An analysis of the circumstances preceding severe occupational injuries as a consequence of impacts has shown that well-known risks are of great importance in 75 per cent of the cases. This indicates that the subjective cause "neglect" is common. The negligence is distributed to the same extent among employers as among employees. Negligence by the employers was defined as obvious violations according to the Law of Workers’ Safety or Regulations issued by The National Board of Occupational Health and Safety. Negligence by employees was defined as actions against specific orders or common sense. As a result of this study additional research concerning the execution of Criminal Law in occupational accidents has been carried out. The law has also been changed regarding prosecution in cases of breaking the Law on the working environment.In situations where elimination of risks is not possible it is a most important task to minimize the risk of severe injury. In four of the studies there are examples of minimization of injuries by increased usage of personal safety equipment, improved rescue and by modifying the environment. If personal safety equipment could be used in all relevant situations the incidence of severe injuries at the place of work would decrease by more than 25 per cent. However, the crucial insufficiencies as to the specifications of personal protective equipment must be emphasized. This should stimulate the development of environmental changes, thus preventing the build-up and release of potentially dangerous energy. Working alone and late rescue for other reasons, together with other circumstances following the injury made the injuries worse in a little more than 10 per cent of the cases.In the studies concerning injuries as the result of impacts in trucks and buses it is shown that a lot of trucks turn over and that a large number of injuries occur as a result of deformation of the cabins. A safety belt would offer good protection against injury in about half of the cases. Safety in trucks and buses could be improved by the introduction of a deformative zone in front of the occupants. Front designs of cab-over vehicles should be changed and the use of seat belts in trucks and buses should be made compulsory. Passive seat belts, knee bars and air bags are interesting alternatives and additions to manual seat belts for commercial drivers. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1989, härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

Recent researchers have suggested that the combination of horizontal curves or “bendiness” of a length of road contributes to traffic crash occurrence. A previous study of New Zealand fatal crashes using an aggregated approach found no significant correlation between crash occurrence and road bendiness for rural roads but a minor correlation for urban roads. This thesis further explores the effect of road bendiness on traffic crash occurrence in New Zealand by developing a method more suited to traffic engineering. The method involves Geographical Information Systems (GIS) firstly to process data and secondly to calculate bendiness values. The following bendiness measures: bend density, detour ratio, cumulative angle, mean angle and standard deviation of angles; are applied to “influence areas” surrounding crash and comparison sites. The method then dictates that some form of statistical analysis should be performed to distinguish between the bendiness of crash and comparison sites, while accounting for other influencing factors. Binary logistic regression is recommended. The method was applied in a case study of New Zealand fatal crashes, with two main analysis techniques employed. Firstly, binary logistic regression models were developed. It was found that, for rural roads, sections with consistent and frequent curves were safer than completely straight sections or those with isolated curves. The urban model was less conclusive, which suggests that the method was not appropriate in the urban situation. The second analysis method involved comparing bendiness values of a site’s “immediate area” with those of its influence area. It was found that, although the spreads of the comparison sites’ distributions were smaller than those of the crash sites, the mean values were generally very similar and no appropriate bendiness ratios could be specified to reduce crash risk. Overall it appears that, if design consistency is maintained, bendiness is a protective quality for rural roads.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a major health and socioeconomic problem throughout the world, with an estimated 10 million deaths and instances of hospitalization annually. Numerical methods such as finite element (FE) methods can be used to study head injuries and optimize the protection, which can lead to a decrease in the number of injuries. The FE head models were initially evaluated for biofidelity by comparing with donated corpses experiments. However, there are some limitations in experiments of corpses, including material degradation after death. One feasible alternative to evaluating head models with living human tissue is to use reconstruction of real accidents. However, the process of accident reconstruction entails some uncertainties since it is not a controlled experiment. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the accident reconstruction process is needed in order to be able to improve the FE human models. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to evaluate and further develop more advanced strategies for accident reconstructions involving head injuries. A FE head model was used to study head injuries in accidents. Existing bicycle accident data was used, as were hypothetical accident situations for cyclists and pedestrians. A FE bicycle helmet model having different designs was developed to study the protective effect. An objective method was developed based on the Overlap Index (OI) and Location Index (LI) to facilitate the comparison of FE model responses with injuries visible in medical images. Three bicycle accident reconstructions were performed and the proposed method evaluated. The method showed to have potential to be an objective method to compare FE model response with medical images and could be a step towards improving the evaluation of results from injury reconstructions. The simulations demonstrated the protective effect of a bicycle helmet. A decrease was seen in the injurious effect on both the brain tissue and the skull. However, the results also showed that the brain tissue strain could be further decreased by modifying the helmet design. Two different numerical pedestrian models were compared to evaluate whether the more time-efficient rigid body model could be used, instead of a FE pedestrian model, to roughly determine the initial conditions as an accident reconstruction involves some uncertainties. The difference, in terms of the head impact location, rotation and velocity, attributable to the two models was in the same range as differences due to uncertainties in some of the initial parameters, such as vehicle impact velocity. / <p>QC 20150414</p>

