Search Results (273)

Large mineral flotation workshops in severe cold regions represent special industrial indoor environments characterized by the coexistence of limited ventilation and intense heat release. Such conditions generate pronounced spatial thermal stratification and localized heat accumulation within the workshop, leading to uneven worker thermal exposure and increased thermal discomfort and heat stress risk. However, conventional thermal comfort models were primarily developed for ordinary buildings with relatively stable thermal environments. Their applicability to large industrial workshops remains insufficiently validated. Nine representative monitoring points were arranged in the summer operating areas of the workshop, and thermal comfort surveys were conducted among 35 workers who had adapted to the local climate and working environment. The predicted mean vote (PMV) model was used as the baseline assessment framework, while an adaptive predicted mean vote (aPMV) model was further calibrated using field-based thermal sensation information. Monte Carlo simulation was employed to evaluate uncertainty propagation under field-data constraints, and Sobol sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the dominant factors affecting thermal comfort predictions. The results demonstrated that the conventional PMV model exhibited a clear warm prediction bias under the investigated industrial conditions. After adaptive correction, the deviation from the field-based TSV was reduced by 82.93%, indicating improved agreement with workers’ actual thermal perception. Sensitivity analysis identified metabolic rate as the dominant contributor to aPMV output variance, with first-order and total-effect Sobol indices of 0.530 and 0.535. The proposed framework provides a scenario-specific approach for thermal comfort assessment in the investigated flotation workshop and offers preliminary methodological references for similar large-scale flotation workshops. Full article

The performance of physical workers is significantly influenced by the extent and quality of their motions. However, accurately measuring and assessing these motions remains a challenge due to the limitations in conventional instrumentation; wearable sensors require calibration and restrict mobility, while marker-based motion capture systems are costly and impractical for field deployment. Recent advancements have enabled in situ video analysis for the real-time observation of worker behaviors. To address these measurement constraints, this paper introduces a novel framework for tracking and quantifying upper and lower limb motions, issuing alerts when critical thresholds are reached. Using joint position data from posture estimation, the framework employs Hotelling’s $T^2$ statistic to quantify and monitor motion amounts. A significant positive correlation was noted between motion warnings and the overall NASA Task Load Index (TLX) workload rating (r = 0.218, p < 0.005). A supervised Random Forest model trained on the collected motion data was benchmarked across multiple datasets, including the in-house assembly dataset, G-AI-HMS, UCF Sports Action, UCF50, and PE-USGC. The proposed framework identified motion anomaly patterns with a maximum accuracy of 94% on the in-house assembly dataset, while performance varied across the external benchmark datasets. Full article

Real-time estimation of the safety distance between power operation workers and energized equipment is essential for preventing electric shock, arc flash injury, and equipment accidents during live or near-energized operations. However, large-scale deployment remains difficult because conventional binocular ranging systems require accurate offline calibration, while monocular vision suffers from metric-scale ambiguity. This paper proposes a weakly calibrated multi-camera vision framework for safety distance estimation in power operation scenes. First, a cross-camera tracking strategy combining mask-guided ReID features, Kalman filtering, spatio-temporal constraints, and Hungarian matching is developed to maintain globally consistent worker identities. Second, a region-wise self-supervised depth estimation model is introduced: photometric consistency is imposed within worker regions, while cross-view feature reprojection is imposed within rigid equipment regions. Intrinsic parameter regularization and scene-inherent dimensional priors are then used to recover metric scale without placing additional calibration targets. Third, the YOLOv8-seg backbone is enhanced with a CNN-Transformer C2f_CT module to improve pixel-level segmentation of workers, energized equipment, and structural components under cluttered backgrounds. Experiments on three representative power operation scenarios show that the proposed method achieves 92.3% MOTA, 94.2% Rank-1 accuracy, 82.0% mAP, 8.7% relative distance error, and 22 FPS end-to-end speed. When using five-frame smoothing and uncertainty threshold, the proposed method can achieve 98.7% warning precision, 0.9% missed alarm rate and 1.3% false alarm rate. The results indicate that the proposed framework provides a practical balance between deployment cost, geometric accuracy, and real-time warning capability. Full article

