Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

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Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

The oil and gas industry in Libya has suffered a number of health and safety accidents including environmental disasters due to the nature of the work involved and the hazardous materials it handles in all facets of exploration and production. Such issues have hitherto not received due attention by the Libyan Authorities. The fact that strict HSE assessment standards are neither well-defined nor established in Libya is not helpful. Furthermore, oil and gas industry in new free Libya has suffered immensely during the 2011 Arab Spring and its rebuilding poses a number of critical HSE challenges. The purpose of the research is to develop and validate a HSE Performance Review Methodology for Libyan oil and gas industry based on clearly defined and measurable aspects for assessment. The thesis starts by performing a comprehensive literature review on all aspects of HSE including universal standards. The review indicates that there is a gap in respect of semi-qualitative methods for assessing HSE performance commensurate with other disciplines. The thesis then identifies four key research problems in the context of Libyan oil and gas industries. Based on these problems, an empirical research was conducted and included three distinct Stages. Stage 1 consisted of a pilot study based on an interview questionnaire with 15 experienced HSE professionals working in oil and gas companies in Libya to help identify key issues pertaining to HSE assessment. Data analysis results for Stage 2 have been used to derive a list of 12 main groups of HSE questions which have then been tested on 84 HSE professionals working in Libya stemming from 35 medium and large oil and gas companies. Modal distribution analyses have been performed to scope down the number of HSE performance factors, which would then be used in Stage 3 of the empirical research. This consisted of issuing the same 84 interviewees with a questionnaire requesting their assessment of how Critical, Important and Less Important were the 60 factors identified. Central Tendency, Variation Ratios and Indices of Diversity were used to successfully analyse the data. With the QAA Subject Review in mind as a potential model for the sought methodology, and a mapping of the four research problems with data analysis results from Stages 1, 2 and 3; six HSE Performance Review Aspects emerged: Prevention, Surveillance, Response, Achievements, Resource and HSE Management and Enhancement – judged and graded using a 1 to 4 scale. The HSE Performance Review methodology has been validated by direct application to five comprehensive studies starting from the self-assessment document written by the companies, an extensive review visit by peer-assessors and a final report showing grades, benchmarks and shortcomings. Lessons learned from the validation exercise have been used to revise the definition of the six Aspects and used to propose an appropriate implementation plan in Libya. The results of the validation exercise are very encouraging and readily confirm that the methodology can be applied to other industry sectors.

Healthcare costs in the United States continue to grow at an alarming rate. Concerning the cost of medications, there are a number of factors that drive these costs. While personnel costs are not the largest of these, they do contribute a significant portion. The cost of the cognitive component of order processing by pharmacists can range from three dollars to over six dollars per prescription depending on the production throughput of the pharmacist. Studies at the organization which was the focus of the research, as well as reports in the literature, indicated that work disruption and other environmental factors could impact the rate at which pharmacist process physicians' orders into prescriptions. At the time of this study the collaborating facility was undergoing a re-organization; funding had been allocated to relocate and redesign the outpatient pharmacy. This provided a timely opportunity to examine the effect that changes to the physical plant, with specific attention being given to reducing interruptions to the pharmacists finishing orders, would have on pharmacists' productivity. This was measured in orders processed per hour, before and after the reorganization. Sixteen months after the pharmacy was moved, supervisors were concerned that the outpatient pharmacy was still not performing at maximum efficiency and workload data was posted, with the intent that this information would motivate those professionals, whose output may have been below the average, to increase their production. All outpatient prescriptions are maintained in a data base which records, among other items, the pharmacist who processed the order which generated the prescription and the time and date this was done. Data for prescriptions filled before and after each intervention were abstracted from the data base and used to determine production rates before and after the interventions. There was a small, but statistically significant, decrease of two prescriptions per hour per pharmacist in production following the relocation. Fourteen of the twenty-one pharmacists (66.6%) had decreases in productivity averaging 4.1 prescriptions per hour while seven had an increase averaging 2.2 prescriptions per hour. All but one of the pharmacists who had an increase in productivity after the relocation also had a slight, but statistically insignificant, increase averaging 3.0 prescriptions per hour per pharmacist after the posting of the workload data. The effect of posting the workload data was not statistically significant even though the study group processed 16,692 more orders working only 221 more hours. Nine of the study pharmacists (42.8%) had decreases in productivity averaging 2.3 prescriptions per hour per person, while the remaining twelve increased production by an average of 2.8 prescriptions per hour per pharmacist. An analysis of both effects, using ANOVA, indicated that the pharmacist was a significant contributor to the effect in both cases. Only in the analysis of the impact of the relocation was the effect of the intervention significant and that was to decrease productivity. The net result of this research was that the postulated interventions to increase productivity had no real effect and the motivation of the pharmacists may be the most significant factor. The fact that a third of the study pharmacists had decreases in productivity after both interventions is telling and may indicate problems with job design and motivation. A further review of production rates and error are indicated with an emphasis on determining if there is an association between error rate and production rate. At this point there are little published data and what is available is either conjecture, as in the case of the North Carolina Board's determination of 150 prescriptions per day being a safe upper limit, to Malone's survey based research determining an average rate of 14.1 prescriptions per hour.

