Assessment of physical workload in boiler operations

The use of boiler wood-fired is fairly common equipment utilized in steam generation for energy production in small industries. The boiler activities are considered dangerous and heavy, mainly due to risks of explosions and the lack of mechanization of the process. This study assessed the burden of physical labor that operators of boilers are subjected during the workday. Assessment of these conditions was carried out through quantitative and qualitative measurements. A heart rate monitor, a wet-bulb globe thermometer (WBGT), a tape-measure and a digital infrared camera were the instruments used to collect the quantitative data. The Nordic Questionnaire and the Painful Areas Diagram were used to relate the health problems of the boiler operator with activity. With study, was concluded that the boiler activity may cause pains in the body of intensity different, muscle fatigue and diseases due to excessive weight and the exposure to heat. The research contributed to improve the boiler operator's workplace and working conditions.     

An international validation study of the care thermometer: a tool supporting the quality of ergonomic policies in health care

Occupational back pain among nurses leads to high costs and personal suffering for nurses. It is difficult to assess the success of such initiatives and to monitor results in a practical way. Such a practical monitoring and web-based instrument was developed. This Care Thermometer (CT) allows the users to assess the current situation in their facility today, and, with regular use, it can help to track progress over time. The Care Thermometer is a further step in the development of the TilThermometer, a validated assessment tool that is used on a large, national scale in The Netherlands. The claims of the newly developed Care Thermometer are ambitious and an international validation study was performed in four countries: the UK, USA, Germany and the Netherlands. The instrument appears to be sufficiently valid, useful and practical. There are however some points to keep in mind when interpreting the results of the CT. Especially a careful, punctual and stringent data collection phase is crucial for accurate and useful results. Some recommendations to further improve the practical use both for the design of the instrument and the process of data-collection and -entering are given.     

Low cost (audio) recording (LCR) for advancing soundscape ecology towards the conservation of sonic complexity and biodiversity in natural and urban landscapes

Low cost (audio) recorders (LCRs) represent a new opportunity to investigate the sonic complexity of both natural and urban ecosystems. LCRs are inexpensive sampling audio recorders which have the external shape of a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, and are composed of a microphone, an analog-to-digital converter, central processing unit with permanent internal non-volatile memory, rechargeable battery, and a USB connection. The reduced dimensions allow the device to be deployed inconspicuously within any environment, in any configuration and for an extended time period. This investigation tested a specific type of LCR (UR-09) with a spectral range of 8 kHz - sufficient to cover the acoustic range of most western Palearctic songbirds. The reliability of the UR-09, compared with other commercial recorders (Zoom H4 and Song Meter SM1) and based on the quality of recordings quantified by the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), was tested and confirmed. An example of the application of LCRs is presented in an evaluation of the audio patterns occurring during dawn and dusk choruses within a forested ecosystem. Results of this investigation are encouraging and a new generation of LCR devices is currently being designed with real-time acoustic data processing capabilities, timer programmability, a larger frequency range and wireless communication compatibility. LCRs are revealed to be ideal instruments to conduct surveys in fragile or protected areas and also in urban environments. Moreover, due to their low cost, they can be used to encourage research in soundscape ecology, especially within developing countries, where large areas can be monitored by professionals or incorporating citizen science models of data collection.     

Spatio-temporal analysis of urban temperature in Bandung City,Indonesia

This study presents an evaluation of urban micro-climate about the exsistence level urban vegetation, in association with the urban temperature (surface temperature) and urban built-up area of Bandung City. The changes in urban vegetation cover, urban temperature, and urban built-up area observed using Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM + bands were evaluated on the basis of the WDRVI (Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Indices), NDBI (Normalized Difference Built-up Index), and SAVI (Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index). It was found that, due to the uncontrolled urban growth and the removal of urban vegetation cover and urban green space, there was a significant increase in urban temperature, in NDBI, but a decrease in WDRVI. The maximum urban temperatures, NDBI, and the minimum values of WDRVI indices were established in 2009. Therefore the results indicate a significant effect of higher density of impervious surfaces coverage (urban built-up area) contributing significantly to the increase of urban temperature. Again the results also confirm that urban vegetation landscape coverage in the surrounding of industrial area reduced the urban temperature. Based on the results, we recommend the city government to provide more urban green space by cooperating with private land owner, in order to decrease urban temperature and create a healthier living environment for urban inhabitants.     

