Evaluating and designing procedures in safety critical environments: a framework and taxonomy based on a critical review and synthesis

Past research in procedure following has primarily concentrated on the effect of procedure-related factors on procedure compliance and non-compliance. Non-compliance is generally considered to be uniformly negative, rather than the outcome that results from other factors. However, there is a general consensus that procedures are not designed for all situations, and that non-compliance can improve outcomes under certain situations. It is therefore important to understand procedure following based on outcomes and not only procedure compliance or non-compliance. To that end, a framework and taxonomy for understanding procedure following has been developed that enables researchers to focus on the outcome of following procedures, not simply on compliance and non-compliance.     

The effects of closer monitoring on driver compliance with interlock restrictions

This randomized controlled trial of 2168 DWI multiple offenders assigned to a state-wide ignition interlock program in Maryland compared non-compliance with interlock requirements among drivers who were closely monitored (by Westat staff) and drivers who received standard monitoring (by the Motor Vehicle Administration). Compliance comparisons relied on datalogger data from MVA's interlock providers plus driver records that contained demographic information, prior alcohol-related traffic violations, their dispositions, and interlock duration. Measures for quantifying non-compliance included rates per 1000 engine starts for initial breath test failures at varying BAC levels and time periods, retest failures, retest refusals, interlock disconnects, startup violations, and summation measures. Regression analysis estimated the effects of closer monitoring on non-compliance, using linear mixed models that included random driver effects and fixed effects for study-group assignment, prior alcohol-related traffic violations, and months of continuous datalogger data with a quadratic function that assessed changes and rates of change in interlock non-compliance over time.All the separate non-compliance rates and summary measures derived from them were lower for closer monitored than control drivers for continuous data series of at least 6, 12, or 24 months. The differences for initial test failures and the two summary measures were statistically significant. Most measures of non-compliance decreased significantly as continuous time on the interlock increased. Parallel trends in each study group indicated that drivers learned to improve their compliance over time. Thus, this study convincingly demonstrates that closer monitoring substantially enhanced compliance with requirements of the ignition interlock and that regardless of group assignment, compliance increased over time.     

The effects of closer monitoring on driver compliance with interlock restrictions

This randomized controlled trial of 2168 DWI multiple offenders assigned to a state-wide ignition interlock program in Maryland compared non-compliance with interlock requirements among drivers who were closely monitored (by Westat staff) and drivers who received standard monitoring (by the Motor Vehicle Administration). Compliance comparisons relied on datalogger data from MVA's interlock providers plus driver records that contained demographic information, prior alcohol-related traffic violations, their dispositions, and interlock duration. Measures for quantifying non-compliance included rates per 1000 engine starts for initial breath test failures at varying BAC levels and time periods, retest failures, retest refusals, interlock disconnects, startup violations, and summation measures. Regression analysis estimated the effects of closer monitoring on non-compliance, using linear mixed models that included random driver effects and fixed effects for study-group assignment, prior alcohol-related traffic violations, and months of continuous datalogger data with a quadratic function that assessed changes and rates of change in interlock non-compliance over time.All the separate non-compliance rates and summary measures derived from them were lower for closer monitored than control drivers for continuous data series of at least 6, 12, or 24 months. The differences for initial test failures and the two summary measures were statistically significant. Most measures of non-compliance decreased significantly as continuous time on the interlock increased. Parallel trends in each study group indicated that drivers learned to improve their compliance over time. Thus, this study convincingly demonstrates that closer monitoring substantially enhanced compliance with requirements of the ignition interlock and that regardless of group assignment, compliance increased over time.     

Ecological compensation in spatial planning in Italy

Ecological compensation or biodiversity offsets are increasingly recognized as a key element for environmental sustainability; however, more attention has been paid so far to compensation applied at the project level rather than to spatial planning. Meanwhile, there is a growing acknowledgement that extensive environmental depletion is being caused by the cumulative effects of small developments allowed by spatial/land use plans. This paper aims to collect empirical evidence on the requirements for ecological compensation at a strategic level of decision-making – spatial planning – in Italy. Results indicate that spatial plans are increasingly introducing offset requirements for residual impacts of new urban developments; however, methodological and operational aspects are not sufficiently addressed and enforcement mechanisms appear weak. The lack of legal frameworks and of established methods appears to be the main element currently hindering biodiversity offset implementation at the planning level. It is suggested that, in the Italian context, a way to foster better implementation is the design of environmental stewardship schemes involving farmers, developers and planning authorities.     

