Using a political economy analysis, this thesis examines the Global Food Safety Initiative and its effects on food safety governance. It begins with a discussion of food safety, an important component of food production systems, which attempts to ensure that food will not induce foodborne illness in the consumer. After outlining how neoliberalism is the current political economy environment in which the Global North operates, it argues that within this environment the Global Food Safety Initiative is rapidly becoming the predominant expression of neoliberalism to promote food safety. A political economic analysis of the Global Food Safety Initiative reveals that it is an indicator of the current neoliberal food regime and has significant consequences for the governance of both Canadian and international food safety.

Using a political economy analysis, this thesis examines the Global Food Safety Initiative and its effects on food safety governance. It begins with a discussion of food safety, an important component of food production systems, which attempts to ensure that food will not induce foodborne illness in the consumer. After outlining how neoliberalism is the current political economy environment in which the Global North operates, it argues that within this environment the Global Food Safety Initiative is rapidly becoming the predominant expression of neoliberalism to promote food safety. A political economic analysis of the Global Food Safety Initiative reveals that it is an indicator of the current neoliberal food regime and has significant consequences for the governance of both Canadian and international food safety.

A design approach for an aircraft takeoff performance monitoring system (TOPMS) is described. In this approach, it is proposed that the Global Positioning System (GPS) in conjunction with a discrete Kalman Filter be used to determine aircraft acceleration, ground speed, and position relative to the end of the runway. A practical evaluation of the feasibility of this proposal showed clear superiority of a GPS-derived acceleration over a more traditional method employing accelerometers. This study found that, when compared to observations from carefully mounted accelerometers, the GPS-derived observation agreed to within 0.10 metres per second squared ninety percent of the time. Advantages of the GPS-derived observation included a modest noise level, insusceptibility to gravity and temperature-influenced variations, and far simplified mounting criteria. A theoretical dynamic model of an aircraft in contact with the ground was developed in consideration of factors pertaining to runways at far-northern Canadian airports. In the model, factors such as runway slope, wind velocity, wheel friction coefficient, and aircraft control settings were considered constant. While variability in any parameter considered constant by the model could influence the performance of a TOPMS, such variability was deemed beyond the scope of this preliminary investigation of a TOPMS designed specifically for the far-northern environment. A device containing a GPS receiver and data acquisition system was designed and certified, then installed in an aircraft operated by an airline servicing far-northern Canadian airports. The data collected in this manner were used to validate the theoretical model. It was concluded that a projection of displacement can be determined to within an uncertainty of fifteen metres in sufficient time to alert the pilot of an unsafe situation.