Analysis of mental workload of electrical power plant operators of control and operation centers

Electrical systems can be categorized as critical systems where failure can result in significant financial loss, injury or threats to human life. The operators of the electric power control centers perform an activity in a specialized environment and have to carry it out by mobilizing knowledge and reasoning to which they have adequate training under the terms of the existing rules. To reach this there is a common mental request of personnel involved in these centers due the need to maintain attention, memory and reasoning request. In this sense, this study aims to evaluate the Mental Workload of technical workers of the Control Centers of Electrical Energy. It was undertaken a research on operators control centers of the electricity sector in Northeast Brazil. It was used for systematic observations, followed by interview and application of the instrument National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index known as NASA-TLX. As a result there will be subsidies for an assessment of mental workload of operators, and a contribution to improving the processes of managing the operation of electric utilities and the quality of workers.     

Sustainability reporting patterns of companies listed on the Johannesburg securities exchange

The demand by stakeholders for information about companies’ social and environmental performance has led to sustainability reporting becoming essential. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are the international reporting standard whereas the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Socially Responsible Investment (JSE SRI) Index guidelines are used in South Africa. Although South Africa is regarded as one of the leaders in sustainability reporting in the world, the JSE SRI Index is still a relatively new standard and its efficiency will only be proved over time. The research on which this paper is based, determined whether reporting patterns exist across specific market sectors of the sustainability reports of companies listed on the JSE in order to establish if the JSE SRI Index guidelines on reporting are efficient. Results indicated that all the selected market sectors reported on the environment, society and governance (ESG) categories as per requirements of the JSE SRI Index. The mining and materials sector reported more in the environment and the society categories than the other sectors, while in the governance category less reporting on indirect impacts by all the sectors was noted. The implication of this is that in general, companies find the JSE SRI Index guidelines on reporting easy to implement. However, less reporting of companies’ indirect impacts on their operating environments could mean that there is still a lack of completeness and transparency from the companies’ reports, which could be as a result of a lack of firmer guidelines by the JSE SRI Index guidelines on reporting of such issues.     

Analysis of the thermal comfort model in an environment of metal mechanical branch

This study aims to identify the correlation between the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) with the thermal sensation (S) of 55 employees, establishing a linear multiple regression equation. The measurement of environmental variables followed established standards. The survey was conducted in a metal industry located in Ponta Grossa of the State of Parana in Brazil. It was applied the physical model of thermal comfort to the environmental variables and also to the subjective data on the thermal sensations of employees. The survey was conducted from May to November, 2010, with 48 measurements. This study will serve as the basis for a dissertation consisting of 72 measurements.     

Air pollution and stock returns in the US

Health related research documents that air pollution has negative mood effects. Experimental works in psychology relate bad mood to increased risk aversion. Studies in financial economics report an observed link between mood effects and stock market returns. This study therefore investigates whether the mood effects caused by air pollution can have economic implications. It examines the relationship between air pollution and stock returns using data from the Air Quality Index, and stock returns from four stock exchanges in the US. We find that air pollution is negatively related to stock returns, even when controlling for other variables. The relationship becomes weaker as the distance of the stock exchange from the polluted area increases. The results also indicate that air pollution may even affect local traders investing in securities exchanges located far from the polluted area. The findings imply that a profitable trading strategy can be constructed.     

