Safety leaders' perceptions of safety culture in a large Australian construction organisation

Safety culture in the construction industry is a growing research area. The unique nature of construction industry works – being project-based, varying in size and focus, and relying on a highly transient subcontractor workforce – means that safety culture initiatives cannot be easily translated from other industries. This paper reports on the first study in a three year collaborative industry and university research project focusing on safety culture practices and development in one of Australia’s largest global construction organisations. The first round of a modified Delphi method is reported, and describes the insights gained from 41 safety leaders’ perceptions and understandings of safety culture within the organisation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and will be followed by a quantitative perception survey with the same sample. Participants included Senior Executives, Corporate Managers, Project Managers, Safety Managers and Site Supervisors. Leaders’ definitions and descriptions of safety culture were primarily action-oriented and some confusion was evident due to the sometimes implicit nature of culture in organisations. Leadership was identified as a key factor for positive safety culture in the organisation, and there was an emphasis on leaders demonstrating commitment to safety, and being visible to the project-based workforce. Barriers to safety culture improvement were also identified, with managers raising diverse issues such as the transient subcontractor workforce and the challenge of maintaining safety as a priority in the absence of safety incidents, under high production pressures. This research is unique in that it derived safety culture descriptions from key stakeholders within the organisation, as opposed to imposing traditional conceptualisations of safety culture that are not customised for the organisation or the construction industry more broadly. This study forms the foundation for integrating safety culture theory and practice in the construction industry, and will be extended upon in future studies within the research program.

Producing the magnum opus : A metaphor for nephrology nursing expertise acquisition

Aim. This paper elucidates the nature of metaphor and the conditions necessary to its use as an analytic device in qualitative research, and describes how the use of metaphor assisted in the analytic processes of a grounded theory study of nephrology nursing expertise. Background. The use of metaphor is pervasive in everyday thought, language and action. It is an important means for the comprehension and management of everyday life, and makes challenging or problematic concepts easier to explain. Metaphors are also pervasive in quantitative and qualitative research for the same reason. In both everyday life and in research, their use may be implicit or explicit. Methods. The study using grounded theory methodology took place in one renal unit in New South Wales, Australia between 1999 and 2000 and included six non-expert and 11 expert nurses. It involved simultaneous data collection and analysis using participant observation, semi-structured interviews and review of nursing documentation. Findings. A three stage skills-acquisitive process was identified in which an orchestral metaphor was used to explain the relationships between stages and to satisfactorily capture the data coded within each stage. Conclusion. Metaphors create images, clarify and add depth to meanings and, if used appropriately and explicitly in qualitative research, can capture data at highly conceptual levels. Metaphors also assist in explaining the relationship between findings in a clear and coherent manner. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Implicit online learning

Online learning algorithms have recently risen to prominence due to their strong theoretical guarantees and an increasing number of practical applications for large-scale data analysis problems. In this paper, we analyze a class of online learning algorithms based on fixed potentials and nonlinearized losses, which yields algorithms with implicit update rules. We show how to efficiently compute these updates, and we prove regret bounds for the algorithms. We apply our formulation to several special cases where our approach has benefits over existing online learning methods. In particular, we provide improved algorithms and bounds for the online metric learning problem, and show improved robustness for online linear prediction problems. Results over a variety of data sets demonstrate the advantages of our framework.

Learning the Kernel Matrix with Semi-Definite Programming

Kernel-based learning algorithms work by embedding the data into a Euclidean space, and then searching for linear relations among the embedded data points. The embedding is performed implicitly, by specifying the inner products between each pair of points in the embedding space. This information is contained in the so-called kernel matrix, a symmetric and positive definite matrix that encodes the relative positions of all points. Specifying this matrix amounts to specifying the geometry of the embedding space and inducing a notion of similarity in the input space -- classical model selection problems in machine learning. In this paper we show how the kernel matrix can be learned from data via semi-definite programming (SDP) techniques. When applied to a kernel matrix associated with both training and test data this gives a powerful transductive algorithm -- using the labelled part of the data one can learn an embedding also for the unlabelled part. The similarity between test points is inferred from training points and their labels. Importantly, these learning problems are convex, so we obtain a method for learning both the model class and the function without local minima. Furthermore, this approach leads directly to a convex method to learn the 2-norm soft margin parameter in support vector machines, solving another important open problem. Finally, the novel approach presented in the paper is supported by positive empirical results.