Dental caries, popularly known as tooth decay or cavities, is among the world's most common health problems. When caught early, it is also one of the most easily resolvable. Yet, advanced decay is a trenchant marker of social inequality and a major contributor to the maldistribution of physical pain and psychosocial suffering. Why? Access to dental care within the U.S. model of fee-for-service dental private practice follows existing lines of social stratification. Dental disparities, a term that calls attention to the relationships between maldistributed disease and maldistributed care, reflect deep ontological, moral, and political differences about responsibility for the prevention and treatment of dental disease, the quality and distribution of dental care, and even what constitutes health and well-being. What kinds of sociopolitical and moral negotiations constitute and transpire around dental disparities? How do these negotiations shape the experiences of patients and providers, and how do their experiences shape these negotiations? What can an ethnography of the dental safety net–a complex, fragile, and unpredictable network of treatment opportunities for low-income families–tell us about health governance more broadly? These are some of the questions that drive my research. In this dissertation, I explore how the sociopolitical relations of dental disparities are enacted through the dental safety net. Drawing on fifteen months of ethnographic research in clinical and community settings in central Appalachia, a region that has come to symbolize the dental crisis in the popular imagination, I show how the dental safety net exemplifies health governance in a neoliberal milieu. A fragmented system characterized by a discontinuity that starkly contrasts the model of health care generally advocated in both private and public medical systems, I argue that the dental safety net in far southwest Virginia does not merely fail to relieve the suffering of marginalized people but also can produce it. For example, the constitution of publicly-funded and charitable dental care can serve to routinize and even incentivize excess extractions among low-income adults while exempting preventive or restorative care. In addition to its effects on underserved patients, the dental safety net is a site through the fraught and contradictory relationships of dental providers and the sociopolitical stakes of the pursuit of oral health equity can be understood. For example, the flexible teamwork arrangements prized in private practice, when posited for the dental safety net, are often interpreted by dentists as risks of pluralization and threats to professional hierarchy that must be contained through legislative means. Borrowing from the crude classificatory scheme used to screen teeth quickly, I show how the dental safety net is decayed, as it bears the wear of overuse beyond maintenance; missing, or better described as an absence than a presence; and filled, like a cavitated tooth or a canaled dental root, with manufactured solutions of variable standards and longevity.