Evaluating phase movement theory with the dramatis personae of time: 1923–1988

Parsons and Bales maintain that the temporal organization of a group's activities is characterized by a periodic swing between internal and external imperatives. The phase hypothesis holds that at the societal level phases characterized by an emphasis on solving external problems will be accompanied by economic prosperity. Temporal organization is also characterized by adaptive upgrading in response to environmental demands and a concomitant secular trend, or increasingly external focus. To test these hypotheses, 3,209 roles featured on the cover of Time magazine from 1923 to 1988 were classified as either internal (educators, mass media, entertainers, athletes, celebrities, private interest group leaders, religious leaders, and labor leaders) or external (politicians, public interest group leaders, military, administrators, scientists, and foreigners). A Phase Index was determined by the proportion of external roles. The level of business activity was established by the Cleveland Trust Company's “American Business Activity” index. While Henry Luce was editor‐in‐chief of Time (1923–1967), the phase and business cycles were correlated at +.58 (p <.01), and for the 60‐year period from 1923 to 1988 the correlation was +.468 (p = .001). Lagged values of the Phase Index produced steadily increasing correlations with business activity, from a seven‐year lag (r = ‐0.048) to a maximum correlation of +0.485 with a two‐year lag, suggesting that the Phase Index is a two‐year leading indicator of the business cycle. The trend hypothesis was evaluated by regression analysis. An increase in the proportion of external roles from 1923 to 1988 was found to be significant (Y = 63.5 + .151(X), p = .0052). Increasing numbers of “villain” roles suggest that high levels of external activity in the 1970s and 1980s may be creating internal problems. These strains may be a sign of transition from an external to an internal phase. These data are interpreted as supporting Parsons and Bales’ phase and trend hypotheses.     

Thermal comfort and personal protective equipment (PPE)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is considered the last preferred solution to an Occupational Safety Health (OSH) system. Brazilian OSH legislation assumes and requires PPE usage to neutralize the possibility of pesticide contamination. This study examines the inadequacy of the PPE used in a tomato crop, particularly from the standpoint of thermal comfort. This study made observations regarding heart rate and body temperature in a controlled environment using a treadmill (with and without PPE) of 12 volunteers; and during the process of rural labor (at rest and in normal work routine) of 2 actual rural workers. Comparing the results of the treadmill test (with and without PPE) which tried to reproduce the same level of effort and environmental conditions of the actual rural work, this study demonstrated that PPE makes thermoregulation harder and tympanic temperature reaches higher values with the same level of effort. Moreover, body temperature increases quickly: with PPE it took 15 minutes to raise 1°C in body temperature, compared to 40 minutes without PPE. The results of this study indicated that the use inadequate PPE might pose thermoregulation risk to rural workers.     

Size matters: vegetation patch size and surface temperature relationship in foothills cities of northwestern Argentina

Urbanization is one of the most extreme forms of land alteration. Energy fluxes are severely affected and cities tend to have the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, although vegetated areas inside cities could have a positive effect in mitigating UHI effect. Our main objective was to analyze the relationship between vegetation characteristics, patch size and land surface temperature (LST) in three urban areas of northwestern Argentina. We selected 38 green spaces of different size distributed in four cities, all located in the eastern foothills of the subtropical mountain forests. We used Landsat TM satellite images to calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST. We assessed the net effect of patch size on LST by computing a Difference Temperature Index. At the regional scale, our results showed that vegetation patch size had a direct effect on reducing the LST of the green space. At a local scale, the analysis of the relationship between vegetation on urban green spaces and LST along a gradient of urbanization showed that green spaces with more vegetation tends to reduce LST. The results showed that largest green spaces were between 1.5 and 2.8 °C cooler than the surrounding built. In order to mitigate the UHI effect in cities, larger green spaces appear to be a possible solution.     

