Use of Risk Assessment Methods in the Certification of Decontaminated Buildings

Accidental events such as fires, explosions, and leaks often result in large-scale contaminations of buildings with toxic chemicals. After decontamination, the certification for original use requires testing for residual contamination. The two basic kinds of sampling plans in use up to recently both fall short of the required performance. Their deficiencies are analyzed in terms of the scientific questions implicit in both the sampling plan and the subsequent statistical evaluation. A sampling strategy of a new kind is proposed and discussed in the same context. It is motivated by concern for the long-term safety of the building's occupants and is, therefore, based on factors important in risk assessment. Three different sampling plans are derived in the framework of this methodology, two of which have already been used in actual certification proceedings.     

Hazards Education for Youth: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation

No experimental research has examined the hypothesized benefits of hazards education programs for youth in helping to increase community resilience. This preliminary study followed on from correlational studies and examined the role these programs play in helping increase child and family problem- and emotion-focused coping. Children (n= 219) were randomly assigned, based on classroom, to a condition. The "usual condition" consisted of a reading and discussion program. The "emergency management" condition consisted of the usual condition combined with emergency-management-focused teaching and increased interaction between youth and home. Factors assessed included both problem- and emotion-focused factors: knowledge of mitigation and emergency response activities, family and home hazard adjustments, hazard-related fears, emotion-focused coping ability, and perceptions of parents' hazard-related fears. Overall, the results supported the role for hazards education programs in increasing resilience in youth and at home. In particular, large intervention produced effect sizes were seen for both child- and parent-reported hazard adjustments. Significant interactions provided additional support for the role of an emergency management focus in the problem-focused areas of (1) both child- and parent-reported hazard adjustments and (2) increased hazards-based knowledge in the youth. These initial findings provide a continuing foundation for further research in this emerging area. Discussion considers the role for such programs in the future.     

Salient Beliefs About Earthquake Hazards and Household Preparedness

Prior research has found little or no direct link between beliefs about earthquake risk and household preparedness. Furthermore, only limited work has been conducted on how people's beliefs influence the nature and number of preparedness measures adopted. To address this gap, 48 qualitative interviews were undertaken with residents in three urban locations in New Zealand subject to seismic risk. The study aimed to identify the diverse hazard and preparedness‐related beliefs people hold and to articulate how these are influenced by public education to encourage preparedness. The study also explored how beliefs and competencies at personal, social, and environmental levels interact to influence people's risk management choices. Three main categories of beliefs were found: hazard beliefs; preparedness beliefs; and personal beliefs. Several salient beliefs found previously to influence the preparedness process were confirmed by this study, including beliefs related to earthquakes being an inevitable and imminent threat, self‐efficacy, outcome expectancy, personal responsibility, responsibility for others, and beliefs related to denial, fatalism, normalization bias, and optimistic bias. New salient beliefs were also identified (e.g., preparedness being a “way of life”), as well as insight into how some of these beliefs interact within the wider informational and societal context.     

A characterization of the maximin rule in the context of voting

In a voting context, when the preferences of voters are described by linear orderings over a finite set of alternatives, the Maximin rule orders the alternatives according to their minimal rank in the voters’ preferences. It is equivalent to the Fallback bargaining process described by Brams and Kilgour (Group Decision and Negotiation 10:287–316, 2001). This article proposes a characterization of the Maximin rule as a social welfare function (SWF) based upon five conditions: Neutrality, Duplication, Unanimity, Top Invariance, and Weak Separability. In a similar way, we obtain a characterization for the Maximax SWF by using Bottom Invariance instead of Top Invariance. Then, these results are compared to the axiomatic characterizations of two famous scoring rules, the Plurality rule and the Antiplurality rule.     

Inference under pivotal sampling: Properties,variance estimation,and application to tesselation for spatial sampling

Unequal probability sampling is commonly used for sample selection. In the context of spatial sampling, the variables of interest often present a positive spatial correlation, so that it is intuitively relevant to select spatially balanced samples. In this article, we study the properties of pivotal sampling and propose an application to tesselation for spatial sampling. We also propose a simple conservative variance estimator. We show that the proposed sampling design is spatially well balanced, with good statistical properties and is computationally very efficient.     

