Moving FOCUS – The Fire Service Organizational Culture of Safety survey – From research to practice

Introduction: FOCUS, the Fire Service Organizational Culture of Safety survey, has evolved from a research to practice enterprise within the United States fire and rescue service. The FOCUS tool was developed through a FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Research & Development grant. Then it moved to practice in the field. To date over 35,000 firefighters have participated. A current FEMA Fire Prevention & Safety grant can support FOCUS assessment in up to 1,000 fire departments, with the potential of nearly 120,000 respondents. With each funding cycle, the goal of the FOCUS program is to grow and measure its research to practice impact. Methods: We describe how FOCUS safety culture results are disseminated to fire service stakeholders. By utilizing customized reports and a training curriculum we demonstrate how FOCUS is moving research to practice by: (1) illustrating how survey results can be delivered effectively to practitioners, (2) providing examples of how fire departments are using results, and (3) sharing the reactions of the fire service to the FOCUS instrument, reports, and our flagship data training curriculum – Culture Camp. Results' Conclusions: Qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed to demonstrate the impact and acceptance of the FOCUS report and Culture Camps. Stakeholders reflect on the report and the experience of having quantitative safety culture data. Culture Camps are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively using a matching game exercise, pre/post-test, a fire department teach back, and a Qualtrics evaluation. Practical Applications: Traditionally, the fire service has focused on reducing negative safety outcomes. FOCUS is helping shift their attention further upstream in the prevention pathway through the measurement of important organizational outcomes. The research to practice evolution of the FOCUS program may hold utility for other occupational groups when considering how to steadily move occupational health and safety research to practice in the field for measurable impact.     

地铁站附属地下餐饮空间噪声特征分析

利用专业噪声测量设备及噪声频谱分析设备,对地铁站附属地下餐饮空间区域噪声进行监测,绘制噪声小时频谱。经分析发现地铁附属地下餐饮空间声环境会受到客流、空间位置及餐铺建筑结构影响,因此在该类空间进行降噪设计中应充分考虑这些因素的影响。     

时间因素对钻屑瓦斯解吸指标K1值测定的影响分析

针对时间因素对钻屑瓦斯解吸指标K1测定结果的影响,采用恒温瓦斯放散试验深入分析钻屑瓦斯解吸指标K1测定理论的准确性,总结因时间因素导致K1值测定误差所带来的现场问题。研究结果表明:K1值的测定误差与时间关系密切,测定启动时间越晚,误差越大;测定启动时间由第1 min延后至第2 min,绝对误差和相对误差最大值分别增加0.081 cm3/(g·min1/2)和2.20%;高瓦斯压力条件矿井或煤层的局部高瓦斯压力区域、构造煤发育区的钻屑瓦斯解吸指标K1值测定结果偏低,测定误差偏大。研究结果可为煤与瓦斯突出预测水平的提升提供技术支撑。     

Can we gain precision by sampling with probabilities proportional to size in surveying recent landscape changes in the Netherlands?

Seventy-two squares of 100 ha were selected by stratified random sampling with probabilities proportional to size (pps) to survey landscape changes in the period 1996–2003. The area of the plots times the urbanization pressure was used as a size measure. The central question of this study is whether the sampling with probabilities proportional to size leads to gain in precision compared to equal probability sampling. On average 1.03 isolated buildings per 100 ha have been built, while 0.90 buildings per 100 ha have been removed, leading to a net change of 0.13 building per 100 ha. The area with unspoiled natural relief has been reduced by 2.3 ha per 100 ha, and the length of linear relicts by 137 m per 100 ha. On average 74 m of linear green elements have been planted per 100 ha, while 106 m have been removed, leading to a net change of −31 m per 100 ha. For the state variables ‘unspoiled natural relief', ‘ linear relicts', ‘removed linear green elements', and ‘new – removed linear green elements' there is a gain in precision due to the pps-sampling. For the remaining state variables there is no gain or even a loss of precision (`new buildings', ‘removed buildings', ‘new – removed buildings', ‘new linear green elements'). Therefore, if many state variables must be monitored or when interest is not only in the change but also in the current totals, we recommend to keep things simple, and to select plots with equal probability.     

