Life quality index revisited

The derivation of the life quality index (LQI) is revisited for a revision. This revision takes into account the unpaid but necessary work time needed to stay alive in clean and healthy conditions to be fit for effective wealth producing work and to enjoyable free time. Dimension analysis consistency problems with the standard power function expression of the LQI are pointed out. It is emphasized that the combination coefficient in the convex differential combination between the relative differential of the gross domestic product per capita and the relative differential of the expected life at birth should not vary between countries. Finally the distributional assumptions are relaxed as compared to the assumptions made in an earlier work by the author. These assumptions concern the calculation of the life expectancy change due to the removal of an accident source. Moreover a simple public acceptance criterion is compared to the LQI criterion.     

The derivation and calibration of the life-quality index (LQI) from economic principles

The life-quality index (LQI) is a versatile tool to support the effective implementation of programs and practices for managing risk to life safety. The LQI allows a transparent and consistent basis for determination of the net benefit arising from projects, programs, standards and policies undertaken at some cost to improve safety or enhance the quality of life. The paper shows that the LQI model is in harmony with well-established principles of economics, utility theory and recent developments to quantify the progress of nations through indicators of human development. The initial calibration of the LQI was based on a simplifying assumption of a linear relation between the GDP and work time. In this paper, we modify the calibration using empirical data for GDP and work time and link the LQI model to well-established economic principles and theory of production. The proposed improvements to the model eliminate a systematic bias associated with estimation of societal willingness to pay for safety. In addition, it provides a rigorous basis for program evaluation to assist decision-makers in directing expenditures where they may most effective.     

Life quality index for the estimation of societal willingness-to-pay for safety

The engineering and management of human safety is an important societal objective that includes extensive efforts by governments, both legislative and administrative, to enhance the health and safety of the public. Although the achievement of safety goals depend primarily on individuals and organizations responsible for safety, much support is drawn from expertise in diverse scientific and engineering disciplines. The activities range from structural safety (dams, tunnels, bridges to tall buildings) to safe operation of hazardous industrial installations (energy generation facilities, LNG terminals, petrochemical plants) to transportation systems (airline, rail, car safety) to technologies designed to minimize adverse impacts on the environment. All these activities are crucially concerned with risk: with the likelihood and the probable effects of various measures on life and health. We have developed a unified rationale and a clear basis for effective strategic management of risk across diverse sectors. Safety is an important objective in society but it is not the only one. The allocation of society's resources devoted to safety must be continually appraised in light of competing needs, because there is a limit on the resources that can be expended to extend life. The paper presents the Life Quality Index (LQI) as a tool for the assessment of risk reduction initiatives that would support the public interest and enhance safety and quality of life. The paper provides an intuitive reformulation of the LQI as equivalent to a valid utility function that is consistent with the principles of rational decision analysis. The LQI is further refined to consider the issues of discounting of life years, competing background risks, and population age and mortality distribution. The LQI is applied to quantify the societal willingness-to-pay, which is an acceptable level of public expenditure in exchange for a reduction in the risk of death that results in improved life-quality.     

Decision modeling and acceptance criteria

This paper is partly tutorial by presenting well known classical decision theory in a slightly untraditional form, but it does also present thinking and results that have not been published in the engineering literature before. The paper introduces the mathematical modeling basis for rational formulation of decision criteria and public acceptance criteria connected to risk analysis of technical operations that may endanger human life and property. Public restrictions on the decisions concerning the design, construction and managing of the technical operation have in the past been imposed on the basis of the frequency and severity of experienced adverse events. No clear rationale to decide how restrictive the public should be in setting a boundary for allowable risk seems to have been applied. To clarify this problem, focus is on the difficulty of simultaneously having two decision makers, the owner that tries to optimize the net gain of the operation, and the public that has somewhat different preferences than the owner, but also strong interests in the success of the owner. The principles of rational decision are needed for appreciation of the problem. Recognizing that there is an insurance compensation value of a human life and a public money equivalent of a human life, where the last value usually is considerably larger than the first value, it is possible from the decision analysis to determine an upper limit that the public should impose on the ratio of the owner's expected loss rate to the expected gain rate. The public money equivalent of a human life is assessed by use of a recently in (Nathwani JS, Lind NC, Pandey MD. Affordable safety by choice: the life quality method. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Institute for risk Research, University of Waterloo, 1997) suggested Life Quality Index (LQI) that combines wealth in terms of Gross Domestic Product per person, life expectancy at birth, and yearly work time into a single number. The philosophy behind the published evaluations is that the prevention of a loss of a life is counteracted by a cost such that the LQI remains unchanged (Skjong R, Ronold K. Societal indicators and risk acceptance. In: 17th International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, number OMAE98-1488. ASME; 1998; Rackwitz R. Optimization and risk acceptability based on the Life Quality Index. Structural Safety 2002;24:297–331.).     

