Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 2008. / Title from home page (viewed on Jul 28, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-12, Section: B, page: 7425. Adviser: Dong-Chul Seo.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-12, Section: B, page: 7413. Adviser: Mary C. White.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wake Forest University, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3294400. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-12, Section: B, page: 7973. Adviser: Michael Aschner.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6368. Adviser: Kenneth S. Suslick. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The rate of injury and death inadvertently caused by medical treatment is too high and exacts enormous human and financial costs. Each year in Britain and the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of patients are injured, ten of thousands are killed and billions of dollars are spent on additional health care due to iatrogenic harm. Health care organisations remain predominately human-centred in their approach to safety-that is, methods of avoiding error rely primarily on the resolve and vigilance of individual clinicians to avoid bad outcomes. However, this approach is becoming increasingly inadequate in the face of the steadily rising complexity of modern health care and the increasing number of procedures carried out each year. In other high-reliability organisations such as aviation and nuclear power generation, safety results not from the sheer effort of “operators”, but from in-depth analysis of problems and the removal and redesign of dangerous aspects of systems-the so-called systems approach. Here I present an evaluation of the integrated drug administration system (IDAS) as an example of the systems approach, intended to reorganise the way in which anaesthetists give drugs to improve performance and facilitate safe practice. The problem of drug error in anaesthesia is an important subset of iatrogenic harm in medicine. From the prospective study of 10806 conventional anaesthetics I define the rate of drug error in anaesthesia as one error in every 133 anaesthetics conducted-a rate five times higher than anything previously reported. In addition, anaesthetists rated the risk of harming a patient through drug error in the course of their career as high. I discuss the principles of safe system design, the psychology of error, and advanced systems safety concepts with respect to the design of the IDAS and the future of safety in medicine. In clinical use, the IDAS saved time before and during anaesthesia, and was rated by anaesthetists as significantly safer and more useable than conventional methods of drug administration. This work supports the hypothesis that error in anaesthesia can be reduced through the systematic analysis of its causes and the implementation of appropriate countermeasure strategies. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Este trabalho propõe diretrizes para a avaliação dos impactos da produção enxuta (PE) sobre as condições de trabalho de operadores de chão-de-fábrica, com ênfase no contexto da indústria da manufatura. As diretrizes foram aplicadas em um estudo de caso em uma linha de montagem de colheitadeiras de um fabricante de máquinas agrícolas que vem implementando, desde 2001, a PE como estratégia de produção em nível corporativo. Inicialmente, foi avaliado, qualitativamente, o nível de implementação das práticas enxutas (NIPE) na linha estudada. O instrumento de avaliação utilizado foi uma lista de verificação com 11 práticas de PE, subdivididas em 92 itens. A lista foi preenchida após a realização de 15 entrevistas com gerentes e supervisores de diversas áreas da empresa, observações diretas, análise de alguns padrões de trabalho e relato dos operadores. Em seguida, foram realizadas as seguintes atividades de campo para avaliar os impactos humanos da PE: a) entrevistas semi-estruturadas com seis técnicos e um engenheiro de segurança; b) coleta de dados de produção e segurança e saúde no trabalho; c) entrevistas semi-estruturadas com três grupos de dez operadores para análise da percepção destes sobre os aspectos positivos e negativos da PE, além de conduzir discussões de questões específicas desse sistema; d) aplicação de dois tipos de questionários, um para avaliar as condições atuais de trabalho (com 56 questões) e outro para avaliar as diferenças entre os sistemas antigo e novo de produção (com 42 questões), respondidos por 91 e 67 operadores, respectivamente, de um total de 122; e) retorno dos resultados dos questionários para um grupo de 65 operadores para validação da análise desses resultados. Os resultados das diversas etapas foram analisados e discutidos segundo uma estrutura de análise de dados por similaridade de assunto, denominadas de constructos. A avaliação da PE foi compilada no constructo NIPE e os impactos desta sobre as condições de trabalho foram organizados nos constructos de organização do trabalho, conteúdo do trabalho, melhoria contínua e segurança e saúde no trabalho. De forma geral, o estudo indicou que os operadores percebem de forma positiva suas condições de trabalho e que elas melhoraram em função da adoção das práticas de PE. / This study presents guidelines to evaluate the impacts of lean production (LP) on working conditions of front-line workers, emphasizing the context of manufacturing industry. The guidelines were tested in a case study carried out in the assembly line of a heavy machinery agricultural manufacturer. Since 2001 this manufacturer has been adopting LP as its manufacturing strategy at corporate level. As the first step of this study, the extent to which LP practices were adopted in the assembly line was assessed. The main assessment tool was a check-list that had 11 LP practices divided into 92 items. The check-list was filled out based on 15 interviews with managers and supervisors, direct observations, workers´ informal reports and the analysis of some work standards. Then, five activities were undertaken to assess the human impacts of LP: a) interviews with six safety specialists and one safety engineer; b) data collection on both health and safety and production performance; c) interviews with three groups formed by ten workers in order to detect their perceptions on both negative and positive impacts of LP – questions on the impacts of specific lean tools were also made; d) application of two types of questionnaires – one of them had the objective of evaluating perceptions on current working conditions (56 questions), the other aimed to evaluate perceptions on differences between the old and the current production system (42 questions); e) a feedback meeting to discuss with workers the results of the questionnaires. The results of all data collected were organized in five groups: level of implementation of LP practices; work organization, work content, continuous improvement and health and safety. Overall, the results pointed out that workers had a positive perception on their working environment and that working conditions have improved since LP was adopted.