Ensuring adequate indoor air quality (IAQ) in industrial environments is essential for protecting worker health, particularly in facilities characterized by chemical emissions and complex layouts, such as automotive painting lines. This study presents the implementation and field evaluation of a low-cost multisensory electronic system prototype designed for continuous, long-term monitoring of six key environmental parameters: temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂ eq), total volatile organic compounds (VOC), and an overall Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) index. The system consists of autonomous sensing stations with integrated multi-parameter MEMS sensors and a centralized data aggregation hub. The system was engineered to ensure metrological stability across power cycles, adaptive energy management, and robust long-range wireless communication, thereby addressing common limitations of conventional industrial monitoring solutions. The prototype was deployed in an operational automotive manufacturing plant, where seven sensing stations were installed along the painting line for a two-week continuous monitoring campaign, identifying process-dependent peaks in CO₂ and VOC concentrations and corresponding reductions in IAQ values. The system was able to identify CO₂ peaks as high as 2997.7 ppm (Sensor 3) in localized industrial zones, significantly exceeding standard indoor thresholds. At the same time the system demonstrated the ability to detect VOC fluctuations with a resolution capable of capturing peaks up to 144.1 ppb (Sensor 3) during high-activity shifts. All sensors provided continuous and reliable data over an extended monitoring period. The measured trends and value ranges were consistent with expected industrial conditions, indicating satisfactory system performance under real operating conditions. Overall, the results demonstrate that the developed multisensory prototype is a promising, portable, and economically sustainable solution for distributed continuous IAQ assessment in complex industrial environments, with strong potential for scalable large-scale implementation in occupational health protection and environmental sustainability frameworks. Full article

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations of secondary traumatic stress with social workers’ positive psychological outcomes (resilience and post-traumatic growth) and to test the moderating roles of burnout, compassion satisfaction, and perceived social support. Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and recruited practicing social workers from health and social care institutions in Singapore and China. A total of 673 valid questionnaires were obtained, including 354 from Singapore and 319 from China. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the direct and moderating associations among the core variables. Results: Secondary traumatic stress was positively associated with post-traumatic growth (β = 0.25, p < 0.01) with no significant association with resilience. Burnout negatively moderated the secondary traumatic stress–post-traumatic growth link (β = −0.13, p < 0.01) but not the secondary traumatic stress–resilience relationship. Compassion satisfaction negatively moderated the associations of secondary traumatic stress with both resilience and post-traumatic growth (β = −0.14, −0.15, p < 0.01). Perceived social support showed no significant moderating roles but was positively associated with both adaptation indicators (β = 0.19, 0.14, p < 0.01). Conclusions: This study challenges the conventional “risk-protection” dichotomy by revealing a nuanced stress–adaptation mechanism. Secondary traumatic stress co-occurs with post-traumatic growth (PTG) rather than baseline resilience, while compassion satisfaction exhibits a paradoxical “buffering-ceiling” interaction that attenuates the positive associations between traumatic stress and growth. Practically, organizations must move beyond generic wellness programs to implement dual-track strategies: mitigating burnout to foster social workers’ growth potential while leveraging compassion satisfaction as an early-stage shield rather than a late-stage resilience enhancer. Full article

Nigeria has pursued exchange rate unification as a deliberate macroeconomic policy objective since the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986, culminating in the full unification of June 2023. Despite the centrality of this policy to Nigeria’s economic governance, its poverty implications have received insufficient empirical examination. This study investigates the effect of exchange rate unification on poverty in Nigeria over the period 1986–2024, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. Exchange rate unification is operationalised as the ratio of the official to the parallel market exchange rate, a continuous measure of the degree of rate convergence achieved at each point in time, which is mathematically the inverse of the conventional parallel market premium used to measure exchange rate distortion. While the parallel market premium measures the degree of exchange rate distortion, that is, how far apart the two rates are, the ERU ratio employed in this study measures the degree of exchange rate unification achieved, that is, how close the two rates are to convergence. Poverty is measured using the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The MPI is constructed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) from per capita income, life expectancy at birth, agricultural value-added per worker, and household consumption expenditure per capita. The study finds that exchange rate unification significantly worsens poverty in both the short and long run, consistent with the sharp naira depreciation, inflationary pass-through, and deterioration in cost of living observed following Nigeria’s exchange rate reforms. GDP growth reduces poverty marginally in the long run, confirming a modest pro-poor growth effect. These findings establish that exchange rate unification, while necessary for long-run macroeconomic efficiency, imposes significant poverty costs that require deliberate complementary fiscal and social protection policies to mitigate. Full article

