Muscle recruitment patterns during landing : Implications for analysis
- Authors: Saunders, Natalie , Otago, Leonie , McLean, Scott
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at ASICS Conference of science and medicine in sport 2008, Hamilton Island : 16th-18th October 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: Introduction: Neuromuscular control during high-risk sports tasks is viewed as a primary risk factor in ACL injury. Attention has also been given to the role of the hip as a possible explanation contributing to ACL injury rates. Typically neuromuscular predictors of ACL injury have arisen from lab-based assessments; however it is possible that this approach excludes important components of actual game-play that may contribute directly to injury risk. The current study therefore, examined muscle recruitment patterns (MRP) during game-play and lab-based conditions that included hip musculature, to consider strategies for lower limb control. Methods: Nine female subjects had EMG data recorded continuously during a netball game. At a subsequent session, in the lab, EMG data was also recorded for three landing conditions. Bilateral EMG was collected via telemetry for rectus femoris, biceps femoris, medial hamstring and gluteus medius. Muscle onset relative to initial contact and the subsequent pattern/s of onset for each land, for each subject, were examined. Results and discussion: Results indicate that the average number of MRP across subjects was 3.6 and 5.8 for the game-play and the lab-based conditions, respectively. When muscles crossing the knee joint were examined only, results revealed that the average number of MRP across subjects was 2.1 and 2.4 for the game-play and the lab-based conditions, respectively. Differences exist when comparing game-play and lab-based measures and the role of the hip musculature in affecting lower limb control warrants ongoing investigation in relation to ACL injury risk.
Elite netball injury surveillance : Implications for injury prevention
- Authors: Saunders, Natalie , Otago, Leonie
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at ASICS Conference of science and medicine in sport 2008, Hamilton Island : 16th-18th October 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: Introduction: In Australia, the National League competition (Commonwealth BankTrophy (CBT)) provided an opportunity to gain an understanding of injuries sustained at the elite level. The purpose of this review therefore is to examine the injury incidence in the CBT competition (2003–2005) and considerations for future injury prevention strategies. Methods: All players in the CBT competition are included in the injury data surveillance scheme. Each team physiotherapist is responsible for assessing, treating and recording injuries within the team. An injury is defined as any netball related physical damage that caused the athlete to miss or modify one or more training sessions, matches or both, and/or required a consultation with a health professional. Results and discussion: The exposure to risk has been estimated from the data supplied for CBT games only to be 71.4, 61.8 and 66.7 injuries per 1000 participations for 2003–2005 respectively. Game injuries account for the majority of injuries with the ankle remaining the most common site of injury across the 3-year period, despite the fact that the majority of players wear ankle tape. The knee was the second highest recorded site of injury for 2004 (14.9%) and 2005 (14%). The majority of injuries are new injuries with three most common mechanisms of injury being collision with a player, landing and overuse injury. Ongoing injury prevention strategies are warranted to reduce injuries resulting from a non-contact mechanism. In addition, training exposure is required to accurately assess the overall risk of injury in netball.
