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.     

Evaluation of the exercise intervention with the "Back School" education program in a Brazilian company of cigars: a case study

The purpose of this study was to assess the benefits of an exercise program associated to the educational phase of the "Back School Program" in the quality of life of workers from a cigar factory. This is a case study conducted over four months with three activities a week, two times a day, with the third day devoted to educational activities, focusing on healthy lifestyle, correct posture, postural orientations, daily living and work activities, work motivation, and other issues.     

Global sensitivity analysis with dependence measures

Global sensitivity analysis with variance-based measures suffers from several theoretical and practical limitations, since they focus only on the variance of the output and handle multivariate variables in a limited way. In this paper, we introduce a new class of sensitivity indices based on dependence measures which overcomes these insufficiencies. Our approach originates from the idea to compare the output distribution with its conditional counterpart when one of the input variables is fixed. We establish that this comparison yields previously proposed indices when it is performed with Csiszár f-divergences, as well as sensitivity indices which are well-known dependence measures between random variables. This leads us to investigate completely new sensitivity indices based on recent state-of-the-art dependence measures, such as distance correlation and the Hilbert–Schmidt independence criterion. We also emphasize the potential of feature selection techniques relying on such dependence measures as alternatives to screening in high dimension.     

论中文书目数据库建设中的质量控制

书目数据质量是保证书目数据库整体质量的基础。本文从文献著录标准化、规范化、外来数据源的合理利用、原始编目的著录、加强书目管理以及编目人员应具备的素质等方面,分析了书目数据库建设中的质量控制问题。     

Making and Facing Danger: Constructing Strong Character on the River

River guides are those individuals given the extraordinary task of delivering their passengers from the dangers and chaos of white-water rivers. After engaging in what Coffman would call fateful action, river guides emerge with perceived strong character. However, before river guides can achieve such an elevated identity, they must first manage the passengers' view of the rapids as dangerous. In this article, I discuss the various techniques river guides use to construct and enhance danger on the river, how facing such danger is used to demonstrate strong character, and its relevance as a basis for authority in a leisure setting.     

Global sensitivity analysis of stochastic computer models with joint metamodels

The global sensitivity analysis method used to quantify the influence of uncertain input variables on the variability in numerical model responses has already been applied to deterministic computer codes; deterministic means here that the same set of input variables always gives the same output value. This paper proposes a global sensitivity analysis methodology for stochastic computer codes, for which the result of each code run is itself random. The framework of the joint modeling of the mean and dispersion of heteroscedastic data is used. To deal with the complexity of computer experiment outputs, nonparametric joint models are discussed and a new Gaussian process-based joint model is proposed. The relevance of these models is analyzed based upon two case studies. Results show that the joint modeling approach yields accurate sensitivity index estimators even when heteroscedasticity is strong.     

The NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol: A Meta-Analytic Review

Systematic review and meta-analysis of literature were conducted examining the effectiveness of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Investigative Interview Protocol in improving the quality of child forensic interviews. Online databases were searched for journal articles published between the years 2000 and 2013. Measures of interview quality were the type of interviewer utterances and the amount of information provided by children. Five studies met criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Weighted mean of the effect sizes was calculated for each outcome measure. Protocol interviews had more invitations (g = 1.60) and fewer option-posing (g = ?.95) and suggestive prompts (g = ?.63) than standard interviews. Children interviewed by the protocol provided more central details (g = .90) in response to invitations than controls. Meta-analyses of a subset of preschool children samples revealed that protocol interviews had more invitations (g = 1.46), fewer suggestive prompts (g = ?.61), and fewer option-posing prompts (g = ?1.05) than controls. Findings corroborate results from previous studies that suggested the benefits of the protocol on the interviewers’ performance and on children’s informativeness. However, protocol did not show the same performance with regard to preschool children.     

Exploring death anxiety among elderly people: a literature review and empirical investigation

Given the growing number of elderly persons in society and concerns about their health and well-being, the aim was to review the available literature on their death anxiety, and to explore features of this experience among a small sample of older men and women in care facilities. In both the review and empirical parts of this study, components and correlates of death anxiety were investigated. The review revealed limited research focus on death anxiety among the elderly, particularly among those in institutions, but suggested both components and correlates for inclusion in our empirical study. Results showed that, among our elderly participants in an assisted living facility (N = 49; age range: 60-96 years), there were higher levels of fear for others and of the dying process than for fear of the unknown. Notably, among the correlates identified, fear for significant others was associated with poor physical health; fear of the dying process was related to low self-esteem, little purpose in life, and poor mental well-being. Gender differences in death anxiety were found: women showed greater fear for the death of loved ones and for the consequences of their own death on these loved ones, than did men. These patterns are discussed in the light of concerns about the welfare of elderly persons; scientific implications are also considered.     

Corporate Governance in Asian Countries: Has Confucianism Anything to Offer?

Although Confucianism is a resilient cultural tradition in Asian societies, its role in their corporate governance systems is ambiguous. Confucian values have been pushed to the periphery because of a preoccupation in these countries to emulate corporate governance systems from the West. This article argues that Confucianism has much to offer in enhancing director conduct and corporate governance standards. As the attention of the global business community turns eastwards, it is opportune to revive interest in Confucianism and to explore ways in which it can be integrated formally into companies' governance systems.     

论和谐人口

1和谐人口的提出及内涵人口发展目标一直是人口学研究的重要课题,甚至可以说自有人口研究以来,关于人口发展目标的研究一直是人口研究的重要内容。这表明,人口发展目标是人类共同关注的重要问题。适度人口是人口目标研究中的重要成果。早在公元前300多年前,柏拉图就主张一个国家的人口应该适当,“必须不使人民过多而使国家过大,也不使人民过少而使国家过小”。现代适度人口思想发端于约翰.穆勒,他把“报酬递减规律”应用于农业人口规模研究,提出了人口增长过快超过一定点之后会导致人均产量下降的观点。系统提出和研究适度人口理论的分别是…