Omnidirectional safety culture analysis and discussion for railway industry

On the basis of literature relevant to safety culture and investigation of the Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Management System (TOSHMS), the Omnidirectional Safety Culture Model (OSCM) was proposed in which a questionnaire composed of 18 safety dimensions was developed and used in safety culture evaluation. This questionnaire was reviewed by a focus group of employees with various backgrounds and was revised accordingly. Questionnaire items were selected and amended by considering the suggestions of experts; the Taiwan railway industry was surveyed as the questionnaire subject; and the current safety culture of the railway industry was extensively investigated. It was determined the railway employees place a higher emphasis on safety awareness and attitude as well as safe behavior, leading to the conclusion that they recognize the importance of safety and value human life over other matters. However, railway employees also believe that procurement management; safety encouragement and punishment; and safety rule have more room for improvement.     

基于模糊贴近度的组织安全文化评估方法

鉴于组织安全文化评估过程中,各因素指标及其相互作用关系具有模糊性,引入模糊数学理论,提出一种基于模糊贴近度的组织安全文化评估(SCA)方法。首先,构建组织安全文化因素指标体系以及确定SCA特征状态模式;其次,依据模糊语言隶属度函数以及特征状态模式,确定指标与SCA等级的隶属度;第三,确定指标与各等级的非对称贴近度,依据模糊贴近度判断矩阵进行评估决策;最后,以核电组织安全文化为例,通过对比分析进行方法的验证。实例分析结果的一致性表明:该方法能有效量化系统状态与各评估等级之间的贴近程度,能解决安全文化以及评估状态的模糊性问题,且评估结果与实际状态相吻合。     

Measuring implicit psychological constructs in organizational behavior: An example using psychological capital

Implicit psychological constructs are effective predictors of behavioral outcomes but are rarely used in organizational settings because of real or imagined problems with measurement validity and administration. To address these concerns, we present a means of assessing implicit constructs quickly and easily by using psychological capital as an example. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

民营中小企业安全文化建设探讨

企业安全文化建设对于企业安全管理起着至关重要的作用,民营中小企业作为我国经济体系的生力军,其安全管理工作必须注入新的安全管理理念、理论和方法。分析了民营中小企业安全文化建设的制约因素,在基于"本质安全、目标统一和全员参与"三个原则的基础上,初步构建由观念文化、制度文化、行为文化和物态文化四部分组成的民营中小企业安全文化建设框架,并提出相应的建设方法,对于民营中小企业的安全发展有着极其重要的意义。     

An approach to evaluation of sustainability for Guangzhou's urban ecosystem

Guangzhou has ambitions to build itself into a world class metropolis by 2010. Sustainable development is the only way to achieve this magnificent goal. Based on the ecological perspective of sustainable development and the principles of ecosystem integrity, this paper develops an approach for evaluation of sustainable development in Guangzhou between 1986 and 1995. A hierarchical evaluation system of four tiers of sustainability indicators was established. Using the method of fuzzy multistage synthetic evaluation, sustainability development level index, QIx, was calculated for the indicators at the B, C, D, and E tiers. Development stages were identified based on these index values. The coordination degree among the economic, social, and natural subsystems was also computed. Further, an overall sustainability index for each year was computed by combining the development level index and the coordination degree. It was found that the urban ecosystem in Guangzhou had generally become more sustainable, in spite of fluctuations in coordination degree. The development level index of the economic subsystem has surpassed that of social and natural subsystems since 1995. Appropriate measures must be taken to ensure coordinated development among the subsystems for the purpose of sustainable development.     

Book reviews and notices

The aim of sustainable development is to balance social, economic, and environmental needs. In order to justify the decisions they make, stakeholders must quantify the different impacts found in the operations and developments of companies and/or projects throughout their life cycle. However, as some areas are subjective in nature, the quantification process of the different impacts and the assessment of sustainable development performance become arduous tasks of development, validation, and application of scientific and empirical methods with the intrinsic objective of finding an agreement among the involved parties (i.e., stakeholders). Several environmental and sustainability assessment tools, instruments, processes, and methodologies have been developed; rating systems stand out and have gained attention and credibility, as demonstrated by the vast number of certified projects around the world and the widely-known usefulness and advantages of their application. The Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system presents an integrated approach to sustainability assessment by integrating three distinctive areas of knowledge: (1) sustainable development theory and fundamentals supports the ultimate goal of the rating system, which is to contribute to sustainability, with the aim of finding a path to balance social, economic, and environmental needs; (2) continual performance improvement becomes essential due to the duration of the projects, as it is critical to allow organizations or projects to improve performance over time; and (3) multi-criteria decision analysis assists with the assessment process through stakeholder engagement and participation, and the design and implementation of a criteria weighting system.     