Exploring risk-awareness as a cultural approach to safety : An ethnographic study of a contract maintenance environment
- Authors: Borys, David
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Safety culture has risen to prominence over the past two decades as a means by which organisations may enhance their safety performance. Safety culture may be conceptualised as an interpretive device that mediates between organisational safety rhetoric and safety programs on the one hand, and local workplace cultures on the other. More recently, risk-awareness has emerged as a cultural approach to safety. Front line workers are encouraged to become risk-aware through programs designed to prompt them to undertake mental or informal risk assessments before commencing work. The problem is that risk-awareness programs have not been the subject of systematic research and the impact of these programs on the culture of safety and the resultant level of risk is unknown. Therefore, this ethnographic study of two sites within a large contract maintenance organisation in Australia explored what impact risk-awareness programs have upon the culture of safety and the resultant level of risk. The researcher spent two months in the field and data was collected through participant observation, semistructured interviews and through a review of organisational documents. This study found that managers focused upon collecting the paperwork associated with the program as proof that workers had a safer workplace, whereas workers preferred to rely upon their common sense rather than the paperwork to keep them safe. As a consequence, the riskawareness program resulted in a culture of paperwork and varying levels of risk reduction because the paperwork associated with the program created an illusion of safety for managers as much as common sense did for workers. The results of this study have implications for safety culture, risk-awareness programs and for organisational learning. They also have implications for organisations wishing to improve their safety culture by encouraging risk-awareness in front-line workers.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Assessing health risk of reclaimed water using human cell culture
- Authors: Ackland, Margaret , Michalczyk, Agnes , Freestone, David , Stagnitti, Frank
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Water Vol. 37, no. 8 (2010), p. 49-53
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: For risk analysis of reclaimed water, current animal and toxicity testing may not detect subtle effects such as interactions that could contribute to complex diseases such as cancers that develop over a long period of time. There is a need for assays that can be validated against known human physiological processes. We have previously validated sensitive human cell culture assays for their responsiveness to agents that induce carcinogenesis in vivo. In this initial study we analysed the effects of three batches of reclaimed water on human colonic cells. At concentrations of up to 10-fold, they had no significant effect on the cellular markers, indicating an overall lack of biological activity. The assay has potential but needs to be refined to maximise its sensitivity.
The policies and practices of sports governing bodies in relation to assessing the safety of sports grounds
- Authors: Swan, Peter , Otago, Leonie , Finch, Caroline , Payne, Warren
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol. 12, no. 1 (2009), p. 171-176
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text:
- Description: Sport is an important context for physical activity and it is critical that safe environments are provided for such activity. Sports safety is influenced by the presence of sports ground environmental hazards such as ground hardness, poorly maintained playing fields, surface irregularities and the presence of debris/rubbish. To reduce injury risk, sports governing bodies need to ensure regular assessment of grounds safety and the removal of identified hazards. This study describes sports ground safety guidelines and recommendations of a sample of sports governing bodies and provides recommendations for how they could be improved. Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with nominees of state governing bodies for Australian football, cricket, soccer and hockey. The use of matchday checklists to identify ground hazards, as mandated by insurance companies was widely promoted across all levels of play. Sports governing bodies had more direct involvement in assessing grounds used for higher level of play, than grounds used for community or junior sport. There was a general presumption that identified hazards on community grounds would be corrected by local councils or clubs before anyone played on them, but this was rarely monitored. Sports governing bodies run the risk of being negligent in their duty of care to sports participants if they do not formally monitor the implementation of their ground safety polices and guidelines. There is also further scope for sports bodies to work closely with insurers to develop ground safety assessment guidelines specific to their sport. © 2008 Sports Medicine Australia.
- Description: 2003008186
Modelling the population-level impact of tai-chi on falls and fall-related injury among community-dwelling older people
- Authors: Day, Lesley , Finch, Caroline , Harrison, James , Hoareau, Effie , Segal, Leonie , Ullah, Shahid
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Injury Prevention Vol. 16, no. 5 (2010), p. 321-326
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objective: To model the population level impact of tai-chi on future rates of falls and fall-related injury in older people as a tool for policy development. Design: An epidemiological and economic model for estimating population-level effectiveness of tai-chi. Setting: Australia, 2009. Patients or subjects: Australian community-dwelling population aged 70+ years, ambulatory and without debilitating conditions or profound visual defects. Intervention: Group-based tai-chi, for 1 h twice weekly for 26 weeks, assuming no sustained effect beyond the intervention period. Main outcome measure: Total falls and fall-related hospitalisation prevented in 2009. Results: Population-wide tai-chi delivery would prevent an estimated 5440 falls and 109 fall-related hospitalisations, resulting in a 0.18% reduction in the fall related hospital admission rate for community-dwelling older people. The gross costs per fall and per fall-related hospital admission prevented were $ A4414 ((sic)3013) and $A220 712 ((sic)150 684), respectively. A total investment of $A24.01 million ((sic)16.39 million), equivalent to 4.2% of the cost of fall-related episodes of hospital care in 2003/4, would be required to provide tai-chi for 31 998 people and achieve this effect. Conclusions: Substantial investment in, and high population uptake of, tai-chi would be required to have a large effect on falls and fall-related hospitalisation rates. Although not accounted for in this study, investment in tai-chi is likely to be associated with additional significant health benefits beyond falls prevention. This approach could be applied to other interventions to assist selection of the most cost effective falls-prevention portfolio for Australia and other countries.