The emergence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow” disease has forced new practices in raising of cattle, risk management in abattoirs, marketable cuts of meat and disposal of potentially infective material. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency defines BSE as a progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system of cattle. In 1996 BSE became a human health issue when a link was discovered between BSE and a new variation of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), a devastating and incurable disease with a very low-probability of infection but a high fatality rate (Collinge, 1999). To avert further BSE and potential vCJD cases, new policies need to be implemented (CFIA, 2007b; CFIA, 2007b; CFIA, 2008; DEFRA, 2004; OIE, 2007). These policies would not only protects the health of consumers in Canada, they are a prerequisite to exporting Canadian meat products. Failure to enact risk reduction measures has had devastating economic impacts (FDA, 2005; Hill, 2005; Mitura & Di Pietro, 2004; Poulin & Boame, 2003). However, not all technologies being used to manage the risk of prion diseases are deemed effective, and many have strong economies of scale which if implemented may well exclude small scale farming and slaughterhouses, unless consumers accept much higher cost products. Creating an effective management plan for animal by-products (ABPs) is a complex issue involving multiple conflicting objectives. In order to meet the objectives, the CFIA has approved five management options that offer varying levels of risk management while imposing different environmental, social and economic costs. The costs of these are linked to the operational scale and technology being considered. Furthermore, stakeholders are likely to be sensitive to different attributes of these options and design of successful policies. The focus of this research is on the tradeoff between managing the human health risk of exposure to the BSE prion and the economics of managing this risk while retaining consumer demand. The challenge lies in discovering alternative means of managing livestock waste tissue that are practical for producers and regulators and are attractive to consumers. This challenge was addressed by asking the following two questions: 1. What is the cost and effectiveness of different waste disposal options for British Columbia? 2. What is the extent of consumer willingness to share in the costs of increased food safety? In answering these questions a two stage methodology was designed. The first stage was a technological analysis whereby each was characterized and compared to the extent in which they satisfied operational objectives. The second stage was conducted through an online survey whereby we gather information on the following three broad categories, demographics, determinants of purchasing behaviour and willingness to pay for varying levels of food safety. The results of the technological analysis show that the technology of choice varies based on stakeholder preference. The survey results confirm earlier results that consumers value food safety and they are willing to pay to mitigate food safety risks (Hammitt, 1990; Latouche, Rainelli, & Vermersch, 1998; Loureiro, McCluskey, & Mittelhammer, 2003; McCluskey, Grimsrud, Ouchi, & Wahl, 2005; Röhr, Lüddecke, Drusch, Müller, & Alvensleben, 2005) Within the context of beef selection survey respondents are willing to pay up close to 184 cents per pound of beef more than they are currently paying and the study has highlighted the following two predictors of for this tendency: 1. Consumer willingness to pay for organic food and: 2. Respondent level of concern regarding food borne illnesses In terms of policy selection, regulations in BC should impose risk reduction measures that achieve considerable levels of risk management, communicate this clearly to the public as well as the impact of these measures on production costs and provide a means whereby consumers can select for this attribute, such as a labeling program.

The aim of this master theses was to evaluate the thermal-hydraulic calculation software GOTHIC for the purpose of nuclear containment safety analyses. The evaluation was performed against some of the Marviken full scale containment experiments and a comparison was also made against the two codes RELAP5 and COPTA. Models with different complexity were developed in GOTHIC and the parameters pressure, temperature and energy in different areas of the enclosure was investigated. The GOTHIC simulations in general showed a good agreement with the Marviken experimental results and had an overall better agreement then RELAP5. From the results it was possible to conclude that the developed GOTHIC model provided a good representation of the Marviken facility.

Various North American transportation agencies have implemented several preventative maintenance techniques to improve pavement performance and safety. The Region of York, located north east of Toronto, Ontario, has been resurfacing and remedying pavements with microsurfacing treatments to improve the pavement surface conditions. Often times these maintenance methods were selected because they seemed the most appropriate given a budget constraint however little was known if these treatments impacted road safety. The Region of York made their road and safety data accessible for the purpose of this research. Thus the focus of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how microsurfacing and resurfacing treatments impact road safety to help the Region of York and potentially other jurisdictions make more sound decisions when selecting pavement maintenance treatments. Road related fatalities account for 90 percent of transportation related deaths in Canada despite safety measures such as stronger safety laws and public awareness campaigns. There is a need for engineers to think outside of the box and look at other ways to improve road safety. Given the high costs to society for crashes it only seems logical that safety should be a part of a preventative maintenance decision making process. A fair amount of research has been done on the influence of pavement friction on traffic safety; however no studies were uncovered that examined how microsurfacing (a treatment designed to improve the frictional properties of pavement) affected safety. This study accomplishes five research objectives based on the needs of the Region of York and past experience: 1. Establishes that there is a statistically significant relationship between microsurfacing treatments and safety for specific traffic conditions using a before-after analysis 2. Determines that there is a statistically significant relationship between resurfacing and safety under specific traffic conditions using a before-after analysis 3. Illustrates the need and value added if there is better cohesion between road data and safety data 4. Demonstrate that safety has a role to play in pavement management, especially regarding preventative maintenance strategies and offers guidance on how to approach the integration using York Region as a case study 5. Develops a concept decision making framework that demonstrates how safety data should be considered in pavement maintenance decision making at both the network level applying life cycle costs and project level using decision making flowcharts. These tools while specific to York Region can be adopted in jurisdictions with similar characteristics The study concludes that microsurfacing and resurfacing safety effects are sensitive to the influence of treatment year data (which may be an anomaly period) and average annual daily traffic (AADT) per lane. The findings of this study have opened the door to additional research; integration of safety under the pavement umbrella seems logical and yet has barely been explored. Recommendations that have resulted from this work deal with data collected and how it is managed; analysis methodology and additional opportunities for further study; and finally how to optimize the application of the findings to best serve engineers that are involved in the maintenance decision making process. There is much potential for further research in the area of safety within a pavement management framework and the resultant studies will have a tremendous benefit to society.

