There have been a number of studies showing that the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A) is a valid measure of one's implicit preparedness to engage in activities that are intended to harm others. Few studies have examined the predictive power of subscales of the CRT-A. The purpose of this project is to examine the validity of the CRT-A and its subscales for predicting unnecessary corrective action requests filed in a sample of employees working in a nuclear power plant. Results indicate that the Powerlessness subscale differentiates employees who file unnecessary reports from employees who do not.

Work, especially that in complex, dynamic workplaces, often requires subtle, local judgment with regard to timing of subtasks, relevance, importance, prioritization and so forth. Still, people in Nuclear Industry seem to think safety results from people just following procedures. In the wake of failure it can be tempting to introduce new procedures and an even stricter "rule following culture". None, or at least very little, attention is given to tacit knowledge and individual skills. I am aiming to highlight the inadequacy of putting too much trust in formalization and that reporting and trending of events will contribute to increased learning, an increased nuclear safety and an efficient operational experience. The ability to interpret a situation concrete depends on proven experience in similar situations, analogical thinking and tacit knowledge. In this essay I intend to problematize the introduction and use of so-called Corrective Action Program (CAP) and computerized reporting systems linked to CAP in the Nuclear Industry. What I found out is that the whole industry, from regulators to licensees, seems to be stuck in the idea that the scientific perspective on knowledge is the only "true" perspective. This leads to an exaggerated belief in that technology and formalized work processes and routines will create a safer business. The computerized reporting system will not, as the idea was from the beginning, contribute to increased nuclear safety since the reports is based on the trigger and not the underlying causes and in-depth analysis. Managing safety by numbers (incidents, error counts, safety threats, and safety culture indicators) is very practical but has its limitations. Error counts only uphold an illusion of rationality and control, but may offer neither real insight nor productive routes for progress on safety. The question is why the CAP, error counts and computerized reporting systems have had such a big impact in the nuclear industry? It rests after all, on too weak foundations. The answer is that the scientific perspective on knowledge is the dominating perspective. What people do not understand is that an excessive use of computerized systems and an increased formalization actually will create new risks when people lose their skills and ability to reflect and put more trust in the system than in themselves.

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This case study examined the demands that a first year principal in a school in Corrective Action faces and explored what are the key factors for creating a successful entry from the teachers' perspectives. The study further identified what a first year principal's immediate priorities should be when entering the job and examined potential pitfalls. This qualitative case study was conducted by the principal, who was a participant-observer. Data collection included the use of the on-line SurveyMonkey.com service, the researcher's reflective journal entries and field notes, as well as a review of pertinent documents. Findings were many, and illuminated many insights for beginning principals, including the importance of taking the time to learn about the existing culture before attempting to change it, as well as cultivating relationships and carefully laying the groundwork for change. Implications for practice included more specific recommendations, such as spending the summer months reading teacher files, comparing and compiling data on student performance, and being knowledgeable of all the school's initiatives for improving achievement before school officially begins. Limitation of this study included the researcher's role as principal and participant-observer, a small sample size, and the relatively short time frame within which the study was conducted. Recommendations for future study included studying the perspectives of other key constituents, such as students, parents, and other community members, broadening the scope of the study to include other middle schools in Corrective Action, and conducting a longitudinal study that would document the professional socialization of a first year principal during the three-year period following her appointment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