The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren) is a destructive invasive pest, and conventional chemical control faces challenges related to environmental contamination and resistance development, highlighting the need for novel control agents and greener management strategies. In this study, pyrethrins-mediated silver nanoparticles (Pyr-AgNPs) were synthesized via a green route, characterized, and evaluated for their insecticidal activity, environmental stability, and metabolic effects on S. invicta workers. Bait bioassays showed that Pyr-AgNPs exhibited high toxicity to S. invicta, causing 100% cumulative corrected mortality at 500 mg·kg⁻¹ after 9 days of feeding, with a 5-d LC₅₀ of 116.83 mg·kg⁻¹. Exposure assays further demonstrated that Pyr-AgNPs had good environmental stability and residual efficacy, as bait containing 1000 mg·kg⁻¹ Pyr-AgNPs still caused 100% cumulative corrected mortality after 9 days following 96 h of outdoor exposure, significantly outperforming the pyrethrins treatment. LC-MS-based untargeted metabolomic analysis revealed that treatment with Pyr-AgNPs markedly altered the metabolic profile of S. invicta workers, with 607 differential metabolites identified, mainly belonging to organic acids and derivatives, lipid and lipid-like molecules, amino acids and peptides, cofactors, and redox-related metabolites. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these metabolic disturbances were primarily associated with energy metabolism, redox homeostasis, and membrane lipid metabolism. Overall, these findings provide preliminary mechanistic clues into the toxicity of Pyr-AgNPs and support their potential application in the sustainable management of S. invicta. Full article

Social insect pests such as leaf-cutting ants challenge conventional pest management because effective control must disrupt colony-level organization rather than target individual insects. Colony persistence depends on the mutualistic association between gardener workers and their cultivated fungus, Leucoagaricus gongylophorus. Compounds that selectively impair these components while preserving forager-mediated bait transport may therefore offer strategic advantages. We evaluated the essential oils of weeping willow (Salix babylonica), Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora), weeping bottlebrush (Melaleuca viminalis), ginger (Zingiber officinale), and black pepper (Piper nigrum) against two leaf-cutting ant species, Atta sexdens and Acromyrmex subterraneus, after characterizing their chemical composition by GC–MS. The oils displayed distinct terpenoid profiles: bottlebrush oil, for instance, was dominated by 1,8-cineole and α-pinene, while ginger oil was rich in camphene and β-phellandrene. Forager and gardener workers were tested separately, along with their symbiotic fungus. Responses were generally concentration-dependent, although effects varied among oils and biological targets. Ginger oil exhibited strong fungicidal activity, but only at the highest concentration tested (100 mg mL⁻¹). Bottlebrush oil showed marked toxicity to A. sexdens gardeners at concentrations as low as 0.10 mg mL⁻¹, while effects on foragers were comparatively low. The remaining oils produced limited or inconsistent responses. These findings indicate that caste-selective toxicity and fungal suppression are achievable but not widespread among essential oils. Bottlebrush oil emerges as a promising candidate for further investigation, particularly regarding its constituent compounds and potential synergistic interactions for toxic bait development. Full article

Frequent engineering changes in manufacturing require worker instructions to be updated quickly and reliably. In many production environments, however, update handling still depends on manual comparison procedures, delayed communication, or repeated traversal of large document collections, limiting responsiveness during ongoing production changes. This paper presents a hierarchical hash-based method for change detection in structured manufacturing documents as the computational core of a worker assistance system for near-real-time instruction updates in the context of in-line qualification. Heterogeneous instruction data are transformed into canonical hierarchical document structures, from which SHA-512 digests are generated at multiple structural levels. During repeated comparison operations, document-state evaluation is reduced to digest comparison, while structural differences can be localized through hierarchical refinement of affected substructures. The method is integrated into a system architecture that combines predecessor-linked version management with role-specific filtering for controlled dissemination of relevant instruction updates. The approach was implemented in an automotive assembly use case involving structured work instructions and evolving production documentation. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed approach reduces repeated comparison effort relative to conventional field-wise traversal methods while maintaining the ability to localize structural changes through hierarchical refinement. The reported results focus on computational behavior and implementation feasibility in structured manufacturing environments rather than hardware-specific throughput benchmarks. Overall, the results indicate that hierarchical comparison of structured instruction states provides a practical basis for change-aware worker assistance and controlled propagation of instruction updates in evolving manufacturing environments. The evaluation focuses on repeated-comparison scenarios in structured manufacturing settings and does not address semantic interpretation of detected changes or large-scale distributed deployments. Full article