Reliability of risk assessments - A statistical evaluation of results from six risk assessment tools
- Authors: Harvey, Jack , Viner, D. , Borys, David
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Safety in Australia Vol. 24, no. 3 (2002), p. 22-25
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003003368
Safe hot tap water: Knowledge, attitude and practice of plumbers, students and regulatory authorities following the introduction of plumbing regulations in NSW, Australia
- Authors: Harvey, Lara , Poulos, Roslyn , Finch, Caroline , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Burns Vol. 37, no. 2 (2011), p. 234-239
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Regulations to restrict the temperature of domestic hot tap water were introduced in NSW in 1999. This study investigates the impact of the regulations on the knowledge, attitude and practice of workforce professionals responsible for their uptake and enforcement. Telephone surveys were conducted with a random sample of 110 plumbers and 30 regulating authorities. Surveys were recorded, transcribed and coded. Written questionnaires were completed by 151 plumbing students. The regulations are well known and supported by the majority of plumbers, students and regulators; however 75% of plumbers reported customer dissatisfaction with them. Only a minority of plumbers (11%), students (7%) and regulators (27%) correctly appreciated the impact of a decrease in water temperature in reducing burns. This study identifies the need to improve plumbers and students' understanding of the safety issues underlying the regulations in order to promote more effective advocacy for homes not currently covered by the regulations, and to provide more public education to increase acceptance of them. As only houses built or substantially renovated after June 1999 are likely to have been impacted by the current regulations, there is a need to increase the scope of the regulations to include not only new installations, but also the replacement of existing heated water units if the goal of universal protection is to be achieved. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.
- Description: Regulations to restrict the temperature of domestic hot tap water were introduced in NSW in 1999. This study investigates the impact of the regulations on the knowledge, attitude and practice of workforce professionals responsible for their uptake and enforcement. Telephone surveys were conducted with a random sample of 110 plumbers and 30 regulating authorities. Surveys were recorded, transcribed and coded. Written questionnaires were completed by 151 plumbing students. The regulations are well known and supported by the majority of plumbers, students and regulators; however 75% of plumbers reported customer dissatisfaction with them. Only a minority of plumbers (11%), students (7%) and regulators (27%) correctly appreciated the impact of a decrease in water temperature in reducing burns. This study identifies the need to improve plumbers and students' understanding of the safety issues underlying the regulations in order to promote more effective advocacy for homes not currently covered by the regulations, and to provide more public education to increase acceptance of them. As only houses built or substantially renovated after June 1999 are likely to have been impacted by the current regulations, there is a need to increase the scope of the regulations to include not only new installations, but also the replacement of existing heated water units if the goal of universal protection is to be achieved. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.
Do hard playing fields increase the risk of injury in community level Australian football?
