Substrate types and applications of MXene for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely used in the analysis of analytes because of its unique fingerprint characteristics, high sensitivity, and fast detection response. MXene is widely used in SERS studies among the various substrates due to its ultra-high chemical stability, excellent conductivity, hydrophilicity, and low fabrication cost. This mini-review summarizes MXene's research in the SERS field from two aspects. We reviewed MXene materials used as SERS substrates alone and combined with noble metal particles primarily. Subsequently, we outlined representative applications of MXene-based SERS in biomedicine, food safety, and environmental monitoring. Moreover, we discussed the technical bottleneck and the prospect of future development in this field.

Baldia Factory Fire Tragedy: A Black Spot for Workplace Safety Standards in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: The Baldia Factory (BF) fire incident in Pakistan was among the most tragic workplace fires in the world claiming the lives of more than 259 people. METHODS: A case study was conducted to evaluate the state of the safety measures, firefighting systems, building regulations, employees' documentation, and compensation structures. RESULTS: The case study found many deficiencies in the fire safety program and lack of adherence to and enforcement of existing fire regulations. CONCLUSION: Findings are discussed in the context of fire safety regulations and enforcement in low- and middle-income countries such as Pakistan.

Determination of Eugenol Residues in Fish Tissue, Transport, and Temporary Water of Aquatic Product by Gas Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry with Application of the Electrospun Nanofibrous Membrane.

Using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and electrospun nanofibrous membrane, we developed and validated a simple, rapid, and sensitive methodology for quantifying eugenol residues in fish tissue and water samples. Fish tissue extract and water samples (315 samples) collected from three southeastern China provinces (Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Fujian), originating from eight provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui, Shanghai, and Jiangxi, from April 2021 to April 2023 were filtered with an electrospun nanofiber membrane, extracted with trichloromethane/n-hexane, and directly concentrated to dry after simple purification. An internal standard of p-terphenyl in n-hexane and 5-µL injection volumes of the solutions was used to analyze eugenol via internal calibration with a minimum concentration of 0.5 µg/L in water samples and 0.1 µg/kg in aquatic product samples. The highest amount of eugenol was detected in Fujian province, possibly due to the higher temperature during transportation, while the lowest amount was found in Shanghai, which mainly uses temporary fish-culture devices. This is a fast, inexpensive, and effective method for testing large quantities of fish water and meat samples.

Fatigue at sea during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative study of two matched samples of seafarers.

This paper examines seafarers' experience of fatigue during and after the pandemic. A multi-phase mixed methods research design was used, including two quantitative surveys (Nduring-pandemic=501 and Nafter-pandemic=412) and 36 in-depth interviews. Applying propensity score matching the two samples to approximate the conditions of a randomized controlled experiment, the study shows that surprisingly seafarers reported higher levels of fatigue after the pandemic. Qualitative interviews with seafarers and ship managers reveal the underlying reason - the intensified ship inspection regime together with policy and regulatory updates/revisions in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic increased seafarers' workload and made seafarers more fatigued. The results of the two surveys also show that while fatigue risk factors differed between the two periods, fatigue risk can be managed and mitigated in both periods by implementing fatigue risk management policies and practices. Policy and management implications for improving seafarers' occupational health and safety are discussed at the end of the paper.

Affinity-Based Analysis Methods for the Detection of Aminoglycoside Antibiotic Residues in Animal-Derived Foods: A Review.

With the increasingly serious problem of aminoglycoside antibiotic residues, it is imperative to develop rapid, sensitive and efficient detection methods. This article reviews the detection methods of aminoglycoside antibiotics in animal-derived foods, including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, fluorescent immunoassay, chemical immunoassay, affinity sensing assay, lateral flow immunochromatography and molecular imprinted immunoassay. After evaluating the performance of these methods, the advantages and disadvantages were analyzed and compared. Furthermore, development prospects and research trends were proposed and summarized. This review can serve as a basis for further research and provide helpful references and new insights for the analysis of aminoglycoside residues. Accordingly, the in-depth investigation and analysis will certainly make great contributions to food safety, public hygiene and human health.

Digital Fringe Projection-Based Clamping Force Estimation Algorithm for Railway Fasteners.

