Organizational Factors Affecting Safety Implementation in Food Companies in Thailand

Thai food industry employs a massive number of skilled and unskilled workers. This may result in an industry with high incidences and accident rates. To improve safety and reduce the accident figures, this paper investigates factors influencing safety implementation in small, medium, and large food companies in Thailand. Five factors, i.e., management commitment, stakeholders’ role, safety information and communication, supportive environment, and risk, are found important in helping to improve safety implementation. The statistical analyses also reveal that small, medium, and large food companies hold similar opinions on the risk factor, but bear different perceptions on the other 4 factors. It is also found that to improve safety implementation, the perceptions of safety goals, communication, feedback, safety resources, and supervision should be aligned in small, medium, and large companies.     

The impact of implementation of the requirements of Standard No. OHSAS 18001:2007 to reduce the number of injuries at work and financial costs in the Republic of Croatia

This article contains the results of research into the impact of implementation of the requirements mentioned in Standard No. OHSAS 18001:2007 to reduce the number of injuries at work and the financial costs incurred in this way. The study was conducted on a determined sample by a written questionnaire survey method in the Republic of Croatia. The objective of the empirical research is to determine the impact of implementation of the requirements of Standard No. OHSAS 18001:2007 to reduce the number of injuries at work and financial costs in Croatia in business organizations that implement these requirements. To provide a broader picture, the research included the collection and analysis of data on the impact of the Standard No. OHSAS 18001:2007 on accidents and fatalities at work. Research findings are based on the analysis of performed statistical data where correlation and regression analysis has been applied.     

Contrasting stories on overcoming governance challenges: the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) has provided the European Member States with a range of interacting governance challenges. This article studies three of these (the need for new administrative arrangements, public participation, and the enforced strict time frame). It questions how these interacting governance challenges were addressed in implementing the WFD in the Netherlands – a particularly interesting country since the European Commission assesses its implementation process in relatively positive terms, while an in-depth study reported on in this article tells a contrasting story. Based on this study, the article concludes that especially the interaction effects between the governance challenges may help us to better understand the outcome of the WFD-implementation process, and to provide more suitable advice as to how to improve the implementation process in future rounds.     

简析锰矿中的杂质对软锰矿烟气脱硫的影响

简述了中国锰矿资源的特点,简析了锰矿中的杂质对软锰矿烟气脱硫体系的影响,并在矿石中杂质对体系pH缓冲能力分析的基础上,将软锰矿分为高碱性矿石、中碱性矿石和低碱性矿石。     

Environmental Protection Bureau Leadership at the Provincial Level in China: Examining Diverging Career Backgrounds and Appointment Patterns

This paper analyses the career backgrounds of local government officials in provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in China and explains the appointment patterns of Chinese EPB bureaucrats. Using biographical information of provincial EPB heads and drawing on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, this paper finds that only one-fourth of the provincial EPB heads were promoted through the bureau ranks within the EPBs, while the remaining three-fourths were appointed from positions outside the environment field. Further, nearly all EPB heads' professional backgrounds and associated networks can be clearly categorized as environmental, business, provincial government, or local government oriented. This paper delineates these four types of Chinese EPB leaders and explains why an awareness of the different professional orientations is critical to understanding environmental regulation and protection in China. These findings have implications for inferring the unique characteristics of a province's EPB leadership, the implementation capacities of provincial EPBs, and the appointment preferences of provincial leaders.     

Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China's Local Environmental Politics

The obvious paradox within China's environmental politics is the big gap between the central government's policy and its implementation outcomes at local levels. Despite concerns about implementation at the local level, much about the role of central governments in China's local environmental politics is still poorly understood. This article examines how the incentive structure set by the central authorities affects the policy implementation gap at the local level. Drawing on fieldwork and document analysis, this article argues that the incentives set by the central government regarding environmental policy implementation at local levels are perversely structured, meaning that the central government provides much more incentive for local governments' non-implementation or poor implementation of its environmental policies than it provides for full implementation. The central government's failure to encourage—politically, financially, as well as morally—local government officials to appropriately implement environmental policies can partly explain the production of the policy implementation gap at the local level. This implementation gap cannot be overcome by efforts at the local level unless the central government takes significant measures to address the perverse incentive structure embedded in the overall structure of China's local environmental politics.     