A new control-volume finite-element scheme for heterogeneous porous media : application to the drying of softwood

An improved mesoscopic model is presented for simulating the drying of porous media. The aim of this model is to account for two scales simultaneously: the scale of the whole product and the scale of the heterogeneities of the porous medium. The innovation of this method is the utilization of a new mass-conservative scheme based on the Control-Volume Finite-Element (CV-FE) method that partitions the moisture content field over the individual sub-control volumes surrounding each node within the mesh. Although the new formulation has potential for application across a wide range of transport processes in heterogeneous porous media, the focus here is on applying the model to the drying of small sections of softwood consisting of several growth rings. The results conclude that, when compared to a previously published scheme, only the new mass-conservative formulation correctly captures the true moisture content evolution in the earlywood and latewood components of the growth rings during drying.

Radiation effect on free convection laminar flow along a vertical flat plate with streamwise sinusoidal surface temperature

The effect of thermal radiation on a steady two-dimensional natural convection laminar flow of viscous incompressible optically thick fluid along a vertical flat plate with streamwise sinusoidal surface temperature has been investigated in this study. Using the appropriate variables; the basic governing equations are transformed to convenient form and then solved numerically employing two efficient methods, namely, Implicit finite difference method (IFD) together with Keller box scheme and Straight forward finite difference (SFFD) method. Effects of the variation of the physical parameters, for example, conduction-radiation parameter (Planck number), surface temperature parameter, and the amplitude of the surface temperature, are shown on the skin friction and heat transfer rate quantitatively are shown numerically. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as streamlines and isotherms are also presented and discussed for the variation of conduction-radiation parameter. It is found that both skin-friction and rate of heat transfer are enhanced considerably by increasing the values of conduction radiation parameter, Rd.

The effect of temperature dependent viscosity on MHD natural convection flow from an isothermal sphere

Laminar magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow from an isothermal sphere immersed in a fluid with viscosity proportional to linear function of temperature has been studied. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form and the resulting nonlinear system of partial differential equations are reduced to convenient form which are solved numerically by two very efficient methods, namely, (i) Implicit finite difference method together with Keller box scheme and (ii) Direct numerical scheme. Numerical results are presented by velocity and temperature distribution, streamlines and isotherms of the fluid as well as heat transfer characteristics, namely the local skin-friction coefficients and the local heat transfer rate for a wide range of magnetohydrodynamic paramagnet and viscosity-variation parameter.

Viscous dissipation effects on natural convection from a vertical plate with uniform surface heat flux placed in a thermally stratified media

In the present study we investigate the effect of viscous dissipation on natural convection from a vertical plate placed in a thermally stratified environment. The reduced equations are integrated by employing the implicit finite difference scheme of Keller box method and obtained the effect of heat due to viscous dissipation on the local skin friction and local Nusselt number at various stratification levels, for fluids having Prandtl numbers of 10, 50, and 100. Solutions are also obtained using the perturbation technique for small values of viscous dissipation parameters $\xi$ and compared to the finite difference solutions for 0 · $\xi$ · 1. Effect of viscous dissipation and temperature stratification are also shown on the velocity and temperature distributions in the boundary layer region.

Natural convection adjacent to an inclined flat plate and in an attic space under various thermal forcing conditions

The effect of viscous dissipation on natural convection from a vertical plate placed in a thermally stratified environment has been investigated numerically. The reduced equations are integrated by employing the implicit finite difference scheme or Ke1ler-box method and obtained the effect of heat due to viscous dissipation on the local skin-friction and loca1 Nusselt number at various stratification levels, for fluids having Prandtl number equals 10, 50, and 100. Solutions are also obtained using the perturbation technique for small values of viscous dissipation parameters and compared with the Finite Difference solutions. Effect of the heat transfer due to viscous dissipation and the temperature stratification are also shown on the velocity and temperature distributions in the boundary layer region. A numerical study of laminar doubly diffusive free convection flows adjacent to a vertical surface in a stable thermally stratified medium is also considered for this study. Solutions are obtained using the implicit Finite Difference method and compared with the local non-similarity method. The velocity and temperature distributions for different values of stratification parameter are shown graphically. The results show many interesting aspects of complex interaction of the two buoyant mechanisms.

