A new framework for warehouse assessment using a Genetic-Algorithm driven analytic network process.

A novel way of integrating the genetic algorithm (GA) and the analytic network process (ANP) is presented in this paper in order to develop a new warehouse assessment scheme, which is developed through various stages. First, we define the main criteria that influence a warehouse performance. The proposed algorithm that integrates the GA with the ANP is then utilized to determine the relative importance values of the defined criteria and sub-criteria by considering the interrelationships among them, and assign strength values for such interrelationships. Such an algorithm is also employed to linguistically present the relative importance and the strength of the interrelationships in a way that can circumvent the use of pairwise comparisons. Finally, the audit checklist that consists of questions related to the criteria is integrated with the proposed algorithm for the development of the warehouse assessment scheme. Validated on 45 warehouses, the proposed scheme has been shown to be able to identify the warehouse competitive advantages and the areas where more improvements can be achieved.

Looking for traces of the Troika's intervention in European road safety.

The recent economic crisis has required the bailout of some European States by the so-called Troika, with capital injections accompanied by financial austerity. This paper analyzes econometrically the impact of this support programme on road safety for an original panel data (1995-2015). The findings also corroborate the Kuznets curve hypothesis for traffic accidents in the long term. Regarding the impact of intervention in the short term, despite reductions in safety policy budgets due to austerity, financial support, and related austerity measures might have led to an improvement in road safety, reducing both the number of accidents and fatalities. Therefore, it seems that our result is more linked to the austerity measures than to the financial support given by the Troika.

Deer, wolves, and people: costs, benefits and challenges of living together.

Human-driven species annihilations loom as a major crisis. However the recovery of deer and wolf populations in many parts of the northern hemisphere has resulted in conflicts and controversies rather than in relief. Both species interact in complex ways with their environment, each other, and humans. We review these interactions in the context of the ecological and human costs and benefits associated with these species. We integrate scattered information to widen our perspective on the nature and perception of these costs and benefits and how they link to each other and ongoing controversies regarding how we manage deer and wolf populations. After revisiting the ecological roles deer and wolves play in contemporary ecosystems, we explore how they interact, directly and indirectly, with human groups including farmers, foresters, shepherds, and hunters. Interactions with deer and wolves generate various axes of tension, posing both ecological and sociological challenges. Resolving these tensions and conflicts requires that we address key questions using integrative approaches: what are the ecological consequences of deer and wolf recovery? How do they influence each other? What are the social and socio-ecological consequences of large deer populations and wolf presence? Finally, what key obstacles must be overcome to allow deer, wolves and people to coexist? Reviewing contemporary ecological and sociological results suggests insights and ways to improve our understanding and resolve long-standing challenges to coexistence. We should begin by agreeing to enhance aggregate benefits while minimizing the collective costs we incur by interacting with deer and wolves. We should also view these species, and ourselves, as parts of integrated ecosystems subject to long-term dynamics. If co-existence is our goal, we need deer and wolves to persevere in ways that are compatible with human interests. Our human interests, however, should be inclusive and fairly value all the costs and benefits deer and wolves entail including their intrinsic value. Shifts in human attitudes and cultural learning that are already occurring will reshape our ecological interactions with deer and wolves.

How strong is my safety net? Perceived unemployment insurance generosity and implications for job search, mental health, and reemployment.

While social science has substantially documented the individual experience of unemployment, less is known about the role of contextual variables. One contextual factor that is important for unemployed job seekers is the unemployment insurance (UI) that they receive. This study examines the relationships between job seeker perceptions of UI generosity and mental health during unemployment, reemployment speed, and reemployment quality. Drawing upon psychological construal theory, we conceptualize UI generosity as creating psychological distance from the reemployment goal, generating consequences for the job search, mental health, and reemployment. We tested our hypotheses with a four-wave survey design of job seekers looking for work in 3 different countries (United States, Germany, and the Netherlands). Perceived UI generosity was associated with slower reemployment speed, via reduced time pressure, job search priority, and job search metacognition. Perceived UI generosity was related to higher mental health, via reduced time pressure and financial strain. Finally, perceived UI generosity was related to increased reemployment quality, both directly as well as indirectly through lower time pressure and financial strain, and subsequent higher mental health. Our findings provide previously unavailable empirical insight into the mechanisms explaining the positive and negative outcomes of UI generosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Work environment investments: Critical elements for success in optimizing occupational health and safety effects.

