Psychological determinants of safety culture

- Safety psychology and workplace safety - Motivational and attitudinal components of safety - Psychological determinants of safety - Addressing risk-behaviour in safety - Case Study from Construction - Discussion and Questions

Repair of calvarial defects with customized tissue-engineered bone grafts - I. Evaluation of osteogenesis in a three-dimensional culture system

Bone generation by autogenous cell transplantation in combination with a biodegradable scaffold is one of the most promising techniques being developed in craniofacial surgery. The objective of this combined in vitro and in vivo study was to evaluate the morphology and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow derived mesenchymal progenitor cells and calvarial osteoblasts in a two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) culture environment (Part I of this study) and their potential in combination with a biodegradable scaffold to reconstruct critical-size calvarial defects in an autologous animal model [Part II of this study; see Schantz, J.T., et al. Tissue Eng. 2003;9(Suppl. 1):S-127-S-139; this issue]. New Zealand White rabbits were used to isolate osteoblasts from calvarial bone chips and bone marrow stromal cells from iliac crest bone marrow aspirates. Multilineage differentiation potential was evaluated in a 2-D culture setting. After amplification, the cells were seeded within a fibrin matrix into a 3-D polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold system. The constructs were cultured for up to 3 weeks in vitro and assayed for cell attachment and proliferation using phase-contrast light, confocal laser, and scanning electron microscopy and the MTS cell metabolic assay. Osteogenic differentiation was analyzed by determining the expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and osteocalcin. The bone marrow-derived progenitor cells demonstrated the potential to be induced to the osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic pathways. In a 3-D environment, cell-seeded PCL scaffolds evaluated by confocal laser microscopy revealed continuous cell proliferation and homogeneous cell distribution within the PCL scaffolds. On osteogenic induction mesenchymal progenitor cells (12 U/L) produce significantly higher (p < 0.05) ALP activity than do osteoblasts (2 U/L); however, no significant differences were found in osteocalcin expression. In conclusion, this study showed that the combination of a mechanically stable synthetic framework (PCL scaffolds) and a biomimetic hydrogel (fibrin glue) provides a potential matrix for bone tissue-engineering applications. Comparison of osteogenic differentiation between the two mesenchymal cell sources revealed a similar pattern.

Moving Forward: Students and teachers against racism

Racism in education is one of the key issues facing schools, communities and the nation. Racism is about the exercise of power by individuals, groups and communities against each other. Whatever form it takes, racism has great potential to hurt and to harm. This book tells a series of stories from 11 very different government and non-government schools in Queensland. These stories show the positive measures that are being taken in schools to promote harmony, respect, understanding and fairness between school members, and with people in the community. The stories offer a simple lesson: solutions to racism must be local solutions. They must be culturally appropriate and relevant to specific communities. There is no single solution. However, this book shows that, through a mixture of strategies, students, teachers, schools and communities can make a difference, influencing the school and community culture and improving the educational outcomes and life chances of students of diverse backgrounds.

Safety culture research, lead indicators, and the development of safety effectiveness indicators in the construction sector

Construction sector application of Lead Indicators generally and Positive Performance Indicators (PPIs) particularly, are largely seen by the sector as not providing generalizable indicators of safety effectiveness. Similarly, safety culture is often cited as an essential factor in improving safety performance, yet there is no known reliable way of measuring safety culture. This paper proposes that the accurate measurement of safety effectiveness and safety culture is a requirement for assessing safe behaviours, safety knowledge, effective communication and safety performance. Currently there are no standard national or international safety effectiveness indicators (SEIs) that are accepted by the construction industry. The challenge is that quantitative survey instruments developed for measuring safety culture and/ or safety climate are inherently flawed methodologically and do not produce reliable and representative data concerning attitudes to safety. Measures that combine quantitative and qualitative components are needed to provide a clear utility for safety effectiveness indicators.

Adapting a generic BEAMnrc model of the BrainLAB m3 micro-multileaf collimator to simulate a local collimation device

This work is focussed on developing a commissioning procedure so that a Monte Carlo model, which uses BEAMnrc’s standard VARMLC component module, can be adapted to match a specific BrainLAB m3 micro-multileaf collimator (μMLC). A set of measurements are recommended, for use as a reference against which the model can be tested and optimised. These include radiochromic film measurements of dose from small and offset fields, as well as measurements of μMLC transmission and interleaf leakage. Simulations and measurements to obtain μMLC scatter factors are shown to be insensitive to relevant model parameters and are therefore not recommended, unless the output of the linear accelerator model is in doubt. Ultimately, this note provides detailed instructions for those intending to optimise a VARMLC model to match the dose delivered by their local BrainLAB m3 μMLC device.

