly on adsorption of the MBA on TiO₂ surface. We observe a very fast surface carboxylate formation, a decrease of the surface carboxylates during the reaction and an apparent zero order kinetic for the degradation of MBA. We conclude that the main way of MBA degradation is its reaction in the solution, and not on the surface of TiO₂. The influence of the surface carboxylates on the efficiency of the catalyser is under study.     

Factors affecting the detection distances of reef fish: implications for visual counts

Detection patterns of coral reef fish were assessed from the meta-analysis of distance sampling surveys performed by visual census in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, from 1986 to 1999. From approximately 100,000 observations relating to 593 species, the frequency distributions of fish detection distances perpendicular to the transect line were compared according to species characteristics and sampling conditions. The shape and extension of these detection profiles varied markedly with fish size, shyness, and crypticity, indicating strong differences of detectability across species. Detection of very small and cryptic fish decreased strongly 1 m away from the line. Conversely, sightings of shy and large species were excessively low in the first meters due to diver avoidance prior to detection. The larger the fish, the greater the fleeing distance. Distance data underscore how inconsistent detectability biases across species and sites can affect the accuracy of visual censuses when assessing coral reef fish populations.     

Supporting evidences for vegetation-enhanced stormwater infiltration in bioretention systems: a comprehensive review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Stormwater mitigation efficiency of bioretention systems relies for a large part on their capacity to infiltrate rapidly received runoff. Within this...     

Analysis of a population of magnetotactic bacteria of the Gulf of Gabès,Tunisia

The occurrence of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) on a Tunisian marine coast exposed to heavy metals pollution (Sfax, Gulf of Gabès, Mediterranean Sea) was investigated. The MTB population of this Southern Mediterranean coast was compared to the MTB populations previously investigated on the French Northern Mediterranean coast. A dominant MTB coccus morphotype was observed by microscopy analysis. By pyrosequencing technology, the analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rDNA) revealed as much as 33 operational taxonomic sequence units (OTUs) close to sequences of MTB accessible in the databases. The majority were close to MTB sequences of the “Med group” of α-Proteobacteria. Among them, a dominant OTU_001 (99 % of the MTB sequences) affiliated within the Magnetococcales order was highlighted. Investigating the capacities of this novel bacterium to be used in bioremediation and/or depollution processes could be envisaged.     

Joint propagation of variability and imprecision in assessing the risk of groundwater contamination

Estimating risks of groundwater contamination often require schemes for representing and propagating uncertainties relative to model input parameters. The most popular method is the Monte Carlo method whereby cumulative probability distributions are randomly sampled in an iterative fashion. The shortcoming of the approach, however, arises when probability distributions are arbitrarily selected in situations where available information is incomplete or imprecise. In such situations, alternative modes of information representation can be used, for example the nested intervals known as “possibility distributions”. In practical situations of groundwater risk assessment, it is common that certain model parameters may be represented by single probability distributions (representing variability) because there are data to justify these distributions, while others are more faithfully represented by possibility distributions (representing imprecision) due to the partial nature of available information. This paper applies two recent methods, designed for the joint-propagation of variability and imprecision, to a groundwater contamination risk assessment. Results of the joint-propagation methods are compared to those obtained using both interval analysis and the Monte Carlo method with a hypothesis of stochastic independence between model parameters. The two joint-propagation methods provide results in the form of families of cumulative distributions of the probability of exceeding a certain value of groundwater concentration. These families are delimited by an upper cumulative distribution and a lower distribution respectively called Plausibility and Belief after evidence theory. Slight differences between the results of the two joint-propagation methods are explained by the different assumptions regarding parameter dependencies. Results highlight the point that non-conservative results may be obtained if single cumulative probability distributions are arbitrarily selected for model parameters in the face of imprecise information and the Monte Carlo method is used under the assumption of stochastic independence. The proposed joint-propagation methods provide upper and lower bounds for the probability of exceeding a tolerance threshold. As this may seem impractical in a risk-management context, it is proposed to introduce “a-posteriori subjectivity” (as opposed to the “a-priori subjectivity” introduced by the arbitrary selection of single probability distributions) by defining a single indicator of evidence as a weighted average of Plausibility and Belief, with weights to be defined according to the specific context.