Roles of digital technology in China's sustainable forestry development

China has the fifth largest forest area in the world and any change in China's forestry development will have inevitable impacts on global ecological sustainability. China has undergone excessive logging of natural forests and also made tremendous efforts in afforestation during the past half century. China's forestry is now going through a variety of transitions and several forestry programs have been implemented to drive forestry transitions. The goal of these actions is to protect ecological services of forests and sustain China's forestry development. These forestry programs are spatially sophisticated and cannot be successfully implemented without accurate and transparent forest/forestry information. A variety of digital technologies, including forest modeling, remote sensing, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and visualization, have been applied in handling diverse information in China's forestry. Digital forestry is not just a theoretical concept in China. Our digital forestry experience in northeast China suggests that digital technology is both usable and useful in China's forestry development. Digital technology is playing an important interactive role in China's top-down forestry administration system. The analog-to-digital transition in technology is expected to lead to the success of forestry programs and forestry transitions in China.     

The use of the embryo‐culture techniques in the research on the Teratogenic and Mutagenic properties of metals†

Actually, embryos can be cultured from the one‐cell stage up to the blastocyst stage, and their development can be easily monitored at any time: severe effects caused by toxic compounds are traduced by rapid embryonic death, less pronounced effects can be expressed by a lowered cleavage activity or by an arrest of the development from a particular stage. The system can be improved by transferring the embryos at the blastocyst stage in another more complete medium where they can “implant”; and form an inner cell mass with differentiated ectoderm and endoderm. Since last years, it has also become possible to culture postimplantation rodent embryos for short periods involving a number of particularly critical stages of organogenesis, such as the formation and closure of the anterior neuropore. Embryo‐culture also represents a useful system to study cytogenetic effects of chemicals which are often linked to lethal or teratogenic effects. These different possibilities are illustrated by examples of studies already performed with metals, and dealing with their teratogenic and/or cytogenetic effects on pre‐ and postimplantation rodents.     

Genetic toxicology of metal compounds: An examination of appropriate cellular models †

Bacterial systems have not had success predicting metal carcinogenicity. Hypotheses explaining this failure are examined. Using a broad genetic endpoint, λ prophage induction, under sub‐toxic growing conditions, genotoxicity is seen for compounds of chromium, manganese, lead, molybdenum and tungsten. Copper, manganese, arsenic and molybdenum compounds enhanced UV mutagenesis in E. coli WP2.

The toxicity of metal compounds to cultured mammalian cells correlates well with rat oral LD₅₀ values. Whereas insolubility can present problems in bacterial studies, concentrations of metal compounds toxic to mammalian cells can be determined even in the presence of precipitate, and sometimes [Pb(NO₃)₂, BaCl₂ and BeCl₂] occurs only in its presence. PbS and MnS, which are insoluble, are much more toxic than the more soluble compounds Pb(NO₃)₂ and MnCl₂. These results demonstrate the importance of cellular phagocytosis of insoluble metal compounds as a factor in studying the toxicity and genotoxicity of metal compounds.     

植物微体遗存分析在第四纪环境研究中的应用:综述与展望

以孢粉、植硅体等为代表的植物微体遗存由于其分布广泛,容易保存,可反映母体植物类型的优点,在第四纪环境研究中得到了广泛应用。本文介绍了植物微体遗存的概念、常见类型,以及它们的提取方法和原理,综述了利用植物微体遗存重建古环境的传统方法和近年来发展的几种古植被与古气候定量重建方法,最后简述了植物微体遗存在年代测定、稳定同位素分析研究上的应用进展与实例。文末指出了现有研究方法的问题与不足,并对今后的多代用指标的综合研究提出了展望。