Today, railroad companies transport many varieties of dangerous goods (DG). Train derailments, especially those involving DG, can be catastrophic in terms of loss of life and environmental damage. In North America, the transportation of DG is governed by regulations published by the Canadian and United State's governments. While the regulation is important in terms of providing overall guidelines, they do not address the problem of optimally positioning DG cars in terms of their potential for derailment and the associated risks. Currently, most rail yard operations do not consider the potential effect of the position of DG cars on the risk of derailment. This research is concerned with the problem of how to place DG cars in a train in the train assembly process so that the overall derailment risk can be minimized. The approach considers both the probability of railway cars derailing en route by position as well as the time associated with additional operations in the rail yard. This work has resulted in a useful decision support tool for assisting rail yard operation managers to achieve an optimum trade-off between derailment risk and operating costs in assembling trains. The merits of this new car placement model are illustrated through a case study of a real railway corridor that connects Barstow Yard in California to Corwith Yard in Chicago over 2100 miles and involves a range of track features. The case study demonstrates that the proposed risk minimization strategy could be implemented with minimal rail yard operation cost.

Purpose: Teaching consumers proper home food safety practices is an important strategy to combat foodborne illness. Food safety educators with limited resources must do a cost-versus-benefit analysis before choosing the optimum medium to reach their target audiences. The objectives of this research were to determine whether presenting food safety information in a video format was more effective than text-only in terms of audience recall of the information one week later; to determine whether an intervention in text or video form increased students’ knowledge of food safety information as compared to no intervention at all; and to identify certain demographic factors that could have influenced performance on a food safety quiz. Methods: One hundred thirty-three Georgia State University undergraduate students were assigned to one of three groups. One group viewed a food safety video (n=59), a second group received the same information in text-only form (n=41), and the third group (n=33) served as the control and received no intervention. Students filled out a demographic questionnaire and completed a pre-intervention and post-intervention food safety knowledge test. Average scores were calculated, and the data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 for Windows. Results: There was no significant difference between pre-intervention test scores among the three groups (p=.057). The video group scored significantly higher on the post-intervention test (p=.006) than the text group and the control group (p<.001). The video group (p<.001) and text group (p<.001) both scored significantly higher on the post-intervention quiz than the pre-intervention quiz, but the control group did not (p=.466). Video was superior to text overall and in conveying basic food safety principles; however, students in the text group demonstrated a better recall of more detailed food safety information such as proper internal cooking temperatures for poultry and ground beef. Previous food safety education in the classroom or online was found to be the only significant predictor of better performance on the pre-intervention test (p=.004). Conclusion: Video is more effective than text when used to deliver simple, direct food safety messages. More detailed information, such as proper internal cooking temperatures, might be best delivered in text form. Consumers are likely to benefit most from a multimedia approach to food safety education that includes videos, accompanying brochures, and Web site content.