温拌阻燃沥青混合料阻燃效果评价

通过氧指数、质量损失率及路用性能试验,研究EC130温拌剂、FRMAX型阻燃剂对沥青混合料阻燃效果的影响。试验结果显示,相比普通沥青混合料,阻燃沥青混合料、温拌阻燃沥青混合料氧指数分别增加23.3%、25.6%,质量损失率减小28.0%、32.0%,残留动稳定度增加14.0%、16.1%,残留最大弯拉应变增加14.1%、17.1%,冻融劈裂强度比增加5.3%、9.0%。相比普通沥青路面,阻燃沥青路面、温拌阻燃沥青路面发生火灾时能够减少34.0%、41.1%的毒害气体生成,并减少路面修补所需的混合料质量。其次得出普通沥青路面、阻燃沥青路面及温拌阻燃沥青路面的质量损失率、残留动稳定度、残留最大弯拉应变、残留冻融劈裂强度比与燃烧时间的关系模型。结果表明:阻燃剂对沥青混合料的阻燃效果显著;温拌剂有助于阻燃剂更好地发挥阻燃作用,降低火灾对道路的破坏,降低隧道火灾发生时有害气体的生成,提升隧道安全性。     

滤床熟化周期及其主要影响因素的研究

阐述滤床熟化的概念及其形成机理,对影响熟化床层的因素进行了试验研究,结果表明进水浊度、混凝效果及洗砂量是影响熟化床层的主要因素。由于集成型给水处理设备的表面滤层一直处于熟化状态,而滤层水流方向的深处滤料始终处于清洁状态,砂滤器内始终保持一种动态的平衡关系,滤床运行在熟化后的有效过滤期,因而能够保证较高的出水水质。     

Performance of a water hyacinth （Eichhornia crassipes） system in the treatment of wastewater from a duck farm and the effects of using water hyacinth as duck feed

Nowadays, intensive breeding of poultry and livestock of large scale has made the treatment of its waste and wastewater an urgent environmental issue, which motivated this study. A wetland of 688 m2 was constructed on an egg duck farm, and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was chosen as an aquatic plant for the wetland and used as food for duck production. The objectives of this study were to test the role of water hyacinth in purifying nutrient-rich wastewater and its effects on the ducks’ feed intake, egg laying performance and egg quality. This paper shows that the constructed wetland removed as much as 64.44% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 21.78% of total nitrogen (TN) and 23.02% of total phosphorus (TP). Both dissolved oxygen (DO) and the transparency of the wastewater were remarkably improved, with its transparency 2.5 times higher than that of the untreated wastewater. After the ducks were fed with water hyacinth, the average daily feed intake and the egg-laying ratio in the test group were 5.86% and 9.79% higher, respectively, than in the control group; the di erences were both significant at the 0.01 probability level. The egg weight in the test group was 2.36% higher than in the control group (P < 0.05), but the feed conversion ratios were almost the same. The eggshell thickness and strength were among the egg qualities significantly increased in ducks fed with water hyacinth.We concluded that a water hyacinth system was e ective for purifying wastewater from an intensive duck farm during the water hyacinth growing season, as harvested water hyacinth had an excellent performance as duck feed. We also discussed the limitations of the experiment.     

Highly active mixed-phase TiO2 photocatalysts fabricated at low temperature and the correlation between phase composition and photocatalytic activity

The idea of varying volume ratio of water to ethanol in solvent was firstly employed to yield phase composition controllable mixedphase titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalysts via a low temperature solvothermal route at 353 K. It was found that anatase contents increase from 0 to 100% with increase of ethanol contents in solvent. The mixed-phase TiO2 with 60% anatase content exhibited the best photocatalytic activity in photodecomposing formaldehyde (FAD) under UV light irradiation, which increases by about ...