Older Adults at Increased Risk as Pedestrians in Victoria,Australia: An Examination of Crash Characteristics and Injury Outcomes

Objectives: Engaging in active transport modes (especially walking) is a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to driving and may be particularly beneficial for older adults. However, older adults are a vulnerable group: they are at higher risk of injury compared with younger adults, mainly due to frailty and may be at increased risk of collision due to the effects of age on sensory, cognitive, and motor abilities. Moreover, our population is aging, and there is a trend for the current cohort of older adults to maintain mobility later in life compared with previous cohorts. Though these trends have serious implications for transport policy and safety, little is known about the contributing factors and injury outcomes of pedestrian collision. Further, previous research generally considers the older population as a homogeneous group and rarely considers the increased risks associated with continued ageing.

Method: Collision characteristics and injury outcomes for 2 subgroups of older pedestrians (65–74 years and 75+ years) were examined by extracting data from the state police–reported crash dataset and hospital admission/emergency department presentation data over the 10-year period between 2003 and 2012. Variables identified for analysis included pedestrian characteristics (age, gender, activity, etc.), crash location and type, injury characteristics and severity, and duration of hospital stay. A spatial analysis of crash locations was also undertaken to identify collision clusters and the contribution of environmental features on collision and injury risk.

Results: Adults over 65 years were involved in 21% of all pedestrian collisions. A high fatality rate was found among older adults, particularly for those aged 75 years and older: this group had 3.2 deaths per 100,000 population, compared to a rate of 1.3 for 65- to 74-year-olds and 0.7 for adults below 65 years of age. Older pedestrian injuries were most likely to occur while crossing the carriageway; they were also more likely to be injured in parking lots, at driveway intersections, and on sidewalks compared to younger cohorts. Spatial analyses revealed older pedestrian crash clusters on arterial roads in urban shopping precincts. Significantly higher rates of hospital admissions were found for pedestrians over the age of 75 years and for abdominal, head, and neck injuries; conversely, older adults were underrepresented in emergency department presentations (mainly lower and upper extremity injuries), suggesting an increased severity associated with older pedestrian injuries. Average length of hospital stay also increased with increasing age.

Conclusion: This analysis revealed age differences in collision risk and injury outcomes among older adults and that aggregate analysis of older pedestrians can distort the significance of risk factors associated with older pedestrian injuries. These findings have implications that extend to the development of engineering, behavioral, and enforcement countermeasures to address the problems faced by the oldest pedestrians and reduce collision risk and improve injury outcomes.     

高温职业危害风险分级与分级管理研究

为进一步研究高温作业职业危害风险强度,探讨高温作业环境条件下环境温度与劳动强度对劳动者健康的影响及其联合作用。采用高温环境模拟仓实验与建筑行业露天高温作业现场调研和测试相结合的方法,以高温环境和心血管体能负荷值(%CVL)作为高温作业危害风险分级的主要参照指标。提出了高温作业职业危害风险分级的技术方法和针对不同程度高温职业危害风险管理措施的具体建议,为保护高温作业劳动者安全与健康提供科学依据。     

通用电气风险评估模式在我国中小企业干预中的应用及效果评估

为提高对职业危害的识别和控制能力,采用跨国企业风险评估模式帮助我国中小企业改善职业健康与安全管理。选用通用电气环境健康安全管理体系中的11个相关元素作为评估工具,对企业开展干预,并评估效果。结果表明,干预效果较好,工人接触有害物质的水平明显降低,个体防护用品使用率和正确使用率有较大提高,职业危害风险评估符合率有明显提高。应用风险评估模式干预的示范企业,职业卫生现状得到有效改善,为企业管理提供了借鉴。     

Multi-level water governance – the case of the Morsa River Basin in Norway

Management of fresh water resources meets a range of often conflicting interests. Waterways usually run across political and administrative borders and hence make management difficult and collective action politically challenging. In order to meet these challenges, multi-level bioregional approaches to water management have been called for. Such an approach is institutionalised in the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper presents the experiences of the Morsa water sub-district in southern Norway, a pilot for implementing the WFD. The paper discusses Morsa in the light of four principles for multi-level water governance: management on a bioregional scale; polycentric governance; public participation; and an experimental approach to water governance. Contrary to widely held assumptions that collective action in polycentric networks will be difficult because actors will follow their own narrow interests, the findings demonstrate how this is not an absolute truth, and how social action cannot be fully explained by rational action theories. The analysis concludes that the relative success of Morsa relates to a complex of factors, including openness of practices and active involvement of key actors, strong but including leadership, and a knowledge based ‘hybrid’ type of multi-level network combining horizontal and vertical network governance.     