BACKGROUND: A considerable amount of money is invested annually in workplaces to promote creative, comfortable and safe work environments. The processes and effects of these investments are however not sufficiently studied. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to examine work environment investment processes and identify organizational critical elements for optimizing investment in terms of occupational health and safety effects for employees. METHODS: Twelve case studies were conducted in different sectors. The data was collected through interviews, by studying available documents, and, in several cases, observations and measurement of hazards by means of the PIMEX-method. RESULTS: The empirical results yielded seven different critical elements for work environment investment processes. The critical elements identified were: identifying the need, risk assessment, involvement of staff, consultation with OHS expertise, procurement and delivery, implementation and training of workers, and evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: The critical elements have wide similarities with steps outlined in Swedish Work Environment Management processes, and ideas described in the Plan-Do-Act-Check model. If organizations follow this process, they are provided with improved possibilities for maximizing invested money for a safer working environment.

Playground-related Extremity Fractures in an Asian Setting over the Last Decade - Are We Safe?

The cost of playground-related injuries remains significant. Measures adopted to prevent such fractures or reduce their severity would translate into appreciable financial savings. Our study looks at the changes in playground-related extremity fracture epidemiology over the past decade after the implementation of latest playground standards. This is a retrospective case series approved by the local ethics board comparing the results of two descriptive studies; one conducted prior to the implementation of the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board Singapore Standards SS 457: 2007 and the other thereafter. The demographics have remained the same. The proportion of public playground injuries has fallen significantly from 89.6% to 76.3% (p < 0.05), whereas school playground injuries have risen from 5.9% to 18.0% (p < 0.05). Fractures related to monkey bars and the flying fox have shown a significant improvement, decreasing to 38.1% from 47.6% (p < 0.05) and 1% from 6.9% (p < 0.05), respectively. There has been a decrease of 33% in playground-related injuries. The total financial cost of sustaining one playground-related extremity fracture has generally increased by 50%. However, considering the 37.4% drop in surgeries, the actual overall costs to the healthcare system have essentially fallen. Safety standards have had a positive effect on playground safety in Singapore. There are now fewer and less severe playground-related extremity fractures.

Leveraging the broad powers of legislators to accelerate action to reduce road traffic casualties.

This is an editorial highlighting the power that legislators have in improving global road safety and the failure of the road safety community in optimizing the existing capital of this resource. It argues that legislators must prioritize and adopt laws to improve road safety in their own countries and allocate resources for their enforcement. It also emphasizes the need for legislators to act through regional and global parliamentary bodies to accelerate the adoption and enforcement of laws on a broad scale and on a wide range of topics (such as funding, lead agencies, vehicle regulations), not only on regulating road user behaviour.

Cost of two-wheeler road accidents in India.

Economic loss due to traffic accidents is noticeable in India; however, the country lacks research works to estimate the magnitude. This study is an attempt through a Stated Preference (SP) survey to know how users value safety and how much they are willing to pay (WTP) for a safer road facility to reduce the risk of their involvement in road traffic accidents. The survey was conducted for two-wheeler riders of selected roads in Calicut City. Attributes selected for SP experimental design includes travel time, travel cost and traffic accidents per year and Binary Logit model was used to determine the WTP values. It was observed that travel cost, accident rate of the route selected, age, occupation, personal income and number of household members have significant impact on the decision-making process. WTP value of a road accident for a two-wheeler user was found to be Rs 0.53/person/trip.

Willingness to pay for mortality risk reduction for traffic accidents in Myanmar.

The dramatic increase in vehicle ownership in Myanmar over the past few years has resulted in an alarming increase in traffic accidents. Thus, road safety at the national level needs to be improved urgently in order to reduce the costs associated with traffic accidents and to assist policy makers in making economically efficient resource allocation decisions for road safety improvements. This research was conducted to determine the costs related to fatality risk reductions using a willingness to pay (WTP) approach for motorcyclists, car drivers, and bus passengers in Myanmar. Face-to-face interviews with contingent valuation (CV) and a payment card questionnaire approach was employed for the data collection; multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the factors influencing WTP. The resulting median and mean for the value of statistical life (VSL) were found to be MMK 118.062 million (US$ 98,385) to MMK 162.854 million (US$ 135,712), respectively. Therefore, the total cost of death was estimated to range from MMK 594.681 billion (US$ 495.567 million) to MMK 820.296 billion (US$ 683.580 million) in 2015. In addition, the WTP was found to be significantly associated with age, family status, education, occupation, individual income, household income, the vehicle used, exposure to traffic, drunk driving, personal experiences, and the perceived risk of traffic accidents. This study might be helpful in prioritization of road safety related projects to get greatest benefit by choosing most cost effective projects. This study might assist the decision-making for road safety budget allocations and policy development.