Linking Water Science to Policy: Results from a Series of National Workshops on Water

To ensure science better informs the decision-making process, researchers and policy/program managers need to understand and respect each other's way of working, culture and operational timelines. However, there is little practical guidance on how this should be done and even less documented experience with specific mechanisms that better link these two groups. The published literature on information transfer has largely emphasized the dissemination of standard packages of information to ill-defined constituencies whose needs for scientific information are not well understood. Environment Canada's National Water Research Institute, on behalf of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, led a series of “Linking Water Science to Policy Workshops” as one such mechanism by which recent science could be delivered to practitioners, and practitioners could identify their research needs to scientists and research managers. There is a pressing need to explore and share experiences using creative mechanisms for sustained dialogue and networking between scientists and policy and program managers. The lessons learned from the workshop series and the need for science to continually inform the decision-making process has particular relevance for Canada's Ecosystem Initiatives given their integrated, place-based focus on long-term restoration and protection, and the challenge of continually changing ecosystems.The Canadian Crown reserves the right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright.     

Shifting Baselines: Conveying Climate Change in Popular Music

Popular music is a generation-specific zeitgeist, while music affords otherwise unobtainable engagement with environmental themes. Despite being the most widespread form of music there is a paucity of scholarship on climate change vis-à-vis popular music. In turn, this article explores how popular music may provide a soundtrack that narrates the rapidity of contemporary biophysical change. Approaches of conveying versus communicating climate change in music are considered across a spectrum of musical forms, from contemporary and historical popular music to contemporary classical music and sound art. The article applies the framework of shifting baselines to music engaged with environmental change in order to formulate a closer relationship between objective and quantitative intergenerational biophysical change and subjective and qualitative socio-cultural change. To cease losing track of such inexorable degradation, the article speculates on future musical forms that may obviate such intergenerational myopia by conveying and/or communicating the unprecedented rapidity of biophysical change.     

Enhancing consultation practices on Air Quality Management in local authorities

Schedule 11 of the Environment Act 1995 underpins the requirement for consultation on air quality issues. The ongoing air quality review and assessment process represents one of the largest locally based science policy and communication initiatives ever undertaken in the UK. This paper outlines the practice of consultation and communication for Air Quality Management (AQM) and reviews the interaction between Environmental Health professionals, as the leading actor in the AQM process and other stakeholders involved in air quality consultation, including the public. Results are presented from a widespread questionnaire survey of English local authorities. Data indicate that the majority of air quality consultation has been carried out with statutory consultees (by sending the review and assessment reports) and the public (via websites and leaflets) in the form of information dissemination.     

“电改袋”技术在130t／h煤粉炉烟气除尘系统改造中的应用

介绍了“电改袋”除尘系统的工艺特征,分析了130t／h煤粉炉烟气除尘器系统改造为长袋低压脉冲袋式除尘器的技术方案。改造后,除尘器已经稳定运行1年多,各项技术指标均达到设计要求,环境效益与经济效益显著。     

Building the role of local government authorities towards the achievement of the human right to water in rural Tanzania

In recent decades, many changes have occurred in the approach to financing and operating water services in developing countries. The demand‐responsive approach is now adopted in many countries in a context of donor‐supported decentralization processes, which gives more responsibility to end users. However, the government's responsibility at different levels is enforced by the international recognition of the human right to water. This paper examines specific actions that build the role of local government authorities in this scenario. A collaboration between an international NGO and a rural district in Tanzania from 2006 to 2009 is used as an action research case study that is representative of local capacity‐building needs in decentralized contexts and rural areas. Three main challenges were detected: i) lack of reliable information; ii) poor allocation of resources in terms of equity; and iii) lack of long‐term community management support from the district. Two mechanisms were established: i) water point mapping as a tool for information and planning; and ii) a District Water and Sanitation Unit Support (DWUS) for community management. The results show how the framework provided by the goal of human right to water helps to define useful strategies for equity‐oriented planning and post‐project support at the local level.     

基于WTA的湿地周边农户受偿意愿及影响因素研究

为了实现鄱阳湖湿地生态系统的可持续发展,促进公平合理的湿地保护局面的形成,对鄱阳湖湿地周边农户家庭生产生活的基本情况、生态环境的认知、以及基于禁渔期、保护候鸟和封洲禁牧等保护措施的生态补偿意愿进行了深入调查。结果表明：（1）鄱阳湖周边农户的家庭收入与湿地紧密相关,湖区农户具有一定的湿地生态环境认知和生态保护意识;（2）193份有效问卷中愿意接受补偿的比例高达881%,农户户均生态补偿意愿为3399元/(a·户),由此估算出鄱阳湖湿地生态补偿额约为每年582亿元;（3）Tobit回归模型的计量分析结果表明,农户的受偿意愿受年龄、生态效益的认知及生态保护态度的显著影响,研究认为提高农户的生态保护意识、对湖区农户进行合理的生态补偿是解决湿地保护与可持续发展问题的关键。