The finances of blue-collar workers were the most acutely impacted as these workers lost their jobs during the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009. The literature revealed a minimal understanding of how blue-collar workers allocated funds for their retirement, and what their investments might be when they invested. To address this problem, the current qualitative study addressed (a) how blue-collar workers chose to invest or not invest for retirement and (b) how blue-collar workers diversified their portfolio if they chose to invest. Theoretical foundations of the study were based on regret theory and prospect theory. A nonrandom purposeful sample of 10 blue-collar worker participants answered 19 open-ended questions. Data from these questions were analyzed inductively. Findings revealed that, as participants reached the age of 30, they started to consider investing for their retirement. Participants under the age of 30 were not as likely to invest. Only one person over the age of 30 did not invest for retirement. The factors that contributed to these blue-collar workers' investment decisions for retirement were based on an employer-provided retirement accounts, the fear of running out of money later in life during retirement, and the addition of new family members. One of the most popular retirement investment products for the participant group, which included mechanics, laborers, and material movers, was the U.S. Treasury Bonds. Other popular investments were mutual funds, 401(k)s, and IRAs. These findings may inform researchers who are conducting a study on the investment decisions of blue-collar workers. The findings can also be beneficial for other blue-collar workers by showing them that other blue-collar workers do invest, and by revealing their rationales in doing so.

A novel flame spray collar called the Coanda Assisted Spray Manipulation collar (CSM) has been tested for use on the Sulzer Metco 5P II combustion flame spray gun. A comparison study of the stock nozzle and the CSM has been performed by evaluating the porosity, surface roughness, microhardness, tensile strength and microscopy of normal and off-normal sprayed NiAl deposits. The use of the CSM collar resulted in the need to position the sprayed coupons closer to the gun, which in turn affected the particle impact energy and particle temperatures of the NiAl powder. For the CSM, porosities had a larger scatterband, surface roughness was comparably the same, microhardness was lower, and tensile strength was higher. The microscopy analysis revealed a greater presence of unmelted particles and steeper intersplat boundaries for the CSM. For both processes, the porosity and surface roughness increased and the microhardness decreased as the spray angle decreased.

Which solutions exist within the blue collar industries in Sweden and Norway today for conveying safety information to its employees? How may one re-design an understandable onboarding process to a digital app for Swedish-speaking blue collar workers? This study set out to research these questions, collaborating with Inphiz Technologies AB, a SaaS company in Stockholm, Sweden who has created a digital service to manage and automate legislative and regulatory compliance data in blue collar industries. The objective of the study was to answer the research questions and to create a design proposal for the users first steps into the Inphiz app through an onboarding process. Qualitative research methods were conducted throughout a design process with a PACT framework and a case study approach from March 13th to May 25th 2023, in different parts of Sweden. The collected data was aggregated and analysed through affinity diagrams. Results from the analysis showed clear patterns of the workers difficulties in following through with legislative and regulatory compliance due to a dissonance between internal and external demands. Blue collar workers within the construction industry worked under conditions where a trade-off between security and economy existed. However, engagement through all levels of the organisation supported the maintaining and cultivation of a safety culture, affecting the behaviours and attitudes of the employees. Digital tools concerning compliance and communication were moreover perceived as beneficial to the organisation, but in companies where they were present, the onboarding of the employees demanded a lot of resources and convincing of the tools benefits. Furthermore, having users finding the aha moment early the digital prototype and using explorative learning made them realise the benefits of the app. As a summary, this paper gives perspective on the organisational and environmental context of a blue collar worker with regards to safety information and how cognitive strategies can improve the onboarding UX of a digital app. Recommendations in carrying out similar research would be to increase the level of user participation.

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Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. The rates of smoking remain elevated in rural, low income populations in comparison with the rest of the United States. Thus, prompting the process improvement project of implementing the Ask–Advise–Connect (AAC) method to the national quitline in a nurse practitioner–managed clinic for an automotive manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee. Methods: Ask–Advise–Connect method was added to the current smoking cessation program. The employees who utilized the clinic were assessed for smoking status at each visit and subsequently counseled on cessation. Individuals interested in cessation were connected to the national quitline with the AAC method. Pharmaceutical options and nicotine replacement therapy was also offered at no cost to the employee. Findings: In the 4-month period, the clinic provided 102 tobacco cessation counseling visits to workers who smoke. Twenty-four employees enrolled in the cessation program. The participants reported a cessation rate of 12.5% and 21% had a significant decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked. Of the participants, 12.5% (n = 3) engaged in behavioral counseling with the quitline. Conclusion/application to practice: The addition of the AAC method as part of the smoking cessation program had limited success. As smoking cessation is difficult to achieve, any success greater than 7% can be considered an achievement. The 12.5% cessation rate of the participants was above the national average. Thus, demonstrating the benefit of having a workplace cessation program and incorporating the AAC method to the current smoking cessation program.

Detta examensarbete handlar om ekonomisk brottslighet inom verksamheter med fokus på gärningsmannen. Det har identifierats psykologiska och sociologiska faktorer och studien besvarar även vilka förutsättningar som krävs för att ekobrottslingen ska kunna begå brottet. Den typiska ekobrottslingen har identifierats att vara en vit medelåldersman med hög socioekonomisk status. För att ekonomisk brottslighet inom verksamheter ska kunna begås krävs det att möjligheten föreligger för gärningsmannen vilket oftast uppstår genom en anställning inom en organisation. Examensarbetet behandlar även preventiva insatser som används inom verksamheter för att stoppa ekonomisk brottslighet. / This degree project in criminology is about occupational and corporate crime with focus on the perpetrator. Psychological and sociological factors has been recognized and also the conditions that are required for the crime to occur. The typical perpetrator for this kind of crime has been identified to be a white middle aged man with high socioeconomic status. It obliges an opportunity for the offender to commit an economical crime which arises through employment in an organisation. The essay also process the crime prevention that is applied in businesses to stop white collar crime.

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