Improvement of the performance of animal crossing warning signs.

INTRODUCTION: Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) can result in serious injury and death to drivers, animals' death, and significant economic costs. However, the cost effectiveness of the majority of AVC mitigation measures is a significant issue. METHOD: A mobile-based data collection effort was deployed to measure signs under the Utah Department of Transportation's (UDOT) jurisdiction. The crash data were obtained from the UDOT risk management database. ArcGIS was employed to link these two data sets and extract animal-related crashes and signs. An algorithm was developed to process the data and identify AVCs that occurred within sign recognition distance. Kernel density estimation (KDE) technique was applied to identify potential crash hotspots. RESULTS: Only 2% of AVCs occurred within the recognition distance of animal crossing signs. Almost 58% of animal-related crashes took place on the Interstate and U.S. highways, wherein only 30% of animal crossing signs were installed. State routes with a higher average number of signs experienced a lower number of AVCs per mile. The differences between AVCs that occurred within versus outside of sign recognition distance were not statistically significant regarding crash severity, time of crash, weather condition, driver age, vehicle speed, and type of animal. It is more likely that drivers become accustomed to deer crossing signs than cow signs. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the historical crash data and landscape structure, with attention given to the low cost safety improvement methods, a combination of different types of AVC mitigation measures can be developed to reduce the number of animal-related crashes. After an in-depth analysis of AVC data, warning traffic signs, coupled with other low cost mitigation countermeasures can be successfully placed in areas with higher priority or in critical areas. Practical applications: The findings of this study assist transportation agencies in developing more efficient mitigation measures against AVCs.

Estimating the value of life and injury for pedestrians using a stated preference framework.

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of pedestrian death over the period 2010 to 2014 per 1000,000 in North Cyprus is about 2.5 times that of the EU, with 10.5 times more pedestrian road injuries than deaths. With the prospect of North Cyprus entering the EU, many investments need to be undertaken to improve road safety in order to reach EU benchmarks. METHOD: We conducted a stated choice experiment to identify the preferences and tradeoffs of pedestrians in North Cyprus for improved walking times, pedestrian costs, and safety. The choice of route was examined using mixed logit models to obtain the marginal utilities associated with each attribute of the routes that consumers chose. These were used to estimate the individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) to save walking time and to avoid pedestrian fatalities and injuries. We then used the results to obtain community-wide estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) saved, the value of an injury (VI) prevented, and the value per hour of walking time saved. RESULTS: The estimate of the VSL was €699,434 and the estimate of VI was €20,077. These values are consistent, after adjusting for differences in incomes, with the median results of similar studies done for EU countries. The estimated value of time to pedestrians is €7.20 per person hour. CONCLUSIONS: The ratio of deaths to injuries is much higher for pedestrians than for road accidents, and this is completely consistent with the higher estimated WTP to avoid a pedestrian accident than to avoid a car accident. The value of time of €7.20 is quite high relative to the wages earned. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Findings provide a set of information on the VRR for fatalities and injuries and the value of pedestrian time that is critical for conducing ex ante appraisals of investments to improve pedestrian safety.

Engaging Agribusinesses: Feasibility and Cost of an ATV Safety Poster Project.

OBJECTIVES: All-terrain vehicle (ATV)-related deaths and injuries continue to be a significant problem. Influential change agents such as agribusinesses could be important partners for improving safety behaviors among rural ATV users. Our objective was to determine how effectively an injury prevention project could engage agribusinesses through the postal service and to assess their willingness to display a safety poster. METHODS: One thousand two hundred forty-four agribusinesses received an ATV safety poster and a postcard survey by mail. A randomized sampling of these businesses was surveyed by telephone 4-7 weeks later. Telephone survey questions included whether they recalled receiving the poster, and if so, whether, where and how long the poster was displayed. RESULTS: One hundred six postcards were returned. Of the 192 eligible business persons contacted by telephone, 89% agreed to participate. Approximately one-third of telephone survey participants recalled receiving the poster. Among these, 81% with walk-in customers posted it, and 74% still had it displayed 1 month later. Of participants who did not recall receiving the poster, 83% stated they would have displayed the poster. The cost of displaying each poster in a business was 16.6 cents/day during the first month. Final costs/day would be much less because of continued display. CONCLUSION: A high percentage of agribusinesses displayed or would have displayed an ATV safety poster, and most displayed it beyond 1 month. Unfortunately, participant recruitment via postal delivery alone was challenging. Nevertheless, mass mailing of injury prevention materials to be displayed in the retail setting may be a low cost method for raising safety awareness.

