Data mining of the essential causes of different types of fatal construction accidents.

Accident analysis is used to discover the causes of workplace injuries and devise methods for preventing them in the future. There has been little discussion in the previous studies of the specific elements contributing to deadly construction accidents. In contrast to previous studies, this study focuses on the causes of fatal construction accidents based on management factors, unsafe site conditions, and workers' unsafe actions. The association rule mining technique identifies the hidden patterns or knowledge between the root causes of fatal construction accidents, and one hundred meaningful association rules were extracted from the two hundred and fifty-three rules generated. It was discovered that many fatal construction accidents were caused by management factors, unsafe site circumstances, and risky worker behaviors. These analyses can be used to demonstrate plausible cause-and-effect correlations, assisting in building a safer working environment in the construction sector. The study findings can be used more efficiently to design effective inspection procedures and occupational safety initiatives. Finally, the proposed method should be tested in a broader range of construction situations and scenarios to ensure that it is as accurate as possible.

Mechanism Models of the Conventional and Advanced Methods of Construction Safety Training. Is the Traditional Method of Safety Training Sufficient?

Cognitive failures at the information acquiring (safety training), comprehension, or application stages led to near-miss or accidents on-site. The previous studies rarely considered the cognitive processes of two different kinds of construction safety training. Cognitive processes are a series of chemical and electrical brain impulses that allow you to perceive your surroundings and acquire knowledge. Additionally, their attention was more inclined toward the worker's behavior during hazard identification on-site while on duty. A study is proposed to fill the knowledge gap by developing the mechanism models of the two safety training approaches. The mechanism models were developed based on cognitive psychology and Bloom's taxonomy and six steps of cognitive learning theory. A worker's safety training is vital in acquiring, storing, retrieving, and utilizing the appropriate information for hazard identification on-site. It is assumed that those trained by advanced techniques may quickly identify and avoid hazards on construction sites because of the fundamental nature of the training, and when they come across threats, they may promptly use their working memory and prevent them, especially for more complex projects. The main benefit of making such a model, from a cognitive point of view, is that it can help us learn more about the mental processes of two different types of construction safety training, and it can also help us come up with specific management suggestions to make up for the approaches' flaws. Future research will concentrate on the organizational aspects and other cognitive failures that could lead to accidents.

A sustainability analysis of an incineration project in Serbia.

The only option for municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment adopted so far in Serbia is landfilling. Similarly to other south-eastern European countries, Serbia is not recovering any energy from MSW. Fifty percent of electricity in Serbia is produced in coal-fired power plants with emission control systems dating from the 1980s. In this article, the option of MSW incineration with energy recovery is proposed and examined for the city of Novi Sad. A sustainability analysis consisting of financial, economic and sensitivity analyses was done in the form of a cost-benefit analysis following recommendations from the European Commission. Positive and negative social and environmental effects of electricity generation through incineration were valuated partly using conversion factors and shadow prices, and partly using the results of previous studies. Public aversion to MSW incineration was considered. The results showed that the incineration project would require external financial assistance, and that an increase of the electricity and/or a waste treatment fee is needed to make the project financially positive. It is also more expensive than the landfilling option. However, the economic analysis showed that society would have net benefits from an incineration project. The feed-in tariff addition of only €0.03 (KWh)(-1) to the existing electricity price, which would enable the project to make a positive contribution to economic welfare, is lower than the actual external costs of electricity generation from coal in Serbia.