The inspection of railway fasteners to assess their clamping force can be used to evaluate the looseness of the fasteners and improve railway safety. Although there are various methods for inspecting railway fasteners, there is still a need for non-contact, fast inspection without installing additional devices on fasteners. In this study, a system that uses digital fringe projection technology to measure the 3D topography of the fastener was developed. This system inspects the looseness through a series of algorithms, including point cloud denoising, coarse registration based on fast point feature histograms (FPFH) features, fine registration based on the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm, specific region selection, kernel density estimation, and ridge regression. Unlike the previous inspection technology, which can only measure the geometric parameters of fasteners to characterize the tightness, this system can directly estimate the tightening torque and the bolt clamping force. Experiments on WJ-8 fasteners showed a root mean square error of 9.272 N·m and 1.94 kN for the tightening torque and clamping force, demonstrating that the system is sufficiently precise to replace manual measurement and can substantially improve inspection efficiency while evaluating railway fastener looseness.

From Risk Assessment on Site to How to Improve Safety: An Easy "App" to Control Construction Site Conditions.

A construction site has specific risks and organizational conditions requiring on-site safety inspections. Paperwork inspections have important limitations that can be overcome by substituting paper records with digital registers and using new information and communication technologies. Although academic literature has provided several tools to carry out on-site safety inspections adopting new technologies, most construction sites are not currently ready to adopt them. This paper covers this need of on-site control by providing an application that uses a simple technology accessible to most construction companies. The main objective and contribution of this paper is to design, develop, and implement a mobile device application (App), named "RisGES". It is based on the model of risk that grounds the Construction Site Risk Assessment Tool (CONSRAT) and on the related models that connect risk with specific organizational and safety resources. This proposed application is aimed to assess the on-site risk and organizational structure by using new technologies and considering all relevant resources and material safety conditions. The paper includes practical examples of how to use RisGES in real settings. Evidence for the discriminant validity of CONSRAT is also provided. The RisGES tool is at once preventive and predictive since it yields a specific set of criteria for interventions intended to decrease the levels of risks on-site, as well as to detect improvement needs in the site structure and resources for increasing the safety levels.

A comparative study of electronic and pen-paper safety inspections: A mixed method study design for assessing ergonomic parameters.

BACKGROUND: Workplace inspections are applied to facilitate the adherence to the occupational health and safety regulations. The Iranian Ministry of Health introduced a new software system for tablets to inspect workplaces. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to take measurements of the usability, mental workload, and mood of inspectors. METHODS: Inspectors used both pen-and-paper and tablet methods to inspect the automotive industry in a mixed-method procedure. The NASA-TLX score, QUIS score, I-PANAS (SF) situation, inspection time, and number of errors were collected throughout the procedure. The differences were investigated using a paired sample and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test. RESULTS: In terms of efficacy, using the tablet resulted in lower error rates, but it took longer to complete the inspection task (P < 0.001). Participants perceived a lower workload when inspecting with a tablet rather than the traditional method. (Mental Demand: p < 0.002, Performance: p < 0.009, Effort: p < 0.012, TLX: p < 0.002 based on various subcomponents of NASA-TLX). The newly introduced system's usability was insufficient. CONCLUSION: Although the use of tablets has improved safety inspections, ergonomic redesign of the system and consideration of a user-centered approach, as well as inspector training, can make the system more likely to succeed.

SMART SKY EYE System for Preliminary Structural Safety Assessment of Buildings Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is expected to become one of the most commercialized research areas in the world over the next decade. Globally, unmanned aircraft have been increasingly used for safety surveillance in the construction industry and civil engineering fields. This paper presents an aerial image-based approach using UAVs to inspect cracks and deformations in buildings. A state-of-the-art safety evaluation method termed SMART SKY EYE (Smart building safety assessment system using UAV) is introduced; this system utilizes an unmanned airplane equipped with a thermal camera and programmed with various surveying efficiency improvement methods, such as thermography, machine-learning algorithms, and 3D point cloud modeling. Using this method, crack maps, crack depths, and the deformations of structures can be obtained. Error rates are compared between the proposed and conventional methods.

Development of a Remote Displacement Measuring Laser System for Bridge Inspection.

