An intervention method for occupational safety in farming -- evaluation of the effect and process

In order to increase safety in Swedish farming an intervention methodology to influence attitudes and behaviour was tested. Eighty eight farmers and farm workers in nine groups gathered on seven occasions during 1 year. The basic concept was to create socially supportive networks and encourage discussions and reflection, focusing on risk manageability. Six of the groups made structured incident/accident analyses. Three of the latter groups also received information on risks and accident consequences. Effects were evaluated in a pre-post questionnaire using six-graded scales. A significant increase in safety activity and significant reduction in stress and risk acceptance was observed in the total sample. Risk perception and perceived risk manageability did not change. Analysing incidents/accidents, but not receiving information, showed a more positive outcome. Qualitative data indicated good feasibility and that the long duration of the intervention was perceived as necessary. The socially supportive network was reported as beneficial for the change process.     

Internal locus of control and choice in health service shift workers

This study examined the relationship between shift work-specific locus of control (SH-LOC), active choice of work schedule and health outcomes, personal initiatives and coping behaviours in 1611 Danish Health Service shift workers. The 20-item SH-LOC scale was administered as part of a battery of measures. Multivariate analysis of covariance (controlling for age, workplace experience and weekly work hours) tested for differential responses to shift working and coping strategies. Interactive effects of internality and type of work rota were examined. Higher internality was linked to better tolerance to shift work. This did not appear to be a result of greater personal action in higher internals. The importance of control as a potential moderating factor to shift work exposure and the possible use of this measure in the process of shift worker monitoring is highlighted.     

Robust pose estimation and recognition using non-gaussian modeling of appearance subspaces

We present an original appearance model that generalizes the usual Gaussian visual subspace model to non-Gaussian and nonparametric distributions. It can be useful for the modeling and recognition of images under difficult conditions such as large occlusions and cluttered backgrounds. Inference under the model is efficiently solved using the mean shift algorithm     

An Industrial Case Study on Distributed Prioritisation in Market-Driven Requirements Engineering for Packaged Software

When developing packaged software, which is sold ‘off-the-shelf’ on a worldwide marketplace, it is essential to collect needs and opportunities from different market segments and use this information in the prioritisation of requirements for the next software release. This paper presents an industrial case study where a distributed prioritisation process is proposed, observed and evaluated. The stakeholders in the requirements prioritisation process include marketing offices distributed around the world. A major objective of the distributed prioritisation is to gather and highlight the differences and similarities in the requirement priorities of the different market segments. The evaluation through questionnaires shows that the stakeholders found the process useful. The paper also presents novel approaches to visualise the priority distribution among stakeholders, together with measures on disagreement and satisfaction. Product management found the proposed charts valuable as decision support when selecting requirements for the next release, as they revealed unforeseen differences among stakeholder priorities. Conclusions on stakeholder tactics are provided and issues of further research are identified, including ways of addressing identified challenges.     

Patient views of adverse events: comparisons of self-reported healthcare staff attitudes with disclosure of accident information

In the present paper, we report results of surveys in 2003 in Japan and Denmark about patients' views about adverse events, focusing on the actions of healthcare staff involved in a medical accident. Results show that patients were more likely to indicate negative expectations to a doctor's reactions after a medical accident when asked in general terms than when asked in relation to concrete case stories. When asked in general terms, 66% (47%) of Japanese (Danish) respondents expected that doctors sometimes hold back on providing information to patients about a medical accident, while 37% (7%) did so when asked about a concrete, mild-outcome case. We examine some possible reasons for the relatively high level of distrust of Japanese patients, and we discuss whether the seemingly lower level of disclosure in Japan than in Denmark and the negative stories in the Japanese press may have an impact. We also suggest some implications for introducing a patient-centred or customer-centred approach to risk management in healthcare and other domains.     

Predicting proteinase specificities from free energy calculations

The role of the primary binding residue (P1) in complexes between three different subtilases (subtilisin Carlsberg, thermitase and proteinase K) and their canonical protein inhibitor eglin c have been studied by free energy calculations. Based on the crystal structures of eglin c in complex with subtilisin Carlsberg and thermitase, and a homology model of the eglin c-proteinase K complex, a total of 57 mutants have been constructed and docked into their host proteins. The binding free energy was then calculated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with the linear interaction energy (LIE) method for all complexes differing only in the nature of the amino acid at the P1 position. LIE calculations for 19 different complexes for each subtilase were thus carried out excluding proline. The effects of substitutions at the P1 position on the binding free energies are found to be very large, and positively charged residues (Arg, Lys and His) are particularly deleterious for all three enzymes. The charged variants of the acidic side chains are found to bind more favorably as compared to their protonated states in all three subtilases. Furthermore, hydrophobic amino acids are accommodated most favorably at the S1-site in all three enzymes. Comparison of the three series of binding free energies shows only minor differences in the 19 computed relative binding free energies among these subtilases. This is further reflected in the correlation coefficient between the 23 relative binding free energies obtained, including the possible protonation states of ionizable side chains, but excluding the P1 Pro, for subtilisin Carlsberg versus thermitase (0.95), subtilisin versus proteinase K (0.94) and thermitase versus proteinase K (0.96).