In einer längsschnittlichen Untersuchung wurden 64 Patienten der unfallchirurgischen Abteilung einer Universitätsklinik 10 Tage und 3 Monate nach einem Verkehrsunfall untersucht. Erhoben wurden die posttraumatische Belastungssymptomatik und Gedankenkontrollstrategien. Zum ersten Untersuchungszeitpunkt (10 Tage) zeigt sich eine der Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PTB) äquivalente Belastungssymptomatik bei 14,1% und nach 3 Monaten eine PTB-Prävalenz von 39,1%. Es zeigen sich Zusammenhänge zwischen einigen Gedankenkontrollstrategien und PTB-Symptomatik nach 10 Tagen und, in schwächerer Ausprägung auch nach 3 Monaten. Im Ergebnis einer explorativen Auswertung zeigt sich, daß insbesondere die Strategien «Ablenkung» und «Sorgen» eine relevante Rolle im Zusammenhang mit der PTB-Symptomatik spielen. / In a longitudinal survey 64 inpatients of an emergency clinic were examined 1 week as well as 3 months after a motor vehicle accident. Posttraumatic stress symptoms and strategies of thought control were assessed. Ten days after the accident, a posttraumatic stress symptomatology is observable in 14.1% of patients, 3 months after the accident the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is 39.1%. Strategies of thought control are correlated with posttraumatic symptomatology 10 days after the accident and after 3 months. The result of an explorative data analysis shows an important role of the control strategies ’distraction’ and ’worry’ in correlation with posttraumatic stress symptoms. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

Contexte : il est possible qu’une victime subisse de multiples conséquences d’accident de la route, conséquences pouvant retentir durablement sur sa vie. Cependant, peu d’études permettent de connaitre le profil du blessé grave ainsi que les facteurs prédictifs de son devenir. De plus, il existe peu d'outils prédictifs servant à prédire les conséquences post-accidentelles. L’objectif de la thèse est de caractériser ces conséquences, de chercher les éléments pronostiques de gravité des conséquences un an après l’accident et de donner une évaluation, à partir de données réelles, de la qualité de prédiction de l’indicateur de déficience à un an appelé IISa (l’IIS est un indice de déficience - défini a priori à partir des lésions- et utilisé fréquemment). Méthodes : la thèse est réalisée dans le cadre de la cohorte ESPARR (Étude et Suivi d’une Population d’Accidentés de la Route dans le Rhône), qui s’appuie sur les données du Registre des accidents de la circulation du Rhône, et qui inclut 1372 sujets blessés dans des accidents de la route dont 1168 sujets âgés de 16 ans et plus. Parmi ces sujets, 886 adultes ont répondu à un questionnaire de suivi à un an, 616 sujets ont des données complètes et sont classés dans des groupes homogènes en fonction de leur devenir à un an par l'analyse des correspondances multiples et la méthode de classification hiérarchique. L’analyse des facteurs prédictifs de leur appartenance à un de ces groupes de victimes, mesurés à la date de l'accident, a été effectuée à l’aide de modèles de régressions logistiques multinomiales pondérés. L'évaluation de l'IIS sur les données réelles est réalisée en regardant la cohérence entre l'IIS et les différents facteurs mesurés à un an. Résultats : cinq groupes homogènes au niveau des conséquences de l’accident à un an ont été identifiés : le groupe-1, contenant les sujets considérés en bonne récupération, sert de référence pour les autres groupes. Les groupes 2, 3, et 4 concernent des sujets ayant des niveaux de conséquences intermédiaires, certains plus en lien avec des déficits ou difficultés physiques (groupe-2), d’autres en lien avec des difficultés mentales ou sociales (groupe-3), et environnementales (groupe-4). Le groupe-5 classe les sujets qui souffrent de très nombreux problèmes, en particulier de syndrome post-commotionnel. Il est donc considéré comme le groupe d’accidentés ayant le moins bien récupéré. Après avoir ajusté sur plusieurs variables recueillies lors de l'accident, notre étude montre que, en plus des facteurs déjà évoqués dans la littérature (âge, gravité…), le niveau de fragilité socioéconomique et le fait d'avoir un proche blessé dans l'accident sont également des facteurs prédisant le devenir des victimes d’un accident. En ce qui concerne l'évaluation de l'IIS sur les données réelles, nous trouvons que le niveau des conséquences prédites par l’IIS ne correspond pas parfaitement à celui observé en réalité à un an quels que soient les facteurs mesurés. Conclusion : un an après l’accident, de nombreuses victimes d'accident de la route, même parmi celles souffrant de lésions légères, continuent de présenter de multiples problèmes tant sur leur santé physique que mentale, sur le plan social ainsi que sur leur environnement. Dans une perspective de réadaptation à la vie quotidienne, ces résultats peuvent être utiles à l’amélioration de la prise en charge des accidentés de la route.