Measuring displacement is essential for assessing the safety of bridges. Non-contact sensors such as vision sensors can precisely measure displacement but may be expensive or incapable of micro-scale measurement at a low cost, unlike contact displacement sensors, which are economical but challenging to install. This study proposes an economical, remote non-contact sensor system. The system comprises a laser beam transmitter and a light receiver, deriving the displacement based on the position where the laser beam is irradiated to the light-receiving surface. To measure this, the light receiver was installed at the measurement point and included a wireless communicator to transmit the displacement data. A displacement experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance. The results confirmed that precise displacement measurements were possible at a resolution of 100 µm. For bridge load tests, a light receiver under a bridge was installed, laser beams irradiated to the light-receiving surface from a distance, and the displacement was measured for each test and compared with the values measured by a conventional contact sensor. The results were highly consistent with those of the existing sensor, indicating that the proposed sensor system applies to bridge loading tests and the safety diagnosis for various structures.

Hollow-Structured Microporous Organic Networks Adsorbents Enabled Specific and Sensitive Identification and Determination of Aflatoxins.

Aflatoxin (AFT) contamination, commonly in foods and grains with extremely low content while high toxicity, has caused serious economic and health problems worldwide. Now researchers are making an effort to develop nanomaterials with remarkable adsorption capacity for the identification, determination and regulation of AFT. Herein, we constructed a novel hollow-structured microporous organic networks (HMONs) material. On the basis of Fe3O4@MOF@MON, hydrofluoric acid (HF) was introduced to remove the transferable metal organic framework (MOF) to give hollow MON structures. Compared to the original Fe3O4@MOF@MON, HMON showed improved surface area and typical hollow cavities, thus increasing the adsorption capacity. More importantly, AFT is a hydrophobic substance, and our constructed HMON had a higher water contact angle, greatly enhancing the adsorption affinity. From that, the solid phase extraction (SPE-HPLC) method developed based on HMONs was applied to analyze four kinds of actual samples, with satisfied recoveries of 85-98%. This work provided a specific and sensitive method for the identification and determination of AFT in the food matrix and demonstrated the great potential of HMONs in the field of the identification and control of mycotoxins.

Construction safety performance measurement using a leading indicator-based jobsite safety inspection method: case study of a building construction project.

The construction industry is one of the hazardous industries all over the world. There have been continuous safety efforts on post-facto safety investigations and related corrective actions. However, to prevent future accidents, post-facto reports may not be able to provide comprehensive insights. Also, past literature pointed at limited proactive efforts to measure the current level of safety at the project. Therefore, this study introduced a leading indicator-based jobsite safety inspection (JSI) method to measure the project's safety performance. A total of 781 observations were reported in baseline and follow-up JSI on a real construction site. The study's findings highlighted an increase in safe behavior and conditions (SB&C) by reducing unsafe behavior (UB) and unsafe conditions (UC). Results confirmed a significant improvement in the safety performance index (SPI) of the case study from 39.07 to 67.47%. This study also investigated hazardous locations and weak safety dimensions for further SPI improvement.

The effect of contextual information on professional judgment: Reliability and biasability of expert workplace safety inspectors.

INTRODUCTION: A critical aspect of occupational safety is workplace inspections by experts, in which hazards are identified. Scientific research demonstrates that expectation generated by context (i.e., prior knowledge and experience) can bias the judgments of professionals and that individuals are largely unaware when their judgments are affected by bias. METHOD: The current research tested the reliability and biasability of expert safety inspectors' judgments. We used a two-study design (Study 1, N = 83; Study 2, N = 70) to explore the potential of contextual, task-irrelevant, information to bias professionals' judgments. We examined three main issues: (1) the effect that biasing background information (safe and unsafe company history) had on professional regulatory safety inspectors' judgments of a worksite; (2) the reliability of those judgments amongst safety inspectors and (3) inspectors' awareness of bias in their judgments and confidence in their performance. RESULTS: Our findings establish that: (i) inspectors' judgments were biased by historical contextual information, (ii) they were not only biased, but the impact was implicit: they reported being unaware that it affected their judgments, and (iii) independent of our manipulations, inspectors were inconsistent with one another and the variations were not a product of experience. CONCLUSION: Our results are a replication of findings from a host of other professional domains, where honest, hardworking professionals underappreciate the biasing effect of context on their decision making. The current paper situates these findings within the relevant research on safety inspection, cognitive bias and decision making, as well as provides suggestions for bias mitigation in workplace safety inspection. Practical Application: Our results have implications for occupational health and safety given that inspection is an integral aspect of an effective safety system. In addition to our findings, this study contributes to the literature by providing recommendations regarding how to mitigate the effect of bias in inspection.