- Authors: Twomey, Dara , Otago, Leonie , Finch, Caroline , Chivers, I. , Orchard, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at ASICS Conference of science and medicine in sport 2008, Hamilton Island : 16th-18th October 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: Introduction: Certain ground conditions, including hardness, have been associated with an increased injury risk. Many sporting grounds have been deemed unplayable based on hardness measures and subsequently closed. However, most research linking injury to ground conditions has been based on subjective observations or focussed at high performance venues. The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between ground hardness and injury incidence in community level Australian football. Methodology: Measurements of ground hardness, using the Clegg hammer, were recorded on eight community level football grounds between 4 and 8 times during the 2007 season. Injury data was collected by trained data collectors over the season. The 1st Clegg hammer drop was used as the hardness measure, and injuries were ranked as ‘likely’, ‘possibly’, and ‘unlikely’ to be related to grounds by three independent assessors. Results: 130 injuries were recorded at the grounds tested. The Clegg hammer measures ranged from 55 to 134 gravities (g), with four injuries sustained at readings over 120 × g. Of the 130 injuries, 12 were classified as ‘likely’ to be related to ground conditions, 29 ‘possibly’ related, 75 ‘unlikely’ and 14 unknown due to incomplete details. None of the ‘likely’ injuries were sustained on readings over 120 × g. No significant relationships were found between ground hardness and any injury profiles (0.02 < r < 0.14, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Presently, sporting grounds are being closed with hardness readings exceeding 120 × g. The results of this study provide some evidence to challenge this, however, due to low injury rates further research with a larger cohort is necessary.
Geohazard risk management for municipal planning in the Corangamite region, Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Dahlhaus, Peter , Miner, Anthony
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at The 10th international congress of the IAEG, Nottingham, UK : 6th September, 2006
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The Corangamite region covers an area of approximately 13,340 km2 and is located in south western Victoria, Australia. The population of approximately 400,000 persons is growing at 5.2% per year, and is served by nine municipalities within the region. The region's diverse range of landscapes and climatic conditions, result in a variety of geological hazards including landslides, soil erosion of all forms, coastal erosion, dryland salinity, potential acid sulphate soils, reactive soils and ground subsidence. These geohazards are increasingly recognised as a constraint on future urban development and a threat to the economic, social and environmental health of the region. Evaluation of the impacts of geological hazards by State government authorities, research institutions and consultants has been inconsistent, both in hazard identification and risk assessment methods. As a result, municipal planning authorities have lacked a consistent framework with which to assess the potential impacts from these hazards and those associated with new developments which may interact with the hazards. The use of risk assessment techniques for the management of landslides in Australia advanced significantly after the publication of the Australian Geomechanics Society's landslide risk management concepts and guidelines in 2000. These guidelines in turn were based on the Australian/New Zealand Standard on Risk Management. Similar risk management techniques have now been developed by the authors for the assessment of soil erosion and salinity for particular use by municipalities within the Corangamite region. A brief review of the nature and extent of landslides, salinity and erosion in the Corangamite region is detailed. The adopted methods of the risk management for each geohazard are described including a comparison of their applicability and an assessment of limitations with each method.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002055
Bridging the research-practice gap: Validity of a software tool designed to support systemic accident analysis by risk managers
- Authors: Goode, Natassia , Salmon, Paul , Taylor, Natalie , Lenné, Michael , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1058737
- Full Text: false
- Description: Despite the proposed advantages of systems accident analysis (SAA) methods for understanding incident-causation, these approaches have not been widely adopted by practitioners. This represents a significant gap between research and practice in accident analysis. The Understanding and Preventing Led Outdoor Accidents Data System (UPLOADS) provides a series of tools to address this gap. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of UPLOADS by comparing analyses generated by risk managers and researchers experienced in SAA. Twenty-three risk managers used UPLOADS to collect and analyse incident data from their organization over a three month period. The reports were then analyzed by two researchers experienced in SAA, and compared to those generated by participants. Participants identified half the number of factors identified by researchers, and tended to focus on only one or two factors as the causes of each incident. The potential consequences for practitioners' understanding of incident-causation and countermeasure development are discussed, as well as ways of improving the system. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