Social responsibility in infrastructure mega-projects: A case study of ecological compensation for Sousa chinensis during the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge

Ecological compensation plays an important role in implementing the social responsibility of infrastructure mega-projects. Based on the results of a field study, an in-depth interview, and archive data, this paper introduces the ecological compensation for Sousa chinensis (the Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin) during the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. It studies the concrete measures, decision-making processes, and organizational collaboration of the ecological compensation, using the method of a case study. The present study not only enriches our understanding of the ecological compensation practice during the construction of infrastructure mega-projects, but also extends the literature on the social responsibility of infrastructure mega-projects. This sheds light on the protection of the environment as well as biodiversity in the construction of future infrastructure mega-projects.     

Does your clinical investigator understand the consequences of non-compliance?

The increasing number and complexity of clinical trials, coupled with the recent increase in attention and enforcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, arguably makes it more important than ever before that clinical investigators understand the regulatory requirements with which they must comply. This article outlines some of these requirements, common areas of non-compliance and FDA's enforcement options in dealing with such non-compliance. Finally, the article provides some suggestions for attaining and managing investigator compliance.     

Research culture and New Zealand’s performance-based research fund: some insights from bibliographic compilations of research outputs

Year-on-year trends in research outputs show increases in research activity as the date of the research assessment exercise—in New Zealand the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF)—looms. Moreover, changes with time in the number and types of conference presentation indicate that the vehicle of publication is also being influenced by the PBRF. Within New Zealand business schools, relating the published journal articles to the Australian Business Deans Council rankings list shows a trend towards more publications of lower rank, raising doubts about whether the rhetoric about the PBRF raising the quality of research is really justified. This ‘drive’ towards increasing numbers of research outputs is also fostered by an increasing trend towards co-authorship in publishing across all disciplines.     

鄱阳湖流域生态补偿机制构建的设想

流域生态补偿是一种具有经济激励特征的机制,是解决流域上中下游之间水资源开发利用不公和发展机会不均的重要方式。针对鄱阳湖生态经济区建设的战略目标需求,提出了鄱阳湖流域生态补偿机制构建的设想,以期为协调鄱阳湖生态经济区建设发展和流域生态资源的保护提供指导,最终实现鄱阳湖流域上中下游地区的互惠共赢。     

Physician-hospital partnerships: incentive alignment through shared governance within a performance improvement structure

BACKGROUND: Producing accessible, appropriate, and accountable medical care that improves the health of the populations served requires collaborative physician-organization relationships within which performance measurement across the continuum of care occurs. Governance and shared responsibility for performance improvement (PI) through organizational structure and process have proven to be particularly complex challenges. REDESIGN OF THE PI SYSTEM: The Health Alliance of Central New York, based in Syracuse, New York, which consists in part of Crouse Hospital; ambulatory medical care sites and physicians; a physician organization, a physician-hospital organization, and an independent practice association; in February 1997 established a plan for a redesign of the PI system. IMPLEMENTING THE MODEL: In April 1998 the development of joint performance indicators, the Family of Measures, was undertaken. Recommendations for improvements necessary to correct process failures are referred to the medical staff executive committee and/or the appropriate coordinating committee, which then charges the appropriate service-line PI Council(s) with the responsibility for making those improvements. DISCUSSION: Systemwide PI with collaborative decision making by process stakeholders has been a major cultural transition requiring a degree of organizational readiness. Support of the most senior levels of management is critical. Institutional silos do not support shared, participatory decision making and cannot be overcome without strong support from senior management and in many cases the direct support and involvement of the CEO. Integrating information systems represents a considerable challenge: to find hardware and software that will interface properly to produce desired results, to successfully interface computer support personnel into the PI process, and to ensure the commitment to the financial resources to meet the information system requirements. In addition, meaningful and material reengineering requires substantial physician input. Simply reducing length of stay or cost per case is not an outcome that is by and large a strong motivator for physicians. Projects must have meaning at the level of the individual physician to raise interest and create buy-in. Enduring success will be achieved only through achievement of material and salient improvements (for both physicians and the institution) in combination with careful alignment of physician and institutional incentives.     

Rating the overall secondary safety of vehicles from real world crash data: the Australian and New Zealand Total Secondary Safety Index

Various systems for rating secondary safety of particular makes and models of vehicles have been developed internationally. These measures generally evaluate crashworthiness (the ability of the vehicle to protect its own occupants in the event of a crash) separately from aggressivity (the harm a vehicle is liable to impose on other road users into which it crashes). This paper describes an approach using Australian and New Zealand data that combines these two facets of secondary safety into one ‘Total Secondary Safety Index’ estimated from real world crash outcomes. The Index estimates the risk of death or serious injury to all key road users in crashes involving light passenger vehicles across the full range of crash types. This paper describes the rationale and method for producing this Index, together with some estimates for common Australian and New Zealand makes and models of light passenger vehicles.     