Influence of semantic cues on hazard-inspection performance: a case in construction safety.

Constant improvement in hazard identification is key to personnel safety in the workplace. Semantic cues have been proposed to simplify knowledge retrieval for site inspectors in building construction. However, the effectiveness of this approach and its internal mechanisms remain unexamined. This study assesses the influence of semantic cues on inspection performance from the perspective of visual behavior during elevator installation. Our results indicate that semantic cues drive selective attention toward goal-relevant information more effectively compared with when no such cues are provided. Second, semantic cues can improve performance regarding goal-relevant hazards and not diminish performance for incidental hazards. Third, the improvement of working memory and inspection performance is more pronounced in experienced workers than in novices. This research highlights the influence of semantic cues for hazard identification on visual behavior and inspection performance, and can serve as a foundation for the allocation of resources to aid inspection during construction.

Improved safety checklist analysis approach using intelligent video surveillance in the construction industry: a case study.

The construction industry is extremely high risk, and safety checklist analysis is a widely used approach for safety assessment. To overcome its limitations, this article proposes an improved safety checklist analysis approach using intelligent video surveillance to replace on-site inspection. Then, a case study on metro tunnel construction is adopted to illustrate the process. First, the checklist is prepared. Second, the inspection items are correlated with construction areas, and intelligent cameras are positioned to cover the major areas of the construction site to guarantee that all the items can be checked. Thus, problems with inspection items are automatically identified and recorded. Third, the inspection items are marked by a remote scoring mechanism for safety assessment. Finally, the efficiency of the improved approach is tested by a comparative analysis among three groups. The application results indicate the feasibility of the improved approach for evaluating the safety management performance at construction sites.

Regional Regulations and Public Safety Perceptions of Quality-of-Life Issues: Empirical Study on Food Safety in China.

In many developing countries, the public is shifting its focus from economic growth to quality-of-life issues. As a result, there is extensive demand for better public administration of quality-of-life issues, ranging from air pollution to food safety problems, that threaten ordinary peoples' health and daily lives. This article analyzes the determinants of public perceptions of food safety and the administrative effects of regional governance in different provinces with nationwide survey data. A two-level hierarchical linear regression model (HLM) with provincial factors as background-level variables and demographic factors as individual-level variables was developed to measure the influence of these factors on public perceptions of food safety. The results showed that female, young, and well-educated urban residents perceived greater risks to food safety than other groups. Administrative fiscal expenditures and local normative documents in different provinces did not have significant effects on public perceptions of food safety. However, food safety inspections weakened public perceptions of food safety. We thereby suggest that provincial governments invest in more efficient food safety projects and enhance the publicity of normative documents in popular media.

Topic analysis of Road safety inspections using latent dirichlet allocation: A case study of roadside safety in Irish main roads.

Under the Safe System framework, Road Authorities have a responsibility to deliver inherently safe roads and streets. Addressing this problem depends on knowledge of the road network safety conditions and the number of funds available for new road safety interventions. It also requires the prioritisation of the various interventions that may generate benefits, increasing safety, while ensuring that reasonable steps are taken to remedy the deficiencies detected within a reasonable timeframe. In this context, Road Safety Inspections (RSI) are a proactive tool for identifying safety issues, consisting of a regular, systematic, on-site inspection of existing roads, covering the whole road network, carried out by trained safety expert teams. This paper aims to describe how topic modelling can be effectively used to identify co-occurrence patterns of attributes related to the run-off-road crashes, as well as the corresponding patterns of road safety interventions, as described in the RSI reports. We apply latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a widespread method for fitting a topic model, to analyse the topics mentioned in RSI reports, divided into two groups: problems found; and proposed solutions. For this study, 54 RSI gathered over six years (2012-2017) were analysed, covering 4011 km of Irish roads. The results indicate that important keywords relating to the "forgiving roadside" and "clear zone" concepts, as well as the relevant European technical standards (CEN-EN1317 and EN 12,767), are absent from the extracted latent topics. We also found that the frequency of topics related to roadside safety is higher in the problems record set than in the solutions record set, meaning that problems are more easily identified and related to the roadside area than interventions may be. This paper presents methodological empirical evidence that the LDA is appropriate for identifying the co-occurrence patterns of attributes related to the ROR crashes in road safety inspections' reports, as well as the interventions' patterns associated with these crashes. Also, it provides valuable information aimed to determine the extent to which national road authorities in Europe and their contractors are currently capable of implementing and maintaining compliance with roadside standards and guidelines throughout the life cycle of roads.