基于LQI的隧道工程人员安全风险控制决策模型

在社会指数LQI理论的基础上分析得到最优安全成本ICAF,针对我国隧道工程特点提出隧道工程安全风险增强系数,依据ALARP原则建立了基于LQI的隧道工程人员安全风险控制决策模型,并以英国Jubilee线工程为例阐述了基于该模型的隧道工程人员安全风险控制决策流程.     

Model of observed stochastic balance between work and free time supporting the LQTAI definition

A balance differential equation between free time and money-producing work time on the national economy level is formulated in a previous paper in terms of two dimensionless quantities, the fraction of work time and the total productivity factor defined as the ratio of the Gross Domestic Product to the total salary paid in return for work. Among the solutions there is one relation that compares surprisingly well with the relevant sequences of Danish data spanning from 1948 to 2003, and also with similar data from several other countries except for slightly different model parameter values. Statistical analysis reveals a data structure that allows the formulation of a simple stochastic model for the development of the data sequences with the year. Simulations with the stochastic model show sample curve behavior of the same fluctuating appearance as the factual data. This indicates that there are no other significant systematically balance influencing parameters on the macro economical level than those considered in the definition in the previous paper of the Life Quality Time Allocation Index.     

Using life cycle assessment to derive an environmental index for light-frame wood wall assemblies

Following a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, this study aims at defining an appropriate performance index to consider environmental impact in the development of a multicriteria evaluation comparing factory-built wood-frame exterior walls. The investigation is applied to a case study comparing five wall assemblies for the exterior wall of a residential building in Quebec City (Canada). For the five alternatives, the life cycle inventory (LCI) provided by the ATHENA™ Environmental Impact Estimator software is aggregated using three different life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods: IMPACT 2002+, Eco-indicator 99 and TRACI. The relative impacts of assembly components and of the operation energy source on the environmental performance of the assemblies are investigated by comparing midpoint and endpoint indicators calculated with the three LCIA methods. The study concludes to the acceptability, in this specific context, of using the climate change indicator as an appropriate environmental index.     

Evaluation of shear strength of clayey soils by using their liquidity index

 It is well known that overconsolidated clays have higher shear strength than unconsolidated clays. The liquidity index makes possible an evaluation of the consolidation degree of clays. However, there is no empirical information about this relation. In this study, clayey soil samples have been collected from various locations and tested. The tests include the determination of liquidity index and shear strength. Obtained parameters were correlated and regression equations were established among liquidity index and undrained shear strength, presenting high coefficients of correlation (R=–0.93). So, an equation [c_u=e^{(0.026–1.21 IL)}] that makes possible a rough evaluation of the shear strength of clayey soils by using their liquidity index value is an improvement. Received: 10 December 1999 · Accepted: 4 April 2000     

A water quality index for lake beaches

Discriminant analysis of ten years of data from seven beaches located on three lakes in Gatineau Park (Québec) leads to a canonical vector accounting for most of the variability of the three microbial count variables recorded. This discriminant axis orders the beaches along a cline of increasing pollution. It is then transformed into a microbial water quality index calibrated for the given set of beaches, which is in turn used to study the medium-term variability and the long-term evolution of water quality of the beaches.     