The relaxation of international boundaries has enabled the globalisation of markets making available an ever increasing number of specialised suppliers and markets. Inevitably this results in supply chains sharing suppliers and customers reflected in a network of relationships. Within this context firms buyers configure their supply relationships based on their perception of supply risk. Risk is managed by either increasing trust or commitment or by increasing the number of suppliers. Increasing trust and commitment facilitates collaboration and reduces the propensity for a supplier to exit the relationship. Conversely, increasing the number of suppliers reduces dependency and increases the ease of making alternative supply arrangements. The emergent network of relationships is dynamic and complex, and due in no small part to the influence of inventory management practices, tightly coupled. This critical organization of the network describes a system that contrary to existing supply chain conceptualisation exists far from equilibrium, requiring a different more appropriate theoretical lens through which to view them. This thesis adopts a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) perspective to position supply networks as tightly coupled complex systems which according to Normal Accident Theory (NAT) are vulnerable to disruptions as a consequence of normal operations. The consequential boundless and emergent nature of supply networks makes them difficult to research using traditional empirical methods, instead this research builds a generalised supply network agent based computer model, allowing network constituents (agents) to take autonomous parallel action reflecting the true emergent nature of supply networks. This thesis uses the results from a series of carefully designed computer experiments to elucidate how supply networks respond to a variety of market structures and permitted agent behaviours. Market structures define the vertical (between tier) and horizontal (within tier) levels of price differentiation. Within each structure agents are permitted to autonomously modify their prices (constrained by market structure) and collaborate by sharing demand information. By examining how supply networks respond to different permitted agent behaviours in a range of market structures this thesis makes 4 contributions. Firstly, it extends NAT by incorporating the adaptive nature of supply network constituents. Secondly it extends supply chain management by specifying supply networks as dynamic not static phenomena. Thirdly it extends supply chain risk management through developing an understanding of the impact different permitted behaviour combinations on the networks vulnerability to disruptions in the context of normal operations. Finally by developing the understanding how normal operations impact a supply networks vulnerability to disruptions it informs the practice of supply chain risk management.

This study examined the physiological response of 22 participants (three groups of six, one group of four) during four auto extrication simulations (AES) wearing full personal protective equipment. Heart rate (HR) and core temperature (C T) were monitored continuously from baseline thoughout the AES until 45-min recovery. Blood pressure (BP), ear canal temperature (EC T), subjective measures of exertion and thermal stress were taken at baseline, post AES and clean-up, and at 45-min recovery. The average extrication completion time was 33 minutes. Average AES HR was 118 beats•min -1, a 50% increase over HR during hall duties (79 beats•min -1). HR during AES was classified as ‘heavy work.’ C T increased significantly from baseline 37.19 °C to 37.83 °C post AES. At 45 -min recovery, C T was significantly elevated from baseline (37.37 °C; p<0.05). C T and EC T did not correlate well (r=0.004), and EC T significantly underestimated C T at al time points. C T and HR were strongly correlated at al measurements (r=0.89). Mean rating of perceived exertion (RPE) post AES and post clean up was 14.0 (between ‘somewhat hard ‘ and ‘hard’) on Borg 20 point scale. RPE showed strong relationships with physiological variables of peak HR expressed as % of age predicted max (r=0.70), and physiological strain index (PSI) (r=0.76). Rating of perceived thermal stress (RPTS) increased significantly from baseline (1.23 `comfortable') to post AES (4.4, `hot'). RPTS had significant moderate strength relationships with PSI (r=0.56) and C T (r=0.52). Differences did exist in al measurements between roles within the AES team with worker firefighters (n=14) demonstrating the highest HR, BP, rise in CT, and RPE. Medics (n=5) had the lowest recorded HR, BP, & RPE. The results suggest that vehicle extrication is a physically demanding task for firefighters and 45 minutes recovery is sufficient for HR, BP, psychophysical measures, but not C T to return to baseline. The findings have implications for those firefighters who may be presented with repeated AE and/or fires and other activities across a shift. It is recommended that ear canal temperature measurements not be used as a field measure of CT as it had no relationship with C T and significantly underestimated actual C T. Future studies are needed to determine oxygen consumption and energy expenditure required to complete auto extrications.