生态文明建设的时代背景与重大意义

生态文明是人类文明发展的新阶段,是人类社会发展中出现的更复杂、更进步、更高级的人类文明形态。在我国,建设生态文明已被提升为国家发展战略并逐步付诸实践。本文从人与自然关系的角度入手揭示了人类文明形态的演进,指出生态文明是继原始文明、农业文明、工业文明之后的一种新的文明形态;阐释了我国建设生态文明的国际和国内背景,并在新中国成立以来发展理念变革分析的基础上,解读了生态文明建设的五大意义;最后结合现状提出开展生态文明建设的战略建议,为我国生态文明建设理论和实践提供参考。     

International project on individual monitoring and radiation exposure levels in interventional cardiology

Within the Information System on Occupational Exposure in Medicine, Industry and Research (ISEMIR), a new International Atomic Energy Agency initiative, a Working Group on interventional cardiology, aims to assess staff radiation protection (RP) levels and to propose an international database of occupational exposures. A survey of regulatory bodies (RBs) has provided information at the country level on RP practice in interventional cardiology (IC). Concerning requirements for wearing personal dosemeters, only 57 % of the RB specifies the number and position of dosemeters for staff monitoring. Less than 40 % of the RBs could provide occupational doses. Reported annual median effective dose values (often <0.5 mSv) were lower than expected considering validated data from facility-specific studies, indicating that compliance with continuous individual monitoring is often not achieved in IC. A true assessment of annual personnel doses in IC will never be realised unless a knowledge of monitoring compliance is incorporated into the analysis.     

Research on the ecological compensation standard of the basin pollution control project based on evolutionary game theory and by taking Xiangjiang River as a case

Ecological compensation is a new resource and environment management model. As one of the main areas for implementing ecological compensation policies, basin ecological compensation has become an important measure for encouraging basin pollution control projects and improving the quality of regional economic development. By applying the basic game analysis of evolutionary game theory and building an evolutionary game model with a “reward–punishment” mechanism, this paper compares the interest-related decision-making behaviors of the upstream and downstream stakeholders of basin ecological compensation. By using data on the water quality of Xiangjiang River Basin, this paper calculates the rewards and penalties in different intervals by building a parametric regression mathematical model and employing the local linear regression method. Results show that a decline in water quality should be fined RMB 925500 yuan, an improvement in water quality should be awarded RMB 1227800 yuan, and a deteriorating water quality should be severely fined RMB 5087600 yuan.     

Towards ecological validity of research in cognitive ergonomics

Psychology is one of the main disciplines that have been implied in the development of cognitive ergonomics. For a long time, at least from the 1960s, some researchers in psychology have contributed to research in cognitive ergonomics with the aim of elaborating basic psychological knowledge, (a) with high ecological validity, and (b) with clear relevance to application. This paper stresses the value of this perspective for psychology as well as cognitive ergonomics, and evaluates the results of such an enterprise. Ecological validity is considered as a particular aspect of external validity that enables researchers to transfer findings from experimental situations ('artificial' ones or designed for research purpose) to real work situations ('natural' (obviously, in this context 'natural' includes 'cultural') ones or imposed by comprehension needs). This aspect is discussed as regards classical distinctions like basic/applied research and research/practice. Attention is particularly devoted to the necessary (ecological) context needed by expert operators to implement their work expertise, which is the target of the comprehension aim of cognitive ergonomics. Conclusions are drawn in terms of methods to design and evaluate ecological validity, not only to understand cognitive mechanisms, but also to improve cognitive work conditions and the overall performance of human-machine systems.     

Promote the Engineering of Ecological Civilization Construction by Building "Resource-conserving and Environment-friendly Society"

The research elaborated the internal connections between the construction of ecological civilization and "Resource-conserving and Environment-friendly Society", introduced the practice and achievements of promoting the construction of Ecological Civilization in the National Synthetically Reform Pilot Zone of the "Resource-conserving and Environment-friendly Society" in Chang-Zhu-Tan(C-Z-T) City Cluster, which is focusing on the establishment of standard system, the promotion of reform in ten key areas, the construction of ten key environmental projects, and the promotion of ten low-carbon clean technologies. Based on this, the research pointed out structural and institutional obstacles and problems in further promoting the construction of "Resource-conserving and Environment-friendly Society" and Ecological Civilization. Finally, focusing on reform and innovation, the research provided suggestions to deepen the reform of the construction of "Resource-conserving and Environment-friendly Society" and Ecological Civilization in four aspects, such as dividend of institution, dividend of nomocracy, dividend of development, and dividend of market.     