How Agricultural Media Cover Safety Compared with Periodicals in Two Other Hazardous Industries.

This analysis featured a uniquely broad look at challenges and potentials for engaging agricultural and other industrial media more effectively in covering safety. It involved a content analysis of selected industry periodicals serving agriculture, mining, and transportation, which are three of the nation's most hazardous industries, in terms of human safety. Use of the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) provided insight on safety coverage. In particular, it tested previous research indicating that media coverage tends to amplify (increase) more than attenuate (decrease) a sense of risk. Analysis involved 18 periodicals (9 agriculture, 7 transportation, and 2 mining) spanning a five-year period from 2008 to 2012. Full-text digital analysis identified terms found in safety articles across all three industries. A manual review of articles revealed the quantity and nature of safety coverage within and among these industries. Results identified 528 safety-related articles published during the period. Transportation and mining periodicals averaged more than twice as many safety articles as the agricultural periodicals. The amount of coverage within the three industries also varied greatly. Findings on the nature of coverage supported previous media research within the SARF. Coverage across all three industries was clearly oriented more to amplifying than to attenuating risk. This study adds to the understanding of variations, commonalities, challenges, and potentials for enhancing safety coverage by media serving these three industries. It also provides direction for engaging industry media more effectively in the public safety mission. The authors recommend seven areas of opportunity for further research.

Association between safety leading indicators and safety climate levels.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of leading indicators for occupational health and safety, particularly safety inspections and non-compliances, with safety climate levels. METHODS: Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Assessment Questionnaire was employed to evaluate safety climate in cross-sectional design. The geographically diverse population of the inspection body made it possible to conduct the survey across 10 provinces in Iran. 89 completed questionnaires were obtained with a response rate of 47%. Except for management safety justice, the internal consistency of other six dimensions was found to be acceptable (α≥0.7). RESULTS: Mean scores of dimensions ranged from 3.50 in trust in the efficacy of safety systems (SD=0.38) to 2.98 in workers' safety priority and risk non-acceptance (SD=0.47). Tukey HSD tests indicated a statistically significant difference of mean scores among groups undergoing different number of safety inspections and those receiving different number of non-compliances (p<0.05), with no significant differences based on safety training man-hours and sessions (p>0.05). Spearman's rank-order correlation showed no relationship between work experience and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.04, p>0.05) and between safety training man-hours and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.15, p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that safety climate levels are influenced by number of safety inspections and the resultant non-compliances. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that safety non-compliances detected as a result of conducting safety inspections could be used to monitor the safety climate state. Establishing plans to conduct scheduled safety inspections and recording findings in the form of safety non-compliance and monitoring their trend could be used to monitor levels of safety climate.

Effect of a Publicly Accessible Disclosure System on Food Safety Inspection Scores in Retail and Food Service Establishments.

The increased frequency with which people are dining out coupled with an increase in the publicity of foodborne disease outbreaks has led the public to an increased awareness of food safety issues associated with food service establishments. To accommodate consumer needs, local health departments have increasingly publicized food establishments' health inspection scores. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of the color-coded inspection score disclosure system in place since 2006 in Columbus, OH, by controlling for several confounding factors. This study incorporated cross-sectional time series data from food safety inspections performed from the Columbus Public Health Department. An ordinary least squares regression was used to assess the effect of the new inspection regime. The introduction of the new color-coded food safety inspection disclosure system increased inspection scores for all types of establishments and for most types of inspections, although significant differences were found in the degree of improvement. Overall, scores increased significantly by 1.14 points (of 100 possible). An exception to the positive results was found for inspections in response to foodborne disease complaints. Scores for these inspections declined significantly by 10.2 points. These results should be useful for both food safety researchers and public health decision makers.