The subsurface environmental contamination investigation, assessment and remediation of petro-chemical contaminated site have been the most challenging environmental issues of environmental protection. If subsurface environmental mediums like soil and groundwater are contaminated, the investigation and remediation will always be time-consuming and costly even though they could not be cleaned up completely. Groundwater contaminated by chlorinated volatile solvents is more difficult to remedy owing to its property of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL). This study focuses on petro-chemicals contaminated site whose subsurface environment is contaminated by chlorinated ethene. The study will also find out the efficient, effective and economic ways to identify and concretely delineate the characterization of subsurface environment and contamination, conduct human health risk management and take risk-based corrective action, so as to formulate an appropriate risk management strategy and solution. Firstly, this study applies a Triad approach to accelerate and streamline the investigation process of contaminated site. Introduction of project systematic planning, dynamic work strategy and in situ, real time survey or direct-push sampling like membrane interface probe, together with off-site measures like physical measurement and chemical analytic testing in laboratory, could reduce the key uncertain characteristics of subsurface environmental contamination and establish the conceptual cite models for health risk assessment cost-effectively. It is estimated that this method could save 6 million NTD and shorten 3 years¡¦ time in site characteristics delineation and remediation. If we wish to make the site defensible via managing the uncertain decision, the integration of Triad approach which is developed by United States Environmental Protection Agency, and Environmental Site Assessment, Accelerated Site Characterization, Health Risk Assessment and Risk-based Corrective action which were developed by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), are proved in this study that they could help streamline the site characterization and remediation. This study is based on the conceptual site models of Triad Approach, the Risk-based corrective action of ASTM, the Health Risk Assessment and Evaluation Methods for Soil and Groundwater Contaminated Site, and also the software developed by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. Through the health risk assessment of chlorinated ethenes contaminated site, this research aims to evaluate the quantitative health risk like chemical of concern, environmental medium, and human exposure pathway etc. The result of evaluation showed that the carcinogenic risk of tier 2 is 1.080E-01 which exceeds the acceptable risk-based standard, 1E-06; tier 2¡¦s non-carcinogenic risk, 1.819E+03, also exceeds the acceptable hazard index which is 1. Groundwater poses the highest risk among environmental media, followed by inhalation of vapor from contaminated soil and/or groundwater. The risk of inhalation of top soil particulates is the lowest. The most dangerous carcinogenic exposure of groundwater is using groundwater for shower and washing whose risk is 8.064E-02; the second highest carcinogenic pathway is groundwater ingestion. Trichloroethylene is the key chemical of concern which poses 95.6% of carcinogenic risk among all chemicals of concern. Groundwater ingestion poses the highest non-carcinogenic risk (8.919E+02), and the main chemical of concern is cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene. The main chemical of concern of soil volatilization is cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene, followed by trichloroethylene. If the site in this study wishes to reduce the health risk of human beings, it is suggested to simultaneously implement integrated risk-based corrective actions including institutional control, engineering control and remediation. For institutional control, prohibition of pumping groundwater and pumping well installation is the most cost-effective choice. For engineering control, concrete capping on uncovered surface soil is feasible when dealing with soil contamination. When it comes to groundwater contamination, steel sheet pile containment or pumping well installation could help intercept the migration of groundwater. Regarding remediation, in-situ chemical reduction injection or permeable reactive barrier, incorporated together with monitored natural attenuation are more practicable alternatives, however, they are time-consuming and costly. The process and result of this study could be the basis for managers and/or decision makers of contaminated site to conduct risk-based management and decision making.

No description available.