Service quality performance of design/build contractors using quality function deployment

This note describes a model that measures the quality of the project service of a D/B firm using quality function deployment (QFD). This model is an add‐on to a model developed previously by the authors to measure the corporate service quality performance of D/B firms. The project service quality performance model makes use of 10 service quality factors and their relative weights (transferred from the corporate service quality performance model), three components of quality management systems in place in D/B projects (ranked by senior managers in D/B firms) and the relationships between service quality factors and quality system requirements (established by a professional quality system assessor). It uses QFD to calculate a quality performance index. The combined corporate and project service quality performance index can be used by D/B firms to benchmark themselves against their competitors or to monitor their own performance. It can also be used by owners to rank D/B firms relative to their service quality performance.     

Evaluation of compression index of remoulded clays by means of Atterberg limits

The literature contains numerous equations linking a soil's characteristics of compressibility to its index properties, such as liquid limit and plasticity index. As these equations are often used to obtain preliminary evaluations of the compression index C_c, it is important to know the reliability of these equations. The paper analyses some of the equations more frequently used to calculate C_c from laboratory index properties, using a methodology based on two specific indices: ranking distance and ranking index. Forty-six samples formed the data set, mainly of Blue Clays and Varicoloured Clays outcropping in the southern part of the Bradanic Foredeep. It was concluded that the most reliable equation correlates C_c with the shrinkage index.

---

     

Forecasting of daily air quality index in Delhi

As the impact of air pollutants on human health through ambient air address much attention in recent years, the air quality forecasting in terms of air pollution parameters becomes an important topic in environmental science. The Air Quality Index (AQI) can be estimated through a formula, based on comprehensive assessment of concentration of air pollutants, which can be used by government agencies to characterize the status of air quality at a given location. The present study aims to develop forecasting model for predicting daily AQI, which can be used as a basis of decision making processes. Firstly, the AQI has been estimated through a method used by US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for different criteria pollutants as Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM), Sulfur dioxide (SO₂), Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM). However, the sub-index and breakpoint concentrations in the formula are made according to Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standard. Secondly, the daily AQI for each season is forecasted through three statistical models namely time series auto regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) (model 1), principal component regression (PCR) (model 2) and combination of both (model 3) in Delhi. The performance of all three models are evaluated with the help of observed concentrations of pollutants, which reflects that model 3 agrees well with observed values, as compared to the values of model 1 and model 2. The same is supported by the statistical parameters also. The significance of meteorological parameters of model 3 has been assessed through principal component analysis (PCA), which indicates that daily rainfall, station level pressure, daily mean temperature, wind direction index are maximum explained in summer, monsoon, post-monsoon and winter respectively. Further, the variation of AQI during the weekends (holidays) and weekdays are found negligible. Therefore all the days of week are accounted same in the models.     

Assessing air quality in Hong Kong: A proposed,revised air pollution index (API)

The Environment Protection Department of Hong Kong has been using an air pollution index (API) to report the status of ambient air quality since 1995. Such an index system was first developed by the USA Environmental Protection Authority. The API compares five main air pollutants, i.e. sulfur dioxide (SO₂), respirable suspended particulates (RSP), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O₃) as sub-indexes, which are calculated separately from a segmented linear function that transforms ambient pollutants concentrations into a normalized scale extending from 0 to 500. The resultant pollution level is described by the maximal value of these five sub-indexes. The limitation of this API system is that it considers only one pollutant with the maximum value at a time but reflects other pollutants concurrently. In this study, a revised air quality index (RAPI) is proposed based on the entropy function, which combines the effect of all pollutants on public health. The design of the revised index is based on database of air pollutants collected at two air quality monitoring stations in Hong Kong, i.e. a roadside station in Mong Kok and a general station in Sha Tin. Compared with the existing API, values of RAPI (calculated from data collected for API) at both stations are at higher levels and provide more information of levels of all pollutants. Therefore, RAPI should be representatively and widely used to provide the public with a better indicator of air quality. In addition, variations and oscillations of pollutants concentrations were also examined and the results show that RSP and NO₂ contribute more to the overall pollution level than other components. It is suggested that more abatement strategies be focused on these pollutants to improve air quality in the future.     