Money laundering and FATF compliance by the international community

This paper examines the anti-money laundering systems of Australia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA), the extent to which they have implemented the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations, and how compliance with these recommendations is affected by local cultural and economic factors. The paper makes use of FATF evaluation reports to compare the countries’ compliance; it examines some of the underlying cultural considerations and culture-specific ethical issues that affect the extent of compliance, and how cultural and ethical considerations may affect good governance. The findings indicate that the UK and the USA are the most advanced with regards to their compliance with the FATF recommendations and Australia and the UAE less so. The UAE is in particular found to be least compliant. We relate this finding to previous work on how a country’s legal and financial systems develop in line with its religion, culture and socio-economic situation, and examine how such local factors have affected the UAE’s financial and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems. This research will be of interest to policy-makers and government agencies involved in addressing money laundering and its successful detection and prosecution.

Comparison of human alveolar osteoblasts cultured on polymer-ceramic composite scaffolds and tissue culture plates

The effects of medical grade polycaprolactone–tricalcium phosphate (mPCL–TCP) (80:20) scaffolds on primary human alveolar osteoblasts (AOs) were compared with standard tissue-culture plates. Of the seeded AOs, 70% adhered to and proliferated on the scaffold surface and within open and interconnected pores; they formed multi-layered sheets and collagen fibers with uniform distribution within 28 days. Elevation of alkaline phosphatase activity occurred in scaffold–cell constructs independent of osteogenic induction. AO proliferation rate increased and significant decrease in calcium concentration of the medium for both scaffolds and plates under induction conditions were seen. mPCL–TCP scaffolds significantly influenced the AO expression pattern of osterix and osteocalcin (OCN). Osteogenic induction down-regulated OCN at both RNA and protein level on scaffolds (3D) by day 7, and up-regulated OCN in cell-culture plates (2D) by day 14, but OCN levels on scaffolds were higher than on cell-culture plates. Immunocytochemical signals for type I collagen, osteopontin and osteocalcin were detected at the outer parts of scaffold–cell constructs. More mineral nodules were found in induced than in non-induced constructs. Only induced 2D cultures showed nodule formation. mPCL–TCP scaffolds appear to stimulate osteogenesis in vitro by activating a cellular response in AO's to form mineralized tissue. There is a fundamental difference between culturing AOs on 2D and 3D environments that should be considered when studying osteogenesis in vitro.

Local autonomy, tax morale, and the shadow economy

Policymakers often propose strict enforcement strategies to fight the shadow economy and to increase tax morale. However, there is an alternative bottom-up approach that decentralises political power to those who are close to the problems. This paper analyses the relationship with local autonomy. We use data on tax morale at the individual level and macro data on the size of the shadow economy to analyse the relevance of local autonomy and compliance in Switzerland. The findings suggest that there is a positive (negative) relationship between local autonomy and tax morale (size of the shadow economy).

Elements of public asset management framework for local governments in developing countries

There is a widespread recognition to the need of better manage municipal property in most cities in the world. Structural problems across regional, state, and territorial governments that have legal powers to own and maintain real property are similar, regardless of the level of development of each country. Start from a very basic level of property inventory records. The need for better manage to the local government owned property is the result of widespread decentralisation initiatives that often have devolved huge property portfolios from central to local governments almost “overnight”. At the same time municipal or regional governments were and continue to be unprepared to deal with multiple issues related to the role of property owners and managers. The lack of discussion of public asset management especially the elements that should be incorporated in the framework creates an important challenge to study the discipline of public asset management further. The aim of this paper is to study the practices of public asset management in developed countries, especially the elements of public asset management framework, and its transferability to developing countries. A case study was selected and conducted to achieve this aim. They involved interviews and a focus group. The study found that in public asset management framework, proper asset identification, public asset needs analysis, asset life cycle and performance measurements are an important element that should be incorporated in the framework. Those elements are transferable and applicable to developing countries’ local governments. Finally, findings from this study provide useful input for the local government policy makers, scholars and asset management practitioners to establish a public asset management framework toward more efficient and effective local governments in managing their assets as well as increasing public services quality.

Framework for measuring corporate safety culture and its impact on construction safety performance

This paper presents the results of a structural equation model (SEM) that describes and quantifies the relationships between corporate culture and safety performance. The SEM is estimated using 196 individual questionnaire responses from three companies with better than average safety records. A multiattribute analysis of corporate safety culture characteristics resulted in a hierarchical description of corporate safety culture comprised of three major categories — people, process, and value. These three major categories were decomposed into 54 measurable questions and used to develop a questionnaire to quantify corporate safety culture. The SEM identified five latent variables that describe corporate safety culture: (1) a company’s safety commitment; (2) the safety incentives that are offered to field personal for safe performance; (3) the subcontractor involvement in the company culture; (4) the field safety accountability and dedication; and (5) the disincentives for unsafe behaviors. These characteristics of company safety culture serve as indicators for a company’s safety performance. Based on the findings from this limited sample of three companies, this paper proposes a list of practices that companies may consider to improve corporate safety culture and safety performance. A more comprehensive study based on a larger sample is recommended to corroborate the findings of this study.