Este trabalho propõe diretrizes para a avaliação dos impactos da produção enxuta (PE) sobre as condições de trabalho de operadores de chão-de-fábrica, com ênfase no contexto da indústria da manufatura. As diretrizes foram aplicadas em um estudo de caso em uma linha de montagem de colheitadeiras de um fabricante de máquinas agrícolas que vem implementando, desde 2001, a PE como estratégia de produção em nível corporativo. Inicialmente, foi avaliado, qualitativamente, o nível de implementação das práticas enxutas (NIPE) na linha estudada. O instrumento de avaliação utilizado foi uma lista de verificação com 11 práticas de PE, subdivididas em 92 itens. A lista foi preenchida após a realização de 15 entrevistas com gerentes e supervisores de diversas áreas da empresa, observações diretas, análise de alguns padrões de trabalho e relato dos operadores. Em seguida, foram realizadas as seguintes atividades de campo para avaliar os impactos humanos da PE: a) entrevistas semi-estruturadas com seis técnicos e um engenheiro de segurança; b) coleta de dados de produção e segurança e saúde no trabalho; c) entrevistas semi-estruturadas com três grupos de dez operadores para análise da percepção destes sobre os aspectos positivos e negativos da PE, além de conduzir discussões de questões específicas desse sistema; d) aplicação de dois tipos de questionários, um para avaliar as condições atuais de trabalho (com 56 questões) e outro para avaliar as diferenças entre os sistemas antigo e novo de produção (com 42 questões), respondidos por 91 e 67 operadores, respectivamente, de um total de 122; e) retorno dos resultados dos questionários para um grupo de 65 operadores para validação da análise desses resultados. Os resultados das diversas etapas foram analisados e discutidos segundo uma estrutura de análise de dados por similaridade de assunto, denominadas de constructos. A avaliação da PE foi compilada no constructo NIPE e os impactos desta sobre as condições de trabalho foram organizados nos constructos de organização do trabalho, conteúdo do trabalho, melhoria contínua e segurança e saúde no trabalho. De forma geral, o estudo indicou que os operadores percebem de forma positiva suas condições de trabalho e que elas melhoraram em função da adoção das práticas de PE. / This study presents guidelines to evaluate the impacts of lean production (LP) on working conditions of front-line workers, emphasizing the context of manufacturing industry. The guidelines were tested in a case study carried out in the assembly line of a heavy machinery agricultural manufacturer. Since 2001 this manufacturer has been adopting LP as its manufacturing strategy at corporate level. As the first step of this study, the extent to which LP practices were adopted in the assembly line was assessed. The main assessment tool was a check-list that had 11 LP practices divided into 92 items. The check-list was filled out based on 15 interviews with managers and supervisors, direct observations, workers´ informal reports and the analysis of some work standards. Then, five activities were undertaken to assess the human impacts of LP: a) interviews with six safety specialists and one safety engineer; b) data collection on both health and safety and production performance; c) interviews with three groups formed by ten workers in order to detect their perceptions on both negative and positive impacts of LP – questions on the impacts of specific lean tools were also made; d) application of two types of questionnaires – one of them had the objective of evaluating perceptions on current working conditions (56 questions), the other aimed to evaluate perceptions on differences between the old and the current production system (42 questions); e) a feedback meeting to discuss with workers the results of the questionnaires. The results of all data collected were organized in five groups: level of implementation of LP practices; work organization, work content, continuous improvement and health and safety. Overall, the results pointed out that workers had a positive perception on their working environment and that working conditions have improved since LP was adopted.

No description available.