Jacknife and bootstrap estimation of biological index of water quality

Many biological indices of water quality are generally used with a very low number of field samples to estimate water conditions. This precludes the application of traditional statistical techniques in order to test for significant differences between values of the indices for different sampling stations. Two non-standard statistical methods now in common use, namely the jacknife and the bootstrap, could be proficiently applied to obtain a quantitative measure of the indicator power of biological indices. This methodology allows the detection of significant trends in water pollution or water improvement. Application of these methods is exemplified by the Pantle and Buck saprobity index of water quality.     

Correlation between slake durability and rock properties for some carbonate rocks

The paper reports a study to assess the relationship between slake durability indices and uniaxial compressive strength, Schmidt hardness, P-wave velocity, modulus of elasticity, effective porosity, water absorption and dry and saturated unit weight for seven types of carbonate rocks obtained from south west Turkey. It was found that the dry unit weight, saturated unit weight and Schmidt hardness gave the best relationship with first cycle slake durability (r = 0.99) while uniaxial compressive strength has a strong relationship with fourth cycle slake durability (r = 0.94). The results showed little difference in the correlation coefficients obtained after the fourth cycle. It is concluded that, for the rocks studied, the first and fourth cycles provide sufficiently good data on the durability for preliminary engineering/design works and that the second to fourth cycle results could be estimated using the first cycle slake durability index (r = 0.99–0.97).     

水泥性能指标对混凝土质量的影响

宏观分析了混凝土性能指标与水泥有关性能指标的关系,为了保证混凝土的强度要求及耐久性、稳定性等各方面的性能指标,对相应的水泥性能指标及检测方法提出建议,力求从控制水泥的性能指标来提高混凝土的使用质量。     

浅谈硅酸盐水泥的品质指标控制

从物理和化学两方面出发，阐述了硅酸盐水泥的技术指标及评定方法，通过将硅酸盐水泥的品质指标加以严格控制，从而确保出厂水泥符合国家标准要求，进而推广硅酸盐水泥的广泛应用。     

Window/door opening‐mediated bedroom ventilation and its impact on sleep quality of healthy,young adults

This work examined window/door opening as means of bedroom ventilation and the consequent effect upon occupants’ sleep, using data from 17 healthy volunteers. Bedroom CO₂ level, temperature, and relative humidity were measured over 5 days, for two cases: open window or door (internal, bedroom door), and closed window and door. Participant filled questionnaires and sleep diary provided subjective measure of sleep quality. Actigraphy objectively monitored the participants during sleep. Additionally, a FlexSensor, placed under pillows of participants, detected movement during sleep. Average CO₂ level for the Open conditions was 717 ppm (SD = 197 ppm) and for Closed conditions was 1150 ppm (SD = 463 ppm). Absolute humidity levels were similar for both conditions, while Open conditions were slightly cooler (mean = 19.7°C, SD = 1.8°C) than Closed (mean = 20.1°C, SD = 1.5°C). Results showed significant correlations (P < .001) between actigraphy data and questionnaire responses for: sleep latency (r = .45), sleep length (r = .87), and number of awakenings (r = .28). Of all analyzed sleep parameters, questionnaire‐based depth of sleep (P = .002) and actigraphy‐based sleep phase (P = .003) were significantly different between Open and Closed conditions.     

应用综合水质指数法评价沙澧河漯河段的水质

以沙澧河漯河段3个断面2006-2009年的水质监测数据为基础,应用综合水质指数法,对沙澧河漯河段水质状况进行了分析与评价.将参与评价的项目分为3类:对人体危害严重且难以消除的污染物(第一类)、处理后容易达标的污染物(第二类)、其他污染物(第三类).评价结果表明,澧河水质优良并保持相对稳定;沙河水质稍差,但由尚好逐渐向...