The perception of injury risk and safety in triathlon competition: An exploratory focus group study
- Authors: Gosling, Cameron , Donaldson, Alex , Forbes, Andrew , Gabbe, Belinda
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine Vol. 23, no. 1 (2013), p. 70-73
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: OBJECTIVE:: To explore stakeholder perceptions of triathlon competition safety and injury risk. DESIGN:: Qualitative focus group study. SETTING:: Triathlon stakeholders from Melbourne, Australia. PARTICIPANTS:: Competition organizers, coaches, and competitors of various skill levels, age, gender, and experience (n = 18). INTERVENTIONS:: Focus groups were conducted, recorded, and transcribed for analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:: Key themes were identified using content analysis. RESULTS:: The perceived risk of serious injury was highest for cycling. Running was most commonly linked to minor injuries. Physical and environmental factors, including course turning points, funneling of competitors into narrow sections, and the weather, were perceived as contributing to injury. Experience, skill level, feelings of vulnerability, personal awareness, club culture, and gender issues were perceived as the competitor-related factors potentially contributing to injury. The cycling mount/dismount area, cycling, and swim legs were the race sections perceived as the riskiest for competitors. Competition organizers were considered to generally have the competitors' best interest as a priority. Triathlons were acknowledged as risky activities and individual competitors accepted this risk. CONCLUSIONS:: This study has highlighted the main risks and concerns perceived by triathlon competitors, coaches, and competition organizers, which will help identify potential, context-relevant intervention strategies to reduce injury risk. © 2013 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Injuries in the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Bowman, Bindi , Lawrance, Michael
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 41, no. 10 (2007), p. 639-643
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: There is increasing concern in Australia about safety in the thoroughbred racing industry, but there has been no reported analysis of injury data. This review analyses injury and workers' compensation data recorded in Victoria. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that the injury and incident data collection systems are improved such that they are not only more complete but also accumulate more detailed information about the location of an incident or injury event, the activity at the time of the incident or injury event, and factors that may have influenced the occurrence.
A quantitative risk assessment of laboratory fume cupboards at Monash University
- Authors: Tillman, C.J.
- Date: 1990
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: "In this work, a quantitative risk assessment procedure for laboratory fume cupboards has been developed using estimates of frequency (probabilty x exposure) and severity."
- Description: Masters Degree in Applied Science, Occupational Health and Safety
Applying UGF Concept to Enhance the Assessment Capability of FMEA
- Authors: Khorshidi, Hadi , Gunawan, Indra , Ibrahim, Yousef
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Quality and Reliability Engineering International Vol. 32, no. 3 (Apr 2016), p. 1085-1093
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified version of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to alleviate its drawbacks. FMEA is an important tool in risk evaluation and finding the priority of potential failure modes for corrective actions. In the proposed method, the Universal Generating Function (UGF) approach has been used to improve the assessment capability of the conventional Risk Priority Number (RPN) in ranking. The new method is named as URPN. It generates the most number of unique values in comparison with the previous methods and considers relative importance for the parameters while it is easy to compute. More unique numbers help to avoid from having the same priority level for different failure modes which represent various risk levels. A case study has been employed to demonstrate that the URPN not only can improve the shortcomings but also is able to provide accurate values for risk assessment. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Falls risk score removal does not impact inpatient falls : a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised trial
- Authors: Jellett, Joanna , Williams, Cylie , Clayton, Diana , Plummer, Virginia , Haines, Terry
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Clinical Nursing Vol. 29, no. 23-24 (2020), p. 4505-4513