The construction industry is characterised by a number of problems in crucial fields such as health, safety and logistics. Since these problems affect the progress of construction projects, the construction industry has attempted to introduce the use of innovative information and communication technologies on the construction site. Specific technologies which find applicability on the construction site are wireless sensors, and especially radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID tagging is a technology capable of tracking items. The technology has been applied on the construction site for various applications, such as asset tracking. There are many problems related to health, safety and logistics on the construction site which could be resolved using RFID technology. In the health and safety field, the problems which exist are the monitoring of dangerous areas on the construction site, such as large excavation areas, the collisions between workers and vehicles, between vehicles and equipment and between vehicles, the detection of hazardous substances on the construction site when the construction work has been completed and the collection of hazard notifications from specific areas of the construction site as feedback for the prevention of future accidents. In the logistics field, the tracking of a material during its delivery on the construction site, its transportation to specific subcontractors and its future utilisation as well as the monitoring of the rate of use of materials on the construction site, the checking of the sequence of steel members and the monitoring of the temperature of porous materials are issues which can be realised using RFID technology. In order to facilitate the use of RFID technology for the specific health, safety and logistics problems, a system has been developed. The operation of this system is based on the combined use of hardware and software elements. The hardware elements of the developed system are a wireless local area network, RFID readers and tags. Its software elements are a software development kit based on which, a number of graphical user interfaces have been created for the interaction of the users with the REID tags, and Notepad files which store data collected from REID tags through the graphical user interfaces. Each of the graphical user interfaces is designed in such a way so that it corresponds to the requirements of the health, safety or logistics situation in which it is used. The proposed system has been tested on a simulated construction site by a group of experts and a number of findings have been produced. Specifically, the testing of the proposed system showed that RFID technology can connect the different stages which characterise the construction supply chain. In addition, it showed the capability of the technology to be integrated with construction processes. The testing of the system also revealed the barriers and the enablers to the use of RFID technology in the construction industry. An example of such a barrier is the unwillingness of the people of the construction industry to quit traditional techniques in favour of a new technology. Enablers which enhance the use of RFID technology in the construction industry are the lack of complexity which characterises the operation of RFID tagging and the relatively low cost of RFID tags. In general, RFID technology is an innovative sensor technology which can help the construction industry through its asset tracking ability. However, further research should be done on the improvement of RFID technology on specific characteristics, such as its inability to provide location coordinates and the resilience of the electromagnetic signal emitted by the RFID reader when there are metallic objects around the reader.

Number of important conclusions result from the questionnaire reserch. Employees of the Pelhřimov plant are very well informed about applied quality assurance systems.

The majority of building code development and implementation practices are normally connected with the progress of construction community changing awareness, needs and perspectives, advanced technology in construction and new level of knowledge. Unproven practices and the technology of building code development and implementation in case of insufficient and outdated codes, the use of unproven advanced codes of other countries, or the infringement of the existing codes, in most cases, could lead to a large number of shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare, and poor quality of buildings. Every aspect of a building code development and implementation practice could be influenced by insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations that could cause buildings failures. Generally, the success of a building code development and implementation practice is directly connected with the involved insufficiencies and infringements in the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social), i.e. faults of building code development and implementation should be successfully resolved in order to come to an end of a building project assuring code's objectives (public health, safety and general welfare). One of the early research problems of building code development and implementation practice was conducted by Productivity Commission (2004) where the research organized and categorized the causes of shortcomings of BC according to four main functions of building code, including legal, administrative, technical, and social functions. Productivity Commission Research had been the starting point of research problems of building codes in Kuwait. For the past 20 years, many researchers have high numbers of categories, components and rankings to explain different types of insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations. However, these categories and rankings produce inconsistent and overlapping cause and impact factors. In addition, researchers and practitioners at this point tend to focus on the technical and administrative sides related to the issues of building codes development and implementation, and neglecting the importance of legal and social sides. Legal issues like finding a law to prepare and enforce building codes, cover of insurance companies, building materials testing system, weak regulations related issues, building specifications, and clarity of regulation texts; as well as social issues like community awareness, issuing and enforcing legal court rules, deterrent punishments for violators, violations or cheatings in related issues, all of these were deemed not that critical by most reviewers. The research is specifically concerned with the insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations which cause shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare, and how related cause and impact factors are selected and organized. Existing research highlights the need for further researches of how to relate between research and building regulations that are at present. There is evidence that construction industries around the world have little experience in this area (CIB TG37, 2001). The proposal within this research is to address this aspect of the debate by seeking to clarify the role of the four functions of building code; legal, administrative, technical, and social function as a frame of reference that stakeholder parties (building officials, design and construction professionals) might agree with and which should act as the basis for the selection and formation of occurrences of cause factors, and their iv impact on public health, safety and general welfare. The focus on the four functions of building code as a fault (cause) frame of reference potentially leads to a common, practical view of the (multi) dimensionality setting of fault (cause) within which cause factors may be identified and which, we believe, could be grounded across a wide range of practices specifically in this research of building code development and implementation. The research surveyed and examined the opinions of building officials, design and construction professionals. We assess which fault (cause) factors are most likely to occur in building and construction projects; evaluate fault (cause) impact by assessing which fault (cause) factors that building officials, design and construction professionals specifically think are likely to arise in the possibility of shortcomings of minimum requirements of public health, safety and general welfare. The data obtained were processed, analyzed and ranked. By using the EXCEL and SPSS for factor analysis, all the fault (cause) factors were reduced and groups into clusters and components for further correlation analysis. The analysis was able to prove an opinion on fault (cause) likelihood, the impact of the fault (cause) on the objectives of building code. The analysis indicates that it is possible to identify grouping of insufficiencies and infringements in building codes/regulations that is correspondent to the different parts of the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social) these suggest three identified groups when viewing cause from the likelihood occurrence and four identified groups and their impact for each building code objective. The evidence related to the impact of building code objectives, view of cause, and provides a stronger view of which components of cause were important compared with cause likelihood. The research accounts for the difference by suggesting that a more selection and formation of cause and impact, offered by viewing cause within the context of a framework of building code, and viewing impact within the context of building code objectives (public health, safety and general welfare) allows those involved in building code development and implementation to have an understandable view of the relationships within cause factors, and between cause and impact factors. It also allows the various cause components and the associated emergent clusters to be more readily identified. The contribution of the research relates to the assessment of cause within a construction that is defined in the context of a fairly broad accepted view of the framework of building code (legal, Administrative, technical, & social). The fault (cause) likelihood construction is based on the building code framework proposed in this research and could facilitates a focus on roles and responsibilities, and allows the coordination and integration of activities for regular development and implementation with the building code goals. This contribution would better enable building officials and code writers to identify and manage faults (causes) as they emerge with BC aspects/parts and more closely reflect building and construction activities and processes and facilitate the fault (cause) administration exercise.