Managers as drivers of CSR in state-owned enterprises

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly required not only of private sector companies, but also of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), whose main function is to provide services to society and not principally to obtain financial reward. The important role played by managers in implementing CSR has been demonstrated by prior research. The objective of this paper is to examine how managers of SOEs perceive the concept of CSR, the reasons for their involvement and how it is integrated into everyday business practices. In addition, we examine whether managers' attitudes towards CSR policies are influenced by their personal profiles and by the sector in which the SOEs work. We find that, although these managers are aware of the importance of the CSR principles underlying their activities and understand the meaning, scope and dimensions of CSR, there remains an evident need to enhance the application of CSR policies among the strategies of SOEs. The manager profile and the sector in which the SOEs work both have a strong influence on their behaviour regarding CSR issues.     

Adaptive co-management and network learning in the Room for the River programme

Adaptive co-management and learning are paramount for integrated flood risk management. Relevant literature focuses on adaptation at the level of physical and societal systems. The level of projects and programmes is largely overlooked, but they comprise interventions that adapt our physical systems and they provide opportunities for learning to contribute to transitions of societal systems. This paper aims to increase understanding on how learning takes place and can be stimulated within a programme. The mixed-method case study of Room for the River, a €2.3 billion programme for flood risk management, shows that a programme can be organised using various governance arrangements to stimulate learning and be a means for adaptive co-management to deliver upon environmental objectives.     

水电厂设备设施风险的动态分级研究

为保障水电厂安全运行,根据水电厂设备设施构成要素,系统分析其风险,建立涵盖水轮机及其辅助设备、发电机及其辅助设备、计算机监控系统及自动装置、电气一次设备、电气二次设备、水工建筑物及金属结构、机具与防护设施等因素在内的评价指标体系。采用欧氏距离定义样本差异,标准化处理属性特征值,通过聚类迭代,开发水电厂设备设施风险的动态分级方法。研究结果表明:水电厂设备设施故障风险在每年的第2,3季度明显大于第1,4季度,并且随着时间推移,各季度设备设施故障风险同比有增加的趋势,风险分级结果与设备设施故障的变化趋势基本吻合。     

贮罐类重大危险源三维风险分级模型研究

为了实现重大危险源分级监管,基于风险管理理论,建立贮罐类重大危险源定性三维分级模型和风险定量分级模型。提出风险评价敏感性因素,选取可能性影响因素、严重性影响因素、敏感性影响因素3类风险评价指标。使用层次分析法(AHP)计算贮罐风险分级指标权重。根据风险可接受准则,将贮罐类重大危险源风险等级划分为4级,实现基于三维风险模型的贮罐类重大危险源快速分级。结果表明:用贮罐类重大危险源三维风险分级模型,通过简单数学模型计算贮罐风险值,能为企业提供风险分级标准,有助于实现政府对贮罐类重大危险源分级监管。     

地铁运营突发事件应急响应模式的马尔科夫链分析

为研究城市轨道交通网络化运营线路的风险传导规律和耦合关系,构建基于随机Petri网的同构马尔科夫链模型。通过模型分析突发事件应急响应模式中线路之间的相互影响,以及各线路启动突发事件应急响应模式对整个系统稳态的影响。结果表明,用该模型可从数学上研究城市轨道交通运营线路之间的传导规律和耦合关系,找出影响整个应急指挥系统效率的关键因素,最终提高地铁应对突发事件的能力。     

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the local level

National authorities in many countries aim at having climate change adaptation mainstreamed into existing policy domains in order to achieve coherence and synergies, and to avoid mal-adaptation. Because of local variations in climate change impacts, the lion's share of climate adaptation work will have to take place at the local level. This means also that the mainstreaming process needs to occur locally. This article examines the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into existing sectors in five Norwegian municipalities. Applying theories of mainstreaming and policy integration we find that policy development is slower, but perhaps more robust in the municipalities that have chosen a horizontal, cross-sectoral approach to mainstreaming than in the municipalities that have chosen a vertical sector approach to mainstreaming.