This study consists of three research phases. First, we developed corrective action strategies to mitigate the impact of calcium hypochlorite and cadmium pulse shocks for the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Charleston, SC. The corrective action strategies were developed in consultation with industrial consultants and operational personnel from the utility. These strategies were tested using a laboratory scale system, which was constructed and operated similar to the parent facility. Two corrective actions were tested for calcium hypochlorite, while only one strategy was tested for the cadmium at the laboratory scale. This study shows that no corrective action strategies are required for an acute hypochlorite stress. This is due to the fact that hypochlorite is highly reactive and dissipates rapidly on contact with the wastewater matrix, thus causing only low level process deterioration. In fact, implementation of corrective action strategies results in greater process deterioration as compared to the non-intervention approach. The corrective action tested for cadmium stress showed potential for reducing the peak impact of the toxin and allowed for faster process recovery as compared to the unstressed control. For the second phase, the corrective actions were tested at a pilot scale facility operated at the Plum Island wastewater treatment plant. We tested two different corrective action strategies for cadmium, while only one strategy was tested for hypochlorite during the pilot scale study. Similar to the laboratory scale experiments, we conclude that no mitigative approaches are necessary for an acute hypochlorite stress. Additionally, the implementation of mitigative approaches for the pilot scale cadmium stress events resulted in greater process deterioration as compared to the non-intervention approach. In contrast to the laboratory scale experiments, theoretical effluent blending calculations showed that corrective actions may not reduce the impact of the cadmium stress. This was attributed to the lower intensity of process deterioration caused by the simulated cadmium stress. The pilot scale study shows that prior to implementing a corrective action strategy, the operator should determine the probable extent of process deterioration due to the detected chemical contaminant before deciding if a corrective action is needed. The pilot scale study also evaluated the effectiveness of current sensor technologies towards the upstream detection of influent anomalies and reliable monitoring of process performance during an upset event. Multivariate analysis on the rate of change of influent sensor signals was reliably able to detect the presence of both toxins tested during this study. For the third phase of this research, we investigated the impact of cadmium stress on the structure and function of bioreactor microbial communities. We observed significant increases in post-stress heterotrophic and autotrophic bacterial respiration rates for the bioreactors subjected to cadmium stress. The higher respiration rates were due to an increase in bacterial abundance in the cadmium stressed reactors. We were also able to show that the increase in bacterial abundance was not due to changes in community structure or due to cadmium induced deflocculation. In fact, this study demonstrates that transient cadmium stress reduces predator abundance within the activated sludge community and this reduction in predator grazing was responsible for the increase in bacterial abundance. This research highlights the importance of higher life forms, specifically eukaryotic microorganisms, in regulating bacterial community dynamics in systems undergoing chemical perturbations. / Ph. D.

This diploma thesis has been written on the topic:"Quality management system in the small and middle enterprise (SME)". The choosen enterprise is called "Roman Kovář company", which deals with cargo-transport services. The goal of this diploma thesis is to value and describe quality management system in choosen SME. In a theoretical part, there is quality management system described and divided due to literature.

Background: Brands that decide to publish sexist advertisements can generate issues for the company, as well as the perception the consumer has of the brand can become negative. This as consumers form attitudes towards the brand’s delivered communication which influence the overall evaluation the consumer has towards the brand. It is therefore of importance for brands to understand how to respond to sexist advertisements that have been published in order to determine the created negative publicity, where one given approach is to apply one of the image repair strategies. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how a brand’s image repair strategy towards its sexist advertisement affects consumers’ attitudes. Methodology: This research undertook a qualitative research approach with a descriptive nature. In order to ensure that the advertisements were classified as sexist and that the image repair strategies correspond with the brand’s responses according to the public, a pre-study was conducted through five semi-structured interviews. For the main study eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with both men and women as participants within the ages of 19-56 years old. Findings: The thesis identified that consumers' attitudes were affected by the four components: correspondence between advertisement and response, authenticity in the response, clarity regarding what actions to take and pre-knowledge of the brand. These components are therefore of importance for companies to take in consideration when responding towards sexist advertisements that they have sent out. Conclusion: Regarding the image repair strategies it was found that the responses given through the strategies of denial, evasion of responsibility and reduction of offensives lacked in all detected components. Furthermore, mortification as a strategy was not perceived as negative regarding the responses, however it still lacked the components. Corrective action was the only strategy where consumers' attitudes did not become negative towards the correspondence and authenticity in the response. However, all five strategies lacked clarity regarding what actions to take.