Quality and efficacy of the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) for university students

Designed as a 'supplementary' tuition scheme, the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (hereafter referred to as ITAS) is a strategic initiative of the National Indigenous Education Policy (DEET, 1989). This paper seeks to contribute to the literature of the analysis of the quality and efficacy of ITAS. Currently, the delivery of ITAS to Indigenous students requires enormous administration and commitment by the staff of Indigenous education support centres. In exploring the essential but problematic provision of ITAS to Indigenous university students, this paper provides insights into significant aspects of our program that move beyond assumptions of student deficit, by researching the quality of teaching and learning through ITAS, analysing administrative workload, and sharing innovations to our program as a result of participatory research with important ITAS stakeholders.

SwarmPS: Rapid, semi-automated single particle selection software

Single particle analysis (SPA) coupled with high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy is emerging as a powerful technique for the structure determination of membrane protein complexes and soluble macromolecular assemblies. Current estimates suggest that ∼104–105 particle projections are required to attain a 3 Å resolution 3D reconstruction (symmetry dependent). Selecting this number of molecular projections differing in size, shape and symmetry is a rate-limiting step for the automation of 3D image reconstruction. Here, we present SwarmPS, a feature rich GUI based software package to manage large scale, semi-automated particle picking projects. The software provides cross-correlation and edge-detection algorithms. Algorithm-specific parameters are transparently and automatically determined through user interaction with the image, rather than by trial and error. Other features include multiple image handling (∼102), local and global particle selection options, interactive image freezing, automatic particle centering, and full manual override to correct false positives and negatives. SwarmPS is user friendly, flexible, extensible, fast, and capable of exporting boxed out projection images, or particle coordinates, compatible with downstream image processing suites.

Time-dependent fractional advection–diffusion equations by an implicit MLS meshless method

Recently, many new applications in engineering and science are governed by a series of fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs). Unlike the normal partial differential equations (PDEs), the differential order in a FPDE is with a fractional order, which will lead to new challenges for numerical simulation, because most existing numerical simulation techniques are developed for the PDE with an integer differential order. The current dominant numerical method for FPDEs is Finite Difference Method (FDM), which is usually difficult to handle a complex problem domain, and also hard to use irregular nodal distribution. This paper aims to develop an implicit meshless approach based on the moving least squares (MLS) approximation for numerical simulation of fractional advection-diffusion equations (FADE), which is a typical FPDE. The discrete system of equations is obtained by using the MLS meshless shape functions and the meshless strong-forms. The stability and convergence related to the time discretization of this approach are then discussed and theoretically proven. Several numerical examples with different problem domains and different nodal distributions are used to validate and investigate accuracy and efficiency of the newly developed meshless formulation. It is concluded that the present meshless formulation is very effective for the modeling and simulation of the FADE.

An implicit RBF meshless approach for time fractional diffusion equations

This paper aims to develop an implicit meshless approach based on the radial basis function (RBF) for numerical simulation of time fractional diffusion equations. The meshless RBF interpolation is firstly briefed. The discrete equations for two-dimensional time fractional diffusion equation (FDE) are obtained by using the meshless RBF shape functions and the strong-forms of the time FDE. The stability and convergence of this meshless approach are discussed and theoretically proven. Numerical examples with different problem domains and different nodal distributions are studied to validate and investigate accuracy and efficiency of the newly developed meshless approach. It has proven that the present meshless formulation is very effective for modeling and simulation of fractional differential equations.

Leveraging Web 2.0 data for scalable semi-supervised learning of domain-specific sentiment lexicons

Since manually constructing domain-specific sentiment lexicons is extremely time consuming and it may not even be feasible for domains where linguistic expertise is not available. Research on the automatic construction of domain-specific sentiment lexicons has become a hot topic in recent years. The main contribution of this paper is the illustration of a novel semi-supervised learning method which exploits both term-to-term and document-to-term relations hidden in a corpus for the construction of domain specific sentiment lexicons. More specifically, the proposed two-pass pseudo labeling method combines shallow linguistic parsing and corpusbase statistical learning to make domain-specific sentiment extraction scalable with respect to the sheer volume of opinionated documents archived on the Internet these days. Another novelty of the proposed method is that it can utilize the readily available user-contributed labels of opinionated documents (e.g., the user ratings of product reviews) to bootstrap the performance of sentiment lexicon construction. Our experiments show that the proposed method can generate high quality domain-specific sentiment lexicons as directly assessed by human experts. Moreover, the system generated domain-specific sentiment lexicons can improve polarity prediction tasks at the document level by 2:18% when compared to other well-known baseline methods. Our research opens the door to the development of practical and scalable methods for domain-specific sentiment analysis.