Many south Asian countries are deficient in appropriate documentation, legislation and surveillance related to occupational health and safety (OHS). All these countries have high OHS incidence rate and labourers working in these countries are constantly exposed to occupational accidents and diseases. Although occupational accidents and work-related concerns have been in debate for a long time, no concrete moves have been taken, making situations worse and posing consistent coercions to an increasing labour force. The current research was carried out to examine the main hazards faced by construction workers in Pakistan and the response of health, safety and environment (HSE) department in plummeting these hazards and in certaining sustainability in construction companies in Pakistan. Workers working in the construction industry are incessantly bared to unsafe working conditions and have to confront several kind of hazards. This embraces exposure to sound, dust and toxic substances, issues of ergonomics, stress etc. This study employed a comprehensive fact-finding design. Data was harbored using interviews, academic articles and reports from international and national organisations. Employer, administration and labourers all lack knowledge about OHS issues in Pakistan. The majority of the labourers are unskilled, uninformed and unregistered. There are no native directives, which are coupled with both OHS and the construction industry. There is an absence of safety ethics, and neither reporting nor monitoring is conducted in the construction business. Companies see HSE issues as an economic burden which will eventually end up mounting production costs. Labourers don’t follow safety instructions; they don’t wear personal protective equipment (PPE), they reckon wearing this equipment would cause obstruction in their work and would influence their productivity. The use of PPE is essential in the construction activity, as it is considered as the last line of defence. All this has affected the construction industry tremendously collectively in terms of financial loss, human loss and image loss, and injury incidence rates have increased alarmingly. Implementation of sustainable development is a core responsibility of an HSE department. Dearth of HSE means lack of sustainability in the construction sector. Today, sustainability is an important aspect of development. It means that development should not only be economically feasable but also socially and environmentally viable both for current and future generations. There is much need to formulate new strict policy and laws or to amend old ones, laws which are effective and practical in promoting HSE and sustainability norms in the construction sector of Pakistan. The main hazards that are faced by construction workers are falling from height, lifting activity and electrocution. HSE departments play a chief role in minimizing worksite accidents and in promoting sustainable development in work settings. For ensuring sustainable practices on construction sites, HSE departments formulate integrated working policy, keeping in mind social, environmental and econmical aspects and considering inputs from all stakeholders. In addition, they look for innovative green technologies and green materials which are more environmental friendly, economical and require less energy.