Students and workers spend much of their day in school and office environments, where poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can negatively affect health and comfort. Indoor vegetation is increasingly proposed as a low-cost nature-based solution (NBS) to improve IAQ. This study evaluated the effects of phytoremediation on IAQ and indoor microclimate in schools across different regions and educational levels, as well as in office environments, under real-world conditions. Several C₃ plants (e.g., Chamaedorea, Schefflera, Ficus, Epipremnum, Yucca, and Spathiphyllum) were used, with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants (Sansevieria) included in selected settings. Temperature, relative humidity, CO₂, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ were continuously monitored using intercalibrated low-cost sensors in absence and presence of vegetation. A comparable plant configuration was implemented in offices to assess its effects on volatile organic compounds (VOC). Indoor greenery reduced particulate matter, especially PM10 (18–20%), and improved microclimatic conditions by lowering air temperature (1–2 °C) and increasing relative humidity (6–15%). However, CO₂ reductions were limited and context-dependent. In the tested office environments, plant introduction was associated with reduced total VOC concentrations (25–50%). Overall, our results further support that indoor vegetation constitutes a robust, cost-effective nature-based solution (NBS) capable of complementing conventional ventilation systems in both school and office environments. Full article

Introduction: Nasal colonization plays a pivotal role in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage and transmission, especially in healthcare settings. Asymptomatic carriers amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) may serve as an important source for inner-hospital transmission, besides personal increased risks of endogenous infections. Medical students are an often-overlooked part of medical staff which, while not typically included in statistics concerning HCWs, are associated with increased patient contact and exposure to healthcare-associated pathogens. This study aimed to assess MRSA carriage rate amongst clinical-year medical students in the largest Romanian medical university, in addition to identifying potential risk factors. Nonetheless, a methodological aim was incorporated, in order to evaluate the effect of nasal swab pre-moistening with sterile saline on MRSA retrieval rate. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among clinical-year students from the ‘Carol Davila’ University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania. Participants completed a survey regarding potential risk factors and underwent nasal swab sampling, being randomly assigned to the two swab collection methods—dry swab or pre-moistened swab with sterile saline, randomization ensuring comparable baseline characteristics. Samples were inoculated on chromogenic MRSA agar media and incubated for 24–48 h at 35–37 °C. Isolates exhibiting characteristic growth further underwent coagulase testing, bacterial identification and methicillin resistance confirmation. Results: The study comprised 156 medical students, with an overall prevalence of asymptomatic MRSA nasal carriage of 5.76% (n = 9, 95% CI: 3.05–10.58%). No statistically significant associations were identified between MRSA carriage and hospital exposure. The prevalence of MRSA positive cultures was 5.00% (n = 4/80) among the conventional dry swab sampling subgroup, while the subgroup undergoing pre-moistened swab collection presented a 6.57% prevalence (n = 5/76), revealing no statistical significance (p = 0.74). Conclusions: Asymptomatic MRSA carriage among medical students in this cohort suggests the potential role of this population in intra-hospital transmission. In addition, pre-moistening the nasal swab for collection of the sample showed no statistically significant impact on MRSA recovery rates, correlating with existing literature on the topic. These findings further emphasize the need for strict adherence to infection prevention and control measures in hospitals. Full article

Dairy farms are complex environments where cattle, workers, and the farm environment interact, creating opportunities for infectious disease transmission across animal, human, and environmental interfaces. During the COVID-19 pandemic, little was known about dairy farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding integrated livestock biosecurity and worker biosafety. This study aimed to develop and demonstrate the application of an integrated biosecurity–biosafety KAP questionnaire and pilot test for dairy farms. A novel English and Spanish version of the questionnaire was developed using published biosecurity literature, zoonosis-related studies, expert input, and existing dairy biosecurity tools. From June 2020 to August 2021, 18 Front Range Colorado dairy farms were contacted, and 6 farms enrolled. Data were collected from 50 participants, analyzed descriptively; selected associations were examined using Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests, odds ratios, and 95% confidence intervals. The final questionnaire captured integrated KAP on livestock biosecurity, zoonoses, biosafety, and COVID-19. Important knowledge gaps were identified, particularly regarding human-to-animal disease transmission and zoonoses training. Supervisors generally demonstrated broader knowledge than workers and organic farms showed higher knowledge levels than conventional farms. Veterinarians were highly trusted information sources. Training was associated with improved zoonosis-related knowledge, and several animal-focused and human-focused preventive practices were significant. This study demonstrates the feasibility and value of an integrated dairy farm biosecurity–biosafety KAP tool and highlights the need for tailored, bilingual, One Health-oriented training. Full article