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Aims and objectives: To investigate the impact of removing a falls risk screening tool from an overall falls risk assessment programme on the rate of falls, injurious falls and completion of falls prevention activities by staff. Background: Falls in older patients are common adverse events in hospital settings. Screening and assessing individual patients for risk of falls are a common, but controversial element of falls prevention strategies in hospitals. Design: A stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised controlled trial using a disinvestment approach. Methods: This trial was carried out according to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT). All patients were admitted to 20 health service wards (9 units) over the 10-month study period. The control condition contained a falls risk screening tool element, a full falls risk factor assessment and intervention provision section. In the intervention condition, only the full falls risk factor assessment and intervention provision section was applied, and the falls risk screening tool element was removed. Fall rates were extracted from hospital level data, files were audited for tool completion, and nurses surveyed about tool use. Results: There did not appear to be an impact on the falls rate per month when the risk screening tool component was removed (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.84—favours intervention, 95%CI = 0.67 to 1.05, p =.14) nor on the falls rate with serious injury (IRR = 0.90, 95%CI = 0.26 to 3.09, p =.87). There was a thirty-six second reduction of time per patient reported by staff to complete paperwork (p <.001). There was no difference in the proportion of patients for whom the tool was completed, nor the number of falls prevention interventions identified for implementation. Conclusion: Removing the falls risk screening tool section did not negatively impact falls and reduced time spent completing falls prevention paperwork. Relevance to clinical practice: Falls prevention is an important issue in health services. Removal of a screening risk tool is unlikely to impact falls. This has the potential to reduce nursing administration time that may be otherwise redirected to individual approaches to falls prevention. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
A quantitative risk assessment model involving frequency and threat degree under line-of-business services for infrastructure of emerging sensor networks
- Authors: Jing, Xu , Hu, Hanwen , Yang, Huijun , Au, Man , Li, Shuqin , Xiong, Naixue , Imran, Muhammad , Vasilakos, Athanasios
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sensors (Switzerland) Vol. 17, no. 3 (2017), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The prospect of Line-of-Business Services (LoBSs) for infrastructure of Emerging Sensor Networks (ESNs) is exciting. Access control remains a top challenge in this scenario as the service provider’s server contains a lot of valuable resources. LoBSs’ users are very diverse as they may come from a wide range of locations with vastly different characteristics. Cost of joining could be low and in many cases, intruders are eligible users conducting malicious actions. As a result, user access should be adjusted dynamically. Assessing LoBSs’ risk dynamically based on both frequency and threat degree of malicious operations is therefore necessary. In this paper, we proposed a Quantitative Risk Assessment Model (QRAM) involving frequency and threat degree based on value at risk. To quantify the threat degree as an elementary intrusion effort, we amend the influence coefficient of risk indexes in the network security situation assessment model. To quantify threat frequency as intrusion trace effort, we make use of multiple behavior information fusion. Under the influence of intrusion trace, we adapt the historical simulation method of value at risk to dynamically access LoBSs’ risk. Simulation based on existing data is used to select appropriate parameters for QRAM. Our simulation results show that the duration influence on elementary intrusion effort is reasonable when the normalized parameter is 1000. Likewise, the time window of intrusion trace and the weight between objective risk and subjective risk can be set to 10 s and 0.5, respectively. While our focus is to develop QRAM for assessing the risk of LoBSs for infrastructure of ESNs dynamically involving frequency and threat degree, we believe it is also appropriate for other scenarios in cloud computing. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Information sharing and willingness-to-pay for CBPP vaccine in rural Kenya
- Authors: Iles, Richard , Gatumu, Haniel , Kagundu, Samuel , Draheim, Christopher
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Vaccine Vol. 37, no. 12 (2019), p. 1659-1666
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: •Improved sharing of CBPP risk information increases CBPP vaccine up-take.•Demand increases by 1.5 and 2.3 per cent for improved access and information.•WTP for a 1 h reduction in travel duration is KES 54 (USD 0.52) per vaccine.•WTP for receipt of CBPP risk information is KES 52 (USD 0.67) per vaccine.•Controlling for attribute non-attendance improves model fit and estimates. The study estimates cattle owners' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) vaccine in Samburu county, Kenya. Of particular policy relevance, the study presents findings on WTP for i) improved access to vaccines and ii) timely access to disease-risk information. The mean price for a CBPP vaccine was estimated at KES 66 (USD 0.64). This price relates to a CBPP vaccine that requires a 1.8 h commute, cattle owners' receipt of timely information that the CBPP disease risk is low-moderate and the vaccine lowers the risk of either tail-drop or post-vaccine abortion. The conditional WTP for mean travel duration and high-risk information are similar at KES 53.9 and KES 51.5. The marginal effect on demand for a 1 h additional travel duration and provision of CBPP disease risk information was estimated as a 1.5 per cent reduction and 2.3 increase. The results of this study indicate that cattle owners value greater levels of knowledge concerning the changing risk profile of CBPP in their community and improved access to CBPP vaccination services. Enhanced engagement with cattle owners concerning CBPP would likely result in a greater utilisation of available CBPP vaccines, conditional on the perceived CBPP disease risk.