As nanotecnologias são um conjunto multidisciplinar de técnicas que manipulam a matéria em escala nanométrica, mais precisamente partículas abaixo de 100 nanômetros, cujas características por conta do tamanho diminuto são essencialmente diferentes daquelas encontradas no material em sua forma macro. Em função destas novas propriedades dos materiais, existem lacunas de conhecimento relativas aos efeitos destas partículas sobre o organismo humano e sobre o meio ambiente. Embora ainda sejam consideradas tecnologias emergentes, seu crescimento é cada vez mais acelerado e o número de produtos que fazem uso de nanotecnologia em alguma fase de sua produção continua crescendo, bem como o número de pesquisadores envolvidos com o tema. Considerando este cenário e a literatura pertinente, este trabalho objetivou desenvolver uma sistemática de ações de segurança e saúde no trabalho (SST) para laboratórios de pesquisa com atividades de nanotecnologia. Esta sistemática é fundamentada na estrutura das diretrizes para um sistema de gestão de segurança e saúde no trabalho proposto pela Organização Internacional do Trabalho (OIT). A esta base foram agregadas diversas recomendações nanoespecíficas, sendo desta maneira consolidada a Sistemática de SST para Laboratórios com Nanotecnologia (S-SST/LabNano). Além da comparação desta sistemática com outras apresentadas por outros autores, uma pesquisa survey foi realizada, com o propósito de obter um retrato da SST em laboratórios com atividades de nanotecnologia no Brasil. De forma complementar, objetivando a adequação prática, a S-SST/LabNano foi avaliada em relação a realidade de SST encontrada em laboratório. O resultado final da tese, além da sistemática em si (S-SST/LabNano), almeja oferecer elementos de reflexão que possam auxiliar a gestão e o controle de riscos ocupacionais associados às nanotecnologias. / Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary set of techniques that manipulates material at nanoscale, precisely particles below 100 nanometers whose characteristics, due to the small size, are essentially different from those found in material while in macro format. In the light of these new properties of materials, there are knowledge gaps regarding the effects of these particles on the human body and the environment. Although still considered emerging technologies, their growth is increasingly accelerated and the number of products that use nanotechnology in some stage of its production continues to grow, as well as the number of researchers involved with the topic. Given this scenario and its relevant literature, this study aimed to develop a proposed methodology of actions in occupational safety and health (OSH) to research laboratories with nanotechnology activities. This methodology is based on the structure of the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines for a management system in safety and health at work. Several specific recommendations were added, named Participatory Nano Safety Lab (PNSL). Besides the confrontation of this proposal with other authors, a research survey was conducted with the purpose to obtain a general picture of the OSH in laboratories with nanotechnology activities in Brazil. In a complementary way, aiming a practical suitability, the PNSL was confronted with the reality of OSH found in laboratory. The final result of this thesis, besides the methodology itself (PNSL), aims to provide elements of reflection that may assist management and occupational risk control associated to nanotechnology.

The original purpose or motive of the sacrifice, rooted in ceremonious or religious acts, was as a gift to a centralized power that ensured a common good or prosperity. In modern capitalist society, sacrifice is about “a willingness to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term gains” (Keenan 2005: 11) of freedom and fortune. What is concealed in this propaganda is that true freedom and prosperity is mostly restricted to a few exceedingly privileged and powerful individuals – and every year, these ‘short-term’ sacrifices include the millions of lives of the disciplined and altruistic workers that the system supposedly admires. Within this context, in recent years a growing recognition of the social and economic harms that corporations are capable of causing, specifically against workers and members of the public, led to the development of laws in several countries aimed at corporate manslaughter and corporate criminal liability. However, despite these legal advancements, the law continues to fail at protecting the victims of corporate harm and wrongdoing, and to adequately hold corporations and their actors accountable for their crimes. This research asks the following question: what role does corporate manslaughter law play in the reproduction of sacrifice and, in the process, violence and capitalist hegemony? This is done by interrogating the introduction and enforcement of corporate manslaughter law in the United Kingdom and the struggle for corporate criminal accountability from the socio-historical perspective of advanced neoliberal capitalism. Employing a theoretical lens that draws together literatures on sacrifice, law, and violence, this research shows that the law (re)produces particular understandings of sacrifice and violence that benefit the powerful, therein normalizing death and dying at work as the natural and largely unavoidable costs of modern employment relations. The research concludes that, to better address the systemic violence faced by workers, we must consider a restructuring of the legal enterprise and the ‘common sense’ understandings of sacrifice, violence, and harm that accompany it.