Safety effectiveness and crash cost benefit of red light cameras in Missouri.

OBJECTIVE: Red light cameras (RLCs) have generated heated discussions over issues of safety effectiveness, revenue generation, and procedural due process. This study focuses on the safety evaluation of RLCs in Missouri, including the economic valuation of safety benefits. The publication of the national Highway Safety Manual (HSM; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) in 2010 produced statistical safety models for intersections and spurred the calibration of these models to local conditions. METHODS: This study adds to existing knowledge by applying the latest statistical methodology presented in the HSM and more current data. Driver behavior constantly changes due in part to driving conditions and the use of technology. The safety and economic benefit evaluation was performed using the empirical Bayes method, which accounts for regression to the mean bias. For the economic benefit evaluation, the KABCO crash severity scale and crash cost estimates were used. A total of 24 4-leg urban intersections were randomly selected from a master list of RLCs in Missouri from 2006 to 2011. Additionally, 35 comparable nontreated intersections were selected for the analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of RLCs reduced overall angle crashes by 11.6%, whereas rear-end crashes increased by 16.5%. The net economic crash cost benefit of the implementation of RLCs was $35,269 per site per year in 2001 dollars (approximately $47,000 in 2015 dollars). Thus, RLCs produced a sizable net positive safety benefit that is consistent with previous statistical studies.

Symbolic Interactionism: A Framework for Understanding Risk-Taking Behaviors in Farm Communities.

Risk behaviors are key drivers of occupationally related injuries and illnesses, considerably impacting the uptake and success of injury interventions, technologies, and practices. This is certainly true in the agricultural sector, where farmers often ignore recommended safety practices or have even been known to disable safety technologies. Although research studies have characterized specific individual safety or risk behaviors, few studies have thoroughly examined farmers' risk and safety orientations or how these develop in response to environmental and societal exposures. This study utilizes data collected over the past decade with a variety of small to midsize farm personnel to explore the meanings that farmers ascribe to risk and safety and how these influence risk and safety behaviors. In all, over 90 interviews with farmers, farm-wives, and family members were reviewed. Researchers used a grounded theory approach to identify patterns of environmental and societal exposures, as well as their impact on farmers' risk and safety orientations. Analysis revealed exposures and orientations to risk and safety, which could be largely explained through the lens of symbolic interactionism. This framework posits that people create a sense-of-self as a way of adjusting and adapting to their environment. For farmers in this study, belief in their ability to persevere allows them to succeed, despite the considerable stressors and challenges they face each day. However, this identity can, at times, be maladaptive when it is applied to safety decisions and hazard exposures. The authors discuss the implications of this research and how it may be used to productively inform future farm safety efforts.

And the survey said.... evaluating rationale for participation in gun buybacks as a tool to encourage higher yields.

BACKGROUND: Gun buyback programs represent one arm of a multipronged approach to raise awareness and education about gun safety. METHODS: The city of Worcester, MA has conducted an annual gun buyback at the Police Department Headquarters since 2002. We analyzed survey responses from a voluntary, 18-question, face-to-face structured interview from December 2009 to June 2015 using descriptive statistics to determine participant demographics and motivations for participation. RESULTS: A total of 943 guns were collected, and 273 individuals completed surveys. The majority of participants were white males older than 55years (42.4%). Participants represented 61 zip codes across Worcester County, with 68% having prior gun safety training and 61% with weapons remaining in the home (27% of which children could potentially access). The top reasons for turning in guns were "no longer needed" (48%) and "fear of children accessing the gun" (14%). About 1 in 3 respondents knew someone injured/killed by gun violence. Almost all (96%) respondents claimed the program raised community awareness of firearm risk. CONCLUSION: The Worcester Goods for Guns Buyback has collected more than 900 guns between 2009 and 2015. The buyback removes unwanted guns from homes and raises community awareness about firearm safety.

The cost-effectiveness of bike lanes in New York City.