A systematic method can extrapolate tacit knowledge (hidden or subjective knowledge) so that it can become objective and discernable. This process focused on discovering causes of failures by extricating data from medical equipment service software cases closed by telephone by field service personnel. Their responses to observed failures were compared to troubleshooting guides in use by telephone support personnel to find new processes that would increase effectiveness of telephone support staff. We asked “What are indicators of device failure reported in technical support calls?” and then “What factors contribute to user reported device failures identified by callers to technical support?” A series of interviews with veteran personnel were used to validate responses from the “phone closed” cases along with ideas pulled from a review of documentation. Analysis of one hundred seventy three cases yielded over five hundred recommendations to make the telephone support personnel’s responses more accurate, consistent and reliable.

農漁會組織長久以來於農業發展扮演重要角色，其促進農業生產，增進農民福祉與繁榮農村經濟，對台灣早期之經濟發展貢獻許多。隨著經濟結構的變動，農會信用部面對產業結構的轉變及其他金融機構的激烈競爭，致使其經營陷入困境，經過金融重建基金處理了36家經營不善信用部，宣佈分級管理措施，及12萬農民大遊行，政府為徹底解決信用部諸多問題，於93年1月實施農業金融法，建立由行政院農業委員會一元化管理之農業金融體系，經過一連串之改革，相關財務指標顯示信用部之經營已逐漸改善中。 本研究主要探討我國農業金融體制與信用部面臨的問題，並參考日本農業金融改革之經驗，提出健全我國農業金融體制與監理之建議。 研究發現，農業金融改革後信用部之經營確實在改善中。然而，在80年代農業金融危機下遺留的問題尚未完全克服。對於我國農業金融發展，本研究從組織面、業務面與監理面進行探討，提出改革建議包括：全面檢討修訂農會法與漁會法、儘速恢復股金制、建置合併法規鼓勵合併、儘速處理經營不善之信用部並建構多元退場機制、加強農業金融體系連結與加速資訊共用平台之整合、強化對全國農業金庫與信用部之監理、落實金融監理加強實地檢查與場外監控措施、導入差異化管理與立即糾正措施等，農業金融機構有必要繼續改革，以健全農業金融體系，保障存款人權益，促進農漁村經濟發展。 / The Farmers’ and Fishermen’s Associations played an important role in the field of agricultural production. They helped agriculture develop, increased farmers’ and fishermen’s welfare, flourished the countryside and contributed a lot to the early progress of Taiwan economy. With the transition of economic structure, the whole environment became quite disadvantageous to credit departments of farmers’ and fishermens’ associations, which face the changes of the industrial structure and fierce competition from other financial institutions. With the experiences of the settlement of 36 problem credit departments by the Financial Restructuring Fund, announcement of differential supervision scheme and demonstration of 120,000 agriculturists, the government implemented the Agricultural Finance Act on 30th January 2004 and built an integrated agricultural finance system governed by the Council of Agriculture (COA) to solve many problems of credit departments. Through those reformations, the financial index showed that the condition of these credit departments has improved gradually. This study aimed to discuss those difficulties that our agricultural finance system and credit departments encountered and bring up suggestions to complete this system and the government’s supervision referring to the reformation of agricultural finance system in Japan. What our study found is that the operation of credit departments has undoubtedly improved after taking reformations to agricultural finance system in Taiwan. However, problems that the agricultural finance crisis left behind in 1980s have not been completely conquered yet. As to the prospect of our agricultural finance system, from the aspects of organizational structures, business activities and government’s supervision, we suggest the reforms include to examine and amend both the Farmers’ Association Law and the Fishermen’s Association Law from stem to stern, re-enforce paid-in capital system with all speed, draw up laws to encourage mergers, deal with problem credit departments and build up plenty selections to help them exit as soon as possible, strengthen the connection of agricultural finance system and the integration of information sharing stations, intensify our supervision towards the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan and credit departments, reinforce on-the-spot examination and off-site monitoring, bring differential supervision scheme and prompt-corrective action into practice and so on. Hence, we may achieve the goal to complete the agricultural finance system, protect the rights of depositors and prosper the rural villages’ and fishing villages’ economy.