The concept of the investigation of accidents at job and the problems of the investigation of accidents at job in Lithuania and in foreign countries are analyzed in the theoretical part of the work. In the practical part of the work Lithuanian regulations of investigation of accidents at job are compared with the documents which regulate the investigation of accidents at job in Great Britain, Canada, Russia Federation and France. In proceedings of comparing analysis we intended to ascertain how the interests of the workers are protected during the investigation of accidents at job. To reach the aim, we made the analysis of the questionnaire results. The research and comparing analysis of legal documents confirmed the hypothesis arguably, that regulations of the investigation of accidents at job and account do not enough protect the interests of the workers during the investigation in Lithuania.

The skin of the palm of the hand has no friction. It is only when in contact with other objects that frictional forces appear. This friction does not, however, conform to the classic laws of friction. The thesis shows that static skin friction is lower than dynamic friction, and that increased velocity increases the coefficient of friction, but increasing load reduces it. Consequently, references to coefficient of friction where palm skin is one of the friction partners require velocity, surface pressure and skin conditions to be specified in addition to contaminants in the friction interface, before reliable conclusions can be drawn. Eleven textured and one non-textured samples all made from the same material were investigated using eighteen male subjects. They were exposed to five contaminants, three skin conditions, three levels ofload and velocities in the range 2-128 mm/so It was concluded that velocity in the friction interface is the most dominant factor contributing to palm friction. Only small, non-significant, differences in friction were found between different types of textures under non-contaminated conditions, but major, and significant differences were observed under contaminated conditions. Coarse textures increased discomfort. For static- and dynamic friction the type of texture, coarse or fine, will affect friction in different ways depending on the skin conditions being "clean" or "contaminated." Experiments show that coarse textures generate less friction than fine under the clean conditions. Under contaminated conditions however coarse textures generate more friction than fine. The highest coefficient offriction 1-1=2.22 (SO=1.12) was recorded under dynamic conditions for a clean hand on a non-textured surface when the surface pressure was low - 6.3 kPa (SO 2.1). The lowest coefficient offriction 1-1=0.05 (SO=0.03) was found under static conditions, with lard present on a non-textured surface when the surface pressure was high - 81.4 kPa (SO=31.0). Two regression models were developed. Regression coefficients are presented for surface topography variables as well as skin condition and contamination, velocity surface pressure and discomfort. Two new surface topography representations explain the generation of friction forces. The uppermost 5% of the volume of texture peaks provided significant information for transfer offriction forces.

In this study, following a severe accident at Kozloduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria how Turkey would be affected was investigated. The severe accident refers to core meltdown accident with catastrophic failure of containment. The model used is HySPLIT model developed in America. The worst day was predicted considering deposition of radionuclides. For initial runs, accidental release of I-131 and Cs-137 radionuclides was modeled for each day of year 2000 to find the worst day, seen to result from release beginning on April 7th 2000. After modeling release of all radionuclides for the worst day, radiation dose at different receptors, 12 most populated cities over Turkey has been calculated via different pathways. Late effects, fatal cancer, non-fatal cancer and hereditary risks, has been investigated for these receptors. The mostly affected part of Turkey was Marmara region and fatal cancer risk therein was 7x10-2 %. The collective health risk throughout Turkey was approximately 20 600 people. The same approach was then applied for investigating health risk of proposed nuclear reactor at Akkuyu, Turkey. In this case, the worst day was resulted from release beginning on 21st of February 2000. The worst affected part was the narrow strip in Central Anatolia extending to the north-eastern cost and fatal cancer risk in this region was 3.4x10-1 %. The collective health risk over Turkey was approximately 30 600 people. The results showed that Kozloduy nuclear plant has dominating effect throughout Turkey, but proposed Akkuyu reactor affects very limited region.