Pharmaceutical pollution in marine waters and benthic flora of the southern Australian coastline
- Authors: Long, Benjamin , Harriage, Samantha , Schultz, Nick , Sherman, Craig , Thomas, Michael
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Environmental chemistry Vol. 19, no. 6 (2023), p. 375-384
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Environmental context Most human pharmaceutical waste is discharged to the environment. While the presence of pharmaceuticals in freshwater systems is well documented globally, little is known of the impact on marine ecosystems. We measured pharmaceuticals in a marine environment in south-eastern Australia and found pharmaceutical concentrations around 24 000 times higher in benthic flora than in the marine surface waters. We discuss the potential use of seaweeds as biological indicators of pharmaceutical pollution. Rationale Pharmaceuticals are emerging pollutants of concern with a range of adverse consequences for organisms and ecosystems. Their presence in freshwater and estuarine systems has been well documented, but less is known about their prevalence in open ocean, or their uptake by benthic flora. This preliminary survey of the southern Australian coastline sought to measure the concentrations of key pharmaceuticals in both surface waters and benthic flora. Methodology This study used LC-MS/MS to measure the concentration carbamazepine, tramadol and venlafaxine in (1) samples from wastewater treatment plants, (2) ocean surface waters and (3) several species of benthic flora. Surface waters and benthic flora were sampled at two sites near waste water treatment plant (WWTP) discharges, and one site away from any discharge. Results All three pharmaceuticals were detected in surface water samples with their risk assessed (via risk quotient) as medium risk (carbamazepine) or low risk (venlafaxine, tramadol). All three pharmaceuticals were also detected in benthic flora, particularly in brown macroalgae Tramadol was measured at a maximum of 34.7 ng g
Balancing cost, performance and risk in maintenance and capital expenditure
- Authors: Chattopadhyay Gopi
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IAPQR Transactions Vol. 44, no. 2 (2019), p. 107-126
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Asset Management is focused on realisation of value from assets through managing risk and opportunity. ISO standard for asset management ISO55000, 2014 stipulates effective control and governance of assets for desired balancing act of cost, performance and risk. This paper aims to study the maintenance and capital expenditure problems. It proposes how to balance cost, performance and risk for asset management. Decisions need to be based on performance and risk in addition to costs based on whole of life are supported by international standards for asset management. Option analysis and informed decision-making are proposed considering life cycle costs. Recent trend with industries is to align with latest international standards for asset management. Asset management in heavy haul rail network focuses on this by realisation of value from assets through managing risk and opportunity. Model for total cost of maintenance was developed covering risk costs associated with undetected surface/ subsurface cracks causing rail breaks and derailments and wear loss due to gauge face lubrication problems and intervention costs in inspections and interventions using progressive rail grinding and solar powered electric lubricators with remote performance monitoring. Illustrative examples are used to show how actions in inspection and subsequent rail grinding for controlling rolling contact fatigue (RCF) along with gauge face lubrication for controlling wear can be achieved in heavy haul railway. This maintenance and capital investment policy and decisions based on life cycle cost models can be used as reference for capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) balancing in any industry in general and heavy haul in particular.