Is Industrial Unrest Reviving in Canada? Strike Duration in the Early Twenty‐First Century

Les données canadiennes à long terme sur la fréquence, la durée et l'ampleur des grèves laissent entendre que la grève est un acte en voie de disparition. Cependant, le début du 21^e siècle va à l'encontre du point de vue de ces prévisions. Depuis 2001, la durée moyenne d'une grève est plus longue, et n'est pas anticyclique. Ce document explique cette anomalie en utilisant l'argument que les employeurs tentent de réduire les gains salariaux des décennies précédentes en raison de la hausse de la dette publique et de la menace d'un marché de moins en moins entravé. Ces conditions motivent apparemment certains travailleurs à subir de très longs arrêts de travail, sans tenir compte de l'étape du cycle économique, dans le but de protéger leurs droits. Canadian data on strike frequency, duration, and volume imply that the strike is withering away. Some research also suggests that strike duration is countercyclical. However, the early twenty‐first century was anomalous from the viewpoint of these expectations. After 2001, mean strike duration increased and was not countercyclical. This paper explains the anomaly by arguing that employers are seeking to scale back the wage gains of previous decades in the face of mounting public debt and the whip of an increasingly unfettered market. These conditions apparently motivate some workers to endure protracted work stoppages, irrespective of the phase of the business cycle, in an effort to protect their rights.     

Strategic human resource development: towards a conceptual framework to understand its contribution to dynamic capabilities

Dynamic capabilities have assumed major importance in the strategy and human resource management literatures. However, discussion of their contribution to strategic human resource development (SHRD) is nascent. We introduce the concept of ‘dynamic’ strategic human resource development capabilities (DSHRDCs) and propose a framework consisting of (a) enabling factors, (b) specific components, (c) underlying processes, and (d) unique SHRD dynamic capabilities. We view a dynamic capabilities approach as a useful lens to understand how SHRD contributes to organizational performance through the development of capabilities. We discuss each component of the framework and propose possible directions for future research and implications for practice.     

An investigation into E-business service in the UK telecommunication manufacturing industry

Nowadays, suppliers’ product and service quality has risen in importance with a manufacturer’s push to develop core competencies and capitalise on global operations and markets. However, due to the complex features of business service, suppliers are facing significant challenges in providing service effectively and developing business collaboration. This is further complicated by the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper thus attempts to investigate the factors influencing buyers’ e-service (EBS) requirements and the impact of these requirements on business collaboration. Based on a questionnaire survey with 500 UK telecommunication manufacturers, this research identifies buyers’ different EBS requirements for different types of suppliers and the impact of ICTs on EBS requirements. While for suppliers our findings provide insights into buyers’ EBS requirements, they can help buyers to develop appropriate supplier selection criteria. The findings also contribute to a better understanding of the development of buyer and supplier business collaboration.     

E-business services and business performance: a study of the telecommunications manufacturing industry

The development of information and communication technologies has significantly changed the business interactions as well as created new approaches for improving business performances. While the benefits from this development have been well documented in the literature, it also poses a significant challenge for companies in tracking or further improving e-business services. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by investigating the impact of e-business service dimensions on business performance in the telecommunications manufacturing industry. Based on 121 usable responses from a questionnaire survey of the UK telecommunication manufacturers, structural equation modelling is employed to identify the main e-business service dimensions which affect business performance significantly. The data analysis reveals that two e-business service dimensions significantly influence suppliers’ performance from the buyer's perspective. It also indicates the significant relationships between suppliers’ performance, buyer-perceived buyer–supplier relationship maintenance and the buyer's competitive advantage. The findings in this research not only help the supplier to understand which practices significantly improve its overall performance (as perceived by the buyer), but also assist the buyer in its supplier development efforts to improve its own business performance.     

Improving the Impact and Implementation of Disaster Education: Programs for Children Through Theory‐Based Evaluation

A main weakness in the evaluation of disaster education programs for children is evaluators’ propensity to judge program effectiveness based on changes in children's knowledge. Few studies have articulated an explicit program theory of how children's education would achieve desired outcomes and impacts related to disaster risk reduction in households and communities. This article describes the advantages of constructing program theory models for the purpose of evaluating disaster education programs for children. Following a review of some potential frameworks for program theory development, including the logic model, the program theory matrix, and the stage step model, the article provides working examples of these frameworks. The first example is the development of a program theory matrix used in an evaluation of ShakeOut, an earthquake drill practiced in two Washington State school districts. The model illustrates a theory of action; specifically, the effectiveness of school earthquake drills in preventing injuries and deaths during disasters. The second example is the development of a stage step model used for a process evaluation of What's the Plan Stan?, a voluntary teaching resource distributed to all New Zealand primary schools for curricular integration of disaster education. The model illustrates a theory of use; specifically, expanding the reach of disaster education for children through increased promotion of the resource. The process of developing the program theory models for the purpose of evaluation planning is discussed, as well as the advantages and shortcomings of the theory‐based approaches.