A few years ago Westinghouse started the development of a new method for criticality calculations for spent nuclear fuel storage pools called “PHOENIX-to–MCNP” (PHX2MCNP). PHX2MCNP transfers burn-up data from the code PHOENIX to use in MCNP in order to calculate the criticality. This thesis describes a work with the purpose to further validate the new method first by validating the software MCNP5 at higher water temperatures than room temperature and, in a second step, continue the development of the method by adding a new feature to the old script. Finally two studies were made to examine the effect from decay time on criticality and to study the possibility to limit the number of transferred isotopes used in the calculations. MCNP was validated against 31 experiments and a statistical evaluation of the results was done. The evaluation showed no correlation between the water temperature of the pool and the criticality. This proved that MCNP5 can be used in criticality calculations in storage pools at higher water temperature. The new version of the PHX2MCNP script is called PHX2MCNP version 2 and has the capability to distribute the burnable absorber gadolinium into several radial zones in one pin. The decay time study showed that the maximum criticality occurs immediately after the takeout from the reactor as expected. The last study, done to evaluate the possibility to limit the isotopes transferred from PHOENIX to MCNP showed that Case A, a case with the smallest number of isotopes, is conservative for all sections of the fuel element. Case A, which contains only some of the actinides and the strongest absorber of the burnable absorbers gadolinium 155, could therefore be used in future calculations. Finally, the need for further validation of the method is discussed.

Healthier and safer working environment is always appreciated. Almost 2 million people at work die every year due to accidents or work-related diseases(source: ILO). Concept of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has significant importance in industrial sector as compare to universities. Therefore it is common among industries to have standardized Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) than universities. Management systems for OHS provide a systematic way of managing health and safety with continual improvement. It is generally considered that management system of health and safety not only reduces loss and cost of accidents and ill-health, but it also improves the performance and efficiency of employees. Universities and colleges are meant to deliver education which is considered their core objective. Risksrelated to health and safety may weaken their aims and objectives.There are few studies of OHSMS in the context of university. This study aims to contribute to knowledge pool by studying OHS work in universities and explorepossibilities for the implementation of OHSMS. This study is based on literature,Standard and Guidelines of occupational health and safety management systems.In addition, study was performed on OHS work among different universities and acase study of University of Gävle (HiG), for possibilities of implementing OHSMS in universities. HiG has a good history of environmental work with ISO14001 certified Environmental Management system (EMS). SWOT analysis was performed for the possibilities of OHSMS implementation at HiG. There are several standards and guidelines which are based on OHSMS and most of them have compatibility with EMS standards. Most of the universities work for OHS of their employees and students without any management system. Selection of suitable OHSMS standard or guideline is dependent on the university structure and its present OHS work. Existing OHS works of Universities have capability to fulfill few OHSMS requirements defined in several standards and guidelineswhich is positive sign for possibilities of OHSMS implementation at Universities.Healthier and safer working environment is always appreciated. Almost 2 millionpeople at work die every year due to accidents or work-related diseases(source: ILO). Concept of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has significantimportance in industrial sector as compare to Universities. Therefor it is commonamong industries to have standardized Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) than universities. Management systems for OHS provide a systematic way of managing health and safety with continual improvement. It is generally considered that management system of health and safety not only reduces loss and cost of accidents and ill-health, but it alsoimproves the performance and efficiency of employees. Universities and collegesare meant to deliver education which is considered their core objective. Risksrelated to health and safety may weaken their aims and objectives.There are few studies of OHSMS in the context of university. This study aims to contribute to knowledge pool by studying OHS work in universities and explore possibilities for the implementation of OHSMS. This study is based on literature,Standard and Guidelines of occupational health and safety management systems.In addition, study was performed on OHS work among different universities and acase study of University of Gävle (HiG), for possibilities of implementing OHSMS in universities. HiG has a good history of environmental work with ISO14001 certified Environmental Management system (EMS). SWOT analysis was performed for the possibilities of OHSMS implementation at HiG. There are several standards and guidelines which are based on OHSMS and most of them have compatibility with EMS standards. Most of the universities work for OHS of their employees and students without any management system. Selection of suitable OHSMS standard or guideline is dependent on the university structure and its present OHS work. Existing OHS works of universities have capability to fulfill few OHSMS requirements defined in several standards and guidelines which is positive sign for possibilities of OHSMS implementation at Universities.