Understanding preferences for tree attributes: the relative effects of socio-economic and local environmental factors

Urban plant biodiversity is influenced by both the physical environment and attitudes and preferences of urban residents for specific plant types. Urban residents are assumed to be disconnected from their immediate environment, and cultural and societal factors have been emphasized over environmental factors in studies of landscaping choices. However, we postulate that local climatic and environmental factors can also affect preferences for plant attributes. Therefore, spatial and temporal patterns in urban tree biodiversity may be driven not only by the direct effect of environmental variables on plant function, but also by the effect of environmental variables on attitudes toward trees and associated choices about which types of trees to plant. Here, we tested the relative effects of socio-economic and local environmental factors on preferences toward tree attributes in five counties in southern California in and surrounding Los Angeles, based on 1,029 household surveys. We found that local environmental factors have as strong an effect on preferences for tree attributes as socio-economic factors. Specifically, people located in hotter climates (average maximum temperature 25.1 °C) were more likely to value shade trees than those located in cooler regions (23.1 °C). Additionally, people located in desert areas were less likely to consider trees to be important in their city compared with people located in naturally forested areas. Overall, our research demonstrates the inherent connections between local environmental factors and perceptions of nature, even in large modern cities. Accounting for these factors can contribute to the growing interest in understanding patterns of urban biodiversity.     

Migration as a consumption activity

"While a generalized utility maximization approach to migration decisionmaking is not innovative, the principal extensions of this paper involve the search for an instrument capable of measuring changes in utility levels consistent with all preferences (i.e., with all forms of utility functions), requiring only data on observed behaviour. Our approach is to construct a Location-Specific Utility Index (LSUI), whose component variables serve as proxies for the arguments in [U.S.] households' utility functions.... The testable hypothesis is formulated as follows: Assuming constant household preferences and expansion of the household's feasible set over time, the household's utility level is greater following the migration decision.... The results are compared with the households' migration decisions. The empirical evidence shows that migration may reasonably be modelled as a consumption activity by households to maximize utility." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Influence of substrate depth and vegetation type on temperature and water runoff mitigation by extensive green roofs: shrubs versus herbaceous plants

The relative contribution of substrate depth and vegetation type on temperature mitigation and stormwater runoff reduction was studied in an experimental green roof in North eastern Italy. Two substrate depths (120 and 200?mm) and two vegetation types (herbaceous plants and shrubs, respectively) were used, and compared to control modules with similar substrate depths but left bare of vegetation. Experimental observations showed that: a) green roofs substantially reduce thermal load over the rooftop, with significant effects of substrate depth and no apparent impact of vegetation type; b) thermal effects are strongly influenced by substrate water content; c) green roofs strongly reduce water runoff with significant substrate x vegetation effects. Our data suggest that green roof design addressed to optimization of the thermal functions should take into account adequate planning of substrate depth. Moreover, our data show that vegetated modules out-competed medium-only ones in terms of runoff reduction capacity, in accordance with some previous studies. Both shrub-vegetated and herbaceous modules intercepted and stored more than 90% rainfall during intense precipitation events, with no significant difference between the two vegetation types despite different substrate depths.     

Moving targets: determinants of nutritional preferences and habitat use in an urban ant community

Urban environments are often associated with reduced biodiversity, presumably because they are typically more fragmented, warmer, and drier than nearby non-urban environments. However, urban landscapes offer significant complexity that have allowed some taxonomic groups to flourish. Understanding how urban-exploiting animals navigate this spatiotemporal heterogeneity is important given the continued global urban land expansion. Here, we examined the factors influencing resource-use in an urban community of ants, which represent a widespread and important taxon in urban ecosystems. In particular, we sought to integrate ants’ nutritional, thermal, and spatial niches to better understand how urban animals successfully access critical resources throughout their active season. Meteorological season (spring, summer, and fall) and/or species (n?=?9) influenced ants’ preferences for nutrition (ratio of ingested protein-to-carbohydrate ratio), as well as the temperature, type (impervious vs. non-impervious), and shade status (shaded vs. non-shaded) of surfaces used during activity. Our data also indicate links among habitat variables, as well as between nutritional preferences and habitat use. Together, our results suggest that species and seasonality influence ecological (combined nutritional, thermal, and spatial) niches in an urban community. We encourage future work in urban ecosystems that continues to integrate more features of the ecological niche, and to examine the outcomes of variation in niches (e.g., non-overlapping niches may explain both the persistence of some native animals and the success of invaders).     