BACKGROUND: Our objective is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of investments in bike lanes using New York City's (NYC) fiscal year 2015 investment as a case study. We also provide a generalizable model, so that localities can estimate their return on bike lane investments. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bike lane construction using a two-stage model. Our regression analysis, to estimate the marginal addition of lane miles on the expansion in bike ridership, reveals that the 45.5 miles of bike lanes NYC constructed in 2015 at a cost of $8 109 511.47 may increase the probability of riding bikes by 9.32%. In the second stage, we constructed a Markov model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of bike lane construction. This model compares the status quo with the 2015 investment. We consider the reduced risk of injury and increased probability of ridership, costs associated with bike lane implementation and maintenance, and effectiveness due to physical activity and reduced pollution. We use Monte Carlo simulation and one-way sensitivity analysis to test the reliability of the base-case result. This model reveals that over the lifetime of all people in NYC, bike lane construction produces additional costs of $2.79 and gain of 0.0022 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per person. This results in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $1297/QALY gained (95% CI -$544/QALY gained to $5038/QALY gained). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that investments in bicycle lanes come with an exceptionally good value because they simultaneously address multiple public health problems. Investments in bike lanes are more cost-effective than the majority of preventive approaches used today.

The Italian National Health Service expenditure on workplace prevention and safety (2006-2013): a national-level analysis.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that countries' health policies should give high priority to primary prevention of occupational health hazards. Scant data are available on health expenditure on workplace prevention and safety services and on its impact on occupational health outcomes in Italy and in other European countries. STUDY DESIGN: objective of the present study was to systematically retrieve, analyse and critically appraise the available national-level data on public health expenditure on workplace prevention and safety services as well as to correlate them with occupational health outcomes. METHODS: National-level data on total public health expenditure on prevention services, its share spent on workplace prevention and safety services as well as on number of workers receiving appropriate health surveillance were derived from the national public health expenditure monitoring system over a 8-year study period (2006-2013). An analytic approach was adopted to explore the association between health expenditure and occupational health services supply. RESULTS: The Italian National Health Service spends almost € 5 billion per year on preventive care, of which 13.3% are spent on workplace prevention and safety programmes (€ 645 million, € 10.6 per capita). There is wide heterogeneity between Italian regions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are useful for health systems and policies analysis, national and international comparisons as well as for health policy makers to plan, implement and monitor occupational health prevention programmes.

Road accidents and business cycles in Spain.

This paper explores the causes behind the downturn in road accidents in Spain across the last decade. Possible causes are grouped into three categories: Institutional factors (a Penalty Point System, PPS, dating from 2006), technological factors (active safety and passive safety of vehicles), and macroeconomic factors (the Great recession starting in 2008, and an increase in fuel prices during the spring of 2008). The PPS has been blessed by incumbent authorities as responsible for the decline of road fatalities in Spain. Using cointegration techniques, the GDP growth rate, the fuel price, the PPS, and technological items embedded in motor vehicles appear to be statistically significantly related with accidents. Importantly, PPS is found to be significant in reducing fatal accidents. However, PPS is not significant for non-fatal accidents. In view of these results, we conclude that road accidents in Spain are very sensitive to the business cycle, and that the PPS influenced the severity (fatality) rather than the quantity of accidents in Spain. Importantly, technological items help explain a sizable fraction in accidents downturn, their effects dating back from the end of the nineties.

Cost and benefit estimates of partially-automated vehicle collision avoidance technologies.

Many light-duty vehicle crashes occur due to human error and distracted driving. Partially-automated crash avoidance features offer the potential to reduce the frequency and severity of vehicle crashes that occur due to distracted driving and/or human error by assisting in maintaining control of the vehicle or issuing alerts if a potentially dangerous situation is detected. This paper evaluates the benefits and costs of fleet-wide deployment of blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning crash avoidance systems within the US light-duty vehicle fleet. The three crash avoidance technologies could collectively prevent or reduce the severity of as many as 1.3 million U.S. crashes a year including 133,000 injury crashes and 10,100 fatal crashes. For this paper we made two estimates of potential benefits in the United States: (1) the upper bound fleet-wide technology diffusion benefits by assuming all relevant crashes are avoided and (2) the lower bound fleet-wide benefits of the three technologies based on observed insurance data. The latter represents a lower bound as technology is improved over time and cost reduced with scale economies and technology improvement. All three technologies could collectively provide a lower bound annual benefit of about $18 billion if equipped on all light-duty vehicles. With 2015 pricing of safety options, the total annual costs to equip all light-duty vehicles with the three technologies would be about $13 billion, resulting in an annual net benefit of about $4 billion or a $20 per vehicle net benefit. By assuming all relevant crashes are avoided, the total upper bound annual net benefit from all three technologies combined is about $202 billion or an $861 per vehicle net benefit, at current technology costs. The technologies we are exploring in this paper represent an early form of vehicle automation and a positive net benefit suggests the fleet-wide adoption of these technologies would be beneficial from an economic and social perspective.