Practice issues for integrating strategic social assessment into the setting of environmental limits: insights from Canterbury,New Zealand

Abstract

There is mounting concern in New Zealand and worldwide about the impacts of current and projected land-use activities on freshwater quality. In 2011, the New Zealand government effected the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, requiring all regional councils to establish freshwater nutrient loads and water allocation measures in their land and water regional plans. These ‘limits’ must achieve locally defined social, economic and cultural outcomes while, as a minimum, halting any decline in water quality. The authors have participated in the Canterbury region’s strategic land and water planning activities. This has involved strategically assessing the social impacts of ‘limit options’ on aspects of catchment life and then integrating them into official reports and community deliberations, which ultimately inform the development of rules for catchment land use. This paper highlights practice issues which were confronted in the process and how they were managed.     

Unsupervised driving by learner licence holders: Associated characteristics and crash risk

Aims

To determine: (a) the association between socio-demographic, and behavioural factors and compliance with supervised driving condition as a learner licensed driver, (b) whether unsupervised driving as a learner licence holder was associated with elevated crash risk while holding a learner licence.

Study design

The study population was the New Zealand Drivers Study (NZDS) cohort, a prospective cohort study designed to explore the relationship between a comprehensive range of driving and traffic safety related factors and subsequent traffic crashes and convictions among newly licensed drivers.

Results

Thirty-one percent of the study sample was non-compliant at least once with the supervised driving condition. Many socio-demographic and behavioural risk factors were independently associated with unsupervised driving. The strength of the associations was greatest for those with relatively high levels of unsupervised driving (13+ trips). High distance driven showed the strongest relationship: RR 8.91 (95% CI 5.27–15.07). Unsupervised driving was associated with increased risk of crash: 1–12 trips: RR 1.84 (1.29–2.61), and 13+ trips: RR 2.71 (1.94–3.80).Given that a significant portion of learner licence holders report driving unsupervised and those that violate this condition the most are more likely to crash, evaluation of strategies designed at improving compliance with learner licence supervised driving condition should be a research priority.     

Important issues using PSA technology for design of new systems and plants

Modern engineering design of new systems or plants needs not only the specification of the function of the system during various life cycle periods, but also the consideration of additional requirements and the demonstration of the compliance with it based on a predictive model considering measurable properties and possible malfunctions of the system parts. Additional requirements can be high availability, low emissions or high safety level. PSA technology provides a framework and tools to establish design targets and to demonstrate their compliance. In this paper important issues using this technology are discussed. Issues are targeted at various levels—the basic evaluation of reliability for active and passive components and the entire system, the general process to show the compliance of the given system characteristics with the characteristics required. This paper does not deal with the details of all these issues, but provides references for further information.     

The potential effectiveness of young driver high-performance vehicle restrictions as used in Australia

Young drivers persistently have higher crash rates despite various countermeasures targeted at their risk factors and exposures. A potentially high risk situation for novice drivers may feasibly include the driving of high performance vehicles, which are subject to restrictions for probationary and restricted drivers in four Australian States. High performance vehicles are capable of high levels of acceleration and speed, which may encourage unsafe driving behaviours, particularly when driven by novice drivers, who may lack appropriate judgement and experience. This research sought to identify potential safety benefits of restrictions on certain vehicles for novice drivers using crash data from Australia and New Zealand, and vehicle licensing data from New Zealand.     

Post occupancy evaluation in New Zealand

The paper describes the development of a POE (post occupancy evaluation) programme for evaluating government buildings in New Zealand. The programme is being developed by a research team at the School of Architecture, VUW (Victoria University of Wellington), under a research contract from the New Zealand MWD (Ministry of Works and Development). The aim of the programme is to enable MWD and its client departments to assess the effectiveness of their buildings and of their delivery, operations and maintenance processes as part of their inhouse activities.The MWD regard the programme as a long term commitment. The VUW research team has therefore concerned itself with developing a flexible programme incorporating a robust evaluation process which can be used by non-expert personnel (in terms of POE experience) on a wide range of buildings. Such an evaluation process is now proposed and its initial testing is complete. This paper outlines that process and discusses the current status of the POE programme.