气候变化政治对海湾国家的影响

海湾地区气候炎热,淡水资源缺乏。长期以来,海湾国家主要依靠能源出口获取大量资金,借此修建海水淡化工厂等各种设施以适应和改善气候环境的影响。近年来,国际社会在应对全球变暖问题的协调合作中,已形成一种处理全球气候变化的政治。气候变化政治要求各国减少能源消耗和降低二氧化碳排放量以缓解全球变暖趋势,从而对海湾国家以能源出口收益来维护生存环境和社会稳定的基本经济模式构成冲击。面对气候变化政治带来的冲击,海湾国家目前的权宜选择只能是继续扩大能源出口,并尽量拖延实施气候变化协议来进行应对。然而,这种做法虽可以暂时保持海湾国家改善环境的努力和维护其经济政治结构稳定,但却难以消除全球气候变化政治今后长期推动能源结构调整和节能减排所带来的压力。     

Effects of Neighborhood Inequality on the Relative Distance between Objective Position and Subjective Identification

This article is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between an individual's objective class position and their subjective class identification and to understand the effects of neighborhood inequality on individual variations. It tests three theses that the relationship between objective class position and subjective identification: is based on reflection, middle-class consciousness or variation. The degree to which neighborhood-level variables impact on the relative distance between objective class position and subjective identification is examined in assessing the possible contextual effects of the spatial setting individuals in which individuals are located. It utilizes 2015 City Policy Index Survey data administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and goes through two steps in analysis. First, a correspondence analysis was performed to calculate the relative distance between individuals’ objective position and subjective identification. The relative distance calculated was used as a dependent variable in a multilevel linear model examining the possible cross-level interaction between neighborhood inequality and individual-level variables. The results indicate that the relationship between an individual's objective class position and subjective identification was captured in the variation thesis. Women, and people who are younger, college educated and who hold non-manual occupations are more likely to identify with a position that is lower than their actual position. Neighborhood inequality was found to exaggerate the gap in relative distance scores by gender and occupation.     

Inequality of opportunity in daycare and preschool services in Brazil

In this paper we measure inequality of opportunity in daycare and preschool services in Brazil. For this purpose, we construct an opportunity index that modifies the Human Opportunity Index proposed in the literature and used in Barros et al. (2009) to measure inequality in basic opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically, we construct an opportunity measure that includes not only attendance but also parental choice not to enroll children in daycare or preschool, using data from a supplementary questionnaire included in the 2006 version of Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD). The results show that there are large differences between our opportunity index and the Human Opportunity Index for children aged 0–3 years old and considerably smaller differences for children aged 4–6 years old, which suggests that preschool may be closer to a basic opportunity than daycare.     

An empirical analysis of the use of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in assessing the distribution of electronic gaming machines and its socio-economic implications

Sargent and Holmes (2014) proposed the use of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in assessing the effects of the distribution of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) on expenditure and tax outcomes for local areas. This paper reports empirical analysis on the use of the Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI) in this application. Comparative testing of HHI and population-based measures, such as EGM density, was conducted using EGM data from the New South Wales State Government (Australia) for the period 1995 to 2005. The analysis also compares the use of the commonly used Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage, with the Index of Education and Occupation. The socio-economic elements comprising the latter index are acknowledged as being relevant to the assessment of gambling impacts. The results indicate that the use of a concentration measure such as the HHI may augment the use of existing measures in policy development and localized decision-making on distribution of gambling facilities.