Industrial accident reporting systems provide the foundation for establishing future prevention strategies by collecting and analyzing accident-related data. While some industrial accidents occur as isolated events, many exhibit a process-oriented nature in which a sequence of temporally connected events accumulates and ultimately leads to a final accident. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of accident reports are prepared by injured workers or employers who lack specialized safety knowledge. As a result, critical information about the conditions, procedures, and actions involved in accident progression is often insufficiently documented. Such information loss hinders a comprehensive understanding of accident causation and, consequently, reduces the effectiveness of preventive measures. To address this limitation, this study proposes an event-based accident information reporting framework that enables injured workers and employers without professional safety expertise to record accidents in a structured manner following their temporal sequence. The proposed framework defines the observed actions and conditions throughout the accident occurrence process as a series of discrete “events,” each of which is classified by an occurrence type. Furthermore, each occurrence type is linked to a corresponding object that reflects its characteristics, allowing accident components to be described in a standardized and systematic form. The framework is designed to be easily completed through a simple selection-and-entry process centered on occurrence types, thereby facilitating consistent and uniform reporting. When applied to 462 fatal industrial accident cases that occurred in South Korea in 2018, the proposed method indicated that approximately 55% of accidents involved multi-stage event sequences, highlighting the importance of process-related information that is not captured by conventional outcome-centered classification systems. In addition, the distribution of occurrence types differed substantially from patterns observed in existing reporting practices. The structured reporting approach proposed in this study may contribute to the preservation and accumulation of essential information on accident occurrence processes, thereby supporting more effective accident prevention efforts. This study does not propose a new investigation methodologies. Instead, it aims to improve accident reporting quality at the data input stage. Full article

Background/Objectives: The limited aqueous solubility of therapeutically active drugs remains a significant challenge in their pharmaceutical application. This study presents a novel solid dispersion matrix (NSDM) that utilizes the inverted thermoresponsive behavior of Pluronic F127 to enhance drug dissolution while addressing the industrial and ecological limitations of conventional methods. Methods: For comparative assessment, a solid dispersion formulation of dapagliflozin was formulated using the NSDM approach and three conventional approaches: heat fusion (HFSD), microwave (MWSD), and lyophilization (LPSD). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize the prepared formulations. In vitro dissolution test was performed to compare the pharmaceutical performance of NSDM against conventional approaches. Results: The NSDM exhibited a unique thermal transition to the liquid state at 32.4 °C. Moreover, the physiological assessment revealed complete liquefaction within 81.7 s. DSC and XRD confirmed amorphization of dapagliflozin in all formulations. In addition, FTIR revealed that dapagliflozin was integrated within the formulation without any chemical interaction with the excipient. Dissolution studies showed remarkable superiority of NSDM, with 97.30 ± 2.26% dissolution efficiency and a mean dissolution time of 2.40 ± 0.80 min. A multi-criteria assessment of ecological impact, worker friendliness, industrial effectiveness, and pharmaceutical performance demonstrated NSDM’s comprehensive advantages. Conclusions: The present approach provides a sustainable paradigm compared to conventional solid dispersion approaches. It eliminates energy-intensive operations and post-processing steps through direct capsule filling. This affords superior pharmaceutical performance while supporting sustainability and industrial applicability. Full article

Microwave technology is being used increasingly in polymer processing, where significant time and energy savings have been demonstrated across many systems. In this work, we first provide an overview of microwave-assisted processes involving agro-based materials, with emphasis on microwave-assisted modification reactions and extractions. A more detailed review then highlights several examples from the authors’ laboratories. For example, microwave heating has been shown to greatly accelerate the synthesis of cellulosic derivatives from cellulose and the formation of a polyurethane from a carbohydrate and a diisocyanate, while still producing polymers comparable in structure to those obtained by conventional heating. Likewise, microwave treatment can speed up pericyclic reactions involving triglycerides and cardanol, leading to products with enhanced viscosity. In extraction applications, such as recovering phenolic compounds from common beans, microwave methods can sometimes yield higher extraction efficiencies. Beyond time and energy savings, the reduced processing duration also decreases workers’ exposure to chemicals and solvents, thereby improving safety and lowering chemical hazards. Thus, microwave treatment can be considered a “green”, energy-efficient tool for many polymer reactions and processes. Full article